LotRO - Burglar Class Guide Skills Overview

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BURGLAR SKILLS OVERVIEW

Core Offense

These are the basic attack skills - the stuff the Burglar does
in between mezzing and using dirty tricks.

Surprise Strike - A strong
attack that does additional damage when used from stealth or while
attacking from the flanks. This attack has a high critical payout, and
does additional damage when slotted with 3 Gambler traits.

Cunning Attack - A middling
attack that applies a damage-over-time bleed. Does additional damage
when used from stealth, and the bleed can stack and do more damage with
legacies on legendary items. Note that lingering bleeds will break
targets from a mez.

Subtle Stab - A quick attack
that does not benefit from either stealth or position. This skill can
be improved with the trait Swift and Subtle, inflicting more damage and
applying a resistance debuff on targets that have an active Gamble.

Provoke - A neat little skill
that does decent damage and causes the recipient to gain additional
threat from whichever target it is focused on, whether it be the
Burglar or someone else. Does additional damage and adds more threat
when used from Stealth, and can be improved with the trait Sharp Wit,
Sharp Blade to do yet more damage and generate more threat. The trait
Leaf-walker causes this skill to apply a stun Gamble when used from
stealth, with a 60% chance to apply.

Well-Placed Strike - This
skill has a lengthy induction. It does moderate damage initially, and
applies a bleed. When used from behind, the bleed is increased
significantly. The trait Spatial Sense increases the bleed damage and
lowers the cooldown.

Tricks and Trick Removals

Tricks are lingering debuffs that may or may not do damage and
are removed with trick removals, which apply a variety of effects. Only
one trick per Burglar may be active at a given time, and one Burglar
cannot remove anotehr Burglar's trick

Trick: Disable - Does moderate damage,
slowing the target's attack speed and reducing its outgoing melee
damage. The trait Disabling Attack causes this trick to further reduce
the recipient's speed.

Trick: Dust
in the Eyes - A handful of sand applied in just the right
way; does no damage, but the recipient has a +20% miss chance and its
run speed is slowed. The trait Trickster makes this skill an
area-effect attack. Though this trick does no damage, it will break an
enemy out of a mez.

Trick: Enrage
- A non-damaging trick that causes the recipient to attack at random
rather than focus on one target. The trait Blind Fury makes ranged
targets likely to run into melee instead of staying at range. This
trick should be used with caution as it can make the tank's job very
difficult.

Trick:
Counter Defence - A moderately-damaging attack that lowers
the recipient's defence. Block, parry and evade ratings are all lowers,
and the recipient has a +3% incoming melee critical chance. The trait
Opportunist increases the incoming melee critical chance.

Mischievous
Glee - This removes any active trick and heals the Burglar
over time. Upgraded at level 64 to Mischievous Delight, which does
bigger heals. When slotted with 4 Gambler traits, this skill has a
chance to apply a Gamble that briefly stuns the recipient.

Startling
Twist -Removes any active tricks and stuns the recipient
for 8 seconds. Note that this is a stun, not a mez, and does not break
when the victim is attacked. When slotted with 3 Gambler traits, this
skill has a chance to apply a damage-over-time Gamble.

Clever Retort
- A complicated and unpredictable trick removal that randomly applies
one of 4 effects. These look like miniature fellowship manouevers - a
red ent does direct damage, a yellow spider does damage over time, a
blue horse restores power and a green eagle restores morale. There is
no way to control which of these effects will apply. Must be in
Mischief stance to use this skill, though the trait Honed Wit removes
this restriction and also reduces the cooldown. When slotted with 2
Gambler traits, this skill has a chance to apply a debuffing Gamble
which lowers the recipient's resistances.

Critical Response Chain

These skills become available after the Burglar scores a
critical hit. These are tiered skills, and tend to consume power
quickly. All but one of the Burglar legendary skills and traits affect
these skills in some way.

Burglar's Advantage - Tier 1 skill. Does
good damage and inflicts more damage when used from behind. This skill,
along with Double-Edged Strike, is altered by the trait Cruel Odds,
which gives them a 10% chance to apply a critical vulnerability debuff
(increased to 25% if the target has an active Gamble)

Double-Edged
Strike - Tier 2 skill; can only be used after Burglar's
Advantage. Two juicy attacks that do good damage. Cruel Odds affects
this skill in the same was as it does Burglar's Advantage.

Feint Attack - Tier 3 skill; can only be
used after Double-Edged Strike and resets the response chain. Does big
damage and makes the next use of Surprise Strike hit as though used
from stealth for extra damage. The legendary trait Practiced Bluff, the
capstone of the Quiet Knife line, changes this skill to Improved Feint
Attack, which activates more from-stealth skills, reduces its cooldown
and adds +5% to damage on attacks made from stealth.

