Thread: Glass Cannon? How about Soap Bubble Cannon?

If you share a link to your character page, we can see if there is anything in the equips that could be changed to help. Also, what virtues are you using and what level are they? Are you using fire or lightning to quest? What class traits/legendaries are you using? Do you have a problem with single mobs or just if you get multiple mobs?

Please don't scream that I don't know how to play, but maybe I don't know how to play. Like most RKs I have been quite comfortable with quests/mobs 2-3 levels higher than me. But ever since RoI and in particular hit lvl 70 , it's been hard! Even on level quests are difficult as are skirms. And on level multiple mobs just vaporize me. My problem seems to be defense, or lack thereof. A couple of hits from multiple mob encounter and it's all over. I drop my rock, prelude to hope, all my not falls, no poison, wound, etc. Eat +will or vitality, regen food, everything that I can think of. There just isn't time to get my attunement up to knock these guys out. What am I missing? I have the best equipment I can find/buy and have done all the deed stuff to raise will, vitality and fate. I've tried kiting, shocking touch, etc to keep them at bay long enough to do some damage, but it's just nit enough. Any advice for a poor lvl 71 RK?

Scattered thoughts I had as I read through. The fun group I run with generally agree -- RK is more fragile, and has to make trade-offs in build now that are more impactful than before.

Sounds like you need to make a choice: toughen up so you can take the hits and hold up in a long fight, or max your kill rate so you don't have to take as many hits.

I tend towards a defensive build for healer, and a all-out offense build for dps. Defense I trait for mitigations, resistances, and defense, and build for morale too, and healing output. For offense it's all about whatever will increase tatical offense and crit. Kill fast, kill often, and loot!

For attunement (without relying on enamels) -- even though I still use a lightning build for soloing, I've changed the way I start fights. Now, I open with fire. Open with Improved Essay of Fire and you get first shot, decent DoT, and induction-free fire attacks for the next 5 seconds. So, start that, hit a couple fire attacks, and in seconds you're at +5 attunement. Switch to lightning so you can be mobile and it's all good.

I believe the glass cannon idea got out of hand this time.
I know rk is supposed to be squishy, but that doesn't mean permanently dead. Turbine, please tell me where does it say that kiting is a strategy one MUST follow to have a CHANCE not to die within five seconds. Unless you haven't noticed, there are places (lots of them) where kiting is IMPOSSIBLE to perform.

I like to play my rk, I really do. But come on, how am I supposed to kill things that have 14k morale and hit for 500 with WEAK attacks? Yes I especially mean Baranbor and similar dunlending camps where I just keep dying over and over, because I cannot kite in areas full of mobs.
It gets really bad after 70.
There is no gear that would make this any better, it's just the design. And please don't tell me to group up, Turbine encourages us to solo (lord of the rings offline). And lots of people play in such times when not many are online anyway.

Honestly, though my RK is definitely more squishy than before and can get killed quickly by some mobs, overall I do not find her impossibly squishy now, and I did solo my way from 70 to 75. That's why it might be helpful if we can look at your build and know what it might be helpful to change.

For example, I used mostly will/vitality quest rewards while leveling and kept my old bracelets with morale on them so I never dropped below 5.1k morale when questing and generally was around 5.5k. I also switched to zeal/valour/innocence/empathy for armour, and one more defensive virtue for the extra tactical/melee defense. With the high will you can get with quest rewards, I didn't think it was necessary to use virtues for will and fate any more.

I actually leveled with fire for fun, and I generally opened with EoF if it was up, and stack FR and MF, Essence of Flame if you get attunement fast enough, but lightning if I had to kite multiple mobs or after I had DoTs on a few to finish them off. Certainly there were times I made a bad pull or didn't notice pathers and ended up dead, but in most places including the camps, I found it was possible to pull 1-2 mobs, which was usually manageable.

For skirmishes, make sure you have leveled up your skirmish solider and check the traits. I have an herbalist and was having a terrible time until I realized the old trait for healing output was scraped for a tactical offense/outgoing healing trait that I had not bought (marks were refunded though). It got much better once I fixed that and leveled my soldier up further.

