LOTRO Champion Guide:
Virtue Traits

For the LOTRO Champion there are a few virtues that you really want. I think the Virtue Traits were meant to allow players customization, but I would say that most champs use the exact same build. Champs can be used for a variety of purposes, but generally you will want to focus on the traits that will enhance your DPS and morale. These would be traits with might, agility, vitality, and morale.

Here are the traits I would make sure you have at rank 10, and the bonuses they give:

     • Loyalty
          +30 Vitality
          +62 Maximum Power
          +150 Armour Value

     • Discipline
          +30 Might
          +1014 Disease Resist
          +400 Melee Defense

     • Determination
          +30 Agility
          +45 ICMR (in-combat morale regen)
          +58 Maximum Morale

     • Valour
          +286 Morale
          +406.1 NCMR (non-combat morale regen)
          +8 Might

     • Justice
          +60 ICMR
          +143 Maximum Morale
          +270.8 NCMR

     • Innocence
          +1000 Melee Defense
          +1014 Poison Resist
          +230 Shadow Defense

     • Tolerance
          +1000 Tactical Defense
          +15 Agility
          +30 ICMR

Obviously these can be interchanged based on the situation or according to your preference. For instance, if you are grouping with a captain that uses IDoME (in defense of middle earth) you get a +50 to all your stats. Let's say you're level 65 and have 600 or more might. You may want to switch out Discipline for a different trait. The max on stats is 650, so it would be a wasted trait slot.

Here I will give general recommendations on which traits to equip based on what role you're filling.

Soloing, Single Target DPS, or AOE Build
For this situation you're going to want to have the most might, agility, and morale that you can get. You won't be too worries about damage mitigation since you'll probably have a tank in your group taking all of the damage. Or if soloing, you just need to kill mobs as quickly as possible. Therefore I would use:
     • Loyalty
     • Discipline
     • Determination
     • Valour
     • Justice

This is the best build for max damage and morale. You may want to play around with switching out Tolerance with Valour or Justice. This gives you a boost to your agility which will increase your critical hit change and reduce your miss change. It's pretty minimal though and won't make much difference.

Tanking or Off Tanking Build
For this situation you'll want to be prepared to take as much damage as possible. For this your maximum morale and damage mitigation will be key. Might helps when you have a shield on and vitality is obviously critical. Therefore I would use:
     • Loyalty
     • Discipline
     • Valour
     • Justice
     • Innocence

This is the best build for maximum damage mitigation and morale. It really doesn't make a huge difference from the other build, but the extra +1000 to melee defense (3.7%) can add up over a long fight. If you're fighting a boss that does a lot of tactical damage you may look at using Tolerance. Determination is always a good trait as well so mix and match as you see fit.

There are obviously a lot of other traits a LOTRO champion could use, but these are the ones I find most useful. Most of the others just don't make sense for the champ class. As always though, use your judgment and play around with what works best for you.

I hope the LOTRO champion guide for traits helped you out. See you over in the other sections of the guide!

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