Essences and their troubles

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Originally Posted by HoarseDev

Yup. First time out this system is intentionally getting a soft-launch treatment. By this I mean that it is intentionally limited so we can see what players do with it before we go nuts. We've got more stuff waiting to go out and tweaks to make on what is out there already.

There will be other gear with sockets.
The removal scroll will become more readily available.
There will be more types of essences.
Stats will need balancing.

Keep the feedback coming.

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my feedback thus far. Great system, feels like progression daily, and the trading is enjoyable. What I think would HUGELY benefit this system is the ability to destroy old essences in armor slots by placing new ones in them. Currently the yellows are worthless because of how the essences stay on the armor unless you buy a removal thing with TP. If you could put in upgraded essences by destroying lesser essences in the armor, that would make yellows more useful.

Also, One essence is being coveted above all others: morale. because there's only one box that drops it. Please consider having it drop from two different boxes.

It's pretty clear to me that the new essences is a good way to make people buy more bag and vault slots. They drop quite often and the gear drop rate is much lower. I actually sell all yellow essences to NPC's already.

Two things I see that would make using essence gear something I'd work towards :

1. Being able to replace the essences in a piece with a different one. Either the Scrolls need to become much more common, or destroying one essence with a new one need to happen.
2. Common Crafting recipe to upgrade yellows. Right now, their vendor trash. No way I'm going to put them on anything since 1. doesn't exist yet. And with no upgrade path, they're useless.

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Originally Posted by HoarseDev

The removal scroll will become more readily available.

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What does it mean exactly?

Thanks

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Originally Posted by Yulin-Gladden

Two things I see that would make using essence gear something I'd work towards :

1. Being able to replace the essences in a piece with a different one. Either the Scrolls need to become much more common, or destroying one essence with a new one need to happen.
2. Common Crafting recipe to upgrade yellows. Right now, their vendor trash. No way I'm going to put them on anything since 1. doesn't exist yet. And with no upgrade path, they're useless.

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These two definitely.!

ATM is like : - I won't use any essence on this piece of armour until I get all maxed essence I need, so I won't use this piece of armour until it's "complete"

The system SHOULD more be like: - I'm getting this armour piece and filling it with tier 1 essences of the stats I need, I'm equipping it already (= it's comparable to common drop in istance), over time, with luck in dropping (& with crafting ecc) I will replace essences on my armour piece to become stronger.

First the Essence System,

Please give us some Tolkien lore behind the essences. Are they like the lost seeing stones where no one really knows where they came from and how many there are? I think the essence system can be good if it is implemented properly and hopefully more carefully considered than the finesse system. I am one who loves to follow through the stories of quest chains and resent grinding. I especially dislike doing the same instances over and over again 100 times for the chance to get a specific piece item unless maybe the content or sequence in an instance is not identical every time, but that is another discussion.

I understand the purpose of the essence system which is to basically give players the ability to choose and upgrade their own armor gear pieces. If the system is revised such that one type of essence can be upgraded by another. Another is to give us some risk/reward to gain these items. Please make it a little challenging so as we remember the quest or battles we completed, but not impossible obtain for those us who do solo adventuring of the landscapes, as I remember the Moria instance gear a few years back.

As one who does and enjoys a lot of crafting for kinfolk and friendly other kinships, please give us some clear documentation as to how the essence system works and what the positive intentions in a developer guide like in the old days when new elements were added to the game. Please give us clear ways, perhaps craft-able solvents, to remove these essence items if we decide that we want to change essence types for different adventures. I haven't found any of these essence items yet in my travels, so I don't know if there is a cosmetic visible change to our armor as our characters are viewable in game. But, I think it would be cool to craft essence items that add different visible enhancements to our armor and outfits. Perhaps there could be a tiered crafting tree of how different essences could be crafted. I also loved the idea of adding an essence type system to the cooking profession and easily able to fit into lore. You could make specific areas in lotro become well known for specific food dishes or spices which makes their food experience extra special.

