In RPGs, a character's role defines what they do and how they
contribute to group content and in-game encounters. In the
Lord of the Rings Online, there are 4 main roles to fulfill -
tank, DPS, heal, and support. In this guide, I will to discuss
the roles in LOTRO and breakdown which classes and specs can fulfill them.
The first half focuses on new players with an
overview of character roles, while the second half covers the roles
individually and which classes fulfill them and how.
This guide was written during Update 27 in July 2020.
Overview of Roles and What They Mean
The role of your character describes what your character does in combat.
Like many other games, there are four main roles in LOTRO.
Role summary:
- Tank - Someone who can survive a lot of damage, takes aggro from enemies, and protects allies.
- DPS (Damage Per Second) - Someone who focuses on dealing damage to enemies.
- Heal - Someone who raises the morale (health) of allies, preventing them from dying.
- Support - Someone who does not fit solely into the Tank-DPS-Heal trinity, often strengthening allies and weakening enemies while providing a lot of utility to battle.
In LOTRO, each class has three specializations which allows them to narrow
their focus, boosting their abilities in a certain role. Importantly, some
classes and specs can also fulfill multiple roles at once (most commonly
with a combination of a support and something else). At endgame,
classes that best fulfill their roles are often the first choice for the
toughest group content and raids, while when leveling and for casual group
content, every class is viable in its role and flexibility in roles can be
important. For more information on classes and their specs: https://www.lotrobasics.com/2020/04/guide-to-classes-in-lord-of-rings-online.html.
Each role can be further split into subcategories (e.g., "Support-DPS",
"Tactical DPS"). Along with the main chunk of the guide, these will be
gone into more detail in the next section. An overview may seem messy at
first because of this, but below is a quick list of the classes and their
roles!
The Classes and Their Roles Quick List:
- Beorning - Tank/DPS/Healer-Support
- Burglar - DPS/Support
- Captain - Support/Tank/Support-DPS/Support-Heal
- Champion - DPS/Tank
- Guardian - Tank/DPS
- Hunter - DPS/Utility-DPS
- Lore Master - Support/DPS
- Minstrel - Heal/Heal-Support/DPS
- Rune Keeper - DPS/Heal
- Warden - DPS/Tank
For more information, I suggest continuing on or checking out the
Classes of LOTRO Guide!
Roles in LOTRO and Their Classes/Specs
This section will cover each role in LOTRO individually with:
- What that role entails
- What sub-roles and hybrid roles there are
- Which classes and specs can fill that role and how they do so
Tank
What is a Tank?
As defined by Google, tanks are "heavy armored fighting vehicles...".
Translated into MMORPG terms, tanks are "heavy armored fighting
characters..." that put themselves at the front of combat. Tanks play
the key role of taking aggro of enemies to ensure the enemies don't run
rampant on their allies. Because of this, tanks are built for strong
defenses and can take a lot of hits before being defeated.
Playing a tank is no small task - they have many responsibilities other
than staying alive, including managing enemy positions, maintaining
aggro, and setting the pace of group content, among many other things.
Tank Sub-roles
In LOTRO, tanks can have a few areas of focus:
- Main tank (MT) - serves as the primary tank for the group or encounter
- Off-tank (OT) - serves as a secondary or backup tank for the group, often used in raids (12+ members)
- AoE - focuses on tanking large groups of mobs
- Boss/ST - focuses on tanking a single target, often bosses in group content
- DPS - focuses on maximizing damage while maintaining all characteristics of a regular tank, often at the cost of defenses
- Support - through buffs and debuffs, supports allies while maintaining tank characteristics
- Solo - focuses on solo survivability to do difficult content on their own
Tank Classes and Specs
Beorning - Blue Line - A moderately-sturdy tank that can
also deal moderate damage for a tank. Beornings have great AoE threat
and can serve well as a main tank or off-tank. They also offer great
survivability to solo difficult content.
Captain - Yellow Line - A very sturdy support-based tank
that excels in single target fights and at high levels. They bring high
survivability, a lot of utility, and support via defensive buffs to
their group. For these reasons, Captains are considered the best Boss/ST
main tank for high difficulty endgame content (as of Update 27, at level
130).
Champion - Blue Line - Offensive-focused tank that uses a
2-handed weapon or dual-wields while dealing AoE and ST damage with
self-defensive boosts to stay alive. Their inferior defenses and
relatively low damage often leave them behind other tanks, but are
sufficient for casual content.