I have only just hit level 68 so I'm not at max level yet and maybe thats where I will notice the difference more but I honestly haven't found myself any more squishy than I was before. Revoked offers some good advice above.

I found that once I got toward Isen and the rohan gap mobs started hitting very hard too. I changed my build to focus more on critical hits, upgraded my stone from the my65er and began to see a definate improvement in my ability to burn the mobs faster. A solution to your issue? Not necessarily. Yes the mobs hit harder and we are more squishy, perhaps building for more DPS and critical hits might help you, it worked for me.

Yeah I noticed my Rk is a lot more squishy in ROI. I found that one or two on level mobs were ok but if I got adds or if there were more than two then I had to try and kite mobs. Some quest areas had mobs packed too dense and too fast a respawn rate for me to be able to kite so I had to find a group for these solo quests or not do them.
My minstrel who also uses light armour seems to be a lot tougher than the RK I remember one quest area that I had a lot of trouble doing with my RK at level 70 because of mob density, my minstrel did at level 67 with no problem. This is interesting especially considering my minstrel was retired prior to ROI and using equipment from moria.

Originally Posted by Mylan1

Yeah I noticed my Rk is a lot more squishy in ROI. I found that one or two on level mobs were ok but if I got adds or if there were more than two then I had to try and kite mobs. Some quest areas had mobs packed too dense and too fast a respawn rate for me to be able to kite so I had to find a group for these solo quests or not do them.
My minstrel who also uses light armour seems to be a lot tougher than the RK I remember one quest area that I had a lot of trouble doing with my RK at level 70 because of mob density, my minstrel did at level 67 with no problem. This is interesting especially considering my minstrel was retired prior to ROI and using equipment from moria.

That is mostly because minstrel now is one of the best soloing classes.

Replace "RK" with "Light Armor". ALL light armor classes are getting hit hard. My mini has all 75 gear, traits for extra defense, extra morale, and still gets hit for 1k by landscape mobs. Until they choose to communicate we won't know if this is WAI or not, but it can sure make multi-mob pulls interesting. For extra fun, I can easily pull 4 on level mobs and live, and the next pull of 2 mobs will be the fight of my life. (Apparently the mobs can nuke too)

Yep I suspect it's all light armor. My LM started to feel really squishy about 71/72. I'm not looking forward to the splattering I'm going to get on my RK when I get her into the 70s! She was already the squishiest out of the two

Regular mobs are doable, but more than one at time is definitely a problem. I was specifically talking about the named stuff that can whack me within ten seconds. There is no way in hell I can surive something hitting me for 500 (or more) each second. Gear has nothing to do with that really (actually if you took really underequipped char, it could probably be almost oneshotted).

Originally Posted by The-Walrus

I believe the glass cannon idea got out of hand this time.
I know rk is supposed to be squishy, but that doesn't mean permanently dead. Turbine, please tell me where does it say that kiting is a strategy one MUST follow to have a CHANCE not to die within five seconds. Unless you haven't noticed, there are places (lots of them) where kiting is IMPOSSIBLE to perform.

I like to play my rk, I really do. But come on, how am I supposed to kill things that have 14k morale and hit for 500 with WEAK attacks? Yes I especially mean Baranbor and similar dunlending camps where I just keep dying over and over, because I cannot kite in areas full of mobs.
It gets really bad after 70.
There is no gear that would make this any better, it's just the design. And please don't tell me to group up, Turbine encourages us to solo (lord of the rings offline). And lots of people play in such times when not many are online anyway.

Ok, you're doing something wrong. I soloed all of the RoI epic and landscape content and only died 2 times, and one of those was a foolish poke at the gate trolls just to see how bad they were. I did every quest, completed every deed (except the bugged one of course...) and I very rarely had to resort to kiting. Learn to manage pulls, learn your cc skills, learn to manage the mobs and the flow of battle. Combat has changed -- you can't keep playing the same way you did before and expect it to work. Adapt, or maybe find a class that better suits.

Disclaimer - my minstrel is my main and I got her to 75 and decently geared quickly. My RK on the other hand was painful to level and I am really struggling to justify playing her at all at this point.

