Ask Elb: PUG Loot Rolling Etiquette

posted this on March 4th, 2011.
Categorized as Ask Elb, etiquette, loot, pug.

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Yajard asks:

I was curious on the proper etiquette for rolling on items for PUGs.  I recently participated in a turtle raid with a roll/pass loot setting.  The raid itself was quite successful, and the raid managed to finish off the turtle in one go.  Naturally, this being the second time I did it, I was still pretty excited to complete it with minimal deaths!  Once everyone was revived, the leader looted the chest, and there happened to be a 1st age item I could use!  There were a few other champs in the raid of the same class, so I knew I may not get it, but it was cool to have the opportunity to roll on it.  Once the rolls finished, it turned out a captain won the roll….  I was totally confused and frustrated.  I thought maybe the captain by-mistake may have rolled on it, since he seemed rather out of it at the time.  While I was still pondering and vocally asking the others in the raid why a captain got a champ 1st age, a few members of the raid forgot to loot the chest for their tokens.  Being the nice person that I am and still being in the room, I invited them back in.  The captain was one of those people and also another champ.  It turned out, after questioning the captain when I invited him back, that he rolled on it for his kinmate, the champ I reinvited back in.  This does not seem right to me.  I had two of my own kinmates in the PUG and did not ask for them to roll for me.  Am I correct in assuming that this is frowned upon?  Other than grouping with people you know, there’s not much I can think of that would avoid this kind of situation unfortunately.  Perhaps changing the loot rules could help prevent this?

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Ask Elb: Can Captains Main Heal Grand Stairs?

posted this on February 4th, 2011.
Categorized as Ask Elb, captain, Class Guides, Dungeon Guides, grand stairs, healing.

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Psychobabble asks:

I was wondering whether you thought a captain could main heal the grand stairs? If so, what does it require other than a skilled captain? is there a certain party makeup that’s needed to support it (eg. burg for green FMs, LM for spot healing)?

I’m asking because I was putting together a PUG the other day and I asked the captain (L61) whether he was comfortable main healing it and the group laughed at me and said I was a noob for even asking the question – “A L58 character should know that a captain can’t main heal GS” etc. However I could have sworn in the CSTM podcast you and/or others on the cast said that properly traited and skilled captains could main heal most 6-mans and I thought GS was specifically mentioned as one they could main heal.

Was I stupid for asking that question? Can captains main heal GS?

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Ask Elb: Keyboard or Mouse?

posted this on January 28th, 2011.
Categorized as Ask Elb, keyboard, Mouse.

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Mithlas asks:

Do you need to use your keyboard to execute your skills to be a good gamer? I for one use my mouse for everything except moving around in the world (A W D S and the space bar) and for selecting nearby mobs or items. Is this typical or do those that are really serious use key commands?

As worded, No, you don’t HAVE to use your keyboard to execute skills to be a GOOD (or even great or amazing) gamer.

However, when I received this question, I asked for it to be made into a poll, and a poll it was! So, what I’d like to do to go over the poll results, throw in some things that I know from having been around different types of players and try to discern some pros and cons for each style.

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Ask Elb: About Strat Making

posted this on January 21st, 2011.
Categorized as Ask Elb, dungeon, Dungeon Guides, instances, strats.

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Fogsong asks:

When I run into a new 6 man sometimes none of the people with me have been there before.  How do you normally go about learning the instance? 
We have struggled with this and have had to fall back sometimes on what the Google machine provides.  I would like to be more self sufficient – plus when Turbine changes things and the strategies are not updated – I need to get better at analyzing what is going on.
 
Do you have suggestions?  About as far as we get is changing tactics by me switching from my Captain to Guard (interrupts) or Mini for more healing output – and it usually works out worse – lol! 
 
A methodical approach is obviously called for but I am not sure how to start.

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Controlling the Crowd: A Broadened Look at Crowd Control

posted this on January 18th, 2011.
Categorized as Ask Elb, cc, crowd control, Dungeon Guides, fear, General, Guides, mez, root, stun.

