Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™

Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™

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The Farm (how to get Epic Gear)
Av hotmatrixx
Oh no. Guide. Items, Methods, How To's and Do Not's.

There is so much work to do. I suppose I should probably make a 'basic how to play' guide, too seeing as there doesn't seem to be a decent one.
   
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Early Game
Everyone is absolutely entitled to enjoy a game however they see fit. Take what I'm about to say here as an opinion. I have played through and deleted my save and played through, many times. - around 8 full playthroughs, now. Only this time have I decided to try and 'complete' my collection and believe me the grind isn't worth it, for me at least.

That being said, There are 2 bits of gear that will proc elemental during a fight - the Sword, and the Armour/Breastplate. As long as you have one of those that will proc fire, poison, and curse, you're golden. You can run the entire campaign with those 3 bits of gear, because they are UBER cheap to level up so that they stay at your level for a couple of hundred Meridian.

I feel that as long as you have a piece of gear that will proc those three status, that is all you need for the campaign. If you want to run a 'build', or play on Gravewalker and need passives to proc as often as possible, then maybe invest the time in farming a couple more bits of gear. But generally, I'd be inclined to say that it's your skill and Skill Tree choices that hold you back, not your gear.

I'd suggest that if you want to farm gear sets, that after the endgame is the time to do it, ironically - but in saying that, rush the 3x Elven Light (punch the ground) skills, and find a Cursed Captain to farm for a sword/breastplate [Cursed]. The other thing I'd recommend to rush would be the Gondorian Upgrade (find every Gondorian Object in the game) called 'Prospector'. It's AMAZING for farming the snot out of gem-carrying Uruks. it will cut the Gem grind by 3x. (well slightly less, but 3x sounds cool) and remember you need the gems for re-rolling Epic Tier Passives.

I'm thinking I might make another guide next to this one for ''what to get in what order" for first time players, now.


The funny thing is, that I'd prioritise 'Treasure Hunter' over every other skill that helps with fighting. I know that at the level I'm at, AKA above average, that's what I'd do - but if you're experienceing the game for the first time... Look the executions are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ glorious. they look and feel so so very good. They can chunk health off captains, I know. Elven Light is just better (stun or get behind defenders first, their shields protect them - although executions bypass shields).
Legendary Vs Epic Vs Rare
So, the interesting thing is, for me at least, that most of my most desired traits, are actually in the 'rare' category VS the Legendary or Epic. This means, surprizingly, that for me 'Rare' weapons are some of the most usable items in the game, but let me break it down for you and you are free to make up your own mind.

  • Rare have a set of passives, which are almost universally useful.
  • Epics have a situational 'special' plus a 'rare' passive, which can be re-rolled for a perfect gem.
    Ironically it's almost easier to re-farm nother Epic, than it is to find enough gems for the number of re-rolls you're going to need. HOWEVER in my experience, if you have a fire-based epic, you'll only get fire-related passives on re-roll, etc - so it's not totally inefficient.
  • Legendary ave a set item special, Plus a passive from he 'rare' category. ADDITIONALLY equipping 2 pieces will give another bonus, and 4 will give yet another bonus to your gear. These will be briefly broken down in the next sections. There are already a bunch of Legendary guides out there. Little to nothing for Epics and Rares.

Legendary (WIP)
I don't need to go into too much depth for the Legendary sets; as you are able to look at them directly in your inventory, see what's missing, and see what their requirements are; You do this by clicking on the Legendary Sets Icon on the far Right-Hand-Side in your Inventory. You can see it in this screenshot as 7/60
(I reset my save file so I could play through fresh)




I will fill Legendaries out last; seeing as they are far more often covered in Guides.
Looking for how to farm them specifically will be covered later in this Guide under Farming Methods
Epics (intro)
Here is where the pain begins. Prepare to do some reading, then re-read it to ensure you understand. ONCE that is done, I will attempt to make a table that will help out with this workflow.
Some are very straightforward to get, others are… more tricky.

What makes then tricky is that weapon affixes are governed by hidden “LAYERS” that are not immediately obvious how they work. On top of that, item type (ring/sword/cloak, etc) are randomised on the encounter, meaning you cannot manipulate the resulting Loot Drop. In saying that, Bow Headshot kills seem to spawn more bows for me, I think, maybe.
Epics (Layers)
main source;

Layers are how the game decides what specific traits to drop, and are largely influenced by the Orc Attributes and how he's killed. LAYERS ARE IMPORTANT when farming, because you want to target the specific layer for the gear-piece that you want, and so you need to make sure that nothing in a 'higher' layer has a chance of ruining your farm run.

