A guide to good Minstreling

Original content created by community member: Tyar

A guide to good Minstreling
By Tyar of Landroval
Hobbitual

This guide was originally created by Tyar of Landroval, but it seems he hasn't logged into the forums for many months. When this guide was put onto the Lorebook it started to bug me (Figgy) that it hadn't been updated and it looked like no one could be bothered with to do so. I read through the guide, I chuckled at the jokes and I fell in love with it, and thus I embarked upon the long journey of updating it.

The guide to good minstreling has changed a lot in the past couple of months. I think it's more helpful if all this wonderful information comes from more people so I'm afraid I have been pestering minstrels I know for a while, asking for their opinions and such. I have tried to be as unbiased as I can on what has been written and changed, as well as adding new information and different sections based on my months of following and reading the minstrel boards. There are still areas that need improvment and additions, but this is it!

If you see information you feel is incorrect or missing then please edit away. This guide belongs to no one, yet is a part of us all! Your knowledge can help others make many of the tough decisions we face as a class, and I'm sure those who can find something useful in this guide will be greatly appreciative.

Thank you, Tyar, for such an superb guide, and a wonderful foundation to work upon. Your fellow minstrels salute you!

/Salute

[edit] 1.0 Introduction - What is a Minstrel? (short and sweet)

That's a good question. If you're familiar with the normal healing class, be it a Druid, Shaman, Blood Mage, Priest, Cleric. You're going to recognise some things, but there are also some new things Turbine threw in to make the healing experience feel fresh.

Morale Vs Hit Points

Since there is no death in LotRO (at least for you), Turbine had to come up with a novel alternative for the standard Hit Points and morale is the answer. Instead of dying, you get so overcome that you cease to function. Your morale can be reduced by dread and improved in times of hope. Consequently, you technically do not heal, you encourage and inspire. This, like in Tolkien's works, can be done in songs and tales and it is why you are a minstrel rather than one who heals with bandages and disinfectant. But just like healing in all other games, the main role you will have is making that green bar fill up.

Aside from healing you have a variety of buffs in your arsenal, both group and personal buffs, toggles and timed skills. You can rez, remove dread, give hope and also do a nice bit of damage.

Throughout this guide you may see a few common terms new players might not be familiar with.

Adds - Additional monsters.
Aggro - (aggravation) Is the hate a monster has towards you. In order to determine who the monster attacks each player has a level of aggro. Whoever has the most gets the monsters attention. This is important to understand as a healer since you want to make sure that you're the target as rarely as possible.
AoE - Area of Effect - Basically means something that works within a specific area, usually against multiple targets.
Conjunction - (CJ) Now a days these are called Fellowship Manoeuvers. Back in beta they were called Conjunctions and the name has stuck.
Crit - Refers to a Critical hit or cast. Your character has a crit rate and every spell or swing has a certain % chance to be much larger.
DoT - Stands for Damage over Time. Pretty self-explanatory.
DPS - Stands for 'damage per second', but is often used in place of the word damage. This term also refers to a player whose job is to deal damage. (I do 5dps, my dps is insane, I'll do dps)
Freep - This is what you are! unless you're playing your monster character. It stands for Free people.
ICMR - In-combat morale regen. How fast you regenerate morale during combat.
ICPR - In-combat power regen. How fast you regenerate power during combat.
Mez - A skill that freezes a mob, usually broken if the target gets damaged.
Mob - Non-player characters (monsters) you attack and kill, eg Orcs, Goblins etc.
Tank - Generally a guardian. This is the person who is designated to take the damage for the group.

[edit] 2.0 General Specifics

[edit] 2.1 Tiers? Anthems?

One of the more interesting new things you're going to have to learn to deal with as a minstrel is the idea of Ballad Tiers, and Anthems. Most of your attack songs and buffs are assigned to a tier, an example of a Tier 1 ballad is the Ballad of Vigour.

Once you play a Tier 1 ballad, (assuming it wasn't resisted)* you will now be able to play Tier 2 ballads for a short window of time** before you lose access to that tier. Once you play a Tier 2 Ballad such as Ballad of Swiftness, you will then unlock Tier 3. Tier 3 is different, as the ballads you can play here are buffs for your entire fellowship. For example a crowd favourite is the Ballad of War, a 10% melee damage buff. This buff only last 15 seconds*** but it is quite powerful. After a third tier ballad you unlock the ability to play an Anthem. Anthems are generally rather powerful. Anthem of the Valar, an AoE damage attack, being one example. The catch with Anthems is once you play one, all your Tiers are reset and you're stuck with only Tier 1 ballads again.

