Shadow of war skills. How to upgrade a swordsman in Middle-earth: Shadow of War - executions, finishing moves, counterattacks and critical hits
Talion, the protagonist of Middle-earth: Shadow of War, has a gigantic amount of skills. Not all skills are equally useful, let's try to figure out what should be downloaded first.
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Talion, the protagonist of Middle-earth: Shadow of War, has a gigantic amount of skills. Not all skills are equally useful, let's try to figure out what should be downloaded first.
What you need to know about skills and upgrades
In total, 33 skills are presented in Shadow of War, each of them has from two to three improvements. In most cases, to level up, you need to get a skill point (you will get it when you reach a new level and for completing certain tasks), some skills are unlocked during the passage of story missions.Upgrades complement skills; a skill can have only one upgrade active at a time. Pumping improvements also takes place for skill points. Like skills, some improvements are unlocked only after progressing through the story or collecting collectibles - they are indicated in gold in the list.
The skill tree is divided into six branches: Combat, Robbery, Ranged, Ghost, Rider, and History. You don't have to think about the History branch at all: it opens entirely during the passage of the main storyline Middle-earth: Shadow of War.
What skills need to be downloaded first
When choosing skills for pumping, you need to understand an important thing: for most of the game, Talion fights with various creatures of the world of Middle-earth, and for the most part it is melee. You will rarely resort to stealth, archery will be really useful only during battles with certain types of opponents.First of all, pay attention to the Fight and Robbery branches - they are tailored specifically for close combat. In a branch The battle it is worth first of all to pump the following skills:
- Execution: very useful skill melee, capable of helping in battle with captains. The "Grim Resolve" upgrade can be added to Execution, allowing you to gain power when you take damage.
- Brutal aggression: The skill allows you to charge power twice and perform a savage execution that scares off opponents. Complement Aggression with the Phantom Execution upgrade so you can execute multiple enemies at once.
In a branch Robbery your best place to start is by learning the following skills:
- Elven agility: An instant must-have that dramatically increases Talion's agility. This skill needs to be downloaded anyway. Complete it with the Spectral Throw upgrade.
- Ghost chain: Allows you to perform several consecutive stealth kills - sometimes very useful. Add the Shadowblade upgrade to Chains to make the ability a little cheaper.
Also, for melee combat, you should take a couple of skills from the branch Ghost:
- Dagger sling: A great way to stack the hit counter - it ticks even if the enemy is immune to damage. Complement the ability with the Rain of Blades upgrade, so Talion will throw several daggers at the same time.
- Ice storm: Freeze is useful in battles with captains and large opponents. The best upgrade is Ice Soul, so the ability can be used against hordes of orcs.
What skills are better to postpone
All other skills can be downloaded plus or minus in any order. However, there are several branches in Middle-earth: Shadow of War that can be postponed.First of all, this applies to the "Rider" and "Ranged Combat" branches: at least until the third act, you will feel great and without the opportunity to blow up fires, freeze enemies with a shot in the leg, or ride on Karagors.
Marksmanship from a bow is a great thing, but there are too many enemies and battles in Middle-earth: Shadow of War: if you target each orc, then you will need several months and several wagons of arrows to complete the game. Accurate shooting can come in handy during battles with captains, but it is worth remembering that some of them are invulnerable to fire.
Almost the only excuse for upgrading the "Rider" branch is flying on dragons. That is why in the first acts of the game this branch should be ignored: dragons will not appear soon.
Can scare off new players with an abundance of different menus and skills. To help newcomers understand all this diversity, we have prepared a special guide, which contains six key tips that will help you get into the gameplay faster and get more pleasure from the passage.
Automatic item selection
In Middle-earth: Shadow of War you will have to collect various subjects, which can fall out from enemies, or simply lie somewhere on the ground. At first, there are no problems with the selection of such items, but as you progress through this task becomes more and more difficult. To make life easier for gamers, the developers have added the ability to automatically pick up items in the game.
Unfortunately, in order for Talion to automatically pick up items, you need to pump the final ability in the Ghost tree. It may seem to you that this tree lacks useful abilities, but trust us, in order to simplify your passage, it is better to develop the skills of the "Ghost" first of all.
