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)©

Basics: Relics

Every commander comes with a unique piece of gear, which you can unlock after he reached a certain respect level.

This unique piece was formerly known as "Unique", but now is named a "Relic".

To acquire one of these is not very easy as you cannot get them through luck and just randomly pull them from chests, but you have to spend a considerable amount of time playing the game and usually also spending money. If you are F2P player, it will take you a long time to be able to unlock one of these gear pieces.

The special part of these pieces is - and that is why they are unique - that you can use them only on that one specific commander. It is not possible to apply them on any other commander.

This makes them extremely valuable. Aside from their value, they are also very expensive, which makes them rather low ROI compared to other gear pieces.

On the right side you can find the "Relic" menu option.

Think First

Due to their costs, the most important thing to do before you touch any Relics is to make absolutely sure you are 100% certain that you want to use THIS commander and that you want to really use this Relic. You will see further below that there is no turn-around once you have the relic and only an extremely expensive turn-around after you strengthen them.
I say it upfront: My advice is to NEVER reforge a relic as it makes you lose account value.

Now, if you can afford it, get the basic Relic for your commanders. The basic Relic as such is affordable and gives you a little extra buffs, which can come in handy. If you have several options on Relics to acquire, but can only afford one or maybe two, make sure to look at the buffs and consider what might be the best option for your personal army composition that you're using.

Advice No. 2: Do NOT enhance Relics unless very specific landmarks are reached. I strongly recommend to prioritize your regular gear sets first. Optimize these before you touch the enhance button before you are maxed out on your gear. Enhancing a Relic works way different from strengthening a gear piece. You will see that below.

I also strongly recommend to ask for advice before you spend anything at all on a Relic. Ask your friends or fellowship/warband mates what they would do. Which Relic they would pick. There are always knowledgeable people in all teams who can give good advice and provide for different perspectives.

Acquiring the Relic

To acquire a Relic you need Pure Mithril, depending on which tier your commander originally was: 

• 40 Pure Mithril for Epic commanders (purple, previously Mighty/blue) - t1 tier
  e.g. Grima, Gorbag, Khaldoon, Hirgon, Haldir, Dwalin, ...
• 50 Pure Mithril for Legendary (gold, previously Epic/purple) - t2 tier
  e.g. Celeborn, Balin, Imrahil, Gothmog, Shadow, Lurtz, ...
• 60 Pure Mithril for Mythic (orange, previously Legendary/gold) - t3 tier
  e.g. Gil, Thranduil, Dain, Sauron, The Undying, Saruman, ...

If your commander was t1 or t2 originally, your commander also needs to be ascended to Mythic tier to unlock the Relic:

• Reach respect 10
• Ascend for 150x respect item of commander + 40x respect item of a chosen t3/Mythic commander
• You have to performed all three of the tasks to unlock the Relic

Aside from reaching the respect level and - if needed - ascension, these requirements are not too difficult and doable. Some might take a few seasons and the combined efforts of your team, but eventually it is pretty much doable in most cases.

Enhancing Relic

Costs:

• Level 1: 2 random pieces of gold gear
• Level 1: 3 random pieces of gold gear
• Level 1: 4 random pieces of gold gear
• Level 1: 6 random pieces of gold gear
• Level 1: 10 random pieces of gold gear

This amounts to a total of 25 pieces. You can choose whichever gear piece that you do not need. It does not matter which gear slot they are. However, you cannot use Worn-out pieces, like you would be able to on regular gold gear. We will come to this later and why this is an important factor.

Gain:

Now, as I mentioned above, enhancing a Relic works very different from strengthening your gear piece. You don't increase every stat little by little every level until it is (Basic value)x3 at max level. Instead you add to ONE of the buffs randomly, but in the full amount of its basic value:
e.g. if the random stat's base value is +6, you receive +6 on top for one Enhancement

This means that theoretically you might end up with 5x buffed [Commander] HP. For me personally, the random factor was very random, but mostly spread out evenly(-ish) across the options.

See example here with my GtW Relic
I enhanced it 5 times and got
1x [Commander] Command
2x [Commander] Focus
- x [Unit] Attack
2x [Unit] Defense

As you can see the enhancement applies to any of the stats, except the unique's special effect.

