Lord of the Rings Online MMO News, Guides, and Features at Ten Ton Hammer

If you're wondering why your health has been taking a swan dive off a metaphorical skyscraper, look no further than your lack of an Orc Defiler in your LOTRO PvMP group. Whether that lacking comes in the form of them not being there at all, or slacking off on their job matters not. If you want to drastically improve your odds against the whining pansies in the Ettenmoors known as Freeps, then you need a Defiler.

Search everywhere. You never know who will have a quest for you!

Just the name itself sends a shiver down the backs of your opponents. The heart of the Defiler's power revolves around the ability to corrupt and desecrate everything around it. To gain its healing powers, the Defiler twists the essences of distant fungi and spores. Unfortunately for your opponent's, that's not where it all stops. The Defiler has the distinct (and dastardly!) ability to curse the body and soul of men and beast alike.

It's time to discover what makes the Orc Defiler so terrifying.

You Are Not a Tank

Despite the continued insistence of certain parties (my friends), you cannot attempt to take the role of a tank no matter what class you're playing with. The Defiler is not, I repeat is *not* designed to be a tank. You start out with weak armor, horrible damage abilities, and a suicidal resistance rating. You're likely to get poisoned by a fly faster than Bubble Boy. Essentially, this all means that you're wearing little more than paper and have the coordination of a slug in a salt bath. If you try to go out there swinging for the fences, you're not going to have a pretty ending.
Speaking of endings (pretty or otherwise), you must accept the fact that you're going to be seeing a lot of them. Did I say a lot? Because what I really meant was a metric crap-ton of endings. Seriously, you're going to die more times than you can guess. Even though the Defiler class has been available for quite a while now, your fellow Creeps sometimes need a reminder that if you die, they're going to be right behind you, so be sure to let someone know when you're in trouble.

The Necessity of PvE Conquest

I'm sure you didn't start playing a monster because you were excited about PvE, but in the case of the Defiler, you should be. You may not get the same thrill from PvE that you get from sending a sniveling Freep's soul on to whatever gods they may worship, but it's a great source of Destiny Points, and it's those points that give you the ability to gain new skills and improve your old ones. So whether you like it or not, get out there and get questing. It's not all bad news. 

Even though you have a tendency to get slaughtered like a hapless lamb in a large PvP conflict, you're a veritable god when it comes to PvE encounters. You may not do much in terms of damage, but you more than make up for this failing by your heal over time (HoT) abilities. By casting Fertile Slime and Fungal Bloom on yourself before the battle even begins, you can withstand the onslaught of any single non-elite mob in the Ettenmoors. You're not too shabby against doubles as well. Until you get some new abilities under your belt, set your targets on fire with Fire Gourd and beat them over the head with (you guessed it) the Headbreaker. Continue swapping back and forth between these two abilities and you'll come out alive in virtually every PvE battle you engage in.

The first (and easiest) quest to accomplish is called Mash. Even Orcs need to eat, right? Guess who's just been tasked with going out to grab the evening meal? That's right, Spiffy... you. This is a great time to practice your new skills, so head off to the southeast and start collecting chunks of slug meat.

No matter what keep you're in, always grab every quest you can, especially those that involve killing any type of mob. By collecting all of these, you'll find that some NPC's (such as hobbits) can drop items for three to five different quests off a single kill. This can save you a lot of time in the long run. And since many of the quests are repeatable after a cooldown time (two hours or under), continue to hang onto any yellow (or higher) item you get.