*Sching Sching* The Sound of Death & “Christ! I just punched a giant spider to death!”

Ranhold is a Champion in LOTRO and let me tell you, being a Champ is a whole heap of fun! The primary combat style of the Champ is to wade in and slice the living shit out of everything in his (or her – think P think C kids!) way as hard and as fast as possible. This already sounds like fun to me, but little did I know just how much fun the designers had made it because when you manage to get the correct flow of power and combat moves the Champion becomes pure poetry in motion, a blur of blades that hit the bad guys in front so fast and hard that sometimes, just sometimes, they never even get chance to hit you back. They just fall at your feet with their extremities landing in wet puddles around them. And all you can hear, the only sound you become aware of when you get this complicated dance of keys, stats & animations to flow like honey, is the *sching sching* of his swords slicing & dicing the orc damn fool enough to stand in front of this beautiful killing machine.

And for an added bonus I received a new skill called Upper Cut – I can’t remember when or why, but I remember thinking “I’ll never use that!” and burying it away in my inventory. Until I found it again and read what it did – a quick punch that can stun the enemy for a second or two allowing you to re-group, heal or just whack the shit out of them in peace. That’s good enough to use it almost all the time, but I also found out, by accident, that if you time it just right and hold off to the very last moments of a fight you can punch your enemy clean in to the next world So far I have punched to death the following things: giant spiders, huge turtles, fully grown bears, goblins, orcs, brigands and a crow.

Pass me some raw meat and a wench of dubious provenance, I’m feeling all studdly all of a sudden!