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 38Uh 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 6Melee 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 8Seasons 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. I've seen will debuffs upwards of 70 will, which is quite a lot of my power gone. 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 22WTB clever comment
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 24Makes 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 28Aggro 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 32Only 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 32Gotta 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 42Choo 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 44Hope: 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 46Conjunction 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.
[edit] Gift of the Hammerhand lvl 48I bubble, you bubble, we all bubble!
This is just like your own Lay of the Hammerhand, except the rate at which it turns damage to morale into damage to power isn't as good as yours. This is a great skill to use on Champions who are aggro'ing a little too much. If you use it fast enough it can prevent them from dying and gives them a massive power drain they'll regen back pretty quickly. If you don't have a lore master, you should be careful when you use this skill because of that hefty power drain. The last thing you want to do is get rid of a Tank's power when all their cooldowns are blown and they have no way of getting it back with their often horrible in-combat power regen. Most of the time it's better to heal than to use this skill. But sometimes you can't heal enough, in which case, this skill gives you about 15 seconds to get their morale up before they start taking damage again.
One of the bad things about this skill is until you have 6/6 Rift gear, Gift of the Hammerhand will only convert common damage into damage to power. So anything which is doing fire damage, shadow damage, poison, wound, fear damage etc, will continue to sap at your friend's morale. It is in no way a guarantee. Healing is better.
What it can be useful for is helping a fellowship member train through inhabited areas, just as you can use Lay of the Hammerhand.
[edit] Call to Greatness lvl 50Forth and Fear no darkness! Arise, arise riders of Theoden. Swords shall be shaken! Spears shall be splintered!
This can be an excellent toy to play with! But it requires knowledge of other classes, good situational awareness and communication to be used most efficiently. You can use this skill on any member of your fellowship including yourself, and for each class it does something different.
You can really decide how, when and who you use this on. Whether it be to help those hunters get as much DPS into something as possible, or for Lore Masters to get a mez every 5 seconds, if things are hairy you can use this on a tank to help him get aggro, bigger heals from captains, so on. The best way to find out exactly what this means to a class is find a friend to put it on, and ask them what they can do with this skill that they couldn't before, and when would they like it if it's available.
With a 5 minute cooldown, obviously you can't use it on everyone, so your decisions might be important. Sometimes if you're unsure of your group you may want to save it until you think it has the possibility to make a real difference (aka, an "Oh Crap!" button). Not many other classes are aware this buff exists or what it does to them, so you may want to tell them it's coming if you're going to use it to help them make the best of it.
[edit] 2.4 War-speechOne of the early complaints about the Minstrel class was that while we were very difficult to kill, it seemed to take ages to kill anything else in return. In response to this, a very specific subset of skills was added in Book 11. These skills are gated by activating the War-speech skill and they collectively provide a rather large boost to our DPS, at the cost of increased power consumption and a 50% reduction in our healing output.
[edit] Echoes of Battle lvl 14Glowy ghost swords!
At level 14, this skill isn't very useful. Echoes of Battle creates a glowy ghost-sword which does damage over time (DoT) to your foe, as well as decreasing resistance to cries. This can be handy for yourself and any class with cry based challenge skills, (i.e. Guardians and Champions). At level 20 when you get War-speech, this skill becomes Timeless Echoes of Battle while War-speech is enabled, greatly increasing its damage output. Additionally, high-level crafted instruments will allow you to change the damage type of the EoB/tEoB attacks. Beleriand, Westernesse, Ancient-dwarf Make, and Common Damage varieties of all instrument types are available.
This skill is a toggle, but also has power consumption per second, so if you're getting low don't forget to turn it off.
[edit] War-speech lvl 20Outside, the storms of war may blow and the lands may be lashed with the fury of its gales, but in our own hearts this Sunday morning there is peace.
This is a brilliant skill! It's a toggle which requires power to cast, but not to sustain. War-speech activates two other skills which can only be used while you have it toggled on: Call of Oromë and Call of the Second Age. It also turns your skill Echoes of Battle into Timeless Echoes of Battle. On top of all these lovely things, it increases the chance of a critical hit on Piercing cry by 25%.
"Wow!" you must be thinking, "Why don't I use War-speech all the time?!" Well, that would be because while this toggle is activated you can only heal at 50%. Yeah, it cuts your healing in half. This means have to get proficient at fighting for as long as you can before turning it off to heal yourself and others. Healing while you're in War-speech is a waste of power.
So what can you do to maximise your time in War-speech and keep yourself alive? Part of this can be done with traits, the other with experience. The two traits than can help you are Glorious Anthem and Battle-hymn. Glorious Anthem makes your Anthems last for 45 seconds instead of the regular 30. Battle-hymn adds the same amount of in-combat morale regen to your Anthem of the Valar that you usually receive for Anthem of the Free People (providing it isn't resisted). This means that you will be able to keep a ridiculous amount of regen up for at least 90 seconds without interruption. This will mean you can go longer in War-speech without having to drop the toggle to heal yourself.
You need to learn what you can get away with. If you're solo and taking on a handful of mobs at once you can let your morale get really low, but drop out in time to hit Triumphant Spirit and top up with a bolster courage. You will find your own comfort zone with how low you will let your morale go before you feel the burning desire to heal.
As a footnote, War-speech has an induction when you activate it, but turning it off is instantaneous. This means that it can often be beneficial to enable it before a fight, do some solid DPS, and then drop it when you need to start healing. The 50% healing penalty is only applied when the heal induction finishes, meaning that you can start up Bolster Courage and then still have time to turn off War-speech before BC is finished casting,
[edit] Call of Oromë lvl 22mmmmm cake...I mean AoE
This skill can get up to 3 mobs within a 5m radius of each other. It provides a nice little -10% Light mitigation debuff to the mobs, which makes it super yummy for Minstrels as your ballads do Light damage and many crafted weapons do Light damage. If the skill is resisted, no debuff is applied. The cooldown is short and the damage is nice. If you're in War-speech this should be one of your first attacks.
[edit] Call of the Second Age lvl 34mmmm...something.
When you hit critically on this skill you will end up double checking your combat log to see if it was just a hallucination. At level 50 you can get crits up to 850 Light damage. Just like Call of Oromë it's a 3 target AoE, but you can't use this one at range: it's a melee skill only. Whether it hits anything or not, it'll give you a 15 second in-combat run speed buff to your whole fellowship. The cooldown is longer and the damage is very nice, but with the nature of AoE comes the power consumption of AoE. These two AoE skills can munch through your power quite rapidly, so keep an eye on your blue bar.
