Thread: Suggestions for first-time player?

Greetings!

For the first time ever, I plan on stepping onto Middle-Earth to rid it of the evil that inhabits it. My gameplay skill can most likely be classified as average, as I've played in some other MMOs (Pirates of the Caribbean Online and Runescape). I plan on doing a mixture of solo and group playing, and my question is:

What do you think would be a good class for a first-time LOTRO player like me?

if your not new to mmos or even if you are then just about any of the base classes are good for a new player, it really depends on your play style and what rolls you prefer.

next best advise would be to choose a class which you like the sounds of and think you would enjoy playing

If you like Ranged DPS, try a Hunter.
If you like Melee DPS, try a Champ.
If you like to be the main Healer, try a Minstrel.
If you like to be the Tank, try a Guardian.

Hunter and Champ (in my opinion) are easier than Minstrel and Guardian, unless you're very focused (I'm not).

The classes that are considered most approachable for first-time players are Hunter, Champion, and Guardian. The Minstrel is also relatively simple to begin with. The "support" classes -- Captain, Loremaster, and Burglar -- are a bit more complex and can be difficult to play solo until they gain some of their more powerful skills at higher levels (45-50). Wardens and Runekeepers are easy enough to solo, but feature comparitively complex mechanics that may make them frustrating to play as first-time characters (they are also premium classes to which you may not yet have access, depending upon your subscription level).

Of course, the best class to choose is the one that most appeals to your prefered play-style!

All LOTRO classes are good. You can solo the game with any of them, and they all have something to contribute to a group. So the deciding factor is what kind of play style you enjoy.

In extremely general terms:

Burglar: sneak around bad guys, use crowd control to fight them one at a time.
Captain: fight alongside your "pet" herald, do a little healing and a little tanking, make the group you're in better at everything.
Champion: get in the middle of the fight and kill things fast.
Guardian: survive almost any fight by mitigating damage, be the tank for your group.
Hunter: pick off enemies one by one from a distance, zip around the world with instant travel skills.
Lore-master: fight alongside your pet, wield an array of crowd control and DPS skills.
Minstrel: heal your group and deal significant DPS.
Rune-keeper: switch as needed between healer and glass cannon ranged DPS.
Warden: survive almost any fight by healing yourself, do some tanking and some DPS, function as a one-person group.

Most complex classes: Warden, Lore-master, Rune-keeper
Simplest classes: Champion, Hunter, Guardian

Thank you for the replies, everyone. I like to get in the middle of things, so it sounds like I'd like a Guardian or a Champion.

They're all relatively straight forward. For a beginner, honestly, I think anything other than rune-keeper, warden, or lore-master is fine. Those last 3 are a bit more difficult, but possibly not so much for someone with other MMO experience.

All of the others are easy to solo, I found captain easiest even though so many players despise it. Some players are all about speed speed speed. Captain is defeated in combat while soloing far less than most other classes, and that's what's important to me, not have fast I can get to level cap. Hunter is fastest to kill, and nice trvael speeds, but it's by far the most boring class to me (more boring than my guardian who solos with a shield).

Captain is probably most versatile if you want to be in groups. You can dps, off-tank, and heal. Some players may frown and demand you carry multiple sets of gear to do this but honestly I can solo with legendary items meant for healing, you really don't need multiple sets.

Champion I found to be the most dependent upon having the best gear at all times. Even with heavy armor because they can't block/parry/evade while in damage stance and have limited heals, meaning that they must kill fast before they are defeated themselves, and they must be in melee range to kill. If you're the sort of player to always keep the best stuff then champion will be easy. If you like to go ten levels without upgrading stuff them champion will prove to be harder than a lot of other classes.

I'm going to give you some advice, but first I'm going to give you some info you didn't ask for - if you know it, forgive, maybe it will help someone like yourself.

Your Lotro Account is the same across all Servers, and there are about 3 dozen servers. (By default, if you did not select something specific, you are tossed on to the one with the least new blood.)

As you go, you earn Turbine Points. These can be spent to improve Characters, improve the Account - lots of stuff. These points can come from any and all Servers combined - one big pool that covers "your (one) Account". The first new character on any server earns 10-20 points or more, plus more for deeds and completing quests.

