Minstrels in the Mines of Moria: The Level 50-60 Guide
by Wisdomandlore, Milarien
I. Introduction
With 10 new levels comes room for the Minstrel class to develop. Moria is a mixed bag in this department. Our buffing has seen an improvement, our healing has stayed where it is, and for all purposes our DPS has taken a step back. Some of these changes directly result from changes made (or rather, not made) to our class, while some result from the changes to the combat system.
We are not threatened by Runekeepers. They are capable in their own rights, but we are still the best healers in the game, and any raid will take a Minstrel as the main healer over a RK. We are also one of the best Corruption removers in the game (Corruptions are new mob buffs that players can remove).
Moria, however, can feel like a different world for Minstrels. Itâs the same game, particular aspects of our play style have been hit the hard by the combat changes (Guardians feel this hit, too). Thus I have two purposes with this guide:
1) Provide a general reference for level 50-60 Minstrel information.
2) To help Minstrels adjust to playing the class in the Mines of Moria.
Please note: The new combat system revolves around a point rather than a percentage system. You can still find the percentages, but they are calculated per level. Thus, youâll see me referring to point values quite often. I donât fully understand all the point values, so hopefully another Beta member can post a guide to the new system, at which point I will provide a link.
II. Overview
Just a quick history of myself: Iâve been playing the Minstrel class since Beta 1 of Shadows of Angmar.
Back then, Minstrels were on the absolute bottom of the DPS chain. Killing anything was a slow process. In the Month of the Minstrel, Turbine sought to rectify this with War-Speech. They believed we killed too slow, so they give us a tool to kill too fast.
However, by level 50 in SoA we were too powerful according to the developers (this came forth in discussions during beta). Our Tactical Damage had scaled too high. I can, in part, agree with this. With our ability to heal, a fairly high potential BPE, high ICMR and ICPR, and decent AOE DPS, we could mow through groups of mobs and even elites.
To rectify this in Moria, the developers made several changes, some across the board to all classes.
1) Block/Parry/Evade: BPE is now capped at 15% for each statistic (B, P, and E). All BPE ratings were effectively halved. If you had 30% BPE in SOA, you will have around 15% in Moria. This will hurt BPE Minstrels the most. We do have Partial BPE now; however, I havenât found this particularly effective. This change was made to all classes.
2) Armor Value: Armor Values and mitigations have been lowered. However, Armor Value now plays a more important role, as AV adds to non-common damage mitigations. Common Mitigation is also capped at 30% for Light Armor. If you equip the Medium Armor trait, you can increase the cap to 40%, giving us a new incentive to go for Medium Armor. Points over the cap add more mitigation for higher level mobs. This change was made to all classes.
3) Tactical Critical: Tactical Crit has seen a reduction of 66%. Apparently, Tactical Crit was not calculated correctly. If you had 18% tactical crit, expect to find yourself in MoM with around 6%. Minstrels (and Loremasters) also receive no Tactical Critical passives, despite the fact that Runekeepers do. Most of the beta Minstrel community views this as unfair, although the developers say it is WAI. I would argue that since Runekeepers get around 1000 points of Tactical Critical rating, that Minstrels should get 500.
4) Tactical Damage: Our Tactical Damage was apparently too high at level 50 in SoA. Instead of nerfing the class from 1-50, Turbine limited how we advanced in Moria. In MoM, our Tactical Damage skills only increase in damage by 18-20%. Mob health, meanwhile, nearly doubles, while Elite health triples. On the other hand, we now have many new ways to increase our damage output, which helps to alleviate the slacked progression of our Tactical Damage.
What does all this mean when it comes to combat? First note that group play remains largely unchanged. Healing still works fine. We arenât threatened by the RK (although they are a decent healer). We are better buffers than ever.
But solo play is definitely much more difficult. Expect to drop out of War-Speech more often than ever. Fighting more than two monsters can be very tricky. We are squishier and do less damage compared to mob health. Levels 50-59 can feel a lot like pre-War Speech days. At level 60, things get better. But now we have to spec completely for damage if we want to feel like our old selves.
Many trait combinations now buff and penalize you. The Warrior-Skald path in particular further decreases your healing output in War-Speech. For many Minstrels, this will require a shift in play style and trait setup.
However, I had a lot of fun going from 50-60 (Moria is a fantastic zone with some great quests), and I will be playing my Minstrel come live. Turbine has also hinted at some tweaks and revisions in the first patch after Moria launches. So if youâre unsatisfied at launch, just roll a Warden or RK and wait a bit.