[edit] 2.5 ResurrectionAsk and ye shall receive! When one of your group members is defeated they get a window pop up saying they've been incapacitated and do they want to retreat? If there's a Minstrel handy, the answer is usually no. As a Minstrel you are given the ability relatively early on to revive them. If they don't click to release then you've got a job to do! Click on the person (either on their vitals or select their "corpse") and use one of your rez skills. They'll jump up where you're standing after a loading screen and your group will be ready to move out.
One of the advantages of a rez over retreating is that rezzing means they don't get the usual 10 minute dread. This can be handy if you're being pushed to the limit and don't want to hang around waiting for everyone's dread to fade away.
[edit] Enlivening Grace lvl 20 Wake up! There's work to do!
At level 20 you will get your first rez. You will rejoice for a whole five minutes when you get this little beauty. This is an out of combat rez, so you will have to battle on if one of your group goes down until much later (lvl 41) when you get an in-combat rez. You will still use Enlivening Grace a lot once, even after that. Enlivening Grace revives your target with 50% morale and 0% power, but since you're out of combat this will return to them quickly provided you don't get attacked by something right away.
[edit] Rally! lvl 41 This skill is described in more detail later on, but considering this is the Rez section I thought it deserved a mention here. This is a legendary skill. In LotRO these are obtained by collecting books and pages once you hit level 39. However, even if you have collected the necessary Legendary Book and its eight Pages, your first legendary trait slot doesn't become available until level 41. Rally! is your first and last in-combat rez. It's on a 25 minute cooldown so it's not something you can use whenever you please. If you can manage it you're better off leaving your comrade dead until you drop combat so you can use Enlivening Grace. If leaving someone defeated is likely to kill the rest of you then you'll want to use it anyway.
Both skills have a 25m range so you don't have to stand right next of them to rez. Sometimes there's a mob in the way and this distance allows you to safely rez someone without putting yourself in combat. Hobbit and Elf Minstrels get an added bonus when it comes to resurrecting; they can do it from stealth. There will be times when a fellow is defeated in an area to which you cannot enter without picking up unwanted aggro. The solution to this problem is to drop into stealth, get within range undetected, and then cast Enlivening Grace. You won't be revealed from Stealth until the induction annimation completes, allowing you to resurrect your friend and then high-tail it out of there.
[edit] 2.6 Utility SkillsMinstrels have a bunch of odds and ends in their toy box. Hopefully here I can demystify any skills that you were unsure of possible uses or if you wanted to see what I had to say about them.
[edit] Cry of the Valar lvl 12The nasty Minstrel is skeery!
This skill was updated with the Month of the Minstrel so if you haven't played your minstrel for a long time, be prepared for some changes.
First, the basics - It's a fear. It will send a mob running away from you, meaning they will be in a state where they will not attack until the fear is either broken, or it runs out. The skill description says you can use this against evil mobs. This is a loose description! Anything that will attack you without provocation is classed as evil. So that's wolves and wargs (even though they're slated as beasts), spiders, evil men, orcs, goblins, the undead, so on and so forth. It can be used against all classes of monster players in the Ettenmoors (the PvP zone).
This 15 second fear will now break on new damage (existing DOTs, like Timeless Echoes of Battle, carry only a slight chance to break the Fear). The recipient MOB of the Fear will attempt to run in a straight line away from you if they fail to resist the skill. If the Fear is not broken by damage, then when the effect ends, the MOB will make a call for help and bring back one extra ally if there is one within range of its call. This means that you have to use a measure of strategy and position yourself before using the skill. Make certain that you’re not sending the MOB over to his friends, or you will pick up the extra aggro.
This is a good skill to use if you're being attacked by multiple mobs. There's no induction, so if you're getting your heals interrupted you can fear a mob to help you. I like to use this against the undead if I'm trying to mez one in melee range. Too often are they broken by AoEs so I like to fear them away and mez them safely before that becomes a problem. Also if you're having trouble keeping someone alive when they have too much aggro you can fear one away to lighten your load for a little while.
Finally, one of the best (and least appreciated) things about this skill is that it breaks inductions. Similar to a Champion’s Clobber or a Guardian’s Stamp, Cry of the Valar will break inductions on both MOBs and Monster Players. It’s a perfect skill to use against MOBs that heal and those that summon allies.
[edit] Song of the Dead lvl 18Rest for the Restless dead
This song is a mez that ends before the recast timer. When you fighting wads of undead, this is how you can help the burglar and lore-master with CC. I tend to use it with soloing or duoing undead with a none mez'ing class. Usually the Lore-Master or the Burglar have things under control, but if they need help, you can. It is worth noting that Lore-Masters cant mez the undead, so you may need to take over for the undead mobs. A good time to use this skill is when you are faced with multiple ranged undead MOBs. Mez one until you can get around to it. Finally, casting this skill on a MOB will cause it to aggro you when the mez ends.
[edit] Song of Restoration lvl 18Have no Fear! Your Minstrel is here!
This song is on a rather stupid recast timer, so each defeat you're only going to get it off on one person. Generally, if your group wipes, it is good to get the dread off your tank. If that’s not an issue, I’m partial to putting it on another squishy, such as a Lore-master. Or trade off with another Minstrel as it can't be cast on yourself.
[edit] Cure Fear lvl 26Seasons don't fea... did that one already >.<
The reasons this skill isn't good is because it only cures one fear affect on a single target, it has a long induction so everyone has to be pretty healthy for you to want to use it (defeat the point, much?) and a longer cooldown (1m). It also has an incredibly short range of use, so you want to make sure your target is standing still or they'll be impossible to catch. Also at level 50 you can only cure a fear up to level 52. So there's no point in trying to cure any Thorog fears. Be mindful of the debuff level before you waste your time and power on this skill.
When to use it: Usually when you're out of combat, or when you or an ally has one of those nasty will and fate fear debuffs that lasts a few minutes and it's safe for you to stop healing. When fear removal potions fail, it can be useful, or when no other classes can cure a debuff.
Knowing other classes: Captains have a skill called muster courage that is way more useful than this cure fear. Their skill acts more like the other cure skills floating around - It's instant cast, gives a 20% buff to fear resistance and cures 3 fears to our pathetic one. At level 50, this will be the standard in grouping content (provided you have a captain). But since it's a group skill with a 30s cooldown, it may not always be possible to use. This is where you come in.
[edit] Cry of the Chorus lvl 26Your 10min fast-forward button
This skill is going to be your friend. Don't be surprised if one night you scream for Cry of Chorus. But fear not, just like in the Cheerios commercials, it's okay to love it that much. This skill enables you to play any tier Ballad or Anthem. If you don't have time to work up to Anthem of the Free Peoples, or Compassion, use this then throw it up fast. A common mistake is to just go right to the Anthem of the Free Peoples. Instead play a Tier 3 Ballad, which will unlock the Anthem, but also give you the much loved 10% damage or fire/fear resist.
