Lore Master virtues - New player question

[Gramelia]

I am not quite new to the Lore Master, but am past the "how to play my class" stage. However something that does confuse me a bit is what virtues I should be using. Should I be chasing Will and Vitality, or Tactical and Physical mastery/mitigations? Is Morale better than Vitality? What should I be equipping and why?

I should say that I am 90% soloer, but that may change once I get my character up to the heady hights where grouping still exists. I am not however interested in PvP.

[Malathran]

To an extent virtues are only really important endgame, if even then. However, some general standards I follow across all my characters is as follows. I use the top tier primary stat virtue for the class (in the case of lm's that would be wisdom) for some damage boost and then use both combo mitigation virtues (compassion and innocence) for the defense. After that it varies more but I commonly use zeal for the morale and mitigation and then while leveling at least throw whatever the best extra defense virtue there is on (empathy and the like) for a little more help getting mitigation up before it becomes superfluous by the endgame with better gear. Some other ones to look at are tolerance/fidelity for more tactical mitigation (which is generally significantly lower than physical) or valour for more morale. In the case of lm's I wasn't particularly impressed by the second tier will virtue but if you are desperate to get every last bit of damage out of your virtues you can go for it.

In general virtues are most used for help capping mitigations (particularly tactical, tho you barely need tactical mitigation on landscape) and then some morale/damage. Overall virtues aren't that important in the leveling process (even less so than top of the line gear which is what most level capped people deride about the midgame). If there are a few easy deeds to finish to get a key virtue up here and there go for it, but it general its far easier to just come back as a lvl 100 when you can one shot most stuff on a slayer deed and the like.

[Zodiac_13]

Virtues are very important nowadays, actually. They contribute meaningful amounts of stats.
For PvE:
Zeal, Innocence, Wisdom, Confidence, Fidelity. You should be able to cap mitigations with this.
For PvP:
Zeal, Innocence, Compassion, Charity, Fidelity. More physical mit. It's harder to cap Orc-craft mits (Monster player damage), than normal (common) mits.

[Malathran]

I would stress that they are are important... for upper tier Pve (instances, especially t2) and for pvp. For simply questing through landscape they can be helpful but far from critical. The largest area of impact virtues have are mitigations (especially tactical) and those aren't a big deal on landscape and tactical mitigation in particular is all but wasted on landscape.

Otherwise I agree that those are the most useful ones, just want to stress that virtues aren't going to make or break your character in most cases if you wait til endgame to really go about raising them.

[Nosdracir]

My rule of thumb for virtues. Your mileage may vary.

1. Always do every exploration deed in every area where the mobs are gray. This is just free TP. The virtue might be nice too, but mostly this is just running around a bit.

2. Before you enter Moria, always do all the slayer deeds in Ered Luin, The Shire, and Bree-Land. These are the easiest as you only need to kill 90 mobs. At level 30 plus this is something you can do when winding down after a party, or any other time. You can log out in the middle of the spiders or whatever, log in and kill for 10 minutes, log out, repeat, etc.

3. By type:

3.1 Main stat (Will for an LM) is useful for the first 60-80 levels, then fails to keep up with equipment.
3.2 Physical and Tactical mitigation are always good. There's a balance here. Depends on how you play LM. If you tank with Bear then Phys mit is less important because you get hit less.
3.3 Vitality, Morale, Armor, and Fate are all secondary.
3.4 Everything else is tertiary.

When you get close to 100, then you will want to Review/rethink what you've got.

Have fun!

[cdq1958]

I go for mitigations first. The main stat, Will, is easy enough to stack from gear once you're 75 or higher. After getting mitigations to cap, then I go for secondary defense. Vitality is a bit better than raw morale and with virtues, I would prefer improving defense as a LM first.

[Gramelia]

Thank you all for responding, I was afraid I would get lost amongst the spam, lol.

My character is still only in the 20s but I want to do the virtue deeds while questing in the areas where they are, not have to come back for the thrill of doing them 30-40 levels above them. For example killing slugs in the Shire at level 50 to increase my Burglar's Agility stat was hardly exciting and I wish I did back at level 10 when it would have been nore interesting.

So mitigations over stats? Tactical Mit as primary, as I let the bear/lynx do the work and I stand out of range buffing/debuffing and throwing the occassional damage spell?

[CampCounselor]

On my lore master mits take the primary position in terms of importance - I would actually suggest bumping your phys mits first, followed by tactical... This is for several reasons. First, many of the mobs you will encounter in the starter zones and beyond will deal primarily common or other forms of physical damage, so naturally you will want to build a strong resistance (not that stat ;-) ) to that damage type. At higher levels, phys mits are essential as well should you venture into the moors.... Orc Craft and fell Wrought mits should be close to if not capped in order to thrive as a moors-lm. However, Tact mits are important, and especially now with essence gear capping them should be easier than ever in case you do not have enough virtues after raising phys mits. Tact mits also prove especially effective in the moors against wargs (shadow-fang enables shadow damage), black arrow traiting Feel the Burn, War Leaders, Spiders, etc.... really all the classes if traited to deal tact damage... Tact is also useful in instances later on such as BG and moria instances where you can get hit for some pretty high numbers by mobs. Personally, I prefer boosting raw morale over vitality, simply because vitality adds +2 or +3 points for lm I believe vs the +5 for heavy, warden, and beorning. Because of this you won't see such a yield from vitality traits as those classes, and therefore morale may be your best option. In essences it certainly is. Will and resistance follow in terms of importance.

But, truth be told.... As a new lore master don't worry too much about your virtues at first.... enjoy the class, learn the lines (I encourage exploring yellow/red mix for that classic lm of old setup ) and have fun. Enjoy.


Mahenarth R7 LM / Iorgorn - 100 Warden / Valion - 100 RK / Gravorian - 41 Beorning
Gathfaz R9 BA / Macniar - R5 Warg /
Counseling 'Moors Campers in Distress since 1784.
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