Reading Captains Correctly

Captains come with 8 categories of strengths and weaknesses traits. This can quickly get overwhelming. This guide explains how to read a captain quickly, so you know how to fight the captain effectively and efficiently.

How to Fight a Captain

This section does not apply when you're fighting more than 1 captain, in which case please refer to the section on Combat Basics. That section also applies to 1-v-1 fights against captains. Focus esp on Invulnerability Moves and Hit Streak.

Avoid Enrage

Before you dig into the details, look at the Hates traits. Unless the captain is a Berserker, there should only be a scant few items to bear in mind in order to avoid enraging the captain.

An enraged captain is immune to Fire, Poison, and Frost. Can't be stunned by any of those (except for Frost, which can still freeze enraged captains who aren't Frost-Proof).

Also note that captains are immune to stun or even elemental effects while mid-animation. If the captain is standing up or in the middle of a special attack move, try to spot that and save your Might until the captain is out of that animation.

Captains that are stunned on the ground (on all fours) can be affected by stun and elemental effects.

Bug alert. Note that the Glaive attack can sometimes (1 out of 10 times) fail to hit anything at all even though it sweeps through many enemies. Be prepared to have your Hit Streak broken for no reason at all (but bug-related).

First, look at the Immunities.

We assume the captain has the Agile trait.

If he's not Fire-Proof, the fastest way to damage a captain is with fire. Your Hit Streak will keep getting broken when the flames even so much as lick you. But the immense and rapid damage done by fire more than makes up for your lack of Hit Streak. Also, the captain is actually dazed while burning, so any Agile trait is disabled during burning. Now, let's see what to do if he is Fire-Proof.

If he's not Frost-Proof, the fastest way to damage a captain is with Hit Streak. Freeze him, flurry strike him for Hit Streak and Might, freeze him again, repeat. Using Elven Light also keeps grunts off you so you can maintain a skyrocketing Hit Streak focused on the captain. Now, let's see what to do if he is Frost-Proof as well.

If he's not Poison-Proof, the fastest way to damage a captain is with Elven Light Poison for a stun (the brief stun is a basic Elven Light effect), then Glaive (Mighty-Swing) him to gain a lot of Might, then Elven Light Poison for another stun, and repeat. Don't do any melee hit at all because a single melee hit will bring the captain out of stun, and you'll have to hunt for another opportunity to charge up Glaive again. Yes, this rotation is a lot more complex than the previous 2, but you gotta love the Dark Souls style tactics challenge in this game! (One reviewer said this game is a super-sized fun fast food compared to Shadow of Mordor; that statement is so untrue by now with Brutal difficulty. This game is becoming a very fun fine-dining experience!) Now, let's see what to do if he is Poison-Proof as well.

If he has immunity to all 3 damage types, you can only rely on the Glaive (Mighty-Swing) and Elven Light stun. Glaive to stun, then charge Glaive to stun again. Reserve Elven Light stun for situations that threaten to break your rotation (and Hit Streak). Turn off all elemental damage for Elven Light; a captain's immunity will negate the stun, so Elven Light Poison doesn't at all stun a captain that is Poison-Proof. If you can keep up this rotation unbroken, your Hit Streak will raise your damage exponentially with each cycle, thus completing your fight rather quickly despite the captain's all-rounded immunity.

Execution is still, by far, the most damaging attack. The problem with relying solely on Executions (Might-based) is that it doesn't crowd-control the grunts around you. If you're alone with the captain, then by all means Execute as much as possible (until adaptation) to lower the captain's health.

Executions scale with Hit Streak. Try to get your Hit Streak above 20 before you fire off an Execution. This could mean foregoing Fire attacks and sticking to Poison and Frost.

Second, look at the Mortal Weaknesses

The reason this is considered only after Immunities is because this can be extremely situational. Where would you conveniently find a Morgai Flies Nest right on top of the captain you're fighting? Even something like Terrified of Curse will still need you to proc a Curse on him (most weapons have only at most 50% chance to proc Curse/Fire/Poison/Frost).

Of course, if you find a convenient mortal weakness, you really should use it to end the fight instantly.

Third, look at the Dazed By.

This is a fantastic bonus to your fight. It's a free stun, and the stun lasts quite long.

Fourth, look at the Vulnerabilities.

If you don't see any Mortal Weaknesses or Dazed By, you can still hope for Vulnerabilities. Again, this can be situational, so always look at Immunities first to determine how to even score hits on (let alone damage) the captain.

