Meet Ceoldir the alt I spent most of the free welcome back week levelling up. Thanks to the reduced levelling curve and and XP bonus for the week Ceoldir has gained 9 levels in just under 30 hours of play and now sits at the heady heights of level 26.
Up to now Throg a level 60 Champion has been my main Lotro character. Throg is a fiery red headed dwarf who thinks that the best solution to any problem is to hit it hard with a big axe. Despite his temper he is a staunch friend and unwavering ally of the cause of good. He despises the dourhands for sullying the name of dwarves and has cracked many a dourhand skull to show them error of their ways. Throg is not really one for fancy armour (it just gets in the way of a good swing) but he is fussy about the sharpness of his axes.
I love Throg's character and if I had more guts I'd probably try to role play him but I am perhaps a little tired of playing a Champion. The Champion is a straightforward melee role who can dish out sustained single target and aoe damage pretty much forever. They make a good off tank but their only real utility function is the interrupt skill "clobber".
The Lore Master on the other hand is a much more versatile character who combines crowd control with debuffing, decursing and a little bit of healing but also has a pet and can do both ranged and melee damage! That is a quite a range of functions and I died a lot during the lower levels as I struggled to put it all together.
Now in mid 20's I am finally getting the hang of it all and can see the real power of the character. Ceoldir seems much stronger than I remember Throg being at a similar level. By juggling his crowd control, pet and debuffs Ceoldir can handle groups of mobs that would have overcome Throg at that level and Ceoldir can even solo elites.
I was particularly surprised to discover that a utility character like Ceoldir can do some very respectable DPS. He has several sources of damage including staff melee, ranged direct and damage over time skills and also pet attacks. When all are working together mobs die very quickly.
I have taken him into a few PUG groups to see how he fares. Effective crowd control requires greater co-ordination than one usually gets in a pug so I usually adopt a ranged DPS / debuffer role. It seems to work well and I can throw in the odd heal too when required.
I haven't really fleshed out a personality for Ceoldir yet but he is a Lore master so I reckon he is more interested in old books and arcane knowledge than in worldly goods. Just check out the tattered patchwork coat he is wearing.
Favourite pet so far: Raven, can debuff mobs to make them sensitive to fire and can distract ranged mobs.
Normal Killing Sequence: Debuff enemy with Sign of Power Command (reduced attack speed), Launch Burning Embers toasty fire damage dot, while BE is launching apply benediction of raven (Increased Fire damage) which also sends the raven in to attack, blast them with Light of the Rising Dawn if not on cooldown and use the accompanying stun to launch either another burning embers or an improved staff strike depending on how close to you they have gotten. Mob is usually dead by this point.
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