Thread: Why do you play the Lore-Master?

Reason for topic: So that we have a topic to show to people in the future if they're considering playing this class.


What made you try out the Lore-Master? What are some of the things you love about the Lore-Master? Are there certain characteristics that stand out from other classes that you like?, etc.

Explain in detail as if you were trying to talk someone into playing this class. Looking forward to replies




Like this topic? Also see:

• Why do you play the Burglar?
• Why do you play the Captain?
• Why do you play the Champion?
• Why do you play the Guardian?
• Why do you play the Hunter?
• Why do you play the Lore-Master?
• Why do you play the Minstrel?
• Why do you play the Rune-Keeper?
• Why do you play the Warden?

Well for myself, Gandalf was always my favorite character from the books, and this is the closest I could come to him

You can solo almost anything in the landscape, seriously. Between your CC, pets, flank heals, DPS, and stylish robes.

The fun factor, many classes have an "on rails" feel for me in combat, you set up a rotation, then stick to that rotation every encounter. Now yes we have some rotations, but they change a lot depending on the battle. Unlike my captain, where the rotation is the same and you just stand there self-healing/hoping for crits to end the fight faster, and if an add shows up you just have to deal with it. On the LM you have so many options. Root whole groups and take them on one at a time, let your pet tank one, stun two more, and take on a fourth, burn them all down with all the wrath of nature etc. etc.

The above doesn't even cover group play, it's not like a DPS class where you spam your rotation the whole fight. You will be so busy it's not even funny, stun-locking adds, debuffing everything in sight, off-healing, throwing power around, and the odd DPS skill here and there.

Also a word on LI's. Unlike some classes where acquiring specific legacies is a "must" on the LM this is not as much the case. While yes certain legacies are significant, by no means do you need to have a top tier LI, with maxed out legacies to be viable. This is a plus for myself, as I'm more of a casual player, who doesn't want to grind thousands of shards to be viable in skraids.

I love the power of knowledge. Knowledge about the world and how everything is part of each other. A slightly change has a huge effect. A weak blow from a LM causes a strong blinding, Gust of Wind ....
We use the same Knowledge as the Istari, but we aren't one of them. We know more about the nature as any other mortal. Yes, it's just a very,very little shard if the knowledge the Valar and Maiar own, but it's so much more than Men know.

I love the style of LM. Doing a lot of things(stunimmunity, debuffs, powersharing, CC, healing....) making the whole fight much easier, but not being noticed by the majority. (Well... that's our curse, too)

Numerous reasons actually....and most based on what I like....

Firstly, I always like playing classes which are versatile and have multiple roles....I dont like being stuck with just one role in groups....I like to be the jack of all trades class....hence I usually play classes like Loremasters, Captains, etc.....also, I prefer manipulating the battle and controlling everything rather than just healing or rushing into the thick of things with a sword....so loremaster was the best suited class for such requirements...

Secondly, my favorite character in Middle Earth, like many many other loremasters, is Gandalf.....and this class was the closest possible to the lore of having a character like his....not to mention, when I began playing the game, I had come from a background of games with heavy roleplaying....where I mostly like to play wiser, scholarly, mage-type roles.....this also fit in perfectly with loremaster.....

And thirdly, I love the sheer amount of things the loremaster can do.....we can use staves (which I LOVE), dual wield, have pets (I really feel lonely without them, when I am playing any of my alts ), do amazing burst damage when needed, stuns, dazes, roots, debuffs, heals, cures.....you name it, we got it....

Not to mention....ahem....I'm quite one for flashy skills... :P And as loremaster its pure ecstasy to have the MOST flashiest and impressive skills in the game....be it Ents, Storm Lore, ISG, Cracked Earth, Light of the Rising Dawn.....or ofcourse....Lightning Storm....

