Mounted Combat 2.0: A Tale of Problems & Solutions

[ernieR]

sometimes i zig zag away from my target rather than circle around him , might work for you


the rubberbanding and lag encountered when using mounted combat is so bad that i rarely use it anymore . most of my riding between areas is done on my regular horse , on the warhorse i'm much too likely to end up somewhere completely different from where i want to go , or end up with multiple mobs beating on me because i agro'd them while i thought i wasn't close enough to do so , if i saw them at all .

small update , with MC 2.0 i'm finding lag and rubberbanding to be less of an issue . unfortunately my client crashing is worse . used to be i could play 30 minutes and my client would crash only when opening something , like a door or a vendor . now i can crash almost anywhere and i usually get only 20 minutes .

i realize the crashing is almost certainly a memory leak issue , and since my motherboard is limited to 3gb i can't fix this by buying more memory

[fidor]

I am still enjoying Mounted Combat after version 2.0. My steed handling is slightly worse but is still manageable. I am currently taking a Burglar through Rohan and my only gripe is that "Trick: Stratagem" does not seem to show up as a buff/debuff icon so I cannot quickly tell when it is active.

[Silverbullets]

It's strange that they cannot fix the rubberbanding. My warg, when it sprints, does not rubberband, and it is sprinting very fast. Unfortunately, I cannot compare its speed to a warhorse, since warhorses are not allowed in the Ettenmoors.

Perhaps an overall reduction in speed, including mob speed, is in order? Get it to the level of a warg sprint, perhaps?

For the sliding and slipping, I think the devs need to start over entirely. They need to endow the horse with the same movement mechanics as a regular travel horse. They can enforce an auto-run with the same gradual speed-up, slow-down mechanics from there. I think what's causing the slipping and sliding feeling is the agility system. Yes, they revamped everything to where everyone gets nice agility applied to movement, but it's still there, under the hood. They're putting in unnatural turns that make a lot of people feel ill, including me. It's weird watching my horse slide sideways as it turns.

Yes, removing the agility as it applies to movement would make mounted combat easier, too easy, perhaps. They will have to compensate for the ease of turning with either harder mobs or nerfed warhorse skills. But I'm all for it, if I don't have to feel sick anymore. I honestly don't think I can do another 10 levels of this. I haven't even finished the first 10, and I dread logging in to quest because of this.

[commodore1]

Mounted combat by its nature must be different from on foot combat, so classes will not have identical roles to the ones they are used to on foot.

I don't understand this at all. As a guardian(my main) I want to do on horseback exactly what I want to do on foot. I want to agro as many mobs as possible to attack me. Why would I want that to change simply because I mounted up? I want the identical role as on foot as mounted so my character can be effective. If I'm not agroing anything mounted and I usually can't then what the heck good am I? As a guard our damage has been nerfed, our agro has been made to be immune by some mobs, and riding the warship on an ice field isn't very fun at all. In my own personal opinion they should call mounted wombats a done deal and just scrap it.

[Razorlan]

Now that I have a war steed, I fully intend to completely ignore it whenever possible. I absolutely detest being forced to move and attack at the same time. I feel like I can't really focus on what I am trying to do that way, and I end up with sensory overload. A kin member the other day also made the comment that trying to ride a war steed is like trying to drive a bus. I have to say that I agree 100%. They don't stop fast enough, even when you double-tap the back arrow key, and if you use the forward arrow key and your mouse to move, used in combination with the auto-slow option, it makes it impossible to select your speed. You always end up at top speed until you take your finger off the arrow key, thereby auto-slowing. Also, the maneuverability of war steeds, in my opinion, is practically non-existent. I really detest the war steeds.

[Hunterhuntinghunter]

Rubberbanding and being flung over cliffs, or even falling through the world at one point, make MC the worst part of this game. That and combats that last way longer than if I stand in one spot and burn things down.