A Small Snag - Tier 3 skill;
can only be used after Double-Edged Strike and resets the response
chain. This skill roots the target in place for 15 seconds, and applies
a debuff that increases the target's incoming damage and attack
duration. The capstone legedary trait from the Mischief-maker line,
Little Annoyances, changes this skill to Quite a Snag, which increases
the duration of the root and strengthens the debuff.

Lucky Strike - Tier 3 skill;
can only be used after Double-Edged Strike and resets the response
chain. This skill does good damage and applies a damage-over-time
Gamble. This Gamble will land every time, but its strength will be
random. The legendary capstone trait of the Gambler line, Dealings
Done, changes this skill to Gambler's Strike, allowing the Burglar to
upgrade his Gamble to maximum strength. This trait also reduces the
cooldown fo the skill and increases the chance of applying a Gamble
with other skills.

Exposed Throat - Tier 3
skill; can only be used after Double-Edged Strike and resets the
response chain. This is a legendary skill attainable at level 39 by
collecting book pages. Does good damage and has a 20% chance to stun
the target and trigger a fellowshipe Manouevre.

Flashing Blades - Tier 3
skill; can only be used after Double-Edged Strike and resets the
response chain. This is a legendary skill attainable at level 39 by
collecting book pages. Does 2 big attacks with a sweet
 animation.

Stick and Move - This is not a
skill but a legendary trait, attainable at level 45 by completing 2
class quests. Equipping this trait will unlock the critical response
chain when blows are evaded as well as when the Burglar scores a
critical hit. It also increases the Burglar's evade chance by 1% and
partial evade mitigation by 5%.

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Stealth, Mischief and Other Dirty Tricks

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. And the Burg
hides.

Sneak - Allows the Burglar to
slink from shadow to shadow. Stealth causes the Burglar to move much
slower than normal, and allows him to pass by enemies without being
seen. Passing directly in front of an enemy will alert it to the
Burglar's presence, though there is a chance that the Burglar will not
be seen. Stealth is broken by attacking or taking any kind of damage -
passing through the weak damaging aura of a Barrow-wight, for example,
will pop the Burglar out of stealth. Increasing stealth level through
gear or traits allows the Burglar to sneak past higher-level enemies,
and to outclass stealth detection of low-traited Creeps in the
Ettenmoors. Sneak cannot be used in combat.

Share the Fun -Allows the
Burglar to stealth  a mamber of his fellowship. This works at
a lower stealth level than Sneak, and the recipient must stay within
close proximity of the Burglar to remain hidden. It is otherwise
subject to the same conditions as Sneak.

Hide in Plain Sight - The
hi-power version of Sneak. This skill can be used in combat, instantly
dropping all aggro. The Burglar is undetectable for the first 10
seconds, can move at full speed and stealth cannot be broken by taking
damage. This works well as a "panic button" skill, but be warned: this
skill is glitchy and is not always 100% effective. If toggled during an
enemy induction or at the same time that an enemy aggros on the
Burglar, that enemy will not drop aggro and will continue to attack.

Mischief - When you no longer
care about everyone knowing you fight dirty. This toggled stance cuts
the cooldown for Riddle in half, allowing the Burglar to chain-mez
enemies. It also lowers the power cost of tricks and, at higher levels,
increases trick duration. This stance is most useful in groups - it
does not decrease run speed and allows the Burglar to use Riddle more
often. It cannot be engaged in combat.

Diversion - "What's that over
there!?" Causes an enemy to face away from the Burglar, allowing an
approach from the rear. This can be used to turn enemies away to reduce
the chance of being seen while stealthed. Only usable from stealth.

Burgle - This skill is only
usable from stealth and can only be used on mobs that carry loot (i.e.
not on animals, insects, etc). Using this skill on an appropriate mob
has a chance of pilfering a bit of loot without having to fight for it.
The chance to loot an item is random, and loot burgled from mobs is
usually low in value. The trait Footpad makes this skill much more
interesting - it gives the skill a 60% chance to apply a debuffing
Gamble on the target, regardless of whether or not any items are
actually taken.

Location is Everything - Only
usable in stealth. This skill grants +25% positional damage when
attacking from behind.

Aim - Automatically causes the
next hit to critical, and reduces the miss chance.

Touch and Go - This skill
increases the Burglar's evade rating, giving him +50% chance to evade
attacks for 30 seconds. If used in conjunction with Find Footing, the
Burglar can evade 100% of attacks for a short time.

Knives Out - This skill does
big damage and lowers incoming melee damage by 30%. While this buff is
active, the Burglar cannot block, parry or evade, and any damage he
takes partially reflects back on the attacker. This skill shares its
cooldown timer with Touch and Go.

Find Footing - When dazed,
stunned, knocked down or knocked out, the Burglar can hop back up, heal
himself up and evade 50% of attacks. If used in conjunction with Touch
and Go, this evade boosts stacks to 100%.

