Minstrel
My Ideal Minstrel
Nov 8th
We’ll be taking a short hiatus from the class cooperation series to take a look at what changes I’d love to see for the primary healing class. I know it’s a little late for the Tell the Community thread and that no significant changes were made after all the input that was provided. This isn’t meant to be critical of Turbine, just an opinion article based on some of the best ideas I have seen over the past few months. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m perfectly fine with the status quo, but it’s nice to dream of what some small changes could do for the class.
Developers got on the good side of a few minstrels with the new Annuminas Medium Armor set, though its still pretty much a toss up about which way the division will lay once radiance is re-worked/removed. In the mean time, a new shiny set of armor with +150 radiance is great to have. Sure, the Will and Fate bonuses are deficient to say the least…
More >
Rune-keepers & Minstrels
Oct 19th
I had no idea Healing made me so green!
Moving on to our next article in the series, Rune-keepers will be our featured companion. Originally I wasn’t going to include them into the support classes since most RKs tend to favor the DPS generating portion of their attunement bars. After considering how I play with my Rune-keeper I thought they might still be pertinent to the discussion. Let’s lay down the scenario, you’re in a group with a Rune-keeper and (s)he probably won’t think to ask if they can help out. It’s just hard-wired into the personality of a Rune-keeper. They’re a little crazy and they know it; so don’t get after me for writing it out :P.
/Ignored – Basically, no real strategy at all. Let everybody do their own thing. It’s sometimes the easiest and most agreeable way to get along with your fellowship. Although I doubt you’d bother reading the article if this was all the advice I was offering up. More >
Did You Know…
Oct 11th
I have a confession to make: I am a good little healing minstrel who also loves to *thump* the heads of baddies!
Now obviously, when I am playing in a fellowship, and my fellows are counting on me to be the dividing line between glorious victory and head-hanging, foot-shuffling defeat, my main focus must be on strumming my theorbo for all it is worth, keeping those morale bars nice and fat.
So, what’s a mini to do when they really, really just want to sneak in a Ballad of Resonance or a Piercing Cry? First of all, I recommend that you not — I repeat, not — give in to this urge if you are pounding those heals as fast as you can till your fingers are bleeding. However, if the pace is a little more leisurely and you are able to throw a few damaging spells in between keeping your companions enheartened, using the following options might help to streamline the process for you.
Options –> Combat Options –>Show the Vitals of Your Selection’s Target — Allows you to select a target, such as the tank of your group (who should be attracting most of the aggro), and see which mob s/he is targeting and what that mob’s morale and power are at. Useful for keeping track of bosses and other bothersome mobs without switching the focus of your attention from your fellows to the mobs and back.
Options –> Combat Options –> Enable Skill Target Forwarding — Here’s the REALLY useful little trick. This option allows you to bang off healing skills intermingled with damage skills without changing targets, saving you time and potential confusion! How does it work? Well, if you have your tank targeted, you are already throwing heals that way, but if you are desperate to flex your big, strong minstrel muscles and want to toss in a Ballad of Steel or whatnot, you perform the offensive skill and (in my imagination) that skill flows through your target, not harming or healing him/her, to their own target, the enemy, and then executes. Another way I have found this option useful is during soloing. I can be bashing away at a mob and need some healing, so instead of changing my target to myself and performing the heal, I simply keep attacking and sneak in a heal when needed, never breaking rhythm or a sweat. The heal passes unnoticed through the enemy and comes back to me!
Interacting with Support & Healing Classes
Oct 5th
Thinking of how to continue the column and still maintain at least a modicum of productivity to it, I was drawn to a few topics. Mostly how to interact with a group having 2 minstrels or any combination with the other traditionally supportive classes in LOTRO. So to kick things off we’ll start with the most basic scenario and work out some strategies that can be easily implemented. The first scenario is of course if you find yourself in a party with another Minstrel.
Offensive & Healing – The simplest thing is to decide which one of you should do DPS while the other covers healing for the party. Which certainly is the easiest route to go, during simple instances like Grand Stair or a basic fellowship. It can be slightly hectic for the Healing player, but it’s no different than if you were healing a group with any other class configuration. More >
Changes To Minstrels with Volume 3.2
Sep 21st
So with all the changes we’ve seen with the transition to Free-To-Play with LOTRO, you’d think I would have more to talk about with Minstrels. Fact of the matter is, there really isn’t much of a change for our happy little healing class. We’ve got a few skill acquistions moved around and a few other miniscule things.
- Mentor skills can now be used while mounted.
- “Song of the Hopeful Heart” is no longer affected by Hope-dispelling attacks like the Balrog’s roar.