The special effect, which is a very unique effect to each Relic, can be leveled up by refining your Relic. 

Refining Relics

The way how you refine your Relic works still the same as it always did and it still does the same as it used to do in the classic version of the game.

You use Pure Mithril to upgrade the special effect of your Relic.

Costs:

• Mighty / Legendary / Mythic
• Level 1: 40 / 50 / 60
• Level 2: 40 / 50 / 60
• Level 3: 80 / 100 / 120
• Level 4: 80 / 100 / 120 *
• Level 5: 120 / 150 / 180 *

*Disclaimer: I have not seen any actual costs beyond Level 3, but it follows the same pattern as it used to and as we know it from refining other gear

So the total Pure Mithril costs to obtain and max refine a Relic would be: 

• T1 commander: 400 Pure Mithril  
• T2 commander: 500 Pure Mithril
• T3 commander: 600 Pure Mithril

Obtaining Pure Mithril

Since it requires a lot of Mithril to obtain and refine your Relics, here a little overview on how to obtain the Pure Mithril that you need. 

• Tavern: You can obtain Mithril Ore from Tips in the Tavern
  These Mithril Ores can be forged into Pure Mithril in the Mathom House with the function Mithril Combining at a ratio of 10:1
• Gem Store in the Mathom House: You can buy 7x Pure Mithril at 1000 gems/piece every week
• Season Store: For the short time the season store is open you can exchange 200 Season Medals for 1 Pure Mithril. Currently there are two of these offers listed in the shop
• Event Chests: There were some event chests with progression rewards - could be a possibility they bring every once in a while again, but has not been seen for a bit

This means, in total you could get roughly about 60 per season (give or take). In one year that makes roughly 360 Pure Mithril.

Reforge Relics

To say it directly upfront and very clearly: reforging your Relic will reduce the value of your account. 

My advice: DON'T EVER DO IT!

Several people have fallen into the trap and did it without realizing what exactly is happening. They thought it is like using an Elven Hammer to get all used items back to use them in other places. However, it is not.

To start with, the option to reforge your Relic is only accessible once the Relic has been maxed in Enhancements. Meaning: you have put in 25 random gold gear pieces into the Relic. As soon as you have done that the button "Enhance" changes to "Reforge".

If you click on that button, you get to this screen:

You better look closely - and remember: it is a maxed out item which has 25 gold pieces used as material. Look at my item:

As you can also see written there, you get 13 worn equipment pieces back, which will match the gear slots of the first 13 items listed. The order of the listed items is the order of their usage. First ones in get listed first. However, fully viable gold gear gets turned into worn equipment if you reforge your Relic.

So, here again an overview of the reforging process

• Costs: 3000 gems
• Gain: Relic in refinement state as is + 13 worn pieces of the type you used for 13 of the originally 25 full gold gear pieces

What does this mean?

You lose 12 full gold pieces completely and 13 pieces get turned into worn pieces. It also leaves you 3k gems short for being able to do that. 

So you are paying for losing value on your account.

Thus: Whatever you do, do NOT ever break up a Relic!

❌

FAQ

1. Should I get a Relic for my commander?

• If you can afford it/have collected the Pure Mithril and you are certain that you want to use this commander long term, definitely get at least the basic piece. 

2. Should I enhance my Relic?

• Are you sure you want to play this commander long term?
• Before you think of enhancing a Relic you should have all your commander's gear max strengthened
• Prioritize Refining your gear over enhancing a Relic
• Only do so if you generally spend a considerable amount of money on the game
• For F2P or low spenders you get way more out of your buck if you use the limited gold pieces you have on your commanders' 4 gear slots instead
• Consider the factor of randomness when you enhance your Relic
• Calculate what you will get from it - compare with what you would get for using these items on regular gold gear instead
• Enhancing a Relic to level 1/2/3/4/5 amounts in a total of 2/5/9/15/25 gold pieces
  Strengthening a regular gold piece to level 1/2/3/4/5 amounts in a total of 1/2/6/11/19 gold pieces
  => for one completely enhanced Relic you could instead end up with 2x level 4 and 1x level 2 gold pieces or 4x level 3 plus leftover (not considering type of gold piece)
• If you have more than one basic Relic, consider which one might give you the best stats - not all Relics are equally good

3. Should I refine my Relic?

• Before Refining a Relic, consider if it might be more valuable to acquire another Relic instead
• Refining a Relic will upgrade the stats of your Relic's "special effect"
• Make sure that the special effect will benefit your army composition

4. I made a mistake enhanced a Relic, which now I do not use anymore. Should I reforge?

• My personal advice in short: No. 
• You might change your mind again at a later time and then you have wasted all this gold gear and would have to redo it all over again. 
• Reforging costs and reduces the value of your account.

