RtW 2.1 Update: What Will Change? - Pt.1

With the big update coming on Wednesday there are a lot of questions around on what are the changes, how does it affect us and how should we use or change what we have as commanders. How do we prepare? What and when should I do to improve my account? - Let's have a look. 

This article has only few pictures due to the fact that we do not have any pictures of items etc. available nor can I show you "live" screenshots on how to use items etc. - this will only be available once the update has been patched in.

This article includes access to the NEW Lady Death's Commander 2.0 Tool © (v.1.1)

Commander Respect Changes

The main changes are in the lower levels' respect requirements and in the value of respect items after ascension. 

Respect requirements OLD vs NEW

T1  R0 -> R1  400 -> 200
T1  R1 -> R2  400 -> 320
T1  R3 -> R4  560 -> 800
T1  R4 -> R5  600 -> 1,520

T2  R0 -> R1  1,000 -> 500
T2  R0 -> R1  1,000 -> 800

T3  R0 -> R1  3,000 -> 1,500
T3  R0 -> R1  3,000 -> 2,400

Value of Respect Items OLD vs NEW

Legendary Items: before Ascension 100 -> 100
Legendary Items: after Ascension 30 -> 70

Epic Items: before 1st Ascension 40 -> 40
Epic Items: after 1st Ascension 12 -> 40
Epic Items: after 2nd Ascension 12 -> 28

This will lead to a shift in respect levels. You will not get any items back, but instead the amount of total respect that your commanders have will be calculated down to how many items this equates according to the old system and then it will be converted to the output in respect in the new system.

Example: 

Let's assume Haldir Respect like mine: 
This means I have a a total respect of 29,040 + 749 on him. This equates to 2049 + 62 items (and some stray respect) = 2111 items, which will be just shy of Z1 after the update.

So you dont have to calculate all that yourself, I made a spreadsheet where you can simply look it up. 

Here are the three Quality overviews. Please mind that I do not have information on all the higher Zenith levels' requirements. 
The changes are marked with a darker color so you can easier see where there are differences.

Epic Commanders - T1 

Legendary Commanders - T2

Mythic Commanders - T3

Commander Ascension Changes

The devs made Ascension a little bit cheaper and more obtainable by some changes to that system as well. 

OLD

• Commander respect item of the designated Commander 
  - Original Epic commanders: 50 for ascension to Legendary
  - Original Epic/Legendary commanders: 150 for ascension to Mythic
• 10 Designated respect item of a T2 commander to ascend to Legendary
• 40 Designated respect item of a T3 commander to ascend to Mythic

NEW

• Any Commander respect item of the commander's original rarity: 
  - Original Epic commanders: 30 for ascension to Legendary
  - Original Epic commanders: 150 for ascension to Mythic
  - Original Legendary commanders: 100 for ascension to Mythic
• Any Legendary respect items: 10 items
• Any Mythic respect items: 40 items

Level for Ascension

OLD vs NEW

• Epic commanders to Legendary: R5 -> R4
  
• Epic commanders to Mythic: R10 unchanged
• Legendary commanders to Mythic: R10 unchanged

On commanders which you ascended you will receive the respective amount of respect items back. If you have ascended an Epic commander (t1) to Legendary or Mythic, you will receive 20 items of that commander. If you ascended a Legendary (t2) commander to Mythic, you will receive  50 items of that commander. 

Commander Relic Changes

All Relics will now cost 10 Mithril to unlock them. Originally they cost 40/50/60 Mithril depending on the commander's original rarity.

This means you will receive back the following amount of Mithril:

• Epic Commander's Relic crafted: 30 Mithril
• Legendary Commander's Relic crafted: 40 Mithril
• Mythic Commander's Relic crafted: 50 Mithril

The Mithril costs to upgrade the Relics remain the same as before:

• Epic Commander's Relics: 40 / 40 / 80 / 80 / 120
• Legendary Commander's Relics: 50 / 50 / 100 / 100 / 150
• Mythic Commander's Relics: 60 / 60 / 120 / 120 / 180

Commander Respect Reversion Vouchers

To allow you to adjust your commanders according to the new system and skills, you will receive a certain amount of Respect Reversion Vouchers. Requirement for these vouchers are that the commander is at least Respect Level 5 AND at least Legendary. This means you will not receive any vouchers for Purple Respect 5 Commanders.

