Burglar

Overview

Burglars are the stealth and melee crowd control class of LOTRO.  They excel at stealth operations:  coming close to an unaware opponent then incapacitating it till it is dead.  These are the most deadly of the classes to meet solo and they are extremely difficult to deal with in a raid situation.  It is very rare to kill a burglar given their vast array of escape/evade abilities.  If cover isn't near, meeting a solo burg will likely mean a trip to the rez circle.

Tactics

• Burglars have multiple 30s evade skills, one that can be fired at any time and another that can be fired when the burglar is stunned.  Additionally they can reset their skills.  Many of these skills are on a 5 minute timer, so if at all possible, re-engage the burglar within 5 minutes so they are without their cooldowns
• In general, do not stun burglars unless you know exactly why you're doing it.  The best reason to stun a burglar is to try to get it to burn its evade so that you can come back later and kill it.  Smarter burglars will hold it until they critically need it.
• Every 10 minutes the burglar can go into improved stealth in combat (Hide in Plain Sight, HiPS).  Damage will not bring them out of this state for at least 10 seconds but they move slowly so don't expect them to go far.
• Burglar riddle will usually have a stun attached to the beginning, so don't remove the stun with a pot if you want to remove the riddle component that hits later.
• Wargs can track hobbit burglars while Uruks can track man burglars, but they will be notified that you're tracking them.  Try to get them in combat as fast as possible and keep them in combat to avoid the out of combat stealth
• Burglars can use a traited Enrage to disable you from using ranged skills, but autoattack will still work
• Always be prepared for a burglar to come out of nowhere

Captain

Overview

Captains play the support role and are the jack-of-all-trades:  good at many things, but not great at any one thing.  They support minstrels with heal over times and can combat rez twice every 30 minutes.  They also have herald NPCs and placeable banners to give strong buffs to grouped freeps.  Captains and their groups are very hard to kill with skills like In Harms Way and Last Stand to absorb all damage being done to the group without dying for 15 seconds (25 if traited)

Tactics

• With no way to slow down opponants and only one stun which is triggered on defeat of an enemy or on a crit from Devastating Blow or Pressing Attack, Captains can be successfully kited around.  To reduce the chance of Captains using DB or PA, trait cry resistance to prevent a successful Battle Shout.
• Traited Last Stand lasts 25 seconds and then healed about 700 health.  When a Captain fires last stand, slow it, keep it slowed, and kill some other target.  25 seconds later the Captain will be a juicy target.  Last Stand recharges in 15 minutes.
• Captains cannot do significant ranged damage so expect a melee charge.
• Noble Mark is a very low damage over time debuff which will keep the target in combat.  To get rid of Noble Mark, run at least 40 meters away from the Captain.
• Captain rezzes if untraited leave their targets at very low health and power, be ready to strike at anything valuable just rezzed
• Captains have an in and out of combat run buff called Make Haste which increases their group's speed by 25%

Champion

Overview

Champions are the premier AoE DPS class at melee range.  Closing with any Champion is painful and this is the core of many freep tactics.

Tactics

• Avoid the 'Champ Ball' whenever possible.  This is frequently a stationary group of stacked champions all firing AoE attacks.  Typically all other freeps are standing on the champ ball too.  Closing into this group subjects all creep melee to significant damage.  Break the ball with a troll or selectively assassinate squishy targets one after another by diving in, hitting it, and getting out immediately.
• If you're attacking a Champion, try to stay behind it.  This avoids the Champion's attacks and prevents parrys.
• Champions have a sprint allowing them to run away (frequently) or to chase you.
• Champions in fervor are extremely juicy targets as their block/parry/evade is set to zero.  Be aware that they can switch away from this mode at any time.
• If you can see that the Champion is in Controlled Burn (legendary, it's fervor plus full block/parry/evade), try to get the Champion out of combat by evading it.  Once the Champ drops combat, CB goes away for 10 minutes which will make fighting it a lot easier.

