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Middle-earth: Shadow of War |OT| Attempted Mordor

Pheace

Member
I absolutely love the legendary Threshing armor that makes killed orcs explode but it has made me lose so much health already, even had some deaths because of it, haha. It's like an added difficulty level.
 

shimon

Member
Okay, so I just hit Act IV... what is this about and what am I supposed to be doing here?

Edit: oooooookay, I get it. I think I'm done. If this is the shape of things to come, then I guess I'm done with Activision games. If even single player games aren't safe from lootboxes, this is going to get ugly.

Did you mean WB games? Bc this is not Activision.
 
There was an ability in the first game that gave you increased multipliers for well timed button press in combat (ie no mashing). The Arkham games have something similar.

Does Shadow of War have that ability? If so where? I don't see it in the tree but I may not be reading it correctly.
 
There was an ability in the first game that gave you increased multipliers for well timed button press in combat (ie no mashing). The Arkham games have something similar.

Does Shadow of War have that ability? If so where? I don't see it in the tree but I may not be reading it correctly.
it's an upgrade to the 2nd or 3rd combat skill, precise strike.
 

Maximus P

Member
Really burnt out on this game.

The RNG makes certain quests absurdly difficult - replaying certain quests is hugely cumbersome because i have to listen to each captain's dialogue over and over again. (Zog's final quest has you fight in an area with 6-7 captains, so that's like ... 3 minutes of dialogue each attempt - one of those captains is of course a 'no chance' fucker).

Zog. That guy sure likes the sound of his own voice. I agree that the mission you mention is bad for the dialog. (did we really need a cut scene for each encounter just so they could make zombie noises at you?)

Luckly that mission is pretty easy, just needed to purify the totems real quick then all the enemies apart from Zog dissappear.
 

Maximus P

Member
There was an ability in the first game that gave you increased multipliers for well timed button press in combat (ie no mashing). The Arkham games have something similar.

Does Shadow of War have that ability? If so where? I don't see it in the tree but I may not be reading it correctly.

I miss the skill that let's you run faster when you hit a button after vaulting over an object. :-(
 

scurker

Member
I'm enjoying Shadow of War, but it's definitely not without it's issues and playing through it has given me a greater appreciation for Breath of the Wild's design.

The whole tower mechanic where you climb and mark collectables is just a very poorly implemented mechanic, who thought this would be a good idea? With BOTW it felt rewarding to climb towers as you could discover and mark areas you found interesting. In Shadow of War, there's hardly any point to climbing towers as there are no points of interests worth discovering and the added eye seeing mechanic to discover collectables just feels like a waste of 30-60 seconds of my time. I know it's not a lot of time, but it presents such a hard break in the game that it's actually distracting.

I'm really hoping the next generation of open world games really take a look at some of the things that BOTW did well and try to learn from that.
 

Sterba

Member
Down to final 2 trophies. One is for finishing Act IV, and the other is reaching Captain Rank online.

Have really enjoyed the game. Act IV definitely seems unnecessary, but isn't as bad as I expected after seeing people complain. It's repetitive and a grind, but people saying you need loot boxes to do it, just doesn't make sense to me. I've not used a single one of the orcs or training orders I've gotten through the free loot boxes I've received. I've just dominated every captain I can during the defense as they're usually higher than what I have and replenish my defenses through them. The only hard part has been being careful around the high level captains with No Chance. I'd say I'm about 75% of the way through the Shadow Wars in about 3 hours. Should finish it and platinum the game tonight. Have really enjoyed my time with it, but like the first game, I'm definitely happy I got it from Gamefly.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
So is it Act 4 that's just the mission war stuff that takes like 40 hours to complete?
So if I have no intention of doing that stuff I should just stop there and watch on youtube right?
 

Tizoc

Member
Currently doing the Act 4 stuff, hopefully this is just gonna be defending for the main areas and then onto the final battle cuz the repetitiveness is beginning to bore me.
 
Do you guys prefer Dominate or Quiver of Souls as the upgrade to Drain?

Quiver of Souls seems way too good to give up.
There are pieces of gear that give ammo on dominate or stealth kill so I just rock one of those for my ammo refill needs. Making a dude fight for you is 100% better than just killing them so that skill augment seems like a non-choice to me.
 

