Champion Guide:
In an effort to contribute to the community that has been so great to me (and the rest of us here I’m sure), Id like to present a somewhat informal Champion Class Guide.
Table of Contents:
1)General Champion Overview
2) Champion Skills with brief description.
3) Skill Overview of your Champion
4) Racial Abilities
5) Champion Strategy
a. Dual Wielding
b. Wielding 2-H Weapons
General Champion Overview:
So, you want to be a champion? Well, there are a few goals to keep in mind before you jump into battle. You’re the most fearsome damage class in the game; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. You’ll probably be focused more on sustained DPS than on burst DPS, the burst DPS is the hunters job. There are a few very standard things to keep in mind when playing the champion, and first and foremost is defiantly the management of your unique attribute Fervour. Fervour is displayed above the auto attack “Sword” Icon, left of you skill bar. There is a total of five possible fervour “Pips”, and some skills require you to have a certain number in that pool, and most of those also take away that number. Others will give you Fervour. Those Fervour generating skills are key, as they will allow you to unleash your more powerful attacks.
Regardless of whether you Dual Wield, or use a 2H weapon, each and every champion will have to keep track of his/her Fervour. Skills like Wild Attack and Swift Strike allow you to do this, but those are easy to understand. The hardest Fervour generating skill to understand is: “Fervour” (The skill).
Essentially Fervour is a stance that you can enter and leave that (while it is active) will not allow you to Evade, Parry, or Block, but will increase your damage output by 15%, plus add 1 Fervour “pip” to your Fervour pool every five seconds, and on top of all that, it will add a large amount to your in combat power regeneration. Every champion should learn to use Fervour well, because it is a class defining skill. The nature of the skill means it has a “Diminishing Return” built in. When your soloing, having it on while fighting just one monster is a good idea, testing has shown that it speeds up the time it takes to kill any one Mob significantly, and because you take less damage (the mob isn’t hurting you for as long) that’s a good thing. That less damage from the mob being dead overcomes the extra damage you take from not Evading, Blocking or Parrying.
Its also probably in your best interest to leave Fervour on when fighting two Mobs, although in that fight you may want to turn it off near the end to preserve as much Morale as you can to prevent defeat.
This next point is where I see the most champions make mistakes. Fervour is NOT an “Always on” buff. It’s ok to leave it on in parties, but when you’re going up against three Mobs, you should probably toggle Fervour on and off multiple times during the fight. If you just leave it on, your survivability will drop significantly! This is because your losing your chance to evade, block, and parry for each mob attacking you, so your missing your total evade, parry, and block chance * x number of mobs your fighting. It gets worse the more you fight. So keep that in mind when fighting multiples above two.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Araborn View Post
Champion Skills:
Starting Skills
The champion starts out with the three following skills.
1. Wild attack. A two hit skill that adds a fervour pip.
2. Blade wall. A frontal AOE skill.
3. Swift Strike. A strong, quick attack which adds one fervour pip.
Skill - Level Gained - Effect
Savage Strikes - 2 - A multiple hitting attack. If you DW it only costs 2 pips and does 3 attacks. If you 2H it costs 3 pips and does 2 attacks.
Fervour - 4 - The buff skill. It increases your power regeneration, it improves your damage, gives you a pip every 5 secs. Also you can't evade/parry/block with this skill on.
Flurry - 4 - Costs 2 pips. It increases your downtime between attacks, meaning you go from on attack to the other faster with flurry on. Buff that lasts 20 secs.
Brutal Strikes - 6 - Costs 3 pips if you DW and 4 if you 2H. This is a triple striking attack skill. One of you main damage skills.
Exchange of Blows -8 - Costs 2 pips. When you hit this attack, you return damage for every blow you receive. Basically you use this when you are being hit by multiple mobs.
Blade Storm - 10 - The top damage AOE skill. It costs 4 pips.
Battle Frenzy - 12 - A buff that grants 3 immediate pips to the champion. It has a one minute reset.
Bracing Attack - 14 - This is your "heal". It deals damage and you gain some health in return. It must hit for you to be healed. It costs 3 pips. 30 sec reset also.
Cleave - 16 - An AOE that can also cause a bleed attack 50% of the time. Costs 2 pips.
Sudden Defense - 18 - A buff that increases your evade/parry/block chance for 30 seconds. It can not be used when Fervour is on.
Shoot - 20 - It the only bow skill that a champion has. It only increases the range of the bow by 5-10 meters over auto attack, and does not add any extra damage.
