Thread: Any important updates to the Moors Minstrel: Builds and Strategies?

I have a minstrel who is quickly approaching 75 and I'd like to take to the moors as soon as possible. I've read through the "The Ettenmoors Minstrel: Builds and Strategies" community guide under minstrel resources. I'm just wondering if there's any more recent/or updated info it would be useful to know. Since that post people have said minis have been beef'd up a bit more by Turbine, and judging by the pictures it looks like the ballad system was a little different back then too.

Anything new and important I should know? Useful skills, traits, etc? Any other general advice for a mini in the moors not mentioned in the community guide? This will essentially be my first time in the moors. (I played for a few hours on my 75 hunt yesterday)

War Speech/DPSing seems to be a really popular way to go in the moors. All the cool people WS. However as my kids will tell you I am not cool, which probably explains why I am the out there healing all the time. I still do WS if I am out on the map by myself (I'm not about to make myself a sitting duck), but if there are other people around even if nobody is grouped I am usually the one sending out heals. The best strategy for the moors is just to have fun. Try out WS, try out healing, see what you like the best then work towards getting the moors gear appropriate for that activity.

You'll find the minstrel much more powerful than a hunter. I trait 5 red 2 blue (the crit heals bonuses) and run warspeech usually. In the rare case that I'm on freepside for a raid vs raid, then I would obviously change those around for a more healing build but you can drop WS and heal pretty well even red traited.

Chord of Salvation is your friend. Get the reduced cooldown legacy and hit CoS whenever you get down 1-2k from full. Other than that, it's pretty much stun with piercing cry, tier up, slow with anthem of the wizards, hit coda, repeat. Minstrel in the moors is pretty much god mode. Once you know what you're doing and have a piece or two of audacity gear, it will take 2+ ranked (or a gaggle of unranked) creeps to bring you down.

Originally Posted by asearchforreason

You'll find the minstrel much more powerful than a hunter. I trait 5 red 2 blue (the crit heals bonuses) and run warspeech usually. In the rare case that I'm on freepside for a raid vs raid, then I would obviously change those around for a more healing build but you can drop WS and heal pretty well even red traited.

Chord of Salvation is your friend. Get the reduced cooldown legacy and hit CoS whenever you get down 1-2k from full. Other than that, it's pretty much stun with piercing cry, tier up, slow with anthem of the wizards, hit coda, repeat. Minstrel in the moors is pretty much god mode. Once you know what you're doing and have a piece or two of audacity gear, it will take 2+ ranked (or a gaggle of unranked) creeps to bring you down.

can take quite a few ranked creeps sometimes too sadly :P baddies ftw!

It all depends on how serious and prepared you want to be.

Since you spend some time checking on guides , i take it you want to be as prepared as possible.

Trait wise , its either 5 red/2 blues , or full reds . ( personally i find almost all reds traits very useful so i roll on 7 reds )
Now gameplay-wise , whenever you see a creep , you start with piercing cry , followed by debuff skills and cry of wizards if its a kiteable creep.
If its not , and you expect to get hit , cry of valar is the proper click , because it provides large survivability.( Personally i add those 2 skills on mouse shortcuts , and i keep my pure dps skills on the first number hotkeys)

A nice order for nuking a creep is : Piercing cry,echoes of battle(resist debuff),call of orome(light defence debuff),cry of wizards,call to fate,call of the 2nd and coda IF you can.

Now as far as ballads are concerned,you almost never have the time to play all 3 of them,so you have to add cry of chorus in your playstyle.It's imho the most epic skill to destroy a creep because you instantly get a big damage bonus and a free coda to use.However, it has a big cooldown , so it would be nice if you had a minus cd legacy for it in your book.

You also need to train a lot with moving while dpsing.Every single skill you will be using in the ettenmoors , can be used while moving and thats a big bonus.

Finally,make sure you make a couple of special pvp/dps legendaries. A weapon and a book.
Obviously , weapon has the highest priority ,though the book is important as well , because your healing legacies are no good in the moors ( chord of salvation cd excluded ).Good news is that you dont need to worry about extra major legacies ( all you need is 3 on each ), so more or less any weapon/book you craft, can become a perfect war tool : O

I hope i helped with the dps approach : ) And a final reminder : Fear is your best friend in the moors

Originally Posted by Dinarian

War Speech/DPSing seems to be a really popular way to go in the moors. All the cool people WS. However as my kids will tell you I am not cool, which probably explains why I am the out there healing all the time. I still do WS if I am out on the map by myself (I'm not about to make myself a sitting duck), but if there are other people around even if nobody is grouped I am usually the one sending out heals. The best strategy for the moors is just to have fun. Try out WS, try out healing, see what you like the best then work towards getting the moors gear appropriate for that activity.

Thanks! Yeah I'm wondering how I'll do with WS solo and in 1v1s, but do like healing, so maybe I'll trait heals if there's a group raiding about.

Originally Posted by asearchforreason

You'll find the minstrel much more powerful than a hunter. I trait 5 red 2 blue (the crit heals bonuses) and run warspeech usually. In the rare case that I'm on freepside for a raid vs raid, then I would obviously change those around for a more healing build but you can drop WS and heal pretty well even red traited.