Guardian

Overview

Guardians are the tanks of the freeps.  They sport extremely heavy armor at the cost of offensive capability.  They are usually too hard to kill to exert the effort unless there is nothing else left to kill.  They excel at tacking PvE content such as Tyrants

Tactics

• Guardian damage is pretty insigificant.  Don't worry about it.
• Guardians can stun but it's a reactive based on blocking an attack.  So if you don't attack a guardian, it can't stun you. 
• Guardians can assist their fellow freeps by Shield Walling them.  All damage done to the Shield Walled target goes immediately to the Guardian.  All stuns/debuffs will normally affect the target.  This is quite possibly the best way to kill a Guardian as block/parry/evade/armor does nothing at that point.  When a Shield Wall goes up on a freep, call out "TWO FOR ONE!" and go to town on that target, killing both the Guardian and the target.  Highly encourage Guardians to Shield Wall freeps.
• Guardians will often charge in to draw Creep fire.  If enough people focus up sharply on the Guardian when it runs out of freep healing range, it can go down relatively quickly, but otherwise they should be the smallest threat of all foes.

Hunter

Overview

Hunters are the strongest single target ranged DPS class in the freep arsenal.  They can dish out a very large amount of firepower and are given a variety of support skills for themselves and their fellowships

Tactics

• The absolute best place to be is behind a hunter or hunter pack.  They cannot shoot behind and have long inductions so staying in close melee range will significantly reduce their damage output.
• Letting hunters set up and gain focus only amplifies the damage, always try to keep the hunters moving (making them lose focus).
• Watch for a series of yellow crosshairs on a target, this is the high powered Hunter attack known as Heart Seeker. That target immediately needs to get out of the line of sight or get ready to eat a lot of damage
• Hunters can track without using any consumables and therefore can track all the time.  Be aware if you are a stealth class near a hunter.
• They have a group buff which increases their out of combat run speed.  Keep a hunter in combat to prevent them from activating it.
• Every 30 minutes they can Desperate Flight and immediately go to the nearest rez circle.  Keep track of when a DF is used and try to go after that hunter again in that timeframe.
• Many freep raids can have their DPS significantly removed with a charge and attack on the hunters.  A strong push can cause panicky hunters to prematurely hit DF and deprive their raid of significant firepower for the duration of the engagement.
• To kill a hunter with DF up, have a warg chain stun them with a pounce and the Tendon Shred.  You must kill them before the stun wears off or the hunter will be able to DF.
• Most hunter skills are resisted with Physical Resist

Loremaster

Overview

Loremasters are the crowd control class of LOTRO.  They have a huge skill set filled with stuns, mezzes, slows, and debuffs.  They also have decent DPS especially when paired up with their pets.  The amount of CC that LMs can put out is second to none and can be very devastating to creeps, particularily in enclosed areas.

Tactics

• When solo'ing a loremaster, try to pull a random NPC to you.  This results in more damage but the NPC will break any roots/mezzes that hit you.  Also there is a chance that the LM will use an AoE and cause the NPC to aggro onto him. [Arachnophob, Elendilmir]
• Loremasters can drain power from a target and give power to another freep.  This significantly lengthens the amount of time freeps can stay engaged with creeps even with power debuffed.  The power drain looks like a purple line and cannot be broken until the LM stops it or is stunned.
• Loremasters can only wear light armor which leaves them vulnerable to attacks if you can get to them
• LM's can be careless about their pets, try to pull them into large NPCs (like Tyrants) to cause them to aggro onto the LM.
• Watch for the Cracked Earth symbol in your buff bar.  If you see it, you have 10 seconds to move before being rooted.  Start running or get ready to swallow a pot.
• Many LM skills are interruptable, attack as fast as possible and use interrupts.
• LM's have one major heal in Wisdom of the Council which is a 2k heal.  Hitting the LM after Wisdom is used may stun you.

Minstrel

Overview

Minstrels are the primary healers out on the battlefield, and are extremely capable in their roll. They have some excellent defences which makes killing them harder over that of other Freeps. On the flip side, minstrels in Warspeech can output a rather large amount of damage, however their healing capabilities are cut by either 50% or 75% depending on which build of minstrel they choose to take.  There are three primary builds a minstrel can take, ofcourse many will choose a hybrid of these three thus that it matches their playing style. In its simpliest form, minstrels can have straight trait lines of buffing, healing or DPS.

