Yellow Lore-master - LotroHQ - Class Builds, Tips & Tricks for LOTRO

Yellow Lore-master ‘Ancient Master’ Build

By Araphorn – Updated for Yondershire, U33

Introduction
Stat Goals
Gear
Trait Trees
Virtues
Legendary Items
Rotation
Consumables

Introduction

Welcome, here you will find a great build for Yellow Lore-masters, built specifically for T3+ content, which requires a LM to have a high morale pool along with great finesse.

A spot for LMs is always there, in just about any content. In 3-mans, LMs replace the healer, in 6-mans a LM is required for the overall debuffs, especially ones which increase DPS, and in raids LMs are required for just about everything a LM brings. This is something which has always been the case since LOTRO started, and it isn’t something which is going to change, so having a LM yellow spec is always good to have.

A Lore-master has lots utility if played right, they bring debuffs which reduce target’s damage, by quite a margin, and they also have debuffs which makes your group deliver more damage to targets. Moreover, LMs also have to control their Pets, which have further unique debuffs, and LMs also have off-healing utilities, which helps the tanks/group. There’s usually no rotation gaps/waiting periods on LM, there’s always something to do, something to refresh, which makes the class a little challenging in raids, but engaging at the same time.

Stat Goals

There are no primary stats on a Yellow Lore-master, they need a little bit of everything.

These stat goals are kept with Essence & Gear planning in mind, as to which Essences are to be prioritized over others. These goals can also be used when picking Virtues.

Finesse (30%+) > Tactical Mitigation > Physical Mitigation > Vitality

After Finesse is at 30%+, so the Lores do not resist at a T3+ level, then Essences can be used on Tactical & Physical Mitigation, so they are capped or near capped. Then some room can be saved for Class & Trigger essences, and if there is still room available, then some Vitality essences can be used. At the beginning of expansion, Essence slots are really limited, this gets easier as better items become available later down the line.

* Before planning Essences, slot the right Virtues (more on that down below). This way you can plan your setup better, and utilize Essences perfectly, and you can dump the remaining Essence slots in Vitality, Finesse, or other Stat of your choice after meeting Stat goals mentioned above.

Gear

With new Gundabad expansion released, new gear for Yellow Lore-master is published in the tables down below. They will use 4-pieces of the new Yellow Line set, paired with either 3-pieces of Blue Line set for some healing support, OR 3-pieces of the Red Line set if more DPS is preferred.

There are 2 published Builds, one for Endgame and one for Starters.

End-game Build

Armour Pieces

Gear Slot	Set Piece	Location
Helm	Lore-master’s Helm	Hiddenhoard Raid
Chest	Lore-master’s Chest	Hiddenhoard Raid
Shoulders	Lore-master’s Shoulders	Hiddenhoard Raid
Gloves	Lore-master’s Gloves	Hiddenhoard Raid
Legs	Lore-master’s Legs	Hiddenhoard Raid
Boots	Lore-master’s Boots	Hiddenhoard Raid
Cloak	Lore-master’s Cloak	Hiddenhoard Raid
Off-hand	Finesse Sword	Hiddenhoard Raid
Class Item	LM’s Stickpin	Throne Raid Barter Use Class Essence here.

Jewelry Pieces

Gear Slot	Set Piece	Location
Earring 1	Earring	Hiddenhoard Raid
Earring 2	Earring	Hiddenhoard Raid
Necklace	Necklace	Hiddenhoard Raid
Pocket	Pocket	Hiddenhoard Raid
Bracelet 1	Bracelet	Storvagun Winter Festival
Bracelet 2	Bracelet	Storvagun Winter Festival
Ring 1	Ring	Hiddenhoard Raid
Ring 2	Ring	Hiddenhoard Raid

Starter Build

The 140 Level Gear from this Build can be acquired by playing the 3 and 6 man instances, higher difficulty will award better loot. Having this gear will allow to progress level capped Raids. As for Essences, you can use the ones you get from Questing or Crafting (whichever Tier is fine), and try to follow the Stat Goals above and Slot the ones which are needed by your Class.

