The nemesis system in Shadow of Mordor is bananas!!
- Thread starter Blitsie
- Start date
I have to say though, there is one downside to the nemesis system. When you get all the warchiefs under your command on a map, it sort of feels... over. Sure, you can pursue fight and fight the lesser captains as you wish, but so far, I haven't experienced a lesser captain becoming warchief by challenging one of my branded warchiefs. That said, when this happens you can just shank your warchiefs and start again with a clean slate, preferably while announcing that they have outlived their usefulness.
So ive put in an 8 hour session into the game and got past the first area now. Ive had to kill, many times. An orc named Lugdush the Duellist. He would seek me out whenever I got into fights. All he wanted was to face me in honorable duels but Talion was too crafty for this, falling back and using Lugdushs recklessness, striking from the shadows whenever Lugdush appeared and silencing his frenzied challenges with a knife in the throat(Stealth weakness). He must have struck the Uruk down a dozen times, but he kept coming back. Seemingly driven by nothing but pure hatred. Seemingly feeling pity for the Uruk, who had risen to a warchiefs bodyguard at the time. Talion finally gave him the duel he had yearned for. It was a hard and long battle, but Lugdush was struck down, in fair combat. This time he did not come back, it seems finally discovering he could not defeat Talion no matter how the gravewalker combated him finally broke the Unholy will of Lugdush, that allowed him to rise again from wounds that should have killed him ten times over.
So... what's the highest power level for a Captain to reach?
Because I just spent a while advancing time over and over again to re-populate my field of Captains and Otha Ash-Skin (a guy who not only became a Captain by getting a lucky hit it on me during a massive Burly Brawl-eque showdown with an entire stronghold but who I have killed twice already and who's killed me a few times due to me being an idiot and cocking it up spectacularly) has now advanced to a power level of 20 because I wasn't paying all that much attention to the specifics of this.
I kind of wanna go challenge him to a final showdown but at the same time I like the idea of just leaving him alone and seeing what he gets up to when he's not constantly fighting me.
Because I kind of don't want to risk finishing him for good. I was genuinely happy when he turned up after the 2nd time I killed him. I think I might have driven him madness though, because when he turned up he screamed at refusing to die to me, hating me for all I've done to him and being determined to outlast me, and his "motive" in the Army screen is now something about voices in his head arguing with each other.
Because I just spent a while advancing time over and over again to re-populate my field of Captains and Otha Ash-Skin (a guy who not only became a Captain by getting a lucky hit it on me during a massive Burly Brawl-eque showdown with an entire stronghold but who I have killed twice already and who's killed me a few times due to me being an idiot and cocking it up spectacularly) has now advanced to a power level of 20 because I wasn't paying all that much attention to the specifics of this.
I kind of wanna go challenge him to a final showdown but at the same time I like the idea of just leaving him alone and seeing what he gets up to when he's not constantly fighting me.
Because I kind of don't want to risk finishing him for good. I was genuinely happy when he turned up after the 2nd time I killed him. I think I might have driven him madness though, because when he turned up he screamed at refusing to die to me, hating me for all I've done to him and being determined to outlast me, and his "motive" in the Army screen is now something about voices in his head arguing with each other.
Game is fantastic in this regard and after my first clear I'm going to be restarting it at least once to see what happens.Blitsie said:
However...while the Nemesis system is a bloody blast and the combat is very decent, the world is a bit meh, I never feel like I can get around as fast as I want and the story itself was very weak.
Actually it needs to be balanced.
A friend of mine did the mistake of dying to a warchief's captain like 4 times in a raw and now to advance the story mission he has to kill that warchief which is guarded by a super captain.
There need to be a system in place to prevent people who are new to the game to screw their game like this.
Non the less it is funny as hell.
A friend of mine did the mistake of dying to a warchief's captain like 4 times in a raw and now to advance the story mission he has to kill that warchief which is guarded by a super captain.
There need to be a system in place to prevent people who are new to the game to screw their game like this.
Non the less it is funny as hell.
Kill the captain first?sataricon said:
If thats still beyond them, the captain will eventually end up in a duel or hunt, and they can probably hinder them (in the hunt, generally by taking out their backup) enough for the other captain/monster to kill them. Eliminating other captains will up the probability of that captain landing in an event.