Tactics

• If you see a Minstrel in Warspeech, don't worry about it healing others.  Their healing is cut by 50% or 75% depending on which build they have chosen for their minstrel.  Do not forget that Warspeech is a toggle skill, that can be turned off at any given point in time.
• Warspeeching minstrels can stun a reasonable amount of time.  Use Cry resistance to prevent this.
• The Minstrel's larger heals have a large induction time. Interrupt these when you see a glowing green circle at their feet.
• The warg silence on minstrel is just as effective as killing them, so try to keep it on them, however remember that minstrels do have a cry of the chorus skill that will remove your silence and provide a small immunity time.
• Banners of Terror work great in reducing Minstrel effectiveness as it negates much of their in combat power regeneration.  Spider dots are also wonderful for draining power, however the captain banner, and minstrel buff can negate some of the effectiveness of the Banner of Terror.
• Minstrels defensive skills are several
  • A blue bubble which redirects all damage to their power.  A stun will immediatly break this shield. Further a similar shield can be put on others, and works under the same proviso.
  • A feign death skill which prevents them from taking any damage.  This in its most basic form will last 30 seconds, however a legacy on a legendary weapon can increase the duration of this. A pounce or stun at the time of the feign happening, will interupt it. However if no interupt occurs switch targets immediately and have someone watch the minstrel for when it gets back up.  Hobbit minstrels have another feign. Dots are also an excellent thing to have on the minstrel, as many do not pot out of them.
  • Minstrels have a fear that lasts 15 seconds, on a 30 second cooldown. Has a 3% chance of breaking after two seconds on damge.
• Minstrels have one combat rez if the legendary trait is slotted and otherwise have a nearly no cooldown out of combat rez.  Try to keep them in combat to prevent them from rezzing dead freeps.

Runekeepers

Overview

Runekeepers are a hybrid class that have strong capabilities in DPS, healing, and debuffs.  They are unique in that they can choose to either heal, or to DPS and debuff.  They cannot adequately do both at once.

• As healers their primary method is by heals over time (HOTs) with few direct heals.  The recipient of heals will recieve stronger and stronger HOTs as the runekeeper stacks their skills, increasing their 'tier' or effectiveness.  In addition to HOTs, the Runekeeper also has damage reduction bubbles and preventative skills for poisons, wounds, and death.  The Runekeeper also has a fast out of combat ranged rez skill.
• DPS/debuff runekeepers concentrate on either spammable lightening skills that can be used on the move (they are masters of kiting) or inducted fire DOTs which can stack considerably.  Their single target DPS is lower than hunters and comparable to single target champions and captains.  Their debuffs are AoE and affect attack speed, skill recharge, healing received, and power cost of skills.  They also have an AoE frost circle which prevents evades.

Tactics

• Runekeepers about the least amount of morale of the freep classes.  Combine this with only light armor and they are quick kills if concentrated on.  Their races are either elf or dwarf so their defensive skills vs that of a hobbit or man are sub-par.
• Disarming a Runekeeper disables ALL of their skills.  Silencing them removes only the high end skills.
• A Runekeeper is completely based on what their attunement is.  If it's healing, they can't DPS.  If it's DPS, they can't heal.  It takes at least 3 seconds for them to shift over with an induction (legendary skill) or about 10 seconds of spamming neutralizing skills.  This will reset their attunement to zero
• As they increase in attunement one way or another, they get more and more powerful.  Make them get out of combat if possible to drop their attunement (max attunement is 10, and out of combat they drop roughly one attunement per second).  This will disable many of their skills until they rebuild back up to a certain attunement.
• Runekeepers have two mezes and 2 slows.  Shocking touch is a melee ranged mez that will last anywhere from 10-20 seconds when traited (random) with a recharge of 20 seconds.  Vivid imagery is a 3 target AoE mez around the RK (easily increasable by legacies) that will last 10-20 seconds when traited (random) with a 3 minute cooldown.  Distracting Wind is a 5 target AoE 50% slow that lasts 10 seconds with a long recharge.  Chilling Rhetoric is a single target 70% slow that is reduced to 30% (traited, else removed completely) when the target is hit on a 90 second cooldown.
• Runekeeper DPS revolves around criticals, without criticals they'll be doing only 100-150 damage on average but can spike up to 2k with devstating criticals.  Many valued legacies's increase lightening crit damage substantially.
• Watch the buff bar of the Runekeeper and its fellows.  Green shields with blue backgrounds will remove the first poison applied.  Red shields remove the first wound applied.  Blue shields on blue backgrounds will mean that the freep will be able to immediately rez on death.  Poison and Wounds protections can be reapplied every 48 seconds (traited) to the RK's fellowship with a minute long duratoin.  The rez protection lasts only 30 seconds.
• If the RK bubbles someone, look closely for the Writ of Health buff (brown dot in a green background).  The bubble will last 3 seconds (assuming fully healing attuned RK) + 3 seconds per tier of the Writ of Health.  If there is no Writ of Health, stay on target as the bubble will soon be gone.  The bubble also is only a 50% damage reduction, traited to 70%.

