Thread: Need Armour Help

I'm sure this question has been asked many times before, but I have searched and searched on these forums and still cannot find the answers I seek. So, I've recently hit 65 and begun working on traits, equipment, etc., and I'm still at a loss as to what armour I want to wear. For my armour, I am more concerned about soloing than about tanking. I mean, my computer can't really handle raid content so 6-mans are the most I'll ever be tanking, and as it stands I have no issues tanking even with mediocre armour (that is, when I don't run out of power).

So, I've heard that the Helegrod set is good for soloing, but it has low morale; my question is, exactly how low are we talking? Like, can I still get 7k+ morale without gimping my other stats? I'd love to get 8k, but 7k would already be a big impovement for me. Also, how is the power and power consumtion on Helegrod? For me my biggest issue is power, but at the moment I'm doing vol.3 for those power-restoring gloves so hopefully this will soon be a much more manageable issue. Also, for my LIs I plan on investing heavily into ICPR relics, though I'd like to squeeze in a bit more raw morale/power if I can. I'll probably end up getting 2 of those True Runes of the Two Trees, so that'll add a good bit in addition to my other relics.

Also, what about Annuminas? Haven't heard much about this set for Wardens, but I'm not sure if its because its bad or because no one has tried it. I use Annuminas on my LM and it works out very well for me, so I'm just curious.

Here's some good advice, posted in this thread: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...rtues-and-gear

It may not all apply to you, but it's a good summary.

Here's a website that gives you great stats and comparisons between pieces: http://lotrogear.appspot.com/

Generally, you can do quite well with just the Moria set. With that and good relics/jewelry, you'll easily top 8k morale.

Hope this helps a bit.

Originally Posted by Harc

***Disclaimer: The information I have on the crafted stuff is from MoM/ early SoM. I know there's been crafting updates, so many of the crafted pieces may not be as good anymore.***

The problem is most gear is either power or morale, not both. Honestly, you don't need that much power as long as you stack some icpr relics. If you have emeralds of the verdant glen, then you're in very good shape. Otherwise, the other icpr relics might cost you in other stats.

OK. First, power. It's really difficult to have a lot of power without the Armour of the Lady's Favor set. Since you mentioned that you don't want to raid, that won't be an option. The Annum set gives the most power out of any set, but you'll lose even more morale than the hele set. I don't recommend it. Here are some armor pieces with a lot of power:

Recommended:
Moria leggings - 170 power. I highly recommend these. Although it gives less power than the Epic Quest legs, it gives nice stats as well. 105 morale isn't too bad either. You'll lose 10 morale and icmr, but you'll gain 21 might and fate at the cost of 33 agi. These legs will give allow you to switch out of some power gear for morale.

Other options:
Mirkwood crafted chest, boots, shoulders - 176 power. I personally don't like the Mirkwood set. It gives good morale and power but you'll be sorely lacking in stats. Take them if you really want to swap stats for power.


Again, I recommend you lose power for ICPR and build on morale. But it's your toon, so the decision is up to you. I'll just give you some options.

Other Pieces:

Recommended Helm:
Halbarad's Helm: Has 400 morale and 63 power. Good stats as well. It's a decent helm for the moors.

Moria helm: Has 400 morale, but no power. Good stats. Has incoming heal too.

Hele helm: 230 morale/ 69 power. Great stats. Nice inc. heal bonus. Great for tanking.

DG helm: 330 morale/ no power. Stats almost as nice as Hele. At one point, I had this rated higher than any other helm. I don't like it so much anymore.

Other options:
Mirkwood crafted: 412 morale/ no power. Again, stats are sorely lacking. Comes with small inc. heal


Recommended Chest:
Loth crafted Chest: 200 morale/ 60 pwr. In terms of stats, it's the best chest in the game. Good overall piece. You will lose power from your current chest, but you will get 20 will and fate.

Other options:
Mirk crafted: 215 morale/ 176 power. Same story (good on the outside, not so great on the inside, although it's one of the better pieces from the set)

Moria: 205/82


Recommended gloves:
Loth crafted: 276?/? high morale, decent stats, good for pvp

Epic gloves: 105/63. decent all around gloves because it gives back power.

Hele gloves: 115/0. Great stats. They're good gloves but the lost some value with the new epic gloves. The loth gloves give more morale and the Epic gloves helps with power issues, putting these gloves in an awkward position.

Other options:
Mirk crafted: 302/0.


Recommended boots:
Hele boots: 230/97. Great boots. Period.

Loth crafted boots: 200/60. Has better stats, but I prefer hele (remember 2 hele pieces net you 23 extra vit)

Other options:
Moria: 200/79

Mirk crafted: 215/176


Recommended shoulders:
Hele: I'm recommending this because you want two hele pieces for the bonus. If you have another hele piece besides the boots, (helm or gloves) you may not need it. They are very nice, though, imo.

