Guest Post: Mounted Combat Tactics

This post comes to us from Maravir and outlines his thoughts on Mounted Combat tactics. 

Mounted Combat Tactics (Fury isn’t everything!)

I have seen a lot of misinformation and generalisations being published about war steed mounted combat in game site reviews and LOTRO fan sites/forums. In particular there is a pervasive idea being put about that mounted combat is only possible in wide open areas, at full speed (fury) with a tight turning, agile steed.

Now I don’t profess to be any sort of expert in LOTRO mounted combat and my experience is limited to playing the Captain class on both medium and heavy steeds in RoR beta and live. However I can categorically state that the above generalisations are not true for the Captain class and I strongly suspect they aren’t true for many other classes with melee mounted combat skills either. It is hardly surprising that a number of people are put off mounted combat from the start when they are told they need to be thundering toward the enemy as fast as possible, strike, then turn and repeat for another full speed pass with maximum fury. While this tactic does indeed work well in some situations, it does take a lot of patience, planning and practice to sucessfully execute as a battle plan without:

a.) Overshooting and dragging a lot of unwanted additional mobs into the fight
b.) Not being able to get sufficient distance from the enemy mob to allow a turn for another pass
c.) Overshooting and losing your mob as a target because you went out of range
d.) Spending so much time fixated on your fury meter you ride off a cliff or crash into a rock!

The truth is, it is quite possible to kill mobs quickly, efficiently and with very little damage to yourself or your steed by simply walking or trotting your steed up to them and attacking while riding slowly in a very tight circle or even from a standstill. Your fury may be minimal or even non existent using this tactic, but you are constantly in range and able to execute all your attack skills one after the other as fast as they cool down. The orc camps around Floodwend are a great place to practise this tactic and remember you can always accelerate to a gallop and run away to regroup if it all starts to go wrong!

It can be immense fun and very satisfying to ride into some of the orc or Easterling camps in the Wold and just hack, slash and yell at mobs from the back of your steed as you walk through at a leisurely pace. I have decimated some camps in this area in a matter of a few minutes, MUCH faster than my Captain could ever achieve on foot. If you can take a friend or two with you and attack camps on horseback in this manner the carnage and slaughter is a sight to behold (I mean, who doesn’t enjoy killing orcs in huge numbers? haha). Do beware though, not all enemy camps have mounted combat enabled, for example Kufuzg, south of Elthengels in the Norcrofts disables mounted skills as you ride through the gate.

In my opinion, the key to getting the most from LOTRO mounted combat is not to get set in your ways about any one particular tactic. Don’t be frightened to experiment and don’t get fixated on having maximum fury at all times. Your steed has a speed control and in many situations slowing down can increase your killing efficiency or even open up new mounted combat target possibilities for you. Obviously if you like to fight from horseback at a slower pace, you and your steed will take more hits so a well armoured heavy steed is more likely the steed of choice than a light one – common sense applies here. Above all, experiment, have fun and don’t believe everything you read, LOTRO mounted combat is new to everyone and many of it’s possibilities and nuances have yet to be discovered.

Now for wrath. Now for ruin and a red dawn!
Maravir