Thread: LI Leveling - Questions from a Returning Player

I'm a returning player looking for some advice on leveling and using LIs for my level 65 Lore-Master. Most of this I'd figure out on my own through trial and research, but I'd like to hit the ground running and avoid mistakes.

1. Which is better? I have a
   • Maxed-out min level 60/ixp level 70 Second Age staff (64.6 dps, +14 Tactical Damage Rating), and a
   • Min level 65/ixp level 43 Third Age staff (70.3 dps, +19.1 Tactical Damage Rating)
   • Both have desirable legacies. Any thoughts about which one will give me the best dps as I level?
   • (If I decide to use the min lvl 65 third age, is there any reason not to go ahead and decon the maxed-out min lvl 60 2nd age?)
2. My inclination is to not slot any new LIs with min level between 66 and 74; rather, I'll just level up and decon the vault of Third Age 65s I have stored. Then once I hit character level 75 I'll worry about finding a level 75 LI. Is this the best way to do it?
3. Assuming it's worth slotting these lvl 65 Third Agers while I level my toon: my thought is to take them all to ixp level 31, decon, and start storing up some scrolls with desirable legacies to use on my level 75 LIs when I get there. Does that make sense?

I think I'm asking the right questions, but I've been gone for a while and I'm pretty rusty on the LI system. Anything I'm missing about how the system works these days? Thanks for your help.

1. 70.3 dps > 64.6 dps you'll end up changing again before you hit 75 also

2. You should be lvling and deconning as many LI as possible, decon at 31 and start building up your supply of legacies to swap out if you need to. You'll also want to be deconning for the relics as well.

3. I always have all 8 LI slots filled and lving at all times (except for my maxed out LI obviously).

Never mind for the legacies from 65 legendaries.
They have a max level for legendaries you can use
them on.
But levelling them to 31 does give you a lot of relics,
making it easier to get them to max rank relics.

Running with lvl 60 2nd agers is possible, though it will
be a bit harder than with a lvl 70 for instance.
If you rely on your pet a lot, I reckon the legacies
are more important than your dps, so it will be easier
for you than it was on my warden, who also went
to level 75 on lvl 60 2nd agers.

My advice would be, since you are considering it,
stick with the second agers until you find it's
about to get too difficult to kill your enemies,
all the time switching lvl 31 legends with on-level ones.
This way you can use the on-level ones if you need the
dps. When you reach 75, you will probably get yourself
a lvl 75 2nd ager or two and you will be very happy
with all the unused resources.

Welcome back

Originally Posted by EvAmy

Never mind for the legacies from 65 legendaries.
They have a max level for legendaries you can use
them on.

LI lvl 65+ give legacies usable up to lvl 79

Thanks very much guys.

It sounds like there's disagreement about whether an equip-level 60 2nd Age out DPSes an equip-level 65 third age. This guy argues that a 75 3rd Age always beats a 65 2nd or 1st Age; but that doesn't really apply to my situation.

It's actually a moot question for me now, since I found a 65 2nd and was able to swap in some legacies that make it nearly perfect for leveling. So it should last me to level 75.

Do I understand correctly that my Mirkwood-era IXP runes will still work with LIs level 66 and higher? (they say "Minimum level 50" but dont specify a maximum level.)

I need to double check the level limits of Legacy Replacement Scrolls.

Originally Posted by Inkling

Thanks very much guys.

It sounds like there's disagreement about whether an equip-level 60 2nd Age out DPSes an equip-level 65 third age. This guy argues that a 75 3rd Age always beats a 65 2nd or 1st Age; but that doesn't really apply to my situation.

There is actually no debate. A higher level item, ANY item, will give you the possibility to do more damage. in the case of comparing an old second ager to a newer third ager, just add 1 or two levels.

The only reason why people even thought about keeping a lvl 60 second age item is that the jump from 60-65 was less than 15% in damage.

