| SKILLS |
|
|
|
Explanation of "Basic Ballads": Basic Ballads are generally your
only commonly used attacks. They are short ranged but nonetheless can be used from a distance. Each Basic Balled also has a small and short lasting buff and allows the use of a higher tier ballad. You can always use tier 1 ballads, and after you successfully hit with a tier 1 ballad you can use a tier 2 ballad. This works the same from 2 to 3. Tier 3 ballads are not attacks, and are instead short duration group buffs. There are no tier 4 ballads, instead, anthems become available after tier 3 ballads. Anthems are generally powerful instant-use abilities. After using an anthem, your ballad counter goes back to zero, and all you can use are tier 1 ballads again.
Tier 1 and 2 ballads normally only last 10 seconds, with tier 3 ballads sometimes having longer, more variable durations. These can all be increased by the trait "Strength of Voice" as well as the 3-trait line bonus of the Protector of Song trait line. Each provides an additional 10 seconds to ballad duration, potentially making even the shortest length ballads last a whole 30 seconds.
It is possible to use multiple, different ballads of the same tier to stack their effects, for as long as the window of opportunity from the previous tier lets you. If you want to try this, it works best with the tier 3, "group buff" ballads.
*NEW*: With the release of the Volume II: Book 7 patch, tiering up ballads now helps a Minstrel to heal better! First of all, Ballads have much faster animations than they used to making them more feasible to use even for minstrels focusing on healing. Also, every time the minstrel uses a ballad, in addition to the normal buff it provides, it also adds another buff that increases the amount of healing the minstrel will do for a short while. Actually, this same buff controls for how long the next ballad tier is available. Using another ballad of the same tier refreshes this buff, but another tier's ballad stacks ANOTHER version of this buff. With all ballad tiers in play, there will be a total of 3 buffs stacked together. Using an anthem clears all these healing buffs as it resets all the available ballad tiers back to 1.
By default, each buff increases the healing done by 3%, so with 3 stacked the bonus will be 9%. Depending on how deeply the minstrel is slotted into The Watcher of Resolve trait line, this can improve up to 5% per buff to a total of a 15% bonus with 3 stacked. Each buff lasts 10 seconds by default. The Harmonious Melody trait in the Warrior-skald line increases this by 5 seconds to a total of 15, and the Song of Vigour and Song of Balance skills unlocked from the Smooth Voice trait in the Protector of Song line create healing/tier buffs that last a whole 20 seconds each (which doesn't stack with Harmonious Melody). Note also that Song of Aid and Cry of the Chorus create these tier/healing buffs as well.
It should be noted that when the Minstrel needs to heal someone right away, it is generally not a good strategy to try and tier up ballads first and THEN heal, as the time involved for the extra healing gained versus the time cost is not a good investment. Why bother doing this at all then? The reason is simply that there are times where no one needs a heal. Why not then use a ballad while you're waiting for someone to be wounded, and then have your next few heals be more powerful when they are needed? Really though, if you don't pay any attention to this you can still perform just fine. However, a Minstrel who DOES understand the ballad tier/healing buffs well will be on his way to truly mastering the class.
|
Note: On the skills below, only tier 1 and 2 ballads will be categorized as "Basic Ballad." Tier 3 ballads and Anthems will be categorized based on their effects like other abilities.)
|
Explanation of "Instrument Mentoring" abilities: These abilities teach the target how to play the instrument specified in the name of the particular ability. For instance, "Mentor: Clarinet" would teach a player how to play a clarinet (who'd have figured?) These abilities have a recast time of 5 days. 5 REAL LIFE days! So be careful when you use them.
|
Good Basic Ballad Chaining: So what’s a good way to chain your basic ballads? Well, in general you can go one of two ways: Offensive and Defensive. Offensive is generally good if you want to do more damage yourself and don’t have others to do it. Defensive is generally better for groups, as it keeps you safer.
|
Good Offensive Chain:
Tier 1: Ballad of Resonance
Tier 2: Ballad of Swiftness
Tier 3 and up: Optional
|
Good Defensive Chain:
Tier 1: Ballad of Steel or Ballad of Vigour
Tier 2: Ballad of Balance or Ballad of the Stout
Tier 3 and up: Optional
|
Ballad of Vigour
Level 1
|
- Type: Basic Ballad
- Ballad Tier: 1
- Effect: This basic ballad provides a vitality bonus. In most fights, all the extra vitality will serve to do is slightly increase your maximum morale, and then only for a limited time. Once the minstrel learns the other Tier 1 ballads (Ballad of Resonance and Ballad of Steel) he will probably avoid using this one for MOST circumstances.
