Ray-Ray's LM guide. :D

Now of course, everyone will play their class differently. What I am aiming to do, however, is give you tactics, detailed trait information, and personal builds that just work for me. It might not be your cup of tea. Don't say I didn't warn you.

As I'm planning a lot of explanation for this "guide", things will be worked up post by post. Here's the first bit:

Stylized Roles - Trait Line Explanation

With the release of Moria, characters are able to follow "trait lines", described by a trait's coloured-box, and the tool-tip seen when highlighting the skill.

Nuker: This is basically a build that focuses on the Master of Nature's Fury line of traits (Red). Stylized towards damage, the line of traits looks like this:



And yes, those percentages stack.

This means with 4 of these traits equipped, your fire skills' damage will rise by 35%! One thing to note, is that all LM fire skills are "Tactical Based" (this is seen by highlighting a skill, and then it will display the skill-type under the range/induction times). With 4 traits, you get an additional 15% to your tactical damage. That means your Burning Embers, Sticky Gourd, Sign of Power: Wizard's Fire, Cracked Earth, Ents go to War (If you use it-- which I highly recommend with this build) will all deal 150% of their regular base damage.

Take into consideration that Burning Embers is your "spam skill". With a low induction, and low cool-down time, you'll be using this skill the most. That means a ton of extra output.

A large thing to note though, if you trait this line, is that you lose 25 seconds on your total stun time from Blinding Flash. Blinding Flash only lasts 30 seconds, and has a cooldown of 15. This means you can't stun a mob for more than 5 seconds, and you have to wait 10 seconds for the skill to be ready before you can stun again. Needless to say, this line doesn't allow you to CC (Crowd control) very well, at all.

Still, however, if you're farming, or soloing in a relatively easy area, this trait line makes you more powerful, and makes battles faster. Just don't think you can go pulling four mobs at once. That's not your job anymore.

Pros of this trait line:

A much needed increase to an LM's damage output
Most of the traits reduce the cost of your skills-- enabling you to have more bang for your buck.
If you've played other MMO's, Master of Nature's Fury plays a lot like a "Pet Class". It's you, your companion, doling out damage and the hurt.
Great for soloing, since you'll kill mobs fast, and without remorse.

Cons of this trait line:

An LM was never really meant to "nuke" anyway-- cutting into Blinding Flash is cutting into an LM's strongest skill (not DPS wise, but usefulness wise)
This trait line is not fellowship-friendly, nor is it handy in most instances. Losing the ability to keep a mob stunned means you only have an AoE root, stuns based off damage skills (that don't last longer than 5 seconds), and an AoE undead stun to keep mobs at bay. All of these have very high cooldown timers. If your fellowship can't kill a group fast, you'll be in trouble.
Unlike other trait-lines, this one centers you on damage, and pretty much damage only. You have very little "wiggle-room", to do much else.

Recommended Traits to use (Listed in order of importance):

Improved Staff Strike: the +5% morale and the ability to deal out extra damage on a flanked enemy is amazing. That, and the skill has a low cooldown as it is-- with a legendary weapon's legacy to add -5 to it, this skill is combo spammable. (Meaning, You can do Burning Embers --> Staff Strike --> Burning Embers, etc etc.)
Anor's Flame: More Damage. Since you'll be damage based, this is essential to keep up.
Harmony With Nature: Less power cost, and lower induction times means more skills, in less time.
Awareness of Body: Since LM skills tend to use both power, and morale, this is essential to keep yourself alive-- you don't want to over-extend your casting, only to leave yourself vulneratble.
Tactically Adept: Less power use means more skills to be used.

The last three slots will depend on what you want to do.

If you're going for pure soloing with a pet, slot in Beast-Lore, Master of Beasts, and any 7th skill you choose.

If you want to try and grasp some sort of crowd control, slot in Deep-Lore (increased # of targets for Herb-Lore), Explosive Force (Makes your Blinding Flash harder to resist-- it's tantamount that you get every stun off when they only last 5 seconds.), and any 7th skill.

If you want to be a supportive Nuker, slot in Healer, Proof Against All Ills, and Light of Hope. This reduces your time on your Beacon of Hope cooldown by 10 seconds, allows you to cure/bolster wound and disease resists, and reduces their inductions.

Recommended Legendaries:
Sword and Staff -- For all three. The extra boosts from this skill alone, let alone extra stats from a good sword (Like Cururist) make this impossible to pass up.
Ents go to War -- AoE fire damage (+50%!), AoE stun, and extremely strong.

