mattysemo247

Ok, I just unlocked it. It's pretty fucking cool. Makes the archers badass fighting for you.

K&AJones

I'm not certain if I'm following the right pattern even though I get the feeling this is more open sand-box play. Where you first start out, I went North and took out a Slaver and tracked down Gollum to the right side. I then went West to open another Tower....where you run into those "Big Dogs" you get to ride which is cool. However I'm constantly running into 2-3 Captains all in the same area. At the Tower on the far North West, at one time there were five Captains and I spent most of my time running like hell.

And these are like Rank 9-14. I've got a pair of Archer Captains that are like Rank 14+ that stay together and seem always to be close by no matter where I go....one being Sneak. And when I pull up section showing all the Captains, their location and intel, the lower rank ones seem to be all East and in a Green Section South called the Garrison. I don't know that showing up Green that's where I need to head or what. I'm just trying to reach the Towers to open up the map more and see.

LorenzoL

You need to pay close attention to the Captain's strengths and weaknesses and utilize that in order to take them out whether that's Ranged attack (Bow) or use the Caragor. Once you start leveling up, either with more health and focus or start adding to your different skills, even tough groups will become more manageable.

K&AJones

Thanks....I had to cheat a bit and went to the IGN review/walk-thru to get an idea at least where to go and what order. I was close to the next mission, just didn't see it. It's the one where you have to sneak in and poison the barrels. I've only done the Yellow and White Missions so far but yet to do one of the Red Confrontation ones. So far I've done....

Ratbag's - Spirit of Mordor
Gollum's - An Interested Party
Hirgon's - The Slaver and Outcasts

On these Power/Confrontation Missions....is the goal to kill the Captain outright or is it something about pitting one against the other? I was reading on The Nemesis System Missions like Betrayal, Promotion, Duel, etc...but how do you initialize it? Take a captain out and then it randomizes?

davidh777

Your goal will usually be to kill the captain. I think the other stuff like duels just happens between them, and you might get a red mission as a result of it.

The green section just means that you have a captain targeted, and that's where he is at the moment. That's useful if you're hunting down a specific captain, but it sounds like you're just playing through stuff and dealing with the captains as they come, which is what I did. They are a real PITA early in the game. I had one who would always come in on the tail end of battles and kill me, and he got up to level 20 doing that. You can try to hunt them down and isolate them, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort at this point when you could probably earn more points other ways. Honestly it helps to have a little luck in isolating a captain.

I branded all the warchiefs and captains on my board except one, so it made sense to target him, and I finally managed to kill him off after he ran away a couple times.

K&AJones

I went back to Diablo for a few days but the last two nights been back at this and it's been Night & day over before. Last night I guess everything fell into place and just at the right area(s)...

Did two "Bow" missions
Did one "Duel Mission"...which I'm still unsure on what to do...like get in the middle of it or let it fold out?
Died once and saw where almost (5) got promoted and power increased.
Killed (5) Captains
And got my first War Chief...actually three of the Caragors pinned him in a corner after I took half of his health away and feasted on his fat butt.

I've got a pretty good size wedge in the middle of the ranks taking out a few of the Capatains....one in the front, three in the middle and one in the rear last night. A couple of new-comers arrived in the front which I've now got intel on everyone on the list.

With all that should I now go after the War Chiefs outright or continue to widdle away at the Captains front, middle and last row? I know all the bodyguards of the remaining War Chiefs. After I killed the one War Chiefs several new missions popped up...both Red and Yellow. I've got three-to-do Main Missions on the second tier level showing Locked until I do more Story Missions. From what I've seen and read the "Brand" ability doesn't pop up till like Tier 4.

davidh777

I like to go after the bodyguards because that makes it a lot easier to take on the warchiefs.

As far as the duels, it depends on who's involved. If one captain is stronger than the other, it's probably worthwhile to support the lower one in hopes of keeping the one from getting even stronger. You could also factor in their weaknesses and support the one who you think will be easier to take on yourself later.

