Thread: Question for RK at endgame

Soon,I will max my RK(currently lvl 66)so I have the following questions:

Is dpsing while lighting traited viable or will I have to learn to play with fire?
When dpsing traited lighting do you still use writs(fire,cold)for the dot and debuff or just spam lighting skills?
I have figured out the healing legacies,but I'm still in doubt about the damage ones.I think +Fury of Storm damage +FoS crit multiplier are a must,anything else?
How useful is the tactical damage rating?Is it more useful than +FoS damage?Which one should I prioritise while levelling?
Is the de-threat component of Distracting Flame worth traiting Fire and Mystifying Flame to remove aggro management completely?

I hope someone answers these questions because I'm really confused about what to trait.
Thx in advance

Note: my answers are from the perspective of a PVE non-raider.

Is dpsing while lighting traited viable or will I have to learn to play with fire?
Yes, lightning is very viable. I do have a stone dedicated to each line, so I can trait how I want. Solo I go lightning, instances with AoE I like fire.

When dpsing traited lighting do you still use writs(fire,cold)for the dot and debuff or just spam lighting skills?
Depends, but in 6 man instances stuff dies so fast its not worth using fire. For bosses I might use some of the DoT/Cold stuff. It is situational for me.

I have figured out the healing legacies,but I'm still in doubt about the damage ones.I think +Fury of Storm damage +FoS crit multiplier are a must,anything else?

Take a look here for all potential legacies:
http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Legen...de#Rune-keeper

And this post has good information about what legacies to use for different situations:
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...egendary-Items

How useful is the tactical damage rating?Is it more useful than +FoS damage?Which one should I prioritise while levelling?
Tactical Damage is the most useful stat. It increases the damage of ALL of your tactical skills. And all of your skills are tactical

Is the de-threat component of Distracting Flame worth traiting Fire and Mystifying Flame to remove aggro management completely?
I've heard stories of fire RKs pulling aggro even with this traited, so its either broken, or RKs are just that good at melting faces.

I've found fire with it's nice AoE component to be very fun in 6-man instances, like Foundry, where I've been able to parse 2k+ with a 2nd age stone and half-decent gear (3-draig, 3-ToO I think it was) and pre-RoR jewelry. You end up spamming FR, SM, WoC (to reduce the active CD on SM), and EoF. Trying to tier up WoF is meaningless as stuff (except bosses) dies way to fast.

Originally Posted by Shadeslayer_withywindle

Soon,I will max my RK(currently lvl 66)so I have the following questions:

Is dpsing while lighting traited viable or will I have to learn to play with fire?
When dpsing traited lighting do you still use writs(fire,cold)for the dot and debuff or just spam lighting skills?
I have figured out the healing legacies,but I'm still in doubt about the damage ones.I think +Fury of Storm damage +FoS crit multiplier are a must,anything else?
How useful is the tactical damage rating?Is it more useful than +FoS damage?Which one should I prioritise while levelling?
Is the de-threat component of Distracting Flame worth traiting Fire and Mystifying Flame to remove aggro management completely?

I hope someone answers these questions because I'm really confused about what to trait.
Thx in advance

1) Yes, lightning is viable. In fact, because of its mobility and survivability features, it's preferred. Fire certainly has its uses, but there are very few circumstances where fire is preferable to lightning.

2) I stay traited fire, so I can't really speak for what to use while lightning-traited. I would imagine that you should try to stick to lightning skills as much as possible, but the occasional DoT or debuff wouldn't hurt. Writ of Cold would be especially good for when you want to do a little AoE damage while lightning-traited.

3) Legacies are a little subjective, but this is a good moors/soloing setup that will work in raids as well. Of course, there is some wiggle room for a few of the legacies.

3a - Stones)
Battle Attuned Skill Power Cost
Fury of Storm Damage
Chill of Winter Damage
Fury of Storm Critical Multiplier
Vivid Imagery Targets
Chill of Winter Debuff Duration

3b - Satchel)
Shocking Words Stun Chance
Scribe's Spark Damage
Chilling Rhetoric Cooldown
Target Shocking Touch Resist Rating - optional
Self Motivation Power Return - optional
Frozen Epilogue Cooldown
Ceaseless Argument Damage

4) Tactical Damage Rating on a legendary item is pretty important. Important enough to max out, along with the +FoS and +FoS Crit legacies.

