The Rift of Nurz Ghashu Guide

[Melwhin]

The Rift Guide

Another Great Guide with Maps = http://www.pooh.cz/lotro/a.asp?a=2014392

Some of you have no idea what the rift will be like, myself included, so to help out I have offered some helpful information and sites to look at that will give you an idea of what we will be up against...this is not your walk through the park type of area...it's gonna be an exciting challenge for all of us...can't wait to see you all there!

With the launch of Book 11, Middle-earth received a new raid instance known as "The Rift of Nurz Ghashu." This new raid instance offers a new burst of high level content for patrons of Middle-earth. The Rift, as it is called for short, has many new raid boss targets. These bosses have a chance to drop a variety of gems that can be exchanged to specific merchants at the Ranger camp near the entrance to "The Rift" in Angmar. These gems can be exchanged for class specific gear from these merchants, so all gems are useful to every class as each can be exchanged for a different section of armor.

The gems are not the only currency of barter, but they are certainly the most valuable. Inside the rift there is a giant camp that you can exchange Scraps of Rift-Iron Ore and Obsidian Rock Shard's for Rift-Iron coins. You will need to speak to the giant named Utrygg to barter the ore for coins. These coins can then be used to barter with merchants at Iorelen's Rangers camp near the entrance of "The Rift" in northeastern Angmar. The exchange rate for the ore and coins are as follows...

Here is the exchange rate site: LINK

The really popular items from "The Rift" are obtained with a variety of gems that can be earned by slaying the many raid bosses that dwell deep within this dark dwelling. Successfully defeating one of these many creatures can earn you a well deserved chance at acquiring one of these gems. The gems can then be taken to class barter merchants found at Iorelen's Ranger camp located near the entrance to "The Rift."

The first thing you need to know about the gems is where to find them. Below, I have listed the known confirmed drops of each gem and its carrier...

This site not only gives a list of the gems that each monster drops, but also gives us a detailed list of the New Rift Armour for Guardians and Champions:
LINK

This site gives a detailed list of the New Rift Armour for LM's and Minstrels:
LINK

Here's the list of the Rift Armour for Hunters, Burglars and Captains:
LINK


So, now that you know what armour pieces you want, lets take a look at who you need to take down to get those pieces of armour. Remember, you need to know ahead of time what gem you need, so make sure you do your research ahead of time.

(In order of Appearance)
1.Barz........................ ..........Boots
2.Zurm........................ .........Boots(Yes, I said Boots twice, it is not a mistake.)
3.Fruz........................ ..........Gloves/Gauntlets
4.Zogtark..................... .........Leggings
5.Narnulubat.................. ........Chest
6.ShadowEaters................ .....Random Teal or Purple Item(Cross your fingers for Teal!! ){Thanks for the update Galan}
7.Thrang...................... .........Helmet
8.Thaurlach(Balrog)........... ......Weapons/Shields, Shoulders, and the turn in for the Glorfindel's Band{Thanks for this much needed info SeraXI--you would know!!}

Here's a few general tips for the rift:

1) if you see doors & gates anywhere and I don't mean instance doors with the shimmer, make sure your group moves together through the door, there's plenty of them that close & can separate your group

2) quickly loot all chests

3) Mushrooms! The mushroom quest is bugged, it cannot be done in a raid. The mushrooms also despawn after you clear a few of the locks (unknown which locks, probably 1 & 2 though). This worked for some people.....clear out Barz & Zurm & all mobs in those areas to make it safe. Have members of the raid each find a mushroom & stand in front of it but not click it yet. One by one, have the members leave the raid & while the "You will exit the encounter in 60 seconds" timer is counting down, they can (and should) click the mushroom to "loot" it. Then exit the encounter & turn in the quest, after that they can rejoin the raid. This worked for several people in our kin. Hopefully Turbine will fix this quest soon.

4) Check all status effects....and I don't necessarily mean the ones on your party. Even in the middle of a fight you might see a mob throw out a status effect that is important to know what it does and how it effects the pull.

5) Interrupts.....and I don't necessarily mean your party members getting their skills interrupted. Turbine apparently did not like that many players ignored their interrupt skills and they saw fit to make us pay if we failed to recognize & interrupt some mobs skills in The Rift. And I really mean pay.....I never though I'd see the day an Uruk and some Pale Folk wipe out a 12-man party

6) Bring a balanced team. The Rift, more so than anywhere else in the game, has situations that call upon each class to perform to the best of their ability. Do not gimp your party before you even start by failing to bring along a Lore-master, a Burglar, enough Minstrels & Guardians. The Rift is definately not a place to go "haha lets see if we can do this with 8 hunters & 4 champions lulz".

