Fire Rune-Keeper DPS: Best Practices

[Dadislotroguides]

Searing Words setup for Buff Bars


Looks like a good time to post the setup instructions I mentioned some time ago. Using the screenshot of lego’s setup provided by Joedangod:



1 Go to the BuffBars section in the plugin manager
2 Go to Options tab, then Effect Windows tab
3 Scroll down to Effect Triggers and click Add
4 Select Template ‘Custom’, name it ‘Searing Procs’, the type is ‘Mob Debuff’, the match criteria search field should be ‘searing’, then accept.
5 Move the Searing Procs up to the top of the Effect Triggers list.

1 Now go to the CombatAnalysis section in the plugin manager
2 Go to Options tab, then Buffs tab
3 At the top, select Cleansing Fires from the dropdown menu, then select the Debuffs tab.
4 Add Debuff (not Add).
5 Class is ‘Rune Keeper’, Debuff Name is ‘Searing T0’, Icon File Name is ‘fire_lore.tga’, check ‘toggle skill’.
6 Repeat the last two steps for the other tiers: use the Debuff Names ‘Searing T1’, ‘Searing T2’, ‘Searing Words Finished’ (or ‘Searing T3’)
7 Now click on ‘Searing Words Finished’ to minimise it, then go back to open Searing Words T0.
8 Check the top right of the screenshot above to see what each tier should ‘Remove’, ‘Conflict With’ and be ‘Applied By’. (Here’s copypasta for avoiding typos: Extreme Heat: Searing Words - Tier 1)

Variation
Personally I’ve modified this setup slightly:
- The way it works with the default setup described above is that you will always have max one Searing Words buff bar at a time, the one that was most recently applied – this might be helpful in single target situations for some people, but it can be distracting in AoE.
- If you want to show all tiers of Searing Words that are active simultaneously, delete all the ‘removes’ entries from step 8. This also has the effect that once a Searing Words tier begins, it will count down to 0 even if you proc a fresh Searing Words of the same tier on a different target, so AoE will be more tolerable.

Can you show some SS of what BB looks like IG when SW is active?

[Dragofer]

Merged into main post.

[Dragofer]

Searing Words for BuffBars – Multi-Tier Setup

The original write-up for Searing Words in BuffBars could’ve been handled in a more user-friendly way considering how it went through legofreak42’s single-tier setup in order to get to my multi-tier setup. So now that I had some more time I've taken & edited my own screenshots and rewrote this guide so that it goes directly for the multi-tier setup, which means it should be a good deal easier to follow.

To recap:
- The single-tier setup will show max one Searing Words tier at a time, so any new proc will replace the old one. This reduces screen clutter but is distracting in AoE.
- The multi-tier setup shows all active tiers of Searing Words simultaneously. This is more intuitive / interesting for some people and works better in AoE because it doesn’t constantly replace old procs with new procs.
This post is a manual for the multi-tier setup; see post #100 for instructions for the single-tier setup. You will need to have both BuffBars and CombatAnalysis plugins installed.


What is this good for?

With these BuffBars you know which tiers you have active and how long they have left. This solves the problems where:
- you don’t realise you got a new proc because an old proc disappeared in the same instant.
- you’re grouped with other RKs and don’t know whether you or someone else procced that new Searing Words.
- couldn't keep track of your procs because you had to focus on other things or 11 other people are applying dots and debuffs to the same enemy.


Setup 1 of 2: BuffBars



1 Go to the BuffBars section in the plugin manager. (if you’ve never used the plugin manager before you need to bind a hotkey for it in options, there’s a search box in options)
2 Go to Options tab, then Effect Windows tab
3 Scroll down to Effect Triggers and click Add
4 Select Template ‘Custom’, name it ‘Searing Procs’, the type is ‘Mob Debuff’, the match criteria search field should be ‘searing’, then accept
5 Move the Searing Procs up to the top of the Effect Triggers list
6 Scroll down and save
(This will give Searing Words priority over other effects, useful when there's a lot going on)



Setup 2 of 2: Combat Analysis



1 Now go to the CombatAnalysis section in the plugin manager
2 Go to Options tab, then Buffs tab
3 At the top, select Cleansing Fires from the dropdown menu, then select the Debuffs tab
4 Add Debuff (not Add)
5 Class is ‘Rune Keeper’, Debuff Name is ‘Searing Words T0’*, Icon File Name is ‘fire_lore.tga’
6 Delete the entry named Searing Words T0 under 'Removes' so that it becomes 'Conflicts with'. (select it, then click on the red cross 'remove')
7 'Applied by' should be 'Searing Words', set dur to 14**
8 Repeat steps 4-7 for the other tiers, except for one difference: 'Applied by' should be 'Extreme Heat: Searing Words - Tier x', replace x with the tier of Searing Words. This should be copy-pasted

* if you already tried setting this up with ‘Searing T0’ before, I’d suggest going for ‘Searing Words T0’ this time to avoid possible headaches down the line.
**non-users of +2 pulses set dur to 10.




Ingame

And to top off this post, here’s an ingame shot with the custom BuffBars setup in action. As you can see all 4 tiers of Searing Words buff bars are working :P

[Reeder44]

Hey Guys:

Why not use the Chill of Winter damage legacy on a fire stone? Quick burst and Debuff to start a fight?

