Level 18

Hello again!

After this long hiatus, I thought it would be better (also after watching the poll votes, thank you for voting) if I would pick up where I left off. I will continue with skills until level 20 and probably then I will start on traits and trait-lines.

So, here we are at level 18. We have one important skill (believe me, you will use it often) and a situational skill, but important nonetheless.

Light of the Rising Dawn: This skill’s tooltip is pretty much straight forward. It does mid-high damage (light based) and it will stun the selected enemy for 3 seconds. It is, however, on a short cooldown, 30 seconds, and it will, probably, be one of your most damaging skills for a few levels. Use it often, but beware that since this a Nature’s Fury skill it will also cost you morale along with power.

TIP: This is something I must talk about in a few posts, but after a stun, all enemies (and friends also) receive an automatic 10-second stun immunity buff. So don’t use this skill if you think you (or someone else in your fellowship) will need to use a stun or a fellowship maneuver in the next seconds. This is specially important if you are teaming with a burglar, since they cannot use their fellowship maneuver skills on stun-immune enemies.

TIP: The stun state, along with the daze state (of Blinding Flash and Bane Flare), will overwrite a rooted state (such as the one give by the Cracked Earth delayed root). So if you use it against an enemy that is rooted, after the stun that same enemy will not be rooted anymore.

TIP: With 3 red traits, you can lower the cooldown on this skill by 15 seconds.

TIP: You can also use this skill to interrupt an enemy’s induction. So if you see that glowing orange or green circle below an enemy, you can hit this skill and interrupt his special attack or self-heal. This is specially useful on enemies that are immune to Blinding Flash (Dead, Creatures of Nature).

Bane Flare: This skill will  stun and then mezz (daze) up to 3 Dead creatures, in a 10m radius of yourself. This means that it won’t be used against your selected enemy, because it is centered on yourself. This also means that you can use this skill without selecting any enemy, even out of combat (it makes a great firework effect :).  All kidding aside, this skill was made to counteract some of the Blinding Flash’s faults. And since you probably are or should almost be at the Barrow Down’s zone, the Dead will be nothing personal nemesis for the young Lore-Masters. Also, this skill only affect’s the Dead.

This is a 2-part skill, since it will stun first for 5-seconds and after the stun wears off, it will daze for 10 seconds more. What this means is that for the first 5 seconds, any damage made to the affected Dead will not break the Bane Flare effect, because it’s a stun. But after those 5 seconds, any damage made to it will wake up the damaged enemy from his dazed state.

TIP: You cannot use this skill the same way you use Blinding Flash. Mainly because the cooldown is bigger than the dazed effect. Although it will daze up to three Dead, you cannot re-apply it before the effect wears off.

TIP: I’ve already stated this, but I will repeat it. This is a self-centered skill, meaning that it won’t affect the enemy you are selecting, but instead it will be launched above you, and daze up to 3 dead that are within 10m of you. So if the enemy you are selecting is more than 10m away from you, you will have to move closer to him if you want him dazed.

TIP: If you slot at least 2 traits in the yellow line, you can increase the number of Dead affected by skill by two, bringing the number of enemies affected by this skill to 5.

Level 16

Before we start with level 16, Lore-master’s will be able to do their first class-quest at level 15. It’s not a simple quest. Requires some thinking and some use of lore-master only abilities. I just started a Lore-master on the Landroval server (The name is Galaenath) with the sole purpose of doing the level 15 and level 30 class quests, so look forward to a dedicated post about them soon.  If you find me, say hi! 🙂

Back to our schedule. Level 16 Lore-master receive two of their class defining abilities: Tend the Sick and Power of Knowledge.

Tend the Sick: This skill is both very similar to Leechcraft, with a minor twist. It enables you to cure your selected target from disease’s. Unlike Leechcraft though, it is possible to cure diseases in-combat. It will remove any 3 diseases from your target, up to 5 levels above your own. It will also add a substantial amount of disease resist rating for 1 minute, so you or your target will be less likely to be affected by diseases for the duration of that effect.

TIP: The trait Proof Against All Ill’s also affects Tend the Sick the same way it affects Leechcraft. It will make it a fellowship wide disease removal.

Tend the Sick at level 20

Power of Knowledge: This skill will enable the Lore-master to steal power from the enemies, replenishing the LM’s own power bar. This skill is a channelled skill, meaning that you have to stay sill while using it. It lasts 16s, so that’s 16s standing still without being able to use any of your own skills. You can interrupt the stealing channel anytime you want by moving, but that will cancel the channel and will put the skill on cooldown.

TIP: You can use your pet to distract or “tank” for you while you steal power.

