Thread: Captains with Heavy shields and Rallying Horn skills

At like level 40 captains should get heavy shields, because they need more Defensive abilities if they have Tanking skills, also, they should have a horn blow that makes allies Beef up in combat, maybe heal, or Power boost, or even +damage, but I have a level 42 captain, I'm also sick of him going like "AH! Ah! AIIIYA!" Cut the screams and make them horn blows Turbine

No. Ever heard of the phrase "Jack of all trades, master of none"? Those are captains. Giving them heavy shields would make them superb tank.

Besides, as it is they can tank (read: block) using a 2H. No other class can do that.

I'm going to have to disagree with this. My Captain has no issues with defense considering the Captain is a support character not a tank. They have the ability to tank somewhat, but that isn't their main purpose. You get heavy armor, 2-hand block, skills that raise your armor value, self heals, and a herald that will heal your every once in a while.

If you want to play a character with a shield, play a Guardian or a Warden. Though, if you don't like yelling stay away from the Warden

Originally Posted by Widoch

If you want to play a character with a shield, play a Guardian or a Warden. Though, if you don't like yelling stay away from the Warden

Guardians are a noisy class especially if they are Dwarf Guardians. IMHO - The three loudest classes are Captainsd, Guardians and Minstrels.

Turbine did nerf the vocals on Captains years ago. There is so much outrage from the Captain operators that the old noisy shouts were put back in. IMHO - Trying to muffle Captains ism't going to get very far given the reaction the last time Turbine messed with their sounds.

It is unfortunate there are no vocal options. The lack of audio customization is the way Lotro works. It is always a one size fits all poorly. You either put up with the sounds as provided by Turbine. Or turn the channel the annoying sounds are assigned to off.

IMHO - Captains are one of the more powerful classes especially in group time. They do not need heavy shields. It is rare to see a Captain using a one handed weapon and light shield. I never seen a Captain going sword and board in a group instance. A Captain is too valuable in their support or healing role to be using a tank unless it is emergency situation as an off tank. Captains would over powered with heavy shields given their healing and support skills.

IMHO - You want a tank hire a Guardian or a Warden. These two classes excel at tanking. Send in the Champion as tank. Captain is one of the last choices for a tank when the wheels are coming off because things have gone really bad.

I have seen some interesting group dynamics when you have a Captain heavy group. Something like an all Captain group. In this case, one Captain gets pushed forward to be the tank while all the other Captains keep the tank Captain alive.

Captains can solo extremely well. Captains can tank many 3-mans. Captains make good off-tanks. Or kiters in instances because you can hold the aggro via healing.

Originally Posted by Yula_the_Mighty

IMHO - Captains are one of the more powerful classes especially in group time. They do not need heavy shields. It is rare to see a Captain using a one handed weapon and light shield. I never seen a Captain going sword and board in a group instance. A Captain is too value in their supportor healing role to be using a tank unless it is emergency situation as an off tank. Captains would over powered with heavy shields given their healing and support skills.

I'll kind of hit on this a bit. There's a big discussion in the captain forums about the advantages of 1H + Shield vs 2H. Basically, the advantages of a shield often outweigh more DPS from a 2H (you get the ability to block without being traited for tanking, you get to choose your additional stats (kinda like your 2H passives, but much less &&&&&&), and it speeds up your attack animations, which let you get in more Words of Courage, in theory.) A lot of my raid group has switched to using sword & board for the harder content.

That being said, we have a ridiculous block rate compared to any other class (since Might contributes a ton to block) so even if we have less armour from using a light instead of heavy shield, we block enough to make up for it, considering our roles.

Originally Posted by TinDragon

I'll kind of hit on this a bit. There's a big discussion in the captain forums about the advantages of 1H + Shield vs 2H. Basically, the advantages of a shield often outweigh more DPS from a 2H (you get the ability to block without being traited for tanking, you get to choose your additional stats (kinda like your 2H passives, but much less &&&&&&), and it speeds up your attack animations, which let you get in more Words of Courage, in theory.) A lot of my raid group has switched to using sword & board for the harder content.

None of the Captains that I hang with go this route. I have seen this discussion.

IMHO - The purpose of sword and board is not to tank. It is to get a few more stat points. Reduce your hate generation by cutting your DPS. Allow the Captain to fire their support skills more often. As you noted has the benefit of reducing incoming damage if the Captain gets aggro.

I use a Great Sword for the reduced hate generation. I do not want things beating on my Captain. There is nothing worse than the Guardian goes down. I can not get him back up because stuff is beating on my Captain. Minstrels have the same mobs or on me while trying to Rally problem.

That is my play style. It is not right or wrong. When I play my Captain, Hunter, Lore Master or Minstrel - I want to be in the Eye of the Storm. Being beat on distracts me from doing my support activities. Or it interfers with induction skills...

Some Captains really like to get into the fur ball. That is not me. Fur Ball time - I play my Champion or Guardian. I value the different kind of group play and dynamics that each of my characters gives me thanks to having multiple high level characters. I match the Class to the role I need to play. If you only have one or two high level characters, I can see where my method is not going to work well.

Originally Posted by TinDragon

Besides, as it is they can tank (read: block) using a 2H. No other class can do that.

Yet it is extremely useless, tough champions can make good off-tanks, the issue with them is they have no crit defense, a shield even a light one would drasticly change that, tanking without a shield on a captain is just stupid, your missing the whole part what makes it better and that's crit defense from the shield....

To this thread, i agree that a captain souldn't be allowed to have a heavy shield, even traited a captain can't do 1 specific role as good as other classes, but the fact you can switch out doing whatever alongside the responses and the buffs make captains one of the most direct support classes there is.

MT