New lotro boxer - Managing multiple mobs/adds.

[StabbyJoe]

Hi all,

I got bored with Wow so I've recently decided to give triple boxing a go in lotro, with a Guardian, Hunter & Rune-Keeper group currently at level 23.

I'm loving the game so far but have had some problems managing my team in complex encounters, particularly with adds or many mobs to take on. The difficulties I'm having seem to stem from the following:

• Guardian doen't seem to have a great deal of ways to grab aggro on many targets. The only things I have at my level are the cleave-like basic ability, and whirling retaliation which requires a parry to activate. Also the shout thingy but that has quite a long cooldown and is more of an oh-shit ability.
• There's no focus target, so I can't tank one while my hunter burns down a second mob. All my team have to target the same thing at the moment.
• No macros, I haven't worked out a good way to heal anything other than my tank at the moment. All I have setup for my RK are tank heal and group heal buttons. This doesn't cut it when adds run off from the tank and start beating on my other toons.
• Healing aggro is brutal, especially with the limited multi-target tools for the Guardian.
• Currently I have two modes for my RK, since attunement is a problem if he is doing DPS and I need a group heal for example. It would be nice to have a better way to set him up for dps and healing.

I tried the retaking weathertop instance last night, the 6-man version since I have heard its ok for 3-4 people. I didn't manage it (got to the last boss only the troll left but healer dead )but it was obviously doable with my group if only I could control the fight properly and stop the second wave of adds killing my RK half-way through the fight.

I am open to group composition suggestions, I have another group (Capt, Champ, Minstrel) at 15. Would the minstrel be a better choice for the healer spot?

Any suggestions would be gratefully received. I am pleased with how far I have come in a week, but I'm sure there must be some people out there who have run into these problems before and can offer some tips.

Edit: Am using isboxer to broadcast keystrokes if anyone has any application specific advice.

[Chubbz]

Hey mate, Welcome to LOTRO

Guards get more AoE threat skills later on, at the level cap a good guard can hold a shit load of mobs even with the whole group beating on everything.

RKs are amazing single target healers, so if only the tank needs heals then the RK would be best for a small group. Plus they can dish out the DPS when you dont need the heals.

No focus target in lotro, so its hard to tank and burn down different mobs than what the tank is currently selecting.

If its your 1st time boxing lotro i would suggest to run a group composed of all the same class, probs RKs or Hunters and just level and muck around with everything so you can get a feel for how it all works. Then when you start your mixed group you have a bit of knowledge on certain things. Mixed groups are pretty tough boxing in lotro.

Also what server are you playing on?

[StabbyJoe]

Thanks for the reply, I'm playing on Eldar (EU).

I decided to grab another couple of free accounts and try out a 5 man team, it's going pretty nicely so far. I think I'm going to level a few mixed teams up to around 20 and then decide on my final setup.

I've gone with Warden, Minstrel, 2 Hunters and LM for my 5 man team. With a bigger team I'm definately prefering the minstrel to the RK, but I'm not sure about the warden over the guardian at all. Not having to worry about the reactive abilities is nice but getting the gambits right while controlling the other 4 as well is a bit of a headache at the moment, I'm hoping it will get easier with practice.

As for starting with all the same class, I'm not so sure about that. I know it's easier but my main motivation for boxing is challenging myself with the group PVE content, single class groups are great in PVP but the only class I can see working well enough in PVE is 5 wardens and I don't want to buy the Moria expansion on all 3/5 accounts just yet (I have it on 1 already as it is my old single boxing account).

Another question:

I'm planning to level a lot through skirmishes and dungeons, doing that it's going to be a pain keeping up with my crafting skills which I want to have a full set of eventually. In Wow I found it very easy to make money boxing, is there stuff I can farm or buy with skirmish marks that will make me some reasonably quick cash to boost my crafting skills up with or should I be gathering stuff as I go?

[Chubbz]

The best way to level in Lotro is simple old questing. Not enough dungeons in lotro to level through them and skirms aren't the greatest for EXP. I personally stay away from skirms while boxing coz i have problems with my slaves selecting the soldiers instead of the Leader.

Crafting doesnt make that much money anymore, unless its high end stuff. The mats you need to craft gear for your level only spawn in higher level places, so you can craft your on gear as you go. While your leveling just loot every mob and dont waste money at the AH for gear, coz you will out level it to quickly and more than likely find better stuff from quest rewards. Best way to make the money in lower levels is selling the raw mats you pick up off the landscape (Ore, Wood, Scholar Items) on the AH.

[StabbyJoe]

I personally stay away from skirms while boxing coz i have problems with my slaves selecting the soldiers instead of the Leader.

I think I solved this problem myself on with my captain. If you hit F2 while already having the group leader selected, it selectes his pet if one exists. All my slaves kept selecting the herald so I changed my target group leader key to a sequence of two presses in ISBoxer, F1 followed by F2. The F1 press is to select themselves first so that it ensures that the second press of F2 selects the group leader not the group leaders pet. I just have to double tap my target group leader key and everything is fine.

I am assuming its the same with the skirmish soldiers? I didn't notice any problems when I did trouble with tuckborough in my 3 man group after making this change.

[StabbyJoe]

Got my 5 man group to 20 and tried the first GB instance. Tanking and threat just seems totally broken in this game, it's the same if not worse with warden than with the guardian. The first boss summons adds which despite me using goad and war cry, run off and kill the minstrel the second I cast a single heal. On the rare occasion I manage to grab the adds my dps target runs off and kills my hunters because I'm using to many aoe moves and haven't generated enough single target threat.

I really want to like this game, the world is fantasic, but the group mechanics seem terrible so far . What's the point of letting you into instances at that level if you haven't got the proper tools to complete them?

I'm going to try the guardian and run caster in the 5 man group instead of warden/minstrel and see if it helps.

[Dezeral]

Most classes do not have enough of their "core" skills to evaluate how they play below level 40ish. Things change again in Moria where you can get your capstone abilities. Guardians and wardens both can hold agro very well at 50+. Guardians are much more boxer friendly and are almost easy mode compared to wardens. You also have to work at each role in Lotro: tank, healer, cc, etc. I did a 3 man group with a gurdian, hunter, and minstrel and had very few problems with agro. One of the first things you'll want to do is get vexing blow traited to be AE using the Harasser trait. This will help grab and hold agro on multiple mobs.

There is more art to playing classes in Lotro than in WoW. This is in part to do with obscure tooltips and less tools available to measure performance. You don't have the option to try a spec and rotation at a training dummy and then break down your test run to measure performance.

Visit http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Guardian for more information on traits and other info.

[StabbyJoe]

I think I have been spoiled by how easy wow is and that was the source of my frustration, I was expecting the first instance to be easy mode like wailing cavern or rfc but its bloody hard and the bosses are really nasty. It does make it loads more satisfying when I finally get something down though.

I swapped my guardian and rune keeper back in for the warden and minstrel, and it seems a lot easier. I got the first boss down in GB maze after a few tries but I think I'm going to leave the dungeons for a while and level up more as suggested. I'll keep the warden and minstrel in a three man team so I have them ready to swap back at a higher level if I want to try them again.

I did also did the full fellowship version of the tuckborough skirmish, and managed to only wipe once. That was due to not knowing the lieutenants abilites yet more than anything (a priestess of flame set 3 of my team on fire when I wasn't looking ). Skirmishes seem the way to go for now until I get more levels/practice at things, the bosses in the dungeons are way too demanding at the moment. At least I can get my group content fix by doing the skirmishes as I level, even if I'm not up to the proper dungeons yet.