Thread: Feedback: New Player Tips for Lore-masters

Over the next few weeks we will be focusing on the classes in our Tell the Community Team threads. In keeping with that theme, we want your help. If you could give one tip to a new player about playing the Lore-master class, what would it be?

1. Debuff, Debuff, Debuff. Loremasters have a plethora of debuffs at their disposal. Debuffing the enemy reduces the amount of damage that everyone in the party takes by slowing the enemy down, slowing their attack speed, increasing their miss chance, reducing their evade/parry chances, or reducing the amount of damage that they can cause.

Learn the flank mechanic! It can save your life with that extra heal or damage.

Look here for flanking mechanics:
- Lorebook
- Staff Strike! Lore-master blog

Learn to use all the LM pets. They are situational. Don't get attached to just one.

Originally Posted by PoetnSage

Learn to use all the LM pets. They are situational. Don't get attached to just one.

Agreed about debuff and pets completely but in particular, when you get the Lynx learn to use it. At the those levels the DPS add can be amazing. I have handed this advice out to newish LMs more than a few times and it is not something that seems immediately obvious...

Use Crowd Control. Blinding Flash at lower levels is the most important skill you have, get good with it, but...
Don't be afraid to get up close and dirty with the staff against one or maybe two mobs, with a decent staff it makes a big difference.

Eventually, you have tools at your disposal for almost all mob types:

• If Fire-lore doesn't work on drakes, don't be afraid to use Wind-lore, even if they're meleeing, because they still get an attack duration debuff (not shown in forum tooltip, but present in game)!
• If you can't use Blinding Flash, remember Bane Flare!
• Don't forget that Herb-lore and even Cracked Earth work just as well on melee mobs as Blinding Flash and Bane Flare!
• Always remember: Warding Knowledge: Dead, Warding Knowledge: Creatures of Nature, and Warding Knowledge: Drakes

Before every pull, use SOP Command -20% DPS
use burning embers 30% slow
Gust of Wind -7% DPS
Staff strike every chance you get and get the trait Master of the Staff asap

When your pet has agro, get behind the mob to fight and avoid any frontal AOE attacks
Be sure that you are auto attacking for more DPS, Staff Strike is the only skill that automatically starts your auto attack.

lvl 22 you get cracked earth a 5 target delayed root. Use immediately after a bad pull, avoid attacks until the root then you have some time to take down one or two mobs at a time instead of the entire pull. When you have mobs rooted pull out of the root with single target skills, not AOE.

The LM is all about control control control. You must think your way through the fight, use your tools and you can survive almost anything.

When you start out you might get frustrated, wait it out until lvl 32, the LM really becomes strong at lvl 30.

1.Don't make your healers call out for power watch their blue bar and fill it ahead of time.To a lesser degree watch the tanks power also when you are able.
2.Drain enemy power before you run out to keep the skill on cooldown and your own power full.
3.Sign of power righteousness it is a tank and healers best friend.
4.Debuff debuff debuff.
5.Sticky gourd area fire hides the mobs induction glowie. Be careful in groups with this one.

Sign of Power: Command can be applied to mobs without starting combat. Use this to debuff all the mobs in a difficult pull before starting. This works well for difficult solo pulls, but is also great in Raids (something few LMs realize).

When grouping, make sure you have Show Dispellable Effects Only selected. This allows you to quickly see those wounds and diseases that can be removed.

When you have four traits equipped in the Ancient Master line, this expands your Warding Knowledge to include Men, Orcs and Beasts, helpful in certain instances.

Cracked earth, particularly AM traited cracked earth is a great way to put out DPS _and_ CC at the same time. Its my default choice for crowd control if I have the time to get the induction off. Remember, its fire damage as well, so all your fire damage buffs are applied to its damage. So a fun thing to do is Cracked Earth, Ents, Lightning storm, run away. You just did a boatload of damage and have left everyone rooted in place rather than chasing you down.

--Harperella

learning how to use the pet skills properly is a big deal imo. a well timed force taunt from the bear can save a group from a wipe by giving the healer time to catch up.

as others have said, keep an eye on the healers power so that they dont have to ask for it. also this is a personal thing, but dont give power to hunters in Strength stance, as they will burn through it in seconds and possibly pull aggro from the tank.(there are of course exceptions to this where high levels of dps is needed and the tanks will want the hunters instreght, although this doesn't happen until much later.

also learn to kite, this is really bug. learning how to effectively kite while still putting out fairly good dps is very important imo, especially when taking on those big mobs solo.

i know it was supposed to be 1 tip, but just look at it as one big tip

Originally Posted by KainXI

Sign of Power: Command can be applied to mobs without starting combat. Use this to debuff all the mobs in a difficult pull before starting. This works well for difficult solo pulls, but is also great in Raids (something few LMs realize).