Note that Vulnerabilities, if exploited, can make your fight 10 times easier. From what I can see, the damage is 10-fold.

How to Recruit Good Captains

The Endless Siege mode can decimate your orc army. I lose 15 out of 18 captains when I did not follow my newly-minted advice below. (My advice below is from experience and analyses.) Now, I'm gonna try to put my advice into practice and see if I can do Endless Siege with much less losses.

Zero Weaknesses.

The most basic requirement is to ensure zero weaknesses. Mortal Weaknesses will end your captain instantly. Vulnerabilities will down your captain 10 times faster than normal. Dazed By stun-locks your captain potentially perpetually.

So, what's next after fulfilling the most basic requirement?

Immunities

For now, what I can see is that you should focus on recruiting captains with all 3 damage-type immunities (Fire, Poison, Frost). Fire will quickly (almost instantly) take down your captain, as well as stun-locking him while he's burning. Poison can be quite a stun-lock as your captain pauses to puke, leaving him open to another cycle of attacks and stun-lock. Frost is not so damaging, but a stun-locked captain can't deal damage to end the fight and stop further abuse on himself.

Hates Traits

Hates traits are good bonuses after the above requirements are fulfilled. If Immunities aren't present, the captain may lose his life before he can even get enraged.

Class Traits

Possibilities here are rather immense, so I can't begin to discuss these at this point. Might even require a full book for proper treatment. Feel free to open another discussion thread to help out in this regard. This part is what makes the game such immense value, and possibly what will drive the Online Conquest leaderboards to greater refined heights!

Bonuses

Probably not as important as Class Traits, but could add crucial differences for tie-breakers.

Combat Basics

Invulnerability Moves

Before we get into attacking, you must learn all your invulnerability moves. These moves are called safe moves (Street Fighter speak) that can't be punished (counter-attacked with devastating effect).

Dodge: Whether dodge-roll or dodge-vault or spectral dash. Note: Spectral dash (Waters of Lorien) also counts toward Hit Streak. If you have Mask of the Undying (Ringwraith Legendary cloak), you can spectral dash your way into very high Hit Streak.

Consume: All versions of it.

Elven Light: Once you start it, you're invulnerable throughout. If you suspect you're getting hit right after the blast ends, just keep spamming the dodge button, and you'll "chain" into an invulnerable dodge right after Elven Light animation ends. No window in-between that will allow you to get hit. Feel free to spam r button right after a dodge to chain seamlessly into Elven Light.

Shadow Strike: If you still have Focus left, you can activate ranged mode, which dramatically slows down all enemies. Or even if you have no more Focus left, u could activate ranged mode and spam the

x/z

button so that you invoke Shadow Strike upon entering ranged mode.

IMPORTANT: Remember that normal attacks and parries, once they connect, leaves you vulnerable to being hit!

Normal attacks: Normal attacks can be canceled (before they connect) into a dodge or a parry. IMPORTANT: Try to avoid doing normal attacks on Tricksters or Agile orcs altogether, because such normal attacks connect immediately, making you immediately vulnerable.

Parries: Can be canceled (before they connect) into a dodge.

Survival tip: Don't parry if you are surrounded by lots of enemies that can't be countered (including captains that invoke special attack moves). Just dodge.

Borderline Safe Moves

The Slide tackle is unsafe because it cannot be seamlessly chained into a dodge. The end of the slide tackle animation is not invulnerable, although the whole slide is. If you can, try to aim for the slide to end where there aren't any enemies. Unfortunately, the slide's main aim is for Hit Streak because you can hit multiple enemies with it (unlike the shoulder tackle), so a safe slide runs counter to the slide's main use.

However, it may be the only viable option against shielded captains. (Not thoroughly tested by me. Will do more testing.) It may be possible to activate Ranged mode right at the beginning of the slide's vulnerable phase, and shoot off/stun surrounding enemies, but that requires even more elven agility than Celebrimbor has! (I only manage this half the time.)

Deal with Ranged Enemies First

Stealth dominate all archers on high towers. You can't reach those while you're doing melee on the ground. Even with Shadow Strike's Chain of Shadows, you can't reliably chain to high towers; so chain kill all the archers on the surrounding towers before going melee.

For spear throwers, you'll need to dodge towards them and take them out first.

Also, you always have the option to spam dodge to get away from the horde. Unless I have Elven Light ready to fire, I don't dive into hordes very much, esp if shielded defenders are in the midst. Shielded defender grunts can't be countered.

Stun-Locking

To take down a captain quickly --- and you should, esp in siege modes where there could be 5-7 captains in a messy furball --- you need to stun-lock the captain.

