Feedback: New Player Tips for Minstrels

great thread ! i would like to add:
don't be shy, and ask the group leader to get a LM , they are awesome and most people doesn't realize how helpful they are for minstrels and the entire group. Get a captain too, if a group is too lazy to get these two, just leave or ask for a good reason.
Captains are our friends, nice buffers, and they can revive if we are busy healing or we die (i almost never rez people, always ask the captain so i can keep helping with heals and buffs without dropping battle state,which takes time we don't have) .
Never waste your power healing a bad hunter who gets too much agro (and ask them to use endurance stance, coz if they get aggro we can get in trouble too sometimes).If u have to choose between squishies (other than tank, of course LOL ) keep the lore-master alive since he/she can save the group by using the transfer-power skill on you if u need to heal and power is low.
Use -% agro cords, please! at least vendor cords, since even 5% less agro is useful.
If you die because the group doesn't take care of you, ask them to do what you need them to do, and if they don't listen just leave. Dying is normal, but not a lot of times.

Keep em buffed,and use anthems. Anthems are awesome, buffs make things easier. We have nice mini buffs, most people doesn't realize when we throw em but the thing is that everything is better if we use everything we have. If the group kills faster and take less dmg, that makes our job easier. I know its hard in the first lvls, at least for me since i panic and forget to tier up but they are great. Anthem of the free peoples, and the cute -40% agro one, are awesome. Im just lvl 24, but i have been healer in other games and sometimes its frustrating grouping here, since most of the people i group with "just kill" (with exceptions, of course) , today some guy told me "i dont even know what aggro is"... and he was the TANK! LOL.

If you have doubts about how some skill works, practice with friends , or small fellowships . It's a good way to try your new skills and get used to the skill rotations you want to try in a real situation. If you change your keyboard settings, do the same thing, you don't want to be in a emergency confused about your new configuration.

Don't waste your time unless you see people is trying to make things right.
These are just general tips, since im new here in lotro, but not with healers. Its a hard role, you will always have things to do. If you feel bored, its just that you're not doing enough for the group :P spam nice buffs, and never over-heal.

I'd like to point to the community guide I attempted to put together for Leveling The Solo Minstrel. I noticed that many guides are about grouping on the high end, but not on getting there. It could probably use some more tips in it, but I think it's a good starting place for people trying to learn the class on the solo end.

"Keep em buffed,and use anthems. Anthems are awesome, buffs make things easier. We have nice mini buffs, most people doesn't realize when we throw em but the thing is that everything is better if we use everything we have. If the group kills faster and take less dmg, that makes our job easier. "


Ronuble, great post and right on! I work my buffs hard and ever so often someone DOES notice, and it's really nice. I was grouping and a hunter noticed and someone said "there's no captain here"...not realizing I have somew nice buffs.

- You have very little armor
- You have very little (to no, when you start) crowd-control
- You have very little health
- You have very little damage evasion/parry/block when you start

What do you have?
- Range
Long range is the next best thing to being there. Always pull at max distance whenever possible

- Self-healing
You get your 1st healing spell early on, and for a while, it will be your only healing spell. It can heal nearly your entire health bar in a shot, however as you get hit you lose time on your cast bar, making it take longer. Be sure to cast your heal sooner rather than later so that you can lose some time due to enemies hitting you and still come out okay. By the time half your health bar is gone you should definitely be casting.

- Immediate attacks
Your normal ballads are instant. Not only do they take no cast time, but they hit immediately (unlike a Ranger's arrows). This also means you can cast them on the move. This is a tremendous advantage. Open up at max range and move to the side while casting your ballads. It's likely your target will be close to dead, if not dead, by the time it reaches you. You can use line-of-sight to great effect. Put a solid object like a tree or rock between you and a monster, and it will stop attacking and have to get you in view before it can attack again. Hit and run tactics can work against tougher opponents.


In Summary:
1. always be moving - you can cast on the move, make use of it
2. always be casting - you can regenerate power all day if you survive, keep casting, keep your buffs up
3. heal early - if you heal too early you waste some power, oh well, if you heal too late, you succumb
(your heal is the only thing that requires a cast time and for you to stand in one place early on... try to duck behind a tree or rock to break line of sight and heal while you're not being attacked)

My response to the minstrel 101 guide

The Minstrel 101 guide was disappointingly all about Warspeech and soloing and DPS, so I went ahead and wrote up Minstrel 102: How to drop Warspeech in groups and heal yourself.

Early on, use caution when main healing in instances that are beyond your character level.

Monsters will hit harder, so you have to throw out more heals.

To throw out more heals, you either have to raise ICMR through Anthem of the Free Peoples or use skills like Raise the Spirit and Bolster Courage. The latter generates aggro, so you have to cast Anthem of Compassion ahead of time.

To unlock your Anthems (and your Tier 3 buffs), you have to SUCCESSFULLY land Ballads on monsters. But higher level monsters have higher resist ratings, so you might have to repeat a tier until it sticks.

Either you have to start spamming heal skills more often (and draw the ire of every nearby monster) or waste more power trying to get to your Anthems so you have more breathing room to heal.

