Welcome to my look at the Burglar class.  I’ll do my best to do a brief overview on the class in a similar layout to the way the the other writers on www.lotroreporter.com have done.  However I didn’t want to delve too deeply into the way burglars do things, other than to note that they split things up into level blocks.

I’m starting with levels 1 to 10 and hope to continue in the same manner until we get to level 65.

Firstly, however, I wanted to explain what the Burglar is basically about.

The Burglar is the master of stealth, the debuff, positional damage and starting fellowship manoeuvres (also known as Conjunctions or “cj’s”).  They have other aspects to what they do, but basically that is where their strengths are.

Also before we get started I wanted to clear up some terminology.  To make it easier to type and to save myself explaining on every skill what it does I want to define some acronyms or you.  Also it is a good idea to learn these acronyms, because I’ve found they are used quite a bit on websites and also when talking to people in game.

DD = Direct Damage to your enemy.
DoT = Damage over Time for your enemy.  Also known in the business as a “bleed”.  This means that damage is done to your enemy over a period of time, not just in one big hit.
DH = Direct Heal to you.
HoT = Heal over Time for you.

Level 1

The Burglar starts out at level 1 with the following skills.
Subtle Stab
This skill is pretty basic.  It is just a DD skill.  As with most damage skills, as you level up the amount of damage done will increase.
Cunning Attack
This skill is a bit more complicated.  This will do DD as well as DoT.
Surprise Strike
Now this one is a beauty.  It will do DD but if you strike from behind and from stealth it will do even more damage.

These three skills are the first three on my skill bar.  I especially like to use Surprise Strike.  But wait… you don’t have stealth yet.  Read on and your next three skills will reveal that for you.

Levels 2 – 4
Trick: Disable (Level 2)
This trick slows your opponent’s attacks by 15% and also reduces their melee damage by 15%.  Note that you can only have one “Trick” working for you at a time.
Sneak (Level 4)
Ah, now this is more like it.  How can you be a true Burglar without stealth?  This skill allows you to use some other skills more effectively and either sneak past enemies or right up behind them into the perfect position to cause the most trouble.
Burglar’s Advantage (Level 4)
This skill is only available for use in combat after you have done a critical hit on your foe.  It is a DD skill and also does more as positional damage.  When I say positional damage, I will, unless specified, mean that you have to be attacking your enemy from behind.  Also this skill is the start of a chain of skills you should keep an eye out for later.

OK, so that was a diverse bunch of skills.  Firstly you really start to see the debuffs early on.  Then you get the Sneak skill and after that a skill that is only unlocked after a critical hit.  Wow, that is quite diverse.  Fantastic, now you are ready for the next lot.

Levels 5-10
Touch and Go (Level 6)
Oh man, what a skill!  This can really get you out of a lot of trouble.  Your evade chance will be increased by a massive 50%.  So if you trait your burglar up with high evade you can really avoid quite a lot of damage.  It makes the burglar a perfect little pain for an attacking enemy.
Riddle (Level 8)
So you have two humanoid foes attacking you at a time and only want to deal with one?  Or what about you want to put something to sleep for 30 seconds whilst you calmly walk up behind it and attack?  No problems, Riddle is the skill for you.  It is called a “Mez” (short for mesmerize).  Basically it will put your foes to sleep for 30 seconds, but if you hit them they will wake up.  So you and your fellowship should be careful not to hit a target that is mezzed if you want to keep your foe asleep until you are ready to deal with it.
Mischievous Glee (Level 10)
So you are smashing away on an enemy and want a DH and HoT?  This is the skill for you.  However there is a catch; you must have a Trick of some kind active on your foe before you can use it.  Using this skill will then remove the Trick you had applied to your foe, though the heal to yourself may well be worth the tradeoff.

So there you have it.  Burglar skills for Levels 1 to 10.  I guess what I struggled with when learning the class was the positional trickery.  It is good to know what skills give that positional damage.  It is far easier to get to use them properly when in a group and when your opponent/s aren’t attacking you directly.  Very hard to get behind something in combat when all they want to do is look you in the face.  Just don’t underestimate where you are standing.  It may not seem very important but at higher levels it makes a huge difference not only because of the damage dealt, but also because you can take less damage.

Sparshadow – 65 Burglar on the Windfola Server snuck into writing this article.  ;-)