The last legendary should be:
Noble Savage -- If you're using pets, this makes him stronger. Beatdown good.
Improved Sticky Gourd -- makes Sticky Gourd AOE, and makes it a hotspot. Very, very useful.

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I realize now how big a post that was. My next post: The Ancient Master!

Stylized Roles: Trait Lines Explanation

Chaos Controller: This is a build that focuses basically on the trait line: The Ancient Master as seen below.



Now while the boosts from the trait don't seem to be as great as Master of Nature's Fury, the traits needed for this line make this extremely useful. Groups of enemies can be reduced to little babies, and be picked off one by one.

Let me explain. In an instance where a boss has a ton of mobs, hunters won't always be able to root. You don't always have to deal with "trash" or "junk" mobs, as they're a waste of time-- unless necessary like the boss fights in the Forges, where you pretty much have to kill the trolls just to deal with the boss.

At three traits, your Cracked Earth's rooting debuff procs off 5 seconds earlier. This usually stands at 10 seconds. This mean, you cast, hit the monster, and in 5 seconds, they're rooted. In a heated fight, those 5 seconds less it takes for trash monsters to be rooted, means 5 more seconds to make distance with your group, means 5 more seconds of time. Time is valuable.

At four traits, your Warding Lore affects Orcs, Dead, and Beasts. You know that pretty pink circle that you lay down to have the dead take more damage from tactical skills, as well as attack slower? Yeah. That now hits 3 types of monsters. And with most instance bosses falling in one of those three categories... yeah. You can see the potential.

You will not have the DPS to take down mobs well solo. But you will be able, if absolutely necessary (and you somehow pull this many mobs,) root 8 with herb lore, cast Cracked Earth and root another group, and then pick off (or run, probably) as you please.

Pros of this Trait Line:

- LM debuffs stack very well with other LM's, or Burglars. One LM, and one Burglar can make any foe's bite hurt less than a bee-sting.
- Your crowd control becomes far stronger than before, enabling you to adapt to any battle on the fly.
- Extremely good for groups: and cheap too! Carry this around, and you won't have to retrait often-- this is very adaptable, and useable in any instance.

Cons of this Trait Line:

- You won't dole out the hurt with this trait line. Neither will your pet.
- This trait line requires a style of play that is not only adaptable, but very attentive. Because you have a ton of weapons at your disposal, you need to know how each weapon can be used, when to use them, and be able to use them as needed.
- The trait-line bonuses aren't great for soloing. Mind you, the LM has always been a solo class-- playing with this is basically playing pre-Moria. The other two trait lines increase soloability further.

Did I mention, that the skills in this trait line are all CC based? Here's the skimmy on traits you want (In order of importance!)

[list]Fast Loader - Instant mez? Do I really have to say more? Mind you-- there's still a downtime of a half-second to a second though. In theory, the cooldown for this skill is 15 seconds, and monsters stay mezzed for 30. You SHOULD be able to keep two monsters mezzed, but with that downtime, they'll get a couple steps in at you. No matter. Two mezzed is better than one and a partial mez.
Deep Lore - With the ability to increase number of targets for Fire, Wind, and Herb-lore from 3 to 8 (EIGHT!), this means you can cut melee damage for EIGHT monsters, cut ranged damage and increase miss chance for EIGHT monsters, or root EIGHT monsters. EIGHT is your new favourite number.
Improved Sign of Power: Command - This is already a great debuff, with extremely low cooldown, and stacking well with the Gust of Wind debuff, as well as Wind-Lore. And now that it hurts Evade and Parry? Well hello more hits.
The Study of Fire/Wind-Lore - These will increase the magnitude of your debuffs. I'm sorry, is there something wrong with taking less damage? I didn't think so.

This leaves two slots left. If you're soloing, I recommend Flame of Arnor, and Improved Staff Strike. This gives your fire skills a tiny boost, as well as a small morale boost.

If you're going to be running instances / with a fellowship, trait Proof of all Ills and Healer. The AoE wound/disease cure is useful in most instances, and the extra heal is always nice. No one ever said no to more morale.

[Note: If the instance you're running doesn't have wound/disease, trait Improved Staff Strike in place of PoaI. +5% morale means you're around just a little longer to do cause a little more chaos.]

Recommended Legendary Traits:
Sword and Staff - A staple in the LM book. Seriously. Why would you deny this?
Force of Will - Wait, your debuffs last longer? You mean, Fire Lore lasts longer? Less damage, for longer?