What this means for a Minstrel is that not only do you have to heal your party, but in order to keep them happy and buffed you need to also think offensively. The following are a few little tricks to help you get started.

Show Target's Target

In the Combat section of your main Options menu, you will find a tick box called "Show Target's Target". This does what it says on the tin. You get a very small set of vitals pop up on your screen which will show you the target of your target.

Target Forwarding

Again, this is found in Combat Options. When enabled if you are targeting, say, a guardian, you cannot attack them but instead of getting an invalid target message you can choose to use them to forward your skills. ie you will attack what they are attacking. As aggro is very important for a squishy such as yourself, it helps to know you are twisting your ballads on a mob that won't get upset by it. Probably the two best choices for target forwarding are the Tank (Guardian) and the DPS (Champion, Hunter).

The flip side of this is that you can target off of mobs to heal their target! This can be very handy in the Ettenmoors for healing outside of your group, as well as incredibly satisfying because it feels like you are directly thwarting their plans.

* Smooth Voice (trait) – Slotting this Class Trait will turn your Ballad of Vigour and Balance into Songs that buff the whole party (T1 and T2 Ballads respectively), but do no damage. This trait can be good for several reasons. Taking away the damage component to the skills allows you to buff all the way up to your anthems before you even enter combat. If you do this just before engaging you will give everyone a buff to their vitality, evade chance, whichever Tier 3 ballad you choose and your choice of Anthem. What a great start to a hard fight! If the encounter will have lots of adds you can go for Anthem of Compassion, which will give you -40% threat generation from healing. This makes it less likely that something is going to bother you, enabling you to heal without interruption. If there are mobs which like to do AoE damage but you're not too worried about getting aggro then you can go for Anthem of the Free People instead to give everyone a nice buff to their morale regeneration. Just beware the Smooth Voice Addiction which claims many minstrels a year. Our skills are somewhat noisy, and please, there's nothing to say that just because you can buff out of combat, that every time you drop combat you should be buffing. Overuse and improper use may drive your fellows insane. This skill is described more in detail later on.

** Harmonious Melody (trait) – The Harmonious Melody Class Trait will add an extra five-second to the window. This is a handy trait to have, but given the large number of more-useful traits from which Minstrels may choose, it isn’t often slotted.

*** Strength of Voice (trait) – This Class Trait adds an extra 10 seconds of duration to your ballads (all three Tiers, since Book 11).

[edit] 2.2 Heals!

Minstrels have four basic heal skills on short cooldown timers: a quick little heal called Raise the Spirit, a much larger one called Bolster Courage, a group heal called Inspire Fellows, (which also gives a minor 1% reduction in damage), and finally you have Chord of Salvation, an instant heal with a longer animation time.

Additionally, we have a few other heals at our disposal and following this little introduction, I am going to go over my experience with each of these heals and hopefully include the experiences of other people, as well. It's worthwhile to note that many of our heals, unlike our attacks, have a short animation after the cast. This disables movement, which is something that you will probably notice early on and will be the bane of your career. Likewise, while we are talented enough to play our attack ballads while we are moving, our healing skills require us to remain stationary for their inducted duration.

[edit] Raise the Spirit lvl 1

"I'm cheap and fun!" (Wii joke #1)

In terms of power cost, Raise the Spirit is your cheapest option, but not by much. This is not your most power-efficient heal and should only be used if you don't actually have bolster courage yet, or the player is particularly squishy with very little morale (think lore-master), if you need to get a quick heal off before somebody dies and Chord of Salvation is on cooldown, or perhaps most appropriately when you are topping off someone's morale and Bolster Courage is too big.

This heal also has a short 1 second cooldown between its uses. This means you can't just chain these heals one after another. If you are relying on this heal, you can usually fit an offensive song in quickly between heals for that little added DPS. BAM. At higher levels once you have Bolster Courage you will use this heal much less, but until then, this is your 'bread and butter'.

[edit] Inspire Fellows lvl 10

"aka Taunt!"