Moral: Make sure you know what you're getting yourself into and that you REALLY think enhancing a Relic is the best way to advance your account

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.

Basics - [The New Age] PBE: Changes

This week the new Testing Server "[The New Age] PBE" launched and a limited group of people have the opportunity to test out new game mechanics and different game play.

Enroll for PBE

You can't enroll for PBE at the moment. There was a timeframe within which you could apply for it between July 26 and August 6 this year. If you were chosen, you received a message in game.

The server was meant to go live a few weeks ago, but got delayed and finally launched this week on Thursday, Aug 31. 

First Login

If you have been chosen as a tester, you can now use all your commanders and inventory from the account you used to apply for it and test the new game mechanics.

Basically your complete game safe was cloned for the test server and acts now independently from your main account.

Here is where you can log into the PBE server: it is listed in the server list options on your login interface when you open the game.

The "clone" for PBE will be deleted after the testing period. Any changes you make to this version of your account will be lost eventually. There will be no option to spend money on it, so no reason to worry about this.

Before we head into the changes introduced to the test server we have to clearly know one thing:

• This is not going to be the final version. Theoretically anywhere from everything to nothing could be implemented as final content.
  However, if we're being realistic, a good part will be implemented and we also know that these changes are not all the changes that are waiting for us.

At the end of the day, the status of current changes in test server will not be the final version. So everything should be taken with the knowledge that nothing is set in stone. 

What are the major changes in PBE?

1. Gear

The gear has been changed completely. The basic stats of every piece are changed, though somewhat resemble previous stats. The biggest change with gear is the refinement of special effects. In PBE there is no refining (currently we can also not strengthen any pieces). You received for every refine level the amount of pieces into your inventory that have been used for that level. Example: If you had a 5* refined Mirkwood Bow, this means you have now a 5* strengthened Mirkwood Bow with one random special effect from the new list plus additionally 9 Mirkwood Bows with random special effects from the new effect list - all of them in basic status. 

Let's have a look at the basic stats by example of the Mirkwood Bow.

 

As you can see, the stats changed. This is to cater to the new way of fighting (see more below).

But most important to know: You still have the same value/amount of items in your inventory, only with other effects. 

N.B.: I will release an article within the next days which lists all the special effects and some basics on how to read gear as well as how to use it. All of that would be too much for the scope of this article. - Stay tuned!

2. Commanders

Another big change affects the commanders. Or rather more than one change concerns them. Most important: also here all respect levels were retained, which means you still have the same value in your game safe. 

2.1 Skill Trees

Their skill trees have been completely overhauled, although the basic titles were retained in most cases from what I could see so far. Although some have changed title skills, which seems an improvement towards usability of the respective commander in the cases that I found (e.g. Hirgon's bottom R0 tree).

However, all the subskills were scrapped. Instead you can now level the commander titles (as usual 2x R0, 1x R3, 1x R5) up to level 10. Each level requires 3 points, which means to max out one title you need at 30 points from respect levels or experience levels.

By reaching level 5 and 10 respectively with your title you get another extra skill/buff for both milestones, depending the commander and title. See here a random example:
 =>

Hirgon's R5 tree and subskills to the left compared to the new R5 Title to the right

If you did your math along the way, you noticed how the maxed title requires now 30 pts. while the title plus both subskills mixed in the traditional version costs 29 pts. This is a change I personally am not fully happy with as I believe the cost per skill-level are too high. There is definitely some room for improvement.

2.2 Leveling your commander

The maximum EXP level for each commander that you can reach with PvE, scrolls or mind sharpener is level 40 in PBE. After that you can only gain more EXP by fighting in PvP.