Your third legendary is all up to you. Slot Eagle-Friend if you're going to think you need the self-rez, or want to give your fellowship the extra ICPR. ICPR is always nice. Slot March of the Ents if you want yet ANOTHER stun to add to your arsenal.

Avoid Noble Savage. As this is a very fellowship-oriented trait line, your pets shouldn't need to be helping the DPS much. It's useful, but can be replaced by better.

---

And then for the third trait line- The Keeper of Animals![/quote]

Stylized Roles - Trait Line Explanation

Deadly Duo: This build is based on the trait line Keeper of Animals, as seen below.



So you've chosen a Lore-Master because you really, really, really like animals. (Not that way you pervert, stop reading.) You've played pet classes before, you love fighting and soloing (or duoing), and can't get enough of it.

While this trait-line won't boost your damage to huge extents, your pet will become a superhero! Well, not really-- it seems like it, but it's not true. Still, pets are generally weak in LotRO, and with this trait line, they become able companions (not that they weren't already)

As usual, the 2-trait bonus is negligible. That skill isn't really used. The love really appears at 4-traits.

(Again, yes, percentages stack)

This means that your Sign of the Wild: Rage makes your pet attack with a -15% attack duration. This means that there's less of a wait time between each strike. If they were hitting 100 times in 100 seconds, you'll find that they now hit 100 times in 85 seconds. Not much, you say? When those extra hits are flanks, or a good amount of them are, you'll soon realize how that becomes useful.

If you decide to use Sign of the Wild: Protection, then they take an extra 5% less damage. Mind you, they won't have the threat generation from Sign of the Wild: Rage, nor the reduced attack times. This might pose a problem, since pets generally have trouble keeping aggro from a Lore-Master anyway. Think about this, though.

Hardy Bear
Bear summon
Delicious Honey and Oats
Sign of Wild Protection
Noble Savage
Master of Beasts

I've had it where I can't actually pull aggro off of my bear. That, or he makes a decent off-tank, for say two or three bosses that were to attack all at once. Situational? Maybe. Useful? Yes.

That, and the traits in this line aren't all pet-based. They're made for you to work with your pet-- but some of those traits allow you to work with a fellowship as well.

Note: 100% Air-Lore Damage mitigation doesn't mean it will absorb all damage. Air-Lore generally has the ability to absorb a set amount of damage (I think it's something like On damage: 20% chance to absorb 20 damage or something). This just makes it so it will always absorb the damage.

Pros of this Trait Line:

- A much needed increase to pet attack, threat generation, defence, and overall pet strength.
- Some of the skills are applicable to fellowships-- not just the LM/pet duo.
- Well-rounded for soloing, or being with a group

Cons of this Trait Line:

- No boost to your own personal DPS-- and a pet DPS is still low regardless
- No trait-bonuses to your mezzes. That's not bad, mind you-- but you won't be as viable CC as an Ancient Master trait slotted Lm would be. Doesn't mean you're useless.

If this style of play suits you, however, read on for some traits (In order of importance!)

Beast-lore - An extra boost to my pet's stats? Why not? This makes it generate more aggro, deal more damage, take more of a beating-- less damage to me, means... well, I don't die!
Master of Beasts - Debuffs stick on for longer, and the ability to cure your pet's negative status effects all for one? Yes please!
Healer - You mean, I can toss out heals to my pet faster? Huzzah, the bear-tank will live on! It costs less power to pass it to someone else? Well here you go friend, keep the nukes and heals going!
Proof Against All Ills - Curing my own wounds and disease mid battle? A fellowship's too? That makes me even more useful!
Improved Staff Strike - I know this doesn't belong to this trait line, but with your pets boosted up, they will flank more. Slamming them with your staff soon after is just extra, quick damage.

This leaves two slots open for other traits.

If you're deciding to use Sign of the Wild: Protection, stack on Wild and War to increase their mitigations further. Hell, Hardy Bear is good with the latter, simply because that will stack with honey and oats, and such. Dunadan-Learning is another good fellowship-based skill, offering 60s of stun immunity rather than 30.

Flame of Arnor is another good skill, to boost your combat ability beside your pet-- slot another Master of Nature trait to increase damage further, and you two will fight alongside very well.

Recommended Legendary Traits:
Sword and Staff - I really don't need to explain this anymore.
Noble Savage - Gives your pet one level, makes it signature, and overall buffs them out more.

Your third will be variant. Eagle-friend for soloing / ICPR buff, or Friend of the Wild for fellowships, inducing conjunctions. There's no reason to not use either or, given the fact that you are buffing your pets.

