Kaleigh Starshine

A plea to reverse the trending damage to Burglar playability

Greetings, everyone!

I thought I would raise a plea for the Burglar regarding the coming changes in the new patch. You can find my posting about these things over on the Overlords’ forums here. Please weigh in if you wish to do so, and thank you if you so choose!

What I wrote over there is as follows:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Note: This is in regard to PvE, not PvMP. There will likely need to be a different ruleset for PvP Burglars if there is ever to be a hope of balancing them for both.]

While many are discussing the coming changes with regard to damage increases and decreases, I think it is important to put a spotlight on how these changes are going to affect the very nature of Burglar play. Remember, one of the arguments for the changes that came with Helm’s Deep was to incorporate a faster and more smooth style of play.

Because neither crowd control nor debuffing are required for any instance, placing both the Gambler and Mischief-maker lines into the ‘play for fun’ category, let us focus on the Quiet Knife line for Burglars. By traiting in the Gambler line for the Gambler’s Advantage skill, a Quiet Knife burglar has 8 combat skills with a cooldown of under 1 minute:

Surprise Strike – 10 seconds
Cunning Attack – 5 seconds
Double-edged Strike – 5 seconds
Flashing Blades – 5 seconds
Gambler’s Advantage – 5 seconds
Improved Feint Attack – 5 seconds
Provoke – 5 seconds
Subtle Stab – 3 seconds

37.5% of these skills, 3 of the 8 (Double-edged Strike, Flashing Blades, and Gambler’s Advantage) are gated behind the requirement of a critical hit to open. Because of the fast-paced nature of play in this line, it is quite easy and relatively often that one finds themselves with no skills available to use if multiple critical hits are not forthcoming.

It was not long ago that the Critical Chain Skills Critical Chance legacy on Burglar’s tools was changed to Critical Chain Skills Critical Rating. This changed what was once a +15% extra chance for critical hits on the 3 critical chain skills into a very small increase in Critical Magnitude for these skills, as it is very difficult not to reach the Critical Rating cap on Agility based classes, and who would not do so even if it were not, with how important critical hits are to Burglars, anyway? This change made times when Burglars suffer from a lack of available skills and stunted, frustrating play even more common.

There are two aspects to this coming patch that will exacerbate this issue all the more. First is the decision to not increase the level of Epic Battles:

The decision not to increase the battles puts Burglars in a very difficult spot. We will need to decide whether or not to wear the outdated, non-essence battle jewelry, sacrificing a great deal of potency, in order to keep the extra critical chance and magnitude this jewelry set provides. Due to the issues that arise when critical hits are not forthcoming, this is, by no means, a trivial decision. Either choice will be quite costly.

The second aspect is the coming changes to full and partial avoidances. Without getting into the debate upon the merits of this change, it is quite clear that, if it remains the case that critical hits cannot be made on partial avoidances, which are soon to be far more common, the impact to Burglars goes far beyond a decrease in their DPS. A further decrease to critical hit frequency will compound the trending decline in the very nature of the Burglar’s playability, resulting in the exact opposite of what was the stated goal for the fundamental combat changes of a few years ago: fast and smooth, seamless play.

In addition to this, there have been calls to increase the cooldown of the Provoke skill from 5 to 10 seconds. While I understand the reasoning for this in PvMP play, this would be an absolute disaster on the PvE side, for two reasons:

1. Burglars simply cannot have more skills put out of their reach and not be standing around idly far too often, and…

2. The Improved Feint Attack skill allows for the Burglar to attack from ‘stealth’. Improved Feint Attack also gives a +10% Melee Damage buff until a skill is used from stealth. Because Improved Feint Attack has a 5 second cooldown, it makes sense that one would use a ‘stealth’ skill just before the cooldown of IFA is over and then use IFA, renewing the buff and creating another ‘stealth’ opportunity. There are, effectively, 3 skills that benefit from attacking from ‘stealth’: Surprise Strike, Cunning Attack and Provoke (Trip has a big cooldown, and fellowship maneuvers are all but useless, anyway). But of these three skills:

– the animation for Surprise Strike when stealthed is so long that attacking from stealth with this skill lowers DPS rather than increases it. Surprise Strike is far better used when not in stealth and has a 10 second cooldown to boot.

– Cunning Attack is a wonderful attack from stealth… once. It places a bleed of either 20 or 30 seconds on a foe when used from stealth. Repeated Cunning Attacks from stealth merely refresh the bleed and, as such, are only useful once every 20 seconds or more.

– Provoke, being the best option after Cunning Attack, for repeated uses from stealth.

Increasing the cooldown of Provoke would render the very goal of trying to ready attacks from stealth to near ambivalence and irrelevancy.

This, of course, does not address the very real issue of the Burglar’s overall irrelevancy in group play, suffering from a world that has made crowd control and debuffing largely useless; placing a class that can affect just a single foe at a time almost exclusively into a world that has, ever more increasingly, been remade into fight after fight with scores of foes at a time (skirmishes, epic battles, etc.)

It may be time to consider a separate ruleset for Burglars in PvE and PvMP. It may be that the Burglar should become a PvP only class, or its players be given the option for a class change.

Please, Turbine. Please address these concerns.

Attack at Dawn

Attack at Dawn

As I stared into the depths of the enemy stronghold at Dol Dinen, the warning given by the way-watcher, Hithlim, returned to me…

“Kaleigh, the foes you go to meet are not the sort that fill legions upon the battlefield. They are of the highest Tier one can imagine dwelling in this realm. And with most of us scattered in distant places, you will not likely find any to aid you, nor to run to should things go badly. If you should fall, there is no retreat.”

[While running the ‘gauntlet’, a permanent death rule applies. Any that are forced to ‘retreat’ have instead died and are forever lost from these lands.]

…the gauntlet had begun…

[Attack at Dawn. Size: Small Fellowship. Tier: 3]

We three stared into the heart of the maelstrom that we knew would descend upon us the moment we breached the gate leading into the fortress.

“You two will go in first,” said Siniath. “Strike hard and fast, and gain as much ground as you are able as quickly as you can. I will follow behind and ward off any foes that return to the stronghold. With luck, and the aid of my brothers, that number will be few.”

I glanced at Deverell as she peered into the fortress, steeling herself for the battle to come.

“And you are sure you do not wish to make the assault with us, or have one of us remain with you?” I asked Sinath.

“Nay,” he replied softly. “You will need to press forward with all speed if you are to keep word of our settlement from passing beyond these walls. You will not be able to do so while having to watch your back as well.”

“We will do so, as swiftly as we are able,” promised Deverell.

“If word of your deeds together is true, only a fool would think to split you apart,” Siniath said. “Some may call what we do here today foolish, but I am no fool.”

We regarded Siniath as he moved to the place from where he would keep his watch over us, until I felt Deverell pull away.

