If you’re leveling in the landscape or instances, chances are you’re facing more difficulty than squaring up against mission enemies. You also have opportunities for bigger pulls to clear the average loot/kill quests faster! Try out this build that becomes near-unkillable while maintaining respectable AoE damage output.
 
 

Disclaimer

Disclaimer but in bigger letters lol

 
This build is not viable for things like level-synced T3+ instances, especially recent ones where fellowship composition matters. Champion as an off-tank has very few taunts that draw aggro, so it relies on doing damage to build aggro. While it can do decent damage, it will likely be outdamaged by dedicated dpses, especially single-target ones like yellow Runekeeper or red Hunter, and thus will have aggro pulled off of it. Blue champ LIs (legendary items) will also be relatively blue champ-specific; a 2h is not ideal for red or yellow champs, and the traceries on the class item will also be more complementary to tanking.
 
 
What this build can do is run lots of solo and small fellowship content like duos or 3s with the self-sustain and AoE damage to fight virtually endless battles, back-to-back, without dying. This is because most landscape mobs don’t have a “damage burst” to speak of that isn’t easily interrupted or bursted down before they can complete their inductions.
 
 
This build is also a WIP, as I haven’t hit level cap yet.
 
 
Here’s the full version of the icon for the guide, with artist credited and original title shown.
 
 

 
 
Part of the “Touhou – Youmu the Half-Ghost Gardener” series by Sasa Kichi – [twitter.com] 
 
 
With that out of the way:
 
 
 

Prologue: Concerning Swordbits

Champion is a versatile dps that is in a very comfy spot right now. It can wear heavy armor, has access to gratuitous self-healing, and is probably the go-to class for AoE damage. Its blue line is often neglected in favor of its less adventurous brothers, though. Champions aren’t meant to take aggro in full fellowship or raid content; they even have abilities to get rid of aggro! But in the wide open world, things are different. Sometimes it’s just you and the 10 orcs you just pulled for funsies, and while you certainly have the moxie for it, you don’t have the sustain to keep standing after you get your morale chunked by a bunch of angy bois.
 
 
Enter blue line.
 
 
“The Martial Champion”, as it is more formally called, is intended to get beat up as much as possible so it can deal out as much as possible. It literally gets a passive called “Masochism”. You get some parry chance from the tree, but the way to maintain constant uptime for weaving your immediate (OGCD) bread-and-butter damage AoE between GCDs is to be attacked so much that you constantly parry. Meanwhile, when “Dire Need” is unlocked, you become functionally invincible. This means that there’s rarely a pull where you accidentally bite off more than you can chew; rather, the pulls of that size end up just requiring a bit more of the rotation than usual.
 
 
Included are the trait tree, the rationale behind each trait picked, and possible alternatives.
 
 
Let’s get into it.
 
 

 
 
暗く滲んだ不明騎士 – [pixiv.net]  by けむ山 – [pixiv.net] 
 
 
 

Trait Tree

Here is the current state of my trait tree, visualized:
 
 

 
 

Rationale for blue line:

 

• Stalwart Blade, maxed: Parry procs are our bread and butter here. They allow us to Riposte, which is a very strong AoE and weavable between skills.
• Second Wind: This is part one of our super-healing combo. It’s worth waiting until you’ve maxed your Fervor to use it for the maximum amount of power restored.
• Aggressive Exchange, no points: A 2% starting damage debuff maxing out at 8% would make more sense as part of the trait spec, not something requiring heavy investment to get. There are better options at this tier to unlock the next one.
• Spending six points on the first tier of blue: This allows for taking everything at tier 2 without needing to invest in Aggressive Exchange.
• Everything in Tier 2: These are core skills to your toolkit. It’s important to max everything relating to Horn of Champions because it’s your sole taunt skill, and Riposte is just a beautiful thing that shouldn’t go untaken.
• Placed Strike, maxed: Doubling Riposte’s damage lets it deal the sort of damage that usually comes with a fervor cost for champ every time you parry. When you pull from wall to wall, you’ll definitely be parrying.
• Vigor of Champions, no points: Usually, the power restore with maxed fervor is sufficient to get you back in the fight, comboing with Dire Need or just giving you sustain. If power is becoming an issue, spec into this, but not over Placed Strike.
• Tactical Mitigation Increase, no points: The straightforward, fluffless name lets you know that it’s just a stat padder. If casters do good burst against you, spec into this, but it’s probably not worth the investment.
• Dire Need: This is the second part of your sustain combo, the first part being Second Wind. Following up Second Wind with Dire Need means you’ll always have the power to cast it, and you’ll always be able to heal a huge chunk of your health at once. Bracing Strike and Fight On are good supplements to this; generally, if it’s off cooldown and you’re not at max hp, you should cast Bracing Strike, too.

