Somns In-Depth Pirate Captain Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction
• Skill Breakdown
• Stats and Equips
• Tactics
• Tips
• Final Word

INTRODUCTION

Hey there folks, welcome to my Pirate Captain guide. I do hope you find what you're looking for here and if you don't, let me know and I'll be happy to add or elaborate on something if need be.

My name's Somn and I've been playing Trove since the Steam launch. Now, that might not be nearly as long as some of the veterans out there but I've picked up a few things that hopefully can help some aspiring Pirate Captains out there up their game a bit.

CLASS OVERIEW

Well, that description sort of describes the class... It's an oversimplification though, as most short descriptions are. Anyway, the important thing to take away from it is that you aren't unleashing the band Manowar. That would just be silly... I mean come on, you don't think you're going to summon all 4 of the members, right? Maybe one or two. But 4!? Get it together son you're being ridiculous.

The Pirate Captain is a melee range class that makes use of various summons to deal damage. Your primary attack (LMB) barely does more than tickle the mobs, but is necessary in order to pump up your primary summon (First Mate Turret) as well as generate energy. The playstyle of the Pirate Captain is mostly laying down your turret(s), throw decoys to distract the enemies, and maintain proper position. While doing this you will lay down a seemingly endless trail of Decoys and stay behind the enemies. The Pirate Captain is a melee pet class, simple as that. On to our obligatory pros and cons list.

Pros:

• Has an answer for nearly every mob/boss in the game
• Can solo efficiently with proper use of Decoys
• Has respectable damage, both singletarget and aoe
• You're a pirate

Cons:

• Without proper stats/gear the class may feel underwhelming
• Quite squishy compared to classes like the Tomb Raiser or Candy Barbarian
• Requires some spacial awareness to be effective
• Melee range

SKILL BREAKDOWN

All classes in Trove have 4 skills (1 passive and 3 active) and the Pirate Captain is no exception. Let's get into those, shall we?

Plunderbuss (passive): Attacking enemies causes them to drop Doubloons, which generate energy and increase the damage of any active First Mate Turret.

This passive is the crux of your energy generation, as well as a good chunk of your singletarget damage. Basically when you attack enemies with your LMB attack it causes them to drop Doubloons which are then collected automatically by your character. When collected they grant you around 10 energy per Doubloon (sometimes, it seems to be bugged and doesn't grant energy on occasion), as well as level up your First Mate cannon. Suffice it to say that if you're soloing and are out of energy you're probably getting hit, so it's important to keep your LMB rolling on enemies as close to constantly as you possibly can.

First Mate (active; RMB): The Pirate's First Mate mans a turret that attacks enemies. Each time First Mate is used, it can be upgraded by picking up Doubloons.

This is the bread and butter of your singletarget damage, but it's important to note that you can only have 1 First Mate turret down at a time. Throwing another will remove the ugprades added by Doubloons (Plunderbuss passive) and start him back from scratch. This brings up one of the most common issues I see with Pirate Captains around the world, positioning. We'll get more into that later, but keep in mind that you want to throw this down somewhere that it can actually hit the enemies. If it's too far away the shots will not reach your enemy. If it's behind a wall, it will not hit your enemy (although if left there long enough it can destroy blocks and allow the shots to hit enemies.)

Pretend Pirate (active; 1): Throws down a booby-trapped decoy that enemies will attack.

Now we're getting to the interesting stuff... This is your decoy. Love it, cherish it, spam it. The proper use of your decoys can lead you to not take a single hit against groups of enemies or a single enemy, but again it's all about positioning, for real we'll get into that later I promise. When you throw down one of these bad boys enemies will shift their attention to it, unless already attacking another player with higher threat. When its health is depleted it explodes dealing a negligible amount of damage to enemies close to the blast (it may do a bit of damage in early levels, barely anything in U2+) and knocks them back a tiny bit (sometimes.)

Man O' War (active; 2): Summons an extra powerful Man o' War turret which lobs explosive shells that deal damage over a small area.

 

 

 

Oh whoops, wrong Man o' War. Just a second let me find this image...

This is your ultimate, you'll want to throw this down whenever you're at a boss or in a large group of enemies. It deals a decent amount of damage, and looks pretty cool to boot. Your First Mate will most likely be a larger portion of your single target damage overall. Unlike our other 2 active skills, positioning isn't as huge of a deal with this skill as it can shoot both in a straight line as well as in an arc. It's a powerful skill that provides a decent amount of burst and, generally speaking, should be used early and often on bosses.

