How long since you last rode your horse?

Horses are one of best improvements this game has ever seen, Im so used riding my horses I cannot stand being on foot anymore. They have add so much versatility to my playstyle that, after playing this game since Beta, I feel refreshed and pleased to play it again.

  1. You dont stagger when you get hit while mounted, and thats awesome, you can continuously hit foes without being interrupted.

  2. Horses are fast on combat and you can actually avoid almost every melee attack by simply moving, attacks mounted have a HUGE arc and can hit/stagger several foes every hit, all you need to do is keep hitting (you dont stagger) and moving around.

  3. If there are too many foes you can charge and knock down (dealing damage, even more if you time your weapon attack right), turn around and keep doing that. Weapons that crippe gives extra benefit to build distance and keep killing them without getting a single hit, AI is stupid so if you build just a little extra distance (which is easy mounted) they will just drop combat and turn around

  4. You can use bows with 100% efficiency, while mounted you dont spend stamina firing arrows, I guess you can imagine how easy it is build distance and keep firing, specially if you also cripple enemies shooting their legs. Enemy archers also dont hit you mounted, it drains a bit stamina and deals horse damage, so you are pretty much invulnerable to arrows

  5. Adds so much combat fun/flexibility, allowing you to use both sword and bow efficiently based in the combat needs, pick the right saddle that fits best your playstyle. Once you get used to the mobility you can even remain mounted in tight areas, like the Pirate Ship or New Asagarth, I easily farm those places and never get stuck anywhere.

  6. Have a huge inventory and travel speed, you can carry twice as much than a regular thrall and move at least 5 times faster

  7. Gives more character creation freedom, I have slight low (20) str, high agility and accuracy (40) and low health, I also use light armor and can even solo world bosses mounted, and yes, using a sword OR bow, I have soloed World bosses just using a sword and clothes once I got skilled manuvering my horse. I use Bow/Sword mounted and if I need to dismount I use daggers/dodge, while mounted I have a total different playstyle than on foot, you should try it, thats a LOT MORE FUN than being a cookie cutter build with the heaviest armor you can craft and having the heaviest armored thrall to support you, petty much like 90% players.

So yeah, horses are nothing like you have described, you have absolute no idea what you are talking about. You even revealed you dont hop in your hourse for over a week, how can you trash talk about a feature you barely tried?

Unfortunately most players are used to a EXTREMELY broken feature, which are Superman thralls. A well geared thralls is the same as having a GM following you around, I honestly cant see the purpose playing a game where your companion can solo any content while you just sit back and watch.

Companion thralls are ridiculously overpowered and require absolute no human interaction to kill anything this game has to offer, just because Horses dont work like that it doesnt mean they are broken. But if you enjoy watching your thrall beat the game for you… go for it, at least the game offers the tools to fit everybodies playstyle, I personaly prefer being in charge of my own fun.

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I used mine over the weekend on a whim (PvE server) when I decided to just see what new bases had sprung up between Sinkhole and Crowngrove. (First time in about 2 weeks.) It was kind of relaxing and novel, but it was a heck of a lot slower — certainly wouldn’t be able to use one to make it to someone else’s purge in time if there weren’t also fast-travel points.

The one thing I really dislike though is how close-in a horse gets on me when I dismount and enter combat. It just about feels like the old days of farming with a camel because it is way too close for comfort. Were there friendly fire in PvE, it would almost certainly end up bloody as hell from the erratic way it crowds around myself [theoretically] trying to help.

I’d much rather their AI behavior was dictated by what sort of saddle they are wearing. Heavy war saddles? Sure, help out. Light scout saddles? Try to keep some distance from enemies.

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Quoted for getting it.

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Ad 1) You should use weapons with hyper armor
Ad 3) Where do you engage many enemies in an open area? Or lets ask: PvP or PvE? Because I dont know any place faction-camp where I could be faster/better with a horse… (given that, I am pretty bad at maneuvering horses).
Ad 5) How do you farm this places efficient, without getting stuck all the time? Also when you encounter a T4, what do you do then? Run away, position the horse and come back? Then run on your feet to a maproom/wheel/base, because you cannot drag it on a horse (should hopefully come in the future).
Ad 6) Well there are other animals or thralls (bearers) who have way more storage place. Maybe a new saddle can fix that
Ad 7) How long do you need for a worldboss on a horse? And which bosses? White tiger too?

