In one of the very first matches I sent my boy in to fight an Orc four levels below him and he lost, and got butchered. After a series of missions, I was introduced to the fighting pits, where Orcs battled against one another. Early on, I bonded with the first Orc I took over (not Bruz, one after him that you get to pick), and made him my bodyguard. I’ve learned that this game is way too random to reliably keep even your favorite Orcs alive. Just don’t expect to rely too heavily on stealth this time around.
This is why you do your research I guess. Worst case, they’re stealth immune or enraged by it, and you’re in hot water. And while a few Captains have a weakness that will let you autokill them with stealth, the vast majority don’t and at best you’ll get a bit of damage in before a full-on brawl breaks out immediately. Yes, there will be some missions that will require you to use stealth, and they are usually mapped out accordingly, but more generally? There are just too many damn Orcs everywhere moving and spawning in unpredictable ways that trying to be stealthy in the overworld is almost impossible. What I’ve found is that the other side effect of having Orcs literally everywhere in Shadow of War is that trying to take on most situations using stealth is now nearly impossible.