Minstrel Guide

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The Unofficial Lord of the Rings Online Minstrel Guide

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Table of Contents 2Important

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2The short version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2The long version

7Introduction 8Character Creation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Dwarf

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Passive Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Racial Accomplishments

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Elf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Passive Skills

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Racial Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Hobbit

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Passive Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Racial Accomplishments

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Passive Abilities

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Racial Accomplishments 15Statistics

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Hope and Dread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Stats

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Might . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Agility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Vitality

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Will . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Fate

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Mitigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Resistances

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Abilities 20Traits and Deeds: the Basics




. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Deeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Class Deeds

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Racial and Social Deeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Region Deeds

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Racial Traits

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Class Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Legendary Traits

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Virtue Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Virtue Traits by Grouping

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Minstrel Class Deeds and Corresponding Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Trait Builds

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Solo Build . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Fellowship Build

33Minstrel Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Instruments

. . . . . . . . . . . . 34Ballads, Anthems, Tales and Songs: The Minstrel's Gallery 35Combat as a Minstrel

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35The Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Things you should know

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Healing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Resurrection

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Crowd Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Damage

39Minstrel 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Basic Skills and Uses

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46The Minstrel played Solo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49The Minstrel in a Fellowship

56A Guide to Middle Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Crafting

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61Resource Farming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Leveling

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Reputation




. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64(15-18) Bree Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66(18-22) Lone Lands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66(22-24) Trestlebridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67(24-26) Lone Lands

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 67(26-36) The North Downs (Estledin, Othrikar, etc.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68(36-40) Evendim

. . . . 69(40-50) Rivendell, Trollshaws, Misty Mountains, Angmar, Forochel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70(50-60) Eregion, The Mines of Moria

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Eregion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72The Mines of Moria

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74(60-65) Mirkwood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Western Mirkwood

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Central Mirkwood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Eastern Mirkwood

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Minstrel Class Quests and related Deeds/Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77A Song for Company

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78A Minstrel's Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79The Finest Melody is Understanding

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Articles on Harmony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Implements of Song

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80A Lesson from Lindir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Instances

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Great Barrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Garth Agarwen

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Fornost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Urugarth

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Carn Dum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Barad Gularan

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Glinghant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Ost Elendil

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Haudh Valandil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85The Rift of Nurz Ghashu

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Gear Sets




. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Reputation Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Instance Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Rift Set

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Helegrod Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Crafted Set

89Conclusion




Introduction

With glorious songs and tales sung of great heroes of ages past you bring hope to thedarkest of times and inspire your Fellowship to great deeds. You can turn the tides of battleby restoring morale to your companions and lifting up their hearts if defeat has overcomethem. Your songs and ballads strike fear into the hearts of your enemies, and they trembleat your cries.

The Minstrel is the class of choice for those players who thrive on group play inFellowships. While they are a highly-survivable class on their own, they lack the DPS(damage per second) to compare with the other classes of Lord of the Rings Online:Shadows of Angmar when it comes to soloing. The primary roll of the Minstrel is that of ahealer.




Character Creation

When creating your Minstrel there areseveral factors in helping you decidewhat is the best race choice. Ultimatelymost races end up being nearly the sameat the cap, but there are a few uniquedifferences that are race-specific and canprovide individuals with an aestheticdifference between their characters andothers.

There is also the choice between anormal PVE (Player vs. Environment)server and a Roleplay PVE server.Again, this difference is purely aesthetic;there are no open PVP servers forLOTRO, so regardless of your choiceyou will be playing on a PVE server. Theonly difference between normal serversand the Roleplay servers is the namingpolicy which is strictly enforced on thoseRoleplay PVE servers.

It is also important to note that there isa difference between the European andUS servers for LOTRO. If you wish toplay on a European server you mustpurchase a European copy of the gamefrom a store that carries the Codemastersversion of the game. Codemasters is thecompany who distributes the gamethroughout Europe. If you wish to playon a US server you must purchase a UScopy of the game. You cannot switch

characters from a US server to a Europeanserver or vice versa, so make sure theversion of the game you purchase is theregion you plan on staying within. Youcan, however, pay for a character movefrom one server to another within yourown region. US players can transfer toother US servers, and European playerscan transfer to other European servers.

Race

The race of your character is purelycosmetic, although there are a few uniqueracial benefits that each class has whichdefine them from the other races withinMiddle Earth. Some racial abilities aremore useful to Minstrels than others, butthey are hardly game-breaking in theirusefulness. When picking one of the fourraces the most important thing toremember is that you are the personbehind the character, no one else. Picksomething that you will enjoy playinglong-term. Don't be afraid to rollsomething entirely against-the-majority ifit's something that sparks your interest orsomething you will enjoy. It's just a game,after all!

You can also visit the official Lorebookor the LOTRO wiki for more informationon classes and races.




Http://lorebook.lotro.com

http://lotro-wiki.com

All of the Racial Accomplishments areTraits that must be slotted in your RacialTraits slots in order to benefit from them.

Dwarf

- Passive Skills- Racial Accomplishments- Elf- Passive Skills- Racial Accomplishments- Hobbit- Passive Skills- Racial Accomplishments- Man- Passive Abilities- Racial Accomplishments

Passive Skills

Lost Dwarf-KingdomsReduced Fate(-8)

StockyReduced Agility (-8)SturdinessIncreased Might (+15) and

Vitality (+10) and improved CommonDamage mitigation (+1.0%)

Unwearying in BattleIncreasedMorale and Power regeneration (0.05%) incombat, although reduced out of combat(-1 morale, -0.5 power).

Virtuous DwarfThis gives you a +1 tothe following three Traits: Honesty,Loyalty, Fidelity.

RacialAccomplishments

Enmity of the Goblins

-Rank 1 is available at level 13

-Defeat 50 Goblins

-Reward is the Fateful Dwarf Trait, +20Fate.


-Defeat 100 Goblins

-Reward is the Return to Thorin's GateTrait, which is a teleport back to theDwarven starting area. It has a 1 hour




refresh timer.


-Defeat 250 Goblins

-Reward is the Endurance of StoneTrait. +75% common, fire, and shadowmitigation for 10 seconds. 1 hourcooldown.

Enmity of the Dourhands


-Defeat 50 Dourhand Dwarves

-Reward is the Head-butt ability. Thisdoes 15 common damage to start (goesup with your level) and has a 5 secondcooldown. It does not cost any power andis a melee ability.



-Rewards you with the Guild andMight Bonus Trait. This gives you a 5%bonus to Spider's Guile and Ent'sStrength Fellowship maneuvers.

-Rank 3 is available at level 25.


-Rewards you with the DwarfAxe-damage Bonus. This gives you a 2%one-handed and two-handed axe damagebonus.

Enmity of the Trolls


-Defeat 100 Trolls

-Reward is the Dwarf-Endurance Trait,which provides a Vitality buff to yourFellowship.


-Defeat 150 Trolls

-Rewards you with the Shield BrawlerTrait, which gives you a 2% increasedblock chance. This is a passive ability.

Elf

Passive Skills

Agility of the WoodsImprovedAgility (+15)

Fading of the FirstbornReduced Fate(-8)

Sorrow of the FirstbornReducedMorale (-20) and out of combat Moraleregeneration (-1.0)

Suffer No IllnessImproved resistanceto disease and poison (1%)

Virtuous ElfThis gives you a +1bonus to the following three Traits:Wisdom, Patience, Charity.







-Defeat 50 Goblins

-Reward is the Sylvan Shadows Trait.Enables your character to Stealth. It has a30 minute cooldown.


-Defeat 100 Goblins

-Reward is Tactics and ConvictionBonus. This gives you a 5% bonus toEagle's Cry and Stallion's SpiritFellowship maneuvers.


-Defeat 150 Goblins

-Rewards you with the ElfBow-damage Bonus. This is a passive2% bonus to all bow damage.

Enmity of the Orcs


-Defeat 50 Orcs

-Reward is the Friend of Man Trait.Once slotted this gives you +20 Fate.This is a passive Trait.


-Defeat 100 Orcs

-Rewards you with the Return toRivendell Trait. Once slotted this providesyou with a teleport to Rivendell.


