Minstrel Raid Healing Guide

Authors note: The game is always changing so it is past time to add some of the new info to the guide. I have updated information in italics.

 

The healing minstrel is one of the key roles in a raid. Taking the time to learn your class inside and out will make you very popular with your kin mates and raiding friends. A great mini is always in demand. Be prepared to hear some feedback and hopefully it’s constructive. Nobody is born knowing how to heal and the only way to learn is in a group. Start out healing 6 mans until you get a feel for it, then roll up your sleeves and jump on into a raid. In my kin the raid leader will pair up a strong healer with a novice; one healer in each fellow. The experienced healer will cross heal to the second fellow to help out. Two strong minis will focus just on their group and probably get fancy with buffs and boss interruptions. That’s later though.

While I’ve been around the raiding block for many years, I realize there are many different ways to successfully play a class. Please use this information to build on your personal experiences and develop your own play style.

Trait Watcher of Resolve line (Blue) and put remaining class points into yellow to unlock the Anthem of Composure and the fellow heal (inspire fellows) plus buckets more tactical mastery.

Use Resonance stance primarily or Melody if you can afford to add some DPS to the group at the cost of heals.

It has been discovered that Will makes very little difference to outgoing healing. Therefore, the best way you can equip your mini is to stack morale. Stack it like there is nothing in the world more important than morale (after you’ve maxed your mits of course). With Mordor things will change but this gives you an idea of how important survival over Will stacking is.

Virtue traits: Those are a very personal choice imo. Everyone has a different idea of what to slot. I prefer the traits with mits that aren’t a pain to grind. Some virtues are much easier than others to max (i.e. discovery deeds over entire regional questing).

Morale and power pots.

Sheet Music stops induction interruptions and saves on power but the buff is so quick (10s) it’s hard to make it feel worthwhile.

Weapons:

Raid healers must have healing legacies on their weapons. Healing a T2C with a DPS weapon isn’t going to work. Max your Rally  cool down and reduced induction time legacy is a must.

Priority in your group:

1.    Heal yourself; a dead mini does no heals.
2.    Heal the tank; a dead tank is a soon to be dead mini.
3.    Heal the cappy; he can rez you (hopefully he is saving his rez for you or the tank), and RK (their Do Not Fall only works if they are alive).
4.    Heal the rest. You can rez them when it’s convenient.

Rezzing for Success:

If you have a friend who (bless their hearts) keeps dying, think twice about using your Rally on them too often. Throw them a kiss and wait for an out of combat rez , unless you are desperate for their DPS. Your Rally skill cool down can mean the success or failure of the battle in some cases.

If there is a Captain in the group, call it out when you do choose to use your in combat rez. You don’t want them to use theirs at the same time and put you both on cool down.

If there is an Rune Keeper in the group ask for the leader to assign someone to take their DO NOT FALL. This is an automatic instant in-combat rez but requires them also to be alive in order for it to work. Often the mini will get it and the group may be lucky to get a second on the tank. Rune Keepers have no other in-combat rez skill.

Positioning:

You want to be central in the group. Stand far enough away from the mobs that you don’t catch AoE damage but close enough to be able to do some short range (oh shit) heals. It takes some practice to know the best distance to be effective and safe. The ranged DPS should be close to you and spread out a little so they can keep an eye on you for ads but won’t affect you with those nasty AoE debuffs if there is one. If one of your fellow mates goes all Leeroy Jenkins or suddenly shy of the group, let them go. Don’t stress out about reaching someone who won’t stay with the group. It is their problem, not yours. Your number one priority is keeping the tank alive.

On with the show!

Slow down on your button pushing. Practice at the training dummy to see how quickly you can hit a skill without cancelling out the last one. Button mashing = sloppy playing and unpredictable results.

1. Pre-buff

If aggro isn’t a big concern, throw Soliloquy of Spirit  on your tank. It stacks three times with a short cool down. Gives a moderate heal over time and power boost. I usually hit the tank with SoS and Inspire Fellows  (- 4% damage buff) when the group is just about ready to head in to the fight. Recently this has taken a big hit in usefulness so only bother if you are bored.

Melody of Battle puts a +404 parry bonus on your tank.

2. Build your Ballads

Your three ballad skills (Minor Ballad  , Perfect Ballad  and Major Ballad  ) have a chance to unlock the anthems and coda  (the mini’s bazooka). Each ballad performs either DPS (even in full heals), a buff or both. Landing three ballads will unlock your anthems. Anthems are an important part of the mini’s rotation and should be timed to keep one “up” at all times. The buffs they provide are one of the benefits of having a mini over an RK healing a group. Once you have unlocked your anthems and coda they will stay unlocked until you either use the coda or go out of combat.

At the start of any boss fight you will want to use Cry of the Chorus  instead of building ballads which take time when typically the tank has the most mobs on them. CotC gives +18 % outgoing healing while it is active in combat and an additional 28.2 % for 10 seconds and other goodies. It’s worthwhile using that skill as often as you can.