I love advanced classes. That is one of the reasons I play with the Lore Master. I have played with the Burglar and Captain, but this class suits me best. I really enjoy being the swiss army knife of the fellowship/raid. I don't like having only one role in the group. Because the Lore Master is busy with many things, not a single fight has been boring.

Oh, and I can look like an Istari.

#tallerthanGandalfhave checked:-) JRRT saw himself as either Bilbo Baggins or Gandalf so Burglars and Lore Masters are following most closely in the steps of the man who started it all. Arguably Beren may have been a champion and that's what it says on Tolkein's grave but we can overlook that inconvenient truth.

Its not being King/Emperor (or president if you must have such things), its being the trusted adviser with the ruler's ear who can make things happen. While you may not have a great deal of personal power, you do have your finger on the pivot point and that finger, used wisely, can ensure the success of all. Sensible folks know this and make sure you are central to their plans.

A quote I quite like is "nobody knows or cares what I do, until I stop doing it, then they all scream at me to start doing it again"

I like the versatility of the class... basically a mage with a pet, lots of CC and a panic self-heal.

well I actually started on a 20 day free trial before FTP, and started my LM quite by accident. But after playing for a while I fell in love!
The animal companion I loved! I used to love sending my bear in to attack and hiding behind a tree But apart from that I love that lots of our high damage attacks also stun our foes and save us
What I don't like: (picky here)
The light armour makes us a little too squishy, but I suppose if I didn't was to be squishy I would roll a guard and cave-man clobber everything
Instead I use my brain

1. I LOVE having a pet with me at all times. I get rather lonely when questing on other characters as I don't have a cute little pet.

2. Flashy skills. Moor words.

3. At higher levels you have an infinite number of ways to handle pulls and you can handle more than almost any other class.
Root these, stun this, pet attack this, etc. Also, as another LM said, you are not restricted to repetitive combat mechanics. You don't have to follow a rotation for nearly battle, you can mix it up a bit.

4. I love being able to do AoE. It is fun in instances and the Moors. Which leads to my next point...

5. I love the Moors on my LM. I am a first target and hated by all with my debuffs, fire, tar, and stuns. Even though I am squishy and die a lot, I find it super enjoyable.

6. I am loved by all groups as my skills make things possible and easy. Many runs nearly require an LM for stun immunity and since there are so few LMs our there, I get my fair share of invites. :P

7. Moor pets and fire.

Originally Posted by Mithithil

Its not being King/Emperor (or president if you must have such things), its being the trusted adviser with the ruler's ear who can make things happen.

Like Grima Wormtongue

There are so many things I like about the lore-master. The most important of them, I think, is the playstyle. When playing in raids and such, lore-masters need to multitask and do all sort of things at the same time (stun immunity, power sharing, debuffing, healing, crowd-control, bossing pet around... I'm sure you know the drill). You also need to decide quickly which of all these things is the most important to do right now, since you can't do them all at the same time. I like that. The nice thing is that this isn't the only thing you do as a lore-master: you can also play the role of AoE DPS'ing or healer in small groups. These different roles and playstyles give variation to the class and keeps it fun for me to do.

Other things I like are the pets. Apart from each of them having their own use, they're also just cute to look at. Much better than the captain heralds. Yup, I fall for such things.

Finally, I just *love* crowd-control. I just go nuts when I need to daze two targets and root the others etc. I also like how a lore-master can very survivable through crowd-control and kiting. It's always fun to plan a good pull and get out of it alive.

I wrote a blog post exactly for people who are doubting whether they should play a lore-master or not. Perhaps it's of any use: Should you play a lore-master?

Chess is one of my favorite games, probably since I like to be able to setup my battlefield and have my moves planned out 3-4 moves ahead of where I currently am. Also like how a lot of the LM's skills aren't really magic, burning embers is just a ball of pitch lit on fire, lightning only strikes when target is coated in iron flakes, etc. I've also always enjoyed playing pet classes.

