Shield of the Hammerhand+Outrider's Token/Derudh's Stone issue.

[Anyelir]

Basically Turbine is selling items that are worthless.

I wouldn't call the Shield of the Hammerhand worthless. It does give +25% XP, +25% IXP and +25% Steed XP. It also offers the +25% XP bonus on quest completions, which the XP boost pocket items don't. Plus it is a conveniently scaling back-slot item that can be used to avoid having to obtain suitable cloaks yourself. All in all, the Shield is very handy IMO.

The XP boost pocket items like Derudh's Stone or the Outrider's Token are also useful for fast-levellers. They don't offer as much versatility as the Shield, but they do give the bonus they advertise.

The problem only occurs when both kinds of items are used at the same time. If the Shield is equipped, it basically overrides the XP bonus you would get from the pocket items. Even this wouldn't be much of a issue if it had been like this since the Shield first became available. But the Shield was sold as a stacking version (for cash only, mind you) and then was changed into a non-stacking version. That is the problem I have. That the item was changed after it got sold.

It may be possible that Turbine never intended the boni to stack and only corrected a mistake on their part, but in that case they should have tested the Shield extensively enough to spot this kind of mistake before it got sold to anyone, or -at the very least- they should have announced that mistake on the forums as soon as they learned about it so people knew the boost-stacking would later be removed and didn't buy the Premium Edition specifically for the boost-stacking.