Mounted Combat 101

[Lolorndinfey]

Hi. Just saw some terrible tutorials on Youtube. Here for your consideration, are my ideas for basic mounted combat.

Basic premises of mounted combat.

Control. Initiative

A. control of distance between you and your target.

B. control of the rate of attack and type of attack.

C. maintain the initiative. You decide when to attack, and when to break off.



Here's the basic three rules.

!. Lock camera on target.

You can't maintain focus if you can't see your target half the time. It takes practice. I would recommend the starter track, and ride laps while the camera is locked on the center dummy, or the quest giver on the side. Can you ride this way while the camera is locked on target? Can you be comfortable fighting this way? Zoom the camera out so you get a bit of lateral vision as to what's immediately ahead of your steed.

Don't forget to turn this off when on foot. I find it irritating when on foot for battles.

2. Control your speed. Vary your speed. Adapt to the battle.

Never gallop (well. almost never)

Gallp or full speed is when you're riding away to dismount to reset power/heal, a starting attack run, or to disengage. This is because your turn rate is horrible when at gallop speeds, as they should be. With the exception of melee classes on heavy, decide on a speed of 3/4 or 1/2 that you're comfortable with on your light or med. Melee classes should be default on heavy at 1/2, and slow to 1/4 when you have morale domination and enemy is near death. Ranged stays at 3/4 or 1/2. You're doing it right when you control when you're in range, and not let the enemy decide. Control the situation. Maintain the initiative. Disengage if out of power, or low morale, gallop. then dismount. mount, to reset power and morale. Continue the battle.

3. Max Fury

Maximize your fury before each attack. The higher damage of mounted skills, enhanced by your LI bridles fury build rate. makes for devastating attacks.
Only strike when fury at your set speed is maximized. Maximize your LI bridle fury build rate first above all else.
Your set speed determines your rate of attack. Ranged slowest at 3/4 speed, to melee types at 1/2 speed , to a blistering 1/4 speed when the enemy is near death.
Sing a song. Say a tongue twister. Count to 5. Mary had a little lamb..wap. repeat.
There's a tempo to mounted combat. Learn the song. Master the battle. Practice, practice, practice.

With each class, you have particular flavors of special attacks. unsaddle, slows, turn an add to your side, a big alpha strike at full gallop with max fury.
The majority of the battle is about control. keeping an eye on your target, and striking only when fury is max at your curret set speed. Change your speed. Keep your target in the open away from obstacles. Melee types should slow to 1/4, never stopping, and strike faster at 1/4 fury to finish the battle.

Hope this helps.

***Addendum***


Just three more optional pieces of advice to make mounted combat more effective.

1. Never follow your target. Free shots by the target. Defeats the whole point of controlling distance and initiative.

2. The J-Hook.

A simple starter tactic is to aim for a point (30 feet/10m) to either side of the target. (if the target is a fast mover, increase this 'aim' point)
Ride in a straight line. Watch the fury meter build.
Let the target close the distance.
Hopefully, you strike at max fury when closest, and ride away in a straight line.
Count. 1,2,3,4,5... turn left or right 135 degrees. your choice. do this just before fury is maxed.
Fury built up again. Let the target close the distance. strike when max fury.
Repeat this.

I call this the J-Hook pattern. if done right. you attack at max fury. The target only hits a few times based on your mistakes.
just take the weak ranged hits from the target. Ignore it. You strike faster and harder this way.

Just keep repeating it until the target is dead, or melee classes can slow to 1/4 and finish the job with fast fury building 1/4 fury bonus strikes, which cycles really fast.
You're basically playing a high speed game of 'catch'. This minimizes keystrokes, and lets you focus on your fury levels and target distance.

3. Focused on Fury

Move your warsteed window with the fury meter next to the expected space where the camera lock on target displays the enemy, or just above your skill bar.
Wherever your eye is mostly focused on. If you hotkey your mounted attacks. you can have this warsteed window just below the enemy morale meter.
If your eyes are focused on your skill bar CD, then move the Warsteed window just above your skill bar.