Hi, I am a very dedicated LM player. I got other classes, but they are crafters, ahaha. Here are the reason why I play LM, you actually might find it funny.

1. I am a nature lover... I love animals and plants and trees, etc... LM is the class.
2. I love lighting... I used to chase them. I use lighting skills all of the time.
3. Ent go to war!!!! I use this skill as soon as it is up. Wish the cooldown would be 10 sec.! ahaha
4. I love to throw fireballs, burning embers looks cool, do good damage, slow down 30% and can stack up 3 DoTs, with my LI and gear, my DoT is average or 300dam every 5sec. for 55 sec.
5. In groups, I like to debuff, put some dirty tar on the ground, put anti-stun on mini and tank, they love me for that!
6. I like to kite some elite without range...

Ketzal

1. I also come from a roleplay background and had always at least one important character as a mage / wizard etc. I like the way, Turbine implemented "magic" in middle-earth: subtle and more "mystical" than flashy. In fact, the LM is more comparable to a druid in D&D, than a typical wizard, imo.
2. the funny thing is, I never thought about Gandalf, when I created my LM, more of Aragorn. A sort of lonesome traveller, who can communicate with nature, knows about healing and ancient knowledge.
3. I like the idea of having a class primarily for Crowd Control. It's something that you don't find a lot in other games. What I really enjoy in group situations, is the feeling of having the mobs under control. I can flash a mob and let him stand directly next to me, knowing that it won't move for as long as I want, while the minstrel next to me is running away in fear *g*

First word: Gandalf . Second word: Elrond. My first character in LoTRO and the only one I have at level 75 is a Lore-master, who is two years old (yeah the join date is June, but I started in May as a trial account).

I chose it because i liked Gandalf. So in the beginning, I didn't know much about it other than it was really sweet and we got like a billion skills, but now i've started to like it more and more. I like that there are a ton of buttons to push.. heal your friend! heal yourself! heal your pet!, debuff archers! debuff melee units!, fire attack! ice attack! uppercut! staff strike! push your pet around! make him flank!, stun one guy! stun a group of guys! it goes on and on. i've gotten so used to this class that every other one that i've played has just bored me to death. there's a ton of strategy involved, and pushing the wrong buttons can mess you up or have you pwn the competition, plus you don't have to do it alone, you get a pet. but most of all it's that i can stand in the background and help my friends. that is the reason why i recommend this class.
also if you're a scholar you can buff them but that's for everyone <_<

I like furry pets.

No, seriously, I like playing pet using classes, I also like playing classes with good CC (I tend to play conservatively, preferring safety over rapid killing) and I like a variation of play-styles (soloing on LM is a lot different from grouping which in turn is usually different from raiding): the LM has it all and more.

When i started playing i just made a random choice, it happened to be the Lore Master. I can't say i regret the choice, i like the versatility and that no fight is the same. You constantly need to be aware of whats happening and adapt.

In my opinion i think LM has the most beautifully executed skills, i don't even mind the inductions, they just make us look like we have full control of the situation and that we know in the next few seconds lightning will certainly hit 3 times :-)
I can still remember first time i showed my ingame best friend lightning storm on 5 targets in dark Moria lol

So for me it's the feeling of control combined with the spectacular skills that really mak me want to come back to him.

is a class that can be very versatile in many circumstances, support to DPS, DPS to "healer"

Psychobabble posted a great article discussing just this subject, on the DocHoliday LOTRO blog. It's a great read and sums up all the great stuff that make our class fun.

http://docholidaymmo.com/2012/06/06/...a-lore-master/

Tried a hunter, didn't like it all that much.

Then a guardian, liked it a little better, but in the end found it repetetive & tanking in groups actually quite stressful.

In both of the above cases I think I was going for the supposedly 'easy' to play classes.

Just on a whim one day I decided to roll an LM & take it for a spin over the first dozen or so levels. I'd done the same with minstrel but didn't really 'get' it. Was instantly hooked. CC + pets make LMs formidably good for soloing. Useful [if not always understood] in groups.