 

Rationale for yellow line:

 

• Battle Frenzy: This is a great skill to take offspec, and it’s definitely worth the doubled point cost to invest in it. This should be taken relatively early too, because there’s always things to spend fervor on. Later on, it becomes a good leadup to something like Adamant > Horn of Gondor/Second Wind (more on this later). Another possible offspec investment is Brutal Strikes in the red line, as it’s a high single-target damage skill that can be used on bosses and the like.
• Blade Damage, 4/5: An additional 2% blade damage doesn’t mean a whole lot when offspeccing is so costly in trait points already. However, this is a nice, straightforward buff to most skills and more easily understandable than Might Increase.
• Might Increase, no investment: I would need to crunch some numbers on this one. First off, does it scale to level? Second, are the gains of Might proportional to the percentage blade damage from Blade Damage, which will affect everything the champ does minus Let Fly? Finally, do the diminishing stat returns eventually make this investment moot? There’s a lot of questions, and there’s probably not a single good answer, so a more easily applicable investment is probably better.
• Broad Sweep, maxed: Adding more targets to all your AoEs is big. You have five AoEs (at least at level 70), three of them are downright spammable, and the other two have cooldowns of half a minute or less. Since you want to be the lawnmower and cut down a lot of enemies at once, this lets you pull most (if not all) of an enemy NPC camp and ensure that you’re dealing even damage to the entire mob.
• Barbed Wall, no investment: Very tempting, seeing that Blade Wall is such a fundamental skill for champs. Possible investment down the line.
• Raging Blade, no investment: Even more tempting than Barbed Wall because it unlocks another cash-in for fervor. If this is taken, it might be worth investing a little more into Battle Frenzy via Ardent Rage in the next tier.

 

Investment Order

 
Snag Battle Frenzy around level 32 so you have something to quickly get to Horn of Gondor with if needed. The stun is short, but it hits a lot of enemies. Other than that, take the blue traits first and then the yellow ones. Consider adding Brutal Strikes earlier than level 32 while making room for Battle Frenzy to still be picked up at level 32 so you have additional fervor cash-ins.
 
 
Now that you’ve got your skills, how should you use them? As they say, ｆｕｃｋ ａｒｏｕｎｄ ａｎｄ ｆｉｎｄ ｏｕｔ．
 
 

 
 
Fallen Angel – [deviantart.com]  by LohiAxel – [deviantart.com]  (now purple-scales – [deviantart.com] )
 
 
 

How to Play

Lower Levels

 

