Dealing with multiple mobs

[Marlowe221]

How do you deal with 3 mobs? I get killed. Two on-level mobs is almost more than I can handle. Three is almost certain death.

Don't say, "don't pull 3 mobs." Yeah I get it. I go 1v1 as often as I possibly can. But let's be honest - a lot of times you can't help it. "Solo" quests send you into camps of mobs to kill some named enemy. Are they only solo as long as you're not a Minstrel?

Here's the problem I'm having with just 2:

1. Pull two mobs
2. Fear one
3. WS-dps the other
4. Fear wears off, other mob is still alive (15s duration with 30s CD ftl.)
5. Targeted mob dies
6. Almost die trying to kill the other.

All it takes are a couple of resists or getting no crits and I'm dead.

Is that how it's supposed to work? Does level 30-50 just suck royally and there's nothing to be done about it?

I use Song of Distraction as often as I can, btw. It seems to get resisted a lot (on dark blue mobs...), which aggros the targeted mob and any mob linked to him.

What do I do during the 3 minutes SoD is on CD?

I've tried it out of WS mode too. The problem there is I can't kill anything before I run out of power.

I am traited all red traits. My Virtues are all about 5-6, a good mix of Vit, -melee damage, Fate, and Will.

I have leveled healers in other MMOs but I have never been so frustrated. The way I see it a caster class either needs insane dps or lots of cc. I have neither.

I'm not attempting group quests solo or anything. I really like healing. I have been a good healer in other games. I would like to be a good healer in this game. But I'm not sure I can get this toon to max level without pulling my hair out. What am I doing wrong?

Edit: Is the class just not for me? Should I reroll Captain or RK?

[Clearchus76]

Might need to upgrade your gear. I don't remember any levels being particularly hard to solo through as a Min. Actually it's easier now that ballads are machine gun speed compared to what they use to be like.

If you get 3 mobs you should prob just run away. Even at 65 3 are a pain in the *** depending on what classes attack me.

[daronis17]

How do you deal with 3 mobs? I get killed. Two on-level mobs is almost more than I can handle. Three is almost certain death.

Don't say, "don't pull 3 mobs." Yeah I get it. I go 1v1 as often as I possibly can. But let's be honest - a lot of times you can't help it. "Solo" quests send you into camps of mobs to kill some named enemy. Are they only solo as long as you're not a Minstrel?

Here's the problem I'm having with just 2:

1. Pull two mobs
2. Fear one
3. WS-dps the other
4. Fear wears off, other mob is still alive (15s duration with 30s CD ftl.)
5. Targeted mob dies
6. Almost die trying to kill the other.

All it takes are a couple of resists or getting no crits and I'm dead.

Is that how it's supposed to work? Does level 30-50 just suck royally and there's nothing to be done about it?

I use Song of Distraction as often as I can, btw. It seems to get resisted a lot (on dark blue mobs...), which aggros the targeted mob and any mob linked to him.

What do I do during the 3 minutes SoD is on CD?

I've tried it out of WS mode too. The problem there is I can't kill anything before I run out of power.

I am traited all red traits. My Virtues are all about 5-6, a good mix of Vit, -melee damage, Fate, and Will.

I have leveled healers in other MMOs but I have never been so frustrated. The way I see it a caster class either needs insane dps or lots of cc. I have neither.

I'm not attempting group quests solo or anything. I really like healing. I have been a good healer in other games. I would like to be a good healer in this game. But I'm not sure I can get this toon to max level without pulling my hair out. What am I doing wrong?

Edit: Is the class just not for me? Should I reroll Captain or RK?

I really wouldn't reroll since you are in the mid 40's. I do remember dying a lot or just running away. Certain zones are harder then others to level in as well. I'm guessing you are in Eregion now which wasn't all the horrible if I remember correctly. Anyway, to answer your question I'm not sure I really had much luck with more than 2 mobs at a time at lower levels. Once you start getting legendary items you can boost your DPS abilities and your ballad damage which will help out a lot.

You said that you trait all reds so I'm assuming you are using Light in the Dark which boosts ballad damage and Unrelenting which increases the crit chance of Piercing Cry and gives it a stun for every crit. Instead of all red you may want trait Focused Performance so you won't get disrupted as much, that might be part of your problem. Also, all of your ballads can be cast on the run so kiting is an option as well. I looked your character up and you seem to have a good deal of power for your level so I'm not sure why you are having power issues, your morale seems a little low but then again it may be right for your level, it's been a while since I was in the 40's. Personally I never used the harp, I always used the drum so the ballads would do more damage but if power is a problem then that won't work for you.