---

Next up: Raymin's Personal Build! The Hybrid

Stylized Roles - The Hybrid

In my opinion, a hybrid is really where the LM will shine. True, one could go down one path and make that work-- I have seen Master of Nature traited LM's do very will in instances with groups, and I have seen Ancient Master LM's solo extremely tough monsters. This is just my personal playstyle-- if you think it suits you, you're welcome to adapt it yourself, change it. I'm simply trying to offer you views into various worlds of the LM-- our strength and weakness is the fact that we are so adaptable.

Being able to adjust to any situation is the core of the LM. That's what my build focuses on. I'm not great in one field or another, but I don't need to be. I consider myself the Middle-Earth Swiss-Army Knife.

Let's begin with my traits instead. I generally switch out based on instance-- but these are in order of importance to me.

Fast Loader
Deep-Lore
Improved Sign of Power: Command
Healer and/or Proof Against All Ills
Power and Wisdom / Dunadan Learning / Flame of Arnor
The Study of Fire/Wind Lore / Improved Staff Strike
((Explosive Force / Improved Staff Strike / Flame of Arnor))

As you can see, it's very possible for me to go the Ancient Master route. But let me explain why I use each skill.

Fast Loader - The ability to rival a Burglar with no induction on a mez means that while I am not a replacement for one, I am just as useful. Mezzes are key to crowd control.

Deep Lore - The ability to root 8 mobs, and debuffs 8 mobs all at once can make a clusterered, or a horrid pull turn into a survivable, manageable one.

Improved Sign of Power: Command: A quick debuff, that renders enemies far easier to hit and weakens them, for very, very cheap. A staple, that stacks very well with burg debuffs.

Healer & Proof of All Ills: While I know that LM's aren't built for healing, tossing out a heal every 20 seconds helps the minstrel (or, tossing one at the minstrel is even better if they're taking heat), and helps me build up aggro just incase I ever need to pull it off a fellow squishy. Proof is situational at best for instances and certain mobs, but I tend to leave it on anyway. Best be prepared for anything.

This leaves me at 4/5 traits.

If I'm in a heavy, power-hungry group, I'll usually trait Power and Wisdom. Being able to draw more power, means I can pass more power, means they can fight longer. However, this skill's usefulness is kind of moot-- at 60, I have about 594 will without the +80 buff from Improved Ancient Wisdom. While it does bring me to 600, I only get 24 more Power-- if it weren't for the fact that it helped me drain for an extra 8 seconds, I wouldn't trait this at all.

Dunadan Learning will be traited if I need to pass stun resistance, or if I'm in the moors-- I don't need to be ganked by a warg pack. Flame of Arnor is slotted if I can afford to just do more damage.

That is 5/6 traits.

If I'm going to be supporting a group in an instance, I'll usually slot both debuff traits-- that brings me to 7, and makes me able to rend enemy attacks near-useless. If an instance is geared more towards one attack than another (or all the bosses are melee, or all ranged, or what), then I'll slot one, and move down to Explosive Force.

If I don't need the extra resist rating from Explosive Force (it just lowers an enemies' resist to physical skills, I.E. Blinding flash), then I'll slot Master of the Staff. +5% morale, and Improved Staff Strike make me more soloable, and sturdy.

Let's move onto Legendaries.

Sword and Staff
Ents go to War (If I have Force of Will) / Noble Savage
Force of Will (if I have enough traited) / Eagle Friend

If I have enough of Ancient Master traited, I'll slot Ents and FoW just for extra debuff and the additional stun. Otherwise, I'll slot NS and my eagle, for ICPR and just in-case situations when I die.

I of course, have various random builds for soloing, and so will you. The point is to find a trait set that works for you, and go with it. I hope that these trait builds have given you insight-- and stay tuned for the next few posts. I'll be detailing strategies and explain LM Mechanics as well

Trait Updates after book 7:

For Chaos Controller - The Ancient Master trait line

Sub out The Study of Fire/Wind Lore for Power and Wisdom, or Explosive Force. The increased Power Drain will fill up your Power bar far better than the unimproved Power Drain, allowing you to pass around more.

For the Hybrid - I dropped Dunadan Learning simply because the stun resist seems to be redundant, now.

I'm running with:[list]Fast Loader
Deep-Lore
Improved Sign of Power: Command
Healer
Proof Against All Ills
Light of Hope
Master of the Staff / Power and Wisdom

My will is 600 without the Ancient Wisdom buff, but if I'm going to be instancing with a group, I need to drain tons of power to pass tons of power. If I'm soloing, I'll take the +5% morale, and the extra flank damage.

