The Angmarim Sorceress has arrived!

I’ve been told there will be resistance. Good...

After nearly twenty years a new Monster Play class arrives in The Lord of the Rings Online with the release of Update 49: In Good Company. Behold, the wicked beauty of the Angmarim Sorceress.

Driven by the ancient hatred that set her people against the Dúnedain and led them into the service of the Witch-king, the Angmarim Sorceress enters the battle in the Ettenmoors at Mordirith’s command.

A Litany of Hate

A devoted student of the dark arts, the Angmarim Sorceress is a living echo of Sauron’s hatred. Her mastery of fell powers make her a versatile and unpredictable combatant, capable of shifting seamlessly between elemental devotions to empower allies, cripple enemies, and adapt to the changing flow of battle.

With a deep and flexible toolkit, she is both a formidable battlefield controller and a devastating source of tactical damage. A welcome addition to the forces of Angmar and a terrifying opponent to face alone.

Unnatural Power

The Sorceress channels the gifts of fell forces through devastating spells, powerful buffs, debilitating curses, and defensive magic. She is not a front-line fighter; instead, she excels from the heart of the battle, where she can safely weave together her elemental powers while remaining protected from enemy assaults—and watchful for lurking Burglars.

Skills:

Devotions

The Sorceress shifts between elemental Devotions to wield:

  • Baelfire for powerful damage
  • Umbral Pall for debilitating tactical effects
  • Acid to physically weaken enemies
  • Gelid Wind to bolster her own defenses and survivability

Elemental Wisps

The Sorceress's primary attacks, Wisps are quick spells that build elemental synergy and activate powerful secondary effects.

Elemental Spikes

Spikes are cornerstone abilities that apply sustained damage, defensive bonuses or debilitating debuffs. Careful skill weaving allows these effects to remain active throughout extended engagements.

Elemental Breath

Using fell potions and corrupted reagents, the Sorceress unleashes devastating breath attacks that burn, weaken, terrify, or freeze her enemies.

Elemental Summons

Calling upon corrupted natural forces, the Sorceress tears the earth open to summon fell manifestations that cripple and torment her foes.

Elemental Finishers

Drawing upon the deepest secrets of the fell, the Sorceress unleashes devastating finishing abilities that can shield her from harm, envelop enemies in darkness, corrode weapons, or invoke the terrible fire of the great worms.

Elemental Sheathes

These defensive enchantments punish attackers by reflecting debilitating effects when the Sorceress is struck, or by reducing incoming damage while active.

Fell Insight

The Sorceress exploits her knowledge of the fell to weaken enemies or create opportunities for devastating attacks from her allies.

Fell Knowledge

Her deepest studies unlock the truest potential of Acid, Fire, Frost, and Shadow, further enhancing her elemental mastery providing buffs for allies and devastating debuffs against enemies

Sorcerous Study

The Sorceress can prepare up to three abilities from her Devotions, Wisps, Spikes, and Breath attacks before battle. Prepared skills deal 40% less damage than their normal versions but significantly improve associated debuffs and expand elemental synergy options.

Elemental Synergy

By weaving prepared abilities from multiple Devotions, the Sorceress unleashes area damage tied to her current Devotion while applying powerful elemental debuffs based on the last ability used.

Class Traits:

  • Durability of Angmar: Increases Morale, Tactical Mitigation, and Physical Mitigation
  • Knowledge of Elements: Improves resistances and reduces the cooldown of Devotions.
  • Veteran of Long War: Increases Tactical Mastery and increases damage by Sorceress Skills.
  • Legacy of Discord: Reduces the cooldown on Sorceress Synergy skills, increases resistance to Cries and Songs.
  • Dread Summons: Summoning skills gain more potency and secondary effects. This enhances your summoned fumaroles, ice pillars, and simulacrum.
  • Wicked Mind: Reduces cooldown on Bastion of Light, Shadowy Simulacrum, Torrent of Flame, and Channel the Worm.
  • Chilling Defence: Enhances your Ice Tomb, reduces the cooldown of your Insight or Iron and Accursed Knowledge skills, and reduces the cooldown of your Gift of the Rime Warband Manouevre opening skill and your Ice Tomb defensive skill.
  • Vile Tongue: Enhances damage of breath skills and adds a brief knockdown to your frost breath and enhances the unbreakable duration of your shadow breath fear effect.
  • Pinnacle of Wrath: Increases the damage and critical chance of all elemental capstone skills.
  • Acid Mastery I: Increases your acid skill damage and grants your acid wisp, spike, and breath skills the ability to increase the potency of applied acid synergy effects.
  • Acid Mastery II: Further increases the damage of your acid skill damage, decreases the cooldown on swapping into your acid devotion stance by 3 seconds, and increases the duration of your acid sheath by 2 seconds.
  • Fire Mastery I: Increases your fire skill damage and grants your fire wisp, spike, and breath skills the ability to increase the potency of applied fire synergy effects.
  • Fire Mastery II: Further increases the damage of your fire skill damage, decreases the cooldown on swapping into your fire devotion stance by 3 seconds, increases the duration of your fire sheath by 2 seconds, and increases your sorceress spike Damage over Time pulse count by 2.
  • Frost Mastery I: Increases your frost skill damage and grants your frost wisp, spike, and breath skills the ability to increase the potency of applied frost synergy effects.
  • Frost Mastery II: Further increases the damage of your frost skill damage, decreases the cooldown on swapping into your frost devotion stance by 3 seconds, and increases the duration of your acid sheath by 2 seconds.
  • Shadow Mastery I: Increases your shadow skill damage and grants your shadow wisp, spike, and breath skills the ability to increase the potency of applied shadow synergy effects.
  • Shadow Mastery II: Further increases the damage of your shadow skill damage, decreases the cooldown on swapping into your shadow devotion stance by 3 seconds, and increases the duration of your shadow sheath by 2 seconds.