To add to this, corruption removal, if it doesn't resist, will also not pull aggro. So those interesting bosses with 3 tiers of corruptions.... remove away, before you pull...

also learn to kite, this is really bug. learning how to effectively kite while still putting out fairly good dps is very important imo, especially when taking on those big mobs solo.
/quote

What is kite? or kiting? I have a 62 LM and do not understand this. Have heard this term, but have found no explanation of ti.

Originally Posted by Nanwin

What is kite? or kiting? I have a 62 LM and do not understand this. Have heard this term, but have found no explanation of ti.

to kite (or kiting) is fighting style that involves you being in motion, basicly, you attack, move and attack again till the mob is dead, it's a bit harder to preform on a LM because of inductions, but if you can place a slow on the mob than you should be able to kill that mob while taking considerably less damage.

RKs are actually the ideal class for this type of fighting style, their lighting damage attacks are instant and can be fired at range, so they can basicly run rings around the mob while damaging it while taking very little damage themselves.

This should be required reading for anyone who wants to properly fulfill their role in a group:
http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/A_Bas...or_Fellowships

I've noticed that many players who do not understand what a LM can do can unravel a lot of the LM benefits - this is particularly true with mez. How many times has a trigger happy hunter ruined a set up!? I think an important aspect of this class when grouping is to try to impart what the LM can do to the group.

The reverse is also true: the LM has to be aware of skills of other classes - for instance many Champ skills inflict damage on multiple bad guys, so sending a mez at a mob in melee combat with a Champ isn't the best use of the mez.

*Always use blinding flash. If theres 3 mobs, use it on the strongest mob.
*A bear can save your life. Don't forget its Forced Attack skill, can save you when getting beat badly.
*Against tougher mobs, debuff! Your debuffs are powerful. -30% Melee damage, -50% ranged damage and longer attack durations are very handy.
*Don't be scared for your bear, he's tougher than you think. Always have him tank for you.

MAJOR
*Don't just randomly cast sign of battle wizardy. When you hear a noise, similar to one when you get a tell, cast it. You then will get a nice bit of morale healed.

This is supposed to be a guide for beginners but most of it means nothing to me because I don't know what "AM" or "DP" etc. stands for.

I have this same problem with nearly every other LOTRO guide I look at. I can't use them because there's nowhere to look up the acronyms that I can find.

Is there a guide to all these acronyms that I can look them up in?

Here's another tip that I gave out in another thread.

Try using the following:

/shortcut 12 /f "I'm mezzing my target, ;target! Don't break it please!"

What this does is that it will display the broadcasted message in your fellowship chat, and the ;target function will substitute your current target (if you're targeting yourself, you'll say you're about to mez yourself. ). It's a neat way to tell your fellowship what you're mezzing, because a) Some people don't use voice chat, b) Many people have problems with the in-game voice being rather... horrid, and c) You can say that you have proof that you told that annoying champ NOT to AoE around your target. :P

Of course, personally, I like giving voice cues-- they're faster, and as a Lore-Master I have a LOT of buttons on my hotbar, so I usually don't have much to spare. Still, it's food for thought.

Hello Dev's and GM's.

I just started playing on Friday, the only thing that I want to suggest is the cool downs on 3 things be shorter.

my bad I had somehting on this line about blinding flash, then I realized Burning Embers is a dot and I was usiing it wrong.

Test Of Will - really a hole minute, come on... ( I still stand by this )

and now, the melee attacks...

Why the hell does a squishy have an AOE melee attack ? reduce the CD on melee and make them single target only ( or at least make the aoe worth it when im getting mobbed and all those interupts are preventing me from casting this swpie does NOTHING at least add a push back effect) or give a swipe type of attack to our pet I mean honestly , a melee aoe on class that stacks everything else but morale? Hey guys let me pull aggro ill be fine gandalph said so.

If you conjur stun immunity 'after' whistling for a horse/goat you apply it as you mount giving you just that little bit of extra SI time whilst mounted. Every little bit helps with all those freakin wargies running around.

