Dec
10
The Minstrel:
Minstrels are the best Morale boosting (Healer) class in all of Eriador. It is capable of melee combat, ranged damage via songs, and fellowship buffs. You can solo easily, and you're always in demand for fellowships.
The Stats:
Every song, ballad, anthem, ect. requires power to sing and how much power you have is based upon your Will. Vitality will give you a higher morale, which will help keep you up longer if things get out of hand. Fate can be good to have at later levels when power regen in combat becomes more important because of longer and harder fights. Your melee damage and chance to evade and parry attacks are based upon your might skill. If you plan on soloing the majority of the time I would suggest a good balance between Will and Might. If fellowships are your thing you'll want to go more will heavy.
The Races:
All races can be a Minstrel, and no race is really better than the other. Look over each for its strengths and weaknesses and pick your race based on your play style. I have been playing as a Man Minstrel which seems to be sort of middle of the road (ie. Solos well, and groups well).
lotro gold
Dwarf:
Dwarves gain +15 to might as well as +10 to vitality, which will increase your melee damage and your overall health. On the downside they lose -8 to agility and fate, making it a little harder to dodge and evade attacks and regen morale out of combat. Dwarves also recieve a small bonus (+0.5) to in-combat morale and power regen along with a +1% to common resistance.
Elf:
Elves bring a +15 to agility, while losing -8 from fate and some moral regen out of combat. The Elves are more resistant to poisons and diseases (+1% to both).
Man:
The Man Minstrel gets a +15 to might and fate boost along with the easily inspired characteristic (gain more morale when healed). The negative is the -8 to will which reduces your overall power, so you have to pay more attention when singing.
Hobbit:
The merry-making shire folk have a nice +15 to vitality and a +1 to morale regen (out of combat)to make up for the -8 to might. Hobbits come equipped with an additional +1% bonus to fear and shadow.
The Weapons:
Minstrels can use the following Single-Handed weapons:
Daggers
Swords
Maces
Clubs
The Armour:
Light armour is your only choice until level 15, you'll then be able to earn a trait for completing a quest from your trainer that will allow you to equip medium armour. At level 20 Minstrels finally gain the ability to equip shields.
The Early Levels:
When you log on to your brand new Minstrel you'll notice that you have three abilities. Herald's Strike - You make a melee attack that does extra damage.
Ballad of Vigour - Tier 1 ballad: A short song that gives you vitality and harms your foes.
Raise the Spirits - Words of encouragement that renew the morale of a companion or yourself.
The best approach to play at this point goes like this:
Pull the mob with your Ballad of Vigour. This is Ranged damage, so nows a good time to learn what range you have to work with.
If you get a chance hit it with Ballad of Vigour again otherwise use Herald's Strike.
Continue with the auto-attacks and using Ballad of Vigour and Herald's Strike as they become available. Don't forget about Raise the Spirits if your morale starts to get too low.
At level two you gain the Piercing Cry ability.
Piercing Cry - Your shout does light damage to your enemies.
This ability is rather powerful, but it has a cooldown of 30 seconds. I generally reserve this ability, it can come in handy if things get ugly.
lotro gold
Level four brings two Ballads to the table.
Ballad of Steel - Tier 1 Ballad: A short song that gives you an armour bonus and harms your foes.
Ballad of Swiftness - Tier 2 Ballad: A short song that gives a bonus to your attack speed and harms your foe. This requires a tier one ballad effect to activate.
With the addition of these two new Ballads things change a little bit.
Pull with your Ballad of Steel, followed up with a Ballad of Vigour. Smack the mob with Herald's Strike, and followup with more Ballads of Steel and Vigour as they become available.
So which instrument do you want to play? At level 5 you can train the passive skills required for /music.
Your first tier three ballad is granted at level 6.
Ballad of War - Tier 3 Ballad: A short song that gives your fellowship a bonus to their melee damage. This requires tier 2 ballad effects to activate.
You won't be using this one much at first, as you can generally take down your mobs pretty quickly.
Soon you'll be out of the newbie instance and into the open world. As you continue to level up the combat only gets more interesting, I'll leave this for you to discover.
