Character Selection

Congratulations!  You have downloaded the game and logged in only to see a Character Selection Screen.  What do you do now?  Make a character of course. 🙂

Step 1:  Choose a gender to play.

Choosing a gender is the easiest option.  You will either create a male or female character.

Step 2:  Choose a Race to play.

Here you have four races from Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings.  They are:

Man – The race of man is not as longed lived as the Elves, not as sturdy as Dwarves or even as resilient as a Hobbit, but they are known for courage and resourcefulness.  They  are capable of great courage and honour but they can fall prey to ambition and betrayal.

Dwarf – Dwarves can be very good warriors and are known for their determination, strength and commitment to the things in Middle Earth’s deep places.  They are resistant to  the corruption that the Enemy places on the world, but unfortunately they are not resistant to Greed.  They will live their lives secretively beneath mountains and are, for this  reason, great miners.

Hobbit – Hobbits are a solid race and very dependable.  They are a simple folk and enjoy peaceful endeavours of farming, gift (mathom) giving and of course, eating.  They  don’t tend to concern themselves with the dealings outside the Shire but during the dark times that lay ahead, Hobbits will have the greatest impact in the war of the Free  Peoples.  Their use of both their words and their actions will have surprising effects.

Elf – Elves are known as Fair Folk and became allies of the other Races when the need was greatest.  They are now protective of their seclusion in the world.  They have a deep  affinity with the natural world, living in the old forests, and they remember the devastation caused by years of war that have gone before.

Step 3: Choosing a Class to play.

Once you have chosen your Race, you may now choose your Class.  Your Class determines what skill set, traits and virtues you will have as you travel the road through Middle Earth.  Not every Race can be every Class.  The classes are:

Burglar – It is no surprise that this class was inspired by the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.  Burglars are the masters of stealth and confound their enemy by the use of clever and debilitating tricks.  They can take their enemy by surprise by attacking from the shadows.  Their main role is to de-buff mobs of their ability to damage and attack at full strength.  This class is best in groups where they have the highest ability to create Fellowship Maneuvers.

Captain – This class was inspired by Earnur, the last King of Gondor.  Characters that are Captains are leaders capable of strengthening allies and can also use arms to take up the fight.  A captain has a Herald that they can call upon to help fight the enemy.  This class whether played solo or in a fellowship can require some thought into how to master it.

Champion – This class was inspired by the dwarf Gimli, son of Gloin.  Champions are unrelenting in battle and use fervour to make increasingly powerful attacks. They excel at melee combat and use Heavy Armour to absorb punishing attacks by the enemy.  The Champion is one of the easiest Classes to level and can often take up to three enemies on at once.

Guardian – The guardian class was inspired by the hobbit Samwise Gamgee. As the Class name suggests, is a protector and as such, stands at the forefront of the battle, both shielding his friends from the blows of the enemy whilst retaliating with his own mighty blows.  His use of Heavy Armour and Shields in conjunction with the high defensive skills will make him perfect in the role of Tank.  Because the Guardian has a low damage                   output, they will take longer to kill an enemy.

Hunter – This class was inspired by the elf Legolas.  A hunter is a master in both the field and the forest and is unmatched in bow skills.  They use survival skills to guide their friends and have the ability to lay traps for their enemies.  Ranged attacks are their strength but do have some melee abilities when needed.  They also earn the skills necessary to be able to port their friends to other locations.

Lore-master – The Lore-master class was inspired by Elrond Halfelven, Lord of Rivendell.  Lore-masters are seekers of knowledge and they guard their wisdom wisely.  Their method of battle is one of ancient secrets and lore which can protect them against the enemy’s dark powers and they use their animal pets to help them.  They are useful in crowd control and can use their pets to de-buff, stun or tank.  To learn more about the Lore-masters Pets go to Lotro Menagerie.

Minstrel – This class was inspired by the elf, Luthien Tinuviel.  Minstrels can tap into the music of the land which gives them power to heal and to support their friends.  This class can also deal damage through their light-based skills.

Rune-keeper – The Rune-keeper class was inspired by the master Elf-smith, Celebrimbor.  They are linguists and masters of true names who use an attunement system to deal out magic and healing.   Unlike Lore-masters, who use traditional powers of nature, the Rune-keeper taps into the primal physics of the world through true names.

