Finishing up Eregion and Volume 1

Eregion is still one of the best zones in the game as far as I’m concerned and begs to be on everyone’s list of zones that must be completed.  For the low 50’s though, you may or may not find yourself with things to do depending on what zones you quested in during your 40’s.  I know that some of my alts spent a lot of time in Angmar and Forochel than others so they had quite a few quests left in Eregion for them to do.  But others, such as my Champion, skipped a lot of the content in those zones and have already blown through 90% of Eregion’s content before reaching 50.  If you do find yourself having some quests left here though I highly suggest finishing them off so that you’re 51-53 before heading into Moria.  (Although you can just pop into Moria at 50, being a bit over-leveled won’t hurt.)

Another tactic you can follow before heading into Moria is finishing Volume 1.  Not only will you get some nice rewards such as a mount, gear, titles, and money; but you’ll also end up with some decent experience as well.  Although I personally did not take this route, I wanted to include it because with Volume 2 starting with Moria it is at this point a number of players choose to polish off Volume 1.

Moria and Volume 2

Ah Moria.  Deep, dark, dank and epic all describe this zone.  I have to say that Moria was a bit overwhelming when I first went through it.  But now that I’ve had a couple of characters level through it I don’t think it’s all that bad.  Yes, there are some quests that have an abnormal amount of running around, as well as some which can send you into some over-populated rooms of certain death; but again that is why I previously mentioned being a bit over-leveled before coming into this zone.  Moria should be experienced by everyone, and if you’re motivated you can blaze through it in several days.  Granted, you will probably end up with a number of deeds and quests unfinished if you do, but it’s still possible.  Before you leave, I highly suggest you complete the following goals:

• Finish your Level 58 Class Quest to obtain one of your Legendary Class Traits
• Gain Kindred with the Iron Guards to obtain another one of your Legendary Class Traits
• Finish Volume 2, Book 6 to gain enough faction that you have no issues entering Lothlórien

I would also recommend staying in Moria until level 58-60 so that you don’t have too much trouble in Lothlórien or Mirkwood, but just like with Eregion there is no harm in staying until you are well past 60 either, especially if you are working on deeds, completing quests, or you are just having a good ole time.

Volume 2 and Lothlórien

When you finally come out of Moria you’ll find that Volume 2 continues on into Lothlórien and that the zone has a number of its own quests that are worth completing as well.  Goldenstar and myself actually have enjoyed the zone quite a bit and found it to offer a really nice chunk of experience.  The bright, lush atmosphere also makes for a nice “palate cleanser” for those who have spent some time inside the dark halls of Moria.  Be warned though, if you do not finish Volume 2, Book 6 before coming into this zone you will need to complete a number of repeatable quests in the Western half of the zone for reputation before you are allowed to enter the Eastern part.  Again, I strongly suggest finishing Book 6 beforehand as earning the reputation needed could take up to several days without it.

There are two modes of thoughts when it comes to this area.  First, it can be used as a buffer for Mirkwood; allowing your character to level up to 60+ and making your experience in Mirkwood much easier.  Or as a second option it can be skipped entirely.  Yes, I know that will make some people cringe, but that is the unfortunate side effect of older content as the game progresses.  I will however say that if you do choose to skip this area you will be missing out on some very good storytelling, a beautiful mount, and some deeds.  I myself skipped it with my Champion, but as I start leveling other classes through here I may just find myself spending some time here with some of the more “squishy” characters and my crafters.

Volume 2 and Mirkwood

Mirkwood is an interesting choice these days.  When it was first released it was the only zone that contained its level range of content.  That is not the case at this time.  Subsequently Enedwaith was released and it too spans over much of the same level of content so if you feel like skipping Mirkwood you can.  This does come at some consequence as there are a number of skirmishes that can only be unlocked by completing parts of Volume 2 and will be otherwise unavailable until you do.  That, in my opinion, makes Mirkwood virtually mandatory as I can’t really imagine having a character without all of the available skirmishes.  But, I also know that there are people out there that cannot stand this area, don’t give a darn about skirmishes, and would gladly ignore it in favor of going to Enedwaith at around Level 60 instead.

Volume 3 and Enedwaith

Enedwaith is another zone that really has a lot to offer when it comes to questing.  Originally this was intended interim content between the release of Mirkwood and Rise of Isengard, but it turned out to be a pretty fun zone to quest in.  When I was polling our audience about whether or not I should quest in Enedwaith or go straight into the Rise of Isengard content many people suggested that once I was done with Mirkwood that I should go and level up to at least 67 in Enedwaith; otherwise I might find myself doing skirmishes to reach 75.  And while I was really anxious to get into Isengard, I took their advice and refreshed myself with some of the quests in the zone.  I have to say that the zone still holds up in my opinion and is not only a great alternative to Mirkwood, but stands as a good zone.

Conclusion

Although there are some “mandatory” zones that you must go through as you level, I think that players do have at least a few choices about where they can go and when.  And hopefully as the game progresses we might see some future options open up.  However, if you want to follow the path that I did with my last character, I will summarize the last path that I took with a character here:

• 50-52:  Eregion
• 52-59:  Moria
• 59-65:  Mirkwood

How about you?  Do you have a certain path or paths that you follow when leveling up?

Yes, I’m talking about switching mains.

Now I don’t know about you, but before LOTRO I have been a serial monogamist when it comes to playing characters.  However, there have been times even in previous games when I switched mains.  I usually find myself switching mains out of dissatisfaction for my current class.  Those dissatisfactions have included:

• Not being able to find a group with my current character
• My character falls short in some role. (Tanking, DPS, Healing)
• My character class gets “nerfed” or changed to a degree I no longer find it agreeable
• I want a character class that has more flexibility in what roles it can perform within a group
• I get bored with my character

In my opinion these are probably some of the most common reasons that most people have for switching their main character within games.  However, switching mains in LOTRO is not without its consequences and there are some things that one should consider before doing so:

• Deeds will need to be ground out in order to complete class traits.
• Quests and deeds will need to be completed for Legendary Class Traits.
• Deeds will need to be completed in order to complete player virtues.
• If your new main is a crafter, they may have to complete some reputation grinds ahead of them.
• If your previous main was a crafter, you may need to eventually dust them off to grind some reputation, and/or levels as new gear is released.
• If you raid or do dungeons, you will have to build up a new set of gear including legendary items.

Now in my opinion there are really only several of these points that will take up a lot of time after switching mains; and they may even have you rethinking about your decision.  The foremost of these decisions is player virtues, especially if you want to do end game content.  Now while some of the virtues that can be earned with natural gameplay, it’s really only in the later zones such as Enedwaith and Dunland that I really have seen Turbine being what I consider “reasonable” when it comes to deeds.  I really think that Turbine needs to take a hard look at some of the slayer deeds that require killing 360 of the same mob or older raids and dungeons such as needing to kill a large number of the Watcher in the Water’s tentacles and Champion of Urugarth (Advanced) to see if this is really where they want their player base spending their time moving forward.  But until they do so, this is what will be required unless you want to spend Turbine Points.  Of course if you don’t give a toss about end game content you can just skip this all together!

The next time consuming issue I see is the crafting issue.  For example, right now my main is a Guardian who is also a Metalsmith.  Now, while he is already maxed out in his reputation with the Metalsmith Guild I have to decide whether or not I want to take the time to increase his reputation with Dunland and Rohan so that he has access to all of the possible crafting recipes or do I want to just make do with what I have.  And while Dunland’s reputation will be a breeze to obtain, gaining Rohan’s will definitely take a bit more time on my part since you don’t start earning reputation for them until later levels.

The last issue is gear based and although this can be a pain in the rear, I really consider it to be mitigated by several factors.  Mostly that I think with reputation, crafting, and some support from your friends and/or kinship you can resolve this issue.  I’m not saying it won’t take any time or resources, because it will.  But thankfully, again in my opinion, LOTRO isn’t as gear dependent as other games are; meaning that you won’t need to worry about running previous raids to get into the newest one.  You may however need to run previous instances, but thankfully due to the upcoming currency consolidation and instance finder, gearing up may become easier than ever.

Of course all of this can easily be tossed out the window if you’re not worried about getting to end-game content with your new main.  But for those of us whose playtime centers around that area of the game switching alts can be a somewhat imposing task.  But one of the upsides to it is that it does give you the opportunity to explore past areas, review old storylines, and see what changes have been made to the game since you last leveled a character.  As for me, I may switch from my Guardian to my Champion at some point, but right now the time involved for leveling deeds is just too steep for it to be any time soon.  But what about you?  Have you ever switched mains?

But as soon as I got into a group and started trying to use Masteries, I was very, very lost.  I miss my Guardian’s ability to instantly get aggro.  I also find it incredibly frustrating that I now have to remember to use a different combination of keys to create gambits after 35+ levels of doing it a certain way.  And frankly y’all, I’m lost.  And I know from looking at the forums I’m not the only “n00b” Warden to feel this way, so I’m taking a different turn in this Altoholism article and instead of coming to you and telling you just what I do and my opinions I’d like to hear what you all do.

• What virtues do you use?
• What’s your rotation when you start a pull?
• What do you rely on for aggro?
• What do you look for in Legacies?
• What class traits are you utilizing?

Basically, I’m asking for help and all help is appreciated!  And while I’ll also be pouring over Elborigorn’s previous articles, I am hoping that you too will help me do away with the “n00b” and help me delve into the epic that is the Warden class!

Skill	Skill Effect	Gambit	Opinion	Level Obtained
Muster in Evendim	A Personal Teleport to Evendim	N/A	I’m a fan of every type of fast travel, but a Muster to Evendim sure would be a lot handier in the low 30’s than at 40 when you’ve probably moved on from that content.	40
Dance of War	Adds +1000 to a Warden’s Evade Rating and transfers a Moderate amount of Threat from each member of the Fellowship within 25 meters to the Warden.		I did not use this gambit very much, and I felt a little foolish once I saw what it did.  It seems to me this would be a really handy gambit to use.	41
Resolution	Drains up to 10 targets within 6 meters of their morale and transfers it to the Warden.		I did use this gambit quite a bit; in fact this line was one that became very familiar to me.  Although it’s not going to heal you to full, it helps a lot.	42
Spear of Virtue	Makes two attacks; one with main-hand damage and another that is Light-based.  It also increases the Warden’s threat.		A good gambit for doing damage; especially with the Light-based attack.	43
Muster in Rivendell	A Personal Teleport to Rivendell	N/A	Another teleport spell that definitely is going to help you out.  Rivendell becomes a very popular place to go at level 40 and beyond.	44
Restoration	Heals the Warden for an initial amount of Morale and then applies a HoT as well.		A heal is a heal, and this one is a fairly decent one.  It didn’t really make it into my rotation though because my mentality was that the morale leeches were more effective.	46
Never Surrender	This will heal the Warden for 75% morale and 50% power if they fall beneath 5% morale.  However, they will then be unable to use any masteries or any HoT pulses for a duration of 5 minutes immediately afterwards.	N/A	A good “oh poop” button that is getting changed in Update 5 as well.  However, it does help and I think most would agree that it’s a pretty good skill to have at the ready.	47
Exultation of Battle	Drains the health of up to 10 targets within 6 meters of the Warden.  It will then transfer their Morale to the Warden.  It also slightly increases the Warden’s threat over time.		An upgrade to Resolution that also increases a Wardens threat.  It’s hard to go wrong with this gambit in my opinion.	48
Defiant Challenge	A Forced Attack that also increases the Warden’s threat.  It will also reflect a set amount of damage upon any Common, Fire, or Shadow Damage for a duration of 30 seconds.		I personally did not have this slotted and I wish I did after reading its description.  I really wish I had given it a try because it sounds like it would be a good gambit to have in a tanking rotation.	39+ Legendary Class Book
Javelin of Deadly Force	A Ranged attack affecting up to 10 targets.	N/A	I tried this, but I really didn’t think it was that great of a skill.  I really wish I had taken the time to have Defiant Challenge equipped instead.	39+ Legendary Class Book