Other options:
Mirk crafted: 105/176


As for jewelry,
NCF - earrings
Bracelets - Glowing Aureate for ICPR, Brawlers for morale
Rings - Brawlers for morale, Ranger's (mirk crafted) for power
Pocket - up to you, but Sailor's Charm is nice

The real difference maker is in the relics. You can cap melee defense, boost inc heal, add crit defense, add morale, and stack ICPR all at once. Look carefully at the options you have.

It's too hard to tell you what piece to switch out for what because you're wearing rather unconventional stuff (like mini bracelets and what not. People usually don't worry about tactical class gear until they cap mi/agi/vit, which you haven't done). I decided to you give you some options so that you can figure it out for yourself (sorry I'm not going to sit around with your build and min/max ). When your build is more complete, it'll be easier for us to tell you what to switch as some pieces are clearly better than others (and not just different). This is gear for non-raiders. Hope this helps.

If 12-mans are out, the best set for Wardens tanking is honestly the Moria set with the head and shoulder from either the OD or Dol Guldur sets.

Originally Posted by Faleros

I'm sure this question has been asked many times before, but I have searched and searched on these forums and still cannot find the answers I seek. So, I've recently hit 65 and begun working on traits, equipment, etc., and I'm still at a loss as to what armour I want to wear. For my armour, I am more concerned about soloing than about tanking. I mean, my computer can't really handle raid content so 6-mans are the most I'll ever be tanking, and as it stands I have no issues tanking even with mediocre armour (that is, when I don't run out of power).

So, I've heard that the Helegrod set is good for soloing, but it has low morale; my question is, exactly how low are we talking? Like, can I still get 7k+ morale without gimping my other stats? I'd love to get 8k, but 7k would already be a big impovement for me. Also, how is the power and power consumtion on Helegrod? For me my biggest issue is power, but at the moment I'm doing vol.3 for those power-restoring gloves so hopefully this will soon be a much more manageable issue. Also, for my LIs I plan on investing heavily into ICPR relics, though I'd like to squeeze in a bit more raw morale/power if I can. I'll probably end up getting 2 of those True Runes of the Two Trees, so that'll add a good bit in addition to my other relics.

Also, what about Annuminas? Haven't heard much about this set for Wardens, but I'm not sure if its because its bad or because no one has tried it. I use Annuminas on my LM and it works out very well for me, so I'm just curious.

You can get 7k easy with the hele set. 8k will need sacrifices (most likely icpr or melee def on relics).

Here's a breakdown:

Hele set: 985 morale/ 235 power
Annuminas: 724 morale/ 729 power
Moria: 1158/ 502
Mirkwood crafted: 1249/ 528
Lady's favor: 1315/ 668
OD: 1898/ 269
PvMP: 1300/ 333


What you can't see are stats. Hele gives the most total stats (as well as hefty chunks of mi/agi) and mirkwood gives the least. The Annuminas set gives second fewest total stats, but has the highest agi available in a set.

All in all, the Annuminas set is rather subpar.

The three new relics are more DPS oriented. You may want to look at some tanking relics with ICPR. Unfortunately, one of the best gems for wardens is no longer available. Aside from that, you should be OK.

If you have just hit 65 and want to get started in pimping your char i recon you first work on
1=Jewerly- Pimp yourself out with the crafted ones as they are some of the best.
2=You should allready have the moria set while lvling in moria but if u havent, get it via GS
3=Work on getting 10 on all ur virtues and lvling ur LI

As for gear its very simple. Your task is to raise your stats close to cap. ie might agil,vit etc and other stats but u said ur not raiding so we wont talk about them
Armour is very easy to get but its jewelery thats the key.
As you are not raiding i say get the hele gear as it is easy to do. 2 marks a day and soon u will get it. And about the low morale from hele is rubbish. All armour sets are good, its all about the jewerly.
As for jewelery, once u have the best crafted ones, replace them for the ones in instances.
For example the following but try to tailor your build to your play style
Ear: x2 Sarenzer(NCF)
Neck: one from jewerly vendor at skirmish
Wrist: Padlock Bracelet(stonehight T2), Bracelet of brawling(Halls of Night mark)
Finger: Ring of Brawling(Halls of Night mark), Ranger's Greenwood Ring (crafted)
Shield: Superior Warden's Shield Of The Golden Host( crafted)

Originally Posted by Protoss360

2=You should allready have the moria set while lvling in moria but if u havent, get it via GS

How do you figure a warden (or guardian) should have the Moria set before 65? I'll grant that non-tank classes can do that, but in my experience (1) Moria instance groups have multiple 65s in them, and (2) high 50s tank classes cannot tank with 65 dps in the group. It took multiple tries just to get the one GS group I tried so "LFF GS, under 60 only please" doesn't strike me as a successful strategy. Tagging along in a group with a 65 guard/warden doing the tanking could work, but tanks are usually one of the hard to find class types when forming a group...