I've only had two memoralble Orc's so far and oddly enough one was the first one I ever "killed" (well did somehow didn't die the first time I killed him) and the second was an ambusher (having the ambusher trait, so has a hbbit of showing up to ambush me whilst fighting other captains).
I don't remember their names but the first was "the Rugged" and the ambusher was "Left Eye" (who was correclty blind in the right eye). At this point "the Rugged" was only immune to bows.
The first time we met "the Rugged" was the very first story mission in the open world, he was the slaver assigned by the main quest. I took the guy out in a standard fight with a combat finisher.
A few missions later I was in a fight with another random captain and out of nowhere "the Rugged" and "Left Eye" ambush me, "the Rugged" now had a metal skull plate from where I cut into his head last time and was immune to combat this time too (combat master). I killed the other Captain, I set acsendently "the Rugged" on fire (because I didn't know about campfires yet) however Left Eye managed to kill me. Strenghting both.
The two ambushed me a couple times after that and I was forced to flee a few times, and "Left Eye" killed me at least once more.
I then decided to assassinate "the Rugged" and "Left Eye" since that was "the Rugged" only weakness left, I stealth killed "the Rugged" no problem and then fought "Left Eye" to death and won (he stayed dead too).
However a little while later "the Rugged" showed back up again, now a top level Captain. He was immune to combat, stealth and range. His only weakness was fire (from where I had burnt him before).
I fought him like 5 times from here an died everytime (he got right up to level 20).
Then I learned how to weaponize campfires and that using a weakness on a Captain removes their immunies.
BAM I found "the Rugged" set him on fire and decapitated him.
Got a level 23 rune for my trouble, one that gives health for kills, still use it.
Or you can judt let him become a Warchief and Brand 5 captains make him there bodygards, start a fight with him and then turn all 5 on the Warchief (immunitites dont work against other Orc's). He will get slaughtered.
I don't remember their names but the first was "the Rugged" and the ambusher was "Left Eye" (who was correclty blind in the right eye). At this point "the Rugged" was only immune to bows.
The first time we met "the Rugged" was the very first story mission in the open world, he was the slaver assigned by the main quest. I took the guy out in a standard fight with a combat finisher.
A few missions later I was in a fight with another random captain and out of nowhere "the Rugged" and "Left Eye" ambush me, "the Rugged" now had a metal skull plate from where I cut into his head last time and was immune to combat this time too (combat master). I killed the other Captain, I set acsendently "the Rugged" on fire (because I didn't know about campfires yet) however Left Eye managed to kill me. Strenghting both.
The two ambushed me a couple times after that and I was forced to flee a few times, and "Left Eye" killed me at least once more.
I then decided to assassinate "the Rugged" and "Left Eye" since that was "the Rugged" only weakness left, I stealth killed "the Rugged" no problem and then fought "Left Eye" to death and won (he stayed dead too).
However a little while later "the Rugged" showed back up again, now a top level Captain. He was immune to combat, stealth and range. His only weakness was fire (from where I had burnt him before).
I fought him like 5 times from here an died everytime (he got right up to level 20).
Then I learned how to weaponize campfires and that using a weakness on a Captain removes their immunies.
BAM I found "the Rugged" set him on fire and decapitated him.
Got a level 23 rune for my trouble, one that gives health for kills, still use it.
If the Captain has fear and you use it on him it removes his immuinties, so you can kill him normal.sataricon said:
Or you can judt let him become a Warchief and Brand 5 captains make him there bodygards, start a fight with him and then turn all 5 on the Warchief (immunitites dont work against other Orc's). He will get slaughtered.
Ok so question. I keep seeing mention of "I killed this guy and he came back." Without spoiling anything very plot specific, but how is this happening? Is there some kind of supernatural influence bringing them back from the dead like your character? Or is it simply a "orcs are like Frankenstein's monster, we can just rebuild him...not better than before, but still he'll be functional and stuff" ?
I mean, when you chop off a head, that seems fairly final in the grand scheme of things for your run of the mill orc soldiers. How are they coming back over and over and over?
Again, if this is some important twist of the plot, then don't answer and that's fine, but if it's just a simple, non-spoilery answer, please enlighten me. xD
I mean, when you chop off a head, that seems fairly final in the grand scheme of things for your run of the mill orc soldiers. How are they coming back over and over and over?