Relentless Strike - 20 - It is your "supposed" big damage skill. The description says it can not miss, parried or block, but only can be evaded. This isn't true, because you can miss and block. Once the best damage skill a champion had. It still gives a lot of damage, and costs 4 pips.
Champion's Challenge - 22 - A taunt that can be used from 30 meters away. It has a 30 second reset.
Merciful Strike - 24 - It can only be used when the enemy has less than 20% health. It does good damage and gives the champion 2 pips.
Fighting Dirty - 26 - It is another skill that can only be used when a mob has low health. What it does is that it makes your next aoe skill do more damage.
Sprint - 28 - It gives a champion a 25% run speed boost for 15 seconds. It has a 5 minute reset.
Dire Need - 30 - It transfers half of the champions power to morale. It is a solid heal and has a 30 minute reset.
Clobber - 32 - It is a highly spammable skill that interrupts a mobs induction process. It costs 1 pip.
Sound the Attack - 34 - This is an AOE skill that stuns the mob.
Hamstring - 36 - This skill puts a run debuff on the mob. It costs 1 pip.
Hedge - 38 - This is a detaunt that makes the mob attack another target if there is an appropriate one.
Boast - 40 - This is a social emote skill that makes everyone cheer. It has a 30 second reset.
Other Notable Abilities
In case you haven't figured it out, the active skills are on the even levels(2, 4, 6, etc.). All of the passive skills are acquired on the odd levels.
At level 15 a champion can use shields.
At level 20 a champion can use the bow. Also at level 20 the champion can use runes as well as a special champion horn that does an AOE stun with a 5 minute reset. Finally at level 20 champions can wear Heavy Armor.
At level 30 a champion can use heavy shields once he has completed the specific champion quest. However, the champion must equip the trait to use heavy shields.
Skill Overview of the Champion:
Regardless of what race you are, you get the same skills, and it’s important to understand what they do, and when to use them. That’s what this section is all about; I’m going to talk about a few key abilities that champions get in the early levels. These abilities turn out to be the bread and butter of our damage; the skills that come after level 24ish are just gravy. I’ll just put them in order with a quick description of what they do followed by some advantages and disadvantages that they have.
Wild Attack:
Advantages:
-Low power cost
-Good damage
-Builds fervour
Disadvantages:
-Takes a little while to execute
My thoughts: This is a key ability, every champion should use it at least once a fight.
Blade Wall:
Advantages:
-Low power cost
-Ok AoE damage
-Trait lets you gain Fervour
Disadvantages:
-Doesn’t do lots of damage
My thoughts: Great AoE damage for no fervour. The trait lets you make fervour even. I use it as a follow up to a bigger AoE attack like sound the attack or Blade Storm.
Swift Strike:
Advantages:
-Very fast strike
-Builds Fervour
Disadvantages:
-Very high power cost
-Mediocre damage
My thoughts: Very, very fast fervour generation. In a short fight where I’m aren’t worried about power I use it a ton, in longer ones I try to stick to wild attack.
Savage Strikes:
Advantages:
-One of your three main damage skills, so high damage
-Low power cost
-Three strikes, so one miss isn’t horrible
Disadvantages:
-Takes two (or three if your 2H wielding) fervour to use, and removes that much
-Takes a long time to execute
My thoughts: Takes so long to execute that I rarely use it, instead I use Brutal Strikes. I do earn the trait for this though, as its really good.
Fervour:
Advantages:
-Increased Fervour generation
-Increased power regeneration
-Increased damage
Disadvantages:
-Disables blocks, parry’s, and evades
My thoughts: Learn to use it well, because its basically the champion defining skill. Managing fervour is really important.
Flurry:
Advantages:
-Increases attack speed and animation speed
Disadvantages:
-Costs two fervour
-Only lasts 20 seconds
My thoughts: I’m not really sure about this skill, I know it helps speed things up, but I just can’t decide if it’s worth it or not to use on a regular basis. Right now I don’t really bother with it.
Brutal Strikes:
Advantages:
-One of your three main damage skills, so high damage
-Medium Power cost
-Three strikes, so one miss isn’t horrible
Disadvantages:
-Takes three (or four if your 2H wielding) fervour to use, and removes that much
My thoughts: Probably my favorite ability, I use it all the time. Does great damage, fast, for pretty cheap.
Exchange of Blows:
Advantages:
-Lets you get lots of hits back when fighting multiple foes
Disadvantages:
-Hits don’t do lots of damage
-Costs two fervour
-You have to be hit for it to work, so your taking more than your dishing if you just use this
My thoughts: The small bits of damage it does don’t really add up in a shorter fight, and in longer ones the fervour is usually more useful somewhere else.
