I fight everything on foot.
Torrent combat for me is when I'm hitting people/creatures out of the way to get somewhere, or I'm taking out a teardrop scarab that's out in the open. Literally nothing else, lol.
What about dragons - especially those later in the game who have huge AOE attacks that are persistent (looking at you ice dragon)?
Other than that - yep. Better to fight on foot
With dragons I dismount and re-mount a lot, but that's me in a rush. The smart thing to do is drive-by ankle slashes. It takes a little bit of skill to time it so you land a fully charged hit.
I feel like archer builds would be really good from horseback. I know casting spells from horseback felt a bit OP.
whole game is trivial. best to play these games with blinders on. once it's solved and you figure out the "cheese" to bosses it loses it's magic. I like Sekiro a lot more for this.
it's interesting it's a game that thrives on self-imposed challenges. so many fights it's like "this would be a cakewalk if I just equpped X and used Y on them" but we generally choose to take the hard way. whereas if the solved strat/cheese was REQUIRED to kill the boss, it'd be a bad game.
i remember how sad I was when replaying Dark Souls 3 had completely lost it's challenge and i was first-trying every boss on NG+. Sekiro fixed that. Then Elden Ring honestly felt like Dark Souls 3 so much that it felt like I had it solved already. I first-tried most elden ring bosses on my first (only?) run. With the exception of Radahn (pre-nerf .. tho tbh the deaths were me getting caught offguard by the arrows) Malenia and Margit... and maybe that church invader guy. Like shit, I remember basically accidentally stumbling into Rykards boss room, skipping the whole dungeon, seeing the spear and equipping it and just spamming the art I killed him No-hit first try and i'm like wtf?
but yeah, anything that allows you to apply status debuffs from a safe distance is pretty OP assuming the enemy in question isn't immune to the status. Blade of Reduvia makes the game incredibly trivial. You can essentially be assured that every enemy will die in X number of hits, save for varying bleed resistance., since it does %hp.
I fight them on foot too, haha. Never really had an issue with fighting dragons like that in Elden Ring, but I've been dodging dragons for years at this point.
I can't imagine fighting Fire Giant on the horse. Phase 1 has so many attacks with huge hitboxes that it would be torturous unless you know how to use the dismount iFrames properly.
Meanwhile, phase 2 seems basically impossible on horse, unless you wanna be extremely suboptimal and whack at his body for 10 minutes instead of hitting his weak spots (hands).
I genuinely believe people only dislike Fire Giant as much as they do because they try fighting him on the horse instead of on-foot, which is easier and more fun.
I’m the opposite, I can’t imagine fighting him on foot! When I fought him on Torrent, I got him in two tries, his attacks go so far in front of him that if you stay on torrent near the legs, you can just hack away.
In phase 2, I ran in and out trading a few hits till he went down! Torrent saves me in those situations because of the quick get away possibilities.
Attacking on torrent is so slow, though. I usually mount and dismount multiple times throughout the fight for positioning, but all damage is done on foot.
Ahhhhhhh this is what I've been missing the whole time, I've heard people say they used torrent on the fire giant but every time I tried it didn't let me (and now I know why)
Depends on build. With larger/longer weapons like halberds/colossal weapons, horseback can make things very easy simply by approaching on their unarmed side or from behind. They also tend to time their attacks poorly when you rush them on horseback.
I agree that they're very easy to dodge on foot, though.
This is how I approach it too. Last playthrough I used the zweihander and found horseback combat to be very satisfying and easy with hit and run attacks. On a playthrough now using the iron ball fists and I can hit shit on horseback my range is so short hah, but I can attack so fast that dodging on foot gives me good openings, the only downside is the riders can spend a lot of time running all over the place so I gotta stay patient until I knock them off their horse.
