Black Arrow

Overview

Black Arrows are the ranged specialists on the creep side.  They also have several support skills such as hinder and traps to assist with both offensive and defensive roles.  A ranked BA will strike fear into the hearts of many freeps.

Skills

Skill	Effect	Cost	Duration	Cooldown
Cut	185 AoE common	53		5s
Gash	200 common	53		8s
Death Blossom (R1)	241 AoE common	96		1m
Flaming Arrow	108 Fire, 108 fire every 2s for 20s	96		5s
Hindering Shot	75 common, 40% slow	53	8s	5s
I See You! (R5)	+10 stealth detection	62	30m	30s
Moving Target	+50% melee evade, +25% ranged evade	62	30s	5m
No You Don't (R3)	233 common, interrupt	53		15s
Punctured Target (R2)	344 common	212		10s
Screaming Shafts	3x 181 shadow	96		10s
Strong Pull	208 common	53
Vital Target (R7)	1338 common, 76 common every 2s for 20s	212		5m
In Your Face	2 attacks: 185 Common, 200 Common	96		20s
Headshot	426 Common	96		30s
Tangleshot	387 Common	53		1m
Revenge	426 Common	All		2m
Fire Trap	Burns foes.	62		1m
Set Trap (Trait)	Roots foes.	62		1m
Center	Restores 29 power every second.	70		5m
Hard Hitter	+15% ranged damage, -10m to ranged auto attacks	132		4s
Keen Eye	-10% ranged damage, Lowers target's block/evade by 15%	132		4s

Traits

Class Traits

Trait	Effect	Rating
Set Trap (R5)	Root	2/5
Avoidance Boost	+2% Parry, Evade, Block	3/5
Deadly Aim	+5% ranged critical chance	4/5
Enhanced Skill:  Hindering Shot	Short root to hinder	5/5
Penetrating Arrows (R4)	-10% block chance	1/5
Resistance Boost (R1)	+3% Song, Cry, Physical, and Tactical resistance	3/5
Swift Draw (R2)	-0.3s induction from each attack	4/5
Uncanny Reactions (R2)	+25% ranged evade chance	5/5

Recommended Corruption Traits

Survivability:  Stealth Detect, Health for Power, Health for Damage, Damage for Power, Physical Resistance

Partial Glass Cannon:  DfH 2, DfP 2, PRB 2, TRB 2, DfH 1

Goldtagger/Soloist:  HfP 2, DfH 2, DfP 2, TRB 2, SRB 2

Tactics

[Moof, Elendilmir]

• BA DPS Maximization:  Don't bork up your DPS by overusing skills.  For the most part, the system will slide an autoattack in-between most combos you throw at it, but if you work at it, you can lose out on some good steady DPS (for example: mashing Strong, Punctured, and Flaming arrow all in sequence).  I believe your latency may have some effect on whether this is an issue for you or not
• I always open with autoattack and allow an autoattack between skills.  Three exceptions apply
  • Running in for a last minute shot on someone or seeing they are going down too fast to get a normal shot off:  User No You Don't on the run
  • Going for a max DPS shot.  Use skill of choice (I prefer punctured target or vital target followed immediately by No You Don't)
  • Hinder shot openers to immobilize a freep.  Sometimes there isn't time to let an autoattack cycle first and circumstances require hinder to be your opener
• I've started moving Flaming Arrow out of my arsenal due to the higher and higher resist rates and high power cost.  I use Flaming in 3 general situations
  • Burglers, enough said.
  • Multiple freeps, victory certain.  Drop a flamer on a tank class, then move on to the next and more important target.  You will guarentee yourself additional infamy.
  • Single or few targets, power not an issue, first to engage.
• Additionally, I have almost completely removed Screaming Shafts from my use list.  Unless I have previously identified a Freep as having good mitigation against everything but shadow damage, I never use it.  Some disagree on this point, but I have had good success tossing it out on the proverbial window to an out of the way hotbar.

[Taugrim, Landroval]

• In order of most efficient: Death Blossom (depending on how many are AoE'd), Cut (in melee range), No You Don't, Strong Pull, Flaming Arrow. Punctured Target, Hindering Shot.
• Strong Pull (SP) becomes very power-efficient as you stack +damage corruptions, and it has a short induction. It's my bread and butter.
• No You Don't (NYD) is instant cast and is tied for the best single-target D/P ratio. No induction + high D/P = score! I love this ability. No just for the interrupts, but for working into the DPS cycle and going for KBs. I get more KBs from NYD than any other ability.
• Cut is our best option when in melee range (along with NYD). So use it every time the cooldown is up if targets are on top of you. Of course, if you can you should get out of melee range, you're glass cannon BA, right?
• Flaming Arrow doesn't scale with +damage corruptions. But the DoT does good Fire damage, and it's great for keeping Burgs in combat. If you aim to inflict the most DPS you can get on a target, Flaming Arrow is a good idea.  However, it is a large power sink that will be wasted if your target resists.
• Death Blossom has a long induction, but if it hits 5 targets, the D/P ratio is outstanding. It can be used to keep multiple Freeps in-combat (contributed by: Asriel).
• Punctured Target (PT) is a huge power sink (4x more expensive than Strong Pull) and it has a longer induction than SP. It has situational value: e.g. when the ranged target assist calls for synchronized PTs on the minstrel (contributed by: Scratchy).
• Always eat in combat. BAs go through power fast anyway, and if you have boosted damage at the expense of power even more so. (contributed by: Gorbag_Rotmakr).
• As a low morale BA, you are a juicy target for freeps to focus fire on. That doesn't mean your survivability is nil, however. If traited well for resists, you can rush to the front lines when needed, pop Moving Target, and evade tank the hunters. If the freep target assist doesn't respond quickly, you can shut down their ranged DPS with this tactic and buy your raid time to recover.

Defiler

OVERVIEW

This page is a work in progress which I will continue to add to and modify as time allows. UPDATES to skills/traits are listed in BLUE for ease of reference.

NOTE: This page is in the process of being updated for the Rise of Isengard update.
As of 30-Oct-11: Active Skills updated.

Contents

Skills
  - Active Skills
  - Passive Skills
Traits
Recommended Traits
Tactics

SKILLS

Active Skills

Rank	Ability Skills	Ind	Rng	Effect	Cost	Duration	CD	DP
10	Blessing of Darkness1	-	20m	Damage from an Ally is applied to yourself. (HoT) Self heals 196-280 morale initially, 280 morale every 2 seconds. CHANNELED SKILL.	106 Pow + 8/sec	30s	3m	10000
10	Blight	2.5s	30m	A slime puddle is created on the ground: -50% incoming healing on opponents standing in the puddle. Acid DoT applied to targets leaving the puddle (stacks x3).	125 Pow	15s	30s	12000
9	Dying Rage2,5	-	-	+50% Melee/Tactical Damage; +100% Parry Chance; -100% Attack Duration; -50% Skill Induction: +3300 Melee/Ranged/Tactical Defence; Sets Run Speed to 200%; Immune to Stun, Daze, Knockdown and Fear --> Immediate Death on Expiration	81 Pow	15s	10m	N/A
Rank	Buff Skills	Ind	Rng	Effect	Cost	Duration	CD	DP
4	Anointing of the Slick Flesh	-	10.2m	+1500 (4.3%) melee / ranged / tactical critical defence, Max 6 targets in 10m radius (GROUP)	81 Pow	30m	1m	6000
6	Blood of Fire3,5	-	Self	On any incoming damage, reflects 45 fire damage back to attacker	81 Pow	Toggle	1.5m	N/A
6	Efflorescence	2s	10.2m	(HoT) Heals 327-467 morale every 3 seconds, Max 6 targets in 10m radius (GROUP)	197 Pow	30s	45s	8000
3	Fell Restoration	2.5s	30m	Restores +2560.6 morale	92 Pow	-	30s	5000
0	Fell Sacrifice0,6	5s	30m	Revives target at 50% morale and 50% power	750 Mor 500 Pow	-	1m	N/A
0	Fertile Slime0	-	30m	(HoT) Heals 222-317 morale initially, 222-317 every 3 seconds	92 Pow	15s	6s	N/A
0	Fungal Bloom0	2s	30m	(HoT) Heals 541-773 morale initially, 222-317 every 5 seconds	92 Pow	30s	4s	N/A
5	Fungal Spores4	-	30m	(HoT) Heals 327-467 morale initially, 257- 367 every 5 seconds	197 Pow	30s	3s	5000
Rank	Debuff Skills	Ind	Rng	Effect	Cost	Duration	CD	DP
7	Curse of Deadly Sorrows	3s	30m	-325 Fate, -325 Will, -325 Might, -2,892 Armour	106 Pow	1m	30s	9000
6	Curse of Rotten Flesh	2s	30m	+5% incoming damage, Max 3 targets in 5m radius	106 Pow	30s	30s	8000
0	Curse of Sticky Feet0	-	30m	-10% Run Speed	81 Pow	10s	15s	N/A
2	Curse of the Coward's Soul6	-	6.2m	Fears for up to 10 seconds, 100% break chance on harm after 2 seconds, 3% chance of break on damage after 2 seconds, Max 3 targets in 6m radius	106 Pow	10s	30s	4000
1	Curse of the Lethargic Heart	2s	30m	-325 Vitality (players only)	106 Pow	2m	30s	3000
8	Curse of the Melancholic Heart	2s	30m	Decreases healing output by 25% (players only)	106 Pow	30s	45s	10000
Rank	Melee Skills	Ind	Rng	Effect	Cost	Duration	CD	DP
0	Head Breaker0	-	3m	(DoT) 303 acid damage initially, 132-189 every 3 seconds	125 Pow	12s	3s	N/A
3	Tenderize	-	3m	337 common damage, 25% chance to apply a 5 second daze, 100% break chance on damage after 2 seconds	125 Pow	-	5s	5000
Rank	Ranged Skills	Ind	Rng	Effect	Cost	Duration	CD	DP
9	Explosive Gourd	2s	30m	(DoT) 353 fire damage initially, 121-173 every 2 seconds, Max 4 targets in 5m radius	125 Pow	10s	1m	11000
0	Fire Gourd0	2s	30m	(DoT) 441 fire damage initially, 121-173 every 2 seconds	125 Pow	10s	6s	N/A
10	Gooey Gourd	2s	30m	304 shadow damage, +20% all skill inductions	125 Pow	30s	15s	12000
0	Plague Gourd0	2s	30m	405 shadow damage, -1500 B/P/E on critical hit	125 Pow	20s	8s	N/A
5	Plague of Flies	2s	30m	Summons a fly swarm around the target at the end of a 5 second timer. (Effect: attacks the target for common damage; drains power from nearby targets, returning a portion of the power to the Defiler)	125 Pow	15s	30s	7000

0  Starting Skills
1  Requires "Advanced Skill: Blessing of Darkness" trait to be equipped
2  Requires "Advanced Skill: Dying Rage" trait to be equipped
3  Requires "Advanced Skill: Blood of Fire" trait to be equipped
4  Requires "Advanced Skill: Fungal Spores" trait to be equipped
5  Immediate Skill
6  Fast Skill

Passive Skills

Advanced Passive Skills	Rank	Effect
Health Regeneration	5, 6, 7	Increases your in-combat health regeneration (Max Tier 3: +180 ICMR, +348 NCMR)
Melee Criticals	5, 6	Increases your chance to critical with melee attacks (Max Tier 2: +480 melee critical rating)
Power Regeneration	5, 6, 7, 8	Increases your in-combat power regeneration (Max Tier 4: +168 ICPR, +360 NCPR)
Tactical Criticals	5, 6, 7, 8, 9	Increases your chance to critical with tactical attacks (Max Tier 5: +1200 tactical critical rating)
Core Passive Skills	Rank	Effect
Armour 3	0	Increases your armour protection (1535 armour value, +756 melee/ranged/tactical critical defense)
Avoidance 2	0	Increases your ability to avoid attacks (+329 base parry/evade/block rating)
Damage 2	0	Increases the damage dealt by your attacks (+3% melee/ranged/tactical damage, +3% outgoing healing effect modifier)
Health 4	0	Increases your maximum health (+25% morale)
Power 5	0	Increases your maximum power (+35% power)
Resistance 4	0	Increases your resistance to certain negative effect (+1940 base song/cry/physical/tactical resist rating)
Misc. Passive Skills	Rank	Effect
Advanced Fellowship Manuever	0	Increases duration of Fellowship Manuever chain protection to 60 seconds