There are 4 'hidden' attribute Layers that we know of, plus one more - the Orc Class, can we think, influence a few specific drops.

The layers are;
Layer 1: Gear Piece (filter)
Largely Randomized, ironically. There is little to nothing you can do to influence this layer; however you can cheese your save file if the wrong piece is dropped - I should cover that later under Farming. All gear traits is based on this first, primary Filter.

Layer 2: Death
There is a 70% chance that a gear piece will drop based on an Orc's method of Death.
Special Note; "Killed When Dazed" takes higher priority than anything else, so If your kill 'also' dazes your enemy, then you're messing with the possible loot drops.
  • Ground Execution
  • Ranged
  • Stealth
  • Killed by Element (fire/poison/frost/curse)
  • Killed when Dazed

These are the ones we know of that drop something; other methods of killing that have yet undiscovered rewards may include;
  • Execution (procs swords)
  • Ranged headshot (seems to proc bows more often)
  • Beast (Mauled, Eaten, Crushed) - seems to proc Cloaks
  • Follower/Bodyguard (Seems to proc Rings)
  • Glaive


Layer 3: Immunities
If The Captain is Immune to something, there is a high chance his item will be related to that Immunity.
The immunities are:
  • Arrow-Proof
  • Immune to Poison
  • Immune to Curse
  • Immune to Fire
  • Immune to Frost
  • Immune to Executions
  • Vigilant Against Stealth
  • Vigilant Against Beasts

Layer 4; Enraged;
Similar to Immunities, but with a lower drop chance. If an epic piece procs on an immunity, this seems to influence the secondary ability of Epic Weapons. That's more a Theory than a fact at this point.


If the gear piece gets through every layer without proccing any of the above effects, it will likely drop a "Common" or a random "Rare" gear piece.
Possible Epic Drops why can't I edit this page anymore? I"M NOT DONE
Source:[gamefaqs.gamespot.com]

These are all the known Epics, thanks to the community for finding these; and there are a couple of Dataminers out there that discovered a few that we haven't figured how to unlock 'normally' yet.

This table covers Epic's Name, Passive, and the Kill Method required to unlock it. Remember that it is still influenced by random chance in the both in the loot pool layers above it, as well as the Gear Drop which seems pre-determined. (There will be a Farming Method using save-scumming mentioned later in the guide to mitigate this)

SWORDS

Swords
Passive Effects
Kill Required
Deathbane
recover full health and might after last chance
Advanced Class: Tank
Deathgiver
3 arrows on execution
Ranged Kill? Arrow Proof?
Souleater
50% chance to gain full wrath after last chance
Executioner
25% chance to gain full might on execution
Frostseeker
+55% damage to frozen enemies
Killed by Freezing
Fireseeker
+55% damage to burning enemies
Killed with, or has a Fire Weapon
Venomseeker
+55% damage to poisoned enemies
Killed with, or has a Poison Weapon
Breathstealer
+55% damage to dazed caps
Killed When Dazed
Paineater
+1% melee dmg per 2% reduced health
Enraged By Injury
Cursebreather
executions on cap cause curse for 10 sec
Sparkbreather
executions on cap cause fire for 10 sec
Frostbreather
executions on cap cause frost for 10 sec
Bilebreather
executions on Cap cause poison for 10 sec
Lifedrinker
70 health on ground execution
Bestial Frenzy
Dawnbreaker
more time during last chance
Gutspiller
7 might gain on glaive attacks
Amaranthine
5 might gain on melee attacks
Brutal Ground Execution? or Full Might on Kill?
Hordebreaker
5 might gain when hitstreak above 10
Mightdrinker
50 might gain on ground execution
Beast Proof? Full Might on Kill?
Fatespurner
5 might gain on missed attack or if hit
Humiliator
infinite might for 10 sec after killing a cap
Battle Weary
Wrathgiver
10 wrath on execution
Ground Execution


