Guardian Guide for Update 22.

3
Written for U22.3.

Author:​ Eric Albrecht (ZonfluxGaming) ​Twitch​ | ​YouTube​ | ​Discord​ | ​Twitter

Co-Authors: ​Zipfile​, ​Fermongu
Credits:​ ​Oelle​, Cerista
* If I miss adding someone to the recognition above just let me know.

Welcome to the definitive guide for the Guardian class in the Lord of the Rings Online™. The intent of this
guide is to share my love and passion for this class by trying to show the community how to maximize the
potential of their Guardian with the gear, traits and virtues available to them.

Hopefully this guide will eventually serve as a foundation for community written and maintained class guides
which will allow for these guides to be updated more frequently with each game Update.

With my guides I tend to write them based on my own play style, so it is likely that you may not agree with
everything written. On the other hand I welcome and encourage you to embrace your own play style.

Just to clarify, my aim with this guide is to not include any stats or gear that are not achievable for people that
have not completed the tier 2 raid. I want this guide to be targeted at the playerbase that are either trying to get
tier 2 ready so that they can get an invite to a raid without being automatically rejected and where they will not
easily die either, as well as for players that are looking for solo survivability or to contribute to a fellowship in a
damage dealer role. Morale listed in tanking sections is listed in what I believe should be a target bare
minimum, leaving a + at the end of the to-value indicating that more Morale is always desired.
Table of Contents
Virtues 4

Target Stats 5
Damage Dealer 5
DPS – PvE 5
DPS – PvMP 5
Tanking 6
Tank – Tier 1 6
Tank – Tier 2 6
Tank – Raid Tier 2 6

Trait Trees 7
Builds 7
Red Solo DPS 7
Red Bursts DPS 8
Red Sword ‘n Board 9
Blue Tank 10
Yellow Tank 11
Analysis of Trait Tree Skills 12
Blue 12
Red 14
Yellow 16

Legendary Items 20
Damage Dealer 20
Belt 20
2H Weapon 20
Tanking 21
Belt 21
1H Weapon 21
Legacy Analysis 22
Belt 22
Weapon 23

Skills 25
Skill Rotations 25
Red 25
AoE 25
Single or Few Targets 26
Blue 27
AoE 27
Single Target 27
Analysis of Skills 28
Battle Strategy 29
Strafing vs Forward vs Backwards 29
Speed 29
Avoidances 29
Kiting by Running Forwards in a Circle 29
Kiting by Strafing in a Circle 30
Kiting by Walking Backwards 30
Skill Range 31
Solo DPS 31
Fellowship DPS 31
Tanking 31

Gear and Jewellery 32

Essences 33

For the SSG LoTRO Devs 34

Virtues
A list of all virtues that I use and why they are important.
*Virtues listed at rank 20.

Discipline ⭐

368 Might 3488 Resistance 1096 Physical Mitigation

Fortitude ⭐

244 Might 2096 Resistance 2191 non-Combat Morale Regen

Innocence

1096 Tactical Mitigation 3488 Resistance 3281 Physical Mitigation

Zeal

1164 Morale 1968 Physical Mitigation 607 Armour

Valour

1164 Morale 123 Might 1642 non-Combat Morale Regen

Loyalty

320 Vitality 250 Power 607 Armour

Tolerance ⭐

3281 Tactical Mitigation 244 Agility 229 in-Combat Morale Regen

Fidelity ⭐

3281 Tactical Mitigation 244 Vitality 124 Power

Confidence

6983 Resistance 244 Will 167 in-Combat Power Regen

Honour ⭐

6983 Resistance 1968 Tactical Mitigation 123 Vitality

Charity

6983 Resistance 1968 Physical Mitigation 820 non-Combat Power Regen

Virtues marked with a ⭐are ones that I slot with the other virtues being more situational. For instance if I
needed really high Resistance I could swap in Confidence and Charity.
Target Stats

Damage Dealer
First cap physical mastery, then get some tactical mitigation (4-5 essences usually bring you high enough so
that when you get other classes buffs you get pushed to 77k), then finesse.

DPS – PvE
Morale:​ ​75,000​ to ​95,000
The aim here while solo is to gain all of your Morale from Vitality off of your gear and jewellery pieces,
but not to invest essences into Vitality.
Critical Rating:​ ​20%
Finesse:​ ​80,000​ to ​90,000
Critical Defence:​ ​50%
Incoming Healing:​ ​5%​ (​10% if Race of Man​)
Physical Mitigation:​ ​60%​ Tier 1 (​70,080​) || Tier 2 (​77,840​)
Tactical Mitigation:​ ​60%​ Tier 1 (​70,080)​ || Tier 2 (​77,840​)
For Tactical Mitigation you can actually have swappable gear pieces so that you can switch between
Tactical Mitigation and Physical Mastery essences as needed based on the landscape or tier 1 content
you are fighting. Capping either in T2 content shouldn’t be needed, as there aren’t that many sources of
unavoidable or instakill damage. And 99% of the time, it’s tactical. Physical mitigation can come
second.

DPS – PvMP
Morale:​ ​85,000​ to ​95,000
Critical Rating:​ ​20%
Finesse:​ ​90,000​ to ​100,000
Critical Defence:​ ​50%​ ← ​Better to focus on mitigations first.
Incoming Healing:​ ​5%​ (​10% if Race of Man​)
Physical Mitigation:​ ​90,000​ to ​95,000
Tactical Mitigation:​ ​70,000
Tanking
The minimum Morale listed is just that, the absolute minimum that I would comfortably attempt to run such
content with. Obviously more Morale when tanking is always desirable.

