Introduction Top
Have you ever wanted a captain with not one, not two, but THREE excellent CC abilities, pretty snazzy early game damage, and a strong tanky body? Well then, ladies and gentlemen, we have here all of the above rolled into everyone's favorite short-tempered dwarf. So gear up for your free flying lessons, courtesy of me, the captain main that nobody's ever heard of.
Leveling and Ability Breakdown Top
In my humble opinion, Tony is just about as good, if not better than the queen of CC herself, the almighty Catherine. Again, this is because all three of his abilities have some sort of stunning or immobilizing component.
Learn
Jawbreaker at level 1, but always take points in
Trash talk when you're given the choice. The main benefits you get from leveling
Jawbreaker are a 1 second cooldown decrease and a slight damage increase. The first is irrelevant once you have any CD utility items, and the second is irrelevant because Captony is there for CC, not damage.
Learn
Trash talk at level 2, and overdrive it as soon as possible. This is an incredibly good ability, and you want it up as often as possible. The overdrive extends the duration of the taunt by 0.4 seconds. No other level does this.
Learn
Bada Boom right at level 6, and take both extra points at levels 9 and 12 for that sweet, sweet lower cooldown (20 seconds per level).
At level 12 your ability distribution should be 4/5/3.
Come At Me doesn't take much maintenance. Don't enter fights without it up, obviously. It doesn't really do anything other than make you more tanky (which is a good thing as a captain).
Jawbreaker is the standard. You know the drill. 3 hits, each accompanied by a short dash. Third one stuns. Doesn't take too much skill, other than knowing when to bounce the first two hits off minions during early gank attempts. It's kind of like stutter stepping, but slower. Two other notes-
1) Don't be in a rush to get the stun off. The ability lasts for 8 (!) seconds, you can wait until the last moment to dash in for the stun. This makes Tony an EXCELLENT counter to reflex blocks: just wait until the block times out before your third hit.
2) If you can't land the stun, don't sweat it. The ability goes on cooldown as soon as you use it, not when you stun! In the late game, with cooldown acceleration, it'll be usable again as soon as it times out. If you're in a rush, don't forget it grants a small speed boost as well.
Trash talk is for all intents and purposes a secondary, skillshot stun. The most obvious use is to pull aggro off your carry or jungle, but it's also a great ganking tool, lane and jungle both.
Mind your cooldowns, don't use it unless you're very sure your team can secure a kill, or distract them in a teamfight long enough to swing it.
Remember that activating
Trash talk does two extra important things as long as you land it:
1) It resets your perk, so you immediately soak some damage from the enemy attacking you (YOU CANNOT TAUNT MINIONS, TURRETS OR KRAKEN). When you start a teamfight and take damage, triggering your perk, wait until your barrier disappears to taunt, to get as much value out of it as possible.
2) You have damage reduction while it's active. This can save your butt when you taunt a WP carry and not a CP mage.
Bada Boom is the big whammy. This one takes the most skill to pull off, due to its unique 'throwing' effect, as well as general versatility. It has some of the best highs and also the most crippling failures (i.e. plopping their ranged wp carry right next to your low-health escaping laner). Use it to deposition the enemy team early on in a teamfight, whether that's moving a melee jungle out of damage range, or kicking their frontline captain to the back so you can focus the carry. If aiming the dang thing is an issue for you, no problem! Just waltz right into the middle of the enemy team and activate it on yourself. Don't use
Bada Boom for ganking, if you can help it, the cooldown is very high, even in the late game.
Itemization Top
Yes, I know there are only two items in the core build:
Fountain of Renewal, which is an absolute must first build on EVERY support (except
Lyra); and
Crucible, which, reflex blocks are always critical on a good captain. Outside of those two items, you're a captain, so you have to adapt to whatever the game throws at you. I have the situational items listed, more or less, from most useful to least useful.
War Treads. Almost always a must.
Contraption. Take flare gun early, but don't fully build this until late, possibly last item.
Nullwave Gauntlet. The most underrated item. Item silence is incredible.
Atlas Pauldron. If the enemy picked
Krul or a high-attack-speed carry.
Aegis. If they have double CP, otherwise it's not really worth it.
Shiversteel. Solid offensive item, helps you get your Jawbreaker (A) off easier, and also adds some HP, which is nice.
Stormcrown. Meh. Usually you have lots of CD items already, and the more CD you have, the less effective it is. The damage is not great either except on objectives, and you won't usually be attacking fast enough for it to be amazing unless you're also going super-aggro with Shiversteel. If you must, buy the
Chronograph first and not the banner, your team will need utility from fountain and crucible earlier.
Journey Boots. In place of war treads, but ONLY if your team is very mobile (
Koshka or
Skye for example).
I'm always leery of early-damage captains, and I almost always win against them. If there exists a laner and a jungler, that had better be enough damage. They need you to protecc, not atacc, and that's what will win you games. If you absolutely must build damage items, it should be
Aftershock as your fifth or last item, or
Tension Bow, but only early-midgame. You should never EVER have both at the same time as a captain.
Strategy Top
You have a few important breakpoints as Captony:
Your level 1 isn't too weak because your early damage is pretty nasty, but you'll have access to
both your primary CC abilities at
level 2.
At
Level 6 obviously, you get your ult.
At
Level 8,
Trash talk gets overdrive, with longer taunt duration.
At
Level 9 and
Level 12 you'll gain ranks in your ultimate, which comes with significant cooldown decreases.
Your item breakpoints are
Fountain of Renewal, mainly, but you will have some smaller powerspikes at your other tier 3 item purchases, which are situational.
As for strategy, I went over most of it in the ability breakdown, but Captony works best as a proactive, aggressive protector. You should always be in the front line harassing the enemies with stuns, but don't be afraid to pull back until your perk refreshes, if you're taking too much damage at once. Taunting will also help you in a teamfight, but not as an escape. Only Jawbreaker (A) for the small speed boost, or
Bada Boom (only in an absolute emergency) will do that.
Unless you're paired with a jungler that has absolutely abysmal early game
Alpha for example, you would do well to pull off some invades starting at level 2 (for both of you). It's really easy to win these early fights when you can CC them with both your abilities in the same fight.
Captony works well with a wide variety of heroes. You don't
have to invade early, because as a CC-focused captain he doesn't really fall off in usefulness late game. He doesn't really have bad comps to play with. However, if your buddies already excel at chasing and ganking
Koshka for example, you might benefit more from a more general protector, like
Ardan. Captony is versatile, but by all means, play him for your team, not just because you want to.
Well, thanks for listening to my ramblings, all you aspiring Captonys. Work the party, bros, and rearrange some faces.
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