-Defeat 250 Orcs

-Reward is the Eldar's Grace Trait. Thisgives you a 75% parry chance for 10seconds on a 1 hour cooldown.

Enmity of the Drakes


-Defeat 100 Drakes

-Rewards you with the Elf One-handedsword damage bonus. This is a passive 2%bonus.


-Defeat 150 Drakes

-Reward is the Power of the Eldar Trait.This gives your entire Fellowship a 2%increase to their power pool for 10minutes. It has a 1 hour cooldown.




Hobbit

Passive Skills

Hobbit CourageImproved fearresistance (+1%)

Hobbit ToughnessImproved Vitality(+15)

Rapid RecoveryImprovedout-of-combat morale regeneration(+1.0)

Resist CorruptionImproved shadowmitigation (+1%)

Small SizeReduced Might (-8)Virtuous HobbitThis gives you a +1

bonus to the following three Traits:Empathy, Honesty, Idealism.


Enmity of the Wolves


-Defeat 50 Wolves

-Reward is the Stoop for a Stone Trait,which gives you a low-damage rangedattack (throw a rock)


-Defeat 100 Wolves

-Reward is the Guile and ConvictionBonus, which gives you a 5% bonus toSpider's Guile and Eagle's Cry Fellowshipmaneuvers.


-Defeat 150 Wolves

-Reward is Hobbit Club-damage bonus.2% to all one-handed and two-handedclubs.

Enmity of the Spiders


-Defeat 50 Spiders

-Reward is Hobbit Stature (+20 Might)-Rank 2 is available at level 29

-Defeat 150 Spiders

-Reward is Return to Michel Delving (Ateleport to the Shire starting area. 1 hour




cooldown)-Rank 3 is available at level 35

-Defeat 250 Spiders

-Reward is Hobbit-resilience. (+1 hopefor 10 min, 1 hour cooldown)



-Defeat 50 Goblins

-Reward is Hobbit Stealth. 30 minutecooldown.


-Defeat 100 Goblins

-Reward is Hobbit-Silence. This is aFeign Death type ability that can be usedonce per hour. Combined with theMinstrel's Feign Death class ability at 38,you can have two different feign deathabilities if you roll a Hobbit Minstrel.

Man

Passive Abilities

Diminishing of MankindDecreasedWill (-8)

Easily InspiredIncreased moraleregeneration

Gift of MenImproved Fate (+15)Strong MenImproved Might (+15)Virtuous ManThis gives you a +1 to

the following three Traits: Justice,Confidence, Patience.


Enmity of the Wargs


-Defeat 50 wargs

-Reward is the Man of the Fourth AgeTrait. +20 Will


-Defeat 150 wargs

-Reward is the Return to Bree Trait.This is a teleport back to Bree. One hourcooldown.


-Defeat 250 wargs




-Reward is the Duty-Bound Trait. Thisprovides a temporary morale boost toyour Fellowship.

Enmity of the Dead


-Defeat 50 wights

-Reward is Upper-cut, a 22 damagemelee attack.


-Defeat 100 wights

-Reward is Tactics and Might Trait,which gives you a 5% bonus to Stallion'sSpirit and Ent's Strength Fellowshipmaneuvers.


-Defeat 150 wights

-Reward is Man Sword-damage Bonus,which is a 2% damage bonus if using aone-handed or two-handed sword.

Enmity of Hillmen


-Defeat 150 Hillmen

-Reward is the Balance of Man Trait.1+ bonus to Parry, Evade, and Block.


-Defeat 250 Hillmen

-Reward is the Strength of MoraleTrait, which gives you a 3k moraleself-heal once per hour.




Statistics

Before you head out into the great wildin search of adventure and the slaying ofmighty beasts, and long before youactually delve into any of those dark andscary dungeons or swing your weapon atone of the monsters within Middle Earth,you are going to want to know a little bitmore about the basics of statistics andattributes and how they can affect yourplay and class.

While you do get some slight statbonuses as you level up, the majority ofyour increases will be coming from gearand Traits. Traits are a unique feature ofLOTRO and while we will be coveringthem a little more in-depth later on in thisguide, it's important to know that thereare a few Minstrel-specific Traits whichare rather vital to your role in a groupsetting, and an entirely different setwhich are far more useful in a solosetting.

But before we get into all of that, you'llneed to know a little bit about the systemand how it works. LOTRO employs asimple percentage system. What thatmeans is that you have a percent chanceto resist, land a critical hit, land a criticalheal, resist damage, and so on and soforth.

You have five basic stats in Lord of theRings Online. Might, Agility, Vitality,Will, and Fate. Beyond that you have avariety of different attributes, such asdamage reduction, resistances, and armor.You will be able to modify these numbersover time through gear and Traits and itwill all directly affect how your Minstrelcan handle certain encounters or groupsettings. The wonderful thing aboutLOTRO is how many different Traits youcan acquire over time, allowing you theopportunity to change your resists andmodifiers as frequently as you find theneed, allowing for more diversity whenapproaching specific instances or mobs.

Hitpoints in LOTRO are called Morale.Power is Power.

Hope and Dread

Hope and Dread are two ratherimportant "mood" modifiers that you willneed to take into account. The easiest wayto explain this is to think about Hope asbeing the extreme "good" side of things,and Dread as being the extreme "bad" sideof things. Every time you enter into a fightagainst one of the boss mobs of aninstance or dungeon of the game you willencounter Dread. Every time you arearound a "good" character of the game's




story, or in an area where good isprevalent, you will encounter Hope.Certain classes can also give you Hopebuffs, and you can get Hope from potionsand other sources as well.

Hope gives you several side effects

-Increased Morale

-Increased receptiveness to healingspells

-Less damage taken from attacks

-higher chance of landing an attack.

Dread has the exact opposite.

-Decreased Morale

-Less receptive to healing spells

-More damage taken from attacks.

-Lessens the chance of landing anattack

-May occasionally seized by fear orunable to attack at all.

That last part is probably the mostimportant thing to note. In both cases, thehigher the level of Hope or Dread, thehigher the level of the effects. In extremecases of Dread your character can findthemselves reduced to the point ofabsolute cowering fear...meaning youwill not be able to cast spells or move inany way.

Stats

- Might- Agility- Vitality- Will- Fate- Armor- Mitigation- Resistances- Abilities

Might

Might is more of a melee class statistic,as it directly influences how often youblock with a shield, parry an attack, andhow much damage you do with a meleeweapon. However it also reduces theamount of incoming common damage,which can be useful. Might is not a veryvaluable stat for the Minstrel, so youprobably shouldn't worry about it thatmuch.




Agility

Agility is more of a ranged classstatistic. It directly influences the damageyou deal with a ranged weapon, but italso increases your chance to land acritical hit on a mob, reduces yourchance at missing when attacking with amelee or ranged weapon, and increasesyour ability to evade or parry incomingattacks. Again, this really isn't anextremely valuable stat for the Minstrelclass, so you really don't need to worryabout it.

Vitality

Vitality is one of the most importantstatistics for every class in the game.Vitality increases your maximum morale,reduces the amount of incoming damagefrom shadow, fire, and frost, increasesyour morale regeneration in combat, andincreases your wound, disease, andpoison resists. In other games the healerclasses did not always have to worryabout morale, and if you are from one ofthose min/max games where your powerpool is the only thing to worry about, youmight want to reconsider. In LOTROmorale plays a huge part in every player'ssurvivability at the higher levels of the

game. As I briefly mentioned above, Hopeand Dread can directly modify yourcharacter's morale. In certain fights, likeagainst the Balrog or Nazgul, you willencounter such high levels of Dread thatyour morale will be drastically reduced. Inorder to counter this is it is important tohave a decent baseline morale value, alongwith some Hope buffs, to insure you donot die with one hit from a mob.

Will

Will is another important statistic for theMinstrel. Firstly, it increases the size ofyour power pool. This is your second-mostvaluable statistic. I find it on equal level ofimportance with Vitality, although youwill always have far more Will thanVitality simply because of the majority ofgear and your stat increases per level asdefaulted by the choice of the Minstrelclass. It is also an important stat because itincreases your chance to resist fear effects,including cowering from Dread. It alsoaffects how much power you regenerateoutside of combat.