Guardian can overcap it’s mitigations using raw armour, heavy shield and Guardians Ward: Tactics. Essences
for mitigation should not be necessary.

No such thing as too much morale in current content. If you want, you can get incoming healing, but raw
morale is still the way to go.

Any finesse gained should be strictly from gear pieces, no essences are needed to reach good numbers.

Shield-spikes can be used to add an extra 12% critical hit chance to your shield skills.

Some instances or battles may not even cause any tactical damage which will allow you to situationally use
swap gear for more Vitality.

Tank – Tier 1
Morale:​ ​85,000​ to ​100,000+
Finesse:​ ​45,000​ to ​55,000
Resistance:​ ​20%​ to ​25%
Critical Defence:​ ​50%
Incoming Healing:​ ​5%​ (​10% if Race of Man​)
Physical Mitigation:​ ​60%​ (​70,080)​
Tactical Mitigation:​ ​60%​ (​70,080​) ← ​56,464 if relying on Guardian’s Ward: Tactics

Tank – Tier 2
Morale:​ ​100,000​ to ​140,000+
Finesse:​ ​45,000​ to ​55,000
Resistance:​ ​25%​ to ​35%
Critical Defence:​ ​50%
Incoming Healing:​ ​5%​ (​10% if Race of Man​)
Physical Mitigation:​ ​77,840
Tactical Mitigation:​ ​77,840​ ← ​64,224 if relying on Guardian’s Ward: Tactics

Tank – Raid Tier 2

Morale:​ ​140,000​ to ​160,000+
Finesse:​ ​45,000​ to ​55,000
Resistance:​ ​25%​ to ​35%
Critical Defence:​ ​50%
Incoming Healing:​ ​5%​ (​10% if Race of Man​)
Physical Mitigation:​ ​77,840
Tactical Mitigation:​ ​77,840​ ← ​64,224 if relying on Guardian’s Ward: Tactics
Trait Trees

Builds

Red Solo DPS

Red Yellow

Skilled Deflection 5 Insult to Injury 1

Heavy Weapons Training 5 High-spirited 5

Broad Strokes 2 War-chant 1

Thrust 1 Numbed Senses 3

Brutal Assault 1 Tenderize 4

Tireless Blows 4 Thrill of Danger 1

Invigorating Parry 2 Demoralizing Anthem 5

Deeper Wounds 5 Bring on the Pain 5

To the King 1

Haemorrhage 5

Warrior’s Fortitude 1

Blind Rage 5

Hammer Down 1

Honourable Combat 1

* ​Link to screenshot image of build​.

This build is designed to maximize a balance between damage output and survivability.

Bleeds, War Chant and Hammer Down are your main enhancements from this build for dealing damage.

Skilled Deflection, Honourable Combat and Bring on the Pain are your main enhancements for survivability.

Insult to Injury is currently bugged as it prevents the bleeding from proc’ing crits and devs.

Unless you really need to remove corruption, avoid Sting with this build because you will lose Tenderize crit
buff (approx. +2%). With good gear + Tenderize + Warrior’s heart, your crit chance can reach 25% without
external buffs.
Red Bursts DPS

Red Yellow

Skilled Deflection 2 Insult to Injury 1

Heavy Weapons Training 5 High-spirited 5

Broad Strokes 2 War-chant 1

Thrust 1 Numbed Senses 3

Brutal Assault 1 Tenderize 5

Tireless Blows 4 Thrill of Danger 1

Invigorating Parry 2 Demoralizing Anthem 5

Deeper Wounds 5 Strong Bursts 6

To the King 1

Haemorrhage 5

Warrior’s Fortitude 1

Blind Rage 5

Hammer Down 1

* ​Link to screenshot image of build​.

This build is designed to maximize damage output.

Bleeds, War Chant, Hammer Down and increased AoE damage are your main enhancements from this build
for dealing damage.

If you’re aiming for raw damage output, especially if you have someone to tank for you, you can remove points
from Skilled Deflection and put them into Tireless Blows, then using Protection by the Sword to copy the parry
responses from your tank.

Unless you really need to remove corruption, avoid Sting with this build because you will lose Tenderize crit
buff (approx. +2%). With good gear + Tenderize + Warrior’s heart, your crit chance can reach 25% without
external buffs.
Red Sword ‘n Board

Blue Red Yellow

Defensive Expertise 5 Skilled Deflection 5 Insult to Injury 1

Guardian’s Pledge 1 Heavy Weapons Training 5 High-spirited 5

Broad Strokes 2 War-chant 1

Thrust 1 Numbed Senses 3

Brutal Assault 1 Tenderize 4

Invigorating Parry 2 Thrill of Danger 1

To the King 1 Demoralizing Anthem 4

Redirect 1

Bring on the Pain 5

Vicious Rebuttal 5

* ​Link to screenshot image of build​.

This build is designed to maximize survivability.

Defensive Expertise, Skilled Deflection, Bring on the Pain and Redirect are your main enhancements for
survivability.