Every Voucher you receive allows you to pull out up to 10 Respect Items out of the commander that you use it on. You cannot draw more respect than down to Respect level 4.

You will receive the vouchers via in game mail and they are valid for 30 days.

CAREFUL!
If using respect vouchers would reduce your R10+ commander far enough, it will also revert the Relic that you might have. It appears that you will get back all Mithril. However, any items used to strengthen the Relic would be returned as Worn-out items instead of the items you used originally.

My advice: Do NOT pull more items on commanders that are R10+ and have a strengthened Relic.

Commander Ascension Material Exchange Vouchers

The wording is a bit awkward for this one, but this is how I read it:
For every Ascension that you performed before the update you will receive a voucher to "exchange" if  required.
With these you can exchange the Designated Respect items that have been consumed during Ascension into Any Respect Items of the same quality.
You can apply 1x Voucher per commander.
e.g. You used Saruman items on Lurtz. You can now exchange these items against a collection of other items like Gil, Gala, Sunind, etc. 

It does NOT sound like you could fully undo the ascension.

You will receive these vouchers via in game mail and they are valid for 30 days.

How to Prepare

To get as many Respect Reset Vouchers as possible you want as many commanders as possible at Respect level 5 & Ascended to Legendary.

But when is it worth it to use items on commanders and when is it a waste?

As we heard above, you get one voucher per each legendary commander with respect 5 that you own. This means you will want to level up some commanders in order to get more tokens. 
*Disclaimer: These are general suggestions. You will always have to evaluate based on your individual account development and spending pattern. 

• t1 for majority of players worth it including opposite side commanders for RP players (where else do you use your t1 tokens and vouchers?) -> you will need to ascend the commander and here is where you need to be mindful: if you have to use tokens of a commander that is in your main army, you are better advised NOT to do it.
• t2 depends already a bit on what you're planning to do. It will likely be worth it if you do not need the respect items for other things. 
  As most people would likely use their reset vouchers on t3 commanders, it will often be worth it to level up at least if you are close.
• t3 is very dependent on situation
  -> if you need 10 or less items to get to r5, definitely do it
  -> if you need more than 10 items, but plan to use that commander in the future anyway, definitely do it now to get the extra tokens
  -> if it requires you to trade other t3 items for this commander, definitely DONT do it as you lose value, not worth it
  -> everything else has to be looked at on a case by case basis

If you are unsure whether or not to level up your commander, ask a friend or trusted member of your team who has a good understanding of the game in general and of the changes to come. Better ask than be sorry.

DO's and DONT's

A few general words of advice:

• Do NOT trade any respect items at this point. It is a waste of value.
  Gain for trade vs cost for trade at the example of t3 items:
  1x t3 items gets you 16 t3 vouchers
  1x t3 items costs you 40 t3 vouchers
  This means you lose a lot of value if you trade. Especially now with the requirements for Ascension you can make use of ANY item until you have all your commanders ascended to Mythic. Of course some commanders you might never want to ascend, but you get the idea. 
• Do NOT rush anything after the update
  Make sure to create a solid plan before you make any decisions that you cannot reverse. 
  You can enhance the value of your account by a lot with these changes, but you can also lose a lot of value if you do things rushed and without proper basis of information.
  
• Do inform yourself on the new commander stats and suggested army setups.
  There are a lot of theorycrafters and testers and math geniuses out there. Make sure to get input from a multitude of sources BEFORE you do anything irreversible in game.
• You will get the most value out of the vouchers if you use them on T3 commanders. Don't use them on your lower tier commanders unless you are really sure you need those respect items for another commander of that level.

