LOTRO – Switching Gears

True to my alt-rolling, flip-flopping ways, I have placed both of my primary “main” characters on the back-burner and rolled a Hobbit Burglar. My Human Guardian and my Hobbit Hunter are fun but I got a little tired of only having them as options. So I rolled a class I hadn’t tried since Open Beta … and I’m loving it!

For those who have only played WoW, a burglar has the stealth capabilities of a Rogue in WoW. However, they are not a melee dps class. Instead, they do a moderate amount of melee dps and have various debuffs they can use to play havoc with a mob. For instance, I can throw sand in their eyes which lessens a mob’s ability to hit. I have addle which is both an interrupt of an ability in its casting state and slows down the casting of other abilities. My survivability in combat isn’t based on my ability to out-dps something, but my decent dps combined with my actions which mess with a mob’s dps. I also have riddle which is a mez (stuns a mob until they take damage), sneak (which is stealth) an ability to distract a targeted mob away from me which I’m in stealth and, of course, burgle which is simply picking a mob’s pockets while I’m stealthed. I would also be remiss if I didn’t also add that Burglars are a key class for starting Fellowship Maneuvers which trigger a special wheel for each member of a group. The item each member picks benefits the member that picked it, however, if the team coordinates what they pick, you get a better and even more powerful effect.

To put my Burglar to the test, I visited some ruins in the Weathered Hills. The mobs there were the same level or slightly above my level at the time. Some of them are also elites. Were they to catch me at my sneaking, I would be dead fairly quickly. I managed to get all the way inside the fortress, picking pockets all the way. I had to take out one non-elite guard who was standing in a doorway (which was pretty tense as there is an elite patrol in the room he was guarding and another elite mob standing just inside the room). I took him out and re-stealthed without incident. It was a blast! And I was hooked.

In addition to the class itself, my new Burglar is also a Farmer and Cook (the Yeoman profession). I like being able to make pipe-weed as well as brew beers and make stat-food. Yeoman may turn into a money-sink for me, but I’m liking it thus far. And it’s a very Hobbit profession to have. :)