Guardian - Blue and Yellow Lines - The classic LOTRO tank,
offering two tank specs - one focusing on being a very sturdy tank with
a shield and the other focusing on dealing damage and debuffing enemies
with the option for 2-handed weapon tanking. Guardians can fill as a
sturdy main tank or opt to reduce their survivability in favor of
becoming an AoE DPS-oriented tank.
Warden - Blue Line - A largely AoE DPS focused tank, that
has fallen in favor due to its outdated tanking mechanics. Their tanking
core has been based around evading attacks and self-healing, however,
for a long time in LOTRO, the limiting factors for tanks is how much
damage they can take and how well they can mitigate large hits, rather
than avoid them altogether. All that said, Wardens are still excellent
choices for the highest ST and AoE DPS tanks, but bring little
survivability and utility to their group. They also offer the ability to
solo difficult content, similar to Beornings and Captains.
DPS
What is a DPS?
DPS, short for "damage per second", is the term used for the
role that focuses on dealing damage to enemies, occasionally also
called DD for "damage dealers". DPS are usually built with
little defense, focusing on offensive stats and boosting their damage
wherever possible.
While DPS is often considered one of the simplest roles, valuable DPS
have to prioritize the correct targets, master their rotation and
skill priority, and know when to sacrifice their damage output to use
their utility when needed.
DPS Sub-roles
In LOTRO, DPS can have a few areas of focus:
- Single Target (ST) - focuses on dealing damage to a single target, with little damage that hits multiple enemies.
- Area-of-effect (AoE) - focuses on dealing damage to multiple enemies at once with area-of-effect skills.
- Damage over Time (DoT) - damage dealt is applied over a duration as a "debuff" effect.
- Instant Damage - Damage is dealt instantly, often any spec not considered to focus on DoTs is considered instance damage DPS.
- Melee - damages enemies with melee skills in close range that deal physical damage.
- Ranged - damages enemies with ranged skills from afar that deal physical damage.
- Tactical - uses magic and spells to deal tactical damage to enemies, typically from afar.
- Utility - characters who can provide a large amount of utility to their group outside of just dealing damage to enemies, often with crowd control (CC) or other support-like features.
DPS Classes and Specs
Every class can DPS. However, they do so differently with
different sub-roles and by providing various benefits and drawbacks.
This list will go spec-by-spec because of the uniqueness of how they
each fulfill the DPS role (each class has three specs - blue, red, and
yellow).
Red Beorning - Has a variety of AoE and ST skills to serve
as a well-rounded melee DPS.
Blue Burglar - A ST DPS-focused spec that provides some
utility and a small amount of support to the group. Blue burglars are
inferior in total damage output, but can be useful for their increased
survivability and utility.
Red Burglar - The primary DPS spec for Burglars, focusing
on serving as a ST DPS with limited low-target AoE available.
Red Captain - Although technically a support spec that
buffs group damage, this serves as the Captain's only DPS-focused
spec. They deal little damage on their own, but are largely valued for
their strong boost to group damage and utility.
Red Champion - The ST DPS spec for Champions to serve as a
melee DPS.
Yellow Champion - The AoE DPS spec for Champions to serve
as a melee DPS.
Red Guardian - Deals DoT with a variety ST and AoE
skills to serve as a melee DPS.
Blue Hunter - A mobile ranged spec that serves as a
primarily ST-based DPS, often preferred for solo play due to the
mobility and instant cast skills.
Red Hunter - A steady (stand-still) ranged spec that
focuses on inductions and servers as a primarily ST-based DPS.
Yellow Hunter - Provides utility-based DPS with an
emphasis on DoTs, CC, and slowing enemies. Usually not considered
viable for the DPS role in group content, but it does have its merits
and can provide a strong solo experience.
Blue Lore Master - Spellcaster with an extra emphasis on
their pets, which provide utility, physical damage, and a small amount
of support. Most often used only for solo play, but serves as tactical
DPS.
Red Lore Master - Focuses on ST and AoE DPS as a
spellcaster serving as a tactical DPS.
Red Minstrel - Mobile, instant-cast based "spellcaster"
(using instruments and songs as "spells") that has AoE and ST options
to serve as a tactical DPS.
Red Rune Keeper - Steady, induction-based spellcaster
(using fire) with a variety of ST and AoE skills that deal DoT to
serve as a tactical DPS.
