TRAIT SETS

One of the most exciting new additions to all classes with the Mines of Moria is the addition of Trait Sets. Trait Sets group each class’s Class Traits into three loosely related sets of eight traits and give additional bonuses for using multiple Traits in a set. For the Burglar, this gave me the opportunity to add new class traits to fill out the sets.

Many of the traits and sets are inspired from player requests and ideas. Two of the sets emphasize existing strengths of the Burglar; improved damage for one and stronger Tricks/Crowd Control for the other. The third is something quite new, carrying on the traditions of quirky gameplay that have long been a hallmark of the Burglar class.

Stealth, positioning, and sudden bursts of critical damage are the calling card of Burglars focused on dealing damage. Traits like Focused Eye and Ambidextrous are in the set, joined by new traits such as a pair that let you use Location Is Everything and Well-placed Strike more often. We also included the Cunning Wound trait in the set and extended the benefit to Well-placed Strike. More options for damage over time are often requested by players and it becomes possible with the new and improved traits in the Quiet Knife set.

The Quiet Knife Trait Set bonuses focus on improving positional damage and critical hit chances. In Moria, we’ve introduced a new kind of critical hit, called a Devastating Critical, which is rarer but even more damaging than a normal critical. The Burglar’s 4-set bonus builds on Devastating Criticals by enabling a self-buff on the Burglar following Devastating Critical Hits that increases subsequent critical damage.

The new skill for this set is called Feint Attack, and it follows Double-edged Strike as another critical-response chain end skill. Without the legendary trait for the set it allows you to use the stealth version of Surprise Strike without entering stealth. When upgraded with the legendary trait, all stealth opener skills become available and the recovery time is reduced significantly.

The knife is quiet, certainly. Most of the noise comes from whatever fell thing winds up on the business end of it.