Fellowship and teamwork are important themes in The Lord of the Rings, and The Lord of the Rings Online^TM: Shadows of Angmar^TM (LOTRO) development team wanted to reflect those values in LOTRO’s combat system. Players who group together can execute powerful combined-effort attacks called Fellowship Maneuvers (also known by many players as ‘Conjunctions’). Teamwork in combat is the basis of the Fellowship Maneuver system; the more coordinated your fellowship is, the more powerful the results can be! Fellowship Maneuvers can also be used to make up for gaps in a fellowship’s abilities. For example, healing-based Fellowship Maneuvers can be life-savers for a fellowship that doesn’t contain a dedicated healer.

When you trigger a Fellowship Maneuver, a Fellowship Skill wheel appears on each fellowship member’s screen asking them to choose how to contribute to the Fellowship Maneuver.

The Fellowship Skill Wheel

When the Fellowship Skill wheel appears, players should select one of the four colored icons, each of which represents a different Fellowship Skill:

Ent’s Strength (Red)

Ent’s Strength is a simple, powerful melee attack. As it increases in power, it does more damage. At the 6^th level of power it becomes an AOE attack with a radius of 10 meters.

 

Spider’s Guile (Yellow)

Spider’s Guile is a combination of a melee attack and a powerful damage over time effect. At the 5^th and 6^th power levels the skill also applies a 15-second countdown effect that will damage the target’s power and slow the target’s attack and movement speed when the countdown is complete.

 

Eagle’s Cry (Green)

Eagle’s Cry starts off as a simple self-morale heal. At the 2nd level of power it becomes an AOE morale heal over time effect. At the 5^th tier of power it also cures fear effects, and at the 6^th tier it cures fear and wound effects.

 

Stallion’s Spirit (Blue)

Stallion’s Spirit starts off as a simple, self-power heal. At the 2^nd level of power it becomes an AOE power heal. At the 5^th tier of power it will also summon the shade of a fallen warrior to aid you in battle for a short time, and at the 6^th tier of power it will summon an even more powerful shade to aid you.

Fellowship Maneuver Opportunities

Even a fellowship of two players is eligible to trigger Maneuvers, but since the power level of a Maneuver is dependant on the length and complexity of the sequence, the more members of a fellowship (up to 6 players), the more powerful their successful Maneuvers will be.

 

There are several ways for Fellowship Maneuver opportunities to arise during a battle:

 

Basic Combat
When you are fighting against a monster rated as Elite or higher, there is a chance with each damaging combat attack that you may push the monster into a state that will allow you and your fellowship to perform a Fellowship Maneuver on the monster.

 

Burglar Skills

Trip - You can knock an enemy down, opening up an opportunity to use Fellowship. Trip can only be used while in Stealth.

Exploit Opening - This stuns your target, creating an opportunity to use Fellowship.

Exposed Throat - After using your Double-edged Strike, you make an attack which inflicts high damage, with a chance of creating an opportunity to use Fellowship Skills if you are in a Fellowship.

 

Burglar Skills Item

Marbles - You can knock an enemy down, opening up an opportunity to use Fellowship Skills.

 

Guardian Skills

Turn the Tables - You are able to knock down a target in response to being knocked down.

To the King - You are able to make a powerful attack against an enemy who has suffered from Overwhelm or Thrust, potentially knocking it down.

 

 

 

Example Fellowship Maneuvers

Members of a fellowship can simply pick a color when a Fellowship Maneuver is triggered and enjoy the fun of seeing what effect results, but planning and coordination of color combinations can lead to powerful and targeted results!

 

There are several types of Fellowship Maneuver color combinations, including pairs (sets of two matching color choices), flushes (sets of matching color choices), straights (consecutive color choices along the Fellowship Skill wheel), full houses, and uniques. Pairs must be triggered as “two pair,” i.e., Green, Green, Red, Red. Some additional examples are provided below.

 

Fellowship Maneuver Flushes

Let’s say that your fellowship is in the midst of a tough battle, when the Fellowship Skill wheel suddenly appears. “Everyone pick green!” cries the fellowship leader, since Eagle’s Cry (green) will result in a sorely-needed morale heal for everyone in the party. All members rapidly select the green icon. This will result in a “flush.” The following graphic displays an example length four flush, Call to Arms. Flushes can be from length two to four.

 

Fellowship Maneuvers - Call to Arms

Fellowship Maneuver Straights

The next step up in the Fellowship Maneuver system is the execution of more complex color patterns such as straights and full houses. These take a greater degree of planning and teamwork, but naturally offer potentially greater benefits.

 

Fellowship Maneuvers - Thunder of the Oakenshield

 

 

As you can see in the length six Thunder of the Oakenshield straight above, straights follow a patterned order that repeats. The shortest straight is length three and longest length six. Starting at any color, you can move forward or backwards along the Fellowship Skill wheel to form a straight. Both 3-icon combinations below result in the same Fellowship Maneuver, Wrath of the Righteous:

 

Fellowship Maneuvers - Wrath of the Righteous

 

In addition to the patterns mentioned above, there are dozens of unique combinations that can form Fellowship Maneuvers. It will take time and skill to discover all the combinations the Fellowship Maneuvers system has to offer, and we hope you have fun discovering them! Information about the Fellowship Maneuvers you’ve executed can be found in the Fellowship Skills Tab under the Skills section of your Character Journal.