alt="Getting Your Toon Raid-Ready"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/96562">

Update
2: Echoes of the Dead is just around the corner forthe Lord of the
Rings Online, going live on March 21, and with it comes a brand-new
12-man raid that promises to be the most challenging yet. Chances are,
if your main is level 65 and has been for a while, you've been looking
to get involved in something like this, but perhaps you weren't sure
where to start. Or perhaps your toon is nearing level cap and endgame,
and you're wondering what comes next. Well, wonder no more.

THE BASICS

First things first: you're going to want to know how your
class works in a group.
This goes beyond the obvious mechanics - everyone knows Hunters shoot
stuff and Guardians tank, but how does the Hunter keep his DPS steady
and high without drawing aggro, and how does the Guardian maintain
aggro with Hunters pew-pewing willy-nilly from behind him?

Well,
these are the things you have to learn by doing. Getting a character
raid-ready means you may need to adjust your play-style dramatically,
and possibly the way you think about what you are doing. Raiding
requires a different skill set and mentality from soloing, and even
from running with smaller groups - more people involved means higher
stakes. Screw up on a 3-man, you can simply disband and start over.
Screw up in a raid and you may have locks that bar you from trying
again for several days.

The process is basically the same for
everyone, regardless of what kind of character you are playing. Run a
lot of group content, pay attention to what all of your skills actually
do for the group, figure out how to put those effects to best use, use
the skills you often neglect while soloing. Look at the Hunter for an
example.

When soloing, the Hunter wants to deal a lot of damage
very fast. He wants to avoid close-combat fighting, so he unloads big
hits immediately when the fight starts. He can throw out fears, roots
and traps to keep enemies at a distance, and use Rain of Arrows when
fighting groups. Fights are usually quick and spread out enough that
power is not that big of a concern. If things get too ugly, he can use
Desperate Flight and bail.

In a group, these tactics simply don't
work. Opening up with big hitters like Improved Swift Bow and
Penetrating Shot means the tank has to work harder than necessary to
pull aggro. Fears, roots and traps may be broken when placed poorly (or
simply not work),
and Rain of Arrows is a surefire way to earn a tongue-lashing from
harried tanks because of the massive amount of threat it generates.
Fights take a long time, and power-burning is as much an enemy to the
Hunter as threat-generation. And if you use Desperate Flight to bail
out of a wipe, you may have a hard time getting back in.

The
Hunter's primary job in a raid is to contribute a high and consistent
stream of damage-per-second against a single target, but not so high
that it generates more threat than the tank. He will need to run with
groups often to figure out how to strike that balance between hitting
good damage numbers and keeping threat generation at acceptable levels.
He will need to learn when
it is okay to grab aggro and when it is not. He will need to put the
"rockstar" mentality away for a bit and humbly contribute to the
group's chances of success. These are things that come with practice
and experience.

SOLID FOOTING

Aside from actual player skill, a character's "framework"
comes down to two things: gear and traits. Skill is something that is
learnable by putting in the time and interest. Gear and traits are
earned the hard way - running instances, doing quests and hardcore
deed-grinding. 

The first thing you will want to get
up-to-snuff is class traits. Some of these will take a bit of grinding
to finish off - using one skill 2,000 times can take a while,
particularly if that skill has a long-ish cooldown - but the payoff is
very noticeable when your commonly-used skills have additional
benefits. Without a good group-spec class trait setup, you're going to
find it difficult to meet the group's expectations for your class. For
example, consider a Minstrel who has only run solo in War-speech, and
has only Warrior-Skald class traits slotted. His healing will suffer
for it, and that means the whole group suffers because very, very few
raids take Minstrels along for their DPS. Build those group-spec
traits up and get them slotted.

