Lord of the Rings Online fans have been asking for mounted combat in their game practically since open beta in 2007.Now, five years later, they’re finally getting their first glimpse of the new mechanic in a developer video from Turbine.
In the video, Community Manager Rick Heaton sits down with Senior Producer Aaron Campbell to discuss some of what players will see in Riders of Rohan. Each character will still fill its designated role — Guardians for tanking, Minstrels for healing, etc. — but will do so in a slightly different fashion.
First, each character will have three stances available: Red Dawn for damage, Rohirrim for defense/healing, and Riddermark for a support/utility role somewhere between the two.
Skills look to be completely different, too — at least to judge by the tiny bit we saw in the video — and there’s a five-pip meter over a mount’s character’s portrait that looks like it might be used to power skills.
As for the skills themselves, Campbell says that you’ll still have skills for doing what you normally do, like generate aggro or heal, but mobility will be key, with more skills targeting an area.
Take a look at the video yourself and tell us what you think! Does mounted combat look good to you?