I'll slot Sword and Staff, Noble Savage, and Eagle-Friend for soloing, use the eagle, and heal/inflict pain with Flanks. I'll switch out Eagle-Friend for March of the Ents for another AoE stun, and use a lynx to add to party DPS, or a Sabretooth in hopes of proccing some conjunctions.

---

Lore-Master Mechanics - Things that make a Lore-Master, a Lore-Master

Every Class in LotRO has something that separates them from just "any other class that just has different skills." Champions have Fervour, Hunters have Focus, etc etc.

Lore-Masters have a few things they need to know to capitalize on their gameplay.

Flanking

Unlike the general definition of flanking, this does not rely on position.

Flanking is a proc caused by your pets. There are even tons of ways the game tells you that it happens.

1) It puts a debuff on the enemy called "Flanked!". It looks like a set of jaws.
2) Red arrows point inwards on your enemy, and move inwards as well.
3) There's an audio clip that plays, when your pet flanks the mob.

Now, there are two things you can do when your enemy is "Flanked!". One of them requires a trait. Either way, this basically increases your damage output significantly, or it increases your survivability.

Improved Staff Strike - If this is used when your enemy is "Flanked!", you deal somewhere around 180% of your weapon damage + Modifier (changes by level), but what most people don't realize is that it adds a SECOND swing. The second swing is the regular Improved Staff Strike damage (130% + Modifier), and is light based. This doesn't seem like a lot on it's own, but what if you add in the chance that you get a bonus +% to crit if you use it on a flanked enemy?

That's approximately 310% of your weapon damage, + 2 * Modifier. That's WAY more than just a regular Improved STaff Strike (130% + Modifier). Certainly a good use for the "Flanked!" proc.

Note: Imp. Staff Strike also stuns on criticals.

Sign of Battle: Wizardry/Wizard's Fire - Using this skill when an enemy is "Flanked!" gives you a small heal. (At level 60, with basic gear, I heal about 680 morale-- this heal can crit, and critical modifiers apply.) It might not seem like much, but there are uses for it.

These two skills are on a low cooldown, and thus if you can "Flank" a lot, you can pseudo-tank. I personally use this skill if I do have to pseudo-tank (keeping aggro off a mini), over Imp. Staff Strike.

Flanking Rules

Position does not matter.
It's a random chance per pet. Some pet skills have a better chance of flanking-- essentially you want them to attack as much as possible. (Sign of the Wild: Rage is key to giving them more attacks.)
Different pets flank in different amounts. If you want to take advantage of this soloing (I don't see why you shouldn't), you generally want to use a pet that flanks. Order from most flanks -> least flanks is:
Bog-Lurker (Legendary) --> Eagle (Legendary) --> Sabretooth --> Raven --> Lynx --> Bear

Call to the Valar

This is a skill learned at level 34. It looks like this.



Call to the Valar resets the cooldown timers on some skills. NOT ALL OF YOUR SKILLS WILL BE RESET. I hate seeing LM's pop this in hopes to get another Wisdom of the Council (Self heal). IT WILL NOT WORK, NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU PRAY TO THE GM'S.

*breathes*

Here's a list of what it does, and does not reset.

Resets:
Bane Flare
Blinding Flash
Burning Embers
Cracked Earth
Fire-lore
Gust of Wind
Herb-lore
Inner Flame
Light of the Rising Dawn
Power of Knowledge
Staff-strike
Test of Will
Warding Knowledge: Drakes
Warding Knowledge: Dead
Warding Knowledge: Creatures of Nature
Wind-lore

Does not reset:
Air-lore
Ancient Craft
Beacon of Hope
Storm-lore
Sticky Tar
Lightning Storm
Sign of the Wild: Protection
Sign of the Wild: Rage
Sign of Power: Wizardry
Sign of Power: Righteousness
Sign of Power: Command
Sign of Power: Vigilance
Wisdom of the Council
In addition, it does not reset cooldowns for any racial skills such as Man's Strength of Morale.

Now you're probably asking "Why reset skills with a low cooldown?" Well, if you noticed, some skills that it resets are actually very, very useful, and have a large cooldown.

Blinding Flash - Second mez, anyone? If the first one is resisted, or your party just gets really unlucky, and pulls 3 trolls-- well you can at least mez two, right? Kind of. Still, a second mez can be resisted again (and you have to time it right), but it's one of the main uses of this skill

Power of Knowledge - Traited, this usually fills my power meter to at least 60%. If you're in a really, really hard fight you can pass power, drain, pass power, Call of the Valar, drain, and pass more power. There's a reason why we're called the living battery.

