Grouping - the Basics

[Megageth]

I dont know about a threat monitor but the fellowship leader can select foes and place markers on them by right-clicking on their char icon.

[Thor_23]

the captain class has a lot of particular "marking" skills... asuming that is what everyone is ref to
these marks also allow for aditional damage to the main monster being atacked etc

[J_Th4ng]

Not what I meant Ion. I'm referring to a visible icon or marker that will hang over a mob, and can be selected/allocated/moved by the Fellowship leader. You can thus have a battle commander that marks mobs for crowd control or attack, so that everyone knows who to target and with what, rather than trying to explain the calls over VoIP. It's quite a common thing in WoW AFAIK, so I'm hoping that there are similar options in LOTRO.

Seems that Geth has something on this though. This means that we should be very careful in appointing a Fellowship Leader, as that person needs to play the 'commander' role as well as managing their own character. Ideally it should be one of the support characters, as they aren't usually in the think of things. If Lee is playing his LM for example, it would be good to have him call and mark targets, as he will mostly be managing debuffs and crowd control.

@Stu - You need to do a bit of reading up on threat management. When we were instancing the other night, you kept generating too much threat and making the main mob target you. As a very high single focus DPS class, you can't just go all out on the attack against the main foe. You'll pull the mob right off the tank, and break the battle formation. I need to do a bit of learning in this regard too. My heals are generating way too much threat, even when I'm ~5 levels below everyone else.

Unfortunately, there's no threat meter available in LOTRO at this stage. There are constant debates/arguments going on in the forums about addons, a lot of people think that they break the game and make it too easy. So for now we're going to have to judge our own threat, and try to space out high threat generating skills in battle. Look and see if you have any skills that generate no threat, or even possibly reduce threat. Use these to keep things manageable.

[J_Th4ng]

Speaking of Addons, here's a very useful looking plugin that makes it easier to see what effects/buffs/debuffs etc you have on your character, as well as cooldown times and effect durations.

http://www.lotrointerface.com/downlo...-BuffBars.html

Here's a youtube video of it in action:

[Stu]

@Stu - You need to do a bit of reading up on threat management. When we were instancing the other night, you kept generating too much threat and making the main mob target you. As a very high single focus DPS class, you can't just go all out on the attack against the main foe. You'll pull the mob right off the tank, and break the battle formation. I need to do a bit of learning in this regard too. My heals are generating way too much threat, even when I'm ~5 levels below everyone else.

I worked out the Threat issue, I was using a damage output based Stance which added +15 the Threat Damage! not a good thing! I have subsequently selected a less aggressive stance which has worked with Leeroy (Aka Fly). I still need to test this fully in an instance!

Re instances I also need to time certain High DPS moves with the Tanks cause if I pull someone should should to take the agro off me once I've performed the damaging shot!

[Megageth]

One of the problems with pulling foes off the tank is that the tank has to run around like a tit trying to re-engage the foes. I have 1 threat call that has a range of around 10m and takes about 30s to recharge. The other threat generators I have all require melee contact. If you have large DPS moves with threat, save them for finishing moves when the dude is almost dead. I would also recommend that you move close to the tank before using the moves.

* Let the tank initiate any combat.
* If you are taking hits, move towards the tank & ask the tank to call/help.
* If you are taking hits make sure you do not continue generating threat.

When any 1 player goes down the group as a whole suffer so keep a sharp eye on morale and keep a stack of food/potions for instances.

[Thor_23]

also when a tank has engaged a enemy give him a sec to build agro before going in