I can't stress it enough: Take your time. Do not rush anything. You have 30 days time to make your decisions. No need to do anything within the first 10 minutes. You can do it in the last 10 days instead.

Commander Spreadsheet

You have seen some screenshots above from my Commander 2.0 Spreadsheet. This spreadsheet is not yet updated with the new skills and some numbers are missing in the respect table at higher Zenith levels. However, in order to give you the full access to what is there, here the link to it. I hope it helps you when making your decisions and calculations.

 NEW ! Lady Death's Commander 2.0 Tool © (v.1.1)

Summary & Evaluation

Looking at all these changes, overall the game is going back to being more accessible for F2P players and low spenders. A number of changes are being made that will benefit these players and bring them closer en par to "Dolphin" level players, which means they will be enabled to hold their own better in PvP fights.

Another huge thing is the Respect Refund Tokens, which allow you to undo mistakes from the switch to 2.0. This is also why you should definitely take your time. You get the chance to enhance the value of your account by making smart decisions based on your individual situation. Every account is unique. This means that with all the suggestions and tips in this article or on any other source, you always have to apply it to your own situation and make possibly adjustments to these tips. 

Last time to repeat it: don't rush things. Take your time. May the Valar's wisdom guide you in your decisions. 

RtW 2.1 Update: What Will Change? - Pt.2 will include information to further changes on Respect Levels and Skills.

Tools: Lady Death's Keep Planning Tool© (v1.0)

Fresh off the press - the newest little helper. This one can be a huge help for leaders and council members to plan their strategic moves on which keeps to take and - if in Rebuilding Glory - which keeps to upgrade first. 

Link at the end of the article.

Keep Planning Tool© (v1.0)

The tool is work in progress. Thus far there are only a part of the mechanics that I would like to implement. The raw data about the keeps is in the file. 

There are three tabs:

• Keeps: Region, Keep name, Power, Defender Level, Amount of Defenders, Siege/Wall Health
• Rebuilding Glory Buffs: Region, Keep Name, Power, Max Level, Level Buffs
• Points: Level, Points

Keeps

All Keeps are listed alphabetically. The Regions are colour coded for the regions that have a designated faction assigned. 

The Power is  the hourly power production of the keep.

Defender Level and Amount of Defenders shows how strong the defenders are that your fighting commanders will fight

Siege indicates the Wall Health and how much siege damage you will have to make to occupy the keep.

Rebuilding Glory Buffs

The Keeps are listed alphabetically again. Also the Regions are colour coded here too according to the starting factions they belong to. You will also find the hourly Power Production here again.

The column Max shows what is the max level this keep can be upgraded to.

The rest of the table shows at which level you unlock which buff. These are also colour coded depending on type of resource, good or evil neutral units to hire, or any of the other different buffs we get. 

Points

This tab is not complete yet. If you can provide me with the data of missing levels, please shoot me a message with a screenshot of the points needed for the next level.

The number indicates how many points you need to accumulate as a faction to unlock the corresponding buff. 

Link

That was already all the explanation needed for the time being. I plan to enhance the tool over time, but wanted to enable you to use it as a reference frame already. 

You can find the file here:

  Lady Death's Keep Planning Tool© (v1.0)

Enjoy!

UPGRADE ! - Lady Death's 2.0 Gear Tool (v2.0)©

 We have seen yet another change to the gear.

Just last week, on May 1, 2024, the devs patched in the new adjustments to the gear set effects. Now some of the sets activate already with just two items of the same type, which will help especially F2P or lower spenders to be able to get at least some extra buff. 

While I was reworking and refreshing the sheet anyway, this was the perfect opportunity to finally implement what has been asked by multiple people - a tracker for your own gear items. I am excited to introduce this too and hope it helps you with managing your gear and planning your setups better in the future. 

You can find the link to Lady Death's Gear Tool (v2.0)© at the end of the article.

Changes in Game

So, what has changed? 

