Burglar

Chumbo Bobbins- Hobbit Burglar

Time to have a look at my Burglar. This was as hard as hell to write as there is such a lot of ways you can play a burglar! I wrote, and re-wrote, and talked to kin mates and other burglars, read forums, and got in such a mess, because I was so unsure of how ‘good’ my set up was and didn’t want to look like a total noob. In the end I decided to hell with it. I have successfully grouped nearly all the 6 mans in-game with him, on level, and can solo some Small Fellowship quests and some reasonably tough solo’s like ‘death from below’ pretty nicely, so though it’s probably not perfect, it works for me and I have decided to just go ahead and write what I like and why. So as with my other posts, I once again I put together an ideal set up for me in terms of a weapon, and burglar tools, and a little discussion on my personal reasoning.

I have now been through this from a level 75 perspective, and I am still of the opinion that the following legacies are still best for me, so as a result, this document is largely unchanged, but still current.

As before my caveats; this suits my play style, and is based on the following qualifiers. It should be useful for all levels of Burglar using legendary weapons, but bear in mind it is written from a level 75 point of view and for PvE. I know nothing about moors burglars, so have no idea how bad good this would be for them!

I’ll rate the legacies from *** down to * for each weapon/rune, so you can look and decide what for yourselves how you rate something and make any modification you might want to make easier.

Perfect Main Hand

  • Critical Response Skill Damage***
  • Surprise Strike Critical Rating**
  • Subtle Stab Critical Multiplier**
  • Burglar skill bleed damage multiplier***
  • Well-placed Strike Cooldown***
  • Cunning attack bleed stack *
  • Ready and Able Cooldown*

For me the core three are Critical response skill damage, bleed damage multiplier, and well placed strike cooldown.  My critical response chain forms such a core part of my rotation and dps, I can’t ignore that damage boost, and my other main source of dps is bleeds. I love to play burgalr using CC and bleeds, so I indulge that. Its not nesecarily the best way, but you have to play how you enjoy! I’ll explain in a little play style article at some point in the future how I play my burglar, but suffice to say a lot of burglars are not big fans of the bleeds the way  I use them, However, that aside, 99% of the time in solo and group play, I run in Mischief stance and my core method of attack is by stuns, debuffs and bleeds. With a ranked up legacy, and traits, I can get well placed strike to a over 200 damage bleed every 5 seconds for 30 seconds, with a >1 minute cooldown. This is uber for large health mob soloing, and for dealing with multiple adds (again I’ll explain more eventually in a play style article), The bleed damage multiplier, naturally just adds to my play style, so is a no brainer. With some timely CC, stackign of bleeds, debuffing and kiting, huge health mobs can easily be detroyed solo.

Surprise Strike crit, and subtle stab crit are good secondary options as they allow a little more damage from two of my main non-bleed dps hits, which is all great stuff. and the last two are a little optional, though I can find a use for both. Ready and able resets a lot of you skills like ‘touch and go’, ‘mischievous glee’ etc, so is very useful for carrying off some ridiculous solo attempts, anything to let me pop this more often can’t be bad, though is not essential. Provoke threat is my final choice. Provoke makes a mob angrier at its current target, whoever that is, so is nice for keeping aggro on the tank or your protector in skirmishes, as I find it is pretty easy to grab aggro with burglars single target dps, so this is like an additional ‘threat up on the other guy’ attack!

 Perfect Tools

  • Positional Damage **
  • Skills Critical Multiplier ***
  • Addle Cooldown ***
  • Increased Healing from Mischievous Glee **
  • Confound Countdown Duration *
  • Addle Induction Multiplier ***
  • Pulse Modifier for Glee *

I struggled rating these, as I want them all, but never seem to get them! Positional Damage and Skills Critical have swapped places several times in my indecision seriously it’s not funny, so I have decided to stop worrying and leave them ‘musical chairs’ style as they were on the last edit.

So my final main 3 are Skills Critical multiplier, and Addle cooldown, and Addle induction. Skills crit multiplier is obvious really to help crit bigger. Both Addle legacies I love as I am a little obsessed with interrupts, I don’t like mobs planning heals and attacks against me, so the cooldown puts it at 5 seconds same as my champs clobber, with only resist rates making it slightly less unreliable than a clobber. On top of that the induction multiplier means the debuff addle adds to the mob slows down their induction even more, so you have even longer to hit that crucial interrupt! So together they are really nice, slows down their attacks, allows you to debuff 3 mobs in the time it took you to debuff one, and on top of it all, if you need to interrupt more often you can!

