Playing as a Fellowship in LOTRO

Curious as to how playing in a group or fellowship in Lord of the Rings Online provides a better gaming experience? Wonder if it's really different than other MMORPGs? Here is all you need to know about playing well with others.

The Basics

As a Hunter playing in a group or fellowship setting, you are pretty much as DPS machine. Sometimes, players will get frustrated with being “demoted” from a jack-of-all-trades to simply the DPS machine, but it is nothing personal and it is something that you should expect as a hunter. Your main skills are ranged DPS, not tanking or healing, so you being the ranged person is only natural. While many groups do not want to wait for hunters to set traps, but they are still useful and a lot of groups do not want to wait for our focus to build up before we can start shooting. But, they find that the hunter's ability to create campfires for healing and morale are great to have, plus the ability to teleport all over the map is something that most groups can not live without.

Keep in mind though that the primary goal of a hunter in any group or fellowship is as the hammer of the group. We can see into the mobs, swap out targets with ease, and drop the adds before the tanks have a problem with them. Hunters pretty much pull from the healer in the group so they can continue to heal the group or party and then continue to play the artillery. While playing solo, Hunters have the ability to rock and roll alone. Yet, in a group setting, we can suddenly gain the ability to swing the battle in our group's favor and be the hero. In a group setting, hunters can pull from a distance, slowing up the mob, so that it will mindlessly follow us into a group of our tanks and other guardians.

An Asset To Any Group

Every class will have something special to offer those in their group, or fellowship. From healers to hunters, there are special traits that every group will benefit from. For example, some of the main traits, spells, and abilities that groups and fellowships cannot live without from a Hunter are: “Find the Path” (where we can find the way to go anywhere), “Bright Campfire” (the ability to create a campfire that restores the maximum morale and other abilities), and “Cry of the Predator” (which allows a great buff for the whole group). A hunter's “Rain of Arrows” is always great for a group setting, but you do need to be careful that you do not pull something that you didn't want to.

So you want to make sure that you try to get in a group that doesn't already have someone of your class in it. Most people will try to get a diverse group going, so that they gain the maximum from their group and don't stack buffs that won't help. If you are the one forming the group, then you want to make sure that you choose players that will help the group and try not to stack classes so you gain the most from every player's traits and buffs.