What you lose in damage from dropping bleed traits you should hopefully gain back by being able to survive
longer.
Blue Tank

Blue Yellow

Defensive Expertise 5 Radiate 1

Relentless Assault 3 High-spirited 5

Guardian’s Pledge 1 War-chant 1

Guardian’s Ward: 5 Numbed Senses 3

Tactics

Shield-smash 1 Bolster 4

Reversal 5 Thrill of Danger 1

Bellow 5 Demoralizing Anthem 4

Follow Through 3 Redirect

Smashing Stab 1 Bring on the Pain 4

Warrior’s Fortitude 1 Vicious Rebuttal 4

Juggernaut 1

* ​Link to screenshot image of build​.

The staple of Guardian tanking mixing the best of Blue and Yellow traits for tanking.

Guardian’s Ward: Tactics can be be used to cap mitigations without using essences.

Redirect will allow you to absorb/reflect incoming damage every 20* seconds for a duration of 10 seconds.
* Warchant reduces the cooldown of Redirect by 5s for each use. Therefore if War Chant is used twice then
the 30s cooldown of Redirect becomes 20 seconds.

A dummy swap tree can be used to gain the benefit of Improved Shield-spikes. If you cannot afford a swap
tree then I would just ignore it.

Situationally you can drop skills such as Reversal and Warrior’s Fortitude in favour of Stoic.
* ​Link to screenshot image of build​.
Yellow Tank

Blue Red Yellow

Defensive Expertise 5 Skilled Deflection 3 Insult to Injury 2

Guardian’s Pledge 1 Radiate 3

Guardian’s Ward: 5 High-spirited 5

Tactics

Shield-smash 1 War-chant 1

Reversal 5 Numbed Senses 3

Bellow 5 Thrill of Danger 1

Follow Through 3 Demoralizing Anthem 5

Redirect 1

Bring on the Pain 5

Vicious Rebuttal 5

Warrior’s Fortitude 1

Cataclysmic Shout 1

* ​Link to screenshot image of build​.

I consider this build to be more of a situational tank useful for debuffing, slowing or kiting mobs or bosses.

Since you lose out on block heals, Juggernaut and Bulwark Fortifications it is imperative to have healing or to
focus on kiting the enemy.

Shield-smash, Smashing Stab and Cataclysmic Shout are sources of crowd control stuns in this build.

Unfortunately Yellow tanking is too buggy and impractical to use thus making Blue better in the large majority
of tanking situations.
Analysis of Trait Tree Skills

In this section I will be giving a breakdown analysis of each and every single trait tree skill along with its
usefulness.

Blue

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Guardian’s Defence Very powerful buffs. The armor buff alone will make your
physical mitigation naturally surpass t2 cap without any
+10% Armour essence. Crit defence will also be the highest of all
+10% Critical Defence classes without any essences.
+2.5% Partial Block Mitigation
+2.5% Partial Block Chance
-25% Shield Wear when Blocking

⭐⭐ Adaptability Buffs won’t be up enough to be useful, as you will be

constantly rotating through response skills.
Whenever you are hit by an
attack, your block and parry
ratings will increase.

This effect can stack up to 3

times and will last for 10s or until
a response skill is used.

⭐⭐ Shield Wall Risky and situational skill. Still good to have it. Abyss
raid set makes it very good (less risky).
Protects an ally by intercepting all
incoming damage.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Challenge the Darkness A nice boost to challenge.

Your Challenge skill will affect

additional targets and cast
Guardian’s Ward when used.

+3 Challenge Targets

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Strengthen the Bulwark Mitigation buff for guards can go up to +10%. This is one
of main reasons that makes guard so hard.
Your fortification buff will provide
additional damage mitigation per
stack.

Your critical hits with shield skills

will also automatically apply a
stack of fortification.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Bolstering Blocks Self heal is 0.5-1% of max morale per block (partials
too). Tiny but this trait grow stronger with high %block
Blocking attacks will restore a and number of enemies in trash pulls.
small amount of morale.
⭐⭐⭐⭐½ Shield the People You will tier up mitigation buff quicker. At max rank you
will provide a +2% mitigations buff for all your fellowship
Your shield skills are twice as (physical and tactical).
likely to provide you with a
Fortification buff. At five stacks,
you will provide a fellowship-wide
mitigation buff.

⭐⭐ Relentless Assault Not bad. You can put points here if there is no other
traits you want.
The Sting skill has a chance to
provide a block and parry
response.

⭐⭐ Tireless Defender Not as useful as it once was. Currently power

consumption in fellowships and raids is minimal. Serves
Your Guardian’s Ward skill will as more of a filler skill to get down the trait tree.
reduce skill power cost while
active.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Defensive Expertise Only increases block by +5%. Nothing to do with ratings
or partials. Still a must have for tanking.
Increases your Block and Partial
Block Rating.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Guardian’s Pledge Hit this and pull all the trash. Fun times.

⭐⭐⭐ Guardian’s Ward: Tactics A good trait, but at level cap you can do without it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Shield-Smash One of the best Guardian skills. Biggest damage dealer
and threat generator for blue line. Serves as both a stun
as well as an interrupt.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reversal With this trait you can shake-off more of that nasty stuns.
Couple with legacy for max. efficiency.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Bellow Long range for Fray and Challenge. A must have.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Follow Through What’s better than Shield Smash? An AoE Shield
Smash! Show all that trash who is boss ;)

⭐⭐⭐ Smashing Stab This is an underrated skill. Only 1 point and you can stun
even some minor bosses.