Not only does this give you access to all your Ballads/Anthems very fast, it also removes silence (you know, that thing that greys out most of your skills). Using an appropriate level fear potion will cure silence too, but this skill can certainly be handy if you potions are on cooldown.
[edit] Song of Aid lvl 30Unleash the beast!
This song is actually pretty interesting. It lasts 10 seconds, and during the length you can't do anything else. What it does is it triggers all reaction abilities. If there is another Minstrel in the group for example, all his tiers are unlocked. For Guardians, they are free to spam their AoE taunts or their stuns. As a bonus, it removes the recast timer for Lore-masters and reduces the morale cost for them to use their heal, so if there is one in the group, they can cover for you with heals while you do this. The Lore-master heal takes morale and power and it has a rather long cooldown, 20 seconds I believe. If the tank is getting low in health and needs a quick burst of hp, I can pop this song and the Lore-master will be able to heal the tank at an insane rate. The insane hate the Lore-master generates can often be offset by the tank's ability to use all of his reactive abilities. I've seen some pretty cool things pulled off this with skill, it's really fun to toy around with.
[edit] Song of Distraction lvl 34Look, over there, look, right there!
If it is resisted the mob will aggro you. If successful this will let your group sneak past mobs or split pull a group of mobs. It has a rather long cooldown so you can't always use it, but try using it when you can. It has been noted that this can be helpful when harvesting to reduce the mobs aggro, there's an example of something simple that never even crossed my mind! Use it often, it’s one of our best skills.
Scripted mobs in instances will be immune to distraction.
[edit] Still as Death lvl 38"Playing Possum is what we do. We die, so we live." -if you don't know who this is, you need to spend more time with kids.
Being a character that can resurrect other players, it makes sense that if we can live, everyone's happy. If you're wiping, run then die. Not literally, just play dead, wait till everything is done, then resurrect everyone and rejoice. Be wary, it's not a 100% deal. It helps if you're a hobbit to have the backup, but don't be surprised if they both fail. That being said, it's saved me many times, and it's much, much more reliable than Song of Distraction.
This skill will not reset your aggro, it just means all mobs will ignore you for the time that you're feigning death. If anyone else in your group is still alive, any attention you have when you feign will transfer to whoever is highest on the aggro list. If by the time you jump up no one has successfully generated enough threat on the mobs, they will ping back to you. People can be notoriously sloppy about this because there's no way to know if there's been enough aggro generated to get you in the clear.
It can be nice, however, if you are soloing and just want to reset a mob. Just make sure you're out of its aggro range where you feign or it'll be a waste!
In Monster Play this can be a lifesaver. However, a few things to keep in mind. You cannot receive heals while feigned. Conversely, you cannot be attacked while feigned. You CAN, however, toggle off War-Speech. This allows you to pop up and cast an instant heal on yourself.
[edit] 3.0 Traits And Virtues[edit] 3.1 Class Trait List and Explanation[edit] Battle-HymnDeed:Battle-hymn
Use Anthem of the Valar 250 times
"When using Anthem of the Valar, your regeneration in combat is increased."
Line Bonus: Maximum Power 65.
This is a very under-rated skill because the tooltip isn't particularly clear.
Actual results of landing an AotV attack while Battle Hymm is traited gives you an In-combat Morale Regen (ICMR) the same as Anthem of the Free Peoples [(AotFP) 20.1 bonus to ICMR]. With Glorious Anthem also traited, between AotV and AotFP...you can keep your morale regen up for 1.5 minutes (45sec each).
So what does this really mean? Crunch me some numbers!
The character Figgy (lvl 50) starts off with 766 ICMR. Using traited Anthem of the Valar (or Anthem of the Free Peoples), she gets a buff to a whopping 1974 ICMR, a difference of 1208. So in the 30s AotV lasts for, she is going to get 987 morale regen. Increase the Anthem length by 15s with the trait Glorious Anthem and that's increased to 1480 morale for the duration. Without glorious anthem, but back to back with Anthem of the Free Peoples, she gets the whole 1974 morale regen, but with Glorious Anthem and Battle hymn she gets 2961 morale regen, all in a minute and a half.
Those numbers look nice, don't they? Of course, you do have to remember that you can get those kind of numbers in a few heals. The benefit of this is that the less time you have to spend healing yourself, the more time you can heal others or lay some War-speech smack down.
[edit] Focused PerformanceDeed:Focused Performance
Evade 300 attacks
"Your inductions skills execute quicker, making you harder to disrupt."
Line Bonus: Fear Resistance 2%
Induction = casting time. Who can say no to a 10% reduction in casting time? Tyar did some tests using Bolster Courage, starting the timer when he clicked and stopping when the bar is full. 10 tests with, 10 tests without the trait. The average time for bolster courage without the trait was 3.03 seconds, with Focused Performance it was 2.74 seconds. This leads us to believe that it is indeed casting time that is reduced by 10% (for the 3 second Bolster Courage induction this works out to be 0.3 seconds), which is what appears to happen.
This trait also it makes your heals feel smoother. For example, if you have 2 mobs on you while you're trying to heal (especially at the lower levels) that blue bar is punted all the way back to the beginning on one or two hits. If you slot Focused performance it feels as though hits don't disrupt the blue bar progression as much. This is something which has never been confirmed as official, but many minstrels believe.
It's up to you to decide if it's worth using a trait slot on it. Most healing specced minstrels do.
[edit] Glorious AnthemQuest: A Minstrel's Hope
lvl 30 quest
"The duration of your Anthems is increased by 15 seconds."
Line Bonus: In-combat morale Regen 0.3.
Useful. 15 more seconds of reduced aggro, and 15 more seconds of easy mode healing. If you slot Battle-hymn along with Glorious Anthem you can get some great regen for a substantial amount of time.
[edit] Graceful DemeanorDeed:Graceful Demeanour
Use Enlivening Grace 100 times
"Enlivening Grace and Rally grant more morale and power on revive. Rally's cast time is reduced by 2 seconds and it's recovery time is reduced by 5 minutes."
Adds 20.0% to Revive morale Total. Adds 30.0% to Revive Power Total.
Line Bonus: Fear Resistance 2%.
This is far more useful with Rally! and rezzing in combat, but when you're out of combat the 20 more morale and 30 power this gives is just a few seconds of out of combat regen. As a note, Rally isn't available until your first Legendary trait slot opens up at 41. Milarien the Defensive Minstrel would also like to point out that this skill does become useful at later levels when you will be using Rally.
[edit] Harmonious Melody Deed:Harmonious Melody
Use 1500 Ballads
"Gain a 5 second longer window of opportunity in which to perform tiered Ballads."
Line Bonus: In-combat Morale regen 0.3
This trait can be useful if you're having to heal heavily in between tierring your ballads. Providing you don't get resists, when the pace is fast this can help your multi-tasking.
