Thread: Help choose a character

I keep having trouble getting a character and sticking with it, mostly because I love all the classes. I don't really know what I am looking for in a character. I don't want a character with EVERYTHING, but I do like challenging classes. Besides that, I am not sure what I'm looking for. I like stealth, but I can get that from hobbit and elven racial traits. I like dps, but not to the point of two or three skill wins or trading off my survivability. I usually think a fight over and my odds of winning before going in, but that seems normal. I love CC, but am told its becoming next to useless. If I lead a group, I like to buff them up a lot as well as debuff my enemies. I know there are a lot of buts in this and I used them because I am hoping it shows my class thinking as well. Thank you for the help and hopefully I can get help picking a class for my main character on Free People side and Monster Player side. Also, if it helps I HAVE tried all the classes a few times, and thats why I am posting this.

As I read this what comes to mind is only 1 possibility.
Burglar with scrolls/tokens in his inventory.
Stealth - check
Thinking - check
Debuffing - check
Survivability - check (seen a burg tank a warg that just killed the tank at ToO)
DPS - check (unless attack from the back no way OP-DPS)
Buffing - check (thanks to scrolls and tokens)
CC - check

Burglar does require you to stick with to at least lvl 40 or so,
before you can really learn to appreciate what it can do.
The other option would be Cappy, but that one can never have stealth...

edit: My burg is lvl 58 atm, definitely my current favourite project

Champions can handle a lot of what you require.
DPS - Lots, to multiple targets!
CC - Not needed as much when you are killing several things at once, but if you must, there are horns! Stun and Damage!
Survivability - Heavy armor! Bubbles! Quickly defeated enemies have a hard time defeating you.
Debuff, Buff - scrolls and a good bleed with armor rend!
Stealth - elf trait. easy to get early on. Plus it's easier to sneak past a pile of defeated enemies than a room full of live ones!
Thinking! - Should I jump those orcs as two groups of six or just pull the whole bunch at once?

There you go. Rather clear choice.

Excuse me now, I need to go CC a troll up side his head.
-Thromos

Hello there, seems you have the same exact problem as me. I did level a Warden to 75, but unfortunately I'm not a fan of raiding with her as much as I thought I would be. You and I seem to share interests in skills too: I love stealth, I love a challenging class more than most things (gambits are very challenging at times), crowd control can be awesome (I like LM's and Burg's for this, though I wanted to try a hunter again), and I enjoy buffing my group. So, classes with all of this (and decent dps) seem to be: Minstrel, LM, and Burglar (I count the sharing stealth as a buff... what? It is a buff... really). I was going to put Warden in there, but their lack of pure cc counted them out (unless you count being able to handle EVERY other enemy on the field as cc :P). You also do not want to lack in survivability, but remember that any class can be awesome if there's a fantastic player at the other end of the screen!

My minstrel, who is in her 50's, was actually created back when they still allowed medium gear on the minstrel. Bosses and regular adds alike feared her. Now, she's still feared with huge dps spikes, buffs, a bubble, great healing, and the fact I will not die easily due to my ability to sit back and read into what I need to do in the fight first (like you do, and no this is actually not common amongst all players, a lot just run in to fights). My mini's a hobbit, so I get 2 feints and hobbit stealth, along with extra morale which is good for survivability, not to mention I can give my group + hope once you equip a certain hobbit racial trait. My mini can take on back to back signatures, 4 + mobs, all you have to do is use the skills effectively.

My LM is a low level, but I hear they're awesome in later levels. But, you can make them equally as effective early levels if you choose your fights wisely, study your skills, and use the skills effectively. Use all the cc you have, the lovely pets, flanking, debuffing, and cool looking dps skills to take out mobs quickly. An Elf LM, as you stated, also gets the racial stealth. I have a Woman, but the - will doesn't bother me. Even at 36, my lady can take out a boss and it's adds. I love fighting drakes with her, she takes them down like a pro. All my toons seem to have an unhealthy obsession with drakes...

My Burglar is just awesome! You want to talk about cc, survivability, and good dps? Try taking on a GB run at 28, be it 4 levels or more lower, and solo that. My burg eats that run for breakfast. 3 - 4 signature trolls? All at once? Yes, please and thank you! Stealing jewelry, food, and gold off of brigands and good guys alike? Yes to that too... hehe. She's a hobbit, so the extra stealth is just for fun, but the + hope skill will come in handy and the occasional feint if I get into too much trouble, which usually she can handle without doing that.

My Warden (a Woman), I've been told not even a Guardian tanks better than her in certain situations (or any... ha! Not class discrimination, it's just that I'm that freakin' good). Warden goodness allows a pull of 8+ mobs and death won't be an option, well for you at least... the Orcs just need to die. Soloing Sarnur reputation quests on level? Check. Soloing Limelight Gorge? Check. Even the 150k trees, or two 70k trees, are like dessert for her. That's even with only crafted gear on, imagine if she had the full Draigoch set and might jewelry? Whew, talk about overpowered! Running through a herd of trolls with your minstrel pal and killing them all? Good times, good times... Fishing.... erm... yeah she loves to fish. What does this have to do with her fighting? Well... uhm... gotta be strong reeling in those 50 lb salmon!!!

