Shield for horseman is helpful ?

[Fekri]

Hi,

I'm building a light horseman

I want 9 riding for a maximum speed

I'm lvl 21   

9 strenght

23 agility

I use polearm

Shield is helpful for my cav build ?

Must I use my skills points to improve Shield ? or i keep them for WPF for my Polearm ?

[Shemaforash]

What's your aim for strength?

By your specifications I'd go 12/27 with 4 PS, 4 ath/4 shield, 9 riding, 6 WM or possibly
4 ps, 4 shield, 2 ath, 9 riding, 4 wm, and ~140 wpf in polearm.

[Fekri]

hi,

i aim 9 STRenght

I want the maximum riding, therefore approximitely 30 AGI

i don't want Athletic

POWER STRIKE is really helpful ? I want only to fight with my horse (courser and arabic horse)

[Fekri]

Can I be a good horseman without shield ?

[Kafein]

If you think you will not be dehorsed, you should take a shield, because otherwise you are wasting equipment slots. If you plan on playing on foot too, you should maybe not take a shield since in that case you can have a poleaxe or something of the like when you are downed.

I remember blocking very few projectiles with my shield when riding, because people shoot at your horse, so it doesn't help that much. It does make protecting yourself against melee easier as you don't have to worry about your blocking direction.

Power strike is extremely important, always put the maximum points in it for your strength.

[Rumblood]

I remember blocking very few projectiles with my shield when riding, because people shoot at your horse, so it doesn't help that much. It does make protecting yourself against melee easier as you don't have to worry about your blocking direction.

And being an archer I have the opposite experience. I often hear the shield scooping up arrows around the entire horse. 

[San]

Shield doesn't help that much against other lancers, but it does help a lot when trying to attack archers and makes it easier to bail out if you can't. If you get dehorsed, you still get protection from archers and other horses while you try to find another horse, since hoplite is one of the best classes at defense.

[OpenPalm]

My cav build has 4 shield and I really like having it.  Scoops arrows more than you think it would, and helps protect you AND your horse when you're charging.

[Uumdi]

Shield helps, but you can do well without it.

Level 30:  9/30

3 PS, 10 Riding, 10 Weaponmaster

Or:

Level 30: 9/30

3 Ironflesh, 3 Powerstrike, 10 Riding, 7 Shield.


Might be a fun build.  The 12/27 build he recommended earlier is much more well rounded, and 12/27 is still super light, super speed.

Consider this.  If you can kill people with only 9 strength, you're fine with 9 strength. Powerstrike helps you do more damage with any melee weapon, especially lance on horseback, so definitely max it out, even if its only 3.  Instead of 10 points going into weapon master, you can convert more skill points and go even higher into agility.

Level 30: 9/33

3 PS, 11 Riding. 3 left over (3 Ironflesh or 3 Shield)


That's really maximizing your riding skill.  You're going to die a lot, but it might actually be a lethal build with a light lance.  Hope this helps.

[BlueKnight]

I call my blue practise shield a "lifesaver" It truly saves me really often. I have 0 shield skill but somehow that shield takes 1 or 2 hits and allows me to survive. Usually it takes some random hits from archers or crossbowmen or when you were stopped, it saves you from couching enemies. Shield is totally worth it. Also having secondary weapon in case if you were going to get dismounted makes you look not that badass. Real men when dismounted fight with heavy lance  . MW heavy lance with it's 26 pierce and 75 speed is worse in melee than a longspear but whatever. You can always pick weapon from the ground.

I recommend you having athletics because on some maps it's just hard ride due to the wavy terrain and it's better to go on foot. PS is very important and having max riding won't help you that much so you'd better get some kind of balanced build. If you are going to use any of the light/normal/heavy lance I recommend normal lance (because you don't seem to have MW heavy lance and with 23 pierce of unloomed heavy lance, it's hard to kill a fly). Unloomed normal lance with 28 pierce is the way to go.