Trait Name	Trait Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Grand Master Weapons Training	Increases your melee damage by 5%, increases your chance for bleeds (and their damage) from Spears, attack speed debuff from Clubs, and the hit bonus modifier from swords.	I didn’t slot this, but I’d be interested in hearing what more experienced Wardens think about the trait.	39+ Legendary Class Book
Way of the Warden	Grants the following skills: Spear and Fist Spear and Shield Fist and Spear Shield and Fist Fist and Shield Shield and Spear Way of the Warden	This trait is almost a “must have” because of how many masteries it adds to a character.  It’s almost a bit ridiculous how many skills you get for having this equipped.  And it’s not that I’m complaining, but it does seem a bit unbalanced to me.	Level 45 Class Quest

Ah, Mirkwood; vast forest inhabited by elves, orcs, spiders, and crazy adventurers.  Previously it was the occasional holiday vacation spot of Hobbits and Dwarves, but now it has been besieged by the invading forces of the Free People who seek to root out the forces of evil from Dol Guldur.  But as someone who went through Mirkwood right after its release how does the area hold up?  Is it still the fun playland I once remember, or will it send me running to Enedwaith or even deeper south into Isengard?

The answer?  To tell the truth I’m undecided.  Mirkwood sure does have its charms which include plenty of action, an in-depth story , and the immersion of feeling like you’re in a confrontation (at least later in the book).  But there are down sides too.  There are still a lot of landscape quests that are in the spirit of “Kill Ten Rats”.  (Not that there is any game out there that I know of that totally avoids these kinds of quests, but sometimes enough is enough.  At some point killing bats and spiders becomes old and your blade thirsts for the taste of orc blood!)  But thankfully there aren’t many of those quests in Mirkwood outside one certain area and most pertain to the story that Turbine weaves so well.

Arrival

When first stepping into Mirkwood you actually are entering an instanced version of the Mirk-eaves where you are just beginning to storm the area.  When Goldenstar and I originally entered this area after the initial release we were actually overwhelmed by the orc population.  It seemed that we were constantly being overrun by spawning orcs and dying repeatedly.  However, I have to say that this time around I had no problems as a Champion.  In fact, it was 100 times easier than I previously remember.  After completing the introduction story and moving into the actual landscape I still found that the adventuring here had a good flow.  It was interesting to delve back into the story of an invading force scouting the land and I really felt that I was being generally guided on my way to 65.

Moving Onward

However, it was after I moved onto the next area at The Haunted Inn that I began to have some doubts.  My main complaint was how I was continuously being sent back and forth between the Haunted Inn and Dannenglor.  I understand that there were some compelling stories being told, but at the same time 3-4 trips back and forth start to make for an angry Dwarf.  Nevertheless I can’t argue with the experience or state that I was bored as the story and content kept me fairly entertained.  Eventually I moved from The Haunted Inn with my spirits in-tact on to Estolad Mernael in Drownholt and found myself longing to move on almost instantly.

My issue with Estolad Mernael is not that it is the basic “go here, kill something, come back” quests, but that it is surrounded by a large number of stealthing predators who always seem to knock my off my mount without fail.  It really makes for some difficult travelling situations and inevitably I became so frustrated that I gave up and ran back and forth to my quest destinations in most cases.  Mercifully this area does not have a large amount of quests and I was able to move onto Ost Galadh and back into the main storyline of Mirkwood; the Epic Story.

In the Middle of Things

Ost Galadh is the central hub of Mirkwood and I was happy to be in a location with a Vault and crafting area once again.  And after finishing the menial “Kill Ten Rats (Bats)” quests I found myself adventuring north into the Scuttledells and enjoying myself once again.  The story was picking up, the Epic Story was moving along and I was happy.  I didn’t even mind the break from orcs and enjoyed squashing some big, nasty spiders along the way.  All too soon though I was moving beyond Ost Galadh into the East to Thangúlhad and into the front lines of the conflict.

Now as strange as it may be I ended up loving Thangúlhad quite a bit.  Although there are a lot of orcs and other nefarious minions of Dol Guldur walking around, it is nevertheless a lot of fun.  I mean this is what are in Mirkwood for isn’t it?  And I enjoyed every minute of it.  My only complaint in this area is actually related to the Epic Storyline.  For me it seemed that there were some long stretches of inaction in the story and then suddenly there are some back-to-back skirmishes that ended up wearing me out a bit.  Now it’s not that I have anything against the skirmishes in general, it was just that they seemed to suddenly sprout up all at once.  And yes, I know it makes sense from a story perspective; you don’t break down someone’s gates and then yell “Hey, I’m tired, but I’ll be back tomorrow, OK?”  But from a gameplay perspective it was several long instances that had to be completed in a row.   To be fair though, if I wasn’t in a hurry to get to Isengard I probably wouldn’t have minded as much, so take that into account.

Conclusion

In the end, I did enjoy my time in Mirkwood.  It was definitely a different experience than being in Moria and made for a good disconnect.  But it definitely didn’t have the same impact on me that Moria did either.  And although Turbine might be tired of hearing it, Moria just has this epic quality about it that seems to make a lasting impression while Mirkwood’s impression leaves me merely satiated for the time being.  Regardless, I still plan to make it a stop on most of my characters’ journeys, but it will be interesting to see as time goes on if Mirkwood remains a steady stop on most people’s leveling journey.

First off, let me say that in my alt experiment one thing that I should have done, as suggested by a fan, was to stagger out the levels of the characters so that they were all at different level ranges.  However, I tend to be a fairly linear thinker so I decided to take them all through the same zones at the same time.  And for a while it worked well.  In fact, I really loved the Lone-lands so much that I enjoyed my time going through that area on all my characters one after the other.  But I didn’t really think about my time going through the areas that I didn’t like so much the first time through, especially Moria.  That’s not to say that Moria is a bad place to go through; in fact it’s one of the more epic areas in the game and everyone should experience it at least once.  Still, I think most people would admit that it has some shortcomings like being hard to navigate at times; in later levels it really sends you running all over the place; and after too much time underground the dark atmosphere can get to you.  And once I started hitting level 50 on my characters the thought of running 8 characters through Moria back-to-back (my Guardian has already gone through a while ago) worried me .  I mean seriously, how did I not think about this at the start?

But, like most people starting (at least what feels like) a large task I decided that for now if I took one character through Moria and then intermingled it with Goldenstar in Isengard, and keeping my Warden in-line with the Monday Night “Dum” group that I could use that to break up my alts going through that area.  So, with a bit of excitement, I grabbed my axes and plunged forward into the dark and climbed that vast stairway into Khazad-dûm.  And you know what?  It wasn’t the nightmare I thought it would be.  In fact, until I got to the point where I was having to spend 15 minutes running to and fro due to the epic quest line, I was having a lot of fun.  I was actually very surprised to find myself in and out of Moria in about a week (keep in mind this is with Derudh’s Stone equipped) .  And in that time I was able to level to 58, go through enough of the Epic Storyline to allow passage into Lothlórien, and earn Kindred with the Iron Garrison Guards.  I also enjoyed going through the several Instance Plays covering Moria’s past as well.  But I can’t even pretend that I did everything that there is to do in Moria.  Off-hand I can think of several quest hubs that I didn’t touch, nor did I do any of the dungeons (although I ran through several of the crafting instances, a couple of the Dolven-view instances,  and of course the 2.5.5 skirmishes) and many of my deeds remain incomplete.

At this moment I can see myself going two ways.  One is hitting 60/65 with my Champion and then going into Moria with my Captain, or possibly moving on to Isengard with my Champion.  Admittedly with all the enthusiasm that Ketani has over the Captain, I seem to be compelled to pick that character up and have him plunge into the darkness as well.  But, I am also itching to see Mirkwood once again as well.  For now I think I will stick with my Champion and get him to 65.  Why?  Because he’s just too dang fun right now to put down.

Just kidding.

The Hunter class makes a strong play for being one of the most fun classes to play.  Although some may see the class as a mindless DPS class (and I’ll admit I thought that a bit at first too) I think one of the reason we see so many Hunters is that playing one is just good fun.  I mean who doesn’t like starting up a game, choosing their class, and then running into an enemy-infested lands and doing a massive amount of damage to them?  I know I do.  And one of the things I loved about my Hunter was actually killing something before it even came within melee range.  This may be a no-brainer to most players, but as someone whose main is a Guardian (and who hasn’t played a ranged class seriously since the original EverQuest) this concept is almost foreign.

But I know one thing; I like it.

I like it a lot.

In fact one of the things I noticed with my Hunter is that he didn’t have as many problems as some of the other classes I leveled in the same areas.  Quests that characters like my Minstrel and Champion had problems with were a breeze for him.  (Remember, this was before the release of Rise of Isengard.)  And the travel skills…  Oh the travel skills are fantastic!  Do you need to go to Bree?  No problem.  Esteldin?  Sure, why not?  Angmar?  Oh, a couple of levels and some easy quest and presto!  Here’s not one, but two different skills that will get you there!

I may have shed a tear in appreciation for these niceties.  And the next time I see Zombie Columbus, I may hug him (even if he wasn’t in charge of the Hunter class at that time).

The only issue I had with my Hunter is that due to his survivability I found myself in a predicament that I didn’t have with my other characters.  At level 48 he found himself out of quests in Eregion.  Apparently I went there just a “tad” too soon and I just didn’t have anything left that wasn’t group-based.  I knew that going into Moria at level 48 would be a bit too much for me so I fell back to my previous experiences and went to Forochel.  And honestly, I think it was a good decision.  I made it through most of the content quite easily being a bit over-leveled for it.  And soon enough I was level 50 and had worked myself beyond Acquaintance with the Lossoth; which meant I could get the travel skill and return to the region at my leisure.

Overall, good times were had with my Hunter and I really enjoyed him.  I know the class gets a bad rap for being the “easy” class, but seriously look at the skills below.  A number of them aren’t so much about doing damage as they are about “making choices”.  And I have to tell you, the more I play the class, the more I appreciate the actual thought that has to go into making the choices that players have to make in order to turn the Hunter into the DPS powerhouse that it is.