I have never really used Anthem of the Wizards (legendary ability) but it is an aoe with a slow effect so that would help with kiting while using ballads. Anthem of the Free Peoples is something that you should use as much as possible since it increases your morale regen and your heals suck in WS mode. Use Ballad of Resonance first and every 10 seconds (or longer, depending on how long the buff it gives lasts), it gives you a bonus to tactical damage which is everything that you do besides Herald's Strike. Hope some of this helps you out. Oh and you may want to check out skirmish gear rewards, not sure if there is anything any good there for you or not. Good luck and hang in there.

[Fruinjuice]

It has been a long time since I was level 45 as well, but I did solo most of my way through to 65.

Some other tips I'd suggest.

Anthem of the Free People and Anthem of the Valar - 'Tier 4' that gives us some heal over time.

Ballad of War - +10% melee damage

Echoes of Battle - Use your 'swords' on a mob, then fear that one - it'll do damage while he runs around and you can dps the other mob you are on.

Trait Unrelenting - Piercing cry can stun a mob. Use it

Legendary Weapons - Now that you are Level 45 - go to Echad Dunann in Eregion and start Volume II - Mines of Moria. Get your first legendary weapon and use it. Chances are it'll be a good one and have some DPS damage modifications to it.

I don't fret even 3 mobs at level 65 - mind you, I do have a good DPS legendary weapon and the Call to Fate WS skill. But I do run in my healing build and I have zero issues.

[blinggo]

i dont know what server your on but i have a level 61 dwarf mini and the only problem i deal with is power, i seem to have the same problem with fear one and kill the other. just pack up your power pots and try not to solo as often

[Ghosttaker]

Another strategy....

Fear your first mob focus on one with your big WS skills up. Up to you, you know your morale if you want to take it to a 2nd round of your WS skills once you blow them but drop out of WS, self heal a couple of times, fear should be just about back up, fear your original mob again, one of the two should be dead, a couple more self heals take down # 2, fear the original mob again self-heal and pop back into WS to burn him down.

If you are dying before you can do that then it might be a gear issue.

Also, leave an exit, learn to back away while firing your ballads.

Lastly, in the 3 mob scenario I put the swords not on the feared mob and not on the mob I am going to kill but the other mob that i'll be enduring while I burn down my first one. By the time I get to him he's taken some damage and it makes it go more quickly.

my .02

[Inzy]

I've been playing my Minnie the last few nights, I have gone from 37-41. He had been my banker for the last year or so, but I got the urge to pull him out and play, I have been having a lot of fun.

I had forgotten how many skills are at your disposal...and how important kiting is.
More than once I have pulled 3 mobs or more, (I am so used to my Warden - the more mobs the merrier!) I am not ashamed to run away.

Thanks for the tips in this thread.

[Action-Jackson]

Another strategy....

..snip..

Lastly, in the 3 mob scenario I put the swords not on the feared mob and not on the mob I am going to kill but the other mob that i'll be enduring while I burn down my first one. By the time I get to him he's taken some damage and it makes it go more quickly.

my .02

That. I tend to put the swords on the mob that I will get to last. By doing that, I get the most "value" out of my use of the skill because it is not down at all during any part of the fight. It appears that you're marginal in some aspect (apparently not power pool, others said gear was ok), so every bit will help in this regard.

As others have said, make sure you have the crit/stun trait for PC. Also, if you have them, combine Glorious Anthem and Battle-hymn for longer lasting (nearly permanent in the fight) morale regen. Between the two, you should get about 90 seconds (iirc, not in game atm) of enhanced regen. Finally, try Smooth Voice to get Ballad of War and Anthem of the Free Peoples up before you start the fight.

Other tips, try not to heal unless you can minimize your chance of interruption. So, when you have one mob feared, try to use that time to use PC so you can get the stun to further minimize the chance of an interrupt. This way, of the three mobs, hopefully only one has the chance to interrupt BC, which you should get off easily.

I know these changes take you away from the pure DPS build, but if you aren't doing enough DPS to survive, maybe focusing on survivability is the way for you.

