Right, contrary to popular belief, a Lore Master is not a front line combatant. They are not melee specialists and they are not gods. In terms of armour, they're at hte bottom of the pile, however, in terms of health, they quite often end up near the middle. This offers little survivability with the exception of soloing. This leads to several facts. A Lore Master played agressively is hampered by their lack of offensive capabilities. Instead, to support survivability, they depend upon debuffing, controlling and avoiding falling prey to enemy debuffs in the process. Thus, the core quality of any decent Lore Master is patience.
A "brief" rundown of what your epic undertaking entails.
Role
Primarily, you are the out-and-out number 1 crowd controller. What you can't mez or root, you can slow and debuff into insignificance. You may even have helping factors against mobs your crowd control may be inneffective meaning that ultimately, you can offer a beneficial form of control to absolutely any type of mob.
Secondary roles are more beneficial and preventative toward your allies. Beacon of Hope is only a scratch to the surface. Healing debuffs an ally suffers from or simply preventing them from ever having happened in the first place takes up what time you have remaining from crowd control responsibilities. Additionally, you can debuff the enemy regardless of being solo or in a group. Effectively, you can reduce even the mightiest of foes to less than 50% of their fighting capacity, thus rendering them far easier to handle. Sharing and draining power are also important parts of your task. Again, this role is secondary but almost equally important to your primary task.
Primary Task - Crowd Control
Crowd control comes in many forms. Either removign a mob from a fight temporarily, removing several mobs from a fight for a short period or simply slowing their progress toward the rest of the group. Your job is simply to buy the group as much time as you can using whatever methods you have at your disposal. At level 50 with your Lore Master, the following are obvious forms of crowd control:
1 Blinding Flash
Level: 10
Training Price: 10
A blinding flash accompanied by a loud crack and the smell of blasting powder causes the foe to stop all action. Any damage inflicted on the target will break its stupour.
Cost: 6 Power
Cooldown: 15 s
Duration: 30 s
40m Range
Resistance: Physical
2 Herb-lore
Level: 36
Training Price: 129 60
Your knowledge of things natural gives you influence over the ground and plants, allowing you to root a group of enemies in place. Lore skills cannot be stacked.
Cost: 23 Power
Cooldown: 2 m
Duration: 30 s
40m Range
Max Targets: 3
Radius: 8
Resistance: Magic
3 Bane Flare
The Lore-master heaves a glowing orb into the sky that detonates into an explosion of fireworks. Up to three of the dead will then be stunned for 5 seconds and then mezzed for 10 seconds.
Dazes for up to 15s with a five second grace period.
Cost: 62 Power
Cooldown: 1m
Duration: 5 s stun followed by 10 s daze
Max Targets: 3
Radius: 10m
Target must be 'dead'
Resistance: Physical
4 Cracked Earth
Level: 22
Training Price: 40
The ground cracks beneath the enemy's feet, inflicting damage and hampering its movement.
Cost: 12 Morale
Cost: 7 Power
Cooldown: 10 s
Upon expiration: Roots for up to 30 seconds
25m Range
Max Targets: 5
Radius: 7
Resistance: Magic
These are your four main CC weapons. Blinding flash is often the one you will use the most. It is the only skill you can use regularly to maintain a stunned mob indeffinately. Though 2 or more Lore Masters can keep a group rooted for some time also.
Note: Call to the Valar will reset all of the above, but has a CD of 10 minutes.
Quite often, the tank will pull first. Sometimes, it is better for the LM to pull. Only hunters can match a Lore Master's range, and minstrels can with a solitary skill. Every other class will be too far away to make a pull and keep certain mobs at distance. Additionally, if other classes do make a pull, then you have to assume they know what htey are doing, as induction timers on Blinding Flash often mean a mob is stunned too close to the main group, and will no doubt get swept up in the flurry of AoE attacks.
Remember, the aim of Crowd Control is to buy them time. Discuss the issue with whoever is elected to pull first. Make sure they know thaty ou want to pull and they should be prepared to take agro as soon as other mobs arrive. You've done nothing to the mob beyond getting their attention, you can take 2-3 hits and often, quite a lot more without too much fuss. Agro will easily be taken from you and you'll never get it back. If you face 2 EMs who can be stunned, make sure you request your tank to take a back seat whilst you do the pull. If you land the stun, you'll face only one EM at a time. Had the stun been done after the tank had pulled, they may get caught up in the fight.
Make sure you discuss pulls with the tank before acting. Decide the target to attack and the target to stun. The last thing you want is to be left with confusion and uncontrolled mobs
What happens if my stun resists? Now, this has become quite common of late. There are several options in which to approach this. Some Lore MAsters dislike my approach, others share it. This is personal preference, but here are a few options. Firstly, if the mob was previously stunned, watch the countdown timer and hit a standard stun just as it runs out, either Test of Will or LotRD will suffice, buying you precious seconds to prepare your mez again and try for a second time. Stun immunity does not affect mez. If a mob is stun immune, they are not mez immune. And vice versa. Quite often, only the dead will put up mez immunity and this only lasts for a few seconds.
Additionally, you can always use Herb Lore if the mob you attempted to stun was a melee mob. If it hits, it will break the stun, but will root the target in place. Thus, keeping them out of hte way for another 30 seconds. By the time this has expired, you will have had the chance to use Blinding Flash twice, and assuming one resisted the first time, the root will not break.
The next alternative is to use Call to the Valar and reset your mez. This, however, is normally a last ditch attempt when I have a stun resisted simply because of the lengthy Cooldown on Call to the Valar. 10 minutes without another resist is unlikely, so practising other methods will benefit here.
