If you've no clue how traits work, how to get more, what they're for, which to choose or how to equip and use them; you should do yourself a favor and visit a Bard while you review this.

What are Traits?

Traits are bonuses to your character. They come in the form of skill improvements, stat improvements, new skills or they may change how a skill works entirely.

They come in 4 forms, which are separated wherever you can view your Traits: Virtues, Racial, Class and Legendary.

Virtues

Virtues are universal. All players have access to the same virtues by the same means. If you have to kill 200 Giants in Evendim for Honour, so does everyone else. Virtues ALL give stat buffs. Since they are not class or race specific, they do not ever alter your skills. They may increase your Morale, your Armour or your Vitality. They might increase your mitigation to certain damage types, or give you an In-Combat-Morale increase.

Virtues are always earned by doing Deeds. If you open your Deed Log and find the "Show Rewards" check box, it will display the Virtue you will earn (along with a title, possibly) for doing the Deed.

Racial

Race traits are specific to your race (Man, Dwarf, Elf or Hobbit). All players of your race will have access to the same race traits by the same means.

Racial traits give stat buffs AND new skills. More on that later.

But how do I know what Traits give skills, and which do not? The key here is simply to read the tooltips (when you mouse-over a Trait, it will display the full description of it). It should clearly indicate if it changes a current skill (and how), or if it enables you to use an entirely new skill.

Class

Class traits are specific to your class (Hunter, LM, RK, Minstrel, Guardian, etc etc). All players of your class will have access to the same class traits by the same means.

Class traits are earned by using your skills, or doing class quests (level 15, 30). Generally speaking, class quests improve skills, or alter them.

Legendary

Legendary traits are perhaps the most confusing.

First, all Legendary traits are Class specific. Think of them as an extension of Class traits. While Class traits are earned by using your skills, Legendary traits are earned by doing specific quests. At level 39 you can begin working on your first 3 legendary skills. All three level 39 legendary skills are received by finding pages which drop on the landscape at random. You must purchase the 3 books from your trainer at 39 to begin the quests. They cannot be gathered unless you have the quest running. They cannot be traded once you find them. In fact, they disappear into your Deed log once you pick them up.

The level 45 and 58 class quests reward you with Legendary skills.

When you approach level 58, you can also get one Legendary skill from completing Volume 2, Book 6, Chapter 8; and one Legendary skill can be purchased from a reputation vendor inside the mines.

How do I earn Traits?

Almost all Traits are earned by doing Deeds. The only exceptions to this is the Class Quests (Level 15 & 30, which give Class Traits; and 45 & 58, which give Legendary Traits), Volume 2 Book 6 Chapter 8 and a purchasable item from the Guards of Moria, both of which give a Legendary Traits.

You'll want to frequently check your Deed log. If you notice you're getting close to completing a deed, you may want to concentrate on it for a while. Or if there is a Class or Race (or Virtue) that you really want, you can just concentrate on those.

You can "Add to Tracker" the Deeds you want to keep track of.

A note on earning Class deeds: All Class deeds must be earned against non-trivial mobs! For example, if you are a Guardian and working on the "Shield Expertise" deed to earn the Defensive Expertise Class trait, you need to strike enemies with Shield-Blow 1,500 times! But before you rush out that door to farm spiders in Sprigleys basement... You can only advance this deed by using Shield-Blow on non-trivial mobs! That means, they must not be grey! The title of the mob, when you select it, MUST be a color; green, light blue, blue, white, yellow, orange, red or purple.

How do I equip and use Traits?

You must visit a Bard to equip traits. Once you have them equipped, you can change out traits at any point (as long as you can visit a bard). It costs money to change traits, but not a lot.

Most of the time, equipping traits at the Bard is all you need to do; they go into effect as soon as you pay the Bard and accept the changes. The exception to this is traits that give you a new skill!

Sometimes Racial traits and Legendary traits will grant you access to a new skill! When you visit a Bard and equip a Trait that gives you access to a skill, that skill will appear in your skill journal, as if you've just learned it at a trainer. And just like those, you must drag that skill from your journal to your hotbar in order to use it!

How do I know which Traits to use?

Knowing which traits to use when is something that will become clear with experience. If you're totally clueless, just equip your highest ranked Virtues & whatever Class traits sound good to you. You can't break your character by equipping "wrong" traits. There are no "wrong" traits. Some are more ideal in some situations - that is all.

For a nearly complete guide to ALL traits in LOTRO, please see the Compendium here:

http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Lord_of_the_Rings_Online_Traits_Compendium