Fire Rune-Keeper DPS: Best Practices

Fire Rune-Keeper DPS: Best Practices

What can a Fire Rune-Keeper do to leave Hunters in the dust and even make DPS Wardens uncomfortable? Post your insights here, maybe your opening rotation and its advantages, helpful habits to get into and so on.


The gearing part of the Fire Runekeeper Guide has been moved into its own post, #4, updated to U18.0.
Post #89 has a value-of-stats table than can be used to calculate how good any new gear is, as long as level 105 supreme essences are used.




Index
Page 1
Post #1 - Fire Runekeeper Guide [Skills and Rotations]
Post #4 - Fire Runekeeper Guide [Gearing, U18]
Post #5 - PvMP aspects
Post #10 - Comment on gearing
Post #11 - Use of Writ, Ridicule, Essence of Storm
Post #12 - Gearing, tactical damage formula, effect of critical rating/mastery rating/damage buffs, damage bonus from Writ tiers
Post #23 - Legacies: alternative legacies
Post #24 - Legacies: alternative runestone legacies
Post #25 - Legacies: alternative satchel legacies

Page 2
Post #27 - Parses, update 16
Post #28 - Empowering Flames induction buff (vid)
Post #33 - Fire Runekeeper Guide [Gearing, Level 100]
Post #37 - Level 100 - will essences vs mastery essences
Post #38 - Level 100 - comparison of essence armours
Post #40 - Use of Shocking Words in fire traits
Post #41 - Alternative views
Post #42 - Mechanics of Searing Words, traits from yellow tree
Post #47 - Searing Words revised
Post #48 - Skill priorities: Essay or Smouldering, Essence or Smouldering (ST & AoE), Essay + Distracting Flame, when to refresh Scathing Mockery
Post #49 - AoE: Smouldering Wrath or Fiery Ridicule
Post #50 - Single-target: Conventional rotation

Page 3
Post #51 - Single-target: Advanced rotation
Update 18
Post #54 - Overcapping critical rating at level 105
Post #55 - Osgiliath class set at level 105
Post #59 - Mastery essences
Post #56 - Difference made by upgrading to level 105 gear
Post #62 - Set bonuses comparison
Post #67 - LI Passives and Faramir's at level 105
Post #68 - U18 Build-making and Gear Layout
Post #71 - Critical defence, more on mastery essences
Post #73 - Comment on t1 gearing

Page 4
Post #76 - Silent Streets t2c vid analysis and adds efficiency
Post #79 - Discussion of Searing Words rotation
Post #81 - Keeping track of Searing Words
Post #82 - Burst and Group Burst rotations
Post #83 - Efficient and Kiting rotations
Post #89 - Stat Value Table revised
Post #90 - Gear Changes based on new Stats Table
Update 18.2
Post #100 - Searing Words for BuffBars – Single-Tier Setup

Page 5
Post #103 - Searing Words for BuffBars – Multi-Tier Setup
Post #113 - Crit swap-items for captains
Post #114 - How to swap morale essences
Post #115 - More Gear Revisions
Post #116 - Set bonuses comparison, U18.2
Post #120 - Revision of single target rotations


Osgiliath class armour for +2 pulses

[Note that the Throne raid class armour is a must-have and better in every way than the Osgiliath class armour. The below logic compares the Osgiliath class armour vs. slotted armour with extra mastery essences.]

The usual method which I've been updating since U16, full post #55:
- Extra tick of Essay is worth 4.0% dps
- Extra mastery from Biting Wit is worth 5.2% dps at 45k mastery
- Extra mastery from Biting Wit is worth 3.4% dps at 90k mastery
- Extra mastery from Biting Wit is worth 2.7% dps at 120k mastery



Anything which goes beyond the first extra tick of Essay is a dps increase. This would be:
- Second extra tick of Essay of Fire, which happens whenever Smouldering Wrath or something else delays the refresh of Essay of Fire by 2 seconds, or if you use it on a new target.
- Searing Words. This is a randomly applied powerful dot which comes in 4 tiers depending on which Tier Writ of Fire is at. Not stackable with Searing Words from the same tier, but the tiers can stack with each other. Someone who manages Writ tiers carefully at the start and has +40% Searing Words duration (=damage) from a +2 pulses set Bonus can deliver a powerful burst. After reaching Writ t3 the longer dot duration results in +17% uptime.
- AoE, where many fire skill hits mean many Searing Words procs; Fiery Ridicule has a tendency to run out; and a new target can be chosen for Essay of Fire every time.
- Fights where constantly refreshing dots isn't possible.


Therefore all of my posts in this thread assume the +2 pulses class set.


General rotation
- Essay of Fire is a 2nd Smouldering Wrath. As determined in Post #48, 'Skill Priorities', it will always result in more damage to prioritise Essay of Fire before Smouldering Wrath unless the fight is over within ~7 seconds.
- Fiery Ridicule and Writ of Fire have decent dots that should always be present at t1 if possible. But the damage bonus from increasing their tier is only +16% and +7% respectively per tier, so tiering up the dots should have a low priority.
- Essence of Flame has a much stronger hit than Fiery Ridicule but can only be used every 15s. Therefore Essence of Flame should generally come before Fiery Ridicule so that it can be used again as soon as possible (= as often as possible).
- Distracting Flame and Scathing Mockery will do 1.1x and 2x as much damage as Essence of Flame with one cast if they run until expiration, which is why it's important to use these and other dots, even Scathing Mockery in single-target.
- Distracting Flame should be refreshed efficiently because it has no initial hit. Spending more time on it loses damage because there are better uses for the time. (post #24, DF cooldown legacy)
- Scathing Mockery should be refreshed already when it's blinking. If the alternative is an extra Fiery Ridicule, refresh it even if the fight is almost over because it overtakes Fiery Ridicule's hit within 3 seconds. (post #48, skill priorities)
- Free Writs of Fire that become available shortly before Smouldering Wrath should be saved until afterwards. That's because the -30% inductions buff only has a duration of 8s and is usually gone after Smouldering Wrath, so the Writ of Fire helps regain both the buff and attunement quickly. (post #28, induction buff)
- The +10% damage bonus per tier from Writ of Fire only applies to the Searing Words dot. A fully geared fire RK in combat already has well over +100% damage bonus for Searing Words so the actual increase from a tier 3 Writ of Fire is under 15%. (post #12, damage bonuses)


Attunement
- The max attunement is 9, even though the attunement bar tooltip reads out of /20.
- Skills use their own attunement increases. For several skills there's no advantage in getting more than 6 attunement.
- Having full red attunement on top of other fire/skill damage buffs gives a damage bonus of about 12% to most skills (so effectively 8% for skills which add 3 attunement, see previous point). Combustion and Shocking Words get 40% and other lightning/frost skills get ~20%.
- 8% damage from full attunement is too little to be worth spending several seconds getting if instead several strong skills on 10-15s cooldowns can be used immediately and then again 3s earlier – and then the attunement is gained that way instead. I don’t hesitate to use Essence of Flame if my attunement is 0.


Fire skill buffs
- All fire skills have a:
20% chance to apply Searing Words, a strong dot
30% chance to apply a fire mitigation debuff, which makes a huge difference of 35%+ in t2 instances
30% chance to apply an induction buff which reduces inductions by a third.
- For this reason Writs and Fiery Ridicule are potent skills in single-target and AoE respectively thanks to their high hit rate per second.
- The buffs/debuffs don't stack or refresh, Searing Words only stacks between different tiers, but Writ and Ridicule are good at getting these effects back quickly when they run out.
- All fire skills also have a 100% chance to apply an armour debuff, which is mostly useful for physical damage dealers. It only lasts 8s so it easily runs out if you stop attacking a target with fire skills.


Non-fire skills
- Essence of Winter can’t apply Searing Words or any other extras that fire skills get and doesn't have any particular damage advantage to compensate so should not be used.
- Both Essence of Storm and Shocking Words aren't powerful enough to be worth using regularly because there are better uses for the time & attunement. But they are useful as burst, for example when the fight is almost over. (post #11 Essence and #40 Shocking Words)
- A good time for Essence of Storm is if you need to move somewhere. Another case is if a good skill is almost off cooldown and you've already used a Writ.


