Instance: Garth Agarwen Cluster

Garth Agarwen is the "Fortress of the Blood-maid" in the north-eastern part of The Lone-lands. The story of the Red Maid is told in Volume 1, Book 2 of the epic quest. Radagast the Brown finds that nature has been twisted and the undead have risen around the Red Swamp. Originally the Red Swamp was a pure spring, protected by a river-maid, but war stained the spring with blood and the river-maid was lost. Ivar the Blood-hand is a powerful necromancer and gaunt-lord from Angmar who serves Sauron. He is responsible for raising the dead warriors of Rhudaur as wights, and raising the river-maid as the Red Maid, turning her from a nurturing life-force into a corrupting force of death and decay. 

The Outer Gates of Garth Agarwen

At the Outer Gates of Garth Agarwen, there is a campfire, a travelling vendor, an Eglain barterer and a quest-giver.

These instances are scaled to level 32.

Garth Agarwen: Barrows - 3 person instance

From the entrance of Garth Agarwen, the Barrows is located to the left and up a hill (to the northeast).

Once a burial ground for the Men of Rhudaur, Ivar the Blood-hand, a servant of Angmar, now inhabits the barrows raising an army of wights and Créoth fanatics loyal to the Red Maid.

Ivar's Crypt in The Barrows

You find Sara Oakheart cowering in the Barrows and begging for someone to save her and escort her to safety. After defeating Blogkritar (who heals himself 3 times and summons a wight to aid him each time, and spreads an aura of disease), the gate to Ivar's Crypt opens. He has banners which buff him and he summons minions throughout the fight. There is a challenge to defeat him without killing his banner-wights.

Ivar's Banner is an item obtained after defeating Ivar that can be taken to a taxidermist and turned into a housing decoration.

Temair the Devoted

Southeast of the entrance, within Garth Agarwen, Temair the Devoted (a Créoth priestess in service to the Red Maid) patrols around a bonfire on a raised platform. She heals herself and any Créoth near her. She respawns within 5 minutes after being defeated but has no special loot.

Temair the Devoted

Behind Temair's platform, The Arboretum is accessed through an archway, while to the left of her platform and up some stairs lies the heart of The Fortress.

Garth Agarwen: The Aboretum - 3 person instance

The Aboretum was once a lush garden, but the Red Maid's corruption has tainted it and its caretaker. Gloom-waters paddle in stagnant red pools, bog-prowlers doze and twisted tree trunks bend away at your approach to reveal hidden paths that lead around the edge of the garden and finally into the center where Grimdark, a corrupted tree covered in beehives, stands guard near some ruined stairs to nowhere. The challenge is to defeat Grimdark without destroying the beehives.

Grimdark

Garth Agarwen: The Fortress - 6 person instance

Near the entrance, Créoth soldiers train while the wight brothers Edan and Esyld guard the Garth Agarwen Gate which leads deeper into the Fortress. Esyld is a ranged healer while Edan is melee and they give each other a damage buff when close together.

Stairs leading to the Garth Agarwen Gate

To the right of the gate (south), stairs lead down to some ruins where Dúnlang has mind-controlled several Eglain into serving the Red Maid. The challenge is to defeat him without killing the Eglain who will attack the players to defend their new master. This may be done by holding threat on the Eglain and healing as needed until Dúnlang enters the fight, then burn him down with single target attacks. The Eglain are then freed of his control and wish to return to their families and homes.

Dunlang and his enslaved Eglain

Through the Garth Agarwen Gate, wights patrol around a large pool with stairs leading to an antechamber guarded by Vatar. He shows you a vision of how previous heroes who tried to free the Red Maid failed and then attacks. Once he is defeated, crawlers spawn and once they are killed the door opens to the Spring of the Red Maid. Taking the engraved stone from the Old Chest towards the altar will summon the boss. The challenge is to let her followers sacrifice themselves to make her stronger, then defeat her. Once defeated, she is cleansed of corruption and remembers that she was once Naruhel, a river-maid and sister to Goldberry of the Old Forest in Bree-land. She vows to restore Garth Agarwen.

The Red Maid (before)

Naruhel (after)

Naruhel's dress may be obtained after defeating the Red Maid and taken to a taxidermist to turn into a housing decoration.

Introducing the Minstrel: Level 1-20

Minstrels in LOTRO are one of the most unique classes I have ever played in a MMORPG - they wield a musical instrument as a weapon for healing or damage. There are lots of different instruments to choose from and each provide different bonuses, such as drums increase damage, theorbos increase healing, flutes reduce power costs of certain skills and bagpipes can increase critical chance. When you're not busy fighting or healing, you can also use those instruments to play music in-game and there are some amazing orchestras and bands that perform in taverns and towns across Middle Earth (there is even an annual concert called Weatherstock on the Landroval server). Musical instruments can be crafted by woodworkers, or purchased from a bard in major towns.

Minstrels also have three stances, Dissonance provides a DPS buff, Melody allows both limited DPS and healing, and Resonance provides group healing buffs.

