For Part 1, click here.
Healing During Mounted Combat, Part 2: Traits
by Zetarond of Gladden, Leader of Ars Erthad
If you are going to be healing during mounted combat you’ll need to choose your steed traits carefully. Note that healing can take a lot of power (both yours and the steed’s) so be sure to chose traits, legacies, and relics to help in that area.
Most tactical classes will use a Light steed. In addition to damage traits there are many good choices for healing. Here are the Red Dawn and Rohirrim branches for a Light mount. The traits that are circled are described below.
In the Red Dawn branch the Combat Advantage trait offers improved tactical mastery that adds to healing rating. Deceptive Appearance lowers healing threat, helpful for avoiding aggro from mounted enemies. Feign Injury is a skill that drops aggro for a few seconds, much like the minstrel flop.
The Rohirrim branch has healing rating, power regeneration, power restore, and cooldown traits. Invigorating Presence can have up to +1500 incoming and outgoing healing rating, great for any healing class. Bond of Power boosts mount in-combat power regen. The related trait Invigorate adds a power restoration skill that is life-saving when you run low on power. Quickness shortens the cooldowns on many skills; being able to use a skill more often means more morale and endurance added to the fellowship!
The capstone trait in blue for all steeds is a healing ability. For Light the trait is Motivation through Aggression that, when in Rohirrim discipline, provides a 25% chance to restore 10% morale and steed endurance to all fellowship members. While this skill can be good for non-healing classes (e.g., hunters) it may not be worth investing trait points and bridle legacy points for healing classes.
The Medium steed tree has a couple of traits that are good for healing but not as many as for a Light steed. In the red branch Tactical Genius improves tactical mastery and therefore outgoing healing rating. In the blue branch the Deep Reserves trait improves power regeneration. The capstone trait when in Rohirrim discipline is Survivability, a 25% chance to apply a damage preventing bubble (roughly 800 morale) for several seconds. Medium can be a good choice for a captain but there isn’t much healing support for minstrels, rune-keepers, or lore-masters.
The Heavy steed is largely intended for tanking so there aren’t many healing traits. In the blue branch Battle Tested improves steed endurance and power regeneration. The capstone trait when in Rohirrim discipline is Benevolence that boosts incoming and outgoing healing rating; I see it more as a help for guardians and wardens being healed as opposed to healing classes restoring morale.
In summary it appears that the Light steed will be the choice of most healers. Once you have earned enough points you can trait deeply in both red (DPS) and blue (healing) branches. As noted in the Advanced Techniques guide you can switch disciplines on the fly. With my Lore-Master I often open in Red Dawn to do some damage, change to Rohirrim to do some healing, and even jump into Riddermark for extra power restoration late in a long fight.
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All this trait stuff makes me wonder if anybody’s done a “War-Steed Trait Planner” yet. You know, something you can play with out of game like the various LI planners.
I’ve not seen one, and it is something I’d like to do here… but making something like that is sort of beyond me!
Many thanks to the mysterious Guest Author. I bounce between the two trait configurations they give us, though I very much doubt I’ll be spending points to unlock more. And, as the noted explorer of hot, spicy foods said, a planner created by a clever player is certainly in the offing.
Mysterious guest author is Zetarond of the Gladden server!
I think you’ll find that as you advance your steed to a higher level (say greater than 30) you’ll have enough trait points that you won’t need to switch configurations. Turn in task items every day as those quests give good XP for the steed.
One thing I miss as a Captain is the ability to spot heal while soloing. I run to battle a warband and find there’s already a group of people fighting. So no time to create a fellowship. Then the person that has aggro is down to 2k health and the main warband mob is still at half health. I’d have to dismount, hope the person stays in range for the heal then remount
True, true. I definitely find myself missing the ol’ Words of Courage when I ride up to some random person on the landscape soloing Bugud or whatever.
I hope they do end up adding some more skills to fill gaps like that. New class-specific mounted traits would be nice as well.