Once you unlock the branding, the duels and stuff will be a lot clearer because you'll probably have a horse in the race. For executions,

K&AJones

I've made a lot of progress over the weekend finally getting all the War Chiefs with poor little Ratbag as the lone one. I think some of the Bodyguards were more of a pain than them. I've knocked out haf the Captains, then I get killed and see about eight promotions. At one time I had more unknown Captains than known ones.....they just keep coming.

Overall so far I give the game solid 9 of 10. I played both Batman games and one Assassin Creed and this combines both excellent...it's stealth and open combat of both. The animations like the executions are perfect and never get tired of. And riding a Caragor biting and watching rag-doll Orcs flying around is laughable. If I had a dollar for every time I heard..."It's a Caragor"...I could go on a two week cruise.

I've done every Main Mission and the recruiting, duels, feasts are still there. I'm showing three main and one white mission to do but the only main showing is The Black Captain which is next (in the upper North West corner. I just did the one where we blew up the big statue honoring Sauron. Is this a new area?

davidh777

Yeah, the Black Captain is a significant milestone. I got killed a couple times so I took a break, built myself up a little more, then took him out.

I just finished the game.

Now I went back to the original area with my new skills and am taking out the captains, with a couple warchiefs to go. There are a few missions left that I know are a PITA so I might just skip those. I already bought the season pass back when it was on sale so I'll go through some of that as well.

K&AJones

Well...maybe I'm a little ahead wise regarding my Level/Rank/Abilities. I took him down in about 7-8 minutes just running back-&-forth and in circles getting my hit streak up and when ready laid into one or two times with the Execution Strike. Then run all over striking Orcs and throwing Daggers for critical strikes and lay into him again. He tagged me a few times but my health never went below a 1/3. I had a rune on to get health back for head shots and do that with the Bow. I also used the bow for Shadow Strike against him landing a hit or two and then running off.

So this girl pops up and says I've got an invitation to see the "Queen" which is in the new area? I assume I can always come back and poke around right?

davidh777

Fine, you're a better man than me.

Yes, you can return later. That's what I'm doing now, actually.

K&AJones

Both Shadow Strike and that "Double Execution" hit have saved me countless times, especially the Double Execution along with the Vault/Jump Over = Stun. I just love the animations of the executions along with the "Drain & Their Head Explodes" Batman was fun with fighting all the mobs but this is a total blast.

The other day I had three Captains all in the same area...grated all below Level 11 and all died in about a 12ft radius. No Epics out of it but I had to take a shot of three Swords/Daggers almost in a line.

davidh777

I finally beat my last warchief. There was kind of a tough path to get to him (executing five people in a stronghold swarm--I kept killing them, then getting killed when more hordes would swarm in), so I ended up sending one of my own warchiefs to battle him, then I got in the middle of it and branded him. Then I went back to the red mission, went stealth to take over the stronghold, and executing when the time was right. Then when my warchief marched in, he helped me fight off the remaining hordes and then I killed him.

I also discovered how to play as the hot chick, so that's entertained me a bit longer, but I think I'm pretty much done other than trying the season-pass content.

A couple times lately I've been able to help the weaker captain win, then pop in after the fight and kill him too.

K&AJones

Unlocked the Brand and it's just fun to play with. I Branded one Captain in a fortress and at one time had half of it behind me. But the reinforcements just kept coming and had to bail. I'll go for the Big Ape tonight as I think that's one of the next main story missions helping the Dwarf on a Hunt. I wrapped up the Bow side missions and have 2 & 3 more left on the Sword and Dagger. Only four left on the abilities to unlock and all are Main except one. I haven't used the Death Threat as much as I should and will look more closely to the Captains and who and what they are.

K&AJones

Can you and is it worth trying to Brand a Warchief?

I've been going around and just Branding every Orc I come across and have 4-5 Captains branded now. I think some of new ones are some normal Orcs I've branded...I don't recall doing that many Captians.