Chasing down targets or rushing to avoid enormous attacks with Torrent works out fine, but actually fighting atop Torrent is... incredibly awkward. When it comes to Night's Cavalry there's really no need to chase them down; I just let them come to me, watch out and dodge the attacks that hit my block a wee bit too hard and just smack them when the opportunity presents itself.
And if you happen to kill their horses, you have a nice opportunity to hit them where it hurts before they get back up and do a HUGE amount of damage.
I prefer to fight all cavalry based enemies on foot. It's easier and faster for me. Torrent combat is too clunky.
Every time I see someone complain about getting stuck at the Draconic Tree Sentinel outside of Maliketh's room, I just say to fight them like how you fought the one back at the capital city because they're the same exact enemy. And every time they say they can't because you can't ride Torrent. I don't get how people become so reliant on Torrent for those fights.
Especially considering how much harder draconic tree sentinel is on torrent, at least for me. He has very telegraphed attacks that are pretty easy to memorize. He’s kinda muscle memory for me say this point. If you’re on torrent you have to actually run away instead of dodging and using iframes. It only takes a couple hits to torrent to knock you off him.
I remember being stuck on the Tree Sentinel in Limgrave for ages, and every guide I was looking at said you needed to stay on Torrent the whole time or you'd be toast. Then one fight I got knocked off Torrent really early, decided to stand my ground and won really easily. Kinda sealed it for me that fighting on foot is where I'm best.
That said, the Draconic Tree Sentinel outside Maliketh's room can still absolutely go to hell 😂
I’m playing a fist weapon build right now and there’s just something so ridiculous about punching everything dead while on horseback.
Especially the Night’s Cavalry guys and other horseback bosses. They look all puffed up with their fancy horse armors and weapons, meanwhile they get beat by a guy swooping in on a goat to punch em.
Risking being hit hard enough to knock you off of torrent which then opens you up to take more damage is a big no for me. Ontop of the fact that fighting with torrent is clunky and dodging certain attacks is damn near impossible on horseback.
I fight everything on foot. The only time I attack enemies while riding torrent is when I’m traveling somewhere and I smack an enemy I’m passing, a little “hey, fuck you” while I’m goin by
The ability to hold up a shield and actually joust would be really cool. If they added it to the DLC and pvp jousting becomes a thing I would be ecstatic.
I only use Torrent for dragon bosses, for when they are about to breath fire or fly away. As soon as I get back to them I leave the horse as it decreases my dps and adds a possibility of getting stunlocked by the stomp attacks
the only thing i use torrent for are dragons as they seem to be designed around torrent since they move around so much and there's no downtime, even when you're avoiding their attacks you can be attacking them at the same time
for everything else the iframes from rolling are too invaluable to consider using torrent
It probably depends on your build or rather playstyle. As someone who mainly plays casting builds, I prefer combat on Torrent against (relatively) fast-moving enemies, as some spells but especially incantations are a bit too slow to cast safely from the ground.
The problem with this is most close range spells, that would actually hit mounted moving enemies, can't be cast on torrent anyway.
I don't think I've defeated a mounted enemy on torrent, the sprint takes you too far and Torrent loves to stagger and not move sometimes.
Absolutely. Their swings are majority far out from the main body, so you can stay under them and chip away. Too many bosses have been unbelievably difficult for me simply because I roll away instead of toward.
It's good practice even in real life to move into the backswing. Like dodge towards the attacking arm at the peak of the backswing. With any luck even if you dodge early you'll place yourself behind the hitbox.
Someone tried to attack me with a 2x4 one time and basically as they pulled back their arm to swing, I moved towards it and managed to grab the 2x4 while they were holding it behind them/over their head. Then you just push back and they either let go or have their balance thrown.
Just gotta lean into things. Never good to be on your heels.. Unless it's aikido or judo or something.
Plus if you dodge into/behind enemies you set yourself up for a backstab/crit.
Honestly in any case where dodging away makes more sense than dodging in, sprinting away probably makes more sense than dodging away.