Armour Pieces

Gear Slot	Set Piece	Location
Helm	Lore-master’s Helm	Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Chest	Lore-master’s Chest	Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Shoulders	Lore-master’s Shoulders	Gundabad 3-Man Instance
Gloves	Lore-master’s Gloves	Gundabad 3-Man Instance
Legs	Lore-master’s Legs	Gundabad 3-Man Instance
Boots	Lore-master’s Boots	Gundabad 3-Man Instance
Cloak	Lore-master’s Cloak	Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Off-hand	Finesse Sword	Embers Box Barter
Class Item	LM’s Stickpin	Throne Raid Barter Use Class Essence here.

Jewelry Pieces

Gear Slot	Set Piece	Location
Earring 1	Earring	Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Earring 2	Earring	Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Necklace	Necklace	Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Pocket	Pocket	Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Bracelet 1	Bracelet	Storvagun Winter Festival
Bracelet 2	Bracelet	Storvagun Winter Festival
Ring 1	Ring	Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Ring 2	Ring	Gundabad 6-Man Instance

Essences

Essence Name	Essence	Note
Class Essence	Wisdom Essence	Use this on Class Item.
Finesse	Finesse	Use these to reach 30%+ Finesse.
Tactical Mitigation	Tactical Mitigation	Use these to reach Tactical Mitigation near cap.
Physical Mitigation	Physical Mitigation	Use these to reach Physical Mitigation near cap.
Crit Trigger	Crit Trigger	Use 1 of these.
Heal Trigger 1	Heal Trigger 1	Use 1 of these.
Heal Trigger 1	Heal Trigger 2	Use 1 of these.
Vitality	Vitality	Use these to fill slots after above Essences are met.

Trait Trees

There are two ways to trait a Yellow LM for instances/raids. One is to build for a little bit of DPS from Lightning-storm, and the other way is pure Yellow-Blue for extra morale/mits and lower inductions, which help with Water-lore spam for healing. You generally only need to trait for Yellow-Red (Lightning-storm) for DPS heavy fight, where the group can use your help.

Here is the build for Yellow-Red:

I have everything important from Yellow line here, and Catmint from Blue. While also having maxed out damage for Lightning-storm, which can hit really hard if the target is debuffed and has Oathbreakers on it.

Next, here is my tree for Yellow-Blue, I use this tree if I’m solo-healing the instance (3-mans for example) and if my group doesn’t require me to DPS at all.

This Tree has everything important from Yellow line and the best stuff from Blue.

35 Trait Points Build for Legendary Servers

60 Trait Points Build for Beginners

EXTRA: A Red-line Trait Build for Landscape, since LotroHQ does not have a dedicated Red-line Build page yet.

Red-Line 35 Trait Points Build for Legendary Servers

Red-Line 60 Trait Points Build for Beginners

Virtues

These are the virtues I use to reach the Stat Goals. I use mostly Mastery/Outgoing Healing, Critical Rating and Finesse options, but if need be, some of them can be switched to more Defensive options as well, depending on the type of fight. More explained down below.

Here are the Virtues which go along with the Stat Goals:

Honesty (Great for Mastery/Outgoing Healing and Critical Rating)
Wisdom (Great for Mastery, Finesse and Critical Rating)
Confidence (Great for Critical Rating and Finesse)
Wit (Great for Finesse, Mastery and Critical Rating)
Loyalty (Great for Vitality and survival)

If you don’t have these virtues, here are some alternatives:

Fidelity (Great for Vitality + Tactical Mit)
Tolerance (Gives great amount of Tactical Mit, decent Physical Mit and Resistance)
Innocence (Gives great amount of Physical Mit, decent Tactical Mit Mit and Resistance)

Legendary Items

Few things have changed for Yellow Lore-masters with the new LI revamp, there are new Traceries giving them access to more AoE targets, higher range on their Healing Skills, much higher DoT DPS and better overall HoTs. Since there is a new Tracery for Fire-lore Debuff strength, it has eliminated the need to Book swap (which is disabled now anyway as LIs cannot be swapped in combat anymore). A Yellow LM just needs 2 LIs now.