Playing the Sorceress

The Sorceress is constantly on the move, but preparation is the key to unlocking her full potential.

If your goal is maximum burst damage, choose Blessing of the Krahjarn. For longer-lasting damage-over-time effects, Shelob's Blessing is the stronger choice. If you prefer a balanced approach, the White Hand Blessing offers the best of both worlds.

Your Corruption Traits should complement the role you intend to play in the Ettenmoors. Offensive builds benefit from critical chance and damage bonuses, while defensive builds should focus on protection and mitigation.

Angmarim racial traits also provide additional customization. Legacy of the Witch-king offers an instant heal and critical bonus, while Body of Iron grants valuable defensive utility. Both are excellent choices depending on your preferred playstyle.

Class Traits offer tremendous flexibility, allowing you to tailor the Sorceress for damage, battlefield control, or survivability. Below are a few examples to get you started.

The Synergy Sorceress

  • All four Elemental Mastery I traits
  • Durability of Angmar
  • Vile Tongue
  • Legacy of Discord

This build revolves around maximizing Elemental Synergy.

Taking all four Tier I Masteries allows your Wisps, Spikes, and Breath skills to strengthen their corresponding synergy debuffs with every application. Breath skills become especially valuable, allowing you to increase synergy tiers across entire groups of enemies.

Durability of Angmar provides much-needed survivability, while Vile Tongue dramatically improves the impact of prepared Breath attacks.

Legacy of Discord reduces the cooldown of your Synergy abilities, allowing you to maintain multiple elemental debuffs throughout prolonged engagements.

The Firebrand Sorceress

  • Fire Mastery I & II
  • Knowledge of the Elements
  • Veteran of the Long War
  • Legacy of Discord
  • Pinnacle of Wrath
  • Wicked Mind

This build focuses on maximizing Fire damage.

Fire Masteries significantly increase damage, reduce Devotion cooldowns, extend Fire Sheath, and improve damage-over-time effects.

Knowledge of the Elements keeps Devotion swapping fluid, allowing frequent transitions between offensive Fire, healing Shadow, and defensive Frost.

Veteran of the Long War provides a substantial boost to Tactical Mastery, while Legacy of Discord ensures your Synergy abilities remain available as often as possible.

Pinnacle of Wrath empowers your devastating Balefire finisher, and Wicked Mind keeps marquee abilities like Torrent of Flame and Channel the Worm ready more frequently.

The Defensive Sorceress

  • Frost Mastery I & II
  • Shadow Mastery I
  • Acid Mastery I
  • Vile Tongue
  • Knowledge of the Elements

This build emphasizes survivability and battlefield control.

Frost Masteries encourage frequent Devotion swapping to maximize Gelid Wind's powerful defensive bonuses while extending Frost Sheath.

Adding Shadow and Acid Mastery allows you to maintain multiple Synergy debuffs across enemies through careful use of prepared skills.

Vile Tongue strengthens your crowd-control toolkit by improving every Breath attack, while Knowledge of the Elements enables rapid Devotion swapping to cycle between the healing of Umbral Pall and the defensive benefits of Gelid Wind.

Round out the build with either Durability of Angmar for increased survivability or Legacy of Discord for stronger Synergy uptime.

These examples represent only a handful of the Sorceress's many possibilities. Experiment with different combinations to discover the playstyle that suits you best.

Above all else, remember that the Sorceress rewards preparation.

Before entering combat, choose your three prepared abilities carefully. These skills fuel your Synergy effects, granting access to powers outside your current Devotion and allowing you to adapt as the battle unfolds.

Keep in mind that Synergy debuffs spread around your initial target. With the appropriate Tier I Elemental Masteries equipped, Breath skills can increase synergy tiers across groups of enemies, Wisps rapidly build debuffs on a single target, and Spikes both strengthen Synergy and apply their own unique buffs or debuffs.

Mastering the Sorceress is about preparation, awareness, and knowing exactly when to shift between her elemental powers. Those who do will find one of the most dynamic and rewarding additions ever introduced to Monster Play.