Thread: Feedback: New Player Tips for Captains

#1) ALWAYS buff yourself and your group-- ALWAYS

#2) SOLO: Make your herald your shield brother
Grouped: Make someone your shield brother --typically main tank

#3) Make using your on-defeat skills such a habit that you use them INSTINCTIVELY... I did this by ALWAYS using one of them whether grouped or solo pretty much every time one was available.

#4) Understand your buffs and which ones are most commonly appropriate for the other classes.

Tips tips ... I have a hard time giving tips without actual questions.

#1 If you use a herald or archer herald learn to control them properly. don't get your group or raid wiped by leaving it on aggressive.

#2 If your herald is not off tanking turn off the auto use of his melee taunt it will get him killed on boss fights.

#3 If your herald dies quickly switch to a banner don't let your group go without the buffs.

#4 use your best judgment on which class needs which Tactics buff. Crit, Parry, And Power Tactics can make a huge difference if used properly.

#5 Learn as much as you can about other class's since our job is to support and buff it is important for a captain to know about other class's so that we can better support them. For instance a champion in fervor is hard to heal if the tank does not need priority heals its a good idea to shield brother the champ to offset his -inc heal rating.

#6 Rally cry Rally cry Rally cry Rally cry Rally cry Rally cry Rally cry Rally cry oh and did i mention Rally cry. =)

#7 explore and test different trait lines to find the one that works for you, learn and understand when certain traits are not useful like in big instances or when solo.

#8 Never underestimate the power of revealing mark with proper dps and a can do attitude revealing mark can be your best friend.

#9 If you can help it don't play alone and this applys to any class, although solo play is important captain is a very group orientated class on top of that you will have much more fun with another person then solo.

#10 Lastly always remember that this is a game don't get frustrated over something your supposed to have fun with. If you ever need advice or an opinion on a subject dealing with captains private message me i will be more then happy to apply my experiences to your problem.

#11 Remeber that captain is not a One Role Class, We DPS, We Heal, and We Buff. There is no inbetween, if you ever find yourself only healing or only dpsing your doing it wrong.

Best tip of all time: Your class will always be nerfed the most.

examples:
1: in-harms way from 100% to 50%
2: Valiant strike same number of pips, but too short of a HOT.
3: Devastating blow from a 60 2nd age was twice as powerful as a 65 second age devastate devastating blow.

This should be required reading for anyone who wants to properly fulfill their role in a group:
http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/A_Bas...or_Fellowships

Wow these are great tips.

Are Captains as solo friendly as they seem?

Quote: dethjester "Are Captains as solo friendly as they seem?"

Despite being designed as a group-support class, captains solo really well - they're resilient and have plenty of 'uh-oh' answers.

The usual arguments against solo captains are:
1. they're slow to level
2. playing them solo isn't playing them to the optimum.
But it's your toon, you can play it the way you like

Modifying proviso: PvMP. All but a few captains struggle to solo effectively in the Moors. So if you want to PvMP, you will be most effective in a group. That being the case, you'll want to have practiced your group skills.

My cappie main probably spends 95% of her time PvE solo. She's displaced my hunter (a popular solo class) and while I appreciate that there are faster classes, I enjoy her playstyle

Banners, heralds, sword&board or 2-hander, traited for dps or heals, and the ability to gratuitously buff people passing by - it's all good

their heralds makes the best alllies in tough fights, but it depends of the danner you give them as well.

Lots of good stuff here

some additional thoughts - go to the blog A Casual Stroll to Mordor - they have a class guide podcast series. The Captain guide is a bit out of date due to changes in the class lines but they have subsequent ones discussing those changes. I found that it was pretty useful to listen to when it was first broadcast (I was high 40's at the time). It explained some things about the functioning of certain skills plus just general enjoyment (episode 45a Captains Roundtable: http://www.casualstrolltomordor.com/...able-episodes/ )

Then in no particular order:

communication is very helpful - if possible, enable your in-game chat (audio options) or even better get a mike and use Teamspeak/Ventrilo etc... Letting people know what you are doing and when your are doing it can be very helpful

For instance your Skill Oathbreaker's Shame http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Skill...er's_Shame causes 3 blue ghosts to circle around your target. The animation looks like they are attacking your target - but often newer players of other classes do not realize that it does no damage on its own - but it greatly increases the damage that your fellowship is putting out for a short period of time. Being able to tell people what it does and when you are firing it off is very useful to maximize your output

As you level, look for your class skills that have a long cool down - spam them when you are crafting or wandering around. They are all useful latter and can be painful to earn if you don't work on them regularly. Also, skills that have to be cast on others (healing is what I am thinking of) - these work on your herald whether you are in combat or not - spam those often as well

People have mentioned potions/pots - those are obviously useful. Food is as well. A captain with food and pots has a very good chance to making it to level 20 without dying (if you are looking for the Undying title)

Make sure you are in the habit of responding with one of your shout skills when ever something dies - you will need that to be ingrained muscle memory as you level up. In the beginning these are on cooldowns that seem forever but as you level, opportunities open up to make this shorter and you don't want to be thinking about it then - they should just be an automatic reaction for you.