5) IF YOU ARE FIRE-TRAITED, yes, traiting Mystifying Flame is worth it. However, if the choice is between lightning and fire, threat reduction is not a deciding factor. Mystifying Flame's threat reduction is not working properly anyway. You'll draw just as much aggro fire-traited as you will lightning-traited. Threat-reduction SHOULD be a factor, and this is one of my major complaints with RK's. My opinion is that Fire should be superior to lightning in DPS, generate less threat, and use less power than lightning (at the cost of having to stand still, and having to wait for inductions). As it currently stands, DPS, threat-generation, and power-consumption are on-par, giving lightning the advantage of mobility. So for someone just reaching end-game (and not already dedicated to fire), stick with lightning.

Pretty good summary above, just a few points I wanted to add:

When dpsing traited lighting do you still use writs(fire,cold)for the dot and debuff or just spam lighting skills?
Cold, definitely. Health, sometimes. Fire, only when I want to swap affinity. Cold is useful for debuff, and does great damage, especially with the dmg legacy. Health makes the healers job a little easier, and shouldn't reduce your attunement with yellow traits. Fire is really useful only for changing to fire affinity for prevention, and keeping a stack on a boss mob (something that takes more than 1min to kill, IMO).

Storm Legacies, my personal ranking, your mileage may vary:
FoS Crit Multi
FoS Damage
Cold Damage
Finesse
Cold Debuff/Power Cost/VI Targets
I think finesse is more important than the last 3 legacies, with the caveat that you don't have to spend any points on it to get a nice bump up. Debuff duration is a moors legacy IMO, if you are trying to debuff in PvE w/ storm, you are going to get free writ casts faster than the duration of writ of cold, making it a moot point. For that reason, I take Winter dmg and max it out, 7 traits + 15% dmg legacy = solid damage from cold skills. VI targets is another legacy that gives you a nice bonus for very few points; even at low tiers, the first rank (for +2 targets) usually costs <15 LI points. I think I actually have Fire dmg as my 6th, but power cost is the right choice, in general. Less power usage means less ICPR gear/potions/help from the LM.

Malf is spot on for satchels. Ignore the optional types, the other 5 are the important ones. 2x dmg and stun chance are self-explanatory. The cooldowns for winter skills helps alot, CR CD lets you get off more charged buffs if you trait that, and the frozen epilogue CD takes a 5min skill and makes it a 2min20sec CD (available more than 2x as often, assuming you use it on CD). Those 5 will use almost all of your LI points, so get something with a decent return with minimal investment for your 6th. I recommend distracting winds CD, 'cause I love the utility of the skill (aoe slow) and the threat dump is useful, though I question how effective it is these days.

That is all. Like I said, just wanted to touch on a few things.

Thx for the answers

I should have probably mentioned,that I'm mostly going to do 6mans and not raid so my questions were made with Foundry and RoF in mind.Dpsing in fire would be better when killing the trash in foundry but with lighting you have more mobillity which is usefull at the last bosses imho.Same with RoF,fire and lighting has advantages and disadvantages.I think I'll stick with lighting but I'll also try fire.

Is will more important or after 2k should I focus more on crit or tactical mastery?Not sure what's the mechanics for RKs.My main is a Hunter(lvl 75)and there agility gives you both crit and pm so for dps we just stack that.
Also,what's a good ICPR to have unbuffed?

