Added placeholder pages for:
Skill: Song of Balance
Skill: Song of Vigour
Skill: Improved Song of Soothing
Skill: Improved Tale of Warding

Known issues with BB Codes:
Virtue: Loyalty displays as a Class trait
Skill: Fellowship's Heart missing from Lorebook. Used the Trait as a placeholder

Updated 8/21/09

Mines of Moria has introduced a new dynamic to end-game instances; the dynamic of massive, massive, insurmountable damage. Spike damage, AOE damage, huge bleeds, etc. Basically, the damage scale has been tilted away from "reasonable" and is hovering in the realm of "ludicrous."

Due to the recent statement that the Minstrel is "working as intended," I decided it may be helpful to reach out to those of you who just haven't adjusted yet to the new system. This is my attempt to do so. In no way will I ever imply that my way is the "right" way or the "only" way. This is what works for me. It may also work for you.

As I've suggested before, whenever possible you need to have an off-healer with you. A healing spec'd Captain, a Runekeeper, a Burglar (for green FM's), or a Loremaster. It is exceptionally difficult to heal in these 6-man instances being the only healer, and I do NOT recommend attempting to do so unless you know your group extremely well, and have the utmost confidence in all of them. That said, it can be done by a lone Minstrel, but it requires a lot of Bolster Courage (BC) mashing, and a fair amount of responsibility by the rest of your group.

BC mashing, being the standard healing strategy right now, has it's own problem: aggro management, which in turn leads to a quick death. This is what I'll try to help with.

Part I: Preparing for annihilation

In the immortal words of Edna Mode, "Luck favors the prepared."

Let's begin by assuming you won't always be in a group with a fantastic Guardian, or a Guardian at all. Also, assume that you'll probably be grouped with a Champion or Hunter who wouldn't know aggro control if it landed on their face and wiggled. I know, unheard of, but let's stretch our imaginations. What this means is, you need to be prepared to deal with a lot of orcs trying to eat your face.

Take a lesson from your friend the Guardian. Armour and Morale are king. Melee Invulnerability (that is, -Melee Damage) helps as well, but you need to stack it to see the benefits.

How to raise your Armour

Virtues

Empathy: +450 Armour

Honesty: +270 Armour AND +123 Power!

Traits

Medium Armour-use: Medium Armour Use changes the hard cap on your Armour from 30% to 40%. Even if you don't use Medium Armour, you shouldn't be running without this trait, if your trying to shed some of your squish.

Skills

Tale of Warding: +720 Armour AND +10 Radiance

Note: With 4/5 line bonus from PoS, you get Improved Tale of Warding. +1620 Armour, +10 Radiance.

Ballad of Steel: +780 Armour for 10 seconds. 20 seconds with Strength of Voice (which makes it much more reasonable to maintain).

If you choose to wear Medium Armour, you can get up to 7,000 Armour without much trouble. This is well beyond the 40% cap, but remember - anything above the cap is NOT wasted - it still gets added to your resistances. 7,000 Armour rivals many Guardians, just as a comparison.

But, as you move to Radiance gear - which is presumably the goal - you'll see that Armour value drop quite a bit. Do not despair. With Radiance gear, you'll also get your Morale up a bit. And there are other ways to survive without using Medium Armour, or even using the trait.

How to raise your Morale

Virtues

Valour: +286 Morale

Loyalty: +30 Vitality AND +60 Power AND +150 Armour!

Traits

Enduring Morale: +240 Morale

Skills

Ballad of Vigour: +50 to Vigour for 10 seconds. 20 seconds with Strength of Voice. 30 seconds with Smooth Voice, and it acts upon the entire fellowship (changes name to Song of Vigour, and thus would be affected by Song traits, like Silver Tongue).

You should be able to get your Morale above 3,000 without much trouble, which is enough to survive most spike damage in the instances. For Tier 1 Instances (+10 Radiance), anything below 3,000 is risky, but doable. I ran with 2,500 for a while and was only 1-shot two or three times. For Tier 2 Instances (+15 Radiance), you REALLY want over 4,000 Morale - try pushing 5k if you can. There is a lot of scripted attacks (Caerlug), where you WILL get hit for 900+, 1600 on a Devastated (and that's with the 3/6 acid mitigation bonus from Radiance gear); and there is a lot of spike damage - single target & AOE (Halls of Crafting boss).