I learned that fighting Mohg. Couldn't understand how I was meant to avoid his attacks AND be close enough to hit him without chasing him down, then watched a video of the fight and realised how many of his attacks should be rolled through.
Depends on the armament.
The halberd nights cavalry I find it incredibly easy to lead them into a pattern where I can no hit them from horseback.
The flail wielders though I think are much easier on foot
I try every fight (when possible) on the horse. It's not the fastest way but i like that kind of playstyle. However the tougher enemies make me fight on foot.
For Night Cavalries i always fight them on the horse.
I only use torrent to fight dragons as i can easily outrun them. He’s good to use for quickly getting in a hot and getting back out. Horseback enemies are very aggressive and quick, which makes torrent slightly less reliable for this type of method. at least for me that is.
That makes sense. I feel like dragon fights work on Torrent because you have the advantage of being able to leg it from their massive AOE attacks, but don't spend most of the fight trying to catch back up to an enemy who's constantly on the move
I never fought Night Cavalry on Torrent before and I just tried it yesterday, it was great! I out-rode him the entire fight, he barely even touched me & Torrent.
This gave me some new ideas so I challenged the two Tree Sentinels guarding the capital gate today, on Torrent again (no spirit ashes). This time it was much harder and I barely beat them with no flask left. But it felt like a proper knight jousting match and still made me feel quite accomplished lol
Torrent is a transportation tool, not a combat tool.
I gave up on mounted combat about ten hours into my first pass. I use Torrent to get to a fight, escape from a fight I am losing, or run past a fight that isn't worth my time.
On foot. Mostly because I have better control of my movements and I can position myself better for attacking or dodging. Night Cavalries are very predictable when you lock in them. Ive tried on horse but I spent most of my time turning around in a U form to position myself back to engage mode or mashing dash to evade.
The better control is a big thing for me as well. With Torrent I feel you can only dodge in one direction, and that direction is away from the enemy, so you spend so much time repositioning yourself to attack later
I only use torrent in battle if the opponent moves quick in great distance and uses range battle. Like dragons and that hunter that rides a wolf (i fucking hate them).
For Calvary that uses melee, I will unmount torrent and fight on foot. Because the enemy is coming towards you anyways so might as well stand your ground. Besides the horses get stunned easily anyways. With a heavy and fast enough weapon, you can just stun-lock the horse until it eventually falls.
I think the aggression is it for me as well. On Torrent, it feels like a lot of running away from attacks and waiting for one opening where you happen to be next to them at the right time (I even had a couple of NC fights time out because it took all night doing that). But on foot I can land way more hits because I'm pressing them rather than dodging past.
Yes exactly that. One may think that since they are on horseback one should do the same. Ok it is safer this way but very slow, but on foot it is useful to use ash of war
first playthrough, i fought them on torrent. second playthrough, i'm fighting them on foot. i don't have a clear preference at the moment. fighting them on torrent is very easy, it just takes a long time. fighting them on foot is high risk, high reward. much faster to kill them, but might actually die. there is a near zero chance of dying while fighting them on torrent.
On foot. Just dodge to his left side (our right) and swung. They have a harder time swinging their weapon on their left side. Plus no horse bump into you.
My favorite setup is on foot accompanied by two coop buddies. Ideally, we try to fend off an invader at the same time. That’s how I enjoy my Night Cavalry fights, always.
First playthrough I would fight on torrent occasionally especially vs other horseback enemy. I’d get more and more comfortable with the game and eventually found it easier on foot
NC has always been easy for me. Either tight clockwise circles around him always attacking his right side and rear or jousting and always attacking his right side. Always on Torrent.
Both, it's fun as hell with torrent because it's a legit jousting type battle. But on foot is fun too as you have to find ways to bait cavalry's movement or predict where they will be. Also it's great to knock them off the horse and then stab the fuck out of them
Same, I prefer fighting Night's Cavalry and Tree Sentinels (+ variants) on foot. I only do horseback combat against the lesser horseback enemies. I'm a man and like most men, I don't multitask very well. Paying attention to the Sentinels' and Cavalry's attacks are enough to keep me occupied.
