Feedback: New Player Tips for Minstrels

[Frelorn]

Over the next few weeks we will be focusing on the classes in our Tell the Community Team threads. In keeping with that theme, we want your help. If you could give one tip to a new player about playing the Minstrel class, what would it be?

[Elyske]

Once you get the concept of Ballad Spam and kiting down, nothing can stop you while soloing.

[yossalu]

Using Ballad of Resonance before Echoes of Battle will increase your damage over time (these two skills are a great way to start almost any battle).

If you are in a long battle and nobody in your group is below 80% health, it may be better to save your power than to top off their morale.

Select "Enable Skill Target Forwarding" and "Show the Vitals of your Selection's Target" in the combat section of your options menu. The former will allow you to heal your ally and damage your enemy without changing targets. Showing vitals of selection's target will show you which target the enemy mobs have selected (so if you are being attacked you can inform the group which mob they need to get off of you--always look out for those archers).

If you're in trouble, learn to kite by strifing sideways or running backwards while still dealing out your damage skills. Using Cry of the Valar combined with an Unrelenting-traited Piercing Cry can keep the mob off of you while you drop warspeech and heal.

[qannadi]

I'm sure someone will say this soon, but here goes:

Prioritize healing in groups. The tank (and yourself) always comes first. Don't forget that F1 is your friend- as soon as you see your bar dip, you have to switch and take care of yourself.. then figure out what's hitting you and either Fear it or get someone on it. Hunters and champs can probably tell you- it stings a little less to die, if the group doesn't wipe, and there's a healer alive to rez them. But try to heal everyone, and you might wipe.

Also, under Combat Options, always turn on Enable Skill Target Forwarding and Show the Vitals of your Selection's Target. Invaluable- you can target the boss, mob, whatever, and know who is getting hit/who needs heals.

Above all, be patient. I know there are some uber-minstrels out there who are feared in the Moors and can solo anything that moves, but sometimes it's best to learn the virtue of taking on what you can handle and taking your time. Ultimately, this is a lot less frustrating than dying a lot because you're trying to be a tank/dps/aoe death machine.

[Khallan1706]

Once you get the concept of Ballad Spam and kiting down, nothing can stop you while soloing.

I have a question. Could you or someone explain to me how to kite. I have a level 28 mini that I do pretty good with. I can kill level 29 elite trolls in Lone Lands and end up with about a third to a quarter of my health. Level 30 trolls I have to run from.

I hear people talking about kiting but haven't seen it explained. I tried a search of the boards but no help there. If someone has a link to something explaining it I would appreciate it.

Thanks

[Elyske]

Ok, you basically move in a direction(obviously away from aggroing other mobs) and hit ballads, echoes of battle and piercing cry/other WS skills on the mob as you run backwards. If you need to, fear the mob(if applicable) and turn around to run 15-20 meters away and then engage again.

[Uthboth]

Will>Fate>Vitality are your best stats to focus on. Will for your power pool and outgoing healing. Fate for power regeneration. Vitality to help take hits if things get away from the tank in the group.

[spiritintelligencia]

In many (group) situations, it is better to stand next to the Guardian and Champ rather than as far away as possible... It makes it a lot easier for the tanks to re-gain aggro on mobs that may have turned there attention to you.

Standing with the tanks also gives you the ability to remove corruptions, which can be a great help.

Be careful however, you will often need to make sure the Guardian has the mob(s) facing the other way, and that the rest of the fellowship is attacking the mob's backs. This is often because some mobs do AOE attacks - attacks that damage in an arc in front of them.

There ARE a few situations where you are better off positioned as far away from the melee combat as possible though, but you group leader will probably tell you when this situation arises.

[Laire]

It gets easier and faster to solo once you have Warspeech.

Prioritize healing. Tank is most important in fellows.

Don't forget to heal yourself! (I still do from time to time *headdesk*)

Don't be afraid to ask a more experienced minstrel for guidelines.

[Shiara]

My tip for healing groups is whenever possible, at mid-higher levels, avoid the use of any expensive heals except Bolster Courage, as it's the most power efficient. Not that you shouldn't use any of the other heals, as they all are important and have their roles, but the point is that if you don't NEED to use an Inspire Fellows, or a Chord of Salvation, because those injured people are no longer taking damage, then don't, because they'll chew up your blue bar quick. You can often substitute Anthem of the Free Peoples or Song of Soliloquy or just let their natural in-combat regen take over and heal them up, and part of being power-efficient is being able to trust your group and hold back the expensive heals because you know they're going to be fine.

