Raedwulf
12 Jul 2008, 22:50
The Eternal Substitute
Probably no group, under any circumstances, will absolutely require a captain as a necessity. Certainly, though, any group will greatly benefit from having one. The captain can fulfil the role of a secondary... almost anything. Missing a guardian? Call a captain. Missing a minstrel? Call a captain. Missing a champion? Call a captain. Missing a hunter? Call a captain... In none of these cases is the Captain an ideal 1-to-1 replacement, but he is adequate. His great strength is his adaptability; a second Champion can only ever be a champion; similarly a second Guardian - nothing but a Guardian. But the captain... When the group needs extra healing, there he is; when they need a secondary tank, there he is again; and when they don't need anything in particular, he can dish out some hefty damage in his own right. If that were not enough, he also has the ability to improve the effectiveness of all his colleagues, both before and during a fight; and should the worst come to the worst, the Captain can restore the fallen, raising the spirit of his fellows even as he does so. This guide will provide a brief overview of the multi-faceted Captain, and how to make best use of his abilities. At the present time, Edrich, the most experienced Captain in our Company, still does not have access to all skills and traits, but such knowledge as he has, he has passed on to me to present here. This guide will be expanded and improved as chance allows.
Being Prepared
Captains do have the ability to use shields, but there's very little purpose in it. Your best hope of surviving a battle is to take down your opponent quickly, not to try to outlast him. Pick up the biggest, nastiest two-handed weapon you can find, and flail away as best you can! Further to this aim, the stats to focus on, for preference, are Might and Agility - more critical hits, and more damage. You also need high Will, since a Captain's power supply is never great and is easily drained. The virtues you select should bear these requirements in mind; I prefer Wisdom for the boost to will, and Determination for agility, as my first two choices. Among class skills, the two I consider essential are Now for Wrath - boosting power as well as morale when you use Rallying Cry - and Strong Voice, reducing the power cost of cries and shouts. Also very high on my list is Turn of the Tide, which causes your Routing Cry to stun up to four opponents, buying you and your fellows valuable time during which the amount of incoming damage is drastically reduced.
Carrying the Colours
All captains will eventually have a choice of three banners; those of War, Hope, and Victory. The Banner of War increases the Might and Agility of you and your comrades; the Banner of Hope improves total morale and the speed of its regeneration; while the Banner of Victory has the same effect on power. These banners apply their effects to all fellowship members within range, so the one that best suits you might not be the one that is best for the group as a whole. Consider the overall needs when selecting your banner of choice. As Captain, you will most likely find that you need extra power most of the time; in solo play, it is my banner of choice, unless I'm fighting trivial enemies and the Banner of War will enable me to mow them down even more quickly.
These banners can be affixed to the battlefield in place, or be carried by your Herald. The obvious disadvantage to a fixed, inanimate banner is that it cannot use herald skills; on the other hand, heralds are not always the best-trained of subordinates, and in large battles the necessity to keep a constant eye on them, and ensure they are not attacking someone they shouldn't be, may make it preferable to forgo their skills and use the banner alone. The herald's perceived threat, even when increased by his skills, is not high; and his ability to stun depends on a critical success, and is therefore a shaky reed on which to rely.
Prepare For Battle!
A Captain can apply some of his skills prior to combat, to improve everyone's abilities and/or survival chances. The one that everyone will expect as a minimum is Motivating Speech, which gives everybody in the fellowship a morale boost. Muster Courage, although its best use is to remove fear effects already applied, does also give a 20% increase to fear resistance for the whole fellowship, and in some situations it may be useful to apply this going in. You also have a choice of three Tactics which can be applied to any player or herald/pet, in your fellowship or out of it. Many a time Edrich has sat at the gates of Bree applying these bonuses to whoever happens by, just because he can think of nothing else to do with his time!
These are:
1) On Guard; gives a 3.5% extra parry chance. The no-brainer choice to apply to Guardians, and anyone else who is going to be drawing the enemy fire.