Specific to single-target
- When the strong skills are on cooldown Writ of Fire is by far the most potent skill. It has virtually no animation downtime which means it has 3x the rate of fire of Fiery Ridicule for 70% of the initial hit (so initial hit dps is 210% as high). This also means a much higher proc rate for Searing Words and other fire skill effects.
- However, Writ of Fire still has a 1s cooldown so it must be alternated with other skills like Fiery Ridicule and Distracting Flame for best effect.
- Scathing Mockery is clearly behind all other dots in single-target dps and should therefore be the last dot to be applied.
- Combustion is in some ways the best AoE skill, but it only does less than half damage to the selected target so it’s no good in single target fights.


Specific to AoE
- Fiery Ridicule can be chain-spammed because the animation downtime is the same as the cooldown. This is strong in AoE fights where it becomes comparable or better DPS than Smouldering Wrath thanks to dot upgrades/spreads/renewals. (post #49, Ridicule or Smouldering in AoE)
- Make sure to tab to a new target before each new use of Fiery Ridicule if there are more than 3 so that all get the dot.
- Distracting Flame has no place in AoE except if focussing down a priority target because it's outdone by Fiery Ridicule for dps and attunement makes too little difference.
- Fiery Ridicule and Essence of Flame have a very small radius of AoE. This means it's best to avoid targetting enemies at the edges of a mob because it might only hit 2 enemies.
- This also gives some control over which targets get hit. At fights like Lumithil it's sometimes possible to hit white ghosts and Lumithil without hitting a harrowing spirit (I run this with AoE traits because the harrowing spirits only close in towards the end when they run out of power).
- At the start of an AoE fight it's possible to aim in a way that tags as many different targets as possible with the Fiery Ridicule dot. Though after tier 1 I don't think this is worth the effort anymore.
- One of the dps traps is overkill: using Essay + Smouldering even though just one would've been enough. Of course if the add must die asap you'd do both, but otherwise it's better to set up something like Essay + Essence/Ridicule, Writ, (DF) on one add and use the Smouldering Wrath for something else.
- Dosage is another major factor when fighting adds. If an add already has lots of dots and is low on health, you probably don't need to spend any more time on it. It's a matter of experience to judge when you can move on to the next add.
- Only use Smouldering Wrath on targets which have a mit debuff. If you're focusing a specific target which doesn't have this debuff it's worth trying to proc the debuff with a Writ first. Only go beyond that with Writ, DF, Writ if it has to die asap, because spending that much time on single-target skills compromises your AoE.
- Half the damage from Combustion comes from Writ dots. But the damage raise for increasing the Writ tier is minimal compared to the damage you could get from multiple Searing Words tiers, which is why the Writ tier should only be increased by one with each Combustion.


Grouping with other classes
- Hunters: get them to use fire-oil so they can benefit from both your -15% fire mitigation debuffs and -15% armour.
- Lore-masters can return the favour with sticky tar and the debuff on the raven pet, best right-click set to autocast, for -10% fire mitigation each.
- Captains buffing fire runekeepers, a dot class, should use damage buffs first, then +incoming damage debuffs (Oathbreakers). This is because a damage buff only matters before the dot starts, while an incoming damage debuff can appear afterwards and still buff most of the dot.
- Captains: runekeepers aren't good blade brothers because the guaranteed crit doesn't work on most skills. No 100% crit Smouldering Wrath, Essay, Scathing Mockery, Ridicule. It only becomes slightly useful in AoE because the guaranteed crit works on the direct hits of some AoE skills, but even then there are better choices for a blade brother.
- Runekeepers: there can only be 1 Searing Words per tier even if there are multiple runekeepers. The best is if you cooperate at the start, designating one tier to each runekeeper. See 'Group Burst' rotation towards the end of this post for how this can be done.
- Runekeepers: if you're in a fight where you often have to take long breaks (30s+) from the boss, which means that Writs can tier down, it can help to designate one RK to rush back to t3 while the other holds off a little until you see two Searing Words effects.
- Runekeepers: an all-DPSers-are-RKs group isn't necessarily the fastest because Lotro is laid out to reward diverse groups. For example throwing a champ into an RK group would do wonders because rend benefits the RKs and the armour debuff benefits the champ.



Rotations

Conventional single-target rotation


- Distracting Flame, Essay + Fiery Ridicule #1, Writ #1
- Smouldering Wrath
- Writ #2 (free induction), Essence of Flame
- Essay + Scathing Mockery
- Fiery Ridicule #2, Distracting Flame
- Smouldering Wrath
- Writ #3 (free induction)
- Essay of Fire + Essence of Flame, Writ #4, Fiery Ridicule #3
- From then on, use Essay (+Essence), Smouldering Wrath and Essence of Flame as soon as possible in that order
- Spam-alternate Writ with Ridicule in that order whenever those skills are on cooldown
- Refresh Distracting Flame economically and refresh Scathing Mockery when the dot is blinking
- For details on how these last points were determined, see: post #11 use of Writ & Ridicule, post #48 skill priorities


This is a conventional rotation, meaning that skills are used in a fixed order which is expected, on average, to do the highest damage.

For example, with t0 Searing Words:
- delaying the first Writ for 6s has a 50% chance to proc t0 Searing Words. This is is on average a gain.
- delaying the first Writ for another 6s only adds 17% chance to proc t0 Searing Words. This would on average be a loss.


Further rationale:
-> Distracting Flame first: you need to get to full attunement quickly, which will mean using Essay + free skill and Distracting Flame (volcanic runestones or enamels don't make sense because you need fire skill buffs and debuffs asap). Putting Distracting Flame first has several advantages: 1) +3 attunement and +5% fire damage boosts Essay & the free skill to compensate slightly for their delay. 2) chance for Essay & the free skill to have a mitigation debuff when they impact (+30% and +21% respectively). 3) chance for an induction buff on Essay of Fire. 4) chance to proc Searing Words which allows you to throw in an extra Writ before that eassay, augmenting the previous three points.

-> Essay #1 + Fiery Ridicule #1: this combo is an exception reserved for the initiation of a fight. Essence and Ridicule both do almost the same damage in the time it takes until you can cast either of them again. However, Essence has a 50% chance to fall flat because you might not have a mit debuff yet this early in the fight. Fiery Ridicule avoids this risk by spreading out its damage over time. Later on Essence is always better than Ridicule because Ridicule's dot should always be up, so you're only comparing initial hits.

-> Essay #2 + Scathing Mockery: Scathing Mockery is the weakest fire skill in single-target, which is why it's the last dot to be applied.


This is the easier rotation because it automatically handles Searing Words procs based on probabilities. There are also these situations where you could prefer to use the conventional rotation over the proc-based rotation:
- Grouping with other runekeepers because there can only be one Searing Words per tier anyway.
- Fights which take a lot of concentration on other things than maximising dps.


Post #50 for a full breakdown with Searing Words discussion.


Midfight, when Smouldering Wrath is ready but I have no attunement, a combination of these, starting with the highest priority:
- Orange enamel (0 delay)
- Distracting Flame (1.2s - 1.5s delay depending on induction buff, in return for a dot refresh and a chance for fire skill effects)
- Fulgurite/Volcanic Runestone (1s delay)
- Essence of Storm (2s delay)



Advanced single-target rotation

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fasin

Searing Words tiers do not stack or refresh. There are four Searing Words tiers (T0,T1,T2,T3). Once you hit T3 on Writ of Fire, you can only have one stack of Searing Words up. So stacking up Writ as fast as possible is not good, as you are removing any possibility for additional Searing stacks.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fasin

If you get a 4 stack searing words, your opening dps is ridiculous.

---

This opener doesn't plan for any Writs: you insert them yourself whenever you see a new Searing Words. It will still work even if you get very unlucky.

Distracting Flame, Essay + Essence, (Writ if still no mit debuff)
Smouldering Wrath
Fiery Ridicule, Fiery Ridicule
Essay + Scathing Mockery, Essence of Flame, (Writ if no mit debuff)
Smouldering Wrath
Distracting Flame
Essay + Fiery Ridicule
From then on, use Essay (+Essence), Smouldering Wrath and Essence whenever ready in that order

Guidelines:
- Use Writ whenever Searing Words procs until you reach tier 3.
- As the only RK: Use Writ when you're about to use Smouldering Wrath without a mit debuff. (post #120)
- As the higher-Writ-tier RK in a duo: If no mit debuff before Smouldering, wait for the lower-Writ-tier RK to start his Smouldering. If still no luck, use a Writ, then go ahead with Smouldering. (post #120)
- Fill any time inbetween with Fiery Ridicule. Early refreshes of Distracting Flame to proc Searing Words are only useful if there's not enough time to use Ridicule.
- When you reach t3, start alternating Writs with Fiery Ridicule/Distracting Flame whenever other skills are on cooldown.
See post #51 and #120 for how these guidelines were determined.