I came up behind and embraced her as she stared out over Dol Dinen and the path that had led us to this moment.

“We best start our attack if you are ready,” I whispered to her.

“There is so much at stake, Kaleigh,” she replied. “Too much for someone like me to fathom or bear.”

“It is because of you that we have made it as far as we have,” I told her. “And whatever we do here today will be the same.”

We held each other close for a moment.

“Will you stand with me, one more time?” I asked her.

She nodded and urged me on with a plaintive smile.

“Go, Kaleigh. Go!”

I turned and charged toward the gate leading into the enemy’s stronghold…

…and into the madness that awaited us just within…

We battled with the awareness that these were only our first few steps upward, onto the mountain that we had to climb that day…

We cut down the enemy gate-warden and all other foes that might rally more forces to the gate…

…before turning to the wargs that circled about, lunging and nipping at us…

With sticker and staff we caught them, and they fell before us…

“Are you hurt badly, Kaleigh?” Deverell asked, as I hobbled over to finish off the last of the wargs.

“One of them nipped me on the ankle is all,” I grimaced. “I will be fine.”

We quickly glanced over the courtyard and the two paths that led from it toward either side of the rise before us…

“Which way?” asked Deverell, as she looked from side to side.

“We haven’t the time to scout them,” I replied. “And we dare not signal to Siniath for fear we might give his presence away. Let us take the left path.”

We caught our breath for a moment longer and then sprinted onto the eastern path…

…charging upward toward the foes that stood between us and the gate leading to the inner courtyard of the fortress…

We battled down those who might escape to bring allies to the fight before turning to the wargs…

…dodging and weaving about us at a frenetic pace, waiting for the smallest slip, the slightest stumble upon which to pounce…

As I finished one of the last, I heard Deverell’s cry…

“Kaleigh!”

“No, you don’t!” I cried, catching the last warg in the underbelly with my sticker before it could leap onto Deverell….

Deverell backed away as I steered it to the side, driving it to the ground before finishing him...

We took a moment to collect ourselves before resuming our charge up the hill. But, in our haste, we failed to see the greater threat that lay in wait for us…

A wood troll emerged from the copse of trees on the northern side of the hill as we approached, forcing us to retreat to level ground…

As we battled the troll on the foot of the hill, I heard a dark whisper upon the air. It clung to me like a mantle from which I could not get free…

“Kaleigh! Kaleigh, watch out!” exclaimed Deverell.

I came to in time to see the troll ready to stomp me into the earth…

…but was able to save myself by shouting a word of binding in the moment before what was nearly my last…

Free of the power that held me, Deverell and I then battled the troll until it began to topple…

…and fall, crashing to the earth…

Deverell and I looked at each other, realizing that we both had felt the same darkness cling to us…

“There is a great power here,” I said, my mind returning to our battle upon the Bruinen.

…but unlike then, this power was not friend but foe…

We both gazed over the stronghold’s fortifying walls toward what appeared to be a large command tent set against the face of the cliffs overlooking the hill…

“Not only is our presence here known, but we will be thwarted at every turn,” I warned Deverell. “Be ready.”

Together we charged up the hill and through the gate leading to the inner courtyard…

…into a cacophony of shattering rock and stone being hurled at us from above…

“The catapults upon the hill, Kaleigh!” cried Deverell, as we ducked under the splintering fragments and debris.

I spied a third gate leading to yet another level of the stronghold before us and pointed toward it…

“Make for the edge of the courtyard and circle toward the gate!” I shouted above the din. “I will draw them toward the center!”

From over the wall, a great craban arose. It flew toward me, to keep me in harm’s way of the catapults above…

…but I caught it with my sticker, sending it to the earth like the stones that fell toward us still…

A group of orcs charged through the gate at us, halting our advance…

Deverell abandoned the edge of the courtyard to aid me in fighting our way toward the gate, as hurtling stones flew and crashed around us…

Once we reached the gate, we turned on our attackers, forcing them to battle up the ramp toward us while in range of the catapults…

The orcs and goblins made one last charge, breaking through the gate and toward Deverell…

…but I caught them from behind as they passed, striking them down…

…until the two of us were free of them and standing on the third level of the stronghold with a moment to breathe…

Before us lay a path leading upward, to what appeared to be another gate and the final level of the stronghold. The path from the gate led southward, toward the command tent…

We retreated to the gate we had just won, taking refuge from the stones that were still being cast at us. I gazed up the path that would require yet another charge, weariness from the sleepless march of the night before setting in…

“Just a bit more yet,” I said breathlessly. “Are you ready?”

Deverell nodded her assent, and I began my charge up the hill. From the gate above emerged an enemy lieutenant and his soldiers to battle us from higher ground…

I cried out as a goblin archer caught me with an arrow before I could close the ground. I bit my lip and cut a notch into the shaft with my sticker, breaking it off as I continued my charge…

I waded into the enemy throng sent to halt our advance, parrying away their attacks to find openings for my own. One by one, they fell before us…

But my eyes were growing heavy with fatigue…

“Kaleigh! Behind you!” Deverell exclaimed.

Just as I reached the archer that had pierced me with his arrow, Deverell’s warning roused me, saving me from the enemy lieutenant who had skulked his way in behind us…

I caught the goblin with my sticker…

…and then whirled upon the lieutenant, catching him with my other before he could come too near…

I cut a swath of crimson from him, and he fell before us. The gate to the final level of the stronghold was won…

We took a moment to catch our breath and recover from the battle, wordlessly peering through the gate to see what might lie before us…

“The catapults will not be able to reach us here,” I said finally. “We should be safe from…”

…but the blast of war-horns from below silenced me…

“Siniath will be overrun,” said Deverell. “Kaleigh, we must go to his aid!”

I drew my stickers and we charged back down the hill together…

We were met by a band of orcs and wargs, led by a Dourhand lieutenant at the gate below…

We struck down his forces before turning to the leader. Beyond him, in the courtyard below, I saw many foes streaming toward us…

…through the southern gate which Siniath was fighting desperately to hold…

I shouted a word of binding at a troll nearing the gate to hold him still, until we could finish the Dourhand and press on…

A pack of wargs reached the gate as we advanced on the troll…

I circled around our foes, luring them away from Deverell, as we battled to reach Siniath…

Slowly, we worked a backward retreat of inches, knowing that to give either too much or too little ground would be the end of us all…

Then we heard Siniath’s cry above the din of battle…

“The leader! He’s broken free!”

Into the fray stormed an Angmarim general with a dark-furred warg at his side, straight toward Deverell. I readied my stickers to pierce them where their charge had left them exposed…

…but then a malevolent whisper passed over me, dimming my vision and halting my attack…

“Kaleigh! Kaleigh, I cannot hold them!” I heard Deverell cry.