[edit] Heralded SaviourDeed:Heralded Saviour
Use Song of Aid 400 times
"You use your Song of Aid to greater effect. This song is especially effective at lightening the hearts of your fellows."
Line Bonus: Fear Resistance 2%.
Doubles the duration of song of aid from 10s to 20s Shortens the recovery time from 10m to 9m
Thanks to TheSidhe for this information. If you've read the skill description you will know that Song of Aid activates all the fellowship's reactive skills - parry, block, critical hits, ballad tiers. If you have a 20s duration for Song of Aid it means the classes have more time to use their reaction skills, but once they are used it takes the functionality away. For example, Song of Aid will light up all your ballads and anthems. If you hit an Anthem it will reset your ballads and you'll be back to square one. Same with, say, guardian's block response. Once they've used the block response it's gone. They just have an extra 10 seconds to use it.
Probably the best thing about this skill is it removes the cooldown of the lore master heal (Beacon of Hope). This means they can spam the heal for 20 seconds. During tough healing times this can really help, but not many people know of it.
[edit] Herald's HammerDeed:Herald's Hammer
Use Herald's Strike 700 times
"Your Herald's Strike deals double damage."
Line Bonus: Maximum morale 50.
This trait has some good solo uses. The added damage is nice, especially used in conjunction with Noble Cause. The DPS is always welcome when it comes to soloing or small groups. This trait does not affect how much Noble Cause heals for, it is only the damage output which increases.
[edit] Life-singerDeed:Life-singer
Use 1000 Healing Songs.
"The Power costs of your morale-renewing skills are reduced."
-10.0% Power Cost.
Line Bonus: In-combat morale Regen 0.3
If you're healing a lot and end up with Power issues, then this trait may be a good choice for you. You may find that in most cases you won't need it. But there are some times such as when a mob is power draining you, or the encounters are long enough that you have to rely on ICPR, where if you don't have this trait you will miss it. It can be especially handy if you're trying to solo something you shouldn't be able to kill and you need every point of power you can get.
If you are noticing you have to cut back on buffs or give up on other parts of your job to have enough power to heal. Grab little beauty, it should help with your power problems!
[edit] Light in the DarkDeed:Light in the Dark
Use Ballad of Resonance 1000 times
"Your Tier 1 and Tier 2 Ballads inflict more damage to your enemies."
+10% Ballad damage.
Line Bonus: Maximum morale 50.
10% damage is 10% damage. If you're needed for DPS, you cant go wrong. If your song does 100 damage you now do 110. Not life changing, but useful.
[edit] Medium Armour-useA Song for the Company
Level 15 class quest reward.
"You are able to wear Medium Armour."
Line Bonus: Maximum Power 65.
Perhaps the most annoying trait to give to minstrels for their first class slot, perhaps the best. This trait does what it says on the tin. It allows you to use medium armour. What's so great about this? Well Medium armour gives you slightly higher common damage mitigation, which for lower levels can be useful. It also allows you more variety in armour so you can pick for stats. What's bad about this? Once you have Medium Armour-use slotted, it's difficult to get rid of it. Many minstrels will decide the benefits of Medium Armour-use are out-weighed by the cost - mainly the price of a valuable class slot. The Light Vs Medium Armour debate continues later in the guide.
[edit] Powerful VoiceDeed:Powerful Voice
Use 300 cries
"The Power costs of all your Cries are reduced."
-5.0% Cries Cost.
Line Bonus: Maximum Power 65.
This trait is on the lower scale of usefulness and there seem to be few who slot it. Most of your skills are cries in the resistance category, but this trait only works for skills with "cry" in the title, so:
-Piercing Cry -Cry of the Chorus -Cry of the Valar It also only provides a 5% power cost reduction, so nothing significant anyway. Most minstrels can find a trait with more benefits than this.
[edit] Silver TongueDeed:Silver Tongue
Use Cry of the Chorus 125 times
"All of your songs recover 20% faster."
Line Bonus: Fear Resistance 2%.
That 20% can be very nice. It works for:
- Song of Soothing - Song of Aid - Song of Restoration - Song of the Dead - Song of Distraction - Lay of the Hammerhand - Song of the Hopeful Heart (Legendary AoE Hope) - Fellowships Heart (Legendary HoT) [edit] Smooth VoiceDeed:Smooth Voice
Use Piercing Cry 600 times
"This skill transforms your Ballad of Vigour and Ballad of Swiftness to become slower songs that no longer deal damage, but act upon your fellowship for a longer duration."
Line Bonus: Maximum morale 50.
This is not really a soloing trait. This is best used in end-game or group content later in the levels when you have all your Anthems available. Earlier in the levels there are probably more useful traits you can slot instead.
Smooth Voice changes the Tier 1 Ballad of Vigour into the Song of Vigour, and the Tier 2 Ballad of Swiftness into the Song of Swiftness. In effect. this creates a blue bar induction on these two skills, as well as removing the damage component to both, meaning they're usable out of combat. You will not want the interrupts on these skills so don't try to use them if you're getting hit. Try to stand out of AoE range of any mobs. As stated in the Buffing section above, this can be used for tiering up to your anthems before entering combat. Your fellows will get a buff to their vitality, evade chance, any one of the Tier 3 ballads you wish (+melee damage, fear and fire resistance) and then which ever Anthem your heart desires. Here's a general rule to stick by:
- If there are lots of mobs, tier up to Anthem of Compassion (-40% threat generation), then use your damage ballads to tier up to Anthem of the Free People (+ ICMR for fellowship) in combat. Less threat generation means less aggro, and therefore less healing interruption. - If there are few mobs but especially if they like to AoE, tier up to Anthem of the Free People. Depending on the amount of damage, this can top up your fellow's morale without you having to heal them as much. - In a few cases, such as when fighting Fumeroles in the Rift, using Smooth Voice is the only way to consistently get past Tier 1. If you want to focus on buffing and not be a healbot all the time, then this trait may be for you.
[edit] Strength of VoiceStrength of Voice
Use Ballad of War 500 times
"The duration of your Ballads is increased by 10 seconds."
Line Bonus: in-combat morale Regen 0.3
Many people choose this trait because in day to day life and grouping, the buffs produced by your ballads are quite desirable. This trait works quite well with smooth voice and the increased duration means you have more wiggle-room if you have to heal heavily, giving you a better chance to keep yourself and your fellows buffed up.
[edit] Subtle MovementsDeed:Subtle Movements
Use Song of Soothing 300 times
"The use of your skills draws less attention from your enemies."
Line Bonus: Maximum Power 65.