III. Level 50-60 Skills
Thanks to Milarien for posting these.
Level 52: Improved Herald's Strike
This melee attack increases the effects of healing on yourself for a short time. This attack will also remove Corruption. Main-hand weapon + 15 Damage. Removes up to 1 Corruption effect from the target. +10% incoming healing. Duration 20s. Cost: 72 power. Cooldown: 10 seconds.
Level 54: Improved Cry of the Chorus
This skill enables you to access every Ballad Tier and Anthem at once. It also breaks any silence effects on you. This skill also gives you a short term immunity to silence. Cost: 106 power. Cooldown: 10 minutes.
Level 56: Soliloquy of Spirit
Your tune is like a slow burning Soliloquy that keeps the spirit bolstered for a time. This is one of the few minstrel morale heals that can be used on the move. Heals 70 morale (at level 60 WITH the 5-trait Watcher of Resolve bonus!!) every 3 seconds for 15 seconds. Cost: 59 Power. Cooldown: 30 seconds.
Level 58: Tale of Frost and Flame's Battle
This aura increases the Fellowship's Frost and Fire Mitigation.
+50 vit,
+1948 wound resist,
+450 frost defence,
+450 fire defence,
cost: 77 power + 7 pps
Level 60: Call to Fate
War-speech must be active to use this skill. This piercing cry, harkens back to the greatest of Horselords when they did battle to defend their homeland. This skill has a high critical payout. 376 Light Damage (at level 60). Cost: 193 Power. Cooldown: 10 seconds.
IV. New Traits
These are the new traits Minstrels have available in Moria. They are all unlockable immediately at level 50. I do not know if lower level characters can unlock them earlier. Note that Lyrics of Bravery, Power of Song, and Enduring Morale clearly seem to replace the line bonuses we lost on Traits.
Improved Cure Fear
Use Cure Fear 250 times.
This trait boosts the power of cure fear in both power and number of effects. It also reduces the cooldown by 15 seconds.
-15s Cure Fear Cooldown
+Fear Effects Cured
+2 Level of Effects Cured
Improved Song of Soothing
Use Song of Soothing 350 times.
Song of Soothing has a greatly reduced induction time but at the expense of a longer cooldown.
-100% Song of Soothing Induction
+120s Song of Soothing Cooldown
Lyrics of Bravery
Use Ballad of Unshakeable Will 1000 times.
This trait raises your fear resistance.
+1948 Fear Resist Rating
Power of Song
Use Song of Restoration 100 times.
This trait raises your power pool.
+240 Maximum Power
Enduring Morale
Use Ballad of Vigour 2000 times.
This trait raises your maximum morale.
+240 Maximum Morale.
Flow of Harmony
Recite any tale 150 times.
This trait decreases the power drain on active tales.
-50% Tales Power Cost.
Heralded Resolve
Use Herald's Strike 250 times.
This trait enables the minstrel to heal himself a small amount when he uses his normal, non-noble cause Heralds Strike.
+111 Morale. (Remember this is still subject to the -healing penalty from War-Speech)
Tempo of Bravery
Use Ballad of the Stout 1500 times.
This trait raises your in-combat regen.
+72 in-Combat Morale Regen
V. Trait Paths
Thanks to Milarien again for posting these.
Please note: The trait panel has been removed from your character page. To view the new Trait panel hit Shift + J. Then click on the tab label class. The Class traits are divided into their specific paths.
The Watcher of Resolve
The Healing path. According to Turbine, Minstrels are already more than adequate healers, so the Trait path is intended to boost healing by only about 10%.
Includes these class traits:
Life-singer
Silver Tongue
Focused Performance
Graceful Demeanour
Subtle Movements
Improved Song of Soothing
Improved Cure Fear
Power of Song
Set Bonuses:
2 equipped: -5% Healing Power Cost
3 equipped: +10% Chord of Salvation Healing
4 equipped: -5% Anthem of Sympathy Threat
5 equipped: The ability to slot a Legendary Trait called "Legendary Spirit", which improves the skill "Soliloquy of Spirit"
The Protector of Song
The buffing path. Very good for both soloing or grouping. Note that Tale of Warding (and thus Improved Tale of Warding) is far more effective in Moria since Armor Value now effects common and non-common mitigations.
Includes these class traits:
Glorious Anthem
Strength of Voice
Heralded Saviour
Smooth Voice
Flow of Harmony
Battle-hymn
Lyrics of Bravery
Heralded Resolve
Set Bonuses:
2 equipped: -60s Call to Greatness Cooldown
3 equipped: +5s Ballad Buff Duration
4 equipped: Improved Tale of Warding has an increased armour bonus, and Improved Tale of Battle has increased wound rating.