2) Relentless Attack. Gives a 3% extra chance for critical hits. Useful for almost everyone, but particularly so for those classes who need a critical success to open up certain of their skills - like, for instance, YOU the Captain!
3) Focus. Adds +1 to in-combat power recovery rate. +1 is usually neither here nor there, but if anyone's desperately short of power, this will help, if only a little.
The cooldown on these Tactics - which is shared between the three - is a matter of mere seconds, so all members of your group should have one applied at all times. Only one Tactic can be applied to any one person.
Finally, there are your three Marks, which are applied to the enemy. You can only place one Mark at any given time. Telling Mark will increase the damage taken by the enemy; Revealing Mark will allow all of your companions (but not you yourself) to regain morale each time they wound the target. In most cases, the choice falls between these two; whether to exacerbate the sufferings of the enemy, or alleviate those of your allies. The third choice, Noble Mark, causes the target to suffer a small amount of Light damage every two seconds; it is, therefore, the only Mark that will cause the target to attack. The damage it inflicts is negligible, and the ability to draw an enemy's attention if you are required to pull is just as effectively done with Threatening Shout, or with Battle Cry. Most Captains will find that this Mark is very rarely used.
My Brother!
As Captain, you can designate one member of your fellowship (or, in solo play, your own herald) as Shield-Brother. This opens up certain other skills, and it is highly recommended that you have a nominated shield-brother at all times. First and foremost, it gives you the Inspire attack, which will raise the morale of your shield-brother each time you successfully land a blow with it. If that were not enough, your Strength Of Will, when applied, will add 5% to all heals received by your shield-brother, from whatever source. With these two skills taken together, you can relieve much strain on your group's healing effort by designating the main tank as shield-brother.
The one other skill that affects your shield-brother is To Arms, which will increase his damage output by 25% for a short time. In fights where a quick kill is paramount, applying this to a champion or hunter can make all the difference; even if your shield-brother is the guardian, it's still better used than ignored, since the cooldown timer is a mere one minute.
Drawing Fire
A Captain has various skills available either to raise, or lower, his perceived threat as necessary. The use of Noble Mark to initiate a combat has been mentioned above; as a method to redirect an enemy's attention from someone else to you, it is almost entirely useless, since the damage it does is trivial. You do, however, have Threatening Shout, which can be used during combat as well as a pulling tactic. Further, your Grave Wound attack will call attention to yourself in combat; most effectively so if it is used after a successful Cutting Attack, when it will stem the enemy's bleeding, but greatly raise your perceived threat.
These skills can be used to draw the enemy's fire away from the squishy lore-masters and minstrels, but there may be times when you yourself are the focus of entirely too much attention. This is when you need the Withdraw skill, which will reduce your damage output by 30% but, more importantly, will significantly decrease your perceived threat. If you need time to heal, or wish to revive a comrade with Escape From Darkness with less risk of interruption, this skill should buy you the time you need.
The Heat of the Fray
A Captain's melee skills are limited, and in any case, if the fight is at all a lengthy one it is likely that he will need to conserve his power for more important matters. The important battle skills are those giving you a battle-ready, and then battle-hardened, state. These begin with Battle Cry, inflicting damage, and opening up either Pressing Attack or Devastating Attack. Either of these will put you into battle-hardened state, but Devastating Attack, when a critical success, is easily your most damage skill of all; for this reason, even though Pressing Attack does more damage on non-critical hits, I would never use it. The chance of triple damage is too good to be ignored. Once in your battle-hardened state, the Blade of Elendil bestows on all of your party the chance to inflict additional Light damage on their targets - whatever targets they may be. This ability lasts for thirty seconds, so where power allows, try to keep it going as much as possible.
These apart, you only have four common or garden melee skills. Defensive Strike, which improves your armor value, is of little help if you are not the one taking the heat; Cutting Attack inflicts a wound of negligible use, but it does improve the efficacy of Grave Wound, for details of which see the above section on Drawing Fire. Finally, you have Inspire, which is discussed under the section on shield-brothers. Any or all of these can be used to increase your damage output, provided the drain on your power is not likely to be disastrous.