While you use an animal which boost your dmg massive (enough PvP want nerfs for exactly that reason). So we are back at the same point: We make without help way to low dmg.

You dont have to watch your thrall do all the work. I always fight with them and against normal NPCs I am mostly faster killing them, until my thrall decides todo anything.
They are great for boss farming.

You have fun currently, because your dmg gets massive boosted. Lets see if Funcom nerfs that and if they nerf it, if you are still happy about it :smiley:

PS.: Could you maybe make a video somewhere, while clearing NA or pirate ship or killing a world boss? Would really like to see an experienced horse player at PvE content :slight_smile:

My wife likes the horses. Does she ride them no it could get hurt. I have not used one since they were first offered . I do plan on setting up a Jousting area. They look nice and sound alot better than some other animals. PVE Ps4.

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Used my horse 1 hour ago, quick ride to Godsclaw, liberated 12k iron and buggerd back to base for some offline smelting. And i want maprooms to stay btw. Cause all that stone in volcano is just to much of a walk/run for lazy people like myself. Also, gametime is money.

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Funny you should say that! On PS4 it’s easy as pie to drift and frolic with a horse, on account of the controller. With WASD on the keyboard, we have to hold S, alongside a directional key, A or D, to drift. That’s like patting your head and rubbing your stomach. Or is it the other way around…? Whichever way, I need to carve off a mouse button for the S key, so I can drift properly instead of plummeting from every precipice.

On my PC server I have yet to ride a horse in the world. I can’t say I’m petrified to take out a 1K follower like this, but I’m not exactly eager. :smiley:

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Don’t really agree with this solution.

Not only are we used to the Obs and they have been in the game since the beginning. Removing them now would be a mistake.

Not to mention, myself at least, and I would imagine others wouldn’t trade the convenience of Obs and map rooms (let alone the PvE community connection of providing map rooms and such) for horses. I rather have the Obs.

This is compounded by that fact that horses are so limiting in the factors raised before… Like thralling and dragging them back to your base.

Sure getting rid of Obs might push horses. But the game experience would take a big negative hit for it.

Holding 2 keys is hard, because of???

I never understood that complain from PC players… But I have a FPS background, so holding >3keys was kinda normal (while shooting/aiming with the mouse). Back in the day, a mouse had 2 buttons (max 3).

PS.: Also you have to buy gaming keyboards… Because hardware companies limit how many keys a normal keyboard can press, so that they can sell the same keyboard at a higher price and call it “gamer keyboard” (it has sth todo with the keyboard matrix. At least for Logitech it is that case).

I don’t disagree with you. However, the only job of a horse right now is ‘the enjoyment of riding a horse’.

I was pushed from a Official server due to the thrall limit so I don’t really worry about community interaction anymore.

Sure if I just want to sprint to a dungeon location from a Ob or something, maybe I’d pull the horse out. However, as you stated, ‘right tool for the appropriate job’… Horses just don’t really have much application right now.

Friend and I are working on adding our own fun to them with jousting fields and such, but Funcom hasn’t really provided any reason to ride horses other then that they are fun to ride.

I dunno, maybe thats enough. However, if I am distracted by other aspects of the game, farming, thralling, building… The horse is never involved and honestly, if I am getting bored of all that, I find myself pretty hard pressed to log in just to ride a horse around.

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Some of us have arthritis…

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Im sorry. A lot of what you are stating is true, however missing very important factors. This is ironic and a bit reflective of you when you then essentially try to call other people ignorant because they don’t use horses as you have.

Self pretentious much?

I may have not been on a horse in about two weeks, however applied myself to them pretty adamantly when they first came out, spent a lot of time on horses, and as has been stated over and over, the system behind how they ride is without question fun.

How ever, while you were calling other people ignorant, in the same breath, provided a whole lot of hollow and ignorant points yourself:

1 - 5. True, however horses are not ideal in combat for many reasons as well.