Second, build up your Virtues.
Again, this will require some grinding, particularly for melee classes
(Troll-slayer deeds for Discipline, argh!), but will markedly increase
your overall effectiveness and survivability. You're going to want to
pick the right ones for your class, too - for example, Lore-masters
will not likely find Discipline terribly useful, but Idealism is
indispensible. Raid leaders look for players with most (or all) of
their Virtues at rank 10, and know what classes need which Virtues. If
you are seriously lacking in this department, you probably won't be
doing much raiding until you get the situation rectified.

Gear-wise, you don't necessarily need the very absolute best
stuff going in.
That's why you do raids in the first place, to earn that stuff.
But you do need solid armor and jewelry that makes you better at what
you do. Melee classes will want high armour rating and lots of Might,
Vitality, Morale and in-combat morale regeneration. Back-row guys will
want to focus more narrowly on their areas of expertise - Agility and
in-combat power regeneration for Hunters, Will and Fate for tactical
classes, etc. Raid-appropriate gear is earned by running endgame
instances in Mirkwood and Moria, and in the new instance cluster that
comes with Update 2: Echoes of the Dead.

Don't be fooled by the
name-color of an item when it comes to determining whether or not it is
good for raids. There are a number of purple jewelry items that
outclass teal jewelry and are generally better for raiding. For
example, your Minstrel finds a purple earring that has slightly lower
Will than his current teal one, but has significantly more Vitality -
that's a worthy trade.

Your legendary items will play a big role
in determining your raid-readiness. If you're a level 65 Hunter still
using a level 59 1st age bow, it's time to upgrade. If you're a
Guardian and have no threat-up legacies on any of your legendary items,
get one that does and start building it up. If you have only low-tier
relics slotted, start grinding up trash LIs and running instances and
get better ones.

This
stuff is pretty easy to learn. If you're not sure what you should have,
start inspecting other characters of the same class and see what they
have. If you see someone wielding a particularly choice piece of
jewelry, send a tell and ask where it came from. If you wonder why
someone has a particular Virtue slotted, same thing - send a tell and
ask.

Ideally at this stage, you want to have your primary stat(s)
boosted to around 600. You
can get them higher if you like, but keep in mind: raids usually have
Captains, and raiding Captains usually have In Defense of Middle-Earth,
which boosts all stats by +50. 650 is the cap for stats, so anything
over 600 is essentially wasted for raiding and the points are better
distributed to weaker stats to better round your character out.

alt="Getting Your Toon Raid-Ready"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/96562">

THE CARE PACKAGE

Okay,
so you've learned all the dirty secrets of your class. You've gotten
all your virtues to 10 and have figured out a really tight group-spec
class trait setup. Your legendary weapon is discussed in frightened
whispers by your enemies, and your trademark gleaming armor, legendary
in its own
right, allows you to withstand brutal punishment that would readily
slay a lesser man. Are you raid-ready? Almost. But now you need to
assemble the "care package."

The "care package" is the assortment
of potions, foodstuffs, tools and implements that will make you will
need to gather through various channels. Some of this stuff will need
to be crafted, some of it can be purchased or bartered-for. Here's a
basic checklist to get you started:

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Steeped Atheleas Essence and Celebrant Salve - stack of
50 each Restoratives - made by Scholars, or barter from
Malledhrim, Grey Company, Algraig Steeped Lhinestad, Milkthistle, Healing and Conhuith
Draughts - stack of 50 each Curatives - made by Scholars, or barter from
Malledhrim, Grey Company, Algraig, or buy from Healer in home
neighborhood Luminous, Sparkling or Glorious Edhelharn Tokens -
stack of 5 +5 Hope - made by Jewelers Scrolls of Supreme Warding and Battle Lore - stack of
20 each Offensive and Defensive buffs - made by Scholars Trail food (Red Tea, Mushy Green Peas, etc) - at least
10 Buffing food to add temporary bonuses to Vitality, Wil,
fate, Might, etc. Made by Cooks Cooked food (Rack of Lamb with Mint Sauce, Lothlorien
Waybread, etc) - at least 10 Increases ICMR and ICPR, made by Cooks Fortifying Food (Lamb soups of various flavors) - at
least 10 Increases resistances to different effects (poison,
fear, disease, wound), made by Cooks

These items are things everybody in the raid should have,
regardless of class, and it's all stuff
you want to bring on every raid. Consumables
will get used - quite frequently in some cases - and will need to be
replaced between runs. By way of personal example, running the new Lost
Temple instance just once cost my Hunter around 30 Steeped Lhinestad
Draughts.
I probably could have gotten away with using fewer, but there were at
least 30 times when using them seemed like the better idea. 

