PB posted this on December 5th, 2011.
Categorized as cc, Debuff, DPS, End Game, group, instances, Lore-Master, lore-mastery, loremaster, lotro, Raid, Rise Of Isengard, Traits.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/12/05/lore-mastery-two-is-the-lonliest-number/
DocHoliday's MMO Saloon
As you should know by now, I really like the lore-master class and I think it’s well designed and very useful in both group and solo situations. Today’s column, however, focuses on one of its weaknesses – lore-masters don’t play particularly well with other lore-masters in tougher group content, especially raids. While most other classes can quite happily stack with each other up to a point, a number of features of the lore-master class mean that it’s almost always less than ideal to take more than one lore-master along for a tough large fellowship instance or raid.
I want to be really clear here that what I’m talking about in this post is tougher large group content. In 3-person instances lore-masters play together wonderfully well, being able to simultaneously fill DPS and healing roles is really nice. Some of the best small group runs I’ve done have been with, like, 2 lore-masters and a hunter – stuff just melts and you’re still really survivable. And in easier large group content, including skirmish raids and Draigoch, there’s no harm in taking along a second or third lore-master – the content will get done, absolute efficiency in class makeup is not required.
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PB posted this on November 21st, 2011.
Categorized as Armies of Isengard, Armour, cc, DPS, gear, healing, Lore-Master, lore-mastery, loremaster, lotro, Raid, Update 5.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/11/21/lore-mastery-update-5-armour-sets/
DocHoliday's MMO Saloon
Lore-mastery is a weekly column by Psychobabble of Imladris, focussing on lore-master news and end game play.
I was so looking forward to jumping on Bullroarer and trying out the new stuff. I wanted to actually get to play some new end game content, get a bit of an insight into the new gear system, take a look at the new raid and get some early tips on it, have a chance to play with some players from other servers and mix around a bit. So I downloaded the client as soon as it was available, hit the character copy, copied my LM over and waited for the “in progress” message to finish. And I waited. And waited. And waited. And then I went to bed and when I woke up…
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PB posted this on November 15th, 2011.
Categorized as cc, Debuff, DPS, gear, group, healing, instance finder, isengard, legendary items, Lore-Master, lore-mastery, loremaster, lotro, pet, Raid, tactical damage, Update 5.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/11/15/lore-mastery-5-questions-about-update-5/
DocHoliday's MMO Saloon
I’m sure Doc will be along with a post of his own on this, but as you might have seen the Bullroarer update 5 (Armies of Isengard) patch notes are now up! This looks like an exciting update and I can’t wait to jump on Bullroarer and test it out. In the meantime though, I’ve got a few questions about the update from the lore-master’s perspective
1) How will lore-masters fit into the raid finder?
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PB posted this on November 7th, 2011.
Categorized as cc, Debuff, gear, healing, Lore-Master, lore-mastery, loremaster, lotro, pet, solo, Traits.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/11/07/lore-mastery-soloing-old-content-for-fun-and-profit/
DocHoliday's MMO Saloon
One of the things I’ve been enjoying doing with the new level cap increase is going back and soloing old group content. The lore-master has always been a strong soloing class, with its toolbox of cc, debuffs, healing (both self and pet) and pets themselves and some of the changes in the expansion have made us an even stronger soloing class. This article goes through some of the basics about preparing for soloing this type of content and I’ll share some of my early experiences. Soloing group content might not be for everyone, but personally I find the challenge pretty exciting in and of itself, and the rewards can be surprisingly good too in terms of deeds, crafting materials, gold and, for the later instances, IXP runes and relic boxes.
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PB posted this on October 31st, 2011.
Categorized as cc, conjunction, Debuff, DPS, Draigoch, fellowship maneuver, gear, healing, Lore-Master, lore-mastery, loremaster, lotro, Raid, Virtues.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/10/31/lore-mastery-tackling-draigoch-2/
DocHoliday's MMO Saloon
Well, Draigoch seems to be the topic of the week so I thought I’d chime in with a guide to the fight from a lore-master’s perspective. While my raid group hasn’t managed to get beyond phase 2 yet, mainly because we haven’t really been able to put much time into it with organisational difficulties, I’ve got enough of an impression of the fight from what I’ve seen and reading other guides that I think I can offer some useful tips. This guide will mainly be focussed on preparation and characacter build, because quite frankly the fight itself is pretty boring mechanically. As long as you can follow your DPS group positioning leader and can hit FM buttons correctly, there’s really not much you need to be doing outside of your standard debuff/DPS/spot-heal/power-share role.
Class traits
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Elborigorn posted this on January 18th, 2011.
Categorized as Ask Elb, cc, crowd control, Dungeon Guides, fear, General, Guides, mez, root, stun.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/o1VRwaeQrlE/
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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Goldenstar posted this on January 1st, 2011.
Categorized as cc, crowd control, poll, tank, Weekly Poll.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/f01ou5NxYcU/
This past week I was listening to the latest Dunedain podcast that features one of our favorite wardens, DocHoliday. During his interview Doc said:
I actually look at them [wardens] as a crowd control class or a CC class. Because I think tanking is crowd control.
[13:37 minutes into the interview]
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Elborigorn posted this on July 22nd, 2010.
Categorized as cc, crowd control, dungeon, Dungeon Guides, Guide, Guides, raids.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/JUn4Pyh-Fd4/
The “Alternative Methods” guide set is aimed at presenting different ways to fill the basic roles/needs in any group or instance without use of either the normal class/roll or method. My goals with these set of suggestive guides are to break people of the “You have to have classes A, B, C, D and 2 others” mentality as well as offer suggestions of how to use skills and mechanics more aggressively in the logic of the best defense is a killer offense.
The classes in this game are far more flexible than some realize and there are a lot more possible class combinations that can work through content just fine. Break this mind set and you may find new fun and challenges in your everyday LotRO gaming.
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Goldenstar posted this on January 6th, 2010.
Categorized as cc, crowd control, Guides, Minstrel, New Player Advice, skill.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/G59ag5gjc-g/
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.
In recent years I’ve seen this plan go the wayside a bit. With classes like champions and wardens absolutely itching to fight several monsters at once it just doesn’t happen like this often anymore. I am a fan of this tried and true strategy though for several reasons.
- With everyone focusing on the same single target, it dies much faster
- The healer undergoes much less stress because if everyone’s fighting the same target the only one gathering any damage would be the tank. Danger of healing aggro is less.
- Team really learns to work together and communicate better in my opinion. If everyone is just in the center swinging at anything that moves the only communication I typically hear is “I need a heal” … yeah well everyone needs a heal. When using crowd control (CC) to control the flow of mobs the fellowship usually has a plan. (MobA first, followed by MobB and then MobC. “MobC is lose!” “Please restun MobB and we will take MobC”)
- It may not be quicker (and I’m not convinced attacking all the mobs at once is always quicker) but it’s efficient and organized and that’s the way I like my killing!
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