We need more captains

Lately I have been finding that no one wants to play captains role or support heros in general even more so than usual, maybe it’s my bad luck or maybe it isn’t. However I as a captain main can totally see why people don’t want to play them.

On one hand it’s because everyone wants to be the game carrying monster and there isn’t that much opportunity to do that as a Captain. This is a completely understandable point that can’t be changed that much without bringing back some funky things like a Capt. koshka…

On the other hand from how I see it it’s because if the Captain heros themselves. They lack uniqueness in their abilities effects (not the abilities themselves). For the most part the effects are Stun, Slow, Pull, Heal, and Barrier. Every Captain has at least two of these abilities (off the top of my head I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t) and because of that the Captain are bland after a while, when I pick in ranked half the time it barely makes a difference what captain I play because to a certain extent I can do the same as every other captain hero.

My solution: A new focus when creating the captains. CC doesn’t have to be meta. Nor does healing. Gameplay changing things; like flickers invisibility (although I hate playing against him) was a great way to switch things up on captain design.

So because why not I’ll draft up my own hero design into this so I can practice what I preach.

Hero Name: Zephyria
Role: Captain
Heroic Perk: Force of the Wind
Every 10s Zephyria and nearby allies gain a burst of movement speed

Ability A: Eye of the Storm
Zephyria picks a Hero (friendly or not), that hero is then shrouded in an AoE effect which blocks all interactions. For 4 seconds.

Ability B: Turbulence
Zephyria creates an large AoE (similar to Samuel’s drifting dark), which displaces anyone towards the direction they entered every 3 seconds for 9 seconds.

Ultimate: Wind of Change
After Zephyria briefly channels in place (+1s for every hero inside the AoE radius) she unleashes a wind that for 5 seconds swaps each effected heros WP & CP stats

What are your thoughts on the Captain Heros and overall how many times do you have to pick captain because nobody else will? Has it increased lately or am I all alone on this?

2 Likes

No the problem is that there are three captains in the game right now. It’s tiring and the captain role is the most stressful role, the ridiculous amount of CC this game has has made captains have to pay attention to everything. You gotta play carefully and make sure you can get your atlas before you get bursted or chained stun to death and if you don’t do everything right players are gonna rage at you so deciding if you want to use crucible for yourself or your allies and which abilities to waste it on is just plain stressful. It’s literally too much, way too much CC in this game. You’d think oh just have each of the three captains buy crucible? But guess we have no way of communicating who should block what, so all it leads to is everyone wasting their crucible on a single Phinn hook and even then half of the time he still chains you because once he gets you you’re locked in lol. I honestly hate this game right now. It’s not fun at all. Only 4 people out of 10 in a single match gets to enjoy it, that’s stupid.

8 Likes

Yeah the meta is VERY CC heavy so if u wanna use any cap without a ton of CC like Phinn, Cath, Lorelai, or Ardan, then your team has to build around you, like building a dive comp with Fort.

2 Likes

It’s not that fun for carries either. 3 enemies trying to atlas, cc you or hit you with the stupid PW is not fun. They also have a lot of pressure as they are the damage dealers (only two of them) so if they make a mistake the entire team falls. Honestly this entire meta is shit.

About the OP, I don’t think we need more roams right now (seriously, during 2017 the only thing we’ve got were roams). I would prefer a long ranged poke mage such as Celeste (the last one was Samuel 2 years ago?)

2 Likes

Im not sure I Understand the 3 Captains thing (I don’t play 5v5 really) however I completely agree with there being too much CC in-game. I can also relate to not knowing who will block what as this has been a sort of problem since it was only 3v3. Personally I just tell my teammates to buy Aegis because im not going to pick up a crucible and waste an item slot on something that I’d waste anyway.

Captain is definitely a stressful role but if they introduce more abilities that nullify CC then it can be balanced somewhat. And personally although I like how gwens B works I’d prefer the CC nulifyers on a captain hero in a way similar to Lyra’s Legendary Talent.

Has it really been that long? It doesn’t feel like it. I can see what you mean time wise but I don’t feel that the game would benefit from another poke mage ATM, our current ones are still in a good place (except Samuel idk how he’s doing haven’t versed him in ages)

Unless they add in a new interaction type like how they added in sleep, I don’t see how a poke mage would move VG forward other than having another hero

It’s not about they doing good or not, right now we have: Skaarf, Celeste or Samuel. That’s it.