• I am so ridiculously squishy it's not very fun to play. Now granted, I am not geared on my RK yet, so I am sure that would help. However...if it's not fun to play while I am trying to gear out, there is little point for me.
• I am getting one-shot often enough while healing (or DPSing) in skirmishes...also not fun when it's happening 2-3 times in a skirmish. I understand it's not just up to me...but this happens before anyone else can help me often times
• On the healing side, I don't feel like I bring all that much to groups compared to my minstrel. If I use my neutral protection skills, I lose attunement and effectiveness; my bubbles are not nearly as useful as pre-RoI; and I cannot take a hit (yet anyway).
• In just normal landscape PvE, more than 1 mob in the Isengard areas will absolutely mean death unless I have enough room to kite without pulling other mobs (rarely is there not another 5-6 mobs surrounding me).

Overall, while perhaps I will feel differently with some better gear, I am just not seeing the point of the RK in RoI. Not to say they don't do great DPS when left alone to do so...but in particular as a healing focused RK, I don't see a real need or place for just pure HPS as opposed to heals/buffs/protection etc. I deeply miss the utility of the old healing RK and the ability to stay alive with more than 2 mobs in a pinch.

All that said, I do like the Fire changes very much. I just wish they had put some more thought into utility while healing AND how the changes to stats would affect light armour classes with very low mitigations (as well as no block).

I am currently going to finish getting Kindred with the Riders and then likely not bother for a bit. We'll see.

Edit - I am typing this in the rez circle in Nan Curunir. There are three others with me here and they're all RKs

To be clear, I am not saying any of the above is not operator error

Originally Posted by Gillianrial

Disclaimer - my minstrel is my main and I got her to 75 and decently geared quickly. My RK on the other hand was painful to level and I am really struggling to justify playing her at all at this point.

• I am so ridiculously squishy it's not very fun to play. Now granted, I am not geared on my RK yet, so I am sure that would help. However...if it's not fun to play while I am trying to gear out, there is little point for me.
• I am getting one-shot often enough while healing (or DPSing) in skirmishes...also not fun when it's happening 2-3 times in a skirmish. I understand it's not just up to me...but this happens before anyone else can help me often times
• On the healing side, I don't feel like I bring all that much to groups compared to my minstrel. If I use my neutral protection skills, I lose attunement and effectiveness; my bubbles are not nearly as useful as pre-RoI; and I cannot take a hit (yet anyway).
• In just normal landscape PvE, more than 1 mob in the Isengard areas will absolutely mean death unless I have enough room to kite without pulling other mobs (rarely is there not another 5-6 mobs surrounding me).

Overall, while perhaps I will feel differently with some better gear, I am just not seeing the point of the RK in RoI. Not to say they don't do great DPS when left alone to do so...but in particular as a healing focused RK, I don't see a real need or place for just pure HPS as opposed to heals/buffs/protection etc. I deeply miss the utility of the old healing RK and the ability to stay alive with more than 2 mobs in a pinch.

All that said, I do like the Fire changes very much. I just wish they had put some more thought into utility while healing AND how the changes to stats would affect light armour classes with very low mitigations (as well as no block).

I am currently going to finish getting Kindred with the Riders and then likely not bother for a bit. We'll see.

Given the many add ins to your post “I am just not seeing the point of the RK in RoI.” You are someone who probably shouldn’t play the toon, you appear to have convinced yourself it isn’t worth it.

Couple of things strike me, perhaps I can be of some help?

Originally Posted by Gillianrial

• I am so ridiculously squishy it's not very fun to play. Now granted, I am not geared on my RK yet, so I am sure that would help. However...if it's not fun to play while I am trying to gear out, there is little point for me.
• I am getting one-shot often enough while healing (or DPSing) in skirmishes...also not fun when it's happening 2-3 times in a skirmish. I understand it's not just up to me...but this happens before anyone else can help me often times
• On the healing side, I don't feel like I bring all that much to groups compared to my minstrel. If I use my neutral protection skills, I lose attunement and effectiveness; my bubbles are not nearly as useful as pre-RoI; and I cannot take a hit (yet anyway).
• In just normal landscape PvE, more than 1 mob in the Isengard areas will absolutely mean death unless I have enough room to kite without pulling other mobs (rarely is there not another 5-6 mobs surrounding me).

