Thread: Riders of Rohan and the Champion playstyle

Riders of Rohan has just been announced and it seems that mounted combat will be mandatory in certain areas. I'm quite concerned about this as I can't see how this fits in too well with the Champion playstyle.

If you dual wield, you'll surely only be able to use one weapon at a time, controlling your steed with the other hand... I'm aware that it's possible for a very well trained rider and horse to control by knee pressure alone, but we as players are definitely not up to that level of horsemanship. Especially if you're a dwarf. If you use a 2H you're basically screwed. There's no way in hell that you could swing a 2H axe or whatever from the back of a horse and expect to stay mounted.

Are they going to get us to use spears or lances, which would be the staple of mounted combat, 1H swords or maces are also an option, but what effect will this have on our dps? Additionally mounted combat usually comprises of hit and run tactics... champs don't run from anything!

Will we be required to level up more LIs for mounted combat in addition to those we use for "normal" combat?

I have many questions and concerns, I was wondering what the other champs thought of this?

Just think of the poor guardians

At least you have swords. What are RK's gonna do? Can we induct while riding a horse? Or just throw our rocks? This is gonna be REAL interesting...

Hey....how 'bout us Burgs?
How the heck do we stealth on a horse???
"CLUMP, CLUMP, THUMP........""SShhhhhh, quiet Fleabiscut!!! We're tryin' to sneak up on 'em""
Yep, this is gonna be interesting.....(and fun!!!)
lol

Quite frankly I expected Mounted Combat to have nothing to do with our actual skills. Instead I imagine that you will have a separate mount for combat that will have its own set of skills, as opposed to converting current skills.

Originally Posted by Murtanion

Quite frankly I expected Mounted Combat to have nothing to do with our actual skills. Instead I imagine that you will have a separate mount for combat that will have its own set of skills, as opposed to converting current skills.

Well I don't want to play a generic mounted combat class, I want to play a champion, like I have for the last 5 years. Where is the class distinction going to go if everyone has the basic same skills? There is already too much overlap according to some, this won't help.

I wouldn't bother speculating on how classes will play in mounted combat until it starts hitting BR. If I had to guess, though, they are definitely making this sound like an area where you will have to be grouped in order to survive. If so and mounted combat is not your thing, then you can probably skip/avoid the area completely just like LLG, Dol Dinen, and GA (loot/rep/virtues aside).

Speculating can be fun though, so why not I agree that it's likely that all classes' mounted combat will be pretty much the same. Cause yeh, let's face it. Champs can't really shing shing properly on a horse without chopping its head off, Runekeepers cant do inductions, burglars cant be in stealth, and I dont think riding a horse will improve a minstrels song quality.

I'll just patiently await what turbine has in mind for us. Looking forward to it!

C'mon, guys, the Rohirrim are going to teach us to be true horse masters. I expect it will be like the session play things where you play as vaguely similar classes to regular LotRO classes but with enough of a difference from your normal gameplay/skills that you'll notice for sure. It will probably also be like session play in that you'll likely have one bar of skills tops. The "trample" skill shared by all classes, likely some other shared utility skills, then some skills unique to your class. I fully expect that champs will learn how to shing-shing without turning our own horses to glue, and RK's will be able to...do something cool, I hope.

Mounted combat will be pretty trivial due to all the issues that many have mentioned here. I think it's going to be in very specific areas and offer very little freedom, it would be something like the saruman rings...you feel great using a ring of power but you don't have much to do...

Originally Posted by Shintagh

Mounted combat will be pretty trivial due to all the issues that many have mentioned here. I think it's going to be in very specific areas and offer very little freedom, it would be something like the saruman rings...you feel great using a ring of power but you don't have much to do...

I like my lightning ring. Gives me some really nice DPS stats at the end of the fight

I'm thinking it will be something similar to session play mentioned above, but with a change. First, if we are riding Horses of Rohan then I think they would be highly trained enough to let us control them by leg pressure. Second, I seem to recall a dev saying something about "each class would have certain class specific skills while mounted" (also if you will play the Quest string about the new mount, starts in Combe, you'll see a few of the mounted combat skills) So perhaps Champs will get horns and some AOE attack?

"CLUMP, CLUMP, THUMP........""SShhhhhh, quiet Fleabiscut!!! We're tryin' to sneak up on 'em""

lol

I think everybody will can only use Spears while mounted, because doesn't sense you use a axe/sword while fightining in a horse.

In this teaser trailer, it looks like a champion in mounted combat:

It's a dw champ wearing Orthanc armor and shiny draig cloak... Apart from that the video is, well... bad isn't really the word for it

It's that very awful video which causes me such concerns It looks like a free to play browser game

Originally Posted by KhelgarFK

It's that very awful video which causes me such concerns It looks like a free to play browser game

Why are you concerned? You honestly think that any significant portion of the game is going to require mounted combat? After we've been playing our classes since 2007?

Turbine isn't that dumb. Even despite their complete bungling when it comes to actually giving their customers useful information, that haven't failed to inform us that mounted combat will only be semi-required in very few locations.

I take that to mean that mounted combat will simply be a fluff feature, tacked on only for flavor. The video shows only two unique attacks from horseback - firing a bow and a one-handed swipe. I, for one, am GLAD that it looks like garbage, because (hopefully) it means that they didn't waste too much time on it.

Beautiful horses, lol.

Originally Posted by Nicepants42

Why are you concerned? You honestly think that any significant portion of the game is going to require mounted combat? After we've been playing our classes since 2007?

Turbine isn't that dumb.

You sure about that? The only thing they are pushing as the focus of this expansion is mounted combat. Mounted combat will be a mandatory part of the book quest. On the plains you will be at a disadvantage if you don't mount up...

They are putting a lot of work into the warhorses, they have their own trait lines, custom skins, custom player skills. All that is a lot of dev work to develop so it must be a major part of the gameplay.

IMO mounted combat is lame unless you're a ranged class...

We will we dual-riding warhorses, who whinny 'Shing shing!'.