quote Razasonic
I know the skills that are useful but I've never learned fear but it seems to be the cats whiskers so what does it do?
The cat's whiskers? I prefer the term 'The dog's bollocks', but anyway. What Fear does, is similar to a 'Stun'. The difference is that Fear lasts a lot longer and most enemies are not immune to it. It prevents enemies from doing any sort of action, they do not get a turn before it wears off. It won't damage an enemy, but it will effectively take them out of combat, if you get Idrial to learn it, she can do Double Attack, and then cast it twice on two enemies for example, thus making battles a whole lot easier. Boss battles are great with it. Paralyse the Boss's minions with Fear (The Gothmog battle is a prime example) then focus all your attacks on the boss, finally tacking out the paralyzed minions.
Another thing I forgot to mention regarding skills. You don't need to paralyse a foe with Fear to do the 'skill farming' technique Lordtyger9 and I have discussed in this forum. If you put them to sleep with Elegost's sleep arrows, it will last until the end of the fight, you do not need to inflict it again like you do with Fear. So you don't run out of Action Points, use an item called Arnor Mushrooms on the character you want to 'Skill farm' for. This will give you infinite Action Points for the remainder of the battle. Therefore, you won't need to use Fear at all, just use sleep and Skill Farm away or use a 'Drain Action' skill on the enemy to get your Action Points.
To make he game easier, there are two places in the game where you are given infinite enemies. The first opportunity is Eastern Moria. Remember the 'Stop the Goblin Drummer' quest? Do not kill the drummer! Just kill the enemies the Drummer calls. They will never stop coming! You can fight for hours, killing hundreds of Goblins. I killed 200 last time I did it, and levelled up 10 times for each character! The second opportunity is Helms Deep. When you are 'Defending the Wall' do not knock down the ladders! Again, the enemies will just keep coming. There are other areas in the game where enemies will keep spawning even if you are standing still (there's a spot in Eregion, and Plains of Rohan for example). These are also great opportunities for gaining new skills of course.