5 equipped: The ability to slot a Legendary Trait called "Master of Tales", which gives access to two new skills -- Tale of Warding and Heroism; and Tale of Frost's Battle. These are combined from existing tales at a higher power cost.
Tale of Warding and Heroism:
+1620 armour
+10 radiance
+60 fate
+60 will
cost: 77 power + 7 pps
The Warrior-Skald
Includes these class traits:
Harmonious Melody
Powerful Voice
Light in the Dark
Unrelenting
Herald's Hammer
Medium Armour-use
Tempo of Bravery
Enduring Morale
Set Bonuses:
2 equipped: 3s Herald Strike Cooldown
3 equipped: -700 Target Ballad Resist Rating AND -15% Warspeech Healing
4 equipped: +25% Ballad Damage AND an ADDITIONAL -15% Warspeech Healing (PLEASE NOTE: The +25% Ballad damage only applies while in War-Speech. This is not indicated in the trait.)
5 equipped: The ability to slot a Legendary Trait called "Call of War", which raises critical chances in War-Speech mode. +2400 call critical rating, +100% call critical multiplier).
Important Notes
At level 60, there are only 7 class trait slots. They're added as follows: #6 at level 53, and #7 at level 57.
So, first off, if you want the 5 equipped bonus in any set -- like to NOT have badly increased resists to your ballad, you have to use every class trait slot up until level 53 in that particular trait line.
That means you can not get a 5 equipped bonus in one trait set and a 3 equipped bonus in another.
So, if you want the resist reduction Wisdom has been saying means he doesn't seen MORE resists like most of us have, you MUST slot 5 traits in the Warrior-skald path, and therefore are not able to get, even at level 60, any of the 3, 4, or 5 trait bonuses in either of the other trait sets.
It also needs to be pointed out that you can not slot 5 traits in The Protector of Song path (to get the combined tales) and slot 3 other traits.
VI. Item Advancement
Please note: Minstrel IA Legacies are supposedly being looked at for Patch 1, so this list may (and hopefully will) change.
IA Weapon Types:
Daggers
Club
Sword
Mace
Note that Dwarven Minstrels can equip Axes; however, there are no IA Axes for Minstrels.
IA Weapon Legacies:
DPS
This effects the weapons Damage-Per Second (how much damage a weapon does per hit/time between weapon hits). DPS starts out low on IA weapons. You must rank it up, and the DPS can go very high. Note that lower level weapons have lower max DPS. The starter IA weapons from Volume 2, Book 1 has a lower Max DPS than a level 54 IA weapon.
For Minstrels, the DPS legacy adds damage to auto-attacks and Herald's Strike. It can add a lot of damage.
Tier I Ballad Damage +1-10%
Tier II Ballad Damage +1-10%
These are two separate legacies, and they do exactly what they say. However, each Legacy increases the damage on a Ballad by 11 (The base damage of a Ballad is 113). And you have to rank up two.
Call to the Second Age Max Targets 1-5
Increases the max number of targets for Call to the Second Age, for a max of 8 with the Legacy ranked all the way. Very expensive and dubiously useful Legacy, even if it does sound fun.
Call to Orome Damage 1-10%
Probably one of the better Legacies out there at the moment. Fully ranked up this will increase Orome's damage by about 30 points. And since Orome has a 10s cooldown and you should spam it a lot (for the -Light Mitigation), this Legacy has utility.
Piercing Cry Damage 1-10%
A very meh legacy, IMO. PC is about stuns, not damage; but some may like it.
+Soliloquy of Spirit Ticks 1-10
Vital if you want to turn SoS into anything mildly useful. SoS ticks every 3 seconds (for 30 seconds come patch day). Ranking up this legacy adds 10 more ticks (or 30 seconds), doubling the length of SoS.
-Call to War Skills Resist Change
Somewhat of mystery, as no dev has answered what exactly this Legacy does. Here is what the Minstrel community assumes: Call to War affects skills in War-Speech: Call to Fate, Call to Orome, and Call to the Second Age. This Legacy lowers the change they will be resisted. These are some of our most expensive and highest damage skills, so this is a great legacy (if it works like we think it does!).
Anthem Damage +1-10%
Another marginally useful Legacy. You use Anthem of the Valar for ICMR, not damage. You use Anthem of the Wizards...well I don't know anyone who uses that. 
-Cry of the Chorus Cooldown
Need numbers on this one. I don't know who would bother using it.