[siipperi]

Hey Guys:

Why not use the Chill of Winter damage legacy on a fire stone? Quick burst and Debuff to start a fight?

Essence of winter doesn't do good damage. It's only good for inchealing debuffing when that is needed.

[Vilda]

Why are some RKs, i saw that in Portal's videos, poping Concession and Rebuttal, and then switch back to fire, right before the fight?

[CornWollis]

Why are some RKs, i saw that in Portal's videos, poping Concession and Rebuttal, and then switch back to fire, right before the fight?

For the -20% incoming damage.

[Vilda]

[CornWollis]

Incase you thought I was trolling......

[Vilda]

Oh sh** never realised it. I use light spec really rarely. I have to try it - but how i know myself i end up in combat specced lighting

(i was trying find it on the internet but no luck)

[siipperi]

Oh sh** never realised it. I use light spec really rarely. I have to try it - but how i know myself i end up in combat specced lighting

(i was trying find it on the internet but no luck)

Easiest is to know last line of dialogy of the boss before combat, pop it when it starts and you have like 8-10s cnr up out of combat. If combat starts with it it stays active and gets consumed by lightning skills.

[Dragofer]

For the -20% incoming damage.

This is a great find, though I think most RKs will read the coming patch notes with bated breath now that the word is out.

[Dragofer]

Crit swap-items for captains

This is something that’s needed for the next post, and for laying the groundwork for a new gear setup:
Is it worthwhile to have crit swap items when you’re grouped with a captain so that you have more mastery instead of overcapped crit? This has been covered briefly elsewhere, but that was before I made some stat-related posts that influence the outcome.


The mastery per crit depends on which essences you’re swapping. It’s been found elsewhere in this thread that mastery essences are a better way of reaching the crit cap than crit essences (meaning the build has higher mastery in the end, all other stats equal) and they don’t get weighed down by crit defence. So mastery essences will be used here.

You need to swap 8 mastery essences for masterful wills to absorb IDoME and the crit buff, so 2992 overcapped crit becomes 2048 mastery (and some resist & tact mit).

If you’re in excellent gear, grouped with a captain and a yellow minstrel and sitting somewhere in the area of 130k mastery, then 2048 mastery is worth 1% dps. Then subtract the damage you’d have gotten for the overcapped crit, and for not having capped crit at the start of the fight, and it’s likely to go negative.


Bottom line

Mastery is so abundant now that overcapping crit is at the point where it’s roughly equal to getting yet more mastery. Swap items for the captain’s crit buff certainly aren’t worth it, so it’s better to build crit until you can reach the cap with stat food.

Note that in post #54 I got a different result for the worth of overcapped crit (quote: ‘So overcapping critical only makes sense when you have 148149 mastery.’). This is because back then I was working with 1 crit = 1 mastery, which isn’t the actual exchange rate when you swap these essences.

[Dragofer]

How to swap morale essences


It’s become more important to have a good way of swapping morale essences, considering two things:
- the introduction of superlative morale essences, which come close to robust wills while being much more flexible to swap
- the fact that there are too few essence slots to hit an endgame morale target with robust wills *and* have a lot of mastery essences in a mastery-optimised build


Morale essences come with fate, so any swap should keep crit the same. There are a couple options:
- 1 mastery on one side for 4 morale on the other
- 4 mastery on one side for 3 morale + 1 crit on the other


1-mastery essence swaps

Crit essences lead to a loss of stats, so ideally you’d only want to go for the first option. It should be no problem to reach any t2c morale target with only these swaps. So these are the possible combos for the first option:

1 mastery essence has 374 crit, while:
- 3 superlative morales have 338 crit
- 3 supreme morales have 300 crit
- 4 superlative morales have 450 crit
- 4 supreme morales have 400 crit

They’re all fairly close to each other, so you could go for any combination. (Though 4 supreme morale or 3 superlative morale would be the most ideal)


3/4-mastery essence swaps

If you have a lot of mastery essences and want to go into a max morale build, you’d most likely also need a way of swapping more than just 1 mastery essence per gear piece. These are the possible combos:

4 mastery essences have 1496 crit, while:
- 1 crit and 3 superlative morale have 1648 crit
- 1 crit and 3 supreme morale have 1610 crit

3 mastery essences have 1122 crit, while:
- 1 crit and 2 superlative morale have 1535 crit
- 1 crit and 2 supreme morale have 1510 crit

It’s much better to swap 4 mastery essences per piece than 3.



Captain crit swaps

The previous post established that there’s no benefit in making captain crit swaps, so there’s no need to plan for these here.



Bottom line

The most effective way to do morale swaps is to have 1 mastery essence on one side and 3-4 morale essences on the other side. People who have a lot of mastery essences would also need some swaps with 4 mastery essences on one side if they want to go into max morale mode.

[Dragofer]

More Gear Revisions, U18.2

Which essences to use

For crit rating:
Mastery essences. Lotro’s endgame has no use for crit defence, so 2/9ths of the stats on critical essences would go to waste there. Not to mention that mastery essences result in higher mastery in any case, as mentioned in earlier posts.


For morale:
Superlative morale essences come close to robust will: the mastery cost for getting 1 point of morale is 1.35 with robust will, 1.44 with superlative morale and 1.57 with supreme morale (post #89). But they’re more flexible: if you wanted to go into full glass cannon mode with robust wills you’d need another full set of masterful wills. No such problem with superlative morales. And they can reach higher morale targets, especially if the build is already loaded with mastery essences.