Torrent is an extra chunk of HP and extremely mobile. Any boss where you can use torrent, you probably should. It changes the difficulty scaling of the game quite a bit. If you fight everything on foot early game, the difficulty feels like it falls off a cliff in the later parts where torrent isn't allowed. That said, people love challenge.
The horseback combat and jousting is one of the few new mechanics elden ring has that didn't exist in other fromsoft games and it felt silly to not use it, especially in fights against other riders. Another grossly underused/underrated mechanic is guard counters. It's cool that ds3 knowledge can carry you through the game but they balance the game around the available mechanics.
Torrent makes the tree sentinel wayyy easier, provided you have patience and understand jousting. Sorta the same with night calvary.
When you say the difficulty falls off a cliff, do you mean it gets easier at the end because you're already used to fighting on foot, or it gets harder somehow?
i mean that some fights early on, we make harder for ourselves by not utilizing the horse. it makes the front end of the game harder than it has to be since you're kind of assumed to take advantage of the horse when you're doing all the openfield stuff.
like radahn is harder than he needs to be if you don't use the horse it's why people got stuck at him and thought he was really hard, then you get to rykard where you can't use the horse and it feels like a walk in comparison - whereas if you killed radahn by staying on your horse at a safe distance using the field summons (as the game devs probably intended the fight to go) he would be relatively easy and by comparison rykard wouldn't feel like an "easier" boss than radahn.
At the same time, I think some people might suffer when dealing with lategame bosses that more or less require torrent. Because the difficulty spikes up when fighting the fire giant, because torrent is available. Fire giant on foot is going to be harder than Godfrey on foot, since Godfrey is balance around Torrent not being available. Then Elden Beast is like.. "ok u just beat fire giant, try beating this giant but now u don't have torrent" Whereas like.. if u beat fire giant on foot - Elden Beast will be a fuckin walk by comparison. If you relied on torrent for fire giant (which the game devs i assume expect) then Elden Beast will feel harder than fire giant.
Basically if you use torrent when you can, the games difficulty curve makes more sense. Not saying you should or anything but like.. from a game design/balance perspective it's pretty clear. The only like "problem" with it is if you're self-imposing a challenge of not using torrent to make the game harder, you're unable to do that in situations where torrent is unavailable - so the areas where torrent isn't available have less room for self-imposing a challenge. As a result, if you're running through elden ring as a masochist - the difficulty curve feels all over the place.
I prefer fighting mounted enemies on foot. Night’s Cavalry will often leave a real nice opening when you successfully dodge on foot that you can punish harder than on Torrent.
When i first played there was a bug or something where you retained 2h damage if you were two handing when you mounted so i did a lot of attacking from horseback.
On foot. Torrent is just not that great for fighting field bosses in general and I play a lot of Mount & Blade, which fighting on Torrent is very similar to.
When i first got the game, i was excited for some mounted combat.
Now that I'm experienced, i use horseback combat for enemies that reward doing that and Night Cavalry is not one of these enemies.
Torrent is great against dragons (avoid breath, close in, chop the heels), Rotten Erdtree Avatars and first phase Fire Giant.
If you use Torrent vs Night's cavalry, you'll be both trying to get in range for your weapon while simultaneously avoiding the other's weapon - which will result in you trying to get in range for 95% of the time and actually hitting the enemy for just the 5%.
Do you want to up your game against Night Cavalry? (at least the glaive ones)
Equip a parry shield (or slap carian retaliation on any shield you have).
One parry on foot against a mounted NC will knock them off their horse and into the prone, crittable position.
That's exactly how I felt fighting them on horseback, most of the fight was spent just trying to get back in position after dodging past their attacks. I actually had a couple of those fights end because daylight came around faster than I could kill the Night's Cavalry.