Hunter skills for level 40-48

Skill	Skill Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Camouflage	Allows you to stealth as long as you remain standing still.	This would probably be fairly decent in the Moors or when going AFK for a brief time, but in my gameplay I have little time to actually use it.  One thing to note that is that the Stealth Level is only +1, which means it’s not very good; so user beware!	40
Hunter’s Art	A new ability that provides a self-buff depending on the stance the Hunteris in.Strength: Bonus Ranged DamagePrecision: Bonus FinesseEndurance: Bonus Power Regeneration	This is a new skill that I haven’t had the chance to use as of yet, but it looks promising.	40
Blood Arrow	An attack that does “exceptional” damage upon a critical hit.  However, in turn it will cost the Hunter some Morale as well as Focus to use.	Not a bad skill, but not the best in my opinion.  There have been some rare times where I’ve used it outside of the novelty factor, but usually I don’t find myself using it that much.  However, in a group where you’re constantly regaining Morale due to group heals this might make it into a more permanent spot.	44
Guide to Rivendell	A Group Travelling skill to Rivendell.	This is probably one of the more useful of ports, but I feel it comes a few levels too late.  It’s still pretty useful, though.	46
Dazing Blow	A melee attack requiring two weapons that makes two attacks and applies a 5 second Daze.	I honestly don’t use this at all, but that doesn’t mean I’m not missing something.  I suppose it could be used for some short-term crowd control, but in my opinion a Daze is not a very reliable way to do so.	48
Rain of Thorns	An AoE attack that applies a 30 second Root that has a 25% break chance on damage after 1 second.	I like this skill quite a bit, but the high cooldown is kind of a bummer.  I didn’t look to see if there are any legacies or traits that would lower the cooldown, so if you know of any please fill me in!	39+ Legendary Class Book
Bard’s Arrow	A ranged attack that applies a 15 second fear that has a 3% chance to break upon receiving damage after 2 seconds.	I didn’t get this until I was very close to 50 so I never got a chance to try it.  This seems to be a more reliable form of crowd control, but I’m still not sure I’d give up a Legendary Trait Slot for it.	39+ Legendary Class Book
Press Onward	A skill that will give back both Morale and Power to the Hunter.	I see no down side in this skill.  In fact when writing this up I realized I didn’t have it slotted and got a little irritated at myself.	39+ Legendary Class Book

Trait Name	Trait Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Bow of the Righteous	When this is slotted, you receive power back each time you make a successful ranged attack.	I can’t see any reason not to use this skill.  In fact I’d be pretty surprised if it’s not a standard for most Hunters.	Level 45 Class Quest

The biggest change for me in these levels was the use of Master of Writs.  I found myself using this quite a bit when my health was low in order to boost my healing up a bit.  I really liked the skill and I was glad that it was available during this level period.  I can’t say that my strategy changed that much with the Rune-keeper over these levels outside of that, though.  Mostly it’s go in, blast, stun, and kill.  It’s not a huge change from previous levels at least with my playstyle, but there’s a part of me that thinks that I’m possibly following into a simplified version of gameplay with the class instead of really grasping an understanding of what it is truly capable.  So for those of you willing to help me broaden my horizon on the class feel free to enlighten me in the comments below.

Skill	Skill Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
The Blade will not Wound	Increases you or a fellowship member’s wound resist and also dispels the next wound attack made.Attunes 1	I get wounds all the time.  I honestly wish that I had this skill on more characters; especially my Guardian who is tired of getting disarmed all the dang time!	40
Master of Writs	Allows Rune-keepers to use Writs regardless of their attunement, but with additional cost to power.Attunes 1	I like this skill and I found myself using it quite a bit to boost my healing when I was solo.	40
Smouldering Wrath	An attack that is uninterruptable by damage and deals initial fire damage as well as a fire-based DoT.Attunes 1 Requires 9	I used this a lot when soloing; mostly because of the deed associated with it.  Granted, it takes a lot of attunement to get it to be usable, but once you can use it you find yourself doing quite a bit more damage.	40
Essay of Exaltation	A healing skill that decreases incoming damage for 3 seconds, grants an initial heal as well as a HoTto the entire fellowship.  However, it also increases your Healing Attuned Skill cost by an additional 50% for 10 seconds as well.Attunes 1 Requires 9	I didn’t have much cause to use this except when I was messing about, but it seems like kind of an “iffy” skill.  I’m hesitant of any fellowship-wide HoT because of the aggro it generates, but doubly so when it’s going to raise the cost of my healing skills afterwards.	42
The Fang will not Poison	Increases you or a fellowship member’s poison resist and also dispels the next poison attack made.Attunes 1	This seems like a pretty solid skill to me.  I would just need to remember to actually use it!	44
Do Not Fall to Storm	A 1 minute buff that negates 100% of the damage done by Lightning damage.  This buffand the damage it negates can be changed by equipping a rune-stone with a different affinity.Attunes 1	I have heard good stuff about this skill and I can see where it can come in handy especially when you know the type of damage that is going to be used and who might benefit from it the most; like a tank.	46
Our Fates Entwined	Allows the Rune-keeper to take 10% of the Fellowship’s damage and will not allow damage to interrupt you for the duration of the buff.  (This is a toggle skill.)Attunes 1 Requires 9	OK, is this worth it?  Because this seems like a really stupid skill to me.  I can see where not being interrupted and having a more focused healing target (yourself) would be good, but it still seems a bit too risky to actually use.	48
Fall to our Wrath	A debuffthat decreases a target’s Tactical Resist Rating and has 10% chance to decrease it’s morale when it takes any damage.  This is a one time effect.Attunes 1	This was a fun one to play around with and it did do some serious damage at the times it went off, however when you’re soloing it really comes off as more of a “toy” than a must on normal mobs.  I think on mobs with larger health pools this would be a lot more fun.	39+ Legendary Class Book
Steady Hands	Decreases your Power Cost for all skills by 100% and makes you immune to Silence for 15 seconds. Attunes 9	I failed to earn this one so I can’t really vouch for its merit, but I can see where it might come in handy.	39+ Legendary Class Book
That Which Does Not Kill Us	Allies will gain morale over time and will receive a powerful HoT the next time they are struck.Attunes 1 Requires 9	Again, I really don’t find myself in situations where I’m 9 deep into the healing attunement, but I can see where this would be useful.  However, I can’t help but wonder what the aggro situation would be like after executing this skill.	Level 45 Class Quest

Trait Name	Trait Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Martial Training	Increase your Melee Damage, Base Melee Critical Rating, Maximum Morale, Maximum Power, and in-Combat Power Regen.	I’m on the fence about this one and would love to hear peoples’ opinions on it.  Sure, the Melee Damage doesn’t hurt I guess, but really I’d be doing it for the Morale, Power, and iCPR.  However, is it worth the the Legendary slot?	39+ Legendary Class Book

This time around I felt that the Lore-master was a bit more streamlined and a lot more robust than it was previously.  I remember dying quite a bit in 2007, but now in 2011 I didn’t myself having that problem.  As for my pet, I mainly stuck with the bear as a pet and eventually replaced it with the Eagle when I completed my level 45 class quest.  I also felt that by spacing out debuffs and damage I was able to not draw too much aggro in the initial stages of the fight; allowing my pet to “tank” the initial damage in the fight.  And most of the times I found myself doing quite well using this strategy.

Skirmishes were also a lot of fun with a pet and a soldier.  And when I had an NPC along for the ride, I felt that I was leading a small army.  These levels really are a great time for the Lore-master and it’s hard to go wrong.  I really enjoy the though of leveling him some more in the near future.

Also, Sword and Staff is awesome.

Skill	Skill Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Warding Knowledge: Drakes	This skill creates an area on the ground that will decrease the tactical resistance and increase the chance to miss for all drakes within the area.	I don’t think I used this much, if it all during my time as a Lore-master.  This might have been my short sightedness, but really the wards are a bit of a pain to use a lot in landscape mode, in my opinion.  Maybe after the upcoming class changes in Rise of Isengard I’ll be more prone to use the consolidated skill.	40
Frost-lore	A targeted skill that will decrease the Tactical Damage done on up to 5 targets in a 5 meter radius.	I’ll take any debuffs I can get, but this one feels a bit lack-luster.  I’m not sure if I’ll use the new proposed trait The Study of Frost-lore, but it would add some decent functionality to this skill.	40
Ancient Craft	A targeted skill that will decrease the Armor Value by on up to 3 targets in a 5 meter radius.	I like this skill, and it’s definitely one that should be used when it can.  It reduces the armor value for my targets by just over 1300 at level 50 which makes me a happy guy.  Your fellowship will thank you as well.	42
Air-lore	Creates a damage shield on any fellowship member.	As I’m usually in the tank role I love damage a damage shield being placed on me. However, I was a little disappointed to discover I had to place this on my pet since I couldn’t place it on myself.  But still, it’s better than not having one at all.	44
Sticky Tar	Creates an area on the ground that will decrease the movement of any mobs that travel through it; as well as increasing their fire vulnerability.	One of the staples of the Lore-master from my experience with those who are more experienced at playing the Lore-master.  A lot of people pair this with fire spells such as Ents go to War since that is an AoE fire spell.  My only warning would be that while it does a lot of damage it has a high chance of drawing aggro as well.	46
Storm-lore	An AoE lightning damage spell that will also apply a 3 second stun.	A good spell, but the 2 minute cooldown kind of stinks.  But, the 3 second stun makes up for that a little bit.	48
Ents go to War	An AoE fire damage spell that will also apply a 6 second stun.	I wish I had gotten this skill, but unfortunately I didn’t finish the book.  From what I’ve seen it’s a fairly big staple of Lore-masters.	39+ Legendary Class Book
Eagle-friend	This skill allows for the Lore-master to summon an eagle to their side.	For some reason it was stuck in my head that there was an opinion that the Eagle is a horrible pet, but I have to say I like it.  In fact, I liked it so much that I immediately went and got all the cosmetic skins I could get for it!  I love the pet quite a bit.	Level 45 Class Quest

Trait Name	Trait Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Noble Savage	Increases the morale, attack, critical chances, stealth detection, stealth and defensive capabilities.	I did not earn this, but it seems like a very cool skill if you’re heavily reliant upon your pet.  However, there are a lot of good legendary traits and I’ve heard most people recommend passing on this one at least until the third Legendary Trait slot opens up.	39+ Legendary Class Book
Sword and Staff	This trait allows for Lore-masters to equip both a staff and a sword at the same time.	This is a MUST for all Lore-masters.  Not only do you look awesome, but it adds additional stats to your character by making a previously empty slot occupied and it adds some DPS through skills like Staff-sweep.	39+ Legendary Class Book

Well, it’s been a year and 3 months since I first reported my thoughts on the Champion and I have finally reached the first level cap of 50.  And I’m here to tell you, that leveling the Champion has been well worth the toil!  He is everything I had hoped he would be.  This guy is an unstoppable force to be reckoned with.  I absolutely love his play-style and with some really good tips from you all as well as some adjustments to the class on the back-end by Turbine he is everything I want him to be.  I really enjoy this character and his form of PvE that I actually spent a couple of levels in his 30’s just playing Skirmishes.  He is a hard character to put down and from the looks of the upcoming changes to Champions, he is going to be even more versatile and dangerous than ever before.  I personally can’t wait until I have the option of trying a shield-less tank in LOTRO, because as I’ve stated before those have been some of my most favorite classes to play in the past.

For Levels 40-50 I kept him with 3 into The Deadly Storm (Stalwart Blade, Eye of the Storm, and Improved Rend)  and 2 of The Beserker (Vicious Strikes and Blood-lust) which seemed to work well for me.  I would open with Battle-frenzy, Flurry, Blade-wall, Exchange of Blows, and then proceeded from there.  Most things seemed to die very quickly before me, which always makes me a happy Champion.  The only downside to my experience is that this was one of my alts that did not have the fortune to complete any of his book traits; so I didn’t get to experience any of the Legendary Skills that their completion brings.  I’m hoping that Moria will fill them out, but we’ll see.  If not there’s always Icy Crevasse and Attack at Dawn that I can try (although I didn’t fare too well on those with this guy for some reason).  Outside of those few issues, again I have to say that playing this character was a lot of fun, but of course any tips you guys want to throw my way are well appreciated.  So please feel free to chime in!