The aim for my maxed build plan will therefore be to have superlative morale essences. They’re tough to come by, so the aim should be to only go as far as the t2c morale target with them, gradually replacing supreme morale with superlative morale. Those who don’t do the new raid on T2 would continue to be well served with robust wills; technically robust wills are still the best morale essences.


Stats Value Table - T2c vs. Glass cannon

One important factor for how I’m now comparing gear pieces:
When 2 pieces have the same total mastery worth in t2c, but one piece has more mastery worth in glass cannon because it has less morale and mits, then there’s the tie breaker. All my gear comparisons will calculate two figures, mastery value in t2c and mastery value in glass cannon.

One example of this mechanic is the Osgiliath robe vs. the Osgiliath DoS pieces. As per the stat table in post #89, when mastery and supreme morale essences are used:

Osgiliath robe, 400 will, 1768 mastery, 100 fate
T2c: 5396 total mastery
Glass: 5138 total mastery
(total mastery worth is higher in t2c because the will lets you save tact mit essences there)

Osgiliath DoS piece, 400 will, 884 mastery, 884 crit, 100 vit
T2c: 5478 total mastery
Glass: 4685 total mastery


In U18.2’s gear situation the DoS piece is a tiny bit ahead of the robe in t2c, but in glass cannon it’s behind by 500 mastery. Therefore it’s overall better to go for a robe instead of a second DoS piece.



Satchel - Distracting Flame Damage legacy

- At t59 this is a 38.8% damage bonus on top of a base of 277.6% when incombat. That skill does 5% of total dps which means this legacy is a 0.7% dps increase.

- The Vitality legacy at t59 has 216 vit. At the robust will morale rate (post #89) this is worth 875 mastery. When mastery is 100k this is +0.6% dps. Then consider that this % goes down the higher your mastery is, and it doesn’t apply at all to glass cannon.

So the DF damage legacy has grown enough now to equal the vit legacy in t2c and it's completely better in glass cannon, so I'll now be using this on the satchel.

[In the past the legacy was just +23.4% and a good t2c build had 60k mastery, so vit was much more effective back then. Not anymore.]



Runestone - Distracting Flame cooldown legacy

I've found a use for Distracting Flames as a way of proccing the mit debuff for Smouldering Wrath in an advanced rotation:
- in the early phase, if the mit debuff is lacking, then Distracting Flame is a way of getting it quickly without giving up Searing Words tiers via forced Writs.
- in the later phase this legacy sometimes allows you to use Writ, DF, Writ instead of just Writ, Writ before Smouldering Wrath, an extra skill in close to the same casting time.

How often is this needed? Often enough to be noticeable and it probably has more impact than a vit legacy's 0.6% t2c-only dps boost. On top of that the Combustion component is worth about 1.5% AoE dps to sweeten the deal. Therefore I'll replace vit with this legacy.



Lightning legacies

Now that the vit legacy was displaced by Distracting Flame cooldown, a question worth asking is:
is it better to have both lightning legacies or vit + fate in fire traits?

- Vit and fate have a combined value of 1400 mastery in t2c or 370 mastery in glass cannon. If you take 100k mastery as a starting point then this is +1% and +0.3% dps respectively.

- Lightning skills make decent finisher skills: when the fight is over in 5s it's better to come with a 30k Shocking Words crit than some dot refreshes. This won’t be enough to be on par with the at most 1% dps increase you’d get from stat legacies, but these numbers are so small that any difference is almost negligible.

Practical factors decided it for me:
- It’s good to have the capacity for decent single-target burst when it’s needed.
- No need to get a lightning stone anymore then. The only advantages a separate lightning runestone would have is that it could have two marginal legacies (Sustaining Bolt damage and Vivid Imagery damage) as well as vit/fate legacies. It’s not worth getting a second perfect-passive runestone and all the scrolls/crystals for this.

So lightning legacies continue to have a spot on my runestone.


Virtues

So far I've been slotting Wisdom with 171 will and Confidence with 114 will, but there's still room for squeezing out more mastery: Idealism with 57 will, 114 fate and 1638 resist.

The remaining virtues I had been using were:
- Innocence - 1539 phys mit, 539 tact mit, 1638 resist
- Zeal (phys mit swap) - 517 morale, 923 phys mit, 285 armour
- Fidelity (tact mit swap) - 1539 tact mit, 76 vit
- Honour - 923 tact mit, 3278 resist, 38 vit

Innocence, Zeal and Fidelity are needed for their mits and they're too good to be swapped with Idealism.

But Honour for Idealism is a net trade of 750 tact mit + 1600 resist + 38 vit for 57 will + 114 fate.

In other words, going by the table in post #89: 500 mastery + 1600 resist would turn into 750 mastery.
Importantly, the 500 mastery only applies in t2c tactical instances (because it’s from mostly tact mit and some vit), while the 750 mastery applies in all instances.

Honour could still be seen as a sensible choice for those who mind about resistance, but as far as I'm concerned no matter what you do you end up with high resistance. One of the test build layouts I made in U18.2beta2 had 21 mastery essences and Idealism and still had 26k resistance self-buffed. This is good enough for almost anything.