7) New Skills! Several classes just got or recently got new skills! Do not overlook these & make sure they are implimented when necessary, they are very useful! Also note: minstrels' new +armor/+hope aura....the hope doesn't stack with hope tokens. Personally I think this is a bug since captain's hope standard stacks, but we'll see. File a /bug on it if you also think its a bug

Cool Lava! This may be a shocker but lava isn't a instant-killer. It REALLY hurts, but its not touch-it-and-die like the green water in Carn Dum. I'll have to post my screenshot of my guardian naked, hip-deep in lava. Good times.

9) Outfitting! Make sure everybody on your team is well-outfitted. +4/+5 hope tokens, HoT (heal-over-time) food, Stat-buff food, Morale & Power pots, Wound/Fear/Poison potions, Lore, Bow-chants, Lute strings, Shield spikes, Oils, Celebration Beer, etc. Outfitting goes beyond food & items, there's also class traits. Pay attention when you make runs in there....if you find a problem that you cannot overcome, identify the problem first, see if there's a class trait one of your raid members can slot that will solve it.
10) Think outside the box. There's plenty of ways the old "Tank & Spank" method will get you killed in The Rift if you don't use your head. Not saying Tank&Spank never works in The Rift, but there's plenty of situations it shouldn't be your first strategy because it will get your party wiped. You may have to do something first in order to allow T&S to work. Anybody who goes into The Rift expecting the same old, same old is going to wipe and they're going to wipe a lot. Case in point, very first pull in The Rift on the first night of the patch, a single troll & uruk wiped out the entire No Quarter raid. It was about then that we realized this is not going to be the same old shizz, just different area & different skins on the mobs.

Hopefully that helps a bit. I know a lot of that is generic tips for running any instance but I agree with Dal, figuring out the instance is the greatest fun for me and I know we're not alone in it. Its nothing malicious, I'd just prefer to give other kins the opportunity to have that same fun we all had the first week, plus, as Dal pointed out, many of these encounters have only been run 3x. The only way somebody would have more experience is if they had multiple 50s to lead raids in there with (and enough people w/out raid locks to make up another group). Many of the currently working strats need extreme refinement and a few encounters even have some bugs and are easier as a result. I'm sure in the next few weeks we'll see guilds tweaking their strategy & we'll see new guilds do their runs who may come up with a fantastic new strat that's completely different.


Also:
******************SPOILER ALERT*********************
Found a GENERAL walkthrough for the Adds and the Main bosses #3-#7...read up!
I have offered a DETAILED walkthrough only for bosses #1 and #2.

TRASH MOBS (Boss 1-2)
You will deal with several types of trash mobs on your way through the 1st and 2nd boss. Here they are:

Troll+TrollMaster
-The trick is to keep them close together. If the Troll gets too far from its Master he screams "Master is far, ME SMASH!" and he will ravish you with the might of a thousand infants. Since you are wise and have 2 Guardians raiding with you, off-tank on the TrollMaster, tank on the troll. Kill the TrollMaster first, which drops the buff on the Troll that makes it so you can not keep aggro, and you kill the Troll. Easy.

Slave Master+HealyWoman+Slaves
-The trick is to have your Special classes (You should have 2 of these, one in each group. A Special Class is a Burglar/Loremaster). The Healywoman (which will be the only female slave) needs to remain stunned the entire fight and be killed last, otherwise she heals and the only way to stop her from healing her boyfriends for 2000 a pop is if a Burglar uses a spell on her to stun her spellcasting. So have your Special classes Stun the Healywoman and the Slave Master, this is so you don't have a healer and a 24,000HP or so mob. When you Stun those two people you will get about 6 or so Slaves, each with 10,000HP. Group them together and smash them to bits, kill the Slave Master, Healywoman last. You can do some little tricks like have hunters place traps on the healers, so if they pull aggro the mob will get caught and the minstrels can move over a bit to avoid attacking and the raid knows there is a little dude stuck in a trap and he wants to smash the healers.


Barz (Facing Azmulf guarding the door Burz will be off to the RIGHT)
This boss has about 140,000HP and hits semi-hard, nothing too worry about. You will want to spread your members out, not too much, but enough so you can see who may pull aggro. There are several things you do not want to do during this fight.

1) Be within melee range after he says "I'm going to Gnaw on your bones". When he says this, he will go stationary and sit there and swing around. BEWARE- Back teh *** up, or you will get one shotted while he's doing it. While he's doing this attack you have time to heal up the raid and reposition yourselves to grab aggro. So keep an eye out for "Gnaw on your bones", and when he says it you get out of melee range.

