They wear medium armour and armour mitigations below Heavy were severely nerfed. In combination with other game mechanic changes it meant they were taking huge amounts of damage all of a sudden, especially from tactical attacks. Same thing hit hunters but at least we don’t have to get up close.
Guardians are now by far the best tankers.
Wardens are now being changed to give them a Ranged DPS secondary role.
no doubt wardens can still tank trash content and great wardens can probably still tank higher content. But a semi-competent Guardian face-rolling the keyboard will still do better.
Hunters are the same - superb hunters, straining every sinew can just about keep up with the average rune-keeper.
The latest changes have really knocked the class balance to hell. Hunters and Wardens were each nerfed badly in terms of survivability while every other class and its dog were getting healing bubbles and other outrageous boosts.
Hunters can do immense burst dps if they configure as glass cannons. Trouble is of course that most tanks cannot now hold aggro against it and due to the low morale trade-off and weaker armour mitigation they can no longer take the pounding.
The main difference is that the Warden dev has admitted his mistake and is going to fix it. The hunter dev hasn’t.
The ‘blue’ mentioned in the first riddle refers to the Blue Mountains (Ered Luin), which identifies the River Lune (Lhûn).
The Forsaken Inn is briefly described in the LoTR as being a day’s travel east of Bree, hence half a day towards the sun and half a day away. The open window is formed by a hole in the roof.
Thanks! (I’m heading for the maps + books now…)
Each class has some sort of ‘panic button’ to help when things go wrong, in the form of a significant heal or skills to absorb/avoid large amounts of damage or ways to get out of combat fast.
As already mentioned, all the classes can function adequately solo, though progress with the tanking classes and captains is a little slower. In any case, each class has trait options to assist with individual play, normally improving damage whilst compromising survivability/utility.
I’d disagree with the idea that wardens make the best solo class. While they are/were (formerly) capable of drawn-out feats of resilience, it doesn’t make them a whole barrel of fun to play solo IMO. If you do decide to try one however, you will need to purchase it from the store, as with the rune-keeper. Alternatively both are bundled with the Moria expansion.
Any class can get to the ‘undefeated’ title without too much difficulty once you’ve become familiar with the game mechanics. Steer clear of red & purple level enemies, pay due respect to signatures, and don’t tackle too much at once. If you do get in trouble you can always beat a tactical retreat by running away. The heal-over-time potions that you obtain via the new character gift box can help enormously with survival early on, so save them for when you’re in real trouble to supplement other healing options. The other temporary buffs it contains will also make the progress to level 20 that much smoother.
One important thing to note, and often missed by newcomers, is that the main global chat & grouping channel is user created. It’s typically named ‘glff’ on the US-English servers or ‘globallff’ on the (old) EU-English servers. To join it simply type ‘/joinchannel glff’ in the chat box (or /leavechannel glff to exit). To post a message in the channel use ‘/uc1 [message]’, or if you already belong in several, /listchannels will provide the /uc* number allocated. You can set it up in a separate tab via the right click-tab options, or another chat box by drag & drop.
Of the classes you haven’t mentioned trying yet, the burglar is particularly solo friendly and interesting to play. They excel in 1v1 combat, and have a handy amount of survival and crowd control skills. On the minus side, they suffer from lack of area of effect skills, but sneaking around pretending to be Frodo is a whole lot of fun. Alternatively champions do very well with respect to AoE damage, making them one of the fastest classes to progress. They’re moderately tough to boot. Guardians are somewhat similar in overview, as a heavy melee class, but with the damage to survival ratio flipped. Rune keepers are squishy, but versatile, though they’re furthest removed from the lore if you care about immersion. Lastly captains offer a moderately hardy choice, but glacial DPS means that they’re perhaps the least solo friendly. They are much sought after in groups however.
I of course have to offer my contrasting experiences:
I found burglars somewhat tedious, because the necessity to sneak up on every target if you want something resembling a quick and safe fight became time consuming, and “adds” were generally problematic since their Riddle skill isn’t particularly good unless you use Mischief, which…turns off stealth.
My experience with a Champion was that he tore through content for a while, then became incredibly flimsy relative to the things he needed to kill, and his AoE DPS became irrelevant because he couldn’t survive more than maybe two mobs at once.
Captain DPS has improved somewhat of late, and they have the advantage of not really needing to stop and rest as much as other classes, even when multiple targets are involved.
But as I said before, which class is “best” solo depends largely on how you define “best”.
I agree that burglars can become tiresome if you play for extended periods, taking on mobs individually and with few options to initiate combat from range. Often it’s faster to skip stealth entirely with normal landscape mobs. They’re suited to short sessions.
Champions, following the RoI mitigation, skill & trait changes, are now pretty hardy, and don’t suffer the downtime that they once did. They’re more than tough enough to take on multiple enemies at once.
In any event the best way to find out your preferred class is to have a short go with each.
Thanks for the discussion - very helpful.
I got the teenage son of a friend to explain Wardens to me, bought the Moria expansion and am now having fun with Warden ‘gambits’.
I like the choices and the animations (e.g. Spear thrust + Shield bash -> The Boot 
)
I realise that ‘best class’ means different things to different people, but I think that the Hunter, Loremaster and Warden definitely suit me.
I suppose I like to start attacking from a distance, so if necessary I can run away!