A single hero can make a difference in the battle for Middle-earth, but a fellowship of sharp companions working in concert can perform great feats that no single warrior can achieve alone. Fellowship Manoeuvres give a coordinated group of heroes a profound advantage in combat against the most hale and fearsome foes. It is solidarity in the face of bloodlust and malice that gives the FreePeoples their edge against the Enemy, and Fellowship Manoeuvres turn that solidarity into vanquishing strikes and rescuing heals.

There’s a bold, unmistakable display of power whenever a Fellowship Manoeuvre is performed. This manoeuvre clearly makes use of the skills Ent’s Strength (Red), Stallion’s Spirit (Blue), and Eagle’s Cry (Green).

In short, a Fellowship Manoeuvre is a combo attack in which each member of the fellowship potentially contributes one Fellowship skill to the combination. Different combinations of Fellowship skills result in different, distinctive Fellowship Manoeuvres. One combination might yield a potent and coordinated melee attack, while another might invoke an effect that heals the fellowship’s Morale over time. The more characters that successfully contribute to the combo recipe, the more powerful the Fellowship Manoeuvre’s effects.

Any character with a stout heart, a cool head, and at least 12 levels under his belt can contribute to a Fellowship Manoeuvre, and a well-timed manoeuvre can mean the difference between victory and defeat against even the most terrible foes.

What a Fellowship Manoeuvre Is

Fellowship Manoeuvres offer a tactical edge that solo characters do not have on their own. With a bit of coordination, even just a pair of stalwart heroes can perform fierce attacks or rallying displays that neither could manage alone.

(A note for players doing more research on Fellowship Manoeuvres (FMs): In the past, Fellow Manoeuvres had also been called Conjunctions (CJs). Some players still call them that. So if you are searching the Lord of the Rings Online forums or chatting with another player and you see a reference to a Conjunction, rest assured that they are the same thing.)

Any fellowship with two or more participants can execute a Fellowship Manoeuvre. Even the shortest FMs (pairs) create formidable effects, from spectral, stomping Ents to backstabbing spiders.

The opportunity to perform a Fellowship Manoeuvre opens up when an Elite or otherwise exceptional target has its defences broken in battle. (Look for the combat message, “[Character’s name] has broken the defenses of [target’s name].”) Any character in a fellowship has a small chance of invoking this opportunity, but Burglars can create Fellowship Manoeuvre opportunities with skills like Exploit Opening, Trip, and Exposed Throat, or by using a Bag of Marbles; Guardian skills like Turn the Tables, To the King, and Fray the Edge do the same.

If you see a bull’s-eye icon surrounded by a circle of arrows on your screen, it means someone in your fellowship has broken the defences of a creature you are not currently targeting. Click the icon to target the vulnerable enemy.

A target with broken defences is temporarily stunned (so a target with stun immunity is also immune to FMs), giving the fellowship a few desperate seconds to coordinate its attacks. It is during these vital moments that a new part of the UI appears: the Fellowship Skill Wheel.

The Fellowship Skill Wheel

The mechanism at the heart of every Fellowship Manoeuvre is a contextual pop-up UI panel called the Wheel. When a Fellowship Manoeuvre is possible, the Wheel pops up automatically. It’s a diamond-shaped array of four colored buttons. The red and yellow buttons at top and bottom deal damage to the target, while the green and blue buttons at right and left heal Morale or Power. Click one of those buttons, and you have contributed your part to the Fellowship Manoeuvre.

It’s that easy, but it is not that simplistic. It takes careful timing and great teamwork to pull off the most spectacular Fellowship Manoeuvres.

First, make sure you know what each button and its associated Fellowship skill adds to the finished manoeuvre:

• Ent’s Strength (Red): This represents a powerful melee attack that deals immediate damage to the target.
• Eagle’s Cry (Green): This contributes a valiant blow that restores Morale to the character or the fellowship.
• Spider’s Guile (Yellow): This represents a cunning strike that deals damage to the target over time.
• Stallion’s Spirit (Blue): This contributes an inspiring display that restores Power to the character or the fellowship.

Some Fellowship Manoeuvres utilizing the blue Stallion’s Spirit skill summon Oath-breaker spirits to fight on behalf on the fellowship. These spirits, battling to reclaim their honor, continue to fight even after the manoeuvre that summoned them has passed.

Unless you are playing a Hunter, you must be at melee range with the target to use Ent’s Strength and Spider’s Guile. Eagle’s Cry and Stallion’s Spirit are available even when you are outside of melee range.

The button you press determines the effect on your character, even if your fellowship doesn’t manage to pull off a powerful combo. If you are hurting and you select Eagle’s Cry, your character gets a small Morale boost. That’s a fine start, but Fellowship Manoeuvres are about creating phenomenal effects that no one character could create on his own.

When the Wheel pops up, you also see a row of empty circles, one for each member of your fellowship. Those circles fill up from left to right with colored icons as each player in the fellowship presses a button on his or her Wheel.

The order in which those icons are added to the FM makes all the difference. A random collection of icons added into the mix may hurt the target a little bit and heal one character or another to some degree, but certain combinations of Fellowship skills create effects far greater than the sum of their parts. The right icons in the right order can devastate foes or heal the whole fellowship. It just takes teamwork.

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