Song of Soothing will help, but the self AoE means archers will still be firing at you. Cry of the Valar is single-target, plus you have to make sure no one breaks the fear. Song of the Dead has a long induction time, so don't plan on getting that one off once monsters start pounding on you.

Basically, if you start getting mobbed, don't expect to live long. Monsters hit harder, remember?

Cry of the Chorus is great for instant access to an Anthem, but the 10 min cooldown means you won't be using it on trash mobs.

Long story short - don't take healing jobs that are beyond your capabilities, because there's a lot working against you.

Edit: fixed info on Song of Soothing

hi ^^
i am newbie. Can u answer me ? how are us pvmp and spar ?? Who us win :))

Sorry if there are any repeats. I am still on the healer learning curve and here are a few things I had to learn pretty quick.

As someone already said. Running away won't usually help. Run past the Tank and pray he grabs the aggro. If a boss is hitting you don't panic, run through it so the Tank doesn't have to chase it.

Don't forget to watch your own health bar. I still forget to look sometimes which has caused some deaths of me and my party.

Before you start mention a few things to the group. I tend to include stuff like "If I start jumping a lot it means I need help, something is hitting me hard". "If you die do not retreat unless you have to, my res won't give you a death penalty". "I can restore your death penalty but only one player every 20 minutes so ... who is first?". "Who is the Tank?", sounds silly and sometimes gets a laugh but I have played with one group which had two Champions, one tanking the other DPS, if they had told me who was who I would have known which Champion to give priority (the tank). "If I say STOP then STOP, sometimes I need to eat, drink, restore, whatever" then if they don't stop for a few seconds it becomes their problem not yours.

Cooked stuff. Always eat regen food, Rack of Lamb etc. Especially in a long, hard battle you will need to regen your Power pretty quick or slow down on healing, Potions are not an alternative you will need them sometimes but the cooldown is too long. Use Lute Strings they reduce your threat generation by a lot, they can be made by a T2 Cook so if you don't know a Cook make an Alt and use that T2 doesn't take long to learn and Lute Strings are cheap to make.

I find groups around 45 (I am 59) are good to learn with, I know some will have been group healing a long-time before level 55 or so but if you spent a lot of your time in solo play, as I did, that's a good way to learn. My experience has been they need more attention/healing than a higher level group. That means lots to do so you will learn faster. For me I find Annuminas Groups a good choice, it's open space so not hard to keep line-of-sight.

Play some other character types. I don't like being a Hunter, for example, but sometimes I do which helps me understand how they work. I also have a Guardian, Champion and Captain. All of my Alts are low level except for the Champion who is level 45. You will learn some of their skills which will help you to better meet their needs. You will also learn their strengths and weaknesses. Along the same lines talk to other classes and ask questions, you must understand what they are doing. If you don't want to do that spend a few minutes reading about them from time-to-time.

Talk, talk, talk and talk. If you are in a Fellowship talk in or least read Fellowship Chat. Not only will you learn from other Minstrels but different characters will learn what you can and cannot do. If your group understands more of how your character type works it sometimes makes your job easier, from simple stuff like line-of-sight to things like the order you heal in .. me then tank then secondary healer then ... or whatever it is you do, the hunter might even thank you for letting him die if he knows it is because you need to concentrate on the Tank instead ie why he is not top of your list in order of healing. Yesterday I was talking to Skumrok, Guardian, asking what "Gains a Block Response and a Parry Reponse" (Song of Aid) did for him, when he heard from me I was doing that at OD the other day I swear I was afraid he was going to kiss me ^^

I don't know how it is done but it is possible, in a Raid, for the Leader to put a symbol floating above your head which can help the rest of the group to know where you are. I believe it is important for the rest of the group to know where you are, helps them keep line-of-sight for example. I was talking to my Fellowship the other day saying I might wear an all yellow cosmetic outfit sometimes, we all had a good laugh but they agreed it would help them sometimes.

I have a noobish question.
How useful is the target resistance rating reduction on the legendary items? I find the small extra healing and 2% extra dmg useless compared to what the rating reduction means if it means what I think it means.

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Originally Posted by sjmson

hi ^^
i am newbie. Can u answer me ? how are us pvmp and spar ?? Who us win :))

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Depends on how you play your class and how the opponent plays theirs.

Classes I never have any trouble with: Guardians, Champions, Hunters and Rune Keepers.
Tricky classes: Burglars, Captains, Lore Masters.
Class I almost never beat: a good Warden.

I have a 41 minstrel...it's fun and all, but does it get easier? Soloing can be hard at time, even when i'm in warspeech.

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Originally Posted by ShotgunStalker

I have a 41 minstrel...it's fun and all, but does it get easier? Soloing can be hard at time, even when i'm in warspeech.

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At 75 i can dispatch 7-8 on level npcs at once with no real problem.

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Originally Posted by Daec

At 75 i can dispatch 7-8 on level npcs at once with no real problem.