Increasing vitality does have some defensive use in certain circumstances however. Primarily, it increases mitigation versus non-common damage types: fire, cold, shadow, acid, and lightning.
|
|
Tip: After a certain level, the "Enduring Morale" trait becomes availible to be learned. This trait, which is part of the Warrior-skald line and grants a good bit of extra maximum morale, is unlocked by using this ballad a whopping 2,000 times. If the you want to earn this trait as a minstrel, you should make use of it in most, if not all, your ballad chains. If you have the "Smooth Voice" trait equipped (see next tip,) don't go thinking that you can get that and just spam the ability over and over until you get the trait. You dont get credit for "Enduring Morale" with "Smooth Voice" equipped, since technically, its "Song of Vigour" rather than "Ballad of Vigour."
Tip:With the "Smooth Voice" trait slotted, this ballad changes into "Song of Vigour." As a song, it doesn't require a target and can be used out of combat, and it's buff affects the entire fellowship instead of just the minstrel for a set period of 30 seconds (it doesn't count as a ballad anymore for the purposes of traits like "Strength of Voice", though it conversely gains benefits that affect songs, such as a flute's reduction of power cost). They also gain a slight induction time, but it's still fast enough to use in combat. Furthermore, each of these two skills unlocks the next ballad tier and provides the ballad tier healing bonus for a whole 20 seconds (instead of the default of 10). This is a very useful trait to have for any minstrel in a healing/support role.
|
Herald's Strike
Level 1
|
- Type: Melee Attack/Self Buff
- Effect: This is the only special melee attack our noodley Minstrel arms can handle. After hitting successfully with this, any healing done to you (by you or someone else, it doesn't matter) is increased by 10%. This skill works well when used in conjunction with the skill "Noble Cause" (see below).
|
Tip: Generally speaking, it's more useful to just use ballads for damage. They're faster, can be used from a range, and provide buffs and a bonus to ALL of the Minstrel's heals, not just the incoming ones.
|
Raise the Spirit
Level 1
|
- Type: Heal
- Effect: Raise the Spirit is the first heal the Minstrel knows, and it will be a staple of his until level 18. It's important to note, however, that as the Minstrel levels up, and earns more and more heals, that this one is rather inefficient on power, especially compared to "Bolster Courage". Raise the Spirit is best used to quickly heal someone who is on the verge of defeat and cannot wait for a more powerful heal, or when the Minstrel is having trouble getting off a longer heal due to things attacking him, and even this role may eventually be supplanted by the quicker, more powerful, and even more power-inefficient "Chord of Salvation" later on.
|
|
Piercing Cry
Level 2
|
- Type: Ranged Attack
- Effect: Instant ranged damage. Pretty simple. Great for pulling. A good time to use this? When you want to deal damage. Like I said, pretty simple, huh? This skill has a longer range than many of the Minstrel's other skills.
|
Tip: "Unrelenting" is a trait which offers a powerful bonus to this skill. With it, Piercing Cry gains a +25% bonus to its chance to critically hit, and when it does critical, it stuns the target for a short time. This is best used in conjunction with "War-speech" mode, which offers an additional +25% to the critical hit chance of Piercing Cry.
|
Ballad of Steel
Level 4
|
- Type: Basic Ballad
- Ballad Tier: 1
- Effect: This basic ballad provides an armor bonus. It's good for building up to an anthem with a defensive chain of ballads
|
|
Ballad of Swiftness
Level 4
|
- Type: Basic Ballad
- Ballad Tier: 2
- Effect: This basic ballad provides an attack speed bonus. It's good for building up to an anthem with an offensive chain of ballads.
|
|
Ballad of War
Level 6
|
- Type: Group Melee Damage Buff
- Ballad Tier: 3
- Effect: This move gives your whole group a melee damage bonus of 10%. Your Champion will love you. This is probably the Minstrel's best all-purpose tier 3 ballad, though it is also the shortest, lasting the standard ballad duration of 10 seconds by default.
|
Tip: There's a legendary item legacy on our Songbooks which can increase the damage bonus of this skill even further.
|
Ballad of Resonance
Level 8
|
- Type: Basic Ballad
- Ballad Tier: 1
- Effect: This basic ballad provides a tactical damage bonus. All of the minstrels ballads and cry attacks do tactical damage, so this ballad is good for building up an an anthem with an offensive chain of ballads, or whenever the minstrel needs to do more damage with any of his other tactical attacks.