Details:
- By going Fiery Ridicule, Fiery Ridicule in line 3 you're missing out on some Distracting Flame damage. The damage stays the same because you're getting an extra initial hit and dot tier from Fiery Ridicule, but Fiery Ridicule does more AoE and fills the large time window better.



How does this compare to the conventional rotation which has fixed Writ tiers?

- Raising the Writ tier everytime Searing Words appears means that every fire skill has a 20% proc chance until t3.
- While in a conventional rotation, the more skills are used in a row without upgrading Writ the lower the proc chance per skill becomes, starting at 20%, then 16%, 13%, 10%, 8% etc. This is because it gets more and more likely that you already had Searing Words and that new procs get blocked. (chance per skill plateaus after 14s worth of skills, so 7%)
- Higher proc chance also means better chances for multiple Searing Words stacks in a short time. This rotation is good at burst.
- Drawbacks of this rotation are that it on average uses more Ridicules instead of Writs as a filler, which is less optimal in single-target. Also, depending on luck (25% of the time) you might only be able to use 3 fire skills before the first Smouldering (conventional rotation: 4 skills), although the rest of the time you will use 4 or more skills. Overall, much of the time the result is higher dps.


So this rotation has higher max dps, higher average dps and better burst but it takes some practice. I'd suggest training dummies because they reset their Writ tiers often which gives you experience with handling low Writ tiers while trying to maintain the rotation.


Searing Words - Keeping track of it

Knowing which tier of Searing Words has procced can sometimes be tricky. Problematic times are when you're grouped with other RKs, grouped in raids where all the buffs and debuffs get shuffled around wildly, and when you're 20-something seconds into the fight where new Searing Words procs can get concealed by older Searing Words expiring.

There are some simple patterns you can look out for:
- When you see 2 Searing Words (while highest Writ tier is t1), you and any other RK should upgrade Writ, to t2.
- When you see 3 Searing Words (while highest Writ tier is t2), you've done your work and can use use Writs freely from now on.


Edit: Legofreak11 has come up with a custom setup that adds Searing Words to the BuffBars plugin. See post #100 for his single-tier setup and post #103 for my modified multi-tier setup.



AoE fights

In my opinion the strength of fire rk’s in AoE is to do decent AoE damage while at the same dropping individual enemies quickly using Essay of Fire and Smouldering Wrath. This helps the tank and healer to survive, or makes fights go faster when some enemies have much more health than others i.e. the defilers in Ruined City. If neither of these are a priority it’s generally better to use more Fiery Ridicule instead of Smouldering Wrath until shortly before the end of the fight (post #11).

Essay of Fire should be used whenever possible in AoE fights because after the 2.5s induction it gives a free 1.5s induction Fiery Ridicule, or 2s Essence of Flame/3s Scathing Mockery. So using it costs at most 1 second (induction buff: 0.7s), but yields damage similar to a Smouldering Wrath.


- Essay of Fire + Scathing Mockery (Dagor parchment if there are more than 5 targets, increases Scathing's max targets to 10)
- Writ of Fire + Combustion
- Essence of Flame, Fiery Ridicule, ((tab) Fiery Ridicule if still time before Essay of Fire is ready)
- Essay of Fire + Fiery Ridicule
- If there are enemies with more morale i.e. trolls, use Writ of Fire (free induction) + Smouldering Wrath on it
- Fiery Ridicule, (tab) Fiery Ridicule, (tab) Fiery Ridicule until Combustion is ready
- From then on use Combustion, Essay of Fire and Essence of Flame whenever they’re ready. I refresh Scathing Mockery after Essay of Fire if its dot is blinking or gone.
- Chain-spam Fiery Ridicule when those skills are on cooldown.
- I only bother with Distracting Flame if I’m single-targeting a strong/isolated enemy or need attunement for Combustion. It can't compete with Fiery Ridicule spam on multiple targets for dps.
- Raise the tier of Writ by one with every Combustion. This helps your targets get more Searing Words dots, one from each tier. The extra Writ damage is insignificant especially compared to Searing Words. (see post #50 for discussion)


This uses a Scathing Mockery to debuff mitigations before a Writ-Combustion early on, then lays into the mob with Fiery Ridicules.

AoE requires a lot of switching targets. The best distribution of damage is the one which kills all enemies at the same time because it meant you had the full number of targets for the whole fight. More targets = more dps. So use Essay and Smouldering Wrath on whatever has the highest morale or whatever isn't getting hit by AoE, and Essence + Ridicule on the crowd.

Switching can be done with the tab key (next target) and return key (nearest target). A 3rd option is to hit one of the F2-F6 keys to select a fellow member, then use f to select their target.



Efficient rotation

Not really a rotation in itself, but more of an approach to dealing with stray enemies that you can't hit with AoE - for example because they're isolated or running around.

Essay + Ridicule
Writ, Distracting Flame
(Writ if still no mit debuff)
...
Check back after 20s whether the enemy needs another round of dots.


You can set up a lot of damage within 4s of casting time via Essay + Ridicule, Writ, Distracting Flame. Smouldering Wrath alone would've taken 5s and delivered less damage. This leaves more time and more heavy-hitting skills to focus on the boss.


Kiting rotation

This is a kiting rotation for soloing enemies that can't be fought toe to toe. It's based on chaining Essays so they never have an induction and combining this with lightning skills.

- Essay of Fire, Shocking Words
- Self-Motivate, Prelude, Bubble
...

- Essay of Fire, Essence of Storm
- Prelude, (other Bubble)
...

[Self Motivate whenever it's available]
repeat

Notes - Kiting rotation

- Don't use the instant Writs, they consume Essay's instant induction.
- Try to move with the mouse here: hold down both mouse buttons to run, then when you want to turn release the left button. If done right you can fire off your attacks and get back to running in the blink of an eye.


Variations - Kiting rotation

- You could use 2 lightning skills after Essay, but that would mean you'd need to spend more time facing the enemy.
- An alternative approach for not-so-deadly enemies is to save up attunement for an occasional Smouldering Wrath if you have enough morale (avoid Shocking Words and bubbles). Smouldering doesn't use up Essay's free induction.
- All a 2nd Prelude would do is to gain an extra 150 initial heal.
- If there are multiple enemies it's best to choose a new target every time so that every Essay runs for the full 14s.



Conventional Burst rotation

This is a rotation for anything that can be expected to die in less than 30s.

The way this works is to burn through Writs, which does two things: one is that when time is short it's better for Searing Words to briefly 'visit' all 4 tiers instead of staying in the first 2 tiers. The second is that this maximises chances of having the mit debuff to support your one and only Essay + Essence & Smouldering Wrath.


- Distracting Flame, Writ
- Essay + Essence, Writ

- if still no mit debuff (happens 1 in 6 times):
- Distracting Flame (if cd legacy), Writ (instant)

- Smouldering Wrath

- Writ (usually instant), Essence of Storm, Shocking Words
- Normal skill priorities from here onwards (usually Essay)


Notes - Conventional Burst rotation

- The important part is that you must have the mit debuff when Smouldering Wrath is channelling.
- It's nice if the debuff already appears before the initial hits of Essay + Essence, but it's not worth putting in any more effort to get it so early (i.e. by starting with Writ, DF, Writ // DF, Writ, Writ). Firstly because it would delay the burst and Essay's dot, secondly because the initial hits from Essay+Essence aren't a large % of total dps and a mit debuff is worth just a fraction of that, thirdly because you'd need to abandon t0 Searing Words if starting directly with a Writ.

- The only time I'd use Writs back-to-back would be straight before Smouldering Wrath, if the mit debuff simply won't proc.

- Having lightning damage legacies on the runestone is of course useful here.


Advanced burst rotation

The two most important factors in burst dps are the mit debuff and Searing Words - reacting to these two procs is clearly the best way to get optimal burst.
The advanced rotation is already basically a burst rotation - DF, Essay + Essence, Smouldering - just that here the mit debuff has top priority and that you'd follow up Smouldering Wrath with lightning skills.

