In this series, I talk about various aspects of The Lord of the Rings Online. This series is meant for newcomers, but may also help veteran players find more to love about the game.
This is only my third Captain, but I still feel confident in my ability to discuss it. It is a pet class like the Lore-master, but instead of creatures a Captain can summon heralds. (We'll talk about those later on in the entry, so be sure to read to the end!)
Per the established method, the theme this time was "red" and "sky," so I used Welsh to come up with Tanllyd, or literally "fiery." Being a High Elf from the Second Age, she is familiar with war and was one of those who brought it directly to Sauron's doorstep!
Character Creation
High Elf
Like the regular Elf race, the origin you choose determines your options for hair and eye color. I chose Gondolin for Tanllyd so she could have auburn-ginger hair to match her fiery nature, and grey eyes like smoke or ash. If you don't know the places offered as origins for High Elves, I suggest delving into The Silmarillion. There are some fantastic stories in there!
Captain Class
The LOTRO wiki says it best when it describes the Captain class as a jack of all trades, because it's true. They function in a broad spectrum of roles, never being highly efficient in any one particular area. They are great to add to any group, but they're just as capable of doing things on their own because of their choice of heralds to summon. They heal a group well in a pinch, they deal hefty damage, and they're great at keeping their friends safely defended. They can also resurrect a fallen ally in the middle of a fight!
The Second Age
Like usual, I'm not going to detail any spoilers here. There's some great storytelling in this Intro if you pay attention to the text and the NPCs around you. I highly encourage it! One itty bitty spoiler that I have to include is that you are wounded in the course of the events... by a Morgul blade! If you only ever watched the movies, you probably know where you're going at that point!
Class Skills
You begin with just four skills, but those are easily enough to get you through your trials on the field of battle. You won't advance very far, so these are all you'll get for now.
Rallying Cry: Basically, shout some health to your buddies.
Battle-Shout: Shout at your enemy, giving yourself a buff to do more damage.
Sure Strike: A basic melee attack, but it can't be blocked or parried. You're gonna use this a lot.
Devastating Blow: Use this after your Battle-Shout to double down on the benefits -- heal more, and take less damage from your enemies!
Trait Trees
Skipping ahead, you won't see this choice pop just yet, but I figured I should cover it right after the class skills. The trait trees offer the usual variety of roles: Blue if you want to heal your allies while also doing melee damage; Red if you want pure damage; Yellow if you want to defend your allies and use 2-handed weapons. I am a strange rebel here: I go with a halberd (2-handed) and Red line. It probably isn't optimal, but I enjoy it. (Note: Halberd use isn't available until level 15, so I tend to use a 2-handed sword until then.)
You can read up on the Trait Lines here:
The Third Age
Rivendell
You awake at last! You get yourself up and wander through the indoor field of plants to find Elrond nearby, who is happy to see you're awake and will talk at you for a long while. Eventually, he'll tell you to collect a few things and send you with an escort (his sons) to Celondim so you can depart for the Undying Lands. Yay?
Celondim
Elrond wastes no time in sending you on your way once you're awake, but don't worry -- you're not quite done yet! You'll get to talk to your fellow elf who's getting ready to depart for the Undying Lands, and reflect upon why many other elves have stayed or given their lives.Ultimately, and as no surprise to you, you're going to decide to stay in Middle-earth. It would be awfully disappointing to stop playing at level 6, wouldn't it?
Taerthon seems to understand, and tells you that Elrond's sons have actually come to speak to you (how convenient). You should do that, and then get yourself ready to dive into the Elf starter area. It's pretty seamless even though you may feel shortchanged after the start in Mordor.
Beyond the Intro
Additional Skills
You probably noticed once you arrived in Celondim that you were given some more skills! You have one more attack skill, Cutting Attack. Basically, you slice hard and make your enemy bleed for a while. It lasts for 20 seconds, and conveniently that's also the skill's cooldown, so you can use it again as soon as it wears off and keep a perpetual bleed on your enemy if you need to.
The other three skills are for your Herald, and I cover that below!
Also, since it isn't offered in any quests covered here, Captains are proficient in all armour types, so go ahead and get that Heavy armour every time it's offered. You'll want it.
Class Trainer
There is also the option to purchase a Receipt of Armament Exchange for in-game currency (68 silver, 76 copper). You can then use this item to barter with the Trainer for specific herald armaments. Some of them require specific reputation standing with various factions in order to use them. In this way, you can highly customize the appearance of your herald much like Lore-masters can customize their creature companions. Appearances range from the Lossoth of Forochel to elves to Oathbound (spirits). There are four pages of options you can barter for, so go nuts! You can see some (but not all) of the options on the LOTRO wiki: Captain Items Index, Armaments
Heralds
Speaking of Heralds, it's kind of strange that Captains don't get to use them in the Intro if they happen to play a High Elf, but that's what happens. Once you make it to Celondim, you'll get those extra skills which include 3 of the 4 herald types (you'll get the 4th one, the archer, at level 26). Once summoned, you'll have a pet bar available that is similar to the Lore-master companions. You can coordinate an attack with them, or you can swipe some Morale from them if you get desperate!
Each of the herald types provides a different kind of buff, so you'll want to summon the one that best suits your play style or grouping situation. Tip: You can designate your herald as your Blade-brother when you get the skill at level 10! Use it if you play solo a lot!
Craft Vocation Choices
As mentioned above under the Trainer info, you can make your own Captain goods if you decide to go with Scholar, Tailor, or Woodworker. Alternatively, you can go with Weaponsmith or Metalsmith to make your own weapons or armour. Since the class is so multi-faceted, it's not always easy to choose a craft vocation to go with it!I leave you with some pictures of my Captains! Show me yours on Twitter with the hashtag #GamerReverieBlog!
Oh, and before I forget, there's an Extra Life charity event on Landroval later this week! Play some PvMP and/or donate to help sick kids, and earn the Tundra Cub cosmetic pet and/or 100 LOTRO Points!
For details, click the cub picture!
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