TRAITS

Rank	Class Traits	Effect	DP	Rating (Healing)	Rating (Damage)
10	Advanced Skill: Blessing of Darkness	Grants access to "Blessing of Darkness" skill	10000	* *	*
5	Advanced Skill: Fungal Spores	Grants access to "Fungal Spores" skill	5000	* * * * *	* * * * *
0	Armour Boost	Increase armour rating (+1073 armour value)	3000	* * * * *	* * * * *
15	Enhanced Skill: Blight	"Blight" slime duration increased by 30 seconds (to 45 seconds), effectiveness increased from 50% to 75%	8000	* *	* *
0	Enhanced Skill: Curse of Sticky Feet	Adds -10% (-1073) fire defence and slowed movement increased to 20%	4000	* * * *	* * * *
6	Enhanced Skill: Efflorescence	Adds +10m range and -15% power cost to Efflorescence	10000	* * * * *	* * *
2	Enhanced Skill: Fell Sacrifice	-50% morale cost, -50% power cost, - 30 seconds cool down	4000	* * * * *	*
14	Enhanced Skill: Plague of Flies	Removes the 5s countdown for Plague of Flies (ie. flies appear instantly)	8000	*	* * *
2	Enhanced Skill: Plague Gourd	+25% critical hit chance from Plague Gourd and B/P/E reduction increased to -2840	4000	* * *	* * * * *
4	Enhanced Slime	+10% healing skill output, -10% threat from healing	3000	* * * * *	* * * * *
1	Fast Lob	-0.3s induction time for Gourd "Ranged Skills" (Note: tooltip changed to 0.3s from -15%)	3000	* * *	* * * * *
11	Frugal Cursing	-15% power cost for Curse skills	6000	* *	* *
0	Health Boost	+10% maximum health (Note: tooltip changed from morale to health)	3000	* * * * *	* * * * *
Rank	Racial Traits	Effect	Spirit Stones	Rating (All Builds)
5	Front-line Fodder	+260 B/P/E Rating	24D 12G 2L	* * *
6	Advanced Skill: Blood of Fire	Grants Access to "Blood of Fire" Skill when slotted	28D 14G 2L	* * * * *
7	Rage of the Misbegotten	+260 Melee/Tactical Critical Rating; +10% Maximum Health	32D 16G 4L	* * * * *
8	Warrior Against the Deep	+390 Ancient Dwarf Defence: +2 Stealth Detection	40D 20G 6L	* * *
9	Advanced Skill: Dying Rage	Grants Access to "Dying Rage" Skill when slotted	44D 22G 2L	*
10	Flayer of Flesh	+520 Melee/Tactical Critical Rating; +260 Melee/Tactical Offence Rating	48D 24G 10L	* * * * *
11	Tireless Warrior	+300 In-Combat Morale Regen; +300 In-Combat Power Regen	44D 22G 8L	* * * * *

RECOMMENDED TRAITS

[Nopain, Elendilmir]

In the past, it was quite common for Defilers to spend the majority of their game time in a group healer role. Very few people choose to play a Defiler for their uber DPS skills (*giggles*), and a primary healing role is where Defilers can really shine, However, in practice, that may not always be the role you end up playing. There are times when you may find yourself running around solo, or in a small group that requires little healing and benefits more from additional damage capabilities. Maintaining versatility in your game play and adapting your play style to suit current conditions will help to ensure that your Defiler can offer a valuable contribution in many different battle scenarios.

There is no 'right' or 'wrong' build for a Defiler, as it usually comes down mixing and matching traits to suit your individual play style and the types of battles that are most common on your server. I play during various times of the day/night on Elendilmir, and the battle field is constantly changing. As such, I have tested a lot of different trait combinations to see what works best in a variety of battle scenarios, and have settled on a build that works best for me in the majority of combat situations I encounter. What works best for one Defiler might not be best for another, so it helps to experiment until you find a build that you are comfortable with. The key is to find a good workable balance between survivability (health), sustainability (power), and healing output (damage).

Survivability:

Being a healing class, Defilers generally gain a lot of Freep attention, and are often one of the first to be targetted with both CC and damaging attacks. As such, it is important to improve survivability as much as possible. It is especially important to boost health, as the more health you have, the longer you can stay alive, and the longer you can stay alive, the longer you can keep others alive. Remember, a dead Defiler can't heal ;-) Higher health also gives others more opportunity to keep you alive under heavy focus fire, extra time for reinforcements to arrive, and reduces the chance that you will be the first one targetted as you won't present as a fast and easy kill. As a Defiler, TIME is essential to gain maximum HoT efficiency. Higher morale not only buys you more time for your healing to be as effective as possible, it also offers more opportunity to recover from large incoming crits.

Sustainability:

One of the things that a Defiler needs to learn very early on is how to manage their power effectively. There are times when you will receive so much focus that the only heals you can use are your insta-cast HoTs "Fertile Slime" and "Fungal Spores". Spamming these skills has the potential to chew through your power very quickly. "Efflorescence" is also a power hungry skill, even when traited with the Rank 6 enhancement. The higher your power pool, the longer you can heal for during sustained battle, and the longer you can use your HoTs on the run when you are being focused too much to get an induction off. The type of battle you are in also plays a big role as to how much power you are likely to need. For example, a ranged pew-pew fest from relative safety isn't going to be anywhere near as power hungry as being a primary healer in a raid or small group.

Healing Output:

The first factor that affects your healing output is damage corruptions. These directly boost or decrease your healing output by the same amount as the damage modifier. The more +damage corruptions you slot, the higher the amount your healing skills will heal for (to a maximum of +15%). Naturally damage corruptions come at the cost of morale and/or power, so while having +15% healing output sounds wonderful in theory, I have seen very few Defilers who actually trait that way. As a point of reference, running with -2.5% damage overall puts a Defilers healing output at roughly the same level as it was in the days before damage corruptions had an effect on healing. The second factor that has an impact on your healing output  in your tactical critical rating. The higher it is, the better your chance to crit with healing skills. Creeps do not have "dev crit" heals like freepside does, so a healing skill that crits will always heal for 1.5 times your standard amount. Every single pulse of every single HoT has the potential to crit, which makes a high tactical critical rating especially nice for Defilers. More crits = less healing required overall (which also helps with power conservation). "Rage of the Misbegotten" (rank 7 racial) and "Flayer of Flesh" (rank 10 racial) offer bonuses to tactical critical rating, and when both of these are traited, a Defiler can reach a maximum tactical critical rating of 14.6% - roughly 1 in every 7 heals. It makes a noticeable difference!

CLASS TRAITS

The class traits I slot are as follows:

• Armour Boost

• Health Boost

• Enhanced Slime

• Advanced Skill: Fungal Spores

• Enhanced Skill: Efflorescence (rank 6 or higher) OR Advanced Skill: Curse of Sticky Feet (rank 5 or lower)¹

• Advanced Skill: Fell Sacrifice (raid) OR Advanced Skill: Curse of Sticky Feet (small group/solo) OR Fast Lob (solo under rank 6)²

I have found that this mix offers a solid foundation to work from no matter what battle situation I am facing.

¹ It costs a lot of silver to retrait in and out of "Advanced Skill: Efflorescence", so I generally leave it in all the time. If I am on an alt Defiler who doesn't have access to it, I will trait "Advanced Skill: Curse of Sticky Feet" instead.

² If I am in a raid I will generally slot "Advanced Skill: Fell Sacrifice". In a small group or solo situation I prefer to use "Advanced Skill: Curse of the Sticky Feet" (although I may use "Advanced Skill: Fell Sacrifice" instead, depending on the battle at the time). If I am on an alt Defiler under rank 6 who has "Advanced Skill: Curse of Sticky Feet" traited instead of "Advanced Skill: Efflorescence", I will trait "Advanced Skill: Fell Sacrifice" when grouped, or "Fast Lob" when solo.

RACIAL TRAITS

I slot the following racials which I find most useful in all battle situations:

• Blood of Fire (R6)

• Rage of the Misbegotten (R7)

• Flayer of Flesh (R10)

• Tireless Warrior (R11)

This mix offers some extra damage (Blood of Fire), extra health (Rage of the Misbegotten), maximum tactical critical rating (Rage of the Misbegotten and Flayer of Flesh), and a substantial bonus to in-combat power regeneration (Tireless Warrior). Note: I still consider Dying Rage (R9) a complete waste of a trait slot.

CORRUPTION TRAITS

I don't run with a full morale build, but as I receive a lot of focus, I generally like to keep my health high to increase my survivability.

• Health for Power 2

• Health for Damage 1

• Health for Damage 2

• Damage for Power 2

• Power for Damage 2

• Critical Protection Boost 2

This build provides a good health base (=>R7 8,703; <=R6 7,912), a reasonable power pool (1,867) for sustained healing in lengthy battles, and the same healing output as we had before the damage corruptions modified our heals. While I have experimented with increasing my damage and decreasing my health/power, this particular mix offers me the best balance of survivability, sustainability, and healing output given my particular playstyle and the types of battle I am commonly up against. On my alt Defilers (rank 6 and under) I sometimes switch out "Power for Damage 2" for "Health for Power 1" , which increases my morale to 8,307  and decreases my power pool to 1,613. It really depends on how much focus I get and what the gameplay is like on the relevant server.

I don't recommend going lower than -2.5% damage if at all possible as your healing output will suffer for it (as mentioned earlier -2.5% offers the same base healing amount Defilers had prior to the damage corruptions affecting healing output). Depending on your servers gameplay and the amount of focus you receive, you can always decrease your health and/or power pool in favour of greater healing output. This is one area that is especially worth experimenting in. A good starting point is to slot as much damage as you think your health and power pool can sustain and then adjust your build from there.

While there are varied views on the usefulness of the "Crit Protection" traits, my personal feeling is that it is worth slotting anything that can reduce the chance of a high damage crit landing, especially with some of the attacks we face these days. Between this trait and "Anointing of the Slick Flesh" (rank 4 buff skill) I have a 9.1% critical hit avoidance rating, and I find that I am seldom hit with cringeworthy big damage numbers. However if an extra 1.7% critical hit avoidance isn't high on your priority list, there are a multitude of other corruptions that can be used instead. For example, Common Mitigation Boost Rank 2 is helpful if you fight in hostile NPC's a lot (especially if you don't have the rank 4 Enhanced Slime trait).

Depending on the current battle, you might find you can lower your power pool in favour of health or damage. For example, it is much easier to manage your power if you are running solo or only engaging in small skirmishes. Power consumption is more of an issue in sustained battle, especially at lower ranks. It is always a good idea to have food/pots on hand to help in that area.

Hopefully this will help to provide a starting point to assist you in developing a build that best suits your needs. The most important thing to remember is that what works well for one player may not be as effective for another. Therefore take some time to experiment until you find a suitable mix of traits that you are comfortable with, and that enhances your personal play style. Your team mates will thank you for it :-)

 

TACTICS

[Nopain, Elendilmir]

A work in progress! Watch this space.

 

Reaver

Overview

Reavers are the shock troops, the first ones into battle, the ultimate creeps in close-quarter combat.  Reavers spend a lot of their time dead due to these reasons, but if they can reach point blank range, they will frequently leave behind a dead freep.

