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When to use cooldowns in LOTRO: The Do’s and Don’ts
This post will cover how to use Cooldowns effectively while leveling, dungeon-crawling, and raiding. That means when to use them…and when to not.
I think most of my readers are aware of this, but I have severe altoholism. I have every class except Guardian at level 40 or above. Pre-Isengard, I had five level 65s and one almost there (Minstrel). As I have gone through I have standardized some things, such as what keys get my curative potions (Wound is Ctrl+5, Fear is Ctrl+6, Disease is Ctrl+7, and Poison is Ctrl+8, on all my characters, in case you were wondering). Another thing I have standardized is my use of the “emergency skills,” as often they are on a long cooldown. These often have similar effects as skills from other classes, and I try to make sure my keybindings reflect that.
One thing I have found hard to do is figure out how to use each class’s Cooldowns. Some classes have skills on a short cooldown, like Wardens. Some, like Hunters and Champions, have skills that are on 30 minute cooldowns. Knowing which Cooldowns to use in what situation is a lot of what the subtleties of this game are about.
So I will start with the basics. First, what is a Cooldown?
“Cooldowns” are the skills that every class has that are game-changers, but on a long cooldown, meaning they have a long timer that has to expire before they can be used again. You might ask, “how long is long?” Some would consider only skills that are on a 5+ minute cooldown a true “Cooldown skill.” I usually consider any skill I can’t use in every single fight a “Cooldown” This to me is about 3+ minutes. If I have to think about saving the skill, it is a Cooldown.
Leveling
- Skill Deeds
Something that a lot of people don’t realize at first is that some Cooldowns have a deed associated with using them. Some skills are nice skills to use but not essential to survival, such as a Minstrel’s Cry of the Chorus. These are easily spammed whenever one thinks about it, and no harm is done. In fact, you might even think of unique ways to use those skills in regular situations. However, “emergency skills” like Dire Need for Champions or Hide in Plain Sight for Burglars are tempting to save for when you are in trouble.This presents a problem, as Hide in Plain Sight is a great skill, but using it 2.5 million times (exaggerated of course) unlocks a great trait! Which should you do? Save it or use it? It really depends on what I am doing. If I am just doing random quests that aren’t really that hard, or if I am in a place with low mob-density, then I will tend to just hit it whenever it is off-cooldown. If I am in an area where the quests are 3 levels higher than me, and the mobs are packed tightly, increasing the possibility of pulling three or more at a time, I might just save it for when things are a little less stressful.If you absolutely can’t make yourself burn an emergency Cooldown, then when you are doing something mundane like crafting or homework, just keep an eye on the Cooldown or set a timer. Hit the skill, then keep doing what you were doing. When I was leveling my Lore-master, I would set a 10 minute timer. I was working on homework, and when the timer would go off, I would hit Wisdom of the Council (big self-heal and buff) and Beacon of Hope on my pet. Back to studying. I am still working on my Burglar, but every 10 minutes, I will hit Hide in Plain Sight, Ready and Able (which resets HIPS) and HIPS again. Ready and Able is only available every 20 minutes, but still it works quite well. - Quests
If I am coming up to a quest with a named mob, I will hold off on using most of my Cooldowns until I come to that fight. The main thing I am really concerned with is having at least one Cooldown available. If I have died before or have done the quest before on another character and I know it is hard, I might reserve two or three Cooldowns for the fight.
Dungeons and Raids
- 6-man dungeons, 3-man dungeons, and raids pre-In Their Absence, i.e. pre-Ost Dunhoth and Isengard raids)
Cooldowns are important to save for boss fights. If you have done a particular instance before and you are confident that the time it will take to get to the boss is longer than the Cooldown you are considering using, then go ahead! Generally, trash mobs and mini bosses don’t need Cooldowns.For example, I was on my Captain in a Lost Temple run. There is one giant boss, Ivar, and one medium sized boss, a pair of Creoth-like people that are annoying as heck to defeat. There are also 3-4 mini-bosses in between them. Needless to say, there are more than thirty minutes between the Creoth pair and Ivar, so you can go ahead and blow any Cooldowns with a 30-minute timer. But on each of the mini-bosses, there is no reason to use a Cooldown, especially saving them up for Ivar, arguably one of the hardest 6-man bosses in the game. On the last mini-boss before Ivar, a Champion died. Cry of Vengeance, my Captain’s in-combat rez on a 30-minute cooldown untraited, flashed before my eyes. I did not use it though, because I knew that we could finish this mini-boss without the Champion and that the Ivar fight was a particularly dangerous one for healers. I would quite possibly need that rez. The fight finished, the Rune-keeper rezzed the Champion, and we faced Ivar and won.