  1. While protecting yourself, your horse takes more damage. They last far less time with their health pool then if I was just solo. Sure you can continuously hit, but your horse takes a good bit of damage just sitting there if you are just swinging away, and if you move to protect your horse, your damage dealing becomes slower then if you were just off the thing in the first place.
  2. See point above, you are either trying to avoid damage or dealing it on the horse. You can deal damage and preserve life better while off a horse, by a long shot. Its far superior fighting on foot to that of fighting with a horse for a bit, then finding a safe spot to place him while its healing up, splitting up farm time and slowing things down.
  3. This is a extremely slow way of taking out groups of thralls. Not to mention the rubber-banding issues when you attempt this tactic. Often times when you get surrounded on a horse, you just bounce back into the group. (I imagine its the same problem the dodge rubber banding comes from).
  4. This is a pretty limited form of combat IMO but as I don’t use bows much at all, I will concede this point.
  5. This is a fallacy. Combat is much more ridged and straight forward on a horse. You swing your weapon, poke with a lance, or fire a bow. There are no combos. There isn’t really a fight dynamic other then swinging your weapon and potentially moving to avoid damage. You are 100% backwards on this.

And to add, in all of the above, this is just open world, typical standard enemies. World bosses, and high level purges are a real threat to a horses life and are all far far easier on foot (even if you arn’t bringing a over powered thrall with you). Yes, horses can make trivial combat even more trivial. But I don’t spend much time running around the map looking for pointless fights for me and my horse to get into.
edit and oh yah, not to mention how absolutely idiotic and frustrating horses are as soon as you dismount them in any kind of combat situation. Not suggesting that you should, but you are saddled with that horse as soon as you choose to bring him along. You either have to stay mounted, dismount and place the horse somewhere safe, or enter a really easy fight and see the horse constantly jump in your way and get brutalized by enemies.

  1. I have a hard time believing its anywhere close to 5 times faster. That seems like a mighty exaggeration to me, but you are completely off on the inventory. Its not huge, its a few more spots. All pointless anyways. If you want to farm, you either take a pack elephant (their inventory is far superior) or you go Enc spec which completely invalidates the horse also.

  2. Not really true due to points 1-5. Horses arn’t used for build or gathering specs. Horses are inferior for farming. They are pointless for thralling. They are at incredible risk against end game enemies.

So yah, you are calling people ignorant, trying to imply some sort of more detailed knowledge, when all you have really demonstrated is the intent to condemn anyone that disagrees with your extremely narrow take on the system.

Yes thralls are OP and broken. Don’t detract from the subject with a pointless aside.

Also, I think everyone would appreciate it if you didn’t take the ‘holier then thou’ attitude while trying to invalidate someone elses opinion, while you yourself, sorta of shown yourself to be pretty narrow minded on the subject.

  • lvl 60 ( 5th time )
  • i don’t get this question - like always
  • no
  • with horse or thrall, depends of the mood

I have pony express system between my main base and outposts, horse everywhere so i can switch and tell others horses to return their home.

I came from OG DOOM and DOOM2 where mouse use was for the weak of spirit :smiley: – yet I’ve never had to perform an A-S or a D-S “smear.” It’s quite difficult, especially since my middle finger is so much longer than my index and ring fingers.

My #1 playing board of choice is a Razer BlackWidow Elite Tournament Edition with clacky pressure-sensitive mechanical keys. This keyboard on which I’m typing is a Logitech K260 wireless (membrane), and its layout feels a little more responsive in the drift. FTR my #2 board with a bullet is a Razer Tartarus custom mechanical – one-handed specialty – which gives me as much control, if not more than a controller.

I actually like my horse better than I thought I would, but I mostly use it for small distances in areas that are suited for horse riding, unfortunately on our server there are several areas covered in spiderwebs of sandstone foundations and bases blocking passages which makes riding a pain - I know it isn’t popular, but I really hope they make some sort of building limitation or maybe put a tax system on building pieces, there is just too much unnecessary buildings which are there… Just because people can.

