Sacred:Pevils Horse Builds, General tips to make horses work

Published at DarkMatters for review and discussion

Foreward

Ok guys well this is pretty much my horse guide from over on SIF. It's not really designed to be a build guide as such, but more tips on how to integrate Riding into your character, and why you'd want to! However I will be adding posts below this that will be horse-based builds I've used. So that said, lets get on with the guide:

So what benefits do I get from a mount?

If you see a horse, hover the mouse over it and you will see a window with the horses stats. These are the benefits of horses. Different horses have different stats, and so you can shop around to get the best one for you. There are four main benefits that you will want to look at. As a general rule, higher level horses will have higher benefits.

Speed: Whilst you can get to 220 speed on foot, this is your limit. Horses however can get a base speed of 220 and then have extra added to that by bridles or saddles, allowing you to move even faster. This makes them great for rushing through areas to complete quests or running away from monsters that are about to kill you in hardcore mode! Generally a horse with high speed will give a smaller bonus protection than a same-level horse with slower speed.

Charge:The horse has its own attack, the charge. To get this, simply equip either a combo or a "Cannot be used from horseback" CA and it will give you a horse icon instead of the combo/ca one. Use it like a normal CA and the horse will gain an aura for a duration of time. In this time, if you charge at an enemy, you will both damage it and stun it briefly. This can be used in many ways, for example stunning enemies as you make an escape, or simply just stunning half of a big group while you weaken the other half with regular attacks.

Hitpoint Increase: Horses in Underworld share their hitpoints with you, meaning if they die, you die. Each horse has a % shown; obviously a higher number means you will get a greater addition to your hitpoints. Because horses share hitpoints with you, they can be cured by drinking a potion whilst sitting on them. They can be poisoned as well, so keep antidotes on you or let it wear off. Note: sometimes by using life leech, it is possible for you to 'return from the dead'; however this will only work on your character and this is the only time you will escape death but your horse won't. This bonus stacks with Constitution for an even better bonus

Protection bonus: Each horse gives you a protection bonus to each of the four types of damage. Choosing your horse well based on this can be very useful; for example if you yourself have low poison resistance, buy a horse that has a fairly high poison resistance to reduce your weakness a bit. Some horses have similar resistances to all damage types, others will have high bonuses to one or two whilst the others are much lower. Generally, but not always, horses with higher protection bonuses will be slower. The numbers that you actually see on the horse are in fact what your resistances will be if you buy and mount this horse, so check them against your existing resistances. (I'm currently researching this as I'm not entirely certain this observation is true anymore; check back for updates)

As well as these, there are less obvious benefits. For example, a battlemage can simply run round and fire off his spells without stopping. Simply rightclick when you reach the area you want to cast the spell, and as long as you keep the mouse well in front of the horse, you will not even pause to cast the spell. Saves your fragile BM getting caught up in the middle of 20 nasty orcs!

The same goes for ranged characters; it is possible to left click on an enemy to attack it, then very quickly move off the enemy and left click somewhere on the ground. If you do it fast enough and keep the second left click held in, you can effectively ride in circles around large mobs of enemies, firing arrows/bolts into them the whole time whilst avoiding their own arrows and staying out of melee range.

Seraphim also get a huge benefit as their attack speed is increased on horseback whether they are using magic, melee OR ranged. No other characters seem to get this benefit on all three types of combat, although many of them do gain a benefit to one. For information on this check out Knights Mounted Sera Guides.

When you get on a horse, your attack rating drops significantly to ~2/3 of the unmounted value. Riding improves this, at level ~25 Riding (enough to use the Heavy Warhorse) the mounted Attack Rating is only ~98% of the unmounted value. (thanks to Llama8) You'll be equally good on horseback as on foot at lvl 32 riding, and above that you'll actually have more benefits to attack.

What is the point of Riding in Underworld?

There are horses you can buy that require 0 riding skill, so why should you bother to take the riding skill in the first place? As you increase your riding skill, you gain the following improvements:

Higher level horses are available for you to ride, giving you access to more beneficial mounts (i.e. higher base stats - see below)

Charge damage of your mount is increased Charge duration of your mount is increased Attack is improved (i.e. how likely you are to hit the monster from horseback) For actual values please check this page here

How can I improve my mount?

The easiest way to improve it is to buy a new, higher level one whenever you see it. Generally with a higher level you get higher base charge damage/duration, hitpoint increase, protection bonuses and speed, although these do differ horse to horse. It is possible to get a higher level horse that is slower with higher protection.

The other way to improve them is saddles or bridles. You can only equip your horse with one of these at a time, but they can provide many modifiers, most common being Attack Speed or Movement Speed. They also add to protection bonus for your horse. There are even unique saddles available. To equip a saddle, simply right click it when it's in your inventory. With Underworld it is also possible now for you to remove the saddle without having to swap it with another one. Simply hold in 'Ctrl' and right-click on the horse shoe shown on your character portrait, and the saddle will appear back in your inventory.

Also check out "Will my horse level up with me" below.

What is the best mount?