• WEAVE RIPOSTE. “Weaving” is using a skill in an MMO that doesn’t share the global cooldown with other skills. This means you can use something like Blade Wall, then follow it up immediately with a Riposte without delaying the next global cooldown skill, like a Wild Attack.
• Try to get parry chance on gear, as it will have its greatest effect at lower levels where diminishing returns aren’t kicking in as hard as later on.
• Alternate Wild Attack > Swift Blade > Wild Attack, then pop Sudden Defense for your “bubble” (called a shield or barrier in other games). Bubble health will be indicated by purple on the morale bar.
• Get a feel for what you can and can’t pull (for now). Pull with Let Fly if you know you can’t handle the whole mob, as it will only aggro the mob it targets and maybe one or two more that happen to be friends with that mob.
• Use Battle Frenzy and fervor-building attacks to lead up to Horn of Gondor. Try not to have Horn of Gondor’s stun on mobs when you use Horn of Champions on them, because it has your precious single taunt inside it.
• If playing as a duo or trio, try to hold aggro for your teammates. This might be hard with red line hunters, but this generally shouldn’t be an issue in the landscape, as everything usually dies pretty quickly.
• Use Champion’s Challenge, Feral Strikes, Brutal Strikes (if you have it), and Merciful Strike on bosses. This is especially true when soloing, since you don’t have your sustain combo yet. While you may be an AoE dps, you can still burst single targets down handily if you put your mind to it.
• Don’t forget your Second Wind, Fight On, and Bracing Attack in the heat of the moment! These are great skills that may be a little overtuned right now. Use that while you can!
• Use Clobber whenever a strong enemy is using an induction skill. This is especially important with enemies like the dwarf and the dragon final bosses of the Siege of Gondamon skirmish because their inductions lead to very potent AoE damage auras or huge heals.

 

Later Levels

 

• Use your Adamant > Second Wind > Dire Need combo! This can get you out of sticky situations often.
• You can also combo Adamant > Horn of Gondor if you could use a defensive cooldown, but don’t particularly need your “ｏｈ ｓｈｉｔ” button.
• Maintain aggro with a well-timed Horn of Champions to keep your fellowship safe. Sometimes, your allies can take a bit of a beating; other times, they’re holding out for a hero. – [youtu.be]  The context matters, but common situations include add phases of instances or the main tank loses aggro on a few breakthrough mobs that start pestering the Loremaster or the Runekeeper and harrying their inductions.
• Adjust your trait tree as needed depending on your current performance. If you need more survivability, invest heavier in blue. If you need more damage, invest heavier in yellow.

 
Now that you’re ready to mow them down, get ready for your LIs!
 
 

 
 
Working zebras – [twitter.com]  by Tanaka Kusao – [twitter.com] 
 
 
 

Legendary Items

Prioritize blue line traceries. You can find a full list of traceries here, – [lotro-wiki.com]  butt your best bet will be Riposte Damage first, then Sudden Defense Cooldown & Bubble Magnitude. From there, you can go in a few directions:
 

• Have a healer in the fellowship? Take Battle Frenzy Cooldown and Bracing Attack Heal for extra Incoming Healing Rating, plus extra sustain in the form of more fervor to spend on Adamant and improving one of the best attacks in the game, respectively!
• Need survivability? Adamant/Invincible Duration & Unbreakable Damage and Sprint Duration & Evasion Chance are good picks. Sprint et al. is especially useful in content where large AoE puddles fill the platform, when enemies have rooting attacks, or you got knocked off your mount at the wrong time. Adamant et al. pays off if you’re frequently chewing through fervor and can use the extra duration.
• Need more AoE buffs? Blade Wall Damage and Swift Strike/Blade Damage & Power Cost are options available to you. The latter is only relevant if you maxed Broad Sweep in the yellow line. If you want a bigger attack, Horn of Gondor Damage & Mitigation Debuff is a possible spec, but since we haven’t buffed the Horn of Gondor in our trait tree, it may not be the best investment.
• Need single-target damage? Brutal Strikes Damage and Feral/Savage Strikes Damage are on the table; the former is only relevant if you specced into it in the red line.

Other than that, be sure to slap Area Effect Target Count on one of your LIs so you can hit more targets for those big pulls.
 
 
Here are some example LIs:
 

 
 
With these considerations, the right skills will be buffed appropriately.
 
 

 
 
MH 结云套装 – [pixiv.net]  by 树荫AnakinLee – [pixiv.net] 
 
 
 

It’s the End of the Guide as We Know It

With all these tips in mind, you’re sure to cut them down like so many blades of grass!
 
 
If you have any tips, hints, or suggestions, or just appreciated the guide, feel free to leave a comment or rating!
 
 
Thanks and good luck out there!
 
 

 
 
ロードランを行く母 – [pixiv.net]  by jas – [pixiv.net] 
 
 

 
 
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