Someone told me recently, that the main thing that separates a good Captain from an average Captain is whether you do "Cappy things" without being told or asked from your group.

have fun most of all
ps - also, when providing buffs to your fellowship, it is good to know what generally goes best for each class - sometimes at earlier levels (or latter - lol) people don't know what they need. But if someone specifically asks for a particular buff you should give it to them - they generally know what they need most

My captain is my main and is an awesome solo class. I may not do the DPS, Heals, or Tanking of the specialty classes but doing all of them fairly well is great for solo.
Your will find that bad pulls solo are not as painful for a Cappy and you will usually survive. Some other classes will go down quick due to inductions being trashed from multiple mob hits. Captains have almost all instant cast so that helps with unexpected numbers of mobs, along with heavy armor and heals.

Tell your fellowship that most of your effective healing comes in response to a monster dieing, so they should kill off the weakest monsters first when they want your healing. Likewise a weak monster kill early in the fight also means you buff-up everyone's attack damage with your other cry.

Put your Herald Attack skill within easy finger-reach or bound to mouse button. At lower levels it can be useful to quickly move him around to keep monsters from hitting the squishier members of your team. Herald damage is very low. He is better as an expendable tank. If the herald dies, quickly switch-to/plant your Banner. For instance, all monsters quickly figure out if your fellowship has a healer. Any monster that is not strongly-drawn to attack a fellow will want to attack your healer. You can use your herald to occupy at least 1 of the monsters so it is less likely to go after your healer.

Revealing Mark is almost always better than Telling Mark. The healing can be a life-safer. Telling mark is great when you have 5 or more hunters and melee attackers hitting the same Mark. This will usually only happen in a large raid and if you are lucky you have two captains for both marks anyway.

Noble mark is very good at bringing a monster's attention to you. If Revealing Mark is not helping your team stay alive, and a squishy hunter or champion keeps getting himself killed, then use Noble mark to make yourself the tank. It will not pull the monster to you right away, which is usually a good thing as the incoming damage gets spread around a little which you can partially heal up with your first Rally Cry.

You probably do not want to take the first incoming hits in any battle. You might need that morale up so you can spend it on Words of Courage or Time of Need.

Originally Posted by Barruktp

Alternate defensive strike every other skill, so you will not run out of melee skills and be auto-attacking.

You will find your captain is often running low on power with this strategy. I do not recommend it unless you have the power to burn. Defensive strike is a low damage attack. Nice to have at low level for extra damage. At later levels not so much = just used for the armor buff.

Thank you very much for the tips. I just started a Cappy and have been learning the ins and outs. I especially appreciate the tip on doing a quick drop of the banner when the herald drops.

Once again, Thanks!

Always situate your self with either the Herald on the enemy's back and you at his front (vice versa) it will allow your Herald to strike more with Coordinated attack! And as an added bonus the enemy will waste valuable time switching back and forth between the two of you while you take them down. Also you will notice how much quicker you will take foes down with one in front one in back!

Hey,
something that i have learned is that using your Shield brother skill are almost always detrimental for your power reserves, unless however, you have the legendary trait that applies the shield brother points to your entire fellowship. The inspire skill uses over 100 power, and if you continually use this in addition to your regular skills, you will end up with close to 0 power very soon.

Much love

With all of the new changes in the latest expansions, how much more important is Will now? Not just as a power concern...

Thanks.

Originally Posted by SPQR

With all of the new changes in the latest expansions, how much more important is Will now? Not just as a power concern...

Thanks.

Will is completely UNimportant. With the shift to Might for Outgoing Healing and Tactical Mastery, Will provides to you only power, power regen and resistance. You will find plenty of raw power on gear. You can get plenty of resistance from virtues. You can eat food or buy DP regen to keep your power up. For these reasons, you shouldn't wear any gear with Will post level 65. You may have to getting to 65 as the old itemization on armor sets persists, but try to avoid it if you can get Might instead.

Originally Posted by RtrnofdMax

Will is completely UNimportant. With the shift to Might for Outgoing Healing and Tactical Mastery, Will provides to you only power, power regen and resistance. You will find plenty of raw power on gear. You can get plenty of resistance from virtues. You can eat food or buy DP regen to keep your power up. For these reasons, you shouldn't wear any gear with Will post level 65. You may have to getting to 65 as the old itemization on armor sets persists, but try to avoid it if you can get Might instead.

