Preparing for my first set of level 100 LI and suddenly unsure due to update 23. Could use advice.

[swarmofseals]

I just hit 100 for the first time and have been starting to level a pair of 100 first ages to eventually imbue. I really want to make sure I get the legacies right the first time, if possible.

For main hand, the legacies that seem even remotely worth considering are:

Light Damage
Spear Gambit Damage
Gambit Lifetap Damage
Surety of Death Damage over Time
Resolution Damage
Recklessness Critical Rating
Persevere Block Rating
Shield Tactics Mitigation Rating
Agility
Vitality

Here, there are five that seem obviously good: light damage, spear gambit damage, surety of death DOT, agility and vitality. The rest all seem questionable to me. Gambit lifetap damage should be fine, but iirc these skills aren't exactly high damage to begin with, and I'm not sure how much they get used at cap. Can anyone shed some light on that? Resolution Damage has the same problem, of course. Then the last three all add flat amounts to ratings, which I've been told to be skeptical of. The fact that mitigations and ratings are changing in U23 makes me even more skeptical. I've heard good things about Recklessness Critical Rating though, so maybe I am wrong?

The problem with Recklessness Critical Rating is that so far I haven't even used Recklessness. Maybe I should be using it, but early on I was heavily advised to go blue line primary red line secondary while leveling. I've focused on AOE for the most part and it's been super smooth sailing. With the 22.2 changes though maybe I should have switched over to primary red line secondary blue line? What is the current conventional wisdom for endgame?

For Javelin, the following seem worth considering:

Fist Gambit Damage
Spear-Shield Gambit Damage
Shield Gambit Healing
Fist Gambit Critical Rating
Fist Gambit Evade Rating
Defiant Challenge Damage Return
Heal Bonus for Conviction
Agility
Vitality

Here, First Gambit Damage, Spear-Shield Gambit Damage, Shield Gambit Healing, Agility and Vitality seem like the no-brainers.

Fist Gambit CR and ER seem fine, but again I'm skeptical of anything that adds a flat rating bonus. Heal Bonus for Conviction is nice, but I don't actually use Conviction much (maybe I should?) and instead tend to use the 2-1 line for heals. Maybe this one is needed for tanking though? Defiant Challenge Damage Return is nice, but it might not be super relevant if I'm going to be going for red line primary, and it certainly seems like it wouldn't be that relevant in endgame group content. Maybe I'm wrong about that though.

Any help you all could provide would be most appreciated as I really don't want to make the wrong call now and find out 20 levels later that I need to go back and change something.

[Oelle]

If you'd like an annoying advice: wait till the ILI rework is done and imbue then. Will save you a huge amount of grind.
Sadly, we dont know when that will happen :P

Currently, Agility and Vitality are irrelevant, because their values are so low.
I guess, that may change in a year or so... but noone knows.

Anyway... there are 8 questreward scrolls that allow you to exchange ILI legacies afterwards, so there is room for mistakes. And there is no such thing as the perfect legacy setting for all situations, it all depends.

[Elflord410]

I would stay away from the Agility and Vitality legacies as their contributions will be very quickly overshadowed by equipment stats and essences. Almost any legacy would, in the long run, be much more useful. I would focus on the DPS, mitigation, and healing legacies.

[swarmofseals]

If you'd like an annoying advice: wait till the ILI rework is done and imbue then. Will save you a huge amount of grind.
Sadly, we dont know when that will happen :P

Currently, Agility and Vitality are irrelevant, because their values are so low.
I guess, that may change in a year or so... but noone knows.

Anyway... there are 8 questreward scrolls that allow you to exchange ILI legacies afterwards, so there is room for mistakes. And there is no such thing as the perfect legacy setting for all situations, it all depends.

Thanks. I haven't heard anything about an ILI rework. Is it even plausible that it will happen within a month or two? I'm definitely slow playing and doing all the content (I'm just starting Stonedeans at level 100, that's how overleveled I am) and plan to continue to do so, so I have some of West Rohan and all of Gondor to do before I even get to anything that could theoretically be a challenge. I can definitely wait on imbueing, but I'd be wasting an awful lot of IEXP.

What makes you think that the ILI rework will save a huge grind? I'm very curious as I've heard nothing about it.

[Oelle]

Thanks. I haven't heard anything about an ILI rework. Is it even plausible that it will happen within a month or two? I'm definitely slow playing and doing all the content (I'm just starting Stonedeans at level 100, that's how overleveled I am) and plan to continue to do so, so I have some of West Rohan and all of Gondor to do before I even get to anything that could theoretically be a challenge. I can definitely wait on imbueing, but I'd be wasting an awful lot of IEXP.

What makes you think that the ILI rework will save a huge grind? I'm very curious as I've heard nothing about it.

If it wont, there is no use for it^^
We know no date. What we know is, that DEVs acknowledged, that the ILI system ages badly and needs a rework and there was a plan to work on that in 2019.

Issues players have with ILI system:
-its extremely grindy
-there is no catch-up-system for latecomers
-many stats dont get scaled up and therefore get worse the higher the player levels, although we were told the items would "grow with us".
-mainstats (DPS/healing/tacticalDPS) and all other ratings grow with weird curves and only via crystals/scrolls not with characterlevel
-therefore, lvl100 toons can have a far better weapon than a lvl120 toon
-lots of good unimbued legacies vanished with imbuement
-stat explosion on some legacies is hard to balance
-no way to choose those perfect headstats like might+crit+morale for twohanded melees or +5% damage on LM books, which is more of an issue if items stay permanent than if only short-time-items
-mordor relics (not really ILI specific)
-others I forgot

If they rework the ILI system and dont touch the worst issues, then all that work is wasted. Thats why I think you'll have less grind, if you start with that afterwards.

