Loremaster Trait

This guide is meant to provide information about Loremaster Class traits and Legendary traits. It does not provide statistics...it provides some numbers with personal experience and information about each of the traits and enlighten to the usage of such traits. I hope you enjoy it!

I'll start off with one of the most useful traits. Master of the Staff. (Acquired by Using Staff Strike 600 Times)


This trait turns this
into this

As you can see the trait gives a 25% increase on your staff damage plus an additional 8 damage at level 50. If you hit a mob with the Flanked! debuff and this trait equipped you will do a "double" hit so to speak. The stun from the staff is pretty respectable too. About 4-5 seconds. This trait is a very versatile and worthwhile trait. And let's not forget the +5% to morale line bonus. Please note, the extra damage is coming from my Legendary Trait Sword & Staff, tooltips now will reflect the actual increased damage from other traits and buffs currently on you. So you can see how high this can get if you stack the correct traits.

The next trait we'll look at is Power and Wisdom. (Acquired by using Power of Knowledge 250 times.)

This trait is very worthwhile. Increase the amount of drain time with Power of Knowledge skill by 8 seconds and decreasing the cooldown by 10 seconds. As well as improving Ancient Wisdom self buff by 20 points, making it an additional 80 Will at level 50.

Another major trait is Flame of Anor (Acquired from level 30 Class Quest.)

A very simple trait to understand but lets look at some images to show the difference.



What we see here is the unbuffed skill on the left, and the buffed skill on the right. We get an increase in intial damage by 18 fire damage and the DoT increases by only a mere 6 points of fire damage.

The other two spells this affects are Cracked Earth and Ents go to War.
For effect I'll only be showing the improved damage on Ents go to War, which goes from 442 to 486 fire damage. An increase of 44 points of fire damage. The fact that this trait affects THREE different spells does make it worthwhile to use.

We'll look at some of the beast traits now.
First off is Beast-Lore. (Acquired by using Sign of the Wild:Rage 300 times.)

A fairly decent trait early on. Affects all pets with an increase to health and power and attack power and attack speed. If your a pet lover this one is very nice. While the health and power are visually increased, we can only assume that the attack power and attack speed are increased as well.

Next is Master of Beasts. (Aquired by using Sign of the Wild:Protection 500 times.)

This trait is not as useful though. It decreases the cost by 10% of only Sign of the Wild: Rage and Sign of the Wild:Protection, while Increasing duration by 2 minutes. Not really worth the slot.

Hardy Bear (Acquired from level 15 Class quest.)

I see alot of people using this trait and early on it's quite useful as it will most likely be your very first one. The bear does hit harder and with this trait he gains a level and will only be one level below you instead of two, allowing the bear to have an easier time to hit mobs. Later on however you would be better off using Beast Lore if you are an animal lover.

This next area describes some of the deeper aspects of Proof against all Ills. (Acquired by using Tend the Sick 300 times.)


The most noticable difference for this trait is that both Leechcraft and Tend the Sick become a very small AoE buff. It is not a party buff but will buff anyone within 5 meters of your target. (That is not quite melee range but pretty darn close.) Another nice side effect is that Leechcraft skill will also become available to use in-combat. Allowing for true on the spot curing of debuffs. This trait is especially useful if your running an instance that has known mobs that wound or give off diseases (many undead instances like Garth Agarwen and Great Barrows).

This descibes some of the aspects of the healing traits for a Loremaster.

First we'll start off with Healer (Acquired by using Leechcraft 250 times.)

This trait is EXCELLENT. It decreases the cast time of Leechcraft, Tend the Sick, Share the Power, and Beacon of Hope as well as decreasing the power costs of all those spells too. For Beacon of Hope it also Increases its healing power by 10%. This skill is very good. I have this one equipped nearly all the time. The main reason I have it equipped is because it is an adequate replacement for Beacon of Hope but also because its decrease in power cost affects Share the Power...

While not really something that could be used in a 6 man fellowship...in a 24 man raid if you had two Loremasters with Healer trait equipped they could recharge themselves by casting Share the Power on each other, creating about 100 power per cast of the spell, more if they have Magic Adept or Knowledge of the Past equipped...but I'll get to those later. Otherwise it is still a very useful spell, especially in high end instances where share the power can make or break a boss fight.

Light of Hope (Acquired by using Beacon of Hope 600 times.)

This trait is another great healing trait to have. Especially if you have both this and Healer trait equipped. With both traits it has no induction timer making the Loremaster a great emergency healer. The following picture shows the skill when both the traits "Light of Hope" and "Healer" are slotted.


It also reduces the cooldown on the spell from 30 seconds to 20 seconds allowing a Loremaster to play the part of a main healer in some cases....Minstrels eat your heart out.

The next couple of traits are a myriad of effects.

