Rohan and mounted combat

[Pewpewmidget]

Here I am, approaching level 75+ again on a 16th character on Crickhollow and I am NOT looking forward to starting Rohan again.

Main reason why I am not looking forward to Rohan? MOUNTED COMBAT.

The system has long been forgotten about and it is horrendously bad compared to fighting on foot.
Also, mounted mobs keep riding off into the sunset for no apparent reason instead of relentless attacking you as if it were actually a fight.

I know that I can avoid mounted combat except for maybe 2-3 quests but that's besides the point.
If we are going to leave mounted combat at a dreadful state, can we please get rid of it in all instead?
It's nothing but a headache to most of the players but there are some few rare odd players who enjoy it.



On a different topic, please look into rebalancing the avancs, infected orcs and grodbog in Dunland.
Their acid attacks deal around 3 times more damage what they normally do.
And the avancs put dots up rather quickly.

[Braer]

As it's very unlikely you'll have any action taken on this before you have to go through the pain of the epic quest instances again:

Do all you can to trait and have a bridle that get's your class's best chance to dismount opponents, likely a Light on both and one stance might be better than another.
Dismounting the enemy more important than defeating any so get all off their mounts first.

If it's a melee class then using /follow when close on level ground spamming skills can work well. If additional mobs get on your six (tail) break off and /follow the last mob in the bunch. Think Top Gun dog fight without a wingman.
A slight slope and /follow is all but useless though and only mastery of mount speed control and mouse turning gets you the same advantage. Even ranged and caster classes should stay behind but when it's melee mobs only, then circle around.



Discover the Maverick within you!


an odd player

[Arnenna]

As it's very unlikely you'll have any action taken on this before you have to go through the pain of the epic quest instances again:

Do all you can to trait and have a bridle that get's your class's best chance to dismount opponents, likely a Light on both and one stance might be better than another.
Dismounting the enemy more important than defeating any so get all off their mounts first.

If it's a melee class then using /follow when close on level ground spamming skills can work well. If additional mobs get on your six (tail) break off and /follow the last mob in the bunch. Think Top Gun dog fight without a wingman.
A slight slope and /follow is all but useless though and only mastery of mount speed control and mouse turning gets you the same advantage. Even ranged and caster classes should stay behind but when it's melee mobs only, then circle around.



Discover the Maverick within you!


an odd player

And run them through water where possible. Not so deep that it dismounts you, but deep enough to dismount them. Those wargies have little legs.

[Fegefeuer]

To SSG: please don't remove mounted combat, just balance it properly. I agree at its current state it can be a pain. I remember doing Rohan with an overlevel character and I was still dismounted by mobs.

Balance warsteeds!

[DavidmeetHal]

Here I am, approaching level 75+ again on a 16th character on Crickhollow and I am NOT looking forward to starting Rohan again.

Main reason why I am not looking forward to Rohan? MOUNTED COMBAT.

The system has long been forgotten about and it is horrendously bad compared to fighting on foot.
Also, mounted mobs keep riding off into the sunset for no apparent reason instead of relentless attacking you as if it were actually a fight.

I know that I can avoid mounted combat except for maybe 2-3 quests but that's besides the point.
If we are going to leave mounted combat at a dreadful state, can we please get rid of it in all instead?
It's nothing but a headache to most of the players but there are some few rare odd players who enjoy it.



On a different topic, please look into rebalancing the avancs, infected orcs and grodbog in Dunland.
Their acid attacks deal around 3 times more damage what they normally do.
And the avancs put dots up rather quickly.

I'm with you, I despise mounted combat and dread it everytime when I'm in Rohan, and to make matters worst, East and West Rohan are back to back. But mounted combat is here to stay.

[Marancil]

I love MC and properly geared it will be useful up to 120-125, problems beyond that are of course its vulnerability vs lvl 130 mobs.



An update is of course needed, but only for higher levels, you can enjoy your war steed up to 120 with no greater issues.

[Nekroman1]

I do most of "mounted combat on foot because I do with the class-dependant-mount-spells nearly no damage - at least with the classes I have played.

On foot I also avoid that 10 or more Mobs are adding while you ride through the landscape.

Until now I have no other way to do the mounted-horse-quests which i have to do and can't avoid. The rest I avoid.

[wispsong]

I do most of "mounted combat on foot because I do with the class-dependant-mount-spells nearly no damage - at least with the classes I have played.

On foot I also avoid that 10 or more Mobs are adding while you ride through the landscape.

Until now I have no other way to do the mounted-horse-quests which i have to do and can't avoid. The rest I avoid.

Same here, sadly there are a handful of important story quests which require it.

[OldMadeOfLions]

Same here, sadly there are a handful of important story quests which require it.

If you list the ones that give you the most trouble we might be able to spin the dials and make them less of a bottleneck. A couple come to mind immediately, but no harm in seeing what's on the list.

MoL

[Marancil]

If you list the ones that give you the most trouble we might be able to spin the dials and make them less of a bottleneck. A couple come to mind immediately, but no harm in seeing what's on the list.

MoL

Awe, come on! it's not that hard and the main reason people skip it is survivability, the grind for traits and legandary stuff like settings gems and relics and stuttering lagging movement.