This doesn't really apply at lower levels where a Raise the Spirit will fill up a player's bar from near dead anyway. If so substitute Raise the Spirit for Bolster Courage. But you don't really have any other heals for the first 20 levels or so anyway. But Bolster is your bread and butter once you get it and people's morale pools start to hit double or more than the size of your RtS, and RtS becomes more of a bridging panic heal.

My tip for soloing is that if a tough-looking elite mob is alone, fearable, and reasonably levelled (yellow-orange elites, orange-red sigs, or red normals) you can likely solo it. Takes a long time if the mob is huge, or there are two of them, but for kiting there are several ways of doing it, one is being out of warspeech and putting Echoes on them and fearing them everytime is up (Echoes of Battle placed on a mob before the fear will not break the fear), Piercing Cry everytime it is not feared, and just autoattacking/self healing or kiting the monster and spamming ballads between fears. Another is being in war speech (and doing the same thing) and unloading with your war-speech skills in between, but understand that this is more power-intensive and you may have to drop WS for heals or power conservation at some point. Warspeech skills can speed things up but is most decidedly NOT power efficient in terms of damage per power point, so it's a sacrifice you'll have to make for a fight. Not to mention you don't get a warspeech skill for a few levels after actually getting warspeech. You can always warspeech up near the end of those turtling fights though. But find the combination along those lines that works for you. And make the call if you need to heal yourself out of warspeech, or if you can survive with heals while in warspeech (less possible if you trait warrior-skald, which is why I nearly never trait it outside of the Moors).

Even levelling up, you can solo yellow/orange special mobs that can be feared (like the ghost that has Idalene in the North Downs, or named orcs south of Gatson's, or various shard/flake rare signatures) and it continues all the way into endgame - you can solo a Chief Guard or Lieutenant in Fil Gashan on level, or solo the entire West and North wings in the Dungeons of Dol Guldur (but it took me several hours to do that so I didn't bother trying it with the East Wing), which involves taking on two 20k mobs at once several times. You need to understand the fear mechanic and how it pulls mobs if the fear breaks too near to another group, and thus when you HAVE to manually break the fear to save your life, and also be aware that if a feared mob wanders too far away from you, Echoes of Battle drops off. And that fear can resist, have a backup plan (kite for 30 seconds around a tree).

[Cloudie-wan]

The best way to keep your Fellowship alive is to keep yourself alive FIRST. Don't just build for more Power and healing output, be sure to balance your stats towards survivability as well, including Morale, -incoming damage, and b/p/e. The best tanks and the best strats in the game won't save you from being one-shot by a raid mob unless you personally take responsibility for keeping yourself up. You are not a helpless healer, you do not have to scream and cry if a mob gets on you. If you build your character right, you can take a few hits while also saving your group.

To keep yourself alive, prioritize yourself for healing. You don't have to spam yourself, but always be aware of where you are at in terms of morale. If you have to spam your tanks just to keep them up in a bad situation, remember that is what Athelas Potions are for. Also remember that you have some abilities that can save you, like Lay/Lyric of the Hammerhand (or your racial traits like Eldar's Grace, Endurance of Stone, Strength of Morale). If you're going down, use things like Triumphant Spirit to save yourself, even if it will only benefit you. Sure, it sounds selfish, but if you, the HEALER, gets defeated, then everyone else will die, too.

To be a true asset for your Fellowship, you have to be alive. A defeated Minstrel is no help at all.

[twittfounder]

Don't be afraid to communicate YOUR needs. You can't do your job if there are ranged mobs shooting you or melee mobs whacking on you -- if you have developed healing aggro, let your fellowship know so they can protect you.

You may often here players say, "so and so need heals" -- yes, that happens -- but watch your prioritization: tanks, then healers, then dps classes, then support classess. Communicate that priority list, and if you have troubles, let your fellowship know.

Communication also goes the opposite direction: if you're in a big fight and you are about to pop fellowships heart -- let the group know! That gives them information that they can use (very similar to cappies saying, inharms way, last stand).