DAGGERS
Backbiter 15 arrows on stealth attack cap
Huntsblade 5 arrows per stealth attack from caragor
Shadeclaimer 50% chance to become undetected after killing cap
Soulstealer quick throw gains arrows every X seconds
Corpsemonger +55% stealth damage when a stealth attack has been done recently
Fearmonger stealth attack on cap makes grunts flee
Gutchaser 10 might gain per uruk made to flee from brutalize
Shadowtraitor 120 might when stealth attack cap
Souldrainer recover all health and might when stealth kill cap
Beaststriker 80 might per stealth kill from caragor
Shadowcurse stealth applies curse
Emberstroker stealth lights on fire
Froststroker stealth freezes
Bilestroker stealth poisons
Curse-ender +80% stealth damage to cursed foes
Flamechoker +80% stealth damage to burning foes
Veinsplitter +80% stealth damage to poisoned foes
Spiritstalker +55% stealth damage when might full
Gutwrencher 3 wrath gain per uruk made to flee from brutalize
Beastlurker 20 wrath per stealth kill from caragor

RANGED WEAPONS
Kingmaker regain all arrows and focus on ranged cap kill
Mightseeker 15 arrows gain when killing cap
Chiefbreaker gain all arrows when killing cap
Witspiller 50% chance headshots cause explosion
Killblesser 10% chance to recover all health on ranged kill
Mindbreaker headshots always explode heads at 16+ hitstreak
Ironarm +33% ranged damage at full might
Pinchfist +5% ranged damage for each arrow below max
Ragebiter +55% ranged damage to enraged foes
Fearbiter +55% ranged damage to dazed caps
Almsgiver +1% ranged damage per +1% lost health
Volleyfire +33% ranged damage at 11+ hitstreak
Mindmender 40 focus recovery per ranged hit
Lifemender 40 health recovery per ranged hit
Silvanstalker 10 might gain on shadow strike
Mightmender 7 might gain on ranged hit
Cursebiter +55% ranged damage to cursed foes
Frostbiter +55% ranged damage to frozen foes
Blazebiter +55% ranged damage to burning foes
Venombiter +55% ranged damage to poisoned foes

ARMORS
Retaliator 15% chance to gain all arrows and focus when hit by cap
Vindicator 15% chance to gain all might when hit by enemy
Mightbuilder 50% chance to gain 10 might when hit
Wrathbuilder 25% chance to gain 10 wrath when hit
Darkstriker 75% chance for crit when cursed
Flamestriker 75% chance for crit when burning
Venomstriker 75% chance for crit when poisoned
Heartwarden -55% damage when your might is full
Ragewarder 40% less damage from enraged foes
Darkwarder -75% damage while cursed
Emberwarder -75% damage while burning
Bilewarder -75% damage while poisoned
Darkfeeder +55% damage while cursed
Fatespurner full health recovery after last chance
Ragekeeper 2.2% health recovery per second with full wrath
Fatebreaker 120 might gain on last chance
Doomcrier 10 might gain per second while cursed
Venomtaker Take no damage from poison

CLOAKS
Shadestalker become undetected after stationary for 6 sec
Bloodsnarler 25% chance to gain all health when killing a beast
Heartsnarler 25% chance to gain full might when killing a beast
Graveshroud recover all focus after killing a cap
Beastcaller mounted caragors gain 15% health when howling
Gloomrider 100 health per stealth kill on caragor
Liferider 40 health per kill while on a beast
Lifelurker recover all health on stealth kill
Fatedodger enter stealth after last chance
Hexkeeper +90% curse duration on foes
Firekeeper +100% fire duration on foes
Frostkeeper +100% frost duration on foes
Bilekeeper +90% poison duration on foes
Cursefeeder 120 might gain when damaged while cursed
Packleader beast allies reduce fire, poison and curse by 50% duration

RUNES
Starwrath regain all arrows when killing foes during elven rage
Hexwalker 15% chance for any attack to apply curse
Ashwalker 15% chance for any attack to apply fire
Frostwalker 15% chance for any attack to apply frost
Palewalker 15% chance for any attack to apply poison
Darkbanner -50% damage for undead allies
Heartstriker +15% melee damage when health is full
Hextamer +50% damage dealt by allies to cursed foes
Embertamer +50% damage dealt by allies to burning foes
Venomtamer +50% damage dealt by allies to poisoned foes
Feartamer +50% damage dealt by allies to dazed caps
Darkroarer +65% damage dealt by undead allies
Lifeleecher Drain 33% faster
Starclaimer 13% health per secon
Possible Epic Secondary Effects (AKA "Rare" Sword Effects)
These can be re-rolled using Perfect Gems (so help me....)
It's usually just easier to refarm the gear than farm the gems for the low low chance of actually getting the secondary that you want.... I don' t know of any way to proc these intentionally, and I think they are just a random roll on an Epic.

remember that if you just get a 'rare' sword, it will have one of these, so if this is the trait you want, you don't have to farm Epics to get it - in fact, some Epics can't even proc these traits.


