Horse archers are basically ultimate kiting archers, which were so much hated and kiting archers on foot were removed.
I think you can do pretty well as HA right now, only thing is that it gets effective only on level 30+, but is it that hard to make it there?
My point is that HA is definetly not underpowered, just look at the possibilities: noone without ranged weapons can do anything to you, you can even bump-shoot shielder (I'd say this is freaky mechanic).
I personally have got a 30lvl 18/21 alt (Victory is a nickname) which has got the same reticle as in this "accuracy" build while riding an arabian on full speed, and I'd say it's just enough. You won't go snipering with HA, would you? Of course not. If you want better reticle - slow down a bit, it's perfectly valid and realistic.
Courser is definetly not a HA horse, but it is HX horse...
Here's a screen of reticle:
And here's what it scores - not a lot of kill, but a lot of score! HA is not useless, but definetely annoying.
^^^ - the reason, why people always say "HA k/d ratio on website is so bad"
lol
Also HA vs HX - HA wins in most cases.
They are not bad, IMO, they are just kiters.
I'm on of the oldest HAs in game, i'll tell you know that if you can ride (note, there is n little amount of people that can really ride properly), a champion courser with 7+ riding is the horse to go for. HA dont just fight infantry, also other horsemen. Catching up is useful and well as getting away from other chasing cav and archers (bows can block)
Obviously all HA slow down a bit to shoot infantry at some points, the video is just for representing reticule size at speed, as the whole thread is for the HA skill, which comes into play at speed.
If you put a good HA playing as HX (once the HA gets used to shot speed), HX will win, all the time, more damage, decend retitucle (more HA points possible) no PD and less strength requirements. With MW crossbow and good wpp reload is not bad at all, specially when considering the amount of times a HA reload just to get the reticule at a good size for a shot.
Also, scoring points for the sake of scoring points it is easy, just shoot horses and random arrows at people. That's not the point though.
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Leshma, on a security point of view horse archers are safer than archers. But the damage is far far inferior, accuracy is horrible and the most important of all for this thread, penalized even when off the horse due to the -10wwp per HA point penalty.
So horse archers right now for a safer play style which not not guaranteed as horses get shot and HA has no defense and any good archer can shoot you pay:
-The need of a horrible grind to usefulness
-Pay much higher upkeep
-Get horrible accuracy even though you are paying precious skill points for a skill that is supposed to make you accurate
-Get penalized on foot, even if you spawn with no horse for choosing to spend skill points on HA skills (and riding along with it) -
Now let's not get me talking about speed bonus not applied to arrows you shoot, but applied to arrows hitting you... Extremely frustrating when chasing cav at the same speed (equivalent to standing still) but doing no damage.
If you take a 15/24 build at level 30 as a foot archer you get enough athletics to outrun most melee and 5PS to actually be very useful at melee if you can fight...
Getting rid of the penalty will make little difference to the reticule at most speeds... When standing still a HA is no different to you than an archer on a roof or behind enemy lines, or with high athletics for that matter...
Only that for the price of using a horse and shooting when moving, right now HA are penalized when doing everything else.
Cris.
Ps. Also, at speed, you can miss a horseman who is directly in-front of you with your horse's head kissing his horse ass... Seems balanced? I don't think so.
Ps2- The last couple of weeks ive been doing stf with str builds as pole and 2h (usually 30/12 with 4ath and 3wm) with good armour and wepaon and LOL, that is OP. Not only you on hit most, it takes many many arrows to kill you. And you are not slow... no trade off there for super human strength... Maybe one day i'll do a proper alt 30/15 to play something OP for a change and cry on the forum cos people can shoot me
(no of fence intended to any particular player)