It's nice to have a class where you have to think a bit, especially soloing. Most of a tank's really key skills are about persuading mobs to attack him or her, or perhaps increasing [decreasing] the amount of damage he gives [takes]. This makes soloing especially a fairly mindless task, although grouping is clearly another matter. As an LM, though, solo or group, juggling stuns, roots, debuffs, damage, & whatnot is a whole different ballgame.

For me what i liked most at the begining was the ability to crowd control, gives me some sense of power. Blinding flash in one, herb lore in another, pet fighting another one, etc.
In the end game while i still like these things, i like to set things on fire with the ISG or the big numbers of the lightning storm.

Three words... (I live in the ettenmoors, so keep that in mind)...

Shock and Awe!

I can do anything a group needs in PvE world, debuff, cure wounds, feed power, spot-heal - general "johnny on the spot" support actions but for me it's burst DPS.

LM's have the coolest animations in the game, now if we could do something about long inductions... but I guess I've lived with those issues for 5 years, let's raise a cup to the next five years fellow LM's!!

Just two words to reply to the topic:

LIGHTNING STORM

Gandolf is very cool in the movie.
I just want to play as a great wizard.

1st ) Gandalf;
2nd) Power over nature things (fire, ground, water, wind) - summon animals as your ally and command them;
3rd) Power against monsters and dark stuff;
4th) Knowledge of healing and helping others (doing fellowship) to meet their objectives, although others don't help as much as you wish to do your quests...

it is such an honour to play as a lore master since I love Gandalf! and as someone already mention knowledge=power. There are a few ability that lore master can do that the other race cannot!

Originally Posted by Knobe

Gandolf is very cool in the movie.
I just want to play as a great wizard.

Not sure if trolling...
or



You know how it ends.

Why do you play the Lore-Master?

Sticky Gourd.

I started a Lore-Master for the complexity of the class (same reason my alts are burg,cappy,RK, and warden) and even while leveling it took a lot of for though to solo quests and still survive, at end game the hybrid of the class really shows. As a cappy in my kin said the other night "it's not fair, you kill stuff with huge numbers and pretty skills, some times tank that which u haven't killed yet, and the. Turn around and heal me through a 3-man. What can't you do"

Not to mention that the class takes a lot of practice to be great. I love helping kin-mates with questions about traits, legacies, and skill rotations.

I've played a lot of classes in a lot of MMOs, and I think LM is the most interesting one I've played. Other classes, I find myself pushing the same buttons in the same order on every fight. With LM, every fight is a puzzle to work out. That comes from being a genuine utility class, something you don't see much of out there. I'd note I haven't raided in this game (despite being a founder, I've been very sporadic in play, lol), so I don't know those issues first hand. But as for solo play, it's a very interesting class to play.

For the fast and unbreakable inductions. Clearly.

I'm too lazy to reroll another toon, and i like rocking bathrobes in the moors.

Rolled a Mini first, then a Guardian. After that I was looking for something different to play and the LM came up as the most interesting choice and indeed the class is extremely interesting.

There is always between 4 - 6 skills you want to press at the same time when playing a LM. Always something to do and I find playing the LM the most taxing and challenging of the three classes I play regularly.

On the best days I can subtly control everything in a fight. When I ran skirmish PUG raids with little to no leadership offered, I was the subtle conductor of everything - a bit of CC there, a few heals here, some debuffs and dmg on top I managed to control placement and flow of battle easily in all the raids I joined. No-one noticed but the players that played LMs themselves of course, such is the way of the LM

When I join groups for instance runs and no LM is there I always miss them. To be sure there are some terrible Champ wannabee LMs that thinks their DPS is the main reason they are in groups and love throwing sticky gourd about 2 sec into the fight, drawing aggro immediately and getting themselves killed - I always groan when I play with those because they could be so much more helpful to the group if they read their skill descriptions and applied some common sense and awareness of surroundings to their playstyle.