Equipment

This is huge. The best way to raise your Morale is simple: Better equipment. Specifically, jewellery (since you're stuck in - or going to be stuck in - Radiance armour).

Rings - Level 60

• Amber Ring: The envy of the entire community. The Amber Ring drops in the Forgotten Treasury, in any chest. It is extremely rare. It is not recommended that you try to farm this, but if you NEED to have the best, this is what you want.

• Spry Ring: The Spry Ring drops from Brumbereth in Skumfil. It's a semi-regular drop, so this would be very reasonable to acquire. It isn't as good as Amber, but it's easier to get - and still VERY high in Morale.

• Rose-gold Opal Ring: The Rose-gold Opal Ring is not as high in Morale as the Spry or Amber, but it has +6% Tactical Crit Multiplier. It's a viable option for a Minstrel.

Rings - Level 65

Coming...

Bracelets & Necklaces - Level 60

typically aren't Morale heavy. I recommend you get the Lothlorien Healers set: Choker of Laurelindórenan & Wristlet of Laurelindórenan. They won't provide a large Morale boost (if at all), but they do have a fantastic heal buff clicky. Besides, there aren't any great high Morale options for Bracelets or Necklaces. Note, you'll have to give up Elrond's Gift at this time. This is something that pains me. But it's necessary.

For the 2nd Bracelet slot, if you still want more Morale, try the Insidious Cuff. This drops in the Grand Stair, on hard mode. I think it's best to keep a +ICPR bracelet in the 2nd slot. But if you still need Morale, that's a good place to go.

Bracelets & Necklaces - Level 65

Coming...

Earrings - Level 60

• Rollos: Rollos comes from the boss chest in the Mirrors instance. It's a great Minstrel earring that is quite high in Morale, has decent Power, high Fate and good Vitality. The perfect earring for a Minstrel who is trying to up his Morale pool.

• Diamond Stud: The Diamond Stud is everyone's favorite high Morale earring. It doesn't have as much Morale as Rollos, but has as much Fate. It has no Power, but it has a good ICMR buff. It also drops in the Grand Stair on hard mode.

Earrings - Level 65

Coming...

How to lower your Incoming Melee Damage

Virtues

Innocence: -5% to Melee Damage

Zeal: -3% to Melee Damage

Discipline: -2% to Melee Damage

Equipment

The Guard's Charm is reasonably easy to get, cheap and gives -3% Incoming Melee Damage. If you're looking for the "best," you'll probably want to farm Halls of Crafting for the Miniature Brass Anvil.

There is a necklace reward from the Barad Gularan quests that gives -1% IMD: Laugi Goldentongue's Doom. This is the only piece of jewelry I'm aware of that gives -IMD that isn't a pocket item. Whether it's worth using a level 50 item at 60 or 65 just for the additional -1% is going to be up to you.

Legendary Item Bonuses

Stalwart Guardian gives -2.5% Melee Damage. It comes from the Midnight Raid 3-man IXP instance.

Ancient Rune of the Thunder gives -2.5% Melee Damage. It is a T8 Rune. You can have 2, obviously.

In total, this will give you -21.5% to Incoming Melee Damage*. You do sacrifice certain things stacking MI, but you WILL see the difference. I ran this build for a while to test, and I was very happy with how much sturdier I felt. In the end, though, if I'm taking that much damage, I'm doing it wrong (or the Guardian is).

*note: With SoM, the -Incoming Damage caps will all be set at 15%!

How to Increase Your Healing

Our healing got quite a bit more complicated in SoM. First, we have a new Legacy on our songbooks: Tactical Heal Rating. Second, our Will now effects our Outgoing Heal Rating. Third, our heals do not scale from 60 to 65. You must take it upon yourself to increase your heals manually.

Tawariel has an excellent post on the nitty-gritty of the healing modifiers, calculations and maths.

Click here to see that post

Outgoing Heal Rating

Outgoing Heal Rating is a character stat. It is effected by any number of things. The biggest change to this is Will: 1 Will = 10 Outgoing Heal Rating. The flat bonus has diminishing returns when converted to %'s, but not by a lot. It's about 30 Will per 1% of Outgoing Heal.

650 (the new cap on Will) translates to about 22% Outgoing Heal Rating.

It has been stated that Outgoing Heal Rating caps at 30%. Clicky items should stack over that cap.