Why must we always strive for stun-lock? Because a non-stunned captain can do a lot to stop your attacks. Berserkers can block your attack and head-butt you for some chip damage (killing off your Hit Streak and even Might if you're using Fatal Might). Agile captains and Tricksters will dodge 4 out of 5 of your attacks. Shielded captains will block your attacks and shield bash you on your 3rd or 4th attack for massive damage. Yes, fear shielded captains. These are real tanks, not just some punching bags with a bloated amount of hitpoints.

Recall how to read the captain properly --- enrage triggers, immunities, weaknesses --- so that you know how to stun-lock the captain. That section also contains rather comprehensive tips on proper offense rotations for stun-locking various types of immunities.

Immunity to Elemental Damage breaks stun! If you're facing a captain with immunity to all 3 damage types (Fire, Frost, Poison), your Elven Light will only stun the captain if it does not deal any elemental damage.

Note that higher Hit Streak means your normal attacks have a greater stun effect, so you can actually stun-lock a captain (once you get the 1st hit in) perpetually with normal attacks if you have a high Hit Streak.

Invulnerability Moves and Hit Streak

Sometimes, you simply can't find any window to attack anybody, esp when there are multiple enraged enemy captains around you.

The Waters of Lorien (spectral dash) will add 1 to your Hit Streak (dashing through an enemy seems to count as a hit).

The Shoulder tackle also adds 1 to Hit Streak, and can be seamlessly chained into a dodge for seamless invulnerability. (Not as thoroughly tested by me. Correct me if I'm wrong.) Be warned, the shoulder tackle needs quite a lot of precision: too far or too near, and you'll enter a Grab animation (grab is not an invulnerable move). You grab empty air if too far, of course.

The Slide tackle can also be used, if you can manage to end the slide far away from any enemies. The recovery phase of the slide tackle is not invulnerable. Also, you can try Ranged mode at the beginning of the recovery phase, and shoot/stun all surrounding enemies.

Obviously, a fantastic rotation is the shoulder tackle, dodge, shoulder tackle, with occasional Elven Light (even better if you have access to spectral dash). Consume can also be included if you need healing or Elf-shot.

Olog Groups

Only engage Ologs in 1-vs-1 combat. Your sword can get stuck in the Olog. That animation when you start pulling out your sword from the Olog is when you are vulnerable to attacks.

If the Olog concerned hasn't yet flashed the "Press Spacebar" prompt, and another orc (any orc) attacks you, you'll be hit.

Of course, when that prompt has already been flashed, you are free to chain into an invulnerable dodge (which slides you through the Olog's legs.

Adapation

In short, a very good captain (durability, at least) is one that you find difficult to beat. You'll be cornered into just a dash-stun-hit rotation if facing the perfect tank (usually shielded captains).

It's not that the adaptation game mechanic sucks; it's actually brilliant and makes the gameplay require actual human smarts (I sometimes do wish to turn off my brain and play mindlessly). The real "problem" (if you can call it that) is the shielded captains. Is this bad for the player? Nope.

Think about this rule: The harder a captain is for a player to take down, the better the captain's survivability. Recruit defenders, and you'll see them last a very long time in Endless Siege modes (where I initially lost 15 out of 18 captains quite consistently). I currently even have an Agile captain with a shield; now that is a true tank.

Shielded captains can't climb walls (unless you give them caragor mounts). If you're using them in Online Conquests, make sure they're Fire-Proof and Arrow-Proof. And be ready to face the 1st victory points (one in outer and one in inner) alone, if all your captains can't climb walls.

Captain Types

Berserker, unshielded

Frontal attacks are no go. There is no way to keep striking at the front of a berserker, even if you catch the berserker stunned. Your 1st blow will hit a stunned berserker from the front, yes, but the 2nd blow will get a counter and head butt which ends your Hit Streak.

Shielded

The most frustrating captains to fight are the shielded ones (defender types). There is literally no time to waste after you spectral dash through him (no captains ever adapt to the dash). There will be a very short stun, during which (right after your dash) you must Elven Light Freeze. Only then, can you start hitting the captain from behind.

Poison works too, but you must wait for the captain to double over and puke. Fire always works, since you can always hit any burning captain (even Agile ones).

Agile

The Shoulder Tackle is about the only reliable and safe attack on Agile captains. You can chain seamlessly from a Shoulder Tackle into a dodge.

You can try the Glaive attack too, but note that it won't disable any non-counterable attacks from nearby berserkers. Just ensure you're facing just 1 captain (not berserker) when using the Glaive.

