Before Riders of Rohan launched, I had done a ton of reading of any information I could find relating to Warsteeds and Mounted Combat after the NDA had been lifted on the beta. That, in addition to my time on the beta server (round 5 to end), made me certain I wanted to get a light steed for my hunter.
Mossie and I had been questing in the Norcrofts when she decided to break for a few minutes and work on some LI reforges and such. I spent that time exploring the heavy steed trait lines and decided to give it a shot.
The first thing I noticed is that a heavy steed with points put into Agility and down the Yellow trait line handles every bit as well as my light steed. The turns seem to be a bit wider but I couldn’t really verify if that was the case or not. At full traits, the heavy steed is only 1mps slower than the light steed.
I had the sense that the DPS was actually higher on the heavy steed, but I am still working on going through combat log information to see if that is true.
In the end I discovered that I loved the way the heavy steed was in comparison to the light. The steed looked more like an actual warhorse (bigger) and it was fast and nimble enough to suit my needs. The heavy also gets a neat skill in the yellow line that allows you to Trample unmounted enemies and knock them backwards which I have found extremely amusing. Lastly there is the added benefit of having more armor and health on the heavy versus the light.
In conclusion I have to say that this makes answering the “what steed should I pick?” question even more difficult for me to answer. I’ve maintained through out that one needs to pick for themselves due to their own play style since the beginning. I still recommend that if you do not know where to start, to start with a medium steed and adjust as you see is needed, but these recent findings have really re-enforced my notion that no one particular steed size is best for any given class.
In the end, we may find that in pure numbers a certain steed is great for a specific class. This will be good for the minmaxers of Middle Earth, but for now and for many people playing LOTRO – don’t let preconceptions of what is the best choice ultimately steer you towards it. I thought for sure the light steed was the way to go on my hunter. It worked really well. I find the heavy steed working better for me.
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I can confirm what you are saying, I’ve started out on a heavy steed for my ministrel, and I’m now using a light one, because everybody said that’s better for a ministrel. I liked the feeling of the heavy steed a bit better though, riding just felt a bit more real… at the moment I’m still torn and haven’t decided, the light steed has pro’s too, so I will probably stick to it, but I might go back to the heavy steed as well… I suppose we’ll all have quite some time to find the right horse for us :o)
For now on my hunter, I will be keeping my Light steed set up in Traits slot 1 and the Heavy set up in 2. And just carry the two bridles and swap them as needed until I figure it out. I have a feeling though I will end up just keep using the heavy steed unless it proves to be substantially inferior in terms of DPS.
Correct me if I am wrong as I too am still playing around with it, but do light steeds not have more raw power? I like the med and heavy steeds, but have been trying the light and medium on my RK as he eats power and has no way to return it, so I have been upping the pool and strength for regen, and some traits in blue to help. My hunter, it was not an issue at all, as they get a great power return skill, but on RK I found that the medium was a good balance, though light was preferable, and can easily heal up a low health pool.
Playing with the builds is certainly fun!
I think you might be on to something. I think Light steeds do inherently have a larger power pool. I will be doing a lot of comparison work tonight on my hunter, trying to define and verify some of the differences between the steed sizes.
I dunno about you, but the more I play with it, the worse my conclusions seem to get. I tried out the Heavy last night on my hunter and LOVED it, the crit toggle was great and the power cost was negligible, as when I get low I can simply flip to the blue stance, pop a few power return skills, switch back to red and continue pewing. You do get teh crit passively in other trait lines, but… I dunno, the level playing field and the simplicity of the system is making it so complicated!
I have always been a bit of a cynic towards hunters (sorry) and on foot they still bore me a bit, but mount up, and they are AWESOME!