A Dummy's Understanding of Gear in LoTRO

Weapons, armour, and jewelry...you can't play the game without them. And the better the gear, the more effective you will be...

The information in this post is not meant to be definitive. It is merely my understanding of how gear works.

Obtaining Gear
The primary ways to obtain gear are:

• Vendor: You can buy gear from the various vendors around Middle Earth. However, most of this gear is terrible, and you shouldn't waste your money.
• Loot drops: Various MoBs will drop armour and weapons, with a few pieces of jewelry for good measure. For the most part, loot drops are the worst armour, and should be sold unless you absolutely need it. Trust me, though, you won't want it. However, until level 7, the only way to get gear is through loot drops. After level 7, you have other choices.
  
• Quest rewards: When you complete a quest, you'll often be offered gear as a reward. This gear is decent. These rewards will introduce most people to gear sets, which will be discussed below.
• Crafted Items: Until end-game, these items are pretty much the best you can get. Most people are encouraged to join a kin to have access to crafters who will usually supply kinmates with items for free, or at least very cheaply. Otherwise, choose a crafting vocation wisely, or check the Auction House.
• Barter Tokens: Most especially at end game, completing an instance rewards special tokens. These tokens can be traded with special vendors to obtain gear.

Levels
Gear comes in four levels, coded by color:

• Green: Purchased and looted items are the most basic gear in the game. The items might have traits that boost basic stats (agility, fate, might, vitality, and will), but the boosts are minimal, and generally restricted to a single stat.
• Purple: Crafted items and quest rewards generally give a boost to two or three basic stats and provide special bonuses to more advanced stats (hit-chance, melee crit, etc).
• Teal: Like the purple gear, these items give a significant boost to the basic stats, with a bonus to advanced stats. These items can also affect specific skills (i.e., the cooldown on a skill).
• Gold: This gear is super-charged Teal gear, offering tremendous boost to all kinds of stats.

Gear Sets
In a gear set, the more pieces in the set that equipped, the greater the boost to the stats. Individually, the pieces might not be all that outstanding, but together, they are great.

In general, pieces of armour will work with other pieces of armour, and pieces of jewelry will work with other pieces of jewelry (you might even be able to equip multiple sets of jewelry).

I've yet to encounter any weapon sets (i.e., a matching sword and shield). However, my main is a Lore-Master, and the class can only equip a staff until completing a legendary book sometime after level 39. I've yet to find a set on my Guardian. At level 45, you can do the prologue to Volume II to obtain your first Third-Age Legendary Items. After obtaining them, you'll pretty much never be without an LI.

Your first encounter with armour sets will either be the set obtained from the Wardens in Evendim or the Fém set in Angmar (I can't remember if any other lower-level set exists). Most armour sets come in multiple flavors that are designed specifically for a class (that is, both a Guardian and a Lore-Master can wear a version the Evendim set, but the versions boost different stats).

There's also a set rewarded for running Carn Dûm, Urugarth, and Barad Gularan in Angmar; this set will introduce the idea of amour tokens. There is a specific token required to obtain a specific piece of armour, and the tokens drop from bosses in the instances. If you so choose, you can run the three instances to complete the level 45 class quest, but you'll probably need to run them multiple times to get all the tokens.

Most armour sets come in 6 pieces (helm, shoulder guards, gloves, armour/robe, leggings, and boots). However, there are some sets with fewer pieces, and, though rarely, some include a cloak. Jewelry sets typically come in pairs or triples.

You are not required to equip all items in a set. Most sets grant increasing bonuses based on the number of pieces that are equipped; thus, for maximum returns, you can equip part of one set and part of another.

End-Game Gear
There are five primary end-game armour sets:

• Moria.
• Annumias.
• Helegrod.
• Lothlorien.
• Enedwaith.

I believe there is at least partial set available in Mirkwood, as well.

They are all teal sets, and, generally, they are obtained by completing various instances and raids. In many cases, you'll get some kind of token that can then be bartered for the specific pieces of the sets.

The barter/amour tokens include:

• Annuminas Marks. Obtained by completing instances in Annuminas. This set also requires skirmish marks and Superior Third Marks.
  
• Helegrod Marks, obtained by running the Helegrod raids in The Misty Mountains. This set also requires skirmish marks and Superior Third Marks. Note that I said running, not completing. This instance provides special daily quests, and completing the quests rewards a mark. Most people run the Drake and Spiders wings and complete specific slayer quests daily to farm 2 marks. The giant wing isn't as popular, but some people will run it to get a third mark.
  
• Medallions of Moria, obtained by running instances throughout Moria. Grand Stairs is the most popular one. You'll also have to run the Turtle or Watcher Raids to complete the set.
  
• Medallions of Lothlorien, obtained from running Halls of Crafting and Dar Narbugad. Both instances are technically in Moria. The set also requires special armour tokens that drop from the bosses.
  
• Medallions of Dol Guldur, obtained from running many of the Dol Guldur instances in Mirkwood.
  
• Medallions of the Free People, obtained from running the instances in the Echoes of the Dead cluster, including North Cotton Farm, Stoneheight, The Glacier Fortress, The Lost Temple, and Ost Dunhoth. This set also requires special armour tokens that drop from the bosses.
  

Superior Third Marks are awarded for completing many level 65 instances on "hard mode". The most popular instances for farming these marks are the School and Library.

As you move through Moria and into Lothlorien/Mirkwood, try to equip the most teal items as possible. As you move into Enedwaith, you can begin equipping gold jewelry and weapons. The weapons should all be secondary items (relative to the main Legendary Item). I'm pretty sure there are no gold armour pieces yet.

Developing a Look
Most people find the appearance of the armour to be ugly, but the solution is to wear cosmetics. The best looking cosmetics are available from skirmish vendors, and require running skirmishes to obtain Campaign Marks. Some of these marks are only available from high-level skirmishes. Nonetheless, you can always augment your look and use dyes (made by scholars) to obtain the perfect look.

In an earlier post, I showed off the look my Lore-Master is currently (and probably permanently) sporting. Earlier in life, he wore a black Scholar's Robe with a black hooded cloak (I still return to this look periodically, as seen here). Later, he equipped a crimson Law-giver's Robe with gauntlets and a cloak from the Lossoth in Forochel.

In addition, functional armour can be used as cosmetics. My guardian is currently wearing a robe dropped as a quest reward, augmented with level 28 and 38 crafted items. I already found a set of boots that I think I'd like to cosmetically equip, provided I can find other pieces to work well with them. The items are all dyed forest green.