1. Not geared and squishy, that’s part of the issue I suspect for you. The other part might be traits. The way to circumvent being squishy is killing the mob before it can do a great deal of damage. Im sure I don’t need to pontificate on how to kite, or what skills to use but I trait and gear for the highest crit I can. A heal pot once and while helps loads.

2. Compared to your minstrel, no you don’t bring a lot to the group for healing. Compared to any other class you are the next best choice. This is an old argument on these boards and yes I agree the mini is a superior healer. However I haven’t seen that translated into loss of spots or even diminished ability of the RK healer. I’ve healed got heal spots in multiple 75 raids from pugs to kin runs. Haven’t had a problem healing it at all. Honestly vie got a lot of outgoing heal buffs on armor drops it’s helping a lot.

3. Isengard is the top level content. This isn’t a shot at you but I’m confused by some of the griping in the forums about squishies getting hit in this area. Most of the solo content is face roll easy, honestly the last time I had to struggle solo was in angmar when I was mid 30 something. My gripe with that area around isengard is the respawn rate. I’m a light armor toon, if I pull or attract, or run into 2-3 lvl 75 mobs I should die, or my chance of survival should be very low.

Not sure what server you run on, but I’m having no problems at all getting heal spots on riddermark. I see pugs constantly asking for “need heals” no mention of “mini’s preferred” I’m sure they want them, but what I am seeing is people just want to grind their marks and are taking RK’s for heals. As I said, I won’t dispute the argument mini’s are better group healers and that you have a valid point about utility and the value it brings to them, but it hasn’t precluded me from getting into groups.

It’s my view the best approach to the RK for Isen and being squishy is to focus on the strengths of the class, DPS and critical hits. Kill them before they kill you, but even with a tricked out RK running around in Isengard you pull 3 lvl 75 uruks you should expect to take major damage and die 9 out of 10 times. If the issue is burning down one mob, go lightening, you’ll crit them to death.

Based on your build, Elglas, I'd say you've given up a lot of dps for survivability. The fact that you have to run Vit higher than your primary stat, which is barely higher than the pre-ROI cap, points directly to the issue other's have noticed. On other dps classes at this point, pushing the prime stat over 1200 is pretty common. My will is around 1000, vit is around 500-ish. Try flipping your tanking gear off for crit-boosting gear and you'll see the real issue.

Also, finding spots in raids right now is about as hard as getting a kid into your van with candy, given the S4M grind, so I'll bet that you'll find fewer heal or dps spots once the next update drops the new instances and people start building regular groups.

Originally Posted by saxtus3

Based on your build, Elglas, I'd say you've given up a lot of dps for survivability. The fact that you have to run Vit higher than your primary stat, which is barely higher than the pre-ROI cap, points directly to the issue other's have noticed. On other dps classes at this point, pushing the prime stat over 1200 is pretty common. My will is around 1000, vit is around 500-ish. Try flipping your tanking gear off for crit-boosting gear and you'll see the real issue.

Also, finding spots in raids right now is about as hard as getting a kid into your van with candy, given the S4M grind, so I'll bet that you'll find fewer heal or dps spots once the next update drops the new instances and people start building regular groups.

Yep, I buff morale with jewelry when running solo for survivability. That said I’m still getting 1500-3000 crits fairly often with 500+ damage very common with the build I have currently. The lightening line allows you to do that, you don’t have to pump up will to get decent hits and I don’t see any reason why 70+ RK’s can’t handle mobs in isengard 1 v 1 even with a #### build like mine. As I said, you pull 2-3 uruks, yeah you probably should expect to die. I guess it boils down to choice, I’m not denying there is an issue, I gave someone a way to get past an obstacle, you and others are simply pointing at the obstacle and proclaiming it’s there. Suit yourself I guess.