|
Tip:The four-trait line bonus of the Warrior-skald line doubles the tactical damage bonus that this skill provides.
|
Inspire Fellows
Level 10
|
- Type: Group Heal
- Effect: Okay, love this ability. A group heal. Tired of healing everybody one by one? Than this move is for you! Any minstrel worth his lute should have it (like the rest of your healing abilities.) A good time to use it is when your whole party is beginning to take large amounts of damage and you don't have time to heal them one by one. The catch of this seemingly perfect ability? The power-eating. IT CHEWS UP POWER. Use your single target heals whenever possible over this one. Your power bar will thank you. In addition to the heal, this skill also provides the tiniest (1%) mitigation against more damage for a very short time after using it.
|
|
Cry of the Valar
Level 12
|
- Type: Instant Fear
- Ballad Tier: n/a
- Effect: This instantly causes the target to run in fear of you. It only works on things that are evil so don't try scaring the near-by bears for porridge, Goldilocks. So generally this is good for when your being inturrupted or just taking lots of damage, or any other case when you just want the enemy off of you. Note that for the first two seconds of fear they can be hit with attacks without the fear dispelling. After that any damage will snap 'em out of it.
|
FYI: The Valar are the divine beings in the mythology of Middle-Earth.
|
Ballad of Balance
Level 14
|
- Type: Basic Ballad
- Ballad Tier: 2
- Effect: This basic ballad provides an evade bonus. Good for building up to an anthem with a defensive chain.
|
Tip: Like "Ballad of Vigour," this skill is changed by the trait "Smooth Voice" into "Song of Balance." See the entries for Ballad of Vigour (above) or Smooth Voice (next page) for more information.
|
Echoes of Battle
Level 14
|
- Type: Ranged Damage Over Time (Toggle)
- Effect: This ability summons forth a spectral blade to attack your target constantly. It works as a DOT (damage over time) rather than a pet (which was my guess when they first gave minstrels this ability.) In addition to the damage, this skill lowers the chance that further Cry or Song-based attacks will be resisted, which is pretty much the entirety of the Minstrel's list of attacks. While in War-speech mode, the magnitude of both the DOT and resistance debuff become far more powerful.
|
Tip: This skill can be used both while soloing or in a fellowship. In a fellowship, this allows the minstrel to add a tiny bit of DPS while still focusing on healing, but he should be mindful of the toll on his power that this skill exacts.
|
Noble Cause
Level 16
|
- Type: Special
- Effect: This is a bit weird and may seem a little useless at first (I thought this once too, but now have realized how nice it is), but this move can be useful when used correctly. Firstly, it doesn't do anything on its own. All you notice when you use it is that your Herald's Strike icon changes to look like its glowing. After using Noble Cause, your Herald's Strike can be used 3 times in quick succession, with no cooldown, and each hit doing a little extra damage. With every hit you make successfully (of the 3 Herald's Strike hits you can make right after using Noble Cause) while under the effects your whole party gets a small heal. Pretty nice now, huh? But thats not all folks! Within a 60 second time limit, each attempt to use Herald's Strike that misses does not take up one of your 3 attacks. A play until you win kind of thing going on!
|
|
Tip: This skill is also a good way to remove multiple corruptions quickly in Moria (see "Improved Herald's Strike").
Tip: This skill is no substitute for actual active healing in a fellowship. Still, when things seem to be under control and the minstrel wants to add a little extra damage, he can use this skill and go play Zorro for a bit while still providing a little ambient healing.
|
Bolster Courage
Level 18
|
- Type: Heal
- Effect: This is the Minstrel's best friend. You will come to know this button like the back of your hotkey bar. Or the front of it... or... whatever. Anyways, this is WAY better than your old single target heal in most aspects. It is more power efficient. It heals more. For the amount of healing it does more than your other single heal, its cast time is only a bit longer. The ONLY time you should EVER use your weaker heal is when you don't have the time to use this one, and you can't afford to use the power-chomping "Chord of Salvation." Love this ability. LOVE IT!
|
|
Song of Restoration
Level 18
|
- Type: Dread Removal
- Effect: This move is very simple to use. No tricks or anything like that. Here is how it works. Your buddy has dread from being defeated and retreating. You target them and press this button. A few seconds pass and the dread is gone. Thats it! Gone! Amazing what technology can do these days, huh? Or... Magic...ology.... can.... yah.... It has to be used out of combat though.
|
|
Tip: This skill needs to be used 100 times after a particular level to earn the "Power of Song" trait. Considering it has a 30 minute cooldown, this can take a while. Jump on every opportunity you have to use it.