2) Another thing, he will yell "No power is stronger then Barz" and he will steal power from a random person. If a Minstrel heals anytime between the time he says that and the time he's done stealing Power they will automatically get aggro, and you will really pull your raid across a bumpy trail if you have to keep fighting aggro off our squishy healers
Now if you can keep those two things down, you'll be good. Barz is not immune to slowing effects such as a Hunters slowing spell, or a Burglars dust in the eyes- its all good joo joo, but not necessary. During the fight as you bring his health down, mobs will spawn to the left of you, and two times behind you.
-First Spawn, 94,000 or so-
This will be off to a cave to the left, and out will come a Troll+TrollMaster. Use the same strategy listed above to defeat them. Off-tank will be standing by that cave as soon as Barz reaches 100,000 (to pick them up early) and you will TrollMaster then the Troll. Remember to keep them together or you die painfully. Now while the whole raid is concentrating on them what we do is we have our Captain+MainTankGuardian fight Barz on their own. Just running him around and getting a heal or two from a Minstrel from time to time, nothing hard. When Barz does his "Gnaw on your Bones" the Guardian can get his health up, and it also lets the Guardian rest from taking damage- easy stuff.
-Second Spawn, 70,000ish-
This will be behind you, and they will spawn Healywoman+Slaves (Minus a Slave Master, so don't worry about him). You will have to keep the Healywoman stunned the whole time and keep the Slaves together. Now you really have to keep your eyes on your Minstrels, they will take a punishing during this and it is not pretty, so Champions should be helping by pulling aggro and Burglars should be enraging. Once you kill the slaves, finish the Healywoman and get back to Barz- The Guardian+Captain (or Guardian+Minstrel if you don't have a Captain) will do the same thing they did before
-Third Spawn, 50,000ish-
Same thing as the Second Spawn. Just make sure you have two Special Classes (listed above) when you fight the first and second boss, or your going to have a lot of problems defeating them. Power conservation, Potions, and paying attention is key to success here.

Zurm (Facing Azmulf guarding the door Zurm will be off to the LEFT)
This fight is much similar to fighting Barz. The only difference is he will not "Gnaw on yours Bones" or "Steal your Powers", he will do a knock-back attack and does AOE damage (so stand behind him) and will randomly vomit green stuff on somebody or in a random direction, just try to avoid it . There will be Three Spawns, and they will be the same types as before.
-First Spawn, Troll+TrollMaster-
They will appear behind you, instead of to your left like during Barz. Deal with them like before, Off-tank should be standing at the back of the raid by 100,000HP. All the while the Captain+Guardian+Minstrel Support handling Zurm.
-Second Spawn, Healywoman+Slaves-
They will appear behind where Zurm first stands, so make sure the Special Classes are ready to stun the HealyBich and the Off-tank is prepared to grab as many of the slaves as possible.
-Third Spawn, Healywoman+Slaves-
See Second Spawn for more Details. Make sure you conserve Power just like during Barz, it is key and the raid will soon be drained and slowly fall a part without lots of juicy Power.

Fruz:
It is imperative you use everything at your disposal to keep the adds from Fruz; use tar, riddles, roots, mezzes, and the kitchen sink to keep them away! Do everything in your raid's power to keep Fruz as far away from the stairs and the fire as possible, in order to decrease the chance of this boss encounter bugging. I also wanted to add that if Fruz gets near the fire, he will start 1-hit-killing everyone nearby. (We are waiting to find out if this is a bug or an intended encounter. I will keep you posted.) The hope for this battle is to have the guard tank Fruz in the corner away from the stairs while the entire raid burns him to the ground before the adds can get a heal off to him. This is your hope...I say this because most of the posts have stated that this encounter is almost a 50/50 chance of getting bugged...and these posts are as of 11/18/2007. The bugs are as follows: either Fruz anti-exploits and you cannot regain his attention...game over...or the adds anti-exploit but are still able to heal Fruz...game over. Some raids are now saying Fruz is possibly the hardest to take down since the 11/14 update. No matter how good a raid may be, this encounter is still left to chance. Many raids have said, "it was an easy take-down!", others have said, "there were no problems at all and found him to be easy." I hope that you follow in their lucky footsteps!! May chance be on your side!

Zogtark:
Clear the room of adds, using los and pulling them behind the wall seems to work best.
The fight starts with 2 green drakes, you hit them for a bit then they take off into
the air and range with fire from there and Zogtark comes down. Do as much dmg to the
drakes as you can before they go airborne. They will land once they get to 8k. As long
as you keep them off the minstrels you can leave them airborne for the whole fight. Or
range them down to 8k so they land and you can finish them off, depends on how the groups
are set up.

Narnulubat:
Fight the 3 mobs at the start, then get the whole group up to the ledge before the first main
platform. Minstrels bubble up and everyone run acrossed to lava to the other side. DONT JUMP
it makes you die faster. Once over there, hope up. When you start the fight the Ever-Seer will
leave. put a dpser on both sides to kill the little shadow guys so they dont get to t vortex,
if you dont they turn into 10k mobs. Tank goes on Narnulubat, everyone else focus fire on the
summoners. Once the summoners are down its a burn fight, keep killing the shadow slugs and burn
down the boss.