SWORD SECONDARY TRAITS

Common
Crits light on fire
Crits poison
Crits curse
Crits freeze

Uncommon
40 health on execution
40 health on crit
10 might when hitting dazed cap
+15% melee dmg at 11+ hit streak

Rare
10% crit chance
3 might gain on any melee attack

Very Rare
10 might gain on crit
+15% damage when health is full

DAGGER SECONDARY TRAITS

Common
Quick throw lights on fire
Quick throw poisons
Quick throw curses
Quick throw freezes

Uncommon
Quick throw gains might
3 arrows on stealth kill
6 arrows on brutalize kill

Rare
+33% crit damage
+33% stealth damage at full health

Very Rare
6 wrath on stealth kill
50 might on stealth kill

RANGED SECONDARY TRAITS

Common
Headshot lights on fire
Headshot poisons
Headshot curses
Headshot freezes

Uncommon
5 arrows when a cap becomes dazed
25% chance to gain 1 arrow per ranged kill

Rare
5 might gain on ranged kill
5 might gain on crit
3 might gain on ranged hit

Very Rare
15 health per ranged hit
15 focus per ranged hit
3 wrath per ranged kill

ARMOR SECONDARY TRAITS

Common
Crits light on fire
Crits poison
Crits curse
Crits freeze

Uncommon
250 health on cap kill
15 arrows on cap kill
40% less dmg from ranged attacks
10 might gain per kill

Very Rare
30 wrath per cap kill
10 might gain on crit
3 wrath gain per kill

CLOAK SECONDARY TRAITS

Common
+50% damage dealt by beast allies
40 health on stealth kill
100 health per beast kill
allied beasts take -50% damage

Uncommon
Reduce duration of fire by 80%
Reduce duration of poison by 80%
Reduce duration of curse by 80%
Rare
40% less damage from ranged attacks

Very Rare
15 health recovery per kill
15 focus recovery per kill

RUNE SECONDARY TRAITS

Common
+50% damage dealt by uruk allies
allied uruks take -50% damage
15 focus recovery per kill

Uncommon
drain recovers 100% more health
gain 1 arrow on drain
15 health recovery per kill

Rare
50% chance to recover all health on cap kill
recover health to 75% when combat ends
25 might gain on drain

Very Rare
3 wrath gain on drain
elven rage +33% duration
The Farm - Outline
Once you know what piece you want - arguably more important, as it's impossible to target a specific Trait if you don't know that you want it - You need to set a guy up and farm him for it.

so here's the outline

  1. decide what gear you want to farm
  2. look it up on a table to see what the requirements are
  3. find/create an orc that fits that
  4. kill him until he drops the item you want or revert the save and kill him again
  5. This is way more involved than it sounds.
The Farm; Breakdown
Step 1
: Decide
Simple enough. Decide what you want. 'I want a fire sword'. Go back tot he secions with lists of gear, scroll through until you find the type wtiha passive you want, and it will have the conditions required. "Must be killed with fire or have a fire weapon".


2. Create that Orc (or find him)
One of the main things to remember here is Layers. if you want a trait like fire, remember that Dazed is in a higher Layer, so killing a Dazed Captain with Fire will trigger a Dazed drop, not a fire one. Or if you want to get a drop based on an Orc's Enrage, then you have to make sure you don't use any elemental attacks because they will trigger the drop as they are in a higher Layer - ie you must kill it with basic sword attacks - even arrow attacks, stealth attacks and executions are in a higher "Layer" potentially messing up your run.

This means that you need to try and make sure there aren't any higher filters that might cancel out the desired traits.


The easiest and most efficient way to create desired Orcs is with Meridian, but first you need to understand their Base Classes and how it can affect Advanced Classes. You create a Captain by dying to a basic Orc - but the class is influenced by the weapon type of the basic that you died to. Specifically;

        
            
    Basic Class
            
    Advanced Classes
        
        
            
    Archer
            
    Marksman, Assassin, Beastmaster, Destroyer, Tracker, Trickster
        
        
            
    Defender
            
    Tank, Trickster, Tracker, Bezerker, Commander, Destroyer, Slayer
        
        
            
    Hunter
            
    Assassin, Destroyer, Trickster, Beastmaster, Slayer, Commander
        
      
            
    Olog-Hai
            
    Beastmaster, Bezerker, Commander, Destroyer, Tank
        
      
            
    Savages
            
    Assassin, Bezerker, Beastmaster, Commander, Destroyer, Tank, Trickster
        
      
            
