style="width: 630px; height: 200px;" alt="LotRO Minstrel Guide"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/89871">
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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/minstrel/overview">OVERVIEW
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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/minstrel/solo">SOLO
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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/minstrel/group">GROUP
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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
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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/minstrel/skills">SKILLS
alt="divider">GROUP
PLAY AS A MINSTREL
alt="A Minstrel in a group"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/89868">
Got
Dourhand on my heels tonight baby! WOO-HOO ah-a-hah!
Minstrels are an ultimate support class, and running in a
fellowship
with a Minstrel is one of the more rewarding things a person can do in
LotRO. It can be complex at times, and nightmarish when things go
badly, but when the group succeeds and you do a good job keeping
everyone alive, you know you had a direct hand in helping everyone
achieve their goals. It's a good feeling. In fact,
it's more than a feeling.
Switching from solo mode to group mode is a rather jarring
transition for Minsrels, and it takes some practice to get good at
running with a fellowship. While other classes more or less continue to
do the same things they have been doing while soloing with only a few
modifications, the Minstrel does a 180-degree turn - her focus is no
longer on damaging her enemies, but on repairing the damage done to her
allies.
At its most basic, knowing how to heal in a group means
knowing how to
spam Bolster Courage. This is the Minstrel's big single-target heal,
and she will use this skill more than any other. It has a
rather lengthy induction, but it efficiently converts power to morale
and the payoff is worth the expense and risk. All the other healing and
motivation skills have their place, but Bolster Courage is the go-to
guy. The Minstrel spends much of the fight monitoring the green morale
bars of her allies and largely ignoring the red morale bars of the
enemy. When a green bar takes a sudden dip, target that portrait and
hit Bolster Courage, and repeat this process until the enemy is down.
This is fellowship healing at its most basic, and when things go
smoothly (a rare and happy occasion), this is pretty much all the
Minstrel needs to do.
The Minstrel doesn't generally do a lot of actual fighting in
a group.
She can, however, contribute the odd ballad here and there
when everyone's morale is in good standing - indeed, this is a good
idea, as it opens up tiered ballads and eventually the more-powerful
anthems. When traited for Watcher of Resolve, ballads also increase
outgoing heals with a small non-stacking bonus. The bonus depends on
how many traits are slotted in this line, but even a small bump is
usually welcomed by bedraggled tanks and panicked aggro-magnet Hunters.
Tiering up ballads can take away from healing, but it is sometimes
necessary - for instance, when fighting a boss that does big
fire attacks (Urcheron in the Sword-Hall of Dol Guldur, for example),
opening up tier 3 ballads unlocks Ballad of Flame, which provides a big
group-wide fire mitigation buff so everyone takes less damage from
fire-based attacks. Hammering out a few quick ballads to unlock this
skill doesn't take much time away from healing and can provide the
extra edge needed for difficult fights.
Skill rotations are less of an issue for group-spec Minstrels,
but
there are some powerful skill combos that can help in a pinch. Slotting
the trait Smooth Voice transforms Ballad of Vigour and Ballad of
Balance into group buffs (increasing Vitality and Evade rating,
respectively). These can be fired off in fairly quick succession for a
pair of powerful but short-term group buffs, and unlock tier 3 ballads
for when things get really cooking. When an ally's health drops
dangerously low and there is a risk that he won't survive the induction
for Bolster Courage, throw a quick Chord of Salvation followed by an
equally-quick Soliloquy of Spirit. Normally, Chord of Salvation has a
rather lengthy "animation root," forcing the Minstrel to stand in one
spot as the animation plays through and essentially making this an
induction heal rather than instant-cast. However, Soliloqy of Spirit,
while dismayingly weak on its own, is also instant-cast and can be used
while moving - hitting this skill immediately after the heal from Chord
of Salvation lands will break the animation root and enable the
Minstrel to immediately start the induction for Bolster Courage.
alt="A Minstrel in a group"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/89869">
Well
you're a Draig-luth baby. You better shut it up! I'm gonna beat you up!
Eventually, all that healing is going to attract unwanted
attention.
Healing skills generate threat, affecting every mob in the area. There
are a number of ways to minimize this: equip an instrument with lower
threat such as a flute or harp; slot the Subtle Movements trait, tier
up some ballads and use Ballad of Compassion, and/or make some Lute
Strings and use them. But when these measures fail, there are ways for
the resourceful Minstrel to drop a bit of aggro and continue healing.