Will is still a useful stat if the Captain needs more power.

Yes, of course direct stats are better - but to say will is "completely unimportant" is exagerating I think. If you are a captain and you find yourself running out of power it is absolutely worth it to wear some gear with Will on it. Just depends on the individual captain's circumstance is all. It can be a useful stat.

Originally Posted by Jeremi

Will is still a useful stat if the Captain needs more power.

Yes, of course direct stats are better - but to say will is "completely unimportant" is exagerating I think. If you are a captain and you find yourself running out of power it is absolutely worth it to wear some gear with Will on it. Just depends on the individual captain's circumstance is all. It can be a useful stat.

ICPR will generally give you more bang for the buck, and a lot of the best ICRP relics are the tier 6 True ones.

Originally Posted by Almagnus1

ICPR will generally give you more bang for the buck, and a lot of the best ICRP relics are the tier 6 True ones.

I never said anything about ICPR. If you want to argue Max Power vs In Combat Power Regen that's fine, but I wasn't debating that.

What I said is Will is not a useless stat for Captains, especially if that Captain is in need of power. More power is a good thing - and if a Captain is finding himself running dry on power frequently getting some more Will can and will help.

In-Combat power regen is good, but so is raw power. Both are useful - and while Will may be not be an ideal stat, it's a viable alternative for Captains having power issues until something better comes along. Like I said in my earlier post, it's situational - and it would be a mistake for a Captain having serious power issues to neglect available Will increases simply because of some weird taboo against Will among Captains now.

A lot of the captains on this thread frame all of their posts and advice around an end-game mentality that assumes Captains have the best of everything either already equipped or available to them. This leads to some very bad outcomes, as I've come across some awful Captains who ran out of power half way into a boss fight simply because they think they can get away with gearing like a Captain equipped with far superior relics and equipment.

It doesn't work that way - and the captain's individual situation is a very important factor when considering which gear to wear and not wear. There isn't a one-size fits all approach to Captains. There are a lot of evolving factors to consider.

Originally Posted by Jeremi

What I said is Will is not a useless stat for Captains, especially if that Captain is in need of power. More power is a good thing - and if a Captain is finding himself running dry on power frequently getting some more Will can and will help.

Even then, +Power is going to be more effective than +Will, because you can generally get more power from +Power than you can +Will on comparative gear.

The main reason why captains beat on the "avoid will" drum is to get it into the newer captain's head that will/fate gear is normally intended for the tactical classes, not the captain. Which, in turn, forces the captain to learn how to work around that limitation.

I find myself missing a lot. Which stat increases Hitchance now, still agility?

Originally Posted by Uvirith

I find myself missing a lot. Which stat increases Hitchance now, still agility?

Yep. If you're high enough level, work on getting to around 4k finesse, that helps a lot too.

Originally Posted by Almagnus1

Yep. If you're high enough level, work on getting to around 4k finesse, that helps a lot too.

Where does finesse come from? Agility? Or is there a real stat on some items for it? (never seen finesse on an item).

Finesse does nothing to improve hit chance, though that probably isnt what you are implying. Of course finesse will increase your actual percentage of "hits that do damage".

Just wanted to throw this out here because somehow finesse often gets named when people complain about their misses.

Originally Posted by Vandervahn

Finesse does nothing to improve hit chance, though that probably isnt what you are implying. Of course finesse will increase your actual percentage of "hits that do damage".

Just wanted to throw this out here because somehow finesse often gets named when people complain about their misses.

So what should I do now to improve hit chance? <confused>

Well, you already named it, Agility.
To have a bearable hit chance you will need to have 500+ (my opinion). Then again, Captain DPS isnt totally required in fellowships anyway.

Finesse is a new stat that is basically reserved for lvl66+, because it almost only comes from items of that level range (there are ways to get it in skirmishes via your skirmish soldier, and also from some skills and buffs). It lowers the avoidances of your opponents, meaning it decreases their block/parry/evade and resistance stats.

So, Agility improves your chance to actually hit your opponent, while Finesse improves the chance of said hit to penetrate the block/parry/evade of the opponent and actually cause damage.

Good information, thank you all for the responses with regards to Will. Since I am still level 61, I will concentrate more on the might/agility (which I am doing pretty decently with now), while using some other means to keep the power pool where it needs to be. I haven't found myself lacking in the power department, so should be no worries there.

Again, thanks.

-Britt

Hello New Players!

The Captain has three marks: Noble Mark, Revealing Mark and Telling Mark.


