Ok so I've been thinking about this for a while, I've also tried setting it up once but never got to it really.. so here's another try, this time I'll communicate on the forum to share my thoughts with you and to ask for tips and suggestions to hopefully in a few weeks/months have a good group set up for completing most T2 content.

To get this thread started I think I'll have to start by explaining that I'm aiming on the really tough T2 fellowship instances. I'll not go to the 3 man instances as most of them are quite doable on T2.

This thread will be a laydown on what specs certain classes have if they want to come to a T2 instance. It is not my idea of forming a designated group of 6 players who are the only ones to be able to go to the T2 instances. The goal is to give everyone the ability to get their class set up to be able to join in when we're going to organize T2 events.

What does this mean, setting up my class?
Every instance has a certain tactic about how to complete it, some might be a pure DPS race, where others might need good timing and positioning or curing corruptions.
To have the correct 'tools' to your disposal for completing an instance you need to 'build your class to the instance'. This means that:

• you'll need to collect gear that increases the needed stats
• you'll need to build your trait tree in the way explained to help you get bonuses from the various traits
• you'll need to equip the correct virtue traits to help increase the needed stats.
• this might mean you'll need to complete a few more deeds to build up your virtue traits to max out their potency

Do I have to play a style I don't like?
No we will never force anyone to play their class in a way that they don't like to play. The only thing is that some classroles are necessary to complete an instance on T2. So if you want to come to that instance with a class which the instance is requiring a certain role to be played. You'll probably be asked by the raid leader if you're 'specced' for that role. If you're not specced for that role the leader might be able to ask someone else in the group if they can fulfill your role and have you take on a non-important role. But in general we do ask those that want to join in on T2 content to try and make sure their able to set up their class for the specific role needed.

Main classroles defined per class:
Every class has a main role in instances which they excel in, these roles are Tanking, Healing, Damage or Support. Here's a overview which class is best in what main role.

Tanking:

• Guardian
• Warden

Healing:

• Minstrel
• Runekeeper

Damage:

• Champion
• Hunter

Support:

• Loremaster
• Captain
• Burglar

I've not been able to run high level groups with a Beorning and thus can't say in what main role they would fit, my feeling is that they're a bit like the captain and thus can fill in a good support role.

When leveling a class it's important to learn to play your main role first. In certain times when one of the classes in a main role aren't available other classes might jump in those roles. But this will make the instance often a lot harder.
If you're not able to play your main role during leveling, make sure you'll start as soon as you're going to participate in group content. If you're new to a class's main role make sure the leader of the group knows this but tell them you're trying to learn the role. If it's a good leader he/she will be helpful and not bothered if you fail in something.
Also try to start with small groups and low tier instances, jumping in a T2 instance the first time you're grouping and playing a main role will be a 90% chance of disaster. 

What is the job of my main role and what stats/traits are good for this role? 
I will try to write down the meaning of these 'main roles' for each class in the coming weeks, so look for your class write down!

Tanking:

Tanking in LOTRO is often not more than keeping the enemies on you and making sure you aren't to squishy so healers are able to keep you up. I'll not go in detail about that tanking isn't always just as easy as the above sounds, for now I'll just explain what stats the tanking classes should try to focus on.

Although the main classes for the tanking role are the Guardian and Warden there's a few other classes who are able to do some decent tanking, everyone who wants to try out a tanking role in an instance can take the following build advices and it'll help you as well.

Ok so the first thing I'll explain is I'm not a fan of stacking as much morale as possible, I know some people think that if a tank stacks a zillion amount of morale they'll be immortal and thus be the best tanks ever. I'll explain my reasoning why I think stacking morale is the last thing you should focus on.
First of, and I think this is the main reason, stacking morale also makes you have to make concessions on other stats, often these stats also include the avoidance and defensive stats like mitigation, block/parry/evade, critical defence and resistance.
Having those stats lower makes your character take more damage per hit, now you'd think that because your morale bar is at a 1 zillion points it doesn't matter as you can take a punch.
Think about this, Healers only have an X amount they can heal you each second, this means that the higher the hits are you take the more a healer needs to focus on you to keep your morale pool filled up. Sure you won't die immediately if they stop for a few seconds to heal up others but after that it'll take the healer very long to get your morale back to safety again.

The more time the healer needs to spend on you the less time they can spend paying attention to other things that are important as well.
Then I can just focus on morale, avoidance and defensive stats right? That way I can still get a zillion amount of morale and I'll not be hit as hard so that would really make me immortal!
Well, yes it would but if you focus on those 3 you'll have to take cuts in your damage output (DPS). And although you're job is not to be the highest DPS in the group you do need to have a decent amount of damage. The thing is that threat (agro) is generated by damage, and even with a passive buff of 300% threat generation from damage, your DPS has to be close to 50% of the highest damaging character in your group.

