Champion

So with Rise of Isengard there were some fairly major overhauls with the Champion class, and thus its traits and legacies, and I have now had time to play my champion plenty, and to go over these and adjust this post. After the revamp into pools champs had a pretty big adjustment, and as far as I am concerned it made it a little easier as we need less weapons and rune for our varied roles, thanks largely to the legacys now being skill rather than stance based. Champs legacies get a lot of stick but I should definately add, there are no bad legacies really anymore, PvE champs may hate some, but us guys are not the only ones out there. Whilst the system unfortunately is not ideal, the legacies themselves are now pretty damn good! So I’ll basically put together an ideal set up for me in terms of a weapon, a dps/solo rune and a tanking rune, and a little discussion on my personal reasoning.

Firstly I’ll explain that this suits my playstyle, and is based on the following qualifiers. It should be usefull for all levels of champ using legendary weapons, but bear in mind it is written from a level 75 point of view and for PvE, the difference between a PvE champ and a PvMP champs set up is pretty different. There are skills in PvE which are utterly useless to me, which a Moors champ would not be without (sprint/hamstring springs to mind), so if you want a PvE guide try some thing like this as a starter. This also based on my role, within my kinship group and our tactics, so bear this in mind. There are plenty of ways to make this work differently, but hopefully it’ll be a decent starter guide, or at least a basis to come up with your own build!

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

This will sting a bit...

Ideal Main Hand
Relentless Strikes Damage ***
Critical Magnitude ***
Wild Attack Damage **
Area of Effect Damage **
Sudden Defence Duration ***
Reduced Cooldown for Battle Frenzy *

For me the core four are Relentless, Crit magnitude, and AOE dammage, and Sudden Defence. Relentless is my preferred attack in rotation, with Ferocious, as it does good fast damage, and crit magnitude (with a high crit build) to assist knocking major chunks off those mobs, I know some champs would rather brutal strikes (esp 2-handers) so if thats the case adjust accordingly. Sudden defence is now really usefull when pulling to much aggro in DPS mode, and absolutely essential for tanking or tought solo stuff. This and Crit magnitude are usually the first two legacies I level after I have the DPS of a weapon ranked up.

I can tolerate no wild attack damage on this weapon, though it is very nice and wild attack is a core part of my rotation; it and Blade wall (traited Stalwart blade) are my main fervour builders and form a decent chunk of my dps, but I can live without it. The battle frenzy, I could loose, but again can be a nice way to keep that fervour up when soloing, or when you have to drop to ardour or glory to help the fervour pip generation.

Ideal DPS/Tank rune

Increased Heal for Bracing Attack *** (Major)
Ardour/Glory in-Combat Power Regen *** (Minor)
Adamant/Invincible Duration *** (Minor)

Strikes Line Power Cost ** (Minor)
Reduced Power Cost for Swift Strike ** (Major)
Blade Line Area Damage Power Cost * (Major)

Rising Ire Cooldown** (Minor)

I now only really need one decent rune, and at the moment, am finding no real incentive to move beyond my level 65 second age, unless I win so many worn symbols I have one to spare, and the relative benefits are minor.

Bracing attack here is my fave as there is nothing like a nice self heal, and this is 600+ every 30 seconds (less in Glory) which is not to be scoffed at, and the Adamant/Invincible Duration, and Ardour/Glory ICPR really help toughen up my tanking and soloing build.

Strikes line power cost, AOE power cost, and swift strike power cost. Really these just keep you going longer in fights without perpetually having to pop second wind every 2nd skill. Its still going to need to be in a rotation, but this really eases the burden a lot, especially when tanking. I have split them into a group of their own as depending on your role you may want to drop one of them for Rising/Ebbing Ire Cooldown.

Finally Rising ire cool down, for DPS roles, then dumping aggro periodically on the tank is just good practice but the Cooldown is not so improtant, but for tanking then Rising Ire can be nice for sucking aggro out of healers or a over enthusiatic DPS fellow, certainly I am happy if I get it instead of bladeline AOE or strikes line power cost. especially as the AOE trait line has some inherant threat down and power cost improvements built into it.

So here what I left out, and a few thoughts

Main Hand Major

* Feral/Savage Strikes Damage: usefull for corruption removal, nice dps/fervour ration but I think Brutal/Relentless/Ferocious are more usefull builders

* Brutal Strikes Damage: Pretty much same opinion as Feral/Savage to be honest (PvMP very usefull)

* Rend armour debuff: This is an OK skill, but basically something has to give somewhere, if you have a more AOE weapon, then perhaps this.

* Ferocious Strikes Cooldown: I am actually tempted, FS now does some great DPS, and I am getting some very favourable crits, from all strikes at 75, and starting to use more than I ever did. It *might* be something I add in long term.

Main Hand Minor

* Sprint Duration: I don’t have ADHD that bad that a few seconds extra of running fast is gonna take preference over my whole playstyle 🙂 (a totally different perspective when talking about the moors)

* Increased Rend Armour Reduction: This is not too bad either as a tanking skill, and I guess you could drop the wild attack damage for it, or battle frenzy CD if you wanted.

* Horn Damage: For the sound the attack skill, I love this skill, but for the stun, there are plenty better ways to dps a mob than this.

* Hamstring Duration: What… for PvE just no (again- the Moors is a whole different story)

* Combat-only Effect Removal Delay: This is now almost irrelevant and will probably get removed at some point in the future.

*Fear Nothing Cooldown: Its a great skill, but I can’t justify wasting a legacy on it with so much better to choose from

Champion Rune Major

* Increased Stun Duration for Champion’s Horn: Ok this is only the crafted horn which sucks a little, but it does make a pretty powerfull aoe stun (10 seconds) when the group is struggling, 10 minuite CD is pretty long, but then any shorter would probably be OP. Either way, I’d rather generally not have too many ‘oh poop’ legacies and stick to the positive stuff. If you prefer a group panic button then this is a great one to have, possibly, but In the moors I can see this being a very nice skill.

Ebbing Ire Cooldown: To many legacies and just not appealing enough

Ardour Glory Pip Generation: Expensive to level, and the Reprisal trait deals with more the Glory fervour issues

Ardour/Glory Parry and Evade Bonus: Its nice, especially for solo attempts on tough bosses, but I don’t notice not having it, which speaks volumes.

Dire Need Cooldown: Probably essential for very hardcore solo attempts, but I really only use Dire need, in… well… dire need, so its not so usefull a legacy, though a much nicer skill now.

Champion Rune Minor

* Heroics Morale Heal chance: Again a nice skill, but its still a ‘chance’ which I’m not a fan of and there are plenty better legacies out there.

* Fight On Duration: Honestly I don’t use fight-on, I probably shouldn’t comment on its usefullness. I have my way of playing and for legendaries I have Controlled Burn, Raging Blades, and Deathstorm, if I loose deathstorm I pick ferocious strikes.

* Increased Range for Hamstring: say whaa….. no (but another great Moors skill)

*Rend Bleed Pulse: Its O.K, if I was workign with two runes, it would find its way onto the DPS one, but as it is I can live without.

*Sudden/Defence parry and evade: O.K this appeared the other day, but must be a bug, and should be gone soon.