Shadow-Eaters:
Tank on the Shadown-Eater, rest of group burn down the other guy. Not sure but the little
shadow slugs seem to turn into 10k guys if they get to the shadow-eater so again put 2 dpsers
on killing the little slugs.

Thrang: (Thanks to Invert, Southern Cross, Elendimir Server)
The key to this fight is positioning. But lets go through it one stage at a time.

Stage One - The Giant & Adds

This is the simplest part of the fight. All you have to do is have the Main Tank tank the Giant off to the side with a minstrel healing him, while the rest of the raid takes out the adds. There are four waves of adds, which are easily taken care of if you just mez one and kill the rest, kill the mezzed, and then go through the cycle again. When you are on the last add, keep him mezzed while everyone gets into position. Now the Main Tank brings the giant back to just in front of the left set of stairs and tanks him there until he greens out. Once the rest of the raid are in position, pull the summoner into the right alcove and take him out. Make sure you kill any worms he summons first before you finish him off.

Stage Two - The Shaman

Once the Giant greens out after you kill the final summoner, have the raid situated under the stairs, in the alcoves. The two tanks will run up their respective stairs to pick up their two shaman each (who will be running down from their perches near the door you entered from), and will jump down into their alcoves, with the shaman following them in.

Fighting them in the alcoves will prevent them from being able to heal each other as they will be out of line of sight. So the raid will take down those that the off-tank has agroed, and once those are dead, will run over (while staying very close to the wall, so as not to get Thrang line of sight) and kill the last two that the Main Tank has agroed.

It is easiest to use a minstrel to tank Thrang, and this will be the one that is not healing the Main Tank. The reason for this is because it prevents unnecessary damage being taken by someone trying to melee tank him. To gain agro initially, the minstrel must throw some big heals around the raid once the shaman are focused on the tank (should only take about 10 seconds). Once they have agro, he/she will have to keep themselves up, while healing the rest of the raid in the right alcove. This shouldn't be too difficult, as the shaman do not hit for much, and go down relatively easily. Thrang also doesn't do too much damage, as long as you keep your wound pots handy.

Stage Three - Thrang

Once all of the shaman are down, Thrang will get angry and run down the stairs, with a lot of agro on the minstrel. The Minstrel should use still of death at this time. It is now up to the Main Tank to get agro off. There needs to be no DPS until the Main Tank has agro on Thrang. It is also important that the Main Tank and the minstrel that has agro need to stay away from the raid during this period, as Thrang does a big 1k damage AOE stun every so often, which can cause some dramas. Once the Main Tank has agro, he/she will kite him around the bottom of the stairs to the furmeroles. The furmeroles put a debuff on Thrang when they explode (while stunning all those in the vicinity), which allows him to take damage. The raid will need to stay out of range of this AOE until the furmerole explodes, and then run in and DPS until the debuff wears off. Keep doing this until Thrang is dead.

Here's a pic of the strategy.

http://s203.photobucket.com/albums/a...nt=Thrang2.jpg

Also, here's a YouTube vid of a kin using this strat, and i've seen a few other kins use the same one also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2LxPWAGsj0

More information will be posted as it is located and reviewed...until then...Enjoy Middle-Earth!

{The 10 general tips for going into the Rift were originally posted by Xeroproject, No Quarter Kin, Gladden}
{The strategy for "Troll+Trollmaster", "Slave Master+HealyWoman+Slaves", and Barz and Zurm were originally posted by AeonicStorm, Allied Coalition Kin, Firefoot}
{The helpful hints and tips for Fruz, Boss #3, were originally posted by Manwolf, The Black Hand Kin, Meneldor and by Maglarend, Band of Hope Kin, Landroval}
{The helpful hints and tips for bosses #4-#7 were originally posted by leilannie, Iteria Combine Kin, Firefoot}

[Melwhin]

Links fixed. Thanks to Geltonar for pointing out the problem.

[Melwhin]

Guide to the Rift for a Hunter

Credit to Infares from official forums. Original Post



Okay here's the rift from a hunter's perspective:

Throttle back the hate, I mean it. It's very very important that the tanks be allowed to do their jobs.

Barz: Use your threat control routine. If you're the Main Assist, you should probably focus on calling targets. One hunter that's not the main assist should focus on keeping Barz snared during the waves of adds to facilitate kiting by the offtank, but make sure you're not actually DPSing while snaring, as you'll be in Stance: Strength to get your Quick Shot Snare on and that increases your threat, so when Barz is actively being tanked rather than kited, switch back to Stance: Endurance to DPS him until the next wave of adds.

Zurm: No matter how little threat you think you generate with Quick Shot in Stance: Endurance, probably best to stay completely off Zurm's hate list for a long time, possibly even up to 20-30 seconds. The reason is, Zurm has attacks that deliberately force the tank down the hate list, and goes after whoever's next, and if that's a hunter he'll huck an 800 damage rock that stuns for eons. Handle the adds as you did with Barz.