The Class Quest:
A Song for the Company (Level 15):
Your minstrel trainer will send you to Piper Prescott who is located in the Prancing Pony. Piper sends you to speak to Leland Underhill who is right outside the Bree west gate. Leland tells you that some brigands have stolen a few of his belongings and he would like you to teach them a lesson, while writing a song about the whole thing. You enter an instance with Leland that has a few brigands and their leader.
After defeating the lot head back to Piper, who hands you a copy of the song you have written. Jump up on the nearest table and use the song to perform for the Prancing Ponys patrons.
lotro gold
Your rewards:
1 silver and 80 copper
Medium Armor class trait
a couple celebrant salves
and a really nice purple club called "Minstrel's Friend"
Minstrels are the best Morale boosting (Healer) class in all of Eriador. It is capable of melee combat, ranged damage via songs, and fellowship buffs. You can solo easily, and you're always in demand for fellowships.
The Stats:
Every song, ballad, anthem, ect. requires power to sing and how much power you have is based upon your Will. Vitality will give you a higher morale, which will help keep you up longer if things get out of hand. Fate can be good to have at later levels when power regen in combat becomes more important because of longer and harder fights. Your melee damage and chance to evade and parry attacks are based upon your might skill. If you plan on soloing the majority of the time I would suggest a good balance between Will and Might. If fellowships are your thing you'll want to go more will heavy.
The Races:
All races can be a Minstrel, and no race is really better than the other. Look over each for its strengths and weaknesses and pick your race based on your play style. I have been playing as a Man Minstrel which seems to be sort of middle of the road (ie. Solos well, and groups well).
lotro gold
Dwarf:
Dwarves gain +15 to might as well as +10 to vitality, which will increase your melee damage and your overall health. On the downside they lose -8 to agility and fate, making it a little harder to dodge and evade attacks and regen morale out of combat. Dwarves also recieve a small bonus (+0.5) to in-combat morale and power regen along with a +1% to common resistance.
Elf:
Elves bring a +15 to agility, while losing -8 from fate and some moral regen out of combat. The Elves are more resistant to poisons and diseases (+1% to both).
Man:
The Man Minstrel gets a +15 to might and fate boost along with the easily inspired characteristic (gain more morale when healed). The negative is the -8 to will which reduces your overall power, so you have to pay more attention when singing.
Hobbit:
The merry-making shire folk have a nice +15 to vitality and a +1 to morale regen (out of combat)to make up for the -8 to might. Hobbits come equipped with an additional +1% bonus to fear and shadow.
The Weapons:
Minstrels can use the following Single-Handed weapons:
Daggers
Swords
Maces
Clubs
The Armour:
Light armour is your only choice until level 15, you'll then be able to earn a trait for completing a quest from your trainer that will allow you to equip medium armour. At level 20 Minstrels finally gain the ability to equip shields.
The Early Levels:
When you log on to your brand new Minstrel you'll notice that you have three abilities. Herald's Strike - You make a melee attack that does extra damage.
Ballad of Vigour - Tier 1 ballad: A short song that gives you vitality and harms your foes.
Raise the Spirits - Words of encouragement that renew the morale of a companion or yourself.
The best approach to play at this point goes like this:
Pull the mob with your Ballad of Vigour. This is Ranged damage, so nows a good time to learn what range you have to work with.
If you get a chance hit it with Ballad of Vigour again otherwise use Herald's Strike.
Continue with the auto-attacks and using Ballad of Vigour and Herald's Strike as they become available. Don't forget about Raise the Spirits if your morale starts to get too low.
At level two you gain the Piercing Cry ability.
Piercing Cry - Your shout does light damage to your enemies.
This ability is rather powerful, but it has a cooldown of 30 seconds. I generally reserve this ability, it can come in handy if things get ugly.
lotro gold
Level four brings two Ballads to the table.
Ballad of Steel - Tier 1 Ballad: A short song that gives you an armour bonus and harms your foes.
Ballad of Swiftness - Tier 2 Ballad: A short song that gives a bonus to your attack speed and harms your foe. This requires a tier one ballad effect to activate.
With the addition of these two new Ballads things change a little bit.
Pull with your Ballad of Steel, followed up with a Ballad of Vigour. Smack the mob with Herald's Strike, and followup with more Ballads of Steel and Vigour as they become available.