STATS AND EQUIPS

This is a somewhat debated topic and is open to some interpretation depending on the slot. These explanations are based on my experience with the Pirate Captain and a different build very well may work better for you. You may prefer a lower health more mobile build, and that's totally fine. You do you girlfriend!

Magic Damage: You deal magic damage. The more of this stat you have the harder you hit, simple enough.

Attack Speed: Your energy generation is tied to your LMB attacks. The more often you attack, the more Doubloons you collect, the more energy you generate. On top of that, doubloons upgrade your First Mate turret. So the faster you can get it to top rank the easier it is to get up and running as well as reposition if need be.

Maximum Health: You need health, you're in melee range.

Health Regeneration: Again, you're in melee range so you're going to get hit. The sooner you can top yourself off the better.

Maximum Health %: Seriously, read the last two... Jeez!

Jump: Mobility is good both in combat and while out adventuring. You shouldn't need ton of this stat, but it's a nice bonus when avoiding big smash attacks and what have you.

Energy Regeneration: Completely 100% useless to the Pirate Captain. You generate energy from collecting Doubloons.

Movement Speed: Eh... Limited use for repositioning and what not, there's better options.

There's my reasoning for each stat, here's what I prefer on each slot.

MY PREFERRED STATS (ALTERNATIVES IN PARENTHESIS)

Weapon:

• Magic Damage
• Maximum Health
• Health Regeneration
• Attack Speed

Hat:

• Maximum Health
• Health Regeneration
• Maximum Health % (Jump)
• Attack Speed

Face:

• Maximum Health
• Health Regeneration
• Magic Damage (Jump)
• Attack Speed

Ring: 

• Magic Damage
• Jump (Health Regeneration)

 

FLASKS AND EMBLEMS

• Death-Defying Vial: Restores 30% health on use. 10 Flask Capacity. Automatically used when low on health!

This is generally my go to for regular adventuring. It reduces accidental deaths and is reliable. Also, it activates at 1hp so don't be worried if you're at like 10% health and it hasn't gone off yet.

• Elysian Bandolier: Restores 20% health on use. 18 Flask Capacity.

This is my preferred flask for Shadow Arenas. The reason being that it has a very high flask capacity which allows you to make good use of dps emblems. Speaking of emblems, there's actually some options....

• Arcane Emblem: Doubles magic damage temporarily.

This is effectively mandatory for Pirate Captains, or any magic based dps class for that matter. The benefit this gives is huge, double in fact, and there's no reason not to take this unless you're getting completely destroyed every time you do anything. But if that's the case you should probably drop down a difficulty or two, or improve your gear.

• Berserker Emblem: Sends you into a battle frenzy, increasing your attack speed and movement speed, and forcing you to use your main attack.

I have a love hate relationship with this emblem. The boost it gives to attack speed is rather substantial but it comes at a pretty heavy downside when soloing. You can't use any other abilities while under its effects. Any. No Man o' War, no First Mate, no Decoys. That alone is almost enough to make it useless while soloing. In Shadow Arenas, though, it's pretty powerful if used well.

• Zealous Emblem: Restores all spend energy.

This one is fine I suppose. But if you don't have enough energy to throw down a decoy chances are you just need to stack some more attack speed or work on your positioning a bit.

• Unyielding Emblem: Grants a brief invulnerability shield.

Not too bad for soloing, I'll roll with this one if I'm feeling lazy and don't necessarily want to put in a ton of effort to dodge boss smashes.

• Restorative Emblem: Temporarily boosts your health regeneration.

Basically the same deal as Unyielding Emblem.

• Soothing Rain Emblem: Restores some health to all nearby allies.
• Energizing Rain Emblem: Restores some energy to all nearby allies.

Both are somewhat meh. Not completely useless, but there's better options.

• Chronomatic Emblem: Reduces the cooldown of all your abilities.

I haven't done much experimenting with this emblem, so I can't comment on it. I could see it being somewhat useful in Shadow Arenas, not so much solo though. If you swear by it, please let me know so I can update this part.

 

Allies

• Chronomancer Qubesly: 20% Magic Damage; Reduces cooldown time by 25%

This ally is fantastic. 20% magic damage is huge, as is the cooldown reduction. I can't recommend it enough if you can manage to get one. You can either purchase it from another player (prices at the time of writing this are around 5-6k flux) or from purchasing Qubesly Soultraps from pirate vendors for 300 glim each and being lucky enough to get one.

• Teensy Shadow Trader: 8% Magic Damage; Chance when a nearby enemy dies to gain a large damage and movement speed boost.