I concede finding heal spots in raids now isn’t hard based on the grind, but your point is based on a future hypothesis, mine is based on a current reality. I’m pretty confident that RK’s will be viable end game players in both DPS and heal capacity up to next update and beyond it. The people I have healed have been happy with the job done, I’ll be asked back I was in moria. While I haven’t been in the game as long as a lot of you, I’ve been an RK long enough. At no point in my playing have I had any issues getting groups, maybe that’s the server I am on, Ill concede that I don’t know. Once I start seeing the LFF broadcasting “looking for healer’s, mini’s only” I’ll come back and eat crow. Ive once or twice been asked to switch to DPS because they found a mini to heal in my place. I was happy to oblige.

Until then, I’m in game having a blast and figuring out what I need to do to keep my RK fun and a desired companion for group content. So far, so good.

Originally Posted by Fortinobrand

Scattered thoughts I had as I read through. The fun group I run with generally agree -- RK is more fragile, and has to make trade-offs in build now that are more impactful than before.

I'm not sure there is a possible trade-off. I've already tried physical/tact mit and +Morale builds. Mitigations on Freepside are horribly awry right now. It doesn't matter how much mit I stack on my RK or Morale I add, he goes down in seconds against elite mobs.

In regular PvE land, this is not such a big deal. Mobs are weak and non-lethal. But in Raid Skirmishes it's a problem. Elites there hit harder, are largely immune to our defensive CC, and crit more often...and almost every hit seems to be a crit. This, of course, because we have no crit defense whatsoever unless we use relics for it.

Right now my RK is still rolling with Innocence traited, picks up some +mit from his PvP set, and is still getting contributions from gear and relics too. Buffed in Raid Skirms he is over 8K Morale. But all it takes is for a big AoE to come through, or an Elite to get loose just for a few seconds, and it's release time or wait for rez. This is while Healing, of course, which is what my RK does 80% of the time in group play.

Originally Posted by hucklebarry

Replace "RK" with "Light Armor". ALL light armor classes are getting hit hard.

This is absolutely correct. Mitigations are way out of whack. Light Armor classes are far too squishy and Heavy Armor classes are way too thick. There is also no middle-road. Medium Armor mitigations tend to be weak as well.

Originally Posted by Thorgrum

It’s my view the best approach to the RK for Isen and being squishy is to focus on the strengths of the class, DPS and critical hits.

This is certainly the case for the DPS RK. However, you pretty much missed the entire point of her post. She primarily Heals on her RK. So your options, really aren't options for her.

And that's the problem. Managing aggro in groups while DPS is a cinch, especially if you are traited Fire. No difficulty there.

However, Healing aggro is something we have to constantly manage in groups. A misplaced sigil or an errant HoT on a Tank can mean certain doom for a Healing RK on any Raid pull.

Read through what Gilly wrote again. She is dead-on 100% correct in her observations of the Healing RK.

Originally Posted by Overtone

This is certainly the case for the DPS RK. However, you pretty much missed the entire point of her post. She primarily Heals on her RK. So your options, really aren't options for her.

[*]In just normal landscape PvE, more than 1 mob in the Isengard areas will absolutely mean death unless I have enough room to kite without pulling other mobs (rarely is there not another 5-6 mobs surrounding me).
And that's the problem. Managing aggro in groups while DPS is a cinch, especially if you are traited Fire. No difficulty there.

I read it again and yes she primarily is complaining about agro in a healing environment with raids. My bad for not specifying what I was addressing. Absolutely, shelf your RK and don’t play it, stick with you mini for heals and problem solved. I fortunately haven’t had the same issue you do, ive healed plenty been successful and haven’t died in the process.

Good luck and hope to see you in game sometime. Should you choose to run solo, burn em quick it will negate the squishyness. Again, didn’t realize your post was soely within the context of healing/healing raids. Thought I saw something in there about solo and 1v1 mobs in isen (certain of it actually), but I guess in the end what some random person thinks on a forum is of no matter, the point of all this is to have fun and enjoy the game you choose to play.

Cheers !

Originally Posted by Fortinobrand

and I very rarely had to resort to kiting. Learn to manage pulls, learn your cc skills, learn to manage the mobs and the flow of battle. Combat has changed -- you can't keep playing the same way you did before and expect it to work. Adapt, or maybe find a class that better suits.