Fruz: You'll likely be switching to Stance: Precision for most of this fight to get Rain of Thorns to stick on the adds that run down the stairs. If you root them as they hit the ground, they'll forget to run to Fruz, but if you root them on the stairs you better be prepared to burn them down fast because if they get off the stairs then they'll still run to heal Fruz.

Zogtark: This fight opens with the tanks getting on the drakes and turning them towards the wall, hunters help pewpewpew the worm adds. When they die, all hunters switch to Stance: Strength and pop Breach Finders, and equip their Crossbows of the Hunt if you were smart and grabbed it instead of the bow. Focus fire one of the drakes until it takes to the sky, at which point it should start getting Enrage stacked on it by the Burglars and should go down rapidly. Coordinate Heart Seeker with the captains in the group so they can get Oathbreaker's Shame on the drakes before unleashing. As long as everyone focuses on the same drake and manages the adds, this fight is cake. Resume threat control routine once the drakes are dead and Zogtark joins the fray.

Narnublat: On the way to Narnublat there will be Fumeroles. Strangely, they're BADLY WEAK to Fire, so use those Fortified Black Ash Bows for the Fumeroles themselves. The wisps they poop out however are very resistant to Fire, so you'll be doing some bow switching. For Narnublat himself, depending on the number of hunters you brought with you, one will generally be camping the stairs to one side of the door and one will be camping the stairs on the other side, and those two hunters will be in stance: Strength snaring and killing the Darklings while the rest of the group fights Seers. If there's no darklings, turn around and start shooting the closest seer in the face, doesn't matter which one. Chances are the Darkling hunters won't even shoot the boss. Other hunters will be observing proper threat control etiquette and assist the rest of the group on the seers and DPS Narnublat once they're dead.

Eaters: Generally, the tanks will split these up, with the black one on one side of the room and the brown one on the other side. DPS one down to about 10kish, then switch to the other, then once both are down to equal morale the tanks will bring them together and the group will start unleashing unholy AOE on them, the idea here is to defeat them as close to the same time as possible, as if one goes down before the other dozens of adds start joining the fight, and that's a bad thing.

Thrang: During the waves of adds, the tank will have the giant with his back to the wall, half the waves will be CCed while defeating them one at a time. On the wave with the Summoners, you'll defeat one quickly, then get the other one down to within (Number of hunters x 1500 or 2k whichever is lower) health. It's recommended that hunters get up to at least 6 focus during this guy and then stand still once combat is broken. The idea here is to mez this guy at low health, defeat all the worm adds, and get a chance to regen before the Shaman fight. Once the raid leader gives the OK, one or two hunters that have some focus left will Heartseeker + Merciful Shot/Penetrating Shot the remaining mezzed Summoner to get it out of the fight without summoning any more worm adds. Then, everyone goes to the assigned cubby and starts defeating the shamans. Different groups do this differently, but usually the tank will be on one side with 2-3 shaman while the rest of the party is on the other side with the remaining ones. Defeat the shamans one at a time, and then once Thrang joins the fight, don't worry about DPSing unless he's been hit by a Fumerole. This fight other than the kiting routine is pretty standard tank and spank, just avoid the Fumeroles at all costs if you must move around in the room after they've been summoned.

Thaurlach: This fight is multistage.

• Left canal: Hunters usually fight Darklings, and focus on the World Eater that's not mezzed otherwise. Stance: Strength for the darklings and Stance: Endurance on the world eaters.
  
• Right canal: Same as the left canal.
  
• Wheels: You're probably going with one of the two groups to help keep mobs off of whoever gets assigned wheel turning duty. Once you grab the mobs, GTFO and train them to the elf chick.
  
• Elf Chick™ Cluster****: Stay close to her at all costs, dps the mobs down one at a time, here's a breather after this.
  
• Everseer: You're probably going to be standing out of Everseer's Line of Sight for most of this fight and plinking away at Darklings. If a darkling reaches the vortex on your side, it's your fault. Judiciously DPS on the Everseer between waves of Darklings, and WATCH YOUR DEBUFFS FOR THE LOVE OF JEBUS.
  
• Thaurlach: How slowly can you DPS? Watch your threat on this fight, seriously. Try to stay out of Roaring range for this whole fight if you can, and it's imperative that you don't turn Thaurlach after 100k, as if he pukes on the group and/or the Elf Chick™ the fight is pretty much over. Watch the main tank for a green eye debuff, and use your poison cure asap. At around 12kish (Just before 10k) you'll be switching to your strongest Beleriand bow, popping a Breach Finder, and switching to Stance: Strength. The Balrog Must Die at this point, ASAP. DPS YOUR *** OFF.