As Free-to-Play, you can have 2 free characters on any Server. (More if you are VIP.)

So, my advice is... (and maybe you've already figured this out)...

Try one of each, each on a different Server. This will also give you a wider sampling of the "personalities" of several diff servers - hopefully you will find one you like better, maybe even find a Kin to join. If you start a class and decide that's not the one for you, switch to a diff server and a diff class - you can always go back, or not, but either way those points are adding up. If you find "your" class but on the "wrong" server, just start the class over on the "right" server, maybe as a diff race - always faster the second time, and leveling is often a diff experience each time you do it.

Well come, and enjoy!

The rune keeper is not complex. You point at something, mash 1,2,3, and it dies; a monkey can do it. I honesty have found it to be the easiest class in the game, followed or tied with guardian. The RK is labeled complex because of attunement, which basically is a gimmick that prevents using the best spells until you have used some weaker spells from the same school: this is done so you cannot heal and do damage at the same time to maximum effect (you can do it in a limited way, though), which would be very powerful. That is as complex as the class get?!

Warden is the only truly complex class: you have to memorize a ton of combo attacks and there is less room for mistakes than other classes.

Captains, burglars, and guards are difficult solo for another reason: low damage output in the mid levels = slow to level. Burg does good damage at high levels, guard does OK, captain never really gets there unless you gear him out for damage and ignore his role and even then, its mediocre damage.

The burglar, captain, loremaster roles are difficult in a group: many buttons to hit on demand (or by knowing when to do things) and it takes time to master these in a group.

These classes are very easy in a group or solo: guard, champ, hunter, RK, mini.

Originally Posted by forusrname

Captains, burglars, and guards are difficult solo for another reason: low damage output in the mid levels = slow to level.

Slow is not difficult. These classes have extremely good survivability and thus make soloing easy. You take on tougher opponents than normal (or sneak past them).

Warden is probably easiest soloer overall. Gambits are easy to memorize, they fit a pattern, you do class deeds to repeat them, etc. If you mess up and you're soloing then you're still good to go. A little bit of learning what gambits do and you'll be soloing better than anyone, you'll be soloing instances at lower level than anyone too.

Originally Posted by Lohi

Slow is not difficult. These classes have extremely good survivability and thus make soloing easy. You take on tougher opponents than normal (or sneak past them).

Warden is probably easiest soloer overall. Gambits are easy to memorize, they fit a pattern, you do class deeds to repeat them, etc. If you mess up and you're soloing then you're still good to go. A little bit of learning what gambits do and you'll be soloing better than anyone, you'll be soloing instances at lower level than anyone too.

My memory is not all that good :P
I did better once I got the masteries, but every time I stop playing the class for a week or 2 its a big deal to get back into the swing of it. All the other classes I can just log in and go.

Slow is not "difficult" (all the classes can solo everything fairly easily) but it can be frustrating. I know a lot of people who gave up on these classes due to the slowness factor -- esp burg, where everyone goes on about its amazing dps and lure people into trying it.

Originally Posted by forusrname

The rune keeper is not complex. You point at something, mash 1,2,3, and it dies; a monkey can do it. I honesty have found it to be the easiest class in the game, followed or tied with guardian. The RK is labeled complex because of attunement, which basically is a gimmick that prevents using the best spells until you have used some weaker spells from the same school: this is done so you cannot heal and do damage at the same time to maximum effect (you can do it in a limited way, though), which would be very powerful. That is as complex as the class get?!

If this is your experience with a RK, then you've not yet mastered it. It's more than attument, you need to know what skill to throw when, what skill combination restores/conserves power, what manages my threat, how do I function optimally in a group and which of my skills make the group perform better. How and when can I step in to help the group thru a difficult part, when do I switch to heals, eventhough I'm dps, to allow the group to live... When are my RK buffs up so my hardest hit crits for 15K or do you throw it and not get a crit and waste it for 2.3K? What is the order of things, which is different in each instance. Seriously, you can get so much more out of the class then just 1, 2, 3. If you play like that, everything is easy, including warden (why memorize all the different gambits, you just go 1, 2, 3) and the LM.