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Burglar in Mines of Moria Guide by LagunaD, Hellfanger, Thurindras, wyldcyde |
New Dagger Passive
Probably the best feature for Burglars in Moria is the Passive Skill that gives +15% to damage with Daggers. This passive comes in 3 steps: +5%, +10%, and +15%. (Each step replaces the former, so at the end you have +15%). You should visit a trainer to train these passive skills immediately.
"Improved" HiPS and Startling Twist
The first two skills you get, at Level 52 and 54, are improvements on existing ones.
The Improved Startling Twist removes corruptions (monster buffs), which is sort of an improvement to cancel out an improvement to monsters.
Improved HiPS will be a major improvement for PvP, but is not a very big deal in PvE. During the 10 seconds after HiPS, you move (in stealth) at normal (non-stealth) speed, and ignore any slows.
Addle Nerf
Addle has been changed to increase inductions by only +25% instead of +100%.
Burglar The Silent Knife Set
New skills
All three truly "new" skills are tier 3 critical response chain skills (i.e. you use them after Double-Edged Strike). They all have 10 minute cooldowns, which you would expect to mean they must be quite powerful, right? Unfortunately, quite the opposite. They are all huge disappointments.
The first new skill is Lucky Strike at L56. This puts a "Damaging Gamble" on the target. Unfortunately, Damaging Gambles are extremely weak, variable-strength DoTs (even the highest tier is nothing very impressive) which do additional damage after a 10-second countdown. On a 30-60 cooldown, this might be something worth mixing into your crit chains. With a 10-minute cooldown, why bother even putting it on the hotbar? Not worth the 300 sp it costs to train, in my opinion.
The second new skill is Feint Attack, at L58. This gives your next Surprise Strike a +25% damage bonus "as if" you were in stealth. Unfortunately, it is also on a *10 minute cooldown*, and as an added bonus, cannot be used in Mischief. Another hugely disappointment that I won't waste 300 sp to train.
The final new skill, at L60, is A Small Snag. This gives a 10-second root with a 25% chance to break on damage, and a +2% damage debuff for 10 seconds. And again, it is on a 10 minute cooldown, and in PvE, it makes you sort of wonder what we are supposed to do after rooting a target - back off and Addle it to death? Even in PvP (where the root duration will be at least halved) a root at the end of the crit chain is not all that useful. A Small Snag is another Big Disappointment...
New Traits
Of the eight new non-legendary class traits, only a couple are really useful.
Honed Wit allows Clever Retort to be used outside Mischief, and reduces its cooldown by 30 seconds - this is a clear winner.
Complicated Terms gives reduces the chance that Riddle and Confound will be resisted - situationally useful.
Confound the Fools changes the delayed effect of Confound into a Perplexing Riddle (i.e. 5 second Stun followed by 30 second Daze, instead of a 30-second Daze). Not entirely useless, but the 15 second delay 5-minute cooldown on Confound makes this a buff to a much weaker skill than Riddle, and I doubt I will want to dedicate a trait to improving it.
The remaining new Class Traits are mostly worthless minor buffs to weak skills like Provoke, Well-placed Strike, Seize Initiative/Escape Clause, and Location is Everything. None of them make the skills significantly better, just slightly less weak, and as such their only likely use is as filler to get a higher tier bonus on a trait set (see below).
Trait Sets
Another new feature for MoM is the trait set. The three Burglar trait sets are "Quiet Knife" (DPS-oriented), "Mischief Maker" (debuff/CC-oriented) and "The Gambler" (everything else, plus the new "Gamble" mechanic).
The Quiet Knife
This
set gives fairly nice set bonuses Positional Damage (2/5), Melee Critical Chance (3/5) and Critical Multiplier (4/5). If you are willing to give up a lot of debuff/CC traits and give up use of Mischief, you can also use the legendary (see below) to unlock "from stealth" skills (LiE and Trip) every 4 minutes with Feint Attack. Surprisingly, the stealth traits Footpad and Leaf-Walker are *not* in this trait set. This set doesn't really support my play-style (I never used any of the +DPS traits in SoA), since I want to be a Burglar, not a Champion, but if you do, it seems not bad. This will be especially useful, I think, for soloing in PvP.
Strategic Planning
Tooltip: 60s Well Placed Strike cooldown, +10% Location is everything dmg
What it does: Little bit unclear - I think it reduces the WPS cooldown *by* 60s (not to 60s) and gives you 10% more damage on LiE.