This skill is notorious for attracting large amounts of aggro. It doesn't heal for that much and it consumes a large amount of your power. Many players avoid this like its a 50dkp minus, and truthfully, I think many people should. Although it's a tough tool to use, because it has limited uses, that doesn't make it useless. Throughout the game you can sometimes run into mobs with an AoE fire DoT. This is when this skill truly shines. Assuming you are confident in your tanks ability to keep aggro you can generally knock off a group heal to top everyone in the group up. Play around with it a bit and try to get a feel for how long in a fight you have wait before it's safe to use this skill. A lot of healing is getting the feel for your aggro level, which is something you just have to learn through experience. Keep in mind that your aggro level will be different with different tanks.

[edit] Noble Cause lvl 16

"The (illegitimate) child of DPS and healing."

Often underused and forgotten about, Noble Cause can give a nice group heal in some situations as well as provide a little DPS. Soloing, this skill can be used as often as it is up, as it provides you with 5 quick Herald's Strikes, and with a 2.5min cooldown, it's nothing to be stingy about. In a nutshell, Noble Cause resets your Herald's Strike timer, then lets you unleash 3 strikes on the mobs, without any cooldown. As an added bonus, each hit heals everyone in your group.

To get 5 smacks out of this skill, first use Herald's Strike, then use Noble Cause, lay down your 3 fwacks of fury, then finally end with a 5th Herald's Strike. This is a nice little chunk of damage, and can also give a little healing to the entire group, or yourself if soloing. USE THIS SKILL! So many people completely ignore it, which is silly given how powerful it really is.

[edit] Bolster Courage lvl 18

"I'm large and in charge." (2nd Wii joke)

Once you hit 18, you've received your new 'bread and butter' heal. The casting time is slightly longer, but the amount of morale it recovers is much larger. The power cost is also very close to that of Raise the Spirit. A good habit to get into is to know how long your heal takes to cast. It sounds silly but sometimes your tank is going to be low on morale, but you won't have time to pull off a longer heal. At those times, it's generally a good idea to pop a smaller heal or Chord of Salvation than to risk your tank dying mid-heal. A good tactic is to know how much health your tank has and never let him drop past a certain threshold. Keeping a tank at full health is often inefficient, for example if he is only missing 600 morale and you heal him for 710 that's 110 morale lost. Generally it's safe to keep your tank around 50-70% of their max morale, but everyone will develop their own comfort zone. Knowing the encounter you are up against will help immensely because sometimes you just don't have the wiggle room to do anything aside from keep your group at full health.

Oftentimes some tanks will get anxious if they are constantly low on morale and might start using cooldowns in fear of dying. If this is the case try to reassure your little canned chicken that he will be just fine.

[edit] Anthem of the Free Peoples lvl 20

"Cruise control for healers."

This is an anthem that increases in-combat morale regen by 20.1 (at level 50), which equates to a lot of morale per minute! This wondrous skill makes healing for its 30 (45 traited) second duration rather easy. Aside from laziness, it also has some practical uses. In boss fights where there are lots of adds, this skill is your saviour. When you use this skill, the aggro gain is minimal because you aren't actually healing the players, you are simply increasing their regen. In fights with aggro problems putting this up for the first 30 seconds allows you to really skimp on the heals, thus permitting you to not only sit back and have a snack, but also prevents you from drawing aggro from one of the mobs early on. In fights such as Ivar in Agamaur, this is really useful for helping the tank set up the initial aggro.

[edit] Triumphant Spirit lvl 30

"Larger and in charger!" (3rd?)

Sitting in the right corner with a 15 minute cooldown is Triumphant Spirit. Those from FFXI might remember something called Benediction, it's basically the same idea, with less aggro generated. Using this skill isn't a guarantee of getting aggro, but it does give a massive amount. Generally in controlled fights only use it if somebody is really close to dying and needs a large heal quick. This skill has no casting time and is your largest heal, healing the entire group for a massive amount. This skill can be a lifesaver. Another use for this skill is when you're training (think choo choo here), not levelling, but running through a large aggro area trying to get through without dying. Usually a higher armour class will run through but if they're low on HP you can pop this skill to heal them fully. Be aware though, you will now be the target of all the train's passengers, so it's best saved if you know that you can run away from them all. You can also use this if you're being lazy and forget to heal yourself while soloing. Apparently it happens!

This skill will be in your arsenal of "Oh Crap!" weapons. Some people prefer to save it and only use it in an emergency because there are probably going to be times when you are going to wish it wasn't on cooldown. Whether you class one person about to die as an emergency is up to you and dependent on the situation. Perhaps you're near the end of a battle but are closer than 15 minutes to a boss fight where the opportunity of a full wipe is more likely?