You, MoL, need to make it a bit easier to actually get the player in control of the steeds movements and feel that the steed is actually contributing to the game play faster, than grinding for weeks to get the stted all powered up, tiring of it.

[wispsong]

If you list the ones that give you the most trouble we might be able to spin the dials and make them less of a bottleneck. A couple come to mind immediately, but no harm in seeing what's on the list.

MoL

Broadacres is the first coming to mind. The whole area is full of quests that require the killing of mounted foes but the one that requires it for the story is the instance were we ride out with Reeve Frithild. I believe it's "Ride against the Goblins".

Then there is a session play in Wildermore where we are riding as Thrymm.

There are more that take forever on foot because of the long leash of the mobs but these two are impossible on foot. I would have to replay all of Rohan to name them all.

[wispsong]

Awe, come on! it's not that hard and the main reason people skip it is survivability, the grind for traits and legandary stuff like settings gems and relics and stuttering lagging movement.

You, MoL, need to make it a bit easier to actually get the player in control of the steeds movements and feel that the steed is actually contributing to the game play faster, than grinding for weeks to get the stted all powered up, tiring of it.

MC for me has 2 main problems:

I can't control the steed.
The skills are different from what I have as character.

The first is the main reason why I just can't do it.

[Edlenn]

Remembering Thrymm can be tough

[Gildoriel]

Mounted combat is the reason I only want to do Rohan after outlevelling the area, so that not every single bear or whatever I pass while fighting a mounted Uruk will join in the attack on me. Unfortunately, once I outlevel Rohan, I can also start the West Gondor quests which is what I mostly do and come back for the Rohan trait points much much later - on many chars after reaching level cap because starting with Gondor, the story just gets too compelling to interrupt it with a detour to a lvl 75-85 area.

[istvana]

I only recall one quest that I couldn't do on foot. This was a quest to take a bucket and put fires out - for some reason it was designed to only let you put the fires out while on a warsteed. Not a real problem since if a mob happened to attack I could get off of the accursed spawn of Melkor and kill it - then get back on.

[WeirdJedi]

My first experience with the war-steed was on my captain. This made my first impressions of the new mechanic thrilling. Not only did it increase my speed to get closer to my target, but it also seemed to have the adverse effect of increasing my damage. And the fun of being able to throw things at my enemy!

Then I got the war-steed on my other characters. Their damage? Well, it was pretty much half of what I could do without one. There's two reasons for that. First, you have to build up your fury meter. It is natural to build it up for a melee class in preparation of a joust, but it didn't make much sense to encircle your enemy for a few seconds to build it up on a ranged class. Second, the bridles are very finicky with their fury contribution. You essentially need a fully upgraded, on-level bridle in order to get a decent amount of damage.

Riders of Rohan wasn't so bad. Anything near Cliving like "The Thriving Hordes" at the Abandoned Farmsteads was rather easy. It is Helm's Deep I remember being rough in a few places. In Stoke, Broadacres, The Instance "Ride Against the Goblins" was problematic for me until I found it easier to let Fríthild hold most of the aggro.

[Braer]

If you list the ones that give you the most trouble we might be able to spin the dials and make them less of a bottleneck. A couple come to mind immediately, but no harm in seeing what's on the list.

MoL

I get the all inclusive epic ideals and there are always changes made elsewhere that can have knock on effects but dumbing down only promotes dumb play for the rest of the game outside of epics, to the point where they can't reach your quest bestowers . Raise People up! Hogging on to them diverts them from everything else they need to do for a well-rounded character later on.

However in these ones they are not so fool proof. But you'd have thought the Rohirrim would have certain standards of horsemanship to join their ranks or cover for them.
Going to bar them from the Ride into Pelennor?

I don't know how anyone can go through it 15 times and not get better at it, but it can't help that you guys hardly maintained it so was never much future for it.

Maybe that's to be the outcome of IoLs the defeatists you pander to in return for adoration will do their normal thing and refuse to engage/spend/work on them and plod on, just with an easier time of it?

[Kaeneth]

I guess I'm one of those rare odd players that enjoys it, but I actually always look forward to getting a war-steed and riding forth. I feel like I tend to be pretty good at controlling the war-steeds though, so maybe that's why I don't mind it. Though there are certainly things that could be improved. I actually just finished up all of Rohan not too long ago and the main issues I found to be annoying were just general rubberbanding, and when mounted enemies would just ride into no combat zones, or way too far away on their own and fights would just reset. Other than that I kind of wish mounted combat skills in general did more damage, but there's not much else I have a problem with. Though I'm sure the experiences vary depending on your class since some seem to be a lot better suited for it than others. Would be annoying to have no ranged attacks for example.

[Pontin_Finnberry]

I don't mind Mounted Combat too much, its fun to me, I'd rather see it updated and improved rather then removed, i will never understand why players say just get rid of it, getting rid of some things doesn't always solve the issue, its better to improve it.

[Fegefeuer]

If you list the ones that give you the most trouble we might be able to spin the dials and make them less of a bottleneck. A couple come to mind immediately, but no harm in seeing what's on the list.