More than a stun, you can use it for a knockout /

fellowship manoeuver.

⭐⭐ Improved Shield Spikes Shield spikes are great to use but use a swap trait tree
so that you don’t waste invaluable points in your build.

⭐ Disorientation DPS classes should already have enough finesse, so

this is not needed.
 ⭐⭐⭐ Warrior’s Fortitude % block and + % mitigation. And only 1 point. Win-win.

⭐⭐⭐ Stoic Bubble strength is 20% of max morale for 15s. Not bad,
but trait points may be used elsewhere for better effect.
With maxed legacy, the bubble is rather potent (over 60k
Morale). While pointless in a small group, this is a good
trait for T2C raid in my opinion. Strongly disagree,
Redirect and Vicious Rebuttal provide a lot more
survivability than this.--you should be able to cap both…

(((Zonflux --- I’ll go through everyone’s suggestions on

this trait and reword accordingly)))

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Juggernaut God mode for 15s. A worthy capstone!

⭐ Break Ranks This trait hurts my eyes. Why would you, as a tank, want
to drop mitigation for a damage increase? Nonsense.
Worst trait in the entire class.

Red

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Valorous Strength Increases base melee damage while giving a boost to
critical hits. Great passive unfortunately we have no skills
+10% Melee Damage or passives that boost critical hit chance.
+10% Critical Damage Multiplier

⭐ Reactive Parry This passive implies that you take damage to deal a small
amount of damage, and it is indeed a small amount of
Parrying attacks will cause a damage. Also, there are times where you may not want to
small amount of damage to your deal any damage. This passive gets two hands down
enemies.
from me.

⭐⭐ Protection by the Sword Essentially let’s you gain parry responses when you’re not
the one tanking. Pretty good just for that, but it’s downside
You may enhance your is that you have to stay pretty close to the tank.
fellowship members, improving
their physical mastery and parry.
2% melee damage bonus isn’t that much or noticable.
You will also be able to react to
attacks that an ally parries if you
are within 10m.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Bleed them Dry All Guardian Bleeds get an additional 2 second duration.
As your rotation is meant to cycle through all of them to
All Guardian bleeds have an keep them up 100% of the time, it’s pretty good for letting
extended duration. Slashing Wound last just enough to be refreshed.

⭐⭐⭐ Prey on the Weak Disappointing for a capstone talent. Damage isn’t that
high, relies on critical strikes for which you have no
Critical hits against an opponent bonuses in proc’ing.
 suffering from a Slashing Wound
will inflict additional damage.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Heavy Blows Increases base melee damage while giving a boost to
critical hits. Great passive unfortunately we have no skills
This trait further increases your or passives that boost critical hit chance.
melee damage and critical
damage multiplier.

+5% Melee Damage

+10% Critical Damage Multiplier

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Brutal Charge Source of crowd-control and good for buying yourself
some breathing room in the thick of battle. Damage bonus
Your Charge becomes Brutal doesn’t last long enough to be meaningful.
Charge. Increases your melee
damage for a short period of
time. Will attempt to knock down
your next target(s).

+5s Charge duration

⭐ Thrill of Battle Weak heal, 20 second cooldown. Don’t trait this.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Skilled Deflection Good Parry source, allowing you get more responses
which are some of your most damaging skills.

⭐⭐⭐½ Heavy Weapons Training Relatively small increase of 5% isn’t something to write
home about, but it’s better than nothing.

Only 3 stars if it’s additive to physical mastery as 5% is

very low. If multiplicative to skills then 4 stars.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Broad Strokes Gives you access to Slashing Bleed, moderately powerful
and lasting long enough to have a 100% uptime. +2
targets to Sweeping Cut is good too. Pretty good trait.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thrust Your weakest, but longest bleed. Shouldn’t be relied upon
in combat with tougher foes and priority should be to tier it
up with Overwhelm into your most powerful bleed,
Terrible Wound.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Brutal Assault Slow animation and relatively decent damage on the skill.
Used mostly in conjunction with it’s follow-up traits to
maximise it into the real heavy hitter.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Tireless Blows Using a parry response skill gives you a chance to reset
BA’s cooldown. Extremely good with recent revamps as it
allows you to have near permanent uptime on
Haemorrhaging wound with only 4 ranks invested.

⭐⭐⭐ Invigorating Parry Power restore on a Parry chain critical / devastate hit.
Could be good in longer fights.
 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Raw Power Increases damage of Deep and Terrible Wound and
increases their duration. Amazing trait.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ To the King Bright the justice upon the feeble enemy by cleaving his
body in two! Probably has one of the best animations in
the game and it’s a good damage dealer!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Haemorrhage Gives you access to Haemorrhaging Wound, your second

strongest, but shortest lasting bleed (​shouldn’t be an
issue with Tireless Blows​).

⭐ To the Rescue No. Not needed. Not useful.

⭐⭐ Warrior’s Heart Melee crit chance is decent I suppose, some parry

bonuses as well, but it needs buffs to make it really
worthwhile.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Blind Rage While the attack duration buff does not affect fast skills it
does however benefit slower skills such as Brutal Assault,
Overwhelm and To the King, etc..