+Feign Death Duration
Need numbers. Again, I don't know who would use this.
-Rally Cooldown
I need numbers, but I believe you can lower the CD by 5 minutes or more. A very good legacy for raiding Minstrels, and fairly cheap, too.
-Ballad Threat
Epic fail. If you are getting aggro through your Ballads, your tank need serious help.
+Call to Fate Critical Magnitude
Need numbers. This is an interesting one. Call to Fate has high Critical and Devastate damage, and this only increases it. Could be very powerful when combined with Call to War.
IA Songbook Legacies
+Ballad of War Melee Damage 1-10%
Maxing this trait will make Ballad of War give you and your fellowship a cumulative +20% bonus. A must have for any Minstrel.
+Ballad of Unshakable Will Fear Resistance
Need numbers on this one. Situationally useful, I suppose.
+Ballad of Flame Fire Resistance
Need number. Situationally useful again, I suppose.
-Ballad Resist Chance
A great one for any type of Minstrel. With this and the 3/5 Warrior-Skald bonus, my Ballads rarely get resisted.
+Echoes of Battle Song and Cry Debuff
Another great one. -Ballad resists only affects Ballads. This affects pretty much every Minstrel skill.
VII How to obtain the Legendaries
Call to War - You can buy it from the Iron Garrison Guards at Kindred level Reputation.
Master of Tales - Granted for completing Volume 2.
Legendary Spirit - A reward for completing the class quest available at level 58. Requires you to kill a mob in one of the level 60 instances. You can help people with their class quests for barter Marks.
ScottishViking- Yes, I find Watcher of Resolve a pointless path too. I would rather use Protector of Song in groups.
And yes, the penalties to War-Speech are cumulative. At 4/5 in the Skald path you'll have -80% Healing output. Even with a Songbook that adds +7% to healing output and +3% to Bolster Courage healing, Bolster Courage only heals for 200 or so morale. You really have to rely on ICMR from AotFP, AoTV.
Also note that the +25% Ballad Damage at 4/5 only works while in War-Speech.
VIII Healing changes from 50 to 60
morale/power (morale per power) level 50; then 60; % heal increase; % power increase.
Chord of Salvation: 667/318 (2.09); 837/408 (2.05); 25%; 28%
Triumphant Spirit: 1392/0 (inf); 1745/216 (8.08); 25%; infinite
Raise the Spirit: 464/114 (4.07); 582/147 (3.96); 25%; 29%
Inspire Fellows: 464/377 (1.23); 582/485 (1.2); 25%; 29%
Bolster Courage: 928/127 (7.31); 1163/163 (7.13); 25%; 28%
Damage dealt by a level 56 mob to a heal-traited level 60 minstrel in war-speech mode: 1287
Damage dealt by a level 46 mob to a heal-oriented level 50 minstrel in war-speech mode: 413.
Increase in damage by the same mob-type: 874, or 212%.
Note: So, without legendary legacies, the efficiency of our heals actually *decreases* from 50 to 60. At the same time, incoming damage has significantly increased. So, if you do not happen to get legacies improving your heals, and even if you do, until they are improved enough to overcome the reduction in efficiency, you will actually be able to heal more at level 50 without Moria than you can at level 60 with it.
IX Gems and stuff you can slot in legendaries
There are 8 tiers, but once again, even with the increase in legendary drops for testing and all that other stuff I've said before, at level 54 1/2 I have thus far topped out at tier 5:
Silver Setting of Longevity
+216 melee crit
+2.5% devastate magnitude
+15 vit
The runes seem to be the hardest to get, and they are mixed in with the gems and settings within the tier listing, and I accidentally combined 1 rune ONCE and as a result now have no rune slotted in my mace. lol.
