Lost Saga Captain Hook Guide

Lost Saga Captain Hook Guide by LostAlias

right now, this is a wall of text.  I will edit it later, hopefully adding some pictures.  Maybe some videos
Intro:

Basics:
            For those of you who don’t know hook’s basics, here they are (for those who do know, skip these next four paragraphs).  Hook has a basic three-hit combo.  His first two attacks are very fast and very spamable—meaning, you should use your d combo to annoy people.  Don’t complete your d combo when attacking.  Just do one or two attacks to mess with people.  The third attack knocks down and gives very good knockback, even when your opponent is shielding (hook is one of the better d-spam edgers).  Hook has a basic jump attack with relatively small range… it’s nothing interesting.
            Hook has standard special class movement.  This means he can walk, jump, and high jump, but he cannot run.  Instead of a dash, he has a “super dash,” which functions similarly/identically to a sapper’s dash.  (If you do not know what that is, it is a shorter version of a ranged hero’s dash).

            While holding the bomb, you can move normally (meaning dash, jump, walk, high jump, parrot run).  You cannot use any attacks or skills while you are holding a bomb, nor are you able to hero swap.  If you are attacked or are caused to flinch, your bomb will fall from your hand, usually damaging you.  The bomb’s can hurt you if you either run into your own bomb, or the bomb gets knocked out of your hand.

Skills:

           Weapon Skill: Bomb Shower: Bomb shower is one of the better weapon skills.  It has a slightly above average cooldown.  It groundhits, and it hits enemies straight up into the air.  It gives decent damage: 10 hits to kill dev k, 18 dmg (all damage is taken from unbounded’s guide…so yeah, thanks unbounded).  Alone, 18 isn’t that much (9 for a groundhit), but it is actually quite easy to get two hits off bomb shower.  The bombs fly out in a pentagon shape, with one point directly in front of you.  All you need to do is turn directly away from your opponent.  This makes it so that he is in between two of the pentagon’s points, effectively hitting with two bombs (giving 27 damage, 18 for groundhit—which is a lot compared to other GH’s).  Another thing to note is that each bomb is an actual bomb with physical/virtual properties.  They will crash into walls or into airborne enemies.
            Bomb shower has three main uses.  The first, most simple use, is as an area of effect attack (think tao or templar).  Bomb shower has a huge range for a weapon skill, considering it can also hit people on the ground (it is only beat by blizzard).  The second use is for edging, which is probably most common.  If an enemy is knocked down and near an edge, just bomb shower, then jump attack (discussed later in combos).  The third use is for setting up combos (which will also be discussed in the combo section).
            Body Skill: Big Bomb:  Big bomb calls forth, as its name implies, a big bomb.  This can be picked up and thrown at a much farther distance than a regular bomb.  It has a larger area of effect, and it does twice the damage.  It can also be picked up by another player, friendly or enemy.  And, as with a regular bomb, you can hurt yourself with it.  Big bomb has an extremely low cooldown (comparable to meteor, less than kage star and camera, more than stealth).
            Big bomb is largely situational.  I’d estimate that it is very useful in about 30% of battles—the large campy type.  Not very good in about 20%.  And totally pointless in the other 50%.  For the most part, you will be of more use in the fray of the battle than running away and throwing a single big bomb.  Big bomb works in only one or two combos (which I will mention later), so it is very combo-unfriendly.  It has a similar function to cannon in the sense that it is an excellent support skill, but not easy to hit with unless people are clumped together or camping.
            In the 30% of battles in which big bomb is good (those that are large and campy), use it constantly.  It gives good damage and has a large area of effect, and it is an excellent ranged skill.  It is spamable-ish because of its extreamily low CD.  But for the other 70%, I highly recommend switching it out with an epic gear or using another hero’s body skill.
            Hat Skill: Cursed Skull:  Cursed Skull projects a phantasmal skull in front of hook.  The skull strips of the first armor off any opponents it hits, and then puts the opponent into a stunned state, setting up for combos and the like.  It comes out quickly and can hit enemies soon after they jump (this is not an air hitting attack).  It has a decent area of effect.  Cursed skull has a similar effect to boxing trophy.
            Hook’s helm skill is one of the most annoying in the game.  Use this to your advantage.  Aside from being plain annoying, should be used under two main conditions.  The first is if you outnumber your opponent.  Almost all players will try to pick up their hat (or whatever they dropped).  This often leads to them being careless.  Once one of their equipments goes missing, they have a shift in priority.  No longer do they care about killing their opponents or avoiding damage—the main priority is their lost hat… use this to your advantage.  When your opponent is trying to pick up his hat, have all your teammates gang him.  If you outnumber him, he will probably have taken a good 30-50 damage before he gets knocked down.  If he tries to pick up his hat a second time, do it again.  (But be careful of skills—people will do rash things for a hat).  The second use is to lead into combos, which I will talk about later.  But for the most part, the combos are faints.
            Trinket Skill: Quickstep: First of all, I have to say that the parrot is the coolest trinket ever (not cuz its good…just cuz it’s a parrot)!  Quickstep is a buff that greatly increases your speed.  After using the skill, you run about twice as fast.  This last for about 12 seconds (I think).  Being a buff, and not an aura, it is canceled if you switch heroes.  It can, however, be canceled like stealth in order to reduce cooldown for future use.  The cooldown is a little above average, about the same as bomb shower.
            Quickstep, like about half the buffs, is rarely used.  And of those rarely used, it is quite difficult to use effectively.  For the most part, I will say don’t use quickstep.  Almost all the other trinket skills are better.  The only time I use quickstep is to chase down runners (it works moderately well).
            There is, however, and exception.  If you have no better trinket skills, use quickstep as often as possible.  (An example situation is if you had only hook, or you had hook and viking—who has a passive trinket, or you had hook and viking and fire mage and you weren’t fighting any fire mages.)  Quickstep, like all buffs, is not a onetime use skill, so use it whenever you get the chance.  An unused quickstep is a wasted quickstep.