The difference between a lvl 65 and lvl75 age item is a whopping jump in about 70-80% base DPS. (note that this is for actual damage weapons, but I doubt the tactical damage rating offers much different result).This also means that you are likely hampering yourself on the way to 75 by sticking with a lvl65 weapon. A lvl65 second ager is already matched in damage by a lvl67 third ager. Additionally, around lvl 71 your other gear will likely be so outdated that there is a notable difficulty increase.

So, consider checking the auction house and drops for at least a legendary staff in the 70-72 region.

Do I understand correctly that my Mirkwood-era IXP runes will still work with LIs level 66 and higher? (they say "Minimum level 50" but dont specify a maximum level.)

Yes, all runes save the very very oldest Moria iXP pills can now be used on all item levels. Additionally they are now bound to account and can be shared between characters through shared storage.

Originally Posted by Inkling

I need to double check the level limits of Legacy Replacement Scrolls.

Lvl 65 LI -> an extracted legacy is working on LIs up to lvl75. (Which is the maximum level now.)
Lvl 66-74 LI -> an extracted legacy is working on LIs up to lvl79.
Lvl 75 LI -> an extracted legacy is working on LIs up to lvl80. (Which will not help you much in future when LIs will be of lvl85.)

If you have a big collection of lvl65 LIs - level them for IXP and relics and don't bother with lvl66-lvl74 items, though you may see a lot of those while leveling. Since U6 you will get much more relics if you deconstruct an LI at the item lvl60 and the quests in the new areas will give you enough IXP to level several sets of trash LIs. I am not sure (did not try it yet) if there is a difference between deconstructing the maxed lvl65 and lvl75 LI, but a lvl75 3rd age would give you 7-10 tier5 and tier4 relics and even some tier6 on critical events.

Originally Posted by Vandervahn

There is actually no debate. A higher level item, ANY item, will give you the possibility to do more damage. in the case of comparing an old second ager to a newer third ager, just add 1 or two levels.

The only reason why people even thought about keeping a lvl 60 second age item is that the jump from 60-65 was less than 15% in damage.

...A lvl65 second ager is already matched in damage by a lvl67 third ager.

Are you taking into account IXP level? In the original scenario, I'm comparing a maxed-out equip-level 60 Second Age with a new equip-level 65 Third Age.

But now I'm thinking more about when to switch my IXP level ~35/equip-level 65 2nd Age to a new equip-level 66+ third age. You think that the IXP rune from deconing the 65 2nd Age, applied to a 67 3rd Age, will make up enough of the difference in DPS lost from lower-ranked legacies?

Originally Posted by Lunasa

If you have a big collection of lvl65 LIs - level them for IXP and relics and don't bother with lvl66-lvl74 items...

Thanks, I just hit character level 66 and was trying to figure out if I should break my 65 griding LIs and replace them with 66's.

Originally Posted by Lunasa

Since U6 you will get much more relics if you deconstruct an LI at the item lvl60...

Let me clarify please: Do you mean that older LIs with equip-level 60 now yield more relics than before U6? Or do you mean that IXP-level 60s now yield more relics than before U6; that it's better to decon fewer LIs by taking them all to 60, rather than deconing more LIs at say lvl 31?

Originally Posted by Inkling

....
Let me clarify please: Do you mean that older LIs with equip-level 60 now yield more relics than before U6? Or do you mean that IXP-level 60s now yield more relics than before U6; that it's better to decon fewer LIs by taking them all to 60, rather than deconing more LIs at say lvl 31?

The second opinion is true with LI of equip-level 66+. I will just quote directly from the patch notes:

Legendary Items level 66 and above have increased relic return from deconstruction if they are advanced to level 31 or higher. The increase is more significant if the item is advanced to level 60 and above.

The difference is massive. And in the end, iXP-level 60 only takes twice the iXP as level 31, for 5 times the rewards.

Originally Posted by Inkling

...
But now I'm thinking more about when to switch my IXP level ~35/equip-level 65 2nd Age to a new equip-level 66+ third age. You think that the IXP rune from deconing the 65 2nd Age, applied to a 67 3rd Age, will make up enough of the difference in DPS lost from lower-ranked legacies?