Blade Storm:
Advantages:
-Huge AoE damage, your best AoE damage skill
Disadvantages:
-Costs 4 fervour pips
My thoughts: When I’m fighting two or three enemies, I use this a lot, especially if they are 2 or 3 levels lower than me.
Battle Frenzy:
Advantages:
-Gives 3 instant fervour
Disadvantages:
-Recharge time is pretty long
My thoughts: I use it all the time, makes it easy to get off a start of the battle Brutal Strikes or Bracing Attack depending on what you need.
Bracing Attack:
Advantages:
-Heals for about 1/5th your total morale
-Deals ok damage
Disadvantages:
-Missing can really screw you if you count on this skill to win a fight, its good to have potions handy
My thoughts: This is the champions staple healing ability, so I of course use it all the time.
Cleave:
Advantages:
-Low Fervour cost
Disadvantages:
-Very low damage
-DoT isn’t very strong, and only applies half the time
My thoughts: It doesn’t really do enough damage for me to bother with it. I used to use it, but now it just doesn’t really seem worth it.
Sudden Defense:
Advantages:
-Provides a quick defense boost for when you need to off tank
Disadvantages:
-Lose all fervour when its activated
-No more fervour generation while is active
My thoughts: Has saved me many times. This is one of the skills that you need to know when to use.
Shoot:
Advantages:
-A nice pull
Disadvantages:
-None
My thoughts: Great pull.
Relentless Strike:
Advantages:
-Wont miss unless mob is a higher level than you
-Huge damage
Disadvantages:
-High fervour cost
My thoughts: Because I dual wield I usually don’t use this, I favor Brutal Strikes instead, but this does do great damage.
Champion's Challenge:
Advantages:
-Only real taunt a champion gets
-Good to pull one peeler off from a group to engage him
Disadvantages:
-Long recharge
My thoughts: Helps when your off tanking, but isn’t a class defining ability by any means. If there isn’t a guardian in the group and you need to tank an elite or two, this skill, plus your DPS, can do it, as long as you’ve got a minstrel watching your back.
Merciful Strike:
Advantages:
-Great finishing move
-Provides Fervour
Disadvantages:
-Sometimes hard to get off before the mob dies, especially in a party
My thoughts: It’s hard to time it fight to get it off, but its great when you do. Solo I use it, but in groups against normals I don’t.
Fighting Dirty:
Advantages:
-Makes your next AoE do more damage
Disadvantages:
-Hard to use in a way that makes it really effective
My thoughts: Just a funky ability really, I’m still playing around with it.
Sprint:
Advantages:
-Gives a short run speed buff to help escape battles
Disadvantages:
-Isn’t really useful for long distance trekking or speeding up your overall run time, just an escape mechanism.
My thoughts: I wish it were a longer run speed buff, but its not. As it is, I don’t really use it all that often, as running normal speed is usually fast enough to get away from an encounter.
Dire Need:
Advantages:
-Huge heal when you need it
Disadvantages:
-Long recharge timer
-Takes half your power
My thoughts: It’s only helpful in a few situations, but when you need it, it does heal for a lot. Its defiantly worth keeping on your bar in a place you can click quickly.
Clobber:
Advantages:
-Interrupts a mobs actions. Helps a ton against mobs that heal.
Disadvantages:
-Hard to time the attack right so that you actually interrupt something you want to.
My thoughts: I only use this when fighting mobs that heal, but its great for that. You can also get things like wights breath attacks with it, so you can offensively stop a lot of damage if you’re good, and lucky.
Sound the Attack:
Advantages:
-Decent Damage
-Stuns the enemies for about 2 seconds
Disadvantages:
-High fervour cost
My thoughts: I really like the stun, but the damage is worse than Blade Storms, so I only use this for the stun. More in party’s against elites than against normals.
Hamstring:
Advantages:
-Slows a running mob
Disadvantages:
-Almost always better to just hit the runner once and kill it
My thoughts: In my opinion, this skill is almost completely useless in PvE. In Monster Play its still almost completely useless, but I could see it being used a few times…
Hedge:
Advantages:
-A small detaunt helps sometimes
Disadvantages:
-Doesn’t detaunt enough that you can actually save yourself in a group if you need to.
My thoughts: We generate so much aggro that this small detaunt doesn’t really help that much. I still keep it on my bar though.