Skill	Skill Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Heroics	An on-defeat skill that gives 243-270 Power to your fellows.	A good skill that helps out if you can spare the power or if you’re willing to pop a potion.	40
Boast	This is a forced emote that makes players within 10 meters of you perform a cheer.	I admit it; I tried this several times in Bree, but ultimately I felt like a bit of a jerk so I stopped after several attempts.	40
Rising Ire	A skill that transfers 15% threat from a fellowship member to the Champion.	A good tank/save-the-healer skill indeed.  It can be very beneficial to use this.	42
Ebbing Ire	A skill that transfers 25% of the threat from the Champion to a fellowship member.	Ah, as a tank I love this, but it’s hard to pull off sometimes due to targeting issues.  My suggestion to any Champ who doesn’t want to be tanking would be to try to use it when you can.	44
Fear Nothing!	This skill removes up to 3 Fear effects from the Champion.	A great utility skill that I know a lot of people are jealous of.  Fear is the mind-killer after all.	46
Blocking Blades	An on-defeat skill that increases your Parry Rating by 400.  The buff expires if out of combat for 9 seconds.	A great skill that should be used when you’re AoE-ing, however it also made me aware of an interesting trend of timed out-of-combat expiration buffs that Champs have.  I admit that this kind of buff took some getting used to, but hey 400 Parry Rating is great.	48
Ferocious Strikes	A single-target attack that makes 3 attacks (2 Main-hand, 1 Off-hand) and increases your threat to that target.  The attack cannot miss, be parried, or be blocked by an opponent on level; only evaded.	I wish that I had some experience with this skill, but sadly I didn’t earn it.  It looks to be really good, though!	39+ Legendary Class Book
Fight On	Only useable at 60% health, you instantly drain power from mobs within 5 meters of you of their power while you regain power; your Melee Damage is increased by 25% for 30 seconds.  Afterwards, your ICPR is reduced by 25% until you’re out of combat for 9 seconds.	I wish that I had some experience with this skill, but sadly I didn’t earn it. It looks to be really good, though!	39+ Legendary Class Book
Raging Blade	An AoE attack that makes 3 attacks at once (2 Main-hand, 1 Off-hand)	I wish that I had some experience with this skill, but sadly I didn’t earn it. It looks to be really good, though!	39+ Legendary Class Book
Controlled Burn	A buff that has a 75% chance to reflect 37 damage upon receiving any Common, Fire, or Shadow Damage (Expires if out of combat for 9 seconds); gives you a –20% attack duration (Expires if out of combat for 9 seconds); +1304.6 in-Combat Power Regen; and increases your Melee Damage by 15%.  (Both with a duration of 2m 30s)	I did enjoy playing around with this skill and it seems pretty useful.  I’m curious to hear about how most champs choose to use it though.	Level 45 Class Quest

I’ve got to say that I’m pretty excited about the upcoming changes that are coming with Rise of Isengard as well.  There seems to be some good utility and some strong group additions in the changes that will become a lot more important as I level up and start playing in groups for dungeons, skirmishes, and quests.  Plus it will be nice to have Riddle no longer be limited to humanoid creatures.  All-in-all things look really good for the Burglar in the future.

Skill	Skill Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Well-placed Strike	A DoT that does a large amount of damage when made from behind the target and a small amount when in any other position.	I used this skill quite a bit; mostly because it was required for a class trait, but really it was a very useful skill.  The only downside is that it has a long base induction so I was usually only able to perform it effectively if I did it immediately after using Startling Twist.	40
Practical Joke	A targeted forced emote that makes people sneeze.	I honestly never used this because I don’t really care for forced emotes.  I can’t help but feel like I’m disrupting someone’s gameplay when I use them.	40
Share the Fun	A skill that allows for yourself and another fellowship member to be in stealth together (with a -2 Stealth Level modifier).  If you separate more than 5 meters you are both revealed.	I can see where this could be useful, but with a -2 modifier to Stealth I can see this possibly breaking quite a bit.  I haven’t tested it though.	42
Knives Out	An AoE attack that both reduces your incoming melee damage and reflects some incoming damage as well.  However, for the duration of the buff you cannot Block, Parry, or Evade.	I’m on the fence about this and I’d love to know what people think about this skill.  I can’t decide if it’s beneficial or not so I used it now and again. But for situations where you might be up against a mob you have a low chance of using a defensive skill (like a Boss) it might be good.	42
Seize Initiative	Upon the completion of a successful Fellowship Maneuver, the use of this skill can reset a number of skill cool-downs.	I didn’t get a chance to use this since I didn’t group, but I can foresee this being quite beneficial.  It will even be better when it’s combined with Escape Clause.	44
Confound	A skill only useable in Mischief that slows a targets’ attack speed by 5% and that will apply a 30 second daze upon expiration.	This is a decent skill and if you time it well it might be a halfway decent form of crowd control. Truth be told though, I didn’t use it very much.	46
Escape Clause	Upon the completion of a successful Fellowship Maneuver, the use of this skill can reset a number of skill cool-downs.	I didn’t get a chance to use this since I didn’t group, but I can foresee this being quite beneficial. It will even be better when it’s combined with Seize Initiative.	48
Exposed Throat	A chained skill that will make perform a Main-hand attack and has a 20% base chance to apply a 6 second stun. It can only be used after performing Double-edged Strike.	Unfortunately I didn’t earn this skill, but I wish that I did.  I love stuns since they allow me to get into position for more damage.	39+ Legendary Class Book
Flashing Blades	A chained skill that will make two sequential attacks.  It can only be used after performing  Double-edged Strike.	I didn’t earn this one either, but again I wish I had.  It looks like it does a lot of damage.	39+ Legendary Class Book

Trait Name	Trait Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Sweep the Leg	This trait upgrades Trip to Tangle-foot, reduces Trip’s cool-down by 40 seconds and no longer breaks stealth.	A good skill that makes Trip even better.  I can see this being a huge group-based trait for Burglars.	39+ Legendary Class Book
Stick and Move	Skills that are unlocked by scoring Critical hits now unlock when you successfully Evade as well.  It also adds an additional 1% partial evade chance and mitigation.	A very nice skill that increases your DPS ability.  It’s hard not to like this one for solo play.  But in a group I’m not sure how much I would be using this since I shouldn’t be getting hit in the first place.	Level 45 Class Quest

However, I did find myself pleasantly surprised this time around upon finding that I had an easier time with some of the tougher Eregion mobs than some other people I noticed leveling up along with me at the same time.  Don’t get me wrong though, there were still a number of Merric deaths, but as I got more attuned as to when I should drop War-speech things went much more smoothly. The ability to heal ones’ self and still do some decent DPS helps both in landscape and in Skirmishes really goes a long way to making the experience much better. Still I’m thinking that the Rise of Isengard revamps are going to make the experience all the better.

Skill	Skill Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Anthem of the Valar	An Anthem that will perform a light-based AoE damage attack and remove a Corruption buff from the enemies that are hit.	I personally enjoyed using this skill as during my leveling I was mainly using War-speech and any boost to DPS helped.  Granted, I usually used this as things were winding down or if I was about to switch into healing, but it was a decent skill to use.	40
Lay of the Hammerhand	Allows you to put a buff on yourself that will allow you to take damage to your Power instead of your Morale.	Ah, Lay of the Hammerhand.  From an outsider’s point-of-view I always wondered why Goldenstar never liked this skill.  I mean in theory it sounds really good.  But in reality all it really does is eat at your power to the point where you’re better just spamming heals or turning tail and running if you’re in a bind.	42
Tale of Warding	A toggled aura that increases the Hope and Armour Value  of yourself and those within your Fellowship.	This is definitely not a bad Tale to have up, but as you can only have one up at a time I usually choose to go with Tale of Heroism instead.  I just like the added DPS more than I do the bonus to Armour Value and I can offset the Hope with other items. However, if I was to group I could see myself switching over to this Tale instead.	44
Call to the Fellowship	Adds a 15 second buff that increases the restoration and damage from all Fellowship Skills	Again, this isn’t a skill that I used at all so I’ll let others chip in on their thoughts.  I personally am not sure I would remember to use it without making a special effort.	46
Gift of the Hammerhand	Allows you to put a buff on an ally that will have them take damage to their Power instead of to their Morale.	This is much like Lay of the Hammerhand, but you can place it on another person in your Fellowship.	48
Rally!	An in-combat only res that revives a target with 80% Morale and 60% Power.	This wasn’t something that I used since I didn’t group at all during these levels, but I know that in can in-fact be quite a useful skill once earned.	39+ Legendary Class Book
Symphony of the Hopeful Heart	This puts a 5 meter radius area on the ground that will grant those inside it +4 Hope and 10% Incoming Healing. And if you leave the area after being in it for a while you are given a buff to Resistance and Avoidance Penetration.	This is definitely a very useful group skill that I have enjoyed quite a number of times.  I mean who doesn’t enjoy bonuses?	39+ Legendary Class Book
Anthem of the Wizards	An Anthem that performs a light-based AoE attack which will reduce a targets’ movement by 30% and increase their attack duration by 20%.	Another good skill for solo DPS and even groups if you can get the debuff to land.  Like all Anthems it requires a recent Tier 3 ballad and it resets your ballad counter.	39+ Legendary Class Book
Fellowship’s Heart	This Fellowship-wide skill removes existing fear, wound, disease and poison effects.  It will remove up to 3 Fear effects, applies an initial heal and a heal-over-time.	A great skill, but one that is (understandably) a bit long in the cooldown.  Another downside is that it can be a huge aggro attractor as well since it is a huge heal for the entire Fellowship.	45+ Level 45 Class Quest

The levels 40 – 50 don’t start off as having the most pleasant choices for leveling; and I spent a lot of time trying to find out where I wanted to level and at which levels they were the most appropriate.  I already covered quite a bit of it in a previous article, but I feel it needs to be reiterated here as well. There were two paths that I followed:

1. First Path
   1. Misty Mountains
   2. Angmar
   3. Eregion
2. Second Path
   1. Misty Mountains
   2. Forochel
   3. Angmar (For Volume 1, Book 6 and to gather Class Quest Items)
   4. Eregion

Now there were some variations that I took such as skipping the Misty Mountains and going directly to Angmar or Forochel (which I don’t recommend), or breaking to do class quests and start volume 2, but for the most part the above paths were what I followed to get to level 50.  If you were to ask me which path is the most efficient, my answer would be that for me it was the first; one.  However, the only flaw with following that path is that it will leave you with very little in the way of leather hides for raising up Forestry.  For this reason I consulted Goldenstar and a couple of other people on where to go as an alternative to Angmar and the resounding answer was “Forochel”.  And while I do appreciate the majority of the questing in Forochel and the diversity it brought,  I still believe that for me Angmar was the more efficient of the two zones; especially since I found myself usually having to go to Angmar for most of the level 45 class quests.  Of course no matter if you choose Forochel or Angmar, when you’re finally able to get into Eregion you’ll probably find yourself happy to be there as it is usually currently regarded as one of the better zones for questing.