[Moondog548]

The length of time it takes riding round-and-around in circles to kill one mob, and then another, and then another and then another, makes an otherwise exciting activity a grinding chore. And I'm talking about my ranged class! I can only imagine that playing a melee class that isn't allowed to DPS except every huge sweeping pass (at full speed fury, ofc, unless you want your attack to be so weak it hardly counts) must be EXCRUCIATING.

Actually I take my friend's word for it that can't bring himself to play anymore because of Mounted Combat being most of the game and horrendously tedious.

I hope the overall streamlining of classes and their skills leads to shorter combats with mobs (since there's so many damn mobs in your way) and hopefully that design just has to carry over to Mounted Combat.

Mounted Combat should be brutal rather than grueling. :[

[Lynx3d]

Well honestly I don't want mobs to be so weak they fall with a single execution of your basic rotation of say 5 skills...but that's exactly how "normal" combat with landscape mobs is these days. Don't really need any of your other abilities for questing apart from your top 5 damage skills, on any class I played. They rather should do away with excessive mobs and insane respawn rates, IMHO. I really thought open tapping was supposed to take care of the necessity for fast respawns of trivial to defeat mobs.

But I agree that mounted combat is very unbalanced still...while my burglar can one-hit most mobs when attacking from behind, doing so is very annoying, and when you don't you may aswell fight them unmounted. And the only thing Turbine came up with is removing the very last ranged damage skill burglars had...awesome. All single-target of course.
In contrast, Captains, who without war-steed only have a single ranged ability that does low damage, and rather weak melee AoE, on a war-steed they have multiple AoE abilities, two of which are ranged with an insane radius and amount of targets, so you can clear out whole camps in the blink of an eye really. You don't even need to move, they still do enough damage with zero fury.

Needless to say which of the two classes I use to farm mobs...

[Grimdi]

The length of time it takes riding round-and-around in circles to kill one mob, and then another, and then another and then another, makes an otherwise exciting activity a grinding chore. And I'm talking about my ranged class! I can only imagine that playing a melee class that isn't allowed to DPS except every huge sweeping pass (at full speed fury, ofc, unless you want your attack to be so weak it hardly counts) must be EXCRUCIATING.

It heavily depends on the actual class. MC on Captain is a blast, you can one-shot some of the smaller Rohan warbands and most non-elite mobs with long-range AoE attacks dealing 15-20k+ damage frequently on devastates and being able to solo most warbands without problems. On Guardian (with DPS gear in Red Dawn) it's a drag, often needing 5+ close-range attacks for non-elite mobs, not bothering with even small warbands unless grouped. Champion is somewhere in between, but closer to Captain than Guard. Runekeeper is ranged but takes much longer than Champion in MC (not as long as Guard though).
From what I see in warband-groups, LMs are pretty good too in MC, Hunters do ok, Wardens usually dismount and tank on foot, Minis go healing and Burgs seem to be non-existant.

Last update also seems to have reduced MC lag/rubberbanding quite a bit, though it added other annoyances with mounted controls. Always seems as if the engine simply can't cope with the new movement mechanics. And MC movement in general can be frustrating if you get stuck on a small rock or tree, the debuffs of the Wildermore warbands (making you stop randomly or reducing your turn-rate by 80%) don't make this any better.

[Kirlith]

I do hope wardens are not dismounting, my far from optimized and not maxed warden is managing 10k ranged AoE crits that have 10% chance of healing me or something like that. Light steed ftw

[ChromiteSwiftpaw]

On Guardian (with DPS gear in Red Dawn) it's a drag, often needing 5+ close-range attacks for non-elite mobs, not bothering with even small warbands unless grouped.

Guardian is fantastic with a Light Steed.

The only warbands I can't solo on my guardian are Shaguk, Conog and Rottenheart. That's only because they either have immunities to dismounting or the effort is not worth my time. (Rottenheart)

I can often one-shot mobs with 15k-25k morale depending on if I crit decently. Rohan's Edge for the win!