As for Update 14:

I find the developer notes pathetic at best. Sure there is a paragraph and a picture about each area. But, they are sorely lacking in how they fit into Tolkien lore and what makes them unique. The explanation of the game update elements is almost non-existent. What did you change and why. Your developer team knows this in depth because they have been working on it for months. I for one appreciate your efforts and as a java programmer, I also know very little of the development pieces are easy. Perhaps explain the ideas, processes, and hopeful expectations of what is intended to be accomplished. For example, A common concern I have seen in this thread is level upgrade to 100. I am sure there is good reasoning, and there were extensive discussions behind the scenes. But, your customer audience is left in the dark here. Enlighten us please! Thank you for all your many efforts Turbine.

May honour always know your deeds well,

Lyzonlightheart of Alliance For Valour

I'm pretty sure it's gonna be like this rather sooner than later. So I started putting this gear on. For instance: Raw morale in yellow has about 20 points less than it has in purple and probably about 50 points less than teal. So why bother? And what do you wear instead? I go with 2 teals per item and the rest may be yellow. It's still a lot better than getting other gear. If necessairy I'll get a second slotted item to replace the one I already have on, instead of buying a scroll
But I sure hope this gets more user-friendly soon.

My number 1 request is to make essences that are already slotted over writable for free like relics are. As it is I'm not using some of my epic slotted armor because it is too weak without essences and I don't have any that I 'd like permanently slotted (without having to pay to remove them).

My number one problem with essences is the crafting. While it has been pointed out that the benefits (even from yellow to gold) are marginal, the difference adds up quickly when you consider all yellow/purple and all teal/gold. The difference means a lot to people who raid (like myself).

The fact that these recipes are single use is ridiculous. The fact that some of them need a shard is ridiculous. The fact that they cost 50 rep items is ridiculous (when combined with the fact that they are single use). The fact that they cost 40 TP each is ridiculous. Theoretically (to get all gold teal essences) I would spend:

40*28= 1120 Turbine Points
50*20(assuming that perhaps you get lucky with a few teal drops)= 1000 rep pieces.

Now, again, I believe that there should be something of a grind or workload for those who want top-notch gear, but I really find this over the top. I hope that this is in the future.

I'm running into some of the same issues mentioned by others.

1. I have no idea what to do with them.
   I have no armour yet that works with these (L70) (L95 with L95 PVP Armour)
2. They are taking up a lot of bag space
3. Most of the ones I'm getting are those "minor" ones that folks can't even give away on /world
4. There's no way to upgrade them to something better at my level (L70).
   I thought these would be like relic combinations and I could roll them up but it seems not.
   
   
5. They are taking up a LOT of space in my vault...
6. Did I mention they are taking up a lot of space in the vault?
7. Oh forgot to mention: THEY TAKE UP SPACE - ok I think that's good there

Looking forward to the next update with more on the essence trials - but I think I'm gonna dump the ones I have for now...

Another issue that came to my mind these days: Skirmishes, big battles and classic scaleable instances are almost completely disintegrated from the new essence-system. There are some rare drops every now and then but just about as often as any other place on middle earth. And there's some pretty useless purple slotted gear to be found. But aside from that: nothing. The consequence: Most of the existing end-game isn't being played (only the one place where you get first age symbols most quickly which at the moment is OD T1). You can gear yourself up in Helm's Deep within 5-10 runs. After that, you're only after the essence-system and therefore no longer in the older endgame. Yeah, that may be good for the new endgame. But in the long run we need both to work alongside in order to keep us logging in. New endgame-content will get boring quickly for its lack of challenge - all the more after this latest hotfix/update.

So how to integrate classic instances, skirmishes and big battles into the essence system?
- teal and orange essences on T2 cm in chests.
- rare recipes to upgrade essences in chests
- new slotted jewellery (teal and orange) in Helm's Deep
- new slotted gear/sets in classic instances

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HoarseDev

Yup. First time out this system is intentionally getting a soft-launch treatment. By this I mean that it is intentionally limited so we can see what players do with it before we go nuts. We've got more stuff waiting to go out and tweaks to make on what is out there already.