Most of these levels were a breeze on the Captain.  In fact most of the complications I discovered were the long distances required to travel in some of the older quests.  Before (in 2007) when Goldenstar and I were in Angmar we hated the zone because it was so densely populated and it just too difficult for us to handle.  I’m not sure if things have changed in that area since then, but it was much easier this time around at the same character level.  Although, to be fair my Captain didn’t have to wade through all the elites in Angmar since he was able to leave the zone at 45 instead of having to level all the way to 50 there.  Overall my time with the Captain during these levels was a breeze, but then again that always seems to be the case with this character.

Skill	Skill Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Command Respect	Causes those within a 10m radius around the Captain to perform the /kneel emote.	It’s a “fun” skill when used appropriately, although I’m sure some people find it annoying.  But if used sparingly it can still be a fun skill.	40
To Arms	A skill that temporarily increases the damage of your Shield-brother’s attack by 25%.	More damage is great in most situations.  It’s hard to argue with a skill that allows for it especially when you’re trying to “burn something down”.	40
Grave Wound	An attack that deals Main-hand damage.  If the target also has the bleed effect from Cutting Attack, the skill will also increase your aggro	A good skill that can also be used to help manage aggro.  I can’t say that I’ve seen the full effect of this as I’m usually solo.	42
Kick	A melee attack that interrupts any “time-delayed actions your opponent is attempting.”	Interrupt skills are key to any group; even if their cool-down is long.  This is definitely a skill that every Captain should be ready to use.	44
Withdraw	This skill instantly decreases your perceived threat, but will also cause you to deal 30% damage.	While the loss of damage means that this is something you shouldn’t use in a normal rotation; it’s still a skill that could come in handy for any Captain who wants to attempt to drop aggro.	46
Strength of Will	Increases the incoming healing of your Shield-brother by 6%.	The 2 minute duration of this buff makes it a pain to ensure it is constantly applied.  However, the increased healing always helps.	48
Oathbreaker’s Shame	A targeted debuff that increases its Incoming melee, ranged, and tactical damage by 35%.	This is pretty much the de-facto buff for burning down any boss encounter in a dungeon.  Make sure you save it and that the whole group is aware you are going to cast it well before you do.  That way a concentrated attack can be successful.	39+
Shield of the Dúnedain	A buff that decreases the Incoming melee, ranged, and tactical damaged received by one of your fellowship members.	A good emergency buff that will assist in keeping someone alive, whether it’s a healer, a tank, or even yourself.	39+
In Defence of Middle-earth	A buff that increases all stats by 50.	As fellowship/raid buffs go, this is one of the few that are “expected” of Captains.  It is without doubt one of the best buffs within the game and every Captain should have it.  Unfortunately it can only be earned by completing the level 45 class quest.	45+

I am including this following trait because it is the only Legendary Trait that does not grant a skill, but I felt that it was important to include because it is possible that you will complete it during these levels.

Trait Name	Trait Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Defy Corruption	This trait improves your Escape from Darkness skill, as well as reviving an additional ally when casting Cry of Vengeance.	I haven’t earned this trait yet myself, but I’ve definitely benefitted from it before.  I’m not sure how it fits in most peoples’ builds, but I can say that as a benefactor it is much appreciated!	39+

Legendary Traits

As you may recall, at level 39 you gained access to three Deeds (initiated by purchasing books from your class trainer) that require you to collect book pages for your character’s legendary skills.  My suggestion would be to either actively or passively work on these as you level; meaning that you focus on completing quest content within the Misty Mountains and Angmar.  And while these pages will drop off of humanoids residing in Angmar, The Misty Mountains, Eregion, Forochel and upwards; Eregion is best held off until 45 and Forochel is mainly full of animals.  This leaves Angmar and The Misty Mountains as the best places for page collection.  So, my advice is to first head into the Misty Mountains as your first step after beginning these deeds.  Why the Misty Mountains?  For two reasons:

1. There are 8 pages that need to be collected for the deeds, the top four drop in Angmar and Eregion, while the bottom four drop in The Misty Mountains and in Forochel.
2. There is just enough on-level content, including Volume 1, Book 5, that when you move onto Angmar at 42-43, you can go straight to Aughaire.

For those who are thinking about just grinding out the pages, be warned; grinding them out can be a real pain in the rear.  Not only is a page drop random, but it is quite possible that a page will drop that you already have.  However you won’t actually see the page in the mob’s inventory so it just looks like you didn’t get anything at all.  It’s kind of a bummer, but just remember to keep it up and you’ll eventually get them all!  If you’d like to know more about Legendary Traits, I personally consider MMOrsel to have the most up-to-date and extensive guide out there.  I highly recommend using it.

Level 45 Class Quest

Secondly, look at your level 45 class quest before making a decision on where you’re going to level (again, take a look at MMOrsel’s Legendary Trait Guide for more information).  Find out where your minor class items come from and consider leveling in an area that drops those items.  Again, this usually these zones include Forochel, Angmar, Eregion, and the Misty Mountains and most zones that have higher level content.  However it is possible to level within those areas at the same time by completing quests and gathering the required (minor) class quest items; even before you have begun the actual quest.  As an alternative you can start grinding skirmishes and use both Skirmish Marks and the money that you make and purchase your Major and Minor class items through a combination of the Skirmish Barter Vendors and the Auction House.

For those who would prefer to go through the dungeons to gather the items, I recommend start trying to plan ahead and getting a group of volunteers to go through Carn Dûm and/or Urugarth.  Be warned though, that two or more classes are eligible for each boss drop and most of the time when I’ve seen someone put together a group there is usually someone else who wants to come along for the same item. For the minor class items, I find that I usually go ahead and just grind those out with my level 40-ish character, although there are a few exceptions where I will take a group or use a higher level character.  For those who have a higher level character, I would suggest using those characters to collect Skirmish Marks as they have a higher return rate for your time.  Ultimately though, no matter what path you choose it really should be something that you focus on as some of the Legendary Traits that can be earned from these quests are some of the best ones in the game.

Legendary Items

As if this wasn’t enough to focus on, Volume 2, Book 1 also opens up at level 45.  I strongly encourage everyone at level 45 to take the time to head to Echad Dúnann to start working on Volume 2, Book 1 in order to open up the Legendary Item (LI) system.  This will allow for a better weapon and class item than anything else available.  The only downside is that at level 45, whether or not you can complete all the side-quests will depend greatly upon your level of skill and your class.  I usually find it’s much easier to do most of these at level 46+, but I usually go ahead and skip the side-quests completely.  Which means that I won’t benefit from any of the (very nice) rewards some of the quests hold, but I will have my two first LI’s.  And while you won’t be able to start leveling any other LI’s until several more levels, upon finishing this storyline you will have Moria ready to be entered and plenty of time to get your current LI’s into a good state before you actually head in at Level 50.

Conclusion

There’s a lot to do at 45, but there is good reason as well.  Level 50 was the level-cap for quite a while before Moria came out, so there are plenty of raids, dungeons, questing area, and Epic Storyline to get you through any kind of “rut” you may be experiencing.  However, these three goals are my primary focus upon hitting level 45 with any character.  So far it’ hasn’t steered me wrong, but I’m also interested in hearing about what other people have done to manage out this massive amount of content that seems to hit player all-at-once.

And as a result there is a lot of content to choose from.  So much, in fact, that someone who didn’t have the Moria or Mirkwood expansions could find themselves occupied for a while allowing that they could actually find level appropriate groups to go through some of the content.

Quest Areas

Quest Lines

Dungeons

Other than these items listed there are also Deeds, Class Traits or for Virtues, or a questing areas that can be done at this level as well.  However, whatever content you choose to complete I feel that there is some content that can be considered a priority over others.  The Legendary Trait Class Quests (collecting book pages) and the Level 45 Class Quests (gathering major and minor item drops) should be very high on the priority list.  Along with that, if you’ve purchased the Moria Expansion you should also begin Volume 2 and complete Book 1 as soon as you hit level 45 so that you can gain access to Legendary Items as soon as possible.  After these three items, the rest is up to you and there is a lot to choose from.  What path would you follow?

To say that the Hunter was a breeze to level would be an understatement.  The first time I ran Skirmishes with him I felt like I was cheating because it was so easy!  Using a Warrior as my soldier (I wanted something out in front of me and decided to go double DPS) really allowed me to get through them with little to no problem.

As for my rotation; I’ve changed it based on user feedback and find it to work a lot better for me.  Currently it is:

• Set Trap (If necessary)
• Focus
• Quick Shot
• Barbed Arrow
• Swift Bow
• Rain of Arrows

I then use other skills as necessary.  I’m not completely set on this rotation, but at this level it’s been fairly effective.  I will slip in other skills as necessary, but I find that most mobs are either within melee range or dead by the time Swift Bow or Rain of Arrows goes off.  Eventually I’ll be looking towards The Pariah’s Style Guide to Huntering by The Pariah or Focus Burn 101 by Dr. Strangehunter for future guidance.  However, at this level these guides are a bit harder to follow.  All in good time, though.

Hunter skills Levels 30 – 38

Skill	Skill Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Merciful Shot	A shot that does a massive amount of damage (357 – 409 at 40), but can only be used on a target below 50% morale.  It requires 6 Focus.	An awesome skill; however it’s a huge drain on focus and usually overkill for normal or swarm mobs which make up the majority of my opponents.  But man, is it fun to use.	30
Guide to Bree	A teleport that will take your fellowship to Bree.	Great skill, but like all teleports a bit too late in the skill tree in my opinion.	32
Passage of Shadow	This allows you to track “…the dead, the unseen, and ancient evil.”	I always enjoy tracking skills and this definitely has its place.	32
Needful Haste	A skill requiring 3 Focus that will decrease your Barbed Arrow Induction by .25 seconds, decrease your Swift Bow induction by .5 seconds, and decrease your Attack Duration by 25% for 30 seconds.	It’s not so great when you first get it, but once traited properly it equals to 30 seconds of uninterrupted DPS.	34
Guide to Esteldín	A teleport that will take your fellowship to Esteldín.		34
Set Snare	This creates a trap on the ground for 60 second that will snare  and place a DoT on an enemy that passes through it.  In Fellowships it also has a chance to start a Fellowship Maneuver.	It’s not as good as Set Trap for group play or for pulling multiple mobs, but it can be useful for kiting single mobs that might be tougher than normal mobs.	36
Beneath Notice	Reduces your Perceived Threat by 60% for 10 seconds.	This is mostly for group play and should be used in cases where you pull more aggro than intended.	38

Now first off, I am a Warden dumb-dumb.  Most of the other classes I play I really feel like I’ve started getting into a good “groove”, but with the Warden I discovered that at level 30 I was really behind in my class deeds.  I mean really, really behind.  So my main goal this time around was to make sure that I accomplished as many of these deeds as possible.  To do this I utilized some of the Warden plugins, namely Warden Ease, to make sure that I was performing the correct gambit and by placing them on my Quest Tracker as a constant reminder.  However, in the later levels as the deeds were completed I tried to start working on a skill rotation; starting off with an aggro gain gambit, throwing up a defensive gambit and then testing from there.  The next go around though I’m definitely going to have to take a closer look at DocHoliday’s Warden posts and the Official Warden Forums to get a better idea on what works for other people and then make it my own.