[swarmofseals]

If it wont, there is no use for it^^
We know no date. What we know is, that DEVs acknowledged, that the ILI system ages badly and needs a rework and there was a plan to work on that in 2019.

Issues players have with ILI system:
-its extremely grindy
-there is no catch-up-system for latecomers
-many stats dont get scaled up and therefore get worse the higher the player levels, although we were told the items would "grow with us".
-mainstats (DPS/healing/tacticalDPS) and all other ratings grow with weird curves and only via crystals/scrolls not with characterlevel
-therefore, lvl100 toons can have a far better weapon than a lvl120 toon
-lots of good unimbued legacies vanished with imbuement
-stat explosion on some legacies is hard to balance
-no way to choose those perfect headstats like might+crit+morale for twohanded melees or +5% damage on LM books, which is more of an issue if items stay permanent than if only short-time-items
-mordor relics (not really ILI specific)
-others I forgot

If they rework the ILI system and dont touch the worst issues, then all that work is wasted. Thats why I think you'll have less grind, if you start with that afterwards.

Ahh, I see. Yeah, if they work on it in 2019 we probably wont see it until mid to late 2019 at the earliest. Not sure it makes sense to wait on imbuement then because it would basically mean having to shelve this character (or LOTRO) for months.

When you say "lvl100 toons can have a far better weapon than a lvl120 toon" do you mean better relative to on-level content or do you mean objectively better?

[Oelle]

Ahh, I see. Yeah, if they work on it in 2019 we probably wont see it until mid to late 2019 at the earliest. Not sure it makes sense to wait on imbuement then because it would basically mean having to shelve this character (or LOTRO) for months.

When you say "lvl100 toons can have a far better weapon than a lvl120 toon" do you mean better relative to on-level content or do you mean objectively better?

objectively better.

you can max out your ILI directly after imbueing. This will give you a weapon with double the DPS at lvl100 of a non-maxxed out lvl120 ILI weapon (just because the weapon actually doesnt care about your level, so is infact the same), on top of all those legacies that make maxxed out weapons FAR better than those of people who didnt to the grind.

[swarmofseals]

objectively better.

you can max out your ILI directly after imbueing. This will give you a weapon with double the DPS at lvl100 of a non-maxxed out lvl120 ILI weapon (just because the weapon actually doesnt care about your level, so is infact the same), on top of all those legacies that make maxxed out weapons FAR better than those of people who didnt to the grind.

So lets say you imbue your LI at 100 and max it out. Then you level to 101 -- does the DPS of your weapon now drop? Or is it just no longer maxed? Isn't it unfair to compare a maxed out LI at one level to a non-maxed LI at another level? Or is it just that much easier to max out your LI at level 100 vs. cap?

Sorry to be such a bother about this! Just trying to understand the system before I get caught up in it.

[Oelle]

So lets say you imbue your LI at 100 and max it out. Then you level to 101 -- does the DPS of your weapon now drop? Or is it just no longer maxed? Isn't it unfair to compare a maxed out LI at one level to a non-maxed LI at another level? Or is it just that much easier to max out your LI at level 100 vs. cap?

Sorry to be such a bother about this! Just trying to understand the system before I get caught up in it.

The DPS doesnt drop. I was comparing maxxed out lvl100 vs non-maxxed-out highlvl.
still, that situation was never possible before imbuement.
There was never a way for any weapon to be stronger than the overnext levelcap weapon.
Now, thats possible.

The grind to max out weapons is high enough, that many just never finished it. And I'm quite sure, that there are players with lvl100-106, who wear better obviously better weapons than lvl115 players. There are even lvl115 players, who dont wear ILI at all, who simply use non-legendary weapons, because those have much higher DPS values than their ILI, because they didnt yet gather 17+ crystals...

Its not easier to max out earlier, it doesnt matter when it happens.

[swarmofseals]

The DPS doesnt drop. I was comparing maxxed out lvl100 vs non-maxxed-out highlvl.
still, that situation was never possible before imbuement.
There was never a way for any weapon to be stronger than the overnext levelcap weapon.
Now, thats possible.

The grind to max out weapons is high enough, that many just never finished it. And I'm quite sure, that there are players with lvl100-106, who wear better obviously better weapons than lvl115 players. There are even lvl115 players, who dont wear ILI at all, who simply use non-legendary weapons, because those have much higher DPS values than their ILI, because they didnt yet gather 17+ crystals...

Its not easier to max out earlier, it doesnt matter when it happens.

Ahh OK, that makes more sense. I've actually got 14 crystals stored up already and should be able to nab a bunch more at the next festival XD

[scorrp10]

What this means is at level 100, if you have a main who runs instances and has stockpile if crystals/scrolls or if you have a ton of gold or can just blow cash on LPs and pump it with Mithril Coins, you can essentially create a massively overpowered weapon that is calibrated to lvl 115s going vs lvl 115 content. For levels 100-105 you will be slicing mobs like paper, then once you hit Mordor, (lvl 106+) you will get a throwback to old difficulty as you are actually hitting content these LIs were calibrated for. In fact, it will be harder as aside from LI, all you gear will be underpowered.

If you do NOT have the means to get enough starlits to max your LI, lvl 100-105 will be about same difficulty as prior stuff, and going vs 106+ is like hitting a brick wall.