Customizing the user interface
The user interface in the game includes a huge number of different tips and icons, which is why, when fighting a platoon of enemies, you can get confused and lose control of your character. Fortunately, you can customize the user interface yourself so that only the elements that are important to you are displayed on the screen.
For example, the buttons illuminated in battle for blocking or dodging an attack (triangle or X) are superfluous. So there is a special function in the game that, when there is a probability of taking damage, glows (red means dodging, and white means a block) and warns you of danger, and therefore extra buttons are not needed for this mechanic.
Focus on story quests
Most quick way unlock basic skills - completing story quests. In addition, some skills can only be unlocked if one or another is completed. plot mission so focus on them first.
As you progress, you can also complete side quests, which mainly help you get special stones faster to improve weapons and armor. Of course, the storyline campaign in the game runs pretty quickly, but after it you can more confidently and easily engage in subjugating the orc army under your control.
Learn to parry quickly
Learn to parry blows as quickly as possible. Try to block an attack, dodge or parry a blow immediately after the corresponding warning lights up.
V a certain moment passing you will meet enemies, whose attacks are impossible to parry. In this case, use evasion. In any case, when performing a series of combo attacks, first of all think about your defense. Don't think that you can always take another hit before you take damage.
Orc commanders will often run away from you if they sense danger. In this case, you already have an advantage and it is always easier to finish off the enemy in such a situation than in a battle with an entire army.
Get close to the leaders gradually
At the beginning of the second act, you will be able to lead any leader in the fortress, from an ordinary captain to an elite leader. If you feel confident in battles, it is better to start with mid-level captains, gradually approaching the main leaders. After you capture several captains, the leader will lose some of his strength and it will be easier to defeat him.
If you suddenly fail in a mini-boss battle, you can always take a few hours to improve your skills and weapons, and then re-attack one or another leader. Do not rush to destroy the leaders, forgetting about the captains. Get up to them gradually, making the army weaker from the inside.
Explore the territory
Do not rush to complete all tasks at once in a critically short period of time. Explore the area fighting random enemies along the way. Any battle in one way or another will affect the development of the character and the strengthening of his abilities. Just enjoy the passage, using all the mechanics invented by the developers.
Other guides
- Nemesis in Middle-earth: Shadow of War: how to capture fortresses, subjugate the orcs and kill the leaders
- How to decipher the poems in the burial grounds and get the set of the Light Lord in Middle-earth: Shadow of War? Decisions of all Ithildins
- How to upgrade a swordsman in Middle-earth: Shadow of War - executions, finishing moves, counterattacks and critical hits
- Middle-earth: Shadow of War rune guide - best gems for weapons, armor and rings
- How to pump "Ghost" in Middle-earth: Shadow of War - ice storms, blades and absorptions
- How to upgrade an archer in Middle-earth: Shadow of War - all about ranged skills
- How to upgrade stealth in Middle-earth: Shadow of War - rogue skills and upgrades
- How to make a lot of money fast in Middle-earth: Shadow of War - money assignments, orcs with treasures, arena battles and other ways to get rich
Orcs in Middle-earth: Shadow of War received the status of things (and wherever animal defenders look), since they are also divided into several categories depending on their rarity and strength. In the game, you can get under your command both ordinary and epic orcs. The latter, naturally, will be much stronger. You will be able to recruit only those orcs that correspond to your level, that is, do not expect to get on the first levels of some famous assassin troll who can tear Karagor with his bare hands.
However, in any rule there are exceptions and in this game they turned out to be Legendary Orcs, since their receipt does not always depend on your current level, therefore they can significantly strengthen your army even by later stages games. These captains are considered the strongest in the game.
There are several main ways to get Orcs from the upper echelons. Some of them allow you to guaranteed to get the right commander into your army, while others will require you to perform monotonous actions for several hours. In this tutorial, we will describe each of these methods.
Obtaining Epic and Legendary Orcs through Submission
A very dreary way. When you return to Mordor, you will have to face a huge number of orc captains, some of which may well turn out to be epic or legendary. Such enemies appear extremely rarely, but we still advise you to constantly monitor the alignment of forces on the map and mark the necessary orcs. If you notice such a commander, then you should immediately start tracking him down in order to subsequently join your army.