Also, to clarify, when people say "the Moria armor", do they mean specifically the teal, 10 token per piece set? Browsing the barter guy, it seemed to me that the purple, 4 token per piece set struck a decent balance in quality vs. time taken to grind it between the 3 token per piece set and the 10 token per piece set. Is the teal version really worth doing 2.5 times more GS runs (or other instances)?

One other question, does this Mirkwood crafted set require tailor's guild kindred rep? My tailor character is kindred with the metalworker's guild. I haven't gotten far enough into Mirkwood to actually see these recipes yet. And are there any good crafted jewelry recipes after 58 that don't require faction rep? My jeweler is a level 40 alt, so Galadhrim rep (for example) is out of the question...

Originally Posted by J_Howell

How do you figure a warden (or guardian) should have the Moria set before 65? I'll grant that non-tank classes can do that, but in my experience (1) Moria instance groups have multiple 65s in them, and (2) high 50s tank classes cannot tank with 65 dps in the group. It took multiple tries just to get the one GS group I tried so "LFF GS, under 60 only please" doesn't strike me as a successful strategy. Tagging along in a group with a 65 guard/warden doing the tanking could work, but tanks are usually one of the hard to find class types when forming a group...

It’s not too hard of an instance to tank, as long as your healer is decent. I started tanking it with 65s once I got conviction at 58. Practice makes perfect, and the earlier you start, the better you’ll be when you hit 65. Most of the tough parts are just single-target, so you can just spam PB and let the champs take care of the adds if you can’t hold them. It really won’t take long to pick up the whole teal set (except the helm/shoulders).

Originally Posted by J_Howell

Also, to clarify, when people say "the Moria armor", do they mean specifically the teal, 10 token per piece set? Browsing the barter guy, it seemed to me that the purple, 4 token per piece set struck a decent balance in quality vs. time taken to grind it between the 3 token per piece set and the 10 token per piece set. Is the teal version really worth doing 2.5 times more GS runs (or other instances)?

Yes, we mean the teal set. Though the purple helm of the shield-wall with the morale proc can be helpful in skirmishes when lots of little mobs are hitting you. Yes, the teal is worth doing more GS runs. A quick GS challenge run should only take about 20 minutes max.

Originally Posted by J_Howell

One other question, does this Mirkwood crafted set require tailor's guild kindred rep? My tailor character is kindred with the metalworker's guild. I haven't gotten far enough into Mirkwood to actually see these recipes yet. And are there any good crafted jewelry recipes after 58 that don't require faction rep? My jeweler is a level 40 alt, so Galadhrim rep (for example) is out of the question...

I don’t think it requires guild rep to make the tailor recipies…Just supreme master tailor and rep with the Mirkwood faction to barter for/make them.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I've now got a much clearer picture of what I'm aiming for. My build is far from complete, but with just a few extra pieces of armour, as well as working on my virtues, and I can see a noticeable difference in my defence and power regen. Also I'm kinda wondering what relics you guys use, there are actually several relics out there that look good for a warden, so I'm kinda on the fence here.

Originally Posted by Faleros

Thanks for the feedback guys, I've now got a much clearer picture of what I'm aiming for. My build is far from complete, but with just a few extra pieces of armour, as well as working on my virtues, and I can see a noticeable difference in my defence and power regen. Also I'm kinda wondering what relics you guys use, there are actually several relics out there that look good for a warden, so I'm kinda on the fence here.

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?404964-Runes

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...r-Tanking-Solo

Hopefully that helps. Geoboy's post in that second link is probably the way to go.

Thanks, I had actually found 1 of those threads after I posted lol, so that was kinda pointless. Its gonna take a while, but my build is slowly coming together

Didn't see it mentioned (But I may have missed it)...

Don't forget to work the epic and get your Guantlets of the Hill Watcher
httphttp://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Armour:Leather_Gauntlets_of_th e_Hill-watcher

I swap those out w/ Ladies Favor for tanking depending on if I need the xtra morale or not.

Necklace:
I've also added the Lin Giliath Archivist's Chain to my necklace spot to pick up some extra will/fate/power, since my might/vit are over 610 w/o buffs.

Pocket:
For tanking I typically have Hithilian Threads, but put in the Gilded Inkwell when I would rather have more ICPR.