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Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it?
Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious.
Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.
That aside (RIP LN) I have a few Captain questions for the more experienced players out there.
I'm enjoying this class way more than I thought I would. I prefer in these types of games to play melee dps classes and avoid any thing that requires it's own unique window to function. That aside I've played this class for a little bit now and leveled up to 24 in a pretty speedy manner, but now I'm kind of lost on what my role is in a group.
Do I dps a little and treat the pet as a visual dot, while I just use my heals and buffs?
Do I focus on healing and supporting the primary dps?
Should I support the tank directly?
I notice the only range I really get is a scream and a toggle with decent distance to it? Since I can survive pretty good should I be a puller?
I don't have a guild yet in the game, mostly cuz I play on and off and plan on continuing the trend. (ex I'll play 2 days straight and not even think about it for a week and a half), so I figured asking here would be a good idea.
Comments
I see Captains as sort of a jack of all trades..dps/heals/buffs/debuffs
I would just focus on whatever was needed at that very moment (when I played my capt) when in groups.
Hmm I see.
Is there any real playstyle focus to advertise other than (no one else is LFF so take me!)?
Being a min/max'er at heart makes such a class tough to play. But I'm impressed it's held my interest as long as it has.
Hmm well,
Back when I played my captain(this was back when lotro released), I never had problems finding groups.People werent exactly going out of their way to look for the class,like a guardian or minstrel perhaps,but I think Captains round out a group nicely though, with what they can provide.
Aside from reserved spots for a tank and a healer a captain shouldnt be looked over when forming a group imo.
If you're the only healing class in a group then it's best to let your herald fight while you stay back and provide the heals and buffs. You get a rez skill eventually, so if things go really bad you can run away and come back to rez the others as long as you keep yourself alive. A Captain is good enough to be the main healer for all but the hardest group quests. If there's a Minstrel in the group, both you and your herald can join the fight but even then, you'll be able to buff the group and provide a big heal everytime an enemy dies.
Being mindful that I'm a touch rusty on my LOTRO knowledge these days, epsecially my captain (Around level 20)....
The great thing about all the classes in LOTRO is that depending on the situation each class can fill multiple niches.
Captains provide great buffs in a group situation. That is one of your biggest strengths. Minor roles include spot healing, and perhaps occasional tanking if no one else better fits (guardians, wardens[?]) the role. Alternatively off tanking/grabbing adds off your squishy folks.
Not sure if you have the sheild brother skill at level 24 or not but I seem to recall that often being on the main tank in the group for the captain to provide healing/aggro assitance to the MT. Relatively certain you can use standards around the low-mid 20's as well, which provide nice direct buffs to you, as well as the group, without having to micro-manage the pet. You should be able to purchase a basic one from your class trainer. In groups especially this makes life much easier.
Hrmm... not sure that clears much up for you. You may find this thread, recently posted on the lotro forums along the same lines insightful, although it strongly reinforces the 'jack of all, master of none' idea behind captains.
And if you happen to be on Nimrodel give a shout!
"They weren't cows inside. They were waiting to be but they forgot. Now they see sky and they remember what they are." -River Tam
Your are a buffer, No one get a captain for heal. Sometimes need for 3 man instances if other 2 ppl cant find a healer. Also big raid grps wants a HOH traited ( Hands of Healing ) captain for help to healer.
Dont forget to keep buffs up on grp and always put a banner or keep alive your herald. Most of group members want Tactic: Relentless Attack for increase their crit chance but sometimes if tank is a warden put a Tactic: Focus buff on it. They need power regen.
Always use your telling or revealing mark on targets.
Put a Shield-Brother on tank and use inspire skill for heal when you are fighting too or put it on a DPS class to increase his crit chance and heal him. But Inspire skill is cost too much power.
You can use "Threating Shout" or "Noble Mark" for pulling. they have long range.
All good info.
I do have the Shield Brother ability and right now I can basically inspire more power regen with a melee move. It's handy when I duo with friends so far. I keep all buffs up best I can. An irk of mine is when there's a lot of ways to administer the buff. Some gets the whole group, some gets people near by, yet others I have to target and then buff. One way or another please.
My pet I've used mostly for the buff and have her attack whatever I attack. I got a range slot item that makes it a chick with a +150 armor boost and for lack of any better traits I've traited to enhance the buff and some minor stats on them.
