Thread: Skills, Skills, Skills

So - I'm a level 75 hunter bringing up a minstrel toon. My bars are filled with tons of skills (it seems). I'm trying to figure out how to best play the mini:

As a healer - what are the best skills to use? I know I have to get three ballads on before I can use anthems - but are there certain skills that are best not "barred"? I really want to learn to be a good healer, as pugs and my kin are always looking for good healers....

As a dps - being a hunter - this I can figure out. I've used war-speech enough soloing to know how to do that.

SO - if some of you experienced minis could either point be to a thread or two, or post here what skills you use and why, that'd be awesome! Thanks in advance!

Learn which of your targeted heals you find preferable. I tend to focus on Bolster Courage and Chord of Salvation, with Raise the Spirit for emergencies (I rarely if ever use Inspire Fellows, which is why I left it off my songbook). Don't forget about your emergency skills, Triumphant Spirit and Fellowship's Heart (if traited) and your Coda. Make sure you use your Soliloquy of Spirit...sure, the pulses aren't that large on their own, but they do add up, can still critical, and it can also get you out of an animation like Chord.

Originally Posted by Casilune

Learn which of your targeted heals you find preferable. I tend to focus on Bolster Courage and Chord of Salvation, with Raise the Spirit for emergencies (I rarely if ever use Inspire Fellows, which is why I left it off my songbook). Don't forget about your emergency skills, Triumphant Spirit and Fellowship's Heart (if traited) and your Coda. Make sure you use your Soliloquy of Spirit...sure, the pulses aren't that large on their own, but they do add up, can still critical, and it can also get you out of an animation like Chord.

Hi, why are you not using inspire fellows? Thanks.

Inspire Fellows is not a very powerful heal and costs considerable power with a lengthy induction. In most situations, there is another skill you should use instead.

There are two different ways of healing as a Minstrel. The most common is to use skills such as Bolster Courage repeatedly, only occasionally throwing out anthems. This style is usually run in Melody (no stance) and uses blue traits. The other relies on keeping up at least three, often all four, of the fellowship buffing anthems and using the direct healing skills as needed in between. This is usually run in Harmony and traited yellow.

Run a few instances with a group and find what works best for you.

Also, if you group with another Mini, try not to use Coda unless absolutely necessary, as it can mess with thier ballads and anthems.

And find the Lua plugin "MinstrelBuff". It's very helpful.

In a fight where you are healing pretty heavily, you'll want to tier up for Anthem of the Third Age, which is a big healing boost.

Then the skill you choose is pretty situational:
Bolster Courage - The most efficient heal. Use this when a single target is taking damage pretty consistently. Basically just spam it over and over on a tough pull where the tank is holding aggro but taking a beating.
Raise the Spirit - I hate this heal. Even traited, it's power inefficient. I wouldn't waste a trait on it and instead ignore it completely.
Inspire Fellows - This becomes efficient if 3+ of your fellows are taking damage. Usually useful when there are large AoEs or tank loses aggro to a champ or something like that. Otherwise, don't bother much with this one.
Chord of Salvation - Great fast heal that can be used on the run. However, it's also very costly in power. In PvE, I usually try to avoid spamming this one because of the power cost and the annoying animation afterwards. However, it has a nice group HoT too so I use it, but sparingly and only if power is not a concern.
Coda - This is another one of your instant heals that you can toss on the run. Great for any emergency where you need to hit a BC but can't because you're moving out of fire/acid, etc. This can heal pretty big and don't be afraid to use it despite what some people will say that having anthems up is more important. The coda effects can be pretty important. Particularly the power regen from Anthem of Composure and the free Bolster Courage from Anthem of the Third Age. I don't think any combo in the game does as much healing per second as Bolster Courage -> Coda -> Free Bolster Courage. You can potentially heal about 15k+ in a couple seconds using that combo.

Originally Posted by Casilune

Learn which of your targeted heals you find preferable. I tend to focus on Bolster Courage and Chord of Salvation, with Raise the Spirit for emergencies (I rarely if ever use Inspire Fellows, which is why I left it off my songbook). Don't forget about your emergency skills, Triumphant Spirit and Fellowship's Heart (if traited) and your Coda. Make sure you use your Soliloquy of Spirit...sure, the pulses aren't that large on their own, but they do add up, can still critical, and it can also get you out of an animation like Chord.