In my secondary set I have, Positional Damage, its nice and a really great legacy for dps in groups. I honestly don’t notice a huge difference as I tend to often be fighting mobs from the front solo, and only fight from behind when I stun one to add the well placed strike bleed. In the same breath I have increased healing for mischievous glee, though I also have swapped it and pulse modifier around a fair bit. These two together are awesome, but I forced myself to downgrade one… I’m not sure I downgraded the right one, but this is how I tend to choose if I have to. So finally, having established I actually love the pulse modifier too, I have confound countdown. Currently when in mischief if you pop confound in a group of mobs, then a debuff is applied to the nearest 2 mobs where by after 10 seconds they are stunned for 5 seconds. However, if you slot the ‘confound the fools’ trait, and level this legacy to max it becomes an immediate 5 second stun, followed by a 30 second daze on 4 targets… add to that your riddle and you can mez 5 guys for 30 seconds, which as a burglar is enough to kill 1, and be a good chunk of the way into a second, before you re-stun 1, and debuff the remaining 2, pop touch and go, and finish your second victim off, leaving you 2 targets which you can easy handle, and 1 guy perma-mezzed. Another one that makes ‘death from below’ a LOT easier! I think this is a solo trait, for those OMG I have no aoes and 4-6 mobs on me. It’s defiantely not a deal breaker, but I have had good fun with it so am always pleased to see it on a set of tools.

So a quick run through what has been left out!

Main Hand Pool A

  • Small Snag Cooldown: I don’t use it much, but if you are a gambler/quiet knife sort, or a moors player I’m sure you’ll find a use. It basically means a small snag, which is a single target root, positioned at the end of your crit response chain, can be used more often.
  • Feint Attack Cooldown: basically make your next surprise strike behave act as if it was from stealth. again you cant be in mischief, and honestly I usually use flashing blades, lucky strike or the *** for a possible FS in groups.
  • Position Surprise Strike from Stealth: I don’t use stealth much, so wouldn’t make the most of it.

Main Hand Pool B

  • Riddle Range: I can mezz em fine where they are thanks, I’m not sure but this is probably for the moors players out there
  • Tricks Range: another which was probably for the moors folks, as I have no problem with any of them.
  • Location is Everything Cooldown: LiE basically adds more damage to you stealth attacks, it’s a fine skill, but as already mentioned I run in mischief so, it’s not s huge deal of use.
  • Lucky Strike Cooldown: this is a random sized bleed, I’m be tempted by this, and one of my * rated legacies could easy be replaced by this and I’d be a happy bunny!
  • Quiet Knife Devastating Critical Buff Duration: once again I don’t tend to trait this way too much so, no a huge biggie really.

Burglar Tools Pool A

  • Gamble Chance: I don’t understand the gamble trait line properly, I tried it and had no idea how it works! If any one knows a good article on this please link it as I’d be keen to learn!
  • Off-hand Critical Chance: the main benefit I can see it it keeps your crit chain open, but mine is open nearly the whole time anyway, so I don;t tend to bother, perhaps if you slot ambidextrous you can build in more off-hand dps in total, but I haven’t really tested this much.
  • Gambler Devastating Critical Buff Duration: Probably should see gamble chance comment above!
  • Mischief Maker Devastating Critical Buff Duration: this seems to be on my mobs a lot, so I don’t really feel like I need any more from it in preference to the other legacies on offer!
  • Tricks Duration: a nice idea, but I find they are fine as they are, the refreshing is not a chore as so often I am actively removing them for a stun/attack/morale return.

Burglar Tools Pool B

  • Sneak Movement Speed: No a huge thing really, maybe in the moors or you really love the sneaky burglar play style then I could see this being nice.
  • Stealth Level: same as above really, I have this on a few tools, and I always level last but it does allow you to explore some places you probably shouldn’t!
  • Hide in Plain Sight Cooldown: Everybody loves HIPS- fact, it’s a pretty nice legacy.
  • Clever Retort Damage and Healing: I use it a lot and don’t grumble too much if it turns up
  • Increased Range for Reveal Weakness: Probably another moors thing I’m not sure, as it seems fine to me where it is?

So thanks for reading, I hope it was of some use, guidance, or at least interesting, and any other good resources please let me know. Burglar is an awesome, much underrated class, and a lot of fun to play so if you haven’t already, roll one and try it out, you’ll be surprised what you can do with buttons that don’t just pew pew!

Leave a comment