This is the final installment on Conjunctions. For reference see Part 1 & Part 2.In this last chapter of my conjunction series I’ll be covering “straight” type conjunctions as well as the more complicated “unique” fellowship maneuvers. The post will conclude with a “trips/tricks/best practices” section to help you get the most out of you fellowship maneuvers.
Straights
Straights are formed by ‘going around the clock’ either clockwise or counter clockwise. Straights vary in length from 3 to 6. The first two colors of a straight determine the order of the colors in the rest of the straight as you must choose a color that is adjacent on the wheel and moving around the wheel in the same direction through the whole of the manuever.
3-Length Straights
3-length straights are defined by the color that is in the middle. To reiterate, 3-length straights have the same name and effect forward and backward.
Sinister Plan
Or
Sinister Plan Provides some power to the entire fellowship while dealing both significant direct damage and damage over time to the target.
Strength of the Pure
Or
Strength of the Pure is a great ‘go to’ maneuver in a small fellowship that wants to ‘play it safe’ without simply going all greens. This conjunction provides the group with power and a strong heal over time as well as dealing some direct damage to the enemy.
Will of the Strong
Or
Will of the Strong is another great ‘go to’ as it gives the same power and heal over time as Strength of the Pure but instead of heavy direct damage it deal moderate direct damage and a damage over time component.
Wrath of the Righteous
Or
Wrath of the Righteous is a nice offensive maneuver for a small fellowship. It deals very good direct damage as well a damage over time component. The group will also receive a strong heal over time.
4-length Straights
4-Length Straights are determined based on their starting color. Regardless of which direction you go around the wheel, The starting color of the maneuver determines its name. Since 4-length straights will all have exactly one of each color, the general effect of each is the same, the only real difference in the 4-lengths is what they’re building up to in terms of 5 and 6 length straights. All 4 length straights deal a considerable amount of direct damage as well as a damage over time component while also providing a strong heal over time and some power the the entire group.
| Eagle’s Eyrie or |
Ent’s Stand or |
| Noble’s Honour or |
Silent Paths or |
5-length Straights
5-length Straights, like 4-length Straights, are named based on their starting color (which is also repeated as the ending color). Since 5-length straights repeat their starting color at the end, the effect associated with the starting color receives a larger bonus and an additional associated effect than the other effects.
Entish Justice
Or
Entish Justice deals heavy direct damage to the target and up to 2 more nearby targets as well as a damage over time component on the main target only. This maneuver also provides a nice heal over time effect and some power for the entire group.
Leaves of Lothlorien
Or
Leaves of Lothlorien (LoL) deals heavier damage over time and applies a wound that degrades into a block reduction and movement and attack speed slows. This maneuver also applies moderate direct damage and the usual heal over time and power restore.
Valour Unashamed
Or
Valour Unashamed provides a larger heal over time while also removing all fears from the group. This maneuver also has moderate direct and over time damage components as well as a group power restore.
Wrath of the Oathbreakers
Or
Wrath of the Oathbreakers gives a larger power restore and summons two oathbreakers to fight alongside your fellowship for one minute. WotO also does moderate direct and over time damage while also providing a large group-wide heal over time.
6-length Straights
6-length Straights are the real crown jewels of fellowship maneuvers and they are named and defined by what two colors they start with, independent of start order, as those two colors are the only ones repeated and they dictate what special effects the maneuver produces.
Dawn on the Deep
Or
Dawn on the Deep has an increased power restore, increased damage over time, summons two oathbreakers for one minute and inflicts the same type of degrading wounds that affect block, movement and attack speeds. All of this is, of course, in addition to moderate direct damage and a group-wide heal over time effect
Thunder of the Oakenshield
Or
Thunder of the Oakenshield provides a larger heal over time, high direct damage on up to 3 total targets and also removes all fear AND wound effects from the entire fellowship. A moderate damage over time and a group power restore are also given.
Whispers Under the Mountain
Or
Whispers Under the Mountain gives a higher strength heal over time for the group, inflicts greater damage over time, applies a degrading wound and removes all wounds and fears from the fellowship.