Aside from the last sentence, which I find pretty insultive and mocking, let's see:
1) Learn to manage pulls.
There is no such thing as a pull in lotro. But I assume this is a misunderstanding on my side, because I understand that word in a different way, having played a game where this works differently, so let's skip this point.

2) Learn your cc skills.
The plural is a typo, right? You can't take Vivid Imaginery with its cooldown and dmg radius for CC skill. Or that skill which has really small chance of stunning mobs that hit you if it's up? Shocking touch might not be waste of attunement if traited, but I haven't found room for that in my setup yet.

3) Learn to manage to mobs.
Just what am I supposed to imagine here? Mob is a mob. Either it is killable or not, there is no science in this.

4) you can't keep playing the same way you did before
I very rarely had to resort to kiting
I would like to see your setup before 75 that lets you stand still and fry the mobs. Really. Of course noone talks about killing single on-level mob here. Please re-read my previous posts here.

Originally Posted by The-Walrus

2) Learn your cc skills.
The plural is a typo, right? You can't take Vivid Imaginery with its cooldown and dmg radius for CC skill. Or that skill which has really small chance of stunning mobs that hit you if it's up? Shocking touch might not be waste of attunement if traited, but I haven't found room for that in my setup yet.

RK CC skills:
- Chilling Rhetoric - Slow one, kill the other while he moves to you.
- Rune of Restoration - Kill one while the others focuses on the rune
- Shocking Touch - ...
- Armour of Storm - To use in a pinch (Lightning is the best, but frost isn't so bad either).
- Writ of Cold - less attack and induction speed means you get hit with less damage.
- Shocking Words - with full attunnement it works often enough (still not reliable)
- Distracting Winds - Area slow to get you some room
- Essence of Winter - More power cost means less special attacks. Less incoming heal means targets die faster (situational).
- Frozen Epilogue - less attack and induction speed and larger power cost means you get hit with less damage.... Less incoming heal means targets die faster (situational).
Just be carefull because it affects a large area.
- Vivid Imagery - It IS a CC skill no matter what you say...

We are NOT Lore masters so yes, RKs CC is nothing easy to master or simple to relly uppon.
However, it is there for a reason and the simple fact that you deal damage with it (and sometimes lots of it) BESIDES the CC part is just an excelent bonus.

I agree that it could be improved. Its effects are hardly visible and I'm not even sure they scale properly (my RK is only level 60). BUT they exist AND are usefull enough to know.

Devs have talked about a revamp of the cold damage skills, maybe we will get an improvement on our CC and debuff skills then. Till then, we just endure them as they are - usefull, but not very reliable.

I also find that starting a fight with "Fall to our Wrath" and "Fall to Storm" (or fire, or ice) is an excelent way to speed things up.

People tend to disregard "Fall to out Wrath" but those 1000+ free damage are excelent to speed things up.

When I know I will draw attention from more than one opponent I usualy drop my stone, then both "Fall" skills on one and then start the fight by using chilling rethoric on another one.

By the time the slowed one gets to me, I would have killed the one with the "fall" skills without taking any damage from the other ones (focused on the stone).

From there, it depends if you drew the attencion of 3 or more mobs...

With this strategy I can usualy handle 3 mobs with no problems. If there are more I usualy just have to get out of there or die. :P

NOTE: With Improved Essay of Fire I would probably just start by damaging the one with the "Fall" skills and don't wast time by chilling any other one.

Oh. Well, if you call aggro-lowering skills and speed debuffs CC, then yes. I always understood CC as such skills that root or mezz mobs.

What I usually do is drop rune, give myself prelude (which is not a good thing if there is more than one mob though as it won't attack the rune), use the Fall to skills, use calming verse. Unfortunately this can't be done in many situations because lots of mobs are not standing on one spot gazing at you. I had this problem with the sig patrols on the Isen banks. By the time I was finished with preparations the damn mobs wandered to the next town

Anyway after this expansion's changes I love to start fight with Essay of fire, followed with 5xFR. If lucky, it takes lots if not most of mob's morale out and I can finish it with just one basic round of skills.