In short, some of the effects on the gear now activate already if you have only 2 pieces. The requirement for the sets got adjusted accordingly and also the stats got adjusted to the effect that you will still have the same boost with 4 items of the same type.

Originally there had been planned some 2-set effects. However, when the game team launched the changes for 2.0, they had opted to put all effects in 4-sets. I believe this was done to avoid some OP mixes with classic gear, which originally I believe they did not intend to keep in the game. So in order to avoid having insane combinations (which some are still possible), they simply made the requirement for all effects to have 4 items with the effect to activate the buff.

This however made it quite challenging for some people. If you do not spend a huge amount of money, getting a full set of 4 items with the desired effect is not that easy. And the devs listened to the community - they reworked the system and I think it turned out quite nicely.

Some of the effects got turned into sets that require only 2 pieces to activate. You can now mix and match these effects. You can also double those effects to get back to the same buff that you had previously with the 4-set requirement. 

The effects that changed  into 2-piece Sets are:

• Might: Physical Damage dealt by the commander's formation +5.0%
• Lore of the Arcane: [This Formation] Burn, Poison, and Focus Damage dealt +5.0%
• Fortitude: Physical Damage dealt by the commander's formation +5.0%
• Agility: Initiative of the Commander's formation +5.0 during combat
• Upkeep: [Commander] Recovery administered +3.0%
• Siege Ladder: Siege of the Commander's formation +5.0%
• all racial effects: When the commander's formation is comprised of race [Beasts/Dwarves/Elves/Evil Men/Men/Orcs/Trolls/Undead/Uruk-hai], damage received -5.0%

As you can see, the effects got halfed from their original values:

• if formerly +/- 10%, they have now +/- 5% 
• if formerly +/- 10, they have now +/- 5 
• Upkeep went from +5% to +3%

I said you can mix and match the sets. What does this mean? 
Examples:
1. Hand w/Agility, Armor w/Siege, Head w/Siege, Accessory w/Agility will result in both effects activating. 
2. Four pieces with Agility will result in the effect activating twice, resulting in the same effect as it used to have before the patch update.
You can see in this screenshot how both Siege Ladder and Might activate and give the buff. 

However, as soon as you mix in just one piece of 1.0 (aka classic) gear, you do not get any set effect at all, even if you have two or three pieces of a 2-set.
Example:
Hand w/Dwarven Siege (purple hammer), Armor w/Siege Ladder, Head w/Siege Ladder, Accessory w/Drums of Moria Dwarven siege means the Siege Ladder effect (+5%) will not activate. You get only the buff from the Hand/Accessory pieces.
Or as in this screenshot, if you use the Hithlain with Elven Siege (Classic), you do not get the other set bonus. The game displays this by "graying out" the effect icon. 

The following effects have not changed and still need a full 4-piece Set as always:

• Sharp Blade: Attack +20.0 during combat
• Flay: Damage ignores 15.0% of the target's Defense
• War Cry: This formation's damage dealt +20.0%
• Perseverance: Damage dealt +2.0% each round
• Thick Armor: Defense +20.0 during combat
• Power Overwhelming: Damage received -20.0% when in the Stun or Madness status
• Evasive Action: This formation's damage received -20.0%
• Divide and Conquer: Damage received -2.0% each round

With the changes made to some of the sets, you can now not only get buffs if you don't have enough items to create a full set. It also enables you to adjust your strategy on what you are using and by deliberately picking two different sets to optimize your army setup. It means there es much more room to play around.

Changes on Lady Death's Gear Tool (v2.0)©

With this article I officially launch upgraded Lady Death's Gear Tool (v2.0)©. This is the second major update on my Gear Tool and I hope this makes it even more convenient for you to use and provides you an even better experience and support in planning and strategizing your army compositions.

So, what does it look like now?

There have been no changes to the basic tabs that you already knew. I updated the data collected from game according to the new changes. The tab "Effects" is now updated with the new values and information. 
There have been no changes made to the basic tabs "Gear" and "Relics". 