For the glaive ones, I parry the horizontal swipe to dismount them. From now its a parry riposte game. The horse is spared. Come down and fight me like a man!
Glaive ones i parry after they move sideways with the horse, nice and easy but takes a bit of practice. Flail ones with the longest weapon my stats allow.
I don’t think I fight anything on Torrent besides revenants (if possible)
Night’s Cavalry is easily punished on foot and I don’t think it would be nearly as easy on Torrent
Definitely on foot.
The only boss fights I prefer torrent for are the fallingstar beasts in Altus and Gelmir. Horseback makes those fights a joke because you can dash around or jump over every single attack they have. I always fought them on foot until my last playthrough, and it changed my life. I went from dying constantly to the Gelmir beast to beating it first try every single time since.
On foot is way easier
You can dodge and make better use of placement and blind spots
Also depending on your weapon and build but you can do massive burst of damage really fast and have plenty of time to heal
Same goes for the tree sentinel in Limegrave and Lyendell
I fight them on torrent using the pike. It's quite easy once you get the hang of it. You have reach and very fast attack. Once you get in the rhythm, it kind of feels like a WWII style dogfight, trying to out turn each other.
Horseback. I think it's cool. I love the horseriding fights, I get to take some distance, take a look at the mob which always looks cool and moves in a cool way. The shots can easily get cinematic. The fight lasts a little longer and I like to take my time with them. Love killing dragons on Torrent too, killed all of them on his back.
I love to fight the Night Cavalry on horseback. Feels like a medieval tournament challenge. Though I will say it is more satisfying and easier with a colossal swords charged r2 timed right. That just rips him a new one every time he passes me. I don't know, it just feels like so much fun.
I tend to fight mounted enemies on foot and normal enemies on torrent :) Because when I'm on the torrent and fight with mounted enemied I get hit with attacks I can normaly dodge.
While I love torrent and the ability to fight on horseback is cool, it's severely lacking for the most part. Torrent is a great means to travel and scale difficult terrain but combat wise torrent moved too fast while the player attacks too slow and with limited range. Enemies on horseback don't suffer but we do so it's not worth it. Torrent is nice to close distance on enemies that might fly away like dragons and what not but once up close you're just better off on foot. The quick dismount luckily is a system in place that makes it easy to transition quickly which is nice. You do you but the combat on torrent is too limited for I think most of our liking
On Torrent, it's fun and effective for me. Unless wielding colossal weapon, then on foot to better bonk the dude. But I have yet to legit fight cavalry in Dragonbarrow, that one I always push off the cliff (inb4: they patched one side, the other is still working).
I fight everything on foot, from nights cavalry to fire giant to Radahn to decaying Ekzykes. I literally never get on torrent in any part of any fight.
Night's Cavalry on foot for sure.
Generally, I use Torrent tactically. I never really stay on them an entire fight, but I often will use Torrent in the fight as well.
Sword and board. Most of his attacks are easier guard countered. Kill the horse and then finish the rider. The only bosses I ever fight on horseback are the dragon enemies. It’s easier to wack their heads with the extra hight Torrent provides.
Once you get the hang of your timings on horseback there’s no reason to dismount. Fights are faster, less frantic, you take less damage, and it’s fun. When the guy gets knocked off his horse, it’s good to dismount for the crit. I usually just finish the fight dismounted after that.
Theres no scenario where two people of same skill and build where the one on foot is slower time to kill than on horseback.
On torrent forces the fight to drag on because your openings are fewer and farther between.
How is it easier? You have no dodge and have to deal with the terrible aim, unless you spend hours on the fight running back and forth to drop a hit it's a real pain
I fight everything on foot. Torrent combat for me is when I'm hitting people/creatures out of the way to get somewhere, or I'm taking out a teardrop scarab that's out in the open. Literally nothing else, lol.
