Learning LOTRO: Lesson Eight - Rune-keeper Class

In this new series, I talk about various aspects of The Lord of the Rings Online. This series is meant for newcomers, but may also help veteran players find more to love about the game.

It's time for the second class-focused entry in the series! I created this Rune-keeper not long after Glasbren for the last class entry, so I've had a lot more time to decide what I should cover and what doesn't need rehashing. 

The Rune-keeper class is restricted to Dwarf, Elf, and High Elf. Since I made an Elf last time and High Elf isn't available to everyone, I chose Dwarf for this character. Using my Welsh again, as well as thematic input from my husband and BFF, I focused on the fact that the Dwarf race in LOTRO is of the Longbeard line. I gave him a white-ish beard and thought about all the frost that would collect on so much majestic facial hair. So I took 'barf' for beard, and 'rhew' for frost, and thus was Rhewbarf born! (Isn't that the best name ever?!) He's the one pictured in the header, not to the left.








A note for new players: You'll have to purchase this class or acquire it with the Mines of Moria Expansion. Even VIP players!

Also of note: We had some very nasty weather roll through that delayed progress on this entry. For this reason, I'll be adding jump links post-publishing. Apologies to early readers for any inconvenience!

The following is a basic summary of the creation process and some of the things you'll encounter when you start out in LOTRO with a Rune-keeper.

Character Creation

Alrighty! We've been here before (and I hope you've made more characters since my first entry on Creation!), so this is a walk in the park. While I didn't really want to cover Rune-keeper so early in this series since it isn't one of the classes everyone has access to, it was the will of the players who voted in my poll that screamed this class was second only to Hunter. So here we are!

I'm sure the Lore portion of that doesn't make much sense to the new players out there, and that's okay! It's hard to really understand how the class plays unless you have watched someone play or taken the dive into it yourself. My personal take on the class is that it takes some patience in the lower levels because attacks either have an induction time to cast... or the attack itself takes time to inflict damage. That makes it hard to get a good rotation of skills going sometimes, especially for a new player. But if you're hip to Middle-earth lore, you probably can't resist the temptation to play a class modeled after the renowned Celebrimbor! (Shadow of Mordor fans? Anyone?)

You can just as easily play an Elf or High Elf with this class, but I'm trying to share the love. Besides, there's something aesthetically pleasing about dwarves -- dwellers of stone -- fighting with rocks in their hands.

Dwarf Intro

Here's where things deviate a bit from last time, and is also another reason why I chose Dwarf after playing an Elf. The tutorial part of the Intro for a Dwarf takes place after the events of the Elf tutorial, so you get a second layer of the story before the bulk of the Intro. This tutorial takes place 75 years before the events of the Intro, in contrast to the Elf tutorial being 600 years before the Intro. This helps instill the differences between the two races quite nicely. The Elves feel memories of Edhelion keenly during the Intro, whereas the Dourhand dwarves descended from Skorgrim think of him as a fallen hero. And therein lies the problem you get to deal with in the Intro!

What I love so much about the Dwarf tutorial bit is that we get to see many of Thorin's company, and are treated to the snarky wit of Gandalf and get to witness the bravery of young Gimli. We'll come back to this after discussing the class a bit more directly.

Class Skills

The feature that is unique to the Rune-keeper class is a fun little Attunement panel/bar/thingy. Use your damage-dealing skills and you lean towards one side, making them more powerful... but that in turn makes your healing skills less effective. The other side is, of course, the healing end of the spectrum -- and the more you heal, the less effective your damage skills will be.

As with the Hunter class before, Rune-keepers start out with some basic skills and then earn more as they level -- and others when they specialize in a particular Trait Tree. These are the skills you start out with:

Scribe's Spark: This is your first taste of casting a form of lightning. Zap zap! 

Fiery Ridicule: This is fire damage you can stack up to 3 times for maximum burn! 

Prelude to Hope: This is your first healing skill. If you're doing a decent job of rotating your damage skills, you shouldn't have to use this one too much early on.  

Shocking Words: Once you've done enough damage, this skill will cease to be greyed out and you can call down a massive bolt of lightning that damages and stuns your enemy -- but also returns your Attunement back to neutral, so use it wisely!

By the end of the Introduction, and at least level 8, you should also earn these additional skills:

Chilling Rhetoric: Use this to slow your enemies with frost! Good for when you have multiple enemies coming at you so you can damage others while one is slowed.

