Turbine is putting the Burglar and Captain under the knife with the upcoming Riders of Rohan expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online. A pair of new developer diaries outlines the planned changes for the two classes.

The Captain will be receiving skill changes for Improved Valiant Strike, Improved War-cry and Inspiring Blade of Elendil, which will provide the Captain with some additional options and an extra heal for those that choose not to spec for healing and improving the potency of those that do. Additionally, the Captain is also getting a few Legacy changes.

Legacy Changes



New Minor Weapon Legacy: "Battle States and Defeat Response Duration." This legacy increases the duration of Battle States and Defeat Responses from 1s to a maximum of 5s, ranking up in .5s steps.

Strength of Will Legacy Modifications:

The Strength of Will Legacy is being modified to also affect Song-brothers and Blade-brothers.

• Song-brother: Reduce Power cost of Song-brother’s healing skills by 1-10%.
• Blade-brother: Reduce Blade-brother’s attack duration by 1-10%.
• Note: Maximum bonus is being reduced from 15% to 10%.

The Burglar will be getting a similar treatment with changes to a number of skills and trait line modifications.

Trait and Trait Line Modifications

• Mischief 3-set bonus reduces the cooldown of Cure Poison and Burglar’s Antidote to 40 seconds.
• Mischief 4-set bonus reduces the cooldown of Cure Poison and Burglar’s Antidote to 20 seconds.
• Mischief 5-set bonus allows Cure Poison and Burglar’s Antidote to affect the entire Fellowship.
• Footpad will now give Diversion a chance to inflict a Debuffing Gamble, in place of Burgle. As such, Improved Feint Attack will no longer allow Burglars to use Diversion from stealth.

As with any work in progress, all of this is subject to change before the official release of Riders of Rohan.

Sources: LOTRO Developer Diary: Captain, LOTRO Developer Diary: Burglar