Extra roots - If you use Herb-Lore (and if you don't, you really, really should) you'll notice it roots for 30s, but has a 2m cooldown. Well, 0 s if you use Call to the Valar. Great for keeping enemies rooted for a full minute.

Extra stuns - It resets Light of the Rising Dawn and Test of Will. Not the greatest use, but they are stun + damage skills, and have lengthy cooldowns. Stuns = more time bought.

Bane Flare - Very, very situational. But if you're swarmed with undead, the AoE mez is extremely useful.

Note: There is a 2 second delay after casting Call to the Valar-- you can't instantly smack another mob with a mez (You can still Auto-Attack, however). Just keep that in mind.

Mez / Stun Mechanics

This is where the difference between a mez, and a stun come into play. Stuns place the debuff of an outline on a blue background, with the exclamation mark in the middle.

The mezzes (Blinding Flash, Bane Flare) place a debuff that's red, with a sleeping person.

When a stun wears off, the mob becomes immune to stuns. This is indicated by a sort of light red target. This also means the mob is immune to trips by burglars (they can't proc off fellowship moves). IIRC, the stun immunity lasts 10 seconds, but I could be wrong.

Even while stun immune, however, a monster can still be mezzed. When a mez wears off, for 1 second, they're immune to all knockdowns / stuns / mezzes. This is indicated by a yellow background, with the drowsy face. If you try to toss a mez, or stun while in that time-frame, it will do NOTHING. Do not waste your stuns and mezzes. You only have a limited number.

If a monster is mezzed, they can be immediately stunned (You don't have to wait for the full timer to go away.)

If a monster is stunned, THEY CANNOT BE MEZZED (your mez will have no effect). You need to wait until the stun wears off.

When a mez wears off, and that yellow debuff is gone, the mob can be stunned freely. What th is means is:

You can start off with a Blinding Flash
Wait about 10 seconds.
Fire off Test of Will (stuns for 5 seconds)
Wait until enemy gets up from stun.
Fire off a Blinding Flash
Wait about 18 seconds
Fire Light of the Rising Dawn
Wait 3 seconds
Fire off Blinding Flash
Wait about 10 seconds...

Rinse repeat. I'm not sure about the timings-- but essentially, if you can cycle that on a single, stun/mezzable mob, you can solo it without taking damage. Neat, huh?

(I have taken down 26k EM's by myself simply because they weren't immune. It works. It's long, it's tedious, but it works.)

Another thing to note: You can mez while a mob is still mezzed. Blinding Flash lasts for 30 seconds, but it's cooldown is 15. This means you can indefinitely keep a mob mezzed (unless it resists twice). I have used this to heal myself fully in combat, if I fell far far behind. Again, long and tedious-- but LM's aren't about killing things fast.

Tips for LM Players -- What you should know, and what you should tell your fellowship.

Mind you, I'm always learning myself-- but it's still good to have a refresher.

Crowd Control

- If you're good with macros (I'm not X.x), make a macro that tells the group WHAT you are mezzing. If not, be sure to tell them via chat channel or via voice.
- If people start breaking your mezzes, don't get angry. It happens. Tell them to lay off your target, and you'll reset the mez.
- Damage over Time WILL break mezzes. Don't waste a Blinding Flash if you've got your Burning Embers, or there's some other DoT on the creature. Use stuns and roots until the mob doesn't have the DoT, and then mez it.
- Sticky Tar is your best friend, once you get it. It slows mobs by 50%, AND decreases their Fire Resist (It used to be by 30%, but I don't know anymore.)
- Blinding Flash canNOT work on The Dead, and Creatures of Nature (Generally). You have Bane Flare for The Dead, and Creatures of Nature can be rooted.