I always look at Crowd Control as anything that controls the crowd.
Speed Debuffs control who gets to you and when (much like a short time daze, mezz or root but only usefull at a distance) and so the crowd can be controlled.

Other kind of debuffs not so much control the crowd but their effectiveness so I guess those do jump out of the CC specter.

I never mentioned aggro lowering though.
But if you look at it, in a group, those skills do control the flow of the crowd. :P

And though the stone is not a CC skill it CAN be (and is by many) used for it (through aggro, yes).

Originally Posted by The-Walrus

I had this problem with the sig patrols on the Isen banks. By the time I was finished with preparations the damn mobs wandered to the next town

+ reputation for that one. It made me laugh.

Originally Posted by Bradegor

That is mostly because minstrel now is one of the best soloing classes.

Well they always were.. it was a matter of power and length before though. But honestly you could rotate your fear with drop W/S and continue a fight forever.. it was just boring though.. so you rarely decided to do that. But you could spend forever in a fight.. I used to do the elites sometimes just for fun on my Mini, I could do about a 35k- one give or take, I did one in mirk and still kited a additional mob at the same time. but it was alot of plink , plunk ballads, run around, fear, drink power pots whenever they were up ect ect...

My warden was much better though then my mini at that..

So ya, they made it quicker fights really, instead of a endless amount of time plinking at ballads you can burn them down much quicker, same result, alot less frustation about doing it.

The mini is fun, but trust me a overseer at lvl 73 was very hard, they were outhitting my heals by quite a bit and I always had to fear /kite them to get it done, even with the bubble, otherwise I would be dead. In fact IF i didnt have heals and the bubble , Im not sure I could do it. They were hitting me for 600-1k every hit.. at 73 I had like 5.5k morale , thats not alot of hits lol..

I cant wait to get to my RK, 1 more level on my champ, then some gear and im off to the RK I think..

Well, and guardians also were able to kill impressive stuff most RKs couldn´t ... still, there was a tradeoff, the speed they did. Now, minstrels can kill almost as fast as RKs, being able still to heal themselves, and in general to be way safer than RKs. Soloing is a mix of survavility and speed, and now minstrels have the best one.

RKs kill fast, and die fast aswell. Guardians kill slowly but safe, same as wardens. Minstrels kill fast and safe.

Squishie....

Yes and No.

At lv72 I have 3400morale to 3900 depending on what gear i switch around.
I have from 975will to 1150will. (not much damage differnce) (which is a issue on its own...)
I tryed a 4500morale set up, but i found my damage so lacking... i was still beating boss in same amount of time, if not taking longer and still coming close to dieing.

Solo wise, I found certain area's just near evil.
a 14-27k target by itself is no threat under Fire path. you can destroy 10-15k by time it closes gap. Inless of course you pull a 2nd mob... or the monster cirts and hits you for 3000+ killing you anyway.
Shadow wolfs in Enedwaith... one 14k shadow wolf is ok. with 3400 morale i can take him out with out dropping below 1000. Sadly... they always seem to be in groups of 2, or have 2 smaller ones near by. Pretty much making it impossble.

Now if we Jump to Raid and 12man Skrims.. the story is much differnt...
If tank doesn't get argo, and you pull. You died.
Leut AOE? Dead.
Random Raid/SKrim Troll hit, Dead

I've tryed adding more Psy Mit, armor, Agi, Mit, Vit. It results in Dead.
I wish Light armor classes could have better ways of getting dodges %.
I can stack on extra stats... loss alot of damage, for what.. 2-3% extra parry/evade.. yays! -_-'

Rk, Mini and LM need help. Its cool, i get it, we are squishie. But making everything "hard" for Heavy classes is not helping these 3 classes....

Me? I'm doing pretty good at lv72 with 3400ish morale. I can out argo/damage most lv75's, heal better then most peeps, showing off the RK awesomes.
But man.... do I die alot in 12man Skrims. Well... itlest when its a bad group, bad tank, etc.