I wouldn't say fire has a disadvantage in the boss fights of Founrdy and Roots since the movement required in those fights isn't that much of a problem (except maybe if you get the eye in Foundry)

about the will thing:
it does not give you crit like agility does for the hunter but that doesn't mean you shouldn't bother to improve it past 2k
in fire spec i have ~2.2k will unbuffed and i sit at almost 32k mastery and 6k crit
in lightning spec i'm around 2.4k will, 29k mastery and 9k crit
fate used to be important for RKs but now it isn't really a viable strategy to gain crit in my opinion
ICPR is only important in really long fights since you won't use up all your power in shorter fights anyways
i have 9.4k power and about 1.2k ICPR which lets me dps for about 10mins without getting any trouble

Originally Posted by Shadeslayer_withywindle

Thx for the answers

I should have probably mentioned,that I'm mostly going to do 6mans and not raid so my questions were made with Foundry and RoF in mind.Dpsing in fire would be better when killing the trash in foundry but with lighting you have more mobillity which is usefull at the last bosses imho.Same with RoF,fire and lighting has advantages and disadvantages.I think I'll stick with lighting but I'll also try fire.

Is will more important or after 2k should I focus more on crit or tactical mastery?Not sure what's the mechanics for RKs.My main is a Hunter(lvl 75)and there agility gives you both crit and pm so for dps we just stack that.
Also,what's a good ICPR to have unbuffed?

Conversion Rates:
1 will = 10 tactical mastery
1.75 fate = 1 crit

Source:http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...on-and-Offence.

For a fire build, you want as much tactical mastery as possible. However, for a lightning build you should balance between crit and tactical mastery. Most of the damage from lightning is going to come from crits. I think anything from about 7k+ is a healthy amount of crit for lightning.

Note: You should get most of your crit from +crit on your gear, not from fate. The conversion rate is too low, and you'll find yourself sacrificing too many other stats to accommodate the high amount of fate.

If you want the most bang for your buck, go healing

healing can not be resisted, so you know every spell you cast is going to apply (Healing wise)

You wont have to use Finesse in place of other stats to make it count for this reason

Healing is very powerfull now with all the skills unlocked

With Improved Fates Entwined using the OT 5piece set you can also make alot of the damage go away

You have the choice of 3 bubbles to cast on players in your fellowship (One of which is glorious foreshadowing which takes 40% damage away and gives +50% healing on target its cast on, Another gives immunity to crit)

Do not Fall this day and Do not Fall to X is also very powerfull in thier respective situations

With on par healing to minis + the 3 bubbles you can cast + improved fates entwined to absorb further damage, your the best healer in the game

Do everything you can to become an amazing dps, and a champ or hunter will still be better (and harder to die than a RK)

The OT gear also rewards 700+ morale for the healing spec,

RK's at the time of writing this are better for healing than DPS

And by becoming a healer, your always going to get into a raid/6man

Most raid groups will ask you to respec healing anyway, as they have already invited the 900 Hunters and 600 Champs into the fellowship

On top of all of that frost spells do more damage with each healing skill you trait, but forget about the damage.... Casting Writ of cold effects 3 targets and slows spellcasting 28% and attacks 15% (I think) at tier 3 (it stacks 3 times) So while healing, you spash some writ of cold on the trash mobs in Foundry. Your not only healing the group, but your slowing the attacks that come in (making it easier to heal) and do a little bit of damage on top.

So in each tash pull you slow attacks on 3 targets by 15%.... Thats a type of heal in a sense, but the result is actually damage and slowing debuffs



My Tank last night thought it would be funny to not get rid of the poison in RoF T2 in the end boss fight, he stacked it 20 times, I healed him through it + the party till we opened the chests

Theres many ways to play a RK with DPS etc, but healing is by far the most fun when your being picked over minis

Originally Posted by Feanro

My Tank last night thought it would be funny to not get rid of the poison in RoF T2 in the end boss fight, he stacked it 20 times, I healed him through it + the party till we opened the chests

Theres many ways to play a RK with DPS etc, but healing is by far the most fun when your being picked over minis

I play both an RK and a Warden. I did the same thing as your tank did and stack DoTs on the last boss. It was only T1 (had a few first timers/undergeared) and I had 15 poisons on me when the boss went down. The RK that was healing kept me at full morale and the entire group up.

As an RK I trait dps, I have done this for the year I have been playing mostly for the moors. I love lightning in the moors. The few times I have healed(Moria instances when 65 was the cap and now Draigoch) it has been verey fun and my heals were as effective as a Mini's if not more so.