Skills

Skill	Effect	Cost	Duration	Cooldown
Blinding Dust (R0)	+20% miss chance, AoE: 4	68P	30s	1m
Blood Lust (R6)	-10% auto-attack duration, +3% melee critical chance	50M	45s	1m
Charge! (R3)	Sets run speed to 200%, makes you immune to all CC but not to CJs	68P	8s	30s
Devastating Strike (R0)	471 Common, has higher base crit chance than any reaver melee skill	389P		1m
Disarm (R2)	Disarms opponent's melee weapon	89P	5s	1m
Glory in Victory (R0)	+10% melee damage, +10% incoming melee damage. +189M initially, +189M every 4s	68P	1m 30s; 20s	30s
Gut Punch (R5)	228 Common, interrupt	68P		15s
Hamstring (R0)	25% slow	68P	15s	10s
Jagged Cut (R0)	244 Common, AoE: 4	106P		5s
Lacerate (R0)	264 Common, 69 Common every 2s	58P	20s	8s
Mutilation (R12)	244 Common, 64 Common every 2s, AoE: 4	233P	10s	20s
Ravage (R4)	264 Common, 198 Common, 198 Common	106P		4s
Serration (R3)	330 Common, AoE: 4	106P		15s
Severing Strike (R7)	330 Common, cannot be missed, blocked, or parried	106P		1m
Sudden Strikes (R0)	211 Common, 158 Common	58P
Sundering Blow (R1)	228 Common, -2,334 armour	89P	1m	10s
Thrash (R13)	On disarmed target: 264 Common, 247 Common, 247 Common	58P		5m
Time-Out (R6)	+300 ICPR, +120-140 power	50M	45s	1m
Upper Hand (R9)	-1300 block, -1300 parry to target. +488 armour to self	68P	15s; 15s	45s
Wrath (R8)	Drained of 50% of current morale, adds 75% of amount drained to power			30s

A special note about Glory in Victory: All reavers should be aware that with the latest update (Volume III: Allies of the King, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers, which went live on March 1, 2010), Glory in Victory now heals for +217M initially and +217M every 4s as long as the reaver has obtained all of his damage passives and has no + or - damage corruptions slotted.  (If the reaver has obtained all of his damage passives and has four + damage and no - damage corruptions slotted, GiV heals for +245M initially and +245M every 4s.  Unfortunately, only the +damage passives and +damage corruptions increase the amount of the self-heal from Glory in Victory.  That is to say, neither the +5% overall damage buff you can get from the NPC in the TA quest room in exchange for destiny points, nor the +10% melee damage buff a reaver gets while under the effect of GiV, nor the +25% melee damage buff a reaver gets while under the effect of a WL's Aura of Command have such an effect.)

Furthermore, the latest update also increases the tactical crit and dev crit percentages for a reaver who slots both Rage of the Misbegotten and Flayer of Flesh (see the Racial Traits section below) from 5.7% and 1.8% to 8.3% and 2.6%, respectively -- which represents an increase of about 45.6% on the tactical crit chance and about 44.4% on the tactical dev crit chance.  (Note: If you do not slot either of those orc racial traits, your tactical crit and dev crit percentages remain the same as before.)  Since reavers do not do any tactical damage, this would seem to be irrelevant.  However, the magnitude of each tick of the self-heal from Glory in Victory depends on the reaver's tactical crit and dev crit percentages.  Therefore, these changes provide a slight added benefit to a Rank 7+ reaver under the effect of GiV.

Class Traits

Trait	Effect	Cost	Duration	Cooldown	Rating
Advanced Skill: Against the Odds (R10)	+320-340M, +320-340P, resets cooldown on many skills	68P		15m	4/5
Advanced Skill: Resilience (R5)	Removes all CC except snares and CJs	68P		1m	5/5
Burning Blades (R4)	Changes all damage to fire				5/5
Enhanced Skill: Devastating Strike (R2)	-30s Devastating Strike recovery time	389P		30s	4/5
Enhanced Skill: Glory in Victory (R2)	-10% melee damage penalty when enraged	68P	1m 30s	30s	2/5
Enhanced Skill: Hamstring (R15)	-2s Hamstring recovery time, increases slow from 25% to 30%	68P	15s	8s	2/5
Enhanced Skill: Jagged Cut (R0)	+25% chance of 69 Common every 2s	106P	12s	5s	1/5
Enhanced Skill: Upper Hand (R14)	Increases magnitude of parry and evade reductions on target, makes those debuffs last longer	68P	??	45s	3/5
Extended Reach (R11)	+1 AoE targets				2/5
Power Boost (R0)	+10% power				1/5
Quick Strikes (R0)	-10% auto-attack duration				2/5
Resistance Boost (R1)	+780 to Song, Cry, Physical, and Tactical resistance ratings				4/5

Slotting the Resistance Boost class trait increases all four resistance ratings by 780, resulting in a 12.6% resist rate for Song/Physical and 11.8% resist rate for Cry/Tactical (see the Recommended Corruption Traits section below, which discusses the increased resistances for reavers in the latest update).  I think all reavers should now strongly consider slotting Resistance Boost to gain more than double the previous levels of protection against attacks from minstrels (many of whom are still running around in war-speech), LMs, and RKs.

Racial Traits

Trait	Effect	Cost	Duration	Cooldown	Rating
Advanced Skill: Blood of Fire (R6)	Reflects 39 damage back to your attacker on any attack	68P	Toggle	1m 30s	5/5
Advanced Skill: Dying Rage (R9)	Sets run speed to 200%, +50% melee damage, immunity to all CC except root and snares (and possibly CJs), +100% parry, -100% auto-attack duration, +2650 to the reaver's melee, ranged, and tactical defense ratings, resets most offensive skills, reaver is automatically defeated on skill expiration	68P	15s	10m	4/5
Flayer of Flesh (R10)	+520 melee critical rating, +520 tactical critical rating, +260 (1%) to melee and tactical damage ratings				5/5
Front-Line Fodder (R5)	+260 parry, +260 block, +260 evade				3/5
Rage of the Misbegotten (R7)	+260 melee critical rating, +260 tactical critical rating, increases maximum morale by 10%				5/5
Tireless Warrior (R11)	+300 ICMR, +300 ICPR				3/5
Warrior Against the Deep (R8)	+390 Ancient Dwarf mitigation, +2 stealth detection				1/5

Recommended Corruption Traits

There are a couple of different ways to go about this.

• High mitigations - Boost defenses and health for more survivability
• High resistances - Boosts resistances to shake off more CC and to resist more incoming tactical attacks.  The point is to at least get into range of the target before dying.  Of significance here is the fact that in the latest update, all resistances for reavers, who have the lowest default resistance rates of any creep class (only two boxes at Rank 9+), have been improved.  For Song and Physical attacks, the reaver's resistance rates have been increased from 1579 (5.8%) to 2944 (10.2%).  Likewise, for Cry and Tactical attacks, the reaver's resistance rates have been increased from 1309 (4.8%) to 2674 (9.4%) -- which is an 86.4% increase for Song/Physical and a 95.9% increase for Cry/Tactical.
• There has also been something of a debate on whether power should be dropped for health and damage.  The trade off is less power for burst damage which equates to about one additional sudden strike.  Even with the massive reduction in reaver ICPR that first came with Mines of Moria, sacrificing power for morale and/or damage is a good idea for a reaver, as you'll typically be dead before you run out of power, and you can always use Time-Out or pop a power pot if you need one in a long fight.

Tactics

[Vyxe, Elendilmir]

The premier reaver tactic is the "in and out", watching your fellow creeps for their movements and when a freep is vulnerable, then charging in and burning Sunder Armor, Blinding Dust if needed, Hamstring if needed, Sudden Strikes till the target is down to 50% then Devastating Strike and GETTING OUT.  Spend as little time in close combat as possible unless you have quite a few healers or a bubble.  Reavers have great burst damage but no strong sustained DPS, so burn the power out then fall back if alive to recharge.  Don't release if you have done considerable damage to the freeps because the target might get killed very shortly.

For consumables, even with Resilience slotted, you will want a very full set of pots constantly.  CC is the primary reason why you will not do any damage.  You will fail to get into range.  With Siege of Mirkwood, however, snares and CJs are the biggest concerns.

For solo tactics

• Champions - It's a DPS vs DPS fight.  Disarm if at all possible and debuff with Blinding Dust.  If they are running fervor, you win vs most of them.  Keep circling and jumping through them to break up their attacks.  If they reheal, run away if your health isn't good.
• Burglers - Good luck, if a burgler puts on evade, try to delay till it runs out 30 seconds later.  Hamstring to keep them at arms length during this time.  Everything depends on things not working well for the burgler and the dice rolling well for the reaver to win this fight.
• Guardian - Maintain sunder at all times.  This is a very long fight, try to avoid as much damage as possible from the guardian even if it's low.  It will take all of your morale to beat them down.  Do what you can to stay on their back side to negate block and parry.
• Minstrels - Run, even with Gut Punch they will outheal any damage you do to them
• Loremasters - Unless they're sleeping they'll punch right through your pots and Resilience and shut you down.  Even if their health can be taken down under 1k, they will nearly always have Wisdom of the Council up for a massive reheal, they'll have another one if it's a man loremaster.  Save the pots for the mezzes and roots instead of using them on the stuns.  If it's reasonable, try to kill Lynx's if they are out, they have strong burst damage.
• Hunter - Use trees and other obstacles to your advantage to close the distance, run in circles around them and do your best to kill them before they decide to DF.
• Captain - These are like guardians with less armor and more DPS.  They will fire Last Stand if low, just back off for 15 seconds (25 if traited, which is usual) and wait for it to go down.  Keep a hamstring on them to prevent them from either running at or away from you.  Keep a sunder up and ignore any herald if up.

In raid situations, the Raid Leader should try to get the reavers engaged in 'waves' and either keep them in there, or pull them out to be rehealed.  If reavers charge individually or in small groups into a freep raid, they are readily destroyed.  The shock value of every reaver hitting the freeps at one time is far higher and has better payoffs.  Call for a melee extraction when you want to pull them out for another subsequent strike.  This also offers the benefit of letting them get charge up again when out of combat and to retarget.  When fighting balled up freeps, make sure that the reavers are throwing their dust around and aoe'ing to keep everything in combat.  Remember also that their charge breaks traps and they should be the first ones charging ahead of the raid into the freeps to clear the way.

[Hywelbane, Elendilmir]

Here are a few additional tips for reavers.  If you've got two or more BAs in your group, begin attacking each new focus-fire target with Sundering Blow, since it increases the incoming common damage considerably.  On LMs, the moment they hit half health disarm them if possible, thus preventing them from popping their big heal.  Disarm also works wonders against RKs.  When you're on a minstrel, spam Gut Punch as often as you can.  Against guardians, champs, and burgs, always use Blinding Dust and, if you're rank 9 or higher, make sure you use your one and only parry/evade debuff, Upper Hand.  Unfortunately, Upper Hand is on a rather long 45 second cooldown and is subject to a wound resistance check like all reaver debuffs, so don't be surprised if it misses.  (By the way, the Rank 13 triple-attack skill Thrash, which can only be used on a target which has first been disarmed, appears to be horrible, since the tooltip damage is a mere 100 more than a garden-variety Ravage, which reavers get at Rank 4.  However, in light of its very high rank requirement, very long cooldown (5 minutes), and the wording of its tooltip (which states that the skill can do "very high damage"), it is possible that it has an increased chance to crit, along the lines of Devastating Strike.  Since there are no Rank 13 reavers in the game at this time, this is possibly only an educated guess/wishful thinking.)  Also, be aware that Dust, Disarm, and Upper Hand can all be potted out of or removed by certain freep class skills/abilities.  (Still, you can sometimes use this to your advantage by inducing your target to burn a pot then using a second skill.)  But above all, be prepared to Die Horribly^TM early and often in the service of Sauron.