Tactical Heal Rating

Tactical Heal Rating is a new Legacy on every Songbook. Like all Legacies, it has Ranks. Each Rank adds a flat bonus to each heal - the same bonus each rank, but different for each skill. It effects every heal we have.

Equipment

So, increasing our Healing is a three-fold process:

1. We must have Will.
2. We must have a Songbook with high THR.
3. We must have flat OHR bonuses.

All of this is 98% equipment, 2% Virtues. Also, you'll want to decide exactly how much "raw" Will you want. Remember, if you are group healing you may have a Captain with you - that'll often mean +50 Will from IDOME. Also, do you run Tale of Heroism, or Improved Tale of Warding & Heroism? That's another +60. So really, having 540 raw Will may be totally adequate for you to cap.

Rings - Level 65

Coming...

Earrings - Level 65

Coming...

Necklace - Level 65

Coming...

Bracelets - Level 65

Coming...

Pocket - Level 65

Coming...

Legendary Items - Level 65 Songbooks

The level 65 3rd Age Songbooks start with 12 THR and go to 18. This alone will make the best 1st Age level 60 Songbook inadequate. I urge you to find a 65 3rd Age with H&M as soon as possible. If you can't get H&M and BC immediately, don't worry. It will come. Just find one with H&M to get started.

Legendary Items - Level 65 Crafted Relics

The Symbol of Vigor gives +390 Outgoing Healing Rating/+390 Tactical Critical Rating. It is BOA and requires you to be Supreme Master with Kindred Crafting Guild standing. It's worth working for, but it's not a "make or break you," bonus.

Incoming Heal Modifiers

With SoM, more than ever Incoming Healing will be very useful. I wouldn't want to heal a Guardian who wasn't running at least 10% Incoming Healing. And with the new cap on Incoming Damage, there should be plenty of wiggle room to add these stats into a Tanks build.

Passive Aggro Management!

As a Minstrel, you know aggro is going to be a problem. You should already have an Exquisite Superior Theorbo, and carry Improved Lute Strings of Greater Subtlety. There is also a Trait that you should be using:

Traits

Subtle Movements: "The use of your skills draws less attention from your enemies." Enough said.

Part II: Getting down and dirty

Active Aggro Management!

We have two real aggro management skills. One of these is anticipatory in it's design, one is both anticipatory and reactive.

Skills

Anthem of Compassion: Anticipatory. Decreases the amount of threat you generate from healing by 40%! That's no joke. Duration is 30 seconds, cooldown 1m. So you can have it on 50% of the time (assuming you can tier up to it). Duration is 45s with Glorious Anthem traited.

Song of Soothing: This skill soothes targets in an area, reducing their hate towards you. May only be used during combat and only effects monsters who are in combat. Cooldown 30s. An important thing to note here is, while it has a Range of 25m, the Radius is only 10m. So if you're standing way back by the hunter, and just pull 1 mob, if you SoS on him, it will not affect the other mobs. You may want to run your aggro'd mob (or mobs) back to the entire group before you cast this. There is NO MAXIMUM TARGETS! This will effect EVERY mob in the 10m radius of the one you choose to cast it on. 15 - 20 - 30 targets, it doesn't matter!

The only problem with Song of Soothing is that the induction is quite long, especially if you use it as a knee-jerk. If you're using it BEFORE you get aggro, you wont have a problem. But trying to cast it with 3 mobs on you is near impossible. In comes Improved Song of Soothing.

Note: Improved Song of Soothing changes the cooldown of Song of Soothing to 2m, which is a significant price to pay. The benefit of this is the induction is changed to .3 seconds. That's 0.3. 1/3rd (approx). 3/10ths. It is nigh impossible to interrupt. After using it, I can't go back. It's the best knee-jerk aggro management skill we have, and it's reasonably reliable. If I have 5 mobs on me, 4 will usually leave after I use ISoS.

Cooperative Aggro Management!

This § refers to the goal of assisting the tank in his role to grab aggro and keep aggro. It fits somewhere between active aggro management, and avoiding aggro altogether. There are three skills in your arsenal that you can and should use to provide this assistance, especially during difficult pulls or boss encounters.

1. Call to Greatness: One of the most confusing skills in the grab-bag of Minstrel skills, it is also VERY handy when you know when to use it, and who should get it. All "Call to" skills last 15s.

