Dev Diary Feedback: Captain Advancement Beyond Level 50!

[Clover]

Buffs, banners, heralds, off-tanking, DPS, and healing: the Captain class has many strong playstyle options and a broad range of abilities which allow him to be flexible when soloing and make him invaluable to fellowships.

Read more about Captain 50+ advancement and post your comments here!

[ararax2]

Good Job tens!
The first 2 look great, the 3rd has me very interested.

Keep strong don't give into those wussy elves!

[DarthKeryx]

Well dang. My first reaction is I am very pleased.

My initial thought is (as I am sure will often be the case) what a difficult choice between the trait sets.

DPS? Nah - not my style or usual role. How often do Captains provide DPS or threat/off-tank? Usually there is a Champ and/or Guard to handle that.

Healer? Oh. Wow. I have run tough instances like 13.9 as The Healer (no Min) and gotten them through with room to spare. Ah but when I solo? No problem - cuz now we can heal ourselves much more effectively. (Although good-bye pets - whom I occasionally use as cannon fodder. Go get them Igor! Hang in there Igor! Aw... Alas poor Igor I knew him well a herald of infinite jest...)

Leader of men? Oh dear - about as attractive as Hands of Healing. I love being da Buffmaster in groups. Aw poor wittle hunter with 2300 morale. Kazap! Now you teh studmuffin. And ability to trigger CJs with Kick? Holy. Smokes.

Very good news indeed - at least "on paper". Hard part will be choosing between Hands of Healing or Leader of Men - both of which are powerful sets.

(Taking a second look... leaning towards Hands of Healing.)

[emz66us68]

sounds very good

[Mithwindras]

I love my captain. If these are all as good as they sound, you need to create a /hugself emote just for me.

[Delaney]

I have to say that this is all very interesting looking stuff. My alt is a level 42 captain and it makes me want to level her up in order to be able to take full advantage of these new sets. I particularly like the idea of calling an archer - nice addition.

Ironically, the only facet of this I don't like comes because my main is a burglar. Seeing yet another class that can trigger conjunctions makes me feel even more like the burglars' signature ability is being watered down again. Any chance we could get the cooldown on the kick ability?

[Edit: After talking with a kin mate, and keeping in mind the guardians' 'turn the table' skill, my burglarish disappointment is somewhat mitigated. It will still be disappointing to see every class with a skill that has a chance of starting a conjunction, which I expect is inevitable, but so it goes. I will enjoy having it with my captain. )

[Comstrike]

With the NDA gone and having been in the Beta, I can finally say that I think the Cappies will be a popular group in the near future. We have enough punch to do more. Heck, with a group of balanced Captains, the class can tackle many quests they couldn't have hoped too before as a single group.

We may even get a viable alternative to the stupid Halberd.

[Blackweaver]

Well having followed a dps build on my captain, I am very happy at what your giving the damage set. Thank you very much!

[valhalladeath]

I actually got visibly excited while reading this dev diary. I can't wait for MoM, it is going to be tough figuring out which line I want to specialize in!

[mike3433]

All I can say is, About time.

[captainBA]

What is the timeframe to be able to fully execute a legendary capstone? I know that is a tricky question. Does it involve part leveling and gaining new skills, part - use y, x amount of times? So does it take most classes until 58 - 60 to see a Legendary Capstone? Just curious how long it will take to see one in action. Thanks!

[Dundorn]

Good job Devs! I like the three tracks system, now we can level to our own playing style. My Captain is a balanced build with a slight tilt toward DPS. But I also enjoy being able to add Morale and healing to a group. So the Melee attack with the AOE heal sounds really cool. Also the self heal is much appreciated (and about time ;-). Never one for using heralds and with champs, guards and wardens to generate threat I think the healing skill set is the one for me.

[Comstrike]

From what I can tell, within Book 1 of MoM, you get sent on a quest designed to require you to get a Legendary and lvl it to whatever 10 is. It seems you must do this in order to gain access to Moria itself.

Being at LVL 49, with most of SoA yet to finish, I may look to go in, get that weapon, and then go back to Eriador and finish off the quests in that Volume. I could well make it to Moria as a lvl 60, or at least in the mid-50s, and with a decently leveled Legendary weapon.

That is my likely approach. Combined with the pontency of a Captain post-50 in Eriadore, it should whoop much hide.

[Rebarty]

Having played Capt from Beta2 and on, I hope this added to my Healing/buffing build I have.

[BTiger]

Love it! well except for one thing..Blood of Numenor I have found is an extremely hard trait to get (maybe I should go to the Moors), which means I porbably won't be able to slot the utility line (for which it is required)..for a VERY long time.

[Comstrike]

Indeed, part of why I am going to hang back is due to the fact that I really don't like grinding for traits and deeds, nor the idea of having to do so for "trait sets." Thankfully this isn't a PvP game, and I don't have to worry about it.

