Thread: The Great Equipment Chase

This is regarding a concern of mine about how useful crafted equipment is as the levels progress. Now that may
initially sound strange to many here who find the crafted stuff so great. It seems to me that as levels progress the
difference between the best barter equipment and the best crafted equipment seems to get larger. For those
who have used both at every level please correct me if I am mistaken on that.

What I mean on that is for instance comparing the class trader equipment in Moria to that in the Great River area
and Isengard and the faction equipment seems to be noteworthy. Many people in the Great River region are going about
what I call the Great Equipment Chase. You know, that thing that happens in most mmorpg's where what you
make yourself is pretty useless or not so helpful for certain things anymore and you would only make it
to sell to others or for others to wear. The faction and class trader
equipment sometimes looks nearly twice as affective in the later areas of the current game.

People want to go tier 2 on everything to get the equipment faster and sometimes do not want people
without cyan equipment in their groups. People often do not want to do anything tier 1 so building up
slowly is hard as many groups go into tier 2 not ready and have a wipe. Sad part is all of this takes a lot
of time and minimizes one of the great charms of this game, the crafting.

In the early parts of the game the stuff players craft themselves they can wear with pride knowing that it
is awesome for their purposes. Then at later levels comes the great equipment chase when all that stuff a player worked
so hard to be able to make they only make for other players as they would no longer wear it. Even the best
guild equipment seems so pointless compared to the other equipment. This is like so many other games and robs
so much of what feels so great about this game. Too much time spent in trying to find groups to go and get
more medallions and seals to get stuff they have no chance of making themselves and often losing time
when getting wiped out trying to do so.

It is a lot of time to spend for something that is not as fun as wearing home crafted stuff.

My VIP status is good for another month and knowing how good the crafted versus other equipment will
be on the Riders update is a concern for me. It would be nice to have that quaint homey feel return
where you can look at what you are wearing, it gets you by not just fine but great,
and oh wow guess what you made it yourself! Will the craft skill be minimized in the Riders update?
The game is feeling more tiring. Yeah, I want the better equipment too and may chase some
of it myself, but you know it feels like something is missing that first had me attracted to the game.

It all gets to involve more instances, more raids (which is where the greatest anger in the game sometimes builds up between
players) to get stuff people can't make themselves and then that equipment is sometimes used as basis
for including or excluding others.

I hope this in some way makes some sense, especially to you hard core crafting types out there who are
Westfold and guild master everything.

Yes, the great equipment chase gives players more to do time wise as they do more instances and raids
when they may run out of stuff otherwise. Does it keep everyone? Nearly half the members of the kin
in which I am a member left not too long after 75. Some of them had multiple alts and they left
rather than going back to work on those alts. I am doing some of the chase and at the moment
not really thinking about going back to my other alts as well all it would do is get them involved in
the chase too ultimately. I am considering is it really worth it to work on them to get them to
a point in the game where the quaint charm of wearing home crafted stuff is lost and replaced
by what amounts to obsession for better and better gear through more and more instances.
Could a few of those who left felt that way? I don't know. I am not getting to ask them.
The ones who love it all may not take what I say seriously as they are the ones who stayed.
Yes, other games have come out. A few have returned with a collective yawn about some
of those games but the return has been brief rather than them working on their non 75 alts
the way they did before they got to 75.

Many may think this whole post silly as they love it all with going to grab the other stuff.
Maybe I am arguing more as a craft purist. I don't want to sound overly radical but
just hope some working balance can be found with it. There are others in the game who do love
wearing what they make so I hope this issue will
be considered seriously on the update.

Maybe having faction and barter equipment being better is okay, but having it immensely better to where it can even cause
problems to me misses something in how the game environment is set (warmer, more cooperative
than most games by far, and not overly bogged down). I hope the charm of wearing something that
is self-made and it being not being made too far inferior to barter stuff will return.

It is late and I am tired and hope that my current state will not diminish any would be point.
Thank you for any consideration of this
Beaglefan

For what it's worth, there are still items you can only get by crafting.

All the best legendary items and the Draigoch Capes come to mind.