I have added a third tab "Filter your Gear" and now there can three people work with the tool at the same time. As always, please try to remember to never change any real data, the layout etc. Only filter according to what you're looking for and when you're done, please reset everything again for the next user to be able to find what they need. 

There are two brand new tabs added to Lady Death's Gear Tool (v2.0)©:

• 
  Instructions: 
  Here you find all information to the related articles with explanations and version history in the first section.
  The second section gives an overview on all available tabs with links to said tabs for your convenience. A table of content if you will.
  The third section provides a Quick Start instructions, which will allow you to get a small reminder on what to do where and how to use Lady Death's Gear Tool (v2.0)©
• Gear Tracker©:
  This has been requested by many over time and finally I am able to launch it. Your own personal gear managing and tracking tool to support you with finding sets. 
  It enables you to inventory your own gear pieces, which enables you to plan better which gear changes to make and which effects will allow you to get set effects activated.
  I hope this is a tremendous help when redoing your gear and reduces the amount of Elven Craftsman Hammers used as now you will know what you have in your Items Bag.
  

Of course these changes are hopefully only the start and I will work on continuous improvement to make Lady Death's Gear Tool (v2.0)© even more useful over time. Suggestions and ideas are always welcome, but I can hint already that I have something in mind that will help with the planning even more. Putting this into reality will take a bit of work and time. So please stay tuned. 

How to Use the NEW Gear Tracker© 

Since it is going to take you a good while longer to work with the Gear Tracker than just looking up the ideal pieces, for this tab I made only one, which is protected from any changes.

This means you will have to pull a copy of the sheet first. You can do this either by adding a copy to your own Google Drive, or by saving the file to your computer.

With this I explicitly allow you to download and save a version of GT for your personal use. Please pay me the courtesy not to share your version, but a link to my Blog instead and let people get the link to the tool here themselves. Of course you are welcome to share links to specific articles if you want to.

Once you have the file copied you are good to go. You can duplicate the tab "Gear Tracker" as many times as you want and track the gear for all your accounts - if you have more than one of course.

Now you are good to go and enter the items you own. Just type in the number of times you have it and the tool will calculate also automatically for you how many items you have of which gear piece to get an idea how you're standing on refining your pieces. 

With the sections divided optically with different colours per quality type, alternating lines and frame dividers on gear slot, this should help to give you an easy overview on which sets you can go for to get the best out of your gear.

If you have any questions, remarks, or suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me on Discord under ladydeath1. 

Lady Death's Gear Tool (v2.0)©

2.0 Gear Tool - Update

The game's 2.0 version has not been out for all that long, but it underwent already a lot of changes during this time. 

To reflect these changes I updated and optimized the Gear Tool for you. 

Find the link to the Gear Tool at the end of this article.

What changes have been made?

1. The most significant changes by the devs on gear was the change of the race restrictions. A lot of gear was very restrictive in use and some races were really at a major disadvantage as to how many different gear pieces they were even able to use in the first place.

This has been changed and almost all gear pieces are now available for all races - with just a few exceptions for Elves, Orcs, Uruk-hais and large races (Beorning, Ents, Trolls). 

The result is that every commander has at least 119 pieces to choose from, with 127 pieces available in the game overall (or maybe 128 - one hears about a legendary piece that is extremely rare and almost never to see; if you find it, ss and show me the stats and all information - you shall get rewarded for it).

2. I provided for two tabs now instead of one tab where you can filter your gear. Again, please reset the filters when you are done so that the next person can fully use it as intended. However, those two tabs will now provide the option to work on it parallel without disturbing each other when there is more than one person trying to work on their gear.

3. I was lucky and pulled a very rare piece, the Estëcára. Of course I added the stats for this piece to the Gear Tool, so that those who are lucky enough to have one also can take this piece into account.

4. Relic tab - I changed the stats all to Main Stats since there is not a separate "Head Stat" affected by refining gear as with the regular pieces. Relics are different from other gear pieces in that every strengthening will pick one random Main Stat to be upgraded and the Refining will upgrade the Special Effect. To reflect this in the table I changed its optics.