TIP: Avoid using this skill if you are being attacked. It will “knock back” your induction bar and the channel won’t last as long. Immobilize your enemy first.

TIP: You can take adavantage of the Cracked Earth’s root effect to suck the power of a melee foe, since he can’t move.

Power of Knowledge Tooltip

Note: This post was rewritten due to the changes to the Lore-master in the Volume 3, Book 2 changes. They will come into effect on the 8th of September 2010.

Galaenath

Level 10

Congratulations on reaching level 10! Lore-masters get again 2 new skills:

Blinding Flash: If the Lore-master could be described in one skill, Blinding Flash would be it. This skill will stop an enemy in its tracks, putting it to sleep for 30 seconds. This skill will daze or mezz a oponent for the duration of the effect as long as it does not suffer any kind of damage. The skill has a 15 second cooldown, meaning that you can refresh the daze on the enemy and keep him dazed for as long as you like. Creatures of nature (like trees and roots) and the Dead are immune to this effect. As of the recent November update, Blinding Flash will also

TIP: If you are in a group and the leader asks you to Mezz something, then the leader is asking you to use blinding flash on an enemy to put it to sleep. Can also mean dazed. Mezzing would be the act of using Blinding Flash on an enemy.

TIP: With precise timing and some luck you can keep 2 enemies mezzed with blinding flash.

TIP: If you are having troubles with groups of 3 enemies, you can start your fight mezzing one enemy, then sending your pet in to distract the second enemy while you attack the 3rd enemy. You can always refresh the effects of the mezz and leave the sleeping enemy to the end.

TIP: Because the mezz will break on any attack, your pet will halt all attacks on an enemy if you use Blinding Flash on it. Pet’s will have this behavior on every type of crowd control that breaks on damage, even if they are used by other members of your fellowship. This includes mezzes, roots or fears.

TIP: Remember not to use Blinding Flash on an enemy that was recently attack by Burning Embers. Because the embers have a Damage over time component (DoT), it will break the mezzed state whenever the DoT ticks.

TIP: When in a group, specially at low levels, don’t be discouraged if a fellow member attacks something that you put to sleep. They probably don’t know what a mezz is or are using Area of Effect attacks. Avoid mezzing enemies that are close to your tank. Your preferred mezzing targets will be ranged enemies that will most likely be attacking your group healer.

In-game skill-shot.

Leechcraft: Another trademark Lore-master skill. This skill will remove 3 wounds from your selected target and will increase your targets resistance to wounds for a short time. This skill is not usable in combat.

TIP: In a group it can be confusing seeing all those icons bellow your friends portrait. It is recomened to enable “Dispellable effects” only so you can quickly see if any of your fellows is suffering from a wound. To do this, you should go to your game options and in the Social Options look for “Show Dispellable Effect Only”. This will hide from your friends portraits any buffs and will show only things you or your friends can remove.

TIP: Wounds can have a variety of effects, from damage over time to disarm. It will be important to keep a keen eye on your fellowships debuffs because you will be asked to remove wounds from your allies as fast as you can. Wounds will show on your friends portraits as an icon with a red thick border.

TIP: This skill can be traited to remove wounds in combat and from everyone on your fellowship at the same time. We will talk about traits soon.

Level 6

At level 6, Lore-masters gain their first stun skill, called Test of Will. The other skill young LM’s will learn is Sign of the Wild: Protection, which will enable you to protect your own pet.

Sign of the Wild: Protection: This will act as one of the two available buffs that the Lore-master can apply to its companion. Protection will decrease the amount of damage taken by your pet by a small amount (5 %) and increase its chance of parrying incoming attacks. Very simple, but useful if you are sending your pet to off-tank an enemy while you are attacking something else.

Sign of the Wild: Protection

Test of Will: This damaging skill will stun your oponent for 5 seconds. During those 5 seconds the stunned enemy will be unable to move, attack yourself or defend himself. This skill also has a very high critical magnitude, this means that its damage is normal but you can see very high numbers when it lands a critical or devastating critical attack.

TIP: The skill also has a large induction. Avoid to launch this skill if you are being attack, since it will be setback or interrupted. Use it at the start of a multiple enemy pull or use it on an enemy that your pet is attacking.

TIP: You can also use this has an escape skill. If you are getting more than what you bargained, launch this skill on a tough enemy and give yourself some space.

TIP: Like most damaging skills, it will cost a little amount of morale to cast along with power. Be careful not to use this skill if you are low on morale.

Test of Will at Level 65

Note: This post was rewritten due to the changes to the Lore-master in the Volume 3, Book 2 changes. They will come into effect on the 8th of September 2010.