Switching between the three war-steed disciplines really helps. Rohirrim for when you need threat and healing, Red Dawn for when you need maximum DPS with bleeds and such. Riddermark for when you need to refresh your power.

[LaGere]

Guardian is fantastic with a Light Steed.

The only warbands I can't solo on my guardian are Shaguk, Conog and Rottenheart. That's only because they either have immunities to dismounting or the effort is not worth my time. (Rottenheart)

I can often one-shot mobs with 15k-25k morale depending on if I crit decently. Rohan's Edge for the win!

Switching between the three war-steed disciplines really helps. Rohirrim for when you need threat and healing, Red Dawn for when you need maximum DPS with bleeds and such. Riddermark for when you need to refresh your power.

Wow this the exact opposite of what's happening to me. Guardians are horrible with light steed. can't kill anything within 10 mins of attacking. although you can run away from most mobs and just ignore them on a light steed. Normally i just run up to it dismount and kill it. it dies so much easier that way. I hate mounted combat and can't see a really good use for it. But thankfully its design is so bad they haven't forced you to use it in any quests or instances that mean anything yet. If they made them more like stable mounts only faster I could see using one but that will never happen as folks would like and use it more. My kin sits on them in town while we discuss what we want to do then we enter a instance get dismounted and happily do the raid. Then afterwards we mount back up, ride to a merchant sell our trash and do it all again. No warbands are being fought no landscape mobs are being fought it just not worth the effort to do these things as noone feels like their character translates to anything like their on foot character.

[Lohi]

Guardian does work, but it takes a lot of extra work. Ie, you have to take mounted combat seriously. First retrait and regear for DPS, because sword+shield plus blue line traits won't help. I got a huge boost in performance after doing this, and spending some coins to get hytbold overpower oriented gear. To me this feels like completely unnecessary work, mounted combat should be a side game and no one should have to grind to make it work, but I was retraiting anyway to get ready for leveling in Helm's Deep.

It still has the problem though that you have melee attacks only. This is amazingly annoying in many places. It's very difficult to get self heals and power recovery unless you get a critical hit on one skill. This is why I think those whose guardians are traited for Ettenmoors who have a massive crit chance are the ones who are saying mounted combat is easy. Also there are some who've devised a trick with some mounted traits to allow the "Ride For Ruin" toggle skill to be on all the time without having it deplete your power completely. But both methods essentially require you to expend effort and planning to make this all work; whereas every single other class (except maybe burglar) has a very easy mounted combat experience without even thinking about it.

[Kirlith]

Just trait for some morale and armour on the light warsteed so it can take few hits, red dawn, go on follow and buttonsmash till mob is dead. Swap to healing stance every now and then if it's longer fight for soem self heals. Same "tactic" for all melee classes. When follow didn't work I didn't do any warsteed combat.

[ChromiteSwiftpaw]

Wow this the exact opposite of what's happening to me. Guardians are horrible with light steed. can't kill anything within 10 mins of attacking. although you can run away from most mobs and just ignore them on a light steed. Normally i just run up to it dismount and kill it. it dies so much easier that way. I hate mounted combat and can't see a really good use for it. But thankfully its design is so bad they haven't forced you to use it in any quests or instances that mean anything yet. If they made them more like stable mounts only faster I could see using one but that will never happen as folks would like and use it more. My kin sits on them in town while we discuss what we want to do then we enter a instance get dismounted and happily do the raid. Then afterwards we mount back up, ride to a merchant sell our trash and do it all again. No warbands are being fought no landscape mobs are being fought it just not worth the effort to do these things as noone feels like their character translates to anything like their on foot character.

As others have mentioned after your post, putting on DPS gear and traiting DPS you can get some pretty good damage.

Is there any particular warband you think is difficult or tough to kill (aside from Conog/Shaguk/Rottenheart)? I can maybe show you a video of me doing it on a light steed.

