title="Guide to LotRO's Mounted Combat Part 1: The Basics" />

Mounted combat is the centerpiece in the Lord of the Rings Online's newest

expansion, Riders of Rohan. It is a complex, game-altering mechanic that

changes how endgame players experience Middle Earth in the same way

Legendary Items changed the game in Mines of Moria. In fact, the comparison

to the LI system is a fairly accurate analogy - your war-steed is

essentially a Legendary Item that you ride, and which replaces your tired

old droopy-backed nag with something much tougher, more nuanced and fully

customizable.

Getting Started

Like the LI system, the mounted combat system is tied to the epic

books. Additionally, it is part of the Rohan quest pack, meaning players can get a war-steed whether they are doing the epic books or following the Rohan storyline. We'll be discussing the non-epic method of earning a war-steed here.

To get started, cross over from the southern Great River area into the

Wold, and find the small Rohirrim settlement of Langhold. Do all the quests

in this town - start with the guards, then the Thane and his wife Cillian in

the mead-hall. You will be sent to the swamps and the watchtowers to fight

brigands and Easterlings, whereupon you will discover a sinister plot

against the people of Langhold. Complete the finale instance and head to the

Harwick stables to the south. This is where you receive your war-steed.

The skill appears on the same tab as your other mounts, and you can mount

and dismount it in the same manner. Shift + M opens up the mount panel:

title="LotRO Mounted Combat Guide - Mount Panel" />

At this stage, the only thing you can really do with it is look at the

stats and change the appearance. You may have one point to spend on traits,

but that's not likely going to make much of a difference yet.

The war-steed's stats are pretty much just a stripped-down version of

character stats. They have a handful of physical stats - Agility affects the

mount's speed and maneuverability, Endurance affects the mount's morale. It

has a morale pool that is significantly higher than a standard or premium

mount's morale (it starts with around 2,500 morale, which is around 10 times

the amount of a standard mount). They also have a Power pool and an Armour

rating, which standard mounts do not.

Check the Appearance tab - there is a nice big dressing room in the middle,

options on the left and outfit slots on the right. Players will start with 2

outfit slots by default, with an additional 5 slots unlockable through the

store. The war-steed has 8 cosmetic slots, arranged around the top and

bottom of the dressing room: bridle, blanket, saddle and tail on the top

row; hide, feet, gear and ___ on the bottom row. Owning any of the class

mounts or certain premium store-exclusive mounts will add options on the

left - so you can mix the gear element of the Steed of the Hunter, for

example, with the bridle, blankets, saddle and leggings of the Steed of

Night for a unique custom look. Other cosmetics can be earned through

questing or purchased from the LotRO Store, and you can put together some

pretty weird combinations.

title="LotRO Mounted Combat Guide - Weird war-steed cosmetic combos" />

Additionally, all of these cosmetic elements are dyeable. If you've always

thought your class steed would look better in red, you can buy the dye pack

from the LotRO Store. The dyes are sold in four-packs, so if you want red

you also gotta take a couple shades of brown with it. The hide and tail have

their own specific dyes with more natural colors, also available in the

store in convenient 4-packs.

title="LotRO Mounted Combat Guide - Store stuff" />

Once you're done checking out the stats and tweaking the look, grab the

quest from the guard by the stable gate for mounted combat training.

title="Guide to LotRO's Mounted Combat Part 1: The Basics" />

Training Instance

The mounted combat training instance takes place at the Harwick stables

track, and it is here that you will really discover what makes this new

mechanic different from the old-school regular riding thing.

title="LotRO Mounted Combat Guide - Training Instance" />

The first difference you will notice is the Mounted Combat skill bar that

replaces your usual skill bar when you mount up. This new bar contains only

mounted skills - attacks, maneuvering skills and the three mounted combat

stances - and drops away when you dismount. You can move skills around as you

like, just like on your regular toolbar, and those changes persist. You can

call up this skill bar at any time by clicking the tiny up and down arrows at

the left edge of the main toolbar.

You will be tasked with riding around the track a few times, running through

flag waypoints and jumping over fences. You will immediately discover that the

war-steed has a different method of acceleration than standard horses. Your

old horse has essentially two "gears" - walk and run - the same as your

character. Hit W and your standard horse leaps to top speed immediately,

paying no heed to g-forces or momentum or other aspects of physics.

Not so with the war-steed. It has four "gears" - hit W and it starts off at a

walk, then a trot, then a gallop, then a full-out run. And once the steed

ramps up to top speed, it will maintain that speed until commanded to slow

down or stop. This was also possible with the old horses, but it's different

from toggling auto-run. Coming to a full stop takes a bit of time, and even

using the quick-stop skill requires a bit of stopping distance.

This acceleration/deceleration mechanic takes some getting used to, but it

also makes mounted combat feel more realistic and exciting. You are only

riding the beast, not controlling it like a bicycle. It feels as though the

big creature beneath you has weight and momentum, and it makes the standard

mounts feel more like animated paper cutouts.

There is an option to turn off the auto-run in Combat Options. The war-steed

will still need to ramp up to full speed, but releasing the W button takes the

foot off the gas and the horse slows down to a full stop. Running this way is

actually much more difficult than the normal auto-run mode.

title="LotRO Mounted Combat Guide - Auto-slowdown Option" />

Of course, this same force of momentum makes the war-steed difficult to

steer, particularly at high speeds. At the lowest speed, you will be able to

make sharp turns and run tight circles. At higher speeds, the war-steed starts

to act like a drift car from a Fast and Furious movie. You need to start the

turn well in advance of where you actually want to curve, and you end up

skipping sideways for several steps as the momentum carries you in straight

lines.

You'll discover all these interesting physics during this tutorial instance,

riding through sets of flags, jumping over low fences, and finally running

along what appears to be a jousting track to attack the dummies at each end.

This is a pretty simple test - tab-select your targets, queue your attacks and

ride up close to hit them.

For tighter turns at the ends of the track, you will want to travel at a

lower speed - at stage 1 and 2, maneuverability is about the same and tight

turns are a piece of cake; at stage 3, it is noticeably reduced, and at stage

4 it is substantially reduced.

The tutorial instance teaches you about movement, but actual combat works a

lot differently. We'll have a look at how the fighting works in Part 2.