from what i gather debuffs are important, addle? is it that slows them down or dust in the eyes? that increases misses.
Addle is the induction interrupter (and increases the inductions for a short time), it's just that has a set-up time due to its animation plus a longish cooldown (which a few seconds: "Oh, he is casting a heal, hmmm... where is that Addle again... ah there it is... and it is off of cool down, lets press that... oh please finish the animation already... AAARGH, too late"). Can't wait for the addle legacies found on legendary burg tools, shortens the cooler and apparently the setup time too (based on the drooling comments burgs are posting on the LOTRO forums).
Burglars also have Reveal Weakness (8% increase to all damage on target, 10% increase if traited) and four tricks (Dust in the Eyes, Enrage, Counter Defence and Disable. Burgs can use one trick on any given target.
I use the traited dust in the eyes in multimob situations (ie as I have it traited it is an AoE debuff which gives mobs 20% chance to miss, also when the mob is a hard-hitting something whacking me (with Dust in the eyes and touch&go (added 50% evade for 30 seconds) and I have only about 5% chance to be hit for full damage (Fitzers evade+parry+partial evade&parry are together about 25%); especially useful as I have the legendary trait which opens up crit response skills after a successfull evade, which was how I did "tank" that one boss in School, barely got hit while T&G was on let me hit for lots of damage to keep aggro, and Kurtt then saved my butt after T&G faded). At times that AoE sucks though, as it breaks any mezzes in the area.
Enrage is a nice debuff as it has a long range, which makes the mob vulnerable to ranged damage and forces the mob to target a random mob for a while (for example yesterday I did use this a lot when there were archery duels between Eld and archer mobs, and also when I noticed somebody is about to die (even if the random target changing lasts for a few seconds, it can be enough to save that somebody). Mostly I use it for the skills that require a trick on the target (like the self heal (Mischievous Glee), a stun (Startling twist), and a random thing (Clever Retort) which can do damage, heal or restore power) as Enrage has a long range and thus can be used when the mob is still closing in (I mostly run in Mischief stance, which is not that usual for Quick Knife traited burgs, but I love the extra cc options I have in Mischief (Riddle has only 30 cooler while in Mischief, and I can use Clever Retort then (which is nice, as it is a great power saver; 25% to get power restored, 50% to get a major whack on the mob (which thus saves power too) and the 25% chance to get a major heal is usually very nice too). If I had Enrage trait slotted, it would force ranged mobs to close into melee, but I haven't been able to decide which of my slotted traits I'd remove to make room (I have traits which increase my damage output by lots (ie the Quick Knife) plus Reveal Weakness and I like them... although I intend to try the Gamble traits at somepoint, sounds nice that there is a spec which is totally random
).
Disable is the trick I use least, altough I found it useful on mobs that were whacking Kurtt or Eld yesterday (outgoing melee damage of target reduced by 15% and attack speed of target reduced by 15%, so in all reduces damage by about 26% (if I did the maths right)) and mostly I use it only when I need a trick on a target to open another skill and I don't want to use Dust in the Eyes (as it breaks mezzes in the area) or Enrage (when I don't want the mob to switch target).
Counter Defence is the trick I use most, and that is purely because of selfish solo reasons (it boosts Fitzers damage by lots
). It increases melee crit chance on target (burgs love crits, without the crit chain open burgs have just three "spammable" skills (plus Provoke) and even they have moderate cooldowns -> without critical hits the burg is about as good as a minstrel DPSing in melee only :p) and reduces chance to parry, dodge or block attacks (the debuff is good enough to make normal mobs unable to block, dodge or evade, and signatures have a minimal chance to avoid being hit).
There are a few annoying things as a burg in fellowships.
One is that there is no graphical marker for Confound. A confounded mob is slowed down, and then 10 seconds later the mob is dazed for 30 seconds. Unless somebody whacks him. And usually there seems to always be somebody whacking the confounded mob :p At least I don't check all the debuff markers all the mobs have all the time, and that is currently the only way to know the mob is confounded. There should be a clear graphical something (stars rotating round the head, or something) so that others would know to not poke the target. Maybe it would be able to write some sort of script which put into fellowship channel "Target is confounded, please avoid" when using the skill. Anyway, annoying that a skill on 5 minute cooldown is practically useless in fellowships.
Another one that I have started to hate is the short duration stuns many classes have, many of them happening randomly too. Gnaargh gnaargh gnaargh, just before I use a CJ opener the mob gets stunned for one second, and my cj opener is lost (and they have 5 - 10 minute cooldown). Very frustrating.
Yet another, well placed strike does a crapton of damage over time when used with Aim (to make it autocrit), and the damage is not front heavy (so it is in theory safe to use, you don't automatically snatch aggro if the hit happens to be a devastating crit). It's just that it has a 3 minute cooldown *and* a 5 second casting (ie induction, as it is called in LOTRO) time, and 3 m range. And the casting gets interrupted if somebody so much as looks your way. Found out it is totally useless to try to use the skill vs Elite Masters, they all seemed to have some AoE damage skill/aura, thus making it absolutely impossible to get the skill cast. Sucks. Would be great if at least the traited version had a significantly shorter induction time. While soloing elites it is an excellent skill to take down elites (riddle the target, walk behind him, Aim, Well Placed strike (which thus autocrits), Dust in the eyes, use the three crit-response skills and hope the last one stuns the target (if not, use startling twist), move behind target again and unleash hell with the three "normal" skills, then T&G and get a beer from the fridge while the mob is bleeding to death from the dots and your autoattacks, and and the burg evades all the mobs attemtps to hit); I mean that is what you sort of expect from a skill on 3 minute cooler, right? Something rather spectacular, and for sure not a "meh" feeling being unable to use it vs things doing even minimal AoE damage