Fate

Fate is another baseline stat for playersacross the board because it directlyaffects how quickly you regeneratepower and morale in combat. This isanother vital statistic for the Minstrelclass. It also increases the chance for youto land a critical on certainmorale-enhancing abilities, as well asincreasing non-direct damage weaponseffects such as damage-over-time.

Armor

Much like in other games, Armorreflects your armor class, or the difficultythe mobs have hitting you with theirweapons. The higher the value, theharder you are to hit. However, as aminstrel, this is not going to be an areawhere you spend a lot of time worryingabout.

Mitigation

Mitigation is more commonlyreferenced as damage reduction. There areseveral types of mitigation in LOTRO, andeach reflect specific types of damage.

-Common damage

-Fire damage

-Frost damage

-Shadow damage

Each of these types is represented inyour Character box and shows up as apercentage. The higher the percentage themore you will resist those types ofdamage.

Resistances

Resistances play a vital role in LOTRO.The higher your percentage, the higheryour chance to completely avoid or resistthe entire affect. There are four types ofresists.

-Fear. Can be increased through Will

-Wound. Can be increased throughVitality

-Disease. Can be increased throughVitality.




-Poison. Can be increased throughVitality.

Abilities

Lastly, but not necessarily least, are theactual abilities that make up yourcharacter.

-Melee crit. Your chance to land acritical hit on the mob with meleeweapons and/or abilities.

-Ranged crit. Your chance to land aranged critical hit on a mob through theuse of ranged weapons and/or abilities.

-Tactical crit. This is your chance toland critical hits with special attacks andabilities.

-Block. Your chance to completelyblock all incoming damage. You have tohave a shield equipped for this to takeeffect.

-Parry. Your ability to completelyparry and avoid all incoming damage.

-Evade. Your ability to evade andcompletely avoid all incoming damage.




Traits and Deeds:the Basics

There are four different kinds of Traitsin Lord of the Rings. Virtue traits, Classtraits, Racial traits, and Legendary traits.Traits are earned by completing Deedswithin the game.

But what are traits? How do they affectyou as a player? The easiest way toexplain this is to think about traits asways to further enhance your character'sstats and abilities above and beyond gear.As you earn levels you gain additionalslots in which you can place your traits.You can only have a limited number oftraits slotted at level 50, so it's importantto have as many as you can to maximizeyour choices. Traits can be slotted byvisiting a Bard within any major city oroutpost and paying a small coin fee. Youmay change traits at any time.

So how do you get these traits? Well itdepends on what kind of trait you aretalking about, but most of them stemfrom the completion of Deeds.

Deeds

Deeds are tasks which reward thecharacter with titles, skills, or traits. Thesecan range from completing a certainnumber of quests within an area, toexploring certain key locations within anarea, to killing a specific number and typeof mob within an area. There are severaldifferent types of Deeds within the game.

Class Deeds

These Deeds are unlocked by usingspecific skills related to your class. Fromvery early on some of your skills will startDeeds which track your use of a specificskill and reward you with a Class Traitafter you have used that ability a specificnumber of times. There is a maximumnumber of times you may advance aparticular skill each 24 hour period, whichmeans that it sometimes takes a few daysto a few weeks to earn some of your classDeeds.




Racial and SocialDeeds

Racial deeds are unlocked byslaughtering creatures which areparticularly hated by your particular race.If you noticed the RacialAccomplishments portions of each Racesection detailed further up in the guideyou will see what these racial deeds areand how they work, as well as at whatlevel they become available.

Social deeds are one of the most funwithin the game. These involve being thetarget of another player's emote, such assomeone targeting you and using the/scold emote. After a certain number oftimes of this emote being used on you itwill reward you with a title or specialemote. As with other deeds, you can onlyincrease these a certain number of timesper day. In the case of the /scold emote,for example, your character willeventually earn the title "The Naughty".They are a great way to add a little flavorto your character! You can find a basiclist of social deeds as well as the per-daylimits at:http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Social_Deeds

Region Deeds

Region deeds are deeds which can becompleted in each region of the game.These can involve performing quests,exploring areas, or killing specific mobs.There is no limit to how many mobs,quests, or areas you can explore per day.Most of the time you will find yourselfearning some of these deeds as youexplore and quest within each region, asrunning the quest chains will naturallylead you to kill mobs, explore areas, andcomplete quests. However, if you areinterested in fully maxing your characterout you will want to full explore and fullycomplete each and every deed within anarea.

Most players find this easiest toaccomplish by coming back once theyreach level 50. For example, some of theexploration deeds require going intosections of full-group areas that yourquests might not require. Sometimesgetting a group to side-track into theseremote corners can be a pain, so it'susually easiest to wait until the area is grayto you in order to complete these harderexploration deeds. Also with kill deeds, itis often easier to wait until you are higherin level and can come back and slaughtermany of the creatures at one time, whereaswhen you are of the actual level you canonly kill one or two at a time.




Traits

- Racial Traits- Class Traits- Legendary Traits- Virtue Traits

Racial Traits

As detailed in the Racial sectionfurther up in the guide, these racial traits,which are rewarded through thecompletion of the racial deeds, areunique to each race in particular. TheVirtuous traits, however, are based uponearning faction for your particular racethrough the specific Reputation Houseslocated in each starting area. It takes timeto earn enough Reputation for yourspecific Virtuous Trait, so don't besurprised if you don't get this right away.You need to be Friendly with your race'sfaction in order to purchase this traitfrom the corresponding vendor.

Class Traits

Class traits are unique and specific toeach class. These traits first becomeavailable at level 10, when you earn theNovice title. As with all of the other traits,these can only be earned through thesuccessful completion of deeds. Inspecific, class deeds. Class traits providethe most specific and significantenhancement to your skills, and the widestarray of abilities to tailor your character toyour own preferred play style.

Legendary Traits

Legendary traits are the hardest toacquire and are not available until level39. They are class-specific. Each class hasa different type of legendary trait. Theseare acquired through the collection ofpages to create Books that are specific toeach class. The final legendary trait is onlyavailable after completing the level 50class quest.




Virtue Traits

Virtue traits are the most common.They are available to all classes andraces across the board. Virtue traits stemfrom the completion of region deeds. Thebest part about the virtue traits is they aretiered. Each time you complete a regiondeed you will earn whatever trait islinked to that specific deed. Over time asyou complete more region-specific deedsyou will earn more ranks in those traits.So while you might only have rank onein a trait at level 10, by the time you getto level 50 and have cleared all theregions you can earn up to 8 differentranks of each type of trait. Each rankgives you a significantly increased bonusto your stats, depending on what type oftrait it is.

Charity

+ Wound Resistance

+ Ranged Resistance

+ Peace Power Regen

Confidence

+ Fear Resistance

+ Will

+ Peace Power Regen

Compassionate

+ Ranged Resistance

+ Peace Power Regen

+ Magic Resistance

Determination

+ Agility

+ Combat Morale Regen

+ Morale

Discipline

+ Might

+ Disease Resistance

+ Melee Resistance

Empathy

+ Armor

+ Fate

+ Fear Resistance

Fidelity

+ Shadow Resistance

+ Vitality

+ Power

Fortitude

+ Peace Morale Regen

+ Might


Honesty

+ Power

+ Armor

+ Fate




Honour

+ Poison Resistance

+ Shadow Resistance

+ Vitality

Idealism

+ Fate

+ Fear Resistance

+ Will

Innocence

+ Melee Resistance

+ Poison Resistance

+ Shadow Resistance

Justice:


+ Morale


Loyalty

+ Vitality

+ Power

+ AC

Merciful

+ Peace Power Regen

+ Magic Vulnerability

+ Agility

Patience

+ Peace Power regen

+ Wound resistance

+ Ranged Resistance

Tolerant

+ Magic Resistance

+ agility


Valour

+ Morale


+ Might

Wisdom

+ Will

+ Peace Power Regen

+ Wound Resistance

Zeal


+ Melee Resistance

+ Poison Resistance




Virtue Traits byGrouping

Charity

Charity +2: Hero of Ered Luin [Final]--- Ered Luin

Charity: Ally of Ered Luin --- EredLuin

Charity: Bree-Lands Quests[Advanced] --- Bree-Lands

Charity: Lone Lands Quests --- LoneLands

Charity: North Downs Quests[Advanced] --- North Downs

Compassionate

Compassionate: Defender of Ered Luin[Advanced] --- Ered Luin

Compassionate: Lone Lands Quests[Advanced] --- Lone Lands

Compassionate: Peril of the Mountains--- Misty Mountains

Compassionate: The Life of theBounder --- The Shire

Compassionate: Pilgrim of Evendim[Quests] --- Evendim

Compassionate: Wander of Evendim[Advanced - Quests] --- Evendim

Confidence

Confidence +2: The Road to War ---Angmar

Confidence: Garth Agrewen --- LoneLands

Confidence: Rath Teraig --- Ered Luin

Confidence: Strongholds Exploration ---North Downs

Confidence: The Grimfens --- LoneLands

Confidence: Where Giants Dwell ---Misty Mountains

Determination

Determination: Barghest --- Bree-Lands

Determination: Crawler --- Trollshaws

Determination: Slug --- The Shire

Determination: Snow-Beast --- MistyMountains

Determination: Warg --- Angmar

Determination: Warg --- North Downs

Determination: Wolf --- Ered Luin

Determination: Salamanders ---Evendim

Discipline

Discipline: Bog Lurker --- Lone Lands

Discipline: Hendroval --- Ered Luin

Discipline: Sicklefly --- Bree-Lands

Discipline: Troll --- Angmar

Discipline: Wolf --- The Shire




Discipline: Wolf --- Trollshaws

Discipline : Tomb-Defenders(Brigands) --- Evendim

Discipline: Beasts (Birds, Cave Clawsetc) --- Rep Dungeon in Sarnur (EredLuin)

Empathy

Empathy +2: Angmar Quests [Final]--- Angmar

Empathy: Bree-Lands Quests ---Bree-Lands

Empathy: North Downs Quests ---North Downs

Empathy: Peril of the Mountains[Advanced] --- Misty Mountains

Empathy: The Life of the Bounder[Advanced] --- The Shire

Fidelity

Fidelity: Defenses of the Lone Lands--- Lone Lands

Fidelity: Scouting the Dourhands ---Ered Luin

Fidelity: The Circle of Despair ---Angmar

Fidelity: The Road to Rivendell ---Trollshaws

Fidelity: The Sights of Shire --- TheShire

Fidelity: Ruins of Evendim ---Evendim

Fidelity: Tombs of Evendim ---Evendim

Fortitude

Fortitude: Bear --- Misty Mountains

Fortitude: Bree-Lands Woodsman [oldforest trees] --- Bree-Lands

Fortitude: Giant --- Trollshaws

Fortitude: Harvest Sicklefly --- TheShire

Fortitude: Neekerbeeker --- Bree-Lands

Fortitude: Troll --- North Downs

Fortitude: Warg --- Lone Lands

Fortitude: Orc --- Evendim

Honesty

Honesty: Craban --- Lone Lands

Honesty: Troll --- Lone Lands

Honesty: Wilds of Tal BruinenExploration Deed --- Trollshaws

Honesty: Bilbo's Buttons Deed --- MistyMountains (High Pass)

Honesty: Goblin Town locations Deed--- Misty Mountains (High Pass)

Honesty: The Forbidden Heights ---Misty Mountains

Honour

Honour: Spider --- Bree-Lands

Honour: Spider --- Lone Lands

Honour: Spider --- The Shire




Honour: Uruk --- Angmar

Honour: Worm --- Misty Mountains

Honour: Worm --- North Downs

Honour: Giant --- Evendim

Idealism

Idealism +2: Brave Deeds in theWilderness [Final] --- Trollshaws

Idealism: Angmar Quests [Advanced]--- Angmar

Idealism: Flowers of the old forest ---Bree-Lands

Idealism +2: Lone Lands Quests[Final] --- Lone Lands

Idealism: The History of the Dunedain--- Bree-Lands

Innocence

Innocence +2: Peril of the Mountains[Final] --- Misty Mountains

Innocence +2: The Life of the Bounder[Final] --- The Shire

Innocence: Brave Deeds in theWilderness --- Trollshaws

Innocence: Warden of Evendim [Final- Quests] --- Evendim

Justice

Justice: Brigand --- The Shire

Justice: Angmarim --- Angmar

Justice: Brigand --- Bree-Lands

Justice: Brigand --- Ered Luin

Justice: Orc --- North Downs

Justice: Warg --- Misty Mountains

Justice: Goblin --- Evendim

Justice: Dourhands --- Rep Dungeon inSarnur (Erud Luin)

Loyalty

Loyalty +2: Bree-Lands Quests [Final]--- Bree-Lands

Loyalty: Angmar Quests --- AngmarLoyalty: Brave Deeds in the Wilderness

[Advanced] --- TrollshawsLoyalty +2: North Downs Quests [Final]

--- North Downs

Mercy

Mercy: Wight --- Lone Lands

Mercy: Redeemer [the dead] --- NorthDowns

Mercy: Wight --- Angmar

Mercy: Wight --- Bree-Lands

Mercy: Wight --- Trollshaws

Mercy: Limrafn --- Evendim

Mercy: Wight --- Rep Dungeon (HaudhIarchath) in Barrow Downs

Patience

Patience: No Place for Spoiled Pie ---The Shire

Patience: Places of the Dwarves --- EredLuin




Patience: Restoring the Quick Post ---The Shire

Patience: Ruins of Bree land ---Bree-Lands

Patience: The Barrow Downs ---Bree-Lands

Patience: The Eastern Ruins --- NorthDowns

Patience: Wilds of Evendim ---Evendim

Tolerance

Tolerance: The Villages of the EarthKin --- North Downs

Tolerant +2: Bastions of Hope ---Angmar

Tolerant The Farms of Shire --- TheShire

Tolerant: Ruins of Misty Mountains ---Misty Mountains

Tolerant: Ruins of Trollshaws ---Trollshaws

Valour

Valour: Goblin --- Lone Lands

Valour: Goblin --- The Shire

Valour: Orc --- Bree-Lands

Valour: Orc --- Lone Lands

Valour: Troll --- Misty Mountains

Valour: Worm --- Angmar

Valour: Worm --- Trollshaws

Valour: Snow Trolls --- Rep Dungeon inSarnur (Erud Luin)

Wisdom

Wisdom: Elf Ruins --- Ered Luin

Wisdom: High Passes of MistyMountains --- Misty Mountains

Wisdom: Lore of the Cardolan Prince ---Bree-Lands

Wisdom: The Old Forest --- Bree-Lands

Wisdom: The Weathertop Exploration--- Lone Lands

Wisdom: The Western Ruins --- NorthDowns

Zeal

Zeal: Giant --- Misty Mountains

Zeal: Goblin --- Ered Luin

Zeal: Goblin --- North Downs

Zeal: Orc --- Angmar

Zeal: Spider --- Ered Luin

Zeal: Troll --- Trollshaws

Zeal: Kergrims --- Evendim

Zeal: Spider --- Rep Dungeon (HaudhIarchath) in Barrow Downs




Minstrel Class Deedsand Corresponding

Traits

Harmonious Melody. This ability givesyou a longer window of opportunity inwhich to perform your next tier ofballads. +5.0 to effect duration and aLine Bonus of +0.3 to morale regenin-combat. You have to play 1,500ballads to finish this deed and earn thistrait. You may only advance this deed500 times per day.

Herald's Hammer. This gives you anenhanced version of your Herald's Strike.Adds 100% to your Herald's Strike. Alsogives a Line Bonus of +50 to maxmorale. You must successfully landHerald's Strike 700 times to finish thisdeed and earn this trait. You may onlyadvance this deed 240 times per day.

Powerful Voice. Decreases the cost ofyour cries. Reduces the Power cost of allcries by 5%. Gives a Line Bonus of +65max power. You must successfully useyour cries 300 times to finish this deedand earn this trait. You may onlyadvance this deed 100 times per day.