Look at this example:
The highest DPS is at 400p/s = 400 threat generation
Your threat generation needs to be a lot higher than this otherwise it'll be to easy for the high DPS class to accidentally pull the threat with a few lucky high critical hits.

So I'd advice to aim your DPS to be around (400/2 = 200p/s) + 300% trait bonus = 800 threat generation. That way you'll be generating twice as much threat and should be ok with the possible lucky crit streaks of the DPS class.

So all of this comes down to finding a balance between all 3 parts, my personal advice would be to prioritize from top to bottom:

1. Mitigations, both physical and tactical should be capped at 60% for heavy armour and 50% for medium armour classes.
2. Critical defence at least 60% higher still helps but is not as important
3. Avoidances = block/parry/evade
4. Resistance
5. Physical mastery / Critical rating
6. Morale
7. Incoming healing, this is not to important but it's nice to have some of it

Traittree setup:
I'll talk through the traittrees for the 2 main classes of the tanking role which are the Guardian and the Warden. For other classes I'm always happy to hear suggestions.
I'll use this website for easier pointing out set ups: http://www.lotrottp.lotro ... status.com/l.php

GUARDIAN:
Guardians are the sturdy tanks that have lots of armour and mitigations which help them to stay alive and deal with big incoming hits. With the latest traittree options Guardians also have a few self heal options to give a bit more self-reliance. Guardians are very useful in fights with a lot of spike damage as they will mitigate most of the damage if they get hit.

I think the guardian has quite a few options to build the traittree for tanking but below are the two variations I'd recommend in tough fights.

Build 1: http://www.lotrottp.lotro ... atus.com/l.php?c=2gy
This build is great for tanking multiple enemies at the same time.

Build 2: http://www.lotrottp.lotro ... atus.com/l.php?c=2rx
This build is great for tanking single enemies like instance bosses.

WARDEN:
Where the guardian has mitigations and armour Wardens make up by using morale leaches to help keep their own morale up, they are a bit slower in building up threat so it's often preferred to give the warden a few seconds to build up threat before the group starts the DPS.
Spike damage can be dangerous for wardens as their mitigations and armour is lower than that of a guardian.

I think wardens have less trait variations for tanking nonetheless I have tried to set up 2 builds which could be used in a main tanking role.

Build 1: http://www.lotrottp.lotro ... atus.com/l.php?c=2gH
This build is great for tanking when there's a healer that has trouble keeping you up, it focuses on your defences and incoming heals

Build 2: http://www.lotrottp.lotro ... atus.com/l.php?c=2gJ
This build might be an option if you notice you're not having enough damage output to keep threat, I've sacrificed some defences and incoming heals to increase damage output.

Healing:

Although the main classes for the healing role are the Minstrel and Runekeeper there's a few other classes who are able to do some decent healing as well, everyone who wants to try out a healing role in an instance can take the following build advices and it'll help you as well.

Ok, so healing.. to be the best possible healer in LOTRO you should try to get as many points on tactical mastery and critical rating. Increasing these 2 stats will improve your healing output and thus should be your number one focus priority.
Second to that should be your own survivability, followed by in-combat power regeneration.
Survivability is the same for each class, increase your physical and tactical mitigations and try to get those capped, light armour can cap these at 40%.
Resistance will be very useful as well and a bit of avoidance with block/parry/evade.

So, my personal advice would be to prioritize from top to bottom:

1. Tactical mastery / Critical rating
2. Mitigations, both physical and tactical should be capped at 40% for light armour and 50% for medium armour classes.
3. Resistance
4. Avoidances = block/parry/evade
5. Critical defence
6. Total Power and in-combat power regeneration
7. Total Morale and in-combat morale regeneration

Traittree setup:
I'll talk through the traittrees for the 2 main classes of the healing role which are the Minstrel and the Runekeeper. For other classes I'm always happy to hear suggestions.
I'll use this website for easier pointing out set ups: http://www.lotrottp.lotro ... status.com/l.php

MINSTREL:
To be continued....

RUNEKEEPER:
To be continued....

Tactical and physical mitigation caps are 

40% - lights
50% - mediums
60% - heavies

Looks good, hopefully sometime I will be able to try out my LM in T2 content, but still need to get a few things sorted on him yet. I have his mitigations maxed, crit defence at about 40% and Resistance at about 40% as well., so getting there. :-)