So I'll replace Honour with Idealism as a standard virtue in order to push mastery higher.



Will & Fate traits

There are now enough trait points to get at least 4/5 in will without any tradeoffs for a decent will boost.

Fate is also worth looking into. The first 1/5 rank has half as much crit as a mastery essence and can be used to round off crit at exactly 17685 – if you’re short of the crit cap then 1/5 in fate is much better than going from 4/5 -> 5/5 in will.



Adamant Gem of Dreams

1200 mastery, 230 crit, 96 icpr

Mostly mentioning this for fun as it's a great gem which Turbine stopped handing out since Update 2. Some people still have it from back then. Two of these would be an improvement of 1k mastery in glass cannon compared to two True Gems of the Wizard's Vale.

[Dragofer]

Set bonuses comparison – U18.2

+10% Smouldering Wrath damage (T1 & T2 raid set)

This post will start with figuring out how effective this set bonus is.
As this is a skill bonus, it gets added together with all other relevant skill bonuses so you get the equation:
100% base + 37.8% fire damage legacy + 5% fire damage title ... + 10% Smouldering set bonus

The more skill bonuses you already have, the smaller the actual % increase from this legacy will be. This is where xadoor’s point from a little while ago comes in:

The legacy Essence of Flame damage on the bag unexpectedly affects Smouldering wrath in a drastic way(10%ish) so if you aren't hitting numbers expected make sure you have it on your bag. This is clearly seen on the tooltip of Wraith. On my somewhat endgame RK it was a full 1000 pts difference per tick with and without that leg.

Not only does this +50.4% Essence of Flame legacy apply to Smouldering Wrath, the +30% Essence of Flame damage trait *also* applies. One effect of this bug is that it waters down the raid set bonus. A maxed rk with full incombat buffs will be at a total skill damage output of 321.1% for SW, which means that this set bonus is a 3.1% increase to Smouldering Wrath’s damage.

Smouldering Wrath is about a third of total damage output, so overall this set bonus is a 1% increase to dps.


-20% Essay of Fire dispel chance (used to be on the T2 raid set)

This would let you get another instant induction out of every fifth Essay of Fire, so every minute you save 1-2 seconds of casting time. This can be used for another Writ or two, so the dps increase may be in the area of 1-2%.


10% tactical damage (Pelennor set, U18.0)

This is the same as saying +10% tactical mastery, so 3703 tactical mastery rating. I’ll take 100k mastery, or roughly 400% total tactical output including various buffs, as the baseline for a well geared RK with some group buffs from here onwards, so this would be a 2.5% dps increase.


201 will (T1 raid set)

201 will is worth 8.43 mastery per will if you include tact mit in a t2c (post #89), so this is the same as 1694 mastery rating + a bit of resistance. This would be a 1.1% dps increase.


+2 pulses (Osgiliath set)

It’s been established earlier that +2 pulses is on par with the first 2 pieces of the Pelennor set (higher stats + set bonus) in an uninterrupted single-target fight, while elsewhere +2 pulses becomes situationally better. (post #62).

Mastery levels have increased since that post was made, which increases the effectiveness of +2 pulses while diluting the usefulness of the stats on the Pelennor armour.


+2 pulses (T2 raid set)

The best set bonus combined with the best armour, this is basically the RK equivalent of the hunter Heartseeker raid set. The guaranteed first extra tick of Essay, the occasional second extra tick and the higher duration on Searing Words together increase dps by about 7% in an uninterrupted single-target fight, and more than that in any other kind of fight.


Possible combinations

Looking at the set bonuses laid out as above, the ideal would be:

With access to T2 raid gear:
+2 pulses
+10% tactical damage
+10% Smouldering Wrath damage (T2 raid set)

With access to T1 raid gear:
+2 pulses
+10% tactical damage
+201 will (T1 raid set)

Without access to raid gear, just use +2 pulses + 10% tactical damage.


Notes

- The relative usefulness of the Smouldering Wrath set bonus is so watered down by other skill bonuses, above all the bug which lets Essence of Flame’s bonuses count towards the total of SW (which then becomes 321.1% incombat), that it’s an overall dps increase of 1%. This is the same % as +201 will at 100k mastery.
- But I give clear preference to the SW set bonus because getting your mastery buffed above that will make +10% SW more powerful while 201 will becomes less powerful.
- Out of control unnecessary skill bonuses (fire damage legacy, trait set bonus & co.) that ruin set bonuses like this one are something I brought up as one of the key points in Flaws of the Fire Runekeeper.

- T1 raid set users: why not combine 201 will + 10% Smouldering Wrath with either 10% tactical damage or +2 pulses?
- For this you’d have to get rid of 10% tactical damage as it’s the weaker one. See above for calculations that showed the tactical damage set bonus to be worth 2.5% dps, while 201 will + 10% SW damage are worth 1%+1% dps.

- The Essay of Fire dispel chance bonus would've improved the RK fun factor. That might be worth the possible ~1% dps decrease for no longer having the technically more optimal 10% tactical mastery set bonus.