What about Varya, Kinetic, Kestral?

Varya is a strange hero as she is more AA oriented. Kestrel is still a sniper, same for kinetic, and even if kestrel isn’t, how long was she released? Honestly, I’m tired of the medium range mages full of cc, I’m tired of the roams full of cc, I’m tired of the bruisers that end up being roams as they are full of cc, I’m tired of cc. I just want either that mage (they don’t have that much cc and are IMO more fair than for example Malene), a new assassin (yes, we just gon anka, but Reza and anka are perma banned, Taka is shit, Bf is not even an assassin, idris is more of a warrior, koshka is more of a warrior) or a new bruiser that it’s bruiser and can’t flex to roam.

2 Likes

I haven’t seen an AA Varya since release (or in blitz)

Sorry about the Kestral and Kinetic I don’t %100 understand the whole mage, sniper, etc. Classifications; to me a mage was a (ability wise) ranged CP Viable Hero. I assumed snipers were just longer distanced and could still be catagorized as a mage.

Well we do have alot of heros that flex roles, I don’t see that necessarily as a bad thing, what I find a bad thing is that the ability/abilities that let them flex roles tend to be CC abilities.

Specialized heros arent bad either however it limits playstyle further and pretty much forces a meta.

Koshka more of an assassin if you ask me her damage is insane and she’s not that tanky anymore.

@Geenmen I actually don’t find captain stressful on 3v3 and it’s honestly enjoyable. The CC is much more manageable, you only have to protect two teammates and worry about one or two enemies with CC. 5v5 it’s just you got 4 teammates to worry about and then 5 e enemies to worry about, even carries like Kinetic and Gwen who only have one CC ability can be a problem because once they stun you or an ally the entire enemy team will stun you or the alley. And you can’t ever tell who’s gonna be caught with 4 allies and 5 enemies you know.

This is not me excusing the CC problem in 3v3 because I do think it’s a problem their but 5v5 just takes it to a whole nother level.

When your team has good communication captain is one of the most rewarding roles to play if u inow how to block tbh.

People don’t play captain cause they’re bad at it

Both Lorelai and phin are some of the roams with the highest amount of cc, Catherine is also near.

1 Like

Jungler, Top Lane, and Roam is what is meant by 3 captains. These positions tend to fall behind on gold for a few reasons:

-It has become popular to give bot lane last hits on jungle minions for an easier time pushing bot lane. This means that junglers have to either gank aggressively or invade enemy jungle often if they want gold. In the current meta, bot and jungle basically share the same lane, so the laner is the one who gets reliable gold.
-Top lane is typically bullied quite hard by jungler and the top lane, so farming is difficult when turrets deal much more damage to minions and when it is rarely safe to push past the midpoint between the first two turrets of top/bot lane.
-Roam falls behind on gold for obvious reasons.

That means that utility builds and captain heroes are popular in those positions because even if those heroes don’t have massive damage output, they can stay alive longer than a carry and continue to aid in teamfights.

4 Likes

Wasn’t Yates supposed to be a captain? I thought that’s what they advertised him as.

The issue is that every captain except Fortress has reliable CC. It’s stale and makes Reflex Block both invaluable and worthless because there is too much CC to not pick it up and because there is too much CC to be able to make a well-executed Reflex Block worth much when another CC ability is well on its way.

4 Likes

They need cc nullifiers. They needed them a long time ago to make cc more strategic. They don’t need less imo, just more ways of dealing with it once it’s clear you’re gonna get smacked with cc after cc. I think a cc clearing aoe ult that cleanses cc and heals like a weaker fountain would be a great idea. or a cc clearing single target ability that also prevents cc for 2 seconds and gives the target a small movespeed buff instead of any barrier or healing would be fine. note that that would be a b ability likely but that could still be strong so maybe as an ult aoe. like anything to deal with the torrent of pain that well comboed cc can deal.

2 Likes

This game should have a new item, like boots that reduces the percent effectiveness of CC. For the boots I’d say make one with a passive speed boost but no activatable speed boost, that passively reduces cc effectiveness by 40% & gives you a +1 burst in speed for 2 seconds after being hit by CC (with a passive cooldown of like 15-20 seconds).

3 Likes

Yes, but he is tons better at top building utility or jungle CP/utility. As a captain there are better choices than him.