However, I do believe the craftable armor and jewelry should be a little closer to the raid sets/drops.

Lets see (Hunter armor comparison):
Differences between a full Orthanc set and a full crafted Combat armor of Théodred:

Agility: +357 for the Orthanc set
Physical Mastery: +3469 for the Orthanc set (already counting with Agility)
Critical Rating: +452 for the Orthanc set (Agility and Fate accounted for)
Vitality: +57 for the Orthanc set
Morale: +47 for the Orthanc set (Vitality difference accounted for)
Power: +505 for the Théodred armor
Finesse: +1070 for the Orthanc set
Armor: +428 for the Orthanc set
Fate: +101 for the Orthanc set
IcPr: +60 for the Orthanc set

So... The crafted armor gets more power and the morale difference is almost negligible. Yay for the green and blue bars...
And that's it... In all the rest, the difference is huge. Specially where it really matters for a hunter (Physical Mastery, Critical Ratting and Evade rating - finesse in a non-raid environment is almost useless).

A difference is needed, of course, but I wouldn't complain if it was 100 agility or something. Almost 360 agility is a huge difference for a hunter.

Note: I raid and don't really mind the "Great Equipment Chase". But I also craft and wouldn't mind if the craftable armors/jewelry were better (specially considering how rare those sigils are).

Glad you understand what i mean. That some crafted items (yes especially as tough as sigils get to be to find)
be at least closer to the drops and barter stuff would be great. Hey the Instances and Raids are great for
some, but some opt out. The crafted just closer in value, that is exactly it! My Westfold master jeweler i look at and
go "okay why should i feel badly about wearing stuff that i actually made myself?' yet the equipment
isn't as good. Sad feeling when looking at what you made and actually feeling badly about wearing it.
Something to consider: how many people who
have been at level 75 awhile have much left on that has any players name in some crafted by slot?
That player made adds a tough that is rich somehow (the off hand weapons and bows are fine for any who
use those and there may be a few Orthanc recipes that are good). You seem to get the overall point though.
Too much stuff has huge difference for barter vs player made. When getting Dunland kinship hey the recipes for
that level and since well . . .

Probably my original post was way too long for many to get through (or want to). There seemed
to be so much to say.

Thanks for reply. Hoping the gap
will be closed with the Rohan update.

Cya around (if can manage that VIP financially)
Beaglefan

I haven't as detailed a comparison to post, but the Great River crafted armour is definitely a step up from the Theodred stuff. It still won't match the Orthanc armour, but it's at least as good for many classes as the Draigoch pieces.

Originally Posted by Avarune

I haven't as detailed a comparison to post, but the Great River crafted armour is definitely a step up from the Theodred stuff. It still won't match the Orthanc armour, but it's at least as good for many classes as the Draigoch pieces.

Why won't they update the lorebook? I really like the lorebook...
*sigh*

try lotro-wiki

Great River stuff isn't bad at all, excellent for anything up 'til ToO T2. It's got more raw stats than Draigoch armor, though it's missing set bonuses (and set bonuses do make raid gear something special; crafted stuff tends to have low main stats with a smattering of "extra" stats as well). Great River teals have the same stat quality as Empowered Anduin rep jewelry, but again thats minus the set bonuses. But that shows its not too far behind. It's actually the same stat quality as teal T2 instance drops, though sometimes the stat spreads of particular instance drops are preferable to anything crafted.

Notable examples.
http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Item...lace_of_Morale
This is one of the premier tanking necklaces. Guards, Captains, Champs would do well with this before they get their gold clasp necklace (which is a rather small percentage of players). My warden caps mits without it so I don't use it on him.

http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Item...ns_of_Vitality
It's important for light armor classes to not be squishy in ToO. If they work at it with virtues and an eye for will/vit jewelry instead of will/fate jewelry, even RKs can bulk up acceptably well. But this piece here can help a lot with its tact mit, morale, and vitality. The evade's the least useful stat on this because if you're a light armor class and you're taking direct melee/ranged attacks, you're in trouble generally. But this piece is still swell in that you could have 5 pieces of raid gear for the 5-set bonus and these shoulders.