- It wouldn't normally be useful to combine the +2 pulses from the t2 raid set with +2 pulses from the Osgiliath set because the main advantage of the set bonus, 100% uptime on Essay of Fire, has already been covered by the raid set. The remaining bonuses (mostly Searing Words uptime) are easily outdone by the Biting Wit set's higher stats and 10% tactical mastery bonus.
- However, in AoE situations the Osgiliath set would do well: the extra ticks on Essay will all be used if you swap targets every time, Searing Words will have more uptime and Fiery Ridicule can be sustained on more targets and is much less likely to expire, Fiery Ridicule being one of the most important factors in RK AoE. In AoE the Osgiliath set would outperform Biting Wit's stat advantage.



Bottom line

The ideal configuration for T2 raid set users is +2 pulses (T2 set), +10% Smouldering Wrath damage (T2 set) +10% tactical damage (Pelennor set)
Otherwise the ideal is +2 pulses (Osgiliath set), +10% tactical damage (Pelennor set) and then +201 will (T1 set) if you do the raid on T1.

[dselden]

Set bonuses comparison – U18.2

+10% Smouldering Wrath damage (T1 & T2 raid set)

This post will start with figuring out how effective this set bonus is.
As this is a skill bonus, it gets added together with all other relevant skill bonuses so you get the equation:
100% base + 37.8% fire damage legacy + 5% fire damage title ... + 10% Smouldering set bonus

The more skill bonuses you already have, the smaller the actual % increase from this legacy will be. This is where xadoor’s point from a little while ago comes in:




Not only does this +50.4% Essence of Flame legacy apply to Smouldering Wrath, the +30% Essence of Flame damage trait *also* applies. One effect of this bug is that it waters down the raid set bonus. A maxed rk with full incombat buffs will be at a total skill damage output of 321.1% for SW, which means that this set bonus is a 3.1% increase to Smouldering Wrath’s damage.

Smouldering Wrath is about a third of total damage output, so overall this set bonus is a 1% increase to dps.


-20% Essay of Fire dispel chance (T2 raid set)

This lets you get another instant induction out of every fifth Essay of Fire, so every minute you save 1-2 seconds of casting time. This can be used for another Writ or two, so the dps increase may be in the area of 1-2%.


10% tactical damage (Pelennor set, U18.0)

This is the same as saying +10% tactical mastery, so 3703 tactical mastery rating. I’ll take 100k mastery, or roughly 400% total tactical output including various buffs, as the baseline for a well geared RK with some group buffs from here onwards, so this would be a 2.5% dps increase.


201 will (T1 raid set)

201 will is worth 8.43 mastery per will if you include tact mit in a t2c (post #89), so this is the same as 1694 mastery rating + a bit of resistance. This would be a 1.1% dps increase.


+2 pulses (Osgiliath set)

It’s been established earlier that +2 pulses is on par with the first 2 pieces of the Pelennor set (higher stats + set bonus) in an uninterrupted single-target fight, while elsewhere +2 pulses becomes situationally better. (post #62).

Mastery levels have increased since that post was made, which increases the effectiveness of +2 pulses while diluting the usefulness of the stats on the Pelennor armour.


Possible combinations

Looking at the set bonuses laid out as above, the ideal would be:

With access to T2 raid gear:
+2 pulses
+10% tactical damage
+10% Smouldering Wrath damage (T2 raid set)

With access to T1 raid gear:
+2 pulses
+10% tactical damage
+201 will (T1 raid set)

Without access to raid gear, just use +2 pulses + 10% tactical damage.


Notes

- The relative usefulness of the Smouldering Wrath set bonus is so watered down by other skill bonuses, above all the bug which lets Essence of Flame’s bonuses count towards the total of SW (which then becomes 321.1% incombat), that it’s an overall dps increase of 1%. This is the same % as +201 will at 100k mastery.
- But I give clear preference to the SW set bonus because getting your mastery buffed above that will make +10% SW more powerful while 201 will becomes less powerful.
- Out of control unnecessary skill bonuses (fire damage legacy, trait set bonus & co.) that ruin set bonuses like this one are something I brought up as one of the key points in Flaws of the Fire Runekeeper.

- T1 raid set users: why not combine 201 will + 10% Smouldering Wrath with either 10% tactical damage or +2 pulses?
- For this you’d have to get rid of 10% tactical damage as it’s the weaker one. See above for calculations that showed the tactical damage set bonus to be worth 2.5% dps, while 201 will + 10% SW damage are worth 1%+1% dps.

- The Essay of Fire dispel chance bonus could improve the RK fun factor. That might be worth the possible ~1% dps decrease for no longer having the technically more optimal 10% tactical mastery set bonus.



Bottom line

The ideal configuration is +2 pulses, +10% tactical damage (Pelennor set) and +10% Smouldering Wrath damage followed by +201 will.

The T2 set got changed to +2 dot pulses, so going 4 T2 and 2 pel is obviously ideal now.

[Dragofer]

The T2 set got changed to +2 dot pulses, so going 4 T2 and 2 pel is obviously ideal now.

Ah right, thanks for pointing that out. It would've been easy to check that ingame, but normally I take a break after I've played a game for a few months (Lotro is already unusual in that it can last longer than that), which goes to explain the slowdown in my posts since post #90. Figured I'd start with gear & stat-related posts as I get back into the game to know what gear would be most optimal to get. I do vaguely remember reading about that change somewhere, but saw no mention of it neither in any of the patch notes since U18.2beta1 nor in the wiki. Well, it's not the first time Turbine did major shuffling in the set bonuses without mentioning it, i.e. when the Biting Wit set gave its +5% flurry crit to the Featured Instance set and got +30% bubble strength in return.

