A variety of minor questions

[Vincenter]

I have seen ads for update 7, raising the level cap and new content. Does anyone know when it will be released?

In Fellowships and Raids, how can I tell ahead of time if an item will bind to me if I loot it?
Most items seem to either "bind on acquire" or "bind on equip". What is the criteria for those distinctions?

I have been saving the Tokens during the anniversary festival. Could someone offer an opinion about the best way to spend them? On the gift items or just trading them for Skirmish Marks?

Gold. I have a lot of gold. Well it seems like a lot to me (400). I pay for travel and repairs and occasionally I buy some overpriced item from the AH but other than that Gold seems kind of useless. What do others spend gold on?

My Lv 75 Reforged Burglar's Tools of the second age has the exact same specs as my regular old lv 65 Burglar Tools of the 2nd age. Is that the same for everyone?

[Traur]

I have seen ads for update 7, raising the level cap and new content. Does anyone know when it will be released?

In Fellowships and Raids, how can I tell ahead of time if an item will bind to me if I loot it?
Most items seem to either "bind on acquire" or "bind on equip". What is the criteria for those distinctions?

I have been saving the Tokens during the anniversary festival. Could someone offer an opinion about the best way to spend them? On the gift items or just trading them for Skirmish Marks?

Gold. I have a lot of gold. Well it seems like a lot to me (400). I pay for travel and repairs and occasionally I buy some overpriced item from the AH but other than that Gold seems kind of useless. What do others spend gold on?

My Lv 75 Reforged Burglar's Tools of the second age has the exact same specs as my regular old lv 65 Burglar Tools of the 2nd age. Is that the same for everyone?

Bind on Acquire means that as soon as it is in your bag it is your forever - bind on equip means that it is unbound as long as you haven't equipped it, once you try to put that piece of equipment on it will be yours but until you do that you can give it to someone else.

I trade my tokens for marks, I don't find the cosmetics and other things you can get in the gifts to really be worth it so I would rather save myself grinding skirmishes.

Gold is pretty useless, Lotro lacks a true goldsink to keep inflation down, after ROI gold really became worthless which is why the few items you can sell in AH are so expensive now - people who grind for loot boxes or craft mats can easily have over 2000 gold in relatively short time. You can buy crafting mats and such in AH, you can use it to buy items for your alts but mostly it is worthless.

I went through 3 level 75 2nd rage champions runes to find one that had half decent legacies, but it has much worse passives than my old level 65 - but because of the new relics I had to switch to a level 75. My mini still uses a level 65 weapon because I can't craft a good level 75 one to save my life - been through a handful and they all have #### passives and legacies.

[Nakiami]

If the item says Bind on Acquire, it will bind to you when you acquire it, ie when you loot it. BoA items are usually but not always teal. Teal items are usually but not always BoA.

It's too late to trade your Anniversary Tokens for items. Save them for next year. It's also too late to trade the metal tokens for gift boxes. Either trade them for marks at Tad Leafcutter outside the Bree Hunter's Lodge, or save them til next year.

[Maldrake]

I'll just elaborate a little on the above post.

Bind on acquire items are usually much better than bind on equip and you can tell the two apart before looting by looking at their tool tip it it will say whether it is BoA or BoE. Just hold your cursor over the item or it's link in the chat to see the tool tip. As for the Level cap, that will not be in update 7. It is going to be in the next expansion. Update 7 is currently being tested on the Bulroarer test realm so I estimate it will be out within the next 2 weeks. They never give a release date for up dates but a general rule is when it gets on Bullroarer look for it with in a month or less and usually 2 weeks.

[Sapience]

I have seen ads for update 7, raising the level cap and new content. Does anyone know when it will be released?

Update 7 will be releasing very soon. The level cap increase is not part of Update 7. It will be a part of the Riders of Rohan expansion due later this year.

[AaylaKheledlire]

So next is Update 7. After this, Update 8 is the Riders of Rohan or its a simle major update?

[RJFerret]

Gold. I have a lot of gold. Well it seems like a lot to me (400). I pay for travel and repairs and occasionally I buy some overpriced item from the AH but other than that Gold seems kind of useless. What do others spend gold on?