It's been forever since I leveled my mins, I did mine in SoA before WS, but I don't remember too many places where I felt it difficult to progress. But, I always kept in mind that it is better to run away when it gets tough than to take a chance on landing in the rez circle, so that may be something to add to your strategy. I hope this helps. Good luck.

[Reillan]

Whenever I see something like this, I always know what the problem is: the "stand and fight" mentality. You can take on as many mobs as you want as long as you learn that there is nothing to be lost from *running away*. Simply throw up your Echoes of Battle (or, assuming you're in warspeech, TEoB) on one of the mobs and kite him around until he's dead. Seriously. If you lose aggro - great, you needed to escape anyway. If you don't lose aggro, you can keep pulling him around after you until he falls. Just make sure any turns you take are large and around another object to force him to come around.

So here's how I might start a fight:

EoB up on a target first. ballad to raise my output damage. Call to orome to hit all 3. Call to the second age to hit all 3 again. Fear off a non-EoB target. Slam the EoB target with your damaging ballad, call to fate, and piercing cry.

Now, at this point that first target should be dead. If not, start tiering up to tier-4 with your damaging ballads again. That way you can fire off your damaging anthem(s) if need be.

Once he is dead, switch EoB to the non-feared mob and run like crazy. When the fear fades off the one feared, he'll give chase, but if you're running away from them both, your fear will come back up and be ready for use before he can get within range. As soon as your fear is ready again, stop, throw up your damage ballad, and lay into them again with orome and second age. Then fear one away again and pounce on the non-feared one with your big single-target dps skills.

et cetera, et cetera, et cetera...

(this is basically how I soloed the first boss of sword halls. It's cakewalk.)

[Marlowe221]

Thanks for the replies folks. I have taken some of all of your advice and things have gotten better.

I upgraded my gear some and sacrificed a little will for some vitality.

I dropped all but two WS traits (Unrelenting and -cry and ballad power costs one) and loaded up on yellow traits. Don't have Battle hymn just yet but will by tonight.

Got my starter LI and it had a -tactical resistance legacy on it. That has helped a lot.

Result: I can now heal myself at 50% effectiveness (which is not too shabby) while in WS and still do decent damage. It takes a little longer to kill things but I seem to be more survivable since making these changes.

I am working on learning how to kite. That's a new one for me - it's taking some time.

Thanks all!

[ShinryuLOTR]

I'll just put in a major thanks to those helping here as well. I'm running into some of the same problems and next time I'm online I'll have to put some of this info to use.

[hucklebarry]

I think it was said above, but you can usually tell when you 'might' run the risk of pulling more than two. Buff up fully before the opening pull. Also, remember you have a feign. Kill one or two, then feign if you have to. The last one will reset, you can regroup and then it's a solo pull.

There is a trait arrangement that reduces the cooldown on distract, sorry I forget which one.

When you get pretty solid gear things will get much easier. If I think I may pull three mobs, I actually wait until I can so I get the full benefit of AoEs. (depending on the situation).

Don't forget about your big and instant heals too. For some reason I always associated Triumphant spirit as a group only skill. It works when solo if things go south and you can trait it down to a 10 minute skill

[Marlowe221]

Yeah in taking a careful look at the skill set (at level 46 at any rate) we do have a lot of tools.

It's easy to overlook them because many of those tools are on 10 minute cooldowns which seems like it would be a long time. But we have so MANY of them that SOMETHING useful should always be available when the poop hits the fan.

As far as traits go, the Protector of Song line seems to offer a lot of survival orient goodies. An extra 10s on ballad duration doesn't seem like much but I have found it to make a big difference in practice, for example.

I may go back to mostly WS traits later on but less dps and more survivability seem to be doing the trick for me right now. I got my morale up to about 1800-1900 or so too.

Get your starter LI as soon as you possibly can - it makes a huge difference!

[Dotlbeme]

Assuming you are soloing...

Slot (at least) two WS and make one trait = Medium armor and WEAR it. You will be surprised how much less squishy you are with the extra armor mitigation.

Slot Empathy and Innocence. (Armor, -% Melee)

Use distraction and fear. You should be able to survive 2 normals beating on you until one is dead. Run or feign and rinse/repeat on the remainders if you get in trouble. Or Drop out of War Speech, feign (for 10 seconds), throw on heals and continue. If you are a hobbit you might consider slotting your other feign skill.