A-V-B

Member
Can I just say I haven't played a second of this or the first game, but I'm absolutely hooked on the theme song? It's incredible and I wish it was nine minutes long instead of four.
 

bugulu

Member
When you think you're done with
Bruz
, you're proven wrong.
I made him my
Overlord, and now I have a whole bunch of siblings chasing me, the first to appear was Guz, then another guy, and right now, I'm fighting Daz who's upset about me messing Bruz mind and killing the other two members of his family.
 
There are pieces of gear that give ammo on dominate or stealth kill so I just rock one of those for my ammo refill needs. Making a dude fight for you is 100% better than just killing them so that skill augment seems like a non-choice to me.

Ah okay, I haven't run into any of that gear yet. Guess I need to find a piece.
 
Can I just say I haven't played a second of this or the first game, but I'm absolutely hooked on the theme song? It's incredible and I wish it was nine minutes long instead of four.
While the Fire's of War song is great, I've been loving the instrumental version that plays on the title screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwmMKAaYVdM

Ah okay, I haven't run into any of that gear yet. Guess I need to find a piece.
Yeah, it's great and pretty helpful in surviving on Nemesis difficulty. Also stuff that returns HP on stealth kill or drain is great. Currently I have a piece that heals me 100% on any drain. If you don't have gear then strap a green gem on ur dagger and get the Brutalize ability. If you need HP just run off a bit to some poor orc who's not currently aware of you and Stealth Brutalize kill him. It's an execution attack so enemies won't attack you during it and on top of the normal benefits of hit count, might, and fear that come with it, you do a bunch of hits which each gain you HP from the gem.
 

Talka

Member
Went through the work of recruiting two captains to spy on a warchief. Did the betrayal mission and recruited the warchief... and he was insta-replaced with a new warchief with new bodyguards.

Would’ve been nice to know I had to kill the warchief and not recruit him. Wasted an hour.
 

Dragoshi1

Member
So what's a definite way to level up a captain?

I found this funny guy with the One-Word prefix, and all he says is DETERMINATION.

I tried putting him to the fight pit, but he didn't level on winning?
 

J_Viper

Member
So is it Act 4 that's just the mission war stuff that takes like 40 hours to complete?
So if I have no intention of doing that stuff I should just stop there and watch on youtube right?

I was wondering the same thing lol

I just finished Act 3, and overall had a fun time, but I think I've had my fill.

Talion's all leveled up, and I've seen a good chunk of the Nemesis System at play. I'm done.
 
This is the type of game where you can play for hours having a great time and not really accomplish anything. Loving it!
Yep. Same thing happened with Horizon.

"Yay, game time! I'm gonna actually advance the story this time and focus only on missions so I don't get burnt out before getting to the end."

*4 hours later*

"FUCK!"

Once I was on my way to do a mission and then decided to fight a random captain who was in the way. I was ambushed during the fight, but was then ambushed TWO MORE TIMES shortly after. A fight with 1 captain turn into a fight with 4, the alarms were sounded, orcs were pouring in from everywhere. It was beautiful chaos.

I didn't make it to the mission start before I had to stop playing.

So what's a definite way to level up a captain?

I found this funny guy with the One-Word prefix, and all he says is DETERMINATION.

I tried putting him to the fight pit, but he didn't level on winning?
Was he already your level? They can't be higher level than you are I believe.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
You don't have to capture all of the bases to get to Act 3 do you?
I'm not really a fan of the whole attacking or defending bases.
 

Teggy

Member
TFW you have to beat a lvl 62 legendary to capture a fort who is immune to just about everything but beast attacks and you wipe the floor with him with your summoned graug - and it turns out he has the damn perk that revives him with full health and you shit the bed.

You don't have to capture all of the bases to get to Act 3 do you?
I'm not really a fan of the whole attacking or defending bases.

Yes. And if that's how you feel now you are going to LOVE the last act :p
 

smurfx

get some go again
quick question if you are about to lose a good orc in a pit fight can you quit the game and save him that way before he gets killed?
 
Oh man that shadow pull skill is a game changer. Captain surrounded by goons? Shadow pull him up to a building and beat him up without worrying about anyone else.
 

bugulu

Member
So what's a definite way to level up a captain?

I found this funny guy with the One-Word prefix, and all he says is DETERMINATION.

I tried putting him to the fight pit, but he didn't level on winning?

How was his level compared to those he fought in the fighting pits? The XP amount for orcs also increases, giving them less XP if they defeat a much lower level foe.

Other than putting them on fighter pits, you have a couple of options.