Finally, don't overlook YOUR support skills: call to greatness (in particular) is amazing. But it takes a good partner to utilize it appropriately...take some time to understand what call to greatness does for each class. And communicate it in advance when you are about to use it: example, cappies often get GREAT benefit from it (it triggers their on defeat skills) -- so I'll let that player know when i'm about to use it so they can be prepared. Song of Aid is another very very good support skill -- but it is of no good if the fellowship isn't ready for it.

If you haven't noticed my theme: communication! you are there to heal your party...so:
a. let them know what you need to effectively do your job
b. communicate when you are doing big heals
c. communicate when you need help getting things disrupting you off!

Finally -- be patient. You can't heal stupid. You'll try! thats the minis way....but don't be frustrated or concerned when it happens. a champ may die from time to time. Shrug it off, keep going, and keep spreading good cheer and hope in middle earth!

[Column]

As far as soloing goes, the best strategy I've developed is this: While in WS, throw up the better echoes of battle, then use Herald's Strike and other big attacks. Next use Ballad of War and then Anthem of the Free Peoples. Finally use Noble Cause.
Now your ICMR will keep you healed (even better if you throw up SoS, too) while you spam a buffed Herald's Strike. And better yet, you're healing yourslef more with Noble Cause Helps a bunch with signatures or the pesky yellow/orange mob.

Otherwise, have fun with the class. You are needed. The group will have a harder time without you, so being pushed around is riduculous.
Also, finish your deeds early. Haha I have yet to finish the "Revive people" deed ':/

[PenaltyShot]

The skill of a minstrel in inversely proportional to the number of times they cast bolster courage and inspire fellows. The better minstrel you are, the less often you will use these.

Do not be a boster bot. You burn through power and draw LOTS of aggro. tier up for AOTFP. Everyone will be happier.

[kyrelenblackstone]

The 'F' keys are your friend... F1 selects yourself, then from the top of the list, F2 the second person in your fellowship list, etc.

Also, don't be afraid to ask a fellowship leader, or raid leader, to set up fellowship assists, so that you can keep a closer eye on the tanks.

And don't be afraid to yell in a group, when an FM comes up, ALL BLUE!!!

[Asileth]

For Group healing levels 20 plus
As has been mentioned before, remember your ballads! Love your ballads! They buff, they increase healing, increase the chance for your fellows to kill faster and they tier you up to important anthems and they even damage the enemy.

Don't forget your anthems - 1 always gives icmr (anthem of free peoples) and you can trait for another (anthem of valor) to do the same. And, if you trait watcher of resolve line, your anthem of compassion can become a ballad (available much later).

Threat Reduction - this is huge and so many minstrels ignore it to their grief. We have threat reduction tools, learn them and use them. Never start a group fight with a big heal w/o either first using song of soothing (level 28 skill) or ballad/anthem of compassion (level 24 skill). And hit these every time you can. And never leave home w/o your lute strings .

As someone said earlier, communication is key. While it is your job to heal, it is the groups job to help you do that and that includes protecting you, for them not to pull a mob away from the tank, and to carry and use, wound potions, fear potions, poison potions, disease potions, etc. And tell them when they have these debuffs so they can remove them rather than lose morale. You should not be wasting your power healing a hunter who is too cheap to buy potions or too lazy to use his cure Poison skill.

For solo minstrel
Use your piercing cry over and over so you can get the trait unrelenting - huge help when soloing.
Finally - don't panic!! Panic wipes a group

[WynneCat]

So far, I've seen "Must Use Ballads!" and "Math proves BC spam best" as Notions in this thread. Both are a wash for me in the 20s and 30s, so I'm good with either (I'm a newbie, obviously). I was wondering if mayhap y'all couldn't Hold Forth on decent Virtues for a group-healing traiting. The class traits seem pretty straightforward for this (Warrior Skald is Right Out), but the virtues have been trickier to figure. Any help?

Many thanks in advance.

[Madduck]

Don't over heal. No need to keep people at 100%. Power is your friend.

Try and learn how much damage your tank can take. This will allow you more time to heal the fellowship.

As long as you don't go Red line (trait set) in raids, Blue or yellow is YOUR choice.. most other people don't understand why you play the way you do or what benefits it has.

You will be abused, "Its your fault for the wipe" .. "HEAL ME" " HEALZ PLEASE" .. just smile and be happy.. these people are just insecure.