....
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Stats will need balancing.

Keep the feedback coming.

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to be honest, i am afraid by this sentence, because many times when things get balanced here in someway
it ends up in something ... unenjoyable.
Not to mention that it can screw everyone that has already thought out or build there armor only to see that they need to edit things
which in combination with the limited removal/editing of essence will rise much anger :/

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Originally Posted by Malganis_Lefay

to be honest, i am afraid by this sentence, because many times when things get balanced here in someway
it ends up in something ... unenjoyable.
Not to mention that it can screw everyone that has already thought out or build there armor only to see that they need to edit things
which in combination with the limited removal/editing of essence will rise much anger :/

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You can't make a rule out of that. Yeah: Vitality went from over- to underpowered. But fate for instance needed a lift and they didn't do it that bad. Balancing stats is a never ending process anyways. Sometimes it works out for the better, sometimes for the worse.

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Originally Posted by GithlithMonaghan

You can't make a rule out of that. Yeah: Vitality went from over- to underpowered. But fate for instance needed a lift and they didn't do it that bad. Balancing stats is a never ending process anyways. Sometimes it works out for the better, sometimes for the worse.

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i dont say that this happens always,
but i would say that it happened a littlebit to often for my taste in the past,
and i hope that i am wrong with my bad feeling

Been taking a look at the essence system from a distance and have come to a few conclusions. Foremost among them, the essence system is inferior, stat-wise. Right now the best essence gear can be obtained relatively easily (grind DA content for a bit and you'll have enough to barter with; I was donating my silver tokens and giving the rep tokens I capped to kinnies; if I hadn't I'd have quite a stockpile by now).

The essences seriously need to step up the drop rate, particularly the nicer ones (those crafted ones are being sold on the AH for 300g). Right now the cheapest GREEN (minor) essence of will is being sold for 2.5g bid with 5g buyout on Landroval. The cheapest PURPLE (major) essence of will is being sold for 40g bid with 45g buyout. That is ridiculous.

The recipes should NOT be single-use and there needs to be a wider variety of who can craft what. Have yellow essences drop from any old mob. Have recipes that make purple uncritted and teal critted (save gold for raid drops or maybe 7d cd guild craftables).

The values of the essences are hugely inferior in some cases and blown out of proportion in others. The idea was to give us the freedom of customization, right? Well, right now there is really very little customization options.

Her's an example. I have a lvl 100 teal Greater Resolute Gloves of Penetration (GRGoP; drops from instanced group content). It's stats are as follows:

905 Armour
239 Will
205 Vitality
768 Critical Rating
1874 Finesse Rating

Now, the equivalent Light Nadhin Gauntlets (LNG) from DA also have 905 Armour, 119 Will, and 4 essence slots.

Well, in order to get the will to at least MEET the amount found on my GRGoP, I have to add a will essence. Now, running off lvl 100 yellow or purple essences, I will put in a lvl 100 purple essence of will (119 will). Now I have:

905 Armour
238 Will
3 essence slots remaining

Well, what's will without some vitality? Good thing I have a lvl 100 purple essence of vitality (119 vit) lying around. So I slot that.

905 Armour
238 Will
119 Vitality
2 essence slots remaining

My vitality is seriously lower than that of my GRGoP. I'll add another essence of vitality.

905 Armour
238 Will
238 Vitality
1 essence slot remaining

Okay, well, the armour is the same. The will is 1 point inferior. The vitality is 33 points higher but the alternative is being 86 points lower. And we have a whopping 1 slot left. I could add my lvl 100 purple essence of critical rating (1075 crit) or my lvl 95 green essence of finesse (3012 finesse) but I can't have even a little of both. :(

There is NO WAY you can roll the dice and get any single piece of essence gear to be comparable to its standard gear counterpart. Something gets lost. In order to have your main stat be as strong in the essence gear as it is in standard gear, you MUST waste an essence slot on more will. Why do this? Please, make the base, built-in main stat on all essence gear START OUT being comparable. If my lvl 100 GRGop has 239 Will, then make the base value for will on the LNG be 239. Something similar must be done for vitality. Either make some of it built in, or all of it built in, or make those vitality essences (even the most basic among them) a lot greater in value.