The youtube tutorial had the warsteed window in the corner. Far away from where my eyes were focused, and thus taking precious seconds to shift your eyes to check fury. Why make it harder for yourself? Split seconds matter in mounted combat.

Speed control. Yeah. wish there were set hotkey for warsteed speeds. 1 for accelerate. 3 for decelerate. It's the cycle thing. Irritating, I know.

[XinaLotRO]

Good tips!

I find the best way to use the target-locked camera is to keep the downward camera angle at about 45 degrees.
The downward angle (overhead view) makes it look like the camera is swinging around less wildly.
I also keep the camera as far away from myself as possible, without having it "snap in" repeatedly due to trees or other obstacles.



As for speed in combat, I almost always fight at a Canter. (That's why I'm so frustrated that steeds often jump from Trot to Gallop.)

Another useful tip is to lead the mob to an open area where you have the advantage.
Make sure there aren't many trees, cliffs, rivers, or other obstacles to get caught up on.

I love to pull the mob to an open area with a large boulder or other blocking object in the middle.
I ride in wide ovals at maximum possible distance from the target.
If the target gets too close to me, I ride past the blocking object in such a way that the mob has to go around or stumble over it.

[Flooz]

That's wonderful advice thank you

It should only take a year or two to learn how to do this properly - I'm useless!

[Lolorndinfey]

I added some optional advice at the end. Just advice. Use what you want from it.

[Agantas]

Few pointers
-If you can press insert to change the maximum speed of your mount. Available speeds are walk, trot, canter and gallop. You can select the speed limit you want by pressing insert until correct speed has been selected.
-Some of your skills fill morale/endurance and power/war steed power when you are using Rohirrim (blue) dicipline. I have personally favoured Rohirrim discipline for that reason.
-Mounted foes have same turning limitations as you do. You can take advantage of this by riding behind mounted foes and attacking them from rear. You can also get off your auto attacks when chasing the foe from their rear, while they are unable to pull off theirs due to you being behind them. When the foes are mounted and in full speed, manouvering to their rear is a good idea. You should be chasing the mounted foe, not the other way around.

Soloing Eastemnet warbands with mounted archers, such as Dahamab and Kramp is good practice for attacking the opponent's rear. Both of these bosses have four mounted archers as adds, which you kill off by riding behind them and shoot them.

My mounted combat experience is limited to hunter class, so you can take it with a grain of salt.

If anyone has input on how groups handle things in mounted combat, this seems to be a good thread to share the info. I'm kind of wondering how to score that triumphant victory against those mounted Kingstead warbands , which both are big and have decent amount of HP. I have only managed an assassinate the boss and flee with your life kind of victory against one of them, grouped together with a Guardian.

[Lolorndinfey]

Yes. I've remapped the warsteed speed button to both the numpad 0(zero) and one other extra mouse buttons. fast access. No need to click the meter.
Wish there were 4 keys for each speed mode. or a +/- button for 1 notch of the warsteed speed setting.

One tap for speed increase. Three taps for deceleration. the instant halt button is mapped to 2. Again Fast access.

Riding behind is one of the tactics possible for solo ranged. The mobs try to match your warsteed's speed, so a common trick is to decelerate (3 taps) but not stop. forcing the AI to reciprocate. Don't stay there. Chuck a few arrows/ranged and then accelerate again to get away. All about that tempo. Find that rhythm and you'll boss the fight.

In a fellow/raid, swarm is the tactic. Circle in opposite directions to confuse the AI if there's no communication in the fellowship. Attack at moments of opportunity. Stagger the attacks, or come in from near opposite directions. Watch who keeps the aggro and help protect him/her by stealing threat. Keep stealing threat. This way you even out the damage within the group and allow those hit to heal and continue the moving fight. The optimum is for the target to be constantly shifting his target never focused on one group member for long.