There are
also certain class consumables and miscellaneous class-specific items
that are must-haves for raids. Some things you can do without, but the
following are more or less mandatory:

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Burglar Large Bag of Marbles - at least 10; made by Weaponsmiths Captain Standards of War, Hope, Victory - 1 of each, made by
Tailors; Supreme Battle Tonics,  full stack, made by Scholars Champion Supreme Potion of Fervour, stack, made by Scholars Guardian Shield spikes of different damage types - 10 of each,
made by Weaponsmiths. Hunter Supreme Breach-finder, Foe-finder and Shield-bane
bow-chants, 10 each; Pure Fire- and Light-oil (stack each, made by
Scholars) and oil-wash Lore-master Pet food, full stack, made by Cooks Minstrel Lute Strings of Greater Subtlety (or the crit version
if available), at least 10, made by Cooks; Supreme Sheet Music, at
least 10, made by Scholars Rune-keeper Khazad-gold Inlays, White Enamels - at least 10 each,
made by Scholars; Full assortment of chisels and rifflers, made by
Metalsmiths Warden Full assortment of carvings, made by Woodworkers; Fire-
and Light-oil (stack each, made by Scholars) and oil wash; Assortment
of shield-spikes, made by Weaponsmiths

KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE

Now
that your character is ready, it's time to work on his player. Or, at
least, to study up on the task at hand and prepare for anything
specific you will be encountering. Talk to the raid-leader to find out
if there any specific things you will need to trait for. For example,
will your Lore-master need to have in-combat wound and disease removal,
or trait for longer mezzes? Will there be any kinds of debuffs you will
need to pay particular attention to? You will want to know your
specific role in every fight - where to stand, what specific skills to
use, what to watch out for, what to avoid.

This brings up perhaps the most important tool any raider
would want at their disposal: clear communication. For raids, voice
chat is much preferred to typing in chat. It's the quickest, clearest
way to send immediate commands to the battlefield, and you don't need
to take your eyes off the action to use it. If you want to raid, get
yourself a headset. And keep in mind that you don't usually need to
talk, but you do need to be able to listen.

I recommend a headset over mic and speakers for a few
different reasons. Headsets don't usually pick up cross-chatter, but a
mic located near or in fromt of computer speakers will. Cross-chatter
is annoying, particularly for the person speaking and hearing his voice
being played back on a delay. Secondly, with a headet, it's easier to
separate game sounds from voice chat. You can still have game sounds
playing to hear audio cues without distracting from the conversation.

Very few raiding kinships use in-game voice chat for raids.
It's ok for the quick and easy stuff, but for long events like raids,
more customization and clearer sound is usually needed. To this end,
most raiding kins use an external voice chat app like Ventrilo or
Teamspeak. Ventrilo, being easy to set up and use and consuming minimal
system resources, is pretty common, so if you don't already have it,
you should probably get it. And when you have it, find out your raid
group's Vent server info so you can join in.

Being prepared for raiding means you are prepared for pretty
much
anything else in the game, so this is not just a "raid-ready guide."
The same rules apply to running any group content, or even soloing:
know your class, tinker under the hood to be more effective at what
you're doing, gear up, make sure you have lots of supplies ready to go
and know what you are up against. The less you have to think about what
you are doing with your character, the more you can learn about other
aspects of the game, and the more prepared you will be for new things
in the future.