With every new chapter in LotRO's book, Turbine likes to take a closer look at some specific class(es). For the upcoming Book 11 update later this month, they've decided to take a closer look at the Minstrel and Loremaster classes.

Here's a small list of changes you'll be seeing in the update for Minstrels:

Healing:

Minstrels are, without a doubt, the kings of healing in LOTRO. We're very happy with the amount of morale a Minstrel can restore and the amount of time it takes them to restore it. No new heal-over-time skills will be added, since the Captain is more focused on morale-over-time, and the Minstrel up-front heals. We also feel that the power cost of that restoration is too low at higher levels.

Skill Revamp: Healing skills - We've increased the cost of healing skills at higher levels. No change has been made to lower-level players, but at a high level, the costs increase.

• New Skill: Chord of Salvation - The Minstrel now has an instant cast heal! Chord of Salvation heals more than Raise the Spirit but less than Bolster Courage. However, the price for being an instant cast skill is higher power usage, and a 30-second cooldown.
• New Skill: Gift of the Hammerhand - Minstrels can now put a shield on an ally, similar to their own Lay of the Hammerhand. This skill makes incoming damage reduce Power instead of Morale. The shield is instant cast, so combined with Chord of Salvation, a Minstrel can very quickly save a fellow who is about to fall.

And here's an excerpt from the Loremaster:

The Easy Part

Everyone likes DPS, and everyone loves staring at an enemy and incinerating them with their Lore-master-vision. It’s kind of what Keth does every time we talk about giving the Lore-master the ability to tap into more of the magic of Middle-earth.

(Keth screams in the background, "THERE IS NO MAGIC IN MIDDLE-EARTH! THERE’S ONLY WILL, ART, AND LORE!")

The Lore-master is a class that understands subtlety, and it’s one of the few groups of mortals that have even an inkling of the power of magic (Keth - "NO MAGIC!") in Middle-earth. This means that with enough will, a Lore-master can bring that power to bear on the enemies of the Free Peoples. However, this use of will is not without a cost -- it is dangerous to tinker with the forces of Middle–earth, so adding more DPS to the class in the form of bigger skills would come at a cost of morale. The Lore-master is a master of lore and friend to good animals, but a Lore-master is certainly no Wizard.

That being said, we wanted to sprinkle a bit more of that flavor into any new abilities; we really were happy with most of a Lore-master’s ability to deal damage, so it wasn’t going to be the primary way we increased a Lore-master’s DPS options. That leads us into…