In difficult fights, it is likely that your best use to the group is to run Battle Cry - Devastating Attack - Blade of Elendil whenever possible, and in between times to keep an eye on the remainder of the group, and use healing and other skills as needed. One thing they will certainly expect of you, is that you know which enemies are likely to cause Fear effects, and you are ready to remove them as needed. Muster Courage will remove up to three Fear effects from each and every member of your party, in addition to giving an added 20% resistance for the next thirty seconds.
Where a captain comes into his own is upon the defeat of an enemy; this opens up three further skills which can turn the tide of any battle. They also become available upon a critical hit with Devastating Attack (or Pressing Attack). War-Cry improves the attack speed of everyone, which can never be a bad thing; Routing Cry does AoE damage, and if the trait is slotted will also stun up to four nearby enemies. In a group which has been educated by Raedwulf on the need to remove mezz-targets from close quarters before mezzing them, you need have no fears about using this Cry! Further, the Rallying Cry relieves yet more pressure on the group's healer - of which you are one, remember - so firing this once a battle is well under way is always recommended. Further, the class trait for this skill restores power to all fellows as well as morale.
You also have a single-target heal skill, Words of Courage. This will improve a fellow's morale at a cost to your own. It is not remotely to be relied on as the sole source of healing in a party, but judicious use of it will ease the minstrel's burden; moreover, you are better equipped than he to deal with enemies who perceive healing as a threat and chase after the person responsible. In fights where the main tank is holding all aggro, use this as much as possible; you can always Withdraw to reduce your threat level, and you will last longer in the meatime.
On The Brink
The Captain can cheat death - at least for a short time. By using In Harm's Way in a group you transfer 50% of the whole groups incoming damage; and with Last Stand, you can withstand that damage for a full twenty seconds no matter how weak you are to begin with. If the group is under heavy fire this combination increases there chance of surviving for long enough that the minstrel can heal up the group to fighting fit.
Two of your legendary traits are particularly useful in tight spots. Shield of the Dunedain, applied to a comrade, will reduce his vulnerability to all incoming damage - melee, ranged or tactical - by 75%, for fifteen seconds. The other, the Oathbreaker's Shame, has the opposite effect, increasing the vulnerability of an enemy to all incoming damage by 35% for ten seconds. Which of these is most useful is a matter for judgment: if you do not expect any of your fellowship to come close to death, then the Shield is not likely to be useful.
It's All Gone Pete Tong
The Captain is the only person who can revive a fallen player while combat is still ongoing, save the Minstrel; and the minstrel has enough to do with regular healing. There are two methods of doing so. Escape From Darkness will return a fallen comrade with half his morale and one-quarter of his power (the associated trait, if slotted, improves this to full morale, plus extra power). It's an induction-time skill, so if you're under fire yourself, it's highly unlikely you can use it. The better option is Cry of Vengeance, which will bring back your fallen comrade and also inspire him with a buff of the same magnitude as In Defense of Middle-earth (+50 to all base stats)
Each of these skills can be further improved with the Candle's Flame legendary trait; it enables Cry of Vengeance to bring back two fallen allies, and reduces the cooldown time on Escape From Darkness, from 30 minutes to ten. Use these skills wisely. Restoring a champion or hunter to the fray when your only minstrel is about to collapse, may not be particularly helpful.
Summary
The Captain has many uses, and a skilled player will keep at least half an eye on the rest of his party to see which of them is most important at any given time. Watch for anyone being riven with fear; you have the ability to wipe out all fear effects from the entire party if necessary. Help out the other healers in the group when you have the chance; particularly with rallying cry, which effectively costs you nothing if you have the power-restoring trait slotted. Watch for anyone being close to defeat - or actually falling - since you are the person who can save, or at worst restore, them. In between times, your battle-cry, devastating attack and blade of elendil make a contribution to overall damage output which, while not huge, is significant; and judicious use of your various other talents can make the difference between a long, slow, difficult battle, and a runaway victory.