So which instrument do you want to play? At level 5 you can train the passive skills required for /music.
Your first tier three ballad is granted at level 6.
Ballad of War - Tier 3 Ballad: A short song that gives your fellowship a bonus to their melee damage. This requires tier 2 ballad effects to activate.
You won't be using this one much at first, as you can generally take down your mobs pretty quickly.
Soon you'll be out of the newbie instance and into the open world. As you continue to level up the combat only gets more interesting, I'll leave this for you to discover.
The Class Quest:
A Song for the Company (Level 15):
Your minstrel trainer will send you to Piper Prescott who is located in the Prancing Pony. Piper sends you to speak to Leland Underhill who is right outside the Bree west gate. Leland tells you that some brigands have stolen a few of his belongings and he would like you to teach them a lesson, while writing a song about the whole thing. You enter an instance with Leland that has a few brigands and their leader.
After defeating the lot head back to Piper, who hands you a copy of the song you have written. Jump up on the nearest table and use the song to perform for the Prancing Ponys patrons.
lotro gold
Your rewards:
1 silver and 80 copper
Medium Armor class trait
a couple celebrant salves
and a really nice purple club called "Minstrel's Friend"
Dec
7
The greatest online RPG of all time (LOTR) will be releasing the first of many free updates. This update will allow players to explore the Shores of Evedim, which lies in northern Eriador.
Shores Of Evedim Features:
- Explore a whole new part of Tolkiens middle earth
- Over 60 new quests for you to complete
- Raid in the batlle for Helegrod
- 9 New monsters for you to contend with
- New musical instuments
- Equip collectable armor sets
and much more. please check back frequently for more LOTR Shores of Evedim updates.
lotro gold
Shores Of Evedim Features:
- Explore a whole new part of Tolkiens middle earth
- Over 60 new quests for you to complete
- Raid in the batlle for Helegrod
- 9 New monsters for you to contend with
- New musical instuments
- Equip collectable armor sets
and much more. please check back frequently for more LOTR Shores of Evedim updates.
lotro gold
Dec
7
Codemasters Online Gaming today announced that the most anticipated PC title of 2007 The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar today officially claimed the number one spot across the UK. Codemasters Online Gaming has seen unprecedented demand for the game since pre-orders went live last month with 100,000s of players already packing their bags and moving to Middle-earth.lotro gold
Dec
7
Following a debate regarding same-sex marriage and inter-species marriage, Turbine, the company developing The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, just decided to pull marriages from the game altogether. According to Katherine Glover of Salon, the decision came from the executive producer himself, and the marriage feature was completely removed from the game.
The MMO title of the "Lord of the Rings" franchise is still in heavy development, although it had entered the Beta testing period back in September. Entering a discussion of features that should be added into the game, the developers found themselves talking about marriage and the restrictions of such a feature available inside the game.
Of course, there wasn't any claim as to what triggered such a decision, but some sites have speculated that the decision was made to neither take a stance against or for same sex and inter-species relationships. Such news of the heated discussion, however, sparked a stunning controversial fire over the Web that opinionated columnists gave their own critiques for or against the move.
There has yet to be any official statement from Turbine regarding the issue, but it seems that their decision is final for now.
lotro gold
The MMO title of the "Lord of the Rings" franchise is still in heavy development, although it had entered the Beta testing period back in September. Entering a discussion of features that should be added into the game, the developers found themselves talking about marriage and the restrictions of such a feature available inside the game.
Of course, there wasn't any claim as to what triggered such a decision, but some sites have speculated that the decision was made to neither take a stance against or for same sex and inter-species relationships. Such news of the heated discussion, however, sparked a stunning controversial fire over the Web that opinionated columnists gave their own critiques for or against the move.
There has yet to be any official statement from Turbine regarding the issue, but it seems that their decision is final for now.
lotro gold
Dec
7
While I was busy NOT getting the Keeps taken care of on Silverlode, I was over at Dark Side Comics where SLAGG, a local LAN Party group was a good eight hours into their gaming party. WOW, Quake 3, WOW, LOTRO, WOW and some other games (plus WOW) were keeping people glued to their PCs. The local server of choice for LOTRO was... not Silverlode, so that's one memo that Brian (operator of Dark Side Comics) and I don't get a gold star for distributing. All good, though. I gave out a few LOTRO posters, stared in absolute disbelief at what was going on in "God of War" on the huge screen in the console game area, and then headed back to my office to see what I could do to further thwart Bill's efforts to provide an entertaining evening of events, who at last report said he was up to 50 participants and growing.