Note: This only works on the dread you get from being defeated, and then subsequently retreating (instead of being rezzed or using the self-revive option).
|
Song of the Dead
Level 18
|
- Type: Daze
- Effect: This is a good old fashion daze ability. You use it and your target goes sleepy-bye for 30 seconds. Heres the catch. It only works on creatures of the type "The Dead." Besides that, this move is as beautiful as it sounds. Any hit to them after they are mesmerized results in the dispelling of the effect. Use this when there are too many enemies and you can't fight them all at once, especially if one is more powerful than the rest.
|
Tip: Loremasters--usually the daze-kings, are limited in their ability to do so to the Dead. Sure, they have a special skill that can daze 3 or more Dead at once, but only for 15 seconds with a 2-minute cooldown. Burglars can riddle them just fine, but this skill makes Minstrels the second best at locking-down these bony foes, although the 1-minute cooldown means that the target will be up at least half of the time.
|
Anthem of the Free Peoples
Level 20
|
- Type: Anthem/Group Regeneration Buff
- Ballad Tier: Anthem
- Effect: This is your first anthem. Aren't you proud? Okay so, you use this and your whole party gets a powerful morale-regeneration buff for 30 seconds. In general, it's a good idea to try and get this skill up whenever possible during a fight with a fellowship.
|
|
Tip: The "Glorious Anthem" trait adds an additional 15 seconds to the duration of all anthems. This makes this skill last 45 seconds instead of 30, and with a 1-minute cooldown, the Minstrel can have this anthem going more often than it is not.
Tip: Because this skill technically just buffs a target's innate regeneration instead of directly healing them, it doesn't draw any threat to the Minstrel. This is a very good thing.
|
War-Speech
Level 20
|
- Type: Stance
- Effect: This is for all you soloing Minstrels. Go into this stance, and several things happen. First, your "Echoes of Battle" is changed into "Timeless Echoes of Battle." This just more powerful than the normal kind. It summons two swords instead of one (though, contrary to what one might think, it does more than double the original damage.) Second, it unlocks additional "Call..." damage-dealing abilities which are learned later in the Minstrel's Career. "Call of Orome" and "Call to the Second Age" are learned relatively soon after this skill (these do powerful area-effect damage) while much, much later (the current max level of 60 in fact) the Minstrel will learn the powerful single-target DPS skill "Call to Fate." Furthermore, when specced deeply into the Warrior-skald trait line, it increases the damage that the Minstrel's ballads do. Finally, "Piercing Cry" gains an additional +25% to its critical-hit chance. Everything for the soloing minstrel. But be warned. This is only for soloing OR for groups with two or more minstrels. When this ability is active, all of your healing abilities heal only 50% the original amount of morale, and this penalty can increase to as much as a mere 20% of the original value when traited deeply into the Warrior-skald line. Most players'll smack you over the head for using this in a group, especially if they're named Urich (okay, just joking, but really, use this only when your out soloing, or when trying to just burn through enemies.)
|
Tip: This stance can be ended instantly by simply pressing its button again. This is handy in a pinch where things suddenly turn sour and the Minstrel needs to start healing quickly.
|
Enlivening Grace
Level 20
|
- Type: Resurrection
- Effect: This move is great. Let's say your buddy goes down cause you didn't have time/power to heal him/her. Well, there they are moping about like its the end of the world cause they got to walk all the way back. And you say "Wait!" and cast this on him/her and he/she is back up and kicking. Awesome huh? A good time to use this? I think it's pretty self-explanitory. This skill cannot be used in combat though.
|
Tip: This skill needs to be used 100 times to earn the "Graceful Demeanor" trait. Now before you start looking for someone to commit mass suicide on themself, consider this trick. If you cast this on someone who is already defeated, and they don't press anything, they'll continue to stay down, allowing you to use it again and again, at least until you hit the daily progress limit. Of course, you have to convice them to sit still long enough for this, but there should be some patient player out there who can help you with this, rather than being forced to "forget" to heal occasionally. *wink*
|
Call of Orome
Level 22
|
- Type: Instant Ranged AoE Damage (3 targets)
- Effect: This is one of the three "Call..." moves that can only be used while in War-speech mode. It is a ranged damage ability with no induction time (instant). It can affect up to 2 additional enemies around the target. Best of all, targets will take more damage from light-type attacks for about 10 seconds, which all of our ballads and shouts do. Nifty.
|
|
Tip: Because of light-mitigation penalty this skill provides, Call of Orome is best used BEFORE "Call to the Second Age" or other AE abilities like "Anthem of the Valar" or "Anthem of the Wizards."
