Ten Ton Hammer | LotRO - Minstrel Class Guide Endgame Strategies

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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/minstrel/overview">OVERVIEW
| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/minstrel/solo">SOLO
| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/minstrel/group">GROUP
| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/minstrel/pvmp">PvMP
| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/minstrel/endgame">LEGENDARY
ITEMS | href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/89885/page/2">TRAITS
| VIRTUES
| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/minstrel/skills">SKILLS

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MINSTREL LEGENDARY ITEMS

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This
songbook likely contains tablature, my minnie can't read sheet music.

Legendary Items come in 2 flavours for Minstrels: class book and
main-hand weapon. Like Guardians, well-prepared Minstrels will probably
want to carry two sets of Legendary Items: one DPS set, one healing set.

For a good healing set, look for a weapon that has legacies that reduce
threat from healing, reduce the cooldown for Rally! and/or Triumphant
Spirit, and increase Soliloquy of Spirit heal-over-time pulses. These
are the Pool A healing legacies available on weapons when they are
first identified. When reforging, the only healing-type Pool B legacies
are Still as Death recovery time and Cure Fear cooldown. Neither of
these are particularly desirable; Still as Death has a 10-minute
cooldown, and the legacy shaves 180 seconds (3 minutes) off the
cooldown when it is maxed, which means the skill still has a 7-minute
cooldown. Cure Fear cooldown is equally undesirable, in that it makes a
not-very-useful skill available slightly more often. A heal-spec weapon
will have the three main healing legacies when it is first identified,
and legacies gained during reforges can be kept or replaced with stat
scrolls (Legacy of Will, Legacy of Fate, etc.) as desired.

A heal-spec book will have a boost to Healing and Motivation Skills
Morale Healing, which increases all outgoing healing by up to 10%, and
Bolster Courage Healing, which increases the Minstrel's spam-heal by up
to 10%. You want both of these legacies - they stack, meaning your
spam-heal is increased by 20%. In addition to the Big Two, Healing
Skills Power Cost reduction makes up the third leg in the Tripod of
Perfection. Raise the Spirit and Inspire Fellows legacies are also
good, but since they are Pool A, they would replace one of the other
legacies which are all much more useful. Pool B legacies from reforges
are largely cooldowns and buff improvments- look for Chord of Salvation
and Cry of the Chorus cooldowns for a heal-spec book, or legacies that
improve the effectiveness of tier 3 ballads (Ballad of Unshakable Will,
Ballad of Flame).

A DPS-spec weapon should include Piercing Cry Damage and Call of Orome
Damage upon first identification. Reforges should have Tier1 Ballad
Damage, Tier 2 Ballad Damage, Call of the Second Age Targets, and/or
Call to Fate Critical Multiplier. Good DPS-spec books are rather odd
ducks - Ballad of War Magnitude and Target Ballad Resist Rating are the
only fighting-type Pool A legacies, and Target Song Resist Rating and
Echoes of Battle Resistance Rating Debuff are the only fighting-type
Pool B legacies. A book with all of these legacies would make a fine
DPS-spec class item, but its application is very specific. Additional
legacies can be replaced with Legacy of Vitality, Will, Fate, Might or
Agility scrolls as desired.

Unlike the legendary weapons of other classes, Minstrel melee weapons
do not have an upgradeable base DPS. Instead, the base damage upgrades
are applied to tactical skills - ballads, cries and anthems - and the
weapon's base DPS stays unchanged.

More information on LI legacies
can be found on the href="http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Legendary_Items_Guide">Lorebook.

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MINSTREL TRAIT LINES

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Groups
do better when the Minstrel has the blues.

Class
traits
are
divided into 3 sets, 8 traits in each set. Each set has a
"capstone" legendary skill that can only be traited
by slotting 5
traits in that line. Slotting multiple traits from the same
set confers other accumulative bonuses. These sets, or "trait
lines," allow the character to really specialize in a particular aspect
of that class. The three Minstrel lines focus on DPS (Warrior-Skald,
red), buffing (Protector of Song, yellow) and healing (Watcher of
Resolve, blue).

Building up a good set of traits can be a long, arduous task
for Minstrels. Some of the traits are earned by using skills with very
long cooldowns hundreds of times, and some of those skills are only
really appropriate to use in groups - for example, the Minstrel cannot
cast Enlivening Grace on herself. Others require hundreds of uses of
tiered skills, meaning the Minstrel must tier up to use them - a tier 1
ballad, then a tier, 2, and so on. Group healers may take considerably
longer to finish these deeds, but the trait Smooth Voice, earned by
using Piercing Cry 600 times, will make it easier and quicker for
heal-spec Minstrels. This one converts a tier 1 and tier 2 ballad into
a buff rather than an attack skill, so the Minstrel can stand in a
quiet corner and tier up to work on deeds without having to be in
combat.

The Watcher of Resolve line is the clear choice for group
healers. The traits generally make skills execute quicker, cost less
power, and generate less threat. Slotting multiple traits from the blue
line further reduces the cost of healing skills, improves Chord of
Salvation by 10%, bumps Ballad of Compassion down to tier 3 instead of
tier 4, and adds a small buff to each ballad so that using them
increases outgoing healing by a small amount. The capstone legendary
skill, Legendary Spirit, is obtained by completing the Minstrel quest
line in Moria, ending with a fight against a massive horde of
deep-claws in Skumfil. Legendary Spirit improves Soliloquy of Spirit to
perform greater heals.

