As you progress to the higher levels of LOTRO, there's another category of stats worth considering: stats that help you do your group role. In groups you may be more of a specialist than a generic fighter. Most classes can be effective in their roles using the same survivability and damage stats they use for soloing, although you may find yourself switching class traits or gear to improve your utility skills for grouping. Tanks and healers, however, need to consider some additional stats for grouping - especially after level 50.

Tanking Specialist

Tanking is a two-part role: 1) gather up the attention of the baddies, and 2) survive the smackdown long enough for your group to kill them. Tanks do part one - generating threat - via damage (and healing, if you are a Warden) and by using threat-building skills, traits and legacies on their legendary items. Your skill at playing your tank is also extremely important for gathering up mobs.

Part two is where stats come in: surviving the damage that huge troll or horde of goblins is trying inflict. Tanks need the same survivability stats I described in the Stats for Survivability article - Morale, BPE, Defenses, Mitigations, and Resists - only more of them than other classes need.

• Vitality is a great survivability stat for Guardians and Wardens since they get 5 Morale per point of Vitality, and can benefit from its boost to resists.
• Try to raise all three Avoidances (block, parry and evade). Not only is more avoidance valuable in it's own right, but it's also important to get the most from partial mitigations (discussed below). Take note of the bonuses supplied by your tanking stance or gambits, and use stats to boost the ones that aren't already capped at 15%.
• Where bad effects are commonplace raise Resistances proactively, rather than relying on an after-the-fact cure or potion. Use resist foods, virtues and gear bonuses to increase your resistance to them.
• Where particular damage types (Fire, Shadow, Acid, etc.) are commonplace, use armour sets for their large Mitigation bonuses.

Incoming Healing

Incoming Healing is an important stat for any player that receives lots of heals. It is multiplied by the outgoing heals cast on you by a healer. If your Incoming Healing is 10%, for each 100 morale of healing you receive will heal you for 110 morale instead. Incoming Healing directly offsets incoming healing penalties, such as the one Champion's suffer while in Fervour stance. The Incoming Healing percentage from ratings is capped at 15%, however buffs like Captain's Strength of Will and the Race of Man +5% incoming heal trait Easily Inspired are not included in the cap.

Partial Mitigations

Partial Mitigations occur when you fail to Block, Parry or Evade an attack. There's a chance you'll partially avoid the attack and still take much less damage than a normal hit. How much damage you take is a rather complicated calculation, so let's step through an example:

My 63 guardian has 3610 Block Rating which works out to a 12.6% chance to Block, plus another 5% from the Guardian's Defence stance. So she will completely avoid, on average, 17.6% of blockable attacks vs. on-level opponents. There's another 6.6% chance she'll partially block these attacks; 4.1% comes from her not-yet-capped Block Chance from ratings, and 2.5% come from slotting the Reactive Block trait.

The last line shows the Partial Block Mitigation %, i.e., how much damage will be reduced partial Block: 40.1%. Actually, it's reduced by a lot more than 40.1%, but more on that in a minute. The Partial BPE Mitigation percentages are increased by stances, class traits and partial mitigation bonuses on legendary item relics, like this one:

Your final mitigation % depends on your mitigation for the damage type of the attack. For Common attacks, it's Common Mitigation + Partial Block Mitigation - 83.7% in this example. Many tanks raise their avoidance mitigations for Common and other damage types to nearly 100%, effectively turning the partial chance into additional pure avoidance chance.

Critical Defences

Three new stats were added to the game with the Mirkwood expansion: Melee Critical Defence, Ranged Critical Defence, and Tactical Critical Defence. These reduce your opponents' chances to score a critical or devastating critical hit against you. Guardians, Wardens, and Captains can now buy Passives from their class trainer to increase these ratings. Champions in Glory or Ardour stance also gain Critical Defence now. Shields, class traits and trait line bonuses also provide Critical Defense.

How Stats Work

Stats for Survivability

Stats for Damage

Stats for Tanking 

Stats for Healing