Wings of the Windlord
Or
Wings of the Windlord summons two oathbreakers, does high direct damage on up to 3 targets and restores a larger amount of power in addition to moderate damage overtime and a nice group-wide heal over time.
High-risk Unique Manuevers
I deem these final two fellowship maneuvers high-risk because the patterning requires careful execution, making it relatively hard to be on it 100% of the time and also because there’s no bonus along the way, that is, in the process of building these conjunctions you do not stumble across any shorter, bonus-bearing maneuvers along the way. It’s all or nothing with these.
Breath of Freedom
Breath of Freedom summons two oathbreakers, does high direct damage to up to 3 total targets, inflicts greater damage over time and degrading wounds as well as restores more power. This maneuver DOES NOT CONTAIN A HEAL COMPONENT.
Hope of Men
Hope of Men places a degrading wound on the enemy, does good damage over time, deals direct damage to up to 3 targets. This maneuver DOES NOT CONTAIN A POWER RESTORE.
Elb’s Tips
Tips For Maximizing Maneuver Effect Outputs
- Every race has a racial trait giving them a 5% bonus to two of the four conjunction skills, this bonus would also carry to group wide effects associated with the player’s bonus who went that corresponding color.
- Minstrels have a skill called Call to the Fellowship that increases all Conjunction effects by 10%. If minstrel is thinking on their feet, they should cast this as soon as they see a fellowship maneuver open up.
- Burglars have 4 “signals”, one for each possible color on a Conjunction. The burglar gets 15% output bonus to the color of the signal they are using. In addition to this they can “use” the signal once every 10 mins to allow fellowship members to share their bonus for about 10 secs (just enough time to do a manuever). The fellowship-wide bonus also activates automatically(and without the 10 min cooldown) anytime a burglar uses Exploit Opening to start the fellowship manuever. These are especially useful on conjunctions consisting of mostly the same color, since a burg can only enhance one of the 4 colors at a time.
- If using a maneuver that is damage heavy, it might be worthwhile for the captain to hit the target with Oathbreaker’s Shame prior to contributing, this will increase the damage done to that target by a whopping 35%.
- Straights are your friend. Even if you only execute the first 3 steps of a 6-length straight you’re still getting a bonus that can effect the state of the battle quite favorably.
Tips For Setting Up Who Goes What And When
- Make note of which classes can contribute reds and yellows at range and take advantage of that because EVERYONE can use blues and greens at range. Having as many people able to get their color in from range will make this much easier as it will cut down or, in most cases, eliminate the scenario of someone needing to move closer to contribute.
- If you have a burglar in the group they should be the first or second contribution since, in all likelihood, they probably started the conjunction and should thusly be ready for it sooner than the others.
- It’s wise to put your healer on one of the last two spots since contributing to a conjunction stops you from doing anything else (a healer who’s not healing for 4-5 secs can be a deal-breaker in some situations). By putting the healer very near they end, they’re able to contribute and be back healing in just a second or two… or, in some cases they’ll note that it’s simply more important for them to keep healing in which case you will at least have gotten most of the fellowship maneuver in (and if it’s a straight, you’re still receiving a nice effect)
This article is part of the “ Ask Elborigorn” series, where I encourage CSTM readers to send questions to me at: elborigorn@casualstrolltomordor.com . I then will answer the question either with an entire article or as part of a multi-question weekly article.
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October 28, 2010 at 9:00 am
As an experienced 65 burg, I would make the following suggestion;
Do not even attempt to run one of the straights or complex CJs in a PUG, you will just frustrate the heck of everybody. Good CJs for a PUG (besides ALL RED!) are 5R-1B (A heap of damage, power. and you get an oathbreaker), 5R-1Y (Another heap of damage, a DOT and an AoE). If your PUG is in a heap of trouble, 3G-3B (Pure of Heart) will give you sorely needed power and morale.
Burgs, CJs are your raison d’etre, your specialty. Make it easy on your fellows to help them through it.
