Race

Hobbit – Has access to a second flop, a skill which allows you to lose aggro from mobs, so they can either return to their spawn location, or back to the tank. This can be convenient if you are a solo player, which most that play this game are until they reach end-cap. This skill was previously very useful in instances however they have been disabled in newer instances, so there is less impact. Here are your available passives:

• Hobbit Courage: +1% Fear Resistance.
• Hobbit-toughness: +15 Vitality.
• Rapid Recovery: +60 Non-Combat Morale Regeneration.
• Resist Corruption: +1% Shadow Mitigation.
• Small Size: -7 Might.

Here are the traits and skills you can get such as the play dead skill:

Men – Have a nice 5% incoming healing self-buff which makes healing yourself a bit easier. They also have the skill Duty Bound which increases the morale of you fellowship by 5% (significant amount at level cap) for 10 minutes, you can use this every 30 minutes.

• Diminishing of Mankind: -7 Will.
• Easily Inspired: +5% Incoming Healing.
• Gift of Men: +15 Fate.
• Strong Men: +15 Might.

Elf – Their skill that is useful is Eldar’s Grace, which allows them to parry 75% of attacks for 10s, which can be nice defensive tool. The downside is that it has a significant cooldown of 30 minutes before you can use it again. Here are the passives available:

• Agility of the Woods: +15 Agility.
• Fading of the Firstborn: -7 Fate.
• Sorrow of the Firstborn: -20 Max Morale, -60 Non-Combat Morale Regeneration.
• Suffer no Illness: +1% to Disease Resistance and Poison Resistance.

The same with every race there is a set of traits you can choose to equip.

Dwarf – They have a similar defensive tool like the elves with Endurance of Stone which provides negates 50% incoming damage for 10s. This is a decent buff in instances and groups as some bosses often can’t be parried or do significant damage. This skill also has a cooldown of 30 minutes. They have these passives built in:

• Lost Dwarf-kingdoms: -7 Fate.
• Stocky: -7 Agility.
• Sturdiness: +15 Might, +10 Vitality, +1% Common Mitigation.
• Unwearying in Battle: +30 In-Combat Morale/Power Regeneration, -60/30 Non-Combat Morale/Power Regeneration.

Then there is some traitable skills/abilities that become available to you:

High Elf – This is a new race introduced to lotro and great for soloing as a minstrel. They have a bonus of 5% light damage, and light damage is almost all of minstrel’s attacks, and a skill that gives the fellowship a bonus 5% damage for 10 seconds. Here are the passive's that are part of the high-elf race.

• Fading of the Firstborn: -7 Fate
• Peace of the Eldar: +20 Maximum Morale, +60 non-Combat Morale Regen
• Sorrow of the Undying: -7 Will
• Suffer no Illness: +1% Disease and Poison Resistance

They also have a 10% out of combat run speed and some bonus Will. It isn't important for a minstrel, but they also have a resurrect skill that can be used every 30 minutes. Here are the traitable skills and bonuses available to the race.

Stout-Axe - The latest dwarf race introduced into lotro and they have drawbacks to being a minstrel class, but they also have some in their favor. I would say with their abilities these guys would make great Rune-Keepers or Guardians.

• Unyielding Will: + 15 Will, +1% Common Mitigation
• Wrought by the Black Land: +1% Shadow Mitigation, +1% Disease Resistance, +15 Might, +5 Agility
• Shadow of the Eye: -7 Vitality
• Doom of Drása's Folk: -10 Fate

The mitigations and resistance might be helpful throughout your play, but the bonus could be negligible in the grand scheme of things. You do have the following skills/traits that you can equip that could be helpful.