Game Guide:Burglar
From Lotro-Wiki.com
 Burglar: Skills - Traits - Accomplishments
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Expert Treasure-hunter
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Burglars for Dummies
The Burglar is more than sneaking and backstabbing, as most might believe. It is a very dynamic class, with many interesting skills that make it a highly enjoyable class. No matter if they are soloing or grouping, they are able to quickly turn the tide of a battle, and Burglars are able to solo many foes that other classes cannot master alone.
The Burglar has a few very notable abilities:
- Sneak – Burglars are able to become invisible and move around stealthily, decreasing the chance enemies have to detect you.
- Debuffing – Burglars are able to debuff their foes, by either decreasing the damage they output, or by increasing the damage they take.
- Open conjunctions – Burglars have several abilities that opens conjunctions – making their role in groups very important.
- Burgle - Burglars are able to pickpocket humanoid mobs and get some extra loot that way.
Make sure to read about:
Equipment
The fashion-conscious pocketlifter.
Which stats are important?
These stats are what I, Tjikke, have experienced to be important, but other stats might turn out to be better.
- Agility increases your chance to land a critical hit on your target (but you need a lot of agility for 1% crit), and also increases your chance to evade.
- Might increases the damage you deal and decreases the damage you take.
- Fate increases your power regeneration in combat.
When you reach the mid-levels (25+) you will find yourself running out of power fast on boss-fights and when fighting monsters intensively. I am therefore wearing much fate-gear. At the moment have about 1.5 agility per 1 fate. I do not make an effort to get my might up, but since might increases the damage you deal, it could surely be useful! :-)
- As of June 1st, 2007; many believe fate to be broken wherein you will want Will as your Secondary or Tertiary stat.
What kind of gear?
At level 10, Burglars get to wear Medium Armour and Dual Wielding. From this day on, you should get yourself another one-handed weapon (note that not all 1H-weapons can be worn in off-hand). Also try and focus on medium armour rather than light armour, when e.g. choosing quest rewards in the future.
Blablabla, what about WEAPONS?!
Well...:
- Daggers gives by default 1% to your critical.
- Maces gives by default a chance to stun on hit.
- Swords gives be default a chance to hit with your weapons.
Choosing a weapon-type is a matter of preference. But having a decent amount of +hit is wise when you fight foes with greater level. You would generally get a greater DPS wielding daggers due to the additional critical-percent, but maces temporarily stun your target, and a stunned enemy is unable to inflict any damage on you.
It is wise to have a weapon with high maximum damage in your main hand, since all the burglar-abilities uses your main hand to calculate the damage the abilities deal. Your off-hand should have a decent attack speed (roughly 2.0), since a few abilities, like Double-Edged Strike, also use your off-hand to calculate damage.
You might want to think about having a dagger too. The weapon speed of both weapons will be the avarage of both. So a sword of 2.6 and a dagger of 1.6 will become a weaponspeed of 2.1.
Grouping
When in a group, Burglars have a few roles with equal importance…
- Damage dealing one of the things Burglars do best. But it is wise to take it easy once in a while, to give the tank a chance to maintain aggro.
- Debuffing is also an important role. The two tricks Disable and Dust in the Eyes decrease the damage the target can deal. Trick: Counter Defence on the other hand, combined with the Reveal Weakness-skill, can increase the damage the target takes, greatly increasing the damage of a fellowship. If a group has multiple burglars, it is wise to coordinate a trick to each burglar.
- Crowd-control is put in the hands of burglars, through the Riddle-ability. It can put a monster out of the fight for up to 30 seconds. Startling Twist is also very useful – if e.g. your minstrel has a monster beating on him, you can either cast a riddle on it, or stun it, to give the minstrel time to get regain control of the fight.
- Fellowship Maneuvers are, with the unique abilities of a burglar, perhaps the most important role. Read below for more information about the use of conjunctions.
Fellowship Maneuvers
Since Fellowship Maneuver opening is one of the most important trades of the burglar, it is important to understand the basics. Burglars have a total of four abilities that can start a Fellowship Maneuvers (previously known as a Conjunction):
| Ability | Level | Note | Recovery time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Exploit Opening | 12 | Also stuns the target | 5 min |
| Any kind of marbles | 20 | Requires the Clever Devices-characteristic | 10 min | |
 | Trip | 28 | Only usable while sneaking | 5 min |
| Exposed Throat | ?? | Supposedly a reward from the level 50 quest | ?? |
As you can see all the abilities has a fairly long cooldown. In longer fights, it is wise to coordinate when to use them. Trip could be used to give the target a massive periodic damage (DoT) at the start of the fight, where you are able to stealth. Another option is to use Hide in Plain Sight in the middle of the fight, and then use Trip. Marbles and Exploit Opening doesn't have special usage requirements, and can be used any time in a boss fight. Your fellowship is likely low on power after fighting for a few minutes - perhaps a full blue conjunction could be useful?
There are two basic things, that you should look for before using on of the Fellowship Maneuvers openers:
- Are everyone fairly close to the target? Contributing to a Fellowship Maneuver requires the players to be within few meters of the target.
- Does the target have the
Temporary State Immunity debuff active? All the openers either stuns, knocks down or knocks out the target, so it is important that the target haven't got the immunity-debuff up.
Remember also, that your Fellowship Maneuver openers can be missed or evaded just like all your other abilities. Use Trick: Counter Defence to remove your targets parry/block and evade chances.
To improve your performance in groups, you should read these conjunction-guides:
Sneaking
Burglars get the ability to Sneak at level 4, but effective sneaking needs some experience. Depending on their level relative to the Burglar, mobs will be able to detect him. The detection chance is, however, much lower, when the Burglar stays inside the 180-degree segment behind the mob. At level 18 Burglars get Diversion, which will cause the target mob to stand still and turn its back to him. This skill will make sneaking much easier (and can also be used to split patrols). Looting chests/corpses or using static items will break stealth. Attacking or being attacked does as well.
Note that some types of mobs appear to have enhanced ability to detect sneaking Burglars. Wolves and Spiders, in particular, seem to have detect abilities far superior to other sorts of mobs.
A mob may not break your stealth when you are detected. There are two variations of being detected - sensing your presence and seeing through your stealth. The latter breaks stealth and puts you in Combat. However, merely sensing your presence means the mob will only face you.
Pickpocketing
At level 14 Burglars get the ability to Burgle. While stealthed, they have the chance to pickpocket an item from a humanoid mob (not from undead). The success chance depends on the relative level of the targeted mob. This ability can only be used once on a certain mob. The burgled item comes from a separate loot table; hence burgling will not affect the loot you or others get for killing the mob. Burgling will yield - sometimes rather useful - equipable items (armor, weapons), potions, or crafting components, but never coin or treasure loot.
As noted above, Picking the Pocket of a humanoid mob may only be attempted once - ever, for the that mob. Until the mob is killed, no further attempts will ever result in loot. You can tell if the mob was previously Burgled if you get the message "You find nothing of value." Normal attempt failures give the message "You fail to burgle any items..."
It is good etiquette to kill the mobs after you burgle them. In areas where multiple burglars congregate, it can be very frustrating to repeatedly discover your target has already had his pocket picked. Wherever possible, try to kill the mob after you pick its pocket to reduce fellow Burglar frustration.
Note - the Burgle animation can take a bit of time to run, and sometimes this time can be precious, especially if your target is moving. You can bypass the animation if you are moving while picking pockets. If you keep moving, the effect occurs essentially instantly. If you are standing still, the effect occurs at the end of the animation sequence.
Crafting
More information will be added soon.
Quests
Burglars have been blessed with these special designed quests:
