Player Guide: Class Changes Summary: Champion

[Redit]

MOST OF THIS IS MOST LIKELY OUT OF DATE, I'VE SINCE STOPPED PLAYING IN FAVOR OF OTHER INTERESTS... PLEASE REFER TO THE OTHER THREADS FOR CHANGES ON CHAMPS. GOOD DAY.

Champion

text in red indicate changes I have made since this went live. (there are none)
text in yellow indicate changes I have made on November 8th and later

The champion has been more separated into defense, damage and AoE roles instead of getting a mix of all of them.

Martial Champion

Spec Bonuses

gain +20% max morale
on any damage: 10% chance to add 1 fervour (and more!)

Significant Set Bonuses

Tier 3 - once per combat, if you fall below 20% morale you are healed 25% morale
Tier 5 - 10% chance to add 1 fervour pip from spec bonus is increased to 20%
Tier 6 - bracing attack costs 1 less fervour and heals more morale
Tier 7 – while adamant is active your damage is increase for each 5% morale missing

Traits of Special Mention

tier 2 - +13/26/39/52/64 vitality
tier 3 - +5/10/15/20/25% second wind power restore
tier 5 – on every critical hit against you +10/15/20/25/30% melee damage for 8 seconds
tier 6 - +20/40/60/80/100% dire need healing

Berserker

Spec Bonuses

on every strike skill: 20% chance to add 5% to remorseless strike critical chance. Expires if out of combat for 9 seconds.

Significant Set Bonuses

Tier 1 - +3% damage, AND +ICPR per fervour pip
Tier 2 – on every strike skill critical add 1 fervour, on every hit -3% attack duration (max 15%) for 8 seconds
Tier 5 – after every kill, add 5 fervour
Tier 7 - blood rage also provides immunity to combat states, reduces power costs, increases resistances, and adds 5 to fervour

Traits of Special Mention

tier 1 - +5/10/15/20/25% wild attack damage, at max wild attack crits increase critical chance by 5% for 6 seconds.
Tier 2 - -2/4/6/8/10% attack duration
Tier 5 - +15/30% merciful strike health threshold to use
Tier 6 – after every kill restore 5/7/10% max morale

Deadly Storm

Spec Bonuses

on every blade skill: 20% chance to -20% attack duration for 20s

Significant Set Bonuses

Tier 1 – reduces power costs by 5% for each fervour pip
Tier 2 – the bleed of the rend skill stacks up to 5 times
Tier 5 – increases damage by 3% and tactical mitigation per fervour pip
Tier 6 – on every blade skill: 20% chance to add 1 fervour, and do 30% more damage

Traits of Special Mention

tier 1 - +13/26/39/52/64 might
tier 2 - +1/2/3/4/5 targets on AoE skills. At max rank swift strike becomes swift blade
tier 3 - +20/40/60% raging blade damage
tier 5 – on every blade skill 10/15/20% chance to restore 5% of max morale.


Skills

Skills not tied to trees

• swift strike
• wild attack
• merciful strike
• sprint
• true heroics
• blood rage
• let fly
• blade wall
• horn of gondor
• bracing attack
• champion’s challenge
• fear nothing
• fight on
• clobber
• hamstring
• feral strikes

Skill Changes

Battle frenzy:

• after use you gain a fervour point every 3 secs for 45 secs
• obtained in tier 1 of the deadly storm trait line

Merciful strike:

• removes all fervour

Second wind:

• no longer a PoT, gives a big boost to power
• consumes all fervour, increased power per fervour consumed,
• 25 sec cooldown
• obtained in tier 1 of the martial champion trait line

Horn of champions:

• reduces enemy’s damage by 20% for 6s.
• obtained in tier 2 of martial champion trait line

Dire need:

• drains 30% power instead of 50%,
• 2 minute cooldown (legacy reduces to 1min)
• traits can double morale healed.
• obtained in tier 4 in martial champion trait line

Fight on:

• restores 3% max morale every 2 secs for 20 secs.
• 3 min cooldown

Controlled burn:

• 2 minute cooldown
• melee damage increased to 15%, duration reduced to 20secs.
• obtained in tier 5 of the berserker trait line

Exchange of blows:

• reflects 50% from ANY damage not just common damage.
  