As an added note, Milarien pointed out that because of the lack of casting time, this spell can be used while you're running. Useful, trust me.

This skill has NO power cost. If you find yourself out of (or drained of) power this skill can avert the dreaded wipe.

[edit] Chord of Salvation lvl 38

Uh ohs! Can't afford inductions!

It's not great, but it's better than a kick in the teeth. This skill is instant cast but we pay for it with a longer animation time, which acts as a pause between striking Chord of Salvation and using your next skill. This heal can buy you enough time to get off a larger heal with an induction, depending on how fast your target is taking damage.

It generates less aggro than using Triumphant Spirit, but the heal is much smaller and the power ratio isn't that clever. This skill goes on a 30s cooldown, so it's not something you can hit repeatedly, nor would you want to if you value your power!

[edit] 2.3 Buffs!

One of our secondary class roles is buffing and as a Minstrel you are given a nice selection of them for your party, including our Ballads, Anthems, and Tales. A good Minstrel heals his group and keeps everyone alive. A great Minstrel keeps his group buffed and ready for the fight ahead.

[edit] Ballad of War lvl 6

Melee made easy.

This is the first buff you get and the one people are going to want most of the time. This is a Tier 3 Ballad and last 15 seconds. the 10% melee damage increase is quite hefty but requires tier 3 Ballads to be unlocked, so there are at least two songs you need to play before this song. This buff is often a safe bet, and champions will love you long time for this one. This also helps the tank as more damage means more aggro, not that much, but every bit does help.

[edit] Ballad of Unshakable Will lvl 8

Seasons don't fear the reaper... nor should you

Great, now I got a song stuck in my head, as do most of you, but regardless, here's the lowdown on this Tier 3 Ballad. Fear resistance. Many mobs in this game, especially wights, give will debuffs. They often rear their ugly little heads in the form of a dot, or even worse a massive debuff to will and fate. At level 50 you see debuffs of -225 will/-225 fate, reducing power and power regen, or DoT's of nearly 300 per 2 seconds for 20 seconds. At lower levels the 1-2% fear resistance may not seem by much but as you level it grows. Don't be too quick to blow this off. Its not that hard to throw in as you can easily play two Tier 3 ballads before you're forced to either renew with a Tier 2 or use an Anthem to start from scratch. Fear is annoying, don't underestimate it, it may not be a 100% buff but when your power pool drops, don't say I didn't try to help you. This one lasts for 20 seconds.

Fear resistance is invaluable to Minstrels. In addition to nasty debuffs and DOTs, Fear attacks can also silence you. With no voice, the vast majority of your skills (including your heals) will be disabled. Silence kills, so use this Ballad at every opportunity while fighting against Fear-casting MOBs.

[edit] Tale of Heroism lvl 22

Bravery in a Box

This is the first of the 3 tales you'll receive. You may only have one acitve tale at a time. With two Minstrels in the fellowship, two different tales may be active on the group members. Doubling up on the same Tale does not allow it to stack. The Tale works as an AoE around you. If your members stay relatively close to you, they will receive your buff. If they wander off they can come back and reacquire it.

Tale of Heroism gives you a buff to your fate and your will but it costs 2 power a second at level 50. So it actually costs more power to use than you gain as in-combat power regen from the fate it grants. What it does do is buff everyone else in your fellowship, as well as give you a slightly larger power pool and a little higher tactical crit chance. This stat is in charge of how often you land a critical hit on tactical based skills, including heals and damage. It can be nice if you have players that tend to drain their power in your group, but if you don't want the power drain on yourself, don't run around with any tales up.

It's worth noting that the cost of maintaining the Tale of Heroism is 120 power per minute at level 50. However, the cost of this maintenance is largely offset by the Will buff, which adds to your Power pool. For battles lasting under two minutes, you'll usually see a net gain to power by using ToH. Maintaining it through fights longer than that will result in a net loss.

[edit] Anthem of Compassion lvl 24

Makes healing less aggravating.

Not to you, but it sure does to the mob. If you're worried about attracting aggro on a mob, this is a good skill to pop up. 30 seconds of 40% less heal aggo is nothing to scoff at and if you're in a fight where you know you're going to have issues with aggro, playing this Anthem can give you a little more wiggle room. I like to use this if I know I'm going to have to be spamming heals, if it's a boss that does loads of damage, or if we've got an off-tank situation and I need to be a little more careful with my healing aggro.