I shook my head to clear my sight, as if to free myself from a shroud that had been draped over me…

The Angmarim shouted a word of command to his warg as my vision returned. The warg turned to hold me at bay while its master fought to bring Deverell down…

When it reared up to bite at me, I caught it in its maw with my sticker before ending it with my other…

Deverell had parried away the Angarim’s attack long enough for me to come to her aid…

Together, we closed in on him…

I readied my stickers, piercing his gut the moment he whirled upon me. He fell to the ground between us, lying at our feet…

The counterattack having been quelled, we gathered at the southern gate for a moment to rest…

“Our plan is working as well as I could have hoped,” Siniath offered, recovering his breath as he looked over the courtyard. His gaze then went upward, to the rise leading to the crest of the hill where the command tent stood.

“How far were you two able to reach before the sounding of the enemy’s horn?” he asked.

“To the final level, on that path just before the gate leading to the tent,” I said. “Though it is a wonder that we were not overrun.”

“My brothers keep the greater force lured to the north and the west for now,” nodded Siniath. “How long they will be able to hold them, I cannot say. It would be best to be through and done with this place, and with any foe able to give word of the encampment, as quick as we are able.”

Deverell and I looked at each other and nodded. Our brief respite was over…

“Be wary on your ascent to where you once stood,” Siniath warned. “The enemy will not give back the ground it has reclaimed freely. I will watch for any foe that returns and keep them from you.”

“Please, be safe, Siniath,” Deverell said.

Siniath nodded once more, his gaze returning to us. “There are many wonders being worked, both out there and here in this stronghold. Perhaps with enough of them, we might all make it through this day.”

I blinked away tears as I watched the noble man return to the gate, to keep his watch over us…

“Deverell, we best away,” I said.

The two of us crept up to the gate once more and passed through…

As we came through the gate before the path leading upward, to where we stood when we heard the war-horns sound, I caught sight of a figure skulking to the south and stopped. It was an orcish shaman, touched by the blight of darkfire…

I nodded to Deverell and we charged toward our foe…

The shaman raised his staff, meeting my stickers before they could reach him…

…before then bringing it down, alighting my body with the darkfire he summoned, its blaze scorching me…

He moved like a wisp of flickering flame, dodging to and fro…

…narrowly eluding attack after counterattack…

…then striking at the moments in which I left myself most vulnerable…

We battled on, circling one another, each looking for an opportunity, a weakness to be revealed. I watched as the shaman drew his staff back and forth before himself, ready to block any strike I made…

I gathered myself for a moment and then feigned a high attack, forcing the shaman to bring his staff upward to meet it. I then turned my blades downward once more, plunging them into the shaman’s leg…

When he stumbled, I brought them back over his staff and swung in a wide arc…

…catching him across his exposed chest and causing him to fall…

I stood silently and still for a moment, as Deverell’s words quelled the darkfire that had coursed over my body and spirit during our battle with the shaman…

“I pray that was the creature uttering darknesses upon the air,” Deverell said as we looked upon the orc while watching the darkfire burning within it extinguish.

I shook my head with a sigh. “An acolyte, or a follower, perhaps. But I fear its master lies in wait for us yet above.”

“Siniath battles below to let us go forward, Kaleigh. We best be on our way,” Deverell suggested.

I drew the sleeve of my tunic across my eyes to wipe away the soot and ash and then nodded, drawing my stickers once more…

Dodging the fire from the catapults above, we raced up the path leading to the upper level of the stronghold and through the gate…

…into the enemy that lay in wait for us…

I screamed as an arrow pierced my shoulder, knocking me backward to the ground just beyond a wood troll’s grasp…

By the time I had broken off the arrow shaft and regained my feet, the enemy had passed me by, making straight for Deverell…

Whether to help or to hinder, all looked upon her as she called upon her powers to protect herself and bind my wound…

With her aid, I was able to cut down two of the wargs that threatened her before turning toward the troll…

It loomed above, shouting down its malevolence upon me…

It kicked and swung its limbs, trying to dash me into the stone face of the hill we battled upon…

Favoring my wounded shoulder, I spun away, catching its leg with my other sticker. I felled it with a few more swings, while eluding the other foes until I could face them…

Deverell backed away as I advanced upon the rest of our foes while hunched over in pain. One by one, they fell before us…

…until I had finally pierced the last and sank to my knees, both from relief and the pain about to claim me…

I felt darkness closing in upon me, drawing me downward…

“Help me,” I pleaded, my voice barely a whisper…

“Rest easy, Kaleigh. Rest a moment.” I heard Deverell say.

From behind where I knelt, I heard her whisper words of light. The darkness lifted from me, and I felt strength returning to my limbs. The crippling pain in my shoulder eased enough for me to press on…

I slowly rose to the my feet and gazed upon what lay before us…

We had reached the catapults that had rained stone after stone upon us, and the command tent lay just beyond…

The forces of the enemy defending the catapults turned upon us and began to advance...

A great craban rose over the enemy, stirring up a crimson dust-storm to hinder our vision of the battle below. We backed away until I was able to catch it with a sticker, causing it to fall to the earth…

With the death of the craban, the dust in the air began to settle, revealing the enemy horde…

I threw myself into their midst, twirling amongst them to keep Deverell safe from their ire and to strike at any opening I could spy…

I felled a troll lingering by the light of a burning pyre, before then eluding the shadow cast by its fall…

…and then whirled upon an orc charging at me with axe in hand…

As I turned my blades toward the pack of wargs circling about me, a threat revealed itself…

“Kaleigh, an archer! Hidden by the pyre!” cried Deverell.

But I was unable to break free from the melee in which I was engaged, for fear that my attackers would cut me down from behind…

I cried out as the archer pierced my side with an arrow, but I fought on…

…even as another arrow came after the first…

My leathers prevented the arrows from piercing me deeply, and I broke off the shafts once free of other foes before advancing upon the goblin archer…

He threw down his bow and took up a spear as I charged him. We battled by the light of the pyre, weaving in and out of the shadows it cast about us, until I finally caught him with my sticker…

He fell before us, the last defender of the enemy’s siege weapons that now lay within our reach …

I walked over to the catapults that had nearly ended us time and again, with Deverell trailing behind…

“Would you bring me a firebrand from the pyre?” I asked her.

Deverell looked over at the tent. “Let me treat your wounds first, Kaleigh. Then, I will bring one for each of us.”

I kept watch over the tent while Deverell treated me as best she could, where the arrows had pierced my leathers…

“I owe you for this,” I whispered to her, fighting back tears of pain and regret as she bound my side. “I owe so much…”

“Kaleigh, it was my choice to come with you, and what is done is done.” Deverell chided me as she worked. She turned to look over at the tent briefly before tending to my wounds once more. “Keep your thoughts to the present, and we may yet prevail this day.”

I bit my lip and nodded, trying to brace myself for what was to come…

“We are going to stir up a hornet’s nest once we put these catapults to the torch,” I warned her.