Song of Soothing is a good one - this one will drop a significant
amount of threat in a 10-meter radius around the target, affecting
multiple targets. Song of Soothing can be improved with the
trait Improved Song of Soothing, which makes this skill almost
instant-cast at the cost of a longer cooldown. Instant-cast is
important when you need to drop aggro fast because you're being
attacked by a handful of mobs, so the increased cooldown is generally
worth the price. If Song of Soothing fails to shake off the attacking
mobs, Cry of the Valar will make one of them run to the hills (run for
their life) with a 15 second fear.
If the Minstrel is still swamped and the tank can't get there
in time,
she can follow the motto of the Possum Lodge: Quando Omni Flunkus
Moritati (when all else fails, play dead). Still as Death allows the
Minstrel to flop motionless to the ground, dropping all aggro for the
duration of the timer and buying some time for the tank to pick up
aggro. This skill is not entirely free from risk, however - while
playing dead, the Minstrel cannot activate any of her skills, and
healing stops until the ruse is ended. Furthermore, if someone in the
group doesn't pick up aggro during the countdown, the mobs will return
to attacking the Minstrel when the timer expires. Hobbit
Minstrels can play dead twice as often with Hobbit-Silence, which is
identical to Still as Death.
In the event of a wipe, the Minstrel should ideally be the
last person
down. The hierarchy is generally tanks first, then everyone else, then
the Minstrel last. Obviously, this doesn't always happen, but it serves
as a general guideline - Minstrels keep the rest of the group healed
and can revive fallen foes in combat, and need to be preserved for as
long as possible. If a Captain is in the group, the Captain can be the
last man standing, but his revive should be saved for the Minstrel, who
can then revive the tank and get back to spamming heals.
Timing is important for Minstrels in groups. In some
situations, it is
perfectly acceptable to laze around and throw out damaging ballads,
popping heals as needed. Other times, the Minstrel must be proactive
and pre-emptive, starting inductions before the heals are required and
anticipating the need for heals and other skills well in advance. Call
to the Fellowship, a skill that boosted the effectiveness of
conjunctions, is only useful when the Minstrel knows in advance when a
conjunction is going to happen. Call to Greatness, a skill that buffs
an ally according to his class, also requires delicate timing - since
it resets timers and makes skills usable more often, it should be used
shortly after the recipient has already used one of the skills that
Call to Greatness affects. Using Song of Aid works in a similar manner
- it unlocks tiered or gated skills for your fellows for the duration
of the countdown timer, and the Minstrel will use it at different times
depending on the fight. For some fights, Song of Aid is a good opener,
and for other fights, it should be saved for closer to the end. The
same cannot be said for Triumphant Spirit or Fellowship's Heart,
though. These huge group-heal skills should almost always be reserved
until the final moments of a big battle.
alt="A Minstrel in a group"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/89870">
Hey!
Ho! Let's Go! Shoot 'em in the back now!
Group-spec Minstrels can never have too many power potions.
Morale and
curative potions are also handy, but power potions are crucial. Even
Minstrels with capped Will and Fate scores can run out of power during
very long fights, and a powerless Minstrel is essentially dead weight.
Food that increases in-combat power regeneration is also recommended.
And while having high Will and Fate scores is paramount, a high
Vitality score will keep the Minstrel standing longer when things go
badly. When the group's Captain starts doling out buffs, be sure to ask
for the crit buff rather than the power buff. The tactical critical
buff affects heals as well as damage, and having lots of tactical
critical magnitude boosts from LI relics and other sources means big
heals can restore massive amounts of morale.
There is an art to group healing, and much of it involves
being
patient. Under ideal circumstances, heals should be primarily directed
at the tank, and other allies will require a Minstrel's attention only
sporadically. Not every situation can be ideal, though, and the
Minstrel may occasionally group with a very aggressive Hunter or
Runekeeper dead set on hitting only very large numbers and consequently
taking a lot of enemy aggro. In such situations, keep in mind that your
responsibility is to the group as a whole, and not one single
kill-crazy individual. In particularly nasty fights, the
Minstrel must assume the role of a triage nurse or a minor
god, determining who lives and who dies according to the needs of the
group. The type of fight and makeup of the group will usually determine
each character's survival priority, but in very general terms, the
healer and tank should almost always be top priority, in that order.
Obviously, the Minstrel wants to keep everyone in the group alive and
fighting, but tough decisions will sometimes need to be made.
While we're on the subject of patience... be prepared to put
up with a
lot of "I NEED HEALS!!!" from players who do not understand the class
as well as you do. This is one of the more aggravating aspects of
playing a primary healer and there's really no way to stop it from
happening, except for explaining in a calm, rational voice that "healz
take time noob".
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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