I’m largely a solo player. I like working in groups, but my time in LotRO is often very sporadic … Trying to gather a few people together quickly can be difficult in any MMORPG. It’s more due to my environment than any real choice.
As such, I’ve developed various methods and reasons for soloing the way I do. Today I wanted to cover how I approach taking on multiple enemies. When soloing, you likely already try to make an effort to keep fights one on one, unless you’re facing a bunch of weaklings. Unfortunately, you’re bound to attract some unfriendly attention no matter how hard you try.
This creates many situations where you’re fighting against two (or more) enemies simultaneously. A good percentage of the time one of these enemies is stronger. “Stronger” can mean different things, but generally I’m referring to overall Morale (and likely overall level too).
There are two ways to go here. The first is to take on the stronger guy first, while the second is to take on the weaker guy first. For some the assumption may be that getting the big guy out of the way makes more sense. After all, he’s responsible for more damage and will be there longer.
I usually go the other route. In this case, I’d take out the weakest link first when soloing. Based on my experience, I’ve found this to be the best route for survivability. For Tip Time, I figured what the heck; why not try to back it up with something a bit more solid. Chart time!
An Example
Let’s say you begin battling two goblins at the same time: a “Weak Goblin” and a “Strong Goblin”. For sake of argument, let’s say the Weak Goblin has 200 Morale and can damage you for 10 Morale a second. The Strong Goblin has 400 Morale and can damage you for 20 Morale a second. Your character has a total Morale of 1,000 and can damage the Weak Goblin for 20 Morale a second and the Strong Goblin for 10 Morale a second.
So let’s cover your two options and see what happens.
Using this math, going after the Strong Goblin first will result in your character’s death after 34 turns. Your character will come close to killing the Strong Goblin, but won’t quite make it. This is essentially wasted effort: you’ll die and neither of your enemies will. Part of the problem is that the two goblins will be hitting you for a combined effort of 30 Morale damage a second.
If you take on the Weak Goblin first, you’ll kill him off after 10 turns. At this point, the 30 Morale combined damage total jumps down to 20. As you can see, your character will last the full 40 turns outlined in this chart. That’s at least 6 more opportunities to attack than if you went after the Strong Goblin first.
Obviously, my math isn’t perfect here. If you kept going with the trend I’ve developed you’re going to die either way. Even so, your survivability has gone up because of this choice. More than likely this character will still want to guzzle a potion, but he’ll be doing it a heck of a lot less often. This also has the benefit of enabling certain character skills that require a defeated enemy for use.
Conclusion
I hope that this will be of use to some of you. I want to ramp up how often I do Tip Time segments too. As always, if you have a suggestion for Tip Time or something you need help with, just comment or send me an e-mail. I’d be happy to help.
That’s the rule I work by when soloing, but I like how math backs it up somehow.
Good to know the logic is flawless, at least mathematically. 
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Good in theory, but doesnt apply to real life almost never.
Champion: aoe both
Captain: melee both so you can use pressing attack
LM: stun one, kill other, doesnt matter in what order
Burg: same as lm
Minstrel: fear one kill other if you’re a low lvl, or on higher lvls just aoe both
Guard: more chances to parry/block with more mobs on you -> more damage after
Warden: more mobs => more healing
Hunter: one in trap, the other one almost/or dead by the time he gets to you.
Rk: aoe both, stun both, aoe both
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Haha, all of that is true. I suppose I’m just thinking from more of a weapon, single attack perspective. Kind of a generic overview…
For me even keeping all of those things in mind, I still tend to take out the weakling first. For example, with Fear, I might as well scare off the strong one and take out the little one first. So the theory there still applies.
Somewhat, anyway!
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@HolyGigi I think Tony’s point is still valid the point is that you should target the weaker mob first. For example a Champion using AOE still does most damage to a primary target (need to fill up the fervour with single target attacks)therefore the Champ should focus on the weaker target first even when using aoe. Likewise the Lore master should generally stun the tough mob and kill the weak adds first.
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This discussion is obviously class dependent, but I’d also agree that you’re better off taking on the weaker opponent first. My main is a hunter, so there are inductions for most of my skills (I know minstrels also have them, but I don’t know about other classes). Having multiple MOBs on you means more things hitting you, which will stop your attacks. It will be easier to take out the lower level MOB first, which then stops a lot of the interruptions, and allows you to focus on the higher level target.
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