Online Conquest

I'm currently around 1100 in assault rating, and will soon climb to 1200. Once you reach forts with defense rating of above 900, expect to only get Silver timing, because all these forts have a full complement of 18 captains (not including the 3 in the throne room) with almost no holes in their elemental immunities.

Your Captains Are Your Army

You'll definitely be bringing in 6 captains into an Online Conquest (their bodyguards never turn up for me, could be a feature or a bug, who knows).

Each victory point has at most 3 enemy captains --- 1 warchief and his 2 bodyguards.

Bring sappers to blow the first gate. You want your 6 captains entering combat with enemy captains, as well as capturing the 1st victory point, asap.

Fighting Enemy Captains On Your Own

Attack behind the gate 1st. While your 6 captains are breaching the 1st gate, you should have taken out both enemy siege beasts (if any), and started engaging the 1st 3 enemy captains behind that 1st gate. You 6 captains will face no resistance as they knock down the gate; grunts do next to no damage to captains.

Look for Holes in Immunity. Do a quick scan of the 3 enemy captain's immunities (use Wraith View, good luck with the targeting system). If there are any common lack of an elemental immunity, set your Elven Light to use that elemental damage. Say all the 3 captains have Fire-Proof and Frost-Proof, you should count your lucky stars and immediately set your Elven Light to use Poison damage. (More often than not, all 3 captains cover all 3 immunities.)

Plain Vanilla Elven Light in Worst Case. If there are no common lack of elemental immunities for the 3 captains, you should disable elemental damage for Elven Light. Bear in mind that a Poison-Proof captain takes zero damage from Elven Light Poison, but takes full blast damage from Elven Light plain vanilla.

Build Might and Hit Streak. The best rotation to use, in the most fortunate scenarios, should be normal attacks to gain Might, coupled with Elven Light to drastically raise Hit Streak. In the worst cases, you might be cornered into a spectral dash, spectral dash, ... , Elven Light, esp when the captains are Agile or Shielded. Hit enemy grunts whenever you can to build Might for Elven Light.

Normal Attack (hammering) of Captains on the Ground. Don't do any Execution because Execution doesn't scale nearly as well as normal attacks when your Hit Streak reaches above 30. Only hammer at grounded captains when no enemies are adjacent, because that animation when the enemy captain hand-sweeps your leg to trip you (and get himself up) makes you vulnerable; don't lose your Hit Streak to attacks that land during that animation.

Once your captains enter the fray, things become a lot more relaxed for you. You should then focus on not disrupting the attacks meted out by your captains. We discuss that next.

Fighting Enemy Captains With Your Captains

Only attack with Shoulder Tackle, which increases Hit Streak. The Shoulder Tackle is the only pin-point attack that doesn't hit your captains. The reason you should avoid hitting your captains: hitting them disrupts their attacks on enemy captains.

Feel free to fire off Elven Light whenever possible; your captains won't get hit by it.

Disable enemy siege beasts. Your own siege beasts (and those you capture) won't hurt you or your captains.

Captains vs Captains --- A Numbers Game

Ensure you have more captains than enemy captains in a fight. This is the only way you can win the fight without losing almost all your captains.

Losing your captains will make the next victory point a lot harder to capture.

With this in mind, you should only capture victory points when you are sure you have at least 5 captains free to rush the next victory point.

Hang Back To Dominate Enemy Captains

Save time. When the victory point is ready for capture, and you see only 1-2 enemy captains left, and you see 5 or more of your own captains free to head to the next victory point, only then do you capture that victory point you're on.

And yes, capture that victory point even though there are 1-2 enemy captains left. You can more than handle those enemy captains yourself. Moreover, your own captains won't be insta-killing those enemy captains, so you can recruit them for this siege.

You should find yourself recruiting as many enemy captains as possible, and see your "captain army" snowball in size. At the 2nd last victory point, you should be rolling about 12 captains in total (hard to reach every broken enemy captain in time to recruit).

Rush Forward To Heal Captains

Say you were hanging back in the previous victory point to hurt 1-2 enemy captains, and you suddenly get a notification that one of your captains is bleeding out.

Stop your current fight with those 1-2 enemy captains, and rush to the next victory point. You'll definitely be in time to revive your captain.

This is the reason you should save time and capture a victory point even when 1-2 enemy captains are still left standing at said victory point. And also the reason you should hang back to attempt to recruit those 1-2 enemy captains remaining --- you'll be in time to revive any fallen captains in the next victory point.