This depends on individual horses and what you are looking for from the horse (i.e. speed, protection, damage or hitpoint bonus). However as a general rule of thumb, the list from worst to best is as follows: Light Nag Normal Nag Heavy Nag Light Riding Horse Normal Riding Horse Heavy Riding Horse Light Warhorse Normal Warhorse Heavy Warhorse

You also get something called a "Khorad-Nur Warsteed"... I'm unsure what the equivalent of this is but it seems to be a mid-range horse. They're also referred to as Orcish Warsteeds.

Will my horse level up with me?

I'm currently researching horse levelling. I've had the same Heavy Warhorse now from Bronze (we're now in Platinum). As the horse levels he will gain a higher hp bonus (seems to go up 1% every 2 levels). However I'm not yet sure just how much exp the horse needs to level. The levelling process occurs independantly of the character, but it would seem you do need to fight on your horse in order for it to get experience. Currently my horse gives 4% more hp bonus than the best horse to buy in Platinum.

How can I heal my mount?

There are two ways to heal your mount. One is to drink a potion whilst you are mounted on it. This will heal you both (note that if somehow your horse is damaged but you aren't, the potion will have no effect). You can cure your horse of poison in this way as well by drinking an antidote potion.

The other way is to visit the horse trader. Click on the trader while your horse is near, and a window will pop up. At the bottom will be two options: Heal or Sell. If your horse needs healing then just above these options will be a red number called the healing cost.

How can I improve my riding skill with items?

If you really don't want to put many skills into riding, try to wear a lot of "+ to all skills" equipment. It can be a very effective way to boost all your skills and means you can get away with only putting one point into riding if you wish.

It is also possible to get equipment with a + to riding on it. These seem to be fairly rare but there are uniques and set items now with it on. One set with nice riding bonus is the Arhles T'gaws set for the Vampiress.

What are these Immortal/Dragon/Daemon/Faeries Crossing horses?

One of the side quests in the game is based at Faeries Crossing and involves bringing a niece back to her 'uncle'. Upon doing this you find that the horses nearby are in fact daemons and he is not her uncle. The importance of these two horses are that they are, in fact, immortal. To get these horses, simply get to Faeries Crossing, then go into the small clearing at the edge of the forest just north-west from the town. Then simply get on them! Do not attempt to do the quest unless you log out and back into the multiplayer server, or start a new game in singleplayer.

The benefits of these horses... well for any character other than Hardcore, they are probably of some use. In Bronze the horses have the stats: Level 72 Speed 140 HP Bonus 13% 0 Riding Required and, as mentioned, are immortal. This means if you get hit, although you will take damage, the horse won't. This means that you can die and respawn, and not have to buy a new horse. These horses are probably less useful in Hardcore however as you can't respawn there and so you might as well get a horse that has much higher benefits to your character. They were also far more useful in Plus, where horses died frequently as they didn't share your health.

What bugs are there with Riding?

Right now there are two main bugs. One is very easy to reproduce and very annoying, but only affects Ring of Ice Battle Mages. The other can affect anyone using a horse but seems to be very rare.

Ring of Ice

Basically this occurs if you cast Ring of Ice on horseback either whilst petrified/magically entangled or just before becoming petrified/magically entangled by an enemy priest or shaman. Whilst the Ring of Ice remains, you will not be able to move on horseback, although you can get off and run around. This always happened in Plus. However, in Underworld you will find that after the ring has disappeared, the horse will still not move. You can run away from the horse, then call it, and it will appear somewhere on the screen but will still be 100% frozen. The only thing to do is to buy a new horse. If you are lucky when you call the old horse at the horse trader, it will appear near enough to be able to sell it, but 9 times out of 10 you can't even do that. Fixed in 2.24

The second bug just seems to occur randomly, and I have no idea what causes it. Basically if you click the horseshoe to call your horse, sometimes you will find that nothing happens. Your character will not whistle and the horse will not appear. I don't know if logging out then back into a game will fix this, but I think the game basically treats you as no longer having a horse. Again, the only way to fix this that I've found is to buy a new one.

NEW BUGS IN 2.24

Disappearing saddle:

Sometimes if you leave your horse, or even are riding round, the saddle/bridle will just drop off. Sometimes it will appear on the ground, other times it just vanishes. To combat this, whenever you log out or save, ctrl-right click the horseshoe icon to put the saddle/bridle into your inventory.

Disappearing horse:

Always always save or log out whilst mounted on your horse, or you may find the horse has disappeared when you load/log back in and will have to buy a new horse.

Possible bug

-Llama8 brought this to my attention which may or may not be a bug: You can totally ignore the part of riding that says that you need to level Riding up to get higher level horses (other than hitting Riding 25 for the Warhorse), my Sera has 27 Riding & is using a level ~120 horse from Gold (which gives +66% health).

If you have anything you want to ask, or want me to add into this FAQ, please PM me or reply to this topic. I will update whenever I research something new, but also feel free to check out Pevil's Place as I have more room for more in-depth findings there (mainly when I get a table up of what each level of riding will give you). Thanks to Llama8 for contributions to this guide.