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I have a 74 minstrel and I can't :p (I'm generally healing (blue/yellow) traited these days, so that maybe the reason -but it's more likely that I'm a slow and reactive player.)

Suggestions: Aim at managing 2-3 mobs at a time. Fear away others. Drop when you are out-numbered. Learn which mobs silence you- devastating for a mini-and how to remove silence. Eat a lot to keep power and morale up. Use lute strings to reduce threat from your heals while you pick them off. I'm slow but I get it done. I just have to be a bit more patient and strategic than a DPS/warrior skald, uber-geared minstrel with quick reflexes has to be. ;)

hi, I have a minstrel lvl 47 now. highest lvl minstrel so far. I hear people say alot they are in need of power, but when you trait (only a little) in the yellow you can get less anthem cooldown. Having only 10 seconds or so to wait, you can use the altered coda - power over time move - alot (anthem of ... can't remember). When it's active you don't consume power, whatever high cost moves you use =) . Works very well in small fellowships and a good buff for champs to, so they have more fear resistance.

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Originally Posted by archaeoptrix

hi, I have a minstrel lvl 47 now. highest lvl minstrel so far. I hear people say alot they are in need of power, but when you trait (only a little) in the yellow you can get less anthem cooldown. Having only 10 seconds or so to wait, you can use the altered coda - power over time move - alot (anthem of ... can't remember). When it's active you don't consume power, whatever high cost moves you use =) . Works very well in small fellowships and a good buff for champs to, so they have more fear resistance.

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Hi....you'll find it's quite easy to build huge power into your minnie at 75, through legendary item relics, traits and so on---in addition to using various techniques as well as food. Power is never an issue for me except in the most prolonged end-game encounters and even then it is manageable because of the way I have built my minnie, with over 8,000 power. It works for me. Good luck.

VeryBeary

Just a tip on power. Minstrels never need to run out of power anymore after the recent changes. Once you have your ballads up, play an Anthem of Compassion and then use your Coda. This gives you a power return buff that returns a bit over 1.5K power in 20 seconds.

I always keep Anthem of the Third age and Anthem of compassion up as a bare minimum - this gives me access to 2 instant BC size heals in case of emergencies, like the tank getting a large crit hit. Play the Coda while targetting the tank and he gets a BC size heal, then due to the Third age anthem being up, you get an instant BC as well which you can throw the tanks way.

BC spamming is fine but don't forget the other heals which can be essential in critical situations and with the power return skill, power conservation is not really a big issue.

Harmony stance is better than it looks. You get increased damage, maintain healing, and noble cause gets cool stuff. I usually play in harmony even when soloing now except when I really need the AoE call of orome(this may change when I get more WS only stuff).

Use Anthem of the free people in WS or melody always for the heal. In harmony use AotFP when needed and Anthem of Prowess any other time for the Noble cause with no cool down(of course use herald's strike whenever you get to melee). To deal a bunch of damage in WS use Anthem of War

Don't be afraid to stand your ground and use Herald's Strike, but only when there is only one or two enemies

WARNING:the Minstrel class was revamped since this thread was started so some of the early info is no longer valid. All advice I give is from the experiences of a level 23 mini.

I have a LM and a Mini. I want to use one for repeated grouping and leveling together with a friend(hunter) and the other for solo play. Please advise which I should use for which.

I would think that your mini would be ideal for groups. I have a lvl 85 LM and Burg as well as 3 other 50+ toons.
I have a low level mini and he is alot of fun and I can wait to heal groups since it is the only thing I havent done in this game.
In other mmo's I have always been a healer & assassin. I know your post is old but to me mini for grps and LM for anything =)

Roll an RK

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Originally Posted by sjmson

hi ^^
i am newbie. Can u answer me ? how are us pvmp and spar ?? Who us win :))

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Its been two years since this comment - but, mini's are an integral part for survivability on moors atm, especially during peak times. Different styles of playing of course - mainly two: pure heal or pure dps. Some go midway, but I think that's a waste of time. On most servers, mini's will be targeted first due to our squishiness and capability to heal - thus when healing, I've tried to stack BPE (made a thread about in this section). Otherwise, get a legacy t reduce Still as Death CD to 30s and then exploit the skill to the dismay/anger of creeps.

Learning myself but from experience so far try and team up as much as possible whilst leveling and heal even if its not required for practice.

A line of fire and I freeze like in the rk for red trait and dps is very just for the mistrel to the being the only class tactital of 4 races to include hurt of fire and cold since the rk has the mistrel dps is a just idea that can help very much increasing the hurt and comparing the rk but for 4 races on line healer a line similar to the defiler crep and type pet and fear as the defiler to be compared in etten to the healer crep.creo that on line healer deve to be like a defiler frep and on line dps to take fire and cold as the rk to improve both lines

By Vana! VanyaQuenta The Ballad of VanyaLairien!

The very early levelling of the Minstrel, Mini Guide/Demonstration of Incredibly potent Mins vs Yrch within Cirith Naur, my personal choice of various tests and experiments with classes, builds and so on..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhqZiHgBP_k

Vanya Sulie!

;)