Nyoxis
GameAmp Staff
Posts:
Joined: 12/31/1969
Credibility: pts
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| The Tacticians Monsterplay Guide |
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Hello and welcome to Nyoxis' guide to monsterplay! This guide is completely exclusive to Gameamp, and I hope you enjoy and/or learn something! Corny start eh? Let's get down to business. =)
Roles of the Monster Player classes:
I thought I'd start giving you a brief into to the classes available to play as a monster:
Stalker (warg)
If you like playing rogues or assassins in other games then this could be the class for you. Wargs are the players that stealth into enemy backlines and knock off the weak, or set-up the minstrels for a fall. A warg's defence relies on evades mostly, using skills such as sprint, rallying cry and disappear for getting out of nasty situations.
Weaver (spider)
Weavers are the main monster debuffer, they can spread around poisons that not only deal damage but reduce the enemies' damage and increase the ability of your peers to deal damage. One of the most useful weaver abilities is webbing, which will keep a player from running, and usually lead to their death. Weavers get abilities to stealth (motionless) as a good defence, though make sure not to use it when the enemies charging you, because they can simply wait next you until you have to leave your hole.
Reaver
Reavers are the sustained DPS class, they are the close range melee fighters that need guts to make the charge into battle. Though they have high health and armour, this isn't a great defence in large scale battles, but at rank 3, the skill 'charge' allows you to escape tricky situations. Reavers have the advantage using 'devastating blow' on targets with hp>50% and it can deal upwards of 500 damage, without critting.
Warleader
Warleaders are the healing class, designed to add some support to the creeps as they fight. Warleaders are nearly always in the backline, healing people, with high ranks the WL becomes even more useful, and small groups of 3 are often the best way to survive and get infamy for the WL.
Blackarrow
Blackarrows are the ranged DPS class, they utilise burning, speed debuffs and spike damage to great effect. They're always in the midline, and need to be wary when the battle changes direction. Though they have passive defence, their main method of surviving comes through a 5 min recharge for 30 secs of +50% evade.
Here are the active skills that you can obtain from the trainer at Gramsfoot:
Reaver:
The skills Sundering Blow, Disarm, Charge and Gut Punch can be obtained at ranks 1, 2, 3 and 5 respectively.
Weaver:
The skills Latent Poison, Poison Spray, Smothering Web, Web the Earth and Hatchlings can be obtained at ranks 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 respectively.
Blackarrow:
The skills Death Blossom, Punctuated Target, No you don't, I see you and Vital Target, can be obtained at ranks 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 respectively.
Warleader:
The skills Quit whining and fight, Field Promotion, Banner of Terror, Snap the whip and Black Speech, can be obtained at ranks 1, 2, 3 and 5 respectively.
Stalker:
The skills Throat Rip, Disappear, Tendon Shred and Eye Rake can be obtained at ranks 1, 2, 3 and 6 respectively.
Some PvMP Jargon for you to use:
TA- Tol Ascaren
TR- Tirith Raw
LUG- Lumberwood Camp
ID- Isendeep Mines
LM- Loremaster
MNST- Minstrel
BUG- Burglar
+++++++++++ - Heal me!
OMW- On My Way
Roles of the freep classes:
I won't go into great detail here as a level 10+ should already know the basics.
Minstrels are the healers, use silence to seriously impair their healing, and overwhelming them interrupts their skills also.
Loremasters are the CC class, with a fair bit of damage to help, they can also heal allies and provide a +stealth utility, so if you're a warg be wary that you're not quite as invisible as you seem.
Loremasters, although sacrifice health with many spells, crazy high morale and power regeneration, and if they get too low, they have pretty good healing.
Hunters (or huntards =P) are the ranged DPS class. They have some stealth and they are the star farming players that would rather disappear if the battle isn't going well as planned. In my opinion, hunters make PvMP far less fun, this is because if you get stunned, rooted, mezzed etc. then you immediately get spiked by about a thousand risk-free backliners shooting arrows at you.
Champions are the melee DPS characters, they deal crazy amounts of damage with some speed d.buffs to make sure you cant escape. Though having said this, champions have a relatively defence for playing frontline, and it's often a good idea to root them for focus fire if they get too close.
Captains are the buff/melee characters that provide support to all close by allies, with heralds or standards. Captains can have crazy high morale, and if they get into trouble, they have damage invulnerability + a heal for a fairly long time.
Guardians are the tanking class, they need to be frontline, in full view, to be doing anything effective, and have a pretty hard time in PvMP.
Burglars are the king of soloing in the moors. If you're ever in a 1v1 against a burg, then you'd be extremely lucky to win. They have a multitude of offense and defense for utilising against you, and if things get to hectic they just HiPS. Though stacking wounds and DoT's on burglars means that after 10 seconds of HiPS, they loose stealth, and become vulnerable again.
General Tactics:
-the turning of the tide
Okay so to begin with pvmp is a mostly ranged battle. While this is disappointingly true, melee characters still get opportunities to get their infamy, it's all about reading the turn of the tide.
Isn't the turn of the tide a captain trait? Well, yes, but in this guide the turn of the tide is simply when the battle changes pace- when the attackers become the defenders, and when one side starts to dominate.
What are signs of the tide turning? Good things to look for are weaker melee characters being stunned or rooted, like a champion or burglar. When BA's and Weavers catch onto a snared player they immediately focus fire on them, causing spike damage and usually a kill. This is the time when the melee characters get the opportunity to shine, as soon as you see a freep get stunned or rooted, you need to move.
So this is the opportunity, wargs need to unstealth and open attacks (preferably from behind) while the reavers should run in there to get the devastating blow in. Often people misread turns of the tide only to jump out of stealth, watch as that captain regains about four thousand morale, and watch as you get turned into a human pincushion. If you're trying for stars (which personally I wouldn't advise) then you need to be extra careful, and make sure you're well positioned, with recharged skills (disappear, charge, moving target etc.) ready before moving.