RK's are evil.

Watch the burgs when sparring.. traited WS can take most everyone down, but them burgs are tricksy


Most of the time you want to find a nice cosey space to heal from. Positioning IS important. Line of sight stops you getting pinged by archers, and if you are clever you can drag them to the group. If you can't get the archer off you and the group isn't helping and SOS isn't helping, ask the Hunter ,politely, to ping the archer for you....

If you get melee aggro stand on the Champs toes ( or guards) .. but watch the AOE of the mob.. most is frontal AOE .. so go as close but behind the mob that is the main focus of the group.

Roll a hobbit.. 2 x fiegn death saves lots of 10 min run backs in BG :P

Hobbits don't wear shoes btw !!

Use the bagpipes or the moors bell.. this will infuriate your fellowship

Virtue wise, I rarely change them and can't rightly remember what I'm actually using atm but...

These are what I have used overtime.

Empathy: Armour, Fate, and Fear Resist.

Honesty: Power, armour, and Fate

Idealism: Fate, Fear Resist, Will

Loyalty: Vitality, Power, and armour

Compassion: Ranged Damage reduction, Tactical reduction.

Justice: Morale and ICMR.

Valour: Morale.

Fidelity: Shadow Damage reduction, Vitality and Power.

Wisdom: Will Wound Resist

[kyrelenblackstone]

So far, I've seen "Must Use Ballads!" and "Math proves BC spam best" as Notions in this thread. Both are a wash for me in the 20s and 30s, so I'm good with either (I'm a newbie, obviously). I was wondering if mayhap y'all couldn't Hold Forth on decent Virtues for a group-healing traiting. The class traits seem pretty straightforward for this (Warrior Skald is Right Out), but the virtues have been trickier to figure. Any help?

Many thanks in advance.

Haven't really grouped in more than a duo with my lvl 54 mini (two minis in a duo, neither needs to ever drop out of WS, we can both heal, we can both DPS. It works incredibly well!)... So I'm still traited WS line. It's not much help for you, but you can always check out Sharrael:

http://my.lotro.com/character/elendilmir/sharrael/

[cynyck]

This is more of a healer tip in general than a minstrel tip. Invariably, when a new healer gets a MoB's aggro he or she runs away. Never, ever run away from the tank. If you pick up aggro and a MoB is beating on you, run to the tank so he or she can pull the MoB off you.

If you think about it, isn't it dumb to run away from the one thing that can save you?

[Regero]

I only have a lvl 15 mini, and I mostly just use him as my farmer/cook for my toons, but speaking as a warden I do have an important tip for minis:

If your warden asks you to stop healing him, he means it.

When wardens dip below 50% morale we can bet back about 1,200 power in a few seconds. This can help with a wardens power issues immensely and will let the LM focus on other things, namely you and the enemy. There are times when this just isnt feasable, and if thats the case say so. Many wardens (and gaurds/champs for that matter) have a highly inflated sense of their own survivability and of your ability to save their butts. If thats the case say so. However understand that Wardens ARENT kidding when we ask you to let our health drop.

And speaking as a general tank now, I would like to say this: Let the hunter/champ die if they pull aggro again.

[Korusef]

Learn your key mapping:
Selection is the key: fellow members, assist, previous attacker

Previous attacker is very useful if combined with alias for /point
That way you can tell the tank who is attacking you and that you have them targeted.

To create and use alias:
/alias add ;<name> /point
/alias shortcut ;<name> <number in your quick slot bars> (you can then treat it like normal skill)

Another useful alias:
/alias add ;<name> /follow

select the tank and then just follow him (watch out for holes in the floor or bridges though)

[BaruDwarf]

This should be required reading for anyone who wants to properly fulfill their role in a group:
http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/A_Bas...or_Fellowships

[SirBeegus]

tanks are a minstrel's friend, it's true - but when forming groups, a reasonably skilled lore master can also be invaluable. LM can look out for the mini to send the mini a heal if their vitals are low and share power if their power is low. LMs are often left out of groups, but minis should encourage their inclusion.

[Vanmax1234]

Will>Fate>Vitality are your best stats to focus on. Will for your power pool and outgoing healing. Fate for power regeneration. Vitality to help take hits if things get away from the tank in the group.

Your right i know becuase im a healer