I’ve been playing Lord of the Rings Online again. Although I take breaks from time to time, I’ve been at it consistently since launch. I have a lifetime subscription, so there really isn’t any pressure to keep playing or stop paying, like with other MMOs. Recently, I hit the level cap on a third character, this time the Loremaster I started way back at launch (the other two are a Captain and a Guardian who are much more recent). To celebrate, I started a new alt today…
Meet Zogard (I already have a “Zogan”), the Hobbit Minstrel. I’m leveling him in Bree-Land instead of the Shire as one would expect, because Bree-Land has recently been revamped and I wanted an excuse to try the newly reorganized content. For his trade I chose Yeoman (cooking and farming) because, after all, a smart hobbit knows that when he goes on an adventure, he will meet few people who appreciate the need for six square meals a day like his fellow hobbits, and he had better learn to feed himself as a matter of self-preservation.
The Minstrel class in LOTRO is a healer — the healer before the Moria expansion. The primary conceit of the Minstrel is that he raises the morale of his fellows and demoralizes his enemies through the power of music and song. Like the primary healers in other fantasy MMOs, he’s usually lightly armored, provides buffs, and has plenty of offensive casting abilities for the solo grind.
Where the Minstrel differs from other healers I have played is in how his skills are structured. The Minstrel is a very active, button-pushy class, which I think is supposed to represent how he constantly plays and sings while his fellows are fighting. He has a bunch of Ballad skills, each of which casts instantly and cools down in seconds; each one does a small amount of damage and gives the party a very short-term buff, just ten to fifteen seconds long. These Ballads are also arranged in tiers, so once you play a Tier 1 Ballad you have ten seconds to play a Tier 2, then ten seconds to play a Tier 3, then ten seconds to play one of the powerful Anthems.
The idea seems to be that while you’re between heals, or while you’re soloing, you are constantly cycling different ballads in order to keep the damage flowing and buffs up (EQ1 bard, anyone?). It’s the busiest I’ve ever been in LOTRO, and so far I like it, although I still often forget that the Minstrel is not as impervious to damage as a heavy armor wearer or even the Loremaster with her pet and debuffs.
At any rate, Zogard is currently level 14 which represents one evening of play (the early levels go by in a flash these days), and he’s about halfway through the Bree-Land quests. I haven’t noticed many changes yet, but the early quests in the zone were always fairly straightforward and didn’t need much in the way of improvement. Will I make it to 60 as a Minstrel? Hard to say at this point…