Here I'll record my experience levelling a minstrel from level 1 to 20, talking about skills, specs and anything else that might be useful to know.

Level 1 Hobbit Minstrel

Here's our brand new minstrel and some information about her:

• Wears light armour
• Can wield one-handed weapons (e.g. mace, club, dagger, sword)
• Primary stat is Will
• Starting abilities are: Dissonance Stance, Melody Stance and Resonance Stance (only one stance can be active at a time), Minor Ballad (a ranged attack that also provides buffs), Dissonant Strike (Dissonance)/Hero's Strike (Melody)/Healer's Strike (Resonance) (a melee attack that heals you or your group depending on stance), Coda of Fury (a ranged finishing attack/heal that requires 3 ballad buffs active), and Raise the Spirit (a direct healing spell for you or an ally)

Minstrels have glowing hands! The first quest in the introduction provides a satchel that contains a better weapon. At level 2 you learn Major Ballad, another ranged attack that also buffs (except in Resonance stance where it only buffs). You are also sent to the minstrel trainer who wants you to practice using your ballads. As a reward you receive another weapon and a basic lute instrument. The lute goes in your ranged weapon equipment slot. Now when you use your skills they will have sound effects specific to your equipped instrument.

At level 4 you gain Piercing Cry, a powerful ranged attack that also interrupts. This can sometimes one-shot weak mobs. At level 5 you unlock the passive ability to use Fiddles.

Playing the fiddle

At level 6 you gain two new skills, Anthem of War (a group damage buff that requires 3 ballad buffs active) and Perfect Ballad (a ranged attack that also reduces power costs for skills). So now you have three ballads which deal damage and provide buffs, an anthem that provides a damage buff (good for long or hard fights) and a coda which provides strong burst damage. This forms the basic combat rotation. For easy fights you will probably want to be in Dissonance Stance, but for harder fights Melody Stance will really help with passive healing. Resonance Stance is really just for healing so is more useful in groups and instances.

Also at level 6 you can choose a specialisation. The options are:

• Blue = The Watcher of Resolve - focuses on providing strong heals. You also gain the skill Soliloquy of Spirit which is a heal-over-time skill, and increased Will and Fate stats.
• Red = The Warrior-Skald - focuses on DPS. You also gain Call to Fate which is a strong ranged attack skill, and a buff to damage and range from which skills can be used.
• Yellow = The Protector of Song - focuses on on providing healing and group buffs. You also gain Anthem of Prowess which buffs your fellowship's armour, evade and attack speed, codas give extra fellowship buffs and you can have two anthems active at once.

For questing and DPS, Red is the obvious choice. If you want to play a healer, both Blue and Yellow have a lot to offer and it may depend on your group for which will be most useful. At level 7 you get your first trait point that you can spend on your chosen specialisation. You get a new trait point every odd level.

After completing the introduction, don't forget to check your mail for the adventurer's gift. It contains several useful items and starts a couple of quests, including one that rewards 5 Tokens of Salutations which can be traded with the Barterer for a pocket item that increases run speed plus some health or power potions. The run speed buff can be quite helpful, especially if you don't have a mount.

At level 8 you gain Timeless Echoes of Battle, a damage-over-time skill that also debuffs enemies, but is only usable in Dissonance stance.

At level 10 you become eligible for Epic Battles such as Retaking Pelargir, but although you get scaled up to level 100, without all your equipment slots filled and with limited abilities, it may not be a very successful or satisfactory experience.

Level 12 provides Invocation of Elbereth, a skill that causes a mob to run away in fear. At level 14 you gain Enlivening Grace, a skill for resurrecting defeated allies out-of-combat.

You learn how to use two new instruments at level 15: the theorbo and the bagpipes. You also receive a class quest, advising you to see the Minstrel Trainer at The Prancing Pony inn in Bree-land. The Trainer tells you the renowned minstrel Piper Prescott is in town and has heard of your talent. He has a challenge for you: Leland Underhill is a hobbit adventuring in Bree-land and likely to get into trouble. You should accompany him as he raids a bandit hideout then compose a song about the experience and perform it at The Prancing Pony. The crowd loves it and Piper Prescott says you deserve the title "Song Warrior" and a new club to help protect you on your adventures.

Perform at The Prancing Pony in Bree

At level 16 you gain some more healing skills: Bolster Courage, a direct heal with a long cast time, and Story of Courage, a cleansing skill that removes a Wound, Poison, Disease or Fear debuff from the target.

No new skills until level 20, but then you get a lot of changes! You get a group heal, Inspire Fellows, and Spirit of Freedom will break you out of most crowd-control situations. You can use shields in your off-hand and journeyman woodworker crafted instruments with bonus effects become available to use.

You can also take part in skirmishes and find gear at Skirmish Camps. Some of my questing gear was low level or non-existent (e.g. I never got a necklace), so after I hit level 20 in the Barrow-Downs I headed to the Skirmish Camp to find some upgrades.