Warden Skills from Level 30 – 38

Skill	Skill Effect	Gambit	Opinion	Level Obtained
Mighty Blow	A gambit that is difficult for the target to parry or evade.  It deals an initial amount of Main-hand Damage and then additional damage every 4 seconds for 16 seconds.		I personally like this gambit.  It deals a good bit of damage and it’s innately harder for the target to avoid.  Plus the DoT has 4 ticks, which is pretty nice.	30
Boar’s Rush	A gambit that has an increased chance of scoring a critical hit and will Daze the target upon a Critical Hit.		This isn’t a bad gambit, but it’s not great.  The Daze isn’t something I would rely upon personally, especially since my warden isn’t spec’d to crit and dazes break on damage anyway.	31
Muster in Esteldín	A teleport that transports only yourself to Esteldín.	N/A	I always feel like these teleports come right as I’m ready to leave the area to which they take me.  But hey, it’s better than no teleport at all.	32
Wall of Steel	A gambit that performs 3 Main-hand attacks, interrupts inductions and increases your Parry Rating at the same time.		I like this gambit quite a bit as well.  An attack that hits 3 times and increases your Parry Rating seems like a win-win to me for both tanking and DPS>	32
Recklessness	A stance that reduces your attack duration, increases your melee damage, but lowers your Evade and Block ratings.	N/A	This is not my favorite stance in the world.  I personally don’t think that the lack of Evade and Block are worth it for soloing.  I can see how some people may use this for DPS if they do not have aggro, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re going to be taking hits from mobs.	34
Shield Mastery	A gambit that increases your Block, Evade, and Ranged Block Ratings.		A very good defensive gambit that boosts your defenses.  Throwing this up really helps decrease your damage.	36
Celebration of Skill	A gambit that deals initial weapon damage.  It also performs an initial heal and performs a HoT every 3 seconds for 6 seconds.		Healing is always good, especially when soloing.	37
Wages of Fear	A ranged (25m) attack that uses your javelin.	N/A	A ranged attack…Yay?  Seriously though, there will be times when you need a ranged attack whether it’s because you’re rooted, pulling, or avoiding “the poop” on the floor.	38
Surety of Death	A gambit that deals initial weapon damage, plus Light Damage.  An additional Light-based DoT on the target and moderately increases your threat.		I like that the DoT on this gambit is Light-based and that it increases your threat.  Although I’m not sure if this is something that will make it into my normal tanking routine or not, but it can’t hurt.	38

Levels 30 – 40 give you some nice utility skills with Abrupt Words and Weapon of Storm.  Using either one of them has its own drawback, but on the whole they round out a Rune-keepers abilities quite well.  It’s not hard to see why the Rune-keeper class gives the Hunter class a run for its money when it comes to popularity.  Nice healing abilities, great DPS capabilities, some nice utility skills and some amazing skill graphics make for a good player experience.  And even though the new patch was a bit unsettling for some players, most have found that despite having to switch chisels or re-arrange their skill rotation they’re still doing really well.

Personally I’m not comfortable dolling out any real advice.  In the character select screen the Rune-keeper is listed as one of the advanced classes, and I tend to agree.  Or rather, maybe “easy to play, difficult to master” is a better description for the class?  There is a definite design for the class and using certain skills in certain orders will produce a higher amount of DPS than just pushing buttons, which has been my primary form of play on this character until recently.  Also, with the previously mentioned changes, I can’t say with total accuracy what skills I was using will still work as they once did.  My advice would be to look over on the Turbine or Codemasters forums and see what the more experienced people are saying.

Rune-keeper skills Levels 30 – 38

Skill	Skill Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Abrupt Words	An immediate skill that interrupts inductions. Attunes:  1	Any interrupt is a good interrupt, but unfortunately for me I usually forget to use this skill.  I know that I have it, I just forget where it is and then to activate it.	30
Sustaining Bolt	High damage & cost skill with a 30 second cooldown (which can be reduced with the Fury of Storm 4 Trait Set Bonus) that also decreases your power usage by 10% for 15 seconds.  It’s power usage can be reduced to zero with a Chisel of Lightning. Attunes:  1 Requires:  6	This is a new skill that came with the November Update, so I wasn’t able to test it out, but it looks interesting.  I’m not sure I’d be hot about switching my chisels if necessary, but it depends on how potent a skill I find it to be in my playstyle.	30
Frozen Epilogue	An AoE attack that can place several de-buffs on a Maximum of 5 targets within 15 meters in front of the Rune-keeper. It can increase skill inductions and attack duration for 20 seconds; and decrease its incoming healing modifier and increase their power cost for 30 seconds. Attunes:  1 Requires:  9	I really love this skill’s animation and it’s a lot of fun to cast, however I can’t say that when I run solo that I’m usually in a position to use it very often.  However, when it hits it does a really good job and the debuffs are nice if they hit.  In a solo situation though, there’s not much cause to use it most of the time other than for fun.	32
Weapon of Storm/Winter/Flame	A toggled Fellowship buff that allows a player to debuff a target’s resistance to Lightning, Cold, or Fire.  What debuff is applied depends on the rune-stone equipped by the Rune-keeper. Attunes:  1	This skill fairly decent, but mostly because every debuff to resistances is a good one.  The down side is that the toggle seems to be designed so that it falls off when you sneeze.  If you’re stunned, mezzed, too far away, or even mount your horse the skill turns off and will have to be toggled on once again.	34
Essence of Flame	Deals initial Fire damage and then additional fire damage every 2 seconds for 6 seconds.  It does an additional 20% damage for every tier of Writ of Fire on the target. Attunes:  1 Requires:  6	Stacking Writ of Fires became a very obvious strategy with this skill.  However, getting attuned to 6 Battle isn’t always convenient when you’re in a solo situation.  However, when you can stack 3 Writs of Fire and then drop this on a mob it’s amazing how quickly it will drop.  It’s a ton of fun to use, but it’s more of a group/multiple mob/chain pull skill because of the attunement requirements.	36
Flurry of Words	An AoE attack that deals Cold damage and reduces their chance to Evade. Attunes:  1 Requires:  3	This isn’t my favorite skill because its base is around yourself and I’d rather not be in the thick of things with this character.  Although it does reduce reduce a mob’s chance to Evade and therefore is useful, I never thought it was all that great.	38

Where the other characters took a lot of time working through things, this character had no problems.  With this character I was able to complete all of the quests in Esteldín that were not group related.  I was also able to breeze through quite a bit of the content with little issue.  It was also playing this character that I learned that all the crafting professions are able to craft a reputation item for different factions located within the game.  This is probably something that most players are aware of, but it was a bit of a revelation for myself.  I still felt that grinding Skirmishes was more rewarding, but it was good to know that if I had spare resources around they could go towards another aspect of the game other than the Auction House.

Of all the skills that I obtained during these levels I have to say the skill I was most excited about was Hide in Plain Sight.  More so because I found myself running more in Mischief than I did starting out sneaking.  Although I found sneaking to be very viable, even in skirmishes, it really increased the amount of down-time I experienced.  This was due to the fact that  if I chose to sneak attack a target I had to prepare everything “just right” and make sure that I didn’t become discovered by a mob before I was ready.  Not that it’s usually much of an issue, but it is added time to the leveling experience.  I also discovered that the deed for Hide in Plain Sight is probably the most annoying, because it means you either have to find a reason to use it constantly or just hit it every time you remember and hope you don’t get yourself in a situation where you need it, but it’s on cool down.

Overall, I’m really enjoying this class and I look forward to picking him up again in the future.

Burglar Skills 30 – 38

Skill	Skill Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Clever Retort	Only usable if the Burglar is in Mischief and on a target with an active Trick.  It applies one of four effects; a DoT, a heal, a power restore, or a direct damage.  It will also break a target out of a Dazed state.	A great skill.  A lot of burglars love playing in Mischief and this is a great skill to use.  Personally, I would advise on banking on any of the results, but rather seeing them as a bonus.	30
Hide in Plain Sight	Drops you into sneak and improves your stealth so that you are undetectable and so it cannot be broken for a short duration (10 seconds at level 40).	If there’s one skill that Burglars love and their group members envy, it’s Hide in Plain Sight.  The skill drops you instantly activates Sneak (even while in-combat) in order to save your skin or to perform attacks to do increased damage and/or start Fellowship Maneuvers.	30
Find Footing	Removes a dazes, stuns, conjunction stuns, and knockdowns; heals the Burglar, and gives a bonus to your Evade Chance (+50% at level 40).	I really wish I had this on my Guardian (and yes, I know Turn the Tables is similar, but I can want both).  There are a lot of mobs out there that stun so expect to be using this.	32
Provoke	Focuses an enemies aggression on its current opponent and does direct damage as well.  It will do more damage if it is used while in Stealth.	A group orientated skill that can be a bit “iffy”.  It definitely help a tank, but I can also see it going awry should the mob suddenly target someone else… Like the healer.	34
Ready and Able	Resets the cooldown timers on a select amount of skills.  Using this skill will not break Stealth.	This is a pretty standard skill for all classes.  It helps quite a bit  in making you a more able player.  From my understanding the skill resets Hide in Plain Sight, Touch and Go, Aim, and Knives Out.	36
Trick: Enrage	Target will attack foes randomly and takes increased Ranged Damage for a duration of time.  It will also break the target out of a dazed state.	The one tip I’ve seen for this is that it can be used in a pinch to get a mob off a healer.  However, be prepared because this doesn’t guarantee that it won’t randomly pick the healer.	38

I also still found that the Champion is still quite gear dependent; more-so than any of the other classes.  In fact, this character is one that I usually intentionally upgrade midway through the leveling process.  Firstly, I will upgrade his weapons.  This alone usually resolves 95% of the issues that he has surviving encounters.  If this is not enough, I will go ahead and upgrade his armor as well.  This goes a long ways into describing my playstyle with the Champion, which is to “burn them down” before I get defeated.  Although I usually start distributing armor, weapons, class items and food to my alts when they reach 31, after reaching level 35 or 36 I headed over to a skirmish camp and purchased a couple of axes; and boy was I surprised.  While it may not be news to some, but the art for the weapons you can purchase from skirmish vendors is pretty amazing!  This resolved my issues and I went ahead and just replaced my armor as needed with quest rewards instead of going out of my way to obtain upgrades.

Despite still trying to determine my path of leveling, this character seemed to go fairly quickly.  The character was a ton of fun and actually excelled so much at Skirmshes that it was the character that made me realize that grinding out class quests might not only be possible, but  might not be a huge pain in the rear.  I’m really looking forward to picking him up in the future and seeing where the Champion class takes me.