Gan, for Edrich, a captain of the Company of the White Tower
Probably no group, under any circumstances, will absolutely require a captain as a necessity. Certainly, though, any group will greatly benefit from having one. The captain can fulfil the role of a secondary... almost anything. Missing a guardian? Call a captain. Missing a minstrel? Call a captain. Missing a champion? Call a captain. Missing a hunter? Call a captain... In none of these cases is the Captain an ideal 1-to-1 replacement, but he is adequate. His great strength is his adaptability; a second Champion can only ever be a champion; similarly a second Guardian - nothing but a Guardian. But the captain... When the group needs extra healing, there he is; when they need a secondary tank, there he is again; and when they don't need anything in particular, he can dish out some hefty damage in his own right. If that were not enough, he also has the ability to improve the effectiveness of all his colleagues, both before and during a fight; and should the worst come to the worst, the Captain can restore the fallen, raising the spirit of his fellows even as he does so. This guide will provide a brief overview of the multi-faceted Captain, and how to make best use of his abilities. At the present time, Edrich, the most experienced Captain in our Company, still does not have access to all skills and traits, but such knowledge as he has, he has passed on to me to present here. This guide will be expanded and improved as chance allows.
Being Prepared
Captains do have the ability to use shields, but there's very little purpose in it. Your best hope of surviving a battle is to take down your opponent quickly, not to try to outlast him. Pick up the biggest, nastiest two-handed weapon you can find, and flail away as best you can! Further to this aim, the stats to focus on, for preference, are Might and Agility - more critical hits, and more damage. You also need high Will, since a Captain's power supply is never great and is easily drained. The virtues you select should bear these requirements in mind; I prefer Wisdom for the boost to will, and Determination for agility, as my first two choices. Among class skills, the two I consider essential are Now for Wrath - boosting power as well as morale when you use Rallying Cry - and Strong Voice, reducing the power cost of cries and shouts. Also very high on my list is Turn of the Tide, which causes your Routing Cry to stun up to four opponents, buying you and your fellows valuable time during which the amount of incoming damage is drastically reduced.
Carrying the Colours
All captains will eventually have a choice of three banners; those of War, Hope, and Victory. The Banner of War increases the Might and Agility of you and your comrades; the Banner of Hope improves total morale and the speed of its regeneration; while the Banner of Victory has the same effect on power. These banners apply their effects to all fellowship members within range, so the one that best suits you might not be the one that is best for the group as a whole. Consider the overall needs when selecting your banner of choice. As Captain, you will most likely find that you need extra power most of the time; in solo play, it is my banner of choice, unless I'm fighting trivial enemies and the Banner of War will enable me to mow them down even more quickly.
These banners can be affixed to the battlefield in place, or be carried by your Herald. The obvious disadvantage to a fixed, inanimate banner is that it cannot use herald skills; on the other hand, heralds are not always the best-trained of subordinates, and in large battles the necessity to keep a constant eye on them, and ensure they are not attacking someone they shouldn't be, may make it preferable to forgo their skills and use the banner alone. The herald's perceived threat, even when increased by his skills, is not high; and his ability to stun depends on a critical success, and is therefore a shaky reed on which to rely.
Prepare For Battle!
A Captain can apply some of his skills prior to combat, to improve everyone's abilities and/or survival chances. The one that everyone will expect as a minimum is Motivating Speech, which gives everybody in the fellowship a morale boost. Muster Courage, although its best use is to remove fear effects already applied, does also give a 20% increase to fear resistance for the whole fellowship, and in some situations it may be useful to apply this going in. You also have a choice of three Tactics which can be applied to any player or herald/pet, in your fellowship or out of it. Many a time Edrich has sat at the gates of Bree applying these bonuses to whoever happens by, just because he can think of nothing else to do with his time!
These are:
1) On Guard; gives a 3.5% extra parry chance. The no-brainer choice to apply to Guardians, and anyone else who is going to be drawing the enemy fire.