- Raids (In Their Absence and Isengard)
A new feature of raids post-In Their Absence and Isengard is that Cooldowns are reset going into the boss. That means you could blow all of your Cooldowns on the trash and have them available again when going into the Boss. This is a double-edged sword, as the developers are now designing content that use all of your skills to complete.
Quest Advice: The Lightspring *SPOILERS*
**NOTE: SPOILERS ARE PRESENT THROUGH THIS ENTIRE ARTICLE. IF YOU ARE A SMUGGLER THAT DOES NOT WANT ANY STORY SPOILED, DO NOT READ THIS ARTICLE!!**
Any Smuggler going through their class story will eventually get to the quest called The Lightspring. This quest is the hardest one I saw up to this point and since (I’m level 34 now).
This quest is the last big one on Tatooine, and it is level 27. When I tried it, I was level 29. I died 10 times, and I’m not exaggerating. It took 11 tries for me to defeat this. I was just so close when I was trying different strategies that I would do it twice or three times with that strategy before I changed. Silly me and my belligerence. Read more…
PvP Strategy: Gunslinger’s Dampers Defense
I recently put up a post about a PvP build that I had theorycrafted. Having gotten the chance to try it up to level 25, I thought I would post on what I had found.
First off, as a recap, this build is based on getting in and out of cover effectively. Just because you have a stationary mechanic, doesn’t mean that you need to remain still. Success in PvP is about movement, and this still holds true even with cover.
Typically, the ideal situation is one where you remain mostly ignored, much to the enemy’s detriment. You are allowed to remain in cover and keep blasting away. But that is more of what happens in PvE. PvP often places you at odds against the one guy who decides that you have been headshotting quite enough.
If you are versus a powerful enemy, such as a Sith Marauder or the Imperial Sniper, you will have to use your skills fully, (especially with the latter, as they have a lot of the same tools). On that note, this guide also works for Snipers, just in the Marksman build vs. the Sharpshooter build.
I would now like to show you an effective method for playing defensively and still getting the DPS that comes with being a Gunslinger. I’m going to call this method the Dampers Defense. You only need the first few tiers of the Sharpshooter to be able to start using this to its full effectiveness. Here is the absolute minimum build on DarthHater. Read more…
My Perspective on SWTOR Beta aka Skavak Will Pay!!!
Captain Ryla after Esseles
So, while I’ve been sitting in front of my computer, awaiting the email from Bioware to start my early access (metaphorically, of course), I decided to write a bit about my beta experience. With release closing in, I figured now is a good a time as any to detail a bit of my impressions about my beta experiences during the Thanksgiving Weekend!
Oh, and there may be spoilers, so be aware of that now. Read more…
Oops I Did it Again…and Again, and Again! AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHH!!!! (My Encounter with Bioware Customer Service)
Greeting Fanatics!
Yup. That was me on the evening of December 20th. No matter how hard I tried, I could not seem to remember how I typed the answer to my security question. I literally tried at least twenty times and reset my password ten times in order to keep trying. In spite of my perseverance, I did not succeed. I had to call Customer Service.
The Saga Begins
So I was meeting Chipchops at Barnes & Noble for man-nite (Indeed…Geld, Chip and I have a man-nite once a week) and we were going to finally get to pvp together again after sooooo long. He already picked up his Collector’s Edition at the midnight release the preceding evening and I was still going on the grace period. We were planning on such the pwning of Imperial noobs but when he got his computer set up finally (he had some problems connecting to the free Wi-Fi), he realized that he had forgotten his security key at home. So we decided to move man-nite to his apartment.