Deep Lore (Acquired by using your lore skills against enemies 500 times.)

Deep Lore is a useful trait when considered in the Ettenmoors. Especially Storm Lore, which increases the amount of targets you can stun. The other Lore skills are useful in the fact that more debuffs=less damage. This skill will only see most of its time in the Ettenmoors as outside you will find yourself using more useful traits. Not bad overall, took me some time to warm up to its usefulness. Just a note: the power cost is normally not this low. I currently have my Rift Set equipped which effectively halves the power cost of Storm Lore. It's a huge power sucker without the set bonus, be warned.

Subtlety of Wisdom (Acquired by using Blinding Flash 400 times.)

Another trait that is hard to really see its effects in motion. I personally have only used it once but couldn't really tell a difference. Most of the time Guardians have an easy enough time getting aggro I never have to worry about my threat management. This one stays on the shelf.

An marginally useful trait...Awareness of Body (Acquired by using Wisdom of the Council 100 times.)

A decent trait if you couple it with Harmony with Nature. Again, nothing spectacular and I don't usually have to worry about the loss in morale from casting the spells affected by this trait in most battles.

Dúnadan-learning (Acquired by using Signs of Power 1000 times.)

This trait is very dissapointing in my humble opinion. At first it looks like it will affect one of our bread and butter debuffs "Sign of Power:Command" but it doesn't. This trait buffs Sign of Power: Vigilance by increasing the duration from 1 minute to 5 minutes and increasing the detection buff from 3 to 5. It's buff on "Sign of Power:Righteousness" is a bit more subtle...it only increases the duration of the buff from 30 seconds to 1 minute. Hardly worth it really, useful somewhat for the Rift. This is another trait that will see most of its "On" time in the Ettenmoors.

The next few traits all focus on power management, a very integral part of playing a Loremaster.

Harmony with Nature (Acquired by using Cracked Earth 400 times.)

This trait is one of the traits you will absolutely love. The power cost is very nice but the main attention getter on this trait is the reduced Induction time on spells. This affects all three of our stun spells. LotRD=3 seconds, ToW=5 seconds, Ents go to War=6 seconds (AoE), which allows for faster stuns which in turn allow for better battle flow. Another thing to note is that even though it isn't listed, this skill also affects Lightning Burst. In fact Lightning burst is affected by both Awareness of Body AND Harmony with Nature. I personally tested this myself. It's great! :-D

You can see below the untraited lightning storm on the left, and the traited lightning storm (both traits) on the right. Notice the morale/power cost. Side Note: The cooldown is normally 5 minutes, with full Rift set it is lowered to 4 minutes.



Knowledge of the Past (Acquired by using Ancient Wisdom 300 times.)

This next skill is hit or miss, quite literally. Nearly all of your spells will have a chance at restoring power. I have found personally that it's chance is quite high. Someone else did the math on this and found it to be a ~15% increase in power efficiency.

Tactically Adept (Acquired by using Share the Power 750 times.)

Tactically Adept is nice, when looking at the math from Knowledge of the Past it seems to lose a little luster. However dont let that fool you. This is a straight baseline reduction in ALL power costs and stacks with any other traits that reduce cost such as Healer and Harmony with Nature.

Well, now it's on to the Legendary Traits!

March of the Ents (Acquired by finding the book "Of Leaf and Twig")

A nice spell to say the least. I use this all the time despite its 5 minute cooldown. You'd be amazed of how a 6 second AoE stun can give the group a couple seconds of breathing time during a rough pull. This trait/skill is affected by Awareness of Body and Harmony with Nature allowing it to become more efficient...too bad we cant reduce its cooldown time though...alas. The current screenshot you see is affected by 3 traits: Flame of Anor, Awareness of Body, and Harmony with Nature. Pages are randomly dropped from any mobs level 39+. Pages are tradable and the book "Of Leaf and Twig" is NOT required in order to aquire pages. A good place to farm these is the hillmen in Misty Mountains and hillmen in Western Angmar.

Noble Savage (Acquired by finding the book "Book of Beasts")

It's ashame, this spell seems good at first but just is a legendary version of Beast Lore. If they somehow made the trait affect the skills of the pets as well as the above formentioned then it would be worth it...as it is I used this trait until I was able to finish Ents go to War or Staff and Sword. It's worth noting that it does turn your mob into a "Signature" mob. ***UPDATED 02/13/08 Book 12*** First 4 pages are dropped in Angmar. Last 4 pages are dropped in Misty Mountains. The Book MUST be aquired and you MUST have talked to Elrond first before pages can be collected.