My take: Marginal. If I want to see how high I can crit on surprise strike, I'll put this on. Otherwise it's not anything special.
Spatial Sense
Tooltip: 60s Well Placed Strike cooldown, +20% WPS DoT
What it does: Again, same clarity issue - I think it reduces the WPS cooldown *by* 60s (not to 60s) and an additional 20% dmg to WPS damage over time
My take: And again marginal. I only time I use WPS is when I want to make fun of how bad it is.
Sharp Wit, Sharp Blade
Tooltip: +10% Provoke damage, +50% Provoke Threat
What it does: More damage and more threat for provoke.
My take: A lot of burglars won't be using this. If the tank can't hold aggro, depending on the burglar isn't going to help out the situation anyways. The damage on it is low regardless (MH + 10 dmg @ L60) so a 10% increase for damage doesn't do anything for this skill. IMO, hardly worth a trait slot.
Practiced Bluff
Legendary Trait
Tooltip: Enables All From Stealth Skills, -360s skill recovery (feint attack)
What it does: This enables a bunch more skills to use after Feint attack, as well as reducing the cooldown by 6m (making it on a 4m cooldown)
My take: I'm assuming that this would include trip, making this fairly useful - don't need to burn hips to get an additional conjunction off. The reduced cooldown makes an un-dependable skill a little bit better. Not much more than that, though.
Trait Set Bonuses
Set 2: +10% positional damage multiplier
Set 3: +480 melee crit rating
Set 4: On ultra-crit: +25% critical damage modifier for 30s
My take: This is the obvious solo-heavy line. Very happy that the positional damage remained accessible regardless of what trait line you prefer.
The Mischief Maker
This
set contains most of the traits that I use all the time in SoA. The (2/5) and (3/5) set bonuses aren't all that impressive (reduced resistance to trick-removal skills, and +5 second trick duration). The (4/5) skill, at least in the current Beta build, is quite impressive though. It is supposed to reduce the cooldown on all trick-removal skills (Mischievous Glee, Clever Retort, Startling Twist) by 30 seconds during a 30-second window after you land a "super-crit" (Devastating Criticals are a new feature of the combat system). Whether due to a bug, or a change to the skill not reflected in the tooltip, it reduces the cooldown by 35 seconds instead, meaning that you can fire of Mischievous Glee and/or Startling Twist every 10 seconds after landing a Devastating Critical. If this is changed to reflect the tooltip, it will be every 15 seconds - which is not quite as good, but still not bad.
Confound the Fools
Tooltip: 5s Stun then 30s Daze
What it does: Turns your confound effect into a perplexing riddle
My take: Meh. I won't be slotting this one, but I'm sure it will get used here and there. Who doesn't like more stuns?
Complicated Terms
Tooltip: -1200 Confound resistance, -1200 Riddle resistance
What it does: Greatly lowers the resistance of your riddle and confound.
My take: This will be pretty handy if the groups you run with rely on you for CC. It will make locking down 2 mobs a cinch, and definitely help out when you're fighting above-con stuff.
Little Annoyances
Legendary Trait
Tooltip: +10s debuff and root duration, +3% damage to snagged foe, -360s skill recovery time (A Small Snag)
What it does: Increases the effect duration of a small snag, reduces the cooldown, and raises the debuff. Pretty straightforward.
My take: Again, same deal. If your group depends on you for CC, this *should* work wonders. However, 'A Small Snag' is still pretty weak, even when reduced to a 4m cooldown.
Trait Set Bonuses
Set 2: -480 trick removal resistance
Set 3: +5 trick duration
Set 4: On ultra-crit: -30s Trick removal for 30s
My take: Set 2 and 3 bonuses are sweet, especially for those who frequent group content. Set 4 bonus I actually never got to see, I stopped playing before they got it working. Several other burglars had said it was pretty cool, so I'd say it's a good trait bonus.
The Gambler
This
set which is centered on a new, confusing and weak mechanic that nobody in Beta seems to like very much. A few weeks ago, a Dev made a rare visit to the Burglar Beta forum and said Gambles will be improved in Book 7, although in my opinion the problem is not just that they have weak effects, but that the mechanic itself is clunky and unwanted. The whole thing has the feel of a creative, but flawed, idea that was rushed into code without being sufficiently developed. The set bonuses here "enable" a 20% chance for Clever Retort (2/5), Mischievous Glee (3/5), and Startling Twist (4/5) to proc a "Gamble" on the target. The (4/5) bonus also globally increases Gamble chances by +40% during the 30 seconds after a Devasting Critical. A couple other traits in this line also give a chance for weak skills like Burgle(!) and Provoke to proc Gambles.