At the very least you gain the benefit of the melee

damage buff which is very nice to have.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Hammer Down Drop down the hammer onto the unworthy filth of Sauron
and vanish them from the field of battle (​if it’s a critical​)

Critical and Devastate damage for Hammer Down

appears to hit roughly 20-30% higher than other skills that
crit.

Otherwise, honestly meh and underwhelming. Stuns is

nice in clutch fights however.

⭐ Honourable Combat Not really useful. Heals are weak and it’s consuming one
of your good bleeds for it. Guardian has plenty of
survivability already.

Yellow

Light-Touched Yellow line starts with a good trait, but not as

good as 1st Blue trait. The ability to tank with a
This trait enhances your melee damage, 2-hander may be reserved for an off-tank, not
and incoming healing a main tank. 3 stars. Actually, all of yellow set
traits are designed for a supportive off-tank..
+5% Melee damage
+5% Incoming healing modifier
You may block with a two-handed weapon
 Disabling Strikes Yellow tank revolves around the idea of a
debuffing (off-)tank, but the debuffs are rather
The potency of all non-damaging debuffs is bland. 2-3 stars. Debuffs magnitudes on mobs
increased by 50%. end up like this:

-12.5% Run speed -37.5% Run speed (​Stagger, Engage​)

-7.5% Attack speed -22.5% Attack speed (​Stagger​)
-2.5% Outgoing damage -7.5% Outgoing damage (​War-chant)​
+2.5% Miss chance +7.5% Miss chance (​Take to heart​ - marked)

⭐ Protection Some B/P/E ratings for a single target. I

suppose this is to help your main tank increase
You may protect one of your allies, his/her avoidances.
improving his defence. You will also be able
to react to attacks made against him if you
are within 10m.

Flash of Light Interesting if you want to be an offensive

off-tank, but I think this hasn’t scaled well, so
Attacks against marked targets will deal damage done at cap level is low. 2 stars. Does
Light damage to nearby targets. Light damage legacy affect this?

Mark of Permanence The idea behind it is cool, if only the debuffs

were better… 3 stars.
Non-damaging debuffs applied to a target
marked by Take to Heart become I read in forums that when you reach this trait,
permanent in duration. your yellow line specific heal will bug and no
longer function :(

Manifested Ire Weak trait. It slow enemies. The only use I can
see to it is to kite ads? (actually I should test
Enemies are snared if they fail to continue this...). 1-2 stars.
attacking the Guardian after their use of
damaging abilities.

Incapacitation (permanent) Debuffs magnitudes in your

marked target​ will be:
The potency of all non-damaging debuffs is
increased by 100% on your marked target. -50% Run speed. Only situationally useful.
-30% Attack speed. Bah.
-25% Run speed -10% Outgoing damage. Somewhat useful.
-15% Attack speed +10% Miss chance. The big bad hits usually
-5% Outgoing damage can’t miss so… (someone correct me if I’m
+5% Miss chance wrong here pls)

⭐⭐ Insult to Injury Up to 15% chance of refreshing debuffs on

target. This used to be a must-have class trait
but now it has almost become an insult to
injury to trait it due to how badly the
percentages got nerfed.

Even for yellow is of limited use, as you will be

constantly using (and reapplying) War-chant,
and Stagger debuffs are forgettable. And you
don’t need to refresh debuffs on your marked
target.
⭐⭐⭐ Radiate Your AoE attacks have a 30% chance to
spread your debuffs to nearby mobs. Only
Stagger and War-chant debuffs are
spreadable. Only giving this a rating of 3 stars
for when you are specialized in Yellow,
otherwise it is not really worth investing in.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ High-spirited +5% Incoming healing. You can trait it for

tanking and DPS too.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ War-chant Light damage, threat builder, many targets,

debuffs outgoing damage. Awesome skill in
every Guard line.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Numbed Senses Tanks often get debuffs, poisons, bleeds, fears
and diseases. With this trait that’s not really an
issue for Guardians. One of the main
differences when compared against other
tanks. 2 ranks is often enough.

⭐⭐ Bolster Bolster unfortunately does not give 100%

mitigations so the description is misleading.
Bolster trait boosts Crit Def from Bolster For tanking it can be used as a filler to get
passive and 100% mits is actually most further down the tree..
likely 100% chance to get fortification stack.
Currently it provides +20k crit def after 5
blocks, enough to get you to 70% crit def.

⭐⭐ Thrill of Danger Power restore for yellow line. Not that good by
itself, its usefulness comes from traiting Bring
on the Pain later.

⭐⭐⭐ Tenderize One of few sources for crit rating as a guard. It

might be useful for a damage focused red
build.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Demoralizing Anthem +targets and range for War chant and
cooldown reduction of block/parry response
skills. Very good.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Redirect -X % incoming damage is very good to have.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Strong Bursts Very good for increasing AoE damage, more
so if you have the yellow Abyss set, giving it an
additional +10% to the trait.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Bring on the Pain Nice self heal, but only good against relatively
weak enemies.

⭐⭐ Warrior’s Fortitude It gives ​Warrior’s Heart​ minor buffs to Incoming

healing and Evade. Is only 1 point, so go for it
if you are tanking in yellow.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Vicious Rebuttal Increases Redirect up to -35% incoming

damage. Marvelous!
⭐ Singular Focus It’s pretty bad. Reduces armour by about 7-8k,
very long cooldown, cannot be refreshed or
spread by Radiate/Insult to Injury. These days,
7-8k armour is nothing, considering
Champions Rend (which is also AOE and a
100% up time) and mean debuffs from LMs
and RKs.