When there's communication in the warsteed group, circle in one direction around the mob forming one big wagonwheel. Take turns with ranged to help the melee classes come in for one big max fury strike. It's agaiin like a ranged tug of war for threat focus by the target. If all circling in one direction, it's easier for the leader to spot and call out what's needed. Old Luftwaffe/Mig Alley formation. the Circle of Death.

Another more advanced solo tactic is for those comfortable fighting with camera locked on target, is the Scissor or Snake Dance. From top down view you are drawing a wiggly circle. Constantly alternating turning in a comfortable left and right turn. attacking at max fury on the straighaways. Think of the J Hook but always alternating left and right on the turn. This is usually more applicable when there's obstacles in the terrain, but you can find a winding path around a big central obstacle. The obstacle's there to help you keep reference. Think of the starter race course, but instead of riding in the fastest path. you are winding left and right through the track. Someone on foot or mounted chasing you will always catch up in the straight aways of the L/R/L/R turns., at least that's the plan. near perfect execustion is almost impossible, but the overall battle gets the job done. Maintain control. keep the initiative, strke when max fury for your speed.

[ChromiteSwiftpaw]

The way I do it - mouse and mouse buttons control both my camera view as well as my acceleration. (I'm always at gallop - I never change my speed from that) I always have "War-steed Auto-Slowdown" checked in the Combat Options panel, also.

All of my mounted attack skills are mostly ordered by refresh except Flay Open, which is a melee attack and I put it at slot 4 bceause that's my standard melee attack hotkey placement. I put my "Caution" skill in quickslot 10 as I have that quickslot bound to my middle mouse button. I just pop that when I need my target to be forced to in front of/beside me so I can dismount them.

Here's some videos of me doing mounted combat. I'd love to see other peoples' methods of mounted combat just to see if other styles might be better.

I can only embed one video but the others are linked.

YouTube: LOTRO Raid Warband: Macsen in Western Rohan - Hunter Solo


YouTube: LOTRO Level 100 Hunter Solos Gondor Warband Gundagh - Update 16

YouTube: LOTRO Level 100 Hunter Solos Gondor Warband Thangol-Ya - Update 16

[Decyfer]

Very solid advice, I'm guessing this is obviously mostly geared at mounted warbands.

Only thing I have to add is almost complete opposite strategy for movement control when fighting non-mounted warbands - i.e. all Western Gondor warbands and several others.

Movement
I hold forward and either left/right strafe to just ride around in same circle at full gallop, the turn radius is bad - which means its perfect, non-mounted warbands will never actually reach you, they just spin around in a smaller circle inside the one you are riding. Then to avoid getting dizzy/sick from spinning in a circle for up to 2-3 minutes depending on class/fight, I just hold my right mouse button so my camera faces the same direction (similiar strategy dancers do when they spin in circles). Facing the target while doing the 'circle strategy' is irrelevant as your skills will still fire off and hit them as you are always at an attackable angle. My 2 cents for non-mounted and works well for me instead of random running all over the map as I have seen others do.

[Lolorndinfey]

yes. Gallop.

Take a step back and consider these facts.

Your warsteed is a weapon.
Speed = fury. Max fury = rate of attack.
At gallop, your turn rate is horrible.

Instead of mucking around with your rmb on camera views, and turning like a school bus. Try canter, or any speed you're comfortable with. and watching your fury, your target like a hawk.

You should be fast enough and maneuverable enough at canter to avoid those adds and target at will. Vary your speed. adapt to the battle. I just see common mistakes of riding right up to the target, or letting adds close to melee distance as a hunter. Kinda hard to avoid adds if you're at gallop, huh?

Whole point is to allow an add or enemy to be within range at your will. Ride around the outside of their attack range until a time of your choosing to enter your attack range.

Well. It's advice. Just makes me sad when I see a guard riding around at full gallop on a heavy diz;ing on MC. Because he can't turn fast enough, and his attacks never in range at gallop speeds.

[HaleElven]

These are some general suggestions... But, it's ignoring Class differences, War-Steed types (Heavy/Medium/Light), which Discipline you're currently in (Red Dawn, Rohirrim, Riddermark).