Bolster and Chord are great, but if you aren't using Inspire Fellows you are probably running content that isn't particularly challenging. It is one of your most powerful heals. It may not be power efficient but it is very time efficient, which is often the bigger issue in challenging raid content.

Harmony stance has nothing to do with Anthems. Traiting Yellow has a lot to do with Anthems. Harmony is an AOE Healing + Hybrid Healing/DPS stance. I would use Harmony more often if not for fear of CC breaks. As such I'm usually in Melody but at least 4-deep in Yellow and trying to keep 4 Anthems up.

Originally Posted by bastiat1

Bolster and Chord are great, but if you aren't using Inspire Fellows you are probably running content that isn't particularly challenging. It is one of your most powerful heals. It may not be power efficient but it is very time efficient, which is often the bigger issue in challenging raid content.

Harmony stance has nothing to do with Anthems. Traiting Yellow has a lot to do with Anthems. Harmony is an AOE Healing + Hybrid Healing/DPS stance. I would use Harmony more often if not for fear of CC breaks. As such I'm usually in Melody but at least 4-deep in Yellow and trying to keep 4 Anthems up.

You have what you prefer, I have mine. We usually aren't in situations so dire that I would have to be healing 4 or 5 people at the exact same time. I assume that when you said I must be running "content that isn't particularly challenging," you meant "not running Tier 2 Orthanc." In which case you're right, I don't usually run Tier 2 Orthanc wings.

Originally Posted by asearchforreason

Then the skill you choose is pretty situational:

+rep for a great synopsis of differences in heal skills.



"Sometimes survival comes down to not being hit. Actually, most times." -the chicken skill, Bob and Weave

Forgive my ignorance, but i'm a new 75 Mini and im still unsure what "Coda" is? I know we have various "Coda's of...." but what do you guys mean when you mention Coda in relation to healing?

Coda of Vigour, the default single target healing coda.

Originally Posted by bastiat1

Harmony stance has nothing to do with Anthems. Traiting Yellow has a lot to do with Anthems. Harmony is an AOE Healing + Hybrid Healing/DPS stance. I would use Harmony more often if not for fear of CC breaks. As such I'm usually in Melody but at least 4-deep in Yellow and trying to keep 4 Anthems up.

Harmony has everything to do with anthems. The AotTA for Harmony is a big power discount on anthems and when you trait 4y it becomes permanent until coda. This is great for when you're hitting anthems every 5 seconds, especially in long fights.

Originally Posted by LoyKashka

Harmony has everything to do with anthems. The AotTA for Harmony is a big power discount on anthems and when you trait 4y it becomes permanent until coda. This is great for when you're hitting anthems every 5 seconds, especially in long fights.

I find Harmony:AoTA completely useless because if I'm in Harmony I'm using the Coda constantly for DPS or for AOE heals. If you aren't using the Coda you aren't maximizing your effectiveness. The power savings just isn't worth the sacrafice. I can't even justify casting it first to make the other Anthems cheaper because I want to get Prowess and War up so quickly to help group DPS.

Even the Coda effect is meh. It gives you chance of getting it reapplied. So the power value is = 4*AnthemCost*Crit% - 1*AnthemCost. So your crit chance has to be huge for it to save any power. Certainly not worth the time.

Harmony:AoTA is probably the most useless skill on our bars. I would like to see it reworked to add a buff than grants +5% Ougtoing Healing and -10% Inductions. That is less than Melody:AoTA. The damage from the Harmony Coda would increase but if you have AoTA active it would do no damage at all.

If you did that Harmony becomes a viable AOE healing stance. Melody still dominates as single-target healing. If you are in Harmony DPS mode you wouldn't use AoTA and use the Coda for damage. If you are in Harmony Heal mode and don't want to break CC you can use AoTA to get more heal effectiveness and not worry about breaks. Harmony would be a great hybrid and you an weave in and out between DPS/Heal based on your anthem selection.