• Duration reduced to 15 seconds (from 45)
• 40 second cooldown
• obtained as a set bonus in tier 4 of the deadly storm trait line

Raging blade(shing shing):

• cost 3 fervour
• obtained in tier 2 of deadly storm trait line

Battle acuity/great cleave:

• rolled into one skill,
• requires at least 5 fervour,
• 2 min cooldown
• obtained in tier 4 of deadly storm trait line

ebbing ire:

• simply reduces threat (does not transfer threat)
• obtained in tier 2 of berserker trait line

remorseless strike:

• obtained as a spec bonus in the berserker trait line

blade storm:

• obtained as a spec bonus in the deadly storm trait line

rend:

• bleed lasts for 10 seconds
• also reduces target's armor value for 30 seconds. ***this might not be automatic***
• obtained as a spec bonus in the deadly storm trait line

sudden defence:

• 40 second cooldown (legacy reduces to 25 sec cooldown)
• obtained as a spec bonus in the martial champion trait line

adamant:

• 1 minute cooldown
• obtained as a set bonus in tier 4 in the martial champion trait line

brutal strikes:

• obtained in tier 1 in the berserker trait line

ferocious strikes:

• obtained in tier 4 in the berserker trait line

true heroics:

• no longer gives a morale bubble or any bonuses based on stances because there are no stances
• changes based on spec
• martial champion: 20 enemies force attack for 10 seconds, you get +15% attack duration for 12 seconds(you are slowed down)
• berserker: 20 enemies +10% attack duration for 12 seconds, you get +10% critical hit chance for 12 seconds
• deadly storm: 20 enemies -50% run speed for 12 seconds, you get +10% melee damage for 12 seconds

Skills Removed

• Stances
• Flurry (becomes passive in deadly storm trait line)
• Seeking Blade
• Battle Acuity (becomes trait)
• Hedge
• Savage Strikes

New Skills

Riposte:

• quick melee attack usable after parry
• can’t be B/P/E,
• 8s cooldown
• obtained in tier 3 of martial champion trait line

Unbreakable:

• for 30s every time you are hit your max morale increases by 2% for 12s as well as increased tactical mitigation
• max +20% morale (ten stacks)
• at maximum you can use another skill that damages up to 5 enemies around you
• 2 min cooldown.
• obtained in tier 7 of martial champion trait line

Champion’s duel:

• debuff on target -10% run speed AND -5% damage every 3 secs for 30s
• buff on you +3% melee damage every 3 secs for 30s,
• adds 1 to fervour
• 1 min cooldown.
• obtained in tier 7 of the berserker trait line

Born for combat:

• after you are hit ten times you can use this skill
• AoE attack vs 10 targets
• 20 second cooldown
• obtained as a set bonus in tier 7 of the deadly storm trait line

Fury of blades:

• AoE, targets everyone in front
• removes all fervour, damage increased by 30% for each fervour consumed
• 20s cooldown
• obtained in tier 7 of the deadly storm trait line

Devastating strike:

• melee skill adds 2 fervour
• debuffs target +10% miss chance
• 12 second cooldown
• obtained as a spec bonus in the berserker trait line

Legendary item legacies thanks to Gilean-EU for researching these and formatting.

Weapon Major

Name	Min	Max
Area of Effect Skill damage	+1%	+10%
Brutal Strikes damage	+1%	+15%
Critical Damage multiplier	+5%	+50%
Feral/Savage Strikes damage	+1%	+15%
Ferocious Strikes cooldown	-1	-5
Relentless/Remorseless Strikes damage	+1%	+15%
Rend Bleed damage	+3%	+25%
Wild Attack damage	+1%	+15%

Weapon Minor

Name	Min	Max
Battle Frenzy cooldown	-1	-20
Fear Nothing cooldown	-1	-30
Hamstring duration	+1	+10
Horn damage	+1%	+10%
Rend Armour Reduction	+142	+204
Sprint duration	+3	+30
Sudden Defence cooldown	-1	-15
Targeted Melee Skills range	+0.5	+1.7