Noble Mark - Increases threat. For Example: I use it to kite an elite that hits too hard around while my archer kills it slowly.
Revealing Mark - Heals anyone who hits the target with this mark with 15% of the damage received turned into morale back.
Telling Mark - Increases the incoming damage on an enemy by 5%.


A good trick in not waiting for cooldowns (If fighting more than one mob) on the marks is to quickly put a new mark on the new enemy BEFORE the other one dies, because as soon as he dies and the mark is finished, it'll make you wait on the cooldown.

I encourage experimenting around with your marks to find fun ways to use them.

Advice to a new Captain:

You will be awesome in 60 levels. Stick with it.

Always carry plenty of power pots.

Your full potential will only be realized in group content.

I am a new player (5 days now) but I can't really apply most of the advice in this thread. I'd really appreciate some advice on what to focus on while getting to the point where I can use these tips. So, some specific questions for all you Captains of Captains.

Which virtues do I need to focus on, or if that's impossible, which can I ignore?

Which race of man traits am I likely to slot?

Are there certain reps that I'll need to grind?

Basically, what should I incorporate into my diet of EXP to reduce my raid-ready time at max level? Skirm marks, rep, specific area quests?

Thanks much, I've really enjoyed reading this thread; and playing this game.

Originally Posted by Succinctoid

I am a new player (5 days now) but I can't really apply most of the advice in this thread. I'd really appreciate some advice on what to focus on while getting to the point where I can use these tips. So, some specific questions for all you Captains of Captains.

Which virtues do I need to focus on, or if that's impossible, which can I ignore?

Which race of man traits am I likely to slot?

Are there certain reps that I'll need to grind?

Basically, what should I incorporate into my diet of EXP to reduce my raid-ready time at max level? Skirm marks, rep, specific area quests?

Thanks much, I've really enjoyed reading this thread; and playing this game.

Succinctoid, your questions are too general to give specific answers to. Which Virtures, traits, or reputation factions you need to concentrate on are almost entirely dependent on your own individual playstyle. There are a LOT of different ways to play this class effectively, and there is no single list of virtues, traits, or rep factions that all Captains should focus on. So it's best to give more details about what kind of Captain you are wanting to be so people can give you more relevant answers.

Generally though, Virtues can be used to correct weaknesses in your Captain. For example: if your morale is lower than you would like, Valour and Zeal would be two obvious choices. If tactical attacks are becoming a problem for you - Tolerance and Mercy might help you out. So that's one way to look at it - and see Virtues as counterweights for the individual weaknesses of your Captain. That's probably the most effective way you can use Virtues.

under 75: Normal things. But if you want dps, you have to figure out the best skill rotation, or you hit all your skills, and you aoutoattacking over 5-6 sec.
75: All party like cappys. Rez+buff the primary task. Sometimes you need to be offtank(foundry: Pen), or primary healer(Draigoch tank at 1-2 phase).
But dont forget: you are support class: Dont rush in a mob gang, and shoot skills like a champion.
Role: Easy. good cappy or bad cappy doens't matter. They allways get party. Cappy a strategis: stay back, check the RAT'S target, put on the mark, hit the 2 buffs, small heal on the tank, check the mobs, no agro on healer, ops: target died, and you still didnt hit! Heal bigger, put the mark on the next target, everything green, ok, NOW you can start dpsing.
So: cappy's most important task are check+watch. My advice: roll a cappy, join to many raids-fellows, learn the roles, and when you are ready, roll the tank or healer or dps(the main roles).

Originally Posted by Succinctoid

I am a new player (5 days now) but I can't really apply most of the advice in this thread. I'd really appreciate some advice on what to focus on while getting to the point where I can use these tips. So, some specific questions for all you Captains of Captains.

Which virtues do I need to focus on, or if that's impossible, which can I ignore?

Which race of man traits am I likely to slot?

Are there certain reps that I'll need to grind?

Basically, what should I incorporate into my diet of EXP to reduce my raid-ready time at max level? Skirm marks, rep, specific area quests?

Thanks much, I've really enjoyed reading this thread; and playing this game.

trait:
Virtues: zeal, valour, discipline, and rest as you want(i use empathy for fate+armor)
race: sword damage, evade+parry+block, healing, rest is your way.

Rep: from lvl 71 start Great river quests with daily(Heroes of Limlight) and join to a LFF LG daily starter grp.

And you DONT think about raiding, while you dont know your class, your gear, the LI system, ect...
Best you search a kindly-helpful kinship(and not raiding!!!), and you learn more more things, before you start raiding.
Play in fellow as much you can!

Stack your Might and Vitality. :P Always helpful