2.3 Combat role of your commander

The Commanders are now active part of the fight, which means they take damage like troops (see more later). To enable this the commanders now have also attack, defense, HP etc. - like your troops do. Let's pick a commander that I have at the same level in both games to see the difference better. I stripped them both of their gear to show the raw stats at this level: 

* I imply that the effects of all stats are known for the traditional version.

In the descriptions for the commander stats in PBE you can see which stat affects a commanders formation (i.e. himself and his army) and how. 

What does the commander page look like in the game? - Pretty much the same, except that the stats are displayed additionally to what was there before and in line with the changes needed.

2.4 Unique Items

As you can also see, there is a 5th gear slot now. This is reserved for your commander's unique, which means that you now can make use of the gear piece even if it wasn't BiS before, now it will definitely be useful and for those who made "poor" decisions prior, they can now at least throw it in and put it to use.

Now, this can be arguably an advantage for spenders - and ofc for the game team. Though, considering how many complaints there were on how many uniques are not really viable to try them out, this feels like a good change for me personally. I am sure there are counter arguments available. 

2.5 Other Commander-related changes

Now, if you paid attention to the screenshots, you might have noticed two other things. 

One of them is definitely a grievance for those who had it on all (or almost all) their commanders: Impart Wisdom / Gear Familiarity. This is not a thing in PBE. It also means however, that the 4 skill points are lost. I wrote already a feedback to the game team on this one and I could imagine that many people might not be happy as we dunked a lot of gear into this.

Another point, might also be a grievance, though pure speculation at this point. The indicator is subtle and we cannot be 100% certain what it means: the arrow next to the respect level. It suggests, that the respect level will go beyond 25 in future. We do not know if that is going to happen, but many already predicted it to happen at some point and here goes my "well played" to those who collected the items already in preparation for this because I am almost certain a respect level increase will roll out into regular servers rather sooner than later. Personally I would not happy about this, others might. What it would mean for sure is that it could land Netease more money if the player base bites and actually works towards higher respect, which at least the big whales and kraken who keep playing are likely going to do. (* Disclaimer: This is speculation on my part.)

3. Army Formation

This is by far one of the biggest changes together with the gear and skill tree overhaul. These three changes also go very strongly hand-in-hand as they build on each other.

Your army in PBE looks vastly different from what you know. In short: your commander leads one army within his formation (= one single unit type/troop type). Your whole march is led by one commander who can lead up to three other formations, each with one commander and one troop type respectively. 

So the new setup of your whole march is:

• Formation 1: Leading commander + 1 troop type
• Formation 2: Supporting commander 1 + 1 troop type
• Formation 3: Supporting commander 2 + 1 troop type
• Formation 4: Supporting commander 3 + 1 troop type

To give a visual on what this looks like, here the reinforcement screen: 

What you now have to do is, find the best synergy between leading and supporting commanders as well as their respective troops and the gear they are wearing. I find it challenging, interesting and a fun thing to do. From what I understand however, I am not a majority speaker on this one.

To go into this topic in depth would be way out of scope for this article. However, most important take away are these points:

• Validation of your commanders that have been warming the bench because they just didn't cut it
• Racial synergy is going to be very important to have feasible combinations
• Army type bonuses are very important to synergize with your commander and their buffs towards their own and allied formations
• Gear synergy is very important now

At the end of the day the new game mechanics will require some new game play by players, thinking outside the box and the ability to adapt to the new settings.

4. Other Changes in PBE

4.1 Stamina => Energy

Another big change is the "merge" of Stamina and Ability Points. Your commanders to not have any stamina anymore and you also do not have any Ability Points anymore. Instead you have a big pot of Energy, which allows you to use this energy on your commanders or any other type of moves at your discretion. 

What this means is that you can path with whatever commander you use, it has no negative or positive impact on your commander's availability for fights. 

In below table you can see which action costs energy and how much. The original maximum of your energy is 300. By giving ring points you can raise this to 600 maxed. For testing purposes we get the cap raised by another 300 in PBE, which usually you would get only in the first 24h.

The energy replaces Stamina and AP. Accordingly also the level 10 Ring tree was adjusted. Where you would usually raise the cap for AP you now raise the cap for energy in the same way. 