Deverell answered by going over to the pyre and fetching two firebrands, one of which she offered to me…

We each touched the fire to one of the catapults, in many places, until they both roared with flame…

And then we waited…

…watching as a great horde of the enemy emerged from the tent, to save their weaponry and bring us down…

“Stay back,” I told Deverell. “I will try to hold them.”

I lit out to meet the foe, to halt their charge where the barricade lining the path offered protection for the burning catapults…

…but there were too many to hold, and most slipped past my reach, to where Deverell guarded the opening in the barricade beyond which the catapults lay…

I whirled upon the pack of wargs assailing Deverell, drawing them away one by one as she tried to fend them off…

The enemy I had turned my back on began to close in. I spun between both sides, battling to keep each at bay until I could finish the wargs…

Between the two of us, we finally slew the last warg, and I went to turn on the remaining foes…

…but an orc caught my boot with his foot as I spun, and I could not keep myself from stumbling to my knees before the enemy. They closed in quickly as Deverell screamed, pleading with me to rise…

From my knees, I saw an orc shaman come running from the tent with an undead spirit at its side. It snarled commands in a dark tongue before advancing upon me…

I regained my feet as the enemy began to charge past…

“Fall back!” I cried. “Back to the catapults!”

I backed away as the shaman and its spirit advanced, to the barricade from where I heard the orcs chase Deverell to the catapults. I fought desperately, battling to strike down the shaman and spirit before she was overrun…

Her cries sped me on, and I pierced the shaman through before driving the ghost back to its fitful rest…

As I turned and began to race to Deverell’s aid, a Dourhand lieutenant emerged from the tent…

He chased me up the path, to where I turned toward the orcs attacking Deverell…

…and cut them down from behind, before they could harm her further…

Together, we turned on the Dourhand and his minion. No other enemy emerged from the tent to engage us…

…and when I cut down the Dourhand, we stood alone at last…

After a moment to recover, Deverell and I crept up near the entrance to the command tent and peered inside, but much was yet hidden from our sight…

“Siniath should be here with us,” I said softly, peering out over the stronghold before returning my gaze to the tent.

“Perhaps he’s made contact with the other way-watchers,” offered Deverell. “Should we wait for him a bit?”

I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to shake the weariness that still clung to me…

“We cannot stop now, Deverell. Not when we are so near to seeing things through. There is no other way to know what lies inside the tent, nor what transpires there even this moment, lest we make our strike now,” I surmised.

Deverell nodded her assent, and I readied myself for one final charge. I felt Deverell slip her hands into mine, and I squeezed them with my own…

“I will be right behind you, Kaleigh,” she whispered, lending me her strength.

I drew in a deep breath and then began my charge toward the command tent…

…where I spied a ring of raised platforms upon which goblins danced and chanted, paying tribute to a giant orc-lord who stood below them, basking in their praises…

The orc-lord was touched by dark-fire, and he raised up an axe nearly twice my height as I approached him…

I drew my stickers and made to close ground with him, to work my way inside the longer reach of his weapon…

…but he instead lowered his axe and breathed darkfire upon me…

…before catching me with the haft of his axe while I was blinded and scorched, sending me crashing into the raised platforms behind where I once stood…

I fell to the ground in a heap as the orc-lord advanced upon Deverell…

I sprang to my feet and threw myself in front of the orc-lord, stopping his advance. We traded parries as the darkfire raged over my body, burning away my strength and desire…

It was then, from the path to the tent beyond the orc-lord, that I heard a cry…

“Kaleigh! Deverell!”

It was Siniath, come to aid us. We called out to him, and he began sprinting toward the tent…

The orc-lord whirled about and gestured with his hand, sending dark words upon the air…

…and there arose a wall of fire across the opening of the tent as Siniath approached, causing him to stop short. Tendrils of blistering flame shot upward across the height of the entryway. Scorching heat radiated through the whole of the tent and beyond…

“Siniath!” cried Deverell.

Through the wisps of flame, we saw him back away…

“Keep battling him! I will find another way,” Siniath shouted over the roaring of the fire.

I went to renew my attack upon the orc-lord when I felt a searing pain in my hands…

I cast aside my stickers, which the orc-lord had set to flame, and backed away as he charged toward me…

“Kaleigh!” Deverell screamed…

The orc-lord had woven rings of darkfire that were strewn about the tent, inside of which rose plumes of flame…

He pressed in upon me, backing me into the fire. I cried out in pain and leapt to the side, narrowing avoiding the swing of his axe…

As the orc-lord chased me about the tent, he began shouting in a dark tongue. The goblins atop the platforms began jumping down from them, to the ground…

I ran to fetch my stickers and swept them up while running by…

“Deverell, be ready!” I called out.

But rather than attack us, the goblins streamed toward the southern wall of the tent…

…where a hidden cave opened into the face of the hill, leading to a likely path of escape…

“The goblins!” I cried out. “Slay the goblins before they can away!”

Deverell ran to guard the opening of the cave as I caught one of the goblins attempting to flee. I drew my sticker across his body, dropping him to the ground, and then lit out for the others with the orc-lord chasing after me…

It was not long before I felt his fiery grasp upon my shoulder…

The darkfire raged over me as we grappled. My shoulder, pierced by the arrow from before, began to tear apart from the strain…

I screamed as the orc-lord drew me in…

I was held fast in the orc-lord’s vile embrace. Into my ear, he whispered dark and terrible things, curses and blasphemies in the blackest of tongues…

As his dark words tumbled over me, I felt something snap inside my mind, like a length of wood brought over a man’s knee…

The orc-lord released me, howling with triumph as I began to stagger, wandering aimlessly around the tent…

Darkfire was cast upon me once more, but I had not the strength to fight it. It raged over me, burning away not flesh and bone, but my will and desire…

The roaring flame and Deverell’s screams both faded as my world went silent…

I came to stand before the orc-lord. Unbidden, my arms fell to my sides…

The orc-lord roared, bringing his axe around with a vicious swing…

…and my vision turned to grey as death came for me…

But the blade struck an unseen force before me and was turned away. There was a flash of light, then the sound of splintering wood and Deverell’s piercing scream…

The orc-lord was knocked backward and dazed, but my mind had been made clear…

“Now, Kaleigh!” I heard Deverell cry. “Strike him down!”

I brought my stickers to bear upon the orc-lord with all that I had left within me, battling through the darkfire and the pain…

My very being was melting away as my hope for atonement was nigh…

I threw myself into the fiend and caught him with my stickers one final time…

…quenching the darkfire within him and sending him to his final rest…

“Deverell!” I screamed, spying her lying amidst fragments of the broken staff that the elves of Rivendell had gifted to her.

She rose from the ground, wearily climbing to her feet. I rushed over to help her, embracing her as the wall of darkfire guarding the opening of the tent burnt itself out.

