Fin
Member
What gear is out there for end game content.
I was asked the question,
What gear should I have for end game content?
Like many aspects of LOTRO, there is no set answer to this question. I will give some information, and advice that I have received on this subject here, and let you all decide what works best for you.
My first answer to this question is a question. What end game content are you looking to run?
For any older instances that have been scaled up to 105, I would say you can pretty much run them with any gear that you have been getting from landscape or quest rewards. Unless you are running one at Tier 2, in which case having better gear again, is not "really" necessary, but would help a great deal.
For newer content, like Osgiliath and Pelenor instances set at Tier 1, some form of slotted gear would be recommended, but again not really required. I have run them all successfully, except Silent Street (6 man Pelenor instance) with groups that were not geared very well. It may take long to complete, and you may be defeated many times, but they can be done. Of course having knowledge of the instance is also a plus.
So what slotted gear would I recommend for this content?
The Dol Amroth slotted gear is a good start, as is jewelry from running Epic Battles. A bit of a grind if you did not spend much time there when you leveled your character.
The gear and jewelry that drops in Featured Instances is a very good starting set of gear, and the grind is not terrible. Drop rate is not too bad, and being able to use your Long-lost coins to exchange a piece of armour you already have for one you don't, or to barter for jewelry is a nice option.
Ithilien herbalists, (flower gear) would be a great set to have for T1 instances. The grind for collecting flowers can be tedious at times, but when you are done you will have a nice set of gear, and be almost ready to start doing T2 runs.
For running these instances at T2, I would recommend the following gear or combination of gear:
Armour:
2-4 of the T1 gear from Pelenor instances. You can farm these instances over and over, and since the drop rate for gear is ridiculously low, you will have to.... This is what drops from where so if you get 2 pieces out of one instance you don't need to run that one again to complete your set,
Blood of the Black Serpent: boots, gloves
Quays of the Harlond: shoulders, legs
Silent Street: helm, chest, gold pocket (from challenge only)
(if you do and get a duplicate piece of gear, it can be exchanged for what you might need at a barterer places like Minith Tirith, but you also need Mogul Crest to barter with, and they drop in T2 instances (a guarantee at final Boss), and from Roaming Threats but very rarely, so kinda hard to come by).
2-4 of the Featured Instance gear.
2-4 of the gear from the Ithilien herbalists, (flower gear).
Jewelry:
2 of the legendary rings from Ithilien herbalists, (flower jewelry). I recommend these be the first things you spend your flowers on.
0-5 of the Ithilien herbalists, (flower jewelry).
0-5 of Featured Instance jewelry. (these are nice for the Mitigation stats they give, and the better Morale, but only have 2 slots compared to the 3 from flower jewelry).
Pocket Item:
The slotted pocket from Roaming threats.
A gold pocket item from Epic Battles
Any 105 teal pocket item from drops in 105 instances.
There is other slotted gear out there, like the Osgiliath gear that drops from those instances. I don't know enough about them to comment on how good they are, but they like the Dol Amroth sets seem to be not as good as the ones I wrote about here. Certainly they would be more then good for T1 content, but that's all I know about them.
Added thoughts:
Running the Daily Featured Instance at level 104 and 105 every time you are able to is probably a good idea. Not only do you get the gear drops, which you can send to alts if you don't need them. You also will get anfalas scrolls, Long-Lost coins, and possible T8 essence drops, regular and the Ithilien crafting item for Ithilien essences. All things that will help getting your gear up to snuff. If you watch World chat and ignore the useless stuff that is spouted there, you will see calls for a FI or Box run. Most PUG groups doing Box runs run them fast, both in less then 20 mins, depending on FI. I have probably run FI's with pugs over 100 times, and very few times maybe 3, has that group been bad.
Closing thought:
I have talked about what your stats should be at for running end game content in my previous post, I will again mention here how important your Mitigations are for surviving in these instances. I don't recommend you run any end game instances with a PUG the first many times you run them, but with friends that you know and played with before. PUG's are understanding in a FI box run, but can be heartless in end game instances to those just starting to run them. So other them your Mitigation, I would suggest you build your character the way you want to. Building your character in LOTRO can be done many different ways, and no one way is right or wrong. Don't let anyone tell you that you are building a class wrong. If you're happy with the way it plays, then it is right.
One last thing, LOTRO is a game, a great game that we get to run around inside the world that J.R.R. Tolkien created. But it is a game, and games are meant to be fun, so HAVE FUN!!!!
