LOTRO Academy: 102 – The Offensive Stats

I enjoyed your show very much 🙂

Some observations about these stats:

Critical Rating: There are caps for how much critical rating can add to your chance to critically hit, based on level, with the higher the level, the higher the cap. For level 100 characters and somewhat below, the cap is 25%

However, anything that gives a critical chance increase directly, rather than through critical rating, is not affected by the cap. Some characters can get upwards of a 40% chance to hit critically or more, for extended periods of time.

Also, while going over the critical rating cap will not increase your chance to strike critically, it will continue to add to the magnitude of your critical hits. As was said, a critical does 1.5x normal damage and Devastating Critical does 2x damage. There are affects like skill traits, legacies, and so on than can increase these as well.

The higher your critical chance, the more these critical magnitude affects comes into play. It turns out that when you have a very high chance to strike critically, maybe 40% or so roughly, it is better to raise your critical rating, which raises the magnitude of your critical strikes, than it is to raise your physical or tactical mastery.

Also, the more area of effect attacks you do, the more important critical rating is, as you are striking more foes and getting a greater benefit from it. It is possible for a Champion to do over 200,000 damage with a single Raging Blades attack.

Also, critical rating is very important for classes that both deal damage and heal at the same time, like Captains, as they are getting the benefits of critical effects in both areas.

Finesse As stated, Finesse is much less important over landscape than in raids and against tougher foes, especially in Tier 2 or higher endeavors.

Also, since attacking from behind a foe renders them unable to Parry or Block your attacks, the need for Finesse can be greatly reduced by maintaining proper facing against a foe in group situations.

Finesse also reduces foes’ Resistance to attacks, so for some, like Mischief-Maker Burglars, it is still desired to improve the chance of landing Tricks, and the same for effects of other classes.

As far as how much Finesse to get, it largely depends on your foes, I think. With avoidance caps (Block/Parry/Evade) being 25% at level cap, anything over the amount of Finesse that eliminates that much avoidance is likely wasted. Drac’s 20% goal is a good target for tougher endeavors, I believe :):