Siniath burst into the tent and ran over to us.

He looked upon the dead orc-lord and then to the cave set into the hill.

“Did any foe escape?” he asked.

I looked to Deverell, who shook her head.

“Not one,” she said. “What is hidden shall remain so.”

“The Rangers of Esteldín will remember your service. Without your aid, Esteldín would surely have fallen,” Siniath said softly.

“But now, we must fly…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Spirit Gauntlet Saga

Stand at Amon Sul (15)

Obstacles (16)

Siege of Gondamon (17)

Passages (18)

Defense of the Prancing Pony (19)

Penumbra (20)

Counsel (21)

Attack at Dawn (22)

Also, the entire saga, with full-sized renderings, can be found here!

The full Spirit Gauntlet Saga with full-sized renderings

(The full renderings make for a completely different experience!)

Essences and How to Make the Most of Them

Greetings, everyone!

Amidst all the talk of legendary items and the great advancement made by the Forge-masters regarding how to imbue them, another discovery has been made in our lands recently. Essence stones, of various size and luster, are being found to have significant power, and industrious folk have begun to work armor and jewelry to make use of these stones.

Continue reading Essences and How to Make the Most of Them

Imbued ‘Legendary’ Items – Tips, Tricks, and a Guide to the ‘Grind’

Greetings, everyone

Surely you have heard the news, yes? The Forge-masters of these lands, with whom we have toiled year after year only to tread water, have had a breakthrough of legendary proportions! No longer must we cast aside our shinies and forge others anew when new trainings are available to us! Yay!

Through the process of Imbuement, the Forge-masters are now able to grow our legendary items with us! And they promise to continue to do so, even as we venture further and further across Middle-earth and to what we hope will be our ultimate victory over the evils of this time.

Sounds wonderful, yes? Well, there is a cost to doing so, and it is no small thing, I can assure you. However, the power that imbuement gifts our items is no small thing, either. There are also new edicts regarding how our efforts in battling the foe are rewarded which greatly help with meeting that cost.

Some time ago, I wrote an article regarding our ‘legendary’ items and how to make the most of them. While much of what I wrote still holds true, the change in our items brought about by the imbuement process is both irrevocable and extreme. So, a new article is in order!

I have always wanted to have a sticker for my Gamble-scouting forged but put it off, knowing it would not see much use and that I would have to forge a new one after a time. But no longer!

As with the previous guide, we will go step-by-step through the process of working up a legendary item, from beginning to end. But, this time, we will do so with the end result of imbuement in mind.

Remember, this one is for keeps! Let’s get started

A. Dress Rehearsal

Is it just me, or does he look a bit like Sapience?

So, here we are in Dol Amroth, where I am speaking with the Forge-master of the city. If you ask any Forge-master about the imbuing process, they will speak to the great power that imbuement will grant an item. They will also give fair warning that some of the item’s legacies may be changed and that, once done, imbuement cannot be undone. Finally, they will give a critical warning to be sure your weapon is as sharp as it can be made before you choose to imbue it. We will cover all of this in just a bit.

However, before we consider imbuing something we mean to keep forever, why not take advantage of the fact that any item of 100 trainings can be imbued, no matter its age, nor how much (or little) effort has been invested into it?

This way, we can learn a bit about the imbuing process with no lasting consequence other than the loss of an ordinary ‘legendary’ item of the third age. I brought along a mace for just this purpose, so let us see what happens!

The beginning of our journey…

When you tell the Forge-master that you wish to imbue an item, he will show you all the items you hold for which imbuement is an option. You are able to choose which one you wish to look at by using the ‘Previous’ and ‘Next’ arrows on either side of the item displayed.

Here is the one we wish to use! Let us choose to have him imbue it and see what happens!

Whoa…

Whoa!

That was quite an experience! You will notice that the item you have just imbued will disappear from the Forge-master’s window, for it is now changed forever.

If we go and have a look at our newly-imbued item in our Legendary Item window, we will see something like this…

Newly Imbued!

To give an idea of the possible power imbuement can grant to an item, we can take a look at each of the legacies on this mace…

Very shiny!

Comparing the highest potential for each of these legacies pre-imbuement and post-imbuement:

Surprise Strike Critical Rating: +1,496 Critical Rating to +3,900 Critical Rating
Critical Response Skill Damage: From +10% Damage to +15.6% Damage
Small Snag/Quite a Snag Damage: From +25% Damage to +39% Damage

It looks like the potential power of each legacy after imbuement is nearly once and a half again over what is possible before imbuing. Imbuement looks quite promising, no?

Now, to create our master plan for the last and final legendary items we will ever work up…

B. Determine the legacies you wish your item to have at journey’s end

By finding our item in the Legendary Item window as before and choosing the Replace Legacy option (in the lower left corner), we can see not only the legacies currently on the item but also which legacies it can potentially acquire as well…

Options, options, options…

The legacies to the right of the window are the legacies available to the item but not currently on it. These can be examined more closely by mousing over them, just like in the other windows.

You will likely notice that there are some legacies that you do not recognize from before. The Forge-masters have found new legacies to bestow to our items upon imbuing, some of which are very powerful!

You might also notice that some of the legacies on your current items may not appear to be available to those items upon imbuement (and some legacies on your current items might have even been changed into new legacies without imbuing them). Unfortunately, with knowledge learned, some is also lost it seems. For the most part, however, the imbuement process is a great step forward. In fact…

,,,have you noticed that there seems to be no distinguishing between Major and Minor legacies in the Replace Legacy window? That is because, upon imbuement, a legacy is just a legacy, and the distinction between Major and Minor legacies has fallen away! This is a tremendous boon, as we needn’t worry over such things with items that have been imbued. We can freely choose whichever legacies we want, with no restriction. We can choose to have up to all seven of the legacies be what used to be considered ‘Major’ legacies now!

Of course, the Major/Minor legacy restriction still holds for items pre-imbuement, and we may run into that hurdle before the end. But for now, let us pick the seven legacies we most want if we were able to do so with no restrictions. Looking over the legacies, I think I will choose for my sticker:

Burglar Bleed Damage
Critical Chain Skills Critical Multiplier
Critical Response Skill Damage
Cunning Attack Bleed Damage
Harmful Gamble Damage
Lucky and Gambler’s Strike Damage
Stat (Agility) Legacy – do not miss those at the end of the list!

C. Determine which pre-imbuement legacies will match up with those you want post-imbuement

Once we have chosen the legacies we would like for our item, we now need to determine which legacies will lead us toward that goal! While this may seem straightforward at first glance, some legacies change into different legacies upon imbuing, and we need to determine which of those we might need…

Why must you always be so difficult?