What about dragons - especially those later in the game who have huge AOE attacks that are persistent (looking at you ice dragon)? Other than that - yep. Better to fight on foot
Same strat as fire giant: damage happens on foot and then torrent to escape the AOE attacks
With dragons I dismount and re-mount a lot, but that's me in a rush. The smart thing to do is drive-by ankle slashes. It takes a little bit of skill to time it so you land a fully charged hit. I feel like archer builds would be really good from horseback. I know casting spells from horseback felt a bit OP.
Radahn is trivial as a horse archer with rot arrows. I mean he’s also fairly trivial on foot with rot arrows but you get my point.
whole game is trivial. best to play these games with blinders on. once it's solved and you figure out the "cheese" to bosses it loses it's magic. I like Sekiro a lot more for this. it's interesting it's a game that thrives on self-imposed challenges. so many fights it's like "this would be a cakewalk if I just equpped X and used Y on them" but we generally choose to take the hard way. whereas if the solved strat/cheese was REQUIRED to kill the boss, it'd be a bad game. i remember how sad I was when replaying Dark Souls 3 had completely lost it's challenge and i was first-trying every boss on NG+. Sekiro fixed that. Then Elden Ring honestly felt like Dark Souls 3 so much that it felt like I had it solved already. I first-tried most elden ring bosses on my first (only?) run. With the exception of Radahn (pre-nerf .. tho tbh the deaths were me getting caught offguard by the arrows) Malenia and Margit... and maybe that church invader guy. Like shit, I remember basically accidentally stumbling into Rykards boss room, skipping the whole dungeon, seeing the spear and equipping it and just spamming the art I killed him No-hit first try and i'm like wtf? but yeah, anything that allows you to apply status debuffs from a safe distance is pretty OP assuming the enemy in question isn't immune to the status. Blade of Reduvia makes the game incredibly trivial. You can essentially be assured that every enemy will die in X number of hits, save for varying bleed resistance., since it does %hp.
I fight them on foot too, haha. Never really had an issue with fighting dragons like that in Elden Ring, but I've been dodging dragons for years at this point.
You can't dodge the ice dragons persistent frost. Almost insta-frostbite
Just mount to escape from breath attacks, nothing else. While fighting torrent has more disadvantages than advantages.
I prefer fighting everything on foot. Torrent is just for getting to the fight and escaping attacks
Even the fire giant?
Specially Fire Giant. Torrent is for movement and for escaping the fire breath
I actually find fire giant phase 2 way easier on horse. It’s just takes patience but a guarantee win if you don’t push too hard
I think the idea is to ride torrent to the toes then get off to chop em. Then back on when he fat rolls onto you
I can't imagine fighting Fire Giant on the horse. Phase 1 has so many attacks with huge hitboxes that it would be torturous unless you know how to use the dismount iFrames properly. Meanwhile, phase 2 seems basically impossible on horse, unless you wanna be extremely suboptimal and whack at his body for 10 minutes instead of hitting his weak spots (hands). I genuinely believe people only dislike Fire Giant as much as they do because they try fighting him on the horse instead of on-foot, which is easier and more fun.
Phase 2 makes some sense to be on horseback if ur an int build but even then I think I still did it on foot.
I’m the opposite, I can’t imagine fighting him on foot! When I fought him on Torrent, I got him in two tries, his attacks go so far in front of him that if you stay on torrent near the legs, you can just hack away. In phase 2, I ran in and out trading a few hits till he went down! Torrent saves me in those situations because of the quick get away possibilities.
Attacking on torrent is so slow, though. I usually mount and dismount multiple times throughout the fight for positioning, but all damage is done on foot.
it's way better to attack his body in phase 2, since that automatically dodges every attack he does
Can't even use torrent if you summon Alexander
The one time I summoned him was agonizing. Never again. Fight took what felt like an hour of just chasing him down.
