Horse Archer Help

[oohillac]

I think I'm going HA next gen, with a Horn Bow and the 15/24 build (currently using this on a STF alt)
A few questions:

1) Which horse? I was thinking desert, but is the arabian better?

2) Aiming. I'm having trouble hitting people at full pace. Is this just a practice thing, or do HAs actually slow down for shots?

3) What's the gameplan for a standard battle match? Do I wait for the infantry to clash, do I charge enemy spawn, do I focus on cav?

4) What should I do on tight maps like street riot ats? Just go on foot?

5) Is headhunting specific targets (like a good player on the enemy team) a viable thing to do as HA, or should I just blitz around shooting everyone randomly?

[Stabby_Dave]

I assume you mean 15/24?

[oohillac]

whoops, yes

[Fandrall]

1) The Arabian is better but more expensive and you need riding 7. If you got the money and plan to have riding 7 or above there's really no reason to use desert horse. However if its the manuever your after try out the steppe horse. Its cheap, accelerate fast and can take a bit more beating than a desert or arabian. Its super slow though so you'll have to be good at dodging lancers.

2) Practice makes perfect but there is always some randomness when you fire on the move, the faster you go the bigger that factor gets. Poke me on TS and we can talk about aiming techniques and hitboxes. As for HAs shooting at full speed its ok with HA 4 and good for taking down horses but most tend to slow down before firing if possible. If you are EU spectate Cris, Overdriven and Spjut. They are good HAs and like shooting at full speed so you'll get an idea of how often you're supposed to hit.

3) Kill enemy horses, harrass stragglers, harrass enemy archers and support inf by stun/bump enemies. In that order.

4) Generally I would say go on foot but being on horse means you can fire over friendly inf and support by bumping. This tactic will make you a target for enemy archers though.

5) Killing the horse of a good cav players is is a rather simple way of helping your team. You can also lock down good inf/xbowmen by staying out of reach and make em do "the silly dance of avoidance". As soon as they focus on someone else you bumpshoot them. This is risky though and will get you few kills (but loots of hate).  If you do this against a good archer he will probably kill you.

[oohillac]

Thanks, I was hoping a GK would reply   I'll poke you when I get a chance.

For horses, I bought a +1 desert, so I'll probably loom it up and use that.

How tricky is this class on higher ping (example, myself (NA) playing on EU)? Would foot be safer for me/my teammates?

And arrows, I suppose I'd be better off going for quantity over quality at first, yes?

How about armour weight? I want a nomadic/Sarranid look, I was thinking
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Rabati
weight: 1.2
head armor: 30
difficulty: 8
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Cavalry Robe
weight: 9.4
body armor: 36
leg armor: 8
difficulty: 9
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Sarranid Mail Boots
weight: 2
leg armor: 29
difficulty: 11
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Mail Mittens
weight: 0.3
body armor: 3

Too heavy?

[_Tak_]

How tricky is this class on higher ping (example, myself (NA) playing on EU)? Would foot be safer for me/my teammates?

And arrows, I suppose I'd be better off going for quantity over quality at first, yes?

I actually notice that in NA if you play as CAV you have much more chance to survive than playing in EU. Less players playing as CAV in NA. You should be ok in there. You just have to keep shooting on horse, to shoot accurate you need to slower the horse, then shoot and repeat the process. Mostly all the kills comes from HA are via Bumping or Slashing with 1 handed sword. After the patch HA has nerf quite a bit...but if you use arrows like tatar and bodin you will do fine.

[oohillac]

I actually notice that in NA if you play as CAV you have much more chance to survive than playing in EU. Less players playing as CAV in NA. You should be ok in there.

Indeed, on my STF HA last night, only Duke of Disco and foot ranged were killing me. Cav/infantry got me only when I crashed into walls and such.

[buba]

Like Fru offered, come by on TS and he or someone else will give you help.
I would't mind practising a bit on a duel server with you.

[Murchad]

I agree with Fandrall on pretty much everything but i think the desert is amazing horse
1.  I vote for desert but it is mostly personal preferance.
i would stay away from the higher cost horses just so you can sustain the upkeep.

2. slow down for long range shots - when dueling archer at long range do lots of turning and wheeling and try to not be predictable. (desert and arabian great for this)
at medium range you can get body shots at full speed but to consistantly get headshots will need to slow down slightly.  If you like to shoot at full speed i would say the faster horses would be better because you can chase down enemy cav better.

3. this mostly depends on map and enemy composition.
if enemy has lots of archers or their cav outnumber yours too badly I would stay close to main group and engage distracted enemies/stragglers.     picking off enemy top scoring cav can help your team alot but don't waste too many arrows if they are really dodging and avoiding you BUT BE CAREFUL once you start to shoot at them they like to come back and try to catch you off guard.
if the enemy has only lower concentration of archers/cav you can ride right around the group engaging at will.

4. go on foot or switch to alt. you can try to ride on those maps too but i ususally just save the horse upkeep and do foot archery (I am high level now so i have ps and ath so now it is easy choice)

5. as a HA always pick on the weakest or most dangerous targets to get the most use out of your arrows

[Fandrall]

Alex if you're getting most of your kills as a HA from bumping/1h then you're doing it wrong. The only HA I know who actually kills as much with his sword as the bow is Elmer and his playstyle and build is uniqe. (and very hard to play)

Also the body-dmg was buffed again so the "nerf" is hardly noticable now.

As for the gear oohillac the rules of foot archers apply to horse archers aswell. Namely keep it as light as possible, preferably under 7. That said I always go for looks over functionality. If you like the looks stick with it. I would ditch the helm though as its weight is multiplied by 3 and it whont save you from a hs anyway.

You can do ok on EU with NA ping but you should focus even more on killing enemy horses and dont expect many kills. Oh and stick close to Fallen/HRE/GK cav for protection ;-)

[oohillac]

Thanks again for the help everyone!
I'll go with the steppe helmet I think, it's a classic

[Murchad]

Alex if you're getting most of your kills as a HA from bumping/1h then you're doing it wrong. The only HA I know who actually kills as much with his sword as the bow is Elmer and his playstyle and build is uniqe. (and very hard to play)

I am level 34 HA so I have 5ps and it is nice having the flixibility to be able to save arrows and get melee kills also. I like to use it against people who are turtleing behind shields and flanking groups of enemy archers. also like to use it against heavy cav. (out manouver them with desert horse and slash them down)

Another non related comment is that using weaker bows and aiming for headshots is really good practice and very effective for more experienced horsearchers.  I use a nomad as much or more as my horn bow now and enjoy them both equally. also for arrows if you are aiming for bodyshots I recommend bodkins if headshots something with more arrows as you will miss more.

[oohillac]

My ideal 35 HA build, if I ever got there, would look like this I think

(click to show/hide)

    Strength: 18
    Agility: 24
    Skills to attributes: 4
    Power Strike: 6
    Riding: 8
    Horse Archery: 4
    Power Draw: 6
    Weapon Master: 8
    One Handed: 65
    Archery: 170

I think I am going to start with regular arrows (try to find a +1 bag maybe). Quantity over quality for a beginner, I think! 

[Arrowblood]

This is the best horsearcher build.
Level 35 (142 278 448 xp)

Strength: 15
Agility: 30
Hit points: 50
Skills to attributes: 10
Ironflesh: 0
Power Strike: 0
Shield: 0
Athletics: 0
Riding: 7
Horse Archery: 5
Power Draw: 5
Power Throw: 0
Weapon Master: 9
One Handed: 1
Two Handed: 1
Polearm: 1
Archery: 184
Crossbow: 1
Throwing: 1