Since in bigger groups my dps will be marginal at best (Every little bit counts I'm sure) should I gear to always have magic to cast? I've noticed lately that I often find myself having to wait a second or two before I'm able to cast one of my (after you kill something) buffs and abilities.
As a Captain your job is making the other players better at their job, its really as simple as that. You prevent wipes, increase DPS, decrease damage on tank and taunt mobs away from the healer if one escapes the tank. Besides that you can do whatever you want, just don't let the healer/tank die because you where so busy DPSing that you didn't notice them going down.
Also take a look at your skills, most of your heals are instant. If you see someone going down fast, chances are you are going to get a heal on him alot quicker than the main healer. Same for your attack speed buff, quick to use but very powerful. Depending on how you skill you can later have your shield brother effects affect the whole group or other fun stuff like that.
You are also very important in groups, generally because you make everyone else better. Be it more power for your healers, more damage for your DPS or more mitigation for your tank, you can do it all. Later on with LIs you can even be a mainhealer for 6 man content quite easily not to mention that one of your Legendary skills gives everyone in the group +50 to all stats. Most people actually gear to be 50 stats short of their primary attributes because they only run raids with captains.
In general you could say that you do not need a Captain in a group, but it would be alot easier with one. My kin generally refuses to enter any raid without a Captain or two, its just unpleasant without them. Minstrel/RK or Warden/Guardian are interchangeable, you can take hunters or champions or RKs as DPS and it won't matter much. But if you run without a Captain and LM/Burg your imho in for a world of pain.
@Rocketeer
That's a good perspective actually. In fact if you haven't typed that up over on the main forums, I suggest you do so.
I guess where the class' role is pretty much anything it's kind of hard to lay it out.
One more question for everyone:
Am I really as durable as I think I am? Heavy gear and the buffs so far (again I'm level 24) have me feeling more durable than the burglar I leveled up first.
Yes your are as durable as you think you are.
Its a running joke with my friends that cappys are trait slotted for god mode.
Its a good class.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Generally in the thick of things you are quite durable yes. But that has as much to do with your heavy armor and buffs, as it has with your role in a group. I mean the main beastie is usually wailing on the tank(atleast it better be), random thrash for better or worse usually goes for the main healer or AoE heavy classes so you only get hit by the odd mob here or there or the ... well lets call it splash damage.
That being said, the only classes who are actually tougher than you in every sense of the word are Guardians(unless they run in overpower stance and you run with shield) and Wardens. In other words, the two pure tank classes are tougher than you. A champion is also likely tougher if he specs the blue line, runs in Glory and equips a heavy shield(which is like extremely rare).
I do not find captains running solo particularly tough though, lack of self heals is usually a bit problematic depending on situation, for example in my experience Burglars and LM are superior in single mob situation because their skillset favours them there.
My main is a captain right now and the best thing I could tell you is when solo play how you are comfortable, I tend to pull them myself since sometimes if you send your herald in against multiple mobs he can get killed pretty quickly. When it comes to grouping as a sort of jack of all trades you could be expected to fill a few roles in a group my advice would be to check with the group before going underway to find out exactly what they expect from you most , off tanking, healing? And try and avoid groups that maybe expect a bit more healing out of a captain which is there weakest point to me.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Captains are bad-ass plain and simple weather solo-ing or in a group. With the latest updates to the captain class, they are better at dps and healing. For now at lvl 24, assisting the tank/off-tanking in groups is your primary job.
Once you hit Moria, you'll be traited HoH 99% of the time when grouping. In 3 man groups you'll be the main healer and you'll heal just fine. I mention that because you need to make sure you're working on your HoH traits as you're questing from the Lone Lands to Eregion.
When I'm skirmishing, I've found a healer (soldier) along with my Oathbreaker instead of a banner to be the best combo. I know at 24 you don't have an oathbreaker yet but your soldier pet will do just fine.
Actually there are quite a few people using the Leader of Men line now with the new capstone. Inspire and the improved "to arms" buff that affect the whole fellowship with it are quite powerful, suffice to say. You only sacrifice like 20% healing strength for a group wide hot you can keep up constantly and some nice damage buff, obviously you still take atleast "Now for Wrath" and "Deeds Before Words" from the HoH line, so your point still stands.