Thread: Some minor questions

I have a few questions. By themselves they seemed too insignificant to ask so I have been saving them up.

When I go to areas like for instance the Twenty First Hall I can see in my chat box whenever someone posts a LFF request. Is there a way for me to see those same LFF posts for the Twenty First Hall if I am in another area, like say, Stangard?

Is there a way for me to send mail to someone in my Social Panel friends list? Can I attach an item to mail?

What is heal plug in?

What class is considered Healer and which a Tank?

In Chat dialog what is the difference between "k" and "kk"? Is kk just a more enthusiastic Ok then k all by itself?

When in the Stangard vicinity my Character begins to bubble green for no apparent reason. He stays like that until I log off. Is there something I can do about it?

Originally Posted by Vincenter

When I go to areas like for instance the Twenty First Hall I can see in my chat box whenever someone posts a LFF request. Is there a way for me to see those same LFF posts for the Twenty First Hall if I am in another area, like say, Stangard?

There's the GLFF chat channel. I haven't tried it, but I've heard it's usually full of trolls. So, be warned.

Is there a way for me to send mail to someone in my Social Panel friends list? Can I attach an item to mail?

Yes. Go to a mailbox. Compose mail. Drag item into mail. Send. ??? Profit!

What class is considered Healer and which a Tank?

Main healers are Minstrel and RuneKeeper.
Main tanks are Guardian and Warden.

Originally Posted by Vincenter

When I go to areas like for instance the Twenty First Hall I can see in my chat box whenever someone posts a LFF request. Is there a way for me to see those same LFF posts for the Twenty First Hall if I am in another area, like say, Stangard?

No. Barring GLFF or GlobalLFF which is for all and is not joined by default.

Originally Posted by Vincenter

When in the Stangard vicinity my Character begins to bubble green for no apparent reason. He stays like that until I log off. Is there something I can do about it?

Some effect from some mob. See if you can determine exactly which mob gives you this effect that never goes away and then /bug it (it happens to me too).

Originally Posted by Vincenter

I have a few questions. By themselves they seemed too insignificant to ask so I have been saving them up.

When I go to areas like for instance the Twenty First Hall I can see in my chat box whenever someone posts a LFF request. Is there a way for me to see those same LFF posts for the Twenty First Hall if I am in another area, like say, Stangard?

Is there a way for me to send mail to someone in my Social Panel friends list? Can I attach an item to mail?

What is heal plug in?

What class is considered Healer and which a Tank?

In Chat dialog what is the difference between "k" and "kk"? Is kk just a more enthusiastic Ok then k all by itself?

When in the Stangard vicinity my Character begins to bubble green for no apparent reason. He stays like that until I log off. Is there something I can do about it?

I use CombatAnalysis to track my healing output, it can track damage and healing so you only need the one.

K and KK are the same, some people just like to add the extra one.

Originally Posted by Vincenter

What class is considered Healer and which a Tank?

Primary Healer class is Minstrel; primary Tank is Guardian. Other classes can serve in those roles, and often do, but are less specialized to do so. Rune-Keepers, Lore-Masters and Captains can all heal ''some'', but nothing like a Minstrel.

If you have a really good healer, then anyone can ''play'' the role of Tank, taking all the aggro while others jump on and the Healer(s) concentrate(s) on keeping that one character alive. All it requires is good armour and high-enough Morale to suck it up (and/or special abilities to make up for deficiencies). The dangers of low-armour classes doing this are obvious, but if the Healer(s) can keep them alive - hey, whatever works.

In Chat dialog what is the difference between "k" and "kk"? Is kk just a more enthusiastic Ok then k all by itself?

No diff, personal style. (Imo they DO have a diff ''feel''...) k?

When in the Stangard vicinity my Character begins to bubble green for no apparent reason. He stays like that until I log off. Is there something I can do about it?

The green-bubbly effect is usually some sort of poison or disease, altho' some misc. effects could use the same animation graphics.

Any time you have any effect like that, it shows as a tiny icon under the green/blue-bars next to your character's name/circle. If you mouse-hover over the new icon, you can read exactly what the effect is, and get information on how long it will last. Some are ''area dependent', like Old Man Willow - won't shake it while you're in his ''area''.