Smooth Voice. This trait increases specific ballad effect durations. When slotted this turns your Ballad of Vigor and Ballad of Balance into songs that no

longer deal damage, but add bonus to thestatus of your group. Song of Vigor is a 30second buff of +29 vitality. Song ofBalance is a 2.6% evade chance increasefor 30 sec. Both have a 15s cooldown. linebonus of +50 max morale. You mustsuccessfully use Piercing Cry 600 times tofinish this deed and earn this trait. Youmay only advance this deed 200 times perday.

Focused Performance. This traitincreases the induction time of yourabilities, making you harder to disrupt.10% faster cast times on skills. Also a linebonus of 2% fear resist. This is one of themore important Minstrel traits. You mustevade 300 attacks to finish this deed andearn this trait.

Life Singer. This trait reduces the powercost for your morale-renewing skills(heals). 10% reduction from the powercost, as well as a line bonus of 0.3 tomorale regeneration. You must use yourhealing spells 1,000 times to finish thisdeed and earn this trait. This is one of themore important Minstrel traits. You mayonly advance this deed 150 times per day.

Unrelenting. When slotted this allows your Piercing Cry to stun enemies after a crit. It also reduces the recovery time on Piercing Cry and gives it a 25% additional chance to critical when slotted. Stun, plus line bonus of 50 to max morale. Also reduces 3.0 from the skill recovery time.




You must successfully land critical hitswith your Piercing Cry 100 times tofinish this deed and earn this trait. Youmay only advance this deed 20 times perday.

Graceful Demeanor. This traitenhances the effects of your EnliveningGrace and Rally! Abilities. It alsosubtracts 2.0 from the cast time on yourresurrection spells. When slotted itreduces the cast time on Rally by 2seconds and recovery time by 5 minutes.Line bonus is 2% fear resist, 20% tomorale and 30% to power uponresurrection. Must use Enlivening Grace100 times to finish this deed and earn thistrait.

Light in the Dark. This trait increasesthe damage for your Tier 1 and Tier 2ballads. Adds a 10% bonus to yourdamage and a line bonus of 50 to maxmorale. You must use your Ballad ofResonance 1,000 times to finish this deedand earn this trait. You may onlyadvance this deed 150 times per day.

Silver Tongue. This ability allows yoursongs to recover more quickly thanbefore by reducing the recharge time by3.0. You also receive a line bonus of 2%to fear resist. You must use your Cry ofthe Chorus 500 times to finish this deedand earn this trait.

Subtle Movements. This is another of the more important Minstrel-specific

traits. It reduces the threat generated byyour skills by 25. It also gives you a linebonus of 65 to max power. You must useyour Song of Soothing 300 times to finishthis deed and earn this trait.

Battle-Hymn. This ability increases theregen rate while in-combat for the Anthemof the Valar. Line bonus of +65 to power.Must use Anthem of the Valar 250 timesto finish this deed and unlock this trait.

Exemplar of Song. This is a title. Thereis no trait associated with it.

Heralded Saviour. This ability increasesthe effectiveness of your Song of Aid. Itlasts 10% longer and has a 20% increasedrecovery time. You also receive a linebonus of 2% to fear resist. You must useyour Song of Aid 400 times to finish thisdeed and earn this trait.

Mentor of Song. Title, no trait.Associated with mentoring players to useinstruments. You can only mentor 1instrument every 5 days. It takes 3 mentorsessions to earn this title.

Strength of Voice. This increases theduration of your Tier 3 ballads by 10seconds and gives a line bonus to moralregen in-combat by 0.3. You must useyour Ballad of War 500 times to finish thisdeed and earn this trait.

Melodies of the Valar. This deed gives you the Rally trait upon completion. This is a legendary trait. Rally is an in-combat




resurrection spell. You must gather 8pages from the Melodies of the Valarbook in order to complete this deed andearn this trait. The first four pages dropfrom Goblins in the Misty Mountainsand the last four pages drop fromMorroval in the Ram Duath.

The Rising Chord. This deed gives youthe Song of the Hopeful Heart song uponcompletion. This is a legendary trait.This song enables you to temporarilyreduce the Dread of an area for 60seconds. (Find info on where pages drop)

Valour's Marches. This deed gives youthe legendary trait Anthem of theWizards. It allows you blast yourenemies with an area-of-effect (AoE)that will slow anyone who is affected byit. Like all anthems, this can only beplayed after a Tier 3 ballad, and yourcounter will be reset. 30% movementrate reduced, 20% attack rate reduced. 30second duration. (Need more info onpages)

Trait Builds

The following details specific builds.Depending on the situation you will wantto switch your traits around for maximizedperformance. You want to avoid all"all-in-one" build specifically becausewhile it might enhance one area, it willsacrifice in another, and since this game isvery clearly divided between solo andgroup play you need to make thatdistinction.

For the most part you will leave yourVirtue traits alone...you can keep the sameones for group and solo play slotted. Theonly ones you will be changing out withregularity is your Class traits.

Furthermore you should make sure topay attention to boss fights for specificareas. These will be the few times whenyou might change out your Virtue traits toget higher resists. The Rift, for example,can require high shadow and fear resists,so if you know what kind of boss fightsyou are going up against, you can changeout your Virtue traits accordingly. But it isfairly rare that you need to worry aboutchanging the Virtue ones around, and youdon't have to if you really don't want to.

For the most part you will want to stickwith Virtue traits that increase your moraleand vitality. Why vitality, and not wisdom




and fate, you ask? Because all of theMinstrel gear in the game will provideyou with more than enough will and fatebonuses, but you still need to keep yourmorale as high as possible to counter themassive Dread de-buffs in bossencounters.

Solo Build

The solo build is made up of primarilyincreased damage traits. You will besurprised at how much DPS the minstrelcan do, especially in the upper 30's andto cap. Also keep in mind that since all ofyour trait slots will not become availableuntil higher levels, some of the traits willnot be available to you until higherlevels.

Herald's Hammer.

Light in the Dark.

Unrelenting.

Focused Performance.

Silver Tongue.

Powerful Voice.

Also keep in mind that until thelow-mid 40's one of your class trait slotswill be taken up by the Medium Armorminstrel class trait. Once you get yourfirst full set of light gear in Angmar youcan replace that with any of the above.

Fellowship Build

Your Virtue traits will remain the same,regardless if you are in Solo or Fellowshipmode. However, your class traits areimportant. While you want a higher DPSmode when soloing or duoing or even insmaller groups, you absolutely want toswitch out for performance-healing traitswhenever you decide it's time to do aninstance. Healing is, after all, your primaryrole, and as fun as it is to be able to DPSwhile playing this class, it's important toremember that doing so is your backupjob.

Focused Performance (this is the onlytrait which you will never move. Fastercast time is important regardless of solo orfellowship play).

Life-Singer.

Harmonious Melody.

Battle-Hymn.

Glorious Anthem.

Subtle Movements.

Keep in mind that these are the mosteffective for long-term buffs, decreasedaggro, and maximized healing.




Minstrel Basics

Whether solo or in a fellowship, there afew things that make playing a minstrelfar different than many of the otherhealers you might have played to-date.Firstly and foremost is the different tiersof ballads, songs, anthems and how theyplay into your heals. Second isinstruments, and how they can affect thepotency of your songs, ballads, anthems,and help you with your aggro. Thirdly isaggro itself. Aggro in LOTRO isdifferent than in almost every othergame. Heals generate a LOT of threat,and unless you are using the full extentof your abilities, you will be squashedlike a little bug.

Instruments

Instruments play a vital role in how theminstrel class is played. I keep a full setof instruments on me at all times, as eachparticular instrument gives a uniquebonus that can come in handy dependingon the situation. Instruments are craftedby the Woodworker class. Each tier ofinstrument gives you a better bonus, sotry and replace your instruments with thenext tier each time you ding 20, 30, 40,

and 50. Please note that there is adifference between the basic instrumentsthat can be used to play in-game musicand the crafted instruments which giveunique minstrel-only bonuses. The craftedinstruments start at level 20, whereas thebasic instruments can be obtained at level1 (although the skill to use them does notalways start at level 1)

Drums. Drums give you a +% to Balladdamage and +% to the Ballad cost.

