How well do Beornings "Turn out" later in the game?

[Believeinsteve]

So I've never gotten past level 20 in LOTRO and I'm really curious to see how beornings turn out with their legendary items from...moria I think? Then I start to think about mounted combat with a beorning, followed by just "feeling" out of place compared to everyone else. Maybe it's just me and I'm over thinking it.

I'm not so much looking for a class to play help, after trying warden & captain, I really think Beorning is my class for my first level cap character which will be well after mordor release. Then if I really want to do end game things and Beorning still isn't competitive I'll make a new class to enjoy that content. The reason I like Beorning is because it's the only shape shifter in LOTRO and the bear form doesn't look absolutely ridiculous. The animations aren't great, but I've seen worse. Getting that feeling or even acknowledgement from people that they hardly see a Beorning for whatever reason, gives me that extra edge of "I'm gonna be unique, and maybe It'll turn out okay at level cap."

1) How well does Beorning's legendaries translate into it's game play? I'm still wrapping my head around the idea of what legendaries are. They sound like weapons that follow you from the point you get them to the end.

2) How are they in mounted combat? I would assume that's a large part of the Rohan expansion which is quite a few levels, I hope I'm not going to hate myself during that time.

3) How out of place do you feel compared to the other classes in every environment. Landscape, walking around a city, group content, etc. Do people normally look down upon you? Do they praise you? Normally when leveling I get people that whisper me "That's sweet." or "I kind of want to try a Beorning now."

[lookingeast]

1) How well does Beorning's legendaries translate into it's game play? I'm still wrapping my head around the idea of what legendaries are. They sound like weapons that follow you from the point you get them to the end.

2) How are they in mounted combat? I would assume that's a large part of the Rohan expansion which is quite a few levels, I hope I'm not going to hate myself during that time.

3) How out of place do you feel compared to the other classes in every environment. Landscape, walking around a city, group content, etc. Do people normally look down upon you? Do they praise you? Normally when leveling I get people that whisper me "That's sweet." or "I kind of want to try a Beorning now."

For Context I am a level ~85 Beorning



1.) The legendary item system is a fun way to gear out your character in a custom way at best, and a horrible grind fest in which there is only "one right answer" at worst.
It was supposed to be what you described, but what it turned out to be was different. As it is now you get an item that has 2 levels associated with it. the first is based on your character, you can use an item that's level is equal or less than your own. So at level 60 you can use up to a level 60 LI (Legendary Item). The 2nd is the LI's level itself. As you do battle with a LI it will level up too. So if your character is level 60, he might have 2 LI's, both are level 60 items, but 1 has more experience than the other, so its leveled up more. The higher experienced LI will be (normally) better, and thus used more. The problem with this system is that a level 65 LI at lowest rank will be better than a level 60 LI at max rank. So by the time you are actually maxing out your LI's you are changing them because you level so fast.

Legendary Items have several components to consider. For Weapons they have
1.) Damage, as your LI grows you can increase its damage.
2.) passives, when you first discover a new LI (called "Identifying" it) it might show up with some passive traits. These don't change normally, under some circumstances you can add some passives, or increase their values a little bit.
3.) Legacies, as you rank up your LI you can unlock legacies, these are class specific bonuses. As an example a weapon legacy I have is +x% Damage in bear form. x usually ranges from 1-10% but may vary based on the specific legacy.
4.) Rank, I've called this rank through out this post for clarity, and will continue to do so, but in reality its a level. The problem is LI's have 2 levels to consider, the minimum level your character must be to use it, and its current level. As your LI ranks up you'll gain points to put into legacies or damage to increase their values.
5.) Relics, Once you start the LI system you'll start finding things called relics. These are passive attributes that you can add to a LI to make it more appealing. These are different from the passives I mentioned before, can be changed more easily ( note its still hard to change them, just easier than the other passives)
6.)a Damage type, Through your play you might come across certain scrolls that change the damage type of your weapon. For example it will start as "common" which is, as the name suggests, the most common damage type, it also tends to be less damage over all on enemies due to resistances. But you might change it to "Ancient Dwarf" - which will give you more damage verses certain monsters, Ancient dwarf in this example is good vs dragons or dragon kinds like drakes.

To recap: The Li system is cool, it gives you some customizability, maybe your Beorning does more damage while he's a bear, maybe mine generates more wrath, but while leveling you'll gain and throw away many many many LI's because you level too fast for them to keep up. At max level you'll have 1 Li that will be your baby. Treat it well.


2.) I'm actually doing mounted combat now, and I love it. The controls for the horse start a little wonky, but after you level the "agility" of your horse it gets a lot better. Beginnings specifically have 4 main attacks.
1.) Generic Melee
2.) Generic Ranged with some Damage over time
3.) A ranged Damage over time attack that buffs you so your next attack is a grantee critical
4.) A high damage high cost melee attack (Execute) that can be used regardless of enemy health.

normally a combination of 3 and 4 will kill any on level normal or swarm mob.



3.) I generally feel that people currently look down on Beornings only in end game raids. I do get asked if I like the beorning a lot, to which I say I do. And I feel the Beorning has potential to be very powerful. People generally feel that the Other classes of the game simply do the boernings role better than he can at max level. I wish I could elaborate more, but i'm not max level yet, so I can't really tell you much.


Sorry for the wall of text, if you have any more questions i'd be happy to answer them if I can!

[Joedangod]

Beornings have the weakest scaling with LI's of all characters. It's why people assumed they were OP if they only played up to 50, from 50 onwards the other classes easily overtake Beorning in terms of strength in all 3 roles.

[Believeinsteve]

That was fantastic thank you. I think what I was most worried about is the Mounted combat system for Beornings specifically but you seem to enjoy it. So it can't be all that bad I suppose.

The legendary item system sounds weird. At first it sounded like artifact weapons from world of warcraft legion expansion, but then you talk about you throw them away a lot. So I'm guessing you actually don't just keep 1 weapon or a couple, you cycle through them like normal weapons?

[lookingeast]

So I'm guessing you actually don't just keep 1 weapon or a couple, you cycle through them like normal weapons?

You can have something like a total of 6 weapons AND class items at a time. Of those 6 you can equip 1 weapon and 1 Class item, all 6 gain experience at the same rate. When you are done with a Legendary Item for whatever reason you can "Deconstruct" it at a certain vendor in higher level areas. When you Deconstruct it you gain several things. 1.) an item that holds Item XP that you can apply to a different item to boost its level more quickly. 2.) Some relics of varying strength based on how powerful the Deconstructed Legendary item was ( for more on relics see the post above) 3.) sometimes you'll gain some other goodies for future legendary items, various scrolls or other things.

Like I said, you'll throw away a LOT of Legendary items while leveling. You will likely level too quickly for them to stay valuable for long. Don't get attached to them, but get familiar with them, learn what legacies you like, what to look for in a good LI for later on.

[Iarkrad]

Beornings start out really, really strong, but plateau out post-moria. By Gondor, they're irritatingly clunkier, when not flat out worse than other classes in the same role.