And even before it, I recommend using "Ballad of Resonance" for maximum effect.
FYI: Orome, also known as "The Eldar King," is one of the Valar, or divine beings in the mythology of Middle-Earth. He is the first of the Valar that the Elves ever saw.
|
Tale of Heroism
Level 22
|
- Type: Group Fate and Will Buff (Toggle)
- Effect: This move should be treated like those little cooker things you always see on T.V. SET IT AND FORGET IT! Always have this ability on. It provides an awesome bonus to fate and will. Generally speaking, this move is much better than your other three "Tale of ..." abilities (see below) each of which tend to be MUCH more situational.
|
|
Anthem of Compassion
Level 24
|
- Type: Anthem/ Self Anti-Threat Buff
- Ballad Tier: Anthem
- Effect: Alright, another anthem! Good for you! After using this, you generate less threat with healing abilities. Like Anthem of the Free Peoples, this is good to have up whenever possible.
|
Tip: When traited deeply into the Watcher of Resolve trait line, this skill changes from an anthem into a Tier 3 ballad in all respects. It is no longer affected by effects which improve anthems such as Glorious Anthem, but it is affected by things which improve ballads, such as the trait "Strength of Voice". It can also be used on the move. These changes make it a better choice than Ballad of War for a tier 3 ballad for a minstrel focusing on Healing, though it still has a 1 minute cooldown.
|
Cry of the Chorus
Level 26
|
- Type: Special
- Effect: This ability is a bit different so let me break it down for you. You hit it and suddenly you can use any tier of Ballad, inclduing Anthems. Awesome, right? Totally. The effect of anthems is the same (i.e. they reset your ballad counter.) Basically, this ability unlocks all tiers instantly as if you had done a tier 1, 2 and 3 ballad normally (except of course you dont get the effects of the ballads themselves, though you DO get the healing bonus from the ballad tier unlocks) Here's another awesome thing you should know. This cures silence on you. Great for those times when you are silenced and just can't wait for it to wear off, or just need to access an anthem quickly.
|
|
Cure Fear
Level 26
|
- Type: Fear Removal
- Effect: This is another really simple ability. Your buddy or you have a fear effect. You target him/her/yourself and use this and the fear is gone. Piece of cake, right? I'll be blunt and say that I didn't find this ability useful until about level 45, when you start seeing some REALLY NASTY FEAR EFFECTS.
Either way, Captains are always better at curing fear than us.
- Tip: A fear effect will have a bright purple border.
|
|
Song of Soothing
Level 28
|
- Type: Anti-Taunt
- Effect: This is great when you are drawing too much threat and getting your face eaten off. It is a ranged, AoE anti-taunt. Basically, you target an enemy, use this and that enemy and all those around it are suddenly less likely to eat your face off. Use this before you are getting your face eaten off and expect it to be eaten soon, or perhaps when your face is already in the process of being eaten.
|
|
Triumphant Spirit
Level 30
|
- Type: Instant Group Heal
- Effect: Lo, and behold. Gaze upon the golden gift from God to minstrels. Feel free to shed tears and openly cry as I explain. Your group is dying... Waves of exhaustion, fatigue, pain crash upon the shores of your bodies... And waves of enemies still pours themselves as water into the fray... all looks hopeless... And then you, as any good misntrel should sees this shiny new button and say "Oooooh... What's this button do?" I shall pause a moment to allow the audience to refill it's tissue supply.
Ready? Okay. And you press the shiny green button. And suddenly the weary group of adventurers are gone! In their place stands a ready group of free peoples that look exactly like the group of free peoples that nearly died.... The heroes easily dispatch the fleeing enemies.
Okay, to put it simply, this move heals everyone in your party A LOT, with NO INDUCTION. The downside of it is that it draws even more threat than all that healing would do using your normal abilities, so be careful. It also has a not-insignificant cooldown time of 15 minutes. Still, there will be many boss fights where this ability will save the day.
|
|
Tip: One legacy to be potentially found on our legendary weapons decreases the cooldown time of this ability. It comes highly recommended.