Use Writs whenever Searing Words appears, as usual. Also, use a Writ to proc mit debuff when necessary before heavy-hitting skills. So, if you're low on luck, in my opinion:
- Essay + Essence is worth one forced Writ (=a tier upgrade without having gotten Searing Words yet)
- Smouldering Wrath is worth up to two forced Writs, ideally with a Distracting Flame inbetween



Group single target rotation

RK 1: Distracting Flame
RK 2: Writ, Distracting Flame
RK 3: Writ, Writ
RK 4+: repeat in the same order as above

- Essay + Essence
- Smouldering Wrath

- Hold back with Writs until you see 1 Searing Words for every RK, or use the BuffBars setup from post #100/101
- Normal skill priorities from here onwards

Notes - Group single target rotation

- This starts with putting each RK at his own Writ tier for Searing Words. If you have 4 or more RKs you can start assigning multiple RKs to each tier.
- There's no need to have anyone start with upgrading to Writ t3: this takes too much time that's better spent getting Essay, Essence & Smouldering on cooldown.
- All Writs and DFs are completed before the first Essay + Essence impacts, so the heavy hitting skills have a high chance of having mit debuff support.


Group Burst rotation

RK 1: Distracting Flame
RK 2: Writ, Distracting Flame
RK 3: Writ, Writ
RK 4: Writ, Writ
RK 5+: repeat in the same order as above

- Essay + Essence
- Writ, because you can assume some Searing Words has procced

- Smouldering Wrath
- (Writ if instant), Essence of Storm, Shocking Words

- Normal skill priorities from here onwards


Notes - Group burst rotation

- Same notes as for group single target, except:
- The group burst rotation is laid out for only one cast of the heavy hitters (fight duration under 30s).
- RKs 3 & 4 start with two Writs each. This gives a decent chance for Searing procs along the way from the Writs themselves, and they can work together on t3 which is the least visited tier in a burst situation.



Post #4 for Fire Runekeeper Guide: Gearing, U18

Great read, thank you! RK is my last toon to be worked on and was looking for basically exactly this on rotation/priority ST/AoE, as well as traits, will def do some tweaking on mine.

Thank you :)

Fire Rune-Keeper DPS: Best Practices - Gearing, Updated for U18


The most important change with U18 is that all top-end essences now have two stats which are almost always significant: talking about things like 278 morale instead of 94 power as it used to be at level 100. Supreme essences are now a must-have.

The next major change is that critical rating has fallen in value. This is because the net effect of exchanging mastery essences for masterful will essences is 374 crit for 256 mastery, 298 resist and 149 tact mit. The tact mit can compensate for about half the mastery gap in t2c tactical instances, but in any glass-cannon/physical t2c instance/t1/pvmp situation, 1 crit is effectively worth 0.68 mastery. At level 100, 1 crit was worth 1 mastery. (post #89, Stat Values Table)


Armour

- The Osgiliath 2-piece set continues to be a fixture in any dps-minded setup - see top of post #1 or post #55. The most optimal setup is the Osgiliath robe and one DoS piece.
- The rest is 4-slot Biting Wit armour, considerably better than any other options.
- The level 100 crit cloak from the epic quest with 360 will, 90 vit, 1300 crit cloak as it has the highest mastery equivalent in stats and there's still no level 105 alternative.

- The 2-slot Graven Word armour is useful for mild group buffing in large groups (imo: raids) because it causes Flurry of Words to have +8% incoming crit chance. But the stats disadvantage is so great that even with this set bonus it can't outperform Biting Wit armour. (post #62)
- Old level 100 Faramir's armour is quite effective as a morale swap item and worlds cheaper, but not worth getting if you don't already have it because the coins are much better spent on essence recipes. (post #67)


Jewelry

- The Osgiliath 280-will necklace and bracelets, level 105 versions, are the best in slot here.
- Then Absent Friends earrings and rings.
- The pocket is ideally a Hilt, but a level 100 2-slot phial can be used for the same functions (see later).


LI’s

- True Setting of the North. 1293 crit is still much better than a 640 mastery relic. Not 7.5% dev magnitude because:
A: fire dots/heal hots don't dev so overall dev chance is actually ~3%
B: 7.5% multiplier of noncritical damage x 3% chance = you only gain 0.23% of the dps you would do if you had no crits
C: lightning has very low noncritical damage, which makes the setting even less useful than it is for fire
330 morale and 1616 incoming heal is much more effective.

- True Gem of the Wizard's Vale: 1212 crit is worth about 900 mastery, as much as the mastery relic. The fate and icpr helps when dropping the power cost legacy and is in my opinion more effective than the 35 vit you get from the other crit gem.
- 660 mastery & -2.5% attack duration. One of the highest mastery equivalents. The attack duration is marginally useful because fire rk's have some long attack durations and no fast
skills. Safe to say that -2.5% attack duration is better than the extra 80 mastery you'd get from the other mastery rune.
- 40 will 740 crit 740 mastery crafted relic. 40 will is simply better than 40 fate/vit.

There are relics which give stats like crit def and mits, but their numbers are far too low. 300 crit def is just a tiny fraction of a crit def essence; the same can't be said of 1293 crit. Relics simply aren't good at giving defensive stats and are more effective at offensive stats.

Titles: 500 mastery titles, but they're a huge pain to get because you need to do Fangorn dailies for them. 460 crit titles would also work, but they're less optimal.


Passives: My order of preference starting with the best is:
Morale - worth 1817 mastery in all instances
Tact mit - worth 0 mastery in physical instances, 1765 mastery in tactical instances
Will - worth 824 mastery in physical instances, 868 mastery in tactical instances
Crit - worth 620 mastery in physical instances, 775 mastery in tactical instances
Vit - worth 417 mastery in all instances

[The stats become more valuable in tactical instances: for example, the crit passive allows you to turn 2.44 mastery essences into masterful will essences which is a gain of 620 mastery, 727 resist and 364 tact mit. The tact mit is worth another 155 mastery in tactical instances.]


Essences

Essence choice: Robust Will, Masterful Will, Mastery

The choice between will and mastery essences has moved away from being about mastery vs. resistance to being about how you want to reach your morale target and the crit cap.


Robust wills:
Morale essences are weighed down by 42-fates, while robust wills are not, so if you use robust wills to hit morale targets you'll ultimately end up with slightly higher mastery.
The downside is flexibility because you can't drop as low in morale for glass cannon with robust wills as you could with masterful wills.

But the effect that morale makes tends to get overestimated: the difference between an all-masterful will glass cannon and a 15-robust will rest-masterful will glass cannon build is that Smouldering Wrath hits for i.e. 13800 instead of 13250. In return, the t2c build with the robust wills is about a third as much stronger.


Mastery essences:
Mastery essences come with 1310 mastery, so if you use these to hit crit cap and thereby replace masterful will essences which come with 149 will, then you'll have a mastery advantage. Some of that advantage is lost when you need the tact mit which those 149 wills would've given, but in general this is a more optimal way of getting crit than actual crit essences.


Masterful will essences:
Once you have the morale and crit you need, any remaining slots can be filled with masterful will essences.
So an optimised endgame t2c build would have all 3 types of essences: masterful will, robust will and mastery.


Teal essences

Level 105 teal essences are just a slice above level 100 teal essences - if you upgraded from a full set of 100 teals to 105 teals, you could expect mastery to be about 6000 higher when all other stats are kept the same. In my opinion it'd be more effective to upgrade straight to level 105 supreme, skipping level 105 teals and a lot of hassle.


Virtues

Virtues are mainly for resistance, mitigations and will in my opinion, so:
- Confidence for 3k resistance and 114 will
- Wisdom for 1k resistance and 171 will
- Innocence for 1.5k resistance and 2k phys/tact miti
- Honour for 3k resistance, 1k tact miti and some vit
- either Zeal as a swap virtue for physical instances for 500 morale and 1.2k phys miti, but a pain to deed for
- or Fidelity as a swap virtue for tactical instances for 1539 tact mit and some vit

- Idealism as an alternative to Honour if you have too much tact mit: 57 will, 114 fate, 1.5k resistance
- Charity as a swap virtue for physical instances for 3k resistance and 1k phys miti



Legacies


Stone

1. Fire damage
2. Wrath of Flame damage over time
3. Distracting Flame Cooldown + Combustion Damage - a more recent addition as Distracting Flame can be used to increase odds of proccing mit debuffs if it's not yet active in proc-reactive rotations, and the Combustion component sweetens the deal.
4 & 5. Fury of Storm Damage, Fury of Storm Critical Damage – these are a bonus for the single-target burst skills Essence of Storm and Shocking Words while in fire traits, more useful in my opinion than Vit and Fate legacies considering how high stats are now. An advantage as well is that you don’t need to make a lightning stone then unless you also want to have the Sustaining Bolt damage + Vivid Imagery damage legacies. Having those two would be a microscopic improvement to lightning dps.
6. Will - strongest stat legacy
7. Finesse - second strongest stat legacy

See post #24 for discussion of the other runestone legacies.