  • Farm Nemesis missions. Send the captain you want to level to an enemy that's the same level or higher. Send two other captains to ambush the enemy by commanding them to the mission. This is the fastest way to level up Talion and will also level up the orc chieftain that you started the mission with, sadly the ambushers won't level up.
  • Shun the enemy from your enemy, let him kill you and he'll level up close to your level. Then dominate him again. Be wary of the Iron Willed trait though.

Note that they won't reach a higher level than you doing the first option. The second option, with them killing you, especially a second time, might push them above your level.
You don't have to capture all of the bases to get to Act 3 do you?
I'm not really a fan of the whole attacking or defending bases.
You do have to capture all forts in the region except for
Minas Ithil/Minas Morgul

quick question if you are about to lose a good orc in a pit fight can you quit the game and save him that way before he gets killed?

Yes. This is a decent way to complete the higher leveled fighting pits with having low leveled orcs. Just find an opponent that's weak to either poison or fire and use a lower leveled orc against him. Mind you, the orc can't be that much lower level though, but a couple of levels won't be a problem.
 

Pheace

Member
Yes. This is a decent way to complete the higher leveled fighting pits with having low leveled orcs. Just find an opponent that's weak to either poison or fire and use a lower leveled orc against him. Mind you, the orc can't be that much lower level though, but a couple of levels won't be a problem.

On that note, something that dazes them tends to work a lot stronger than them just taking more damage from something, unless it's mortal damage.
 

bugulu

Member
The first
assassin you kill in a story mission
just came back for me now. I had previously killed him three times, deforming him even more with having half his head decaying due to bugs, and pus leaking out of his body. I set him to die in a pit fit against a much higher leveled foe to make room in my army, and the fact that he creeps me out as he had betrayed me once before.

He lost the pit fight but just came back to me now, going from level 30 to 58 (my current level), and surprised me while I was climbing a tower. I was dead certain that would jump on me, but he stood there silently, a bit menacing then exclaimed "Haha, got you! I'm back, master!".

Yeah, I'll keep him around this time.
 

Jintor

Member
Oh man that shadow pull skill is a game changer. Captain surrounded by goons? Shadow pull him up to a building and beat him up without worrying about anyone else.

honestly... might be a bit broken given how much difficulty is based on managing group aggro.

i ain't complaining though given how immensely shit the targeting system is
 

SilentRob

Member
Man I’m only on act 2 and I’m feeling a bit burnt out on this game already.

Exactly what just happened to me. First: Act 1 is awful. Terrible. I almost stopped playing right there because I had to endure the god-awful story without much of what I enjoyed from the Nemesis system. The fact that it takes like 5, 6 hours to get the ability to dominate captains and get to the actual point of the game is such a misfire.

But then I really started enjoying it. However, I just cleared my second fort, dominated all the captains, got all the collectibes, did all the missions traveled to the next map...and then realised: Oh, shit. It's just exactly that, again. And then again. And then again. Seeing the dozens of blacked out captains in the Army Screen and map filled to the brink with icons just, suddenly, completely and totally eradicated my will to continue playing. I just spend a lot of hours building up an amazing army...only to leave that behind and have no consequence for what I'm not doing whatsoever. I completed the checklist and then simply got another one.

I think I'm done. Maybe I'll take another look when the XBX comes out but right now I'm pretty much burned out.
 

TheBowen

Sat alone in a boggy marsh
Trying to go for the platnium trophy and fuck me, ive never had a captain get captured ( they just get killed ) nor have i been able to get killed by the same orc captain 3 times since an allied orc always saves me


Anyone got any tips


Almost completed shadow wars aswell
 

Imur

Member
I thought I would hate Shadow War, but I tried it and had actually fun. Until now... I'm in Phase 5 and all I do is looking at those awful Intruduction or Status videos. I can't even concentrate on fighting, since I loose track on whats happening every 5 seconds. Screw this.
 

Maximus P

Member
The Xp grind in the last act is real. Im a level 54 now and I believe the cap is at level 60. Will probably take me at least another 4 hours to reach that.

Some of the online fortresses are getting difficult with players having some really good orcs. The last war chief I fought was a level 59 legendary defender with quick learn which meant that he quickly adapted to my vault and freeze stun moves, he was also immune to arrows and was weak to stealth and drakes which is totally useless when your fighting him in the throne room.
 
Still on the fence about buying it. I need someone to convince me.

I'm gonna recommend you wait. It's a good game, but I personally could have waited on it if I had any self-control at all. Not as bad as Destiny 2, which I absolutely regret buying, but still...

It's a good game, and I'm having fun though. Except for the story, not finding that much redeemable in that.
 
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