Healing During Mounted Combat, Part 1: Skills and Discipline
by Zetarond of Gladden, Leader of Ars Erthad
In my kinship we were scratching our heads about how to heal during mounted combat. None of our mounted skills seemed to be for healing such as Words of Courage for a captain. After some investigation I determined that healing is a secondary effect for a few skills. The healing effects are influenced by your current discipline: Red Dawn, Rohirrim, or Riddermark. Think of discipline as a “mounted stance.”
For example, my main is a Lore-Master. While not primarily a healer my LM can always drop a Beacon of Hope or the new skill Water-Lore to keep someone up while the main healer is busy. While mounted I had all kinds of attack skills but no dedicated healing skills. I had been running mounted combat mostly solo so I was in Red Dawn discipline all of the time. One LM attack skill is Bond of the Rider. I had thought of it as the mounted equivalent of Light of the Rising Dawn but noticed a secondary effect after the light damage:
That is a nice self-heal that I can use every 18 seconds! Note that the heal applies to rider and mount.
The Rohirrim discipline is shown as blue, often the “healing color” in LOTRO. Out of curiosity I switched to Rohirrim then checked Bond of the Rider again:
The damage from the attack is slightly lower but the heal is larger and applies to the entire fellowship. So that’s where healing has been hiding! Note that the cooldown changed because I had made other changes to mounted traits. While still in Rohirrim I checked another skill:
In this case, Sign of Power: Inspiration acts like a captain’s Revealing Mark in that a fellowship member who lands a blow on the target has a chance for a heal (rider and mount). I checked these skills in the Riddermark discipline to find that they had power restore secondary effects instead of morale/endurance healing.
I finally thought to check the tool tip for Rohirrim discipline. Sure enough, it increases outgoing and incoming healing by 10%. The increase in mount armor is helpful as well.
I have a captain in Rohan so I tried his mounted skills. Sure enough, when in Rohirrim some of his attacks had group healing secondary effects. I would advise everyone to look at all your mounted skills in each of the three disciplines. Comments from Minstrels and Rune-Keepers about their healing skills would be most welcome.
Editor’s note: This post is a submission from a WARSTEEDS reader. It addresses some of the questions related to group healing from horseback. Note that the specific skills shown in this post are for the Loremaster class and that healing skills for the other healer classes will be different. It is important that you examine the tool-tips for your character’s mounted combat skills to see how they work.
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Actually, Captain Cry Wrath has a fellowship-wide heal on a crit in all stances. In Red Dawn/Riddermark, it heals power. In Rohirrim, it heals morale/endurance instead.
But, yeah, your main point definitely stands! Folks need to check out what their skills do in different stances, because a lot of them are radically different!
Does the Rohirrim Discipline make Cry Wrath heal always, not depending on a crit?
Hm. According to LOTRO-Wiki, I might have made a mistake, actually.
Cry Wrath only ever gives a self-heal on a crit. In Rohirrim, it restores rider power. In Riddermark, it restores mount power. In Red Dawn, it adds a bleed when it crits.
Cry Havoc in *Riddermark* has a fellowship heal on a crit that restores both morale/endurance and power. In Rohirrim and Red Dawn, it does a self-heal for morale/endurance and power instead.
Anyway, there’s still Rally the Riders, which is always a fellowship heal in all disciplines. It restores power in Red Dawn/Riddermark and morale/endurance in Rohirrim.
Your mounted traits can impact this significantly as well. Here’s the blue capstone for a Guardian’s light horse tree:
Motivation Through Aggression
“The effects of your critical hits inspire those around you, giving them the motivation needed to continue the fight.”
25% chance to apply Guardian: while using the discipline, Rohirrim, the following skills have a chance to restore 10% of Morale and 10% of Steed Endurance to you and your fellowship (within 40m): Driving Slash, Staggering Slash, Clash of Arms, Rohan’s Edge.
Admittedly a Guard using a light horse and Rohirrim stance is going to be an unusual occurance, but that would be a decent (but unreliable) contribution to fellowship healing there – from a Guardian!
My main alt is a Minstrel, and as far as Minstrels go, our main job is Healing with a capital H. I haven’t ran lots of mounted instances and warbands while in a fellowship, but I agree with the comment above that your choice of traits is essential. I currently have two trait trees preset:
1) Medium Steed, all “Red Dawn” traits maximized, “Rohirrim” traits for endurance/power regen maximized, “Riddermark” traits for speed/mobility maximized. With that configuration I’m able to deal a very good amount of damage with excellent “survivability”.
2) Medium Steed, all “Rohirrim” traits maximized, some “Red Dawn” traits for range and damage maximized, but I’m still trying to work on which aspects of the “Riddermark” traits I should focus. This second configuration is amazing for healing… On the few attempts I had of healing from the horse-back, the results were a lots better than standing unmounted for healing.
Also, the choices you make with your Legendary Bridle are quite important. I have focused on improving my “Rohirrim Skill Damage” and “Rohirrim Skill Healing” improved… It reduces my DPS capability while playing solo, but sets me on the right track to do what Minstrels are really supposed to do.
Interesting that you’ve chose to go with a medium steed. I would have thought that minstrels would go with a light (see part 2) but whatever works is good! The Survivability bubble is cool. When you are group healing keep moving on the steed so you’ll get Fury bonuses to your heals.
I’m working on part 3 about bridle choices. Most of the legacies related to healing are minor. Also, once you spend some time at 85 you may consider building up separate DPS and healing bridles. It’s much easier to change bridle than trait configuration.
Thinking about a part 4 to cover relics. Each class gets three level 80 crafted relics, one of which affects a healing skill.