I mean, the very FIRST thing you should do when get your War-steed on a Class is Mount up;

• Change to Red Dawn discipline, examine all your skills
• Change to Rohirrim discipline, examine all your skills
• Change to Riddermark discipline, examine all your skills

Second, be aware for the general traits in Red Dawn and Rohirrim War-steed traits;

• Heavy
  
  • Red Dawn: +Positional ranged damage to Mounted, +Damage to unmounted, +Crit toggle
  • Rohirrim: +WS armor toggle
• Medium
  
  • Red Dawn: +Positional Bleeds, WS Power heal
  • Rohirrim: -Skill Power costs, Take damage from WS toggle
• Light
  
  • Red Dawn: +Bleeds, -Hate
  • Rohirrim: -Skill cooldowns, WS Power heal, Endurance heal

Third, be aware of the Capstones unique to each WS Type and Discipline;

• Heavy
  
  • Red Dawn: Crits = Slow
  • Rohirrim: Boosts incoming and outgoing healing
  • Riddermark: Skill Power reduction
• Medium
  
  • Red Dawn: Crit = +Bleed
  • Rohirrim: % to apply Morale bubble
  • Riddermark: Buffs have increased duration
• Light
  
  • Red Dawn: +Crit chance
  • Rohirrim: % to restore 10% Morale/Endurance
  • Riddermark: Crit = 25% chance to dismount target

[Lolorndinfey]

Fantastic info chart, HaleElven.

refresher course for myself too. Just being aware of the all the combinations.

However, my concern is even more fundamental than disciplines and advantages of each.

101 basics. The youtube vids just made me shake my head. How someone can post a tutorial and get it so wrong is beyond me.

Disciplines, skills, trait trees. Switching disciplines mid battle for the various advantages offered is more of an advanced topic. I didn't think to post those here for the reason of the topic heading. 101. Some just refuse to recognize bare basics of mounted combat. I hope those checking out the topic would take the time, take a step back, and consider the ideas behind it. I've even heard on world channel most just prefer to fight on foot. They just don't like it. It didn't take me overnight to realize, but when I did, it was like an epiphany. A big lightbulb. Oh! that's why?!

Thanks for posting and adding to the topic. I've copied it and will use it as a text file reference between battles on horse.

[Laubgaenger]

I would like to add that you can increase the Turnrate with Agility of the Horse

Yellow: +125 Agility, +10% Moral, -10% Power Cost
Red: +10% Dmg, +10% Crit Dmg
Blue: +200 Armour, +10% outgoing Heal

At least in non MC Areas it will help with the Turnrate.
Light Horse in Yellow.

[Marancil]

Why do we keep posting new stuff instead of adding to the one that already exists:

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...teeds-movement

There are lots of info in both threads...

[Lolorndinfey]

Yes. Marancil.

I'll give you two simple answers. Experience. Application.

Telling someone to trait only yellow. when the DPS job is to inflict high dmg and CC effects. is well... criminal

Telling a tank to use only light steeds when their job is to take hits (heavy) and keep up the threat focus with fast ROF strikes is... wrong.

Don't use your warsteed until the bridle is level 18+ is... baffling (yes. it's rough when your fury build rate is not maxed out, but still valuable time to get experience)

Auto-slowdown has proven to be counter productive in terms of speed control, and holding down the movement forward takes focus away from watching fury levels and target distance.

Worrying about using the warsteed in town or near npc's with double tap stop is... the wrong use of warsteeds. Try trot, not gallop. or even just dismounting at the stables and switching to classic steeds for town/npc access. It has nothing to do with mounted combat.

Understandably, it's not fair to dump on Saelyth when MC was new. Before the light bulb moment there were many weeks spent trying to figure out MC. I hope those on the other topic forum will chime in. What have you learned in the meantime. It's been 2.5 years of experience.

[Lolorndinfey]

ping for newcomers to Mounted Combat