Flutes. Flutes reduce a % of the powercost on all Songs.

Harps. Harps reduce a % of the powercost on all Ballads.

Lutes. Lutes reduce a % of the powercost on all Anthems.

Theorbo. This reduces the amount ofthread you gain during combat. This isprobably the most important instrument inyour repertoire.

As with all crafted items the higher thelevel the higher the % of the effects on theinstruments. Critical versions of theinstruments will give you furtherenhancement. The most common pair ofinstruments to be used is the Drum and theTheorbo. You can switch them duringcombat. Usually people keep the drumslotted most of the time to get a bonus toballad damage, then switch over to thetheorbo when they need to heal.




Ballads, Anthems, Talesand Songs: The

Minstrel's Gallery

Ballads are one of the unique featuresof Lord of the Rings Online and theMinstrel class. This is also where thestrategy part of playing the minstrelcomes into play.

The easiest way to think about balladsis tiered abilities. A tier 1 ballad must beplayed in order for a tier 2 ballad to beplayed, and a tier 2 ballad must be playedin order for a tier 3 ballad to be played.In most cases your strongest abilities willstem upon a prerequisite tier 2 or tier 3ballad being in effect, especially withyour anthems.

Tales are your toggled buffs. You mayonly have one tale active at any giventime. These are powerful tales of deedslong past, of glorious battles won to helpstrengthen your allies in times of need.

Songs are generally direct-damage orinstant-cast abilities, while Anthems aregenerally only opened after a tier 3ballad has been performed. Anthems willgive your fellowship the most beneficialabilities and in-combat buffs, like moraleregeneration and extra resistances.However some of them can also do suchthings as reduce the amount of aggro you

generate with each heal spell, which canbe extremely useful in longer fights.

Minstrels also have the ability to switchbetween "normal" mode and War-Speechmode. When you enter into War-Speechmode via the toggle, your heal spells arereduced by 50% effectiveness. However,your DPS is increased on specific abilities,and you will also gain some abilities thatare only usable while in the War-Speechstance. It is important to remember thatwhile some of your abilities gain strengthin this stance, your heal abilities are cut inhalf, which means you have to pay closerattention to morale meters. GenerallyWar-Speech is only used for solo play or ifyou are the second minstrel in a party,which rarely happens. I will cover this inmore detail in the Solo and Group Combatareas.




Combat as aMinstrel

Middle Earth can be a dangerous place,whether you are all alone while travelingthe wilds, or traveling with your booncompanions in a fellowship. In eithercase, you are going to want to know howto best play your class in order tosuccessfully work your way up to thetop.

The Minstrel is primarily a healer. Butthat doesn't mean that's all you do. Nordoes it mean you are relegated to simplybeing a buff-bot and heal-bot. Theminstrel in LOTRO is a unique classwith a lot of different abilities, and manydifferent ways they can be played whilestill maintaining that primary role as ahealer. You can mez undead, you canfear evil mobs, you can feign death, youcan rez in combat and out ofcombat...you are the backbone of anyfellowship desiring to see the deepest anddarkest depths of the game.

But it's not just about fellowships. Theminstrel class has one of the highest ratesof survivability within Lord of the RingsOnline. Unless you are just not payingattention to what you are doing it isvirtually impossible to succumb todefeat. When you are out in the field on

your own, your War-Speech will help youtransform into a battle-hardened veteranthat any foe should tremble to face!

The Basics

Ballads, Tales, Songs, Anthems...youhave a vast repertoire of skills at yourcommand. But where to start!

Life as a young minstrel can be a bittough, but as with all things you willeventually grow, and as you grow youbegin to take on multiple roles within thegroup or solo setting. When you are soloyou are going to want to worry about yourdamage output, as well as keeping yourselfalive. As detailed in the class traits sectionabove there are several traits which canhelp you when it comes to soloing,specifically the Medium Armor trait, theFocused Performance trait, and theUnrelenting trait. Those three are the mostimportant when it comes to your ability torapidly defeat your enemies while at thesame time retaining some form of dignityin terms of staying alive long enough toget the job done.

Your instruments will also play a vitalrole in your abilities. While you cannotcreate macros in LOTRO to easily switchout instruments, you can manually do it or




simply add them to your hotbar so youcan simply click a button and equip thecorrect one. Depending on the situationyou can switch them out as you see fit, oryou can just use one or two.

It's also important to note that whileyou can use most of your songs andabilities while running you can NOT healwhile moving! You must be standing stillin order to properly heal you or yourfellowship members.

Healing will generate a LOT of aggro.And by a lot, I mean a LOT. You getseveral abilities, such as the Song ofSoothing, which allow you to de-aggromobs during combat. Be aware that youmust use your de-aggro abilities when ina fellowship or you will find yourself inthe frying pan. Aggro management inthis game is not as simple as the guardiansimply spamming his taunts and keepingthe mob focused on him. It requires youfocusing on using your de-aggro abilitiesas much as possible to make sure themobs are focused in the rightdirection...away from you!

Things you should know

Just because the primary role of theMinstrel is a healer, doesn't mean that it'syour job to keep everyone at full healthduring the entire fight. It simply meansthat it's your job to keep everyone alive.Too many players have a misconceptionthat it's your job to keep them at full healththrough the entire fight, and that's justsilly. First of all it's murder on the tank ifthe healer is spam healing; he'll never keepaggro if you do that. It's always best toworry about getting your de-aggros offfirst, then worry about healing theparty/tank. There's a rather interesting readover at the official LOTRO forums whichtalks about things other people shouldknow about the minstrel.

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=33296




Healing

The minstrel can only heal effectivelywith no mobs on them, so everyoneshould be scrambling to get them off ofyou!

Healing requires line of sight. Youcan't heal around corners, tents,buildings, etc. If you can't see the persongetting ganked, you can't heal them.

As mentioned before, while we cancast many of our other abilities while onthe move, we cannot heal while moving.Everyone needs to stay close...becausewe can't be running around trying to healeveryone.

If the minstrel is out of power,everyone needs to be prepared to healthemselves. To be honest, I've never ranout of power except on exceptionallyhard boss fights. If you spec properly andtake care to have decent gear, this shouldnever be a problem.

Any time we heal, loose mobs WILLaggro on us. In particular, ranged mobsseem to love the minstrel class. The badthing is that ranged mobs aren't usuallyclose enough for the tank to haveestablished aggro on them, so even if youuse Song of Soothing or one of yourother de-aggro abilities, the mob is stillgoing to be shooting you because no oneelse has established any aggro with it. As

a general rule of thumb burglars andlore-masters will mez/stun mobs but in thecase of you not having one of these classesavailable have someone pick it off withranged weapons...a hunter will work justas well. It's easier to heal the hunter than itis to have to heal yourself.

Resurrection

We can't do any until level 20. So telleveryone to stop asking! And even then,we can't rez in combat until we get theRally trait, which is a legendary traitreward from one of the legendary deeds,as detailed in the Deeds and Traits sectionof this guide. Even then, Rally has a ratherlengthy cooldown so it's only foremergencies.

In the case of a party wipe the minstrelcan attempt a feign death. If it succeedsthen you have nothing to worryabout...other than re-spawns.

Please, for the love of all things holy andunholy, do not revive until your minstrelsays you should. I cannot tell you howmany times I've had to deal with peoplewho don't pay attention and revive after adeath before waiting to get a rez. It is notyour job as a minstrel to have to tellpeople how to play, but if I'm with peopleI don't know that well I always remindthem at the start of a group to wait for a




rez if they die. If they choose to reviveinstead of waiting for a rez, that's theirproblem, not yours.

Crowd Control

We can mez undead for 30 seconds,but everyone needs to be on their toesand avoiding their AoE attacks. Anydamage will break the mez. We can alsolull mobs, which can make pulling a loteasier and reduce the need for rez andstuns. The less mobs that come, theeasier the fight!

We can fear mobs. The best part aboutfear in LOTRO is that unlike in othergames a feared mob doesn't bring backeveryone else in the zone. They won'tbring back any. So you can generally fearmobs without worrying about adds.

