I see people see the mounted ranged as a form of trolling and pissing off other players. That means I have a different belief compared to the majority of our community. Let me explain my thoughts:
I, myself, never see the class like that. For me HA and HX are nearly the same, the only difference is that HX is way more superior than HA. Quality difference. I will explain this from a HA's perspective, since after seeing the quality difference between the classes; I quickly abandoned the looks of HA to become a HX once. Sacrificing some style for stats.
My favourite faction in Native is Khergits. Because I like the idea of mounted combat and mounted archery as a way of medieval warfare. Some people like nords and rhodoks; because they have strong infantry. Some people like Vaegirs, because of their archers. Some like sarranid and swadia, for their cavalry. And I like Khergits most; too bad people do everything not to play that class. Same applies to cRPG:
-Some people watch hollywood movies, which the main hero is a great swordsman or something; so they want to play as a twohander character.
-Some people like the idea of ninjas or samurais, therefore they grab a katana and become swift yet deadly ninjas. We even have a clan for that.
-Some people see robin hood or legolas; therefore they like to be an archer- a ranger.
I all have respect for that.
But when I want to roleplay as a Steppe nomad, a Mongolian warrior, a Magyar cavalry, a Turkish raider or anything that is close to that; I became a troll, a round delayer, a conspiratist, a gaycher, a coward, a skilless player, an idiot, an asshole...
That's how it was for HA, before they nerfed and HX came out. As I said, it was for HA before; now it's for HX since it is the way to go if you want to play as a horse ranged. No difference really.