Originally Posted by Vincenter

What class is considered Healer and which a Tank?

The Minstrel and Rune-keeper classes are both officially labeled as primary healer classes.

The Guardian and Warden classes are both officially labeled as primary tank classes.

However some people would dispute those designations for a few reasons; in particular the way the classes perform their duties differs substantially (for example, Minstrels heal on-demand while Rune-keepers heal over time). Also, the Champion class is quite able to main tank after somewhat recent changes to the class.

The Lore-master and Captain classes would be off-healers. The Lore-master's ability to heal was upgraded relatively recently and is strong, but I suspect a Captain is still potentially a stronger healer.

EDIT: The Captain class is an off-tank, and a skilled Lore-master could also off-tank with a bear pet, but once again the Captain would be stronger at the role.

Originally Posted by Vincenter

I have a few questions. By themselves they seemed too insignificant to ask so I have been saving them up.

When I go to areas like for instance the Twenty First Hall I can see in my chat box whenever someone posts a LFF request. Is there a way for me to see those same LFF posts for the Twenty First Hall if I am in another area, like say, Stangard?

Nope. The LFF channels are each local to each region (you will see a list of regional channels you join in your chat box when you move into a new zone). There is a global lff channel on every server, but it has a different name on each server. On most servers it is called glff. To join it you would type:

/joinchannel glff

And to chat in it you need to use the channel prefix /1 (or /2, /3, or /4 depending on which channel it is). I recommend that you ask in the advice channel or your kin chat to get this working properly.

Originally Posted by Vincenter

Is there a way for me to send mail to someone in my Social Panel friends list? Can I attach an item to mail?

Yes. Just type the character's name in the letter at any mailbox. You can click and drag an item into the message to send it. I believe that only VIPs are allowed to send items in the mail (maybe it's premiums too).

Originally Posted by Vincenter

What is heal plug in?

What class is considered Healer and which a Tank?

I'm not sure about the heal plug in.

Minstrels and Rune-keepers are the best healers. Captains fill an additional healer role, but they're not quite as adept at healing (but quite good enough to be a main-healer for everything except end-game 6-mans and raids). Lore-masters can heal a little too. For some runs, a burglar can be a 'healer' by using fellowship maneuvers.

Tanks are characters who keep the attention of the mobs and survive the onslaught. Guardians and wardens are the best at this. You will generally require a guardian or a warden for a main tank role for difficult content. Champions and captains can also be tanks to some extent, but it is not as easy for them. All of these classes have skills that increase their threat (make mobs want to hit them instead of someone else), and skills to increase their survivability (self-heals, armour buffs, block/evade/parry buffs, etc.).

In certain cases, other classes can act as a tank: burglars can use Provoke to increase their threat, and use Touch and Go and Knives Out to survive for a short while. Hunters can kinda tank from range. Minstrels can maintain threat by healing themselves. But these are for specific types of encounters when a 'real' tank isn't available.

In 3-man instances, it is pretty common for characters to assume a non-traditional role, since your group layout may be non-traditional. 3-man instances were supposedly designed for a wider variety of group types (not just Tank-DPS-Healer). For example, if you have 2 burglars and a minstrel, you'd probably want 1 burg to be the tank, or to have the burgs take turns at tanking.

Originally Posted by Vincenter

In Chat dialog what is the difference between "k" and "kk"? Is kk just a more enthusiastic Ok then k all by itself?

When in the Stangard vicinity my Character begins to bubble green for no apparent reason. He stays like that until I log off. Is there something I can do about it?

No difference between "k" and "kk". They both mean "OK".

The bubble sounds like a bug. Use the /bug command to submit a bug report.

Originally Posted by dietlbomb

Nope. The LFF channels are each local to each region (you will see a list of regional channels you join in your chat box when you move into a new zone). There is a global lff channel on every server, but it has a different name on each server. On most servers it is called glff. To join it you would type:

/joinchannel glff

And to chat in it you need to use the channel prefix /1 (or /2, /3, or /4 depending on which channel it is). I recommend that you ask in the advice channel or your kin chat to get this working properly.



Yes. Just type the character's name in the letter at any mailbox. You can click and drag an item into the message to send it. I believe that only VIPs are allowed to send items in the mail (maybe it's premiums too).