• Call to Guardians: +25% threat gen, grants Guardians Ward every 5 seconds.
• Call to Wardens: +10% threat gen, +5% damage.
• Call to Champions: Grants a defeat event and 2 Fervor. Grants 1 Fervor every 5 seconds.
• Call to Captains: Grants a defeat event. Grants Battle-readied state every 5 seconds.
• Call to Minstrels: +10% to healing. Recovers Chord of Salvation every 5 seconds.

Ideally, you will have a Guardian tanking. As you can see, hitting a Guardian with Call to Greatness at the beginning of a fight will give him a moderate bump to threat gen. Call to Champs and Captains is also useful, but more for the DPS threat generation Champs do, and the Healing threat that Captains can do. Worst case, cast it on yourself for a bump on healing when things get rough.

2. Song of Aid: This skill can be used to open up Anthem of the Free Peoples (AotFP) at the beginning of a fight. But if you can, allow it to run it's 10 second course, as it also grants block/parry events for Guardians (and defeat events for other classes). Sometimes a Guardian loses aggro and has a tough time getting it back because he isn't getting attacked to unlock those necessary block-triggered taunts. This is an ideal time to let loose with Song of Aid. Also: Lore-masters may use Beacon of Hope more frequently at a lower Morale cost. In my experience and testing, I've never had a Lore-Master notice any difference with Song of Aid running... Runekeepers may use Scribe's Spark and Prelude to Hope more frequently. Wardens may use Shield Piercer more frequently.

3. Echoes of Battle: -1800 Song and Cry resist. Nearly all Guardian taunts (and presumably Warden taunts) are Cries. The less the tanks taunts get resisted, the better off you are. It costs power over time, just like a Tale, but if you are pushing 1000 ICPR it shouldn't cause a huge problem. And if you are running with a Lore Master or Burglar, you shouldn't be too concerned about running out of power.

Avoiding aggro

1. Open up the fight with Call to Greatness on the tank (if you have a Guard - or a Warden).

1 1/2. If this is a boss encounter, use Echoes of Battle on the boss!

2. Hit Anthem of the Free Peoples as soon as possible. You can do this in 4 ways:

• Cry of the Chorus
• Song of Aid (As noted earlier. You can use it for long enough to unlock your anthems, then cancel it; or leave it up for the duration to grant the group some gated skills)
• If you have Smooth Voice slotted, you can tier up "naturally," before the fight begins.
• Tier up naturally.

3. Use Soliloquy of Spirit on the tank ASAP. This draws VERY little aggro and has minimal power consumption. There's no reason not to use it, even at it's weakest - it's extra morale for almost no cost. Also, please note:

Soliloquy of Spirit without legendary trait:

SoS heals 39 every 3 seconds for 30 seconds: Total 390

Soliloquy of Spirit with legendary trait:

SoS heals 72 every 3 seconds for 30 seconds: Total 720

SoS with trait AND +10 pulses (Weapon Legacy):

72 every 3 seconds for 60 seconds: Total 1440

Now, the recast is 30 seconds, so I can have SoS up on 2 people at a time, ALL THE TIME.

72 every 3 seconds for 60 seconds times 2: Total 2880

Typically, this gets thrown on the Tank and myself. Doubling down with AotFP (716.67 over 30 seconds), that means myself and the tank get 1437 morale restored during the 30 seconds AotFP is up (equivalent of chugging a Morale pot every 15 seconds). If you have Glorious Anthem slotted, it's 2154 morale over 45 seconds! When AotFP is not up, we get 720 morale restoration per 30 seconds indefinitely.

So really, what we have is a new, AotFP-type-skill that only works on 1/3 of a group (or an entire group of 2 if you're the "glass is half-full" type), but can be cast on the fly, does not need to be tiered-up to, and lasts forever (that is, if you're crazy enough to build your Minstrel totally around this somewhat lackluster skill). *cough*

Also, H&M Legacy on a book will add to these numbers… But I can’t log in to look at them right now…

4. Tier up to Anthem of Compassion.

By the time AotFP expires, the Guardian should have enough aggro on the group for you to throw your first heal. If you cannot wait until AotFP expires (likely), wait as long as you can before you throw your first heal. Ideally, this is AFTER AoC. To me, this means when the Guardian has about 1,000 Morale. Use your best judgement - you don't want him to get so low that one Critical hit will take him out, and account for "spike" damage. Boss fights this number may be closer to 2,000. Healing too soon will be disasterous!¹ This is the problem most Minstrels have. Learn to wait. If a squishy pulls aggro, do NOT spam heal them unless you are confident the Guardian can regain aggro (not likely). Let them die.