FYI: This is what's commonly referred to as an "Oh Crap" button. Probably because it's a button you press when you go "Oh Crap!" Effect such as these usually had a powerful, life-saving effect in combat, but also carry a significant cooldown time. We get at least a few more of these later on with the "Hammerhand" skills and the Legendary Trait "Fellowship's Heart".
|
Mentor: Clarinet
Level 30
|
- Type: Insturment Mentoring
- Effect: This teaches the target how to play a clarinet.
|
|
Mentor: Horn
Level 30
|
- Type: Insturment Mentoring
- Effect: This teaches the target how to play a horn.
|
|
Scribe Stance
Level 30
|
- Type: Special Stance
- Effect: This ability changes your instrument mentoring abilities slightly. First you don't target anybody to use it. You just have to have a "Blank Mentor's Manual" (purchasable at any bard or minstrel trainer.) As you use this, your "Mentor" abilities will change in that they now consume the blank manual and create an item which, when used, teaches the instrument that would normally be taught by the same skill. Basically this ability is just to make your mentoring into a physical item. Perfect for selling on the auction house, mailing to your buddy, etc etc. However, Blank Mentor Manuals are expensive (500 silver) and when the skill is used in this way, the cooldown doubles from 5 days to 10 days! Generally it's better to just mentor in person.
|
|
|
Song of Aid
Level 30
|
- Type: Special
- Effect: This is a nice ability though a little weird. It functions exactly like your "Cry of the Chorus" except it has a "Channel" time, it affects the whole party, and acts as though everyone has made parries, blocks, evades, critical hits, defeats of enemies, and so on, to allow for abilities that require such events. It even unlocks the Minstrel's own Ballad Tiers and the healing bonus associated with them. It also helps Loremasters by letting them use their "Beacon of Hope" much more often. Very handy, but it doesn't last too long so you'll probably want to inform your buddies before using it.
|
Tip: This ability is nice to use just before a dangerous fight. It allows the Minstrel to enter the fight with access his highest tier-ballads and anthems, without having to take the time to build up to them.
|
Ballad of Flame
Level 32
|
- Type: Group Fire Mitigation Buff
- Ballad Tier: 3
- Effect: This gives you and your party a small fire mitigation buff. It's very situational but can be very powerful when used while fighting fire-using enemies, like salamanders.
It has a default duration of 30 seconds, which is the longest possible.
|
|
Tale of Battle
Level 32
|
- Type: Group Vitality and Wound Resistance Buff
- Effect: This provides a bonus to the Fellowship's vitality, and a noteworthy-but-not-incredible bonus to Wound Resistance. Generally, "Tale of Heroism" is far more useful, because while both of these skills have a power upkeep cost, "Tale of Heroism" tends to pay for itself with the bonus to Fate and Will. Try it out for yourself, you may find you like it more than I do.
|
Tip: Obviously, when actually EXPECTING dangerous wound effects, this skill suddenly has a lot more merit.
|
Song of Distraction
Level 34
|
- Type: Enemy Threat Range Decreaser
- Effect: This one is a little different. It works like this: You see an enemy that you don't want to fight, and you use this on them. They become very sleepy and you can walk right by them without them noticing you. You can effect pull their buddies right next to them and they won't bat an eyelid. The exact effect says "75%" but I've noticed with some you can almost go right up and touch 'em. Experiment with this one and you'll get the hang of it.
|
Tip: When this skill is resisted, the enemy will instantly attack, so be careful.
|
Call to the Second Age
Level 34
|
- Type: Instant AoE Damage (3 targets)
- Effect: This is one of the two moves that can only be used while in war-speech mode. This is also the best AE damage move we minstrels have. Lots of instant damage around yourself, very powerful though power-hungry too.
It also increases in-combat run speed slightly for a short time.
|
Tip: The run-speed bonus is an oft-overlooked perk to this skill, and can sometimes make all the difference in whether or not a minstrel gets away from a fight that went sour.
|
Ballad of the Stout
Level 36
|
- Type: Ballad of the Stout
- Ballad Tier: 2
- Effect: This basic ballad provides a resistance bonus to disease, poison and wound effects. Good for building up to an anthem with a defensive chain.
|
Tip: The "Tempo of Bravery" trait requires this skill to be used 1,500 times. If the minstrel intends to earn that trait, he should make this skill a regular part of his ballad chain.
