By Kyle Horner

Welcome to the fourth and final installment of The Rohan Report, a feature that's one- part informal diary and one- part Riders of Rohan™ guide.

After spending some time rebuilding Hytbold, I decided it would be a good idea to cover some basic tips and tricks I've been picking up along the way. So, for this final edition of The Rohan Report, I'll recap my thoughts and advice on Mounted Combat, War-steed customization, and Hytbold.

NOV. 5TH – NOV. 9TH: A ROHAN RECAP

MOUNTED COMBAT TIPS & TRICKS

Using the auto-run button to jump a War-steed to max speed is a handy trick. So is pressing the 'X' key to switch the camera into Watch My Target mode, as I like to call it.

Something else to consider when in Mounted Combat is your position in relation to a mounted enemy; attacks from an opponent's backside are more deadly.  Giving careful consideration to your hot bar layout goes a long way towards freeing up mind space in the heat of Mounted Combat.

Here's what my layout looks like:

 
At the top left you can see I have my Mounted Combat Disciplines on the Shift + 1, Shift + 2, and Shift + 3 keys. I like having them here for when I want to switch between Disciplines during combat, or when first jumping onto my War-steed—whenever I jump onto my Heavy War-steed it defaults to Red Dawn, but I often use Riddermark because my Legendary Bridle gives a very nice boost to its ability.

Below the Shift keys are my Alt keys. On the Alt +1 key is Spur On, which increases the cost of mounted skills but moves me towards my target when I use an offensive skill on an enemy. Spur On is useful at early levels, but as my Turn Rate improved and as I gained skill at maneuvering, my need for Spur On diminished.

On my Alt + 2 key is Recuperate, a very useful skill used to restore Morale and Power to you and Endurance and Power to your War-steed. You can use Recuperate in the middle of combat, and I recommend doing so whenever necessary—don't make the same mistake I made of getting caught up in the heat of combat and nearly being knocked off your horse.

Alt + 3 is Quick Stop, but I prefer double-tapping the S key to achieve the same effect—something the skill itself mentions. I suppose I could take this off Alt + 3, but I enjoy the symmetry of six skill blocks.

Let's toss the War-steed hot bar image up once more:

 
The 1 through 5 keys are where your most used skills should live—so for me, that means offensive skills. Beyond the 5 key is where skills that get occasional use live, like Break Free (key 6) which removes any movement impairing effects. I don't always have to deal with movement impairing effects, but when I do, I press the 6 key.

MOVEMENT IN MOUNTED COMBAT

My time with Mounted Combat has only reinforced my liking of imagining War-steed maneuvering like controlling a flying tank.

I've used this analogy before, but it only becomes more useful as I level up and apply points in War-steed trait lines. I'm drawing on my experience leveling and playing as a Champion on a Heavy War-steed, so keep that in mind when I say War-steeds at speeds of 10.0 and higher turn like a tank in a swamp until you invest in yellow traits to improve aspects like acceleration, top speed, and turn rate.

In fact, it's the three ranks of Agile Movement (giving a +9 to Turn Rate) that made turning my Heavy War-steed at higher speeds more bearable.

ON REBUILDING HYTBOLD

The charred town of Hytbold is beginning to look livelier, especially with more of the Mead Hall rebuilt. Here are a few screens of the progress I made in about five day's time:

In the last Rohan Report I covered the basic process of rebuilding Hytbold, but there's a lot repairs to make, meaning it will take you some time, and so a couple tips to alleviate the process of rebuilding an entire town are in order.

When rebuilding Hytbold it helps to improve the Mead Hall Exterior and Stables first because this opens up useful travel and bind points. I also recommend setting bind points at towns with Hytbold quests, meaning Cliving, Harwick, Eaworth, and Snowbourn. If you decide to use bind points often, consider the Hurried Traveler skill in the LOTRO Store; this will reduce the cool down time on bind points by 30 minutes, cutting the time you have to wait in half.

Hytbold is becoming very interesting this week, because of two things: I restored NPCs (pictured above, in the first Hytbold screen) who can barter Riders of Rohan end-game equipment for Hytbold Tokens, and it looks pretty awesome:

The above shot is another player, because I continue to enjoy rebuilding the town, and I'm still developing my reputation with various factions in East Rohan. I'm very close, however, and I'm sure to have a nice heroic set of armour before the year is out.

Well, this brings The Rohan Report to a close. It's been a fun little ride, and I hope those who've followed along have enjoyed it. There's a lot more to see in Riders of Rohan, especially with rotating Daily Quests and vast open landscapes to gallop and fight through with my War-steed, so maybe we'll see each other out there while defending the Free People of East Rohan. I'll probably have to switch out my cosmetic look after all these features—this Champion prefers to fight evil incognito.

Ride true, fight brave, and level wise my fellow Free Peoples!