Making friends in Middle-earth: Shadow of War

I'm not sure what to expect from Shadow of War. On the one hand, I’ve little interest in Lord of the Rings, and no desire to spend any more time with returning protagonist and charisma vacuum Talion. On the other hand: the orcs seem fun. I decide to give it a shot, in the hope of encountering a potential nemesis. Once I’m let loose on the starting area of Minas Ithil, I go hunting orc captains. Some ambush me while I’m in the middle of a fight.

Others are big, tough and difficult to dodge away from. All, eventually, go down. I’m good at Shadow of War’s combat—at least this opening version of it—because I’ve played three Arkham games and it’s basically the same. I start ticking off sidequests and missions. It’s as I’m running between these that I aggro Koth, the “poisonous dark beastmaster”. Koth’s specialties include multiple things I haven’t seen before, all of which are bad.