- Addressed an issue where Lothlórien instruments were not applying threat reduction properly.
Source: http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Release_Notes_Volume_3_Book_2_Official
Changing around the order of some of the lower level skills seems to offer a bit more DPS to the newly created Minstrel but there’s nothing game changing about it. There’s not really any new surprises with this list, what is surprising is the addition of a Medium armor radiance set for any class able to wear it. There are also some other “endgame” armor sets available that offer similarly wonderful stats. I’ll be looking forward to doing Annúminas instances for a few weeks in order to get the new Medium Set.
Have a great week in Middle-Earth!
Healing Approaches to Different Tanks
Aug 31st
1 Tequila, 2 Tequila, 3 Tequila, Floor!
There’s a lot of tanking classes in LOTRO, or at least melee and taunting classes. They can be lumped into three categories: the main tank, the off tank, and the bad tank. We can dress them up all we like, but that’s what it comes down to in most gaming situations. Considering all the possible combinations we are always left with one question; which class is the easiest to heal while in a group? Obviously the heavy tanks are the easiest to keep track of, as long as they do their jobs properly ; ). No offense players, but I get pretty upset when someone other than the tank pulls aggro right away. It’s not your fault and we all know it, but its aggravating nonetheless. More >
Just keep plucking your lute!
Aug 24th
We’ll be picking up exactly where we left off week before last. Another one of the legendary traits you can pick up for yourself is Master of Tales which is acquired through finishing books 1-6 for The Mines of Moria. Master of Tales is pretty helpful, I think it makes the Tales skills more viable while grouping. It combines and creates new toggle skills from your existing skills; Tale of Heroism and Tale of Warding are combined to create Tale of Warding and Heroism. This gives you an increase to Hope, Will, Fate, and Armour rating. Secondly, it improves Tale of Frost and Flame to give you Tale of Frost and Flame’s Battle which gives you a bonus to Vitality, Frost Mitigation, Fire Mitigation, and Wound Resistance. You can also gain a legendary trait from becoming Kindred with the Iron Garrison Guards. Which will then allow you to purchase and read the book “The Versus of the North.” This will give you access to Call to War which raises your critical effect chance while using your War-speech only skills. More >
Let’s Get Classy, Minstrels!
Aug 10th
I wanted to jump in and get you going all the way up to the current maximum level of 65. Then I started compiling all the content together and I slowly but surely realized that 50-65 has a HUGE amount of content when it comes to class specific quests along with all the regular quests you’ll run into along the way. Generally, you’ll be leveling in Moria. The deep dark dank is certainly not the most picturesque locale. Something I’ve found terribly helpful during my time there is your ‘lantern’ activated by pressing Alt F10. It makes the run feel a bit more realistic, if that’s the term I’m truly searching for. Aside from doing the basic sets of quests (read: bare minimum), I avoid Moria like the plague. My goal is to attempt running through to the Exit Sign as soon as Elvenly possible(terrible joke—sorry!). Lothlórien is just more laid back, despite the reputation gate that every first timer finds out about the hard way. Pro tip: Avoid the pretty gates until you’re an Acquaintance with Galadhrim. Let’s not stray too far, I’m going to run through the class quests I brushed under the rug quite quickly last week. More >
The Longest Levels, 40-50 for Minstrel
Aug 2nd
As I was writing this post, I found myself stumbling, because really there’s too many places you can choose from to get your character to ding in that upper 40’s range. The earlier levels however were pretty tricky in the past. Since the inception of the skirmish system, these levels can be easily ‘ground’ with the cycle of all the skirmishes available, everyday. It may seem monotonous but you can always switch between a few characters and keep yourself from burning out. To me, the levels between 40 and 50 are the most agonizing, so having plenty of alts to cycle through is fantastic. More >
Minstrel Levels 30-40 Summary
Jul 28th
Personally, I’d prefer to level a bit by skirmishing, as 30-35 normally go very quickly if you’re skirmishing. Since I don’t usually run War-speech, I really enjoy doing it during skirmishes and that’s why I’m in love with my Bannerguard. He/she offers minimal healing and a fairly good threat rating to allow me to take down enemies quickly and efficiently. Other soldiers I’ve tried have been Protector, Archer, and Herbalist. The best advice I can give on choosing a role for your minstrel’s soldier is to decide on whether you want to War-speech or not. Secondly, if you’re going to be a group player or solo when it comes to skirmishing. With a lot of time spent in skirmishes, you will probably have enough marks to toss at having both of those situations covered.
If skirmishing isn’t your idea of a good time, you can always go through Dol Dínen area of North Downs. If even that is too much action, may I recommend Oatbarton and into Evendim? More >