I'm not sure about the heal plug in.

Minstrels and Rune-keepers are the best healers. Captains fill an additional healer role, but they're not quite as adept at healing (but quite good enough to be a main-healer for everything except end-game 6-mans and raids). Lore-masters can heal a little too. For some runs, a burglar can be a 'healer' by using fellowship maneuvers.

Tanks are characters who keep the attention of the mobs and survive the onslaught. Guardians and wardens are the best at this. You will generally require a guardian or a warden for a main tank role for difficult content. Champions and captains can also be tanks to some extent, but it is not as easy for them. All of these classes have skills that increase their threat (make mobs want to hit them instead of someone else), and skills to increase their survivability (self-heals, armour buffs, block/evade/parry buffs, etc.).

In certain cases, other classes can act as a tank: burglars can use Provoke to increase their threat, and use Touch and Go and Knives Out to survive for a short while. Hunters can kinda tank from range. Minstrels can maintain threat by healing themselves. But these are for specific types of encounters when a 'real' tank isn't available.

In 3-man instances, it is pretty common for characters to assume a non-traditional role, since your group layout may be non-traditional. 3-man instances were supposedly designed for a wider variety of group types (not just Tank-DPS-Healer). For example, if you have 2 burglars and a minstrel, you'd probably want 1 burg to be the tank, or to have the burgs take turns at tanking.



No difference between "k" and "kk". They both mean "OK".

The bubble sounds like a bug. Use the /bug command to submit a bug report.

Thank you all for your answers. Really helpful. I have one more question if it's Ok.
What is it exactly that makes an enemy attack one character rather than another. I am a Burglar and so I know what you mean about Provoke getting the enemy to focus on me for a bit but in general what causes it? Is it the fellow with the highest Morale or a specific character stat? Is it just that the Tank is the first one out there wailing on a mob or a skill they use that keeps aggro on themselves?
And again, thank you for the help. I hope you all know how much more enjoyable the game is as a result of you help.

Originally Posted by Vincenter

What is it exactly that makes an enemy attack one character rather than another. I am a Burglar and so I know what you mean about Provoke getting the enemy to focus on me for a bit but in general what causes it? Is it the fellow with the highest Morale or a specific character stat? Is it just that the Tank is the first one out there wailing on a mob or a skill they use that keeps aggro on themselves?

http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Threat

The player (or NPC) with the most threat will be the one attacked.

A reason for the mobs to attack you. Synonymous with aggro. The more threat you generate, the more likely the mobs will break off from their current target and attack you instead. Tanks want aggro and try to generate large amounts of threat to stay the focus of mobs. Healing the player under attack will also generate threat, and will sometimes cause the mobs to attack the healer. Threat-generating or forcing skills are often known as taunts.

Originally Posted by Vincenter

Thank you all for your answers. Really helpful. I have one more question if it's Ok.
What is it exactly that makes an enemy attack one character rather than another. I am a Burglar and so I know what you mean about Provoke getting the enemy to focus on me for a bit but in general what causes it? Is it the fellow with the highest Morale or a specific character stat? Is it just that the Tank is the first one out there wailing on a mob or a skill they use that keeps aggro on themselves?
And again, thank you for the help. I hope you all know how much more enjoyable the game is as a result of you help.

This is actually a pretty tricky and involved question. When a player encounters a monster, the monster adds that player to its threat table. When a group of players attacks a monster, each player gets an entry in the threat table.

The threat table is just a number that the monster keeps track of for each player. In general, the monster will attack the player with the highest number in that table, but there are exceptions. Aggro is on whoever the monster is attacking.

The actions you take in the fight can either add to your threat or decrease it.

Some things that increase your threat (I can't name them all):

• Damaging the monster will increase your threat.
• Healing a player that the monster had already damaged will increase the threat of the healer.
• Threat-generation skills increase a player's threat; tanks use a bunch of threat-generation skills as part of their tanking rotation. Guardians have "Fray the Edge", for example.
• Some of these threat generating skills are regular damaging attacks with an additional threat component, like the Guardian's "Vexing Blow" or the Champion's "Raging Blade". These skills generate threat from both damage and more threat from the additional threat component.
• Some threat-generating skills are Threat-over-Time skills, like the warden's "Precise Blow" or "Goad" (in fact, a lot of wardens' threat skills are threat-over-time)
• Provoke is odd in that it increases the threat of whoever the monster is currently targeting.
• You get a tiny amount of threat when you are the first player to approach a mob.