We also add that most of the orcs top level have immunities and strengths, which are absent from ordinary captains. Therefore, when hunting for such an enemy, you should first hunt down the "mole" (Worm) in order to find out more information about your goal and be ready to meet it. For example, if you prefer ranged weapons, then it will probably be useful for you to find out if the orc you are tracking is immune to arrows.
This is the cheapest, but also the most unreliable and time-consuming method of obtaining epic and legendary orcs. The fact is that it is not known exactly when such a captain will appear. You can try to cut all the commanders at the location and wait until new ones come. But even after killing 50 captains, there is no guarantee that 51 will turn out to be legendary.
Buying chests
Thanks to the Shadow of War in-game store, you can quickly and easily get a legendary orc into your army, but you will have to pay for it. For 1.5 thousand Mirians, you can purchase a Silver Chest, which is guaranteed to contain one epic and one standard Orc. There is also a small chance that a legendary orc will drop from the Silver Chest, but it is extremely small.
These fighters are guaranteed to drop from Gold and Mithril chests. The first one gives at least one legendary and two epic orcs, and the mithril one - four legendary captains at once. However, you will not be able to purchase these chests for Miriana, since you can take them only for premium Gold, that is, by spending real money.
You can also get top tier Orcs from Trophy War Chests, which can be purchased with War Trophies points. They are earned by participating in online sieges, completing challenges, and completing vendetta missions. The advantage of grind is the fact that you don't have to spend Miriana or Gold. In addition, you can use the War Trophies boosts to double the rewards for completing quests.
Create legendary orcs
Any ordinary orc in the game can become a captain if he can kill you. When this happens, it is given a title and personality. After completing the initial missions and having extra time to sort out your orcs, you can independently influence the creation of the captains you need by simply letting the right enemy kill you.
If you need an archer captain, then die from an archer. Do you want to get a good defender in your army? Then let yourself be killed by the orc with the shield. The formation of the personal characteristics of an orc is influenced by the place of your death, because each region in Mordor is governed by a certain tribe with its own characteristics. To find out which tribe controls the area you are in, just look at the banners hanging around.
Dying is not as easy as it might seem at first glance, because you need to be killed by a certain orc. If you are fighting with a group of opponents, then we advise you to first kill all extraneous enemies, and then die from the blow of the desired orc. After he kills you, the game will start sending requests to the random god and he will choose what kind of captain this orc will be - ordinary, epic or legendary.
It is also worth knowing that if there are no free places for captains in the area, then the newcomer will enter into a duel with one of the commanders. Of course, he can die in this battle, so we advise you, before giving your life to a random orc, to clear a place for him so that he does not have to fight for him.
This method is also not very reliable. You can die a couple of dozen times, but you never get the legendary orc, so the most effective method is to buy chests.
Talking about "Shadow of War" ( Middle-earth: Shadow of War) is perhaps dominated by the question of how many loot boxes and microtransactions affect the experience (namely, not at all), but in terms of "stuffing" it is a clever, innovative and rather original game.
"Shadow of War" is based on the "Shadow of Mordor" Nemesis system, where any random enemy can kill you and increase your rank (during missions of revenge and other confrontations between enemies). You are now recruiting new orcs (recruited in-game or possibly purchased from The Headhunter) and pitting them against a number of fortresses in need of capture.
You can assign spies to outrun some of the high-ranking warlords when the siege begins, deploy your friendly orcs to trim ranks altogether, and even summon others to act as active bodyguards in the game.
There are many things to use here, but if you go to Mordor make sure you know how to get to the other side.
12. How to automatically select items
Shadow of War requires an awkward hold on R1 / RB to select items or equipment. It's the same button as capturing orcs or activating missions, and it ... gets in the way a bit, to be honest.
But there is nothing to be afraid of - there is a way to navigate and select items, just like in any other game. Just go to the character screen, then scroll down to the Wraith line and next to the four icons you will see "Treasure Hunter".
Grab it and that's it - when you go through the items, they are added to your inventory. Of course, these four icons mean you will need to quadruple your level to get the points you need, but the Treasure Hunter is a level of living that removes one of the game's biggest drawbacks.
11. Deliberate death has its advantages
The very foundation of the Nemesis system is based on the fact that Talion cannot die, and makes the orcs regional antagonists, allowing them to collect abilities and armor to boot.