Lore-master’s Staff

Type	Sockets
Heraldic Tracery	Heraldry of the Owl
Word of Power	Damage Over Time
Word of Power	Damage Over Time Criticals
Word of Mastery	Burning Embers Critical Chance & Multiplier
Word of Mastery	Burning Embers Initial Damage
Word of Mastery	Light of the Rising Dawn Damage & Critical Multiplier
Word of Mastery	Lightning Skills Critical Chance & Multiplier
Word of Mastery	Lightning Storm Damage
Word of Mastery	Test of Will Damage & Devastate Multiplier
Word of Craft	Heroic Precision
Word of Craft	Heroic Precision

Lore-master’s Book (Class Item)

Type	Sockets
Heraldic Tracery	Heraldry of the Owl
Word of Power	Area Effect Target Count
Word of Power	Ranged Healing Extension
Word of Power	Healing Over Time Criticals
Word of Mastery	Armour Debuff Potency
Word of Mastery	Beacon of Hope Heal
Word of Mastery	Charged Air Reflect Damage
Word of Mastery	Fire Lore Debuff Magnitude
Word of Mastery	Signs of Power Durations & Debuff
Word of Mastery	Target Resistance: Debuffing Skills
Word of Craft	Ascendent Lightning
Word of Craft	Ascendent Lightning

Rotation

Here is what I do on Lore-master.

Before starting the fight, put a few Water-lores on the tank, along with an Air-lore. Throw tar on the area the boss should be at, along with Warding Knowledge Circle.
Start the fight with Fire-lore, then Frost-lore. Use Wind-lore after, so both the debuffs are at the same duration.
Now it’s time for pet debuffs, summon Nature Spirit pet first and use Catmint, then apply Nature’s Light pet skill to put a 10% morale return mark for 30s.
Ask your group leader when they want Ancient Craft and use it accordingly.
Then dismiss the Spirit pet and summon your Bear and apply its Shatter Arms skill for a incoming damage debuff.
Then dismiss Bear and summon Bog-lurker and apply Root Strike skill for incoming ranged critical chance debuff (Only summon this pet if you have a Hunter in your group)
Now is a good time to refresh Wind-lore (which will refresh Fire/Frost-lore). You can also use Signs of Power now, Command and See all Ends.
If you have the Catmint set, your Catmint will come off cooldown right about now, use it and do the same thing for Raven pet, apply Benediction with Catmint.
While you have rotation gaps, you can use these gaps to refresh Wind-lore on target(s) to renew your Fire/Frost-lores, give some Water-lores to tank, do some CC as per the instance requirements, and use Burning Embers/Test of Will/Lightning Storm to help DPS a bit.
It also helps a lot to have a shortcut on your quickslot for dismissing pets. You can do so by typing this in the chat box:
- /shortcut 1 /pet release
Keep Warding Knowledge Circle on boss on cooldown as much as you can, along with Sticky Tar. Ancient Craft refresh as per group requirements. If they don’t ask for it, then keep it on cooldown.
Stun immunity on tank as per instance requirements.
Juggling all Pet skills debuffs takes time to get the hang of, but don’t let them interfere with your ability to refresh Fire/Frost-lores on time with Wind-lore, and other important things.
To summarize, keep Fire/Frost-lore always on targets, keep your pet skills (names mentioned above) on target as best as you can, priority is Nature Pet > Bear > Raven > Bog-lurker, only Spirit and Raven require Catmint. When you have done that, watch out for CC requirements and help your tank with Water-lores, and finally when all that is running, use Burning Embers > Test of Will > Lightning Storm.