[edit] Song of Soothing lvl 28

Aggro reduction for the rest of us. (Ha, a Dummy book quote, how appropriate)

Being a healer sometimes mean getting aggro. Believe it or not, even Minstrel Messiahs such as myself pull aggro from time to time. This ability is better used unprovoked.. or rather pre-emptive(thanks Bush) as it has a casting time that can be setback by getting smacked around. I try to use this skill as much as I can, its a good habit if you're not in a rush, better safe than sorry. But mostly I do this because it unlocks a trait that lowers your overall aggro gain. Which will most likely come in handy with endgame PvE especially Raiding, where its less you want no aggro, but just need to make sure you got less than the other healers ;D

You can usually get off the induction of this song with one or maybe two mobs hitting you, but it will take a while. Be wary using it in raids if you have picked up loose aggro because once you soothe the mobs will likely go to the next highest person on the aggro list, which is usually another minstrel, especially if they've been healing you.

[edit] Ballad of Flame lvl 32

Only you can stop forest fires.

If not forest fires, then at least this Tier 3 ballad help prevent those maniacal fire dots that lag my computer. Early in the game, not much does fire damage, but as you get into the higher levels you'll start to have encounters with drakes and other fire hurling menaces. Also, in Monster Play, the Reaver at later ranks can make all his skill attacks do fire damage and the Uruk Blackarrow has a nasty fire attack. This probably will help in that respect. The times when you should use this buff are rather self evident. If it spits fire, breaths fire, or is generally on fire, its a safe bet this buff can help deal with some of the damage.

[edit] Tale of Battle lvl 32

Gotta fight for the right to buff!

This is the second of the three tales, which gives you a buff to both your vitality and wound resistance. Vitality will grant you morale and a whole load of resistances and mitigations such as shadow, fire, poison, wound etc. The extra morale can be fantastic if you're in a situation where the mobs hit hard and fast but you've got regen time coming soon. However, it will place a small power drain to keep this skill active (3 power/sec at Level 50), so if you're struggling for power feel free to turn it off, or scold your nearest Lore Master. If you have two Minstrels in a group one usually does Tale of Heroism and the other Tale of Battle, giving a nice round up of buffs to the group.

[edit] Lay of the Hammerhand lvl 42

Choo choo!

This skill makes you a training machine. Low Power doesn't kill you, low morale does. Power also comes back to you out of combat at a relatively generous rate. Use this when you know you're gonna take damage, the power drain isn't that bad, and this skill will probably save your life many many times.

[edit] Tale of Warding lvl 44

Hope: the last resort. I Build a castle with a iron door.

This is the last and most pointless Tale. It has a very situational use, and therefore doesn't see much daylight. This grants a buff of +1 hope as well as an increase in armour value, which in turn is responsible for common damage mitigation. The hope can be handy sometimes if using it can take someone out of the state where they cower from dread. This doesn't happen often. I can also be useful if you die when there's no one to remove your dread and you don't want to wait to get rid of it the natural way. Because dread affects not only your morale but also the damage you take and the amount you heal for, it can be a useful buff. It doesn't stack with anything, which reduces its use greatly, and just like the other tales it will give you a little power drain.

[edit] Call to the Fellowship lvl 46

Conjunction junction!

This was another new skill from the Month of the Minstrel. Again, it is very situational and not something you can use while Soloing. This skill grants a +10% increase to damage and healing from Fellowship Manoeuvres (aka conjunctions). Since these are something you can only achieve while you're grouped, it gets forgotten in day to day use.

So here you have a buff that lasts for 15 seconds, giving plenty of time to get a Conjunction in before it fades. The problem is either Conjunctions are random and/or you get no warning meaning the small delays on the skill can really hurt, making it a tight squeeze to get yourself into a conjunction unless you're going last in the order. Probably the best way to use it is to have a burglar call out when he's going to use a conjunction and hit it ASAP so you've got time to enter the Manoeuvre. The problem with this is if he fails his Conjunction, you've just wasted a skill on a 15 minute cooldown.

The conjunctions you see which are random, ie "Clover has broken the defences of the Onburz archer!" often don't last as long as the planned conjunctions started by a burglar. If you have a burglar that isn't afraid of saying when he's going to use a conjunction, you should take advantage of that.

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