Build Choice

[Weewum]

Recently, I have been having trouble choosing a build, I narrowed it down to Melee cav (Sword, shield and lance/spear) and Crossbow cav(Light Crossbow 2 steel bolts and sword).

Please respond with what is better and not which takes more skill.

[Tears of Destiny]

Please respond with what is better and not which takes more skill.

Main issue with this is that which is better depends on personal playing style. Most people do have more fun with Melee Cav though, but personal preference will vary. Melee Cav will be more ninja or striking suddenly against targets before moving on and is a good skirmish play, where as Crossbow Cav will depend on more of a harassment mentality.

[_Tak_]

Don't go for heavy cav, they are useless and your horse die in 1-2 hit and you pay 4000 upkeep. Go for destrier, best horse for 1 handed cav

[Weewum]

Main issue with this is that which is better depends on personal playing style. Most people do have more fun with Melee Cav though, but personal preference will vary. Melee Cav will be more ninja or striking suddenly against targets before moving on and is a good skirmish play, where as Crossbow Cav will depend on more of a harassment mentality.

Main reason I said that was so people wouldn't go "Crossbow cav is noobish!!1111!!!!!!1 it take nu skeel!11!!11!!!!!!"

[Tears of Destiny]

Main reason I said that was so people wouldn't go "Crossbow cav is noobish!!1111!!!!!!1 it take nu skeel!11!!11!!!!!!"

My point still stands though, neither is really better, they just fit different roles.

I personally find a melee cav to be more of a romantic idea then crossbow, so I would go melee.

[Rainbow]

If you are EU go crossbow.  If you are NA go melee cav.

[Weewum]

Are there any good hybrid builds for the two? If so can you post it?

[LordBerenger]

Don't go for heavy cav, they are useless and your horse die in 1-2 hit and you pay 4000 upkeep. Go for destrier, best horse for 1 handed cav

Cuz someone thought it would be fun gameplay wise to add no leg armor to heavy horsies.

[Byrdi]

Cuz someone thought it would be fun gameplay wise to add no leg armor to heavy horsies.

It is fun.

[Smoothrich]

do 18/18 or 21/15, 4 shield skill, max ATH, PS, Riding, use 3 WM, 110 1hand wpf 80-90 polearm wpf, rest (3-5) in IF

there, you have a great lancer/1hand cav build that is just as strong of a sword and boarder/hoplite/whatever polearm you want build in melee.  Melee cav and melee infantry is more fun, imo, then ranged classes.

Xbow cav is kind of hilarious, but unless you are already a skilled horseman and have good decision making you will be relegated to shooting a few horses here and there until you get wrecked by lancer cav or enemy ranged.  I think being a better horseman (you get good awareness fast from melee cav) would make you enjoy ranged cav more on your next generation.  Your score as melee cav is almost guaranteed to be much better as well, and the speed bonus makes even non loomed melee weapons hit very hard on horseback.  Non loomed bows and bolts are fairly weak when mounted.

If you want to hybrid 1hand and xbow cav together, you will need to sacrifice bringing a shield to bring more ammo and be lighter on iron flesh and stuff.  You could still just do 18/18, max Riding, Athletics, HA (you get 3 at 18 agi), WM, and Powerstrike.  This gives you 2 left over, either for shield or IF.  You could have 130 xbow wpf and 105 1hand wpf with this build easily.

[Lech]

Cuz someone thought it would be fun gameplay wise to add no leg armor to heavy horsies.

It's not like those models HAVE leg armor.

[Tomas_of_Miles]

Begin as melee cav to get the hang of cav maneuvering, then if you feel like it try the xbow cav, you need a bit more awareness if you are gonna be twisting in different directions or stopping for shots. If you want to get lots of kills I'd advise melee cav, lances are very deadly, compared to the best you can reload on horseback being a masterwork light crossbow (which does the same damage as an unloomed crossbow) plus masterwork steel bolts. That crossbow setup will be nice, but obviously has nowhere near the power of an arbalest.

[FRANK_THE_TANK]

I choose you!!! squirtle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *throws poke ball*

[LordBerenger]

It's not like those models HAVE leg armor.

Should technically still be able to add leg armor even though they're not ''visible'' per say.

I mean you pay 65k for a PCharger which can be killed with 3-4 pitchfork stabs with my 1 PS 3/39 STF char.

I mean...that's BS. Reason i respec'd from heavy cav.

[Slamz]

Melee cav is a lot harder to play but also potentially a lot more rewarding.  That is, when you start out you're more likely to go 0-5 (horse keeps getting killed / you keep mistiming your swings) but in the long run you can end up going 20-0 with quality kills the whole way.

As crossbow cav you'll have a much easier time starting out but the potential for excellence is never going to be as high as melee cav.  You can snipe peasants, run down foot crossbows and foot archers and harass armored infantry but your "time to kill" one player can tend to be quite large because you generally can't risk making close passes -- a dehorsed melee cav turns into heavy infantry but a dehorsed horse crossbow is just a peasant with a crossbow, so you don't want to risk it.

Consequently, melee cav is generally a bigger asset to the team because they will risk making close passes to knock down / slash enemy infantry while the horse crossbow can't/won't.