Excellent post. You reflect my thoughts on this topic almost identically.

I would only add to your 2 thoughts:

I should be able to carry more on a horse and I just simply can’t. This is a tricky solution because of mechanics already in the game, but currently, if I want to farm resources, I am far better off taking either A. a pack animal, or B. a thrall and going encumbrance spec.

It seems really silly that I can pick encumbrance spec for farming, stock up on things, not being hindered by the weight, and then get on a horse and cripple its movement. I’d simply state, have the encumbrance perk carry over to the horse. The horse shouldn’t invalidate the perk.

However, I know Funcom has issues with the encumbrance spec already and change here may be unlikely. But its frustrating and heavily devalues the horse in the fact that its simply not optimal to use for farming (which is the first thing I would think of when wanting to use a horse).

I clear things and farm far faster and far more efficiently leaving the horse in the stable.

I’m really glad you are fully enjoying them, as Funcom hoped we all would. You have some great suggestions that I’ll explore further, to see how it can meld with my play style. I’m an archer by default, so while your comments on archery sound interesting, when mounted, I feel terribly restricted, since I completely lose 180 degrees or range for my attacks.

One other thing that makes me a little crazy with horses is having to use the interact key to mount, or is there now an option to map a different key than interact?

If they could do a few tweaks, I’d probably be more inclined to play with horses.

  1. Drag thralls while mounted
  2. Have a regular follower in addition to the horse
  3. Tell horses to stay back while I fight on foot
  4. Make keyboard drifting easier, like maybe double tapping the drift directional key, rather than combo keys
  5. Allow full speed when encumbered, if we have an encumbrance build.
  6. Make PvE content that flees from battle, like baby pets do. Riding them down on horse back would make my day. I’m sure this is great sport on PvP, chasing down all the new players…
  7. Not use “interact” for mounting and not disabling it while mounted.

But to be clear, horses as they exist now are still greatly appreciated by me, just for their RP and decorative value alone. But for them to be a normal part of game play, they might need some adjustments (for quite a few people it seems).

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You know, I am pretty against the removal of the perk simply because of the use I make of it.

But I completely understand your point and you’re are absolutely correct in how binary and sort of game jarring it is.

It really helps with farming immensely as I typically farm steel via killing, and slaughtering the mounds, New Asgrath, Unamed or the Frost Giants typically is good Thrall exp, good materials, and in reference to the cities, good for watching out for T4s. Having the expedition cut short with the requirement of getting back to a box somewhere would be a bit of a bummer.

however, I understand this feeling comes from just having access to the perk since the beginning and getting used to it. I enjoy not making multiple farming trips and being efficient, however, I do agree its gimmicky and does upset balance in the game. Its easy enough to self reflect and understand Funcom probably didn’t intend for endless farming if you so wish.

However, while giving up the above would be a thorn in my side yet make sense and I couldn’t really argue against, the place where the removal of the encumbrance perk would hit me the hardest and I would be really sour about is my building.

I practically play this game to build. Without the encumbrance perk I would be so hard pressed to continue to play as my ability to build would be so hindered by the need to always run to a box for supplies… It would greatly diminish the experience.

I’m all for the removal of the perk, however, feel there needs to be a solution/alternative to still support people that play for building that doesn’t completely cripple us.

Yet another tricky corner Funcom sort has programmed themselves into. Not sure what the best solution is there as I see and agree with you on the problem, however, removal would create all sorts of other issues.

Anyways, maybe transfering the perk over to a special saddle is a great idea for farming, then the max enc perk could be something else, however, I would say they would still need to add a player specific item (maybe a tool or something to prevent using in combat with a weapon or something) that provides the same perk so we can still build with freedom. I can’t help but think thats what the perk was originally intended for anyhow (the builder’s main perk) over that of how easy it made farming.

Got mixed feelings about all that.

Anyhow, sorry for the derail from the main topic. I’ll leave it at that.

I use my horse to get to lil outposts, but I play on a private server with one clan where those can be maintained, lol.

I seem to hit substantially harder from horseback than I do on foot… and have had no problems killing the crap out of things on horseback. I have played a lot of mount and blade in my life though, so maybe I’m just used to it.