• Attunement – Attunement moves in two directions.  Moving left on the Attunement meter will deal damage, while moving right, will deal healing.  Using your skills will move the meter in either direction.  For example, if you are using a lot of damaging skills, the Attunement meter will fill on the damage side faster than the healing.  It will also make switching and moving towards healing more difficult.

Warden – Warden class was inspired by Haldir, the marchwarden of Lothlorien.  Wardens arm themselves with spears and javelins and use a gambit system to deal out powerful combo attacks.  They are a tanking class but use only medium armour and they rely on self-healing as well as blocking, parrying and evading their enemies.

• Gambit System – Gambits are formed using different “builder skills” in a particular order.  As you level, more Gambits are added to your skills

So which Class has which Roles in the game?

Below is a table that hopefully will help you decide on which class to play depending on their primary role.

AoE = Area of Effect.

Class	Tank	DPS:Melee	DPS: AoE	DPS:Ranged	Crowd Control	Debuffer	Healer	Buffer	Pet Class
Burglar		Primary			Secondary	Primary
Captain	Secondary	Secondary					Secondary	Primary	Yes
Champion	Secondary	Primary	Primary
Guardian	Primary	Secondary	Secondary
Hunter			Secondary	Primary	Secondary
Lore-master			Secondary		Primary	Primary	Secondary	Secondary	Yes
Minstrel					Secondary		Primary	Secondary
Rune-keeper			Secondary	Primary		Secondary	Primary
Warden	Primary	Secondary		Secondary

 

Which Race can be What Class?

Once again, I rely on a table for an easy to read guide on what Race can become what Class.

Race	Burglar	Captain	Champion	Guardian	Hunter	Lore-master	Minstrel	Rune-keeper	Warden
Man	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	NO	Yes
Dwarf	NO	NO	Yes	Yes	Yes	NO	Yes	Yes	NO
Hobbit	Yes	NO	NO	Yes	Yes	NO	Yes	NO	Yes
Elf	NO	NO	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

 

Customising Your Character.

Well then, so far so good.  You have your Race and your Class.  Now it is time to go to the next screen and customise your character.

“Sigh”, more options to choose from.  Believe it or not, the hardest part of this process now is choosing a name that no-one else has taken.  Each of the Origin options will give you a detail about the Lore of the location and their naming guidelines.  If you want to Role Play, then sticking to the Naming Guidelines is a good idea.  For example, if Iwant to Role Play an Elf from Lindon, I would not be choosing a name like Elizabeth.  In fact I would choose a name like Gilrin where I used the prefix Gil with the suffix rin to make a name meaning Lady crowned with Stars.

If you are at a loss for a name, there are a lot of name generators and dictionaries on the internet that you can use.  The Tolkien Gateway has a great list of Sindarin names that if you can’t use the actual names, is a great guide on what to look for in a name.

Name generators are also useful although not always accurate.  One I have used in the past is the Name Generator at My Precious.  When I used it for a Hobbit name I got:

Alubrylla ‘the Magnificent’ Smallburrow of the Shire

The good thing about this generator is that you can select the Race.  So it is kind of a One Stop Shop for names.  Mind you, I haven’t actually used my Hobbit name yet… maybe one day!

You will also see the Customize panel.  After choosing your Origin, it will give you the options for that location.  You will find skin tones, hair and eye colours can vary depending on the region.  Each option has a number of selections within it with Hairstyle having the most.  Choose the shape of your head, eyebrows and mouth.  You can choose eyeshadow and wrinkles from the Eye options and in Details, depending on the Race, hair bands, moles, scars and wrinkles.  Choosing the Hair, eye and skin colours are simply a matter of moving the little square box from one end to another.  Body type will change the body of your character to have broader shoulders, wider waist etc.

Almost done!

Once you have your name and options finalised, do not hit the create button straight away.  Above the Create button is a small box which you can check/tick if you want to skip the new User Tutorial.  This is an extra little bit of gameplay that will help you become accustomed to the world, interface and controls. I will cover this further in the next Guide – Tutorials.

Once you have checked this or left it blank, go ahead and create your character.  If your name is unavailable, a little pop-up saying “That name is taken” will appear and you will have to keep trying names until one is available.

Now you have your character!  Congratulations!