Bring on the DPS

I wanted to give a quick introduction on why I’m writing this column and my perspective on the Champion class.  Some of you may know me from my Warden posts and blog and might be puzzled by why I’m writing about champions.  Honestly I’ll admit I struggled with the Champion class for a long while, until I realized that Champions and Wardens both fit my playstyle very well.  Check out my initial Champion post on my blog for a further comparison.  These articles will be slanted towards that playstyle but I will also try to keep them broad as well.  I’m not going to try and claim I’m the best Champion out there, but I wanted to try and help people learn about the class.

The playstyle I’m referring to is the arrogant “I’m gonna run into this group and see what happens” kind of attitude.  On the Warden this works rather well with all the self-heals, and on the Champion this works as you can kill things so quickly.  However, having both a tank and healer that I play at max level, doing this much damage can cause problems for grouping.  Early on, the worst thing that happens is you’ll die, which I’ll admit I’ve done my fair share of.  However, in groups, this can be very annoying so I’m going to offer my suggestions on how to best balance your DPS.  I’m not going to cover this quite yet, but don’t worry that’s something I will get to.  If you’re a DPS class (Champion, Hunter, Runekeeper, etc.) while soloing you certainly can go all out, but when in groups you really need to be careful and toe that line.

First up, there’s the Fervour system that needs to be explained.  For those of you with Hunters, Fervour is just like Focus.  For everyone else, Fervour determines what attacks you can perform and builds as you’re in combat.  Some attacks require a certain number of Fervour “pips” while others will add pips to your bar.  Also, Champions like other classes have stances, which will generate pips every few seconds depending on the stance.  As you level, it is important to keep track of your Fervour pips and get in the habit of not only using them but building them up.

When you decide to play a Champion, you’ll need to pick a Race.  Champions can be any of the races, except Hobbit.  While for the most part this choice is purely a personal one, there are benefits to each of the races.  Dwarves are generally hardier with higher might, vitality, and in combat regenerations and many consider the best champion race for that reason.  Elves do have their advantages primarily with their racial traits, as they have improved resistances and a parry last-ditch skill.  Men are favored primarily for their avoidance buff and the racial heal they get.  However, as I’ve said before the classes all have their benefits so pick whichever you like as they’ll all be strong just in different ways.  Personally I prefer Men for their looks and the racial heal trait, with my current champion being a female from Rohan.

As you level, you’ll start to pick up a number of abilities and stances on your way to level 15.  The level 15 class quest is pretty straightforward and grants the class trait that allows you to wield a shield, which will come in handy later on in the game.  I’ve also color coded this list with green being skills that increase fervour, yellow for skills that don’t require fervour and red for skills that require fervour.

• (1) Swift Strike – Single Target Attack that adds 1 Fervour pip
• (1) Wild Attack – Single Target Attack that adds 1 Fervour pip
• (1) Blade Wall – Frontal Area of Effect (AoE) attack hitting up to 5 targets that requires 0 Fervour
• (2) Savage Strikes – Double attack (triple if Dual wielding) that requires 2 Fervour
• (4) Fervour – Stance that has highest pip generation rate, highest in-combat power regeneration, highest damage output, but –30% incoming healing and cannot evade, parry, or block.  This is great while soloing but leaves the Champion someone squishy, especially early on while you’re still wearing medium armor.
• (4) Flurry – Buff that increases attack speed by 15% – requires 2 Fervour
• (6) Brutal Strikes -  Triple attack that requires 4 Fervour
• (8) Exchange of Blows – buff that has a 50% chance to reflect 50% of incoming damage – requires 2 Fervour
• (10) Ardour – Stance that has medium pip generation rate, medium ICPR, some damage increase with a 50% hit to parry and evade.  This stance is good when you’re feeling squishy or if you’re trying something you’re not sure you can handle.  You can swap stances while in combat, so I’ll usually stay in Fervour unless I’m getting wailed on.
• (10) Blade Storm – Full AoE attack hitting 5 targets that requires 4 Fervour
• (12) Battle Frenzy – instantly adds 3 fervour pips.  Handy skill to get off higher fervour cost skills.
• (14) Second Wind – on defeat response when a mob dies restores power.  Pretty much combined with a stance you shouldn’t have power problems at all.
• (14) Bracing Attack – single target attack the heals – requires 3 Fervour.

For me, I’ve found that my “normal” rotation is to get my fervour up as quickly as possible either via Battle Frenzy or from attacks and then get off my bigger damage attacks.  It is also good to get flurry up early in the fight as that brings in more damage with the faster attack speed.  I prefer to fight multiple mobs, so usually I am in full AoE mode but if it is only one mob I won’t use AoE attacks unless I’m trying to work on a deed.  If I’m trying a bigger pull, sometimes I’ll hold off on Battle Frenzy in case I need to use it such that I can then pop off Bracing Attack for a heal when I get into trouble.  I’ll also mainly fight in Fervour stance after a brief experiment with Ardour, which didn’t seem to provide enough survivability with the hit to damage and pip generation.

I’ll normally try to take on two on level (white) mobs or three lower level mobs (dark blue or below) and have stretched that to higher cons when I’m feeling particularly brave.  Leveling on the champ went incredibly fast as you do feel very powerful early on.  I normally pretty much run through all of the Bree content before moving on, but there certainly are options depending on what you prefer.  I pretty much followed the epic line and didn’t leave for the Lone Lands until level 22, but that’s just me.  I know many really enjoy the Shire and if you haven’t done that area it is quite fun and provides a nice break from some of the more traditional MMO quests.  No matter how you do it, you shouldn’t have a problem finding content to level nor in completing the content as they’ve pretty much removed all fellowship quests until the Great Barrows at 22.

That’s it for this article, I should have the next article up in two weeks covering the levels between 15 and 30, including skirmishes and soldiers.  Feel free to let me know if you have questions or suggestions.