This has different aspects to consider. You now have a limited amount of moves you can make. However, it doesn't matter with which commander you make these moves. You can just keep going with that one commander. This results in the fact that it doesn't matter if you're a lower spender and don't have as many commanders unlocked. You can still make the same amount of moves as a big whale who has every single commander unlocked. 

Endless tile wars will be significantly reduced - because it doesn't matter if you have 20 or 30 commanders sitting in your base while the opponent is trying to fight you with his or her 4-6 commanders. They have the same amount of moves available as you have.

4.2 Multi Queues

Quality of Life - multiple queues of the same troop. In short: I absolutely fricking love it. 

No more crutching on t2 troops or having to wait for ages to refill your queues with the risk of forgetting them. You fill four queues of the same (or different, just as you like it) troop type and a few hours later your barracks are filled with fresh and shiny new troops in a nice number, that let's you actually work with them. Especially those using DD with e.g. Guardians will be hyped about this. 

5. Changes unrelated to PBE ...

... that you might have missed so far. These changes are already in live servers, but some of you might never have seen some of them at play. That's why I'm mentioning them shortly.

5.1 The Mist

When you log in first, you see your settlement in a sea of mist. This mist can be dispersed at no cost (aside from your effort to click the buttons) and it reveals some map events that you have to solve similar to the "Surprise" gifts that have been introduced a while back. 

While the dispersing of the mist is a bit tedious, given the fact that it presents you with a bunch of resources, troops, ring power, gold, a mathom coin and a stamina potion - no complaint from me.

5.2 Exp Scrolls

Anyone still in a server that doesn't have this? I'll mention it in case you haven't.
This has been rolled out across all (new) servers a few weeks ago, so most people should already know about it: once your server has progressed to a certain level, every day at server reset you get a specific amount of mobs, which will reward you with EXP scrolls in your tavern. To get them all you have to kill 9 mobs of a certain level daily.

5.3 Map/Region Control

You don't start with one or more regions owned on server start, but rather have to take over keeps first and a capital to start "painting the map". 

Summary

To recap the changes introduced in PBE: complete gear rework, major commander skill tree changes, new battle mechanics the introduction of Energy pool in place of Stamina/AP as main changes and multiple conscription queues for same troop type, exp levels past 40, unique item as separate slot as the smaller ones. 

Please read Opinion - [The New Age] PBE-Changes for my personal take on all these changes and the uproar connected to them that is surging across the community.

* This Article is about the changes implemented in the test environment PBE server [The New Age]. Unless stated otherwise, these features are not available in live servers at the time of publication.

Step by Step: Gear effects and how to change them

There are over 100 gear pieces in the game.

Few Superior (green), a few more Fine (blue), a bunch more Exquisite (purple) and plentiful Flawless (gold). 

They all come with different basic traits (might, focus, speed, army buffs) and apart from superior gear they also come with different "Special Effects". Both Fine and Exquisite gear come with 4 different options each while Flawless comes with 5 different options. The different special effects are suitable for different commanders or different situations. 

Most people do not have a bucket full of gear they can simply grab into and apply whatever and whenever they need it. We have to strategize what special effects to choose because once refined we're stuck. 

Except we're not!

The game provides us with different options on how to regain what we put into a gear piece. 

In this post you will learn how to find out what pieces you have and how to salvage these and switch Special Effects as you need them. 

Switch Special Effects

Let's say I want to change the effect from Elves Strength to Sustain. Now, lucky as I am, I have one Sustain Harp in my inventory.

In order to do that without losing a piece for refine, we need the following "ingredients":

• The original 5-star refined piece, which will be broke apart
• The basic target piece with the desired Special Effect
• One expendable piece or worn-out piece.

A friend of mine, Karchilles, calls this the 10+1. In every max refined piece are a total of 10 pieces of the exact same item: in my case the basic Harp with Elves Strength and 9 Harps that I used to refine it.

These pieces were used for the different levels as follows:

• 1-star: 1 piece, 
• 2-star: 1 piece, 
• 3-star: 2 pieces, 
• 4-star: 2 pieces
• 5-star: 3 pieces

=> 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 3 = 9 | plus the basic piece is 10

To switch without losses you need one extra (10+1) to do that. So, whenever you have a total of 11 pieces of the same item you will be able to play the "switcharoo" as often as you desire. 

