Starting a Captain

[elithrar]

Personally I would recommend Armourer over Armsman. You wear six pieces of armour (seven if you use a shield, eight if you include the cloak), but only one weapon. Just getting one "great" weapon from elsewhere seems much easier than getting many "great" armour pieces from elsewhere.
Armourer includes the Tailor profession which lets you make your own cloaks and armaments as well. (Assuming you have access to a Forester who can convert hides to leather.) Armourer also lets you create your class-slot Legendary Item, as well as crafting tools.

Good call, and the way I was leaning towards.

The final advice I would give is that while Captains can solo perfectly fine, where they really shine is in a group - making everybody else perform better.

And that's ultimately been why I've wanted to play a Captain, balanced by the fact that LOTRO is a little older and I'll probably be playing solo to some extent when levelling (I was before when levelling a Warden to 33). I'm on Elendilmir, so hoping there's still a reasonable GMT +9/+10 population there.

Red Line = DPS quick multiple Mobs, under 30k. Or the group need DPS+DPS buffs , you will always welcome
Yellow = Tank multiple Mobs between 30k - 80k or single Nemessis in central Gondor (500k)
Blue = no need, just in group if you need to replace a Min.

Thanks. Levelling as Blue (heals) seems like it'd be fairly sluggish, particularly when having looked at the Red & Yellow trait lines (lots of DPS/sustain abilities there). Swapping between Red + Yellow seems like the efficient way to level and still be useful in Fellowships for buffs and/or tanking.