The true currency of the game is marks/medallions/seals. You can only get these through specific, limited ways in very tiny amounts. You need thousands of them for items such as Scrolls of Empowerment that make your equipment functional. You also need them for armour sets.

Since there's a limited supply, but many things that need them, the "solution" is to get Scrolls of Empowerment for coin via the AH or /trade channel. That way you have more marks/meds/seals for things that can only be gotten with them.

My Lv 75 Reforged Burglar's Tools of the second age has the exact same specs as my regular old lv 65 Burglar Tools of the 2nd age. Is that the same for everyone?

Yes. Hence all the 75 burgs running around with 65 SA tools. Also the cost of Greater Scrolls of Empowerment and the new relics being not much better than the relics that could go on 65s obviated the need to get higher level tools.

[Jaedor]

Nice to see the change to your sig, Sapience!

[forusrname]

I have seen ads for update 7, raising the level cap and new content. Does anyone know when it will be released?

In Fellowships and Raids, how can I tell ahead of time if an item will bind to me if I loot it?
Most items seem to either "bind on acquire" or "bind on equip". What is the criteria for those distinctions?

I have been saving the Tokens during the anniversary festival. Could someone offer an opinion about the best way to spend them? On the gift items or just trading them for Skirmish Marks?

Gold. I have a lot of gold. Well it seems like a lot to me (400). I pay for travel and repairs and occasionally I buy some overpriced item from the AH but other than that Gold seems kind of useless. What do others spend gold on?

My Lv 75 Reforged Burglar's Tools of the second age has the exact same specs as my regular old lv 65 Burglar Tools of the 2nd age. Is that the same for everyone?

New content comes out pretty soon after it is advertised. It should not be too long, and when turbine knows, they will put a date on the splashscreen. I would guess less than 2 months.

In a group, if you try to loot a bound item, you get a warning, under most of the loot rules. Mouse over it and you should see if it binds or not. After a while, you will get a "zen" for whether an item binds or not. Mostly, what binds are gear drops that can only be had from that instance (usually off the boss) or instance earned consumables (mostly for higher level players, legendary item xp pills and such). What does not bind is usually the junk off the non boss kills.

If you are asking to understand binding, it just means some items can be traded until they are used, after being used, they cannot be traded (that is bind on equip). A common source of BOE items are crafted items --- allowing the crafter to sell the product. BOA items are typically the hard to get stuff from group play, where the developers want you to EARN (not buy) the item. For example, the best raid drops are BOA so you have to do the raid, kill the boss, and win the item rather than just buy it off the auction block. Other items are "account bound" --- you can trade them to your other characters but not other players, many cosmetics and consumables bear this designation.

Gift boxes mostly provide total garbage, like 1 piece of food or 1 potion --- less than a mob drops. However there are some good items in the mix, its a lottery and a few great prizes exist, you cannot win if you do not play. Your choice. SM are easy to earn, but if you have none and need them, 40 marks per token is a decent amount! Also your choice, but if you do not need marks, you can always skirmish more. You can only play gift box lotto a few times a year.

Gold is spent on whatever you like! I tend to buy legendary item stuff, empowerment scrolls for example. You can buy crafted items, consumables, or other useful gear etc. A few buy cosmetics. Travel and a home are money sinks if you do those things. Reputation items for the lazy. Or just save it up until someone puts out a first age token or something that you might like but either cannot get at or are too lazy to fool with. Gold basically lets you bypass a grind for some things --- someone else does the grind in exchange for your gold (which, as you noted, has little use anyway). I am quite happy to part with gold to save time, as gold is easy to earn, and has little practical value.

No, my level 65 tools are better because they predate the limit on legacies :P (I have 7 legacies on them). Apart from oddities, in general the class items (nonweapon ones) are just as good at 65 as 75 apart from the passive legacy. That is, your incoming healing is better on the 75 tools, I think, not sure since i never put points into that, but I *think* that is the only real difference.

[Elaida]

Gold is pretty useless, Lotro lacks a true goldsink to keep inflation down, after ROI gold really became worthless which is why the few items you can sell in AH are so expensive now - people who grind for loot boxes or craft mats can easily have over 2000 gold in relatively short time.