2) Relentless Attack. Gives a 3% extra chance for critical hits. Useful for almost everyone, but particularly so for those classes who need a critical success to open up certain of their skills - like, for instance, YOU the Captain!
3) Focus. Adds +1 to in-combat power recovery rate. +1 is usually neither here nor there, but if anyone's desperately short of power, this will help, if only a little.
The cooldown on these Tactics - which is shared between the three - is a matter of mere seconds, so all members of your group should have one applied at all times. Only one Tactic can be applied to any one person.
Finally, there are your three Marks, which are applied to the enemy. You can only place one Mark at any given time. Telling Mark will increase the damage taken by the enemy; Revealing Mark will allow all of your companions (but not you yourself) to regain morale each time they wound the target. In most cases, the choice falls between these two; whether to exacerbate the sufferings of the enemy, or alleviate those of your allies. The third choice, Noble Mark, causes the target to suffer a small amount of Light damage every two seconds; it is, therefore, the only Mark that will cause the target to attack. The damage it inflicts is negligible, and the ability to draw an enemy's attention if you are required to pull is just as effectively done with Threatening Shout, or with Battle Cry. Most Captains will find that this Mark is very rarely used.
My Brother!
As Captain, you can designate one member of your fellowship (or, in solo play, your own herald) as Shield-Brother. This opens up certain other skills, and it is highly recommended that you have a nominated shield-brother at all times. First and foremost, it gives you the Inspire attack, which will raise the morale of your shield-brother each time you successfully land a blow with it. If that were not enough, your Strength Of Will, when applied, will add 5% to all heals received by your shield-brother, from whatever source. With these two skills taken together, you can relieve much strain on your group's healing effort by designating the main tank as shield-brother.
The one other skill that affects your shield-brother is To Arms, which will increase his damage output by 25% for a short time. In fights where a quick kill is paramount, applying this to a champion or hunter can make all the difference; even if your shield-brother is the guardian, it's still better used than ignored, since the cooldown timer is a mere one minute.
Drawing Fire
A Captain has various skills available either to raise, or lower, his perceived threat as necessary. The use of Noble Mark to initiate a combat has been mentioned above; as a method to redirect an enemy's attention from someone else to you, it is almost entirely useless, since the damage it does is trivial. You do, however, have Threatening Shout, which can be used during combat as well as a pulling tactic. Further, your Grave Wound attack will call attention to yourself in combat; most effectively so if it is used after a successful Cutting Attack, when it will stem the enemy's bleeding, but greatly raise your perceived threat.
These skills can be used to draw the enemy's fire away from the squishy lore-masters and minstrels, but there may be times when you yourself are the focus of entirely too much attention. This is when you need the Withdraw skill, which will reduce your damage output by 30% but, more importantly, will significantly decrease your perceived threat. If you need time to heal, or wish to revive a comrade with Escape From Darkness with less risk of interruption, this skill should buy you the time you need.
The Heat of the Fray
A Captain's melee skills are limited, and in any case, if the fight is at all a lengthy one it is likely that he will need to conserve his power for more important matters. The important battle skills are those giving you a battle-ready, and then battle-hardened, state. These begin with Battle Cry, inflicting damage, and opening up either Pressing Attack or Devastating Attack. Either of these will put you into battle-hardened state, but Devastating Attack, when a critical success, is easily your most damage skill of all; for this reason, even though Pressing Attack does more damage on non-critical hits, I would never use it. The chance of triple damage is too good to be ignored. Once in your battle-hardened state, the Blade of Elendil bestows on all of your party the chance to inflict additional Light damage on their targets - whatever targets they may be. This ability lasts for thirty seconds, so where power allows, try to keep it going as much as possible.
These apart, you only have four common or garden melee skills. Defensive Strike, which improves your armor value, is of little help if you are not the one taking the heat; Cutting Attack inflicts a wound of negligible use, but it does improve the efficacy of Grave Wound, for details of which see the above section on Drawing Fire. Finally, you have Inspire, which is discussed under the section on shield-brothers. Any or all of these can be used to increase your damage output, provided the drain on your power is not likely to be disastrous.