When HD rolled out it was determined that ALL gear would have a main stat of a large amount with vitality being slightly less. Thus the 238 Will and 205 Vitality on the LNG. The same MUST be true for essence gear. We shouldn't have to chew up 3 of our 4 slots just so that our will and vitality will be comparable to that of non-essence counterparts. If we want our main stat and vitality to be comparable, that means we are left with just 1 slot left for other stats, which absolutely sucks because no other piece of gear we use will be that lame.

So, to wrap it up, in the above example I have to waste 3 slots just to get my two main stats to meet the values of non-essence gear of that quality. And then I have all these peripheral essences (ones with mastery, mitigation, resistance, etc) that have values greatly larger than that of standard gear. I'm not sure what I think on this.

I would say that any essence gear should almost automatically be BETTER than standard gear. Otherwise, what's the point? We shouldn't have to waste 3 slots just to get our two main stats up to par. If we are going to go through this HUGE grindfest, then we should get the reward of having gear that is superior to the rest of the gear, the same way our Legendary Weapons are superior to standard crafted, looted or quest rewarded weapons. Otherwise, what's the point? Who wants to go through a huge grind for something that is at best comparable? Let's see, grind for a long time or go the quick route for something just as good? O.o

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Originally Posted by Mar-Evayave

905 Armour
238 Will
3 essence slots remaining
Well, what's will without some vitality? Good thing I have a lvl 100 purple essence of vitality (119 vit) lying around. So I slot that.

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I replace Vitality (rather useless now, in particular for classes with 1 * 3 for Vitality/Morale) with Morale essences (Cyan ones are hard to get (cannot be crafted), but even Purple can be sufficient)
And I can get better stats with the 2 remaining slots.

Hi Fay,

For your example: instead of using 2 vit essences, get a purple morale essence instead. Barter for essences with the faction coins, you can get teals from those boxes. The only boxes that you currently cannot get are the ones blocked by server event. Whatever essences you get from the barter boxes you don't want or need, sell or trade them.

So....

Lets say if you get a teal will from a barter box (+139), procure a purple morale (+758), use your purple crit and a your green finesse

You stats will be:

905 Armour
258 will - 119+139
758 morale - approx 252 vit
1075 crit rating
3012 finesse rating

Final cost are some barter coins and the cost of the morale essence. Heck, you may even be able to use a minor 100 or major 95 morale essence.

That is significantly better than the stats from the Greater Resolute Gloves of Penetration.

It's all in how you look at the different combinations that are available.

The biggest difference I noticed is lvl 95 crafted teals had up to 5 stats, whereas the new armor is down to 4 stats. You have to mix it up to offset between gear pieces to make up differences.

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Originally Posted by Mar-Evayave

Been taking a look at the essence system from a distance and have come to a few conclusions. Foremost among them, the essence system is inferior, stat-wise. Right now the best essence gear can be obtained relatively easily (grind DA content for a bit and you'll have enough to barter with; I was donating my silver tokens and giving the rep tokens I capped to kinnies; if I hadn't I'd have quite a stockpile by now).

The essences seriously need to step up the drop rate, particularly the nicer ones (those crafted ones are being sold on the AH for 300g). Right now the cheapest GREEN (minor) essence of will is being sold for 2.5g bid with 5g buyout on Landroval. The cheapest PURPLE (major) essence of will is being sold for 40g bid with 45g buyout. That is ridiculous.

