Rain's Guide to Grouping

[Rainwhisper]

After a one-year hiatus, I've come back to LotRO and am having a blast. The community is every bit as friendly and helpful as I remembered, and the game world is a joy to explore.

I would like to update my Guide to Grouping to match the current state of things in the game.

I would welcome any feedback on any of the topics, but most especially the class-specific information (I haven't done much with the Rune-keeper or the Warden) and the Glossary (should I include radiance?).

Happy Questing,

Rain

[Hudson7]

A pretty good writeup there walking through a lot of the different areas surrounding the topic, especially for those new to MMOs.

One major correction is the the captain's IHW (in-harms way) + LS (last stand) has nothing to do with threat or agro, essentially we are absorbing 50% of all incoming damage to the party with IHW and using LS to make sure we don't die.

I've posted some links below from my blog that might help not only on some of the tanking/agro parts but specifically on the Warden section. Essentially for wardens, they're tanks like guardians so a lot of the same things will apply. However, we do tank a little differently in that most of our agro skills are built up over time and we lack the snap agro skills of the guardian. So it does take a little more coordination up front but for the most part the concepts are the same.

Group Dynamics

How tanking changes with Mirkwood

What I wise others knew about wardens

Warden Tanking Gambits

[LagunaD]

Good basic guide. Some quick comments:

Guardians and Wardens both have the primary role of tanking; Champions are also perfectly capable of tanking, and have trait line and stance designed for it. Captains are somewhat less effective at tanking than Guardians, Wardens or Champions, but your guide only refers to Guardians and Captains tanking.

One mistake which I see very commonly in PuGs is for people other than the main-tank to pull. While you say people shouldn't attack mobs before the main tank has established threat, it is worth mentioning that the main tank will have a much easier time if he is the one who initiates the pull.

In Harm's Way and Last Stand do not affect any mob's threat and are not force attack skills.

The target assist window is now available in fellowships (and raids), and is the best way to focus fire.

While not quite as capable as an LM (unless the LM is traited for DPS), Hunters and Burglars have significantly better crowd-control capabilities than your write-up suggests.

Rune-keepers also serve as primary healers now. Captain healing is significantly better than an LM; the guide suggests the opposite.

Healers do not have "spells". They have healing skills.

The "Show Dispellable Effects Only" option is a good way for players to watch and clear debuffs (their own, and any group member's that they are able to cure).

The group leader can and should pre-designate a Fellowship Maneuever through the "Fellowship Skills" panel of their character journal, which will appear as a sort of "template" whenever a conjunction begins.

You should add a section on Corruptions - what they are and why they need to be removed. An amazing number of level-capped people don't understand them.

You do not mention debuffing at all, either in the main guide or the class-specific parts. Debuffing is usually the primary role of Lore-masters and Burglars (not crowd-control).

[Rainwhisper]

Thank you very much for the feedback! Obviously, there have been some significant changes.

I implemented every single one of your excellent suggestions (Laguna and Hudson both). Thank you for taking the time to offer detailed and constructive critiques. Please note that you have been given credit at the bottom, with links to your respective guilds and to the Doc Holiday blog.

Any additional suggestions will all be appreciated, and I know that I still need to write up the Runekeeper paragraph. I haven't played one outside of the intro, so that may take a while .

-Rain