Some things that decrease your threat:

• Specific skills designed to decrease threat, like a minstrel's Song of Soothing.

Also, threat can be transferred from one player to another:

• Champions use Ebbing Ire to transfer their threat to another player; they use Rising Ire to transfer threat from another player to themselves.
• Guardians can use Protection to transfer threat from another player to themselves.
• Some Wardens' gambits transfer threat from their fellows to themselves.

There are some skills that affect the mob's Perceived Threat. This is a modification of the player's actual threat that is designed to confuse the mob somewhat. Some examples:

• The Guardian's stance "Guardian's Threat" gives the guardian +20% perceived threat while the stance is active. The mob will just add 20% to the guardian's threat total while the stance if up, and it will disappear when the stance is deactivated.
• The Hunter skill "Beneath Notice" reduces the hunter's perceived threat for 10 seconds. This is useful if the hunter draws a monster away from the tank, so the tank has 10 seconds to reestablish aggro on the mob. Rune-keepers' "Calming Verse" works similarly.
• The burglar stance "Quite Knife" decreases the burglar's perceived threat during the fight. This will allow you to do more damage without attracting the enemy. There are similar stances for Champions and Hunters.

Another thing that affects who the mob is aggroing is force taunts. These are skills that force the mob to attack whoever taunted it. Some examples:

• Guardians' "Challenge" is an AoE force taunt.
• Champions' "Champion's Challenge" is a ranged single target force taunt.

There are some mobs that are immune to force taunts (like Igash, the boss of the Grand Stair). There are also some mobs that attack randomly no matter what you do (like the Devoted, an annoying add during the fight with Igash that you aren't allowed to kill).

There are a bunch of discussions on the forum about how much each action affects the threat total. There is no way to know what the mob's threat table looks like during a fight, but some players have done some extensive testing to see how certain skills work to generate threat.

In a well organized group, each of the players will do whatever possible to maximize the tank's threat while minimizing their own. This allows dps classes to do more damage and healing classes to heal more without drawing aggro.


This is a helpful intro to threat mechanics:

http://casualstrolltomordor.com/2010...its-modifiers/

One thing you can do to better understand tanking and healing in LotRO is to roll some lowbie tank and healer alts. If you level them up to the mid 20s and run the Great Barrow with some other players, you will get a much better grasp of the mechanics of each role.

I recommend a guardian and a minstrel; wardens and rune-keepers are slower to develop into their roles.

Originally Posted by dietlbomb

One thing you can do to better understand tanking and healing in LotRO is to roll some lowbie tank and healer alts. If you level them up to the mid 20s and run the Great Barrow with some other players, you will get a much better grasp of the mechanics of each role.

I recommend a guardian and a minstrel; wardens and rune-keepers are slower to develop into their roles.

Warden is difficult. RK is pretty much the same from level 1 to level 75, except you get more buttons to mash between 1 and 30. Not a slam on the class --- it is one of my 2 favorites, along with burg --- but it is no late bloomer. You get the first 3 healing skills in just a few levels (prelude, rock, and something), a fire dot attack, and a zot or 2, all by the time you get south of thorin's gate. From there, it is just more of the same, really.

Warden is not only extremely complex, you get masteries at very high levels and those are game changers for the playstyle and ability to tank. A warden has not really played the class enough to really understand it until they are almost level 60, having 5 length gambits and mastery skills, at which point the class finally shapes up like it will be at endgame.

Originally Posted by forusrname

Warden is difficult. RK is pretty much the same from level 1 to level 75, except you get more buttons to mash between 1 and 30. Not a slam on the class --- it is one of my 2 favorites, along with burg --- but it is no late bloomer. You get the first 3 healing skills in just a few levels (prelude, rock, and something), a fire dot attack, and a zot or 2, all by the time you get south of thorin's gate. From there, it is just more of the same, really.

Yeah, I think you're right. But, I still think playing a minstrel would be a little more straightforward for a budding healer.