The recipes should NOT be single-use and there needs to be a wider variety of who can craft what. Have yellow essences drop from any old mob. Have recipes that make purple uncritted and teal critted (save gold for raid drops or maybe 7d cd guild craftables).

The values of the essences are hugely inferior in some cases and blown out of proportion in others. The idea was to give us the freedom of customization, right? Well, right now there is really very little customization options.

Her's an example. I have a lvl 100 teal Greater Resolute Gloves of Penetration (GRGoP; drops from instanced group content). It's stats are as follows:

905 Armour
239 Will
205 Vitality
768 Critical Rating
1874 Finesse Rating

Now, the equivalent Light Nadhin Gauntlets (LNG) from DA also have 905 Armour, 119 Will, and 4 essence slots.

Well, in order to get the will to at least MEET the amount found on my GRGoP, I have to add a will essence. Now, running off lvl 100 yellow or purple essences, I will put in a lvl 100 purple essence of will (119 will). Now I have:

905 Armour
238 Will
3 essence slots remaining

Well, what's will without some vitality? Good thing I have a lvl 100 purple essence of vitality (119 vit) lying around. So I slot that.

905 Armour
238 Will
119 Vitality
2 essence slots remaining

My vitality is seriously lower than that of my GRGoP. I'll add another essence of vitality.

905 Armour
238 Will
238 Vitality
1 essence slot remaining

Okay, well, the armour is the same. The will is 1 point inferior. The vitality is 33 points higher but the alternative is being 86 points lower. And we have a whopping 1 slot left. I could add my lvl 100 purple essence of critical rating (1075 crit) or my lvl 95 green essence of finesse (3012 finesse) but I can't have even a little of both. :(

There is NO WAY you can roll the dice and get any single piece of essence gear to be comparable to its standard gear counterpart. Something gets lost. In order to have your main stat be as strong in the essence gear as it is in standard gear, you MUST waste an essence slot on more will. Why do this? Please, make the base, built-in main stat on all essence gear START OUT being comparable. If my lvl 100 GRGop has 239 Will, then make the base value for will on the LNG be 239. Something similar must be done for vitality. Either make some of it built in, or all of it built in, or make those vitality essences (even the most basic among them) a lot greater in value.

When HD rolled out it was determined that ALL gear would have a main stat of a large amount with vitality being slightly less. Thus the 238 Will and 205 Vitality on the LNG. The same MUST be true for essence gear. We shouldn't have to chew up 3 of our 4 slots just so that our will and vitality will be comparable to that of non-essence counterparts. If we want our main stat and vitality to be comparable, that means we are left with just 1 slot left for other stats, which absolutely sucks because no other piece of gear we use will be that lame.

So, to wrap it up, in the above example I have to waste 3 slots just to get my two main stats to meet the values of non-essence gear of that quality. And then I have all these peripheral essences (ones with mastery, mitigation, resistance, etc) that have values greatly larger than that of standard gear. I'm not sure what I think on this.

I would say that any essence gear should almost automatically be BETTER than standard gear. Otherwise, what's the point? We shouldn't have to waste 3 slots just to get our two main stats up to par. If we are going to go through this HUGE grindfest, then we should get the reward of having gear that is superior to the rest of the gear, the same way our Legendary Weapons are superior to standard crafted, looted or quest rewarded weapons. Otherwise, what's the point? Who wants to go through a huge grind for something that is at best comparable? Let's see, grind for a long time or go the quick route for something just as good? O.o

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I went through this exercise last week for my captain. I looked at the Dol Amroth Captain barter set (the one with set bonuses), tallied up all the stats, and came up with this:

Total Stats on Captain Class Armour:
1434 Might
1239 Vitality
170 Fate
2918 Crit Rating
6091 Finesse
614 Physical Mastery
1544 Crit Defense
377 Power

Then I started looking at all the different essence values, and came up with this (leaving out the values for the gold-quality essences as they are rarer):