Bag

1. Self Motivation cooldown - a necessity for being able to function as a runekeeper. Reduces the cooldown by 30s, together with the red trait the skill can then be used every 15s.
2. Do Not Fall this Day cooldown - allows you to res in combat twice as often and have it up on 2 people. This is one of the big advantages fire rk’s have over hunters.
3. Writ of Fire damage
4. Essence of Flame damage
5. Smouldering Wrath power cost + Searing Words damage - Searing Words is a strong randomly applied dot, effectively about half as powerful as Essay of Fire.
6. Distracting Flame damage - the weakest of the skill-damage legacies, but has now grown enough to overtake the Vit legacy.
7. Will

See post #25 for discussion of the other satchel legacies.


Traits

General-purpose traits

http://i.imgur.com/G3y8EjI.png
(in writing: maxed out red tree except Volcanic Runestone upgrades, yellow tree has 5/5 in crit def, crit chance and Fulgurite Runestone, blue tree has 5/5 in Will bonus. The planner only goes up to 79 but the maximum is 82 – the remaining 3 points would go into maxing out Will.)


Red tree

- Almost everything in the red tree is useful.
- Both Volcanic and Fulgurite Runestones as a speedy way of building attunement when Smouldering Wrath/Combustion is waiting.
- No Volcanic Runestone upgrades though because it hits like it's still level 60, not to mention that it doesn't even crit, has max 30% uptime and is instantly dead in enemy AoE. The casting animation time would be better spent on another Fiery Ridicule triple hit.


Blue tree

- There are enough class trait points now to max the will trait.
- Evade chance is no good because it's too little. The full 5% evade chance only dodges 1 in 20 hits, assuming enemies have no finesse, so it's not useful for improving survival but costs 10 trait points.
- Mending Verse on its own is only really useful for helping others to regenerate out of combat. Incombat I've found it more effective to combine a Nestad parchment with Epic for the Ages.
- Mending Verse with upgrades can be useful if you have a shaky healer or none at all. At Lumithil for example this can be combined with the Osgiliath 2-piece healer set (extra initial heal from Mending Verse, applying to yourself) to do the fight quickly without a healer.


Yellow tree

- Epic Conclusion would be amusing to have but not much different from Shocking Words on its own. You could decide to do Shocking Words -> V. runestone, F. runestone, orange enamel -> Epic Conclusion, but I can only imagine this to be effective for the final burst.
- Ceaseless Argument is so weak that it's not worth using, even in lightning traits.
- I used to go with Shocking Touch to get some more significant cc but in recent times I've rarely needed it. Crit defence is more useful considering Lotro's more recent policy of using high max hits to make instances difficult.
- If your build is just short of the 17685 crit cap then a rank in Fate would be more effective than an extra rank in Will.


Trait Point savings

For people who aren’t keen on questing for trait points, or who want to make a hybrid build with Mending Verse/Epic Conclusion, this is the order in which I’d save points in the tree, starting with the least useful trait:

- Will & Fate, by far the weakest dps increasers.
- Volcanic Runestone because this has a 30s cd while the Fulgurite Runestone has a 5s cd and more utility. The Volcanic Runestone useful as a distraction for levelling RKs, but its 5k morale is too low for level 105 instances.
- 5% tactical damage trait. The name is misleading - it'd be more fitting to call it 5% tactical mastery, so it's basically a 1850 mastery bonus for 5 trait points. Very skippable.
- Downgrade Fulgurite Runestone to Volcanic Runestone. Distracting Flame/Essence of Storm can fill in when needed.
- Phys mit if you can get away with it, especially if you just need 1 or 2 points.
- 5% critical chance. Very expensive and each 1% crit is only about 1.2% of dps as determined through parses in post #6, so all 20 trait points are worth 6% dps. Not bad for a hybrid build.



No-AoE Traits

http://i.imgur.com/qwBPyEn.png
(in writing: maxed out red tree except 0/2 Essence targets, 4/5 Fiery Ridicule, 0/3 Volcanic Runestone upgrades, yellow tree has 5/5 in crit def and crit and Fulgurite Runestone, Blue tree has 5/5 in Will)


- 0/2 in Essence of Flame targets and 4/5 in Fiery Ridicule so it stays single-target. The 4 points for Fiery Ridicule can easily be saved because they make virtually no difference.
- Still has Scathing Mockery and Combustion. Sometimes you need to do AoE anyway so these are good to have for just 2 trait points, and Scathing Mockery is a slight single-target dps increase if you get a chance to use it.
- Volcanic Runestone and especially Fulgurite Runestone stay on because their damage is almost non-existent, so they're often acceptable especially if you're standing at range.
- This setup costs fewer trait points, so it's easier to delve deeper into other trees here.



Stat Targets

My targets for stats are:
- 12.8k finesse (legacy + 2 essences), I used to run 8k without much problems until it turned out certain instances do need more
- 17.7k critical rating
- 21k morale for most t2c instances
- 20.2k of phys mit and/or tact mit
- 5-6k crit defence, so either 1 crit def + a couple mit essences or 2 crit def essences

Things I don't bother with:
- Incoming healing. You'd already get 3.2k or 7.5% from True North relics - the yield from this stat isn’t that good, most likely to avoid that tanks get overpowered. As a damage dealer I don't think this is worthwhile or needed. As a healer, for self-preservation I prefer by far the Osgiliath healer 2-set which causes every Mending Verse initial heal to apply to yourself, even if you're targetting yourself.
- Evasion. 13% chance to evade is unlikely to avoid enough hits to prevent death in cases where the tank loses aggro to you as a damage dealer. On the other hand, as a healer constantly taking hits from new spawns I'd use it. Especially as you need just 7k evade to hit the 13% cap. For soloing instances it's also handy.


Buff Food

A useful habit to get into is to use self buffs. You can get a lifetime supply of feasts, soups, scrolls, attack tomes and so on for next to nothing, so there's nothing in the way of planning with them when you make your build. For example, it's better to hit 17.2k crit on your own, then get to the 17.7k crit cap with the 144-stat Anorien feast. A downside is that on death some of them expire so there's some use in having a reserve, but why build for unsuccessful runs?

A listing:
- Anorien feast, 144 to all stats
- Anorien warding and battle lore, 1450 both mits and 1000 mastery
- Anorien soup, 4020 resist and 5% resist chance
- Attack tome, 5% mastery
- Max morale scrolls, 401 morale
- Hope
- Regen food isn't generally needed in my opinion, incombat all they do is add a little bit of icpr and icmr. Maybe useful as a bandaid for those who have power problems.


Stat Tomes

It's clear that will and vit stat tomes are both good, worth 480 will/vit for the whole range so 3840 mastery and 1440 morale among other things.
Fate is also handy to have, it's worth 820 raw mastery, effectively 1050 tact mit and 820 icpr which is great for freeing up the slot of the battle-attuned power cost legacy.

Agility is less useful, its crit is enough to replace 1 or 2 mastery essences with masterful wills and gain 256-512 mastery, some resist and tact mit. It increases evade chance by 4% and parry chance by 2%, but these are easily cancelled out by enemy finesse.
Might is only for completionists. All it does for runekeepers is to increase parry chance by 2%.



Builds


I've made an automated spreadsheet which I've used to make maxed t2c, glass cannon and max morale builds to give an idea of what kind of essence configurations would be needed towards the end of the gearing process.

Google Drive – U18 Gear Planner

[Note: there will be some changes to these builds based on post #90, after U18.2 launches.]

Passives: Morale, Tact Mit, Crit (will become Will)
Titles: 2x Crit (will become Mastery)
Self buffs: All except destiny perks


T2c build

Specs: 22.2k morale, 89.9k mastery, 34.7k resist, 40.0% critical defence, Smouldering Max hit of 12830. With captain 25.9k morale if there is no dread.