Thankfully, there is a wonderful resource to help with this task! At this place, you can choose which class you wish to examine at the top of the window. You will then see four columns:

A window of knowledge…

In the far right column, you will see which legacies were lost forever when Imbuement first was discovered by the Forge-masters. While these powers are forever lost to us as legacies…
They have instead been given back to us as constant, passive abilities! (though not always as powerful as the fully-developed legacies in some cases). These passive traits are listed in the column just to the left of the far-right column, next to the discontinued legacy.
In the two leftmost columns, you can find each Traditional legacy (pre-imbuement) and what that legacy will become upon imbuement. Most will remain the same, but any with a blue and yellow background are legacies that undergo a change.

With this list, we can now determine which legacies we will need on our item pre-imbuement, so that it will turn out as we want it to post-imbuement! I will add these legacies to our list so we can keep track of them (pre-imbument legacy listed first):

Burglar Bleed Damage – Burglar Bleed Damage
Critical Chain Skills Critical Multiplier – Critical Chain Skills Critical Multiplier
Critical Response Skill Damage – Critical Response Skill Damage
Cunning Attack Bleed Damage – Cunning Attack Bleed Damage
Harmful Gamble Damage – Harmful Gamble Damage
Lucky and Gambler’s Strike Damage – Lucky and Gambler’s Strike Damage
Stat (Agility) – Stat (Agility)

Well, that is a bit disappointing, actually. I was hoping that at least one of these would undergo a change upon imbuement for illustration purposes. They certainly did with my scouting kits!

What is important to know as far as this goes is that, once we begin to work up our item and have to make choices regarding which legacies to choose upon reforging, be sure to choose the legacies that will eventually become the ones you want post-imbuement!

D. One final check before we begin!

Before we finally have our item identified and begin the process that will make it shiny, there is one last thing to consider. Our item will still be under the pre-imbuement rules before we are able to imbue it. Therefore, we need to make sure we will be able to place each of the pre-imbuement legacies upon it while under the Major/Minor legacy restrictions.

To do that, let us add whether the pre-imbuement legacies we are seeking are Major or Minor legacies to our list…

(Major) Burglar Bleed Damage – Burglar Bleed Damage
(Minor) Critical Chain Skills Critical Multiplier – Critical Chain Skills Critical Multiplier
(Major) Critical Response Skill Damage – Critical Response Skill Damage
(Major) Cunning Attack Bleed Damage – Cunning Attack Bleed Damage
(Minor) Harmful Gamble Damage – Harmful Gamble Damage
(Minor) Lucky and Gambler’s Strike Damage – Lucky and Gambler’s Strike Damage
(Minor) Stat (Agility) – Stat (Agility)

With only three Major legacies, we will have no issues, thankfully! This has been true for every item I have imbued to this point. If you find you need four or more Major pre-imbument legacies, there are a few tricks that may help:

A Crystal of Remembrance will grant your item an additional Major legacy (pre-imbuement) or unlock an available legacy slot (post-imbuement)
During your first three reforges (Levels 10, 20 and 30), if you are given the option of adding a Major legacy, you might wish to do so, even if it is not the exact legacy for which you were hoping. Remember, Minor legacies cannot be swapped for Major legacies, but Major legacies can be swapped for either!
As a last resort, there are ways to swap legacies post-imbuement which we will cover later

E. The time has come…

We are now ready to begin working up our item! However, we will need to make decisions on how to proceed as we go. Those decisions will be based upon which method you prefer regarding gathering resources for legendary items, whether through toil in these lands, or by purchasing things from the Store.

I will discuss all of these choices as we go, but now it is time to have our blade appraised!

Fates, be kind…

Not so bad, not so good…

Looking at our list above, we did get one of the legacies we were hoping for, and at Tier 5, which is very nice! Unfortunately, the other two legacies, while of a high tier, are not ones for which we were hoping.

Now, let us proceed with our next three reforges. Remember, the first three reforges (levels 10, 20, and 30) will allow us to choose one of two random legacies to gift to our item…

Yay!

We were given one of the legacies we wanted! Although it is only set at Tier 3, this will save us from having to work through another item to get a replacement scroll for the Harmful Gamble legacy, and it also is a tier higher than a replacement scroll provides (Tier 2).

Did you notice that the other option offered was a Major legacy? If you do not know whether a legacy is major or minor from memory, you can always tell by the color of the circle around its tier symbol (Gold circles are Major legacies, Grey are Minor legacies). Being offered a Major legacy upon reforging an item is quite rare (maybe a 10% chance or so). Had I needed extra major legacies for this item, I would have instead chosen the major legacy, even over the other being one we wanted.

Our luck is turning…

Unfortunately, neither of these legacies was one we wanted, so which we choose does not matter much. The Subtle Stab legacy is of a higher tier and also one I would want more, so I will choose that one.

So close, yet so far…

While both of these legacies are ones we wanted, both are set to the replacement level (Tier 2), so all they really do is save us a bit of extra work. Since I already have a replacement scroll for the Critical Chain Skills legacy with me, I will choose to keep the Lucky and Gambler’s Strike legacy, instead.

A decent beginning!

So, this is how our item currently stands. Of the six legacies currently on the item, three are ones we want, which is a good start! From here on out, the main thing we have left to decide is which method we want to use to switch out the remaining legacies we do not want for those which we do want. And to make those decisions wisely, there are a few aspects of imbued items we need to go over.

If we look back at our imbued mace…

Locks and unlocks…

…we can see fractions to the side of the legacies on the item. The number on the left is the current tier of that legacy, while the number on the right is the maximum tier currently available to us for that legacy. Each of these legacies also displays the Mithril Coin icon, which means there are some tiers that we have yet to unlock. You can mouse over each legacy to get more detail on this as well…

Very shiny!

So, it appears that, as of this writing, the highest possible tier for imbued legacies is 35. It also appears that, currently, 25 of those tiers are available from the beginning, while 10 more tiers somehow need to be ‘unlocked’. Lastly, it looks like we have, somehow, unlocked two of these tiers already! Yay!

The reason for this is…

When you first imbue a legendary item, each legacy will unlock a number of tiers equal to its pre-imbuement tier minus 1.

So, if your legacy is at Tier 6 pre-imbuement, 5 of the 10 locked tiers will immediately be unlocked for us. We definitely want to have high tiers on our pre-imbuement legacies if we can!

However, it is also true that…

Legacy replacement scrolls do not work on items once they are imbued. The only two ways to swap legacies on an item once it is imbued is through the Replace Legacy window (at the cost of 50 Mithril Coins), or by the use of an Imbued Legacy Replacement Scroll (at the cost of 500 Turbine Points in the Store)

While it was said during one of the livestreams of the Overlords that these Imbued Legacy Replacement Scrolls would likely become available for barter in game at some point, this has yet to happen. The only way to earn them in game currently is through questing in Eastern Gondor, where you can come upon three of them (four if you also complete the Ashes and Stars quest chain which involves completing the Osgiliath instances). Scrolls acquired through questing are bound to that character.