[Melwhin]

Guide to the Rift as a Loremaster
Credit to Mael5trom

(This is for you, Ingol!)

Thought I'd put down some thoughts about what the LM job is in the Rift, and what kinds of traits and consumables must be brought.

Traits:
required - Proof Against All Ills, Dunadan Learning
highly recommended - Master of the Staff (gives chance at another stun, more DPS)

Optional Trait Builds (depends on play style):
Emergency Healer - Healer, Light of Hope
Power Battery - Harmony with Nature, Power and Wisdom
Reduce Power/Morale Costs - Harmony with Nature, Awareness of Body

As for the legendaries, the second slot is at the LMs discretion. Obviously the first should be Sword and Staff. I use Noble Savage to give my pet more survivability in the Rift. The Eagle-Friend gives a +1 in combat power regen, but the Eagle dies a lot if you try to use it to attack at all, so IMO it isn't really useful. The March of the Ents gives another AOE 5 second stun, but only every 5 minutes. IMO if the pet survives better, they will give much more DPS in each fight than the Ents do once every 5 minutes, and we have the Storm-Lore stun now.

Consumables:
required:
20 Pure Healing Draughts
20 Pure Milkthistle Draughts
10 Pure Celebrant Salve (20 recommended)
10 Pure Essence of Athelas (20 recommended)
5 Brilliant (15 min) Edhelharn Tokens. (One 30 min. optional)
10 Shire Sweet-Leaf pipeweed (in case rezzing is needed)

Trash Mobs, general notes:

Any Slave Masters must be kept mezzed (preferably) or stunned at all times until the raid group is ready to deal with them. The groups of Slave Master/Slave/Workers will be pulled by mezzing the Slave Master. In case of a resist, call it out immediately, and the backup CC will get it. If no backup CC, immediately root it ( so it doesn't get in the stack) and then stun with Test of Will, followed by LotRD (Light of the Rising Dawn). At that point you should be able to mezz it again. If stuns are down, or the SM gets into the middle of the stack, a hunter can fear it out or a guardian can tank it for 10 seconds while the mez cools down.

If there is no Slave Master, mez the Slave to stop her from healing. A champ may take the slave and clobber (interrupt) the heal, so that is fine also.

Let a tank/champ pull Troll/Troll Keeper combos, unless you are pulling at range for them. Or do a proximity pull by walking up until they aggro and then running them back to group.

Use Sticky Tar at every available point, except on the boss fights. Try to keep it down whenever fighting groups of mobs. On the Barz and Zurm fights, wait until you get the adds, and use it on the adds. On Fruz, drop it at the bottom of the stairs to slow down the adds that heal him so a champ can grab them all.

As a LM, you are somewhat exempt from the "Don't pass the red skull" rule. However, you are also responsible for anything you aggro before you're supposed to. So be careful, know where the mobs are and move accordingly. If you aren't sure, stay behind the skull.

Share power. As much as possible. This is a large part of a LM's job in the Rift (or any raid, really). Share it based on need in this order: Minstrels, Main Assist, Main Tank, everyone else (hunters, champs, captains, burglars, off-tanks). If there is a lot of healing going on, don't worry about anything but keeping the Minstrels with power, because if they run out, the heals stop, and everyone dies. Don't draw power from the Main Assist's target (unless Boss) when fighting multiple mobs - select one that isn't being hit too hard yet, and draw from that mob - less chance of it getting killed before your power drain is complete.

Pets
Your pet is your responsibility. Know it's pathing limitations and keep it under control at all times. Most of the time your pet should be on passive and you should direct it when and where to fight.

As for which pet, that is up to your play style. Personally, I like the Lynx through the early part of the Rift for extra DPS, through the World Eater bosses, and then the Raven for Thrang and Thaurlach. There are large AOEs during the trash pulls, I will often park my pet to the side and only send him in when the AOEs die down (trolls are bad for this). Some LMs like the bear for it's +10% to ranged and melee armor rend, plus it has an aggro grabbing skill, but I have not tried using a bear in the Rift, and so can't recommend it.

Boss Fights:

Barz / Zurm

Both fights are very similar. Keep SoP: Righteousness up on main tank as much as possible to prevent him from being stunned if fighting Zurm on "hard mode". If in melee range, TURN AND RUN if Barz says "I'll Gnaw Your Bones."

DPS/Debuff until first set of adds come in. Lay Sticky Tar where adds will be fought and help burn Troll Keeper and Troll down. When the second set comes (Slave/Workers), mez or stun Slave. Use root and burn Call to the Valar if needed to get the Slave down away from the main group. Use Sticky Tar, help DPS Workers and keep Slave mezzed. Once the Workers are dispatched, keep the Slave mezzed for the rest of the fight and kill once the boss is down. If the Slave is kept mezzed, the third set of adds will not come out, in both of the Barz and Zurm fights.