|
Mentor: Cowbell
Level 36
|
- Type: Instrument Mentoring
- Effect: This teaches the target how to play a cowbell.... yah....
|
|
Chord of Salvation
Level 38
|
- Type: Instant Heal
- Effect: This instantly restores some health on your target, less than "Bolster Courage" but more than "Raise the Spirit". INSTANTLY! The only real restriction is a very expensive power cost and a 30 second cooldown, as well as a fairly long "wind-down" animation after the heal.
|
Tip: This skill can be sometimes borderline questionable in its effectiveness as a heal normally, due to the aforementioned restrictions, but with the 3-trait line bonus from the Watcher of Resolve trait line, it gains a beefy +10% bonus to its healing effectiveness, making it much more useful as a heal, and therefore more attractive to use as often as needed. Even with this bonus, "Bolster Courage" is still the Minstrel's most efficient single-target heal, so he should continue to prefer that to this one if he can help it.
|
Still as Death
Level 38
|
- Type: Feign Death
- Effect: This is an asset in more situations than you can strum a lute at. It allows you to feign death. All creatures, monsters and enemies with stop attacking you almost instantly to attend to their next target. The reason I say almost is because it is almost instant. I've noticed enemies seem to complete one final attack on you before moving on. Be careful when using this move before you die. Make SURE it's BEFORE you are about to die. With a good use of this skill, the minstrel can recover his entire fellowship or even raid from a wipe.
|
Tip: Unlike some games, this "Feign Death" ability will not completely erase a Minstrel's threat, if the monsters who are angry at him continue to stay in combat. This means that if the Minstrel uses this skill, the monsters attacking him will stop and turn their attention elsewhere, but when he gets back up, unless someone else has been taunting them, or they've been rooted, dazed, or just plain killed everyone else, they'll go right back to where they left off in terms of eating his face.
|
Anthem of the Valar
Level 40
|
- Type: Anthem/ Instant ranged AoE Damage (3 targets)
- Ballad Tier: Anthem
- Effect: Your final anthem. This one pretty simple. You hit this button and your target (and the enemies around it as well) will be hit by a huge pillar of light from the skies. It does decent damage, but overall this is probably the least useful anthem, at least not counting any traits.
|
|
Tip: WITH traits, this Anthem is another story in terms of its effectiveness. "Battle Hymn" is a great trait for the soloing minstrel. With it, this skill will gain an effect exactly like that given by "Anthem of the Free Peoples": a powerful buff to in-combat morale regeneration. (These buffs don't stack with each other, by the way) . The difference is that this one only affects the Minstrel himself, but like I said, this is designed with the solo minstrel in mind. The best part about this? As a buff to regeneration, and not a direct heal, this is not penalized by "War-speech" mode, making this the best way for a minstrel to heal himself while he fights in that stance.
FYI: The Valar are the divine beings in the mythology of Middle-Earth.
|
Lay of the Hammerhand
Level 42
|
- Type: Special (Toggle)
- Effect: This is an awesome toggle ability, if a little situational. When active, this ability does two things: First all damage on you is halved. Second, it all goes to power instead of morale. To break it down a little differently lemme' put it like this. For every 1 point of morale damage you take, it is transformed to .5 power damage. This ability is good for when you are taking lots of damage and want to put it off somewhere else while to attempt to heal, finish off the enemy etc, etc. Like I said, great move, just a little situational. Be careful that this skill doesn't drain you completely of power.
|
Tip: See if you can convince a Loremaster to keep your power up while you maintain this toggle. It can help you survive an especially dangerous fight with lots of critters running loose.
|
Tale of Warding
Level 44
|
- Type: Group Armor and Hope Aura Buff (Toggle)
- Effect: This is another "Tale of..." ability. It buffs the party with armor and hope. Generally I use this only if I have no tokens for hope, and I'm in an area with some ambient dread. The armor bonus is nice but not awesome like the Fate/Will bonus from "Tale of Heroism."
|
Tip: The four-trait line bonus from the Protector of Song line beefs up the armor bonus on this significantly, making it much more attractive as your main tale.
|
Call to the Fellowship
Level 46
|
- Type: Special
- Effect: This is a bit of a different one. Before or during a fellowship maneouver, use this to get a 10% bonus to all damage done and 10% bonus to all morale healed.