Sword and Staff (Acquired by finding the book "Lore of the Blade")

This is what most low level loremasters drool over, ah heck who am I kidding...ALL loremasters have drooled over this. This skill is well worth it. The line bonus's on this trait are out of this world...and you get to equip a one hand sword in your off-hand/shield slot. Let it be known that you CAN use TWO swords...yes, duel wield two swords...but you cannot cast any spells at all unless you have a staff equipped in your main hand. ***Updated 02/13/08 Book 12*** First 4 pages are dropped in Angmar. Last 4 pages are dropped in Misty Mountains. You MUST have aquired the book and you MUST have talked to Gandalf before you can collect pages.
Shameless link to a picture of me incoming... hehe...


NOTE:The above Legendary Traits are aquired through finding/buying Books and finding/buying pages. This last trait is only aquired though the completion of BOTH level 45 class quests.

This will describe in great detail the aspects of the Eagle Pet.
It is worthy to note that the Eagle's natural level is 49 rather then 48. I suppose this is another part of why he's a legendary pet.


This is the innate buff the eagle pet gives. Just like how the raven gives a party wide shadow mitigation buff as long as they are in range of the raven. It's a decent buff, but I wish the power regen was a bit higher. The captain's victory banner gives alot more power regen..but then again herald's cant do diddly in damage either. (Sorry about the quality of the picture, it just didn't upload well.)


This skill is another skill that looks good on paper but in practice doesn't quite cut it. The skill isn't toggable and I have to spam click it in order to get it to activate most of the time. Half the time it doesn't work...the fear will not proc sometimes. And the other half the time you have to realize you might not want to fear it because if you are fighting something that you need to fear in order to stay alive...you probably don't want to aggro anything else around you. And that means you have to call off your pet as soon as the mob is feared to prevent your pet from following the mob into other possible mobs.


An aoe light damage skill that slightly heals the eagle. Not bad I suppose but could be better.


The final skill of the eagle is a toggle skill. If you die with the eagle still alive (gotta love that irony...how often is it you die with your eagle still alive?), it will ressurect you as long as the skill is toggled on. It returns you back to life with 50% morale and 25% power. I only tested it three times because I had heard it doesn't always work, and I didn't feel like testing my repair bill more then three times...but it worked all three times for me. When it ressurects you it gives you a debuff that does not allow you to be the target of the eagle's sacrifice spell for 10 minutes. A nice spell but any spell that is contingent upon you dieing before it's useful is ....sub-par....even if it is a self-ressurect. Personally I think it should be more like the captain's In harms way spell...where the eagle sacrifices itself to be a 10 second damage shield for the Lore-Master.

My personal class/legendary trait build at the moment is.

Class: Master of the Staff, Healer, Flame of Anor, Harmony with Nature, and Power and Wisdom.

Legendary: Sword and Staff, Ents go to War

I use this build for just about everything. I switch out 'Flame of Anor' for 'Knowledge of Past' or 'Light of Hope' if I need to do a small instance.


Other builds...

"The Beast-Master"

Class:Flame of Anor, Master of Beasts, Beast Lore, Subtlety of Wisdom, Knowledge of the Past

Legendary: Eagle-Friend, Noble-Savage

This build focus's on reducing your threat and increasing your dps while increasing your pet's DPS, health to be the tank. This requires careful timing of skills in order to pull off correctly.

"The Lore-Minstrel"

Class:Healer, Light of Hope, Subtlety of Wisdom, Power and Wisdom, Proof against all Ills.

Legendary: Eagle-Friend, Sword and Staff

This build focus's on instant heals and reducing mana costs while improving your ability to replenish your large amount of power. Also allows for easy and fast curing of wounds and diseases. Allows for you to be self-ressurected by your eagle to continue fighting. Sword and staff is for you to auto attack more efficiently and gain increased stats while waiting for Beacon of Hope to cooldown.

"The Power Master"

Class:Healer, Power and Wisdom, Knowledge of the past, Magic Adept, Harmony with Nature.

Legendary:Ents go to War, Sword and Staff

This build focus's on reducing mana costs all around. A nice solid build that is good for grouping or for soloing.

"The Area Annihilator"

Class:Flame of Anor, Deep Lore, Harmony with Nature, Awareness of Body, Master of the Staff

Legendary:Ents go to War, Sword and Staff

This build allows you to use your overt displays of magic and your area effect spells at a lesser penalty to yourself while maximizing your single target dps at the sime time. Allows you to control the battle very well with herb lore's 8 target set.

"The Raider"

Class:Master of the Staff, Healer, Light of Hope, Proof against all Ills, Power and Wisdom

Legendary:Ents go to War, Sword and Staff

This build allows you to cure wounds in-combat, share power more efficiently, drain power more often, heal more often, all while slightly increasing your morale. This is my raid build. I feel that the Improved SoP:R is uneeded.


I hope everyone finds the information in this thread to be useful. Please bump with comments if you feel this thread was useful!



post by Sykomyke@http://forums.lotro.com