3. Choose an Anthem.

While in Resonance only one Anthem can be active at a time and will only affect your fellow. In the unlikely event a second is mini in your group they may override your anthem so be prepared to work together. If you are a yellow traited mini (for awesome fellow buffs), the anthems will stack and you should be the only one casting them.

Resonant Anthem of the Third Age  = – 25% induction, and + 10 % healing.

Anthem of Composure  = + 6949 resistance, + 5167 Tact Mit. If your group is having trouble with bleeds, fears etc or there is tactical damage in the environment, use this one.

Anthem of War  buffs the whole group if DPS is called for.

Note: Cast Anthem of War first to buff the fellow and then cast Resonant Anthem. The group buff will stay on your fellow and you will get the healing buff.

Game on! 

A mini’s strength is group heals. Plan your rotation for big single heals with some group heals thrown in if the situation calls for it. Your best heal, Bolster, is a group heal which is your bread and butter.

Be sure to sloooow down. This is no time for button mashing. Watch your induction notice that appears when you cast Bolster. If you are button mashing in a panic, you will be cancelling out your own heals. Develop a rhythm and keep a cool head.

The most popular heals are Bolster Courage  and Chorus of Salvation . Bolster has no cool down but the post heal animation seems to take forever. You can interrupt this induction time with Chord of Salvation. If you can perfect the timing, you can land Bolster and interrupt the rest of the animation with Chorus for an excellent 2-for-1. Chorus is also a fellow heal so you are topping up everyone else at the same time. Practice it on a dummy to make sure you aren’t interrupting your biggest heal with this smaller one.

If everything is under control or the whole group needs some love, mix in your group heals; Inspire Fellows , Chord of Salvation  and Fellowship Heart . With class trait points spent into the skill, Inspire Fellows is the best group heal especially if you hit Call to Ioreth (+100% heal crit) before you use it.

Fellowships Heart : Heal over time for the group. During inferno or just before a difficult battle you might want to consider using this. The induction time is huge (or seems to in the fray of things) so depending on the situation this may not be the best choice. If you can anticipate a moment that you will need moderate heals over time, try to pop it just before the crazy stuff starts.

Perfect Ending  is HUGE fast heal with a power boost to one recipient. When seven heals have been used the skill PE is available for a short time. Use it while you’ve got it.

Coda of Resonance : Huge single heal with a -10% damage buff. It removes all your Ballads so you’ll have to rebuild those (or hit Cry of Chorus) to get the buffs.

Triumphant Spirit : Use Call to Ioreth + TS is a MASSIVE heal to anyone standing in 20 meters of you (so pretty much on top of you). It will also probably get you into trouble. Be ready to flop if you get aggro. If you use it wisely it can be your best friend.

Update: I’ll be honest. I have been using this technique for a few years but wasn’t sure if it was an intended mechanic so I had avoided mentioning it in my guide. Dadi has given me the thumbs up, so here is the rotation that will see you through just about anything. It’s important to know the other heals but this bad boy is the rotation you will want to use most often. The three bolsters after hitting your coda will be immediate with no animation. You’ll want to have your Cry of Chorus cool down maxed for this. While waiting for the cool down you can use your other healing skills.

Cry of the Chorus   + Anthem of War  + Resonant Anthem of the Third Age  + Coda of Resonance  + Bolster Courage  + Bolster Courage  + Bolster Courage  .

How you can help your team:

Piercing cry  is your corruption removal and interrupt skill. If you are savvy enough to watch your fellow’s morale while running around to safe spots AND watch the boss for inductions, you are one kick ass mini. If you have a hunter friend in the group (who, lets be honest, can watch Netflix during a boss fight) ask them nicely to signal for boss inductions if they see it and if the leader doesn’t mind. Every major boss skill interrupted is one less massive group heal you have to do.

Herald’s Strike  does a very small corruption removal and heal but requires close combat and therefore is not recommended.

Story of Courage  will put a fear resist buff on your buds and removes one effect from the whole fellow who are within 15 meters.

Bubble  them…if you feel like it. The morale bonus is very small compared to the RK’s bubble. Don’t worry about it unless you feel like seeing the funky bubble.

Got Ads on you?:

Shame on your ranged DPS buddies for not seeing it! Call out “I’ve got ads on me” and watch the group suddenly care about you again. Remember to run TOWARDS the tank if you need help. Never run away.

If you were lucky enough to have made your mini a hobbit, you have two flops  . Use them. If you have a cool down legacy (highly recommended), get floppy!

Use your fear  to chase away a pesky mob. Hopefully someone else will grab it before it comes back.

F1 is a quick way to target yourself. Hit F1 and Bolster Courage or triumphant spirit (+ flop) – anything that keeps you alive.

Spirit of Freedom  will shake a daze.

Cry of Chorus  will break silences.

Happy Raiding!!

Hafwen
Rare Breed Kin Leader (Arkenstone)

 

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