Rune-keepers attune themselves to words of power that let them unleash fire or lightning damage, or healing. Both elves (including high elves) and dwarves have a significant history with runes and secret or lost languages and are the only races who can become rune-keepers.
Rune-keepers wield a rune-stone as a weapon, and carry a special satchel for storing it. Jewelers can make rune-stones and there are three types with slightly different stat priorities: fire, lightning or ice. RKs (as rune-keepers are often called for short) are spell-casters so usually stay at range, although in the lightning spec they often need to be close to their targets.
The rune-keeper class is not readily available to free-to-play players: you will need LOTRO Points to buy the class (795 points) or the Moria expansion which includes the class (2495 points).
Here I'll record my experience levelling a rune-keeper from level 1 to 20, talking about skills, specs and anything else that might be useful to know.
 |
| Level 1 Elf Rune-keeper |
Here's our brand new rune-keeper and some information about her:
- Wears light armour
- Wields a rune-stone (counts as a two-handed weapon but it looks like you're dual-wielding them in combat)
- Has a rune-satchel equipped in the class slot
- Primary stat is Will (although strangely, Agility is shown as the highest stat at level 1!?!)
- Starting abilities are: Fiery Ridicule (a fire damage over time spell that stacks up to 3 times and increases Battle attunement by 1 point), Scribe's Spark (an instant lightning damage spell that increases Battle attunement by 1 point), Shocking Words (an instant lightning damage and stun spell that has a 20 second cooldown and returns attunement to Neutral), and Prelude to Hope (a heal over time spell that increases Healing attunement by 1 point).
This is the Attunement Metre:
 |
| Rune-keeper attunement bar |
When you are out of combat for awhile, or use certain skills, your attunement returns to Neutral (or Steady-state) in the middle of the attunement bar. Damage skills increase the Battle attunement and little bars will turn yellow to red from the middle towards the left. At 10 points of Battle attunement, the bar to the left will be completely lit up red. Using healing spells will move the attunement towards the right. At 10 points of Healing attunement, the bar to the right will be completely lit up green (but if you were in full Battle attunement, it would take 20 points to move the attunement to full Healing attunement).
When you start a new rune-keeper, you will find an item in your inventory called "Rune-keeper -- Attunement" and it gives a brief overview of the class that you might find useful (for example, the characters marked on the attunement bar; the symbol like an "F" represents the Sindarin word "Dagor" and means "battle", the symbol like a "b" represents the Sindarin word "Thalas" and means "steady", and the symbol that looks a bit like a "m" represents the Sindarin word "Nestad" and means "healing").
The first quest in the introduction provides a satchel that contains a better rune-stone. At level 2 you are sent to the rune-keeper trainer who wants you to practise using Fiery Ridicule against a training dummy. They give you a new rune-stone and a handy hint - skill icons that increase Battle attunement will have a red background and skill icons that increase Healing attunement will have a green background.
At level 6 you get a new skill. Chilling Rhetoric does frost damage and reduces your target's movement speed, but it has a 20 second cooldown which really limits its usefulness.
Also at level 6 you get to choose a specialisation. The options are:
- Blue = Benediction of Peace - focuses on healing, especially with heal over time (HoT) skills. You also gain several skills: Rune-sign of Winter is a HoT that also reduces damage taken while Writ of Health is a HoT that can stack up to 3 times.
- Red = Cleansing Flame - focuses on long-range DPS, especially with fiery damage over time (DoT) spells that are channelled or have a cast time. You also gain Smouldering Wrath (a fire DoT that is channelled) and Writ of Fire (a fire DoT that can stack up to 3 times).
- Yellow = Solitary Thunder - focuses on short-range DPS with instant lightning damage. You also gain Sustaining Bolt which does an instant burst of lightning damage and reduces power costs for skills for 15 seconds, but also resets attunement to Neutral and has a 15 second cooldown, and Writ of Lightning which deals lightning damage and reduces the target's lightning resistance.