The changes to Dying Rage that came with the latest update are major enhancements to the skill, as: (1) freeps will no longer be able to completely nullify Dying Rage by kiting or slowing the reaver for the duration of the skill; (2) the reaver now has some protection (although not a great amount) from incoming ranged and tactical attacks; and (3) the reaver now has some protection from incoming melee attacks that cannot be parried (champs and hunters have a couple of skills like this) and melee attacks from behind.  As a result, I expect that Rank 9+ reavers will use it much more often than they do now.  (At this time, I do not know if the new Dying Rage grants reavers any immunity to CJs.  I sincerely doubt it, though.)

One other thing: The +morale passives and corruptions cause the maximum morale buffs you can buy with DP to add more than the listed value.  For instance, using the 30-minute +246 maximum morale buff increases the morale of a Rank 10+ reaver with a typical corruption setup from 8,940 to 9,370, as opposed to the 9,186 you would otherwise expect.  (The same is true of the power and damage buffs you can buy with DP, as +power and +damage passives and corruptions also take you slightly over the listed values.)  So use them whenever possible, particularly since they do not expire upon defeat.

Warg

Overview

Wargs are the stealth melee class, hit and run are their specialty as well as pouncing freeps and disabling minstrels with interrupts and silences.  The warg also makes an excellent scout with their speed and stealth, use them liberally to watch critical approach corridors to set up ambushes for roaming freep groups.

So you just rolled a warg, now what?

Well the first thing I will say is if you are after a burg equivalent then go roll another burg because you will not find it here.  Although a warg can stealth and disappear similar to a burg that is pretty much the extent of the similarities, although ignorant people will argue to the hilt that one burg = one warg. 

What you will be doing – the warg is primarily a scout class, you can relay information about where the freeps are without them even realising you are there.  You will be dying A LOT, unless you run after you get hit once or spend a lot of time waiting for an opportune moment to finish something off for a small amount of infamy, so don’t be afraid to die and play aggressively if you want to get the most out of the warg.  The warg although a melee class is quite squishy, although it is better at higher ranks, so be prepared to die frequently after you stun a target from stealth.  The warg is pretty much the most hated creep class and so once you pop your head out of stealth be prepared to be targeted.

In a group situation you will be heading out a little way from the group to alert the group to incoming enemies or possibly to find a solo or duo freep group to start killing.  What can often happen is you have a group of 4 and find two freeps, as the warg it is your job to run in there and stun one to stop it/knock it off its horse and then keep them there until the group catches up.  This can often result in your death but the group winning so if you are a warg be prepared to die for the good of the group.  Also one thing that cannot be stressed enough for any creep but especially wargs is GET YOUR MAPS.  Being able to quickly map around the moors for scouting is extremely helpful to the group and to the whole of creepside.

Information below in red is known to be incorrect in the newest expansion RoI.  It is currently being updated.  Where applicable I have made some statements in red to offer some clarification until I can get the page fully updated. - Afterthought

Skills

Skill	Effect		Power Cost	Duration	Cooldown
Claws (R0)	372 common damage, Bestial Claws if used from stealth 465 common damage.		125		1s
Crippling Bite (R0)	On Target, -25% run speed, crippled state debuff.		81	30s	10s
Maul (R0)	345 common damage, 96-137 common damage every 2s for 10s, Bloody Maul if used from stealth 345 common damage and 104-149 common damage every 2s for 20s , stacks with maul bleed.  On critical applies -25% incoming healing debuff on target for 30 seconds.		69	10s/20s	5s
Pounce (R0)	465 common damage, chance for 3s knockdown if target in crippled state, interrupts target. Sudden Pounce if used from stealth 345 common damage and a 5s stun.		69		10s
Savage Fangs (R0)	On Target, +10% attack duration, -3300 block rating.		106	45s	10s
Sprint (R0)	Sets run speed at 200%.		81	20s	10m
Stealth (R0)	Stealth, decreased movement speed.			Toggle	10s
Throat Rip (R1)	Silences target for 10s.		106	10s	1m
Disappear (R2)		Briefly undetectable in stealth. Stealth is not broken by damage.		10s	10m
Swipe (R3)	465 common damage, cannot be evaded.		125		20s
Tendon Shred (R3)	321 common damage, 5s knockdown.		106		5m
Rend Flesh (R4)	Requires critical response. 345 common damage, on Target, +10% Incoming Melee Damage, +10% Incoming Ranged Damage.		125	30s	None
Rabid Bite (R5)	On Target, 321 common damage, +25% power cost.		125	1m	20s
Eye Rake (R6)	465 common damage, interrupts Target.		69		15s
Frenzy (R6)	Requires critical response.  On Self, +1500 Melee Critical rating, +5% Evade Rating.		81	30s	1m 30s
Scratch and Snip (R7)	Two attacks of 372 common damage		125		30s
Flea Bitten (R8)	3 Target AoE debuff, +25% skill inductions and attack duration.		81	45s	45s
Sense Prey (R9)	Detect non-stealth targets (120 metre radius)				1m
Dire Howl (R10)	4 Target AoE silence		106	10s	5m
Snap (R10)	On Target, -10% Melee, Range & Tactical Damage, 5s disarm on critical hit		81	30s	1m

 

Traits

Class Traits

Trait			Effect		Rating
Armour Boost (R0)			+1238 armour value		3/5
Enhanced Skill: Sprint (R0)			-300s sprint cooldown		5/5
Enhanced Skill: Stealth (R0)			+4 stealth, +45% stealth run speed		5/5
Long Strides (R0)			+5% run speed		5/5
Resistance Boost (R1)		+900 resistance rating			2/5
The Element of Surprise (R2)			+20% crit chance when attacking from stealth		2/5
Shadow Fang (R4)			Sets damage type to shadow		5/5
Advanced Skill: Rallying Howl (R5)			Group heal (30 metre radius), +274-392 morale initially, +150-214 every 4s for 20.  197 power cost. Cooldown 30 seconds.		3/5
Enhanced Skill: Disappear(R7)			Reduces the cooldown of disappear by 3 minutes		3/5
Advanced Skill: Shadow Howler (R10)			Toggle skill (out of stealth only), +15% damage, +2025 armour value, +616 tactical mitigation, 1000 morale bubble which refreshes every 30 seconds.  Cooldown 30 seconds.		5/5
Enhanced Skill: Sense Prey (R10			Sense Prey can track stealth targets, -25% track range (90 metre radius)		1/5
Enhanced Skill: Eye Rake (R11)			-5s eye rake cooldown		4/5
Enhanced Skill: Rabid Bite (R14)			+15% Target power cost		1/5

 

Racial Traits

Trait	Effect	Rating
Four-Legged Foe (R5)	+5% run speed, +300 evade rating	5/5
Advanced Skill: Pack Hunters (R6)	Flags Target, on any damage from group Target takes additional damage.	5/5
Pack Mentality (R7)	+300 parry & evade rating, +900 physical & tactical resistance	3/5
Pack Elder (R8)	+616 physical mitigation	3/5
Howl of the Unnerving (R9)	4 Target AoE debuff, -600 block, parry and evade rating for 30 seconds.  25% chance to fear targets for 5 seconds. 172 power cost. Cooldown 1 minute.	3.5/5
Foe of the Light (R10)	+4 stealth level, +205 tactical mitigation	3.5/5
Pack Alpha (R11)	+600 melee offense rating, +450 base melee critical rating, +365 finesse	4.5/5

 

Builds

There are three types of builds for the warg, the full damage build, the full morale build and the mixed damage/morale builds.  Each type of build has its own advantages and disadvantages and will mostly depend on how you wish to play the warg.  Within these three groups there are two other ways to trait corruptions.  One involves using one slot for Critical Protection Rank 2 the other uses all 6 slots for damage and morale corruptions.  While using all 6 can allow you to have a higher morale and damage combo it will also mean you will be hit by many more critical hits.  Again it comes down to personal preference but I would strongly recommend slotting critical protection rank 2.  Only the % changes from your base stats are given here.  This is because with the introduction of battlefield promotions each rank will have a different base morale, power and damage stat.

Full Morale Build

For a full morale build without critical protection slotted:

• Morale for power rank 2
• Morale for power rank 1
• Morale for damage rank 2
• Morale for damage rank 1
• Damage for power rank 2
• Damage for power rank 1

This gives a total change from base of: 

• +30% morale
• +2.5% damage
• -20% power

For a full morale build with critical protection slotted:

• Critical protection rank 2
• Morale for power rank 2
• Morale for power rank 1
• Morale for damage rank 2
• Morale for damage rank 1
• Damage for power rank 2

This gives a total change from base of:

• +30% morale
• +0% damage
• -15% power
• +912 critical defence

Full Damage Build

For a full damage build without critical protection slotted:

• Damage for morale rank 2
• Damage for morale rank 1
• Damage for power rank 2
• Damage for power rank 1
• Morale for power rank 2
• Morale for power rank 1

This gives a total change from base of:

• +15% damage
• +5% morale
• -20% power

For a full damage build with critical protection slotted:

• Critical protection rank 2
• Damage for morale rank 2
• Damage for morale rank 1
• Damage for power rank 2
• Damage for power rank 1
• Morale for power rank 2

This gives a total change from base of:

• +15% damage
• +0% morale
• -15% power
• +912 critical defence

Morale/Damage Build

A morale/damage build is a mixture between the two and can differ depending on your exact setup.  All you need to know is the numbers will lie somewhere between the two extremes and thus you can use that to judge what you might like to do. I personally run with the following setup:

• Critical protection rank 2
• Morale for power rank 2
• Morale for power rank 1
• Morale for damage rank 2
• Damage for power rank 2
• Damage for power rank 1

This gives a total change from base of:

• +25% morale
• +5% damage
• -20% power
• +912 critical defence

Attacking From Stealth

 

What to use from stealth?

One of the first questions you should be thinking about the warg is “what should I be using from stealth?”  The answer is the target and the situation decide for you.

 

Burglars

I mention burglars first because this is the MOST important rule as a warg.  If you learn only one thing from this guide then let it be this. DO NOT POUNCE BURGS!!!  Now that we have that clear I shall explain that this is true for 99% of the time and why this is the case.  You should not pounce a burg because the stun allows them to activate Find-Footing (FF) which gives them +50% evade chance and a massive heal in the order of a couple of thousand morale.  Now at the start of a battle you have just made it extremely difficult to hit that burg for the 30s that evade is up, in a worse situation where you come in late you have also just topped them up to full morale.  So never pounce a burg except…  If there is no way a burg is going to die, ie they are at full morale and either the numbers or location means there is no chance that the burg will even go close to dying then feel free to pounce them.  Why?  For the exact same reason above – many burgs will pop Find-Footing and then you run off and it was wasted with a 5 minute cool down.  This has achieved 3 things, 1. You have pissed the burg off, 2. You have just made them able to be pounced for the next 5 minutes and 3. Probably made them run away and hide in a camp for the next 5 minutes until their cool down is gone and thus removed an annoyance from the fight.  In normal situations NEVER POUNCE THE BURG.   This also extends to the use of tendon shred.  CJs can be used by the burg to activate Find-Footing.  Any form of knockdown, stun, mez or CJ will allow them to trigger FF so just don’t use them.  If you are ever not sure if you should or should not stun a burg then don’t.   Ok we’re done with that.

So what should you do to those burglars?  Well the biggest problem with burglars, apart from their near limitless “oh shit” buttons is the equivalent of disappear – HIPS (Hide In Plain Sight).  It is identical to disappear with only 2 exceptions, 1. They can move at full run speed and 2. They can do it 2 times in the first 10 minutes and once in the second 10 minutes, or 3 times per 20 minutes. 

Now recall that DoTs break you out of stealth after disappear ends and thus we have our tactic for the burglar.  Bleed them from stealth.

There are three options from stealth; maul (bleed) which becomes bloody maul, claws (damage) which becomes bestial claws (the biggest hit you get as a warg) and pounce (stun) which becomes sudden pounce.  One thing to note is the name change, now while in most cases people would think “bah who cares” this actually makes for a very important combination when dealing with burgs.  All skills from stealth have their name changed to reflect their increased effectiveness from stealth – claws does more damage, pounce stuns on a hit and is 5 seconds not 3 seconds and maul does more damage per tick and lasts 20 seconds not 10 seconds.  Here is the catch, maul and the more powerful bloody maul have a different name and thus are different bleeds and this means they can be stacked.  Combine this with the savage fangs 20 seconds bleed and you have bleeds that last longer than the burglar HIPS hence why we bleed burgs.

