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Never just
run up on a troll.

Some players in target="_blank">Lord
of the Rings Online's PvMP like to be on the frontlines of
battles, others like to stick to the outskirts, while the final few
like to sneak amongst their prey. That's where you come in as a Warg
Stalker. You trade massive hit points or enormous power pools for the
most effective evasion skills in the game. The Stalker does just what
its name implies, stalking the edge of battles, striking at their
enemies from their hidden blankets of stealth. Like any other class
though, it takes time to get to that point, so what's the best way to
get there? I'm glad you asked.


Starting Out as a Young Pup 



You may be the size of an overgrown wolf, but like all the other
monster classes in LOTRO, you're weaker than a newborn pup when you
first start out. Amazingly, you actually do have one distinct advantage
over the other classes I've done guides for so far. Your evasion really
is a thing of beauty. Without having to spend a single Destiny Point to
boost any stat or power, you can immediately take on two slightly lower
level PvE targets with little problem. It may not sound like much but
this is a huge deal, especially since you're going to be doing a lot of
PvE, so target="_blank">be
happy.


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There are a number of different ways to go when improving the various
skills and passive abilities of your Stalker. I'm going to tell you
what order I chose to improve my first set of skills, but unlike the
others, there's plenty of wiggle room here. In my case, I increased my
passive skills in the following order: Resistance, Armor, Health, and
Power. This worked well for me, but it is not the only way to go. I'm
always in favor of developers providing viable alternate advancement
paths for a class, so kudos to them for it.



I know you're probably not psyched to go tearing through all the PvE
content you can find, but until the developers make some pretty
significant changes to the PvP in Lord of the Rings Online, you're
going to be doing a lot of it. Any time you finally manage to gain a
rank (and they do come slowly) the first thing you should do is
increase every single ability that you can and that takes Destiny
Points. Don't worry too much about it though, since the Stalker has the
easiest time of all the monster classes in completing some of these
quests.



Your Stealth Sucks 



Against PvE targets, you've got a decent shot of avoiding detection and
getting to where you're heading. Against Freeps though, your stealth
sucks, and it sucks hard... for now. Eventually, you will become a
silent instrument of death on the field of battle, but until then, hike
up your drawers and get doing some PvE. If you've read the other
guides, then you know the first quest you need to do is Mash, so get to
hunting the slugs to the southeast. On the way there, don’t
forget to search all the Trolls that were caught out in the sun for the
Set In Stone quest. The town of Hoarhallow is also a favorite haunt of
mine, no matter which Creep I'm playing at the time. I never get tired
of killing the Hobbits down there and they drop a ton of parts (body or
otherwise) used for a smorgasbord of quests. With the Stalker, a lot of
other quest options are readily available for you.








You're stealth may suck in general, but it's enough to get you by the
polar bears (or the massive trolls if it's nighttime) to the northeast,
granting you easy access to the mines of Isendeep. Even if you don't
have the quest yet, go inside and gather all the Isendeep ore you can
get from the numerous crates scattered amongst the caverns. There's a
ton of ore around here, so just explore the mines and gather up all you
can get. In a short period of time, you'll have enough to do the Iron
Belly of Lugazag quest two or three times over. It may seem like a
waste for now, but since the quest is repeatable, it will save you time
in the long run. Believe me, you can never have enough Destiny Points.


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There's a
sunscreen ad in here somewhere.

You're going to start out with a lot of scouting missions where failure
(getting killed) is not an option. If you die along the way, you'll be
able to get the quest again without having to wait for a timer, but
it's still insanely annoying to have completed one or two scout
missions already, just to die on the third one since you didn't want to
have to run back and forth a billion times. Trust me, href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67121" target="_blank">the
ensuing
tantrum is not pretty. The stealth of the Stalker is a
massive boon for this reason alone. It's no guarantee that you're going
to succeed, but it does provide a dramatic boost to your chances of
success.


Freeps Suck Worse Than My Stealth 



Yes, yes they do. In my opinion, it seems like the Freeps are horribly
overpowered compared to their Creep counterparts, at least in the first
few ranks. This wouldn't be such a big deal except for two major
factors. One, it takes a *lot* of kills to gain a rank. When I say a
lot, I mean it. If you were in regular battles for a few hours, you
might gain enough credit for your next rank. Well that's not so bad,
right? Wrong! You will rarely (if ever) find yourself in a regular
battle. Zerging and gank-raids are the name of the game for the Freeps
and they will always outnumber you, so your ranks take a very long time
to gain. Secondly, there is one way and only one way only to gain ranks
- by killing other players. This wouldn't be any type of complaint at
all except for the fact that the issue is compounded by my first
complaint. I'm sure it all looked great on paper, but it does not
translate to the game world well.



So what's a Stalker supposed to do? Like all the others, be prepared to
die more times than I even care to think about. As time progresses, you
will eventually gain enough points here and there to gain that
ever-elusive rank. It may take a long time, but as you gain power, href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67282" target="_blank">the
battles
will no longer be quite as unbalanced for you. If you have the patience
to keep trudging along, there will finally come a day when you are
(quite literally) death on four paws.



As you climb the ranks, you begin gaining powers that are the absolute
bane of existence for the Freeps, especially all those Freep healers
that seemed so impossible to take down not so long ago. You'll gain
Pounce, Dire Howl, Crippling Blight, and Tendon Shred, granting you the
ability to stun, silence, slow, and knockdown your targets. And
that’s just part of the power you’ll eventually
gain.



As a person that's been on the receiving end of that abuse from
numerous Burglars, trust me when I say you won't believe how effective
they can be. You'll find yourself killing your enemies and saving your
friends, all while dropping back into a near perfect state of stealth
with the Disappear skill right under the noses of every Freep out
there. It will be a glorious day, but you're going to have to pass the
test of patience. Have you got what it takes?





To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Lord of the Rings Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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