Minstrel Bridle Legacies

[Trixie_Me]

If the rumors are true, we'll be seeing a lot of mounted combat in next expansion. Up until now, I've considered mounted combat something to only be done to get through the epic and to get that trait point from Minas Tirith. However, if it's going to be an integral part of what's coming up, I figured I would do my best to make it less painful.

To that end, can some of you who actually don't hate mounted combat on your minstrel please show me which legacies are working for you? Now that first age symbols have come down in price, I've purchased one and made a medium bridle. But I have no idea where to go from there.

Thanks!

[JFDCamara]

Bump

I think bridles are still not imbuable and I'm not sure there are lv 100 bridles yet, but I've been thinking that maybe it's time to create a proper bridle for my Light Steed, I have FA symbols getting dust after all.

So I've been thinking in these legacies:

Major
- Class Skill Damage Over Time
- Motivation Through Aggression Heal Chance
- Wrath Critical Chance

Minor
- Red Dawn Skill Direct Damage
- Rohirrim Skill Healing
- Maximum War Steed Endurance
- Maximum War Steed Agility

We don't have that many choices in legacies (for Light Steed), so I use both the best damage and healing ones. Endurance is always good and Agility I have some doubts. Maybe Red Dawn Skill Power Cost and/or Rohirrim Skill Power cost are more useful?

What do you think? What is your setup?

[Daefaroth]

Bump

I think bridles are still not imbuable and I'm not sure there are lv 100 bridles yet, but I've been thinking that maybe it's time to create a proper bridle for my Light Steed, I have FA symbols getting dust after all.

So I've been thinking in these legacies:

Major
- Class Skill Damage Over Time
- Motivation Through Aggression Heal Chance
- Wrath Critical Chance

Minor
- Red Dawn Skill Direct Damage
- Rohirrim Skill Healing
- Maximum War Steed Endurance
- Maximum War Steed Agility

We don't have that many choices in legacies (for Light Steed), so I use both the best damage and healing ones. Endurance is always good and Agility I have some doubts. Maybe Red Dawn Skill Power Cost and/or Rohirrim Skill Power cost are more useful?

What do you think? What is your setup?

As of January 2021, ignore all Power Cost legacies. Bridles are still not able to be imbued and SSG announced in 2020 that they have no plans to expand mounted combat content. So bridles will no be able to be imbued for the foreseeable future.

As a hunter and warden aficionado, I use the following legacies on my 1st age light bridles for both classes. However, the concepts I discuss below should also work for minstrels. The legacies were selected to support my riding strategy of:
1) always run around the landscape in Riddermark Discipline to use the "Dash" speed advantage to its fullest.
2) when engaging in combat against low level agro, switch to Red Dawn Discipline to maximize damage, using Riddermark Discipline as "fly-by" attacks to clear a path to leave the area.
3) to be immune to being dismounted when riding through agro of any level, ride a Medium War-Steed and use the Rohirrim Discipline's "Sacrifice" skill to have your character's stats and armor consistently absorb 100% of the damage and effects your war-steed would have taken. Note: using "Sacrifice" while riding through on-level or higher agro will absolutely protect your character from being dismounted..but can easily get your character killed.

Keep in mind that once you reach the level cap (currently 130), being dismounted is actually beneficial to you in that your combat skills while unmounted are actually much better than any of your mounted combat skills. So why stay mounted? Maneuverability is much better than on foot and you can more easily out-run any annoying agro you don't want to fight. However, sometimes it's just better to fight on foot through agro..or sneak if you're running a burglar.

Regardless, on to my 1st Age Light Bridle legacy recommendations.

Major
- Wrath Critical Chance
- Class Damage Over Time

Minor
- Red Dawn Skill Direct Damage
- Maximum War Steed Agility
- Riddermark Skill Direct Damage
- Maximum War Steed Power
- Riddermark Skill Healing -OR- War Steed Endurance

The two majors help maximize damage potential. The two minor "Direct Damage" skills do so as well. The minor War Steed Agility legacy, when maxed out, really helps make a war steed more maneuverable in acceleration and turning. The minor War Steed Power legacy is what fuels war steed combat skills; get it as high as possible.

Finally, it's a toss-up between the minor legacies of "Riddermark Skill Healing" or "War Steed Endurance". I lean toward Endurance since I want to minimize the chance of being dismounted in Riddermark Discipline when avoiding agro fights and having extra war-steed morale up front does that. The Healing legacy is a tiny bit more helpful in protracted mounted combat. One thing to understand is the two legacies have different point costs per level. So going with the Endurance legacy will likely leave unusable points left over. However, the goal of any Bridle build should be to maximize as many of the desired legacies as possible; Fury Bonus Contribution just isn't that important at level-cap.

After using 3 Crystals of Remembrance, a Scroll of Delving (for that 7th legacy slot) and using scrolls of empowerment to maximize the legacies, I get the two following 1st Age Bridle builds.

Build #1
+21463 Fury Bonus Contribution Rating, Rank: 4...Next Rank: 41
+5% Wrath Critical Chance (Light Steed), Rank: 5...At Maximum Rank
+10% Class Skill Damage Over Time, Rank: 9...At Maximum Rank
+10% Red Dawn Direct Damage, Rank: 9...At Maximum Rank
+74 War -Steed Agility, Rank: 9...At Maximum Rank
+10% Riddermark Direct Damage, Rank: 9...At Maximum Rank
+1000 Maximum War-Steed Power, Rank: 9...At Maximum Rank
+1000 Maximum War-Steed Endurance, Rank: 9...At Maximum Rank

The above build has 21 points left over while the following build has no points left over. The only differences are 1) swapping higher steed Endurance for a Riddermark Skill Healing buff and, 2) a very slight decrease in Fury Bonus Contribution for the second build.

Build #2
+21294 Fury Bonus Contribution Rating, Rank: 3...Next Rank: 30
+5% Wrath Critical Chance (Light Steed), Rank: 5...At Maximum Rank
+10% Class Skill Damage Over Time, Rank: 9...At Maximum Rank
+10% Red Dawn Direct Damage, Rank: 9...At Maximum Rank
+74 War -Steed Agility, Rank: 9...At Maximum Rank
+10% Riddermark Direct Damage, Rank: 9...At Maximum Rank
+1000 Maximum War-Steed Power, Rank: 9...At Maximum Rank
+10% Riddermark Skill Healing, Rank: 9...At Maximum Rank

Both builds maximize all legacies. Hope the above info helps you, the reader, on your journeys through Middle Earth.