Champion Skills level 30 – 38

Skill	Skill Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Glory	A stance that adds in-Combat Power Regen (ICPR), increases your threat generation, , reduces melee damage, and adds to all Critical Defense ratings.	This is the “tanking stance” for those Champions who find themselves either wanting to tank or required to tank.  I personally don’t plan to use it that often as I have a Guardian or a Warden that can fulfill these roles.	30
Dire Need	Drains you of 50% of your power and adds 200% of the amount drained to your Morale.	This is a fairly good “oh poop” button as long as you make sure you have a decent amount of Power available to drain.  I’ve used it several times and it’s worked fairly well when I’ve had the Power and didn’t do much when I had only a bit.	30
Clobber	An Immediate skill that does common damage as well as interrupts a target.	This is often touted as the interrupt skill for the game.  If you want to interrupt any mob then Champions using Clobber is usually the “go to” setup.  I personally need to work this into a more accessible position in my quickslots; most likely on my main bar.  This skill doesn’t do any good if you can’t figure out where the button is, does it?
Sound the Attack	Aan AoE attack that does common damage and stuns up to 5 targets for 3 seconds.	This is another good interrupt or “take a quick moment” skill.  Although it’s not useful for constant interruptions due to its cooldown it does allow a player and/or fellowship to gather themselves for a few seconds.	34
Hamstring	A direct damage attack that debuffs the target with a -30% Run Speed for 20 seconds.	A snare is useful in certain situations, but I didn’t have much use for this skill.	36
Hedge	A melee attack that becomes available when there is a “Disarm” debuff placed on the Champion. Strikes for a set amount of Common Damage, removes the Disarmed effect, allows parry and prevents disarm, and adds a bonus to your Wound Resist  and Parry ratings.	This isn’t a bad skill, but it’s not a great skill.  Although there may be legacies or traits to reduce the 3 minute cooldown, I’m not sure if this is what I’d want to allot those spaces to or not.  Most disarms are wounds and can be removed with a wound potion, but they don’t add to your resistance like this one does.  However, removing disarm is never a bad things, so I can’t complain too much.	38

Now let me stipulate several things:

1. I believe in my next play session I will trait my character for War-speech.  That includes wearing medium armor and generally moving myself from a ranged blaster to an up-in-your-face skald.
2. It was on this character that I discovered that ignoring when my trait slots opened and going about un-traited really makes a difference on some characters.  Also, even when reviewing my traits at level 40 I still feel that there is much room for improvement on what I trait and how I play.
3. At this time I still had not decided on what a good path for leveling might be.  I had no clue how difficult the path from 30-40 was going to be, but I sure did find out soon enough.

Now I had a really good experience with my Minstrel from levels 1-30, but this was a direct turn-around for me.  I spent more time dying and flat-out being frustrated on where to go to level and what to do as I moved forward.  I also discovered that sometimes making sure you know when your virtue slots open up and equipping a virtue in them is paramount to success sometimes.  This makes me feel badly for Free-to-Play and Premium players who will be required to purchase those slots if they wish to use them.  Of course they could also be better players that I am at their respective classes and might find that they may be able to delay the inevitable.

I was however able to get through all of it in the end; although I’m curious if I would have had a better experience if I had taken a different path through the world to level to 40 than I did initially.  Also, while I was usually in War-speech most of the time outside of skirmishes, while in skirmishes I usually found myself running with War-speech off.  I chose to use the Warrior soldier over the others, more for experimentation reasons than any other.  Although I may switch in the future, it seems to work fairly well; I’ve been able to complete most skirmishes without incident as long as I don’t run in War-speech.  But there is definitely room for improvement.

When I pick up leveling this character again, the first thing I’m going to do is listen to the Minstrels’ Round Table episode and see if I can get some tips on how to be more effective solo.  Although hopefully as soon as I move into Eregion and then to Moria things might go a bit more smoothly.

Skills from 30 – 38

Skill	Skill Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Mentor:Clarinet	Allows you to teach someone how to play the Clarinet.	Useful if you want to train someone who is not a Minstrel how to play an instrument.	30
Scribe Stance	Changes your Mentoring skills to Scribing skills, which allow you to create manuals to teach instruments.	This is something I might use in the future to train my own characters if I really want to; plus they could be “sold” to other characters.  However, the cost of the manual is 500 silver, so it makes it a very expensive option.	30
Mentor: Horn	Allows you to teach someone how to play the Horn.	Useful if you want to train someone who is not a Minstrel how to play an instrument, although I believe this can be purchased by all players from their trainer.	30
Song of Aid	Provides a buff for fellowship members that allows Lore-masters to use Beacon of Hope more frequently at a lower Morale cost, Rune-keepers may use Scribe’s Spark and Prelude to Hope more frequently, and Wardens may use Shield Piercer more frequently.	This is a great fellowship-orientated skill that is usually used in an effort to burn down a boss or help out the group in need.	30
Triumphant Spirit	An immediate heal for all Fellowship members within 20m will also incur “…a large amount of aggro to yourself.”	While this is a very situational fellowship skill, it does help in dire need.  Although you may need to be a bit careful when it’s used.  Solo’ing it can be useful as well as it can be used as a self-heal.	30
Ballad of Flame	A Tier 3 Ballad that grants a bonus to Fire Defence for all fellowship members within a 40m range.	Situational, but handy if you’re going after the drakes in the North Downs to finish up a quest line.  It’s definitely useful later on in dungeons.	32
Tale of Battle	An aura that increases the Vitality and Wound resistance of the fellowship.	I like this tale when I know that I’m in a tough situation and I’m going to taking some direct or wound damage, however I usually use Tale of Heroism.	32
Song of Distraction	A targeted skill that decreases a mobs perception radius by 75%.	While this may be useful in some situations when you’re trying to sneak past something, I usually prefer to take my chances.  Casting this debuff on every single mob can be tiresome so it mainly goes unused by myself.	34
Call of the Second Age	A Light-based AoE damage skill that will harm up to 3 targets within a 5m radius of the Minstrel.	This skill might get better with traits or legendary items; I’m not sure.  But I only cast it occasionally because I don’t see much benefit in it.  I usually like to keep rotating my ballads for their additional buffs.	34
Ballad of the Stout	A Light-based direct damage that also increases your resistances to Poison, Wound and Disease.	This ballad is in my normal rotation.  Although the damage isn’t great the benefits from the resistances is very useful.	36
Mentor: Cowbell	Allows you to teach someone how to play the Cowbell.	Useful if you want to train someone who is not a Minstrel how to play an instrument.  More Cowbell!	36
Chord of Salvation	An immediate heal that is less power efficient than most other heals.	Like all immediate heals this is a great way of dealing with spike damage, if you want to avoid induction interruptions, or if you just can’t keep up with the incoming damage.  However, it will drain your power much faster than mot heals with an induction.	38
Still as Death	Allows you to feign death causing enemies to ignore you.	What they don’t tell you is that more often than not when you pop back up the mobs will be right back on you if you are grouped. It will be even more useful in the future when you can be healed while in this stance.	38

To give you an idea of how much I enjoyed the Captain, when his racial traits started popping up later in the experience, I had no problem with the idea of grinding them all out.  Seriously, the character is just that much fun to play.  Other classes were a chore, but the Captain just keeps getting better as time goes on as long as you enjoy melee classes.  Personally, I only had to gear up the Captain once (at 31) and he was able to go through all the levels and areas I took him too with little to no problem.  That’s not to say his gear couldn’t have been upgraded with Skirmish rewards, crafted gear, or quest rewards; it’s just that he didn’t need them.

That aside, for the first time in my experiment I noticed something interesting.  Leveling his Prospecting and Forestry started to become an issue.  During the leveling process I usually keep Track Mines up until I Master the associated tier of Prospecting, then I switch over to Track Wood; and in the past that has worked fairly well.  However, it seems that from 30-40 this doesn’t seem to hold true. especially with wood and hides.  I found, Dwarf Iron, Platinum,  Pristine Hide and Lebethron Wood introduced much later in the levels than its counterparts.  Hopefully I will be able to get enough resources to move forward without too much trouble in levels 40-50, but we’ll see.  However, other than this snag I really enjoyed my time on the Captain.

Skills from 30 – 38

Skill	Skill Effect	Opinion	Level Obtained
Blade of Elendil	A melee attack, useable only in a Battle-hardened State that places a “Light of Elendil” buff on all fellowship members; granting them a chance to do additional light-based damage.	I like this attack a lot and found it to be a fairly good attack that added to my overall DPS.  Another bonus is that my Herald also was able to obtain this buff.	30
Revealing Mark	A debuff that will heal fellowship members for a percentage (15% at level 40) of the damage they do to that mob.	This is definitely a good mark for groups if you’re not worried about DPS or if you’ve been assigned healing.  I used it in tougher situations and it definitely does help.	30
Cry of Vengeance	An in-combat resurrection that raise the target (at level 40) with 20% Morale and 15% Power.	This is not a skill that I used at all; as soloing was a more viable option for me.  However, from group experience I can say that this is an invaluable skill.	32
Call to Arms: Herald of Victory	Summons a pet that increases the maximum Power and in-combat Power regeneration (ICPR) for all fellowship members.	Again, this was not a Herald that I used too often, mostly because soloing I’d rather use a Herald of War or Hope.  Usually I’m not in a situation where my ICPR is of dire need.	34
In Harm’s Way	Temporarily diverts half of all damage done to your fellowship to yourself.	This is a definite “oh poop” button that I didn’t have cause to use.  As you can see, a lot of group skills are coming into play with the Captain as the levels advance.  Although they’re a good solo character, they shine as group members.  I will have to leave this one up to more experienced Captains.	36
Tactic: Focus	Targeted buff that increases (+60 at level 40) in-combat power regeneration.	I would probably use this if I was a primary or secondary healer, but when soloing I prefer Tactic: On Guard or Tactic: Relentless Attack.  In fact, I believe Geiri who was on the Captain Roundtable and Dungeon Roundtable were	38

In the end, I found myself trying several paths of progression that you’re more than welcome to follow or experiment with, but ultimately I think it’s a bit of trial and error and a bit of what you can tolerate.  I’ve stated before that we need a revamp in this level range and I remain steadfast in that belief; especially now when it comes to Free-to-Play.  The reason I state this is because I personally felt that there was no one clear choice for a single quest hub/zone to level from 30 – 40.  Granted, you could start a zone early (like Evendim) and push through from 30 – 40 there; or you could go to the North Downs and form groups to finish as many of the quests as possible.

Ultimately there were several paths I followed to level up; and none of them are definitive.

• Garth Agarwen solo quests > Oatbarten > West-side of  Esteldín > East-side of  Esteldín > Evendim
• Garth Agarwen solo quests > East-side of  Esteldín > Evendim > Central Trollshaws
• Garth Agarwen Solo Quests > East-side of  Esteldín > Rivendell > Central Trollshaws + Skirmishes

Ultimately, I found the last path to be the most rewarding for me, personally.  I made sure that I did as many skirmishes as possible, I completed all the Epic Storyline quests in the area, and that I enjoyed myself.  The downside of this is that you lose out Deed progression for that area that you may have to go back later to maximize your virtues.  You also do not gain as much reputation for that area’s faction either, but unless you are working towards a special mount, a certain recipe, or completion-ism; barring a rewards revamp to faction rewards I don’t see how this will hurt you very much.

My next goal will be looking towards earning epic book pages (yikes) and pushing towards Eregion.

For the Hunter I usually follow this rotation:

1. Set Trap (if it’s up)
2. Focus
3. Barbed Arrow
4. Rain of Arrows (if I have the Focus)
5. Penetrating Shot (If I have the Focus)
6. Swift Bow
7. Quick Shot

If I get into Melee range, I can’t say that I really have a select rotation.  I usually just try to use whatever may lead to the completion of a Class Deed the most, and then just use whatever is not on rotation.  If I find I have enough focus I will try to use Rain of Arrows or Penetrating Arrow due to their induction speed (fast).  Anything else that is a ranged attack usually leaves me sitting there trying to get a shot off.   For the most part I usually run in Stance:  Strength because I am running with an RK and don’t have to worry about drawing threat (although to be fair, she usually has the most threat).  I definitely need to make use of player-made traps a bit more.  They are incredibly useful, but I guess I’m afraid of running out and having to make more.  Silly, isn’t it?

