The only thing that really holds me back from liking LOTR was the weird classes. I could never get into them.

I never really recognized who the official tank class was... one of the classes had a helper pet npc that carried a flag around - just plain odd...i think there was an off-healing class, minstrils healing with their guitar - lame, loremaster the unofficial master of low dps and some cc....

I ended up playing the commoner class - hunter. It lessened the pain of travel and had decent dps. But to be honest it still wasnt my cup of tea. Ive never liked or played a class that used a bow for very long.

Everything else about LOTR was wonderful. The quests are great. The graphics in my op the best of any MMO to date (and that includes aoc) There are non-combat things to do like playing music and fishing. There's housing although i wish it was better implemented. The community was fantastic and a welcome change from the awful wow crowd.

I managed to get a hunter to lvl 50 and completed I think Book 12 (the one that had a nice cape reward for finishing from Elrond). I couldnt bring myself to grind any of the other classes past 18 though.

Im considering a return though because Im such a tolkien fan. Im hoping the two new classes will be the diamond Ive been looking for to play.

Any info on the new classes would be most appreciated. I understand one is going to be a caster dps class (doesnt that upset the fans who dont want cannon broken cause there was only a few wizards around ?). The other class I know nothing about

You speak poorly of these classes, and with poor discriptions as well. I fear your view on this game is off, and this might also misguide others as well. Thankfuly there is a great discription of the classes that are shown even upon the LOTRO home site.

Be as it may here is what they are:

Gaurdian: The gaurdian is a master aggressing their enemy, keeping the attention off others. The high skill of bolcking, parrying, and evading keeps the gaurdian safe and strong. The gaurdian is the tank.

Minstrel: With the ability to heal and attack through song and lyric, the minstrel is the oldest concept of a bard. With hoid on his instrument, he keeps the fellowship alive. The minstrel is the healer.

Lore Master: The Lore Master is not from the movies, but rather the books. They are keepers of runes and magic. To them it is not magic, but their way of life, a tapping into nature. Using the power of the wind and such, the loremaster can debuff, confuse, and damage a foe. They have along side them a friend, a beast of faith and love that assists them as well.

Champion: With a master of most weapons, this fighter is skilled in attack. The blades of the champion are used with much skill as to attack many foes within thier reach. The Champion is the AOE dpser.

Captain: A leader of men, with herald or banner, the captain will give strength to all friends around him. His banner gives hope, his herald gives strength, as the captain is capable of turning a losing fight into a winning one. The captain is the buffing class.

Hunter: With skill of bow that no other has, the arrow can seek where it would wound the foe best. The hunter is quite plainly the single target dpser class.

Burglar: With light feet and quick hands, the burglar is the most evasive and speedy side of the free peoples. He has an arsenal of tricks, which can riddle opponents, stun foes, and weaken the enemies strengths. The Burglar is the debuffer and single target dpser.

These are but brief descriptions, as there is more to these classes, but please do not disreguard what you do not understand as poor thoughts and ideas. These concepts are from mythology of beliefs of old. There was a day to think otherwise would have been scorned on.

Info here

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=158636

Actually, though, most of the classes are right out of the books. I re-read them when I started a month ago, and it was funny seeing the class names pop-up in the text of the novels.  Burglar, sure, but also Captain, Champion and Lore-master. 

The imposrtant thing to remember with healing in LotRO is that "hitpoints" reflect morale, and thus minstrels keeping the morale of fellowship high and lowering the opponents morale has very much basis on the written work. Songs and music have an integral part on the books, remember Frodo and Sam bypassing the watchers in Cirith Ungol with just with some verses of elven song to Varda. In the game, heroes aren't killed, but they lose the willingness to fight when losing their morale - I admit that even if the concept is much based on semantics, it's still pretty novel way of seeing characters health.

Guardian is as far a pure tank as a class can be.

Of course, LotRO seem to be a game dividing players, others love it and others can't stand it - Pretty much like any other game out there, but maybe with even more pronounced division between black and white. That can even be a good thing as games trying to be something for everybody tend to dilute their original vision, and aimlessness in game development has been always bane for the whole game.

Originally posted by admriker4

The only thing that really holds me back from liking LOTR was the weird classes. I could never get into them.

This is kinda also my main problem. I got into closed beta fairly late and tested it for a few weeks before launch. I know the lore and think they did a very good job with it but, I found the character play to be really bland. I'm sure some would disagree but for me i just found at low levels the classes weren't that fun to play.  The rest of the world, quests, crafting , ect were all really good imo. The community in beta and on the forums were also a big plus. I only had 1 problem with the game but it was a big one to me. I need to enjoy playing the class i choose.

While trying all the classes in a short period of time with 1 server wipe, i only managed to get 1 character over 25. So maybe it got much better as you got higher , but you really need to pull people in at the lower levels to keep them playing.

I did not buy the game at release but am contemplating trying it again once Mines of Moria releases. In the hope that the 2 new classes offer something more to my liking. It's been a while since beta so maybe they spruced up the other classes as well.