Minstrel
Minstrel’s Levels 15-30
Jul 20th
First and foremost, let’s talk about Tiers and how they work. I know it may seem like a silly topic, but it really affects how your heals work while you’re in a group. You should have a basic idea of how it works by now, but let me go ahead and make a quick rundown. When you activate a Tier 1 ballad, you are unlocking your Tier 2 and giving your healing a bonus of 3% while the ballad is active on you/your fellowship. This carries on through to when you’ve cast a Tier 3 ballad. So when you’ve got a Tier 1, 2, and 3 ballad active your healing is increased by a combined percentage of 9. Getting this bonus to compound as quickly as possible is easy as pie with ‘Cry of the Chorus.’ Using an anthem will reset your ballad counter down to a Tier 1, so be aware of that while you’re playing. Essentially it’s just a gating system for your skills, similar to but far less complicated than a Rune-keeper’s attunement.
More than likely you should be finishing up the Old Forest/Buckland/Adso’s Camp area if you’re following the epic books quests line. If not, leave a comment and let me know where you quested to get through to 20. From 20 or so, you have the choice to either go into the Lone-lands or up into Trestlebridge. Personally, even after the re-vamp, I dislike the scenery of the Lone-lands. Generally, I avoid this area until I absolutely have to do the book quests. There’s a post over on Casual Stroll that covers the revamp and how to level through it. Don’t get me wrong, I would LOVE more revamps, I just don’t like the area they chose to do first :-P More >
The First Measure: Minstrel, levels 1-15/20
Jul 13th
Getting Rowdy in the Pony!
You’ve all made your character and hopefully have played through the tutorial, if needed, so let’s fire up the game and sprint through the next 15 levels!
Your starter area will of course be based on your race, so during the time before you get to Bree-town you’ll be working there. For Dwarves and Elves you’ll be spending your time in Ered Luin. Hobbits will, of course, be based in The Shire, and Men will be in ‘Starter Bree-land’ (Archet, Combe, and Staddle, progressively). By the time you’ve finished your beginning area quests and your Epic Prologue book quests, you’ll be very close to getting that wonderful ding at Level 15. More >
Rolling A Minstrel
Jul 6th
When it comes to choosing a race for a minstrel you have all the choices among the 4 races in Middle-Earth. There are some advatanges in choosing certain ones, however.
When it comes to choosing a Hobbit, the following are decided advantages:
- Hobbit Courage – A passive skill given at creation which increases your Fear Resist rating (1%)
- Hobbit-silence – A traited ability that will give your Minstrel an extra ’possum skill’: ie. the ability to break threat for a period of 30 seconds with a 1hr cool down. Attainable after level 35.
For a Dwarf seeking to learn the arts of the Minstrel:
- Fateful Dwarf – A trait that mitigates the initial failing for a Dwarf, which results in an overall +12 to Fate. Attainable after level 13.
Theorboes and You
Jun 27th
Mae govannen, I’m Rubywing and I’ll be your guide through the wonderful joy that is a Minstrel. Whether you prefer to pluck lute strings or bang away at your drums of war, I hope to keep you company and provide some insights into this versatile yet still squishy class. I plan to start off the column with some posts that expand on a rather lengthy post I made on my own blog regarding how I ‘run’ my Minstrel.
After we get through leveling a fresh starter Minstrel, we’ll get into the endgame fun and the real meat and potatoes of playing a minstrel full time. But don’t worry, there will still be plenty of content for those of us with Altoholism!
I look forward to our pleasant journey together through Middle-Earth!
Welcome to the LOTRO Reporter family!
Jun 27th
It is with great pride that I announce the addition of three people to the LOTRO Reporter Family: Bor, Rubywing and Omsi, our new class columnists.
Bor is the writer for the Gondor Awaits blog, and the host of the Gondor Awaits podcast, both of which can be found here. Bor also happens to be the most active alt-aholic I have ever met. Go over to his site and check out his list of character. WOW! He is an expert on a great deal of classes! Therefore, we’re please to have him write a few of the class columns for the site, starting with the Guardian, Hunter and Captain.
I first noticed Rubywing’s work in the LOTRO community when I read her crafting pages in the LOTRO Lorebook. She is amazing! You can find her personal blog here. She’ll be starting the Minstrel column, and I look forward to reading her insights.
Omsi was recommended to become the Rune Keeper columnist by Candace of the Green Dragon Inn. He comes to the site with great experience writing guides on the forums and on his kinship forums. I’m excited to see what he recommends as I level my own Rune Keeper.
Welcome to the family, Bor, Rubywing, and Omsi!