            The other time quickstep can be useful is when you are fighting really annoying ranged heroes that just shoot and run… well with your trusty parrot on your shoulder, you can outrun them.

Gameplay:
            If you actually read all the way down to here, you are probably wondering what hook’s role in lost saga is (either that, or you are really bored).  As I mentioned earlier, hook has two roles.  The primary is to set up combos (part of which will be discussed later), and the secondary is to provide support.

            Hook is not meant to boss.  He has absolutely no killing moves with his basic moveset and skillset.  Try not to use hook when you are the team with less people.
            Hook is not a ranged hero.  If he was, then he would not be special.  Do not use him to only toss bombs in a camping battle.  This is not a strict rule, and I find myself breaking it a lot, but the important point is that using hook as you would use a musketeer is very dangerous.  The only time you should use him for ranged attack is when the other team is clumped together (meaning you can hit 2-3 at the same time).  Otherwise, you will almost always take more damage than you deal.  It takes 3 bombs to make up for a single meteor (I play fire mage and I know how easy it is to hit a jumping hook).  It takes 6 bombs to equal a shaman edge.  Not to mention, every single ranged hero will out damage you (exception: mafia, maybe musketeer).  Don’t forget that if you are hit while holding a bomb, the bomb will drop and damage you (this has happened to me many times).
            Perhaps most importantly, do not use hook solely as a ranged hero!  Yes, I know he can throw bombs, and bombs are awesome like that, but ranged support should not be his priority.  Hook’s bombs do relatively little damage, they are easy to see, and they are difficult to hit with.  If you want to do damage, use space trooper or cowboy.  Note, though, that I said “solely.”  Hook is used for support, which I will explain in the next section.  What you do not want to do is sit at the edge of the battle field tossing bombs blindly and hoping they hit.
            One last note: damage is not hook’s priority (similarly to how damage is not musketeer’s priority).

            Again, I’ll emphasize that captain hook is a hero who you are supposed to swap into, not one that you are supposed to have out all the time.  This next section titled “support” mostly assumes you are lacking in either a melee, a ranged, or a magic.
      Support:

            Again, as I said earlier, hook’s job is not damage.  While he is supporting, his purpose is to knock people down and ruin combos (the other teams… not yours).  So, when do you play behind the lines, and when do you get into the fray?  The answer is, wherever he can best mess the other team up (that’s a pretty stupid answer, but oh well).

