Thread: Am i doing this right??

Hay i have a L50 Minstrel I seem too be playing it the same way since L1 i really havnt changed many spells around, am i doing it the right way,

I have War Speach + Tale of Heroism (60Fate, 60Will) As my constant Buffs.

I do the same rotation every time.
Herald's Strike
Minor Ballad
Perfect Ballad
Major Ballad
Timeless Echoes of Battle
Anthem of the Free People (Use this too regen Morale )
Coda of Fury

Then i Run threw the 4 Insta-Hits
Piercing Cry
Call of Orome
Cry of the Valar
Call of the Second Age

Is this the right way too do it? or am i missing something vital

Thanks

There are several things that could help.

1: Do not start with Heralds Strike. As you are a tactical class, it makes no sense to open with a melee skill. It's not a big deal, so you can forget about it entirely if you want.

2: Use ballad damage bonus to boost cries. After you use coda, the +15% or more damage goes away.

3: Use minor ballad instead of perfect, it boosts your damage and hurts more.

This rotation will probably work better

Minor
Echoes
Minor
Orome
Minor
Third age Anthem
remaining cries and calls (insert Piercing cry, valar, wizards, fate, and second age here in any order)
Free Peoples or Composure or War (depending on whether you need morale or power)
Coda
Second age

This will kill most things, and it doesn't have to be followed precisely

my standard DPS rotation is:

Minor Ballad
Timeless Echoes of Battle
Minor Ballad
Cry of the Valar
Minor Ballad
Anthem of War
Call of Orome

after that it varies slightly depending on number of mobs and how big they are. I'll interleave Herald's Strikes, Minor Ballads, Call to Fate (though you won't have this at level 50), Piercing Cry (unless I may need to save it for an interrupt), Call of the Second Age (usually not against a single mob so it won't be on cd for the next pull in case its multiple mobs), with Cry of the Valar every time its off cd (note: order of skills in this paragraph does not reflect order of use so much as the order they're on my skillbar, roughly, so just the order they come to mind). I set myself up for equal anthem duration and cd (I think 20s?), so after I get Anthem of War up I'll start using Anthem of the Third Age, and try to time it so I can fire off all my warspeech calls immediately after (should be able to get 2 CoO and 2 CtF off each rotation, along with 1 CotSA). I rarely use codas, and chain pulls as quickly as possible so that I never lose my Minor Ballads or Anthem of War buff.

If I need heals, I'll throw in a Chord of Salvation, Soliloquy of Spirit (you won't have this yet either), Noble Cause w/ Herald's Strikes, and possibly an Anthem of the Free Peoples in place of Anthem of the Third Age for a rotation. If more healing is needed, Bolster Courage (preceeded by an Invocation of Elbereth if its a fearable mob). Against very big mobs, I'll use less (or no) Anthem of the Third Age and instead use more Anthem of the Free Peoples, along with Anthems of Prowess and/or Composure in case I need to use the coda.

Against melee I'd start at a distance, first thing I use is Echoes to reduce the enemies resistance which is especially useful if they are above your level.
To get three balads up I use minor, perfect, minor, because minor gives the highest bonus to damage (especially if traited red) and perfect to bridge the cooldown.
Next I use Anthem of War to increase damage followed by Cry of the Valar, Cry of the Wizards (legendary) and Piercing Cry.
Since I traited my anthem CD down to 5 secs I use now Anthem of the Third Age, to increase Call damage and fire Call of Orome, Call of the Second Age and Call to Fate (Level 56) and end with an apropriate anthem (Free people for HoT, Composure for PoT, Prowess for free Noble Cause) and use the Coda.
If the enemy still stands I build up my balads again and fire everything mentioned before as it becomes available.

If you find that you lack survivability you can also drop war-speech and use harmony to get a coda that heals you in addition to doing damage, but you can't access your calls so it will take a while to take down an enemy that way.

If you still find yourself going down you can use neither, that way your Coda is I good heal and the Anthem of the Third Age gives you a free use of Bolster Courage, which is without induction. This way you can heal a great portion of your Healthbar every 5 sec (assuming you are traited such that anthem CD is 5 secs). This way it may take a while to take your oppenent down, but he won't kill you. This is also something you can fall back to from war-speech and dropping war-speech also gives you access to triumphant spirit, a major heal, to save you from death.