Turbine continues to publish their developer diaries on the class changes that are slated for the Helm’s Deep expansion. Today’s diary focused on the minstrel, a class most noted for its healing abilities.
The Fundamentals
Based on my reading of the fundamentals section, the basic operation of the class will remain the same: you will play ballads to unlock anthems and a coda. Therefore, minstrels shouldn’t need to relearn their class again.
There is a change in the name of the stances. Melody will be the neutral stance, which can both dish out damage and heal (though not as well as the two specialized stances). This is interesting seeing that I currently use that word for the healing stance. Resonance will be the healing stance. Finally, Dissonance will be the damage stance (what we currently call War-speech). I’m not sure why they decided to change the names, though I presume they wanted to use contrasting words for the healing and damaging stances.
The three trait lines retain their current names.
The Watcher of Resolve
This continues to be the healing line. So, if you generally use your minstrel for healing your group, you will want to continue to use this line.
The most interesting trait mentioned in the diary is Resonant Piercing Cry. If you have this trait and your crit while in Resonance stance, you will generate a fellowship heal. That is an interesting side effect for what is traditionally one of the minstrels basic damaging skills.
The Warrior-Skald
This naturally continues to be the minstrel’s main damage line. Many of these traits are bonuses that allow you to inflict more damage while in combat. The most interesting trait mentioned in the diary is Haste, which allows ballads to reduce the cool downs to cries and calls.
The Protector of Song
Currently I associate this line with anthems and Herald’s Strike. The dev diary refers to the new line as the support line, so you will only want to run in this line if you are in group play (assuming you are not there to be the main-line healer). This line is about buffs and debuffs. I must admit that nothing here has me jumping up and down in anticipation. Probably the best of the lot in Guarding Song of the Hammerhand, which adds a buff to Song of the Hammerhand that improves physical and tactical potency (this is in addition to the bubble already associated with the skill).
Conclusion
As far as I can tell, there are no major changes to how the class operates. I hope to find that this impression is correct when Helm’s Deep is released.
May your shield protect you and your lute never break,
Pineleaf Needles
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[quote] “Specializing in single-target destruction, the Warrior-skald has access to strong passive bonuses to damage, critical rating, finesse, and cooldown resets for some of your more powerful skills.”[end quote]
I sure hope they haven’t taken away the many aoe skills a minstrel currently has…
AoE (or possible lack thereof) is a major concern, indeed.
Btw. there is a post in the official forum thread with comparison screenshots of the RoI minstrel dev diary. The difference is really night and day.
If only the HD dev diaries contained even half as much information as Orion’s minstrel one…
Honestly the Mini is one of those problematic ‘do everything’ classes the Devs have talked about. I will be surprised, and disappointed, if their healing ability while in Warspeech is not knocked down a notch in some fashion.
Very lacking Dev Diary, but since this is a class not in need of major adjustments I’m not all that bothered.
My master of tales I worked hard to earn is gone, my trait that makes melee healing possible that took weeks to earn is gone, and I can’t do A QUARTER of my skill combos I used to do. I used to use duel tales stacked with maxed out anthems (buff book), melee heal, and have a blast mitigating while healing both sides of the raid, and having tons of power to play with. I loved my set up yellow line. Apparently the creators are box thinkers who believe minis should only heal blue line with specific heals, and all creative types like me must toe the line. I could out heal almost anyone in yellow line with skill. Now I refuse to levely mini again, because it is sickeningly boring. I healed a fellowship, and there was so little I could do I was bored after a few trash mobs. I loved using my mini as a stress reducer, but they ruined it.