Try bartering several hundred boxes of Tier 1 relics from the skirmish camps, blow them up at relic master and combine all the relics, as high as you can get them to. Look at the amount of gold you have, before and after. You'll be surprised, I think. :P

I spent nearly 50g that way on one of my characters, in a single session.

[TinDragon]

Update 7 will be releasing very soon. The level cap increase is not part of Update 7. It will be a part of the Riders of Rohan expansion due later this year.

I would love it if you could at least confirm if it will be this Monday or at a later point in time. My captain is currently right at level 50, and if the update is going to be this Monday, I'd like to stop leveling him so that I can experience the new Moria. However, if it's later than Monday I don't want to wait that long for leveling so I'll just start leveling now and try it out with my next toon.

So yeah, confirmation would be spectacular. I'd be good with a "not this Monday" as a date.

[dietlbomb]

In Fellowships and Raids, how can I tell ahead of time if an item will bind to me if I loot it?
Most items seem to either "bind on acquire" or "bind on equip". What is the criteria for those distinctions?

I don't think there is really any logic to it. You just need to read the tooltips when the loot appears. (Annoying, if you're with unfamiliar players on a speed run.)

My Lv 75 Reforged Burglar's Tools of the second age has the exact same specs as my regular old lv 65 Burglar Tools of the 2nd age. Is that the same for everyone?

Legacies that affect skill cooldowns (like Addle cooldown), or legacies that improve a skill by a fixed percentage (like critical multiplier, or Positional damage), do not improve with age or with level. They will be exactly the same on every LI you find.

Legacies that depend on ratings (like the champion's Ardour/Glory Parry/Evade rating) tend to improve with level and age. But the exception is incoming healing rating.

Check out this lotro-wiki page. The sad truth is that burglar tools' legacies don't improve much with level. But the happy truth is that burglars don't really need to upgrade their tools if they have a nice set from level 65 (unless they really want the level 75 relics).

As an aside, champion runes are similar. Their dps legacies are all exactly the same on level 75s and level 65s. The tanking legacies, however, are much improved at the higher level.

[Nakiami]

I would love it if you could at least confirm if it will be this Monday or at a later point in time.

If it's Monday, they'll announce it today. If it's not Monday the 14th, then it most likely won't be until Monday the 21st.

[Vincenter]

Thanks everybody for your answers and comments.
I think I get so concerned over the item binding in Fellows and Raids because I'm not as experienced as most of the other players and if I make a selection mistake I can't give the item back.
Then when they do the Master loot I'm lucky if I can get /roll typed in quick enough. I often just pass because I'm afraid of making a mistake and that in itself is just a different kind of mistake. I'm getting better though and all of your input is really helpful.

Regarding the Lv 75 Reforged SA Tools.
I thought at least the incoming healing would be better on the lv75 tools too but it is identical to the lv65. I went back and got a Lv60 FA and all the passive legacies are better on that one than the lv75 SA. Of course the inadequate Lv60 relics eliminate any benefit from that. I'm not certain but I can't find a crafted relic to work on it. No matter though, it's just good to hear others are affected and it isn't some dumb mistake I made.

[Shukar]

I'm not certain but I can't find a crafted relic to work on it. No matter though, it's just good to hear others are affected and it isn't some dumb mistake I made.

There are two types of crafted relics: tradeable and bind-on-aquire. Every "making" profession makes one type of tradeable relic, and can make all the types of bind-on-aquire relics.

Tradeable relics increase things like Will, Agility, Might, Power, Morale, etc. You find those on the AH fairly regularly. I'm not completely up on who makes what, but Woodworkers make Agility, Jewelers make Fate, Scholars make Power, etc. You need to be Kindred (for tier 6 relics) and Master (for tier 7 relics) in the associated Guild to get the recipe. If you have a Compendium of Middle Earth I, you can ask someone to craft a better level 65 relic for you.

Each profession also has a recipe open to those who are both Kindred/Master in guild rep AND have mastered (not merely proficient) in Supreme/Westfold of their craft. There are 2 different relics at tier 6 and 4 at tier 7... but only the crafter can use those relics. They are bind-on-aquire... and currently the ONLY reason to max out the top tier of crafting.

Hopefully this will help you find some good crafted relics for whatever items you're using.