The Beorning class is an interesting idea, but one that Turbine has not taken the time to explain or properly flush out. There is a lot of discovering things as you go and much I do not understand. This guide is not universal, but is more my observations and lessons learned. The basic description of the class can be found on the LOTRO wiki page http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Beorning.
In my opinion, the Beorning role in a fellowship is slightly schizophrenic. Red line is single target dps, blue line is for tanking, and yellow is for healing/support. It kind of reminds me of the moria captain, in that it was a good off tank and a good support healer but struggled as the main in either category for a group. This observation is based on my limited experimentation. I believe that there will be a steep learning curve for Beorning tanks, which will not be effective until near level cap. Dps classes need to be sympathetic to the beorning tank, allowing them to get all the mob’s agro before opening up. Beornings have a single melee AOE taunt in human form and a single target ranged taunt in bear mode. Beornings have only one AOE pulling attack with a 20m range. The problem that I see with the class as a healer or a tank is the lack of skills. The beorning has no AOE taunt with range (like guards or wardens) and they only have a limited number of healing skills with cool downs that hamper their effectiveness when compared to minstrels or rune keepers. As far as healing ability, I would put them somewhere between the LM and a captain. Part of the difficulty for Beornings in a group will be managing other players’ expectations of the class.
Broken Quests
The Thane of Thornhope will not bestow the quests for Thornhope. I submitted two tickets and was dismissed by the GMs. The only way to way to finish the Eaworth rep is to use a rep accelerator and to do the Hytbold dailies. This required a bug report and the GM was unable to help or resolve this issue. This makes Hytbold difficult to complete.
Vol 3 Book 13 Chapter 5 – is broken. You talk to Aragron after passing through the table. He is on the wall. You enter the instance and he does not spawn, making the quest unable to be completed. The GM was able to fix this problem by advancing the quest.
Useful Leveling Tips
Be sure to complete Enmity of the Goblins II before hitting level 39, otherwise you won’t get the epic trait of collecting the pages. There are no beorning class trainers other than where there is bartorable armor. You need to travel to the lodge that the trait gives in order to talk to the class trainer.
Might is the primary stat, but Agility is functional for melee damage. Might equipment is the best, but since there is a limited amount of might medium armor (left over from the old warden) you will find yourself using agility gear.
You are better off using the set armor as you go. Moria, OD, Dragoch (Orthanc is there too), Hytbolt is Bind on Aquire not Bind to account (this means that you can’t get the armor on another toon and transfer it to your beorning).
Beorning Food Stacks with crafted food.
There are 3 class deeds associated with 3 of the class skills –B
Woodworkers make the Legendary class item for Beorning.
Class quests are in Atso’s Camp, Ost Gurth, Red Horn Loads
Red Line Build
The key skill is Execute once you have leveled it to Rank 5 because then it does not automatically drain all your wrath.
Another key skill is the Hearten and level that to Rank 3 so that you heal % of your health over time. It makes a HUGE difference to invest in the Blue line trait of Hardened Heart, that gives wrath when you use the self-heal. This makes the skill infinitely easier.
On the slam heal skill, that gives health when you strike an enemy from behind. This is not that practical while leveling but can be greatly useful in group when you are dpsing. Think of it like a Burg. You can use this skill when you fear a mob, but auto attacks and DOTs break the fear so this is impractical to use. The better use is to use the skill with the trait Lumber which when you use Rush, knocks down your opponent and like the burg, you can jump behind the mob for a quick heal.
Wrath when changing
At low level, you need to have a full wrath bar before changing to bear form. At higher level, particularly with the Wrath Return legacies, you can swap over with a partial bar in order to get in a few good hits and hopefully kill the mob. With the skill Execute upgraded in red line, you can hit it more than once in a fight and not worry about wiping out all your wrath.
Above level 60, I found myself bouncing in and out of bear form several times during most fights. With the LI of wrath return, I could stay in bear form to the end and hit a final execute or vigilant roar and getting a bit of wrath. I might also save Rush or call of the wild for that added boost of wrath and then get in an extra Thrash before reverting automatically back to human mode to build up more wrath.
Armor
The best options for armor are beryl crafted at lvl 50.
Moria at lvl 60
OD at lvl 65
Dragoch or Ox Camp at lvl 75
Hytbold at 85 – bugged – only the beorning can get the armor and your character must rebuild hytbolt. Armor can’t be bartered and traded.
lvl 90 crafted purple armor
Lvl 100 DA or essence armor
HD Jewelry
There is a DPS set and a tanking set, no healing set.
The tanking set earrings has -5% damage mitigated. I believe this applies to the skill sacrifice as it seems to have no noticeable effect on the mitigation, but I am not 100% sure.
My Prefered LI’s
These are for a general purpose build. I am Red Line with part into Blue to obtain Vigilant Roar Reflect
Weapon
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(Major) Bear Form Dmg
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(Major) Call to Wild Duration
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(Major) Execute Dmg
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(Minor) Chance to return Wrath
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(Minor) Bee Debuff Duration
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(Minor) Vigilant Roar Dmg
(Major) Thicken Hide Duration (for tanking)
Carving
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(Major) Healing Potency
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(Major) Bear Movement Speed
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(Major) Wrath Return from Slam
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(Minor) Rush Duration
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(Minor) Vigilant Roar Reflect
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(Minor)
(Major) Out of combat decay
Mounted Combat
Honestly, mounted combat for the beorning is an exercise in frustration. Over all, mounted combat is barely functional for fighting normal mobs and an impossibility for more powerful mobs. They tried to model it on the beorning’s skills so your skills require wrath in addition to warsteed power. This creates more problems and is one of the sources of frustration. Two primary examples are the steed’s sprint requires wrath so it means you can only use it in combat and not when running across the landscape, and the second is the 25% crit dmg for a heavy steed in redline, since this requires wrath to be active it means that it is constantly dropped and entering the 10 second cool down. The way the beorning mounted combat is supposed to work is that you build up wrath and then unleash you Execute attack to finish off the enemy. This sounds great in theory, but the execution is substandard. The biggest problem is that mounted combat in general is not balanced and has been broken for some time. This plays out in the skills being less than effective. Execute with a full wrath bar is supposed to do 100% extra damage and with a guaranteed crit, one would expect you to be able to kill a normal mob at half health, but this is not the case. I consider myself very lucky (as in a very rare occasion) if I am able to crit for ¼ of a normal mobs health, where as a capt can one shot an normal mob if one of his cries are a standard crit.
I have mostly used a heavy steed, although I did run in light for a bit. Mounted combat against evenly matched foes, such as a mounted signature that is of equal level is nearly impossible. The two ranged attacks do negligible damage and the melee skills often take long times to activate. On a heavy steed with a very good bridle, I kept getting dismounted in one or two shots on many occasions. The other stances besides red line are just not practical because of the reduction in dps. It doesn’t matter if you heal a bit of moral if you can’t kill the target.
ISH
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