The Lord of the Rings Online Trait System

Turbine’s official The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar website has been updated with an introduction to the game’s trait system.

In The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢, a Trait is an interchangeable ability that alters your character in some fashion. Traits allow a great deal of skills customization, so two characters of the same class and the same level can still be significantly different from each other depending on how their players have used Traits to modify their character’s skills.

The most basic Traits do fairly simple things like increasing your Might stat or your block rate in combat. These Traits take a number on your character and make it bigger. Simple, but effective, these basic Traits are the first ones you will see throughout the course of your character’s advancement.

More complex are the Traits that modify skills (or groups of skills). For example, one Trait may add a new effect on a critical hit that it didn’t have before, while another may make a skill uninterruptible or reduce the power cost of an entire group of skills. Yet another type of Trait works only after a specific combat event, allowing you to gain power on a critical hit or increase your defense on a successful block.