FIX THE CAV RESPEC, GOOD LORD

[WITCHCRAFT]

Harald: partial respec for cav: removes 3 str and all riding skill + decreases str-skills when necessary for all chars which have at least 1 riding.

When crossbows increased in str requirement, crossbow users got 3 agility refunded. This was fine because the largest increase in str requirement for any crossbow was 3. You could re-assign your points and continue to use your favorite weapon, even if you had to cut back on the agility part of your build.

With the horse rework, you are refunded 3 str so that you can apply those points to agility since horse requirements increased by up to 3 points.

BUT WAIT A GOD DAMN MINUTE. HORSES DON'T USE AGILITY FOR REQUIREMENT, THEY USE RIDING. SO YOU NEED 9 AGILITY MORE TO USE THE SAME HORSE. IF YOU HAD 15 AGILITY AND 5 RIDING BEFORE, AND USED ANY HORSE FROM A WARHORSE AND UPWARD IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO USE THIS "PARTIAL RESPEC" AND CONTINUE TO USE YOUR FAVORITE HORSE. YOU'RE FUCKED. SELL YOUR HORSE OR RETIRE OR RESPEC OR QUIT THE GAME, GG NO RM.

I urge the powers that be, please please change the "partial respec." Give back 9 strength to cavalry, so they can continue to use the item they love and built their character around. I haven't played cav in almost a year, I have no personal investment in this change. I just don't want to see players locked out of using their character and items that they have spent months or maybe even years to obtain. This is the kind of thing that makes long-time players quit the game. There is no reason to do this if you are willing to offer a "partial respec" so please make it a valid respec and not a big ol' middle finger to cav.

[Thranduil]

I have to agree and I don't usually play cav. Hell, I'm usually ticked off by most cav (typically the couch potatoes and the heavy tramplers), though once a year I'll respec my STF char for a few days of being able to get around with a heavy lance. I was happy to see a cav nerf to be honest, but not to all the cav and certainly not to the extent it has been executed. I still feel that 7 difficulty is the most any horse should require, but even then, the partial respec wouldn't help cav players because of just how much the difficulty requirement has gone up.

I would ask that devs rethink what the difficulty requirements should be with 7 being the max difficulty. And also to give cav players a respec that would actually allow them to use their horses, so give them back 6 STR.

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Now I'm no item balancer, but the current stats seem mostly alright to me. I would just change the difficulties to something akin to the following:

Name: Requirement
Donkey: 0
Sumpter Horse: 2
Rouncey: 3
Steppe Horse: 4
Desert Horse: 6
Palfrey: 5
Courser: 6
Destrier: 5
Barded Warhorse: 5
Heraldic Barded Warhorse: 5
Arabian: 7
Padded Warhorse: 5
Eastern Horse: 6
War Horse: 6
Large Warhorse: 6
Cataphract Horse: 6
Eastern Warhorse: 6
Charger: 7
Mamluk Horse: 7
Plated Charger: 7

That's just my opinion though.

[Grumbs]

Seems the guys that don't abuse OP stuff will never get a free respec. If you get 9 str refunded you can change a lot with your character for free while people that don't abuse OP stuff get nothing once again like with the minor xbow change

[Macropus]

People seem to overestimate the damage caused to their builds. It's not really like your build got "destroyed", it's more like you are forced to use lighter horses. Which, of course, could mean one of your looms became useless for you, but hey, didn't that happen before when some items got nerfed heavily? Remember the Danish Greatsword? Did 2h ask for a full respec or get loom refund back then? No.
If you had 5 riding pre-patch, you can now use Barbed warhorse and Padded warhorse which are pretty decent.

[Gravoth_iii]

Try the lighter horses, they are really strong too. Destrier is 6 riding now, if you had 5 you could use those 3 str points to get a 6th riding point. Padded warhorse looks like the best horse anyways 

[Macropus]

Really, Macropus? It's all about that I build my 1h cav build lvl 32 around heavy horses, especially War horse now. I need a full respec to make that char playable again, nothing else. Nobody will trade any lighter horse for my war horse, and also I don't want to play light cav, I want to play heavy cav, that's the sole purpose of that very char.

You can't build your character around heavy horses because there's no direct link between a build and a horse to use, just your preferences. Yes, you are forced to change your equipment, but my point is that it's not new to this mod and happened many times before for the sake of balance.
Archers didn't want to fight in melee, they wanted to shoot, that was the sole purpose of their chars. Yet quiver weight increased and they were forced to, which changed their playstyle but hey, that's balancing.

The motive for this patch was that you didn't need much dedication to play cav, just invest 5 points and you're able to use the most heavy horses without really sacrificing much infantry playstyle. Almost all cav players were just an infantry builds + riding added. Now there will actually be a term "dedicated cavalry build".

[Macropus]

Well, my build was a dedicated cavalry build with maxed out riding and NO athletics, so your whole point is invalid for me. They made my dedicated cav build useless.

They made your horse useless.*

Which is still sad, but not as terrible as you seem to think.

[NJ_Legion_Icedtea]

Agree with this. I was fortunate to be using a Destrier before. However I do feel sorry for those who could not put in their required amount of riding for their horse

[Macropus]

Nope. They made my build useless, not my horse. Or maybe both. I don't even care anymore. I guess I will have to use that shitty partial respec to make my char being able to use war horse and then never play that char again. 

Still I don't get how was your build made useless. You still can use medium-armoured horses with your build, don't you? How is that "made useless"?

[Macropus]

Now I can't play that build anymore - "they made my build useless".

But you do realize these are not the same thing?
You can't play the build you planned to play with the horse you planned to use - yes.
It made your build useless - well, no it didn't.

[Switchtense]

GG partial respec fucking up cav builds

(Serious, cause cav = meh)

[Kafein]

Seems the guys that don't abuse OP stuff will never get a free respec. If you get 9 str refunded you can change a lot with your character for free while people that don't abuse OP stuff get nothing once again like with the minor xbow change

what the fuck grumbs

[Sparvico]

I can count on one hand the number of melee cav I know that have builds with 8 riding and are not above level 32. I cannot count how many HA and HX naturally have really high agi and riding. Seems to me they've made HA even more enticing. I mean agi cav with a heavy horse is fun and all, until you get shot once, or grazed by literally any weapon in the game and die while your horse has full health. Agi ranged cav with a heavy horse on the other hand 

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oh and fuck whoever thought 6 fucking throwing harpoons sounded like a good idea

[Grumbs]

what the fuck grumbs

OP suggests to give back 9 STR alongside refunding all riding skill like is already given + you will have all those skill points refunded from any skill over your str limit. Thats a pretty hefty respec. You don't even need to put any points back into cav if you feel like trying something else. Meanwhile people that don't use OP stuff get no respec whatsoever

[Sparvico]

OP suggests to give back 9 STR alongside refunding all riding skill like is already given + you will have all those skill points refunded from any skill over your str limit. Thats a pretty hefty respec. You don't even need to put any points back into cav if you feel like trying something else. Meanwhile people that don't use OP stuff get no respec whatsoever

Horses are not over powered (annoying as shit yes, but not terribly difficult to kill for anyone with half a brain), unless you were using OP to refer to over played, which is the only actual thing anyone balances around in this mod.