Some people swear by this trait, although the description is rather vague. Basically it gives you an overall decrease in threat generation. This can be incredibly useful in group content but Solo it is completely useless, of course. If there are a lot of mobs and you're throwing down all the tricks of the trade to reduce you're aggro, then this trait can be wonderful. Even if it's a small decrease in aggro generation, that can be the difference between being hit by one mob or being hit by 2+. Minstrels can function perfectly well without it, but in a situation where your build is not designed to withstand a beating you might want to be safe rather than sorry.
[edit] UnrelentingDeed:Unrelenting
Land 100 Piercing Cry critical
"When you land a Critical Hit with your Piercing Cry, your enemy is stunned. Piercing Cry also gains 25% to its critical chance. This trait also causes your Piercing Cry to recover faster."
Line Bonus: Maximum morale 50.
I don't think there are many minstrels that don't fall in love with this trait. The Stun can be very handy in PvP and in PvE against, well, anything. Whether the 5 second stun gives you enough time to finish a well needed induction, or whether it's just to stop a mob from damaging you for 5 seconds, you can find something you like about it.
Of course the increased critical chance doesn't just give you a stun, it also gives you the higher damage too; something which can be pretty impressive from Piercing Cry. This could be recommended to a minstrel of any level as you will find a use for it throughout most of the game. Couple this trait with the bonuses to Piercing cry in War-speech (reduced recovery time and increased critical chance) and you are certainly onto a winner!
The one thing to consider with this trait is that your 5 second stun will put 10s worth of stun immunity on the mob. If you have a burglar in a group you might want to cool it on more difficult foes because that leaves your sneaky friend able to pop a conjunction on him whenever he feels.
[edit] 3.2 Legendary TraitsYou can start collecting Books and Pages for Legendary Traits at level 39, but the first trait slot opens at level 41.
Once you reach level 39, your minstrel trainer will give you a quest to visit Lindir, Bilbo's Riddle friend in the Hall of Fire, just inside the Last Homely House in Rivendell. He will give you 3 quests to complete. To obtain the first 3 legendary skills you have to collect books and pages. The books drop from any level 39+ humanoid mob across Middle-earth, but the easiest place to get them may be the Auction Hall. Only once you have collected the book may you open up the deed to start acquiring the pages.
Only you can collect the pages for two of these legendary traits, Rally! and Song of the Hopeful Heart. The pages are like quest items, they will drop only for you if you have started the deed. Half of each book may be found together and are easily obtainable as you quest.
One half is found amongst the Angmarim of Western-Angmar. Good places to quest or farm include Donnvail and Dun Covad (Fortress west of Donnvail).
The second half is found on Goblins in the Misty Mountains. There are various Goblin camps up there, but the most profitable place to get them is Goblin Town in the High Pass, as there are many quests you can complete for XP along the way.
The third legendary, Anthem of the Wizards, is slightly different. Both the book and pages can be dropped from level 39+ mobs. Meaning anyone can collect and trade them. If you're levelling up you might want to keep an eye our for cheap pages on the Auction House as you level.
The fourth and final legendary trait, Fellowship's Heart is obtained by the completion of your level 45 class quests. These will take you on a trip into Urugarth and Carn Dûm. Both of these places are fellowship instances, so it will likely take you a while to collect what you need to obtain this final legendary trait.
[edit] Rally!Trait: Rally!
Deed: Melodies of the Valar
Grants the ability to revive someone in-combat.
"The ways of the elder ages are not lost to all races yet. You may bring new inspiration to those whose Morale has been entirely depleted, reviving a defeated ally in combat."
Target revives with 80% Morale
Target revives with 50% Power
This legendary is one that few minstrels ignore, including those who spend most of their time Solo. If you're grouped and don't have a captain then you will be the only class that can rez in-combat. If things start going slightly pear-shaped, Rally! can help. A lot. But you have to be careful when you use it. If someone dies just before you get the healing situation under control then there may be no need to rez them yet. Instead you can wait for your fight to finish and rez afterwards, saving the 25 minute cooldown for when it really counts. It costs quite a considerable amount of power to use, so be mindful of your consumption before you automatically hit this skill. A minstrel with no power and no way to get more is useless to a group and potentially a greater hazard than leaving someone down.
Obviously the aim is to keep people alive so you don't have to use this skill, but sometimes aggro mistakes and bad pulls happen. This is a legendary most minstrels feel naked without.
[edit] Song of the Hopeful HeartTrait: Song of the Hopeful Heart
Deed: The Rising Chord
"This song enables you to temporarily reduce the Dread of an area for a short time."
This is not a skill to be under-estimated at level 50. Song of the Hopeful Heart is an AoE hope +4 hope buff, lasting 5 minutes. Since Turbine has an obsession with using dread in most end-game encounters, you may find it incredibly useful, either because it can be used instead of the costly Tokens of Edhelharn or because it is so easily beneficial if something decides to strip your token buff away. If you find this happens, all you have to do is back away from the Area of Effect and run back in.
I think the real reason people like this skill is the blue twinkly animation it gives. The animation is not as large as the Area of Effect, but at least it gives you an idea of placement so it's less confusing if people are moving around.
[edit] Anthem of the WizardsTrait: Anthem of the Wizards
Deed: Valour's Marches
This skill calls upon song to blast your enemies with an area-of-effect of light that will slow the creatures who are hit by it, you have a short window after playing a tier 3 song to play one of these, and it will reset your ballad counter back to start.
This legendary trait grants you another Anthem. It's essentially the same as Anthem of the Valar, except it provides a debuff to the mobs if it successfully hits. This debuff is decreased attack speed and decreased movement speed. It's a very popular solo and PvP trait. The disappointing aspect of this trait is the Cool down. 10 minutes is extremely long considering we have a similar skill already (minus the debuffs).
[edit] Fellowship's HeartTrait: Fellowship's Heart
From the level 45 Class Quests:
Quest: Implements of Song
Quest: Articles of Harmony
Quest: A Lesson from Lindir
This skill instantly cures any fear effects you have, and also makes the entire fellowship immune to fear for a short period of time, as well as acting as a heal over time.
Fellowships Heart will probably be the last Legendary trait you get. To acquire this trait you need to finish your level 45 class quests, which will send you across Eriador to collect a variety of items to make you a legendary weapon and jewellery. The most difficult part of this quest is collecting the last items you need from Carn Dum. Highly sought after items make for a difficult acquisition.
So, onto the skill itself. Fellowship's Heart is the only Heal over Time (HoT) we receive. It only lasts for 30 seconds but heals your entire fellowship for approximately 464 every two seconds for 30s. This equates to around 7400 morale for every single member of your fellowship. As one of the minstrel's panic buttons, when things go wrong you essentially have 30 seconds of immunity to death to get things back on track. Just be warned that it generates a fair amount of aggro for you, something which is often offset by the amount you are being healed for. Just be wary.
