Question for LOTRO players - character skill trees?

RaMDOM · 16 Dec 2008 at 08:30

Hi all!

I bought LOTRO as I have heard nothing but good things about the Mines of Moria and so wanted to experience it. I have never played it before but have played wow for about 1.5 years and EQ2 before that; more recently WAR for about 2 months.

Anyway - my question is this: Is there any talent tree like customisation for characters? I can't see anything mentioned in the manual. The manual just lists all abilities up to 20 - what happens after this? Is there any individualism I can apply to my characters? Or will every Rune keeper, Captain, Lore master etc etc be the same with exactly the same abilities?

Bit disappointed is this is the case. Please can someone let me know how individual character spec and customisation is achieved in LOTRO.

modo77 · 16 Dec 2008 at 11:39

Yes there is a way to customize your character. Its called traits. You get traits from things like exploring areas, killing a few hundred of a certain creature, using a skills.
Each train has upto 10 levels of strength. the higher the better. So for example 1 trait such as Confidence will increase your resistance to fear by 2059, The amount of non combat power regen and your total amount of power. You can also swap them about at any time by visiting a bard (one in the prancing pony in bree).

You can view any traits you are currently working on by pressing Shift + L
To see your currently equipped traits press J

RaMDOM · 16 Dec 2008 at 12:23

Cheers for the reply,

Yea figured that traits would be the only way. Shame there isn't talent trees though. as essentially all classes will have access to the same core abilities.

I have some deeds which will enhance some of my abilities (playing as captain) - will they be as traits or will they be permanent buffs. It would be good if they are traits cause that will essentially work as the talent tree I guess. If they are permanent buffs that every captain will get then all catains will be the same once they have completed the deed.

Let me know.

bigbadish · 16 Dec 2008 at 12:29

You can also advance your characters down 3 class paths, specialising in 1 or a mixture, might be accessed pressing K, or L maybe.

eekfek · 16 Dec 2008 at 12:33

every class has specific 'skills' they aquire like in any MMo as you progress through the levels, Lotro is no different however each 'race' gets their own specific 'class traits' and each class gets 'paths'...

for example the Hunter class, you can dish out great DPS and if you want you can follow the 'Bowmans' path which will give you an extra +30% dmg output at the expense of using more power, or you can lower you skill inductions by approx half meaning you can fire quicker and faster etc etc

@ level 50 and on entering the Mines of Moria following the Epic quests you will be given a new Legendary weapon which gains xp as you quest, it can be infused with stones to give all sorts of skill boosts and dmg types ..

im more of a PvP type player but i must admit to really enjoying the improvements to the PvE, im taking my time to level and currently have a 56, a 52 and 51...

RaMDOM · 16 Dec 2008 at 12:40

cool - when do the paths kick in - what level? Level 8 captain at the moment.

Is it like WoW where you get a talent point per level?

Prefer PvE myself so LOTRO should suit me. Though I like a bit of PvP so looking at the monster play as soon as I get to lvl10.

eekfek · 16 Dec 2008 at 12:58

Monster play is broke atm mate, the creeps were given a few new skills and auto bumped upto level 60 whilst also lowering their resists/morale/power, however with the insane damage levels freeps do the 'Ettenmoors' are empty until turbine decide to fix it.

every set number of levels you gain a trait slot upto a max of 7 slots at level 60.. also traits are not too easy to go out and get, some require 500 crit shots or 1500 actions etc etc, you gain them over time which works well as it means you cant grind them out and become overpowered for your level.

i have never played WoW (Yes its true, and never will :eek:

) so cant comment on any similarities

RaMDOM · 16 Dec 2008 at 13:02

eekfek said:
Monster play is broke atm mate, the creeps were given a few new skills and auto bumped upto level 60 whilst also lowering their resists/morale/power, however with the insane damage levels freeps do the 'Ettenmoors' are empty until turbine decide to fix it.

every set number of levels you gain a trait slot upto a max of 7 slots at level 60.. also traits are not too easy to go out and get, some require 500 crit shots or 1500 actions etc etc, you gain them over time which works well as it means you cant grind them out and become overpowered for your level.

i have never played WoW (Yes its true, and never will ) so cant comment on any similarities

Ummm - sorry to labour the thread (I am sure that I will find out all this stuff when I play- I am just impatient). So are the traits the talent trees the guys were refering to above? Or does the trait system sits seperate from the talent trees?

And when do the talent trees kick in?

Sleepery · 16 Dec 2008 at 13:34

Traits are a pain in that you have to grind your abilities to get them, ie. cast escape from darkness 500 times type of thing to get the trait ability.

There aren't talent trees as such, just trait sets.