Rune Major

Name	Min	Max
Blade Line AoE power cost	-1%	-10%
Blade Wall damage	+1%	+15%
Bracing Attack Heal	+1%	+15%
Champion's Horn stun duration	+1	+5
Dire Need cooldown	-4	-60
Ebbing Ire cooldown	-4	-60
Strikes Line power cost	-1%	-10%
Swift Strike/Swift Blade power cost	-2%	-30%

Rune Minor

Name	Min	Max
Adamant / Invincible duration	+1	+5
Champion Skill Bubble magnitude	+1%	+10%
Fight On duration	+1	+10
Fight On pulses	+1	+10
Fury of Blades damage from Fervour	+0.01	+0.1
Merciful Strike Health Treshold	+0.01	+0.1
Rend pulses	+1	+9
Riposte damage	+1%	+15%

Edit list

tier 1 berserker Trait set bonus no longer gives attack duration per fervour pip.

true heroics... I missed that one.

exchange of blows skill changed

added more about true heroics found it changes depending on spec.

rend changes

adamant cooldown

born for combat now affects 10 targets

Added Legacies (not sure which ones are replaced)--- again thanks to Gilean-EU for doing these

someone was saying that they couldn't find an armor reduction on rend so there might be a trait or something that I missed that gave it the armor reduction. Maybe the Legacy?

[Sumadyan]

One thing I don't see is a mention of True Heroics. No more bubble from that skill for champions.

Another is no more stances and with that no more penalties for being in a stance (aka no p/e in fervor)

From my month in the beta, the berserker champion plays pretty well and can dish out some mean dps, deathstorm is also fun, Martial champion feels like molasses, slow, cumbersome (like playing a mid 40s Captain), no fun at all from the live version.

[Barney1119]

One thing I don't see is a mention of True Heroics. No more bubble from that skill for champions.

Another is no more stances and with that no more penalties for being in a stance (aka no p/e in fervor)

From my month in the beta, the berserker champion plays pretty well and can dish out some mean dps, deathstorm is also fun, Martial champion feels like molasses, slow, cumbersome (like playing a mid 40s Captain), no fun at all from the live version.

Actually true heroics is listed under "Skills not tied to trees"

[Rufus_T_Fyrfly]

Raging blade(shing shing):

• cost 3 fervour
• obtained in tier 2 of deadly storm trait line

Interesting...so maybe a pseudo-hybrid build can work. As much as I love single target dps, shing shing is too fun to skip IMO :P

From my month in the beta, the berserker champion plays pretty well and can dish out some mean dps, deathstorm is also fun, Martial champion feels like molasses, slow, cumbersome (like playing a mid 40s Captain), no fun at all from the live version.

Sounds like Berserker might be for me.

Well, that's one class change I'm cautiously optimistic about *crosses fingers as he checks on Guardian and Mini changes....*

[Kelepitra]

Sounds like Berserker might be for me.

Well, that's one class change I'm cautiously optimistic about *crosses fingers as he checks on Guardian and Mini changes....*

Wouldn't count on it as it is, the single target DPS from the berserker line has lower single target DPS than the AOE-line has.

[Rufus_T_Fyrfly]

Wouldn't count on it as it is, the single target DPS from the berserker line has lower single target DPS than the AOE-line has.

o_O really? Hmm.. that's disappointing to say the least. And I always counted on the red line, too

Well, guess I have to wait and see.

[mrfigglesworth]

o_O really? Hmm.. that's disappointing to say the least. And I always counted on the red line, too

Well, guess I have to wait and see.

I disagree with his analysis. I can get 1800 sustained damage on 85 snowbourne dummy as long as power lasts. In ardour I can't hit that high.

As for each line, i've done a lot of testing around with fervour and ardour and I can see ardour having a huge part to play for champions when there are multiple enemies needed whacked. However, we're seriously currently (beta 5) outgunned in the single target compartment currently compared to hunters. I should note that they haven't done any balancing of damage between the classes yet, so it's still up in the air how it will all turn out.

[Sthrax]

Wouldn't count on it as it is, the single target DPS from the berserker line has lower single target DPS than the AOE-line has.