Ready and Able - Using this
skill resets cooldown timers for Touch and Go/Knives Out, Find Footing,
Exploit Opening, Hide in Plain Sight, Riddle, Trip and several other
skills.

Reveal Weakness - A toggled
debuff that causes the target to take 10% more damage from attacks. The
trait Appraising Eye increases this debuff to 12%.

Poison Removal - A weak skill
with a lengthy induction and a long cooldown that removes 1 poison
effect. This skill is
"upgraded" at level 64 to Burglar's Antidote, which still only removes
1 poison effect but reduces the induction to 0.5 seconds. You're better
off having a Hunter do it instead - Hunters can remove 3 poison effects
and have no induction and no cooldown.

Practical Joke - Can only be
used from stealth. You know those people that get all sick and then go
out in public and make everyone else sick? Burglars consider that a
merry prank.

Crowd-Control and Conjunctions

These skills keep dangerous enemies out of the fight until the
Burglar or his group is ready for them. Mezzes (short for mermerize)
can be broken by damage, unlike stuns. While stuns typically only last
a few seconds, mezzes can last over half a minute.

Riddle - 30-second mez that is effective
against humanoids, undead and dragonkind (drakes and worms), but not
against beasts, insects or creatures of nature. Most instance bosses
are immune to mezzes, and enemies that have been stunned (e.g. by a
Champion horn or a fellowship manouevre) are immune to mezzes and stuns
for a short period. The trait Perplexing Riddle adds a 5-second stun at
the start of the Riddle, followed by a 30-second mez. When the Burglar
is in Mischief stance and traited with Perplexing Riddle, he can
"chain-mez" one target, keeping it locked in place as long as needed.

Confound -This skillis a bit tricky to
use properly. It is a delayed-response area-effect mez. For the first
15 seconds, the targets have their attack speed slowed by 5%. After 15
seconds, they are dazed for 30 seconds. If the mobs rush into group
combat during that initial 15 seconds, there is a very good chance that
any combatants using area-effect attacks (Champions, Guardians,
Hunters) will break the daze. The trait Confound the Fools does the
same thing for Confound that Perlexing Riddle does for Riddle, and
allows the Burglar to affect 2 additional targets.

Exploit Opening - Applies a 5 second
stun which triggers a fellowship manouevre. If the target has been
recently stunned, or has been subjected to a fellowship manouevre
already, he will be immune until he loses both immunity buffs, so
timing this skill can be a bit tricky. This skill will only apply a
stun in PvMP, and will not trigger a fellowship manouevre. Furthermore,
there is a "diminishing returns" mechanic in the Ettenmoors which
reduces the length of conjunction stuns if they are used in quick
succession.

Trip - This skill is only usable from
stealth. The Burglar does a ninja-like leg sweep, knocking the opponent
down and triggering a fellowship manouevre. Using this skill breaks
stealth. The legendary skill Sweep the Leg changes this skill to
Tangle-foot, which does not break stealth, and reduces the cooldown by
40 seconds. This is the only legendary skill that does not affect the
critical response chain in some way.

Sieze Initiative - This skill is only
available after completing a successful fellowship manouevre. It resets
the cooldowns on Aim, Location is Everything and all the critical
response chain skills.

Escape Clause - This
skill is only
available after completing a successful fellowship manouevre. It resets
the cooldowns on Touch and Go/Knives Out.

Class Tools

Burglars get lots of nifty toys.

Burglar Tools - These items go
in the class item slot on the
character record panel and can be crafted by tailors. At low levels,
these items reduce the power costs of tricks. Legendary bags, also
craftable by tailors and available to players who purchase the Mines of
Moria expansion, do a whole lot more, and are discussed in greater
detail on
the Legendary Items page located href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/champ/endgame">here.

Signals - These badges look like their
respective symbols on the fellowship manouevre wheel, and increase the
effectiveness of their specific color. For example, Conviction Signals
increase the healing done by hitting the green Conviction button during
a conjunction. When equipped, these signals affect the Burglar only.
When clicked on and used, they affect the whole fellowship. These items
can be crafted by tailors, and go in the ranged slot.

Burglar Tricks - This is a
collection of dirty rotten tricks that can be crafted by weaponsmiths.
There are recipes for every tier, starting at level 20 tricks for
journeyman weaponsmiths they come in several different flavors: Caltrops - the Burglar litters the ground with pointy
little spikes that stick into the feet of enemies, slowing their run
speed and causing damage over time for 30 seconds. These nasty little
things spread over 3 meters and can affect up to 5 targets at once.

Stun Dust - gritty irritants are hurled into the face of
an
opponent, stunning it for a few seconds. Higher level dust stuns
targets for longer.

Bags of Marbles - ranging in size from tiny to giant,
this
device knocks over an opponent, triggering a fellowship maouevre.
Because Burglars don't already have enough ways to start FMs.

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