⭐⭐ Cataclysmic Shout AoE knockdown. Light-based damage.

Awesome skill but brutal cooldown on it. In
comparison Brutal Charge in Red
specialization has a 1m cooldown and with
War-chant can hit 8 targets compared to 7.
Legendary Items

Damage Dealer

Belt 2H Weapon

Legacies Legacies
● Catch a Breath Cooldown ● Area Effect Skill Damage
/w Catch a Breath Morale Heal ● Sweeping Cut Damage
● Light Damage ● Whirling Retaliation Damage
● Reactive Parry Damage ● Vexing Blow Damage
● Sting Damage ● Bleed Critical Damage
● Warrior’s Heart Max Morale/ Fortitude ● Guardian Bleed Damage
Morale Heal ● Might
● Might
● Vitality If desired you can swap Might or Vexing Blow for
Stamp Cooldown.
Relics
● {{type}} Setting of Finesse Relics
○ +X Finesse Rating ● {{type}} Setting of Finesse
○ +X Evade Rating ○ +X Finesse Rating
● {{type}} Gem of Might ○ +X Evade Rating
○ +X Vitality ● {{type}} Gem of Might
○ +X Critical Defence ○ +X Vitality
● {{type}} Rune of Force ○ +X Critical Defence
○ +X Physical Mastery Rating ● {{type}} Rune of Striking
○ +X Critical Rating ○ +X Critical Rating
● Westemnet Device of Battle ○ +X Base Combat Damage Modifier
● Westemnet Device of Battle
Tanking

Belt 1H Weapon

Legacies Legacies
● Catch a Breath Cooldown ● Turn the Tables Cooldown
/w Catch a Breath Morale Heal ● Guardian’s Pledge Cooldown
● Shield Damage ● Area Effect Skill Damage
● Shield Smash Damage ● Warrior’s Heart Max Morale
● Guardian’s Ward Block Rating ● Whirling Retaliation Damage
● Guardian’s Ward Parry Rating ● Might
● Warrior’s Heart / Fortitude Morale Heal ● Vitality
● Vitality
If desired you can swap Might or Whirling
If desired can swap Block/Parry Rating or Vitality Retaliation Damage for Stamp Cooldown.
for Taunt Duration.
Relics
Relics ● {{type}} Setting of Finesse
● {{type}} Setting of Finesse ○ +X Finesse Rating
○ +X Finesse Rating ○ +X Evade Rating
○ +X Evade Rating ● {{type}} Gem of Vitality
● {{type}} Gem of Vitality ○ +X Vitality
○ +X Vitality ○ +X Critical Defence
○ +X Critical Defence ● Westemnet Rune of Courage
● Westemnet Rune of Courage ● Westemnet Device of Protection
● Westemnet Device of Protection
If desired can use a Westemnet Rune of Courage
If desired can use a Westemnet Rune of Courage for increased Parry and Evade partial mitigations.
for increased Parry and Evade partial mitigations.
Legacy Analysis

Belt
Name of Legacy Rating Comments

Catch a Breath Cooldown ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Makes Catch a Breath a potent self-heal and reduces its
Catch a Breath Morale Heal cooldown. Good legacy for tanking and DPS too. ←
especially since last update. 32% heal is strong ! Can be
put on a swap belt though.

Shield Damage ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great for scaling War-Chant and Shield-Smash.

Shield Smash Damage ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazing to have, lets you keep aggro for longer without
resorting to force taunts.

Guardian’s Ward Block Rating ⭐⭐ Pretty good source of avoidance. Difficult to make room for
this legacy with so many good options when your block
rating will be already very high even without it.

Guardian’s Ward Parry Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Another pretty good source of avoidance.

Warrior’s Heart / Fortitude Morale Heal ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Your second wind, pretty amazing!. If desired this legacy
can be placed on a swap belt.

Adaptability Block and Parry Rating ⭐⭐ Buggy and not really useful, as you’ll always be cycling
through your block chain skills.

Catch a Breath Power Healing ⭐ Power is irrelevant and never an issue for a Guardian.

Cry Resist Chance ⭐ Only works with War-Chant, your finesse rating should
cover any chance of resistance. Not needed.

Force Taunt Duration ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pretty good to use as it allows Fray the Edge to have 100%
Shield Blow Damage up-time. Amazing for ST tanking and makes a challenging
opening for a quick trash pull much easier.

Good for AoE tanking, not so much for single target. Threat
copy takes care of everything, no need for permanent force
agro.

Guardian’s Pledge Magnitude ⭐⭐ Pledge is already good, no need for this legacy. <- Though
Shield Swipe Damage you can put it on a swap belt if you use one.

Guardian’s Ward Damage ⭐ Not needed for tanking, doesn’t fit that much in a DPS
rotation either.

Increased Block, Parry and Evade from ⭐ LOL, yellow meme.

Protection

Light Damage ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pretty good for War-Chant and Flash of Light.

Reactive Parry Damage ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Contrary to it’s name, it actually increases Parry Responses
skill damage quite a lot.

Stagger Critical Rating ⭐ Why is this a legacy?

 Stagger Damage ⭐⭐⭐ Decent but not great.

Stagger Positional Damage ⭐⭐ Meh…..