Remember -Recon? No problem, Tank? No problem. Heal everybody? No problem. CC? No problem. Debuff? No problem. DPS? No problem. Save the Minstrel because she aggro’d the adds? No problem. Everybody dead? HIPS! No problem….
October 28, 2010 at 9:12 am
Dmg from FM isn’t that big to waste oathbreakers on it, especialy when you lose few sec (even 5) for FM contribution/animation.
As a tip: if you have DPS heavy group it is sometime better to do 3-lengt-FM (3G, 3B, or GYB – depend on setup/situation) and let DPSes do their job (3 champs can do much more havoc than any FM)
October 30, 2010 at 8:09 am
I was about to post this too. It’s a *real* Oathbreaker’s SHAME when they’re doing their thing with the opponent and the whole group is frozen and not doing damage because they’re all waiting for the fellowship manuever to resolve.
October 28, 2010 at 11:09 am
I have done a few of the with Elbs back in the day. Another tip would be try to put people with latency issues near the back of the order. Most of the straights give you something if you don’t pull off the whole thing.
Like Cobrette said dont even try the straights in a pug. The ideal situation is with kinmates who are all in vent.
Good article Elbs
October 28, 2010 at 11:14 am
While Minstrels are getting the ability to do Reds and Yellows with the November update (SQUEE!) it’s still a good idea to put them near the end of the order for the exact reasons Elb pointed out above. You want me healing not standing there with a glowy circle over my head for 5 seconds.
October 28, 2010 at 3:37 pm
I’m going to place a simple counter point to the “don’t try straights in PuGs” philosophy…. and that’s simply, how are they going to learn if they’ve never done it. Yeah, you’ll have some serious head-desk moments.. but seriously, let the person know when and what they’ve done wrong and why it’s important to get it right… maybe, you’ll never see that player again… but maybe you will. In either case, if you step up and take it upon yourself to make people learn you’re doing them a service, yourself a service and the whole server full of people who will group with that player over time, a service.
and a big shout to Ead, who definitely has thrown back MANY a CJ with me in the day.
That’s my 2 cents
October 28, 2010 at 5:58 pm
I see your point Elb, and truthfully, I certainly don’t mind taking a newbie to CJs through the ropes of a straight CJ. However, this again annoy your PUG mates to no end.
I felt as you did about 5 weeks ago until I was on my lvl 62 guard in the Grand Stairs. We were doing just fine until the lvl 57 champ in our PUG kept missing the CJs altogether. She explained that she had mostly soloed until that point and had no idea what the CJ symbol was. The Burg explained what it was and what she should do, but she missed the next one. The hunter rage quit, and the poor champ felt bad I guess and she quit too.
I guess I’ll amend the ‘No straights in a PUG’ to ‘If you are in a PUG and can get the easier ones off without a hitch, then move on to the straights’.
And on a side note, if you are in a well-oiled group and you get a straight CJ off, that is heaven for the Burglar!
October 29, 2010 at 4:14 am
I PUG all the time – as in every single day – and I always *insist* on Straights (usually Windlords, as I have that on every char, so I can always set it) when I’m leading the FS (which is about 80% of the time, as I’m loud and bossy).
I make sure that before the instance starts that I assign *every* player a colour and position in the FS order, and I copy n paste the FS order into the /f channel every time we get it wrong til we get it right.
It takes 1-4 attempts for a PUG with a firm order to make Windlords (with rare exceptions), and after that they nail it almost every time. This takes someone willing to lead, but it works, and works consistently.
Any PUG, no matter who inexperienced, can make difficult moves if the move is set, places in the move are assigned, and the PUG is reminded of the order until it gets it right.
(and yes, I posted a version of this comment on the US forums a short while back – I get very forthright about FS moves
).
October 29, 2010 at 2:10 pm
This is exactly what I’m saying!
I applaud you.
October 29, 2010 at 4:52 am
Burglars also have signal class items that buff one color for the whole group by 15% for a while when activated (5 mins with 10 min cooldown?).
October 29, 2010 at 2:09 pm
slightly embarassed to have forgotten this. My burglar has all 4 signals and uses them often… /doh!
Thanks for catching this. I’ve added it in.