The good news with replacing legacies post-imbuement through these methods is that whatever tiers of that legacy have been unlocked remain unlocked for the new legacy as well. There is no losing ground in that regard.

Lastly, we know that using a legacy replacement scroll on a legacy pre-imbuement will set that legacy’s tier to 2, which is low. So, looking at our item once more…

Decisions, decisions…

If you know that you will only ever imbue and use one legendary weapon and one legendary class item, and you are pretty confident that you will never want to change legacies in the future, you may wish to leave unwanted legacies of higher tier on your item until after you have it imbued and then swap those legacies post-imbuement. This is especially true if you have the 3 or 4 Imbued Legacy Replacement Scrolls from questing. This will save you a number of Scrolls of Empowerment later on, depending on how high the tier of your legacy is.

Some may wish to do a bit of both, using some Imbued Legacy Replacement Scrolls for the legacies with very high tiers, while also swapping out lower tiered legacies with replacement scrolls pre-imbument. It really comes down to your personal preference and how you wish to go about things.

As for me, I plan to have a weapon and item combination for each of my three fighting styles, so I used up all my scrolls ages ago! Therefore, it is the old method for me

F. Making use of our free Scrolls of Empowerment

This section will be very similar to the same section in the previous guide. Remember any reforges after level 30 for your item (Levels 40, 50, 60, and 70 with the use of a Scroll of Delving) allow you to raise the tier of one of two randomly selected legacies from your item. We do not want to raise the tier of unwanted legacies, so now is the time to swap those undesired legacies for those that are wanted!

First, I will use a Crystal of Remembrance to add an additional Major legacy slot to my item. These can be bought in the Store, found as treasure in instances, and one can also earned as a reward in the Epic Quest line in Eastern Gondor.

Crystals of Remembrance are very nice!

There we are!

Now that we have our seven legacies available, it is time to begin swapping for the ones we want! I like to swap in the Minor legacies I want first, using up all the minor legacies slots on the item at the start. The reason for this is to make sure you do not run out of the number of Major legacy slots you will need for the Major legacies you want. Once you switch a Major legacy to a Minor legacy, you can never switch it back to a Major.

Looking at our desired legacy list (bolded legacies are those already on the item)…

(Major) Burglar Bleed Damage – Burglar Bleed Damage
(Minor) Critical Chain Skills Critical Multiplier – Critical Chain Skills Critical Multiplier
(Major) Critical Response Skill Damage – Critical Response Skill Damage
(Major) Cunning Attack Bleed Damage – Cunning Attack Bleed Damage
(Minor) Harmful Gamble Damage – Harmful Gamble Damage
(Minor) Lucky and Gambler’s Strike Damage – Lucky and Gambler’s Strike Damage
(Minor) Stat (Agility) – Stat (Agility)

We have two Minor legacies left to swap in: Critical Chain Skills Critical Multiplier and the Agility legacy. And there is just one unwanted Minor legacy on our item, that being the Subtle Stab Critical Damage legacy. So, I will take my replacement scroll for the Critical Chain Skills Critical Multiplier legacy I mentioned that I already have and swap it for the Subtle Stab legacy…

Progress!

At this point, we can now safely swap in the rest of the legacies we want without worrying about the Major legacy limit. Just be careful to choose the right legacies when you are swapping them out!

Remember, any legacy stat scroll, like the Agility legacy we want, can be obtained from a Relic-master through the process of Melding. The cost, as of this writing, is 1,886 shards. You can earn around 3,000 shards per week just by crafting relics for your guild-master and then Refining them into shards.

After doing so, our item now stands like this…

We are getting close!

Every single legacy we wanted is now on our item! Now, when we do our last four reforges, there will never be a poor choice of legacy for which to raise its tier!

Now, I will apply a Anfalas Scroll of Delving to the item…

This will allow for an extra reforge at level 70. Also, a Scroll of Delving will unlock one tier for each of your item’s legacies post-imbument (and will carry over and do so even if you apply the scroll pre-imbuement!). So, only good things will come to us by using one now

Next, it is time to raise the item’s level to 70 with the Item Experience runes I have been saving. It is always good to hold onto such things for when you need them!

It will not matter in the long run which legacies you choose to raise the tier for during your reforging, if you mean to raise them all to the maximum over time. If you do not have the resources to raise them all right away, I would choose to raise the tiers of legacies you consider the most powerful.

Having done this, the item now stands like so…

Not bad at all

The four reforges we just did have the same effect as 4 free Scrolls of Empowerment which really help out! Each of those gives us a free tier unlock upon imbuing, and we are just about to do so! We have only two things left to consider. First…

While Star-lit Crystals may be applied to items either pre-imbuement or post-imbuement, any non-percentage based passive traits on the item will gain a slight benefit from applying the crystals pre-imbuement

This will not affect my sticker, as it lacks passive traits, but many items do have such traits, like this Scouting kit…

In this case, the Incoming Healing rating will benefit, ever so slightly, from applying the 3 Star-lit Crystals allowed before imbuement. Two-handed weapons and many class items have passive traits that benefit in this way as well. It would certainly not be the end of the world to imbue your item before you are able to place 3 crystals into it, but every little bit helps!

I will go ahead and do that now…

Shiny!

We are so close! There is just one last thing to do. I mentioned the warning the Forge-master gave when I spoke to him at the beginning of this journey about imbuing. I will have him repeat it now, in his own voice…

Bluster, bluster, bluster…

In the end, all this will do is save us a bit of Item-XP once we imbue our item, but we may as well go ahead and do so now. You likely have already done so if you are imbuing an item that you already had developed before imbuing became an option to us.

If you have spent all the points on your item and do not have enough to fully rank up your DPS legacy, your points will reset when applying a Star-lit Crystal. You can also use a Scroll of Renewal to reset your points. These are earned whenever you deconstruct a legendary item that has had its level raised to 31 or higher, and they can also be melded by a Relic-master for 944 Shards.

I will rank up the sharpness of my sticker now and also raise some of the other legacies one last time for nostalgia’s sake. After imbuing, the limitation of points will be gone forever…

A backward glance…

A final checklist of tasks before Imbuing your item (for future reference)…

Determine which legacies you want on your item in its final state
Determine which legacies you will need to obtain pre-imbuement in order to have your desired legacies post-imbuement (they are not always the same!)
Determine if you will run into the Major legacy restriction pre-imbuement and, if so, take steps to work around it (Crystal of Remembrance, Choosing Major legacies upon reforging). If there is no work around, you will have to swap for that legacy post-imbuement
Have your item identified and the first three reforges done, keeping in mind which legacies to select for the end result you desire
Apply a Scroll of Delving to your item
Swap out whichever legacies you do not want for those that you do, with the end result you desire in mind (Be sure to leave yourself enough Major legacy slots for all those legacies!)
Work through your remaining reforges (up to Level 70)
Apply 3 Star-lit crystals, if you have them and want the slight but permanent bonuses from them
Be sure your DPS legacy is fully ranked (I do this with both weapons and class items, fully ranking whatever its inherent legacy is, just in case)
Imbue!