Another tip: The 'Howl' emote rocks! and bagpipes don't

Zub

Please, for the love of all things holy...release your pets, at least when you go into a town (towns are pretty much safe zones, so you don't have to worry about getting attacked), or, if you just HAVE to have your pet in town, then let it go when you go into a building. Buildings can get crowded enough as it is without bears, ravens, and other animals tailing after their LM. (The same applies to Captains and their allies, but that's another forum). Combat animals are the most troublesome, particularly bears (because they're so large) and ravens (because they're noisy). I haven't really had any experience with other pets, but the same rule applies to lynx and any other combat animals.

I know you might really want to show off your animal to other players, but, please...if you HAVE to show it off, at the very least, don't do it in a building. Please be courteous to other players.

Ya really hve to wait, before you ate good, but then you can deafeat your group very good.

Originally Posted by Nanwin

also learn to kite, this is really bug. learning how to effectively kite while still putting out fairly good dps is very important imo, especially when taking on those big mobs solo.
/quote

What is kite? or kiting? I have a 62 LM and do not understand this. Have heard this term, but have found no explanation of ti.

Kiting is an old school MMO term derived from slowing a MOB and then staying out of its attack range while killing it. Essentially its like you have a kite string attached to the enemy, and as you move it moves with you and you are flying it like a kite, IE running to catch wind so it flies.

A lot of old terms are still used but the root has been forgotten.

Like proc. I read a LM guide that says proc is short for processed. Its actually P.R.O.C. meaning Power release on contact. It came about from weapons in Eq1 like the PGT (polished granite tomahawk) that caused an affect when you hit things with it. The power was released upon the axe making contact with the enemy.

As an LM with almost 5000 hours playing just my LM, here's a few tips I use constantly:

1. Your pet IS ranged and can easily cause flanks. This is done by using the pet "attack button" (looks like Jaws on your pet bar). After attacking, repeatedly press follow on your pet. This will recall your pet back to you (who has the aggro) and hopefully, back to your appropriate Sign's of Warding (circles on the ground) and/or Tar (Sticky tar). This way, when your mob is back to your circle, the pet goes on "Sign of Wild: Rage (looks like a peson yelling) and you move BEHIND the mob. Now, your pet is tanking, you are in flanked position for positional bonuses, and can use Sign of Battle Wizardry (a picture of two hands reaching to the sun) on the mob. If you have the flanked buff, you get healing and damage on the mob.

This will also allow you to now use all your tactical skills, and your staff strike, and still, your pet should have aggro as you are attacking from behind the mob taking no damage whatsoever. You are now doing three separate types of damage simultaneously: tac damage, melee damage AND pet damage to the mob. This will also put you in an excellent position to debuff the mob with ancient craft (strips armor) while all of the dps goes to nuke him.

2. Use mezzes always (unless stun resistance is up)...even if it is broken, its still at least 2 seconds of non-attacks from the mobs, and possibly breaking their inductions for big hits against you.

3. Choose pets for their skills:
If you trait red (dps...fire) use an Eagle for "fan the flames". If you trait Crowd control, use your lynx for dps to off-set your lack of dps (for single mobs). If you are going against multiple groups, use your sabretooth for aoe attacks. If you are solo, use your bear for tanking. Almost always, if you are in a group, you will have someone in heavy armor...let them tank. Use your lynx instead for the extra dps.

4. Spam Tend the Sick and Ancient Knowledge of Cures (Trait Proof Against All Ills in ALL groups) You can heal the whole group of Diseases and Wounds which can be a lifesaver in certain circumstances.

5. Don't wait to be asked: If a Minnie is down to half-power, send it to them (Share the Power). If YOU are half-power, pull it with Power of Knowledge. An LM without power is simply useless.

6. A last "tip" which most LMs don't know: PULL POWER FROM MOBS: A mob without power is useless and in most circumstances only autoattacks! Trolls are puppies without power, Ranged damage switches to autoattacks without power, LM MOBS in SG are useless without power. Pull power from mobs, constantly... its a deadly attack!

The LM is the best and most versatile class in the game: Enjoy it!

Pherenn
65 LM,10 on all traits, all metadeeds completed, Leader of Knights of Valour on Vilya...if I can help you, ask.