Pets

- Pets are not re-summonable in combat. Nor are they extremely sturdy. Make sure you have time between fights to get a new pet-- don't be afraid to ask the group.
- If you right click a pet's skill icon, a dotted line will appear around it. This indicates that skill will be used whenever the cooldown is gone (and the pet is able to: A lynx won't use surprise strike out of stealth). If you want to turn it off, right-click again.
- It's highly recommended to have your pet on Passive, and to have Target Assist off. This way, they won't randomly jump into combat, or switch targets if you're trying to have it hold aggro.
- The Raven's "Distract" skill has two uses. One, it applies a debuff to ranged foes very similar to your Wind-Lore, but two is that it also has a high chance of Enraging the target. This means they don't use their bows/throwing poison balls/ranged attacks, and are more likely to melee. If there's a boss with an annoying ranged add, considering summoning a Raven and distracting it. It lasts 15 seconds, and refreshes once a minute-- but that should give an off-tank 15 seconds more than necessary to run over and steal that mob.
- The Raven has a buff for your party, for a HUGE amount of Shadow Mitigation. I think the test radius was 50m, but I'm not too sure about it. USE it. It's about 10-15% less shadow damage as long as it's up.
- The Bear is an okay offtank un-traited, and very good traited. Don't expect him to main tank, though.
- The Bear is your sturdiest pet, but also one of the slower ones. It does have an extra stun, though, which is nice.
- The Lynx is burst DPS, with average regular attacks. It's skills are AoE (Except for Surprise Strike), but not the greatest range. They're all frontal.
- The Lynx's undoubtedly best attack is Surprise Strike, but it needs to be in stealth. The lynx can only stealth out of combat, and it takes about 5 seconds for it to pop it's personal stealth. Don't rush around.
- The Sabretooth has the highest base attack DPS, but talking about LM pets, that isn't much. It has AoE regular attacks, and all of it's skills are AoE frontal, in a wider arc than the Lynx. I even see Throat Slash hit behind it sometimes.
- The Sabretooth has Frost Damage for it's default damage type. It's the only pet with non-common damage.
- The Sabretooth's Throat Slash has a chance of starting a fellow manoeuver. For this to happen, the attack has to caused the "Flanked!" status, and then the game rolls another RNG to see if it starts a fellowship move, or just leaves the Flanked! status.
- The Eagle is an extremely useful pet, but does require a legendary slot. It provides a buff to ICPR equal to an untraited Captain Focus (60 ICPR, or 60 more per minute.)
- The Eagle's Sacrifice skill requires for the eagle to BE IN COMBAT when the Lore-Master dies. (Note: TOGGLE THIS SKILL WITH RIGHT CLICK. If you don't, you have to activate it yourself, but if you aren't fast enough, your pet disappears because you are dead instead of reviving you.)
- The Eagle is able to interrupt some enemy inductions.
- The Eagle's Fan the Flames skill can only be used after the Lore-Master has applied Burning Embers to it. DO NOT USE THIS IN SWARMED AREAS. Fan the Flames fears the enemy.
- The Bog-Lurker is another very good, legendary pet. It attacks at range, and is very sturdy. It starts the most Flanks, has a skill that can start a fellowship conjunction, and has a high attack rate.
- The Bog-Lurker's default attack range is, if I remember correctly, 30m. I could be wrong.
- Do NOT fear any mob that a pet is on. The pet will follow the mob, most likely into a group of more, attract all the aggro, and wipe you.

Healing and Power

-LM's are NOT replacement healers. There is a 30 second cooldown on Beacon of Hope (20 traited), and it requires for the LM to sacrifice a chunk of morale and power.
- Beacon of Hope however, can be spammed ONLY when a minstrel is using Song of Aid. That removes the cooldown timer, and the induction timer. If the minstrel is falling behind, request the Song of Aid, target the tank, and start spamming. You can still use Beacon of Hope while Song of Aid is playing, even if the icon shows it's cooling down from previous use.
- Traited, a Lore-Master can cure Wounds and Disease in battle, with a range of 25m AROUND THEM, not their target. It effects debuffs of their LV, + 5 (For example, a level 42 Lore-Master can cure up to level 47 wounds and diseases.)
- The Lore-Master revive is OUT OF COMBAT ONLY, and revives the target with 5% Morale, and 0% Power. They also suffer a debuff of -70% damage (meaning if they hit 100 damage regularly, they only hit 30). The debuff lasts for one minute. This requires a Shire Sweet-Leaf to perform, and is generally last resort.
- A Lore-Master cannot pass power if they do not have enough to pass in the first place. Politely ask if you need some and the Lore-Master has excess power. Generally, power goes to the healer, and the tank.
- A Lore-Master (traited for healing) uses less power than they receive. This means two Lore-Masters can regenerate each other to full (if they are both traited) by passing each other power repeatedly. This is tedious and long, but still useful if both Power and Knowledge drains are on cooldown.