My biggest complaint is that the SMALLEST ROCK will full-stop your horse. Really? Come on. There needs to be some clearance built in… most the rocks you get stopped on are these short little things that aren’t even as broad a horses stride. Your horse would just step over them. Only the substantial ones should be a problem. Or gravel, but gravel isn’t in the game.

Point is, I ride it a fair amount. But the one thing that makes me reconsider? Capturing a thrall. You can’t drag a thrall behind you from horseback, and the horse will die without you, you kinda have to leave it behind and wait for it to teleport back to its home spot after a while.

Let’s start the reply right here. You don’t have to keep using something you don’t find useful in order to be allowed to voice your opinions. I’ve ridden my horse extensively for a week, trying all sorts of stuff and having fun with most of it, before settling back into my normal routine.

So, before I give you my opinions, I just wanted to let you know that I do know what I’m talking about, thank you very much. Do bear in mind, though, that my experience is limted to PVE. I don’t play PVP, so I’ll try not to offer any opinions on PVP aspects of the mounts.

You hit the nail on the head right there! Yes, our Ăźbermenschlich thralls are an extremely broken feature and I hate that we are forced to be their sidekicks. However, instead of blaming players for that and affecting superiority, you should apportion blame where it belongs: Funcom.

The whole damn game is balanced around this broken feature. When the dev team sits down to make decisions about the game, they don’t do it randomly and they don’t look at parts of the game in total isolation. They have to try to consider the ramifications of every decision. And überthralls are an integral part of the game.

Blaming players for relying on thralls is like blaming people for not walking enough in a city without any sidewalks.

But let’s assume that the rest of us are as willing as you are to cripple our entire gameplay experience by forgoing the thralls and then go over the rest of your post.

That’s true. On the other hand, you can’t do any combos and your maneuverability is extremely restricted. Also, you can get a severe interruption if someone shoots your horse.

Horses move fast, but the combat is excruciatingly slow and mind-numbingly boring. On foot, the (PVE) combat is very dynamic: combos, dodges, blocks, shield-smashing, shield-bashing, staggering, stamina management, recovery from a fall – all of these are factors you have to keep track of and tactics you have to work with. You have to know which attacks (in which points of the combo) have which properties – what can be interrupted, what can be staggers, what will throw an enemy down, etc.

Mounted combat, in contrast, boils down to bowling through a throng of enemies, hacking along the way, then wheeling around for another pass. It can be enjoyable when you’re in the mood for mindless hack-and-slash or when you want to feel like you’re Thulsa Doom raiding a village – I’ve had tons of fun with that when the mounts came out. But there’s nothing that makes me feel as engaged as fighting a gaggle of furious Cimmerians on foot, or being surrounded by a bunch of skeletons and breaking through their ring.

Of all the mounted combat, I hate jousting the most. Lances have execrable aim. You can gallop at a bloody mammoth, aim at its body and still pass between its legs and miss.

Yep. Like I said, boring and slow. :yawning_face:

I’m sorry, but how can you complain about using “Superman thralls” in one part of your post and also gloat about taking advantage of another broken aspect of the game?

If only bows didn’t suck compared to other weapons… Although I guess you could level up a horse to maximize its accuracy attribute.

It staggers the living daylights out of your horse and eats up a sizable chunk of its stamina. If you don’t keep a “reserve buffer” of horse stamina at all times, you’ll find yourself spilling out of the saddle at the worst possible time.

Flexibility? Are you saying that because bows don’t suck as much as they do when you’re on foot? Because other than that, combat on foot is so much more versatile and dynamic, it’s worlds apart. As for the saddles, Firespark81 has an excellent video on that topic. If you haven’t watched it, I urge you to do so. No matter what you think you feel in-game when switching saddles, there is an objective truth and you can see it measured there. But since you’re talking about maneuvering on the Black Galleon and inside New Asagarth, I’ll give you a spoiler: there is no real difference in maneuverability, only stamina and speed.

Speaking of the Black Galleon and New Asagarth…

I’m inclined to believe it’s faster – and a lot more fun – to clean those places out on foot. Without a thrall.