In any case - LMs are not for everyone I suppose but if you like to play games for the challenge and not just for epeening and leetnes then LM is definitely a good choice.

If I may be honest...

It's because it's the most interesting mage out of any MMO or RPG I've played. And I do mean mage.

In other MMOs, mages tend to have exactly one casting animation, dictated by race. Stand there, wiggle fingers, bolt. Stand there, wiggle fingers, bolt. It took me awhile to pinpoint what about it that bothered me, then it hit me.

It's basically Dragonball. Charge up, blast. Charge up, blast. Charge up, blast.

Despite the fact that mages were essentially based off of wizards, especially Gandalf, it appears that they've sorta... lost their way. They're no longer wielders of power, ending up more like... elemental guns than anything.

Lore Master, however, is ironically closer to being like the true mages than most other games. For one, the LM doesn't have just one casting animation. Carving a sigil into the air and then thrusting his/her staff at the enemy (Yes, I know...) to cause a debuff/dot on the enemy. Carving a sigil in the air and then striking the ground to bestow a buff on your animal companion. Reaching into your bag to retrieve an exploding pinecone, or a bit of dust to blow on to summon the wind. Or raising your hands into the air to summon an electrical storm, banging the staff down to strike your foe with lightning. And so forth.

Lore Master FEELS like a legit mage, even if they're technically not supposed to be mages at all, instead just taking advantage of the fact that Middle Earth is high magic. Which, to me, is what a mage should truly be - not this DBZ elemental chi blast stuff.

Knowledge is power, and that's how it should be. That is the essence of what SHOULD make up a mage. Know how to speak the word of power to make an effect occur. Instead of just finger waggling, or spinning a wand in circles to gather energy before launching a blast of elemental energy at the enemy, or... you know.

The only thing Lore Master is missing is actually using the staff as a walking stick as opposed to strapping it to his/her back. Then we'd be grand. But ah well.

Remember when magic used to be magical? Well, LOTRO brought that back for me.

Most challenging class to play imo because there are so many of our skills critical to grp and raid success and your timing has to be flawless. Don't take a warden, hunter, or burg on a raid and you can adjust with other classes...don't take an LM and 9 times out of 10 it's a wipe. There are a few fights you don't need one but it sure makes things easier if you do.

Val

No other class IMHO is more challenging and different to play. Once you learn what all those skills do it's just fun from then on out. You can help yourself out of so many situations in different ways, it's never the same old fight. And like someone said, the bathrobes, who else can go out and come out on top without ever having to get dressed? I think I play the LM for the true challenge of it. And the pets make it that much better. If you get tired of playing one way, the switch around of a few traits give you a whole new way to do things..Just pure fun. That's all. (if you can get past the first 20 or so levels without giving up you have it licked) PS, Eaglehaven, I love that picture! and that stick!

Because if you can control the fight, you can control the outcome.

I've been playing a Lore-master since 2007, I still enjoy it and it is still true that if you can mez it, you can kill it.

Gandalf really isn't what comes to mind with this class (for me at least). It most certainly is unique, and I feel it has a lot more basis in Radgast then anything, I guess there is also Elrond, though he doesn't seem to fight much in the books. Overall I do love this class, more than the RK.

Originally Posted by A_Rabaey

Gandalf really isn't what comes to mind with this class (for me at least). It most certainly is unique, and I feel it has a lot more basis in Radgast then anything, I guess there is also Elrond, though he doesn't seem to fight much in the books. Overall I do love this class, more than the RK.

It's a bit of both, actually.

The Lore Master's relationship with nature is mostly Radagast, but stuff like throwing exploding pinecones, being able to summon beams of light, wielding a staff (and a sword, eventually) is basically Gandalf.

the Lore Master's healing abilities, however, are entirely a mix of Aragorn and Elrond.