Classes that have surprised you positively

I know there are many posts about choosing the right class, but here is an other. This just might be a little different.

So, I've been playing champions lately. Maybe too many of them, since I'm starting to get a bit bored with them. What I like about champs is their ability to kill fast and stay alive. Hunters are nice too, but melee is more my style. Wardens are not so nice, since the gambit system is way too much for a person, who might be offline for several weeks or even months. When it comes to other classes, I've been kind of prejudiced, since I've read too much about how slow or squishy they are. I've tried all classes before, but not reached lvl 20 with them. In some cases I've stopped before lvl 10, so I probably have not seen their full potential and have missed all the fun.

And that's why I'm asking for your opinions. Are there some classes you thought you'd never like but then they've taken you by surprise and before you know it, you just love them? Maybe some trait tree suggestions which have made that class nicer than you thought? And also, if some class has really surprised you, has it happened already in early levels or maybe later? I'm asking this so I won't give up too soon :D

Sorry if this seems like a silly question, I just thought it might get me more persistent to try something different if I hear your experiences. So far I've mostly soloed and since I don't consider my self as good player, I might not dare to try group content any time soon. That probably won't even matter, since I've read many times that any class is soloable. I still believe that all classes are not as fun to solo as others. My main goal in LOTRO is just to have some fun and do quests without stressing about perfect gear and stuff like that.

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Originally Posted by Sibe

I know there are many posts about choosing the right class, but here is an other. This just might be a little different.

So, I've been playing champions lately. Maybe too many of them, since I'm starting to get a bit bored with them. What I like about champs is their ability to kill fast and stay alive. Hunters are nice too, but melee is more my style. Wardens are not so nice, since the gambit system is way too much for a person, who might be offline for several weeks or even months. When it comes to other classes, I've been kind of prejudiced, since I've read too much about how slow or squishy they are. I've tried all classes before, but not reached lvl 20 with them. In some cases I've stopped before lvl 10, so I probably have not seen their full potential and have missed all the fun.

And that's why I'm asking for your opinions. Are there some classes you thought you'd never like but then they've taken you by surprise and before you know it, you just love them? Maybe some trait tree suggestions which have made that class nicer than you thought? And also, if some class has really surprised you, has it happened already in early levels or maybe later? I'm asking this so I won't give up too soon :D

Sorry if this seems like a silly question, I just thought it might get me more persistent to try something different if I hear your experiences. So far I've mostly soloed and since I don't consider my self as good player, I might not dare to try group content any time soon. That probably won't even matter, since I've read many times that any class is soloable. I still believe that all classes are not as fun to solo as others. My main goal in LOTRO is just to have some fun and do quests without stressing about perfect gear and stuff like that.

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The Burg! It started out very slow for me. It was my 3rd or 4th alt and I wasn't spending a lot of time on her. I was confused by the skill chains and how some skills opened other skills, crits, tricks, trick removal, and how to best use stealth and "from behind". At some point (maybe 30-40ish?) I took the time to read up on all the skills and it all just clicked for me. At 50-75, I was raiding with her (still was not my main) and it was just so much FUN!!! It's not like a meat grinder champ, but for instance: got a group of 4 mobs- mez one, stealth and one-shot the second, put a bleed on the third, kill the fourth, go back to the first, the third one died from the bleeds. There are also a ton of defensive skills like Hide in Plain Sight and Touch and Go and an AOE stun. I have a terrible time remembering warden gambits, but the burg just seems more natural to me and even after a break it all comes back quickly.

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Originally Posted by Starliteyes

The Burg! It started out very slow for me. It was my 3rd or 4th alt and I wasn't spending a lot of time on her. I was confused by the skill chains and how some skills opened other skills, crits, tricks, trick removal, and how to best use stealth and "from behind". At some point (maybe 30-40ish?) I took the time to read up on all the skills and it all just clicked for me. At 50-75, I was raiding with her (still was not my main) and it was just so much FUN!!! It's not like a meat grinder champ, but for instance: got a group of 4 mobs- mez one, stealth and one-shot the second, put a bleed on the third, kill the fourth, go back to the first, the third one died from the bleeds. There are also a ton of defensive skills like Hide in Plain Sight and Touch and Go and an AOE stun. I have a terrible time remembering warden gambits, but the burg just seems more natural to me and even after a break it all comes back quickly.

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Thank you for replying! That makes burgs sound really fun. I used to have one, around at 17, but deleted her for some reason, probably for making space for another champion or something. I don't even remember what it was like to play a burg, but I could definitely give them an other chance if they can do that. I think I'm ready to do something else than those meat grinders :)

For me it was the beorning.
On beta and after that on live it felt clunky and unfinished for me, and i lost interest somewhere around lvl 50.
After the whole revamp thing years later, i tried it again and boom.