[TheDeeps]

I guess I'm a little underwhelmed compared to most of you.
I don't like that the Capstone skill for the DPS roll is an on defeat skill.
Its almost silly that it is an aggro generating on defeat skill, IMO.
Hopefully the non-capstone buffs are good.

The healing stuff could be cool, especially the self heal, although I am not convinced it will be. The damage taken from our current heal will prevent it from ever being 'main stream', imo, and the timers on the other heals might just mean we can take one more hit, which isn't going to really make a difference.

The pet legendary hopefully is missing some significant details and isn't just a 'cool' skin.

I'm also kind of shocked there doesn't really seem to be anything buffing our buffs.. or giving any new, big buffs.

All in all, reading these details makes it seem like it's improvement, but nothing that struck me as awesome, and nothing that will move captains out of being the least played class (at least on my server)

Hopefully the strength is in the details and that the improvement is bigger than it appears from the diary.

[Larce]

Love the changes, I have always prefered the healer/buffer classes and this will boost me even further in this role.

[dmwst30]

All in all, reading these details makes it seem like it's improvement, but nothing that struck me as awesome, and nothing that will move captains out of being the least played class (at least on my server)

Hopefully the strength is in the details and that the improvement is bigger than it appears from the diary.

The captain is getting all around improvements to their skills and abilities in very significant ways, and the fact that most of their attacks are via damage from legendary weapons (over double the DPS from current if maxed out for DPS) means the captain is going to be an outstanding all around class in Moria. IDoME won't be the second best legendary though, given the new combat system.

[Shlief]

i like the changes, cept for one thing....where are our slows?

[Beorthelion]

I know I'll be spec'ing Leader of Men

[Big_H]

I am pleasantly surprised with the sets, I didn't think I'd like them, what with them being specializations on a Jack of All Trades class. But I guess I'll have to wait till I play with the changes to give a final verdict. But they sound promising. Hopefully the power cost reduction is significant.

One concern: Our Corruption removal skill is a 3rd tier skill, Improved Blade of Elendil (so we might even need to trait it to get the Corruption removal), where other classes seem to have them as first tier. So without knowing exactly what Corruptions do other than "you'll want to remove them", the soloing Captain is going to be stuck suffering through these mob buffs/player debuffs for 3 hits before we get a chance to remove one... if our Cry isn't resisted. ... What's the deal with that?

A question: Muster Courage is getting a self-heal with a trait but prevents a Herald. Is the heal associated with it roughly the same as the Lend Will heal from the Herald? Or is it greater or lesser (since it has half the Lend Will CD timer)? Is it a direct heal or a HoT?

And like the other poster, I also agree that having a Threat generating skill as a On-Defeat skill seems kind of silly.
Minstrel shouting: Get these guys off me!
Captain: I need to kill something first!

It's fine when there's a Normal level mob in the group, or you have a DPS group that can burn an elite down in a few seconds, but if you've got a group of elites it could be a little bit before you'll be able to use your On-Defeat.

If you like to rock evil’s world with an enormous, Legendary, 2-handed halberd, this is the Trait Set for you!

From the Lead the Charge set.
Might be nit picky, but considering the only picture we've (I've) seen of a Captain Legendary weapon was a one-handed Mace... If you're not going with Lead the Charge, will you be expected to be using other weapons without the +Threat? A one-hand and a shield perhaps?
Boo if so.



Overall, pretty interesting... But I'll still have to wait and see for myself

[Lupini]

And like the other poster, I also agree that having a Threat generating skill as a On-Defeat skill seems kind of silly.
Minstrel shouting: Get these guys off me!
Captain: I need to kill something first!

I believe the skill is "gated"...on defeat of an enemy or on crit (or a minstrel opening up the gated skills). Believe me, it won't be long before you'll be critting a lot more.

From the Lead the Charge set.
Might be nit picky, but considering the only picture we've (I've) seen of a Captain Legendary weapon was a one-handed Mace... If you're not going with Lead the Charge, will you be expected to be using other weapons without the +Threat? A one-hand and a shield perhaps?
Boo if so.

Your first legendary weapon will be a halberd. However, after a couple levels you'll find yourself picking up class specific legendary weapons for any sort of weapon group we can use...legendary captain's dagger anyone?

[Comstrike]

Fair enough, but does this mean we are being freed from the need to use Halberds to get the true biggest bang for our buck, or will the Halberd always wind up being as good as it can get for a Captain?

I simply hate the things, they look dumb, are historically shaky on several levels, and did I mention they look dumb?

[DarthKeryx]

I simply hate the things, they look dumb, are historically shaky on several levels, and did I mention they look dumb?

Lol - I rather agree and dearly wish for a 2h sword. Kind of like... oh... Aragorn with Anduril. I think 2h swords are just sexier.

Ah but since I also often function in groups as Teh Healer (and Buffer) there is something to be said for 1h (legendary) + board.