3 PS, 11 Riding. 3 left over (3 Ironflesh or 3 Shield)

That's really maximizing your riding skill.  You're going to die a lot, but it might actually be a lethal build with a light lance.  Hope this helps.

Unluckily 1 arrow or 1 bolt kills you with such a build You won't ride for long until they shoot you.

[joesmoe]

Sheilds are for nubs

[Bronto]

Before you start this gen of horseman, my suggestion is to make yourself a stf (skip the fun) character and try the builds people are suggesting to you. This way you can see what's best for you. good luck!

[CrazyCracka420]

I personally love having shield skill on my lancer.

With your build it sounds pretty pointless to be using a regular lance/light lance/heavy lance since you won't have much power strike (I'd recommend at least 12 str for 4 powerstrike).

I honestly think your build is terrible though, I always recommend only going the riding you need for the horse you want to ride.  Sure having 6 riding when I jump on a rouncey is nice, but it's not like I'm going to fly up on someone with 3 riding on the same rouncey, unless they put themselves in a terrible position (i.e. one where they can't get back to their friendly infantry), having that extra riding is pointless.

You're going to NEED a shield if you use a couch only weapon, otherwise you won't be able to cancel the couched lance until the 8 second timer runs out.  Also I don't think this couch only lances can block (unless that's from me playing too much single player mods). 

The shield is very nice for blocking projectiles, also it's nice for blocking someone's couched lance if you catch yourself in a bad position.

I'd recommend this build (so you can ride an arabian), but I wouldn't recommend going 8 or 9 riding.  If you do get a shield with your 9 riding, you're probably only going to want 2 points in it (there's some decent 2 skill shields) since you're going to need to be putting points into athletics and power strike.

7 riding (at level 30) build, always plan for a level 30 build because I'm assuming you're going to retire at level 31 (if not, then plan for a level 33 build since it's not too difficult to achieve).  Using the character calculator (the WPF is not accurate on this site): http://infinitum.dyndns.org/crpg/calc.htm

Level 30 (4 420 577 xp)

    Strength: 15
    Agility: 21
    Hit points: 50

    Skills to attributes: 2

    Power Strike: 5
    Shield: 4
    Athletics: 7
    Riding: 7
    Weapon Master: 6

You can either do 6 points in weapon master, or put 5 into IF and the other 1 into shield (that's up to you and depends on what you want, if you're using a couch only lance, then I'd suggest going the IF route, but I love my WPF, it helps with speed and makes the weapon hit harder, not to mention you have less chance of getting hit with upkeep on weapons the higher your WPF in any weapon skill).

With 6 WM and 21 agility at level 30,  you can have 154 WPF in polearms which will help with thrusting lances, and when you get dehorsed and fight with a polearm (WPF helps with couch only lances by giving more damage, but they do a lot of damage already, and it's not going to be noticeable enough to use versus putting those points into IF).

I always put points into WM before IF because I'd rather have an offensive skill (weapon master and putting points into WPF) than a defensive skill (Iron Flesh giving more HP).

If I haven't convinced you yet, and you're hell bent on going 9 riding, then I'd suggest this build:
Level 30 (4 420 577 xp)

    Strength: 12
    Agility: 27
    Hit points: 47

    Skills to attributes: 8

    Power Strike: 4
    Shield: 2
    Athletics: 8
    Riding: 9

And I'd HIGHLY recommend that you use a great lance.

Since you already have 23 agility, my 7 riding suggestion probably won't work (I would not recommend respeccing at this point), so my suggestion would be to go 8 riding/24 agility with this build:

Level 30 (4 420 577 xp)

    Strength: 15
    Agility: 24
    Hit points: 50

    Skills to attributes: 8

    Power Strike: 5
    Shield: 2
    Athletics: 8
    Riding: 8

[KaMiKaZe_JoE]

Use a shield if ur cav. It will make you just that much more OP.

[Fartface]

Get an shield definatly , I can´t remember how many times I instashot a poor horseman charging at me . Any high damage archer/xbowemen/ thrower will seriously take a fuck load of your health if you get hit charging at em.