Not to mention our Single Target DPS is lower than everybody but Captains and Minstrels.

Our revamp is a very mixed bag. Some of the new things they have added are nice, but the red/yellow lines have little to no survivability. You will still faceroll the content you can faceroll now, but survive that massive raid boss damage spike? not a chance. Need to quickly off-tank something during a raid? Unless you are blue, you're going to need a rez.

You will need different armor for each spec. You will need different LIs for each spec, and you will be significantly reworking your LIs when this goes live, unless you plan on discarding them immediately once you hit 86.

Instead of making challenging content, Turbine decided it was better to give your Champion selective amnesia and hit him/her in the leg with a lead pipe.

[Loucifer]

I see from the list that flurry is now a passive in the AOE line, is there anything comparable to it in the beserker line?

[MikeA]

Tier 1 - +3% damage, -2% attack duration AND +ICPR per fervour pip

The -2% Attack Duration per pip is a tooltip error leftover from an earlier build, only the Tier 2 -3% Precise Strikes bonus is in the current build.

[J_Howell]

To me, the key question is whether champs are still able to solo 3-mans? In my time zone, my servers are pretty lacking in groups so these days my primary form of entertainment in LOTRO is soloing School/Library hoping for those darn golden shoulders. I'd be very disappointed if that were no longer possible...

How much will we lose from a blue or red line spec if we also pick up Raging Blades from yellow? Getting a t2 skill from another line is still doable, right? Really wish they'd made that a skill everyone gets.

[Andthelion]

To me, the key question is whether champs are still able to solo 3-mans? In my time zone, my servers are pretty lacking in groups so these days my primary form of entertainment in LOTRO is soloing School/Library hoping for those darn golden shoulders. I'd be very disappointed if that were no longer possible...

How much will we lose from a blue or red line spec if we also pick up Raging Blades from yellow? Getting a t2 skill from another line is still doable, right? Really wish they'd made that a skill everyone gets.

its doable but only just AND with missing out a fair bit elsewhere too, remember it costs twice as much to spend points out of you spec line.

if you max out the red line you wont get raging blades.

[CmdrMagic]

Not to mention our Single Target DPS is lower than everybody but Captains and Minstrels.

Our revamp is a very mixed bag. Some of the new things they have added are nice, but the red/yellow lines have little to no survivability. You will still faceroll the content you can faceroll now, but survive that massive raid boss damage spike? not a chance. Need to quickly off-tank something during a raid? Unless you are blue, you're going to need a rez.

You will need different armor for each spec. You will need different LIs for each spec, and you will be significantly reworking your LIs when this goes live, unless you plan on discarding them immediately once you hit 86.

Instead of making challenging content, Turbine decided it was better to give your Champion selective amnesia and hit him/her in the leg with a lead pipe.

And there it is... my biggest fear since they announced the class revamps. The Champ has become a power house, top of the game competing in everything, single target DPS, AOE DPS, survivability, everything except healing and CC . We were awesome. Best time in the last 6 years to be a champ... When I first heard about the class revamps I knew there was only one way to go...

This makes me very sad. Yes, I will still "wait to see how it plays out because things can change" blah blah blah. But since I am not in Beta I have to wait until this goes live. I can't believe I am hesitating to buy the expansion now. That thought has never even crossed my mind for any other expansion. I could have handled and in all honesty expected champs to come back down a little bit from their perch on top as other classes have... but this makes me sad

[CmdrMagic]

if you max out the red line you wont get raging blades.

That is a crime against champs everywhere, not to mention all Lotro gamers, gamers in general, non-gamers, the nation, the entire world's population, and even nature itself. NO champ should EVER have to chose whether to so spec a certain way OR not be able to trait raging blades. Shame on you Turbine...


Yes, the theatrics are a little much... but I am fine with that.

[Caradras]

To me, the key question is whether champs are still able to solo 3-mans? In my time zone, my servers are pretty lacking in groups so these days my primary form of entertainment in LOTRO is soloing School/Library hoping for those darn golden shoulders. I'd be very disappointed if that were no longer possible...