Anyway, each item (minstrels can wield 2 -- a weapon and a songbook) can have 1 setting, 1 gem, and 1 rune slotted. Replacing the relic in your legacy destroys whatever relic is currently slotted, so upgrade with care. (Note that anything I considered relatively useless (like Might and Melee Damage)
Settings (the most common type of relic):
Silver Setting of Longevity (tier 5): +216 melee crit, +2.5% devastate magnitude, +15 vit
Steel Setting of Great Might (tier 4): +3% partial block mit, +3% partial parry mit
Iron Setting of Fleet Hand (tier 3): +208 ranged crit, +2.5% partial evade mit
Iron Setting of the Stout Ward (tier 3): +208 melee crit, +2.5% partial block mit
Copper Setting of the Enduring Hand (tier 2): +204 ranged crit, +10 vit
Gems (the next most common):
Sapphire Gem of Empowerment (tier 5): +216 tactical crit, +72 icpr, +15 will
Garnet Gem of the Fateful Touch (tier 4): +2.5% inc healing, +12 fate
Garnet Gem of the Mindful Touch (tier 4): +2.5% inc healing, +12 will
Amethyst Gem of the Determined Mind (tier 3): +60 icpr, +10 will
Agate Gem of the Willful Word (tier 2), +2% tactical dmg, +10 will
Runes (the least common):
Early Rune of the Heart (tier 4): +75 Morale, -2% Attack Duration
A little more explanation: Settings are all tier 1 has. Basically, the first thing you'll have for your legendary is a tier 1 setting, and those all have 2 things on them -- 10 might/vit, 10 agi/might, 10 vit/agi, 10 might/2.5 partial block mit, 10 agi/2.5 partial parry mit, or 10 vit/2.5 partial evade mit.
You need 5 tier 1 settings that are not in use to combine and hopefully get 1 or possibly 2 tier 2 settings or gems. Tier 2 settings combine ranged crit with agi or vit, or melee crit with might or vit. The gems are +2% tactical damage with either 10 fate or 10 will.
You need 5 tier 2 settings and / or gems that are not in use to combine. Sometimes a combine gives you more than 1 tier up, sometimes it gives you 1 item 1 tier up and 1 item in the tier you combined from, it's odd, another one of those funky RNG things. Anyway, tier 3 goes to 3 settings and 3 gems: melee crit/partial block mit, melee crit/partial parry mit, or ranged crit/partial evade mit for settings; then 10 fate/10 will, 60icpr/10fate, or 60icpr/10will for gems.
Again, combine 5 of the tier 3's and hopefully you will get 1 or more tier 4's or higher. Tier 4 has 2 settings, 2 gems, and 2 runes. Settings are block/parry or melee crit/agi. Gems are incoming healing and either fate or will. Runes are -attack duration and either 75 power or 75 morale.
Again, combine 5 of the tier 4's and hope. Tier 5 is again 2/2/2, but here is where you can get 3 things off one item. Settings are melee crit/devastate magnitude and either might or vit. Gems are tactical crit and icpr, and either fate or will. Runes have -5% item wear chance on hit along with either 100 morale and 50 power, or 50 morale and 100 power.
Anyway, you get the idea. Once you get up to tier 8, which will probably take a very very very long time, even for Misadventurers and Preying Mantis (ha ha), these are the choices:
Ithilidin Setting of the Biting Fly
7.5% partial evade mitigation
5% devastate magnitude
230 ranged crit rating
Ithilidin Setting of Reflex
7.5% partial parry mitigation
5% devastate magnitude
230 melee crit rating
Adamant Gem of the Moon
96 icpr
5% tactical damage
-2.5% incoming tactical damage
Adamant Gem of Dreams
96 icpr
230 tactical crit rating
+5% tactical damage
Ancient Rune of the Thunder
150 morale
150 power
-2.5% incoming melee damage
Ancient Rune of the Storm
150 power
150 morale
-2.5% incoming ranged damage
Anyway, just to make sure I've stated this clearly -- each legendary item, and for minstrels that will be 2 at a time, a weapon and a songbook -- can slot any 1 Setting, any 1 Gem, and any 1 Rune that they can get their hands on. However, other than that and the legacies (weapon dps, btw, is horrible and you have to spend legacy points for that if you want it), these are the only other things on the legendaries -- there are no "base stats" or anything else.You can apply a very rarely obtained scroll to change the damage type on the weapon permanently.
Anyway, in other words, if you took a 3rd age songbook with tier 5 healing legacies, the most you might see out of it in any reasonable amount of playing (less than fanatical and less than, say, 3-6 months, with both items maxed out in terms of exp) is something like this:
MilsBook
+9% Healing and Motivation Skills
+4% Bolster Courage Healing
+1% Ballad of War Magnitude
-10 Cry of the Chorus Cooldown
+3% partial block mitigation
+3% partial parry mitigation
+216 tactical crit rating
+72 icpr
+15 will
+75 morale
-2% attack duration
MilsMace
31.7 dps (yeah, I levelled the dps)
+4% tier 2 ballad damage
+2 call to the second age targets
+2% call to the fellowship damage and healing
-264 call to war skills resistance chance
+4% tier 1 ballad damage
+216 melee crit rating
+2.5% devastate magnitude
+15 vit
+216 tactical crit rating
+72 icpr
+15 will
+75 morale
-2% attack duration