Originally Posted by bastiat1

I find Harmony:AoTA completely useless because if I'm in Harmony I'm using the Coda constantly for DPS or for AOE heals. If you aren't using the Coda you aren't maximizing your effectiveness. The power savings just isn't worth the sacrafice. I can't even justify casting it first to make the other Anthems cheaper because I want to get Prowess and War up so quickly to help group DPS.

Even the Coda effect is meh. It gives you chance of getting it reapplied. So the power value is = 4*AnthemCost*Crit% - 1*AnthemCost. So your crit chance has to be huge for it to save any power. Certainly not worth the time.

Harmony:AoTA is probably the most useless skill on our bars. I would like to see it reworked to add a buff than grants +5% Ougtoing Healing and -10% Inductions. That is less than Melody:AoTA. The damage from the Harmony Coda would increase but if you have AoTA active it would do no damage at all.

If you did that Harmony becomes a viable AOE healing stance. Melody still dominates as single-target healing. If you are in Harmony DPS mode you wouldn't use AoTA and use the Coda for damage. If you are in Harmony Heal mode and don't want to break CC you can use AoTA to get more heal effectiveness and not worry about breaks. Harmony would be a great hybrid and you an weave in and out between DPS/Heal based on your anthem selection.

I think we're using Harmony for two completely different healing styles. I rarely use the coda (or any other direct heal for that matter), and just cycle through War, Powress, Freeps, & Conposure. Having all of these up for the duration of a fight makes it go alot smoother, but I need Third Age to last through longer fights. You seem to be almost spamming Coda, which gives power and eliminates the need for Third Age, but you can't be keeping the anthems up like I am either.

We seem to be talking about two completely different things.

Originally Posted by LoyKashka

You seem to be almost spamming Coda, which gives power and eliminates the need for Third Age, but you can't be keeping the anthems up like I am either.

You can keep up 4 Anthems constantly and still Coda every cycle if built for maximum Anthem Duration and minimum cooldown. The Coda removes the Anthem buffs from yourself but not your fellows. The only cost of the Coda in terms of Anthem buffing is the 3 seconds it takes to go Major-Perfect-Major after the Coda.

But what you CAN'T easily do is use an actual heal. I too prefer to leave my Coda alone until I need it (in Melody, that is), and I seem to do my job just fine.

It doesn't have to be one extreme or the other of constant coda spam or never using coda ever. Don't personally think harmony is suited for fights where big single target heals are required (not saying it can't be done, just that it strikes me as being a bit inefficient) but can't disagree with bastiat's view on using harmony. I hammer that coda when I'm in harmony - what's the point otherwise? I might as well not be in harmony if I don't because there's only marginal benefits otherwise.

Originally Posted by Casilune

But what you CAN'T easily do is use an actual heal. I too prefer to leave my Coda alone until I need it (in Melody, that is), and I seem to do my job just fine.

There's not much need for extra healing if you are spamming your harmony coda. Melody is a totally different cattle of fish.

I like to use harmony in 6-man and smaller instances (as well as those old raids and raid-skirmishes that actually demand more healing than I can put out in warspeech ), and I rarely if ever have to skip a coda to throw in a Bolster Courage or Chord of Salvation (or both since I have time for them both before the next anthem cooldown is done). In a typical foundry run, my harmony coda heals every fellowship member for 1.5+ k morale every 6-7 seconds, and getting two or three critical heals of 3k and more morale on a single coda is fairly common. With a decent group there is hardly any need of extra healing (especially if there is a captain around that's also adding to the group heals).

In melody on the other hand I'm keeping my coda for emergency healing and only use it rarely, instead filling the 5 seconds between anthems with whatever heals I find appropriate (mostly Chord of Salvation, Bolster Courage and Inspire Fellows in my case, for some reason I never got along well with Raise the Spirit). There's absolutely no reason to spam a strong single target heal in a fight that doesn't need it spammed. I still keep four anthems up all around, but since I have 5 helpful anthems available in melody (the four group anthems and third age for extra healing) then anthems I'm actually putting up (or rather, which one I leave off) depend on the fight in progress.