¹ Wardens are a major headache for Minstrels to heal when tanking for exactly this reason. The classes proactive nature, while very fun to play alone, typically has disasterous consequences in difficult group situations. Where reactive classes, such as Minstrels and Guardians, can twitch their way through the hairiest encounter, Wardens must know what they require before it happens - and prepare gambits accordingly. As such, the first 10 or 15 seconds of the fight, the Warden will be ultra-squishy as he "preps" for the fight. I would never recommend a Warden as a main tank unless they know the encounter blow-by-blow, or there is no other option.

Here we introduce the primary duties of a Minstrel:

1. Above all other things, your duty is to avoid group wipes.
2. Your duty is to keep yourself alive. If you die the group will wipe (likely).
3. Your duty is to keep your tank alive. If the tank dies, you will have aggro and the group will wipe (likely).
4. Your duty is to keep the off-healer and anyone with a rez alive.
5. Your duty is to keep the rest of your group alive.

I will add here, the primary duties of your fellowship:

1. Keep adds off the Minstrel.
2. KEEP ADDS OFF THE MINSTREL!

Now, even using all the skills and items at our disposal, we're still going to be trying to pull our heads out of the mouth of an angry orc at some point. Which brings us to the next section:

Removing Aggro

1. Use Song of Soothing (or Improved) as explained earlier. If it does not work, or is not effective enough the following chain of skills should allow the group to regain footing.
2. Above all things, DO NOT SELF-HEAL! This further clouds the aggro table to your detriment.
3. Can you fear? Is it safe to fear? Cry of the Valar can buy 15 seconds - which is often enough time for the group to finish the mob they are on and focus on what is on you.
4. In extreme cases, implement the following in part or to completion if you must:
   1. Clicky healing from Elrond's Gift. I hope you still have it. It’s invaluable.
   2. Suck a morale pot. (Power pots and and clickys do not draw aggro.)
   3. When morale gets low (400 or so) Lay of the Hammerhand (HH). At this point, tell the group you have too many adds, and cannot heal. This will get everyones attention quick.
   4. When power gets low, suck a power pot.
   5. Attempt to tier up to Anthem of the Free Peoples if it's available now! You can decide whether or not to Soliloquy of Spirit yourself here as well. Remember, stacking those skills can be rewarding.
   6. When power gets low again (about 500), drop HH and Still As Death (often referred to as "FD" for "Feign Death"). If the group needs heals at this moment: Fellowship's Heart and FD. If you cannot Fellowship's Heart due to cooldown or too many adds, Triumphant Spirit and FD. If Triumphant Spirit is on a timer, attempt to Soliloquy of Spirit the tank and Anthem of the Free Peoples if it's available (if you couldn't earlier), via Cry of the Chorus or tiering up; then FD. The general idea is to put SOME maintenance heal on the group before you Still As Death.
   7. Stay down as long as possible. If you were able to SoS and AotFP before you FD'd, you'll likely be able to stand up with full morale restored (albeit, low on power). Remember, FD is not an aggro wipe. It is a pause-button. When you raise, you'll have aggro again if the Guard has not regained it via forced-taunts or otherwise. And if you threw down Fellowships Heart before the FD, expect to pop up with a lot of aggro!

In Conclusion

As always, your group is as much (or more) responsible for their own survival as you are. That means staying out of AOE bombs, avoiding damage whenever possible (such as arc damage from Trolls), clearing debuffs with pots, and sucking potions. The less you need to spam BC, the less aggro you'll have. Make it clear to your group that it’s not possible for a Minstrel to keep up with the kind of damage that was introduced in MoM, so they need to watch for those things.

That’s about all I can offer. As I said in one of my blog posts, a Minstrel can no longer pull a sloppy group through a six-man. As your group gets a feel for the encounters, it’ll take a lot of the burden off you. And, with practice and experience, you will get where you're going.

Be safe, be wise, and never waste power trying to heal stupid. It can't be done.

--Klyth 16:26, 21 August 2009 (EDT)