I have to admit, I don’t like the gearing with this update – it seems slightly unnecessarily confusing and the costs for crafted gear are, in my opinion, not really worth it. With that said, it is what it is, so these are notes on the gear I am going for with minimum effort / grind
NB. This is for my Lore-Master and I’m only currently doing solo content.
Armour, jewellery and off-hand:
- Teal gear – Ember merchant. Seems to be best gear available solo (and currently group I suspect). Irritatingly, you can’t see the stats before you barter.
- Purple gear – Ember merchant. As you can craft purple or barter for a set from the Quartermaster – not worth the embers, in my opinion. I assume they’re mostly there as they can drop as discrete items from the lock-boxes.
- Purple gear – Dwarf-holds Quartermaster. Quite expensive in marks, but seems to be best cost / quality ratio. Teal boots with two essence slots are available here. Necklace/ Earrings/ Hat/ Shoulders/ Upperbody not available.
- Crafted gear – the Dwarrowmark (from resource instance wrapper quests) crafted gear has the same stats as the bartered purple from the Quartermaster. Critted gear has very slightly better stats. Not really worth the cost of crafting in my opinion, though if you have a surplus of mats / dwarrowmark probably worth a go.
- Crafted gear – Dwarf-iron (obtained from group instances). Stats seem underwhelming? Included here just in case.
- Essences – purple or teal version from Ember merchant. Green drops.
Gearing Strategy:
Cloak: Teal. Bartered for 1 Mark of the Longbeard after you’ve completed the Black Book quests – Dwarf-Holds Quartermaster
Boots: Teal. Bartered for 250 Marks of the Longbeard.
Earrings & Necklace: cannot be crafted from solo currency (requires Dwarf-iron). Assume is same for Hat/Shoulders/Upperbody for Tailors and Metalsmiths?
Gear: Aiming for Teal from the Ember merchant as I earn it, prioritising Teal earrings / Necklace & Hat/Shoulders/Upperbody as I cannot craft or barter from Quartermaster for these. Supplemented with purple bartered gear from the Quartermaster. I crafted a Stickpin for my ranged slot. Crafted one piece of jewellery, I don’t think I’ll craft any more at this stage. Quest reward (?) purple off hand which seems decent enough for now (I did have a couple of keys left over from Mordor – it may have been a lootbox drop…).
Essences: will probably go for purple versions from the Ember merchant.
Embers of Enchantment:
Weekly quest to trade Marks of the Longbeard for 1,000 Embers (very worth it)
Resource instance wrapper quests (set of 3) awards 500 Embers each I think.
Any solo options that I have missed? please let me know 