So, is Horse Archery Skill really Balanced?

[Joker86]

Maybe I should also write here something. Like many people said, HA got tremendously nerfed due to rage polls and rage threads, not because of some flaw in the game mechanics. It was of course very natural that such forum requests ended for the favor of HA haters, as this game is mainly played by 2H / pole players. And what a surprise, these classes are of course the natural prey of skilled HA's as they lack protection like a shield in the middle of the field. However, there are many good ways to kill HA's: you can be a light lancer, you can be a skilled archer/thrower, you can be a skilled pole guy or you can be another HA.

I have been playing as a horse archer for about maybe 1 year. My main character is level 34, with 18/24 stats, 6PD, 4 HA, 172 WPF, 8 Riding, 3 PS. Although the heavy and unbalanced repairs, such as you still need to repair your arrows as if your wpf is for nothing, plus the horse repair ( this is a part of the deal of being a cavalry ), I was still enjoying playing as my prey was my natural prey and my predator was my natural predator.

After the nerfs, I fell deep on the levels of the food chain because of my heavily reduced accuracy, reduced drawing speed and recalculated aiming trajectories. This is such a big frustration for a player with horse archers, and even more for whose level is 34, which translates into a considerable amount of time investment.

I hope that one day the HA gets buffed again back to its natural position and I, and many of my fellow cavalry player friends get back to the game.

I don't know, I don't feel any will to put yourself into the position of the enemy of a HA, and all the frustrating situations you can experience fighting them... 

[Leshma]

Didn't we ban that retard?

We ban them, they come back...

Since IP bans are out of the question, interesting way to get rid of those previously permabanned is to put time limit on every new account they make. Like trial period. First time permabanned, second account has 500 hours of cRPG playtime before getting permabanned automatically. Third account, 250 hours. Fourth, just 100 hours of game time and so on.

[Kafein]

We ban them, they come back...

Since IP bans are out of the question, interesting way to get rid of those previously permabanned is to put time limit on every new account they make. Like trial period. First time permabanned, second account has 500 hours of cRPG playtime before getting permabanned automatically. Third account, 250 hours. Fourth, just 100 hours of game time and so on.

You are learning the way of juice fast, young padawan.

[Cris]

It'd be nice for devs to post their plans here

[Macropus]

So, I started playing HA again recently, and now reached lvl 30. What can I say?
1) It's super expensive comparing with efficiency in battle.
2) Aim is really bad, only good for shooting horses in close/middle range
3) HA-melee hybrid is actually not THAT bad. But worse than pure 1h-shield cav.
4) Playing as pure HA (only shooting) is really a pain.
5) But a lot of fun though.

[Cris]

So, I started playing HA again recently, and now reached lvl 30. What can I say?
1) It's super expensive comparing with efficiency in battle.
2) Aim is really bad, only good for shooting horses in close/middle range
3) HA-melee hybrid is actually not THAT bad. But worse than pure 1h-shield cav.
4) Playing as pure HA (only shooting) is really a pain.
5) But a lot of fun though.

Thats a good post.

Its true HA is fun. But giving it a small buff wont hurt

[BattalGazi]

All GK support this post.

[El_Infante]

Horse archer is a crap build. Crap damage, crap accuracy, and very expensive. I hate them all, and I wish all horse my old friendchers burn in flames but I agree they need a big buff. They do more damage bumping than shooting. Sometimes when I get shot with one of them, they do around 5-10% damage per arrow, and I wear light armor.

[Kafein]

I am much in favour of this particular HA buff :

+2000% damage against people riding a horse and with a crossbow equipped


 

[Torben]

hm, feels like a few things have been balanced around not being op at lvl 34,  making them merely acceptable at lvl 30.  I guess HA is the most vulnerable class to that solution.

[Cris]

hm, feels like a few things have been balanced around not being op at lvl 34,  making them merely acceptable at lvl 30.  I guess HA is the most vulnerable class to that solution.

Even at level 34 its not well balanced, I know for a fact at least 2 level 34+ HAs.

I am much in favour of this particular HA buff :

+2000% damage against people riding a horse and with a crossbow equipped


 

Joke aside :-P for effectiveness sake, HX is much more accurate, does more damage, doesn't require PD, both light crossbow and steel bolts are cheaper than standar HA equipment, HX can wait till the perfect moment to shoot as the reticule is always the same and with the levels of WP that dedicated HX have their reload is only a bit slower than a HA's (especially with MW crossbow), and all of these can be done at level 30.

I'm not saying nerf HX, not at all, it just shows how badly balanced horse archery is.

Buff HA skill! (Maybe not for HX )

[BattalGazi]

I will post something soon !

[Grumbs]

Why do you want to kill off this game? Its not designed for shooting while riding, it won't ever be balanced for you until it drives the main playerbase away to other games

/troll.

Really though, please don't buff HA. Its already way too much of a ranged fest

[Torben]

Even at level 34 its not well balanced, I know for a fact at least 2 level 34+ HAs.

Joke aside :-P for effectiveness sake, HX is much more accurate, does more damage, doesn't require PD, both light crossbow and steel bolts are cheaper than standar HA equipment, HX can wait till the perfect moment to shoot as the reticule is always the same and with the levels of WP that dedicated HX have their reload is only a bit slower than a HA's (especially with MW crossbow), and all of these can be done at level 30.

I'm not saying nerf HX, not at all, it just shows how badly balanced horse archery is.

Buff HA skill! (Maybe not for HX )

Well,  I know of a few guys doing quite well as HAs on high levels,   looking at corsair,  tuonella and our higher level gk friends. 
It seems to need a good playing style adjustment to counter the nerfs and staying effective,  corsair for example has a beautiful style of fast approaches and low velocity turns making him a hard target and  giving him great attack angles whilst keeping the reticule small. 
He's a dancer,  that one : )


Chris, in the end it comes down to us wanting the game to be more deadly again,  aint it? : )

[BattalGazi]

I just tested HA skill's effect on accuracy and speed. I have a main HA char: lvl 34 ( 174 wpf, 4 HA, 6 PD, 8 WM ) and an alt stf: (172 wpf, 0 HA, 6 PD, 8 WM). It looks like the HA skill increases the accuracy as the reticule for my main character was a bit smaller. However, speed reduces dramatically when you add HA skills. My 0 HA skill alt char was drawing much faster than 4 HA character.  I will post the pictures soon.

This shows that HA skill does not work as it should be. Ok it increases accuracy ( not too much ) but reduces drawing speed too much. This is against the nature of the skill.

Such a wpf calculation:

Effective WPF = ( WPF - PD*14 - HA*10)*(1 - 0.01*(effective armor weight))

is extremely ridiculous.