Overall, I enjoy the class.  If it has any drawbacks at this level is that it seems a little bit too straightforward, but admittedly that could just be my lack of experience.  I will say that rotations and gathering focus from skills do seem to be somewhat tricky for me and that I still feel that there is room for improvement there.  But I do enjoy the class quite a bit and the DPS aside, the travelling and tracking skills are quite nice as well.  I definitely see the attraction of the Hunter and why it makes a good starting class.  That being said, just because it is an easy class to start off with in LOTRO doesn’t necessarily make it an easy class to master.  There is quite a lot to learn outside of pointing your hunter at a mob and hitting buttons as most dedicated hunters will tell you.

On a side note:

The Hunter is the character that I chose to level with Goldenstar’s Rune-keeper.  Together we are quite the DPS pair, but we had an interesting comparison one of the nights that we were out talking together.  We both were suffering from a little bit of DPS envy from one another.  While I was jealous of the RK’s ability to keep going and do quick, powerful scaling DPS; she found herself jealous of my high damage values right from the start and my range I’m able to shoot from.  So it was interesting to see that even though both classes are considered to be quite powerful DPS; they both do have advantages and disadvantages when compared to one another.

Hunter skills from level 20 – 28:

Skill	Skill Icon	Skill Effect	Level Earned
Desperate Flight		Immediately teleports the hunter to the closest rally point.  Requires Travelling Rations.	20
Inert Concentration		Immediately grants the Hunter 9 focus.	20
Rain of Arrows		Westernesse-based range AoE that will damage 5 targets within 10 meters.	20
Guide to Michel Delving		Teleports the hunter and their fellowship to Michel Delving.  Requires 2 Travelling Rations.	22
Bright Campfire		Creates a campfire that, when standing close, increases non-Combat Morale and Power Regeneration.	22
Passage of Foes		Allows the hunter to track orcs, trolls, giants, and evil men or dwarves.	22
Guide to Thorin’s Halls		Teleports the hunter and their fellowship to Thorin’s Halls.  Requires 2 Travelling Rations	24
Agile Rejoinder		A high-damaging single target attack that can be used upon a successful parry.  The attack cannot be parried, evaded, or blocked.hh	24
Bow Chants		Allows hunters to place bow chants upon their bow.	25
Stance:  Endurance		A stance that decreases the power cost of ranged skills and the amount of threat done by damage.	28

As for my personal experiences with the class this time around?  I thought it was brilliant.  I thought leveling was very easy and a lot of fun.  It was nice going from a Champion who had a tough time handling 3+  mobs to a warden that could survive with no issues.  That’s not to say that the Warden wasn’t a challenge if you weren’t watching what you were doing on this kind of fight; you will still need to make sure that you balance your defensive gambits with your offensive ones or you’ll find yourself coming close to defeat.  However, I did find that most of the gambits I was using to complete deeds were able to be used with almost little adjustment to my actual rotation.  I still feel that there is a lot of room for me to improve (especially after listening to those guys on the roundtable)

Now this is the section where I would usually tell you how I would go about using a rotation, but I have a dirty secret to admit here:  I had no set rotation for the Warden.  The truth is, I spent most of the time trying to complete class Gambit deeds, and I’m afraid I didn’t do that good of a job because my incomplete deed list is quite long.  Also, since most of my time was spent solo, I really don’t have much advice for tanking either.  For all of that information, I would listen to the Warden roundtable we had for some great advice from more experienced players.  However, if someone were to press me, here is the advice that I would give:

• When starting a fight, use Ambush as often as you can and then follow it up with Critical Strike.  Not only will this increase your threat, but it can also take an opponent down to almost nothing which is especially great when dealing with more than one mob.
• Try to get used to a tanking rotation by following up Critical Strike with a gambit that increases your threat.  Wardens are notoriously bad at grabbing “snap-aggro” so you must make sure that you start gaining aggro on mobs as soon as the fight begins and then do your best to maintain it.
• Save yourself some health by throwing up a defensive buff with a gambit such as Shield Up which increases your ratings for Block, Parry and Evade.
• Make sure that you also throw in HoT’s into your rotation as well, such as Safeguard.

Overall, the class is great and I had a great time playing it during these levels.  I definitely understand why people choose to level Wardens and I certainly do not think that they need to be “nerfed” or reduced in any manner that will reduce that enjoyment.  If anything, I think that the developers should learn what players enjoy about Wardens and transfer that over to the other classes.  Because even if you nerf one class it still does not make another enjoyable, does it?  Until this is done, I only expect the population of Wardens to increase even further.

Warden skills from level 19 – 29:

Skill	Skill Icon	Skill Effect	Gambit	Personal Opinion	Level Earned
Brink of Victory		Deals an initial amount of light damage and applies a DoT that damages every 4 seconds for 16 seconds.  Also slightly increases threat.		Great overall DoT, but I didn’t use it as much as I should have	19
Combination Strike		A common-based attack that strikes twice and slightly increases threat.		Good general attack, however I tended to use DoT’s and HoT’s more.	20
Shield Piercer		If successfully applied, decreases the Block Rating of the target.	N/A	Great way to reduce the defensive capabilities of a target.	20
Fierce Resolve		Drains a target of their morale and transfers it to the Warden.		This is one that I used quite a bit, however it’s important to remember that this is a single “heal” and not an HoT.	21
Onslaught		A common-based attack that interrupts inductions and also strikes three times.		I have to say I used this one quite a bit, if for no other reason than the awesome animation that goes with it.	22
Conservation		Places the Warden in a stance that adds to in-Combat Power Regen, Evade Rating and Block Rating	N/A	Definitely my stance of choice.  Although it was tough to give up Morale, this one just has too many defensive bonuses combined with a power regen; which all equal up to complimenting my play style.	22
Maddening Strike		A common-based damage attack that also transfers a slight amount of threat from each member of the Fellowship to the Warden.		Good for groups, but since I soloed my way through, it wasn’t something I used all that often.	23
Quick Recovery		Allows the the Warden to remove the last Gambit icon from the Gambit Panel.	N/A	This is probably something I should use more, however I prefer to make myself to remember how to enter a gambit correctly rather than relying upon resolving a mistake.  This will probably be more useful as my gambit combinations get longer.	24
Piercing Strike		An attack that deals 2 strikes, one for common damage and another for light damage.		A good DPS strike that will attack with two different damage types which can be valuable depending on a mobs resistance values.	25
Muster in Ost Guruth		Teleports the Warden only to Ost Guruth for 3 Travelling Rations and some power	N/A	So very nice… So, so very nice.	26
Hampering Javelin		If successfully applied, decreases the run speed of a target by 30%.	N/A	Very good for slowing a target, but I really didn’t need use it all that much.  I will have to remember to make use of this later on to save myself some frustration.	28

However, there are some issues that I have with the class and I think I may need some advice or I need to do some research because I feel that I am not doing something correct.  Why?  Because I ignore probably 50% of the skills that I have.  If they’re not in my rotation or one of the few healing spells I use, I almost never use them unless I’m working on a deed or because I feel bad about not using them.

My Rotation:

1. Rune of Restoration (when I remember)
2. Prelude to Hope (when I have 0 battle attunement or need a quick heal)
3. Writ of Health (when I have 0 battle attunement)
4. Fall to Storm
5. Fiery Ridicule
6. Chilling Rhetoric (Although I’m not sure why and may remove it from this part of the rotation.)
7. Ceaseless Argument
8. Scribe’s Spark
9. Shocking Words

And I would then switch between Ceaseless Argument and Scribe’s Spark until the target died.  If there is an additional mob that comes with my initial pull or during a fight I would use Shocking Touch to stun the addition as soon as it came within range.  I will also throw a Prelude to Hope on myself if possible, just not expecting the degree of healing while you’re attuned to Battle.

Overall, the Rune-keeper was great, especially once I got the timing of when to use Shocking Words down.  I was usually OK with two mobs at once, sometimes three, but it usually depended on the fight.  By the end of my play time with the Rune-keeper when killing Gaunt men in Lone-lands there was about a 10% chance things would go south and I would die.  But in all honesty, I had a lot more problems killing Gaunt men on my Champion than I did on my Rune-keeper.

I enjoy the Rune-keeper quite a bit and despite the lore issues it’s a fun class to play.  It feels powerful, because it is powerful.  Plus, I’ve really enjoyed seeing the traits of the class really compliment the skills that I’m using (all lightning based so far).  I can’t really say that I’ve had any other classes to which I’ve assigned traits and actually been excited about it.  With other classes I usually feel like I’m guessing and that I end up picking the one that is more my best guess.  However, with the Rune-keeper it’s been fairly easy to choose and move on knowing that I’m stepping away from the Bard with a more powerful character.

As I said before, my only minor irritation is that it feels like I’m not using the rest of the skills outside my normal rotation as best as I can. Maybe later in levels I’ll see some more cold and fire based spells which will make my current spells more useful; but for right now I’ll only be using them to complete more traits.

Rune-keeper skills from level 20 – 28:

Skill	Skill Icon	Skill Effect	Attunement	Personal Opinion	Level Earned
Nothing Truly Ends		Revives a target for a set percentage of Morale and Power (30% and 0% at level 30, respectively).	Attunes: 3	It’s a res, and everyone loves a res!	20
Epic Conclusion		Tactical based damage skill that cannot be resisted.  Drains all Battle Attuned Skills and increases the cost of Battle Attuned skills by 50% for 10 seconds.	Attunes: 1 Requires: 9	Man, this is an epic skill.  However, make sure that this is the last spell that you cast in a fight if you are planning on doing damage; or that you’re going to switch roles to healing.  Otherwise you’re going to have a huge hit in your damage for 10 seconds.  However, the animation is awesome!	20
Rousing Words		A channeled group heal that places a HoT on all fellowship members that ticks every second and generates zero threat during its channeling.	Attunes: 1 Requires: 3	I can’t say I had much cause to use this when solo’ing, but it seems like a decent spell.  It would definitely make a good intermittent spell to cast in order to top a group off if they’re all taking damage.  Remember though, only the channeling doesn’t generate threat I would guess the healing ticks will.	22
Scathing Mockery		Tactical based damage skill that causes an initial burst of Fire Damage and then places a DoT on the target that does Fire Damage every 6 seconds for 30 seconds.	Attunes: 1 Requires: 6	This is another very cool damage spell that has a high cost.  The added bonus is that it continues the damage with a DoT on the target.  However, with the high cost it’s not something that I used all the time.	24
Calming Verse		Reduces the Rune-keepers threat generated by Healing and Damage by a set percentage (-10% at level 30) for 30 seconds.	Attunes: 2	Nice threat reduction spell if you are able to sacrifice 2 attunements to neutral.  It’s probably best to use before a huge spell or if you notice the tank is picking up new targets or is struggling to keep aggro off of you.  However, solo’ing again I didn’t really use it.	26
Word of Exaltation		Reduces Incoming Damage by a set percent (-40% at level 30)  The effect lasts 3 seconds plus an additional 2 seconds for every tier of Writ of Health on the target.	Attunes: 1 Requires: 6	I personally love the reduction of incoming damage and I used it quite a bit when I ran into fights where I struggled to survive; or when running away.  Of course it would work better if you’ve stacked Writ of Health on yourself or someone else.	28