Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™ Tips and Tricks

by Falagar / Articles, Middle-earth: Shadow of War Guides / 16 Oct 2017

1. If you find yourself continuously overwhelmed while fighting captains/warchiefs/overlords, invest in the shadow pull upgrade for Shadow strike. As long as they’re not arrow proof, you can pull them to you from a distance. Make sure you are in a hard place to get to so that you can 1v1 the captain without the hassle of other orcs interrupting.

2. The counter ability that insta-kills orcs is really strong, Invest in that skill when you can to easily clear orcs of the area.

3. Use your surroundings. It will make the difference between life and death, especially later when the nastier kinds of enemies start showing up. Morgal fly hives, Caragors and their cages and bait, exploding and poisonable grog barrels, Elfshot caches and the like will show up with your Wraithsight (default V). Use them to your advantage.

4. Remember that enemies can still be stealth killed for a couple seconds after spotting you. The general rule of thumb is that you have until they draw their weapon to kill them.

5. When a Captain’s icon over his head turns from red to green, you can Grab and Drain or Shank him with no resistance. This can be very easily accomplished when they’re afraid of something like burning or Caragors; when Terrified, they’re instantly grabbable.

6. Always use Wraithsight right before you cause a ruckus. You want to make sure there is an acceptable (usually below 2) number of captains in the area, or else you may be overwhelmed.

7. Do not underestimate the importance of Elfshot. Longbow shots pierce, and hammer throws have splash damage. In addition, a large number of Captains and Warchiefs have traits that need Elfshot to exploit; usually causing them to be Dazed if you shoot them in the head or the foot. Caches are more important in War since you can’t have the talents that Dominate and restore Elfshot on Drain at the same time.

8. USE THOSE WEAKNESSES. The weaknesses of the captains are an essential part of the game. Some Captains will be all but unkillable without exploiting their weaknesses.

9. Never start a fair fight. You’re a Ranger, not a Spartan. Scout the area before you fight. See where the orcs are. See where environmental features are that you can use. Find a good fallback point. Elfshot caches, Caragor bait, etc. are. The game rewards diversifying your attack strategies, so get used to using everything at your advantage. Unless something doesn’t go according to plan, you should be able to kill every Orc and Uruk in a given situation without engaging more than 2 or 3 at a time.

10. Your orcs only level as high as your current level. If you are trying to level them and their not changing its because of your level.

11. Sending an uruk to garrison removes blood brother trait. Useful if you like your follower, but want to kill his bb. And killing a blood brother makes a follower betray you.

12. Prioritize getting Combat Drain first. You do not regen health and the magical health herbs from Shadow of Mordor are gone. You only regain health by draining an enemy orc and this is exceptionally hard to do in the middle of the horde. Combat drain murders an orc (or dominates it) and gives you back health. It really is better than execution in almost every circumstance.

13. You have to unlock each skill in order along each row for Talion. So if you want to ride Graugs, you first have to learn to ride Caragors.

14. Ologs are your best friend, even if they aren’t on your side. One charged arrow to the head, or one stun prompt and you can “mount” the beast and now you have a hitstreak building, might filling, grunt destroying machine.

15. The Wraith stun is still too good. Literally any captain that can be vaulted can be followed up with a stun. Use it to take out those pesky defender captains.

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.

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