Thread: LM and skirmishes

I have a level 48 LM right now, with a protector helper. The soldier is only rank 5/level 47, and I'm finding he dies quite a bit, even when set to four levels below me. Reading around, I'm seeing a lot of people recommending using anything besides protectors and warriors for very specific, very good reasons.

Since my protector dies at the drop of a hat anyway, I'm thinking about changing things around quite a bit. Right now I'm using my lynx pet. If I change that to the bear, and level up a sage or possibly an herbalist instead, I think I might fare slightly better.

Anyone have any experience with this combo in skirmishes? I'd be interested in your feed back.

update: I'm trying out the sage now, and am actually finding the lynx to be ok for now. Unfortunately, I haven't found any soldier that will assist my pet if it's the only one being attacked. The sage and protector won't bother attacking. The herbalist will keep healing no matter who is hit, though, so this is still a thought.

I'd actually suggest going through this thread:
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=309434

There's a lot to go through, but pretty much every topic already has been covered already. Personally, I like the sage. I've never had a problem with healing (usually go KoA with the bog) and it just seems like consistant dps all around... with good CC if you can path it right and keep the sage from breaking it all the time. And if not ... there's always good ol' AoE all around... with lots of kiting thrown in for good measure.

Originally Posted by Lynnea

I'd actually suggest going through this thread:
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=309434

Thank you very much for the link. That appears to be what I was looking for and missed!

What I'm finding with my sage, though, is she stands around quite a bit and does nothing, unless I hit the direct soldier command. Since that's the case, I think the herbalist might actually be better. Power and health for everyone, thank you.

Having had WAY too many negative experiences with the protector and, to a lesser extent, the warrior, I'm really reluctant to mess around with any more melee. Ranged stay next to me or out of the way.

I have a rank 20 sage and usually run MoNF. Everything is usually dead well before I ever have to think about healing. On the rare occasion I get some resists or a bad combination of LT's...Wisdom of the Council gives you the wiggle room to get things back in order.

I had similar troubles with both my Warrior and Bannerguard, before I finally settled on the Herbalist. The problem is that Turbine gave us gimpy soldier controls (re: "attack" on a 1 minute cooldown) that it's difficult to control their effectiveness. Being a LM, chances are you want to stay at range for at least the beginning of the fight, but the soldier AI doesn't have the good sense to attack unless you physically walk it right into the thick of battle. Of course I could always attack and let the mobs come to me and THEN the soldier would start doing his thing, but in some skirmishes (Thangulhad & Tuckborough, mostly) by then I was already in deep trouble.

I find the Herbalist the most useful. I think of her like a massive +ICMR buff for me & my pet, and little else. Of course it's a slower process lacking soldier dps assistance, but until they give us a way to adequately control that soldier AI I don't find it very useful anyway. I do the work (along with my pet), my Herbalist is just there to look pretty and keep us alive.

Otherwise, on my alt minst I've found the Archer very useful, I could imagine that same ranged single-target dps being very helpful to my LM if I had the time/energy/desire to level up another soldier.

Herbalist will keep you more than alive and draw aggro so you'll want to keep it standing.

However, I wholeheartedly recommend a Warrior. Combine a Warrior with a Lynx and once he's on-level with you you'll blow through things like crazy.

Have to agree with the warrior. He started out pretty squishy, but now that he's up there a bit, he can hold his own against a couple of on-level mobs until I get to them without him folding faster than Superman on laundry day. Usually his problem isn't dying, but running out of power, even with the ICPR skill slotted. If I notice he's out of blue-bar, I'll toss him a Power Share, which pretty much brings him back to a full bar and he's back in slicin', dicin', business.

Warrior and a lurker pet is awesome sauce.

/agree on warrior.

a fully topped out warrior has great survivability, and does great dps.
He runs out of power a lot, but who cares, we're LMs

Combined with full MoNF; excellent for speed runs!

there are other great options of course, but warrior works best for my needs.

I actually opted for a Sage. I didn't have many marks to put into her, so she was only level 33 when I started compared to my 49. However, even then, she did WAY better than expected. She even managed to take out 2 adds on her in Took, without assist and without healing, without dying. I think my protector would have died in that situation. Not joking.

I just wanted to steer away from more melee, but thanks for all the warrior advice. I think once the sage is leveled up a bit more, she'll just be even more awesome. She's helped me kite a bit in T&M with her snare spell. And she does ok damage.

I'm traited with the pet traits right now, and I really like it. I'm still too low for the lurker, but I'm REALLY looking forward to getting it. I'll be starting my trip into Moria today, actually. I just turned 49 last night, and I think I'll hit 50 easily in Eregion. Then I'll work on rep to get the lurker. I'm using the lynx right now, and I actually think he's great! He one shots the weak guys (first strike from hiding) in the instances which helps to get the mobs down quickly.

My bannerguard is levelled fairly high now. I'm a wee bit disappointed when using him in duos. As stated elsewhere, sometimes he just stands there next to me while my pet and duoing partner both close. He does stay alive pretty well with that technique though! When things go bad, sometimes I'll look up and seem my pet is dead, my duo's soldier is dead, but there's Percy standing right by me. I send him in to take up some slack at that point.

--Harperella

Originally Posted by Harperelle

My bannerguard is levelled fairly high now. I'm a wee bit disappointed when using him in duos. As stated elsewhere, sometimes he just stands there next to me while my pet and duoing partner both close. He does stay alive pretty well with that technique though! When things go bad, sometimes I'll look up and seem my pet is dead, my duo's soldier is dead, but there's Percy standing right by me. I send him in to take up some slack at that point.

--Harperella

This made me lol. hehe Bonus points for finding the silver lining to the cloud! "My Bannerguard doesn't do anything, but on the bright side he usually doesn't die while doing nothing"

Went with a Herbalist myself and its working out great. Have been running tier 2's lately with no problems. Have run a couple of tier 3's as well, but even though I am able, it is just too darn slow compared to a tier 2.

DPS soldier might speed up the killing a little, but on my LM I am going for controlling the situation with CC so the herbalist is fitting right in.

since the AI on the offensive soldiers remains quite iffy, i went with a healer. she heals me no matter what, so i feel like i'm actually getting constant value from my soldier, unlike with others which often just stand around doing nothing. the ICMR is great, and if you have lynx/dps build, you still crush waves of opponents very fast.

Originally Posted by john_anthony

since the AI on the offensive soldiers remains quite iffy, i went with a healer. she heals me no matter what,

Don't be too sure on that. My Herbalist bugs constantly on the Rift skirm. Almost gotten me killed before on Tier 2s with a bad Lt.

Originally Posted by KainXI

Don't be too sure on that. My Herbalist bugs constantly on the Rift skirm. Almost gotten me killed before on Tier 2s with a bad Lt.

that's true, i haven't really spent all that much time in there to know for sure.

but to date, i've never noticed a time when bettie hasn't been healing me -- and the rift skirmish is the one i tend to do most. (i have had some pathing problems with both the soldier and the pet near stairs by the final fumarole, but i can usually reposition the enemies in such a way that both pets can re-engage.) so far, i've had the smoothest kills on tough enemies (e.g. the rift drake) at times when she's healing me.

my data set, however, remains fairly small, so i'll stay on the lookout for potential problems