 

When to use the different attacks from stealth

First priority is morale – if it is low on morale (below half for non-tank classes or below 2k for wardens and guards, claw from stealth as this does the most damage (assuming the target is not running from the fight).  This is the least used option and is only for when you want to spike damage a target which you can kill very quickly.

If it is a burg OR a guardian OR a freep with stun immunity bleed it with maul from stealth.

If it is not a burg and is moving, running away or on a horse or it looks like it might run stun it.  Generally if it is high on morale and is not a burg you should usually stun, providing the target is not in a stun immune state.

Some other things to note are:

Guards can use Turn the Tables to reverse a stun or cj on you so it is often better to use maul from stealth and only use a stun if you really need to stop them and are willing to take the cj hit.

Lore-Masters have stun dots which protect them and any target they place it on from most forms of crowd control.  If a target has a stun dot bleed it from stealth.

To get burglars, guards and freeps with stun dots off their horses you can use the skill Eye Rake which is an interrupt and will immediately knock any freep off their horse.  For lower ranked wargs who do not have eye rake you can chase after the horse and just before you are about to pounce unstealth then hit pounce.  Pounce when not in stealth is an interrupt so it will immediately knock the freep off their horse but will not stun.  If for some strange reason a mounted freep does have the crippling bite state on them it is a judgement call as to if you should use pounce or not.  It could crit and thus stun which could be bad but chances are it will escape if you don’t so it will depend on the situation.  This does not apply to eye rake.  Feel free to use eye rake to dismount any freep.

NPCs – bleed them.  Stacking bleeds on an NPC is the quickest, most efficient way to kill it and you don’t need a pounce because the NPC isn’t going to run.

 

Skill Usage

Crippling Bite

Crippling bite has three important uses, 1. To slow the target’s run speed by 25%, 2. To put the crippling bite state on the target which allows an in-combat stun chance and 3. To put the crippling bite state on the target which allows you to put a 20 second bleed on the target.  When you hit a target with crippling bite it will put 2 debuffs on the target that have the same icon as the skill on the skill bar.  One is the run debuff the other is the crippling bite state, both last for 30 seconds.  It is possible for the target to resist the run debuff even on a successful hit but the crippling bite state will still be put on the target. 

Once the target has the crippling bite state you have two options, to pounce the target and hope for a stun (there is only a CHANCE for a stun and it is only 3 seconds not 5 seconds like from stealth) or to use savage fangs which on a hit will put a 20 second bleed on the target.  The crippling bite state is removed on successful application of a stun or bleed so if one misses you can try the other or if both miss you can wait for the cool downs and try again.  The run debuff is not removed only the crippling bite state is.

Generally on NPCs use the bleed unless your group needs a cj.  If it is a burg always use the bleed, never pounce or CJ a burg.

 

Throat Rip

Silencing is one thing that can only be done by wargs on creepside.  This 10 second silence will stop the target from using most skills that come under the classification of cries, shouts, heals and generally a range of tactical skills.  The classes to use silence on are in order of importance: minstrels, healing rune keepers, damage RKs, LMs and captains.  Also in a solo fight it might be an idea to silence a hunter so they cannot use the non-induction fear called cry of the predator. Healing minstrels are pretty much stuffed if you silence them, though they do have a 10 minute cool down skill which can be used to remove silence but with more than one warg that is easily taken care of.  When silenced minstrels are unable to use any of their heals.  A healing rune keeper who is silenced can only use the most basic heals (only skills available at neutral attunement) and so is hampered by this, they cannot remove the silence except with a pot.  Lore masters when silenced cannot use their big heal and are unable to use many of their damage and crowd-control skills and so are another prime target for a silence.  Damage rune keepers when silenced can only use two lightning skills, granted they usually just spam those two skills anyway but what it does stop is epic conclusion so you won’t be getting hit for 3k+ criticals.  Captains are unable to heal while silenced but more importantly they cannot use their shout to activate their big damage chain and cannot use their defeat skills. 

Timing for Silences

Minstrels and healing RKs should be silenced right after or slightly before the stun wears off thus providing a longer time to kill them before they can really cause you harm or heal up.  Damage rune-keepers really only need to be silenced to stop epic conclusion which takes 9 damage skills to build up.  If possible count as they use them and silence them on 6-8, however this is often impossible to do in the heat of battle so a better strategy is to try and wait about 5-6 seconds after they start fighting to silence them or by watching their buffs, however sometimes by the time you see the buffs it is too late.  For Lore-Masters you do it whenever they start to use their lightning and other big damage skills.  It can also be used to interrupt either Ents go to War or Lightning Storm if you time it right.  Silence will also break the minstrel’s bubble if it is given enough time.  It takes about 4 seconds.

 

Sprint

Sprint can be used as an offensive skill or a defensive skill.  It is best used offensively as most times when you try to run away with it you will get dotted to death or crowd controlled and killed.  Disappear is a better option for escape.  Sprint can be used to chase down fleeing freeps or to knock a freep off a horse/goat.  When trying to knock a freep off a mount you must take server lag and ping into account as it is common to be running in the mount and still not be in the “correct” position to hit pounce.  There are two main methods used to counter this.  Method one is to run straight through the horse so you are in front of it, stop and hit pounce, if timed right this will hit the freep as it rides over you.  The other option is to run beside the freep and angle inwards while running in a diagonal-forward direction and thus hit them from the side.  I find running through the horse works best though it will require you to be closer to the freep to start with because running through the horse means you must cover a larger distance.  The last offensive use of sprint is the hit and run which is where you pounce a target and run away before you are attacked.  This can be done by either circling around the back of a group finding a target and hitting it with pounce, hitting sprint and running or can be done from either the front or back where you pick a target from a distance, hit sprint to dash in hit the target and dash back or through the ball of freeps depending on your starting location.  When doing this always try to be running back towards the creeps or friendly NPCs so you have cover fire and possibly get heals if needed.

 

Disappear

Disappear can obviously be used to escape a nasty situation but it can also be used to gain the upper hand in a fight.  Getting back into stealth opens up your stealth attacks again so you can pounce the target again for a stun or maul for a 20 second bleed.  It is good to use this to stun if you need to stop a target or you and the target are getting low on morale.  You can pop disappear stand slightly away and behind the target and wait for a little bit of health or use a potion and then go for a stun or bleed.  If you have a DoT on you make sure you attack before the 10 seconds are up else you will be popped out of stealth and will have lost the chance at a stealth attack.

Some notes about disappear

Be aware that disappear is broken – you cannot be removed from the 10s unbreakable stealth, however some NPCs and LM pets will continue to shoot you through it (most notable are some of the NPCs in Elf Camp) and hunters can track you through it (intended).  Also something, working as intended but something to be aware of is that AoE damage will hit you while in stealth it just won’t make you visible.  It is important to know that using Disappear does not stop inductions which have already passed their target check (most have this at the start of the induction only) so you can and will take a lot of damage even after clicking the skill, especially if there are many freeps about.  When many hunters are about it is not uncommon to take 3k+ damage after hitting Disappear.

 

Stealth

The main thing to note about using stealth is that if you get too close to freeps or NPCs they will still be able to see you.  This means that where possible you should always approach from behind or the side.  The main other thing you need to be monitoring as a warg is the "you feel as if you are being followed" message which appears in the general chat tab.  This means a hunter has tracked you and it shows them where you are on their radar and allows them to see you through your stealth.  To fix this you must unstealth, by pressing/clicking the stealth skill and then re-stealthing once it is off cool down.  You are still "tracked" up until you manage to regain stealth so be careful while you are exposed.

Raid Tactics

 

[Afterthought, Elendilmir]

Your Role as a Warg in a Raid

This will differ greatly to the role of a warg that Vyxe put up for a few reasons:

• I play in Aussie time during which raid vs raid fights are greatly different and smaller than the huge 40+ per side fights common in US prime time.
• Because of the above the wargs in Aussie time make up a large amount of the raid’s damage and thus cannot be used in an in-and-out role.
• Because in Aussie time it is considered of a greater benefit, due to the type of fights, for the wargs to be in the middle of the fight pressuring the healers and hunter turrets thus reducing their effectiveness even if it does mean a few more wargs die.
• Because I have the fortune of having a great raid leader in Smegrat who allows me to play the warg how I want to which is a very in-your-face style of warg-play thus I will write this from how I play in a raid and how wargs are expected to contribute in those raids.

I would like to point out that both are completely valid strategies and both obviously work for their respected time zones and leaders else they would not be used.

Your role as a warg in a raid is split into two main categories scouting and combat.  While scouting you need to be able to find the freeps and get close enough to get an accurate count of their numbers before returning to a safer distance which allows you to escape if you are tracked but still close enough to follow them if they move.  You need to be good at giving directions, all creeps should be but you especially.  Do not use “over there”, “here” or “on the right side of V rock”.  Always use compass directions in combination with a known location or as a relative direction to the raid, “the freeps are south of the raid”.  Only use the directions “left” and “right” if you are referring to the direction from the raid AND you are heading/facing the same direction as the raid leader, e.g. if we are running along and the freep raid is to our right it is OK to say, “freeps on our right”.  Don’t say to the right of a location on the map because it is relative to you and not accurate. 

You also need to be precise in counting.  The following should be used when reporting freep numbers:

• A small group/fellowship = 3 freeps
• A group/fellowship = 6 freeps
• Half a raid or two groups/fellowships = 12 freeps
• Three groups/fellowships = 18 freeps
• A raid = 24 freeps.

You can either report using the proper terminology or by using an exact number so for 21 freeps I can say “there are 21 visible freeps at V rock” or “3 groups + 3 south of V rock”.

It is extremely important as the scout class to be extremely familiar and efficient with this role as it will greatly help the raid and as the stealth class it really is your job.

Your role in combat is to harass and destroy.  You have the most skills of any class aimed at harassing and locking down the opposition, especially healers.  Your slow, stuns, CJ, power drain, silence, incoming damage debuff and agility and wound resist debuff all allow you to pester the freeps and stop them doing their jobs.  You should always follow the orders of the raid leader even if they are contrary to your most efficient class role, however I will outline the roles you will most commonly be taking in a fight. 

Harassing Healers

One main objective of the warg is to limit the amount of healing a minstrel, RK or captain can give to their group or raid.  This means you should find the target healer and stun it if possible and then stay on that healer to stop it healing.  Slow it and apply bleeds to cause harassment over time, silence it to stop heals and do as much damage as possible.  Remember harassing the healer is often enough to allow the raid to kill other targets but dropping the health of the healer quickly can lead to a burst on it resulting in its death.  A good combo for this is pounce, crippling bite, savage fangs, maul, throat rip, scratch and snip, eye rake, swipe.  This stuns, slows, applies bleeds, silences to stop heals and then does anywhere from 1-2.5k damage depending on crits.  Make sure you stay within range of your healers and try to keep moving as much as possible to reduce the chance of melee classes hitting you.  Don’t be afraid to use Disappear to save yourself from focus fire.  If you are going to die try to do it close to the group or other dead raid members so rezzes can be used more efficiently. 

Once a healer dies you need to jump on the next target the raid leader calls.  The first thing you should do to a new target is slow it as soon as you can.  It is important to always have a slow on the raid’s target so all melee classes can attack it more easily.  If possible also use stuns on viable targets to help the raid even further.  If your power drain is up and you happen to be near a freep who is reliant on power, pretty much any tactical class or captain, flick across to put the drain on them as you run past.  This puts pressure on the freep over time.  This is especially beneficial if there is a warg target assist focusing on the healers.  In this situation the warg target assist will have the main target covered with a drain so you can put your drain on another healer as you move past them.  This does not mean go out of your way to drain targets as this will reduce focus firing.  This is if a good candidate happens to be standing near you or you must pass one to reach your target.