Essences: 15 robust will, 14 masterful will, 2 mastery, 2 finesse, 2 phys mit, 1 crit defence, 1 lvl 100 morale
Gear: 4x Biting Wit, DoS shoulders & head, 3x Osgiliath 280-wills, 4x Absent Friends, Hilt, Crit Epic Cloak

Variations:
20 robust, 9 masterful, 2 mastery: 23.7k morale, 88.0k mastery, Smouldering Max hit of 12651.
10 robust, 19 masterful, 2 mastery: 20.7k morale, 91.8k mastery, Smouldering Max hit of 13009.


Glass cannon build - all masterful will

Specs: 17.8k morale, 100.0k mastery, 35.3k resist, 7.0% critical defence, Smouldering Max hit of 13790

Essences: 31 masterful will, 3 mastery, 2 finesse, 1 lvl 100 morale
Gear: 4x Biting Wit, DoS shoulders & head, 3x Osgiliath 280-wills, 4x Absent Friends, Hilt, Crit Epic Cloak


Glass cannon build - 15 robust will, rest masterful will

Specs: 22.2k morale, 94.4k mastery, 35.3k resist, 7.0% critical defence, Smouldering Max hit of 13254

Essences: 15 robust will, 16 masterful will, 3 mastery, 2 finesse, 1 lvl 100 morale
Gear: 4x Biting Wit, DoS shoulders & head, 3x Osgiliath 280-wills, 4x Absent Friends, Hilt, Crit Epic Cloak


Swap Setup

Swap gear is for having the most possible mastery in every situation by changing stats depending on how much is needed. This can be done for morale, mitigations, crit defence, even finesse if you want to do under-level instances.

The number one step to make this possible is to organise your essences by having only one type of essence on most pieces, otherwise swapping would be too complicated.
The next step to make swapping easier is to assign stats to each type of gear. In my case I've assigned crit defence to rings, mitigations to earrings, finesse to the pocket, everything else is simple morale:mastery swaps.


Gearing setup

What I've come up with for those maxed builds is this:

- Hilt: 2 finesse, 1 masterful will - never gets swapped because it has finesse so only one Hilt is needed
- Biting Wit shoes or leggings: 3 masterful will, 1 mastery

- Physical instance: Absent, left earring: 2 phys mit
- Tactical instance: Absent, left earring: 2 masterful will
- Glass cannon: Absent, left earring: 2 masterful will (same piece as in tactical instance)
- Max morale: Absent, left earring: 1 phys mit, 1 crit def

- Absent, left ring: 2 crit def
- Absent, left ring: 1 crit def, 1 mastery
- Absent, left ring: 2 mastery

- Rest: 15 robust will, 10 masterful will (t2c / glass cannon)
- Rest: morale essences level 105 + 100 (max morale)
- Swap between these for morale or mastery


Gearing setup - visual

http://i.imgur.com/btFIfql.jpg

Here's a visual which shows the pieces that need to be made.

So for a physical instance you'd slot the earring with 2 physical mit, then combine it with a ring that has 2 crit def / 1 crit def, 1 mastery / 2 mastery depending on need.
Everything in the middle and right columns is just morale for mastery swaps.


Perks of this one:
- one click for mitigations, left earring, one click for crit defence, left ring.
- choice between two, one or no crit defence (max morale can get up to 3 crit defence).
- uses mastery essences, which get swapped with crit defence or 4 morale so that crit never goes over or under crit cap (either would've made mastery essences lose their advantage).
- swap items are focused on Absent jewelry so you need fewer copies of Osgiliath jewelry and Biting Wit armour.
- efficiency, because several of the pieces are shared between builds.


Variations on the swap setup

- If you want a masterful will based build, replace robust wills with masterful wills.
- If you want more robust wills, start with replacing those masterful wills which are on all-masterful will pieces.

- If you need more mastery essences to hit the crit cap, put either 1 mastery or 4 mastery essences onto the Biting Wit leggings and shoes. Their morale swap versions should be either 4 lvl 105 morale or 3 lvl 100/105 morale & 1 crit essence, depending on what you need to keep crit constant.

- If you don't have a hilt yet, then a 2-slot level 100 pocket with 2 finesse essences works just as well. The only difference is mastery.
- If you get a second hilt you could make a 3x morale swap out of it for tank-healing or put 3x masterful will in it if you want to do turtle parses or other low-level instances.

- Almost all morale essences in the right column can just as well be level 100 to save a tremendous amount of cost for not much disadvantage. Except when they get swapped for mastery essences, see above point.

- Faramir's make fine morale swaps, their only disadvantage compared to Biting Wit is that mastery is slightly lower. This is why they get used by default.
- If you don't have Faramir's, then Nadhins or Biting Wit pieces will work equally well. It's not worth bartering them anymore.

- You could also make captain crit swaps by swapping masterful wills for mastery essences, but tbh I don't think it's worth it: you get mastery at a rate of 5120 mastery for 7480 overcapped crit, and the overcapped crit does have some impact on dps.
- The rate is better with crit essences, but that's only because crit essences 'have' less mastery in the first place.
- Captain crit swaps simply aren't as good at level 105 as they were at level 100. The crit:mastery exchange rate has worsened from 1:1.00 to 1:0.68 and you need a lot more essences to swap the same amount of crit (now: 374 crit per very expensive essence, then: 1229 crit per dirt-cheap essence)

Great post mate.


PvMP mostly experiences.
I dont have a set routine but it varies a lot as i play a lot of pvmp. it is basically as you mentioned in all pointers. Essenece of winter I use a lot due to -30% incoming healing for creeps you really notice when a defiler has that on them as they run away, they soon melt as they try to self heal.

I have kept my Lightning Legacies on my weapon for the use of them in the moors, the Legacies are well worth it in my.

I find that in PvMP that tiering up writ of fire is worth it for combustion. a T3 bleed on all targets at pinch points when they group. with + pulses gear is over a minute of damage and well worth it for tagging in big groups.

The pulse gear is ok when grouped in pvmp but not so highly used due to the down falls of audcaity.

Merged into main post

Odd choices on LIs, DPS line specific LIs always work better than hybrids.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by siipperi

Odd choices on LIs, DPS line specific LIs always work better than hybrids.

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Quoting myself here:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dragofer

Now that DF cd is on the runestone, a question worth asking: in fire traits, is it better to have lightning legacies or vit and fate on the runestone?

Vit and fate have a combined value of 1400 mastery in t2c (1% dps), 370 mastery in glass cannon (0.3% dps).

Lightning skills make strong finisher skills - when the fight is over in 5s it's much better to come with a 30k Shocking Words crit than a couple Writs and a Ridicule. Lightning legacies have an exceptionally strong effect on those skills' strength. It'd probably be safe to say that the difference between lightning vs. vit/fate legacies is negligible.

The great advantage of lightning legacies is that you no longer need a lightning stone then as the only legacies you could still gain are Sustaining Bolt damage and Vivid Imagery damage, both very minor and not worth getting a second perfect-passive runestone, dozens of starlits and hundreds of empowerment scrolls for.

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which and how many of each essences you think a RK should use in DA sloted armour to do ruined city T2? and what about virtue traits?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Damião

which and how many of each essences you think a RK should use in DA sloted armour to do ruined city T2? and what about virtue traits?

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It's all depended on the group and what you doing. I run first 2 bosses and trash with 24 tactical mastery essences on the armor. if you are getting hit, getting 19k+ morale and over capped mitigations is a must.

Some technicalities which were cleared up at the Dol Amroth dummies:

Does the initial hit of Writ of Fire apply every time the skill is used?
Yes, it makes no difference whether a tooltip reads "x Fire Damage" (Essence of Flame) or "x Fire Damage initially" (Writ of Fire), they mean the same thing except that 'initially' can't devastate.


Is it efficient to chain-spam Writ of Fire?
No, Writ of Fire has a 1s cooldown so there'll be a delay between each use. But if a different skill is used after Writ of Fire, there is no delay at all after Writ of Fire's induction finishes. Distracting Flame has a short delay, which is one reason for Distracting Flame to be used as rarely as possible.


In single-target, when the strong skills are on cooldown, is it best to: A) chain-spam Writ of Fire or B) spam-alternate Fiery Ridicule with Writ of Fire?


Excluding Searing Words, Writ-Ridicule spam is a decent amount better dps than Writ chain spam.