So for questing and levelling, Red or Yellow are the main options. For healing in groups or instances, choose Blue. From what I've heard and experienced myself so far, Red has stronger DPS but you have to stay still while you cast. Yellow has instant-cast skills which gives more mobility, and more crowd-control skills, but you have to get close to your target (and you've only got light armour so you're rather squishy), you have cooldowns to wait for and the DPS is more spiky (lightning *is* spiky hahaha, but I meant more affected by procs and crits or lack thereof). However, because they have such different play-styles you should probably try both specs and see which one you enjoy most.
After completing the introduction, don't forget to check your mail for the adventurer's gift. It contains several useful items and starts a couple of quests, including one that rewards 5 Tokens of Salutations which can be traded with the Barterer for a pocket item that increases run speed plus some health or power potions. The run speed buff can be quite helpful, especially if you don't have a mount.
At level 7 you get your first trait point that you can spend on your chosen specialisation. You get a new trait point every odd level.
Here's a cosmetic tip - rune-satchels are typically turquoise and brown, but that might not look good with your beautiful outfit. However, you can dye a rune-satchel and add it to your cosmetic outfit panel, or you can add a rune-satchel to the wardrobe and apply several dyes to match different outfits. Unfortunately there are not many styles of rune-satchel to choose from.
Default Rune-satchel | 
Rune-satchel dyed Rust |
Here's another tip - you can purchase a Simple Chisel or Simple Riffler from the Rune-keeper Trainer (or metalsmiths can craft better versions) which goes in your ranged weapon slot. Chisels give extra stats (such as increased tactical mastery which increases damage/healing plus either finesse, in-combat power regeneration or critical strike) while Rifflers increase stats and can alter some attributes (such as increased tactical mastery plus either reduced threat, increased Prelude to Hope healing or all Writs have reduced power costs).
At level 8 you get Shocking Touch, a melee-range lightning spell that dazes the target and moves attunement 3 points towards Neutral. It also has a 20 second cooldown.
At level 10 you become eligible for Epic Battles such as Retaking Pelargir, but although you get scaled up to level 100, without all your equipment slots filled and with limited abilities, it may not be a very successful or satisfactory experience.
The next new skill is learnt at level 14. Word of Exultation is a bubble that grants extra health temporarily. It requires you to be in healing attunement, so it may be difficult to apply to yourself in the middle of a fight. If in battle, use a skill to return you to neutral attunement then cast Prelude to Hope (or another healing spell) to activate healing attunement, then quickly use Word of Exultation when it becomes available. The effect lasts 12 seconds and has a 30 second cooldown.
 |
| Word of Exultation bubble |
I've been trying out both fire and lightning specs and I had an interesting experience in the spider grove in Rath Teraig in Ered Luin. In fire spec, I was getting higher DPS if I alternated between Writ of Fire and Fiery Ridicule, but that ended up pulling several spiders into combat with me. I dotted them all up and burned them down but I was taking quite a lot of damage while casting and had to use Prelude to Hope to heal myself. I changed to lightning spec and alternated between Writ of Lightning and Scribe's Spark and I was pulling each spider individually, killing them in a couple of hits and not taking any damage.
At level 15 Rune-keeper trainers can sell you a better rune-satchel. Basic Rune-satchel of Dagor increases Shocking Words damage by 2%, Basic Rune-satchel of Nestad increases Prelude to Hope pulses by 1 and Basic Rune-satchel of Thalas reduces target resistance to Shocking Touch. Tailors can make even better rune-satchels for level 20+. You also get a quest to visit Techeryn outside the Forsaken Inn in The Lone-lands. They can teach you more about the power of words and runes.
 |
| The Forsaken Inn with Weathertop in the background |
Techeryn asks you to join her on Weathertop for the lesson. A storm rages as you place rune-stones on top of flat stones at Weathertop's summit. Orcs try to drive you off the mountain, but you must hold your ground and wait. Lightning strikes each of the rune-stones then Techeryn explains the rune on the stone represents "thunder-bolt" - you effectively told the lightning where to hit and it did. That is the power of the rune-keeper. As a reward, you are given a new rune-stone and the title "Eye in the Storm".