It also has the ability to cure and protect against fear effects, but that is little more than a bonus. I can't think of any situation where you would want to use it for the cure rather than the heal, except maybe when killing the dragon, Thorog, in Helegrod.
This is a very popular legendary for those who solo as well as PvP, and for group content which won't require Song of the Hopeful Heart.
[edit] 3.3 Virtue Stat ExplanationsFirst off, throughout your level career you will gain access to 5 Virtue slots. Each Virtue has between 4 to 7 ranks and they are obtained by completing deeds. For an excellent guide to getting your virtues, I'd recommend Fizen's Online Traits Compendium.
Each Virtue has 3 stats, the first stat is a major boost, the second in a lesser and the third is a rather minor. Here is a list of all the stats you can obtain from various traits and how they apply to you as a minstrel.
[edit] Melee ResistanceYou will get beaten on, its a fact of life. Especially when soloing or duoing with another squishy. This can be quite useful to minimize the damage you receive. It's not something most would put a lot of emphasis on, but it definitely is something you may consider a plus on a trait.
[edit] Ranged ResistanceYou probably won't take much ranged damage, even on a bad day. When soloing, you will want to be in melee range for the added DPS from what ever melee skills you can use, including auto-attack. There are times when ignored adds will hammer on you from a distance, but its not common, especially if you have a lore master in your group. This means Ranged resistance is of little value to you, unless you PVMP. Minstrels are favorite targets of Black Arrows.
[edit] Tactical ResistanceThis resistance is a bit of a grey area. For all the bosses and mobs that can hit you from range for damage without using a bow, it's probably tactical (magic) damage they're doing. This probably isn't a resistance you would trait for.
[edit] Disease ResistanceDisease debuffs tend to be of the -vitality/-power nature. Disease debuffs are not a minstrel's best friend. Taking away your vitality is going to reduce your morale and various other resistances. Not good. Power drains are likely to leave you quite helpless. Not good. Most of the power debuffs come in the form or a decrease over time, but some will take away all of your power in one hit. Plus the roots and occasionally stuns...diseases aren't nice. However, there are probably better stats for you to focus your traits on.
[edit] Wound ResistanceWound is generally a DoT or a -might debuff, as well as a common runspeed debuff used my animals. For a healer a dot really isn't much. Over the course of 1 min or however long it lasts, we might have to pop a small heal. The run speed debuffs aren't frequent enough or annoying enough to justify must Wound resistance. These are more painful to melee classes such as Champions or Guardians. Adding Vitality will increase your wound resistance.
[edit] Poison ResistancePoison debuffs usually take away your agility, as well as the occasional DoT. This stat is more important to Battle or hybrid minstrels, but poison resistance is not something any minstrel would generally trait for. Poison resistance can also be increased by increasing your Vitality.
[edit] Shadow ResistanceShadow damage rears its ugly head often while fighting evil. Ghost may have it, wights, almost all end-game content bosses have it, and the dots that usually pair up with dread debuffs are often shadow damage. This is nice, as you will notice some AoE shadow attacks from time to time, but again its not that common, especially if you're killing in friendly non-evil places. Vitality will increase your Shadow resistance/mitigation.
[edit] Fear ResistanceFear debuffs are the ones that minstrels hate the most. They can place 3 minute debuffs to your will and fate, which as a healer can really hurt as they affect your in-combat power regeneration and your total power pool. If have full power, that just took a chunk of your pool. Again, not all mobs do this, but bears are also known for fear dots, making this resistance semi-relevant. Because of the actually annoying debuffs associated with fear as well as the fact that many different kind of mobs use fear based dots, I would recommend trying to get some Fear resist into your virtues. This can be especially important if you ever intend to attempt Thorog in Helegrod.
[edit] In-Combat Power RegenSome minstrels make this the focus of their build with the idea as long as you can heal you can keep yourself and your group alive. If you're looking to increase your ICPR, look for items with fate or direct ICPR on them (bracelets, shield and weapon items will sometimes have ICPR). This is a very important stat for a healer. You will find you develop your own comfort zone for ICPR as you improve your gear at level 50. Sometimes it may be wise to swap out some of your ICPR to address your vitality/morale/power as those can be incredibly important. You cannot heal if you are dead.
[edit] Out of Combat Power RegenGlorious amounts of will and fate will keep your power pool, in-combat and out of combat regen looking very healthy. So will eating food when you drop combat. This isn't a stat that anyone really focuses on for a trait, because your stats and consumables will have this covered. It is, however, very nice to decrease your downtime.
[edit] In-Combat morale RegenSome love it, some ignore it. In-combat morale can be great for some play styles. The more you regen in combat, the less likely you are to have to heal yourself. This can be great if you're soloing, in War-speech, or keeping yourself relatively out of harms way and focusing on healing your fellows. Remember you do have Anthem of the Free Peoples and the trait Battle-hymn to aid your ICMR, so don't fret too much about it as a virtue.
[edit] Out of Combat morale RegenWhy have out of combat morale regeneration when you can heal yourself? Ignore this stat. If you're out of combat, there's a pretty good chance of your power regenerating enough to get your morale completely topped up.
[edit] Morale BonusWho doesn't want more morale? People can argue till they're blue in the face that they are a more efficient healer than you cause they have this much more power. But In group situations many high-ICPR minstrels seldom find themselves running out of Power. More often an add you weren't expecting shows up, or something happens to the aggro and you take damage. If you die, the group is gonna be in for a rough ride, and you might have a long walk back. Playing dead is one solution in these cases, but there is something to be said about being able to take a few hits while the tank takes the mob back. Most would rather have some morale and no power left at the end of a fight than some power and no morale.
[edit] Power BonusPower = good. You can never have enough power. Regen is more important in the longer fights, but at large, full pool of power gives you a healthy reserve for the fight ahead. Some people tend to go overboard with power and just try to get as much as they can at the detriment to other stats. Finding the balance comes from spending a lot of time tweaking your build.
[edit] Armour BonusArmour prevents damage. Most of the Armour bonuses that come with traits are so minor I wouldn't even factor them in. How often does 3 Armour save your life?
[edit] Will BonusThe benefits of Will are many-fold. Not only do you get some power, but you get a bonus to fear resistances as well as your out of combat power regen. If you're given a choice of pure power on an item or the equivalent in Will, go for the Will.
[edit] Fate BonusFate increases in-combat morale and power regen as well as increase the crit rate of heals. This is a stat that the healing variety of minstrel like to focus on for the obvious reason. It's available on most items and on some virtues. If you want to heal, please consider looking at virtues for their Fate bonus.