It was funny last night as I was doing a Rescue Mission and in this area this one Captain kept walking around in a large circle. I kept Branding everyone behind him except the two closet to him. it was like 15 to 3 and when he got on a bridge between the groups I called in Wraith. All I had to do was shoot the two and the rest took him down...with a arrow or two in the foot to slow him down.

redbill

I think only if its a weakness.

james2025a

Its been a while since i played this now, but i seem to recall that with every enemy once you have beaten them down to a certain level they can be branded. It just makes it harder when you are in the middle of a large skirmish and you are trying to beat them down without killing them. The game save i have has every single captain and war chief branded. I might get back to it in the near future and kill them all for a bit of fun.

davidh777

Yeah, it's possible and worth it, though as always with those guys sometimes the problem is getting to them. And as you say about Captains, sometimes a warchief will already be branded because it'll be a captain that got promoted.

I had one last warchief I was trying to get, and commanding a captain to attack him didn't get anywhere, then commanding a branded warchief to do it gave me the opening I needed.

K&AJones

Got my first Warchief killed off last night in the new area...it was Massive and sort of a challenge but it worked out perfect. He had three Captains as bodyguards and I got all three Branded but one unbranded Captian was with him also. So it was him and Four Captains in tow. However when I started the mission the fort was full of Orcs so I went around and branded any I could get close. But I get on one end and half the ones I branded on the other end were gone and replaced with normal ones. So I'd go back around again and same on the other end. I finally got in the middle and to a point where 3/4 near him were branded and then called in 'Fight For Me"......

The unbranded Captain...Level 20 was taken down in like 20 seconds and then it was a mob on the Warchief. I think I got in 2-3 hits and he was dead in no time flat. So one Captain got promoted to Warchief and the other two as his bodyguards....all branded. I'd say about 1/3 of the captains are dead and of the remaining almost half are branded. It's essentially a chess match. Showing I'm about 82% thru the game.

mattysemo247

I'm pretty close to wrapping this one up. I think I only have a few more story missions to go. Then it's DLC time since it's included in the GOTY edition.

davidh777

That's cool. I get frustrated in the strongholds when I brand a bunch of guys, then they call in more.

I haven't played in about a week but am also somewhere around 82%. It should be easy to get the final artifacts and stuff, but I haven't done many of the survival and hunting challenges. For the former, I just need to pay attention to the herbs on the map, and I haven't found any bats yet, though I hear they hang out at the mouths of caves. Regardless, I think I'm pretty close to moving on to the season-pass content like mattysemo.

K&AJones

Yep...on the Bats that's what I did....went to front of the cave and the moment they flew out I aimed the bow catching them in slo-mo getting them fairly easy.....it was a cave in the first area, the one in the far West I think with a Tower close by. There is some mission in there and that's when I did it. I did the Hawks from on top the tower.

mattysemo247

Finished the main story yesterday. The last two story missions that wrap everything up were kind of a joke compared to the rest of a game. They should have done a huge battle and brought in the other guy and the girl that you meant earlier in the story. THAT would have been a satisfying ending.

I'm going to go back and try to clean up the collectibles before moving on to the DLC. Gotta see what that finished drawing is on the wall

Is there any reason to do the rest of the bow/dagger/sword missions?

K&AJones

Not sure on the Bow, Sword & Dagger missions but I'm one away from the Bow & Sword and two away from the Dagger. I'll get back in the game tonight and will probably go after them taking a break from this and playing some Diablo. Problem is a few of them are right in the middle of the two large fort areas and just getting to them is a slight pain. And if you fail you're stuck right in the middle of two dozen Orcs and probably a few captains as well. Die....and the whole Captain loadout shifts and back to square one. That's the one part of the game I hate

davidh777

I have a handful of sword/bow/dagger challenges left. I finally finished the fire arrow one, but am not sure whether I'm motivated enough to retry the ones I've already failed at. I'm not that much of a completist to let it bother me if I don't get them.

I went back through the game to finish off the artifacts and Ithildin, then specifically focused on the survival and hunting challenges. On the latter, I have two creatures left, and I know where to find the first, but I know it'll be a PITA.

I finished off all the survival challenges by just sprinting while watching the map for the herbs I needed. At times I found myself running straight through strongholds but I managed to escape them all without breaking stride. I only had to stop once, when a captain confronted me. I branded his ass and resumed running.