Upon arriving I connect to his internet and after logging in to TOR, up pops the security question: “What street did you live on as a teenager?” This was easy. I know the answer. I only lived on one street as a teen. Now granted, I did answer it incorrectly the first three times. Due to my wonderful ADHD, I misread the question to say kid and not teenager. How did I confuse the two?…./shrugs shoulders, that’s me off meds ha-ha.
Anyways, I got locked out. On this singular history-making occasion where we once again take up arms together on the battlefield…I had epically failed. I reset my password to try again, and again and again. Nope. I could not figure it out. Did I put Road on the end? Did I capitalize it? Did I abbreviate? It was hopeless. I had to call Customer Support.
You Broke It and Expect Me to Fix It: Customer Support
So my expectations of Bioware are pretty high. I have been waiting for this game for 2 years and I have been reading about how they are confident that they are ready…they weren’t. I call the first time and get a recording telling me all the customer service agents were too busy for me to even be put into a queue. I hung up and called again about 5 minutes later…same recording.
Now something to note about me is that I’m pretty level headed. I don’t anger easily and I try giving the benefit of the doubt. I see everyone as doing the best they can at life and I cannot expect more from them. Honestly, who wouldn’t give their best; some people just don’t know the best methods. Naïve, I know, my wife tells me thus all the time but it keeps me for getting angry so I’ll take it. Anyways, when I got the second recording telling me they were too busy, I was getting a little livid.
I decided to check out the forums for others who were experiencing something similar to my plight. Indeed there were a few. I found a plethora of ranting forum topics by people being in 3 hour phone queues and getting boxed emails which don’t at all help. The funny thing is…it made me feel a little better. Knowing you’re not alone is always comforting. If I’m going to suffer, I want someone to suffer with me. Morbid, I know, but such is the human condition. We like company no matter where we are. That’s why Bioware gave us companions!!! I digress. So I started repeat dialing (“war dialing” I saw it called on one of the topics) trying to fight for my spot in a queue. And it worked! I get in line and wait and wait and wait.
The waiting did have benefits because it gave me a blog topic and time to discuss with Chip an upcoming blog series we are doing on pvp. I, however, much would have rather pvp’ed than talked about blogging about it. Now, I am incredibly tired of their hold music because it is only about 30 seconds long and between each repeat, some guys says, “Your call is important to us and a representative will be with you as soon as one becomes available.” I never want to hear it again. I was on hold for an hour and fifteen minutes and never even got to speak with anyone. The whole evening was wasted on hold. I had to get off because I need to go home and spend time with my lovely wife. So……. I formulated a plan.
Famous last words: I’VE GOT A PLAN!
I decided that I would set my alarm in the morning for 6:30 AM in order to call at a low volume time. I get up barely able to think and redial the customer service number. I immediately got into a queue after jumping through the hoops of “if your problem is this press 1.” I waited about 20 minutes and the phone was answered but a slightly awkward Joseph. He was either very new to the idea of phone service or was extremely tired. I’m betting on the latter. I answered my security questions and got the correct spelling. (I abbreviated road with a period at the end). In spite for the awkwardness, he did a terrific job and I gave him a good review on the survey I was sent in my e-mail.
Contemplative Reflections
Overall, it was more complicated than it should have been to solve my problem. I really feel like there should be other ways for me to fix my own problems should they arise. On the other hand, I must be reasonable. I know Bioware has to protect its customers. It was launch day and those are always going to be extremely busy. I called at peak hours and so I could only expect the long queue. And I must appreciate the extra mile gone to protect my account. I played WoW for several years and was hacked several times. It was actually the reason I quit. Now, I’m glad to see a company taking those extra steps. I also got my security key from my Collector’s Edition linked to my account. Overall, the experience had made me appreciate all the hard work that Bioware has put into this making this game a great experience. If you are having problems with Customer Service, I would advise you to try calling at non-peak hours so your queue isn’t so long. Be one of the few and proud early morning gamers like me. Quality of play and service is much better.
Until next time, stay fanatical and Merry Christmas,
Torvox, an ADHD fanatical gunsma…..I love tamales on Christmas!!!! 
Rhekk
Geldarion
Torvox
The Fanatical Swordsman 