But this also has its benefits.
Let's say there is a specific Orc with a specific skill set that you would like to recruit. Set up a mission to trigger their arrival, or search the world and then specifically fail.
They will immediately receive a level / ability boost, some new equipment and a new rank - all that you will then receive if you find them and defeat them in this new form.
Of course, the fight will be harder, but otherwise you cannot pump your orcs so quickly, and although this may sound like an excuse, it is a much more effective and quick way to create a strong army.
10. Return a stolen / broken sword (even at its best)
Wondering why you can't remove your starting gear from your inventory? This is because the game keeps it just in case the orc decides to break your new kit.
In fact, during any meeting with a captain / warlord / overlord, you can face an enemy who (if you are knocked down and left alive) will literally take your current blade and break it in half.
Although you decided that he was gone forever, find the new mission "Vendetta", which appeared with the mentioned orc, and go through it.
After defeating a new enemy (don't recruit them), they'll drop the stolen gear again - thankfully with additional levels to match whatever upgrade they get to kill you.
9. You can assign several assassins to the voivode
Tiny statistics on the army screen - assigning orcs / captains to capture the warlord and assign spies.
Shortly after you have dominated a certain orc and set a target for him, press the "Command" option on the other and hover your mouse over the same Warlord whose days are already numbered.
With a few traitors assigned, start this mission and watch as your orcs unleash their true commands, undermining the Warlord's health so you can get an easy kill.
8. How to effectively use the fighting pits
Fighting Pits - One of the coolest features in Shadow of War - is where your best orcs fight random creatures in the game, with only AI to control their animations.
But while you can order any recently captured captain to infiltrate the upper echelons of the fortress as an assassin, you will always return to the same location (the battle pits themselves) for the fight to take place.
To get around this, capture the orcs and lure them to your side, but wait with the mission assignment until you literally fall into place in the pit. Once you're there, tap on the Army screen and then tell your orcs who is fighting whom. A mission will appear next to you and you can start it.
Repeat this for all your captured orcs, and you will save a lot of time. Just remember: capture / dominate as many orcs as you need and then fight.
7. Only quests and killing the captain give experience
It's unclear how they got it so wrong, but Shadow of War literally forgets to tell you how XP works.
In other words, if you think you can roam the open world killing thousands of orcs and increasing the rank, do not expect an increase in XP.
But there is the only ways gain experience is by killing the captain (found in the world) or through missions. Yes, kills of Warlords and Overlords give XP, but they are triggered from the map in the form of icons.
Note that story missions are worth over 10,000 XP once you hit Act 2, so if you need to increase the rating of your entire army, prioritize those missions and objectives. The strength of your army is equal to the level of Talion, so sometimes you need to participate in a battle, history or something else.
6. Ghost Sight Reveals Rats That Give Health
Recovering health is much more difficult in Shadow of War, mainly because there are no items to recover it, and your counter will only recover to the gray part.
Basically, rats will spawn nearby as soon as health is low enough, so back off, hold down circle / B and poke at the little tiny heads.
5. It is necessary to jam properly in order to saddle Olog
A small but significant difference, although the game suggests that the stunned Olog will give you a ride on top of him, and here the circle / B button will not help you. You will be flattened while you try to achieve this.
Better wait for Olog to start attacking, a tooltip appears with a button icon above his head, and then press the circle to stun him. Press then R1 / RB, and you will successfully saddle the beast, now you can control it to clear the territory.
The same goes for missions where you need to "quietly kill" or "quietly dry" enemies. Shadow of War only wants you to see melee animations, not long-range headshot.
Hopefully this will be fixed in the post-launch patches, but just remember: this is most likely not you, but the game is finicky.
4. Reinforcements and stones
These are two extremely important components of the game and can be easily viewed in the pile of menu prompts that make up the first act of the game.
Gains: Perhaps when you take part in the first Siege, or when you tell an orc to kill another, you noticed the Training Orders option and found a couple of buffs there. As a rule, this is elemental damage, a troupe of additional orcs or a special weapon change, etc., that the orc uses in each next battle, but then ... they disappear from the same equipment screen.