Essence Values (Yellow/Purple/Teal):
Base Stat: 116/119/136
Avoidance (Block, Parry, or Evade): 1053/1075/1229
Critical Rating: 1053/1075/1229
Critical Defense: 2646/2702/3088
Mastery: 1053/1075/1229
Mitigation: 2370/2420/2766
Resistance: 1604/1638/1872
Power: 644/660/755
Morale: 746/765/875
Finesse: 3231/3280/3749
Incoming Healing: 2105.6/2150.4/2457.6

I then compared the stats of the set armor with the essences, and assigned an appropriate number of essences (in bulk, rather than per piece) to the collection of stats, and came up with this:

Total Essences Needed to Match Class Armour:
6 Essences of Might (plus 6 inherent, i.e. this stat comes on the armor to start with)
10 Essences of Vitality (one on each, two on four pieces of armor)
1 ½ Essences of Fate
3 Essence of Crit Rating
2 Essences of Finesse
½ Essence of Power
½ Essence of Mastery
½ Essence Of Crit Defense

It started to make sense once I realized that I had to look at the aggregate stats, rather than each piece individually because, as you noticed, some stats don’t add up to a full essence value. The armor set had roughly 24 essences to make up its total stats (which makes sense because each of the six pieces of Dol Amroth essence armour available (teal quality) has four essence slots). At this point, I started to think about what stats I wanted more or less of, and made a plan for what I’d put on the armor in total:

Captain Essence Armour Build:
- 6 Essence of Might (1 on each piece of armor)
- 10 Essences of Vitality (2 on four pieces, and 1 on two pieces of armor) OR 5 Essences of Vitality AND 5 Essences of Morale (to get a bigger morale boost for my captain if he tanks at the cost of slightly lower resistance with the lower vitality)
- 4 Essences of Fate (I love more in combat power regeneration)
- 2 Essences of Crit Rating
- 1 Essence of Finesse
- 1 Essence of Crit Defense

As you can see, I only slightly modified the build from the class armour set. I decided I didn’t need the half-essence value of power (since I’d have to waste a full essence to get it), but wanted more crit defense and fate. Overall, I think the system has promise, but it’s a heck of a lot of work (in its current implementation) for what is at best a side-grade, rather than an upgrade. For the system to be successful, purple essences need to be very common, and we need the ability to overwrite slotted essences with something new, rather than having to remove them first. Furthermore, the essences that provide mastery need to be buffed because there is really no point in slotting them over a stat essence of the same tier. A level 100 purple might essence provides 119 might, which gives 1190 mastery, as opposed to an essence of physical mastery, which only gives 1075. Furthermore, for classes that benefit from both physical AND tactical mastery (such as captains), that 119 might provides 1190 physical AND tactical mastery. A captain would be losing out by slotting a mastery essence in its current value over a stat essence.

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Originally Posted by Castorix

I replace Vitality (rather useless now, in particular for classes with 1 * 3 for Vitality/Morale) with Morale essences (Cyan ones are hard to get (cannot be crafted), but even Purple can be sufficient)
And I can get better stats with the 2 remaining slots.

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Something just feels wrong about not using Vitality. It's like that "red is the new green" type of saying, or whatever, only in this case it's vitality and fate. What's with those two stats? O.o

But thanks to you and Crushuc for explaining possible alternatives. I still think it's grade-A dumb to pretty much force us to waste valuable essence slots on our main-stat (I still think the base main stat that comes built-in should be comparable to other pieces of gear without having to add more in), but ah well. Can't win them all I guess.

And wowzer, Othniel. That's a LOT of thought put into it. I was half-tempted to try something like that myself. I guess I'll have to now, and see if I can't come up with a configuration that is favorable.