 |
| The "thunder-bolt" rune-stone rests on the flat stone |
At level 18 you get two new skills: Scribe a New Ending is a cleanse that removes a debuff (wound/poison/disease/fear) from you or an ally every 2 seconds for 6 seconds (up to 3 debuffs in total - very helpful!). Epic for the Ages is a direct heal with a long cast time, a 15 second cooldown and requires healing attunement.
You also get two new skills at level 20. Nothing Truly Ends is an out-of-combat resurrection skill and Break the Bonds breaks you out of crowd-control effects.
Some of my gear was quite low level, so I upgraded my armour and jewellery at the Skirmish Camp. Now Fate is my highest stat, followed by Vitality and Will. Skirmishes become available at level 20 so I did the introduction quests for that too.
Here's how my rune-keeper looks now at level 20:
 |
| Elf Rune-keeper at level 20 |
Then I headed to the Training Hall in Bree and tested Red and Yellow specs' DPS with no consumable buffs active over 3 minutes or until I ran out of power, and took a screenshot at the end to eliminate the effects of DoTs that kept going after I stopped attacking. I repeated this three times and recorded the best result below. For virtues, I had one tier of Compassion and three tiers of Charity. With my 7 trait points, in Red spec I placed 5 points in Deliberate Address for +5% Tactical Damage and 2 points in Conflagration of Runes for +6% Fiery Ridicule Damage, while in Yellow spec I put 5 points in Confounding Principles for +5s daze effect and +25% damage from Shocking Words, and 2 points in Cutting Remarks for +2% Tactical Critical Chance.
Here are my DPS results (collected with the CombatAnalysis plugin):
| Statistics | Red (Cleansing Flame)* | Yellow (Solitary Thunder) |
|---|
| Total Damage | 5912 | 11977 |
| Time | 1 m 24 s | 3 m 0.2 s |
| Average DPS | 70.4 | 66.5 |
| Minimum Hit | 5 | 54 |
| Average Hit | 61.6 | 113.0 |
| Maximum Hit | 266 | 382 |
| Attacks | 96 | 106 |
| Critical Strikes (%) | 19 (19.8%) | 18 (17.0%) |
| Power (%) | 1207/1300 (92.8%) | 1290/1300 (99.2%) |
| Skill Priorities: |
- Writ of Fire
- Fiery Ridicule
- Smouldering Wrath
|
- Sustaining Bolt
- Writ of Lightning
- Scribe's Spark
|
* Data collected by manually reviewing combat log
For Yellow, I tried including Ceaseless Remarks (from the yellow class traits tree) in the rotation but it used a lot more power (only 25-30% power remaining after 3 min instead of 99%) and average DPS was about 60. Instead, using Writ of Lightning and Scribe's Spark until Sustaining Bolt is available worked better. If in melee range, using this rotation and Shocking Words on cooldown produced slightly higher DPS than shown above (about 75 DPS) and also used neglible power.
For Red, I had a lot of trouble recording the combat because it kept stopping while Smouldering Wrath was channelling. With three stacks of Writ of Fire and Fiery Ridicule, then using Smouldering Wrath, I was getting around 90-110 DPS before it stopped recording, usually around the 15 second mark (so no indication of sustained damage potential).
So I manually timed 3 minutes of attacking the training dummy then reviewed the combat log. It did not show the full 3 minutes, only the last 90 seconds or so. I recorded the type and damage of each attack (e.g. Fiery Ridicule: 89, Writ of Fire Tier 3: 63 or Searing Words: 45) and whether it was a crit or not. I repeated this three times and recorded the best result above. Under the circumstances this seems to be the best estimate I can provide.