Miscellaneous

- Sticky Tar stacks with the Burning Embers slow to run speed. That also stacks with burgs, or hunters, or any other debuff the foe might have.
- Multiple LM's can stack multiple Burning Embers. This makes for fast DoT work.
- The LM's strongest skill, Lightning Strike, has a 5 minute cooldown, and requires the Ancient Craft debuff to be set before you can even use the induction. You cannot use another LM's Ancient Craft to fuel your own Lightning Strike. If you have more than one Lore-Master in a fellowship, be sure to co-ordinate the usage of this skill-- it's infuriating to have your induction bar going off, and the other Lore-Master tosses their Ancient Craft.
- Knowledge of the Lore-Master is more useful than you think. If you're at a boss, you can tell the group what damage does what, and what you can, and can't do. If an enemy has a buff where it says "Certain Damage Types will probably break the barrier", yada yada, SCAN IT.
- Lore-Masters do NOT have a ranged yellow or red in a conjunction. Being casters, they prefer Blue or Green for the ranged aspect. If the fellowship requires you to run in for a colour, fight up close.
- In large areas, zoom out your camera as much as possible. This allows you to see as much area as you can, and warn the group of any pathers. Because the nature of a Lore-MAster is to keep an eye out and control a fight, you need to learn to get used to watching your surroundings.
- Always, ALWAYS debuff on boss/hard fights. It might not seem like it, but your debuffs make everyone's job a WHOLE lot easier.
- Have fun! The Lore-Master is complex, but also very capable. It's not a class for everyone, but if it does appeal to you, you will fall in love.

What stats do I look for in Armor?

To be quite honest with you, a Lore-Master is forever stuck in light armor. No cosmetic medium/heavy armor, no tanking (well... okay, I break that rule ). What this does mean though, is that it's generally easy to get the stats do you want.

What exactly does a Lore-Master want? With a bunch of changes and new jewelry to get, there are various ways to build a Lore-Master. Again, to each his own-- but here's a generally accepted view of it.

Stats you want, in order of importance.

Fate - Tactical critical means your skills hit harder when they critical, as well as raising the chance of doing so. This includes healing and power-passing (Note: No numbers are visible or displayed when you pass power, but you can critical the amount you heal). This also raises in combat regeneration.
Maximum Power - Self-explanatory.
Tactical Critical Rating - Same thing as fate, minus the in combat regeneration
In Combat Power Regeneration - Self-explanatory.
Will - Everything you do is power based. Passing power, casting skills, healing-- everything you do requires power. A lot of power. 1 Will = 3 Power, FYI. *(Why is this so low?)
Vitality - Being squishy means you can't afford to take hits. You're NOT going to get 2k pieces of armor. Instead, you'll need to rely on your own health to stay alive. This also raises resistances, which is always a boon. 1 Vitality = 3 Morale, FYI.
Morale - Again, like Vitality, you need to be able to take hits. This allows you do it (though not many.)
Tactical Critical % Multiplier - Some Lore-Master's rate this higher, I personally don't. Say you had a +6% (Sublime Dawn-Rose Ring of Tactics? ) to this stat, and you critical. If you deal/heal 100 points of damage ON A CRITICAL, you instead heal 106. Maximize this for PVP, but it's not so needed in fellowships.
Might - Hit harder and more Common Mitigation. Not all too useful-- if you're a Lore-Master running with 600 might there's a problem.

As you can see, since you're restricted to light armor, it's not hard to find the stats you want/need.

*(Why is Will so Low?) - Simply because Lore-master's have a self buff for THIRTY MINUTES that raises Will by 60/80(traited). Keep it high, but not maxed.

What kind of Virtue Traits do I want?

Determination, Determination, Determination.

I'm kidding.

There are a lot of traits that are viable for a Lore-Master to use, and you should basically mix-match your favourite 5.

Listed in Alphabetical Order

Compassion - Less ranged and tactical damage. Doesn't raise any stats, but considering LM's tend to fight at range, it's situationally useful.
Honesty - Power, Armor, and Fate? Not huge buffs to the last two, but hey, better than 0.
Idealism - Fate, and Will. 30 Fate at 10 Idealism is a godsend.
Justice - In Combat Morale Regenerations, and a welcome boost to an already small pool of Morale
Loyalty - Vitality, Power, and Armor? Okay
Valour - Morale. Enough said.
Wisdom - Will. Not so useful IMHO, considering your self-buff but if the other's aren't levelled up it's easy to get, and a decent slot regardless.

Generally, other than Compassion, most Lore-Master's tend to pick the highest 5, and run with those. Again, up to you.

BTW: No, I'm not playing again.

And this could be outdated. I wrote this before book 8 came out.

And I only added this cause Kam was noob on vent.

-- Noodlz.