Boast:
Advantages:
-Looks good
Disadvantages:
-Doesn’t really do anything, heh
My thoughts: Awesome.
Racial Accomplishments and Racial Passive Skills:
Race of Man
Passive Skills
Diminishing of Mankind - Decreased Will (-.
Easily Inspired - Increased Morale Restoration.
Gift of Men - Improved Fate (+15).
Strong Men - Improved Might (+15).
Race of Elves
Passive Skills
Agility of the Woods - Improved Agility (+15).
Fading of the Firstborn - Reduced Fate (-.
Sorrow of the Firstborn - Reduced Morale (-20) and Out of Combat Morale Regeneration (-1.0).
Suffer no Illness - Improved resistance to Disease (+1.0%)and Poison (+1.0%).
Race of Dwarves
Passive Skills
Lost Dwarf-Kingdoms - Reduced Fate (-8).
Stocky - Reduced Agility (-8).
Sturdiness - Increased Might (+15) and Vitality (+10), improved Common Damage mitigation (+1.0%).
Unwearying in Battle - Increased Morale and Power regeneration (+0.5 each) in combat, reduced out of combat (-1 m, -0.5 p).
Race of Dwarves
Racial Accomplishments
Enmity of the Goblins
* Rank 1
o Defeat goblins (50)
o Reward - Fateful Dwarf (+20 Fate)
* Rank 2
o Defeat goblins (100)
o Reward - Return to Thorin's Gate
* Rank 3
o Defeat goblins (150)
o Reward - Hunker Down (reduces incoming damage for a short time)
Enmity of the Trolls
* Rank 1
o Defeat trolls (50)
o Reward - Dwarf's Endurance (adds 35 Vitality to fellowship for 10 seconds, 1hr cooldown)
* Rank 2
o Defeat trolls (150)
o Reward - Shield Brawler (adds 2% to block chance)
Enmity of the Dourhands
The Dourhand dwarves appear to have turned their backs on te Free Peoples of Middle-earth and rebelled against the rightfulrule of Durin's Folk.
* Rank 1
o Defeat Dourhand dwarves (50)
o Reward - Headbutt - does 15 common damage (goes up with level) with a 5s cooldown, no power cost
* Rank 2
o Defeat Dourhand dwarves (100)
o Reward - Guile and Might Bonus - +5 percent to red and yellow conjunctions
* Rank 3
o Defeat Dourhand dwarves (150)
o Reward - Dwarf Axe Damage Bonus - +2.0% one-hand and two-hand axe damage
Race of Elves
Racial Accomplishments
Enmity of the Goblins
* Rank 1
o Defeat goblins (50)
o Reward - Sylvan Shadows - Enables stealth movement (30 min cooldown)
* Rank 2
o Defeat goblins (100)
o Reward - Tactics and Conviction Bonus - 5.0% increase on blue/green conjunction choices
* Rank 3
o Defeat goblins (150)
o Reward - Elf Bow-damage Bonus - +1.0% bow damage
Enmity of the Orcs
* Rank 1
o Defeat orcs (50)
o Reward - Friend of Man - +20 Fate
* Rank 2
o Defeat orcs (100)
o Reward - Return to Rivendell
* Rank 3
o Defeat orcs (???)
o Reward - Eldar's Grace - +75.0% chance to parry for a few seconds, 1hr cooldown
Enmity of Drakes
* Rank 1
o Defeat drakes (???)
o Reward - Elf One-handed Sword Damage Bonus - +2.0% to One-handed Sword Damage
Race of Man
Racial Accomplishments
Enmity of the Wargs
* Defeat wargs (50)
* Reward - Man of the Fourth Age (adds 20 to will)
Enmity of the Wargs II
* Defeat wargs (150)
* Reward - Return to Bree
Enmity of the Wargs III
* Defeat wargs (???)
* Reward - ???