Writ's tooltip for induction and initial hit shows that it does much more dps than Fiery Ridicule when spammed. Therefore it's best to start with Writ of Fire, then Fiery Ridicule.


In single-target, should Essence of Storm also be used while spam-alternating Fiery Ridicule with Writ of Fire?
On training dummies dps was the same with and without Essence of Storm while spam-alternating Fiery Ridicule and Writ of Fire.

Still, Essence of Storm is an instant damage skill while the Searing Words requires the mob to be alive for some time. And with 67% crit/dev chance it's very reliable. This means that Essence of Storm is useful as a burst near the end, but not really suitable for regular dps.

I've tested this on the training dummies with my standard tree and used a fire/lightning stone that had Fury of Storm damage and critical multiplier legacies. This meant that both fire skills and lightning skills were at full strength.


Other observations:
- Fiery Ridicule's dot disappears completely when it expires instead of tiering down as Writ of Fire does. This is a reason to use Fiery Ridicule as much as possible in AoE fights.
- There is no animation delay after using Writ of Fire, but there is one after Distracting Flame.

What is the damage formula?

This is mainly for those who are interested to know how much a damage legacy will actually increase damage by, or how much damage they will gain from adding x more mastery.


The damage formula for a tactical skill is:

(100% base + sum of all relevant damage bonus %'s) x (100% + tactical mastery tooltip %)

- Divide by 100 to convert the result to %.
- The base damage of a skill is a preset figure set by Turbine for each skill. It's increased by character level and tactical damage rating. In this formula it's always 100%.
- Legacies, traits, attunement damage bonus etc. go into the first bracket. (most fire skills get +3% per attunement)
- Tactical mastery plus any other tactical damage % bonuses like the +5% tactical damage trait or captain buffs go into the second bracket.
- This formula means that skill damage bonuses and the tactical mastery bonus multiply each other.
- If an RK has +100% fire damage, then gets another +20% bonus fire damage, his fire skills are 10% more damaging than before because 200% has been increased to 220%.
- If an RK has +100% tactical mastery tooltip and then increases that to +120%, his tactical skills are 10% more damaging than before because 200% has been increased to 220%.
- RK's have a lot of fire damage bonuses, the majority of fire skills start at +150% incombat with full attunement and fire damage buffs before skill-specific legacies, so extra fire damage % only has less than half the expected effect.
- The +5% tactical damage trait at +200% mastery only increases damage by 1.7%, so the 5 points can easily be spent elsewhere.
- After 50k mastery, every 375 mastery is 1% tooltip. Before that, it was 400 mastery per 1%.



'Searing Words: damage is increased by +10% for each current tier of Writ of Fire on the target.' What exactly does this do?

This tooltip from the 6th class trait set bonus can mean one of the following:
A) The damage of Searing Words only is 10% higher for every tier of Writ of Fire
B) The damage of all skills is 10% higher for every tier of Writ of Fire
C) The damage of all skills is 10% higher for every tier of Writ of Fire while Searing Words is active (possibly stacking for every active Searing Words)

A is correct. Searing Words comes at 4 levels: 3 tiers and one without a tier. The tier of Searing Words is the same as the current tier of Writ of Fire (no Writ = without tier), and each higher tier is 10% more damaging than the one below. With level 100 gear and full traits the real increase is less than 5% per tier.

B and C are incorrect because the max critical hit out of 20 critical hits was always the same for Smouldering Wrath, Essay of Fire and Fiery Ridicule. Also the number in the dot description on the target did not change.

Stacking Writ of Fire at the start is not a +30% fire damage bonus to all skills. Its bonus is roughly +13% to Searing Words and it drastically lowers your odds of getting the early tiers of Searing Words.

I tested this with a custom tree that had no incombat buffs/debuffs and always started at full attunement to keep conditions consistent. I also avoided all +fire damage traits and used a level 55 runestone with no damage legacies to make any damage bonuses from Writ of Fire more obvious (2750 Smouldering Wrath crits :P )





What is the contribution to dps from critical hits?

This is to see whether the +5% critical trait is worth its 20 points. In a couple turtle parses, if dps was 10,000, where roughly 4000 dps was non-crits and 5400+600 dps came from 30%+3% crits and devastates:

67% noncritical hits do 4000 dps
1% noncritical hits do 60 dps

30% critical hits do 5400 dps
30% noncritical hits would do 1800 dps (difference of 3600 dps)

3% devastates do 600 dps
3% noncritical hits would do 180 dps (difference of ~400 dps)

So the increase in dps from criticals + devastates is 4000, which depending on how you look at it is responsible for 40% of dps, or is a 67% increase compared to not having any criticals.

30% criticial hits contributed 3600 dps
So the 5% critical trait contributed 600 dps, or 6% of dps. This is not much, so it's feasible to trade it for Mending Verse upgrades in a hybrid build.

Also, the % increase owing to critical rating is +57% to dps.


Is it better for Fire Rune-Keepers to get critical rating or mastery rating?

This question is because I’ve seen it said on these forums a few times that mastery is more fire-friendly while critical is better for lightning. Anyone who has seen Smouldering Wrath crit 4 times in a row, or seen Essence of Flame or Combustion crit on everything can probably already guess the answer.


% dps increase from 16800 critical rating
As calculated above the % dps increase from 16800 critical rating (25% crits + devastates) is 57%.

% dps increase from 16800 mastery rating
Every 375 mastery past 50k is worth 1%, so 16.8k rating is +45%. The dps increase you get for this depends on how much you already have:

- If you had 50k mastery, your tactical damage would be 100% + 120%. Adding 45% is a 20% dps increase.
- If this got you to 80k mastery, your tactical damage would start at 100% + 155%. Adding 45% is an 18% increase dps.

So 16.8k critical rating increases dps by 57% while 16.8k mastery will only increase dps by 15-18% depending on how much mastery you start with. Therefore critical rating should always be capped before increasing tactical mastery in fire builds.



Dps scaling formula for changes in mastery

Someone who wanted to know how much more dps they would have done if their tactical mastery was 80k (+205% damage including the +5% tactical damage trait) can use this formula to scale it up:

(100% + 205%) / (100% + current mastery %) = multiplier of current dps

The 205% can be replaced by any other target mastery that you want to compare your current setup to.

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Originally Posted by ScrettleSllim

Great post mate.


PvMP mostly experiences.
I dont have a set routine but it varies a lot as i play a lot of pvmp. it is basically as you mentioned in all pointers. Essenece of winter I use a lot due to -30% incoming healing for creeps you really notice when a defiler has that on them as they run away, they soon melt as they try to self heal.

I have kept my Lightning Legacies on my weapon for the use of them in the moors, the Legacies are well worth it in my.

I find that in PvMP that tiering up writ of fire is worth it for combustion. a T3 bleed on all targets at pinch points when they group. with + pulses gear is over a minute of damage and well worth it for tagging in big groups.

The pulse gear is ok when grouped in pvmp but not so highly used due to the down falls of audcaity.

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Screttle where have you been mate? It's been a long time since I've seen you around. Bothvi here

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Originally Posted by Dragofer

Vast amount of wisdom....
The damage formula for a tactical skill is:

(100% base + sum of all relevant damage bonus %'s) x (100% + tactical mastery %)

...more wisdom.

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Thanks for the vast amount of info, really helps to crunch those numbers down to a decimal, but in the quoted line of text did you not mean to put a ''+'' between the two brackets? (I might have to glance over it again, but I believe it is what you meant)

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Originally Posted by JustAnotherElf

Thanks for the vast amount of info, really helps to crunch those numbers down to a decimal, but in the quoted line of text did you not mean to put a ''+'' between the two brackets? (I might have to glance over it again, but I believe it is what you meant)

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Thanks for pointing this out - the way I've written it is how I've intended it. I've added up the skill-related damage bonuses affecting certain skills (like 5% fire-type damage, 25% fire damage over time), then changed either the damage bonuses or tactical mastery, or both at the same time, and the formula agreed when it's written the way it is with an x between the brackets.

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Originally Posted by Dragofer

Thanks for pointing this out - the way I've written it is how I've intended it. I've added up the skill-related damage bonuses affecting certain skills (like 5% fire-type damage, 25% fire damage over time), then changed either the damage bonuses or tactical mastery, or both at the same time, and the formula agreed when it's written the way it is with an x between the brackets. You could also represent mastery as adding its % to the first bracket where the sum of the first bracket becomes 100%, but I don't know how to write a straightforward practical formula for that.