Implications of this: yes, 4-piece T2 set is without a doubt the best an RK can get as you gain the advantages of +2 pulses without any of the stat downsides. It should be a noticeable increase in dps compared to no +2 pulses, +7% or higher depending on the type of fight. The Osgiliath set wouldn't be any good anymore because the T2 set already covers the main advantage, 100% Essay of Fire uptime, so +10% tactical mastery and higher stats from Biting Wit would be better, exception being if you can use it in AoE (reasoning in the edited post under 'Notes').

Edit: typo.

[Joedangod]

Any chance this thread could get a sticky? It's quite a bit more accurate and useful than the current stickied help posts.

[Dragofer]

I've been poring over the single target rotations lately, laying out some more reasoning, among other things. Especially after hearing that RKs have been in a bad spot recently.


Conventional single target rotation
Rationale for:
-> Starting with Distracting Flame: you need to get to full attunement quickly, which will mean using Essay + free skill and Distracting Flame (volcanic runestones or enamels don't make sense because you need fire skill buffs and debuffs asap). Putting Distracting Flame first has several advantages: 1) +3 attunement and +5% fire damage boosts Essay & the free skill to compensate slightly for their delay. 2) chance for Essay & the free skill to have a mitigation debuff when they impact (+30% and +21% respectively). 3) chance for an induction buff on Essay of Fire. 4) chance to proc Searing Words which allows you to throw in an extra Writ before that Essay, augmenting the previous three points.

-> Essay #1 + Fiery Ridicule #1: this combo is an exception reserved for the initiation of a fight. Essence and Ridicule both do almost the same damage in the time it takes until you can cast either of them again. However, Essence has a 50% chance to fall flat because you might not have a mit debuff yet this early in the fight. Fiery Ridicule avoids this risk by spreading out its damage over time. Later on Essence is always better than Ridicule because Ridicule's dot should always be up, so you're only comparing initial hits.

-> Essay #2 + Scathing Mockery: Scathing Mockery is the weakest fire skill in single-target, which is why it's the last dot to be applied.


Proc-sensitive single target rotation
-> Single RK: Should you rush a Writ (upgrade without a Searing proc) if you're about to use Smouldering Wrath without a mit debuff?
A rushed Writ tier results on average in 7% higher damage on 5s of Smouldering and 6-7s of all dots (dots include casting time of the next skill)(21% extra chance x 35%* mit debuff damage increase = 7% more damage).
But it loses on average 65% of a Searing Words worth of damage. (post #51: post-t3 proc chance plateaus at 7%, pre-t3 proc chance is 20%, average of 5 skills per proc)
The global 7% damage increase during Smouldering is better than 65% of a Searing Words (which doesn't crit), so Writs should be used to proc mit debuffs before Smouldering Wrath if necessary. But this is at the expense of maximum potential damage, so risk-takers could conserve the Writ and hope the Smouldering Wrath procs the mit debuff anyway.
[*35% being my baseline for the impact made by the mit debuff in various situations]


-> Multiple RKs: Should you rush a Writ if you're about to use Smouldering Wrath without a mit debuff?
Generally speaking, if you see the other RKs smouldering without a mit debuff, then you're making a very good deal by rushing your Writ tier because the same benefits apply to everyone (+7% damage) while the drawbacks only apply once.
If your group is coordinating writ tiers (i.e. RK 1 starts with Distracting Flame, RK 2 starts with Writ, Distracting Flame) then you can also consider these points:

In a duo, it should be the higher-tier RK who rushes his Writ, because the lower-tier RK can take over that tier when he gets to it. Ideally the higher-tier RK would only do this if he sees the other RK already smouldering without a mit debuff. This is possible to achieve with minimal delay because the higher-tier RK needs slightly more time to get ready than the lower-tier RK, so even when factoring in randomness of induction buffs and reaction time he wouldn't need to wait more than 1s. This would increase the odds for the mit debuff during the Smouldering from 30% -> 51%, at the expense of about 20% of a Searing Words tier.
[Technically the faster RK can also rush his Writ tier if he sees no mit debuff before his Smouldering Wrath, giving a slight increase in average damage, but this comes at the expense of less maximal damage potential]

In a larger group of RKs it almost never happens that the first Smouldering Wrath is without a mit debuff: a trio using Smouldering Wrath as their 5th skill has a 99.5% chance to proc it on their first Smouldering Wrath. And with coordination they're almost certain to complete Searing Words before the 2nd Smouldering Wrath. So there's no need to consider rushing Writ tiers when there are 3+ RKs.


So, before reaching t3 Writ:
- a solo RK should always rush a Writ tier if he's about to use Smouldering Wrath without a mit debuff.
- in a duo, if the higher-tier RK is about to use Smouldering Wrath without a mit debuff, he should (if necessary) wait a split-second for the lower-tier RK to start Smouldering. If still no luck he should rush a Writ tier.
- in a larger group of RKs no attention needs to be paid to rushing Writ tiers, as it's only needed 1 in 200 times.


