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Welcome to LotROCast Episode 4 for the 18^th of January, 2009 – Meet stealthy, tricky and hidey.

Well here you are again tuning in to another episode of the podcast all about the Lord of the Rings Online game. It has been another week and another podcast comes your way. Remember now you can subscribe via iTunes. Just go to the podcast director and search for LotROCast.

IF you have any feedback on the shows please feel free to send your emails to sparthir A T gmail dot com or post a comment on the show notes on the kiwiclick.com website. Or even pop into the Windfola server and send me a message.

Burglars

Hi, I’m a Burglar and I am sneaky. Burglars are arguably the most solo-able class in the game. They can do some quests that would normally require an entire fellowship. They have the ability to hide, turn and dodge damage. It makes them a very formidable class. But they aren’t invincible.

To start out with Burglars can sneak around in stealth and position them selves for a powerful first blow. Burglars do most damage from behind a creature so love working with another class that can take the threat and hold it. However if required a Burglar can use a skill to increase their evade rating by 50%. This lets them survive in some situations where most would perish.

A Burglar can work in two modes. One is starting a fight in stealth. This means that they can position themselves in a fight and do larger initial positional damage. From stealth they are also able to distract and turn an enemy away from them allowing for easier positioning.

The other mode a burglar might run in is Mischief. This is a skill they can toggle that allows them to have more skills unlocked. It also reduces their Riddle skill cooldown. Riddle is a powerful weapon in the Burglars arsenal. It isn’t damage, it is a stun that lasts for 30 seconds. As mentioned just above (but it is worth mentioning again) if a Burglar is running in Mischief the shortened cooldown allows the Riddle to be recast so that an enemy stays constantly Riddled. This skill can be broken if a careless fellowship member hits a Riddled enemy. You may get away with one hit but after that the enemy is almost guaranteed to wake up.

Riddle is very handy for what is known as crowd control. Say for example you have two nasty enemies that would be easier to fight one at a time. The Burglar simply Riddles one of them and keeps it nice and sleepy whilst the group or solo Burglar fights the other. This can make or break a fight sometimes so it is important to recognise what one the burglar has put to sleep and don’t use any skills that will hit in a wide area. Champs no blade wall or any of those fancy spinning hits near a Riddled enemy. For the Hunter that means Rain of Arrows or Rain of Thorns is a no-no. Even Minstrels and their Piercing Cry can wake up a Riddled enemy. There are just some examples of classes and their skills that can wake an enemy. All classes should read their skills carefully for things that might wake an enemy. If you are not sure and you want to experiment try getting a low level mob and use the skill in question and see what the result may be.

Another huge way that a Burglar can add to a group is their ability to get conjunctions or Fellowship Manoeuvres. These moves will be described in your manual or online and may be covered in a later episode. Needless to say they can really rescue a group from being completely wiped out. Any class that can trigger a conjunction move like the Burglar or Guardian should try and call it before they do. This gives time for their fellowship members to prepare.

There are three main ways a burglar may get a conjunction. One is called Exploit Opening and can be used whether in stealth or not. Trip can only be used from stealth. The final one that has a much lower chance of success and takes longer before it is able to be used is called Exposed Throat. This last one is set up through a chain of hits after a critically successful hit.

All in all the Burglar can be again one of the classes not much noticed by a fellowship but can play a vital role in the success of a particularly nasty quest. They can’t hit hard, they aren’t a tanking class and are only a medium armour class.

However if all goes to hell they have one final trick in their pocketsessss. They have Hide in Plain Sight. That means that they can drop straight into stealth and hide. Obviously, in the process, they drop all threat. It has some caveats (what great skill doesn’t). It can shortly be broken if the Burglar is currently wounded or has certain damage types applied and it has a long cool down. However there is one final twist to this skill. If the Burglar is traited right they can move at 100% normal speed for as long as their Hide in Plain Sight is applied. This gives them a great way to escape from a very tricky situation indeed. They are Burglars after all.

So there is my brief look at the Burglar skill. Obviously there is more to this class but there are the main points. It is a class well worth checking out.

Don’t forget if you want to comment on the show you can go to kiwiclick.com or email sparthir A T gmail dot com.

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