Revising skill rotation ...

[Scrivener]

Welp, the most welcome captain overhaul has had the unwelcome side effect of completely jacking up my skill rotation.

What's your current cycle now that we're contending with all the changes?

[HerrDave]

From the perspective of a Red Captain.

My basic rotation:
1 - Revealing Mark (C+6)
2 - Battle-shout ( 1 )
3 - Sure Strike ( 2 )
4 - Gallant Display ( 3 )
5 - Inspire (C+3)
6 - Cutting Attack ( 4 )
7 - Grave Wound ( C+4 )
8 - Shadow's Lament ( 5 )
9 - Devastating Blow (C+5)
Repeat

Defeat Response:
- Routing Cry on the 1st Defeat Response for Attack Speed buff & Stun (C+1)
- Rallying Cry on the 2nd Defeat Response for Damage buff & HoT (C+2)

Situational Abilities:
- Standard of War when I'm in a crowd or fighting a Troll ( 6 )
- Oathbreaker's Shame when I'm fighting a Boss
- Time of Need when I'm fighting a Troll or Boss
- Cleanse Corruption when I'm running older content with Corrupted enemies who become invincible or hit like a Balrog if those get out of control
- Muster Courage any time I get a debuff (would that it cured more than 1 at a time)
- Make Haste (Not really useful, I just like having it around from the SoA days)

Heralds:
- Herald of War (When farming mobs for cosmetic gear in lower level areas)
- Herald of Hope (When fighting groups, a Troll, or a Boss)
- Archer (When fighting enemies on-level and I'm not worried about dying)




With this rotation, you get the full damage bonus from Battle-Readied applied to your entire rotation, and the cooldowns finish in time to loop again.
It's a little more cluttered than a Champion's rotation, but you won't have empty Global Cooldowns anymore, and your cup overfloweth with buffs.

I deliberately cut out Defensive Strike and Blade of Elendil, as DS is simply a melee version of Battle-shout with the same cooldown (Rendering it interchangeable if you're like me and you don't like playing the piano in a fight), and BoE is incredibly underwhelming, on top of ending my Battle-Hardened state for a buff to Shadow's Lament I've never noticed.

I also chose Devastating Blow over Pressing Attack, since blitzing down a single target is more valuable than tickling a crowd of them.
(The less sources of damage you have coming in, the longer you'll live)

I like to break my abilities up into blocks of 12 keys max, 6 stacked on 6 so I can reach them all with one hand and keep moving at the same time.
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and C+1, C+2, C+3, C+4, C+5, C+6)
With the Captain revamp, it feels a little messy starting a fight with C+6, but you can move that to wherever you're most comfortable with.

In general though, I wish I had the space to use Kick in my rotation. I can probably work it in by moving Telling Mark or Standard of War off of my rotation line, but what kills me is just how messy the Captain's hotbar looks with the new "Red-green-yellow-blue" mish-mash of ability icons, and how Stand Alone turns buffs/revives into attacks, further muddying the hotbar on the fly.

[Scrivener]

From the perspective of a Red Captain.

My basic rotation:

FANTASTIC detail!

Thank you for the effort and trouble.

I’m going to put this to work right away. I’m sure this is going to fill in the gaps that have spread through my own pattern.

[Meshuggenah]

Out of curiosity, what is red cappy DPS like after u35 rework? I haven't played in a little while.

Also, what is their off-healing like now? Seems like the healing portion of several skills (inspire[blade], gallant display, etc.) was removed from red line unless I'm misunderstanding the tooltips.

Great to see red Captain DPS increased but it's a shame they felt they had to kill its ability to off-heal if that's the case.

[PreemptiveRegret]

Out of curiosity, what is red cappy DPS like after u35 rework? I haven't played in a little while.

Also, what is their off-healing like now? Seems like the healing portion of several skills (inspire[blade], gallant display, etc.) was removed from red line unless I'm misunderstanding the tooltips.

Great to see red Captain DPS increased but it's a shame they felt they had to kill its ability to off-heal if that's the case.

My gear isn't perfect but 700k DPS ST on a dummy is pretty reasonable. Our AoE potential in particular is much better than it was. I'm sure better Captains are doing more.

If you use Stand Alone stance your Words of Courage is changed to a self buff instead of healing. You don't have to use this stance, and in particular if you want off healing you wouldn't use it because it sacrifices group utility for solo buffs.

[Meshuggenah]

My gear isn't perfect but 700k DPS ST on a dummy is pretty reasonable. Our AoE potential in particular is much better than it was. I'm sure better Captains are doing more.

If you use Stand Alone stance your Words of Courage is changed to a self buff instead of healing. You don't have to use this stance, and in particular if you want off healing you wouldn't use it because it sacrifices group utility for solo buffs.

700k Is a huge DPS increase compared to when I last played. Pretty nice! Is that with Stand Alone active?

Even with Stand Alone disabled, the tooltips on Inspire(Blade-brother) and Gallant Display no longer provide fellowship healing in red line?