You only need 201.000 item XP to max out the base legacy (damage in this case) of any LI. I dont think your second ager will return that many iXP on deconstruction; maybe i just (wrongly) assume you got enough of it floating around. I didnt say it is worth the time investment though, thats why I advised, look for an item in the level 70 range (or replace at 68-69, and again at 72ish).

In any case, if you lack itemXP, entice a kinnie to drag you through the first boss in Stoneheight; thats a 5 minute job that yields much iXP pills.

Originally Posted by Inkling

Let me clarify please: Do you mean that older LIs with equip-level 60 now yield more relics than before U6? Or do you mean that IXP-level 60s now yield more relics than before U6; that it's better to decon fewer LIs by taking them all to 60, rather than deconing more LIs at say lvl 31?

Both are correct, but the second part is what I was talking about.

The IXP rune and relics you get depend on how much IXP your LI has.

Relics:
Before U6 you would get nearly the same amount of relics from deconstructing lvl31, lvl41 or even lvl60 LI, in all cases that would be a bunch of t1-t4 relics and this amount did not depend on the original equip level of the item. Now they significantly increased the relic yield and there is a noticeable difference between let's say an LI at lvl31 and lvl60.
There should be some dependence on the equip level too, but I did not check how strong it is, in the past it was barely noticeable. If I remember I will test it tonight with LIs of different equip level.


Runes:
The higher the IXP level of your LI - the higher the IXP rune you get and the more IXP you effectively save.

Example with a 3rd age item:

you need 490k IXP to get the level 31 on your LI. If you deconstruct it, the best possible IXP rune will have 75% of this amount (about 276k). And the chances are that it will be lower.

you need 870k IXP to get the level 51 on your LI. If you deconstruct it, the best possible IXP rune is 938k, so you even gain IXP in the process (108%.. quite weird, yes). There are only 4 possible IXP runes appearing when you deconstruct an LI (any age, any equip level) at the IXP level51 or higher: 368.5k, 5XXk, 837.5k and 938k. I don't know the probability of each of these 4, but I have huge stocks of the two bigger runes and I trash the smaller ones (put them in the next trash LI). I do suggest this way for any new character - worked for all my alts before the IXP runes became shared on account

Originally Posted by Vandervahn

[/I]The difference is massive. And in the end, iXP-level 60 only takes twice the iXP as level 31, for 5 times the rewards.


.

I believe this is not the case.
The lowe levels of a Legendary Item require way less XP than the higher levels.
I think at a certain points the IXP needed stabalises.

( Slot a new item and hand in 1 quests. You will se what the item gets 6 levels at once.)

Originally Posted by Jarnos

I believe this is not the case.
The lowe levels of a Legendary Item require way less XP than the higher levels.
I think at a certain points the IXP needed stabalises.

( Slot a new item and hand in 1 quests. You will se what the item gets 6 levels at once.)

Vandervahn is right.
Look at the table here:
http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Legendary_Items

lvl29 -> lvl30 requires 49.7k IXP
lvl30 -> lvl31 requires 20k IXP. And so does every level past lvl30.

If you already got lvl31 (which you want for the legacy scroll) you spent 487 IXP. Going to lvl60 would need a total of 1067 IXP, which is roughly twice the lvl31.

I would only like to add that I of course only speak of third agers when speaking about trash LIs. Second and first agers will cost double and triple to level past 30.

In any case, just to show the difference, I´ll repost some caluclations I made on Bullroarer; taking a lot of LIs and levelling them to different levels, I then compared how many shards the returned relics are worth when refined:

LVL65 LI@item level 60: 196 shards
LVL75 LI@item level 60: 710 shards
LVL75 LI@item level 35: 140 shards

In retrospect, I probably should have checked if item lvl 51 gives the same as item lvl 60.

For more in-depth info, check here:
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?448054-New-Legendary-relics-T8-Westfold-Great-River-Review&p=6034956#post6034956
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...71#post6035471