[edit] Agility BonusAgility governs the rate at which you evade and parry incoming blows. Many minstrels value BEP and agility very highly as the ability to mitigate blows will stop your heals from being interrupted if you do pull aggro or prevent you from needing to heal yourself. Currently minstrels can get 40-50% BEP if they try. It's mainly a stat for soloing but some hybrid minstrels like to take a good agility build into group content.
[edit] Might BonusThis provides the B to your EP - ie, blocking with your shield, as well as increasing your Melee efficiency. The higher your might, the harder you'll hit with your sword (including auto-attack). This may not be so relevant if you're standing back and healing, but if you like to get into the thick of it, or you're soloing then every bit of damage can help.
[edit] Vitality BonusVitality primarily gives more morale - something which far too many minstrels underestimate. When you reach level 50 you will likely be at around 2000 morale. You can get your morale up to above 3000 without losing anything on your other stats. If you're interested in the end-game content then you might need the morale. Some creatures do AoE damage that can hit for a lot. at 2k morale you'll be dead in 2 hits and be left wondering where the truck went that just hit you. You have more wiggle room with more morale. That being said Vitality also gives a bonus to out of combat morale regen, and resistance to poison, wound and disease. Not only that but it increases your Shadow and Fire mitigation, which is always nice, mostly at higher levels. This is why Vitality is certainly more desirable than straight morale. Many minstrels will build their traits to have as much Vitality as possible.
[edit] 3.4 Virtue ListHere is the list, first is the major stat, second the lesser, third is the very minor bonus.
[edit] Charity- Wound Resistance - Ranged Resistance - Out of Combat morale Regen [edit] Confidence- Fear Resistance - Will Bonus - Out of Combat Power Regen [edit] Compassion- Ranged Resistance - Out of Combat Power Regen - Magic Resistance [edit] Determination- Agility Bonus - In-Combat morale Regen - Morale Bonus [edit] Discipline- Might Bonus - Disease Resistance - Melee Resistance [edit] Empathy- Armor Bonus - Fate Bonus - Fear Resistance [edit] Fidelity- Shadow Resistance - Vitality Bonus - Power Bonus [edit] Fortitude- Out of Combat morale Regen - Might Bonus - Disease Resistance [edit] Honesty- Power - Armour - Fate [edit] Honour- Poison Resistance - Shadow Resistance - Vitality Bonus [edit] Idealism- Fate Bonus - Fear Resistance - Will Bonus [edit] Innocence- Melee Resistance - Poison Resistance - Shadow Resistance [edit] Justice- In-Combat morale Regen - morale Bonus - Out of Combat morale Regen [edit] Loyalty- Vitality Bonus - Power Bonus - AC Bonus [edit] Mercy- Out of Combat Power Regen - Magic Vulnerability - Agility Bonus [edit] Patience- Out of Combat Power Regen - Wound resistance - Ranged Resistance [edit] Tolerance- Tatical Resistance - Agility Bonus - In-Combat moralee Regen [edit] Valour- Morale Bonus - Out of Combat morale Regen - Might Bonus [edit] Wisdom- Will Bonus - Out of Combat Power Regen - Wound Resistance [edit] Zeal- Disease Resistance - Melee Resistance - Poison Resistance [edit] 4.0 Minstrel BuildsThe wonderful thing about the minstrel class is that you can build it many ways and still be successful. The build you choose will likely be determined by your play-style. This section is dedicated to a brief description of different specifications, class trait and virtue combinations that can suit a variety of minstrels. Just remember: there is no right and wrong when building a minstrel, so go out and have some fun!
[edit] 4.1 Healing/Grouping MinstrelThis variety of minstrel is often called the "cookie-cutter build" or "cookies", which sounds like an insult until you realise cookies are amazing and most people love them (nom nom). These minstrels shine in fellowships and raids, and you can find these tasty treats at almost any level. At 50 their survivability can be matched by very few.
Healing minstrels will make group healing their priority and since the soling roles of tanking and DPS are often removed from them, it allows them to build upon their strengths of healing and regeneration, while essentially ignoring any stats that don't help them do that. This is called Min/Maxing. You will often find these minstrels have high ICPR, fate, will, vitality, morale and power, while having low agility, might, block, evade and parry. Along with healing, the grouping minstrel can provide some lovely buffs for their group.
This breed of Minstrel will usually be found wearing light armour. This is because that trait slot can be too useful to waste and if you're designing your build around ICPR, fate and will then you'll find these stats more frequently on light armour.
Being geared for healing in groups really doesn't mean you can't solo. You may want to swap out a few traits which provide little benefit to the soloer, but aside from that you can be ready to go. Having the highest possible ICPR makes it likely for you to do some unbelievable things, such as soloing above level Nemesis mobs like the Carn Dum gate-keeper and various beryl-shard mobs. The minstrels who accomplish such feats will each have a distinctive way of soloing them. The key to soloing such critters is to ensure you always have enough power to heal yourself. The damage to power ratio on most skills aren't too clever when you get that damage for free in a couple of auto-attacks; this is especially true for War-speech. Fights may take a very long time, but if you can keep your power up, and don't get interrupted by adds you will have a good chance of success.
[edit] Important StatsIn-combat Power Regeneration
Most healing minstrels will make this their focus, considering how often it is tried and tested. A minstrel is no use to the group if they do not have the power to heal. The longer and fiercer the fight, the more this stat is going to be tested. ICPR can be obtained by pure ICPR on items (you'll find these on ear, wrist, shield and weapon slots) as well as Fate, which indirectly increases your ICPR. Fate is something easy to acquire as it's available in varying amounts on most equipment, but pure ICPR give you more fizz for your bucks. For fellowships you will probably want over 700 ICPR per minute; higher if you're raiding since you have many more targets to heal and the damage they take can be quite considerable.
Power
Whether it be by pure power stats on items and traits or by increasing your will, you will want a good power pool. Once you go into combat this will gradually tick down, even if you have the highest ICPR possible. You want it to have further to tick before you run out.
Morale
Lore-masters. They are wonderful minstrel batteries, and grouping with them allows you to worry much less about your power because good lore-masters will never let you run out. This can let you to spread your stats about a little to get some morale. The end-game content can be a lot of fun, but things often hit really hard. If you're sitting at 2K morale, you're going to have a lot less room for error than if you have 3K.
[edit] Class TraitsAs with all the traits, it's all about personal preference. There are specific traits designed to aid healing and some which will help you buff. He's a selection of people's favourites.
Subtle Movements - reduces aggro
Life Singer - decreases power cost of heals
Focused Performance - decreases skill induction interruption
Smooth Voice - turns 2 ballads into songs to buff group and allow you to tier your anthems
Glorious Anthems - increases duration of anthems
Strength of Voice - increases ballad durations
Graceful Demeanour - Improves the morale and power levels when you rez someone.
Rally! - This is a no-brainer for grouping minstrels. You will want your in-combat rez.