Group single target rotation
RK 1: Distracting Flame
RK 2: Writ, Distracting Flame
RK 3: Writ, Writ
RK 4+: repeat in the same order as above

- Essay + Essence (RK 2 & 3 can go Fiery Ridicule if they see no mit debuff yet)
- Smouldering Wrath

- Hold back with Writs until you see 1 Searing Words for every RK, up to 3, or use the BuffBars setup from post #100/101
- Normal skill priorities from here onwards


Spelled out this method now - so far post #1 only featured a group burst rotation. They're quite similar, with the main difference being that this one has no special plan for the 4th RK (well, how often do you get 4 RKs in a group). The group burst rotation, which is laid out for only one cast of the heavy hitters (fight duration under 30s), assigns two Writs to RKs 3 & 4 now. This gives them a shot at the earlier tiers and lets them share t3 soon after, which is the least visited tier in a burst situation, so this gives a better overall balance across the tiers.

[Endoloose]

First, thank you for your enormous effort keeping this info available.

The Buffbars example Works very well on LM and Warden too

I don't play RK, but for understanding various mechanics between the different classes, i try to understand pros and cons for all classes.

Rk got a couple of debuffs (at least), in red trait, Molten Flame and Mystifying flames. While Molten flame is always up (100% proc 8sec uptime), Mystifying flames has a 30% proc chance and 20sec uptime.

1. Does the initial damage and the dots of every skill count as a proc chance? This is the case for searing Words as far as i can read, in your description.
2. Is it possible, in any way, to track procs of Mystifying flames with Buffbar? It doesn't seem to show up in Combat log.

Maybe my brain is a bit overloaded with info from this thread, so want to ask this too

With the changes to stats in Mordor and less essence slots. Is it still a viable way to go with max (around 20%) crit rating, considering the amount af rating needed. I've read other threads on this forum about taking Finesse to at least 13% and then add mastery essences.. for the remaining slots ?

In lvl115 T2 instances trash mobs now have a lot more morale (200-500K)
In a big (tank)pull >8 mobs. If full damage attuned RK on a target put on Writ of fire(WoF) t1, and then combustion to spread WoF to Group. Then wait (doing some aoe skills in between) for WOF to be on last tick and upgrade WoF to T2 then wait for Combustion cd and throw that Again. wouldn't this give a chance of proccin' a t1 and t2 version of searing Words on all mobs in Group?

[Once_of_Bree]

I wouldn't dream of disagreeing with a such detailed analysis or expert opinion but I will say based on my experience there is something to be said for volcanic stones in Mordor landscape.

If I do my normal start with distracting flame the mobs are on me PDQ and things get dicey. If I plonk my volcanic stone by the mob(s) they will attack that even after distracting flame hits them so I can actually get the normal sequence going.

Before Mordor I never had vulcanic stone traited but now I find it enhances my solo survivability. No hard figures or analysis, it's just a feeling.

There's also something to be said for having a lightning skill handy for those pesky carghuls, maybe even epic conclusion.

[Dragofer]

Thanks for taking the time to read this thread and post your remarks -

1. Does the initial damage and the dots of every skill count as a proc chance? This is the case for searing Words as far as i can read, in your description.
2. Is it possible, in any way, to track procs of Mystifying flames with Buffbar? It doesn't seem to show up in Combat log.
3. In a big (tank)pull >8 mobs. If full damage attuned RK on a target put on Writ of fire(WoF) t1, and then combustion to spread WoF to Group. Then wait (doing some aoe skills in between) for WOF to be on last tick and upgrade WoF to T2 then wait for Combustion cd and throw that Again. wouldn't this give a chance of proccin' a t1 and t2 version of searing Words on all mobs in Group?

1. Just the initial hit counts as a proc chance for any of the RK's procs - so Writs are best at getting procs.

2. I've fiddled with this as well back then, with the same outcome as you. While the good thing about Mystifying Flames is that it's clear when it's active and it doesn't matter who procced it, it might be convenient to know how long there's left. Well, I tried to think through possible usage scenarios, i.e.:
a) when mystifying flames runs out in 1s, would it be better to delay Essence of Flame induction until mystifying flames is back?
b) when mystifying flames runs out in 2s, would it be better to delay Smouldering Wrath etc.?

The downside to both those tactics is that you might get a lot of downtime on those heavyhitters. You could wait i.e. 5s in which the old debuff runs out and you then use 2-3 fire skills.
- For tactic a) this would have the result of losing 30% of a cast (5s vs 16.5s cooldown & induction) for a ~60% chance to do ~33% more damage. Lose 30%, gain ~20%.
- For tactic b) this would have the result of losing 33% of a cast (5s vs 15s cooldown & usage) for a ~60% chance to do 33% more damage on 60% of the ticks. Lose 33%, gain ~12%.

So those tactics would be a loss. I didn't come up with any other possible usage scenarios where having mystifying flames on the tracker would be useful, so I didn't pursue it any longer.


3. In AoE you only need to stay at a tier for however long your Searing Words duration is, because after that time old Searing Words fall away as fast as you can apply new ones. That's roughly the same time as a Combustion cooldown, so you can safely advance a tier everytime combustion comes off cooldown.

If I do my normal start with distracting flame the mobs are on me PDQ and things get dicey. If I plonk my volcanic stone by the mob(s) they will attack that even after distracting flame hits them so I can actually get the normal sequence going.
...
There's also something to be said for having a lightning skill handy for those pesky carghuls, maybe even epic conclusion.