MoL

No please, those mounted combat quests were some of the best fun I've had with this game DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD DDDDDDD:

Don't change them!!!!

I can't believe that you are more up to change warsteed quests than to scale warsteed. So sad DDDDDDDDDDDDDD:

[maartena]

I have no problems with mounted combat... I actually like it. I figured out how to control the steed though, and I configure in options that the steed will auto slowdown. With my mouse as main movement, and keys to use the skills, I can circle around any enemy and kill them no problem.

The quest in broadacres is still annoying though. It just takes too long!

I do not want mounted combat removed though.... but I would like the team to spend some time polishing it up.

[CloudCastle]

I also enjoy war steeds and really look forward to the moment when every new character gets one. Now I'll admit that I get more excited about dressing up my war steed and picking out coat and mane colors, but that said I do also like mounted combat! I am VERY frustrated though with how poorly mounted combat actually works. I and others have been asking (begging) for years to have mounted combat skills properly scaled during and after Rohan so that those of us who wish to use it can do so effectively. It's a crime IMO that most MC skills do so little damage that killing something feels like poking at it with a toothpick a million times until it eventually dies.

The only quests that I can recall which consistently give me trouble are the ones where you have to help Eowyn fight outside the gates of Edoras next to the river, and the one where you have to help some refugees make it down (another) river while groups of orcs attack them. The Eowyn one is the hardest and I die on every character before I eventually get through it. Not sure if the refugee one is skippable but the Eowyn one isn't.

[Braer]

Spam skills don't wait for fury. Unless any dismount skill chance is in some way enhanced.
Use WASD AND Mouse steering together, practice following a friend like a game of tag. W/S are key for not over running your target in a dog fight.
Ofc ditch the n00b control method; stop on release, and setting speed with Insert key. It's Cross Country not Dressage - Never going to improve with those choices.
Know the targets, range and area of effect of the skill you are using - minis, captains.
Open up the camera view, maybe turn it on to the target when circling.
Make a tooltip for notable npcs with H key to select them if you need to find them again. Also shows their health if you need them to take the brunt of attacks initially.


DON'T PANIC

[Strider5548]

I really hope they revisit Warsteeds by the time Treebeard gets to Rohan. It's an old system that is desperately in need of an update. I don't think it's good enough to say it's not a priority. Everyone past 75 rides a warsteed, whether to actually engage in mounted combat, get around faster, or admire the aesthetics. Yes, a lot of people say they hate it and want it dead, but that is because of the flaws in the system that can and should be addressed.

Some suggestions for areas of focus:

1) Re-calibrate stats to make War Steeds scale through higher levels. Give players something to work towards to make their War Steeds the best. Perhaps have some War Steed legacies and stats carry over to the player as well. Include Bridles in LI revamp to facilitate this.
2) Please address the rubber-banding issues. If War Steeds didn't constantly get stuck and rubber-band it would be a much more pleasant experience riding them.
3) When you dismount a War Steed, allow the option to have the War Steed not disappear. War Steeds are gorgeous additions to the game, how amazing would it be to have one walk around with you in town after you dismount? This could function similar to how pets do today (i.e. Bill the Pony). When you dismount there should be an option to not have your pet disappear by default, so you can dismount and mount onto your war-steed just by clicking it, and if it gets lost you can re-summon it using the horn. They should continue to not allow War Steeds indoors or in areas they can't enter today.
4) War Steeds should tire out after running max speed for a long time, there should be stats like stamina to extend how far a War Steed can run before tiring out. When the War Steed becomes tired it should start to Canter instead of Gallop.
5) There are four speeds you can adjust with a War Steed, Walk/Trot/Canter/Gallop. Walking and Trotting should not have the same gliding effect as Canter and Gallop. It doesn't make sense to walk around and glide all over the place at every turn. The speed for Walk should also be reduced, the standard mount walk is perfect and should be replicated with War Steeds.
6) Capes should not fly around when the War Steed isn't running.
7) Mounted combat (or at the very least dash) should be available in all regions of the game.
8) There should be more War Steed outfits, any regular mount should have the same or similar style available for War Steeds to replicate. There should be more options to attain War Steed outfits outside of the LOTRO store, including in game War Steed specific quests.
9) War Steed level cap should mirror the player's level cap so players can continue to progress their mounts as they level up.
10) Lower War Steed inertia all around so that they are smoother to ride and don't go gliding all over the place (remove inertia entirely for slower speeds as mentioned in #5).

[Starliteyes]

I LOVE mounted combat! It's just so natural to have it for Rohan and Gondor and I enjoyed the stories that go with it. PLEASE do not remove it.

However, I think it would be helpful at this point in time to get the skills, buffs and traits that improve it much faster. I think most people who dislike it probably haven't buffed up their warsteed. Maxing agility and turning make it much easier to control, and knowing the skills (maybe making them a bit more potent) help kill things faster. How many people know that a burg can one shot most opponents by putting on the orc armour disquise? Or that burgs can make a group of mobs attack each other? How many pay attention to the bridle, or even know it exists?

Another however, that quest with Eowyn and the troll really daunts a lot of folk.