Overview

The Scholar is considered one of the more difficult professions, largely due to the scarcity of scholar nodes. Raw materials for prospectors and foresters are spread more evenly about the landscape, and can be gathered while out adventuring or en route to quests, while farmers create their raw materials at will. In comparison, scholars' nodes are almost exclusively in ruins. These locations tend to be more secluded and have a higher density of enemies. On the other hand, finding scholar nodes became much easier with the addition of the track artifacts skill in Book 10, and the scholar's recipes require much less in the way of raw materials to create a finished product.

Gathering Resources

While scholar nodes appear in ruins, not all ruins have scholar nodes. Unlike other gathered materials, scholars' are carried with reasonable frequency on certain humanoids and can frequently be found in chests, corpses, and other containers.

Tier 1

The node for the scholar's first tier is the shattered pitcher. As a first tier resource, they are found near the starting areas. In the Ered Luin, they can be found at Dol Ringwest, Limael's Vineyard, Orodost, Ringdale, and Tham Gelair.

In the Bree-lands, pitchers are located in the Chetwood North at Blackwold Headquarters and the ruins just east of there, and Ost Baranor in the Chetwood South. They can be found at the Goblinhole Ruins, Marshwater Fort, and Woodsedge Ruins in the Midgewater Marsh. There is also a single node along the ruined wall near Adso's Camp and one in The Crumbled Court.

The Shire is the hardest place to find scholar nodes, being limited to one node each at Odo's Leaf-Farm, the ruins on the hill directly south of Bolestones (in the Northern Bindbole Wood) and the Bridgefields Wall.

Tier 2

Broken urns contain materials for the second tier scholar recipes. They can be found in ruins across Bree-land, the Ered Luin, the Lone-lands and the North Downs.

Ruins of Emyn Hoedh and the ancient dwarven port of Kheledûl in the Blue Mountains have broken urns.

In the Bree-lands, they can be found mostly at the South-guard Ruins, Ost Gorthad, the fortifications in the northern Weather Hills, and the Brandy Hills. They can also be found at Ost Barandor, the Old Greenway Fort, the ruins near Starmere Lake, the Dead Spire, and the ruins on the southern edge of the cleft of Cirith Núr, east of the Horsefields.

The ruins in the Lone-lands containing broken urns are those in Minas Eriol and Ost Laden, as well as one in the southern Annunlos, east of the Forsaken Inn.

In the North Downs, Minas Vrûn has many urns.

Tier 3

The nodes for the third tier are antique vases. They can be found in the Lone-lands, the North-downs, and Evendim..

A plentiful supply of antique vases is in Naerost, a tall ruin infested with half-orcs east of Weathertop. Due to a certain wall in the ruin that can only be passed in one direction, the preferred loop at this location runs clockwise. For those of a higher level, Agamaur has an even greater supply. Also in the Lone-lands, vases can be found at the ruins of Mithrenost, Nindor, Nan Dhelu and Ost Cyrn.

Vases are also scattered throughout the North Downs, at Glírost, Tham Lorn, Merenost, Dol Nendír, Ost Galumar, and Ost Crithlanc.

In eastern Evendim, antique vases can be found at the ruins of the estates of the Dúnedain.

Faded Sindarin passages are often carried by humanoids of level 20-29. Torn craftsman's diaries and cracked dwarf-carvings are frequently found in chests and other containers.

Tier 4

In the Trollshaws, locations include Amon Varadh, Minas Ciliant, Ost Chall, Ost Brandras and Barad Glamgil, all in Nan Tornaeth.

Forgotten Texts can also be found in The Wovenvales (North Trollshaws), Minas Agor (South Trollshaws, near Book 4 Missing Rider quest) and Echad Gauradan (Tal Bruinen).

In Evendim, locations include Tyl Ruinen (Salamander Island) and the tombs of Men Erain, on the road to Annúminas

In Angmar, Donnevail has a number of Forgotten Texts.

The wight ruins in Harloeg in the Long-lands has several as well.

Tier 5

• Bitter Stair (Misty Mountains)
• Bail Boglakh (Angmar)
• Barad Morlas (Eregion)
• Pembar (Eregion)

Tier 6

Skill Mastery

Some crafting trophies may be used by scholars once they have mastered a tier. Using the specified trophy called for in a given recipe by selecting the mastery option in the crafting window will give a bonus to the chance of having a critical success. A critical success results in a better item or higher yield of items, depending on the recipe.

Scholar trophies are candles and tapers of various sorts. Each candle is good for most recipes in a specific tier, and is detailed in the tooltip text for that item. Candles can be found as either a rare result when gathering from the node of that tier, or as a rare find in chests and humanoid monsters.

At one point, scholar trophies were eyes, but this no longer applies. If you have eyes from before the change, you can likely change them at the trophy barter character in most crafting locations.

Tips and Tricks

Since the addition of the track artifacts skill, enabling UI options to help in finding nodes is less important than earlier in the game's history. Still, scholar nodes tend to be found behind and on top of walls, and in other out-of-the-way places. Enabling these features can still help in finding a node, even when the map shows that it is close by.

In the UI settings, enable 'item names' to make nodes easier to notice. Under combat settings, enable the 'combat direction indicator.' This will put a dotted line at the character's feet pointing towards the selected creature, ally, or item. When the artifact tracking indicates that you are near a node, press the 'select nearest item' key ( del, by default) to find nodes that are hidden behind or on top of walls and pillars. Once you have a clear line of sight, the /follow command will move the character in a straight line up to the node. The select will work whenever the character is within range for floating text to be displayed.

When moving with the mouse, adding key bindings usable by the left hand on home row can help reduce manual fatigue. The 'select nearest item' and 'use' keys are good candidates for remapping, and the /follow command can be assigned to a quick slot using the /shortcut command. If you have automatic 'loot all' enabled, it will take all items from resource nodes as well. Otherwise, shift-rightclick will automatically loot all items in the node. Alternately, the 'use' key will open the loot dialog, after which the items can be taken with enter or the 'loot all' button, as usual.