Gambles come in three varieties, and really need a thread of their own to explain. There are Damaging Gambles, Debuffing Gambles and Disabling Gambles. They all share the feature that they do something for 10 seconds, and then do something additional at the end of the timer. And they all have random "tiers" that determine the magnitude of what they do (weak, weaker, weakest...). Damaging Gambles are a DoT + damage at the end, Debuffing Gambles give a +damage debuff, and Disabling Gambles slow attack speed and then mez for 5-30 seconds (the highest tier Disabling Gamble opens a conjunction after 10 seconds, but unfortunately if you got the Disabling Gamble from using Startling Twist, the timer will run out while the target still has stun immunity, and the conjunction won't open...).
Honed Wit
Tooltip: -30s Confound Recovery
What it does: This trait actually enables clever retort our of mischief, as well as lower the cooldown.
My take: WOA! This is an AWESOME solo trait. Clever retort's outcomes seem to be quite strong, especially the heal. Being able to use this skill outside of mischief is huge for both soloing and groups (hate when you hips in a bossfight because you're locked out of mischief skills? this is the trait for you!)
Even the Odds
Tooltip: -300 seize initiative and escape clause recovery, +25% gamble chance for 60s
What it does: Lowers the cooldown of your conjunction reactives by 5 mins and gives you a buff for 60s after you use either of these skills that increases your gamble chance.
My take: A moderate skill if you choose the gambler line. The reduced cooldowns to these skills isn't a huge boon, and the gambles seem pretty weak so far. This trait probably won't see much time equipped for many burglars.
Cruel Odds
Tooltip: +0% critical vulnerability for 15s
What it does: (tooltip description) Gives Burglar's Advantage and Double Edged Strike now have a 5% chance to apply a critical vulnerability debuff to your target. if the target has a gamble, the chance is increased to 20%.
My take: When I was playing around with this trait, it would sometimes proc every mob, sometimes every 2-3 mobs. With stick'n'move, I was pretty much able to spam my crit chain, so I was seeing this debuff a lot. However in groups, it's really going to depend on your crit rating, so this is reduced in strength to a little bit above marginal trait, if you're not heavily stacked into the Gambler line (with lots of legacies, too).
Dealings Done
Legendary Trait
Tooltip: Upgrades Gamble to the next tier, -360s cooldown
What it does: Pretty straightforward: upgrades gambles, reduces cooldown on lucky strike (and actually changes it to "gambler's strike"
My take: To be honest, I have never tried to use this to upgrade any gambles. It would be nice if anyone could try this out... see what kind of upgrades would result from any of the gambles.
Trait Set Bonuses
Set 2: Enables Damaging gamble chance from clever retort
Set 3: Enables debuffing gamble chance from mischievous glee
Set 3: Surprise strike deals bonus damage to gambled targets
Set 4: Enables disabling gamble chance from startling twist
Set 4: On ultra-crit: +40% gamble chance for 30s
My take: I've tried out that surprise strike thing, and on a 1500 crit, you get ~100 morale heal. I'm assuming that this works like a demoralize proc, but even then it's pretty weak. Overall, if you go deep into this trait line you can likely get a lot of gambles out in group play. However, gambles are pretty weak in their current form. Going too deep into this trait line seems to be almost a complete waste.
Legendary Traits
Tragically, the three new legendary traits (and the trait sets) are directly tied to the very weak new skills Lucky Strike, Feint Attack and A Small Snag. By slotting 5 of the 8 possible class traits in these sets, you get the privilege of also slotting a "legendary" which "improves" an essentially useless skill. The legendary traits themselves must be earned, which basically implies that you have already finished most of the content in MoM by the time you get them. One is obtained from a class quest chain, the final step of which is doing a difficult 6-man instance. One is received by completing Book 6 of the MoM epic chain. And one is obtained from grinding Kindred reputation with one of the Dwarf factions in Moria.
All three legendary traits decrease the cooldown on the associated skill from 10 minutes to "only" 4 minutes. And they generally increase the effects in a minor way.
The Quiet Knife legendary (Practiced Bluff) is the best of the lot, which isn't saying much, but it makes Feint Attack unlock other "stealth-only" skills like Trip and Location is Everything. Unfortunately, it is still not usable in Mischief, though, limiting this to mainly a ganking style of play focused on burst DPS.