Yes that's right, volcanic runestones are useful in landscape. Not just for the diversion, but also because it gives you time to induct an Essay of Fire when you lead with a Distracting Flame.

[Dragofer]

With the changes to stats in Mordor and less essence slots. Is it still a viable way to go with max (around 20%) crit rating, considering the amount af rating needed. I've read other threads on this forum about taking Finesse to at least 13% and then add mastery essences.. for the remaining slots ?

I'm out of the loop with the latest gearing possibilities and their performance in instances, but I figured I'd plug in some numbers into an Excel to see which of the three stats has the most impact, using the formula (base damage) * (1 + crit chance * multiplier) * (hit chance) to get something to compare. Also pulled the latest rating formulas from lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Rating_to_percentage_formula, so it's become a miniature gearing tool.

Google Drive - U21 Stats


Example calculation:
a) (100% base damage + 200% mastery bonus) * (100% + 5% crit chance * 55% crit multiplier) * (100% - 10% post-finesse resist) = 277% damage output
b) (100% base damage + 100% mastery bonus) * (100% + 20% crit chance * 80% crit multiplier) * (100% - 10% post-finesse resist) = 209% damage output
(I'll be calling 'damage output' 'relative dps' from here on because it's a value for comparison)


So, if someone fought an enemy with 25% base resist chance, had gear with 100000 mastery, 10000 crit, 8000 finesse, had some spare slots and used only the best essences, then:
- slotting no essences does relative dps of 257
- slotting 5 mastery essences does relative dps of 290, 10 essences does 323 relative dps
- slotting 5 critical essences does relative dps of 274, 10 essences does 287 relative dps
- slotting 5 finesse essences does relative dps of 288, 10 essences does 310 relative dps
- slotting 5 mastery + 5 finesse essences does 326 relative dps

At this point I don't have a point of reference for baseline stats of a well-equipped player before slotting essences, so if someone like that could chip in with their char sheet for more accurate numbers that'd be helpful for moving on from here.

[Earid]

Searing Words for BuffBars – Multi-Tier Setup

The original write-up for Searing Words in BuffBars could’ve been handled in a more user-friendly way considering how it went through legofreak42’s single-tier setup in order to get to my multi-tier setup. So now that I had some more time I've taken & edited my own screenshots and rewrote this guide so that it goes directly for the multi-tier setup, which means it should be a good deal easier to follow.

To recap:
- The single-tier setup will show max one Searing Words tier at a time, so any new proc will replace the old one. This reduces screen clutter but is distracting in AoE.
- The multi-tier setup shows all active tiers of Searing Words simultaneously. This is more intuitive / interesting for some people and works better in AoE because it doesn’t constantly replace old procs with new procs.
This post is a manual for the multi-tier setup; see post #100 for instructions for the single-tier setup. You will need to have both BuffBars and CombatAnalysis plugins installed.


What is this good for?

With these BuffBars you know which tiers you have active and how long they have left. This solves the problems where:
- you don’t realise you got a new proc because an old proc disappeared in the same instant.
- you’re grouped with other RKs and don’t know whether you or someone else procced that new Searing Words.
- couldn't keep track of your procs because you had to focus on other things or 11 other people are applying dots and debuffs to the same enemy.


Setup 1 of 2: BuffBars



1 Go to the BuffBars section in the plugin manager. (if you’ve never used the plugin manager before you need to bind a hotkey for it in options, there’s a search box in options)
2 Go to Options tab, then Effect Windows tab
3 Scroll down to Effect Triggers and click Add
4 Select Template ‘Custom’, name it ‘Searing Procs’, the type is ‘Mob Debuff’, the match criteria search field should be ‘searing’, then accept
5 Move the Searing Procs up to the top of the Effect Triggers list
6 Scroll down and save
(This will give Searing Words priority over other effects, useful when there's a lot going on)



Setup 2 of 2: Combat Analysis



1 Now go to the CombatAnalysis section in the plugin manager
2 Go to Options tab, then Buffs tab
3 At the top, select Cleansing Fires from the dropdown menu, then select the Debuffs tab
4 Add Debuff (not Add)
5 Class is ‘Rune Keeper’, Debuff Name is ‘Searing Words T0’*, Icon File Name is ‘fire_lore.tga’
6 Delete the entry named Searing Words T0 under 'Removes' so that it becomes 'Conflicts with'. (select it, then click on the red cross 'remove')
7 'Applied by' should be 'Searing Words', set dur to 14**
8 Repeat steps 4-7 for the other tiers, except for one difference: 'Applied by' should be 'Extreme Heat: Searing Words - Tier x', replace x with the tier of Searing Words. This should be copy-pasted

* if you already tried setting this up with ‘Searing T0’ before, I’d suggest going for ‘Searing Words T0’ this time to avoid possible headaches down the line.
**non-users of +2 pulses set dur to 10.




Ingame

And to top off this post, here’s an ingame shot with the custom BuffBars setup in action. As you can see all 4 tiers of Searing Words buff bars are working :P

I can't seem to get this setup to work. Got a couple of questions.

Is combat analysis necessary or can it be done with Buff bars alone?


When I try to use combat analysis. It won't work. gives me loads of errors.


EDIT!! I got it working but it only displays Searing Words T0 for everytime. No tiers are displaying.

It can display 2x Searing Words T0 when in fact on vitals it is Searing Words T3

Any idea's how I can get this working?