Throne Room

Call your bodyguard, of course.

Chain dominate as many powerful grunts (ologs, savages, defenders) as you can. The less grunts that your bodyguard needs to deal with, the more he can focus on enemy captains.

Be mindful of your bodyguard's weaknesses (hopefully none). Try to stop enemy grunts from disrupting the attacks meted out by your bodyguard. You'll find your bodyguard's damage output far exceeds your own.

You can certainly help out by firing Elven Light to stun enemy captains, after you have dominated enough grunts to keep them from disrupting your bodyguard.

Enrage Triggers

Enrage triggers like Poison, Frost, Fire, Caragors, etc are straightforward. Let's look at the unanticipated (sometimes outright game-breaking) enrage triggers next.

Execution

Only triggered by players.

In captain-vs-captain fights, executions do happen, but will never trigger this enrage trigger.

In fact, it may even be possible that captains having Immune to Execution immunity are not at all immune to executions performed against them by other captains. (Yet to be tested.)

Known Bugs and Issues

Friendly Fire

Not talking about your normal attacks hitting all your allies around you, nor about your captains' special attacks hitting allies (a feature).

Sometimes, you will find your lock-on (and your allies' too) locking on to allies (grunts or captains). You'll even see your own captains executing your own captains (usually in Online Conquest).

Yes, this is frustrating. Maybe the only consolation is that this happens to the enemy as well!

Glaive Misses

Glaive is supposed to be an AoE attack. Yet it can miss one out of 10 times, all while sweeping through lots of surrounding enemies.

Just be prepared to lose your Hit Streak for no reason.

Normal Attacks Lock On to Thin Air

Beware in-game world objects (like the handles of wheelbarrows, grok barrels, anything really) as well as tiny steps (elevations) in the ground.

A very large array of unexpected stumblers will break your Hit Streak for no reason at all.

Stuck Captains

In Online Siege, it's possible that 1 or 2 of your captains will be stuck outside the outermost wall, even though everyone else has already broken into the fortress.

Path-finding is a problem for all games, though.

Death Walls

In the heat of battle, walls (or anything climbable) will be the death of you. Stay away from all climbable objects during battle. Your climb animation is vulnerable to being hit. So, instead of dodging, you'll activate a climb that causes your death.

This could be a carry-over from the consoles, where buttons on a controller are limited.

Funny thing is that nobody at Monolith ever considered that such simplification (using fewer buttons) would be game-breaking. Even funnier is their inability to see that the default action, when the game detects hostiles within striking distance of the player, should be to dodge (an invulnerability move).

Blindfold Camera

Occurs in the same situations as for Death Walls above. When too close to a wall, the camera angle is such that you look at your back from the other side of the wall, so all you see is the wall and nothing else. That is, your front field of vision is completed blocked by said wall.

All Monolith had to do was to detect the wall, and simply not draw that wall whenever the wall is between the camera and the player character.

Mistargeting

For abilities like Execution, Shadow Strike, etc, the targeting system in the game uses a very vague face-the-general-direction-of-your-intended-target. If you have several potential targets clustered together, you'll almost never get the correct target.

This is especially problematic when trying to use the Wraith World to check out a captain's strengths and weaknesses (because, duh, this game is about using human smarts to outwit the captains' various strengths/weaknesses).

Hence, a very core mechanic of the game --- using human smarts to outwit the captains' various strengths and weaknesses --- is almost completely defeated by the haphazard targeting system.

Monolith could easily have included a precise cursor for targeting (or reticle), while also floating the field of view to follow that cursor, so that players can more accurately target their abilities.

[charcoal thatch]

while i was reading the combat basics at one part i had a feeling in my gut that just screamed "this guy is definitely not the best at combat in this game" but im not very sure

[Extra Sloppy]

just spam counter

[zoiNks]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to share these tips with us.

[magic guy]

i choose my uruks based on amount of clothing or how strong their one liner was when i first encountered them

[Wraithtaker]

Big brain time

[Playboii_nasty]

Thx now I know how to read

[Dr Nox]

I can confirm 100% that captains immune to executions aren't immune to executions from other captains, from extensive pit fight research.

[ΚΟΤΑ]

.

[Serg]

Ah combat drain.. the NOT HIM! ability.

[GDSpectra]

The bug list isn˙t, Schuetzy. 🤭 And speaking of Mortal Weaknesses, always expect Overwhelming Awe to be one of them. Always fun, that one (the other one closely following behind it being Fight Another Day), he he he he he!