LOTRO Champion Guide: DPS and Weapons Specialization

When it comes to DPS, the Champion class is the best you can choose. But, when you are playing the role of a strictly DPS class in game, you'll find that you have to give up your skills of parry, block, or evade, which means that you'll take more hits. But, to counter this, you will gaim a higher power regeneration while you are in combat to help you stave off the attacks as much as possible. You'll also gain a better fervour regeneration than normal when you are forced to give up these attacks, as melee attacking is one of the main ways that you'll gain the fervour you need for special spells and abilities.

Since fervour is one of the main ingredients to making your Champion a great toon, you'll want to do whatever you can to up this so that you can use your DPS skills as much as possible. At level 15, Champions can use light shields, which will help you with taking damage and will also help with fervour regeneration due to the hits that you can now take. Then, at level 30, you'll complete a class quest that will allow you to gain your class trait that will allow you to use heavy shields and take on even more damage.

Now, the Champion class can also play an off-tank when needed, but they cannot do both the tanking role and a DPS role at the same time. To help with the tanking role, you will need to get your Dire Need ability, which will allow you to trade in one half of your power for hit points when you seriously need it. This is great to have in a heated battle - especially if the main tank goes down. Now, there is a long cooldown on this skill (30 minutes), so you have to know when and where to use it. You will also want to gain the Bracing Attack ability which gives you the ability to resort part of your Morale for three fervour points, which is also a great thing to have in battle.

Champions can dual wield from the very beginning, but for those who want to use two-handed weapons, you'll have to train on this as you level. Now, there are both good and bad to both of these - either dual wielding or two-handed, you just need to know where you gaming strengths lie and where they fall short so you will know which weapon type is best for your playing style. But, in general, you'll find that dual wielding will do more damage for you and you cna attack faster overall. This is great also if you want to use a shield, as you already have a fast one-handed weapon that you are proficient with, instead of turning over a one-handed that you don't use normally and expect to be good in a fight.

When it comes to dual wielding, daggers aren't always the best way to go. You will want to choose swords or other melee weapons that do more damage and here is why: daggers might have a better DPS ability - but they don't do near as much damage as swords or other melee weps can do. For this reason, don't trade your power away for a small buff or think that you can make up for the damage you are losing - you just can't.