Sting Damage ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pretty good quick attack, at max rank, deals more damage
than Stagger at half the cooldown.

Stoic Bubble Strength ⭐⭐⭐ Still not a huge bubble or heal but it is somewhat decent.

Vitality ⭐⭐⭐ Only if you’re satisfied with your legacies and need a filler.

Might ⭐⭐⭐ Only if you’re satisfied with your legacies and need a filler.

Agility ⭐ No.

Fate ⭐ No.

Will ⭐ No.

With regards to stat legacies they are often a last choice on a legendary item due to them not getting scaled with
character level. On a level 120 character a 200 stat legacy will have a very small impact. Unless stat legacies get
reworked these will become worse over time.

Weapon
Name of Legacy Rating Comments

Turn the Tables Cooldown ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazing, let’s you have 67% SI after being stunned when
Turn the Tables Damage paired with Reversal trait from Blue.

The trait is still bugged and doesn’t add up the immunity

time... therefore 20s duration with 30s downtime.

Guardian’s Pledge Cooldown ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Drops the cooldown by 60 seconds, pretty good in trash
Retaliation Damage pulls.

Area Effect Skill Damage ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Allows you to scale up all your AOE damage AND
Shield-Smash once you get “Follow Through” traited.

Warrior’s Heart Max Morale ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pretty good, overbloat of morale, once it expires, doesn’t
reduce your max morale. For example, if you’re at 80%
max morale with WH active, once the buff wears out, you’ll
have 100%.

Whirling Retaliation Damage ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazingly good in DPS, don’t use in tanking. Can be
“double-dipped” with AOE legacy for some good AOE DPS.

Bash Damage ⭐⭐ Not the best legacy for tanking, but is not useless like the
crit legacies.

Bleed Critical Damage ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great if you have critical rating for your bleeds as they’ll hit
quite a lot.

Some say 50% higher critical bleeds is just ~5% more

bleed damage with 20% critical hit chance and already
~+100% crit mag without it, so in the end just a low percent
more dps.
 Brutal Assault Damage ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Decent if you have Tireless Blows and a good rotation,
HAMMER AWAY!

Guardian Bleed Damage ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Best DPS legacy IMO, considering how much damage
bleeds do.

Overwhelm Critical Rating ⭐ No.

Overwhelm Damage ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Decent, though, I personally use overwhelm only to uptier
Deep Wound, and since it lasts quite a while, I consider it
not worthy of a legacy.

Shield-swipe Critical Rating ⭐ No.

Stamp Cooldown ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazing legacy in both builds as it offers a 10s cooldown,
Stamp Damage interrupt and cancels animations. Useful in good rotations.

Sting Critical Rating ⭐ No.

Sweeping Cut Critical Rating ⭐ No.

Sweeping Cut Damage ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pretty good when “double-dipping” with AOE legacy.

To the King Damage ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great legacy, makes TTK hit like a truck, especially on a
crit.

Vexing Blow Damage ⭐⭐⭐ Slow and clunky attack but decent legacy.

Vitality ⭐⭐⭐ Good as a filler.

Might ⭐⭐⭐ Good as a filler.

Agility ⭐ No.

Fate ⭐ No.

Will ⭐ No.

With regards to stat legacies they are often a last choice on a legendary item due to them not getting scaled with
character level. On a level 120 character a 200 stat legacy will have a very small impact. Unless stat legacies get
reworked these will become worse over time.
Skills

Skill Rotations
In this section I will be covering optimized skill rotations and providing explanations as to why I use them.

Red

AoE
This is a 4-part rotation chain sequence. When you begin the first sequence of the rotation
select the highest morale enemy in the mob as it will be the focus of your single-target bleeds.

The purpose of Stamp in the following rotations is to cut long animations which will allow you to
use your next skill while sneaking in a quick auto attack in-between. I usually use after To the
King because its animation is so long; some people prefer to use after Sweeping Cut,
War-chant or Brutal Assault.

> > > > > > >

This first rotation set goes through all of your AoE skills while applying a small Deep Wound
bleed from Thrust and a buff to melee damage and attack duration via To the King at the end of
the rotation.

> > > > > >

Once again cycle through all of your AoE’s, upgrade Deep Wound bleed to Terrible Wound by
using Overwhelm. Then attack a target below 50% morale with Hammer Down to stun &
interrupt or potentially kill it.

> > > > > > >

Same pattern, cycle through AoE’s, apply a new Deep Wound and refresh To the King buff.

> > > > > > >

End the last rotation using Brutal Assault to apply a large Haemorrhaging bleed followed by
some quick filler skills of Sting and Stagger.

Finally rinse ‘n repeat with the same AoE rotations while trying to re-apply bleeds as filler skills
while you wait for cooldowns.
Single or Few Targets
There are two ways that you can start off for single-target damage. The first involves starting
with Brutal Assault while the second starts with Force Opening.

The purpose of Stamp in the following rotations is to cut long animations which will allow you to
use your next skill while sneaking in a quick auto attack in-between. I usually use after To the
King but you could use after Sweeping Cut or Brutal Assault if you prefer.

Use and as needed while waiting on cooldowns.

Tireless Blows can help to reset the cooldown of Brutal Assault.

Variant One starting with Brutal Assault

The idea by starting with Brutal Assault is to 1) immediately apply one of your largest bleeds,
and 2) you are betting on gaining a parry response to begin your parry chain by the time you
use Sweeping Cut.

