[Creep classes] A brief companion guide to the Warg Stalker
Wargs are stealthed hunters - they use the element of surprise to gain benefit over their victims. They are the scouts of the Ettenmoors - they locate and report the enemy's movements. They do a fair bit of damage, but they lack AoE skills, making them more suited to do single target damage at the border of a group rather than inside a group of freeps. Their signature skills are the pounce from stealth (a 6 second, non-breakable stun, often accompanied by a warband manouvre) and the maul skill, which makes your target bleed over time.
With their evade skills disappear (in-combat unbreakable stealth for 10 secs, R2 skill) and sprint (+200% run speed for 20 seconds) and a high evade (and parry at higher skills) rating, they are hard to catch - and therefore the annoyance of every freep.
Warg Skills
A description of active Warg skills can be found in the LOTRO Lorebook.
Remember a few important things for a Warg:
* never pounce a BRG, unless you have a full raid/pack which can burn him/her down quickly: they get 50% evade after the stun ends. GRDs can "turn the table" on you (revert the pounce to you, so you get stunned). Since the Vol II Bk 8 update, GRDs no longer have to face you to use this skill, so pouncing from behind is no longer safe.
* sequential Crippling Bite + Pounce gives 2 sec stun and chance on WB manouvre - always spam it when fighting CGs, keep bosses or DoF bosses - the only way to keep the Fellowship's power up
* sequential Crippling Bite + Savage Fangs give a DoT (not stackable in a group, in contrast to Maul)
* always place DoTs on your target: use Maul whenever you can
* You do 150% damage if you attack a target from behind, so get at their backs. The most ideal situation is if someone starts running off in panic: you can burn him down quicker then when he would have stood there and fought you.
* when chasing a freep: spam Claws: the only skill without a cooldown, quite powerconsuming though (100 power/hit)
* want that killing blow? Remember to DoT your taget with (bloody) maul and end with swipe or scratch and snip (R7 skill) - Swipe is non-evadable and Scratch and Snip is a double attack. Ideal for taking out BRGss and GRDs, especially when used from behind (block/parry do not count for attacks from the back).
* you see that Loremaster in his (long) induction for his mighty AoE spell? Use Eye Rake (R6 skill) to interrupt him.
Corruptions:
My recommended setup would be to go for more morale, without compromising damage too much. I usually slot:
-
* Health for Power (R1+2)
* Health for Damage (R2)
* Damage for Power (R2)
this gets you:
* 25% extra morale (slotting Health for Damage R1 will get you max extra health: +30%)
* 2,5% extra damage
* 15% less power (not an issue, unless in really long fights - be sure to buy some power pots or just open a warband manouvre)
You can combine those with Beleriand Mitigation R2 (most freeps use beleriand anyway)
and Critical Protection Boost R2.
One can get the R2 corruptions by trading Dull Spirit Stones and Glimmering Spirit Stones from the Delving of Fror (DoF) at the Core Corruptions trader Krur at Gramsfoot.
Racial traits (from R5 on)
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* Four legged foe (+5% run speed and +240 evade) - R5
* Pack Hunters (increase efficiency of damage on one selected target - +23 damage extra for every damage a group member does (so DoTs are boosted as well))- R6
* Pack Mentality (+240 parry and evade, +720 physical and tacical rating) - R7
* Pack Elder (+180 beleriand/westernesse/AD damage) - R8
* Eyes of Unnerving (performs a 10 radius, area effect, max 4 targets, dread debuff around the Warg) - R9
* Foe of the light (+180 light defence and +2 stealth) - R10
* Pack Alpha (+2% melee damage and +480 melee critical) - R11
Class traits:
The 3 most important ones are:
* Enhanced skill: stealth (+3 stealth +20 run speed while stealthed) - first thing you must buy as a Warg
* Shadow Fangs (changes damage type from common to shadow damage) R4
* Enhanced skill: Sprint (-5 min sprint cooldown): increases survivability
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* Advanced skill - Rallying Howl (Heal FS + HoT after a kill) R5
* Armour Boost (+990 armour)
* Resistance Boost (+720 song/cry/tactical and physical)
I traded Long Strides (+5% run) for Rallying Howl at Rank 5, since the R5 Racial trait gets you 5% extra. I also chose not to slot the Element of Surprise (+20% critical chance from stealth), since this is only your first blow - though other players might have a different opinion and do slot this one (instead of rallying howl when soloing or with one of the armour/resistance boost ones in groups).
I like to build my warg on survivability, which is the main reason for my choices.
Appearance:
fun fun - you'll have enough DP between R4-5. Last thing to spend Destiny Points on.
Roles
Though wargs are generally not that welcome in mixed raids (usually 1-3/4 wargs max per raid), they can have important roles in Raids. They can scout yes, but the can also do a lot of damage. It is nice to position yourself at the side of the freepraid (flank) and when the reavers charge, hit the first target (mostly MNS) with a pounce before the reavers get there - he'll be down in a second.
In a mixed raid your main task in combat is usually to harass the healers: stun them (sudden pounce, tendon shred (R3 skill) or crippling bite + pounce), silence them for another 10 seconds just before the stun ends (throat rip, R1 skill) and drain their power (rabid bite, R5 skill). Run away, get out-of combat and repeat. Especially a few applications of rabid bite in a long fight gets a healer out-of-power - and a healer OOP is a dead healer, or rather a dead freep raid.
Chasing is the nicest thing to do: your sprint skill was not made for running away, but to get a freep down, even when riding away on horseback.
In warg packs (a warg only raid) it is all about stealth and surprise. Usually the raid leader/raid assist target (the one who picks the victims) does the pounce from stealth, and all other wargs are required to put their most potent DoT (damage over time skill) on the target: bloody maul (=maul from stealth) - It does about 250 initial damage and 1,000 extra damage in the next 20 seconds from each warg, since it stacks. It's the best way to take down burglars before they HiPS (disappear).
An example how to arrange your quickslot bar as a warg (R7 warg used as an example):
You can see the alignment of Crippling Bite with Pounce and Savage Fangs for the extra effects and Eye Rake for that emergency interrupt at the end.
The text buttons are for leading packs and a macro to let others know which healer is still up in a raid.
>return to the General Monsterplay guide