The Mischief-Maker legendary (Little Annoyances) basically doubles the effects (root duration and debuff magnitude) of A Small Snag. Far from legendary, in my opinion.
Finally, the Gambler legendary (Dealings Done) makes Lucky Strike upgrade any existing Gamble on the target to the next tier, meaning you get a slightly less weak effect (once every 4 minutes).
With the reduction in critical chances as part of the combat system changes, the consensus among most burglars in Beta is that Stick and Move is now essentially mandatory to keep your crit chain going. If you are not using Stick and Move now, it will be far more valuable for you to use the new legendary slot (which opens at Level 60) for Stick and Move. In fact, you will probably want to run with Exposed Throat + Stick and Move starting at Level 50.
In summary, the "legendary" Burglar traits in MoM are not worthy of the name, unfortunately.
Burglar Legacies
When you find or barter for a legendary, all you know is what class can use it, what kind of item it is (sword, dagger, mace, club, or tools, for Burglars), and what the minimum level for using it is.
To find out what its hidden properties actually are, you take it to an NPC to "identify" it.
Identifying reveals the "Legacies" of the item - each of these is some kind of bonus relevant to the class that can use the item. Each identified legacy has a "Tier". The Tier is like a price list for upgrading the legacy to higher *Rank*. The Rank a legacy has been upgraded to determines the magnitude of the bonus and how the item actually performs. The higher the tier, the easier/faster/cheaper it will be to rank up the associated legacy and get a better bonus.
Items gain levels by XP much like a character does. In fact, the XP levels are the same, as far as I can tell. Just like when you started your toon, the first few levels go very fast, but the additional XP required for each level gets larger.
Every time an item gains a level, it is awared Legacy Points. The number of Legacy Points the item gains with a Level is (I think) randomly determined, but is usually something like 10. These are the points you pay, according to the pricelist determined by the Tier of each Legacy, to rank up different bonuses *and* to rank up the damage of a weapon. Higher ranks cost more Legacy Points than lower ones. In other words, going from Rank 2 to Rank 3 cost more than going from Rank 1 to Rank 2. The rate of increase is determined by the Tier of the legacy. A higher Tier legacy lets you get more value from your limited Legacy Points than the same legacy with a lower Tier.
Remember that items have a level cap (30 for the first ones you'll see, Level 60 purple items go to 40, and teals and oranges (I think) can go as high as 50). This means there is a limit to how many Legacy points an item can get, and how high you can potentially increase legacy ranks. Asheron's data could be scrutinized to get some idea of how "upgradeable" a given legacy with a given Tier could be over the lifetime of the item. But the system is rather unpredictable, because every 10 (item) levels a legacy is either added, or an existing legacy is upgraded to a higher Tier.
If this sounds very complicated, it is is pretty easy to understand once you get your hands on some legendary items and start playing around with them. Actually the system is pretty simple (perhaps too simple, and/or too random) once you gain some experience with it.
Item Advancement
MoM brings Item Advancement ("legendary items"), which for Burglars means a weapon and a set of tools. Each of the two legendary item slots (weapon + tools) can give a variety of stat buffs, which is welcome, but a depressing fraction of the legacies (randomly determined item abilities that level up with experience) are centered on the three (very weak) new skills and legendary traits. Basically the idea seems to be that if you totally stack your item XP on improving these, *and* slot the corresponding legendary trait, then Lucky Strike, Feint Attack and A Small Snag become *almost* decent...
The better way to go is probably to focus on bread and butter like critical response damage, off-hand crit chance, melee critical multiplier and Stealth Level (one legacy on tools can be upgraded to give +2 Stealth Level). Unfortunately the fraction of useful Burglar IA legacies is quite small.
What's Missing?
It was really disappointing to me that Fellowship Maneuvers and related abilities were essentially ignored in MoM. I would have preferred to see something that gave us new and interesting skills in this area, including making some kind of connection between Clever Retort and more complex fellowship maneuvers. Unfortunately, we got "The Gambler", with it's weak and clunky new mechanics instead of building on something we all understand and like.
Summary
Mostly a disappointment; Burglars got little dev attention during the Beta phase, and what has been added to the class is mainly underdeveloped and/or unwanted cruff. The class stuff my Burglar actually finds useful in MoM:
1) Dagger passives
2) Mischief Maker (4/5) set bonus (but may be bugged...)
3) Honed Wit (for Clever Retort upgrade)