Damage

War-Speech. I've talked about thisbriefly but basically it's a toggled stancethat you can enter into which allows youto do a lot more damage than usual,including some nice AoE damage, butyour healing abilities are cut in half. Thisis NOT a good stance to be in for instancesettings, unless you are a backup minstrel.As a general rule of thumb you'll onlyhave 1 minstrel per fellowship but onoccasion there will be 2. Make sure to goover it with the other minstrel first to seewho will heal and who will go intoWar-Speech mode. War-Speech isparticularly useful for solo grinding,especially as you get into your 30's andfind yourself with several abilities in thestance. You can literally kill as fast asmost of the other classes if you have theright gear and proper trait selection. It isalso highly useful when in small groupsdoing outside quests that don't require a lotof healing. You will eventually be able tolay on some serious AoE damage withWar-Speech active, which makes itparticularly useful when grinding.




Minstrel 101

Nearly half of the time you spend inLOTRO will be spent working on questsby yourself. Nearly every quest chain inLord of the Rings starts out as a soloquest but ends up with a fellowship questas its finale. Of course, some peoplechoose to bypass the fellowship contentin its entirety and focus solely onworking their way to level 50 withoutbothering to group or even worry aboutthe group quests.

There are valid points to be made oneither side of the fence when it comes tosoloing or grouping. In Lord of the RingsOnline it is most effective to combineaspects of both in order to achieve thefastest route to level 50. However, it'sdouble important to start with a solidfoundation, and that's where we'll begin.Keep in mind that you will want to returnto your trainer as often as possible. Youearn Passive abilities every odd level(1,3,5, 7, 9, etc.) and Activeabilities/skills at every even level (2, 4, 6,8, 10, 12, etc). Make it a habit to returnto your trainer every 2 levels. It's best ifyou make this an even level so you cankeep your active abilities topped off. Forthe most part your passive abilities, suchas Block, or Evade, are self-explanatory.As such I won't be covering them as

explicitly as I will the active skills, but it'sworth noting that you should train themevery chance you get, as they do increaseyour chances of survival. There will be amore detailed explanation of each abilityand its relevance to Solo, Group, or Raidstyles of play later on in this guide, but fornow this section details a basic list of yourskills, when you get them, and what arethe most effective ways to use them.

Basic Skills and Uses

When you first start out as a babyminstrel you will find yourself with only afew skills to be equipped. Raise the Spirit,which is your basic fast-cast small heal,Ballad of Vigour, which is a tier 1 balladthat does damage and gives you somevitality, and Herald's Strike, which is amelee ability. It's not much, but it's thestart of a much larger world for you.

All of your ballads can be cast on themove, and they all act as ranged abilities,which makes it easy to pull mobs from adistance rather than having to run up tothem. It also helps because you don't haveto chase things down if they decide to flee.You can merely use your abilities and killthem in mid-flight.




At level 2 you get another one of thefoundation skills, Piercing Cry. Thisability will become particularly usefullater on, as your War-Speech will give itenhanced damage and reducedcooldown, and you can slot a trait whichadds a stun every time you land a criticalhit with your Cry. This is one of yourhighest damage abilities, so you shoulduse it as often as possible for the fastestadvancement.

At level 4 you gain the Ballad ofSwiftness, which is your first tier 2ballad and does some damage to the mobas well as giving you a bonus to yourattack speed. You also get the Ballad ofSteel, which is another tier 1 ballad thatenhances your armor and does somedamage.

At level 5 you gain the first of yourInstrument abilities. These are passiveabilities. You can use a lute from level 1,but at level 5 you can learn the flute, theharp, the clarinet, horns, and the cow-bell(which is basically useless; it's just fluff).Be aware that while some of theseinstruments can be crafted and addbonuses to your minstrelsongs/ballads/abilities, some of them arepure fluff for playing music in-game.

At level 6 you gain your first tier 3ballad, which also happens to be afellowship buff, giving your entirefellowship an increase to their melee

damage. It's important to note that almostall of the tier 3 ballads are group buffs.Through your early days as a minstrel yourtier 1 and tier 2 ballads will be specificallyfor damage and most commonly used forsoloing, while in a fellowship setting youwill be focused on stacking your ballads tounlock the tier 3 and Anthems as quicklyas possible in order to maximize thedamage output of your group and tounlock the more powerful group abilities.

Once you hit level 8 you gain anothertier 1 ballad, the Ballad of Resonance. Itgives an enhancement to Tactical damage.You also gain another tier 3 ballad, theBallad of Unshakable Will. This givesyour group a boost to their fear resists andis particularly useful on boss fights orareas where fear/dread are particularlybothersome.

Level 10 is when you get your firstgroup heal, Inspire Fellows. This is one ofthe most important abilities you will everget. It's also a major aggro puller, so whileyou should use it as often as necessary, beaware that the moment you let this babyfly, any loose mobs are going to make abeeline for you. You also gain the abilityto use Drums.

At level 12 you get Cry of the Valar,which is your fear spell. It only works onevil mobs. Certain animals will be immuneas they don't necessarily fall under the"evil" category. Remember, feared mobs




don't bring adds in this game like in othergames you might have played, so feelfree to use this skill without worry. It's anextremely important part of your class,regardless if you are solo or group.

Level 14 sees the first of yourWar-Speech abilities, Echoes of Battle.While this skill works even when youaren't in War-Speech stance, its effectsare increased when you enter the stance.It is a basic damage-over-time with directdamage initially type ability. You alsoget the Ballad of Balance, which is a tier2 ballad that increases your Evadechance. This ability is key in earningyour Focused Performance class traitsince you must evade 300 attacks for thedeed to complete. The increased casttime from Focused Performance makes itone of the top 5 abilities you will want toworry about as a minstrel, so using theBallad of Balance every chance you getis extremely important. It's not as viablein group combat as you won't be gettinghit as much, but for solo play it'sabsolutely imperative.

Once you hit level 15 you will gain theability to use the Theorbo. At lowerlevels it's not as critical, but especially atthe cap if you can get a critical successversion of the Theorbo crafted for you bya Woodworker, it helps considerablywith reducing your overall threatgeneration and aggro control.

At sixteen you get Noble Cause. Thisability rocks in fellowships for thoseoh-crap situations because it causes yournext 3 Herald's Strikes to do extra damageas well as returning part of that as moraleto the fellowship. When you invoke thisskill it resets the timer for Herald's Strike,even if it has already been used, and alsoallows you to use the next three Herald'sStrikes without any cool-downs. This isparticularly useful for thoseomfg-I'm-out-of-power moments whenyou need to keep your group topped off.Trigger Noble Cause, get in close enoughfor melee, and spam Herald's Strike threetimes in a row to get some group healsgoing.

Level 18 is a big boost to your role as ateam player. You get three ratherimportant abilities. The first is yourslow-cast single target big heal. This isyour primary heal spell. You also get Songof Restoration, which is useful forremoving some of the Dread of defeat.You also get your mez undead ability,which is another key skill in yourmulti-function world. It lasts for 30seconds, and combined with your fear,gives you two different crowd controlabilities to enhance your desirability in afellowship.

Twenty! This is another big step for theminstrel! War-Speech! This is when youfirst get the ability to switch stances into a




DPS stance vs. a healing stance.War-Speech is primarily used for soloplay. It transforms many of your abilitiesinto higher-damage abilities, as well ashaving some specific abilities you willget over time that can only be used whenyou are in the stance. War-Speech is notas effective through the 20's as it will bewhen you get into the 30's and 40's, but itstill adds a much-needed bonus to yourDPS. You also get Anthem of the FreePeople, which is a in-combat moraleregen. It can only be used after a tier 3ballad has been used so you have to stackballads to unlock this ability in a combatsetting. You also get your non-combatrez, Enlivening Grace.

Level 22 gives you firstly the Tale ofHeroism, which is your first toggle bufffor the fellowship. This particular buffincreases the Will and Fate of your entirefellowship. Depending on the situationyou will use different Tales, but for themost part this is your primary buff. Itincreases power pool, regen, and thechance to critically land some abilities,which makes it a very good buff. Youalso get your second War-Speech ability,the Call of Orome. This is an AoE abilitywhich can affect up to three differentmobs and it has a rather fast refresh of 10seconds, which makes it a viable soloingtool. It also reduces the mobs Lightmitigation, which helps some of yourother abilities do more damage against

mobs who have been struck by the Call.