General Observations
I was disappointed with the rune-keeper - it feels like it doesn't have enough abilities at level 20 to really give you a good idea of what it's capable of at higher levels. Spamming two builder skills and an execute doesn't take much strategy, although maybe keeping track of stacks and procs does (I've heard the BuffBars plugin is recommended). The DPS was much lower than I expected too. It seems this is just the tip of the iceberg and there's a lot more complexity to come. I guess you just have to be patient, but I don't really like waiting for a class to get better - I want it to be fun and interesting from the start. I have two other rune-keepers levelled to 42 that I want to like, but they are still a chore to play.
If you're going into a difficult battle, try using Prelude to Hope before starting combat so that your health keeps getting topped up as you fight. It's only a small heal though so you may still need potions.
Stats
- Will - your main stat that increases damage and healing
- Fate - increases survivability (morale/power regeneration), damage and healing (increases critical strike chance)
- Morale and Vitality - increases survivability
- Critical Strike Rating - increases damage and healing
- Mitigations and Resistances - reduces damage taken
These stats should help make the levelling process a bit easier in the beginning. Look for light armour with will and maybe some jewellery with critical strike rating or fate. Morale is always helpful (vitality also increases morale). The best place to get mitigations and resistances at low level is probably from virtues.
Here are some virtues that may be helpful for Rune-keepers and how to get them by level 20:
| Virtue | Activity | Deed |
|---|
INNOCENCE
(physical mitigation, tactical mitigation, resistance) | Complete 75 quests in The Shire | Life of a Bounder (Final)(The Shire) |
COMPASSION
(physical mitigation, tactical mitigation, non-combat power regeneration) | Complete 15 quests in The Shire
Complete 20 quests in Ered Luin | Life of a Bounder (The Shire)
Defender of Ered Luin (Ered Luin) |
WISDOM
(will, in-combat power regeneration, resistance) |
Explore Elf-ruins in Ered Luin
Explore the Old Forest in Bree-land
Find pages from the Journal of Cardolan in the Barrow-downs | Elf-ruins Exploration (Ered Luin)
The Old Forest (Bree-land)
Lore of the Cardolan Prince (Bree-land) |
IDEALISM
(will, fate, resistance) | Find relics of the Dúnedain in Bree-land
Find flowers in The Old Forest in Bree-land | The History of the Dúnedain (Bree-land)
Flowers of the Old Forest (Bree-land) |
PATIENCE
(physical mitigation, resistance, in-combat power regeneration) | Explore Dwarven settlements in Ered Luin
Retrieve spoiled pies in The Shire
Deliver mail between settlements in The Shire
Explore the ruins of Bree-land
Explore the Barrow-downs in Bree-land | Places of the Dwarves (Ered Luin)
No Place for Spoiled Pies (The Shire)
Restoring the Quick Post (The Shire)
The Ruins of Bree-land (Bree-land)
The Barrow-downs (Bree-land) |
ZEAL
(morale, physical mitigation, armour) | Defeat 90 goblins in Ered Luin
Defeat 90 spiders in Ered Luin
Defeat 90 Barrow-spiders in Bree-land | Goblin-slayer (Advanced)(Ered Luin)
Spider-slayer (Advanced)(Ered Luin)
Brood-hunter (Advanced)(Bree-land) |
FIDELITY
(tactical mitigation, vitality, power) | Explore landmarks in The Shire
Explore Dourhand strongholds in Ered Luin | The Sights of the Shire (The Shire)
Scouting the Dourhands (Ered Luin) |
Pros of the Rune-keeper Class
- Potential to have good DPS at high level (red spec is popular for raiding)
Cons of the Rune-keeper Class
- Has either limited mobility (red spec) or range (yellow spec)
- Can be squishy
- Limited AOE at low levels
- Low DPS and healing at low levels
- Doesn't reach full potential until high level
- Lots of debuffs to keep track of
I hope this has been helpful. Feel free to leave any questions or advice for new rune-keepers below.
Coming soon in the Introducing X Class series: the Warden.