Take one last look! One word to the Forge-master and our item will be forever changed!

G. Imbuement

Whoa!

Let us see what we ended up with…

A new journey beckons…

And there we are! At this point, all of our decision-making is done, and our role changes to that of the hunter-gatherer.

Let us take a look at what we will need to fully complete our item!

Very Sharp!

For the legacy inherent to the item (DPS in this case), we are at Tier 17, out of a current maximum tier of 22. However, there are still 3 tiers we need to unlock as well, which will bring us to a final maximum tier of 25. The way to unlock the tiers of your item’s inherent legacy is with Star-lit Crystals or by unlocking them directly with 29 Mithril coins.

Very Shiny!

The rest of our item’s seven legacies begin at Tier 1. The current maximum tier for each legacy will depend on what its tier was when you imbued your item, which is why there is some variance amongst the legacies here. The final maximum tier (as of this writing) is 35, and that is our goal. To raise the tiers of the non-inherent legacies of an item, you will need Scrolls of Empowerment, or you can do so directly by spending 29 Mithril coins for each unlock.

Finally, we can see that, for both inherent and non-inherent legacies, 30,000 Item XP is needed to raise each tier. It looks like we have quite a shopping list on our hands!

Let us add up all our costs and see what we will need for this item:

For the DPS legacy, we will need 3 more Star-lit Crystals to raise the current maximum tier to the final maximum tier. This is in addition to the three we used before imbuing
Every other legacy will need whatever number of Scrolls of Empowerment are needed to bring its current maximum tier to 35, which is the full maximum for now. Going in order by the picture above, that will be: 8+8+7+6+6+7+4 which comes to 46 Scrolls of Empowerment. Phew!
We will also need the Item-XP to increase the tiers from where they currently are to those maximums. Each tier requires 30,000 Item-XP. For the seven legacies starting at Tier 1 and going to Tier 35, that will be: 30,000 per tier x 35 tiers x 7 legacies, so… 7,350,000 Item-XP, plus 240,000 for the DPS legacy, so… 7,590,000 Item-XP. Phew!

It is a lot, I freely admit. However, keep in mind that you will be earning Item-XP for most everything you do while in these lands. There are also some new edicts regarding resource gathering and improved ways to gather them that have just been implemented to help out!

H. Resources and the hunter-gatherer

Let us go over all the resources that you will need to make your item the best it can be and how to acquire them!

Item Experience

There are many, many ways to gather item experience runes or earn Item-XP directly. Every quest you complete and every foe you defeat will earn you some. Every faction of Middle-earth will allow you to barter for runes of Item-XP with whatever coins are precious to them.

It can be a bit of a hassle, but always carrying ordinary ‘legendary’ items and allowing them to gain experience as you go about your tasks is a wonderful way to gather Item-XP. As I wrote in my previous guide, you earn a bonus of around 20% to all Item-XP earned for every extra item you have that is earning experience besides the first, and it adds up!

Taking your items all the way to level 60 before deconstructing them will earn you a rune that gives around 900,000 Item-XP and also Tier 7, 6, and 5 relics!

Another good deal, if you have extra Silver Tokens of Dol Amroth, is to barter 20 of those for a rune that gifts 569,500 Item-XP from the Relic Quartermaster of that city. You may wish to hold onto those for other things, though…

Scroll of Empowerment

can be bought from the Store
can have an identical effect applied through Mithril coins
can be bought at the Auction Hall
can be bartered for in any skirmish camp for 3,782 Marks and 586 Medallions
can be melded by Relic-masters for 42,660 Shards
can be bartered from Eastern and Western Gondor Quartermasters for 100 of their region’s coins
can be bartered from the Relic Quatermaster in Dol Amroth for 10 Gold Tokens of Dol Amroth and 30 Silver Tokens of Dol Amroth
can be acquired through the Epic Questline

Perhaps the quickest way to earn these, particularly when on your own, is through the training exercises in Dol Amroth given by Beriaudur, who stands by the pool just north of the Library of Saphadzir, south of the Court of the Fount. These exercises are available to all of 100 trainings and after completing a few tasks for him.

Once you pick which faction you wish to aid, you will be given a primary task and six secondary tasks. Completing each of these will earn you a Gold Token of Dol Amroth, and a giftbox which may contain 4 or 8 Silver Tokens of Dol Amroth. Therefore, completing the entire mission will earn you 7 Gold Tokens and a random number of Silver Tokens. The time required to do so varies from around 5-6 minutes (for well-equipped yellow-line Champions) to maybe twice that for less damage-oriented characters with lesser gear.

These tokens can be taken to the Relic Quartermaster who stands not much further northeast from Beriaudur. 10 Gold Tokens and 30 Silver Tokens will trade for an Anfalas Scroll of Empowerment.

You will likely find you are short on the Silver Tokens. One trick I use is knowing that, when opening the boxes, those coins seem to come in streaks. I will open one box and, if it gave Silver Tokens, I will then open another as quickly as possible. If a box did not give Silver Tokens, I will wait for a bit and then try again. It works, I promise you!

If you are still short, you can try performing tasks for the Masons or the Swan Knights. There is a greater chance of finding Silver Tokens in their giftboxes, as there is no chance of finding coins for other factions beside their own.

Those coins are also a great way to begin the task of acquiring Essence armor… but this guide is long enough already, so we will leave that for another day

Scroll of Delving

can be bought from the Store
can be bought at the Auction Hall
can be bartered in any skirmish camp for 3,177 Marks and 476 Medallions
can be melded by any Relic-master for 58,500 Shards
can be bartered from Eastern and Western Gondor Quartermasters for 100 of their region’s coins
can be bartered from the Relic Quartermaster in Dol Amroth for 10 Gold Tokens of Dol Amroth and 30 Silver Tokens of Dol Amroth
can be acquired through the Epic Questline

Star-lit Crystal

can be found as treasure in instances
can be bought from the Store (or the same effect applied with Mithril coins)
can be bought at the Auction Hall
can be acquired through the Epic Questline
can be given as a Hobbit Present (those hobbits are very generous!)

Crystal of Remembrance

can be found as treasure in instances
can be bought from the Store (or the same affect applied with Mithril Coins)
can be bought at the Auction Hall
can be acquired through the Epic Questline
can be given as a Hobbit Present (those hobbits are very generous!)

It will take some time to gather all of the resources needed for your imbued items. But do keep in mind that your efforts will never again be rendered worthless, for these imbued items will stay with us, to whatever end!

Applying shinies to our shiny!