Thread: Too MUCH morale?

Newbie LM at 72 now. I finally got rolling about lvl 45, and from then to now I have put all my eggs in morale. Thinking if I have lots of that I will survive the fight. All was good till I got near to 70 and Dunland. Now I am having a lot of trouble staying alive.
So the question is, am I weak in other areas that I have ignored? Or is it just that much tougher in Dunland? (I am playing mostly on level mobs)
My stats are like this:
Morale 6K
Power 3.7K
Armour 2.5K
Might 153
Agility 165
Vitality 713
Will 592
Fate 311
****
Crit hit 2.3K
Phys mastery 7.1K
Tactical mastery 7.2 K
Parry 1.5K
Evade 2.8 K

I would have put a screen shot, but have no idea how to do that. Also I have ONLY tried to build my morale up while keeping my power in a reasonable range. Ignoring all other traits.
PS, I am traited mostly in the DPS line for quicker kills.

Your morale is decent for an LM but at 75 your main focus needs to be will. Your will is way too low right now. It's your main stat, it controls your tactical mastery and of course your power. With the right traits and gear you'll be able to have decent levels of both morale and will.
Look at other Lore-masters that you see in Galtrev and you'll get an idea of the right way to go.

Doesn't will affect your melee attacks on a LM as well?

I believe Will does indeed effect physical master as well as tactical mastery.

Enemies in Dunland do hit harder and take bigger chunks of morale.

In my experience, it doesn't matter what I do to better my LM, (and any class for that matter) enemies just hit harder to compensate.

They made some changes with ROI which effects the mobs in Dunland. Your Finesse rating is important. Finesse reduces your targets resistance, Block, Parry & Evade ratings. This allows you to hit the mob more and allows our effects, such as slows & stuns and other similar and other effects a better chance to land.

As an LM, Vitality increased your Maximum Morale, Tactical Mitigation, Physical Mitigation, and overall resistance. In other words the higher your vit, the less hits from mobs hurt.

As an LM, Will increases your Maximum Power, Physical Mastery, Tactical Mastery, Outgoing Healing, and also adds to overall resistance. In other words, you can hit harder, heal more (for what little we do).

Both Vit and Will add to our overall resistance which help us to avoid effects such as Fears, Slows and Dots.

Fate helps to increase your ICMR & ICPR (In Combat Morale/Power Regen) and Crit Rating. I've heard people mention that this is not as important as it used to be, but anything that helps you to regain Morale/Power while in combat is a good thing. YMMV on this one.


As others have mentioned, you probably need to up your will. You didn't list your finesse rating, but that is always a good thing to raise also. And a little more Fate couldn't hurt.

Originally Posted by swattz101

Fate helps to increase your ICMR & ICPR (In Combat Morale/Power Regen) and Crit Rating. I've heard people mention that this is not as important as it used to be, but anything that helps you to regain Morale/Power while in combat is a good thing. YMMV on this one.

As others have mentioned, you probably need to up your will. You didn't list your finesse rating, but that is always a good thing to raise also. And a little more Fate couldn't hurt.

Basically. I'm (tenuously) in the camp that believes picking up fate in place of other stats isn't good min-maxing. But, to be perfectly fair, in addition to what you said it raises, Fate does have an unlisted effect of increasing your Tactical Critical Multiplier (i.e. how hard you tactically crit, not how often). See here.

is your pet not drawing the aggro? photobucket is easyest way to do screenshots

Originally Posted by Omen_Kaizer

Swattz, your listing of substats that Will, Vit, etc. raise is correct. Your explanation of what that means is not in some cases.

Thanks for the corrections. Looks like I confused Resistance with Mitigation. I will try to correct my post to avoid confusion, let me know if it looks better.

Originally Posted by swattz101

Thanks for the corrections. Looks like I confused Resistance with Mitigation. I will try to correct my post to avoid confusion, let me know if it looks better.

Good man, that's accurate. I've edited too so now I don't look like a **** lol

In my current raid build i have 10k morale with +5% morale from hope token and +5 from the staff strike trait. When fully buffed from food and cappy stuff i achieve 12k, but swapping around some morale heavy gear can get it to 13k although i lose finesse.
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Only thing i find weak about my build is the lack of power. I sit around 6.6k power in that build. But the good side to the down side is i have over 7k finesse.

7k morale is imho easy to achieve for all classes at lvl75 (unbuffed). That should be the aim for everyone.