5. A new Commander (Bard) has been released not too long ago. I added the new data for his relic accordingly.

That was it already. I hope you enjoy the newly updated Gear Tool and may it help you make the best choices for your commanders.

2.0 GEAR TOOL (v. 1.1)

New 2.0: Gear Tool - Your Way to Finding the Gear You Need

The new 2.0 update has been out for almost a week now. You have been struggling to find the right gear? Don't worry anymore. In my Gear tool which has a complete list of all available pieces you find all gear, its stats, all possible special effects and also a complete list of all the relic items.

Read on to find out how to use the Gear Tool and find the link at the end of this article.

Introducing the Tool

When you open the tool you will find 4 Tabs:

• Filter your Gear - This is open to edit, which allows you to filter for different stats (see explanation below)
• Gear - all the gear, but protected. Here you can safely look around and double check the data in case the first tab gets botched.
• Effects - a list of all the effects available on the regular gear
• Relics - a complete list of all the relics with their stats and special effects as stated in game

Which Data is in the Tool?

The list contains all the information about the gear that you need:

• Rarity colour coded - Legendary, Exquisite, Fine, Superior - every gear piece is on the list. There may be one or two extremely rare ones missing that you can only get through tips for example.
• Type colour coded - Hand, Head, Armor, Accessory
• 
  Head stat - The stat that is indicated in the Top part of the gear card, directly under the title (1). This is the stat you influence by refining your piece. The refinement status of your gear is indicated by the border. You can now refine your gear independently of the strengthening level (star level). Possible stats are [Commander] HP, [Commander] Damage and [Commander] Command.
• Main stats - These stats make the body part of the gear card (2) and can be influenced by the Strengthening status or "Star" Level of your gear. Possible stats are [Commander] Attack, Focus, Damage or Initiative and for [Units] Attack, Defense and Siege.
• Special Effect - These are the set effects (3) that have to be the same for all slots on your commander in order to activate. The stats are fixed stats, which means you cannot influence them by strengthening or refining your piece. There are 14 different effects available on every piece (except the anniversary set, which comes only with "Siege Ladder"). Furthermore there are some racial stats, which can be found on select pieces - you can see that in column O "Has racial special effect" where you will find indicated which racial effects are available for the specific piece.
• Race restrictions - if the gear has any race restrictions indicated (the case for most pieces), you will find here which races can use the piece.

How to Use the Filter

In the first tab of the tool, "Filter your Gear", you have the option to filter by the different columns. The line with the filters is marked green. Here you can click on the arrow-like lines and then pick what you want. In most cases you would simply pick for which stat you are searching and then untick the option "blank" to show all gear options that carry the stat you are looking for.

Let's say you are looking for pieces that carry the stat [Commander] Command as you want to have more troops in your formation.

• Click on the filter in column F 
• Unclick "Blank"
• Click on "OK" 

Now you see only all the pieces that carry this specific stat.

You could now filter on further stats to limit the choice even more.

If you look at the green row, you can see which columns bear a filter. To remove a filter simply click on the filter icon and then click on "Select all" and on "OK". 

This was it. I hope you have fun using the filter and wish you success finding the best gear for your commanders.

Policy & Link

As this tool is public for everyone to access without limits and the Filter tab is open for edit, I would like to set a few rules on how to use it.

1. Do not make any other changes on this tab aside from using the filter option.
2. If you accidentally make a mistake or if you notice that someone else might have made a mistake, please reach out to me and let me know so I can fix it again for everyone to use it. I will check in every now and then, but I might not catch it before you or someone else needs it. You can contact me via this Blog or on Discord @ladydeath1. 
3. After you used the filter option, please be so kind and reset the filters for the next user.

If you have any questions, let me know and I see how I can help you.

Should you have any gear pieces that are missing from this list, I would appreciate if you could send me screenshots of the basic gear stats and the bottom of the available special effects list.

And now, enjoy the Gear Tool.