BURGLAR CLASS OVERVIEW

Even though the Burglar class has been around in Lord of the Rings Online for a minute or two now, it is a fairly new class for me.  I started my Burglar about six months ago and honestly didn’t play much with him at first because I was gun shy of the class.  I’ve always enjoyed the ranged classes better than the up in your face, hand to hand combat types.  Oddly enough though, my first class I started in LOTRO back in 2009 was a Champion….go figure.

The biggest looming factor I think that always kept me at an arrows shot away from starting one of these swift footed, knife wielding, killers was the lack of understanding on their purpose.  I’m not a LOTRO guru that understands all the ins and outs of everything within the game but I have my favorite aspects and love to make sure I know what I’m doing.  So came the brave idea of let’s create a Burglar and use him as a SOLO character to learn how to play with him.  Needless to say it’s taken me a long time to get to know my cloaked marauder.  That’s where I wanted to start and break down some key aspects of this now growing favorite class of mine within LOTRO.

What I learned early on is the Burglar isn’t a DPS monster like the Hunter or Champion.  The Burglar seems to be able to hold his own in moderate crowds of battle but when overwhelmed he can go down very quickly.  These guys are masters at disguise, debuffing bad guys, and crowd control masters.  One of the things I learned very quickly is pre-planning all your attacks come in very handy.  I was used to nuking from a distance with my Hunter or AOE’ing everything within swinging distance on my Champion with no regard really.  So the thought of pre-planning a few attacks when I’m not in a RAID, Skirmish, or Instance was mind blowing to me.

These guys have the ability to stack bleeds together to make life really tough for foes; they can also stun you and have you “Dead” before you blink.  Pretty much an endless bag of tricks is what you have at your disposal for taking down any type of hairy situation you get yourself into. In solo play, Burglars are one of the best in my opinion because of their versatility and ability to take down multiple mobs with a bit of planning.

The Burglar class is available only to Hobbits and Race of Man.  Seeing how Bilbo was a Burglar, I thought it fitting to create a Hobbit Burglar of my own…though I’m not quite the legend as Bilbo I have heard some rumors starting as I’m roaming through Bree late at night picking some pockets.  Oh wait, I mean grabbing a few drinks at the Prancing Pony.  Hobbits can also acquire a stealth skill that stacks nicely for the Burglar.  Hobbits can also acquire the “Hobbit-Silence” trait and seems to work better for getting that unwanted aggro off of you.

Key Attributes

Agility is the critical stat for Burglars, as it affects your melee critical chance and evade rating. The higher you’re agility, the better chance of scoring those critical hits and a bigger chance of enemies missing you during combat.  You can take a look at your other stats but boosting that Agility will also increase the offensive and defensive stats.  Like the Hunter getting your stats like you want is mainly all gear driven it seems.

Burglars do extra damage when they are able to attack from behind.  Remember when I said they are masters at disguise and sneaking about.  This is a prime example of where to use it…sneak up on an enemy and attack.  Solo play is one of the best ways to use this tactic, but if you are in a group and you have a Tank then let him grab aggro before you start stabbing those knives into the back of your enemy.

Crowd Control Kings is what one of my kinmates refers the Burglar as.  The statement I made earlier about not understanding this classes purpose, well this is it in a nutshell.  He’s the crowd control king for group play.  Burglars have a wide array of options to achieve this as well and learning how to use them is most important.  If you look at the default crowd control skills you have Riddle, Diversion, Addle, & Provoke which also does melee damage and lessens the critical chance of an enemy attack.

With the release of Helms Deep you now have the Trait Tree system which brings three new lines to choose from for all classes in LOTRO.

The Burglar has the following lines to choose from.  I’ve tried all three and the Yellow Line is my favorite by far as its where all the tricks come in.  The Burglar however is a class you need to analyze the situation with and find out what trait line will work best with before you just rush into battle.  It’s that whole pre-planning the attack thing I mentioned earlier and a lesson I learned the hard way –

• The Gambler – Blue Line / Uses damage over time and chance to defeat foes. Gambler Burglars rely on the roll of the dice to inflict damage and influence outcomes of the fight.
• The Quiet Knife – Red Line / Uses stealth and position tactics to deal damage. Quiet Knife Burglars pounce on their enemy from the shadows, dealing large amount of damage on their opening attacks.
• The Mischief Maker – Yellow Line / Applies and removes tricks to hinder foes. Mischief Maker Burglars can control fights by tricking their foes into submission.

IN SUMMARY

The Burglar is one of the most advanced classes in the game except for the Warden in my opinion.  It’s also, after you learn how not to die every five seconds one of the most fun and exciting classes to play.  You do not have to be a VIP subscriber to roll one of these magnificent classes as it’s available to all free-to-play accounts.  This class is all about outwitting the enemy so if you like the challenge of planning attacks, sneaking about, and don’t like brute forcing you’re way through the game then The Burglar is calling you’re name.  If you haven’t started a Burglar or maybe reluctant because you don’t understand the class, I’m hoping this article helps open some doors on this class.