Again, if this is some important twist of the plot, then don't answer and that's fine, but if it's just a simple, non-spoilery answer, please enlighten me. xD
I got a vendetta mission, it was a captain with 2 kills so far, a legendary level 20 captain.
He was:
Immune to melee.
Immune to ranged.
Immune to stealth.
Dealt increased and took decreased damage from beasts.
Hardened (had more health).
He was also fearful of fire, so I led him to a campfire and exploded it scaring him, I was then able to grab him even though he wasnt yet at low health and shanked/drained him.
Then an underling came over and attacked me, except he didnt seem to understand that his captain was in the way and repeatedly hit his own captain until he killed him.
That's one minor complaint I have, if you grab someone you can just use them as a 100% effective melee shield, as long as you face the proper direction, I even managed to kill a Warchief that way.
Also, Warchiefs that can be OHKO'd by range/stealth, what's the point?
Seriously anti-climatic... drawing them out shouldnt take more time then actual fight.
He was:
Immune to melee.
Immune to ranged.
Immune to stealth.
Dealt increased and took decreased damage from beasts.
Hardened (had more health).
He was also fearful of fire, so I led him to a campfire and exploded it scaring him, I was then able to grab him even though he wasnt yet at low health and shanked/drained him.
Then an underling came over and attacked me, except he didnt seem to understand that his captain was in the way and repeatedly hit his own captain until he killed him.
That's one minor complaint I have, if you grab someone you can just use them as a 100% effective melee shield, as long as you face the proper direction, I even managed to kill a Warchief that way.
Also, Warchiefs that can be OHKO'd by range/stealth, what's the point?
Seriously anti-climatic... drawing them out shouldnt take more time then actual fight.
They never come back when you decapitate them.Happyninja42 said:
The issue is you can't control which execution move or which Orcs can be finished and which can't. It' up to fate.
The Orcs that come back to life, don't really come back to life, they just survive the fatal wound you gave them (even though they appear to die in the moment). And then show up next time with some sort of physical change to match the wound you gave them.
There are allot of ways to kill Orc's but pretty much the only ones they cannot come back from are decapitation executions or decapitation finishers or branded head explossion.
Anything that removes their head means you won't be seeing that Orc again.
It's also seems to be more likley for Orc's to survive if there are more dead Captains. I guess thats the games way of trying to stop you clean sweepinging all the Captains.
I don't think Warchiefs can ever survive ether, well I've never seen or heard of it anyway.
Ghura. Fucking Ghura.
Okay I get into a battle and get killed by this orc with a shield. I kill him, except he doesn't say dead. He comes back and kills me.
I kill him again, he comes back again, and so it goes. Eventually he ends up level 20, able to summon more allies, that bit where you jump over him? Immune. Sure you can stick him full of arrows, but he is immune to stealth and has enough health to take the arrows.
Effectively I have more trouble killing him than I did any of the actual bosses, mainly because aside from him being extremely difficult to melee, he also tends to surround himself with other captains.
Eventually Ratbag hired him for a bodyguard.
He was level 20, could take pretty much anything I could throw at him, and he ended up working for Ratbag.
Okay I get into a battle and get killed by this orc with a shield. I kill him, except he doesn't say dead. He comes back and kills me.
I kill him again, he comes back again, and so it goes. Eventually he ends up level 20, able to summon more allies, that bit where you jump over him? Immune. Sure you can stick him full of arrows, but he is immune to stealth and has enough health to take the arrows.
Effectively I have more trouble killing him than I did any of the actual bosses, mainly because aside from him being extremely difficult to melee, he also tends to surround himself with other captains.
Eventually Ratbag hired him for a bodyguard.
He was level 20, could take pretty much anything I could throw at him, and he ended up working for Ratbag.
I know exactly how you feel! I finally got him good today! Felt really nice and I had absolutely no qualms about offing him. Very satisfying.Starbird said:
I finally found Noruk hiding in the eastern orc village\stronghold, for a change he was alone and we got our long-awaited private time. He put up a good fight, caught me off guard with a combo attack and nearly downed me but he forgot I had a stun ability and I quickly countered with a flurry of blows while he was dazed. Weakened from my attack, I grabbed him by throat, and finally
It ends.