Last night.. I deid like.. 7 or 8 times trying heal a raid. I was being dropped by 1-2 hits every time. (those hawk eye'd chicks need to have there damage toned down bad!!)

Problem is, apart from being lvl 72, that you have way too few morale. There are so many things nowadays that hit for 3-4k... I had almost double of your morale at your lvl, while still having close of your will. You just need to focus on Will/Vit items. Work on your morale Virtues. Etc etc...

This doesn´t mean you will survive in raid skirmishes being lvl 72 - although i really doubt the skill of your partners if you can outaggro them, specially using CV. The DPS difference on lvl 75 is so big, that i can imagine mostly that you don´t follow RAT and attack a loose mob with iEoF, so dying would be more your fault.

What is true in anyways that everything not heavy armour nowadays die faster than ever. RKs specially as we´re more squishier than others.

I have issues with skirmishes and AOE damage. It's a bit out of control. AOE hit for 7500 is pretty much instant death. I have about 30% or so tactical mitigation..

Our fates entwined, the skill that prevents interrupts and 10% damage reduction is pretty much useless in these skims and large aoe hit damage 10% damage from a 5000 or so hit on 3 fellowship members in addition to the 7500 crit aoe hit is pretty much instant glib. IT funny to joke at but makes one of our skills pretty end-game useless

Hit for!

7500
500 (Aoe mitigation from other party members getting hit back to me)
500
500

RK CC skills:
- Chilling Rhetoric - Slow one, kill the other while he moves to you.
- Rune of Restoration - Kill one while the others focuses on the rune
- Shocking Touch - ...
- Armour of Storm - To use in a pinch (Lightning is the best, but frost isn't so bad either).
- Shocking Words - with full attunnement it works often enough (still not reliable)
- Distracting Winds - Area slow to get you some room
- Vivid Imagery - It IS a CC skill no matter what you say...

I believe this list is more accurate. You included some debuffs, which aren't CC.

1) Learn to manage pulls.
There is no such thing as a pull in lotro. But I assume this is a misunderstanding on my side, because I understand that word in a different way, having played a game where this works differently, so let's skip this point.

The general definition of pull being aggroing mobs. To manage your pulls, is to not aggro too many mobs.

I find it incredibly strange that anyone would say Vivid Imagery or especially Perfect Imagery isn't a CC skill. PI is our most powerful CC skill. I can aggro 3-4 mobs at least, mez them all with it, and kill them all one by one with the crit buff without a whole lot of difficulty. It's why I will not be willing to trait fire to solo, even if it is sometimes faster, because the survivability PI gives you can't be beat.

I find it very rare I need to use Vivid... (cept in solo skrims) its so easy to find 1-2 mobs.

Bradegor
Problem is, apart from being lvl 72, that you have way too few morale. There are so many things nowadays that hit for 3-4k... I had almost double of your morale at your lvl, while still having close of your will. You just need to focus on Will/Vit items. Work on your morale Virtues. Etc etc...

I assume thou you have access to all quest area's and gear?
I don't have access to Mirkwood or ROI gear. I could easly break 1300+ will and 4-5k morale if i owned those 2 area's alone.

Having such low morale isn't to much a issue. With mitgations at decent spots, I actully survive alot of stuff that 1shots squishies.
Most of my deaths in Skrims, involve those few Leut that just hit hard. And 99% when I'm healing.
When I DPS, I actully don't die... even in bad groups. (mostly because i'm paying attention to what mobs are there, and not staring at people life bars healing.
There still a sense of... "why in hell is that Troll not argo by the TANK!!!"
*trys to get away*
*gets 1-shotted*
Good news for RK's thou, once you hit 75, you actully have some decent choices. That long road to that spot... you are pretty limited if you don't own Mirkwood or ROI.

Most of time, you have a choice.
Hit hard, and be squishe.
Hit average and survive.
Or find the right spot inbetween.

I took the Hit hard and be squishie. Route, I have enough trust in Tanks and Champs. Itlest intill I can hit 75 on Enedaith repeats and Skrims.
>_<
..and then get myself some of nice lv75 gear thats taunting me with its Vit stats.