Watch Firespark’s video and you’ll see that “at least 5 times faster” is an exaggeration. With a maneuverability saddle, your average speed over the whole trip might be “at least 5 times faster”, but that’s not the same as “moving at least 5 times faster”.

Don’t think I’m splitting hairs, either. It’s a very important distinction and it comes into play if you ever want to do anything except just travel from point A to point B without stopping. Every time you want to do something besides galloping and hack-and-slash, you have to stop and dismount. Wanna loot the guys you killed? Dismount. Wanna harvest something? Dismount. Wanna check the decay timer or ownership of a building? Dismount.

And don’t get me started on the terrain. Was there a small rock or a log in your way that any decent horse would automatically jump over? You’ve just been stopped in your tracks. Was there a slope – not a cliff, a slope – that your horse should be able to negotiate? Let’s hope that you maneuvered correctly, otherwise you’ll fly down it and lose health when you land. Did you miscalculate that river and try to cross it where it’s not fordable? You’re now stuck on a horse that doggy-paddles much slower than you can swim and you cannot dismount. So either paddle all the way through or you turn around, doggy-paddle back to where you started, dismount and then swim across.

As for the the “huge inventory”, give me a break. If you need huge inventory, invest into a bearer or respec to full enc.

I have soloed various world bosses mounted and on foot, using light, medium or heavy armor, and the only conclusion I can offer is: soloing a world boss on your horse is an abominable chore. I’m not even going to go into details here, because it’s too damn depressing.

Horses aren’t “broken”, but they’re not half as useful as they could be. As for your idea of fun, it seems to be antithetical to mine. I can’t imagine anything more boring than a never-ending cycle of hack-and-slash. Don’t get me wrong, mounted hack-and-slash is a fun break from time to time; it’s kinda like playing a Hitman game, getting the stealth wrong for the 3rd time in the row and just cutting loose with all your weapons, mowing everything down cathartically for a while, until you’re ready to load the last save and try again :wink:

As for the thralls, let’s get back to them for a moment. You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned them while going over your points. That’s because they aren’t really needed for most of what you mentioned. I don’t actually take a thrall with me to the Black Galleon or New Asagarth or the Mounds. Hell, I don’t even take a thrall to some dungeons, like the Dregs, the Midnight Grove, the Witch Queen’s Palace, the Frost Temple or the Black Keep. Well, I used to not take them to Frost Temple or Black Keep, now I do when I’m leveling one, but that’s beside the point.

Where do I take a thrall to fight? For starters: Unnamed City, Klael’s Stronghold and Wine Cellar. Why those? Two things:

  1. Undead bosses or mini-bosses. Can’t be poisoned, can’t be bled. Whittling their health down is boring. I guess I could use the specter coating, but I can’t find a way to reapply it without going into my inventory screen, which is hella clumsy and interrupts the flow of the fight.
  2. Wizkill überthugs behind locked doors. Sure, you can solo the Arena Champion by staggering her carefully. Get a sudden lag spike – which now happen more often, thanks to the mounts – or just some plain old-fashioned bad luck, and you can suddenly find yourself respawning naked at the beginning of the dungeon with your corpse locked behind several doors. With careful preparation, you can overcome this, but if you’re grinding a dungeon, it’s too much of a hassle.

So let’s spend a moment analyzing why these things are designed like that. Why does the Arena Champion hit so hard? Why are undead minibosses now immune to poison and bleed? It’s an attempt to balance the game. And what has unbalanced it so much? Überthralls.

It’s really a self-fulfilling prophecy and a vicious cycle. Thralls make it too easy to fight certain things, so the devs introduce ways to make those things tougher. But since they’re now too tough for a player, that ensures that players will be using thralls and will try to make those thralls as powerful as possible.


TL;DR: Horses are not broken, but they need to be a lot more useful than this. Mounted combat is fun in a cathartic way, but otherwise boring and slow. Combat on foot is more dynamic and has a greater variety of tactics. Thralls are overpowered and the culprit for much of the game balance problems, but not using them at all breaks the gameplay even more.