My Champion, an Elf, is great for survivability with her bubble even at 34. Horns can stun, creating some cc, not to mention she can handle 4+ mobs with ease. I haven't seen any group buffs though, except for the racial I'll get adding will to my fellowship which is cool. I rounded up half of a camp of brigands in Evendim and using my dire need, bubble, self heal, and paying attention to what was going on around me, she took them all out of action... for good. She is great with signatures and elites too, but I wouldn't count her as being able to do what my Burglar does with 4 of the signature trolls at once. I'm still getting used to being a button smasher, and trying to master the class so I can make her more effective. Stealth for her is fun, I sneak up and beat on a boss, adds come and I stun them, finish the boss then take them out with aoe's.

Every class has a lot to offer, but I think for myself, that these 5 really put the icing on the cake. If I level my hunter and Guardian, I plan on soloing the watcher just for fun on the Hunter and doing Limelight Gorge solo on both hehe.... All these classes are great in groups, don't listen to anyone who says 'you have to do a or b because that's the class' primary role. The primary role is whatever YOU want it to be. I dps constantly with my Warden and mini Mini, and people tell me it's either impossible to do good sustainable damage or it's not my 'primary role'. Add in fate to your weapons/gear, and watch your power stay up while someone who only stacks might/will runs out of power and dies. Have fun, play your way, do what you want when you want, and I hope my little trip down memory lane helped you choose a class, or at least narrowed it down.

Thank you for the quick replies. Looks like Burglar and Champion were mentioned a few times and they both sound good, as does the Lore Master. I looked over the classes again and these seem to fit me really well. I was wondering can Burglar heal the group? I know Champ can't, though it does still sound like a fun class. I just like making sure no one in my group gets defeated, it always make me feel like a bad teammate.
Also my thoughts on the above classes, if your willing to consider this as well.

Burglar- I do like the burglar. It justs seems that it gets stuck in close combat a little too much. You don't have any ranged dps without the hobbit racial or an item. How would you fix this? Besides riddles.

Champion- I also like the Champion. Same thing as Burglar- it gets close combat problems, all you get is Let Fly and your bow. Without Sprint, how would you overcome this?

Loremaster- It has debuffs and CC, which I like. Most skills seem to be induction based so far, which means close combat would be a problem.

How would you stack them up and do you have any tips for them? And please explain those parts a little as well. Last thing, which trait line would you use. Thanks again for listening, and many thanks for narrowing down the classes.

As far as I know, a Burglar cannot heal a group. For inductions on an LM, you can craft parables to prevent induction interruption and they decrease the power cost as well; scholars make these. Close combat isn't so bad, flanking heals and the staff sweeps I find are very handy, and you can use your bear's challenge to pull aggro off of you. It seems you do not like to be close up in fights, or that you want a ranged attack, I really do push Wardens here. We can now have a lot of ranged DPS, heal the group with conviction, give a buff to our fellows using battle preparation or in a certain stance in battle (-20% healing threat anyone? +evasion and mitigation?), plus you can make sure you pull aggro off of teammates in any stance so you're doing almost everything you like here: can go into stealth, ranged attacks, heal others, buff others, and it's complex. Minstrels, you can kite around a room and never get close, if you do there's herald's strike, there's a trait and stance for that where when you hit with the move it heals the fellowship. You can also give another fellow member a bubble with temporary morale boost, bubble takes the damage not their own morale.

Trait lines, for my Burg when I get there, I'll go red line for DPS probably but throw in some cc traits too (Yellow line). For my Warden, I mix and match, I go for defense mainly (Blue line) even though I do DPS (I add a few traits from Red line), the self heals are a key to playing a Warden well solo and even off tanking. My Minstrel, I mix and match, some for healing cost reduction (Blue line) then a lot of DPS traits (Red line). LM I would go Red, but only 3 traits because 4+ will hurt your blinding flash's duration, and then cc (Yellow line). Bog guardians are great for ranged attack, and can help flank so you can heal yourself more no matter if you get into close combat or not, you use 5 blue line traits to be able to use this pet.

Last but not least, hunters do make great CC and ranged DPS, plus they get decent up close attack skills. If you learn to play it well, you can have great survivability. You can use traps, frighten off enemies (animal types usually), and you get a nifty camp fire to heal your fellows, not to mention the poison removal that once traited can take poison off the whole group. I've seen hunters do pretty cool stuff in groups. I'd go for some yellow line for cc and if you would like better melee attacks, go blue line. I hope this helped.

My burglar is only lvl 25, but I know you can use things like throwing axes, marbles, stun dust, and caltrops to do ranged damage, debuffing and start fellowship manuvers. I think burgs have items that are consumable (signals?) that contribute to healing/power/dps to the group.

My Loremaster got to be real fun to play after she got her sword trait. If you learn how use the skills correctly, a LM can usually be the last one standing in a fellowship.