I love being the healer when i play with my close RL friends sometimes. But leveling healing classes is mostly: play in DPS, and at some point switch for healing, but then don't have a clue what to do :D.
On my bear i do everything in yellow, playing solo and in groups. I switch my equip and that's it. Works just fine for me.

Beorning.

I tried it twice over the years and got bored with it. But for some reason on my third try last month, something clicked and I can't play it enough. I love it!

I am almost the opposite.

I have played Minstrels and Guardians almost exclusively.

I sorta came back, mostly to show my son the game now that he is into the Hobbit stuff, and rolled a Champion. Wow,.what a difference in pace. Having a blast. I find, at least so far, that I can be super casual about things and still progress at a comfortable pace.

Beorning sounds worth trying aswell. I think I tried it some time ago and yeah, it felt somewhat boring. Can't remember if it was before revamp or not, but maybe I'll try them too. I'm just not that big fan of playing in bear form and probably it's not so good when played only as human. Don't really know about that. Well, probably I could get used to it at some point.


Beschutzer, I know what you mean. Champions are really nice to play, absolutely my favorite class. It's just so carefree to play with them. Still, I think it's time to try something else for a change. Burglar and beorning are definitely on my list now and maybe I'll try lore-masters too.

I know you are already a fan of the champ but the moment when I realised the new trait system meant my yellow traited champ could get killing spree was a revelation (This was months after the trait system was changed)

Hunter. I'd always looked at it askance as too simple... but it's simple in concept and less simple in execution, like tetris. Easy to do decently, hard to do perfectly. So many of the skills have asymmetric and even shifting cooldowns (upshot, HS) or soft cooldowns (barbed arrow, pen shot. I.e., used as needed not spammed) on top of the resource management minigame. A lot of dynamic thinking involved. Contrasts with the warden, which is nose-to-the-grind intense memory-based gameplay when actually dpsing; but you dont really work the part of your brain that has to juggle priorities on the fly. That comes in behind the scenes on the training dummy, working out a new rotation.

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Originally Posted by Omen_Kaizer

Hunter. I'd always looked at it askance as too simple... but it's simple in concept and less simple in execution, like tetris. Easy to do decently, hard to do perfectly. So many of the skills have asymmetric and even shifting cooldowns (upshot, HS) or soft cooldowns (barbed arrow, pen shot. I.e., used as needed not spammed) on top of the resource management minigame. A lot of dynamic thinking involved. Contrasts with the warden, which is nose-to-the-grind intense memory-based gameplay when actually dpsing; but you dont really work the part of your brain that has to juggle priorities on the fly. That comes in behind the scenes on the training dummy, working out a new rotation.

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Nicely said!

For solo I’ve been having a blast on my champion. My other toons are captain, guardian, and minstrel, so being able to just shing shing has been fun. Instead of being boring, I actually find I spend more time reading quest text and such as the mindless mob killing of solo play is less tedious on the champ.

For group play I still enjoy the most my captain in redline support role; since literally launch I’ve always come back to it.

I’ve always wanted to try the burg and lore master but just don’t have the bandwidth for any more toons.

For me the Burglar is an amazingly easy class to play.
It's probably so easy for me because I started with the burg and didn't try anything else for quite a while.
I have since played many other classes, but I always end up back with my Burgs.

The thing that sticks with me most about it is that (playing solo) trying to accomplish various challenges that are put in front of us during a complex quest-line the Burglar can just get it done without any muss or fuss.

Learning to use HiPS is key. Many folks think of it as an escape move, but it can be so much more than that.
You can stealth your way deep into the enemy's camp and then when you are faced with what looks like an impossible task, maybe like some object you need to pick up, and there are a couple of Signature mobs and many "helper" mobs. It may look like there is no way a solo player can get all of that fighting/killing done. There are just TOO many enemies. What a practiced Burglar can do is grab the prize, and escape without killing or even fighting anything at all!

To use that same strategy with any other class (to me) seems futile.

One trick to being successful with a Burg is having patience.
Wait, watch and study the layout. That may sound boring and maybe like it would take longer than just going in with blades flashing and fighting your way through the mobs. Think about exactly why you are here is this ridiculous situation all by yourself. The trash mobs almost always have set paths that they walk. Figure out your own set path and then execute it. It can actually be much faster than needing to do all that unnecessary fighting...grin...:D

Burglars and lore-masters. Always fun, and super fun in groups (which I play almost exclusively in).

I've encountered a few nice surprises in LOTRO.