The Warrior-Skald line is the DPS-spec line. The red traits
make attack skills hit harder and cost less, and generally improve
melee combat survivability with increased morale, in-combat morale
regeneration and medium armor use. The set bonuses heavily favor the
use of Warspeech, increasing Warspeech damage at the cost of healing
while Warspeech is toggled. The capstone legacy, Call of War, greatly
increases the critical chance and doubles the critical multiplier of
damage-dealing calls. This legendary trait can be purchased from the
Iron Garrison Guards in Moria when kindred status is reached with them.

The Protector of Song line is a giant compromise. There are
only 2 traits worth using regularly - Smooth Voice, which transforms 2
low-tier attack ballads into group-buffing ballads, and Strength of
Voice, which makes those buffs last 10 seconds longer. Lyrics of
Bravery and Heralded Savior are so-so, and none of the other traits are
really worth slotting except to unlock the capstone legacy. Even the
set bonuses are not particularly noteworthy: a cooldown on Call to
Greatness, an additional 10 second duration to ballad buffs, and some
improvements to Tale of Warding and Tale of Battle. The capstone
legendary, Master of Tales, is earned by completing all epic Volume II
books up to the end of Book 6. This one is actually kind of useful - it
combines Tale of Battle with Tale of Frost and Flame, and Tale of
Warding with Tale of Heroism, essentialy meaning the Minstrel can have
2 tales active at once. However, like the rest of the trait line, this
is a compromise: the Minstrel cannot choose which tales to combine. If
you want the increased Fate an Will, you take the Armor Value as well
and don't get the Vitality boost or the Frost or Fire defense.

Minstrels can afford to be trait-line purists. Going with 5
red or 5 blue will make the Minstrel significantly better at a specific
role. There is much less demand for "generalist" Minstrels - they are
typically wanted in groups for healing or other very specific purposes
where Runekeepers or Captains don't quite fit the bill, and for soloing
there is not really much need to trait for extra healing power
since base healing is already sufficient to keep one person
alive. The only real decision, then, is figuring out what the other 2
virtues should be once you have figured out what role you wish to
fulfill.

For pure Warrior-Skald, going with 2 blue (specifically,
Focused Performance for shorter inductions and Power of Song for
additional power) is a solid choice. When healing is required, having 2
blue reduces the power cost. 2 yellow traits provides increased access
to Call to Greatness, which is not the worst thing in the world. Lyrics
of Bravery for the boosted fear resistance and Heralded Resolve for the
non-Noble Cause heal from Herald's Strike are probably the best options.

For pure Watcher of Resolve, Strength of Voice and Smooth
Voice from the yellow line make perfect sense. These provide group-wide
buffs with a slightly longer duration, and more frequent use of Call to
Greatness for inspiring peers. If you can do without those buffs, there
are a number of red traits that are solid choices: Medium Armor Use
improves defenses, and Enduring Morale boosts maximum morale, allowing
the Minstrel to stay standing just a bit longer. The 2-red set bonus, a
3-second reduction to the cooldown for Herald's Strike, is so-so, but
it does allow for a quick corruptions wipe slightly more often.

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MINSTREL VIRTUES

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This
Minstrel is traited for tanking. It's Virtual Insanity!

Minstrel virtues are pretty straightforward - jack
up Will
and Fate first, power and morale second. Wisdom, Confidence and
Idealism, ranked up to 10, boost Will by a combined 53 points.
Idealism, Honesty and Empathy boost Fate by 53 points. That's a solid
five, and a good selection for heal or DPS spec. Boosting these stats
with virtues means less pressure finding good Will and Fate gear - the
Minstrel can equip jewelery or armor that increases morale, power or
Vitality without worrying about not having enough to cap Will or Fate
at 650.

On the other
hand, it might not hurt to trait for higher Vitality. Minstrels can
sometimes take some savage beatings unmitigated by heavier armor, so
having more morale and higher physical resists doesn't hurt. Loyalty is
a good one for this, with a rank 10 value of 30 Vitality, plus a small
boost to power and armor rating.

DPS Minstrels may want to bolster their defenses with virtues
that increase melee defence: Innocence
is a good choice for this, as it increases poison resistance and shadow
defense as well, and provides a mighty 1000 melee defence. Slotting
this one gives a good defensive boost for close combat while leaving
lots of room for other virtues that will increase the Minstrel's power
pool.

Heal-spec Minstrels may want to increase ranged defence
rather than melee defence. Ranged mobs will typically aggro on the
healer more often than melee mobs, as melee mobs are more easily
engaged by tanks and ranged mobs tend to stand back out of the range of
the tanks' area-effect threat generating skills. Compassion, which also
boosts tactical defence, is a good choice for this.

Wisdom and
Confidence are pretty easy to rank up. These come mostly from
exploration deeds - finding ruins and such in different areas. Fully
explore every new area as you get to it and you should be able to max
out Wisdom and Confidence fairly quickly. Idealism is also increased
through exploration deeds, and is often part of quest
completion
sets (complete X number of quests in an area).

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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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MINSTREL LEGENDARY ITEMS

MINSTREL TRAIT LINES

MINSTREL VIRTUES

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