Difficult to time, but it can help in a pinch.
|
Tip: This effect lasts a very short period but doesn't go away after the maneouver takes place. In other words, if you and your party tries you might be able to get a random fellowship maneuver, use this, get the bonus and then you have the burglar start another one (on another enemy) and get the same effect. Not even I've ever been able to do this, but if you can, let me know!
|
Gift of the Hammerhand
Level 48
|
- Type: Special
- Effect: This ability works just like "Lay of the Hammerhand" except for the following: It affects another target than you (it must be a party member), it has a short duration of 10 seconds (i.e. it isn't a toggle like the original), and instead of .5 power damage for every 1 morale damage, it deals 2 power damage for every 1 morale damage.
|
Tip: Generally this is only good if your buddy is dying and they have a good amount of power. But DON'T use this if you don't have to, cause it'll leave a dent in your buddy's power bar bigger than Gandalf's pointy hat.
And it will leave your buddy crankier than Gandalf himself.
|
Call to Greatness
Level 50
|
- Type: Special
- Effect: This is an interesting and very unique skill. It lasts 15 seconds, and its effects differ depending on the class of the target. Here are the specifics:
|
|
Irresistable Melody
Level 50
|
- Type: Fluff
- Effect: This ability causes your target to break out dancing...... yah. A good time to use it? When you want the aforementioned effect to take place. But it only works on players, so don't try to go and make Sauron or the Witch-King dance. Have fun!
|
|
Improved Herald's Strike
Level 52
|
- Type: Melee Attack
- Effect: This is identical to the level 1 "Herald's Strike," except that it also removes one corruption from your enemy.
Corruptions are powerful buffs that the denizens of Moria and beyond put on themselves.
|
Tip: Okay, a corruption, if you don't know, always has a blue border for its icon. Just keep a close watch of the effects on your enemy and use this ability when you see it.
|
Improved Cry of the Chorus
Level 54
|
- Type: Special
- Effect: This is identical to the level 26 "Cry of the Chorus," except that it also grants you a 10-second immunity to silence. Pretty lame in my opinion.
|
Tip: The silence immunity comes in handy almost never, because it's almost impossible to predict when it will happen. Use this skill the same as you always have.
|
Soliloquy of Spirit
Level 56
|
- Type: Heal-Over-Time
- Effect: This ability heals an ally slowly and slightly over a period of 30 seconds (with a 30 second cooldown). This skill has a very cheap power cost and is mostly meant for maintainance purposes in extended combat. Basically, a another SET IT AND FORGET IT abilities. Of course you have to set it again every 30 seconds...
|
Tip: The heal from this ability is not going to save anyone's life. It's so subtle it's almost not worth using, and in fact, when not improved in any way, you probably won't. Still, there are several ways to beef up this skill's effectiveness. First, there's a a legendary weapon legacy can increase the duration of the heal by more than double, (while keeping the cooldown at a mere 30 seconds, though it doesn't stack with itself when cast twice on the same target), and second, the final Legendary Trait of the Watcher of Resolve line can double the effectiveness of the heal. With both these effects, Soliloquy of Spirit becomes a much more useful tool in the minstrel's toolbox, though it remains a maintainance heal only, to be used between "Bolster Courage", "Inspire Fellows" and other staple heals.
|
Tale of Frost and Flame
Level 58
|
- Type: Group Fire and Frost Mitigation
- Effect: Getting a little warm in here? Feeling the chill of the night winds? Well this is the "Tale of..." ability for you! This tale increases your groups Frost and Flame mitigation by a fair amount.
|
Tip: Well, to be honest, because armor rating also increases fire and frost mitigation, Tale of Warding is probably better than this skill in most circumstances--especially the 4-trait Protector of Song line improved version of it, which grants nearly as much Frost and Flame mitigation in addition to common mitigation. Still, if not traited down that line and the Minstrel expects lots of fire or damage, this skill has some merit.
|
Call to Fate
Level 60
|
- Type:
Single Target Direct Damage.
- Effect: This is the last skill unlocked by War-speech, and the Minstrel's best single-target damage move. Basically, it does good damage and comes back every 10 seconds, but it has a special bonus in that critical hits from this skill have an extra high bonus, doing damage up to a thousand or more. Basically, kind of a bigger "Piercing Cry" with better criticals.
|
| Tip: The final legendary trait of the Warrior-skald line works especially well with this skill. It increases the critical chance, and critical damage bonus, of all War-speech unlocked "Call..." skills, but because of the innate critical bonus of this skill, the damage potential rises exponentially. A great way to trait for the soloing minstrel, but naturally, a minstrel in a fellowship should not be in War-speech and should focus on traits which help him help his fellows. |