Also, by following up with your parry chain gives Brutal Assault an opportunity to reset its
cooldown via Tireless Blows.

I find this rotation to be very effective in PvMP since Creeps can pot bleeds and this helps to
ensure that Haemorrhaging bleed has a near 100% uptime and if you can also manage to
upgrade to Terrible Wound then the battle is essentially GG.

> > > > > >

> > >

> > > > > >

Variant Two starting with Force Opening

In this rotation you open up with your parry chain right away. Parry response skills are very
quick to use for a lot of burst damage and helps set you up to upgrade to Terrible Wound. The
one drawback is that your bleed from Brutal Assault gets held off a bit.

This is the rotation that I typically use in PvE as the burst damage from the quick parry response
skills will often kill most enemies before I even get to Brutal Assault.

> > > > > >

> > > > > > >

> > > > >

Blue

Use , , , as necessary for survival.

AoE

> > > >

Single Target

> > > >

If you use immediately after a and or then not only will you get a fellowship
maneuver but you will also increase the duration for which the target is stunned. Sneaking in a
retaliation or whirling retaliation takes practice to get it right but the payoff is worth it.

and can be used to acquire or strengthen aggro on targets.

Analysis of Skills
In this section I will be giving a breakdown analysis of each and every single trait tree skill along with its
usefulness.

WORK IN PROGRESS
Battle Strategy

Strafing vs Forward vs Backwards

Speed
Forwards ​6.64s​ || Strafing ​8.53s​ || Backwards ​13.04s

Using running forwards as a baseline we can determine that strafing is 28% slower and walking
backwards is nearly twice as slow at 96% slower.

Avoidances
I chose to run the following tests in tank gear otherwise I would kill the mobs too quickly.

Kiting by Running Forwards in a Circle

Sometimes you have no choice but to kite an enemy at max speed, relying on War-chant as
your primary source of threat build-up. In this circumstance you will only be able to Evade
enemy attacks.

If however you are attempting to kite the enemy in a tighter circle while running forwards and
trying to get off other attacks as well then it is very likely that a large portion of the attacks from
the enemy mob will only have to go through your Evasion. You’ll still receive some Parry and
Block responses but you will end up taking more damage kiting this way.

Video kiting forwards​.

In this video I am kiting a mob running forwards while attempting to land Ward, Redirect and
various Shield skills.

While I am running away I take minimal damage due to the fast run speed of only running
forwards but as soon as I rotate my character to land attacks I open myself up to be hit. Not only
do I momentarily become a stationary target but during the process of rotating back to run away
I will be unable to Block or Parry and until distance is created between myself and the mob I will
take more damage since I can only Evade.

If all that you are doing is kiting the mob and spamming War-chant then this is viable but
otherwise you run the risk of taking unnecessary damage. At the very least you if you insist on
kiting by running forwards and you need to use various melee skills then after turning around do
a combination of strafing or walking backwards to minimize some of the damage you may take.

Usually if I am going to kite by running forwards I tend to only use War-chant and Fray the Edge
to maximize the distance between myself and the enemy mob.
Kiting by Strafing in a Circle

We have already shown that strafing is 28% slowing than running forward but we also
determined that the practicality of kiting a mob by running forwards limits your skill usage to
War-chant and Fray the Edge else you run the risk of taking unnecessary damage.

The benefit of kiting a mob by strafing is that your front torso is always facing the enemy as
shown in the following video.

Video kiting by strafing​.

This allows you to benefit from all of your avoidances; Block, Parry and Evade. Since you’re
moving 28% slower you may get hit more though now you have a chance to BPE all of these
attacks. Also, if you have a large enough area to circle strafe in then it is actually possible to
land many of your melee skills while staying out of the range of the enemy’s melee attacks.
Think of the boxer Muhammad Ali, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

One disadvantage is that occasionally while kiting you may obstruct the view of your camera by
a wall, pillar or some other tall object.

An advantage for the DPS in your party is that the mob stays closely clumped together. Another
advantage is that if you do need to run away then the transition from strafing to running forward
is immediate.

Kiting by Walking Backwards

Kiting backwards is extremely useful in avoiding damage that you would otherwise take by
standing still.

Video kiting backwards​.

In this video I took less damage kiting backwards than strafing. Though I think if I were to
compare strafe kiting in a larger area then the results would be different as I was strafe kiting in
a confined tight circle so I was take a steady flow of hits, whereas kiting backwards I chose a
completely different space to kite in giving me more room.

Kiting backwards versus circle strafing are a bit situational and you’ll likely find yourself using
either method in different fights.

One major disadvantage to kiting backwards is that you cannot see what you are backing into.
Could be a wall, a cliff or right into another mob that you and your fellowship are probably not
ready to engage in fighting with yet.
Skill Range
In order to effectively circle strafe you need to know the maximum ranges of all your melee skills. Get
within 2-4m and you are likely to get hit by enemy attacks but maintain a minimum distance between
4-6m and the enemies will keep trying to get closer to you. This works even when there is a large
amount of server lag.

Solo DPS

Fellowship DPS

Tanking
Gear and Jewellery
WORK IN PROGRESS
Essences
WORK IN PROGRESS
For the SSG LoTRO Devs
WORK IN PROGRESS