The Fanatical Swordsman

If you are familiar with the proposed Captain changes released a few weeks ago, then here are updates that hit the forums on Friday. If you are not familiar with them, then click here for the entire list including Friday’s updates.

First, Raskolnikov answered some questions:

• Only one Brother Toggle can be active at a time.
• Improved Kick was moved from the 3-set bonus to the 2-set bonus in Leader of Men
• -10s Mark Skills Cooldown still exists as part of the 2-set bonus in Leader of Men.

Then he proceeded to BLOW OUR MINDS! I am so excited for these changes, its making me question whether to run my Hunter MAIN through Isengard first or my Captain.

Skill Changes

• Noble Mark
  New: No longer has a Damage-over-Time component. It still immediately causes aggro (ie; can be used for pulling). Added an additional effect to the target which causes any player (except the Captain) that attacks the mob to receive reduced perceived threat for a short time.
  Opinion: This is another good change to our tanking ability.

• Brother Toggle Skills
  New: When the toggle is removed from your ally, any buffs applied to your ally from Inspire, Strength of Will, or To Arms are dispelled. (i.e., you can’t cycle any of the Brother Toggles between allies in order to buff multiple players at once.)
  Opinion: Apparently this was a common trick. Never thought about it, I always put out the buffs to the same person. Sounds more like a “here is how we meant it to work” change than anything else.

• Shield-brother
  • Removed: in-Combat Power Regen
  • Addition: Critical Hit Avoidance

• Blade-brother
  • Removed: in-Combat Power Regen
  • Addition: Critical Hit (rating)

• Song-brother
  • Removed: in-Combat Morale Regen
  • Addition: Reduced Threat from Healing

General opinion on Brother skill changes: This is great, as not everyone needed the +120 to morale and power regen.

• Inspire (all versions)
  New: Cooldown has been increased from 3s to 15s to match the duration of the Vital-over-time effects.
  Opinion: This is fine, although I did like to use Inspire when everything else was on cooldown. I think the rotations have been sufficiently tweaked to allow for this, though.

• Inspire (Blade-brother)
  Changed: Rather than a single Power-over-Time, it now provides a half-sized Heal-over-Time and a half-sized Power-over-Time.
  Opinion: This is cool, now we will have a power-over-time heal, a morale-over-time heal, and a half-and-half one.

• Strength of Will (all versions)
  Changed: Cooldown has been increased from 1m30s to 2m to match the duration of the buff it provides.
  Opinion: I do not like this, as the 30 second window allows for a little breathing room, but it’s an ok change, considering all the awesomeness here.

• Strength of Will (Blade-brother)
  Changed: -10% Threat generated from Damage to -5% Attack Duration.
  Opinion: This is good, as it really should be a buff to DPS.

Trait line changes

Leader of Men

• Composure
  Removed: No longer reset the cooldown for Cry of Vengeance.
  Addition: -50% Morale cost of Time of Need.
  Opinion: This is great, as the morale cost for ToN is the number one reason why I don’t like this skill very much.
• New Trait: Improved Routing Cry
  Routing Cry now applies a Force Attack to affected targets. (Note: This trait takes the place where Blood of Numenor used to be.)
  Opinion: Wow, an AoE force taunt for Captains, this is epic! Main problem with tanking on a Captain is no AoE threat skills.
• Capstone Legendary Trait
  
  • Removed: Inspire, Strength of Will, and To Arms affects your fellowship at reduced effectiveness.
  • Addition: When using Shield-brother on an ally, the Captain also receives the full effects of the Shield-brother skills.
  • Addition: Routing Cry no longer requires a Defeat Event.
  • Addition: Captains are able to Block when wielding a Halberd. (IMPORTANT NOTE: This is not guaranteed, as the tech might not be possible. Rask is asking for alternative suggestions just in case.)
  • Opinion: Basically, each of the Capstones are allowing a specific Brother skill to affect the Captain at full strength. The ability for the Brother skills to affect the entire fellowship at lower potency is being moved to where Defy Corruption was.

Overall thoughts on Leader of Men trait line changes: Obviously, tanking with a Captain is something the Devs expect us to do, as this line has been entirely refitted and tweaked to encompass more threat skills and better defensive capabilities.

Hands of Healing

• Subtle Command
  • Replaced: Is now Blood of Numenor.

• Blood of Numenor
  • Addition: +50% Revived Morale and Power for Cry of Vengeance
  • Addition: -2s Induction Time for Escape from Darkness
  • Addition: -10m Cooldown for Escape from Darkness

• Strength from Within
  • Removed: No longer prevents the summoning of Heralds or Archers.
  • Opinion: This is a great change, as the heal isn’t that powerful, and it is nice to have the herald out when solo, especially when we are using the new Brother skills.

• Capstone Legendary Trait
  • Addition: When using Song-brother on an ally, the Captain also receives the full effects of the Song-brother skills.
  • Opinion: This is keeping in line with the new trend for capstone traits.

Overall opinion of the Hands of Healing trait line changes: Good tweaks to an already strong line.

Lead the Charge

• Master of War
  • Removed: There is no longer a +15s Cooldown penalty on Shadow’s Lament.
  • Changed: Shadow’s Lament now provides Battle-readied on HIT (instead of on Crit).
  • Addition: When using Blade-brother on an ally, the Captain also receives the full effects of the Blade-brother skills.
  • Opinion: WOW! This is great. Hoping that Shadow’s Lament would crit was tiresome, but this will make this line so much stronger. I could conceive of two rotations, one involving Battle-shout and being sustainable with Improved Sure Strike, and one involving Shadow’s Lament. Our DPS might actually be viable.

Legendary Trait Changes

• In Defence of Middle-earth
  • Changed: Is now a toggle Aura (without any upkeep cost).
  • Note: The Legacy “In Defence of Middle-earth Duration” has been changed, see below.
  • Opinion: This has both good and bad ramifications. The distance was confirmed by Rask to be the size of minstrel auras, but the size is an issue. This means that in fights that require spreading out (like OD poison wing T2 or DN Blind-one), there will be some people with the IDOME buff, and some without. On the plus side, we never have to think about it in the middle of a long fight. On the down-side, some people could be missing 225 morale from the +75 vitality, or 375 if they are a tank. Looking at it another way, the +50 to all stats (later +75) won’t be as useful in Rise of Isengard as it has been in the past, as the stat changes have eliminated secondary characteristics from stats, so things like B/P/E and such won’t be affected.
• Defy Corruption
  • Changed: Is now Fellowship-brother:
    • All versions of your Brother skills (Inspire, Strength of Will, To Arms) now affect your entire fellowship with lesser versions of those effects.
  • Opinion: This is going to allow Captains to trait however they want for raids, as THE raid build for Captains right now is Leader of Men for the Fellowship-wide Shield Brother. This is a great boost in flexibility for the class.

Legacy Changes

• In Defence of Middle-earth Duration
  • Changed: Is now instead Words of Courage Pulses.
  • Opinion: Makes sense, they got rid of the duration entirely, and this is a minor legacy that will be very much worth having.

Links:

Captain Update, Second Iteration by Raskolnikov, post 1

Captain Update, Second Iteration by Raskolnikov, post 2