            The thing is, your opponents will learn to spread out quickly and dodge your bombs.  That’s when you need to stop.  If ever your team (noticeably) outnumbers the other, go into the battle.  Spam your d, but only do two attacks and let your teammate knock the enemy down.  That’s when you pull out the bombs.  If ever you team (noticeably) is outnumbered and there is no hope of battling in that area, run and be ranged support until your teammates follow you (do not ever do this if you are bossing with a significant buff).
            Another time to use your bombs is to save a teammate from a combo.  For example, lostalias gets caught in a seduction cloud, and you have bomb shower charged… SAVE HIM!  Bombs will cause your teammate to flinch, thus releasing them from most stuns.  Another example would be e-shock.  Toss a bomb onto a stunned teammate and hope he gets out before a laser cannon>edge.
            All bombs aside, hook’s d-spam is one of the most annoying in the game.  Use it.  The first two attacks are quite fast, and the third one has incredible knockback.  Using the third d attack will push and shielding opponent at least half a hero-circle back (very good for edging).  Run around and d-spam to your heart’s content, or at least until your skills are charged.
            The last part of support merges into…

(more information about bomb combos come later)
            Also, learn your guild member’s combos.  If you know that [!Wolf!] uses ascend>tkm board>ascend>minigun>infantry hat, do not mess up his combos with a bomb.  Use the bomb after the minigun.
            Help your teammates edge with bombs.  Set them up for, bomb(you)>jump attack(them)>edge.  The more you play as hook, the more prepared people will be to combo after your bombs, which is the real power of captain hook.

            Also, hook is very valuable when your opponent has a sapper making a base.  This is very important: Hook destroys mines.  Do not let your teammates run into a base full of mine.  It is your role to blow up the mine from a distance with bombs and big bombs.  Also, sapper is one hero you are allowed to attack from range with your bombs.

Combos:

            Because hook’s bombs combo after so many attacks, I’ll just give you the rules of thumb for hook comboing.  A bomb can be used after any stun that ends up with your opponent on the ground (faint, dizzy, etc).  A bomb can be used after any attack that hits your opponent at least about as high as a reaper soulsh4tter.  If I ever start a combo with a bomb, it assumes that something has first set up the bomb.  You will never hit a moving opponent with a bomb.
            But before we go into the swap combos, you need to know hook’s solo combos, so…

Essential hook combos: if you cannot do these, don’t play as hook.  If you already know hook’s basics, skip these next two sections.
            Bomb shower>jump attack: This is essential for hook and it is one of the easiest combos to pull off.  All you do is use bomb shower, then jump towards your opponent and attack.  This gives decent knockback and is essential for edging.
            Bomb>jump attack: You need to know how to do this, even though you may not use it much (I use it a lot).  Whenever you toss a bomb at close range, the easiest thing to do is follow it with a jump attack.  This is the easiest attack to do after a bomb.  This can also be used for edging.  It requires a small amount of timing (meaning you don’t spam jump attack after the bomb), but you should be able to get it within two minutes of practice in HQ.  Attack as you descend and from the jump, not at the peak.  You can also follow up a jump throw bomb with a jump attack.
            Knockdown>Bomb shower: Basically, you just need to know that you can follow up any knockdown with bomb shower.  Then you follow the bomb shower up with something else (jump attack, etc).  This is obvious, but important.
Easy combos: These are pretty obvious ones… quite boring actually.
            Bomb>bomb:  If you ever are playing ranged-support hook, then you need to know that two bombs are locking.  When staying away from the melee, try to throw bombs in pairs.  It’s like free damage.
            Big bomb>bomb: Like above, if you hit with a big bomb, a second regular bomb will be locking, assuming you are within range and you aim correctly.  I usually follow up a big bomb with a bomb.
            Bomb shower>bomb: This one is actually important.  Do this often.  If you hit a standing opponent with bomb shower, pull out a bomb right away, then toss it on your downed opponent, it will hit.  This is actually the only way a solo hook can reliably set up a bomb combo.  If you cannot edge and you are not in danger of getting hurt, always follow up bomb shower with a bomb.  Then, follow the bomb up with whatever will do the most damage.
            Cursed skull>pick up the dropped gear>run like a n00b: if you have no one to swap into and combo with, it is often a good idea to pick up the dropped gear.  It will likely be fully charged, and it will definitely be more charged than your hat.  If it is fully charged, try to use cursed skull again, or use their own skill against them.  Or you can spam d, or you can run.
Medium combos: you should be able to do these, at least in HQ.
            Bomb>d>d>d: to do max damage, follow up a bomb with three attacks.  This requires timing, but it is only about as difficult as a FM meteor>d>d.  (Though this is difficult to do under pressure, so it is harder to do in a battle than the FM combo)
            Bomb shower>d>d>d: Similarly to the above, this does more damage than a jump attack.  Get good at this.  This is one of the more damaging, groundhitting combos of the game.
            Bomb shower 2 hit>attack: Instead of hitting once with bomb shower, hit twice.  I mentioned earlier in the skills section that this was possible.  Follow it up with whatever you normally would.  When you hit with two bombs he goes about twice as high, so the timing will be different, and the combo will be harder.
The one difficult combo: It’s not super hard, but it’s hook’s longest (locking) combo.  Try it, it’s fun.
            Bomb shower>d>d>bomb>d>d>d: This requires that you hit a standing opponent.  It is similar to bomb shower>d>d>d except you leave out the last attack.  This gives you enough time to pull out a bomb, toss it, and have it hit.  Then follow up the bomb with three attacks.
            This brings up a point worthy of observation: if you are attacking an airborne enemy, d>d>bomb is locking.  This will be further explored in the swap combo section.