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Sparked by the discussion on the weekly poll regarding tanking as a form of “crowd control” as well as by a nudge from Merric and Goldenstar, I’ve decided to cover, in painstaking detail, all the forms of what I will now call “Controlling the crowd” (“CtC”) rather than “Crowd Control” to more readily allow tanking as an acceptable methodology.  In covering all the various options for controlling the crowd I will also let you know the type of situations that you would likely use that methodology, what restrictions it has as well as the benefits and drawbacks to using it.


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Ask Elb: What’s in an Exploit?

posted this on December 29th, 2010.
Categorized as Ask Elb, exploits.

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Dreadhed asks:

I have a question about exploits, I am not totally sure I understand what they are.  I was Pugging Library and School the other night and after we finished library I left the instance and returned to pick up the book quest for the extra mark.  One of my fellowship told me that I was exploiting the game and would be banned by Turbine.  I was pretty surprised at this, banned?  That seemed kind of harsh for just doing what the game allows me to do.  In a way it seems like entrapment to me, if Turbine does not want you to do something they should fix the game so you can’t.  Especially since they failed to fix this "exploit" that everyone I had run with before was using in the most recent patch.  So if Turbine knows about something but does not fix it after several patches does that mean it is ok?
 
Next we went on to School and the player was adamant about not doing the boss room reset to gain the superior Skirmish Mark.  I was fine with that as I don’t think the kite method is all that hard.  But again how is that an exploit?  Folks have been running GS, killing the devoted and resetting for months now, with out a fix from turbine and that seems and equal offense to me?  Another example where Turbine is aware of something but chooses to not act, so is it an exploit or not?   It all seems pretty subjective to me.
 
I personally think of myself as a very nice player, ethical and helpful to others.  But the whole concept of Exploits confuses me, if it is in the game, it is in the game.  If it was a mistake by the developer why punish the players for finding it? Just fix it.  I have no intention of wanting to violate my user agreement and getting banned, I try to be a good ethical player. I would hate to get into trouble for doing something that did not know was wrong.

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Ask Elb: Are Stat Tomes Worth It?

posted this on December 2nd, 2010.
Categorized as Ask Elb, LotRO store, stats, tomes.

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Mike of Arkenstone Asks:

I was looking at the stat tomes in the LotRO store. The ones that add +10 to might, vitality and the other base characters stats.

My main is a 65 guardian with so-so average equipment with 0 radiance. So far all I’ve bought in the store is shared storage.

As I understand it you can buy up to 4 of the tomes for each statistic, so i could have +40 might, +40 vitality and so on.  That would add about 10% to my might and vitality, but 20% to fate and will.

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Ask Elb: Conjunctions, Part 3: Advanced Maneuvers and Tips

posted this on October 28th, 2010.
Categorized as Ask Elb, conjunction, fellowship maneuver, Guide, skill.

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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

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Ask Elb: Conjunctions, Part 2: Intermediate Maneuvers

posted this on October 7th, 2010.
Categorized as Ask Elb, conjunction, fellowship maneuver, Guides, New Player Advice, skill.

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Part 1 ended with me briefly mentioning and describing the easiest and most basic of conjunctions (also called Fellowship Maneuvers), Flushes (2, 3 and 4 length [additional bonuses and names for 5 and 6 length flushes do not exist]). In this installment I’m going to be covering what I consider to be the intermediate level of conjunctions, Pairs and Full Houses as well as a few of the simpler “unique” fellowship maneuvers.


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Ask Elb: Conjunctions, Part 1: The Basics

posted this on October 1st, 2010.
Categorized as Ask Elb, conjunction, fellowship maneuver, Guides, skill.

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Ketani Asks:

Would you mind explaining how conjunctions work? What does each color mean? How do different combinations affect the mobs and your fellowship?

That’s an excellent question! One that I could answer in a few paragraphs… or that I could take above and beyond and turn all of you readers into “Conjunction” experts. Being the overachieving sort, I’m going to opt to make you all into experts in a series of posts on “Conjunctions”, technically called, “Fellowship Maneuvers” but also abbreviated as “FMs” or “CJs”.

Here follows Part 1: The Basics.

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