Yellow Rune Keeper - Mobile, instant cast based
spellcaster (using lightning), mostly with ST skills and few AoE
options, serving as a tactical DPS.
Red Warden - DoT-based ST and AoE damage that serves as
melee DPS.
Yellow Warden - Deals DoT and instant damage in ST and
AoE, serving as a ranged DPS.
Healer
What is a Healer?
Healers restore the health of their allies ("morale" in LOTRO) and
keep them alive in group content. Healers are a vital part of group
content, ensuring allies can continue to perform their own roles. In
LOTRO, healers often have additional support-based aspects to them,
where they can buff allies, debuff enemies, or even damage enemies.
While a healer's primary focus is keeping allies alive, what sets
better healers apart from the rest is their ability to maintain
supportive, utility, and damage-dealing aspects of the class while
still maintaining fully healed allies.
Healer Sub-roles
In LOTRO, healers can be specialized in a few areas:
- Off-healer (OH) - serves as a secondary or backup healer for the group, their heals often work passively or they can sufficiently do other things in combat when not healing.
- AoE - focuses on healing many allies at once.
- ST - focuses on healing a single ally at a time, usually for a large amount.
- Support - heals while having additional buffs and debuffs which can support allies.
- DPS - heals while dealing a small amount of damage on their own (much weaker than true DPS specs).
Healer Classes and Specs
Beorning - Yellow Line - A versatile healer with AoE and
ST heals that also can debuff enemies and deals damage during
downtime.
Captain - Blue Line - Support-based healer with many
passive AoE heals that work while dealing damage with regular
combat. Often picked for the off-healing role.
Minstrel - Blue and Yellow Lines - The classic LOTRO
healer, offering two heal specs - one focusing on maximizing healing
output with lesser support and the other focusing on maximizing
support via buffs with lesser healing capabilities. Minstrels often
serve as dedicated healers in the blue line, but can opt for a more
supportive and utility based role with the yellow line, which can
still offer sufficient off-healing capabilities.
Rune Keeper - Blue Line - Healer that focuses on ST and
AoE heals over time (HoT) and preventing damage via morale bubbles.
Often serves as a primary healer with very little support, but a lot
of utility.
Support
What is a Support?
A support character is somebody who does fit solely fit another
role, but contributes in some way towards completing content. In
LOTRO, this is usually done through buffing allies to empower them
and debuffing enemies to weaken them. Also in LOTRO, content is
balanced around having support classes where certain buffs and
debuffs are necessary for the most difficult content and raids.
Although, for casual content, group composition is much less
important.
Playing a support can be a tricky thing to get the hang of if you
are used to the tank-DPS-heal trinity. Your focus becomes
debuffing enemies, buffing allies, providing utility, and
potentially even providing off-healing all while dealing relatively
small amounts of damage (much less than pure DPS specs).
Support Sub-roles
In LOTRO, supports can be supportive through a few areas of focus:
- Debuffer - focuses on weakening enemies through debuffs.
- Buffer - focuses on empowering allies through buffs.
- Heal - while being overall supportive, this role provides heals/off-heals to their allies, though not as strong as a dedicated healer.
- DPS - while being overall supportive, this role also serves as a DPS with less damage than a pure DPS role.
Support Classes and Specs
Burglar - Yellow Line - Focuses on debuffing enemies,
making them weaker and take more damage, while still dealing melee
damage.
Captain - All Lines - Every spec for the Captain is
based around them being a full support class, with their focus being
buffing allies. For yellow this is through defensive buffs, red
gives offensive buffs, and blue gives a mix with additional healing
tossed in.
Lore Master - Yellow Line - Focuses on
debuffing enemies, making them weaker and take more damage, while
providing some buffing capabilities and additional utility. Yellow
LMs still deal a little tactical damage on their own and provide
additional boosts and little melee damage through their pets.
Minstrel - Yellow Line - This Minstrel provides buffs to
allies while balancing damage and healing. Their primary focus is to
maintain allies' morale and buffs, then they can provide chip
tactical DPS.
Note: some classes and specs have been traditionally considered support in
the past, but do not actually play out as support. Thus, you may
heard of other supports not listed here which may include Yellow
Beorning (healer), Blue Burglar (mostly DPS/solo utility), Yellow Hunter
(DPS/utility/CC), Blue Rune Keeper (healer), and Yellow Warden (ranged
DPS).
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