In difficult fights, it is likely that your best use to the group is to run Battle Cry - Devastating Attack - Blade of Elendil whenever possible, and in between times to keep an eye on the remainder of the group, and use healing and other skills as needed. One thing they will certainly expect of you, is that you know which enemies are likely to cause Fear effects, and you are ready to remove them as needed. Muster Courage will remove up to three Fear effects from each and every member of your party, in addition to giving an added 20% resistance for the next thirty seconds.
Where a captain comes into his own is upon the defeat of an enemy; this opens up three further skills which can turn the tide of any battle. They also become available upon a critical hit with Devastating Attack (or Pressing Attack). War-Cry improves the attack speed of everyone, which can never be a bad thing; Routing Cry does AoE damage, and if the trait is slotted will also stun up to four nearby enemies. In a group which has been educated by Raedwulf on the need to remove mezz-targets from close quarters before mezzing them, you need have no fears about using this Cry! Further, the Rallying Cry relieves yet more pressure on the group's healer - of which you are one, remember - so firing this once a battle is well under way is always recommended. Further, the class trait for this skill restores power to all fellows as well as morale.
You also have a single-target heal skill, Words of Courage. This will improve a fellow's morale at a cost to your own. It is not remotely to be relied on as the sole source of healing in a party, but judicious use of it will ease the minstrel's burden; moreover, you are better equipped than he to deal with enemies who perceive healing as a threat and chase after the person responsible. In fights where the main tank is holding all aggro, use this as much as possible; you can always Withdraw to reduce your threat level, and you will last longer in the meatime.
On The Brink
The Captain can cheat death - at least for a short time. By using In Harm's Way in a group you transfer 50% of the whole groups incoming damage; and with Last Stand, you can withstand that damage for a full twenty seconds no matter how weak you are to begin with. If the group is under heavy fire this combination increases there chance of surviving for long enough that the minstrel can heal up the group to fighting fit.
Two of your legendary traits are particularly useful in tight spots. Shield of the Dunedain, applied to a comrade, will reduce his vulnerability to all incoming damage - melee, ranged or tactical - by 75%, for fifteen seconds. The other, the Oathbreaker's Shame, has the opposite effect, increasing the vulnerability of an enemy to all incoming damage by 35% for ten seconds. Which of these is most useful is a matter for judgment: if you do not expect any of your fellowship to come close to death, then the Shield is not likely to be useful.
It's All Gone Pete Tong
The Captain is the only person who can revive a fallen player while combat is still ongoing, save the Minstrel; and the minstrel has enough to do with regular healing. There are two methods of doing so. Escape From Darkness will return a fallen comrade with half his morale and one-quarter of his power (the associated trait, if slotted, improves this to full morale, plus extra power). It's an induction-time skill, so if you're under fire yourself, it's highly unlikely you can use it. The better option is Cry of Vengeance, which will bring back your fallen comrade and also inspire him with a buff of the same magnitude as In Defense of Middle-earth (+50 to all base stats)
Each of these skills can be further improved with the Candle's Flame legendary trait; it enables Cry of Vengeance to bring back two fallen allies, and reduces the cooldown time on Escape From Darkness, from 30 minutes to ten. Use these skills wisely. Restoring a champion or hunter to the fray when your only minstrel is about to collapse, may not be particularly helpful.
Summary
The Captain has many uses, and a skilled player will keep at least half an eye on the rest of his party to see which of them is most important at any given time. Watch for anyone being riven with fear; you have the ability to wipe out all fear effects from the entire party if necessary. Help out the other healers in the group when you have the chance; particularly with rallying cry, which effectively costs you nothing if you have the power-restoring trait slotted. Watch for anyone being close to defeat - or actually falling - since you are the person who can save, or at worst restore, them. In between times, your battle-cry, devastating attack and blade of elendil make a contribution to overall damage output which, while not huge, is significant; and judicious use of your various other talents can make the difference between a long, slow, difficult battle, and a runaway victory.
Gan, for Edrich, a captain of the Company of the White Tower