Here is how you do it - follow the instructions step by step:

1. You strengthen the "+1 piece" - your target piece - once
   
   
   In my case I didn't have a worn-out piece, but I was able to spare the Fiddle as I won't need it. 
   
   
2. Now you refine this strengthened piece with your max refined piece once. Don't be afraid, it can be scary when you do it the first time, but you will not lose anything.
   
   If you do it the first time, you will get a popup-window twice:
   - One informs you that you will receive all pieces used for strengthening as worn-out pieces into your inventory
   - The other one informs you that you will receive all extra pieces used for refine as actual items into your inventory
   You have the option to tick a box that says "Don't remind me again", which I did. That's why I cannot show you this box here.
   
   This is what the refining looks like - you can see that it says 10/1 when you choose the max refined piece.
   
   
   
   
   All the other items are transferred directly into your inventory. Let's go check and have a look at it.
   
   
   

   
   And there they are: 9 shiny "New" pieces and the 19 worn-out pieces - everything is in the inventory as promised.
   
   
3. The next step is easy and just the same as you have always done it: strengthen to max and use the worn-out pieces. You will need
   - 2-star: 2 pieces
   - 3-star: 3 pieces
   - 4-star: 5 pieces
   - 5-star: 8 pieces
   in total 18 pieces, which leaves you with 1 worn-out piece like you had in the beginning.
   
   
4. Time to max refine our item.
   You will need 8 pieces (1+2+2+3 for stars 2-5). This leaves you with one extra piece like you had at first. You still have your 10+1. 
   And this is our result: We switched our Harp of Lothlórien from Elves Strength to Sustain.

Obstacles

As we all know, life isn't always as perfect as we'd like it. So it happens that you have a +1 piece in your inventory, but it does not have the trait that you need. In this case you might still be able to get the piece that you need. If you used a piece with the needed Special Effect for refining your maxed item, you are still good to go, but first let's ....

Look and Find Out

You go to your inventory and click on the maxed item that you have already.

Now you click on the little book in the upper right corner.

The game opens up a Window where you can find three tabs:

 - Recommended Builds - the top 3 commanders that most commonly use this gear piece and with which special effect (Attn: This is not necessarily a good advise)

- Special Effect - all available special effects 

- Materials - the materials that have been used for this specific item in your inventory

As you can see in my case I used 19 worn-out pieces to strengthen the basic gear piece as well as the individual 9 Harps of Lothlórien that I used to refine it. 

All special effects that have been put into the basic piece will be recorded with the special effect they have and if the basic piece is disassembled, you will get back the exact same special effects returned into your inventory.

By clicking on the individual pieces you get to see which those are. 

Well, hello there, we found a Sustain Harp. Perfect. Let's free it up!

With this knowledge we can now do the swaps as often as needed. To get your needed item you first do the above process steps 1 & 2, but after we deviate:

1. You strengthen the "+1 piece" - your target piece - once.
   
   
2. Refine this strengthened piece with your max refined piece once.
   You have now a 1-star refined piece, 19 worn-out pieces and 9 freed up pieces. 
   
   
3. You find the item you really want and strengthen it once - like in step 1. 
   
   
4. Now you refine this strengthened piece with the first 1-star refined item. This step is needed to free up the piece that you used to refine it so you don't lose one refine piece.
   Your inventory has now: the target item 1-star refined, 19 worn-out pieces and 9 refine pieces.
   
   
5. Strengthen your item to 5 stars.
   
   
6. Refine your item to 5 stars. Here you can choose to leave any one of the items. If you want to save some time for the next round, think ahead and try to keep that item back, which you might need at a later point. If you accidentally don't think of it, no problem, then just do it the long way with freeing it up first. 
   

And we're done! 

Last not least one thing to keep in mind when you refine a piece with an already refined piece:
The basic item is the one which will be used to refine and the pieces that have been used to refine this piece will come back into your inventory.
So, if my Elves Strength Harp were refined with 9 Sustain Harps, I would receive 9 Sustain Harps in my inventory and the Elves Strength is in the now refined item. 

I hope this helps you manage your gear without losing items unnecessarily to worn-out pieces.