At level 24 you get Anthem ofCompassion. This is one of your de-aggroabilities, but like the other Anthems it canONLY be cast after you have used a tier 3ballad, which means it takes time to stackyour ballads and unlock this. For longerfights this is an extremely useful ability.

Level 26 unlocks the Cry of the Chorusability. This ability unlocks ALL tiers ofballads and Anthems at once. It has arather lengthy cool-down so I usuallyreserve this for boss fights when I need tomake sure I have a resist, regen, orde-aggro up before the fight starts. This isa highly useful skill in a group setting, andcan often mean the difference betweensuccess and failure. You also get a CureFear spell, which is extremely handy inboss fights to remove deadly effects whichcan wipe your party or have otherdetrimental effects.

Song of Soothing comes at level 28.This is by far the most important spell nextto your heals. This is your main de-aggrospell. It can only be used while in combatand will only effect those mobs who are incombat. You won't be using this whilesoloing, and you don't always have to useit for smaller fights while in a fellowship,but if there are more than three or fourelite mobs in your camp at the same time,always use this spell if you have the timeto get it off before you cast a heal. If you




have to cast a heal before you use thisspell you will likely get aggro but assoon as you get this Song off you willditch aggro. However, someone has tohave established some form of threat onthe mobs or they won't go back toignoring you. This is another one ofthose cases where people need to be ontheir toes. If a ranged mob is shootingyou from beyond the tank's range ofaggro he's still going to shoot you even ifyou land this spell on him unlesssomeone else does something to him toestablish another threat.

Level 30 is a big level, and ratherexpensive to train as well. Firstly, youget Song of Aid, which unlocks all gatedabilities for your fellowship as well asletting Lore-Masters use their Beacon ofHope more frequently/for less morale.You also get a large instant-healgroup-heal that will heal a significantportion of your group's morale. This is anoh-crap heal because it has a 15 minutetimer. It will also draw a HUGE amountof aggro so keep that in mind if you areplanning to spring this beauty. You alsoget the first of your Mentor abilities,Horn and Clarinet. What this allows youto do is teach other players to play theseinstruments. None of the classes canlearn all of the instruments that theminstrel can, and some of them like toknow things for "fluff" reasons, and theonly way to learn them is from a minstrel

who has the abilities. These are nothingmore than fluff. You also gain access tothe Scribe Stance, which allows you tochange your Mentor skills into Scribeskills and create manuals to teach playersinstruments, rather than mentoring them inperson. However it is much more taxingand puts a 10 day cooldown on all of yourmentoring skills. It also requires a BlankMentor Manual.

At level 32 you get Tale of Battle. Thisis another buff, but instead of Will andFate this one focuses on Vitality andWound resistance. This is particularlyuseful for boss fights when you need alittle extra hitpoints for the fellowship, butoverall it is a backup buff that is purelysituational. You also get Ballad of Flame.This is a tier 3 ballad which increases yourfellowship's resistance to fire-basedattacks.

At level 34 you get a lull, Song ofDistraction. Keep in mind this is just a lull,not a de-aggro. It works wonders in termsof making pulls a heck of a lot easier. Youalso get another War-Speech ability, Callof the Second Age. This is another AoEability which strikes up to three targets andalthough the refresh timer on it is not asshort as Call of Orome it does significantlymore damage. This is yet another additionto your solo skills and as far as I'mconcerned this is when the minstrel reallysteps it up a notch in terms of DPS. This




ability allows you to slaughter muchfaster, making it feel a lot less like ahealer class and more like a hybrid.

At level 36 you get Ballad of the Stout,which is a tier 2 ballad that gives a bumpto all your resistances and also doessome damage. You also get another fluffability to mentor Cow-bells, which is afluff instrument.

38 is another big level for the minstrel,because you get two rather importantabilities here. The first is your Still asDeath ability, which is a feign-death. Tohave this as a healer is just amazing. Ifyou see a party wipe coming, just hit thisspell and if it lands you are good to go towait for the mobs to reset and then goabout rezzing your group back into thefray. This is absolutely one of the topabilities for a minstrel in this game. Youalso get Chord of Salvation, which is aninstant heal that heals a single target for asignificant amount of morale. It also onlyhas a thirty second cooldown, whichmakes it a valuable skill that shouldbecome part of your "core" skills.

Level 40. Down to the last ten levels tothe cap, and while you have establishedmost of your core abilities by now, thereally powerful abilities start here. Youget Anthem of the Valar at this level,which is an AoE. Like all Anthems, youmust have used a tier 3 ballad to unlockthis ability for use.

At level 42 you get Lay of theHammerhand. This is a really, really neatability. When you toggle it on it allowsyou to take damage and instead of losingmorale you will lose power points,effectively giving you two pools fromwhich to draw your morale. This is alife-saving skill which can often timesmean the difference between success andfailure. When things start to get hot, youcan toggle this skill on and give yourself achance to recover. Stuns and knockdownswill interrupt the lay, however. It's alsoreally great to use when you want to beat ahasty retreat from an area, or to "train" outrather than fight your way out. Simply popthis on and make sure your fellowshipsticks close on your tail as you lead themout. Since you are in front everything willbe hitting you, meaning your group canfollow you to safety...provided you don'trun out of power.

At level 44 you get Tale of Warding. Aswith your other Tales, this is a toggledbuff and you can only use one Tale at atime. This particular Tale increases thearmor and Hope of your party. This can beparticularly useful in the major boss fightsof the game when every bit of Hopecounts to counter the Dread meters infights with mobs like the Nazgul or theBalrog. Extremely useful in specificsituations.




At level 46 you get Call to theFellowship. This is another useful abilityfor boss fights or lengthy battles whenFellowship Maneuvers/Conjunctions arebeing used. It gives a 10% bonus to allhealing and damage from fellowshipskills. It's on a 10 minute timer and onlylasts for 15 seconds so it's important toONLY use this ability at the start of aconjunction to maximize performance.

At level 48 you get Gift of theHammerhand. This is a unique abilitythat can really help your main tank, orother people in dire need. It allows youto give a 10 second reprieve fromdamage to one of your fellowshipmembers where every Common point ofdamage done to morale is instead takenfrom their power pool at a rate of 2 to 1.So for every Common point of moraledamage they would lose 2 points ofpower instead. This has a 15 minutecooldown so it's usually used as alast-ditch ability or only on specific bossencounters. It is also extremely useful forthose fights when your tank might bedealing with 4 or more mobs at any giventime and you need time to get a de-aggroor some resists off before worrying aboutheals. It'll give you some to work yourmagic, although you sacrifice some ofyour power pool. If you've managed toget decent gear, however, this reallywon't be a problem.

At level 50 you get your last twoabilities. Irresistible Melody is a fluffsong...it basically causes any Free People(good guys) in its range to burst intodance. The second is Call to Greatness,which is on a 5 min timer and is asingle-target buff. This ability affects eachclass specifically as follows:

Call to Burglars: +15% damage topositional attack skills. Surprise Strike isrecovered every 5 seconds. This has a 15second duration.

Call to Captains: Grants a defeat event.Grants the Battle-readied state every 5seconds. This has a 15 second duration.

Call to Champions: Grants a defeatevent and 2 fervor. Grants 1 fervor every 5seconds. This has a 15 second duration.

Call to Guardians: +25% hategeneration. Grants the Guardian's Wardeffect every 5 seconds. This has a 15second duration.

Call to Hunters: -10% threat generationand +3 focus. Grants 2 focus every 5seconds. This has a 15 second duration.

Call to Lore-Masters: -3% chance forenemies to resist Blinding Flash. RecoversBlinding Flash every 5 seconds. This has a15 second duration.

Call to Minstrels: +10% to healing.Recovers Chord of Salvation every 5seconds. This has a 15 second duration.




At level 39 and 41 you can trait yourLegendary traits, which have specificskills with them. There are several tochoose from, but it's up to you whichones you use.

Documents

Minstrel Guide