Finally, quite often the last resort is to debuff the mob. A hampered mob is better than a fully functional mob. In the unlikely event that 5 CC skills in a row are resisted, then debuffing will be the last alternative. If debuffing is resisted, then set your team up for hte onslaught.
How can I control multiple mobs? Well mainly, I tend to forsake my stun and opt to start the fight with a root. It has the same range, and is equally effective ad keeping mobs at bay. Even ranged mobs have a limit, and if you root them and step back a little, they are as useless as if they were stunned. Root them anywhere as long as the group are out of their range. If 2 ranged mobs and one melee are your targets, quite often, I'll root all three and stun one of the ranged mobs. The target is often the unstunned ranged mob. By the time the ranged mob is dealt with, the melee mob will be free and the second ranged mob will be under the control of the LM. Should there not be enough room to move back from the ranged mobs, stun one ranged mob, and debuff. Debuffs will not break a mez. It's better to have half a ranged mob than 2 full-damage mobs.
What happens if someone breaks my stun? Firstly, look at where the mob you stunned is placed. Unless there's only 2 targets, it is likely that AoE's will break the mob out of his crowd controlled state. Dare I say, cahmps are often the culprits, but the longer these beasts are hitting the group, the more damage they do. It's often best to try and keep them as far away from teh group as possible. However, sometimes this isn't always possible, so warnings should be given out should that event occur. Make sure your group knows where the stunned mobs are. And should the stun be broken again, treat it as if you had had your stun resisted. There are tools at your disposal to cope with blips in crowd control.
Second Primary Task - Pet Control
Quite often, you'll find that you have use for a pet. Each pet serves a different task, and each pet has the potential to 'flank' thier opponent. Flanking is useful in many ways. If you have a trait for Staff Strike slotted, flanking will provide extra damage for it. If your pet flanks an enemy, using Sign of Power: Wizardry will offer you a heal of around 500 morale. On a 10 second CD, assuming your pet doesn't die, you're the second most effective self healer with this skill.
The pets are:
Eagle Friend.
Flanking chance = very high
Summons a lesser great eagle to your side. This pet has the ability to res you in combat, sel-heal and fear an oponent. It's the highest levelled pet when you accquire it, having a default of being only one level below your own. It offers +1 In-combat pwoer regen to yourself and your group and regularly auto-hits for 150+ damage. In addition to this, it can also interrupt enemy induction skills, though this is part of the aut-hit routine and cannot be controlled.
Raven Lore
Flanking Chance = high
The first pet accquired at level 4. This pet has the ability to add bleeds and fire debuffs to it's opponents. Again, it regularly flanks but is not quite as high as the eagle. In addition to this, it also has a +50% evade, parry and block buff which lasts for 15 seconds. This makes it one of the most survivable pets. The group effects are +15% shadow damage to all members of your fellowship, or the nearest 6 members of your raid.
Lynx-Speech
Flanking Chance = moderate
The lynx is the Lore Master's ultimate grinding companion. With it's stealth attack, it is capable of breaking over 1,000 points of damage on a critical hit - a chance which is reasonably high. It's other two attacks are both Area of Effect attacks hitting 3 targets for around 300-400 damage, or 5 targets twice for around 200 damage per hit. The lynx is best suited for grinding as it offerns no fellowship buffs. Massive damage is in bursts due to the lengthy cooldown of many of it's skills. Also, the lynx is the easiest pet to kill. It has the lowest health and armour value, and can be compared to a champion in respect of killing before it dies.
Friend of Bears
Flanking Chance = low
The bear is the most sturdy pet in terms of armour. It's not as well rounded as the eagle, but can effectively be used as an off-tank. However, I often use it as mobile crowd control. With two ranged mobs, the bear can easily grab the attention of the second ranged mob whilst I keep the first stunned. The bear is armed with a taunt, a stun and an armour debuff. However, it has the lowest DPS and is the slowest to respond to commands. It's group utility is limited to offering a safe haven briefly shold agro move from the tank. The taunt can override agro for a few seconds, but even with the extra armour, the bear can't stand up to much punishment.
How do I use my pet? This is situational. If you're grinding, I'd suggest using the lynx. If you're raiding, either the raven or the eagle. For extra CC cover, the bear is ideal. All pets are immune to insta-kill debuffs but that's not to say they won't be affecting you with AoE. Thorog's eye will not kill the pet, but it is likely to kill you if you're near it. Against hte balrog, I often opt for the Raven to add additional defence. Placed correctly, they can last to the end of the fight. Keep your pet on passive as to ensure it doesn't do anything you don't tell it to. The only exception is the eagle, who, if you are near death, should immediately be toggled to agressive in order to revive you. If you are using a pet for the purpose of flanking, such as the eagle or raven, try not to use them as a tank. If you are to make use of the flanking, you need to have the pet remain alive. If you are constantly healing due to the flanking, then the pet is sustaining you enough to avoid pulling agro. If your pet dies, your heal every 10 seconds is gone.
When should I use my pet? The brunt of a Lore Master's damage comes from skills on lengthy cooldowns. Often 'one shot per fight' in many cases, and even 2-3 fights in others. It is in these gaps where pets can cover the slack. Especially the lynx and eagle. The lynx has 3 one-shot wonders and the eagle is a consistent attacker. Additionally, these two pets can apply bleeds and debuffs to help increase their DPS and crowd control potential. Beware of your pets pulling additional mobs. Watch them for diving into crowds chasing a fleeing mob, it can often result in a dead pet and a tough fight for a Lore Master.
continued later.....
Home 
Subject: Lore Master - Beginner's Guide 
Tue Jun 17, 2008 3:47 pm
, so i can watch what to do during playing with my lore 
