Casual Stroll to Mordor

Way back in 2007 when LOTRO was first launched, one pretty consistent gripe from reviewers concerned the whole concept of the Minstrel class. Sure, everyone knew that the game needed a healer of some sort, but many people just didn’t get the concept of the Minstrel.

Honestly this post could be summed up quite simply as “Not Much” but I thought it worth a post to describe the smaller more subtle changes currently in beta.

We finish up the Summer Festival goodies we were trying for. Goldenstar is a Lucky Duck! Merric is also a little closer to finishing up the lucky duck deed. We’ve purchased almost all the summer items we can think we need at this point and may be just about done with the Summer Festival.

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“Tell the Community Team” is where Turbine asks for the players to give them direct and specific feedback about a specific topic. This is really a fantastic opportunity for you to give your thoughts and opinions about the game directly to Turbine to think about.

Death From Below is a solo instance in Thangúlhad, Mirkwood granted by the dwarf Vatnar. Completion of this instance rewards with you one Malledhrim Gold Star Emblem. It’s currently one of the toughest solo instances in the game and can be a real headache for certain classes, such as the minstrel. However, it can be done. This is how I handle it.

We have a special mid-week episode for you where we talk with Minstrels Moondog, Harperella and Mortermeer (Bryant).

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This is the final post in my series about the different things minstrels (or in some cases all healers) need to think about when healing a fellowship. See the other posts concerning Healing Priorities, Threat Management and Power Management in case you missed them! Today’s topic is focusing on communication which is something everyone should [...]

A healer out of power is not a useful healer. A healer needs to really learn to efficiently keep health bars up while maintaining a good power pool throughout a fight.

Today we’re going to talk about threat management (sometimes called “aggro” or “hate”) which is something every player should be managing in a fight. The tank wants threat, everyone else wants to stay under the tank’s threat.

I am not saying I’m a great healing minstrel but I started in LOTRO as a minstrel class and minstrel still is my main. I am not a big fancy raid healer but I do a dungeon or raid when I can and I believe I have some tips I can share to the up [...]

For my second character to take through the Lone-lands I chose the Minstrel.  I really wanted to keep my perspective even through my leveling experience, so I wanted to try a character that was less reliant upon melee and more reliant upon ranged combat.  So with that in mind, I equipped him with new gear, [...]

For my second character to take through the Lone-lands I chose the Minstrel.  I really wanted to keep my perspective even through my leveling experience, so I wanted to try a character that was less reliant upon melee and more reliant upon ranged combat.  So with that in mind, I equipped him with new gear, [...]

I have been a “drive-by healer” in the past. If I notice someone struggling to kill a mob or running away, I’ll step in and give them a boost with a cheery song. I assume that my little ditty helped the player finish what they were working on and being quite proud of myself will carry on my merry-merry way.

I come from old days of MMO play where the plan was to divide and conquer. Separate the mobs into as many little chunks as possible and have your team cut them down one at a time.

People have been kind (brave?) enough to take me to heal their instances in the past. It’s confession time for Goldenstar and this may make everyone who has ever fellowshiped with me now, or in the future cringe: I don’t always listen to the boss fight strategy.

Our thanks go out again to Heiko for sharing these YouTube videos of Colin John Rudd who has put some music to Tolkien’s lyrics like Galenswerd is doing with his Lonely Mountain Band project. However, while Lonely Mountain Band is 100% Tolkien work, Colin John Rudd has a mix of music types in his extensive postings on YouTube.

So you used to play World of Warcraft and now are interested in this amazing game called Lord of the Rings Online. You loved your character in WoW and would like to play something similar to that, if possible. This post is to try to help you find that similar class in LOTRO.

Added to the LOTRO Lotteries today are new Class Lotteries. Possible winnings include consumables, armor, weapons and even Second Age items! Drawing will be held on Friday at 5pm EST.

A look at the begining levels of a Minstrel, by a beginning Minstrel