            Cursed Skull>big bomb: after you hit with cursed skull, your opponent’s top gear will fly off.  While they are stunned, place a big bomb over their fallen gear (this take practice and positioning, plus a little luck based on where the gear drops).  Then start spamming d, or use bomb shower.
            You have probably all experienced something to this effect: you are trying to pick up a gear, but you pick of the wrong one OR you are trying to run away, you try to jump, but you pick up a gear instead.  Basically this combo is recreating that effect.  Remember, people tend to be desperate for their hats.  They will most likely try to pick up their hat/gear.  What you are hoping for is that they pick up the big bomb instead.  Sometimes they will pick up the hat, then you can cry because your plan failed.  But sometimes they will pick up the big bomb.  Now you laugh at them because they have fallen into your trap.
            If your opponent picks up the big bomb, they are unable to run (dash) or attack, leaving them wide open for attack.  If you have bomb shower charged, use it now.  Almost always, players who picked up a big bomb instead of a hat will go into a state of confusion.  They will almost always jump, as if they think they can pick up their hat.  If they jump, your bomb shower will hit, they will be knocked down, the big bomb fall out of their hands, and then it will explode on them, dealing decent damage.
            If you don’t have bomb shower charged, just spam d and put pressure on them.  It will cause them either to drop the bomb (hopefully they will get damaged by it), or run away, thus losing their hat.
            Anyways, try it in battle until you do it successfully at least once, cuz its funny.

            In this section, I am going to give a short/long description of how hook can combo with each hero.  I will rate how well hook works with each hero (the rating will be based on the skill compatibility and the attack set: 1-5, 5 being the best).  And if you see any other hero’s skills that are used to combo, which at the same time are epic gears, those would be good gears to substitute for hook’s coat and the parrot.

Some last notes on combos:

            Hook is one of the hardest heroes to play as.  Most other heroes are straightforward.  Most heroes have their set combos.  Most heroes have an easy, predictable style of play.  But hook is different.  He relies on his teammates to truly excel.  He requires experience and knowledge of other’s combos in order to work well.  He requires a diverse array of combos in order to understand.
            I want to see more good hooks in Lost Saga.  Hook is an awesome character who is fun to play as, and fun to play with.  Hopefully, with this guide, you now know enough to play a decent hook.  And hopefully after reading this guide you will know how to play with me when I use hook.  So, go buy a hook.  He’s, like, the cheapest hero in the shop.  What have you got to lose?

~  LostAlias