While there, though, I got the chance to ask Andy, one of the LOTRO players and also the resident tech, a few questions:
lotro gold
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What is it you do at DarkSide Comics?
I take care of the machines, organize and support the games... mostly tactical games, but lately we've been getting into MMOs like WOW and LOTRO.
You were in the LOTRO Beta, correct?
Yeap. As soon as I found out about it, I went for it.
Was it because you were into MMOs or because of the Tolkien theme?
I was already into MMOs. WOW the current game I was playing, but when I found out there was a Lord of the Rings Online, I couldn't not play it. As a matter of fact, I recently signed up for their lifetime thing. I'm in for as long as they plan to keep the servers up.
You also play WOW, so what do you think about the similarities and differences?
I don't really see them as similar. WOW is a lot more comic book, more cartoony. You're playing a character that is just there, but in LOTRO, already, I have become immersed. That's probably because I'm a Tolkien fan - a Tolkien geek since high school really. I'm one of the few people that I know that has read the Silmarillion. HUGE fan of the books.
You said you're a fan of the Tolkien series. What areas of the game have you been to so far, and do you feel they have been faithful to the books?
Everytime I have come across an area - I haven't made it much farther than Bree - but everytime I have come across an area it looks like I remembered it from the books. It looks the way I pictured it. They did a good job of getting the world right.
What's kind of character did you go with? What class?
I have a loremaster. It's not a magical thing. I like that. Nobody can be Gandalf. I like that!
lotro gold
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By this time, Bill and Seri were reporting an even larger crowd in the Ettenmoors, and that they had already begun their carnage. Bill had things under control despite the mess I made of the evening, so I was thinking that the perfect grand finale' would be to drive up to his house and yank his net connection from the wall in the middle of his raid on Ost Ringdyr. Instead, I picked up a six-pack of Corona and sat on the couch with my Dad and watched Old Yeller. I'll leave it entirely up to you whether you want to believe that or not.lotro gold
While there, though, I got the chance to ask Andy, one of the LOTRO players and also the resident tech, a few questions:
lotro gold
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is it you do at DarkSide Comics?
I take care of the machines, organize and support the games... mostly tactical games, but lately we've been getting into MMOs like WOW and LOTRO.
You were in the LOTRO Beta, correct?
Yeap. As soon as I found out about it, I went for it.
Was it because you were into MMOs or because of the Tolkien theme?
I was already into MMOs. WOW the current game I was playing, but when I found out there was a Lord of the Rings Online, I couldn't not play it. As a matter of fact, I recently signed up for their lifetime thing. I'm in for as long as they plan to keep the servers up.
You also play WOW, so what do you think about the similarities and differences?
I don't really see them as similar. WOW is a lot more comic book, more cartoony. You're playing a character that is just there, but in LOTRO, already, I have become immersed. That's probably because I'm a Tolkien fan - a Tolkien geek since high school really. I'm one of the few people that I know that has read the Silmarillion. HUGE fan of the books.
You said you're a fan of the Tolkien series. What areas of the game have you been to so far, and do you feel they have been faithful to the books?
Everytime I have come across an area - I haven't made it much farther than Bree - but everytime I have come across an area it looks like I remembered it from the books. It looks the way I pictured it. They did a good job of getting the world right.
What's kind of character did you go with? What class?
I have a loremaster. It's not a magical thing. I like that. Nobody can be Gandalf. I like that!
lotro gold
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By this time, Bill and Seri were reporting an even larger crowd in the Ettenmoors, and that they had already begun their carnage. Bill had things under control despite the mess I made of the evening, so I was thinking that the perfect grand finale' would be to drive up to his house and yank his net connection from the wall in the middle of his raid on Ost Ringdyr. Instead, I picked up a six-pack of Corona and sat on the couch with my Dad and watched Old Yeller. I'll leave it entirely up to you whether you want to believe that or not.lotro gold