Which leaves only one remaining complaint. Seriously... the audacity... will aud gear ever see a revamp like this? Or maybe just have aud removed, or made passive so that we don't have to get the gear? With the exception of the audacity (and the crit defence in the 2-piece set bonuses), PvMP gear is so inferior to PvE gear. :(

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Originally Posted by Mar-Evayave

Something just feels wrong about not using Vitality. It's like that "red is the new green" type of saying, or whatever, only in this case it's vitality and fate. What's with those two stats? O.o

But thanks to you and Crushuc for explaining possible alternatives. I still think it's grade-A dumb to pretty much force us to waste valuable essence slots on our main-stat (I still think the base main stat that comes built-in should be comparable to other pieces of gear without having to add more in), but ah well. Can't win them all I guess.

And wowzer, Othniel. That's a LOT of thought put into it. I was half-tempted to try something like that myself. I guess I'll have to now, and see if I can't come up with a configuration that is favorable.

Which leaves only one remaining complaint. Seriously... the audacity... will aud gear ever see a revamp like this? Or maybe just have aud removed, or made passive so that we don't have to get the gear? With the exception of the audacity (and the crit defence in the 2-piece set bonuses), PvMP gear is so inferior to PvE gear. :(

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Eh, it was fun for me. I like to do that sort of stuff. I think a good rule of thumb for a basic set-up is one of each main stat essence per armour piece, one of each vitality and/or morale essences per piece (more, depending on the class or if you think you need it), a bit of fate, and then a mix of finesse, crit, and crit defense depending on the class.

It feels wrong to me as well not to use vitality, but the difference between a vitality essence and a morale essence is about 100-200 morale per essence for a tank, and 300-400 morale for a non-tank, depending on the quality. If you have 5, that's a difference of 500-1000 morale for a tank, and 1500-2000 morale for a non-tank, which isn't negligible. The trade-off is about 240-270 resistance per essence that you don't have (plus a tiny bit of non-combat morale regen), very roughly about 2% resistance. I haven't done the math, but you could probably offset the amount of resistance loss-to-morale gain by adding a resistance essence and still come out ahead.

For strictly PVE build is vitality worthless; morale essence gives more morale than vitality one and resistance is almost useless in PVE.
Main stat gives currently only 8 mastery per point, that means if you don't need secondary stats, going with mastery essence is the way.

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Originally Posted by Othniel

A level 100 purple might essence provides 119 might, which gives 1190 mastery, as opposed to an essence of physical mastery, which only gives 1075. Furthermore, for classes that benefit from both physical AND tactical mastery (such as captains), that 119 might provides 1190 physical AND tactical mastery. A captain would be losing out by slotting a mastery essence in its current value over a stat essence.

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Thanks Othniel. Good strategy with looking at the total essenses! I will use this method to wrap my head around the system:)

One little error only: Main-stat only gives 8 mastery per point (since u13 i think) So 119 Might is only 952 Mastery. So if the secondary stat-contribution is capped (or unimportant for your class) the raw mastery ones can be better.

Regards
/T

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Originally Posted by Amickson

Main stat gives currently only 8 mastery per point, that means if you don't need secondary stats, going with mastery essence is the way.

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Unless you are one of those lucky lucky classes that need both physical and tactical mastery (captain). in which case you will have to resign yourself to having lower totals of both.

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Originally Posted by aardnebby

Unless you are one of those lucky lucky classes that need both physical and tactical mastery (captain). in which case you will have to resign yourself to having lower totals of both.

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I'm prioritising tac mastery for light damage and healing over physical for mah cappeh. But yes.

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Originally Posted by Aedfrith

I'm prioritising tac mastery for light damage and healing over physical for mah cappeh. But yes.

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I have found the captain is not even in the same league as a minstrel or RK for healing, so in a raid situation it comes down to red line for easy stuff/DPS race and yellow line for stuff where we need panic skills or off-tanking. And if it isn't a raid situation, then any fairly decent gear will be enough for you to fill the relevant roles, without going to the effort of building a custom Essence armour set just for healing.


Tactical matters for DPS to a lesser degree than physical so I am currently wavering between abandoning tactical mastery altogether for a pure phys mastery build. After all, ignoring warsteeds we have all of 2 tactical damage skills, and the only other benefit (our heals) are negligible anyway.