Chord of Salvation is your friend. Get the reduced cooldown legacy and hit CoS whenever you get down 1-2k from full. Other than that, it's pretty much stun with piercing cry, tier up, slow with anthem of the wizards, hit coda, repeat. Minstrel in the moors is pretty much god mode. Once you know what you're doing and have a piece or two of audacity gear, it will take 2+ ranked (or a gaggle of unranked) creeps to bring you down.

I like the sound of what I'm getting myself into. The first few hours I went (on my hunter) I expected minis to be the prime targets for their healing abilities to themselves and others, but looks like hunters were usually pounced on first. Completely different than what I thought would happen, but good news for trying out my mini in the moors in a few more levels.

Originally Posted by BotLike

It all depends on how serious and prepared you want to be.

Since you spend some time checking on guides , i take it you want to be as prepared as possible.

Trait wise , its either 5 red/2 blues , or full reds . ( personally i find almost all reds traits very useful so i roll on 7 reds )
Now gameplay-wise , whenever you see a creep , you start with piercing cry , followed by debuff skills and cry of wizards if its a kiteable creep.
If its not , and you expect to get hit , cry of valar is the proper click , because it provides large survivability.( Personally i add those 2 skills on mouse shortcuts , and i keep my pure dps skills on the first number hotkeys)

A nice order for nuking a creep is : Piercing cry,echoes of battle(resist debuff),call of orome(light defence debuff),cry of wizards,call to fate,call of the 2nd and coda IF you can.

Now as far as ballads are concerned,you almost never have the time to play all 3 of them,so you have to add cry of chorus in your playstyle.It's imho the most epic skill to destroy a creep because you instantly get a big damage bonus and a free coda to use.However, it has a big cooldown , so it would be nice if you had a minus cd legacy for it in your book.

You also need to train a lot with moving while dpsing.Every single skill you will be using in the ettenmoors , can be used while moving and thats a big bonus.

Finally,make sure you make a couple of special pvp/dps legendaries. A weapon and a book.
Obviously , weapon has the highest priority ,though the book is important as well , because your healing legacies are no good in the moors ( chord of salvation cd excluded ).Good news is that you dont need to worry about extra major legacies ( all you need is 3 on each ), so more or less any weapon/book you craft, can become a perfect war tool : O

I hope i helped with the dps approach : ) And a final reminder : Fear is your best friend in the moors

I'm weary of how successful a DPS mini will be. Having a modestly geared hunter as well, I think about how minis don't usually get huge devastation and very often...but then again I suppose the massive self heals helps compensate for it taking longer to kill baddies. I imagine I would run 5 red 2 blue...I'm in love with the improved raise the spirit trait because it's essentially a clone of CoS (the .4 sec induction basically means no induction). Hopefully the supposed introduction of saving trait profiles will help with switching between heals of instances and skraids, and DPS for moors. I agree with the legacies and nuke order...definitely need to start looking for DPS LIs...could take a while though to get the right legacies I want on there. Very helpful post, thank you!

Originally Posted by BotLike

Trait wise , its either 5 red/2 blues , or full reds . ( personally i find almost all reds traits very useful so i roll on 7 reds )

Not necessarily. Yes on 5 Skald for capstone if you want to DPS - the other two are preference based. I switch between 1WoR/1PoS (anthem CDs) to 2 WoR. It depends.

Originally Posted by BotLike

Now gameplay-wise , whenever you see a creep , you start with piercing cry , followed by debuff skills and cry of wizards if its a kiteable creep.

I will usually try to stun, unless they are immune or branded - and then slow (same provisions apply). With so many creeps using Fury pots, sometimes you can't even slow. Rotation is situational based on what consumables your opponent is using. For someone returning to the Moors, a lot has changed with regard to consumables and opponents using the Store. Best to get familiar with all the icons and timers before setting a rotation.

Originally Posted by BotLike

Now as far as ballads are concerned,you almost never have the time to play all 3 of them,so you have to add cry of chorus in your playstyle.It's imho the most epic skill to destroy a creep because you instantly get a big damage bonus and a free coda to use.However, it has a big cooldown , so it would be nice if you had a minus cd legacy for it in your book.

If you're not using all 3 ballads, you're shortchanging your ability to maximize your burst. We have a short window to use our big hits. Buffing your damage is the only way to maximize that. Agree on CotC, but much more careful with it when fighting wargs. You will want it up; especially with warg packs.

...

Also with regard to book legacies, a book without maxed AoW (tactical) is pretty gimped. I would say both a DPS weapon and a DPS book are important if you want to maximize your kills. Again, we have a limited window to burst and after that, our damage is ineffective at best. Effective damage being damage that results in a kill.

Originally Posted by Dinarian

War Speech/DPSing seems to be a really popular way to go in the moors. All the cool people WS. However as my kids will tell you I am not cool, which probably explains why I am the out there healing all the time. I still do WS if I am out on the map by myself (I'm not about to make myself a sitting duck), but if there are other people around even if nobody is grouped I am usually the one sending out heals. The best strategy for the moors is just to have fun. Try out WS, try out healing, see what you like the best then work towards getting the moors gear appropriate for that activity.

I like your attitude.. :-)