Alternatively if the freeps manage to catch a creep off guard, and manage to kill him, then they usually press forwards after the attack as the other creeps are backing off- this is the other time to get moving.
Ranged players don't usually benefit from the turning of the tide as much as melee characters (unless they've previously been hammering on the foe that dies) though it's usually your role to open the change in the first place. This means webbing (weavers), and hindering shots (BA's) on any relatively weak melee characters.
The key is making sure the enemy can't escape, and all classes have the means to support.
Wargs need to 'pound' all classes except hunters, when pounding hunters, make sure to do it theoretically just before they can DF so that they die during the stun duration- not too early and not too late. All classes should use their hindering skills at this moment (unless the target is rooted, where it can wait) to ensure the kill.
It's crucial that BA's and weavers snare as many flanked creeps as possible. I've seen loads of selfish creeps that try to hammer on their most damaging attacks (to get the most infamy) and forget the snares. Tough break if you're not getting as much infamy, it's the kill that counts, and the freep is a million times more likely to die if he's snared.
Once I had the guts to pounce on this minstrel who was near midline as the freeps were flanking, with the help of some creeps we got him low health during the stun, but as he recovered he starts to run. I'm thinking, 'Slow him, slow him!' But just before he escapes I see a flaming arrow thud into him. If that arrow had been a hindering shot then he would have undoubtedly been caught and killed, as it happens, he escapes- a lesson to be learned.
What should I do if we're getting flanked? Okay if the danger is imminent, then you need to activate defensive skills such as stealthing, sprinting and using moving target. If it's not then follow the crowd, take the shortest (and safest) route to a safe zone. Remember the shortest distance between two points is a strait line, use you larger map to directly co-ordinate your running in the most efficient way possible. If you're a warg you could run till you drop combat and then stealth away, warleaders can mobilise and hang back to heal/buff the slower creeps, and reavers can just charge outta there. When running from ranged foes make sure to always use line of sight to your advantage, they can't range you with something in the way so hills, trees and rocks are great for countering them.
What should I do if I get concentrated fire? This is the time for defensive skills, burn em if you have them, though if you're on low health it might be best to submit and save them for a later battle. You should always be moving back to the group and/or the closest safe place in a direct line. If you're needing heals (probably) then the warleaders should be bubbling you (Field Promotion) if not hit numlock for auto run and scream, '+++++++++++++++', in OOC for heals. I use this because it's quicker to type and it's a fairly universal system, used in many games. Instead of manually trying to find the player, click on his name in the chat window to target him.
-Surviving and Defence
Apart from skills there are several defences, and precautions that can be used in PvMP to try and stay alive. Potions are a fairly cheap way of getting the psychological win when you're being flanked. Those hunters are far more likely to target a low health squishy target than the one with near full health, and though the health wouldn't last long in combat, it's a deterrent for people to attack you. A risky, yet often useful tactic is to hide (if possible) and map out. Be warned though, mapping takes ~10s and this could be time better spent running. Pots are also great if you're flanking the enemy but are low on power, allowing you a spare few skills for more infamy.
For getting rid of roots and snares odorous salts and solvents of painful freedom are work at a sacrifice of morale, which should be used according to the situation respectfully.
For getting the edge in PvMP, eating food is great, if gives the nice occasional heals (HP+MP) and allows you to fight more (out of combat HP/MP regeneration). All of these items can be bought from the Quartermaster at Gramsfoot, and with gaining ranks better items will become available too.
Passive skills and traits are awesome, if you have the time, maybe do some questing for the DP to buy them, all classes have at least one signifigant trait that will outrank an active skill.
Often burglars, LM's and stealthed hunters will camp revive zones, this act is commonly known as spawn ganking and is generally disliked. After spawning try to travel in larger numbers, and if you see early signs of the spot being camped then just return to the Krahjarn and wait a while for reinforcements etc. Often taking a longer route, giving a large leeway to possible ganking spots is a good idea. If you happen to be caught by a well planned assault, probably including a LM and some tar, then there's not usually much you can do, so don't burn all those cooldown skills.
Now onto the less defensive aspects of PvMP. When mass fighting, proper prioritising is the road to victory. If you haven't figured it out yet, this means #1 priority are minstrels, wargs and spiders are great at killing minstrels, their stuns and throat silences help shut down the minstrel while the DPS classes do their thing. Public enemy #2 is the LM purely because the roots, stuns, dazes and debfuffs debilitate the largest amount of players. Same procedure for taking down minstrels except I don't think silences have much, if any effect. The other classes can be prioritised relative to the situation, if there's 20 hunters and one captian it doesn't take a genius to figure out who to target.
-Offensive play and changing client settings
This leads me onto my next point, LotRO has a particularly good targeting system allowing better communication and co-ordinated attacks. Shouting into the OOC, 'my target', will usually give good results, even better- explain how to follow your targets during slower-paced combat, 'to follow targets click on my name and hit F'. Also if you're in a remote area, being attacked use ;loc in OOC chat to show others where you are, specifying where you are relative to map markers helps too.
There's a useful option in 'combat options' that allows you to see your target's target in a seperate vitals panel, there's actually many useful within combat that should be changed. I'd recommend the following to be active: 'display companion orders in combat window, directional selection indicator, skills can enable default attack, enable skill target forwarding'- they're pretty much self explanatory. Make sure, and this is a must for all ranged classes, that, 'auto move to target', is disabled.
Hints and Tips:
For all the small things that can't easily be categorised:
- If you manage to get the aggro of a pet/ally, pull it over to friendly NPCs to aggro them back to the owner.
Still in progress! =)
***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***
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