Two other roles you will often be asked to fill is pushing into the ranged freeps.  This means you need to get right in the face of the hunters and other ranged sitting at the back of the fight and cause some mayhem.  Jump on the main target and throw out slows, pounces and interrupts and most importantly keep moving so they have trouble hitting you.  Lastly you will be required to chase down freeps as they retreat.  Pop sprint if it is up and try and slow, stun and/or CJ as many as you can so the rest of the raid can kill them.  Hit one target and make sure the raid will get them and move onto the next target if there is one.

Overall your job in the raid is to harass the called targets.  Stop them from doing what they want to do through slows and stuns and then bleed them up and apply damage.  You are a squishy target so you are going to die so try and cause as much mayhem as possible before you die.  My opinion of wargs trying to run in and out of a fight to survive longer is that although you might live longer you will be doing less damage and requiring more heals because as soon as you start to run you will become an obvious target, whether because you are more visible out of the main fight or because it is assumed you are on low morale and thus an easy kill.  By running you stop doing damage and stop applying pressure, which may have been more beneficial in the long run.  Because you become such an obvious target when you try to run you are either still going to die or need a lot of heals due to focus firing which you may not have received if you had stayed as just another creep in the middle of the brawl.

[Vyxe, Elendilmir]

From the raid leader perspective, Wargs are the scouting and melee crowd control class of the creeps.  With the enhanced stealth trait and a full set of maps, they can observe even heavily tracking freep groups and keep tabs on them.  Disperse them freely to find contact points with the enemy but remember to recall them back to the fight as they bring valuable skills to the battle. 

In raid against raid combat, a warg excels in the following

• First Strike:  The shock of an immediate attack right on top of you can make the enemy suddenly turn to run, expecting a larger attack.  This works with smaller groups
• Lockdown:  The Pounce stun + Tendon Shred gives about 8 seconds of stun time, enough time for the raid to catch up and to apply DPS to destroy the target before it can run away or use an escape mechanism (last stand, feign death, desperate flight, etc).  Wargs are also critical in pursuit with their sprints and cripple/pounces to prevent the enemy from running away.  They should cripple/pounce an opponant then try to catch another one, letting the slower raid behind them crush whatever they have slowed.
• Silence:  While minstrels have a skill to remove silence and LM stun immunities cure silence, enough applications by wargs of silence can either very temporarily or for a reasonable duration cripple the minstrel's healing capability. 
• Harrassment:  Their escape skills allow them to operate away from the main raid and in the back of the freeps where their minstrels are often found. 
• Ranger Duty:  Wargs can severely reduce the ability of rangers to operate with stuns and interrupts.  Sometimes it is worth detaching a warg to deal with rangers attacking your healers

[Roktata, Brandywine]

An alternative method of creeping for wargs is the warg pack. As a pack leader, I have found many tricks and tango's that one has to learn. Being part of a mixed raid and a warg pack are two separate concepts, and the difference between is almost like night and day. In order to be a good pack warg there are things you have to learn, how to deal with lack of heals, how to focus and move quickly, and all in all be a much sharper player than usually necessary. The following is my guide on warg packing, this is written from a leader's perspective but gives good insight on how to be a good pack warg.

1. Heals:

Managing without a healer is pretty tricky, as you know at rank 5 wargs get rallying howl, a HoT that heals the whole group and stacks with itself. So having 3-4 howlers in a single group (meaning 3-4 rank 5's) is ideal, but of course not always possible. Once you start getting a steady group of higher ranked wargs, (at least 5 and up) you can start to rely on having a decent amount of howlers to keep you alive. I usually have my howlers use their howl immediately after the first kill, that way you can use it again soon after when the 30s cooldown is up. Since its pretty easy to run out of power, at least for me because I tend to spam my claws, having a power pot is good for when you've killed something and don't have enough power for the howl. Howl costs about 120 power, the lowest based power pot is enough to give you this, so no need to blow all your money on higher pots if you don't feel the need to, just have the pot there so you can use it for your howl. That way you aren't wasting your mana pot just to spam claws some more.

2. Targetting Priorities:

Targets are tricky at times, when I'm in a fight I usually try to take down the LM's first. The success of a warg pack is completely based on the amount of LM's are in the opposing group, they throw down that tar, use that AOE stun that incapacitates an entire pack, mass roots, etc. They make wargs hurt, so killing them first is the ideal choice. I've wiped full freep raids because we took down 2 lm's before the freeps even knew wtf was going on, then killed the other 2 before they could do too much damage. After LM's Its typically minnies or hunters. If they don't have a lot of minnies go for the hunters, they are squishy, easy to kill, and if they have no DPS they cant kill you. After that its usually champions, pretty easy to kill, and like hunters its taking out dps. Then you can go for the captains, though they probably will just pop last stand, if they do just switch to a different target and come back to them later. I usually save guards and burglars till the end of the fight. Guards do no damage and take a long time to kill, and burglars have too many escape skills to bother with till the end of the fight. Guardians before burglars, then you can take a whack at em. I'll tell you how we take down burglars later.

3. Taking Keeps:

Taking keeps is something you might wanna hold off on till you get some expierence, and till you can get a bigger pack. Even taking LC or isen takes about 3 groups min (at least if you want to take it without anyone dying). Once you feel confident enough to start taking keeps start with Isen and LC, and eventually work your way up to the bigger keeps. Always, I repeat, ALWAYS, warg pull the CG or kill the first marshals before you fight the CG. If you fight them WITH the CG, you are going to get yourself killed. If you don't know how the warg pull works (not saying you don't just never know) have a warg who has dissapear drop group, unstealth in front of the CG (do not attack it) run away, have another warg hit the CG and the CG only, pull it aside, and have the original warg who was running away disappear. All the other mobs will reset, but now you will have the CG by himself off to the side where the pack can safely take him down. You are always going to have to have some weak mobs nearby (coldfell hunters, champions, cave claws, etc) that you will have to pull in the middle of the fight and kill to let the howlers get their heals off. Another reason why you will need a decent of howlers if you hope to run an efficient pack.
Once you are fighting a CG, (I do this with Goldi and Gulloval and An as well) you are going to want to get as many bleeds on the target as you can. It does tremendous damage, they stack, and plus its just really cool to see 2-3 bars of bleeds ticking away under a mobs health. Follow these guidelines and LC and Isen are cake, TR and Lug are a bit trickier, trying to get to the top and take down the CG without the freeps noticing is a challenge, but its also a lot of fun. As of yet I've not successfully taken TA with the warg pack, we tried twice the other night, first time a group of freeps came in while we were on the CG, and the second time we would have taken it but a troll came and helped us out. So it didn't really feel like we did it by ourselves.

4. Unity-

Nothing gets under my skin more than a warg who thinks he can do his own thing. This is NOT a normal raid, wargs need to stick together at ALL times unless the pack leader tells someone to go scouting for the pack. Pouncing targets without permission, following the creep raid instead of the warg pack, not staying on target during intense fights, all of these are NOT helping out the warg pack. One pounce, 23 claws out of stealth, dead freep. You only need ONE pounce, as the pack leader I usually designate myself as the pouncer, everyone else can claw out of stealth. Wargs tend to get a little frisky at times and will pounce people and run away, I call these playful pounces, but often times a warg will do this and either A) get killed, or B) the person he was pouncing was the target I wanted to kill and not everyone was in position. Early pounces offers escape for the freep, don't get pounce happy out there folks, the pack needs to work as one, 24 wargs, one mind. (Or how many wargs there are in the pack, :D)

5. Other tips-

A. Killing freeps in general-

Pounce is your best friend. To be most effective, have a single warg pounce, and everyone else after claw out of stealth. As you know, claws out of stealth do more damage, and pounce takes away their ability to block, evade, and parry. I always have the pouncer on crippling bite duty, after the pounce has hit, that warg then puts the crippling bite on the target. If you have the whole pack using pounce out of stealth you will literally stun them into immunity, what with DR and all. Much more efficient to have one pounce and the rest claws.  Crippling bite allows for another pounce when the temporay immunity period is up.

B. Killing burglars -

Burglars are a bit different. I bet many people tell you NOT to pounce burgs whatsoever. This, however, is not as bad a thing to do as it seems. Burglars are almost always going to use their find footing when you pounce them, fair enough, just keep attacking them, but have one warg stay in stealth for when the temp. immunity status is up, and pounce him again. Now they are stunned and their Touch and Go is useless, (remember when I said stun negates any ability to evade parry or block?) this is when the whole pack spams their claws like crazy. Bingo, dead burg. If the burg is already low on health and you know they haven't popped their find footing yet, just claw them down. Better that then having to beat them back down again because of the full heal they get. Some burgs, however, are smart enough to use dissapear as soon as they pop find footing. No need to fret about that, they just popped 2 of their escape skills to get away, whether you got the infamy or not, you won. However, if they are a hobbitt, you can track them. I usually keep about 20 hobbitt trackers on me at a time (the ones that track in stealth). I usually only use them to find a burglar that just hipsed on us, once I see his red dot on the map, I will sprint to him to attack him, otherwise they might just go back into stealth and break your track. If its a man burglar, however, you are out of luck. Another good habit to try and do is to bleed burglars, ONLY freep anyone is allowed to bleed. If they hips, the bleed will knock them out of it after a few seconds.

C. Killing freeps in a big fight -

The previous two notes were primarily notes when ganking a target, but when fighting in a big cluster of freeps its a bit different, because you only have the advantage of surprise at the very beginning when your stealth is yours, but after that you have to work with what you got. For every target you see, crippling bite + pounce for the stun is ideal. I physically call these out, "Lets get a crippling bite on him please, ok now everyone pounce." Once he's down he is not gonna be jumping around like a juiced up frog on a hot bed of coals, making it harder for you to kill them. Tendon shred is also Ideal for this, its quicker than crippling bite + pounce, but not everyone has that, its also on a 5 min cooldown. But out of the 24 that I usually have, at least one has their tendon shred up. Throat rip is ideal on minnies and LM's, especially when you are trying to kill an LM, because this blocks a bunch of their skills that they use to stay alive. Its usually pretty consistant, you get a bunch of wargs on one target and they are gonna run around like a chicken with their head cut off, they want to make it as difficult on you as possible. They will run through tar, blow aoe stuns (if they have them) minnies will feign death, captains will pop last stand, champions will blow sprint. It is very, very important that you keep that crippling bite on them at all times. If a minny feigns death, switch targets. If a captain blows last stand, switch targets. Sometimes you'll just be unlucky, usually if 2-3 targets in a row use an escape skill of some kind forcing you to switch targets, that will be the death of the pack. I usually like to go for a hunter once any target uses one of these, because they are quite easy to kill.

D. Captain and Guardian Protection - Captains and guardians will both use their protection skill to save minnies (I once saw a guardian use it to protect another guardian, was kinda funny.) They have two different icons, so you have to pay attention to the buff/debuff bar under their name. If you see the blue shiny shield of captain protection, might as well switch targets, because the captain will just pop last stand just like if you were on the captain himself. If you see the green rock thingy of guardian's shield wall, however, just keep burning through the target, because the guardian is taking all the damage based on the TARGET's armour and the damage bypasses block/parry/evade because it is an absorb. So if you are hammering on a minny with shield wall on them, that guardian is going to go down like butter. Then you can kill the minny as well.

Last but not least I would like to enforce the importance of listening to the pack leader. There is usually one, and only one, pack leader, and people must realize this. I, myself, usually name a luitenant to help me out, to rally on when I am dead and coming back from the rez, or when I am AFK. But if anyone else starts shouting out orders, I tend to get a little cranky. It is my wish that every warg should experience the excitement of a warg pack, its not for everyone. Some people just don't care for it, nothing wrong with that. I will say this, warg packs do not get as much infamy as the main raid, but almost every warg I've had under me says its much more fun.