I was asked the question,
What gear should I have for end game content?
Like many aspects of LOTRO, there is no set answer to this question. I will give some information, and advice that I have received on this subject here, and let you all decide what works best for you.
My first answer to this question is a question. What end game content are you looking to run?
For any older instances that have been scaled up to 105, I would say you can pretty much run them with any gear that you have been getting from landscape or quest rewards. Unless you are running one at Tier 2, in which case having better gear again, is not "really" necessary, but would help a great deal.
For newer content, like Osgiliath and Pelenor instances set at Tier 1, some form of slotted gear would be recommended, but again not really required. I have run them all successfully, except Silent Street (6 man Pelenor instance) with groups that were not geared very well. It may take long to complete, and you may be defeated many times, but they can be done. Of course having knowledge of the instance is also a plus.
So what slotted gear would I recommend for this content?
The Dol Amroth slotted gear is a good start, as is jewelry from running Epic Battles. A bit of a grind if you did not spend much time there when you leveled your character.
The gear and jewelry that drops in Featured Instances is a very good starting set of gear, and the grind is not terrible. Drop rate is not too bad, and being able to use your Long-lost coins to exchange a piece of armour you already have for one you don't, or to barter for jewelry is a nice option.
Ithilien herbalists, (flower gear) would be a great set to have for T1 instances. The grind for collecting flowers can be tedious at times, but when you are done you will have a nice set of gear, and be almost ready to start doing T2 runs.
For running these instances at T2, I would recommend the following gear or combination of gear:
Armour:
2-4 of the T1 gear from Pelenor instances. You can farm these instances over and over, and since the drop rate for gear is ridiculously low, you will have to.... This is what drops from where so if you get 2 pieces out of one instance you don't need to run that one again to complete your set,
Blood of the Black Serpent: boots, gloves
Quays of the Harlond: shoulders, legs
Silent Street: helm, chest, gold pocket (from challenge only)
(if you do and get a duplicate piece of gear, it can be exchanged for what you might need at a barterer places like Minith Tirith, but you also need Mogul Crest to barter with, and they drop in T2 instances (a guarantee at final Boss), and from Roaming Threats but very rarely, so kinda hard to come by).
2-4 of the Featured Instance gear.
2-4 of the gear from the Ithilien herbalists, (flower gear).
Jewelry:
2 of the legendary rings from Ithilien herbalists, (flower jewelry). I recommend these be the first things you spend your flowers on.
0-5 of the Ithilien herbalists, (flower jewelry).
0-5 of Featured Instance jewelry. (these are nice for the Mitigation stats they give, and the better Morale, but only have 2 slots compared to the 3 from flower jewelry).
Pocket Item:
The slotted pocket from Roaming threats.
A gold pocket item from Epic Battles
Any 105 teal pocket item from drops in 105 instances.
There is other slotted gear out there, like the Osgiliath gear that drops from those instances. I don't know enough about them to comment on how good they are, but they like the Dol Amroth sets seem to be not as good as the ones I wrote about here. Certainly they would be more then good for T1 content, but that's all I know about them.
Added thoughts:
Running the Daily Featured Instance at level 104 and 105 every time you are able to is probably a good idea. Not only do you get the gear drops, which you can send to alts if you don't need them. You also will get anfalas scrolls, Long-Lost coins, and possible T8 essence drops, regular and the Ithilien crafting item for Ithilien essences. All things that will help getting your gear up to snuff. If you watch World chat and ignore the useless stuff that is spouted there, you will see calls for a FI or Box run. Most PUG groups doing Box runs run them fast, both in less then 20 mins, depending on FI. I have probably run FI's with pugs over 100 times, and very few times maybe 3, has that group been bad.
Closing thought:
I have talked about what your stats should be at for running end game content in my previous post, I will again mention here how important your Mitigations are for surviving in these instances. I don't recommend you run any end game instances with a PUG the first many times you run them, but with friends that you know and played with before. PUG's are understanding in a FI box run, but can be heartless in end game instances to those just starting to run them. So other them your Mitigation, I would suggest you build your character the way you want to. Building your character in LOTRO can be done many different ways, and no one way is right or wrong. Don't let anyone tell you that you are building a class wrong. If you're happy with the way it plays, then it is right.
One last thing, LOTRO is a game, a great game that we get to run around inside the world that J.R.R. Tolkien created. But it is a game, and games are meant to be fun, so HAVE FUN!!!!