The only other viable option, in my opinion, is the Teensy Shadow Trader. The magic damage boost isn't as substantial as the Chronomancer, but that's not the most interesting part about this pet. The interesting part is the proc it can grant when a nearby enemy dies. I don't know the exact numbers on it, but I thought I'd mention it as an alternative. You can get this pet by crafting it at a Shadowy Market in a Shadow Arena Lobby for the cost of 2x Heart of Darkness (currently valued at around 5k flux a piece.)

 

TACTICS

There's not a lot to say here, really... But some people seem to really not grasp this. Generally you'll want to have your decoy on the opposite side of your target as you are. Here's how I usually initiate a mob or group of mobs.

So, as you can see, you want the mobs facing away from you as often as is possible. The reason for that is that some mobs (and pretty much every melee boss) has a frontal cone smash attack that hurts like hell. This is somewhat less relevant in Shadow Arenas and completely inconsequential in a challenge zerg group.

Positioning and Spacial Awareness

Here it is, I promised. Let's talk about what you can do to minimize damage taken and maximize dps uptime on enemies. I've seen numerous people adventuring in the world of Trove who seem to have absolutely zero spacial awareness. They'll stand directly in front of a lava spout or put their back to a cliff then act confused when they take damage or get knocked off an edge. This is one of the most important aspects of Troves combat that I feel is often overlooked.

When you enter a dungeon take note of the floor, first. Is it flat? Are there trenches with lava in it? Is there a hilly component? All of these things will determine where you place your First Mate turret. If you put him (or her, I don't know how to tell a parrots gender) in a bad place its uptime on enemies will be diminished, leading to a loss of overall dps and therefore wastes time and effort. You'll have to get good at placing your turret and get used to the arc that it travels in. Once you have your Parrot placed properly, the next issue is where you and your decoys go.

As seen above I've shown you the general circular motion you'll learn to love as a Pirate Captain. Once you've mastered this it becomes second nature and you'll likely find yourself doing it even when it's not completely necessary. But, yet again, we've gotta take in our surroundings and plan accordingly. If there's a bunch of trenches with lava in it you have to take that into account and try not to place yourself in a bad situation where you take unnecessary damage. Don't throw down a Decoy somewhere that forces you to either take damage from lava or a boss...or both.

Pirate Captains have the luxury of having a spammable decoy, and you'll have to make good use of it if you want to not get hit. If you've made it this far then you've read the last paragraph, which pretty much explains the entire idea of choosing the right place to initiate a fight. Don't do it in a stupid place where you're going to be in lava the whole time. That's silly.

 

However, just about all of this is completely and utterly useless in something like a challenge zerg. In a zerg you can choose to take this all into account or just run in, throw stuff down, and hope for the best. It's a zerg...

Tips

Here I'll put a few small tips and tricks that may help your look like a big ol fancy pants on occasion. Nothing groundbreaking, just a few things. Also, if you've got some tips I've missed please comment below and I'll throw them in (giving credit to you, of course.

• Learn the arc of your Decoys/First Mate

A good way to practice this is to hold down your button for a second or two before throwing it, if you've got the time before getting hit by mobs. A well placed Turret or Decoy can be the difference between a few wasted seconds or a big boss smash hitting you.

• When throwing a Decoy, flick your aiming reticle up a bit beforehand to give it more distance.

It took me a little bit to get this one figured out, and I still forget in moments of panic, but it's quite helpful to make things go smoothly. Basically if you aim your aiming reticle slightly up before throwing a decoy it changes the arc the decoy travels in, making it travel further. This can be useful when trying to maintain the direction an enemy is facing and can help reduce accidental hits taken.

• If you find yourself being focused by a Shadow Arena boss (or melee boss) while out of energy make good use of your jumps.

You can avoid the frontal smashes of bosses by jumping out of the way and still holding your LMB attack down to generate energy.

Final Word

I generally don't see the Pirate Captain getting a lot of love around the forums or subreddit, and that's unfortunate. It's a very enjoyable class that's more than capable in just about every situation. Sure we may not be the singletarget powerhouse that a Fae Trickster is, and we may not be the aoe king like Candy Barbarians are; But we're more than capable.

I unlocked the Pirate Captain some weeks ago and was extremely happy with my decision up until around Uber 3/4 or so, when I started to get my shit kicked in. I took a while off, acquired some properly statted gear, then came back to it and there was a very stark difference. The class had turned from a sub par waste of cubits to my favorite class in Trove.

I hope that this guide helps someone out, and if you've got any questions don't hesitate to ask them here or ingame (ign: Somn) and I'll try to answer as best I can. See yah around Trovians!