Solo, Small Group and 1V1 Tactics

This information is questionable now.  Until we have a chance to fight freeps at level 75 and experience any changes we cannot be sure how accurate or inaccurate the information is.  - Afterthought

[Afterthought, Elendilmir]

1v1's - The Two Warg Strategies

There are two ways to play a warg in 1v1s, using stealth or without stealth.  Both have pros and cons.  For this part of the 1v1 section I will be using the example in an official Candy Mountain rules scenario.  This is not about how to solo a freep out in the open but about the differences in two warg strategies for organised 1v1s with the assumption that you don’t use cooldowns (Disappear, Sprint and Tendon Shred).  The strategies in the second section are more generalised to taking down a freep solo.

 Most wargs use stealth to start a 1v1 because it gives the warg a massive advantage.  Starting the fight from stealth allows you to dictate when the fight begins and you dictate how it begins, either with a 20 second bleed or a stun.  Many wargs do this because it is very easy to win this way, especially if the target is squishy.  As a rank 12 warg my damage is not much higher than a rank 7 warg and is certainly less than a damage warg build.  I can easily take 2-3k off a squishy target during an in-combat 3 second stun so imagine what you can do during a 5 second stun.  Starting the fight with a stun can allow you to take 1/3-1/2 of a squishy freep’s morale off before they can even move which can make the rest of the fight much easier. 

So why would any warg not use stealth in organised 1v1s?

There are several reasons I can think of for not using stealth and some may or may not apply to the couple of wargs who don’t use stealth in 1v1s.

• Depending on the class stealth may not be that much of an advantage to you anyway.
• When fighting other classes who can stealth, one person using stealth will make the other person more inclined to do the same which can cause you both to circle around for ages until one of you finds the other.
• Some consider it rude or unacceptable to be accepting a 1v1 out in the open and then stealthing up because then only one party can initiate the fight which places the other person at an unfair disadvantage because you both agreed to the fight while visible.

Personally I believe all three of these points however others may not.

Considering this is a guide to teach people about the warg I have to tell you which one is better, I suppose.  Although I hate to admit it, for the average warg in a normal 1v1 using stealth is going to allow you to win many more fights in a much easier fashion than if you do not use stealth.  However there are fights where it is not going to make too much of a difference, such as burgs, LMs and guardians.  Because Shadow howler is now usable in combat it now purely comes down to whether you want to start in stealth or not.  Stealth will still offer you the advantage of a stun or extra bleed and gives you the ability to start on your terms so it still offers advantages over non-stealth.

 I’m putting this here because I’ve taken to watching a lot of warg 1v1s these days to see what other wargs are doing and how the freeps counter it so I can see where wargs go wrong and then see if I am doing the same thing, and if so changing it.  I’ve seen the majority of warg 1v1s being pretty brutal for the warg, unless it is something really squishy or a freep who is not a regular 1v1er.  So much so that I’ve even seen rank 8 or 9 wargs making classic rookie mistakes which have cost them the fight.  This led me to add this section in the hope some wargs might read this and realise there is an alternative to the generic warg stealth build for 1v1s.  Keep in mind winning isn’t everything; the challenge is a huge part of the fun of 1v1ing and winning is not always an indication of skill.  A non-stealthed warg who loses to an RK who lives with 1k morale is most likely more skilled than a warg using stealth who wins with 2k morale due to the lack of a stun to start the fight and the RK being able to start the fight on even terms with the warg.  When no starting in stealth both people start on an even playing field I would insist as a warg the fight starts at a 20m range.  This can be found by making sure your pack hunters flag is just in range.  If a freep insists on starting at a greater range and refuses to start at a fair distance then I would stealth up and give them what for, they brought it on themselves.

Just to qualify for the people who will read this and scoff at the idea of not using stealth, I have 1v1ed since rank 4.  I am now rank 12 and I have always fought 1v1s without stealth since I started 1v1ing at rank 4.  I was regularly winning 1v1s even before I got the Shadow Howler stance, which according to the freeps I have fought who I talk to regularly, has only made my build more potent.  I don’t claim to be an expert at 1v1s or the best 1v1ing warg or anything like that, however I have, in my opinion, had quite a lot of success in 1v1ing with a non-stealth build and I’ve seen other wargs, especially stealth ones, do a lot worse than I have against the same opponents so I thought I’d share my opinions which I’ll be the first to admit probably differ quite greatly from a lot of other players and may not be the best way or suit everyone’s play styles.   For me 1v1ing is not about winning but about finding a challenge.  I would rather lose fighting without stealth and feel like it was a great challenge than to win using stealth and not feel like the fight was a challenge.  Basically the only reason to not use stealth now is if you see it as cheap.  Starting unstealthed offers no benefit to the warg.

If you read this and want more information on non-stealth 1v1 builds or have questions about not using stealth feel free to send me a pm on these forums or, preferably, a tell in-game.

 

1v1's - The Do's and Do Not's for Each Freep Class

Hunter

The hunter is your easiest target, they must stay still to do any significant damage and need to have line of sight for all but weak melee attacks.  If you are fighting a hunter get in close and stay there, try to get behind the target as they cannot shoot you from there, run through them if necessary.  Hunters can only do four things to stop the onslaught of a warg, fears, roots, dazes and slows.  Hunters can lay a trap to root you but this can only be properly done out of combat.  If they try it in combat they are just wasting their time.  Rain of thorns is an AoE bow attack that has no induction and roots up to 10 targets, a root potion will counter this or will break after damage, unless sturdy traps is traited to lower break chance on damage.  Distracting shot will daze a creep for 10 seconds but has a 1-1.5s induction or dazing blow will daze for 5s but is a melee skill.  Bard's arrow is a bow skill with a 1-1.5s induction and fears you for 15s while cry of the predator is an instant cast shout which fears for 10s.  Silencing the hunter can stop them using cry of the predator.  The fears will slow and grey bar you so you cannot do anything.  Fears are broken on damage so they are usually used to gain breathing space.  The counter for this is get as close the hunter as possible until you either get hit and so can fight again or it wears off.  Your worst enemy in this fight is a hunter who knows how to kite with slows and an unlucky crippling bite resist.  The hunter now has several combinations of traits and skills with slows which they can use to kite you.  This is your biggest problem as a warg because if they get a decent slow on you and you miss a crippling bite you won't be able to get near them unless they screw up or you resist the slow.  This means you must keep your slow on them at all times, even ahead of damage skills.  Luckily 90% of hunters will try to low cut you for a short duration slow or fear you and try to run or they will stand still and try to turn and shoot, both of which can be easily dispatched.  Try to save pots for the longer duration CC and stay as close as possible.

Two skills to take note of are Needful Haste and Improved Fleetness.  Needful Haste gives the hunter a quicker attack speed, shorter inductions on barbed arrow and swift bow and if traited correctly makes them immune to induction setbacks from damage.  This doesn't make them immune from interrupts.  Improved Fleetness increases attack speed, lowers inductions on all bow skills and gives a +10% in-combat run buff.  They also do not lose focus from moving while this buff is on.  Combining this with kiting makes a kiting hunter even more deadly and emphasises even more why you must always keep crippling bite on the target.

Heart seeker is a high damage skill, 1-3k+ which can have a 2.1-3s induction and is easily identified by the big yellow crosshair on you.  Some wargs will just take the hit however it is often better to try and avoid this by taking cover, using disappear or interrupting the skill if possible.

 

Minstrel

Minstrels can be one of the toughest fights if they know how to 1v1.  First thing is to note if the minstrel is in War-Speech or healing mode.  For a healing minstrel you want to make sure to get a power drain on them, bleed them and just live long enough to drain them of power so you can then nuke them into orbit.  This version of the minstrel, while taking a long time to kill, will not pose much threat to a warg.  A WS minstrel is a completely different story.  They hit and they hit hard.  These fights are about burst damage.  Get a stun on as soon as possible and stack your bleeds.  Keep the bleeds on as well as you can and hit them with every damage skill you have every time it is up (except claws that skill is useless due to high power cost).  This fight is pretty much dependent on stuns and crits.  Never let your slow wear off. Hit it every chance you get.  If your slow wears off and they put anthem of the wizard on you then it is pretty much over, unless you have sprint.

 

Burglar

Do not stun or Cj them and make sure they have a bleed on them with a duration of more than 10 seconds at all times.  Hope they don’t blow all their cooldowns and dps away.  If a burg is any good and really wants to beat you they will and there is nothing you can do about it.

 

Rune-Keeper

This fight is, depending on how good the RK is all about luck.  After your initial stun the RK can pretty much kite you at will, if they have the skill.  Try and get as much damage done as quickly as possible, make sure they have bleeds on them so they take damage even while you aren’t in melee range and make sure you silence them before they EC you.   Keep them slowed as much as possible and try to get a second stun to limit the incoming damage.

 

Captain

There are two types of captains and each should be treated differently.  A hands of healing captain should be power drained, kited and attacked only enough to make them use up their power before you get too close and take much damage.  A damage build can be dealt with in two ways and it depends on the captain.  Still power drain them so they have little power as captains have issues with power without your added help.  These captains can be kited, if you can still dps through their healing by doing this or usually be confronted in melee and hope you have better movement skills.  These captains are still restricted by a small number of skills but they will dev you really hard and you can’t afford that because unlike them you have no heals.  You normally want to get this fight done with quickly before they can do too much damage from longer cooldown skills.

 

Warden

Power draining them is a must as to kill a warden you pretty much have to kill their power and their morale.  Remember that once bleeds are on they are not subject to block/parry/evade so this is where a lot of your damage will come from.  Also remember they only wear medium armour so when you stun them they are as squishy as a hunter so unload everything on them.  For shield wardens power drain, bleed and kite.  Wait until they are low on power and then move into melee range to nuke them with a stun + burst damage.  After the stun wears off keep the pressure on with bleeds and then go for another stun if needed.  Keep the power drain on at all times.  For spear wardens you need to dps quickly because they might not hit big but they will kill you due to their role as a tank class.  They won’t be healing too much so go in and destroy them.  Remember while stunned they are squishy like a hunter so keep your big skills for while they are stunned.  Use silence when needed – it stops them using their shouts and thus can ruin their bleed gambits.

 

Lore-Master

Only real threat which you can counter from a Lore-Master is their induction skills like lightning storm and Ents.  Make sure you silence them when needed and interrupt as many of their big skills as possible.  Make sure they are slowed at all times else you are stuffed.  Basically survive the initial part where they CC the hell out of you with enough morale to destroy them once diminishing returns kick in.

The exception to this is Ocka who runs as a melee lore-master.  There is a specific strategy for beating him but I’ll leave each individual to work that out as he is not an average LM.

 

Champion

Unless they start blowing big cooldowns most champs will die pretty easily.  If they have continuous blood rage then make sure you don’t waste your crippled state by trying to stun because they are immune.  Keep applying bleeds and damage.  Watch to see if they drop blood rage and if they do stun them with a cripple + pounce.  Try and dodge out of their AoE hits where possible.

 

Guardian

Your damage against a guardian all comes through your bleeds as they are a source of continuous damage once applied and are not subject to block/parry/evade.  This fight is all about surviving long enough for you to kill them with bleeds.  You can full on bleed kite them but it is pretty lame and if the guard is any good they’ll usually be able to counter it.  Usually an in-and-out strategy with some circle strafing works extremely well.  Try not to let them get behind you at any stage so they will have a lower chance to slow you.  Always keep bleeds up and do not stun them unless you are prepared to deal with turn the tables or can otherwise ensure they cannot CJ you.  Guards are one of the strongest 1v1 classes out there in the current build of lotro.

 

Small Group

Small group strategies are quite similar to these except you can factor in the classes with you and then you need to look at the necessary kill order for the enemy.  If they have sufficient healing such that you cannot dps through it you should target the squishiest healer first followed by and subsequent healers.  As a warg make sure you slow, pounce and silence any healers.  Power drain any minstrels even if they are in War-Speech.