Some others:

* You can still be quite viable as a LM without using one of the legendary capstone traits (i.e. being "5 deep" in a line). For example, 3 in MoNF gives you good DPS increase with a slight penalty of a 20sec BF. Since the cooldown is 15sec, you can still lockdown a target. The other 4 traits can be used in AM or KoA. For a long time I ran with 4 KoA/3 MoNF using the lynx, legendary traits Noble Savage, Ents and the Staff. Sometimes I'd swap either the Ents or Noble Savage for the Eagle.

Recently I've been going 3 MoNF/2 KoA/2 AM. The KoA has Proof against all ills and Healer (? I think - the one that makes your spot heal more available/less CD and quicker to cast), while the AM traits are for the fast load BF and resistance reduction - I was getting resisted a lot in SG.

* BF gets resisted? Back it up with one of your stun skills (Test of Will is good, for example), and maybe a debuff to reduce the impact of the mob until your BF is ready again.

Originally Posted by whosjgalt

[B][COLOR=red]


2. Use mezzes always (unless stun resistance is up)...even if it is broken, its still at least 2 seconds of non-attacks from the mobs, and possibly breaking their inductions for big hits against you.

3. Choose pets for their skills:
If you trait red (dps...fire) use an Eagle for "fan the flames". If you trait Crowd control, use your lynx for dps to off-set your lack of dps (for single mobs). If you are going against multiple groups, use your sabretooth for aoe attacks. If you are solo, use your bear for tanking. Almost always, if you are in a group, you will have someone in heavy armor...let them tank. Use your lynx instead for the extra dps.

2 things; first, the raven has the fire debuff, not the eagle. other wise good advice on pets.

second, even if a mob has stun immuity from you using one of your stuns, a mob can still be mezzed. the 10 second stun immunity has no effect on mezzes. there is however a second or so "recovery" state (yellow icon) that will prevent the mob from being mezzed. this occurs when the stun ends, and the mob is given a 10 second stun immunity

overall fairly good advice. just thiught those 2 things needed correcting to newer players dont get confused.

Originally Posted by 0987654321

2 things; first, the raven has the fire debuff, not the eagle. other wise good advice on pets.

second, even if a mob has stun immuity from you using one of your stuns, a mob can still be mezzed. the 10 second stun immunity has no effect on mezzes. there is however a second or so "recovery" state (yellow icon) that will prevent the mob from being mezzed. this occurs when the stun ends, and the mob is given a 10 second stun immunity

overall fairly good advice. just thiught those 2 things needed correcting to newer players dont get confused.

Thank you for your attempt to clarify: However, respectfully, you are mistaken. the Raven has a "Benediction" skill, not "fan the flames" skill.

You will also notice one is debuff against their fire mitigation (Benediction) versus "fan the flames" which is additional damage. Again, the use of the proper pet is the issue. I stated: 3. Choose pets for their skills: If you trait red (dps...fire) use the Eagle for "fan the flames." This will give you additional dps... not a mitigation against damage, as would the raven (however, the Raven a Beginning pet, and thus, available at much lower level than an Eagle).

Moreover, I was attempting to convey the message "use the right pet for the job." Further, as to the Mezzes; again, the concept is use them frequently, constantly, and always I'd rather get one off and have it broken, and still have at least 2 seconds of non-damage time from the mob.

Thanks for your attempt to "clarify" my message. I just hope our newcomers are not more confused.

With thousands of hours playing my LM (my main), I just hope some of the tips above help our aspiring LMs. We NEED MORE LM's folks!

Pherenn

Originally Posted by whosjgalt

You will also notice one is debuff against their fire mitigation (Benediction) versus "fan the flames" which is additional damage. Again, the use of the proper pet is the issue. I stated: 3. Choose pets for their skills: If you trait red (dps...fire) use the Eagle for "fan the flames." This will give you additional dps... not a mitigation against damage, as would the raven (however, the Raven a Beginning pet, and thus, available at much lower level than an Eagle).

Benediction gives roughly 10% extra fire damage. Depending on how high your LM tact offense is, along with other legacies, benediction usually adds more dps than Fan the Flames could (because it's a cooldown skill, vs. a constant debuff). I spam benediction on my raven, and it's up something like 75-80% of the time fighting a mob. Yet, some mobs, eagle interrupts are much preferred to extra damage.

Originally Posted by whosjgalt

With thousands of hours playing my LM (my main), I just hope some of the tips above help our aspiring LMs. We NEED MORE LM's folks!

Pherenn

You deserve a cookie! Thanks for playing!

Originally Posted by whosjgalt

Thank you for your attempt to clarify: However, respectfully, you are mistaken. the Raven has a "Benediction" skill, not "fan the flames" skill.