    Warrior
            
    All classes - Front-Line, Beastmaster, Trickster
        
    Notes;Uruks that kill a Beast while you're fighting them are far more likely to become a Beastmaster.The very rare Worms that throw stun grenades will ALWAYS become a Trickster or Destroyer. Getting one to kill you however is incredibly difficult and requires a captain with the 'enrage followers' trait.
    Step 3: Prep the Orc
    Now that you have the Orc and Class that you want to target, you need to make him into the Orc you need to kill. AKA you need to give him the specific Advanced Class, or Weaopon, or whatever he needs.For Weapons the ONLY reliable way to do this is to buy him a weapon with Meridian. it's cheap and has a 100% effective chance.If you want an advanced class, you can buy one with Meridian, but it's still a lottery. It's safer than the 'die to an orc' method, because that can also introduce other 'Layers or Filters' that could interfere with Farming him. If a specific Advanced Class is what you're after, then good luck you may have to do this loop a few times to get the Class you desire. Thems the breaks. Either you need to buy his upgrade (with Training Orders) or die to him. Dying has the added benefit of upgrading him into a Rare, Epic, or Legendary Orc at the same time. These can also be purchased with Training Orders, but are pretty pricey upgrades.Once you have the Orc wtih the Weapon or Trait that you need; you are on the home stretch.You need to
    • upgrade his gear Quality
      (die to him or recruit and buy epic/legendary with Training Orders)
    • Lower his Level
      Shame, Hunt, Shame
      (done specifically to make farming him easier. Lower level = weaker, less health, and faster Dominates)
    • Farm him.
The Farm: Methods
Death Threat Method:

Death Threat
  • Better Gear Drops
  • Creates a re-settable mission

When Uruk die, they pop up an icon for the weapon that you're interested in. If it's not what you want, and you're fast enough, you can reset the fight to try for the correct drop type, (or if it's the wrong colour quality for what you're targeting) by hitting Esc, Return To Menu, then re-entering your Save.

With Death Threat, they have a guaranteed mission, and you can prettymuch fasttravel to them
Death Threat also greatly increases the Gear Quality (chance of Epic drops)
Additionally, this creates a Mission, which if they don't drop the correct item, you can quit out of and the re-farm them. You must get the gear, check it, and leave the game to Main Menu (not abandon mission) before the Mission completes.

This resets the Farm mission and the uruk, meaning that you don't need to go through all the previous steps again to 'make' another compatible Uruk.

Outpost Method:
Again, thanks to rwebster1 for the idea;

He says this method is quicker and it can be if you set this up with multiple Orcs that you want to farm. I quantify this by saying IF you're good at the game because now you have an Outpost, an Alarm, and multiple Captains that you need to kill in specific ways. So Death Threat above is liekly better for most. It also creates a resettable mission
  • Recruit Orc with desired Traits
  • Give Desired Gear Level via Training Orders/Meridian
  • Shame/worse than death
  • check the army screen. they need to be inside the Outpost. If not, send ur new bodyguard to kill them/reset bodguard until they are.
  • Repeat this with another 2 captains that you want to farm 'all at the same time'.
Bingo, multiple murders all in one place with a Mission that you can quit out if you don't get what you want.
6 kommentarer
hotmatrixx  [skapare] 22 mar @ 18:50 
yeah, a little.

You only really need/want an Epic of each element that you want, so that you can proc it, as yo ucan upgrade them really 'cheap'ly and a half decent epic will keep up with you throughout the game

Just keep track of your levels and level them up alongside you and you'll be fine.

The Legend and other stuff is super nice to have, but mostly its for flexing on....

Originally it was made 'difficult' so they could sell more lootboxes, but those mechanics were removed years ago; some of the stuff was rebalanced to compensate, but some stuff remains left over, too.
Cammy150 22 mar @ 14:13 
jeez more complicated that I expected
hotmatrixx  [skapare] 12 feb @ 14:09 
No one has them, and they are incomplete. We've been trying for years to accumulate enough data.

Sorry. Only the Devs have that, no one has datamined that info reliably.
BigFatJuicyMonkeys 12 feb @ 13:41 
Well the drop tables for the rest of the equipment would be nice but if you're not playing anymore and don't want to update that's completely fine.
hotmatrixx  [skapare] 12 feb @ 13:39 
@bigfatjuicymonkeys
i've quit gamaing, so i'' likely format it to clean it up at some point but what do you want to know?
BigFatJuicyMonkeys 10 feb @ 19:45 
So I'm guessing this won't be updated any more.