If there are no healers then pick the target you can kill easiest and/or quickest or who is the biggest threat, if it is still able to be killed quickly.  This might not necessarily be the lowest morale freep or the squishiest.  Remember to factor in class skills and lore-master stun dots.  A hunter without a stun dot is easier to kill than an RK with a stun dot and it may be more beneficial to kill it first even though an RK is a bigger threat.  Usually I go for RKs, hunters, lore-masters and then minstrels, in that order if there isn’t a healer.  If the RKs are stun dotted then quite often I’ll go for a hunter instead.  You will have a much easier time killing a stunned target than one who is running so always take this into account.

 

[Tchaikovsky, Elendilmir]

Operating Unraided
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The following guide is written from my experience operating as an unraided warg in numerous situations.  Note that this guide assumes that an out of game voice communication system like Ventrilo is utilized by the solo warg and the general creep population alike.  It may be effective to be outside the raid without such voice communication, but if in-game voice is the only option, some players may find the voice communication difficult to sacrifice in exchange for the benefits of running solo.

First I would like to make the case for unraided wargs with a list of reasons why being unraided is a good idea:

1. The number one spot goes to the fact that you can exit combat and restealth much more often than you can in a raid.  If even one NPC remains alive and attacking the raid you cannot restealth.  If you can't restealth you're almost useless.  You can still cripple, silence, and tendon shred, of course, but you lose the element of surprise which is so important to the warg.  Wargs are not really meant to be played like reavers and when it comes down to it, we need to use our stealth as effectively as possible.

2. Create space in the raid.  Often there are too many wargs in one particular raid and the overall effectiveness of that raid decreases because of that.  Raids specifically designed to be operating as warg packs are of course an exception, and a few wargs in a standard raid are welcome.

3. Now for some selfish reasons.  You get to operate exactly how you want to operate.  You can leave a losing situation as you see fit and search for freeps elsewhere.  You can scout for the main raid and report freep sightings around the map.  You can instantly respond to others' reports without orders from a raid leader.  In otherwords, your mobility and response time become instant because you are not obligated to assist the main raid at all times.

Skills
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-Stealth

The most important skill for a warg!  Being seen only when we want to is our biggest advantage.  There are times to use stealth more creatively than just going stealth 100% of the time.  The most obvious situation is if you're being tracked by hunters.  If it's not strategically detrimental to be seen, go ahead and remain unstealthed.  Once you need to get into stealth (i.e. freeps start to charge) go ahead and stealth up, you'll have erased any tracking on you and you'll be able to go right into the action, minimizing the time period in which you may be tracked between stealthing and making contact.

-Pounce

A mildly damaging interrupt unstealthed, a five second stun from stealth.  This skill can be used out of stealth to knock down a target that has a Crippling Bite applied (removes the cripple).  If critted from stealth, the target is knocked down.  This skill from stealth is, of course, our primary source of crowd control and probably our most feared attack.

-Claws

Basic melee attack that, like all warg skills, deals more damage from behind and the sides of the target.  Also does more damage from stealth.

-Maul

A bleed that does decent initial damage.  Does more damage over time for double the duration (20 seconds) when applied from stealth.  Stealth Maul and normal Maul stack, even when applied by the same warg.

-Crippling Bite

Slows movement speed by 25% and applies the crippling bite state. 

Savage Fangs

-Mostly used after Crippling Bite to apply a bleed to the target.  Multiple wargs can apply a bleed from just one Crippling Bite.  Also debuffs the target's attack duration and block chance.  Savage Fangs does not remove Crippling Bite upon applying the bleed.

-Tendon Shred

Knock-down.  Often used as a five second stun when you're out of stealth and also to "lock down" a freep.

-Disappear

Stealth in combat, undetectable for ten seconds.  Can be used as an escape skill or simply to stealth up and apply another Pounce or Maul.

-Sprint

Great for escaping or chasing down a freep.

-Rend Flesh

I mostly use this debuff on big NPCs like Captain Generals.  Useful in solo fights as well.

-Swipe

Fantastic attack that can't be evaded.  Try to use from behind.

-Scratch & Snip

A nice two-hit attack, deals more damage from behind. 

-Throat Rip

Silence, very useful on Minstrels. 

-Rabid Bite

Even when fully damage traited, this is a rather weak power drain.  I find it most useful to use on a freep who already has low power (a hunter who has recently used Burn Hot, for example) as it almost totally prevents power regeneration in combat.  This has so many counters, though, including conjuctions and power pots.  This skill is usually a lower priority than DoTs, DPS, and stuns.

-Flea Bitten

A decent debuff useful on a number of freeps.  I love to use it solo.  Toss it on a hunter, toss it on a guardian, etc.  Mostly a situational skill, though, as the top priority in most battles will be stunning and DPSing.

-Frenzy

Just use it when you can, gives a significant boost to melee criticals and evade.

-Eye Rake

A good interrupt skill that deals some damage.  The interrupt actually occurs *before* the animation completes, so it is very fast.

-Pack Hunters

Adds 20 damage to any incoming damage on the target.  Great for NPCs, great for freeps, a no-brainer when soloing, just a great skill.

-Rallying Howl

Since Mines of Moria, is a weak initial heal with a very weak heal over time element.  I've unslotted this and replaced it with armor until it's improved significantly.

Guide to my playstyle: Unraided Warg Tactics
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Tactics from my old pre-MoM guide that still work:

1. Whack-a-mole

Whack-a-mole is when you wait patiently in stealth near the front lines waiting for an ambitious freep to overstep their boundaries.  Often this will be a brave champion coming in to blow their horn, or a hunter over-extending himself to get in firing range.  Most often, however, burglars are the ones moving forward.  Whenever you see a good target overextending, you move in for the pounce and alert the raid to what you're doing (Ventrilo is so useful here).  Hopefully the leader will decide to attack your target of opportunity.  Don't be discouraged if your prey gets away, just restealth and wait for the next opportunity.

An alternative to this strategy is to listen for the target of the main raid (again, Ventrilo) and time your pounce to coincide with the main attack.

I've had good success with this since MoM.  If you're fighting Raid v. Raid, I highly recommend to stun and run, as staying to DPS against the crowd control and DPS of the freeps would be difficult to survive.  This is very situational, though and depends highly on your coordination with the main raid, as random stun and runs are pointless.  You have to be reasonably sure the main raid will be focused on the targets you've picked out for pouncing.

2. The Minstrel Cycle

Harassing minstrels is not a bad idea, but as you probably know they are precious to freep raids and attacking them often gets a lot of attention.  You probably won't kill a raided minstrel without assistance, but you can annoy them.  Obviously, a good stun and run at the right moment can mean the diffrence between life and death for whatever freep just missed their heal.  If minstrels are stun-immune, remember to use your silence skill at similarly appropriate times.  Since there's a one minute cooldown on this skill, you have time to do other things, but always remember that you should put your silence skill to use as often as you can, but at the same time not using it just randomly.

Applying the power drain doesn't hurt, especially if the minstrel is already low on power.

3. Retreat!

There are ways wargs can help in retreat situations.  If the creeps are retreating, try to cover them with pounces to help them escape.  Depending on the situation it can be a good idea to pounce LMs, champs, hunters, and burgs.  When in doubt, pounce whatever is close and whatever is doing DPS or CC to the retreating forces.  Use your best judgement to decide whether you can help at all or if it would be more effective to get out fast and deny the freeps the chance to take you *and* the stragglers down.

When the freeps retreat you have a few choices.  For maximum infamy, stick with the raid and pounce/claws whatever target they are on.  For maximum contribution to the overall effort, move past the first couple of obvious targets and pounce/cripple some of the freeps who otherwise might have gotten away.

In both situations, use your sprint and disappear as needed.  Sprint is great to chase down that last freep and disappear is good to get away after helping a straggling creep escape.  Do what you can but don't sacrifice yourself to the freep raid, possibly giving them one extra kill they wouldn't have otherwise.

4. Catch the Straggler

One of my favorite past-times in the moors.  This goes hand-in-hand with scouting, but in this case your ultimate goal is to get a kill.  Often as the freep raid moves around, someone is left well behind the group playing catch-up.  Be patient and wait for the right moment and the right freep.  Often they will not stay and fight once pounced, but will attempt to run towards the freep raid (while probably calling them back to get you).  During this window when their back is to you and the raid is coming to get you, you have to make the kill.

Sometimes you will be very lucky and find a freep who has lazily run into unfriendly NPCs or is so far away from the raid that they probably won't bother coming to help them for a warg who will probably disappear anyway.  These are the real opportunities that you're looking for.

Since MoM our DPS has increased nicely, meaning that any straggling freeps have an even better chance at dying to our hands.  Pick your target carefully, time it just right, and you'll get a kill right under the raid's nose.  This is especially fun and effective if everyone is on horses and you get a squishy near the end of the raid.

Other tactics:

1. Stun lock using Pounce and Tendon Shred

If your pounce does not crit from stealth, the target will merely be stunned.  Wait four seconds (approximately one skill usage after pounce) and use Tendon Shred.  The opponent will be knocked down and stunned for five more seconds.  Getting the perfect timing for the maximum stun lock is the big challenge here.  Even many vets, including myself, don't get the timing right for the full lock down every time.  As a basic starting point you can use one skill between the pounce and the knock-down, so a stun lock may look something like:

Pounce -> Claws -> Tendon Shred -> DPS

2. Stun lock using Pounce and Pounce

This requires some patience and attentiveness.  With MoM we get an extra class trait slot, so most people slot the +20% crit chance from stealth.  With a critted pounce, we get a knock-down.  Use this to your advantage.  When another warg has pounced and not critted, consider pouncing the target again for the 30-ish percent chance to knock them down for five additional seconds.

3. Bleeding the burgs

Use the maul from stealth to your advantage.  Since stunning a burg opens up a skill that heals them and gives +50% evade for 30 seconds, it's a bad idea to pounce them most of the time.  Instead, use Maul from stealth to apply a 20 second bleed.  If the burg sticks around, apply your other bleeds as well.  Since most BAs and spiders usually also react to burgs by applying bleeds, this is a good way to kill them.  Also, don't forget that Swipe can't be evaded, so use that when possible to pile on the DPS.  If the burg still hasn't HIPS'd, is still in range, and you're not in danger of dying, consider applying the Pack Hunters flag to add 20 damage per tick of every DOT on them.

Skill Cycles
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Most efficient overall DPS (great for NPCs):

1) Maul from stealth
2) Crippling Bite -> Savage Fangs
3) Pack Hunters
4) Maul
5) Pounce (to stun)
6) Move behind NPC if stunned -> Scratch & Snip or Swipe
7) Auto-attack and/or Claws until NPC is dead

Biggest burst damage:

1) Pounce
2) Move behind target -> Scratch & Snip -> Swipe

1) (if no stun required) Claws from stealth and behind
2) Scratch & Snip -> Swipe


One v. One Tips
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One v. ones in MoM are fast and furious.  The first tip is use everything you have!  At rank 8, I begin fights by debuffing my enemy if possible.  This includes using Flea Bitten, Rend, and the Pack Hunters flag.  I also apply all the bleeds I can.  From there it's about using your DPS skills as best you can, stunning when you need to (using offensive Disappear -> Pounce, Tendon Shred, and Crippling Bite -> Pounce), and using pots to heal, break stuns, roots, and fears, etc.

In general you should keep moving, try to fight from behind the target, and time your skills to coincide when you'll be facing your opponent (you don't want to get the "Must face target" error when you're trying to get an imporant skill to fire).

As a last note, there's something to be said about honor.  If you choose a fight, stick around until one of you is dead as long as the fight remains fair or tipped in your favor.  I do not disappear and run from a fight that I picked, but ultimately that is your choice.  On the other hand, if another freep joins the fight I may decide to escape the situation or try to get NPCs involved.  If another creep joins the fight, and it was a fair and obvious 1v1 I will disengage and /tell them about the 1v1.  If it was not an "obvious" 1v1, I'll take all the help I can.  This gets into a grey area that each of us must decide on in each situation.