Warden

Overview

Wardens are Medium Armor off-tanks, they have both a ranged and melee skills. One of the most unique items about the warden is their "gambit" sequence - when they successfully pull off either taunt, spear attack and/or shield attack combos, a gambit opens up for use which can provide the following: Heal over time, Block, Parry and Evade buffs, Threat over Time, Damage over Time, AoE and mulitiple attacks on one target.

Tactics

Add Tactics here

The main thing to take away when facing a Warden is to Keep moving and interupt (pounce and similar skills) Here is a summary of a warden's arsenal of skills:

• Javelin Skills - These skills have more range than a champion/guardian with a bow, but not the range of a hunter. There are 5 javelin skills  which have a higher "to miss" if the warden is moving.

1. 2 of the skills provide main weapon damage + additional damage bonuses.
2. 1 provides weapon damage + a 30% speed/movement reduction,
3. 1 provides weapon damage in addition to a -2640 block rating for 20s.
4. The last skill will attack up to 3 targets with weapon damage + bonus.

The main thing to keep on mind is that 4 of the 5 skills have a 30 second cool down. Keep the warden moving around while they are throwing their Javelin - there are skills/legendary weapons that a warden can use that will increase the damage, range and "to hit while moving" but keeping them moving increases the likelihood they will miss.

• Gambits - there are 2, 3, 4 & 5 combo gambits - obviously the higher the number of skills used in the gambit = more damage, threat, healing or B/P/E buffs.  It takes practice and time to learn and effectively pull off the gambits and there are slight delays between each skill (taunt, weapon or shield) used to build the gambit. However a skilled warden can stack DoT's on a target VERY effectively and can also stack HoT to make killing them difficult. The main strategy to remember is that they have to face their target to pull off spear and sheild attacks to build the gambit, keep moving around the  back side of the warden and it makes it harder for them to build their gambit. They do have some "combo" skills (Shield/Fist, Fist Spear) that they can trait and slot which minimizes having to stand still to build and execute a gambit - however, those are on a 15 sec CD, so it does limit how quickly the warden can stack DoTs and HoT on a moving target.
• Ambush - This is a pretty deadly skill for the warden since it has 110% Main weapon damge + Bonus damage and a 5 second stun.  It does have an induction time 3-5 seconds average, and has to be started out of combat. Best strategy here is to attack the warden while they are "crouching" to ambush, that interupts the skill.
• Careful Step - This has a small induction and provides stealth for 15-30 seconds depending how the warden has legendary and traits slotted. The biggest benefit to the warden is that it provides Ambush with no induction time.

So in observation of how a warden operates, They can stealth for 15-30 seconds in order to get within javelin range - Ambush their target and stun for 5 seconds. Run towards the target hurling Javelin attacks that do damage, 30% slow, lower block chance (which could have a creep to 1/2 health at this point). Fire off a couple B/P/E gambits and HoT, then finish off the creep with multiple attacks, DoT stacks and additional javelin attacks because CD as over.