The formula calculates the result in % (if you divide the result by 100).
- To find how much damage a skill tooltip will show after making a change you need to find out how much damage 1% is worth, i.e. if you have 442% and the tooltip reads 1623 then 1% is 3.67 damage. Getting 512% would make the tooltip read 1880. The max for Smouldering Wrath is 9974 with a +5% attack tome, unfortunately just shy of 10000.
- To find relatively how much more damage is done, i.e. how much you get out of a +23.4% distracting flame damage legacy or a +5% tactical damage tome/trait, it's enough to compare the % before and after, so going from 442% to 512% would be a visible increase of 16%. If you're only changing one of skill damage bonus or tactical damage bonus you can ignore the other, so changing 100+160% tactical (mastery) damage to 100+210% tactical damage including tome and trait simply increases damage by 19%.


To complete the examples, the +5% tome/trait on top of +200% mastery only really add 1.7% each, and the DF legacy about 10% to a skill that does 5% of my single dps (so +0.5% dps), so they're all very skippable in my opinion.

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I see what you did there. The damage formula seems rather simple these days, I have not crunched numbers on the free people side of the fence for a while now, but as far as the monster play is concerned, the damage formula was simplified to ridiculous lows and if you want a complete version of it to see if it corresponds to your findings, send me a PM. One thing that corresponds in those situations I have tested is that 1% of mastery equals to 0.69% of the base damage of a skill, give or take.

As for my earlier comment, it speaks volumes on how people ready to pull things out of their hats in order to post a response. Should I have glanced over it a second time it would've made more sense.

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Originally Posted by JustAnotherElf

I see what you did there. The damage formula seems rather simple these days, I have not crunched numbers on the free people side of the fence for a while now, but as far as the monster play is concerned, the damage formula was simplified to ridiculous lows and if you want a complete version of it to see if it corresponds to your findings, send me a PM. One thing that corresponds in those situations I have tested is that 1% of mastery equals to 0.69% of the base damage of a skill, give or take.

As for my earlier comment, it speaks volumes on how people ready to pull things out of their hats in order to post a response. Should I have glanced over it a second time it would've made more sense.

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That's sounding unexpected to me, I'd have thought that +1% mastery is always +1% of base damage:
"Tactical mastery increases the damage of your tactical attacks by x%"

Then again it might be that weapon users have a different formula than tacticals. Unequipping my champ's weapon makes the skill tooltips read "x% mainhand/offhand weapon damage + bonus damage", where x% is added to by mastery. Maybe it's the reason why you're getting 0.69%, or maybe it's the same formula but just presented differently. Are you also getting 0.69% for tactical attacks by defilers?

Merged into main post - formerly rotation

Merged into main post. Formerly rotation.

Merged into main post

Dragofer, firstly, thanks a lot for such a detailed & extensive thread!
If you don't mind my asking, do you use any plug-in or software to calculate these numbers? and in that case, would you mind saying which one?
I'm highly interested in checking it out for myself :) Thank you!

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Originally Posted by Laurelinarien

Dragofer, firstly, thanks a lot for such a detailed & extensive thread!
If you don't mind my asking, do you use any plug-in or software to calculate these numbers? and in that case, would you mind saying which one?
I'm highly interested in checking it out for myself :) Thank you!

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You're welcome, and yes you're right, it's become quite extensive. A post every now and then, and soon you have a 10 post essay of fire runekeepers.

As for plugins, the closest is CombatAnalysis to simply show dps. That doesn't really work for small differences between rotations/openers because you would need many test runs to get reliable figures. It's more exact to do the maths. If you're interested in the method:

Outdated method.

Concerning the legacies:

I don't have legacies that reduce power cost on my LIs except for smouldering wrath power cost and on my heal equip. I just chose to neglect those and rely on the fact that there's always a LM in the raid group and there are always several types of power restoring pots available. Works fine for me.

I also tend to have legacies which are not part of my general rota - like Do not fall this Day CD - on switch LIs. That saves me a slot on my main LI which I can use to push my damage or healing output even further. Swapping LIs is so quick that it really is not a problem to do so before and after hitting Do not fall this Day. You'll be back on your main satchel before the animation of the skill is even through.

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Originally Posted by Daefareth

Concerning the legacies:

I don't have legacies that reduce power cost on my LIs except for smouldering wrath power cost and on my heal equip. I just chose to neglect those and rely on the fact that there's always a LM in the raid group and there are always several types of power restoring pots available. Works fine for me.

I also tend to have legacies which are not part of my general rota - like Do not fall this Day CD - on switch LIs. That saves me a slot on my main LI which I can use to push my damage or healing output even further. Swapping LIs is so quick that it really is not a problem to do so before and after hitting Do not fall this Day. You'll be back on your main satchel before the animation of the skill is even through.

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Fair points both, but the issue for me is that Turbine hasn’t exactly made good alternatives available. Going through each of the legacies:

Runestone
Battle-attuned power cost legacy

You’re right, this isn’t really needed. I’ve found power consumption of my ST rotation to be 4300 per min, so this legacy is worth 1000 icpr. Self-Motivation on the other hand is 5000 icpr when used 4x per minute and roughly half that when used 2x per minute. You normally use Self-Motivation anyway in long fights and you can get high icpr through fate tomes so power would only drain slowly.


Vitality legacy

At t59 this will give 216 vit, so it's worth about 875 mastery for robust will users, so 2.4% mastery.
In a self-buffed maxed t2c build which has 100k mastery and 390% tactical damage output, this is worth 0.6% dps in t2c - and nothing in glass cannon.

I've decided to get the Distracting Flame cooldown legacy instead because I've found a use for that skill in the advanced and advanced burst rotations for proccing mit debuffs when I see that the debuff isn't up.

The Combustion damage component is worth about 1.5% AoE dps based on earlier calculations, no matter whether in t2c or glass cannon.


Fate legacy

Weaker than the Vit legacy, worth 370 raw mastery in terms of mastery->masterful will essence conversions. If Vit doesn't make it, then neither will Fate.

One could argue that Vit and Fate could replace the 2 lightning legacies, gaining 1200 mastery on paper for fire. However, especially Shocking Words makes a good finishing move: when the target is dead in the next 5 seconds, it's much more effective to come with a big 30k crit than to refresh some dots. It'd be relatively safe to say that both paths are virtually equal, but having the lightning legacies on your runestone absolves you from a lot of gear grind.

Satchel
Vitality legacy

As found in the last post, this is worth 0.6% dps in t2c but nothing in glass cannon.


Fate legacy

As found in the last post, this is worth 370 raw mastery / 0.3% dps in both t2c and glass cannon.



Distracting Flame Damage Legacy

This is already in the legacies list, but it's being compared to stat legacies here:
At t59, the legacy reads +37.8%.

This is added on top of:
100% base
37.8% fire damage legacy
37.8% fire dot damage legacy
5% fire damage title
20% fire damage trait set bonus
25% fire dot damage trait
25% fire damage incombat buffs
27% fire damage from attunement (used mainly in single-target, so attunement will be effectively always full)

Sum: 277.6% base + 37.8% DF dmg legacy is a 13.6% increase to DF's damage.
Increasing a skill that does 5% of total dps by 13.6% is a 0.7% dps increase, both in t2c and glass cannon.

The DF damage legacy has now grown enough and stat abundance (mastery) is now so high that this legacy overtakes the vit legacy in t2c and is completely better in glass cannon.


Searing Words Damage legacy

Also already in the legacy list, also being compared to alternative options.
At t59, the legacy reads +23.4% Searing Words damage.

This is added on top of a base similar to that of DF. Attunement has no effect, but therefore it gets about +30% damage bonus from t3 Writ. It takes a little while to reach t3, but this number is close enough.

Sum: 280.6% + 23.4% Searing Words damage is an 8.3% increase to Searing Word's damage.
Increasing a skill that does 8-9% of the total by 8.3% is also a 0.7% dps increase, both in t2c and glass cannon.

This legacy too outperforms both Vit and Fate legacies.



Do Not Fall This Day cooldown

This can easily go on a swap LI, but what do you get for it? A Vit legacy which is worth 0.6% dps in t2c or a Fate legacy which is worth 0.3% dps in both glass cannon and t2c. For min-maxers this is an option, but for convenience I'd suggest to keep DnF on the main LI.