Song of the Hopeful Heart - Considering how much dread the grouping content has, this skill can be so very handy.
[edit] VirtuesWith so much will and fate available on items at all levels, some prefer to use their traits to increase their vitality and morale.
The traits available for Will and Fate aren't that good anyway. You get one that will have a decent amount of fate (Idealism) or will (Wisdom), then the rest have practically nothing - you could count it on your hands. When choosing your traits you may realise that some just aren't worth it, you get too little when you could get more from traiting for something else.
Valour - A HUGE amount of morale. You'd be a fool not to slot this trait, for any class. Few traits give as large a benefit as this. This one is really a no brainer, even if you want to use the rest to increase your fate and will.
Justice - Morale again.
Loyalty - Vitality
Fidelity - Vitality
Idealism - Fate
Wisdom - Will
[edit] 4.2 BEP MinstrelThe title says it all. This breed of minstrel focuses on their ability to mitigate and resist damage. This can be used either to heal uninterrupted, or in some situations just to prevent having to heal yourself. Having high Block/Evade/Parry often comes at a cost of other stats. These minstrels usually exhibit low morale and power and/or low power regeneration, with the idea that you can accomplish all you need to without burning your power by healing, and not having your morale touched that much.
These minstrels are usually concerned more with damage and are set up to solo rather than play a sustained part in a group.
[edit] Important StatsBlocking, parrying or evading all means the same thing defensively; you've avoided an incoming attack. BEP works until you are either disarmed or stunned. This is one reason the pure BEP build can struggle a lot in high pressure situations, because building exclusively for BEP only to have that taken away can leave you left with nothing but low morale and power.
Block
You don't start blocking until level 20 when you get your shield. If you want high block, then you should aim to increase your might. Might will also increase your melee efficacy which means your auto attacks and your heralds hammer will hit for more damage. Block only works in a frontal arc, so if you have something hitting you from behind you aren't going to block any of their attacks. Get them in front of you! Sometimes you will find items which have pure block stats on them. Keep your eye out for these as quest rewards.
Evade
This is governed by your Agility. High agility will not do much for a minstrel aside from give you higher evade and parry percentages. It's responsible for your ranged efficacy and although you can attack at range, your skills are classed as tactical so it's a whole different ball game to what agility changes. Pure evade stats seem slightly more difficult to come across (unless it's on burglar specific items). Evade works over 360 degrees, so you can evade mobs behind you.
Parry
Again, agility is responsible for increasing Parry. Just like block, Parry works in a frontal arc.
[edit] TraitsClass traits for BEP are usually designed to maximise damage. The faster you can kill something the less you will need to heal yourself. The pure BEP build is designed for soloing and small group content at most. This isn't a build you will want to raid with as the priorities of this build doesn't match. So if you're going pure BEP, you may want to spec for soloing/damage.
Medium Armour - allows you to have more choice of gear, higher common damage mitigation, and usually more agility and might for your BEP stats.
Light in the Dark - increases the damage of your ballads
Unrelenting - increases the crit chance of piercing cry, decreases cooldown and provides a 5s stun on crit.
Battle-hymn - provides a huge ICMR boost for anthem of the valar
Herald's Hammer - doubles the damage from Herald's Strike.
Focused Performance - After all, this build is supposed to prevent your heals being interrupted.
Legendary traits are often very situational. If you're soloing you do not need Rally! So you could go for:
Fellowship's Heart - Heal over time
Anthem of the Wizard - An anthem with a debuff.
If you're taking you BEP minstrel for a spin in a group you'll want to have either Rally! and Song of the Hopeful Heart or Fellowship's Heart, depending on the situation. These can be pretty expensive to retrait.
[edit] VirtuesYou can either use these to bump up your agility/might even higher, or spread a little love to morale, vitality, fate or will.
Valour - Morale too good to waste.
Justice - more morale
Determination - Agility
Discipline - Might
Empathy - Armour and fate
Loyalty - Vitality
Idealism - Fate
[edit] 4.3 Tactical Crit MinstrelThese minstrels tend to co-exist peacefully with most of Middle-earth. They're usually a breed of healing minstrel, but they can also be hybrid. The reason these minstrels bridge the borders between healing and hybrid is they only really need to focus on one basic idea, and the rest they can make up as they go along.
Why do people focus on tactical crit? Two reasons, really. First of all, tactical crit chance will help you heal. The more you crit on heals the easier it is to keep people alive. Instead of 900 points of healing you'll find that turned into 1500 points. Not to shabby! The other reason is that most of your damage skills are tactical based, so a higher crit rate means you can get some really nasty damage out, especially if you're in war-speech. This, plus good power regeneration can make the tactical crit both a good soloer/DPSer as well as a good healer.
[edit] Important StatsFate
Fate increases your tactical critical chance. The more fate you have, the better chance you have to crit on heals and tactical based damage. The high fate means the tactical crit minstrels can function very well as healing minstrels.
Tactical Critical Chance
This governs the rate at which you hit critical numbers on damage or heals. You will find some items across Middle-earth which will have Tactical Critical chase as a pure stat. This is most commonly found on jewellery.
Tactical Critical Damage
This governs the amount of damage you can do when you hit a critical. This is not a stat which is shown in the character journal. I believe this just acts as a multiplier for the damage range. If you class your ordinary damage with no modifier on it at 100%, jewellery which adds 4% to tactical damage will mean your critical damage will be at 104%. I believe the tactical damage modifier will affect every attack which is critical, but it will not effect heals, because they are not classed as damage. This information has not been confirmed.
[edit] TraitsBecause these Tactical crit minstrels can be played many different ways, it's really up to you what traits you choose. You can either go down the healing line, or the DPS line, or even change the traits as you switch between the two. Just like the Hybrid minstrel there's no set rules, and therefore no set advice, but below is listed some popular traits.
Subtle Movements - decreases threat generation
Smooth Voice - turns 2 ballads into group buffs and allows you to tier your anthems
Life singer - decreases power cost of heals
Battle-hymn - Gives Anthem of the Valar the same ICMR buff as Anthem of the Free Peoples
Focused Performance - decreases skill induction interruption
Unrelenting - increases the crit chance of piercing cry, decreases cooldown and provides a 5s stun on crit.
Herald's Hammer - doubles the damage from Herald's Strike.
Light in the Dark - increases the damage of your ballads
Strength of Voice - Increases Ballad duration
Legendaries:
Any! Depending on what you're doing or how you want to build yourself. Rally!
Song of the Hopeful Heart
Fellowship's Heart
Anthem of the Wizards
[edit] VirtuesThese can take many directions. If you want to be a hybrid then you can use these traits in any way to improve upon all of your base stats, or you can go specifically down a path to increase fate and will or morale and power. There are too many to list. |
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