Fruz

Help DPS/Debuff Fruz and watch for adds. Lay Sticky Tar at bottom of stairs, and try to catch adds with a root just after they drop. The root will only be up every other set of adds, on average. Hunters can help root. A Champ (or two) will grab the adds and clear them. Can also use the AOE stun or Lightning to help clear adds. Other than that, stay on Fruz and DPS/Debuff.

Zogtark

Lay Sticky Tar as the encounter starts in the right Drake's path to slow it down as the group DPSs it down. Cast Burning Embers as your first attack to slow Drake down as well. Cast Ancient Craft and Lightning second. Do NOT try to root Drakes, as it will often cause them to reset and fly up immediately. Help DPS the first Drake down, stay on the Drake(s) when they fly up and use ranged attacks to help hunters bring them down. While doing this, share power liberally with the Minstrels, as they will often be bubbled during this part of the fight. Straight Spank&Tank on the Zogtark after drakes are down. Watch for wounds on the main tank.

Narnûlubat

Follow the Main Tank that takes Narnûlubat, and cast Leechcraft on the Tank at every opportunity or when he is Wounded. In between, share power, help DPS the Seers with the main group. Cast Sticky Tar on Narnûlubat to help slow his movement down to help the Tank. Once the Seers are gone, DPS/Debuff/Share Power/Remove Wounds.

Shadow-Eater

Keep the wound off the main tank as he tanks the World Eater. Help DPS/Debuff and watch for Darklings from the corner.

Thrâng

Try to help control the flow of the adds coming in. There are 4 waves, try to root or mezz some on the waves to make it easier to take the groups down. Try to keep Sticky Tar up on the bottom of the first stairs. On the last wave (2 Summoners), keep a drake warding circle up, and as the last Summoner gets to about 3K/2.5K, stun him and keep the stun up with each of your stuns to prevent him from getting a last drake off.

During the Shaman fight, keep the wound debuff off the main tank using Leechcraft. Remove the wound as possible from others in the raid, but the Main Tank is the first priority, Minstrels second. Obviously, you must keep it off yourself as well. Share Power as you can, there generally isn't much time for DPSing, but throw a spell when you get a chance. It's nice to have the Raven alive here, as you can use it with Distraction to help the tank get the Shaman into the corner and into melee instead of at range. Can also use Distraction to help break a Shaman off of the tank.

We tank Thrang (so tank or minstrel has Thrang occupied) and offtank the Shaman on the top, with one tank taking 3 shaman at the start, and a champ pulls 1 off at a time to the other side where the rest of the group beats them down.

With 1 LM, stand right near the top of the stairs, close enough to the tank in the corner with 3 shaman to toss emergency heals or wound removal while still being able to hit the main tank on Thrang with the wound removal and stun immunity as often as I can. I can also emergency heal the minstrel who is at the top of the stairs, and remove the wound if Thrang targets him due to heal aggro.

At this location, it's a short run to the other side of the stairs if someone in the main group gets the wound by chance, but that is pretty rare and usually they cure their wound with a pot anyways. With 2 LMs, one can stand on either side of the stairs, with the one closer to the main group keeping them wound free and helping DPS as well. The LM closer to the main group would keep Sticky Tar down on the group and debuff the Shaman they are killing.

Also debuff the shaman - Wind Lore and Gust of Wind on the loose/off-tanked ones, and fire lore on the one being killed. If my raven survived the earlier waves, I use Distraction on the Shaman the champ is trying to pull to the group to be killed, or on a Shaman that decides to run around and doesn't want to stay on the off-tank in the corner. I also will try to root uncooperative Shaman that start to run away, but that can be hard as the tank needs to be able to hit them to keep aggro, and the root breaks pretty quick. But it can keep the Shaman from getting close enough to heal the guy getting killed. I also dump Sticky Tar on the off-tank to slow the Shaman he is tanking down a little.

Grind Thrang down once the Shamans are done. Watch for wounds on main tank, DPS when Thrang's buff is down. Cast anti-stun spell on main tank and any who have hope down if a hopeful heart is not used.

Thaurlach

Ah, the Balrog. The culmination of the raid, and one of the hardest fights in the game. This fight can be very stressful on a LM, depending on the strategy used. Here is what we are currently doing, although this strat is still evolving.

Use the Raven for this fight. The +15 to Shadow Mitigation helps keep the group alive. After the hour long speech by the elf chick, head to the left immediately (stay out of the water until it's clean or you die). Park the Raven somewhere near the corner and setup just past the corner. As the elf chick draws near, drop Sticky Tar straight ahead so it covers some of the water and the area where the World Eater appears on the left (as you are looking at the fountain to be cleaned. Mez the World Eater that appears to the right across the water. Be ready to root, stun, etc. if the mez is resisted, or have a backup mez ready from another LM or a riddle from a burglar. The group will kill the first World Eater - be ready to cure wounds, help DPS, share power, etc. and keep the 2nd World Eater mezzed until the first is almost dead, and then let it come to the group. If it goes after a hunter or minstrel, toss some attacks at it to gain aggro if possible (shouldn't be too difficult) and drag it into the main group. Once both World Eaters are dead, help with the Darklings and then move to the fountain on the other side.