[Lohi]

Just trait for some morale and armour on the light warsteed so it can take few hits, red dawn, go on follow and buttonsmash till mob is dead. Swap to healing stance every now and then if it's longer fight for soem self heals. Same "tactic" for all melee classes. When follow didn't work I didn't do any warsteed combat.

But doesn't work on Guardian too well. Melee only means you must take time to swing around and line up and make the next attack, though occasionally when cooldown isn't up you can use a skill that forces the enemy in range (tricky because even on heavy steed you sometimes are faster than the enemy that is supposed to be beside you). There is no buttonsmash when you have 5-15 seconds between attacks. Also switching to healing stance can take a long time before any healing happens, because it only happens if you have a critical hit with one particular skill and this could easily take a minute or longer. Thus you must be starting to try to heal yourself long before you actually need it. Or you turn on the toggle skill to increase your crit rate but then it sucks power down extremely fast (which is why some people use medium steed for the power return options).

[Tarlywyn]

Is there a level requirement, or some other requirement, needed before you can place points in the yellow line? Just got my warsteed for my level 72 Guardian, but can't put any points into the yellow line. TIA.

Note: Have ROR, VIP account (also nothing asking for unlock payment, which shouldn't have to anyway), my champ has points in yellow line.

[SabrielofLorien]

Is there a level requirement, or some other requirement, needed before you can place points in the yellow line? Just got my warsteed for my level 72 Guardian, but can't put any points into the yellow line. TIA.

Note: Have ROR, VIP account (also nothing asking for unlock payment, which shouldn't have to anyway), my champ has points in yellow line.

afaik there is no basic restriction. My guard has points across the board (all colors).

There can be restrictions or prerequisites on some items at different levels, like nodeB requires 3 points in nodeA. I think the bridle type also has something to do with what is offered. My guard uses a heavy bridle.

[Tarlywyn]

I had a thought it might have been because I hadn't equipped my bridle (medium bridle / medium pony), but the problem persists. I have only the first point available, and can place in it either blue / red / green (attributes), but not yellow - no indication of a prereq in the toolbar. So either a level restriction, some other restriction - maybe bug?

[jrlt]

I had a thought it might have been because I hadn't equipped my bridle (medium bridle / medium pony), but the problem persists. I have only the first point available, and can place in it either blue / red / green (attributes), but not yellow - no indication of a prereq in the toolbar. So either a level restriction, some other restriction - maybe bug?

Are you sure the yellow attribute doesn't require 2 pts? Some do and if you mouse over the icon it will tell you how many points required for the next level. Just a hunch.

[Tarlywyn]

Are you sure the yellow attribute doesn't require 2 pts? Some do and if you mouse over the icon it will tell you how many points required for the next level. Just a hunch.

Yep, you're absolutely correct - the first trait in the yellow line is 2 points - been a while since I maxed my champ's warsteed, so forgot some traits cost more than one point. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction .

[Dwarven-Might]

Agree with others about LAG while on the war-steed. I believe you need to find out what exactly is causing lag while player is on the war-steed and try to fix it from that side. Mounted combat is not bad at all. Yes it feels limited, but with maxed agility steed moves quite well. War-Steed LAG and rubberbending are still the biggest problems even all these months after the system was first added.

[DennyMala]

The war horse movement is simulated pretty well if you ask me. I guess few of those complaining ride motorcicles or horses but you need to figure out that a worse with the rider and all the weapons and armours launched a full gallop can't turn on a dime whatever it happens. It's a pretty big mass to accelerate and decelerate, not to mention turn.

I feel it's not there the problem (at least for me, a hunter with a light steed).

My issue is the damage output (I'm surely not the best DPS out there, pointing this out) that is basically half then when I'm on foot. True, I can carry on the fight vay longer due to the evasion capability of the speed I'm able to attain, but it's get kinda frustrating to the point I often finds myself engaging mounted foes from the ground and the fight ends in a much quicker time.

This is the design flaw of the mounted combat to me; technical issues are another matter and apart from some rubberbanding or lag I have really nothing to report.