Enmity of the Dead
* Defeat wights (50)
* Reward - Upper-Cut (trait) (short distance ranged attack)
Enmity of the Dead II
* Defeat wights (100)
* Reward - Tactics and Might Bonus (Adds 5.0% to Conjunction Power Healing Multiplier from Tactics Adds 5.0% to Conjunction Damage Multiplier from)
Enmity of the Dead III
* Defeat wights (150)
* Reward - Man Sword Damage Bonus (adds 2% to both 1h and 2h swords)
Enmity of Hillmen
* Defeat hillmen (50)
* Reward - Balance of Man (adds 1% to evade, parry, block)
Enmity of Hillmen II
* Defeat hillmen (100)
* Reward - Strength of Morale
Champion Strategy:
There are two schools of thought when it comes to champion strategy. In the broadest sense, they are the Dual Wielding Strategy, and the 2H Weapon Wielding Strategy. Despite what you may hear elsewhere, they are fairly well balanced, each style has a niche. Keep in mind when you’re wielding a slower weapon your Skill + X Damage, the X goes up proportionally. So for example if your using a 1.0 speed Dagger and you do Main Hand + 5 Damage, when you use a 2.0 Speed Sword, you’ll do Main Hand + 10, so for skill use using the fastest or the slowest weapon doesn’t really make a difference because of the way the skill damage scaling system works.
Dual Wielding:
Advantages of Dual Wielding:
-Somewhat Faster Paced that 2H wielding
-Brutal Strikes and Savage strikes both cost 1 less fervour pip (3 and 2 respectively). This is part of the Faster Paced feeling.
-It’s generally easier to find good 1H weapons than it is to find good 2H weapons, especially for the first 20 levels.
-Generates Fervour Faster than wielding 2H weapons
Disadvantages of Dual Wielding:
-Hits in lots of small chunks, not a few big ones. (Could be either a disadvantage or an advantage).
-Uses more power (Which generally isn’t a problem with fervour on, but with it off, its important to take this into consideration)
-Uses Fervour Faster (This is offset by the fact that it makes it faster as well)
General Comments:
This strategy is my personal favorite, for a few reasons, I like the fast paced style, and I find Brutal and Savage strikes better than Relentless Strike. When you Dual Wield, you should probably use Brutal or Savage, as you get such a bonus for doing so (1 less Fervour each and you get the offhand attack with both). You also hit twice with auto attacks.
2H Wielding:
Advantages of 2H Wielding:
- Damage comes slower, in bigger chunks.
-Uses less power.
-Uses less Fervour.
Disadvantages of 2H Wielding:
-Slower paced than Dual Wielding.
-Brutal Strikes and Savage strikes both cost the same amount of Fervour (4 and 3 respectively), and you lose an offhand attack with each of these skills.
-Harder to find good 2H weapons, especially for the first 20 levels.
-Generates Fervour slower than Dual Wielding (But uses it slower)
General Comments:
I have less experience with wielding 2H’ed weapons, but I know its slower paced, and that you lose all of the Off Hand + X hits that your skills say you make, so some of the skills champions have are a little less effective because of that. For example, Wild Attack does Main Hand + 10, and Off hand + 4 (When your dual wielding), when you use a 2Hed weapon the damage you do will look more like this Main Hand + 15, so you lose out on that off handed attack, but do more + Damage, and you also hit with your main hand for more.
General Good Strategy:
You’re supposed to be doing the most DPS in the game, so it’s your job to find a skill combo that works for you. It’s bound to be different when soloing and when grouped, and it will probably vary a little based on the speed your group kills things, and also on what type of enemy your fighting. I’m not going to tell you exactly how to play your champion, because the best champions are going to get the feel of the class and play it the way that feels best to them, but, I will just give some general guidelines.
When soloing, your going to have time to build fervour, so you can basically do any combo you want, but try to keep it self sustaining to where you aren’t auto attacking too much. Your progression should look like… Skill + Paired Auto Attack, Skill + Paired Auto Attack, and so on.
When in a large group fighting normal mobs, things are going to die fast, so you won’t have time to build fervour. In cases like this you should try to unload your fastest attack first. In times like this Dual Wielding probably gets damage out faster because you get so many more hits in. Either way, you won’t be in any danger of dying because normal mobs when dropping that fast wont kill your party either way.
When in a large group and fighting Elite mobs, you have much, much longer to build up Fervour, so you can use any combo you want. Again, I would suggest trying to keep it as “Pressure” based as you can, instead of burst. The point of the champion is to put out a steady stream of high damage, so you should try to do that. You’ll be assisted by the insane burst DPS of the Hunter class, if you have one.
Trait Lists
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?p=354201Champion state of the game
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=32060Notes on the guide: I dont want to tell people how to play their character, which is why I tried not to say: "Do this, because this other stuff is just dumb"
Also, this isn't finished, I wasn't really intending on posting it this early on, but I figured it would be better to get it out here and see what else people want to see before I continued to work on it.
If you have a suggestion for something I should look into adding, or information that you think should be added, post it and Ill add it (with credit to whoever game that stuff).
Enjoy, and feel free to comment.
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