Discussion: Minstrel Plug-Ins

I'm interested to see if any mini's out there are using plug-ins, specifically for raiding. Any "must haves"?

Buffbars sure is must-have for raids. Minstrelbuff lets you manage your ballads and anthems easier which helps me a bit as well.

These are essential to me:

• MinstrelBuff by Melida
  Shows anthems running in FS. Extremely useful to keep track of what anthems are running and for how long - and if you are 2 minstrels in the same FS, it shows the other minstrel's anthems too, so you don't play the same.
• LowWarn by MrJackdaw/patch by Nimryeth
  Makes my screen edges red or blue when I get low on health or power. So easy to forget to look at your own health as a minstrel, but I never miss it with this one.
• BuffBars by Pengoros
  Shows pots for removals & health/power. Very useful in raids where you need to remove stuff instantly.

Nice to have:

• Mouse Cursor Highlighter by Fortunis
  Lets you enhance your mouse so it's easier to spot. Very useful to a clicker like me.
• LoTRO Alerts by Garan
  Triggers a text on your screen by a predefined word/chat/event. Especially been useful to me in Steamworks T2 when you have to run away when the boss says "Shock [name]" and only have a second to do it, but very useful both in and out of raids.

All can be found on www.lotrointerface.com.

All 5 are in use in this video from one of our raids (HD 1920x1200 with fraps):

Palantir

Id use this instead of Buffbars if you were using Buffbars just for potions, because having a HUD in the middle of my screen is great for keeping track of my own health(which I forget to do). What the potion buttons do is you drag the potion for the debuff into the icon, and the icon will light up when you get that kind of debuff(curable) on you. But its only for bleeds/disease/poison/fear, theres no slot for health or mana.

You can change where the potions sit vertically, and the distance between the health/mana bars, and where the text sits... but there arnt any options for the shapes of the bars themselves. You can opt to hide or keep the default player frame. Unless of course you dont want a HUD.

If you want a HUD, and dont want to use Palantir, theres also vBars. Which is more basic but more configurable in terms of where you can put the bars.

I also do use Buffbars, but its to track specific buffs and to have my buffs and debuffs separate. On my Warden I have one bar off to the side for anything over 1min, a smaller bar closer to center for buffs on me under 1min(you can whitelist or blacklist specific buffs), and another bar just for debuffs so I notice them right away.

I also use JRR skin with Azure Glass Basic, but thats more personal preference to get rid of a lot of Turbines clutter.

• BuffBars is an essential as it makes buffs and debuffs much clearer than the tiny default squares, its secondary function is to pop up potions (or anything I imagine) when pre-programmed events occur (like putting a morale potion in the middle of your screen when you hit 30% morale) but this needs a bit of tinkering with as it's not automatic.
• MinstrelBuff is another one I couldn't do without as it makes Anthems and Ballads very clear, really superb.
• TravelWindow puts all my travel skills in one place which saves the faff of assigning them to your bars, can be configured to display in a number of ways/orders. Like BuffBars this is one I have on all my characters.
• SongBook is handy for those quiet(ish) evenings in the tavern when you aren't out risking life and limb. Makes playing .abc in-game music files a breeze.

excellent posts and thank you all for your feedback. One other question, does anyone use a DPS/heal meter that tracks average HPS/DPS with max output tracking? I sometimes get excited when I see my tanks bar go up more than expected from my heals, and I would love to be able to track those things.

I use Combat Analysis which gives a great overview of heals/crits etc. It's shown top right in my video.

Whiteberry what are you using to have your target's vitals on top of them in that video?

Envoyé par rellik70

Whiteberry what are you using to have your target's vitals on top of them in that video?

It's not a plugin, but an in-game feature in UI settings called "Selection Vital Display".

Not stated before:
Plugin manager - I log in and type /plugins load manager, and all previously chosen plugins load at once.
pothelper - this little addon helps in Sarumon phase 3 (and 4,5 on T2). Your screen turns a color when you have a debuff you can remove (if on timer, it does not show up), and a potion is magically under your mouse, no matter where it is on the screen. You simply click the mouse when you see your screen turn a color.
Eye Detector - this was written by a kinmate and works on the emote "is watching you" etc.. fights like LT in DG and lightning boss in ToO.

Already talked about
Minstrel buffs - this helps me know timing on anthems while raiding
Combat Analysis - dps done, total healing done etc... This only works on healing done by or to you though. I love it on my warden because I will heal 2x or more what the mini heals on me.
Mouse Cursor Highlighter - or a version of it, because when spell effects are going off on the screen I sometimes cannot find my mouse to click the 3-4 skills that I do not have hotkeyed.

I really did not like buffbars as a min, I can see how it would be great for a captian though.
I will also have to check out low warn, that could help me when raiding.

I use MinstrelBuffs, although I'm not quite happy with it when running in Harmony or War Speech (in groups), since it only displays what anthems I currently have active on me but not what I've recently played in what order. It is helpful when I'm group-healing in melody to keep the anthem rotation in order (I'm a 4y/3b healer ).

I've tried using BuffBars to display buffs, but the list of buffs is almost as confusing as the buff icon list below my character portrait, especially in raids with buffs coming in from all kinds of classes. I've recently switched to BuffMonitor on my warden and am considering using that for my minstrel, too.

Tonicbars is a really good plugin for every class. It let's you create more quickslots and stuff.

Envoyé par stratospaly

Plugin manager - I log in and type /plugins load manager, and all previously chosen plugins load at once.

Isn't Plugin Manager redundant now that the same function is available in the standard UI?

Envoyé par Binidj

Isn't Plugin Manager redundant now that the same function is available in the standard UI?

I don't use the manager plugin anymore after the ingame one came, but I heard some people where the ingame one doesn't work properly with the plugins. Perhaps it's specific plugins, but at least for me it has worked fine.

Envoyé par Whiteberry_Laurelin

I don't use the manager plugin anymore after the ingame one came, but I heard some people where the ingame one doesn't work properly with the plugins. Perhaps it's specific plugins, but at least for me it has worked fine.

Plugins that require inventory access did not work properly for me with the Turbine plugin manager as the plugins got loaded before the inventory.

I reverted back to normal loading for those plugins (i.e. for me buffbars and tonicbars).

I did not try recently if something changed in that regard though.

Envoyé par monk_tbd

Plugins that require inventory access did not work properly for me with the Turbine plugin manager as the plugins got loaded before the inventory.

I reverted back to normal loading for those plugins (i.e. for me buffbars and tonicbars).

I did not try recently if something changed in that regard though.

Buffbars, TonicBars and HugeBag work just fine for me now with the in-game manager, I remember that there was an inventory issue but that has been resolved.

Is it hard to install these to my PC? I am not good with PC stuff, but this MinstrelBuff plug-in by Melinda sounds useful.
EDIT: I am afraid to mess something up and ruin LOTRO for me :P

There are full instructions for installing plugins on LotroInterface it's a relatively simple procedure and stays clear of any files that Turbine needs to run the game, so it's unlikely that you will mess anything up.

Envoyé par ShotgunStalker

Is it hard to install these to my PC? I am not good with PC stuff, but this MinstrelBuff plug-in by Melinda sounds useful.
EDIT: I am afraid to mess something up and ruin LOTRO for me :P

Best thing to do is to download LOTRO Plugin Compendium and install it. It's a Windows program that will present you with a listing of the latest plugins and you just check the ones you want to download/install and it'll download and install them for you in the proper place. It will also present you with a display showing what plugins have been updated and it gives you the option to update them.

You want easy? This is easy

Download it Here: http://www.lotrointerface.com/downlo...ompendium.html