Shocking Touch: Close-range static shock to daze your enemy and buy a little time!

Trait Trees

And then there were the Trait Trees. Most people will tell you to choose the Red line for your Rune-keeper, but I personally enjoy the Yellow line. Try them out and see which one suits you best!

And when you pick the one you like, you'll gain a few more skills by the time you finish the Intro:

Benediction of Peace (Blue Line): Rune-sign of Winter, Writ of Health

Cleansing Flame (Red Line): Writ of Fire, Smouldering Wrath

Solitary Thunder (Yellow Line): Sustaining Bolt, Writ of Lightning

Thorin's Gate Revisited

Back to the story at hand! Once you've finished the Dwarf tutorial, you'll find yourself looking at Nos Grimsong all over again. Yes, this is the same place you were at with the elf last month. I'm still not going to spoil the story for you! I recommend reading the text carefully because you'll notice that the NPCs address you differently because you're a dwarf now and not an elf! This is one of the magical elements of LOTRO that make it so easily replayable -- you're getting a different layer of the story because you're not the same character, and that's wonderful!

Quests, Again

Since you've (presumably) been here before, or if you're reading this and considering making another character, there are some things I recommend and urge you to take note of!

First, take a look at the Mannequins in Frerin's Court. If it's a different calendar month, they will be totally different outfits! Sometimes those mannequins are the only way to obtain certain cosmetics, so if something catches your eye you might want to plan accordingly. You can find the mannequins at various other quest hubs beyond the Intro, too.



Don't forget to familiarize yourself with your Trainer. While you don't have to learn your skills from them anymore, it's still good to know what items they offer so when you level up you know when to visit them again. For Rune-keepers, these trainers offer: Books, Deed Tomes, Metalsmith Recipes, Rune-satchels, Scholar Recipes, Tailor Recipes, Tools, and Woodworker Recipes.





You're a bit squishier as a Rune-keeper, even if you are a dwarf. That means you're wearing Light Armour (as indicated by my highlight of the quest rewards in the pic). You're not meant to dive into the middle of the fray. I'm confident you'll get a feel for it as you play through the intro!

Last but not least, this is a good place for you to farm some XP if you want to have a slight edge by the time you're done with the Intro. The frozen water with the wandering barghests is a good spot to make a circuit of murder -- and the cave-claws, dourhands, and mountain wights are happy to keep respawning for your leveling needs, too. If this is your umpteenth character, I totally understand just breezing through and killing only what's necessary. Just remember this is an option where you don't have to fight anyone for slayer deeds!

Weapon Cosmetics

I'll talk more about this in a future entry, but I'm going to mention it here for the Rune-keeper hopefuls because... well, I'll explain. Not too long past, LOTRO gave us the ability to use cosmetic appearances for our weapons. No longer stuck with ugly looking things because of their stats, we were able to use the pretty appearances to hide the ugly workhorse underneath. More recently, they extended this ability to Rune-keeper satchels and gave us cosmetic options for them. You can use appearances of satchels you find as loot, craft, or buy nifty appearances like the Double Satchel I picked up for Rhewbarf. You know, in case you want it to go along with the rest of your apparel!

Tinkers

When you get that quest I wrote about last week, Outfitting Yourself and Others, I highly recommend that Rune-keepers choose the Tinker vocation because it has all of the Rune-stone recipes, including Legendary Items. No need to wait for a good drop or pestering a buddy to craft what you need -- do it yourself!

Don't be fooled by that list of recipes above that the Trainer offers, either. Those are for supplemental things a Rune-keeper uses, like infused parchment, inlay, enamel, chisels and rifflers. The broader benefit is to be a Tinker!

A Random Find

As a bonus, I randomly found a place in LOTRO I'd never seen before while goofing off with Rhewbarf -- The Greenhouse at Thorin's Hall, where the farmers can grow things. While running around inside, I happened to notice something strange! I jumped up onto a ledge for a better look, and discovered... lazy design? Those clearly weren't meant to be planters and someone figured nobody's avatar was tall enough to see the "dirt" inside! Happy Easter?

And that's as far as we go this time, my friends! I hope it went a little quicker this time since I didn't rehash a bunch of the basics from the first class entry.

Without anything further to say right now, I leave you with some pictures of my Rune-keeper characters!