I left the area and rested at nearby ruins, rain was coming down hard by then but I didn't mind, it all was finally over and I could move on.
But something was lurking in the shadows, a blood curdling shriek chilled me to the bone as this dark figure raced towards me, I drew my sword in time and met his, a captain, but none like I have never seen before.
His face and body was covered in blood and scars and he lacked the ability to speak, words were replaced with hisses, growls, screaming and maniacal cackling as this monstrosity gave me look that made my blood run cold. It was my screams that were drowned out by lightning that night. Turns out he's been working up the ranks as an unknown captain and my death put him right in Noruk's place, guess the old adage of a greater evil replacing a removed one rings true.
But seriously this thing is fucking terrifying, I had a second run in with him and he greeted me with sucking and slurping noises while looking at me intently and he's nearly invulnerable towards everything I throw at him, so also lost that fight. Its like I'm stuck with a Lord of the Rings version of the Joker at the moment.
It ends.
I left the area and rested at nearby ruins, rain was coming down hard by then but I didn't mind, it all was finally over and I could move on.
But something was lurking in the shadows, a blood curdling shriek chilled me to the bone as this dark figure raced towards me, I drew my sword in time and met his, a captain, but none like I have never seen before.
His face and body was covered in blood and scars and he lacked the ability to speak, words were replaced with hisses, growls, screaming and maniacal cackling as this monstrosity gave me look that made my blood run cold. It was my screams that were drowned out by lightning that night. Turns out he's been working up the ranks as an unknown captain and my death put him right in Noruk's place, guess the old adage of a greater evil replacing a removed one rings true.
But seriously this thing is fucking terrifying, I had a second run in with him and he greeted me with sucking and slurping noises while looking at me intently and he's nearly invulnerable towards everything I throw at him, so also lost that fight. Its like I'm stuck with a Lord of the Rings version of the Joker at the moment.
Can't remember the name of my big nemesis but I know he is "... the tactician".
This mother fucker! Immune to combat finishers and sneak attacks but the biggest pain in the ass is, his weapon (which is the throwing spear) in coated in poison! Which means, his attacks are the hardest to dodge (all them uruk's, concentrating on counters and who is holding a shield or a berserker or boss that you can't ever see a spear to press X to dodge it, they don't even have a prompt on them) but it also does damage over time AND can take me out in 2 hits! (I have all but one health upgrade!)
His power level is 13, he started at 4 ... he gets one power level for every kill he has on me! My only hope to kill him is arrows, increase my focus time, increase elf shot and go for them HEADSHOT! *insert sound bite*
I did have one previous nemesis who had a crown/helmet on that was on fire. He never killed you if you lost to him but he did taunt you, must have taunted me 5 or 6 times.
Every other captain I have walked over, the combat is VERY easy (kind of boring to be honest) so it makes the game easy but these two captains (well, one is an elite warchief now) are nightmares!
This mother fucker! Immune to combat finishers and sneak attacks but the biggest pain in the ass is, his weapon (which is the throwing spear) in coated in poison! Which means, his attacks are the hardest to dodge (all them uruk's, concentrating on counters and who is holding a shield or a berserker or boss that you can't ever see a spear to press X to dodge it, they don't even have a prompt on them) but it also does damage over time AND can take me out in 2 hits! (I have all but one health upgrade!)
His power level is 13, he started at 4 ... he gets one power level for every kill he has on me! My only hope to kill him is arrows, increase my focus time, increase elf shot and go for them HEADSHOT! *insert sound bite*
I did have one previous nemesis who had a crown/helmet on that was on fire. He never killed you if you lost to him but he did taunt you, must have taunted me 5 or 6 times.
Every other captain I have walked over, the combat is VERY easy (kind of boring to be honest) so it makes the game easy but these two captains (well, one is an elite warchief now) are nightmares!
I know the nemesis system is fun, but seriously, you really should do some more story missions. Once you unlock the Brand ability, things get much more interesting.Blitsie said:
I recall a guy names "(Something) the Friendly". After killing me a number of times, his power had reached 23. The worst part was, I had to kill him four times. Each time, he came back with more scars on his face, and the same power level as before. He'd see me and go, "Oy there! I haven't thanked you yet for these lovely scars you gave me."