The reason is that these are add-ons locked in loot - drops of equipment from the market, which you can purchase with real money or gold coins, which are given for daily tasks. Extremely Helpful: Try to complete multiple challenges before putting on your favorite Borgface The Stab-Lover with the best buffs.
Stones: you might think that they need to be collected again, first you want to spend a little Mirian to open the necessary slots with "precious stones" for each weapon, because they greatly affect the gameplay.
They work like this: (besides the fact that "red" = "damage", "green" = "life" and "white" = "XP / recruitment level") all stones of a lower level can be given to a higher one. You will need three first levels to create one second; three second for the third, and so on. Therefore, do not let go of the orcs who are gathering gems(indicated by white arrows on the minimap), kill them, and even if you get a standard stone, combine them all together in sequence for the best buffs.
3. Distract the orcs with noise
The Distraction ability in Shadow of Mordor has been updated so you no longer need to aim at the orc for the tooltip to appear.
Now, instead of looking at who's ahead, just hold L2 / LT and aim. Whether you are in ghost mode or normal mode, use this to create a triangle / Y noise distraction at the location your crosshair is pointing to.
A very useful thing for the destruction of Captains who have moved away from their bodyguards. This can also be used to lure enemies out if you have the same annoying mission where you can't be found.
2. Orcs can serve as a human shield
In normal combat, we all run out of supplies. And when the screen quickly fills up with many orcs from different factions, hold R1 / RB to grab one.
This can be done on any part of the group, then leave with the loot, and every other orc that strikes deals damage to him.
This is a great way to get out of a mess, especially if the captain can be grabbed without giving in. Take advantage of the chaos: When more bodies appear on the screen, hit your target and then take it back.
1. Instant dominance and recruitment of multiple captains
One of the deliberately designed cons is cutting your side by side. Before you manage to dominate / recruit the captain, when you hold circle / B, it is almost always interrupted by another enemy.
To fix this, use the Combat Drain ability (press X + O / A + B at the same time), which allows you to grab someone immediately, rather than after 5-6 seconds.
And when combined with Double Charge (an ability that allows you to take on two enemies at the same time), you can dominate two captains at the same time. Both cutscenes will dissolve one after the other, and even if there are no captains in sight, grab a regular orc for the reserve.
Surely you already know that after the completion of the third act and the showing of the long video Middle-earth: Shadow war does not end. Instead, the so-called optional fourth act begins. But you can see the "true" ending only after its completion. Everything would be fine, but in this chapter you have to face an incredibly powerful army of orcs, which will very quickly seize your fortresses and you can hardly oppose anything to it.
What is the reason for this state of affairs? The fact is that even after completing most of the secondary quests and tests, your character will be able to reach level 46-48 at most, and, as you know, your commanders cannot exceed you in level. Meanwhile, Sauron's army will consist of at least level 50 legendary warlords. Therefore, it becomes necessary to quickly gain experience points to obtain the necessary levels. Fortunately, a way has been discovered that allows you to gain a huge amount of experience in no time, and in this guide, we are going to tell you about it.
Fast farming of experience points in the fourth act
It's hard to believe at first, but this way of earning experience points is not based on wins, but on losses. Instead of successfully defending your fortresses, give them to your enemies and then recapture them.
The fact is that for protecting the castle you will receive about 50 thousand experience, and if you lose it, and then take control again, you will be given about 160 thousand experience. This amount will allow your hero to instantly get at least 2 new levels. Thus, in just 3-4 such surrenders and captures, you can pump your character to the maximum level. We advise you to do the following to speed up this process:
- Install White Gems on your armor, which give an increase to the experience gained. Do not forget to refine them to increase the percentage of growth.
- To make things easier for yourself, replace good Overlords with useless commanders. Then you don't have to worry about them. In addition, the defense of the fortress will be quickly broken.
If you do not want to replace the Lords, because when defending forts they also grow in level, then you can let them be captured. After that, simply complete the mission to rescue this orc from captivity. You don't have to participate in it yourself - send your best subordinates.
As a result, you do not have to spend a lot of time defending your fortresses, while getting pennies. Give them away without a fight, and then capture them again, getting 3 times more experience. Plus, you'll have a chance to capture the Legendary Orc, who is likely to become the new Lord of the Castle. No loot boxes sold for real currency are required in this case.