You will also notice one is debuff against their fire mitigation (Benediction) versus "fan the flames" which is additional damage. Again, the use of the proper pet is the issue. I stated: 3. Choose pets for their skills: If you trait red (dps...fire) use the Eagle for "fan the flames." This will give you additional dps... not a mitigation against damage, as would the raven (however, the Raven a Beginning pet, and thus, available at much lower level than an Eagle).

Moreover, I was attempting to convey the message "use the right pet for the job." Further, as to the Mezzes; again, the concept is use them frequently, constantly, and always I'd rather get one off and have it broken, and still have at least 2 seconds of non-damage time from the mob.

Thanks for your attempt to "clarify" my message. I just hope our newcomers are not more confused.

With thousands of hours playing my LM (my main), I just hope some of the tips above help our aspiring LMs. We NEED MORE LM's folks!

Pherenn

you seem to have misread my post. while i did get the names of the eagle and ravens skills mixed up, the raven stillhave a fire debuff, while the eagle provides a fear when a mob is under the effect of burning embers.

mezzes:was trying to corrct the part where you said a mob could NOT be mezzed when the 10 second stun immunity is up, while mob CAN be mezzed with this immunity up. i agree with using them as much as possible, even if they are going to be broken, because as you said that will be 1 or 2 seconds of the mob not hitting you.

asthis is a thread to help newer players, i will provide a tip that has helped me a lot. on boss fights, the bear can be very useful. not only for the ability to force tanut if things go bad, but for the 30 seconds of +10% ranged and melee damage. if there is more than 1 lore-master using the bear, try to coordinate to keep the debuff up as much as possible.

Originally Posted by 0987654321

you seem to have misread my post. while i did get the names of the eagle and ravens skills mixed up, the raven stillhave a fire debuff, while the eagle provides a fear when a mob is under the effect of burning embers.

I apologize if you believe I misread your post, and thank you for agreeing the use proper use of the Raven is a debuff and not dps. However, I must respectfully disagree as to your characterization of the much maligned Eagle [added for emphasis: "merely"] providing a fear: It is a debuff and DPS. Indeed, the Eagle skill, "fan the flames" skill does far more than a "fear"; it "takes advantage of an enemy who is under burning embers and hurts them grievously by stirring up the flames causing them to run in panic and "causes the mob to flee in fear " while doing 206-242 in fire damage. Thus, fan the flames dps helps and the fleeing is great to keep mobs at a distance.

This is especially so when combined with the use of tar for an additional 10% fire mitigation from the mob and when used with the appropriate circles of warding knowledge, the Eagle can be devastating.

Each pet has its own uses and the proper use thereof can be the difference between being the Nuker or the Nukee .

If I can help you, ask.

Pherenn, 65 LM, Pherburg (60ish), Phermin (60ish), Pherhuntress (60ish), Pherkeeper (60ish) Pherunter, Pherchamp, Pherguardo, and others too numerous to count... lol

Originally Posted by whosjgalt

Thank you for your attempt to clarify: However, respectfully, you are mistaken. the Raven has a "Benediction" skill, not "fan the flames" skill.

You will also notice one is debuff against their fire mitigation (Benediction) versus "fan the flames" which is additional damage. Again, the use of the proper pet is the issue. I stated: 3. Choose pets for their skills: If you trait red (dps...fire) use the Eagle for "fan the flames." This will give you additional dps... not a mitigation against damage, as would the raven (however, the Raven a Beginning pet, and thus, available at much lower level than an Eagle).

Moreover, I was attempting to convey the message "use the right pet for the job." Further, as to the Mezzes; again, the concept is use them frequently, constantly, and always I'd rather get one off and have it broken, and still have at least 2 seconds of non-damage time from the mob.

Thanks for your attempt to "clarify" my message. I just hope our newcomers are not more confused.

With thousands of hours playing my LM (my main), I just hope some of the tips above help our aspiring LMs. We NEED MORE LM's folks!

Pherenn

Actually,

The raven reduces the enemy's fire mitigation, it does not increase yours. So if you are going red and want to increase your DPS, Raven with benediction of the raven would be the way to go.

Fan the flames DPS is really laughable. It has 1m cooldown. 300 or so damage every minute is not a big damaging skill. The big purpose of fan the flames is the fear effect.

The benediction of the raven obliterates any mob's resistance to fire, efectively increase every fire damage by 5-10% on top of what sticky tar already does.