Here's how her stats look now at level 20:

Level 20 Hobbit Minstrel

Then I headed to the Training Hall in Bree and tested Red spec's DPS (in Dissonance stance) with no consumable buffs active over 3 minutes or until I ran out of power, and took a screenshot at the end to eliminate the effects of DoTs that kept going after I stopped attacking. I repeated this three times and recorded the best result below. For virtues, I had two tiers of Innocence and one tier of Honour. With my 7 trait points, I had 5 points in The Fundamentals (increases Ballad and Coda damage) and 2 points in Discordant Cries (increases damage of Cries).

Here are my DPS results (collected with the CombatAnalysis plugin):

Statistics	Red (The Warrior-Skald)
Total Damage	19172
Time	3 m 0.2 s
Average DPS	106.4
Minimum Hit	48
Average Hit	197.6
Maximum Hit	891
Attacks	97
Critical Strikes (%)	17 (17.5%)
Power (%)	534/1326 (40.3%)
Skill Priorities:	Minor Ballad Major Ballad Perfect Ballad Anthem of War Call to Fate Dissonant Piercing Cry Coda of Fury

General Observations

I really like how the minstrel has both sustained and burst damage and they can work together to make a really smooth rotation. Plus since all the skills are instant-cast, she can maintain great mobility and kill most mobs before they get near her. But wait there's more: great self-healing, especially in Melody stance. And while she didn't have any AOE skills in Dissonance stance by default, you can put a trait point in Call of Oromë for an AOE attack that hits 3 targets, or in Melody stance Coda of Fury becomes Coda of Melody which does AOE damage. She didn't have a lot of utility skills, but it seemed to be enough. Levelling the minstrel was a breeze.

At higher levels you gain some more heals, bubbles which absorb damage, AOE damage skills, threat-reducing skills and a combat resurrection. From Moria onwards, you will be able to get legendary melee weapons and a music book that goes in your class slot. You can also learn to mentor other players and teach them how to use various musical instruments.

Stats

• Will - your main stat that increases damage and healing
• Fate - increases survivability (morale/power regeneration), damage and healing (increases critical strike chance)
• Morale and Vitality - increases survivability
• Critical Strike Rating - increases damage and healing
• Mitigations and Resistances - reduces damage taken

These stats should help make the levelling process a bit easier in the beginning. Look for light armour with will and maybe some jewellery with critical strike rating or fate. Morale is always helpful (vitality also increases morale). The best place to get mitigations and resistances at low level is probably from virtues.

Here are some virtues that may be helpful for Minstrels and how to get them by level 20:

Virtue	Activity	Deed
INNOCENCE (physical mitigation, tactical mitigation, resistance)	Complete 75 quests in The Shire	Life of a Bounder (Final)(The Shire)
COMPASSION (physical mitigation, tactical mitigation, non-combat power regeneration)	Complete 15 quests in The Shire Complete 20 quests in Ered Luin	Life of a Bounder (The Shire) Defender of Ered Luin (Ered Luin)
WISDOM (will, in-combat power regeneration, resistance)	Explore Elf-ruins in Ered Luin Explore the Old Forest in Bree-land Find pages from the Journal of Cardolan in the Barrow-downs	Elf-ruins Exploration (Ered Luin) The Old Forest (Bree-land) Lore of the Cardolan Prince (Bree-land)
IDEALISM (will, fate, resistance)	Find relics of the Dúnedain in Bree-land Find flowers in The Old Forest in Bree-land	The History of the Dúnedain (Bree-land) Flowers of the Old Forest (Bree-land)
PATIENCE (physical mitigation, resistance, in-combat power regeneration)	Explore Dwarven settlements in Ered Luin Retrieve spoiled pies in The Shire Deliver mail between settlements in The Shire Explore the ruins of Bree-land Explore the Barrow-downs in Bree-land	Places of the Dwarves (Ered Luin) No Place for Spoiled Pies (The Shire) Restoring the Quick Post (The Shire) The Ruins of Bree-land (Bree-land) The Barrow-downs (Bree-land)
ZEAL (morale, physical mitigation, armour)	Defeat 90 goblins in Ered Luin Defeat 90 spiders in Ered Luin Defeat 90 Barrow-spiders in Bree-land	Goblin-slayer (Advanced)(Ered Luin) Spider-slayer (Advanced)(Ered Luin) Brood-hunter (Advanced)(Bree-land)
FIDELITY (tactical mitigation, vitality, power)	Explore landmarks in The Shire Explore Dourhand strongholds in Ered Luin	The Sights of the Shire (The Shire) Scouting the Dourhands (Ered Luin)

Pros of the Minstrel Class

• Good mobility
• Good healing
• Reasonable burst and sustained damage against single targets
• Fun, unique playstyle using musical instruments

Cons of the Minstrel Class

• Can be squishy
• Limited AOE damage at low levels
• Noisy - musical sounds effects and shouting may get annoying

I hope this has been helpful. Feel free to leave any questions or advice for new minstrels below.

Coming soon in the Introducing X Class series: the Rune-keeper.