Putting your main focus only on your main stat is very one sided for all classes.

Example: a hunter with 2400-2500 agility might dps hard, but with only 5k morale (unbuffed) is also dead very quickly if (and usually they do) pull agro.

Lose the Might, it does nothing for you at all. Mine is about 90. I have buffed about 8.5k morale and 30k tac mastery when in raid mode for dragon, swapping some stuff to go to full AM support in ToO. Agility is of marginal value as well, you do better with +parry or +evade stuff, the only agility bonus I have is off my staff and that was out of my control.

IIRC 1 point of fate is a couple of points of crit rating so +crit rating gear is a lot better than +fate unless you stack a lot if crit rating is what you want. Fully buffed its about 23%. The net downside is my finesse isn't what it might be, but as I am not into PvP its less of an issue than you might think, maybe one resisted debuff/mez in every couple of ToO runs, well within the ability of the raid set CTTV cd to manage.

I use half AM set from ToO and half dragon to keep the longer AC duration. I have kept the rep level sword from Stangard, gives the most tac crit. I did a pretty careful analysis on the options, the rare recipe from ToO didn't quite make the cut.

As I picked up the raid gear it was very much an exercise in keeping an eye on morale, it can plummet if you are not careful.

Also, if you underleveled or undergeared don't go full Nature's Fury. I know its nice to have more damage, but when you're underleveled in Dunland those signature mobs really tear you apart. Trait a few yellows and keep your full mezz and the -5sec root on cracked earth. You might not kill mobs faster, but you'll certainly live longer.

To the OP, I understand your sentiment, I was a morale &&&&& the entire time I was leveling as a LM too. The major difference though is that I would look for gear that had Vit/Will on it mainly. Raw morale or power is fine too, as is crit rating and ICPR, it's all a balance. As you reach 75 there will be lots of opportunities to get gear upgrades relatively easily, so don't worry too much about gear choice for now, but if there's any way to get your will higher, and hence damage higher, i'd do it.

Honestly though, morale should not be a huge issue as you level, particularly with on-level mobs. By the time a mob has reached you and you start to melee it, you should have hit them with BE/SoP:WF/LoTRD/BE/ at least.. so they should be at half health or lower. Red line is obviously the best way to achieve this, although feel free to mess around with other playstyles as you see fit. By far the easiest way to play though, if you are trying to get up close an personal with mobs, is to go redline and use either the eagle or raven as pet for the flanks.

As for fate, agi, etc... forget everything except will/vit for stats until you hit 75. Finesse will begin to become important, particularly if you decide you want to pursue raiding, where you should end up with 5-6k ideally. As you start to get better gear, +tactical mastery and +crit rating are things you will look for also.

Lastly, don't forget your virtues. Zeal/Valour are popular for extra morale, and you can even go for stuff like loyalty and justice, although these will become less useful if you decide on raiding at 75. Get all the ones you intend to use up to 14 at least, 16 if you want to prepare ahead for Rohan.

While everyone giving advice, i have 6k morale(maybe just under) and around 1.5k will 600 fate im level 75 should i build heavier into morale?

Originally Posted by dragerslayer

While everyone giving advice, i have 6k morale(maybe just under) and around 1.5k will 600 fate im level 75 should i build heavier into morale?

Will is about 700 off the pace if you want to max it (more is possible and there are buffs too) but it starts to become a balance with Fate and Vitality. +crit rating is probably way better value than +Fate and +ICPR might be too, less sure of the maths on that one. What gear do you have?

Originally Posted by Mithithil

Will is about 700 off the pace if you want to max it (more is possible and there are buffs too) but it starts to become a balance with Fate and Vitality. +crit rating is probably way better value than +Fate and +ICPR might be too, less sure of the maths on that one. What gear do you have?

So i should have 2k will? I use Jewellry that is mOstly foundry and roots drops, the necklace from oxclan the blue one and mostly armour from instances(purple monf set)

Originally Posted by dragerslayer

So i should have 2k will? I use Jewellry that is mOstly foundry and roots drops, the necklace from oxclan the blue one and mostly armour from instances(purple monf set)

Depends on how you want to play.
My standard build has only 1.8k Will with 8.5k Morale and fully maxed mitigations.
When I just want to blast stuff quickly, I build it to 2.3k Will and my Morale drops to 6.5k, my mitigations drop too.