Even 5% extra damage from fire skills > 300 or so damage every minute by a long shot. Specially on bigger fights.

Originally Posted by whosjgalt

This is especially so when combined with the use of tar for an additional 10% fire mitigation from the mob and when used with the appropriate circles of warding knowledge, the Eagle can be devastating.
l

Warding knowledge only affects tactical skills. Fan the flames is a melee skill (has stated on the tooltip) so its useless on the eagle's attacks...

[QUOTE=whosjgalt;4809492]As an LM with almost 5000 hours playing just my LM, here's a few tips I use constantly:
heh just proves skill isnt gained by playing a million hours

Keep your pets on a leash. Aggressive stance and even Guarding stance can cause you pet to aggro far more mobs than you indend to. Keeping it on passive and having it attack only what you tell it to works out much better for you and for anyone you group with. They will chase fleeing mobs and that can cause them to aggro even more mobs in the process.

Even if you prefer not to play with pets, keep one out and on Passive/No Assist so you still have access to Inner Flame to heal yourself.

Blinding Flash is your friend.

[QUOTE=robertpaulson;5144415]

Originally Posted by whosjgalt

As an LM with almost 5000 hours playing just my LM, here's a few tips I use constantly:
heh just proves skill isnt gained by playing a million hours

Heh, so true. I have 3 months (around 2200 hours) and i know everything there is to know about lm's!!

Also thank you to galahadur for explainging the mistakes in whosjgalt posts. Posts like his/hers will confuse newer players.

As for some advice, if you use the eagles fear, be careful to not let the mob stray into other mobs as, if the feared mob strays too close, there is a chance the unaggrod mobs will be brought back along with the original mob.

Also, now that lm's have 2 melee attacks, if you were hesitant before, go ahead and jump intomelee for a bit, even if it is only when they are off cooldown. One warning though, staff sweep is an aoe, so you have to be careful around mez'd mobs especially.

Trying to make it short.
- You are CC/support class. Do not focus on doing plain damage in groups.
- Learn difference between stun and daze. Use skills that stun effectively to keep mobs immobilized as long as you can.
- When you get it, realize the importance of SOP:righteousness, SI skill. Keep tank warm and walking so he can take on those mobs that would otherwise kill you. Specially low level tanks need usually all help possible since they are just learning.
- Debuff. You get nice skills already in early levels.
- flanks was already mentioned, but as important is also harried-debuff, get it with pet hitting on enemies back. It will slow them down to make your kiting more efficent.

Originally Posted by Hayburn

Trying to make it short.
- You are CC/support class. Do not focus on doing plain damage in groups.
- Learn difference between stun and daze. Use skills that stun effectively to keep mobs immobilized as long as you can.
- When you get it, realize the importance of SOP:righteousness, SI skill. Keep tank warm and walking so he can take on those mobs that would otherwise kill you. Specially low level tanks need usually all help possible since they are just learning.
- Debuff. You get nice skills already in early levels.
- flanks was already mentioned, but as important is also harried-debuff, get it with pet hitting on enemies back. It will slow them down to make your kiting more efficent.

Regretfully, I disagree with Hayburn on certain points: LMs are far more versatile than "just" being a CC/Support class; LMs can do many roles, i.e. off healers, dps and one of my favorites is massive AOE damage class. I can hit with ENTS for 5k "base" dps on 7 mobs (and crits up to 15k), that's a lot more than just "support." Moreover, please don't think LMs "kite" to be efficient. There are thousands of ways to take down mobs, and kiting is just one strategy used by some groups for certain mobs. When soloing, your pet holds agro, and you can nuke from afar. Try everything and then decide what works for you... as Hayburn correctly mentioned: DEBUFFS, learn them it will make your job a thousand times easier to know that you are taking soooo much less damage, and the mob is taking so much more due to properly applied buffs/debuffs. Most specifically, don't let others tell you how to play your toon Use a program called CSTATS http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/CStats to evaluate everything you try, and after running it through the numbers, then decide what works best for you. The great part about Lotro is that you can try anything you wish, and find what works best for your play style. Have fun gaming!

Originally Posted by whosjgalt

I can hit with ENTS for 5k "base" dps on 7 mobs (and crits up to 15k)

You can hit only max 5 targets with Ents, no 7.

Remember that fancy walking stick is a weapon, and use it. Melee damage does add up, and can yield flank healing.