Some Help Please

[Aurilius]

So since I returned to the game I've been pretty diligent about levelling up my burg and trying to learn all of the new stuff the game has to offer since I last played. It's a bit overwhelming with all the changes that occured, but I am slowly getting it all in.

Now that my burg is level 59 and close to reaching 60, I think I need some help on what to do after that. Specifically:

Gear

I am still wearing 2 Shadow Stalker Pieces and my Etched Beryl Rings from lvl 50. But I am reluctant to blow a lot of money on things that I am not sure is worth it. Anybody care to share some ideas on what gear I should get? Which leads to my next topic...

Radiance Gear Runs

Now I am 90% sure that Radiance Gear is the best available for end game and that there are Radiance runs to get these pieces. How exactly do these runs work? How do we as Hasteys set these up? Any help here would be appreciated.

Traits

So I learned about these new trait sets and that you have to quest and stuff to complete all the trait sets. So for you burgs out there, which set do you think is the best or which combinations do you like? Also what virtues should i work on for my burg?

Turtle Raids

I see there is a level 60 requirement for Turtle runs. What exactly do you get from Turtle runs? How should I prepare myself (as a burg) for these runs for when I finally get a chance to run in this raid.

Also any other advice would be much appreciated. Thanks Hasteys!

[Streen]

I am always up for helping with Rad Runs as long as I am online =P. Hit me Up. I know there are several others that like helping, just for something to do...

[Ausar]

Rad runs used to be on the calendar, but that's gone by the wayside. Just try to get a group together and run it.

Your best bet for a first one is Grand Stars (GS). Everyone knows it, everyone loves it. It's buckets full of loot for everyone, in about 25 minutes.

Some of the tougher instances also drop gold and silver coins, which are for 3 piece sets. These sets may or may not be better than the rad gear for all cases but Vile Maw raids. The guards' is.

[Helori]

Radience runs are mostly short. They vary, for example one instance is a timer (kill last boss in under X time) while another you cannot kill a mob (the last boss has adds that if you kill any of them (one hit kills too) you lose), etc. This is called hard mode --- if you fail hard mode by going over time or killing a bug or whatever, you lose and no radience gear drops. If you beat it hard, you get a token that lets you get an armor piece from your class trainer in 21st hall.

Radience is good, but if not doing the watcher, its only a little better than some purple gear. Also, book 8 is adding armor I think to lothlorian vendors (????) that is like radience gear, maybe better, maybe worse (not clear yet).


You want to run grand stairs a lot for a weapon (club and sword for offhand) and some jewelery, and there are good jewelerys and such in other places too.


For traits and such, virtue up to get armor and melee mitigation. Range mit is useless, I assume you have enrage and ranged mobs will not be shooting you. Tatical resist is OK but not critical for any class, most damage is not tatical.

Also gear up melee mitigations.

OK, for your weapons, you might consider stacking bleeds, critical response damage, knives out defense, improved cooldowns, and whatever else you think will help you do your job. For tools, offhand crit, stealth speed, positional damage, crit multiplier or whatever it is are all very good, gamble chance is very good.

Trait lines:
gambles let you mez anything, not just humans, at some risk (you can fail or get very short mez). Quiet knife is stellar dps from behind but about useless from the front (solo). MM set is set up to have half its traits improve riddle, but with gamble mez, you don't need it so much.

Currently, then, for basic groups I run 4 gambler, 2 QK, and 1 MM traits. That would be clever retort without mischief mode trait, subtle stab trait, leafwalker, and 2% crit bonus vs gambled targets (sorry the names elude me). For QK bleeds, aim, and ambidex are all good traits, the goal was the positional bonus from 2 traits. For MM, I find I cannot function without enrage trait in moria, so many archers and shaman type mobs that need to be pulled into the aoe/melee range. What I do here is stealth, provoke-mez a mob (provoke will gamble mez), enrage and glee-mez a mob, riddle a mob, enrage any archers/etc and then go do positional damage and tricks on the burn targets. If you fail a gamble mez, no big deal, no one *expects* a burg to mez 3 mobs so its sort of an extra.

For bosses, gambles stink (no need to mez and no need to enrage (turtle enrage is removed now). Best to go with group dps increasing, which is a combo of MM and QK traits mostly.

HOWEVER, the patch notes say burg traits got a total work over, so some of those tips are going to be sub-par after this next patch. Read the notes and "catch up" your knowledge off those, since so much is changed.


Other cool trait stuff:
the end traits are nice for QK and MM. The quite a snag /small snag legendary or not adds damage to the target, its for boss-burning and its great for that. The QK one lets you do a stealthed aimed SS on the enemy without stealth, every few moments if you have the legendary AND a weapon to reduce the cooldown.

Typically though I just run exposed throat, stick and move, and flashing blades because I do not go 5 deep into a trait line.


THIS IS IMPORTANT:
if you did not already do it, poach the deer for the dwarf in lothlorien. That is the ONLY dagger offhand we can get that is not completely garbage, and if you do the elf side version you cannot ever get a good dagger!!!! The dagger passive bonus makes a dagger about like a sword for damage, which is decent and since our offhand dps is not key, its a very good item to go for.



Raids give first age items. First age items have better passive bonus on them (your tools will have -tricks power cost for example), better legacy (T6 legacy at rank 1 will be like a third age T6 at rank 2 I think!) and more levels (the items level to 50) so they have more points to spend. However, a good second age item is usually better than a bad first age item. Be very selective of what you bid on and use for a first age item --- orange quality or not, they are not always the best choice! Weapons are important for burgs to get as first age, because the dps max is higher on them, but here again if the first age legacies are no good, the item is inferior to a good second age item. You can also get second age items from turtle, but they can drop anywhere and check the AH for some as well.

To prepare for turtle, drop your traits and get reveal weakness, counter defense, and dps traits. Its a tank and spank fight as a DPS race, so doing damage and helping the group do damage is your job. The turtle can be enraged until book 8, which can allow for no tanking (everyone takes a hit or 2) but that is removed so get used to it and do not bother with blind fury anymore for the fight. Have fun, we rarely get to go hog wild on dps from behind for so long =)

For the watcher, its similar, focus on traits to enable group and personal dps. Carry marbles to start some CJs the power and healing cj are very important in this fight, and the more you can start, the better. Your positional dps is less vital, its hard to get behind a mob for long in there. Also, you MUST be ready to do twist on the main watcher mob (its head) if asked to do so, for the corruption removal. So keep that skill at the ready.

[Aurilius]

Thats an awesome response Helori. Thank you!

P.S. Looks like the burg got some nice improvements for Book 8. Looks like some champs may join our ranks now. ;-)