Don't forget to tell your Raven to follow you. Park it again, rinse and repeat on the second side - it's an identical fight to the first. After 2nd World Eater is dead, wait for token, then run back to get setup on the right side of the platform in front of the Balrog. Again, don't forget your Raven, but this time park it just inside where the door will come down, or by the original door you entered by.

As the 2 groups go to turn the levers, be ready to try and mez the World Eater that will come out of the right hand door. If there are two LMs, the second should get ready to root the Shadow Eaters (?) that come from the left hand door, otherwise a hunter will attempt to root them. Be ready to stun, root, etc the World Eater on the right as it will resist often. Then turn around, lay down Sticky Tar and debuff the rest of the mobs, help DPS and remove wounds. Keep the World Eater mezzed or rooted, if possible, until the rest of the mobs are killed, then let him come to the group and kill him.

Once those mobs are done, run with the group to the Everseer stairs, and remember to tell your Raven to follow you. Once you go in the room, head to the right behind the pillar and park your Raven behind the pillar there, out of the Everseer's LOS. Then head back around the pillar and setup in the middle in front of the Everseer. Keep stun immunity and Leechcraft up on the main Tank, while the rest of the group kills the Everseer. Champs, Captains and the Tank will try to interrupt the wound the Everseer sprays, but the LM needs to be ready to remove wounds from anyone who gets it. It can take 2-3 applications of Leechcraft to remove the wound at times, so keep spamming it until the wound(s) are gone. It is an AOE, so it is good to spam on the main tank whenever the Everseer crouches down, to help the group resist the wound if he gets it off.

Once the Everseer is dead, gather behind the pillar, and tell your Raven to follow you. Get stun immunity up on the Tank and both Minstrels ASAP, as well as yourself. If you can get others, do so, but the Tank and Minstrels are priority. As the doors open run out and to the left of the Balrog, targeting the Guardian who was tanking Thaurlach. Get stun immunity up on him as soon as you are in range. Setup near the side walkway so both the Guardian on Thaurlach and the rest of your party is in range of your stun immunity. The Raven will survive longer if parked back a little ways, but keep it close enough that the Shadow Mitigation still reaches the main Tank.

If there are 2 LMs, keep stun immunity up on your respective fellowships. If there is only 1, then the Tank(s), the Minstrel(s) and yourself are the highest priority to keep the stun immunity up on, then the Hunter(s) and Burglar(s), then Champion(s) and lastly, the Captain(s).

Share power as you can through the fight, with priority to the Minstrels. Announce if you will be drawing power, and only do so after refreshing the stun immunity for yourself, the Minstrels and the main Tank. Run in and put Sticky Tar down on the Balrog whenever possible, and apply your other debuffs (fire lore, gust of wind, ancient craft) as possible as well.

Send heals to the elf chick anything the raid leader or Minstrel calls for additional healing. Otherwise, save your heals for emergency healing of the Minstrels or the Tank. I don't worry about the Raven, but if you have a heal up and no one needs it but the bird (unlikely), then go ahead and keep its morale maxed up.

At a certain point in the fight, the Balrog will spew disease all over the main Tank - this must be removed ASAP or the Tank will die. Spam your Cure Disease skill until it is gone - can take 2-4 applications to remove it all. It's good to put this on the Tank ahead of this point if possible, so help him resist some of the diseases. This can happen randomly 2-4 more times, so be ready to do it again as needed. When not doing this, continue to rotate through stun immunities.

When Thaurlack approaches 25k-20k, cycle through stun immunities on the entire group, regardless of whether there is 1 LM or 2. Get Sticky Tar down on the Balrog at this point as well, and get Fire Lore debuff on him. If you can get Ancient Craft on him as well do it. At 10K, everyone rushes him to DPS, but do NOT use any skills that might proc a stun immunity (LotRD, ToW, Staff Strike) until after the conjunction hits. Once you see the conjunction hit, DPS with anything you have. If you got AC on him, use Lightning. Heck, send in your Raven if it's alive (I'd love for my pet to get a killing blow, btw).

If everything goes well, he dies and you can relax, take a few screenshots and bask in the moment knowing you helped take down a Balrog.

That's it!

The Rift is different from Helegrod in that the LM becomes much more than just CC, a power battery, or puller. It is essential to watch the debuffs being thrown out by both Bosses and regular mobs alike, and cure them if/when possible.