How much will we lose from a blue or red line spec if we also pick up Raging Blades from yellow? Getting a t2 skill from another line is still doable, right? Really wish they'd made that a skill everyone gets.

well, even if you skill ALL available traits in red, there should remain enough points to still get that tier 2 skill^^ (even without the 5 points one gets on the road from 85 --> 95

Concerning DPS: All the numbers across the board arent balanced yet. It's unlikly that we will see finished numbers before launch as the last balancing act is done and tested by their own internal testing team (i guess at least).

To me, the key question is whether champs are still able to solo 3-mans? In my time zone, my servers are pretty lacking in groups so these days my primary form of entertainment in LOTRO is soloing School/Library hoping for those darn golden shoulders. I'd be very disappointed if that were no longer possible...

School is pretty easy to solo. even in 85 DPS gear it is possible to clear till the last boss. For the boss himself i had to switch to a martial champ traitsetup but still managed to kill him even though i used like the worst rotation ever (part because of new skills part because old skills got new icons)

[MikeA]

For most content you are better off in yellow spec, great AOE damage, and single target damage that was actually better than red for most of beta. Red has improved over the course of beta, but currently it is still only slightly better single target DPS than yellow (that is with many things still bugged, like Improved Raging Blades not giving its +60% damage). They are going to do a damage balance pass before HD goes live, so things may change.

[Caradras]

Not to mention our Single Target DPS is lower than everybody but Captains and Minstrels.

Our revamp is a very mixed bag. Some of the new things they have added are nice, but the red/yellow lines have little to no survivability. You will still faceroll the content you can faceroll now, but survive that massive raid boss damage spike? not a chance. Need to quickly off-tank something during a raid? Unless you are blue, you're going to need a rez.

You will need different armor for each spec. You will need different LIs for each spec, and you will be significantly reworking your LIs when this goes live, unless you plan on discarding them immediately once you hit 86.

Well a quick offtank in pretty much every T2 raid with challenge is pretty hairy to do for a champ who is all out DPS geared because it is very likely that any elitemaster+ mob is hitting devs of roughly 80%-150% of the champs moral.

Anyway: on live we need like a set of LI's for every spec too, so that isnt that much of a change at all. The only difference is that right now we have legs that arent that much useful in one spec whereas with HD those legacies wont be useful at all in one spec. On the other hand we got a lot more useful legacies for our runes that actually boost our DPS instead of just lowering powercosts. Prolly you only need like 1 weapon and 1 rune for DPS (either ST or AoE) if you are willing to respend points after switching spec^^
With the new stat contribution on items it could be possible to tank a mob till the tank is rezzed as we will have a lot more vitality and force taunt is a general skill outside of any tree.

[Second-cousin]

Interesting. Hopefully I won't lose all Berserker survivablity. But i may also take it as an opportunity to try out martial champ in a little more depth... Too bad we're losing most of the cross training... still, I'm cautiously optimistic.

[Gratefuldude]

Very excited for the new changes! I'm sure most of you will be pleasantly surprised.

[Caradras]

Very excited for the new changes! I'm sure most of you will be pleasantly surprised.

That is my feeling too^^ to be honest i expected a ####storm to start as soon as the nda drops (as there are obviously some people among the Champions who definetly dont like the changes (like the sky and anything beyond dropping upon us)
All in all i like the changes pretty much even though i may lose some suvivability from the bubbles (but now i can switch to a solosetup on the fly, big advantage!) But any champ who has a problem with dieing in battle is no real champ! Getting aggro is no mistake, its a sign that i did my job (while the tank didnt obviously) if i dont get the aggro, well once upon a time there is a capable guard/warden ^^
(Maybe i got a bit taken away at the end^^)

[Grimdi]

To me, the key question is whether champs are still able to solo 3-mans? In my time zone, my servers are pretty lacking in groups so these days my primary form of entertainment in LOTRO is soloing School/Library hoping for those darn golden shoulders. I'd be very disappointed if that were no longer possible...

Well, they're removing gold items from instances, so you'll be disappointed anyway ...

As for concerns regarding survivability, the new 95 gear will give everyone a huge amount of vitality (all new gear has a large slice of vitality), that will likely offset most nerfs in emergency skills.