Wot 'e said:-)

Worth thinking that in group/solo doing dps, as you will probably be in an RoI/GR 6 man or LG run max dps output is useful. If you are raiding in support mode then balls to the wall Will needs to be tweaked to mitigations and finesse. The chopping and changing and regearing etc can get tedious so unless the Senior Drill Instructor is riding you for perfection, find a utility setup with which you can live!

Originally Posted by edjoemat

Newbie LM at 72 now. I finally got rolling about lvl 45, and from then to now I have put all my eggs in morale. Thinking if I have lots of that I will survive the fight. All was good till I got near to 70 and Dunland. Now I am having a lot of trouble staying alive.
So the question is, am I weak in other areas that I have ignored? Or is it just that much tougher in Dunland? (I am playing mostly on level mobs)
My stats are like this:
Morale 6K
Power 3.7K
Armour 2.5K
Might 153
Agility 165
Vitality 713
Will 592
Fate 311
****
Crit hit 2.3K
Phys mastery 7.1K
Tactical mastery 7.2 K
Parry 1.5K
Evade 2.8 K

I would have put a screen shot, but have no idea how to do that. Also I have ONLY tried to build my morale up while keeping my power in a reasonable range. Ignoring all other traits.
PS, I am traited mostly in the DPS line for quicker kills.

yeah, it's hard to say without seeing the details.

but in general IMO:

1 - your virtues should definitely include wisdom [for will], a couple of the morale boosters [e.g. zeal], and a couple of mitigation type ones.
2 - a sort of starting point [which, at an advanced level, you'd certainly want to tweak depending on the content you were doing] for your gear [i.e. off-hand sword, 6 armour pieces, 8 jewelry pieces] could be a split of about [clearly precise figures have been plucked out the air but i think it's vaguely along the right lines]: 40% primarily morale/vit; 40% primarily will; 20% primarily fate [of course some gear could give some each of morale & will, two of those pieces might give a similar net effect to one of each type of more specialised pieces]. my LM is at a similar level to yours [74] & our respective stats in those three areas are [your stats vs. my stats]:

morale - 6k vs. 6.1k
will - 592 vs. 955
fate - 311 vs. 498

in other words our morale's about the same but your will/fate is running at about 60% of mine. now, both of us have overall very rubbishy gear by endgame standards, & are levelling rather than at endgame, giving us different priorities perhaps to endgame players. but even so the difference is clear.

i've by no means maxed out on will, e.g. a couple of my jewelry pieces give morale/vit only, and nearly all my will-heavy pieces have at least a small vit/morale bonus too. in fact i'd say i've been quite morale-focused really.

if i were you i'd probably: (1) add wisdom to my virtues if it's not in there already; (2) ditch the piece[s] of gear giving you might bonuses, replace them with primarily wisdom; (3) ditch at least one, maybe two pieces of primary morale gear, replacing them with primarily will. see where that gets you. i'd say that you'd want, at your level, to add at least a couple of hundred to your will.

Here is my current LM on Nimrodel....

http://my.lotro.com/home/character/1...1412821247789/

My LM book has sign of the wild: rage +15% perceived threat

My sign of the wild: rage skill gives +25% perceived threat

And my LM pet food: pot of honey and oats gives a additional +15% perceived threat

that's a total of 55% perceived threat (or is it 45% total?) Something like that. For me, that has been making up for my "low" morale.

Thanks to all who responded, I am just back from vaca, so will try some of these suggestions!!

For those of you following this here is an update. Following some of the suggestions I feel better in battle now, but that is somwhat subjective. My new stats look like this:
Morale 6K new 5.6K
Power 3.7K new 4.1 k
Armour 2.5K ?
Might 153 new 132
Agility 165 new 216
Vitality 713 new 531
Will 592 new 720
Fate 311 new 392
****
Crit hit 2.3K new 2.8K
Phys mastery 7.1K new 8.1K
Tactical mastery 7.2 K new 8.7K
Parry 1.5K new 1.6
Evade 2.8 K ?

also I did not list Finesse and it was mentioned, it was 0 now 350 from jewelry.
Also have these:
Resistance 3408
Crit hit avoid 0
Incoming healing 0
block n/a
parry 1560
Mellee 0
physical 0
tact. 0
Physical mit. 1927
tact. mit. 3245

I have fought a few mobs and it seems to be improved, as I get more armour and other drops I will continue to increase my will etc. Thanks for all the advice.