User:Gaerlin/Captain Guide (level 50)
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About Captains
Captains are a very versatile class that can fulfill a number of different roles in a fellowship or raid, including tanking, healing, or providing DPS support. We'll cover each of these roles separately in this guide. I like to think of Captains as one of the most "selfless" classes because they excel at making other members of the group better (by increasing their DPS or healing or making them more survivable). Groups attempting difficult content such as T3+ Raids can significantly increase their chances of success by bringing along a Captain.
Because Captains are focused on helping their group just as much or more than their own effectiveness, Captains tends to be complex to play. You will have to keep track of a number of different cooldowns and buffs, and be ready to react to changing situations quickly (such as a raid member dying, since Captains have one of the best in-combat revives). At first it may seem daunting, but Captain definitely gets easier with practice. The key thing to remember is that you will probably need lots of practice in a group (rather than soloing) to play Captain well.
Before we get into the specifics of each role, there are a few aspects of the Captain that are common amongst all roles, including states, common buffs, and heralds.
Captain States
One of the most important techniques to master as a Captain is proper management of your states. Captains have three states (self buffs) that are activated in sequence based on skills used:
Battle-readied → 
Battle-hardened → 
Light of Elendil
The tricky part of managing these states is that the skills that activate Battle-hardened and Light of Elendil consume the preceding state buffs. Following are descriptions of the states:
| State | Activated by | Description |
|---|---|---|
|
 Battle-shout  Defensive Strike
|
This is the Captain's primary offensive self-buff, which increases damage and enables activation of other group buffs. You'll want to make sure this buff is up while you are doing your hardest-hitting attacks (primarily in red line). |
|
 Devastating Blow  Pressing Attack
|
This is the Captain's primary defensive self-buff, which increases your outgoing healing and decreases your incoming damage. You'll want to make sure this buff up as much of the time as possible while tanking or healing.
The skills that activate this state consume (remove) Battle-readied. |
 Blade of Elendil
|
This buff applies a Light-type damage buff and defensive buffs to the group. It also applies an additional buff to the Captain based on their spec as follows:
The skills that activate this state consume (remove) Battle-hardened. |
Ideally a Captain should try to keep all of these buffs up at all times. This can be done by immediately using the skill that activates the buff after that buff is consumed. For example, immediately after using Devastating Blow to active Battle-hardened, use Defensive Strike to re-activate Battle-readied. Similarly, immediately after consuming Battle-hardened by using Blade of Elendil, re-activate it by using Devastating Blow or Pressing Attack. Since there are two skills that activate both Battle-readied and Battle-hardened, one of them should typically be off cooldown at any given time.
The following sequence of skills would activate all of these buffs simultaneously:
Battle-shout (activates Battle-readied)
Devastating Blow (activates Battle-hardened, removes Battle-readied) Defensive Strike (re-activates Battle-readied) Blade of Elendil (activates Light of Elendil, removes Battle-hardened) Pressing Attack (re-activates Battle-hardened)
This sequence is an example of a basic Captain skill rotation, into which you would intersperse additional skills while making sure that the state buffs do not expire.
Common Buffs
Captains have several buffs that improve the damage, healing, and survivability of their group. Some of these buffs have short cooldowns and/or long durations and so can be kept up 100% of the time. Others have longer cooldowns and short durations and should be used situationally to maximize their impact.