Blue Burglar --I love the Gambles (not gambits)... I love watching the dice roll over their heads along with the "cha-ching" when they get cashed out. I'll tear through a pack of Trolls, get pounded on, and come out of it near full health. Running with friends, it plays well. I mean, you wipe 3 times against a Raid boss, then someone brings in a Burg and ka-slamma, the boss goes down. And everyone's like, "who was that masked man?" So fun.

Red Champ --Okay yeah, I ran yellow because Champs are the Champions of AOE. For some reason, I tried Red, just because I'm silly. OMG! Talk about one-shotting! You kill something, and -poof- your Fervor bars fill up, and you catch yourself taunting other monsters with, "Who wants some more of this?" "Is that your friend? Does he want some of this?" "Sorry, I'm all out of Fervor --oh wait, I just got a new shipment in-- who wants some?"

Yellow Mini --Maybe it's my fetish with long (3 minute) buffs, maybe it's the DPS + Healing, maybe its the Bubbles. I dunno. But Yellow Mini was surprisingly fun, solo or with friends. It's like they're made for Big Battles. Heck, join a Raid that already has a healer, guess what? It's about to be a funner Raid.

Blue RK --It's like, you have this whole row of HOT skills. So you unload all your heals on the tank. And now you have ...Time... To switch your attunements and shoot things with zappy stuff, then throw in some DOT, stun something, take a sip of coffee, and then maybe switch back to healing attunement and unload another round of heals on the tank. Okay, you probably can't do that in a Raid. And there are few AOE heals to speak of, but single target, it just has this feel of, "Hey, if you can hold aggro, I can heal you through anything."

Thank you all for your replies! It's time for me to make new character, since my high elf champion has gone to Mordor and may stay there for a while, since I'm not so big fan of anything that happens after the ring is destroyed. I think I'll try burglar and minstrel first and then beorning, lore-master and rune-keeper later. Since I'm making a rohirrim lady, that rules out some other classes. Keeping my fingers crossed for not giving up too soon this time :)

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Originally Posted by Sibe

Thank you all for your replies! It's time for me to make new character, since my high elf champion has gone to Mordor and may stay there for a while, since I'm not so big fan of anything that happens after the ring is destroyed. I think I'll try burglar and minstrel first and then beorning, lore-master and rune-keeper later. Since I'm making a rohirrim lady, that rules out some other classes. Keeping my fingers crossed for not giving up too soon this time :)

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10 years ago, a Warden was my main, and occasionally my captain took this sacred position over (which was my main until North Mirkwood). Some revamps later, I was surprised by the 'new' assailment Warden, which is essentially, a melee-ranged hybrid class. It's fun to play, but it can be a little underwhelming compared to AoE or regular melee wardens.

This concept of being survivable, fighting in melee and range, had gotten me to make a hunter, whom is of course a well known ranged fighter. Hunters I always perceived as dull point and shoot classes. But, in fact, they are amazingly convenient with their speed buffs and travel skills. But as aforementioned, I like to play in close range like a skirmisher. That's where either blue or yellow line hunter becomes interesting. Ever since I picked up yellow line, the trapper, I was impressed by the survivability. In Angmar I've soloed Bogbereth on level, and the debuffs and cc sometimes makes for an impressive 'LM'. Surely, yellow line will probably fail at end game, but.. I don't care for end game.

The burglar also surprised me. I enjoy again the yellow line, because it feels so different. It's a very slow way of getting around solo, but highly amusing in groups. In Moria, I've main healed for example the Grand Stairs as a burglar, just by making use of Retort and glee, that's of course, while applying debuffs and cc.

My tip: play around with your less popular trait line, and make up your own mind about them :) Surely they are viable solo. Try to see if they can be useful for you in groups.

I've been playing since near launch and always heavily favored heavy armor classes in all areas of content, with some medium classes. Light armor was never my preference and I only ever kept a Lore-Master at level cap for scholar crafting purposes and I like the idea of a pet class (though not necessarily the way it's implemented).

With quarantine giving me all the time to play I could've ever wanted, I ran out of heavy and medium classes to gear up and started passively building out my LM. One day I was in a PUG raid and that was the last piece we needed to start, so I volunteered to switch over and... it was weird! I felt like the raid court reporter, just standing by and watching everyone else do the work while completing my own miscellaneous tasks to give them the best shot at succeeding. Since then I've played it more often and picked up more of the nuances like pet rotations and stacking water lore when possible, but overall it still feels like an incredibly unique role unlike any other class and gives me a refreshing change of pace now and then.

I definitely won't ever play it my main (or even 4th or 5th alt), but I have a new appreciation for those that do!