[J_Howell]

Well, they're removing gold items from instances, so you'll be disappointed anyway ...

As for concerns regarding survivability, the new 95 gear will give everyone a huge amount of vitality (all new gear has a large slice of vitality), that will likely offset most nerfs in emergency skills.

Thanks, good to know! Though it is indeed disappointing to know that gold items are gone - I only got one in about 15 character-months of playing this level cap (on the very first run, too... ). So nice, but so *very* rare...

I saw in another thread that seals are gone too (well, will only come from raids (not sure what raids), but the last on-level raid I ever saw was a Draigoch 13 months ago, and that one was like pulling teeth to get to happen...). So it sounds like we'll be going from a setup where scaled instances are the primary content to run, to scaled instances being completely pointless and irrelevant to the game. Or will we be running certain specific scaled instances for the cyan armor drops? Not for the jewelry, one assumes, since apparently that's what the Big Battles will be giving us.

Always happy to have more vit, so that part sounds good. I assume this is the Big Battles jewelry you're referring to? Nobody seems to have seen any sign of level 95 armor sets yet.

[Rainothon]

Chiming in here to share some of my Beta experience. I've been in HD's beta from Beta 1 to Beta 5. And I've focussed on champion trait tree testing exclusively, out of interest and due to RL time constraints.

Let me tell you us champion betatesters found the champion in a rather lacking state in Beta 1. Truth be told it had a lot of room for improvement. We provided much constructive feedback (and many more elaborate than mine). After Beta 2 Jinjaah came around to processing our feedback and he did so in an applaudable way. Much progress was made as come Beta 3 Jinjaah presented us a champion that was already much better, among others all champions got bracing attack back. Still we had some constructive feedback mostly concerning 'item slice traits' and lo and behold he came around again in Beta 4, giving among others some needed love to the berserker line. And to top it off a finale bit of finetuning in Beta 5.

There has been a huge development from Beta 1 to Beta 5 and it is Jinjaah's merit to listen to our feedback and make adjustments in the ways he saw fit. One of the things this Beta learned me is that Turbine's developers -do- listen to feedback and a Beta is certainly -not- just for show and bugfixing. Another thing is that the champion community rocks.

I think the champion's class traits are in a good state at the start of HD and now have a solid foundation laid out for Gondor and beyond.

[Redit]

Tier 1 - +3% damage, -2% attack duration AND +ICPR per fervour pip

The -2% Attack Duration per pip is a tooltip error leftover from an earlier build, only the Tier 2 -3% Precise Strikes bonus is in the current build.

who said this is a tooltip error? if you can link me anything I'll change it but attack duration is something that can't easily be tested.

[Grimdi]

I saw in another thread that seals are gone too (well, will only come from raids (not sure what raids), but the last on-level raid I ever saw was a Draigoch 13 months ago, and that one was like pulling teeth to get to happen...). So it sounds like we'll be going from a setup where scaled instances are the primary content to run, to scaled instances being completely pointless and irrelevant to the game. Or will we be running certain specific scaled instances for the cyan armor drops? Not for the jewelry, one assumes, since apparently that's what the Big Battles will be giving us.

Well I recall someone saying that gear was removed in the latest beta builds while it was reworked, but I haven't tried any instances so take that as a rumor. (goldies being removed was a dev statement though). As for seals, well at launch there won't be anything to buy with seals anyway as far as we know, new barter options will likely be added in later updates for LI symbols and maybe new armor. Those may come with another change to seal aquisition, as my guess is the current change is to prevent people from farming a ton of seals now and get the new stuff almost instantly when it's available (there will be a seal reset at HD launch).

Always happy to have more vit, so that part sounds good. I assume this is the Big Battles jewelry you're referring to? Nobody seems to have seen any sign of level 95 armor sets yet.

It was an official dev statement that all new gear will have a much higher item level, your primary stat and vitality (and a bunch of secondary stats). Numbers I've seen were taken from crafted guild items on the AH (around 220 might/will/agi and 180 vitality per piece, give or take a bit). As we have at least 15 slots for gear I think 2k vit total is a safe bet even if instance/EB gear has a somewhat different stat balance.