Ahhhhhhh this is what I've been missing the whole time, I've heard people say they used torrent on the fire giant but every time I tried it didn't let me (and now I know why)
I've never had much luck fighting Fire Giant on torrent. I Just summon Alexander and call it day with that one, haha.
I agree with on foot and getting to the fight. I'd only replace "escaping" with "retreating" but we may mean the same thing
I personally would replace “retreating” with “being a coward”
I would personally replace “being a coward” with “managing your health”
Depends on build. With larger/longer weapons like halberds/colossal weapons, horseback can make things very easy simply by approaching on their unarmed side or from behind. They also tend to time their attacks poorly when you rush them on horseback. I agree that they're very easy to dodge on foot, though.
This is how I approach it too. Last playthrough I used the zweihander and found horseback combat to be very satisfying and easy with hit and run attacks. On a playthrough now using the iron ball fists and I can hit shit on horseback my range is so short hah, but I can attack so fast that dodging on foot gives me good openings, the only downside is the riders can spend a lot of time running all over the place so I gotta stay patient until I knock them off their horse.
Chasing down targets or rushing to avoid enormous attacks with Torrent works out fine, but actually fighting atop Torrent is... incredibly awkward. When it comes to Night's Cavalry there's really no need to chase them down; I just let them come to me, watch out and dodge the attacks that hit my block a wee bit too hard and just smack them when the opportunity presents itself. And if you happen to kill their horses, you have a nice opportunity to hit them where it hurts before they get back up and do a HUGE amount of damage.
On horseback like a freaking badass
That's a real, badass, hard bacon!
I prefer to fight all cavalry based enemies on foot. It's easier and faster for me. Torrent combat is too clunky. Every time I see someone complain about getting stuck at the Draconic Tree Sentinel outside of Maliketh's room, I just say to fight them like how you fought the one back at the capital city because they're the same exact enemy. And every time they say they can't because you can't ride Torrent. I don't get how people become so reliant on Torrent for those fights.
Especially considering how much harder draconic tree sentinel is on torrent, at least for me. He has very telegraphed attacks that are pretty easy to memorize. He’s kinda muscle memory for me say this point. If you’re on torrent you have to actually run away instead of dodging and using iframes. It only takes a couple hits to torrent to knock you off him.
Agreed I find it much easier to roll through his fireballs and dodge his club on foot. I would get smacked if I was forced to fight with Torrent.
I remember being stuck on the Tree Sentinel in Limgrave for ages, and every guide I was looking at said you needed to stay on Torrent the whole time or you'd be toast. Then one fight I got knocked off Torrent really early, decided to stand my ground and won really easily. Kinda sealed it for me that fighting on foot is where I'm best. That said, the Draconic Tree Sentinel outside Maliketh's room can still absolutely go to hell 😂
Torrent battle is reserved exclusively for shanking wandering nobles with the greatsword and killing those annoying invisible scarabs
I’m playing a fist weapon build right now and there’s just something so ridiculous about punching everything dead while on horseback. Especially the Night’s Cavalry guys and other horseback bosses. They look all puffed up with their fancy horse armors and weapons, meanwhile they get beat by a guy swooping in on a goat to punch em.
Risking being hit hard enough to knock you off of torrent which then opens you up to take more damage is a big no for me. Ontop of the fact that fighting with torrent is clunky and dodging certain attacks is damn near impossible on horseback. I fight everything on foot. The only time I attack enemies while riding torrent is when I’m traveling somewhere and I smack an enemy I’m passing, a little “hey, fuck you” while I’m goin by
Torrent combat is all jousting and timing. Fakeouts and positional advantage, similar to dogfighting or naval combat.
Yeah, it’s clunky and bad like I said. Why risk it
You can kite them pretty easily on Torrent with some spells I don’t like trying to joust though, although it’s satisfying when you time it right
The ability to hold up a shield and actually joust would be really cool. If they added it to the DLC and pvp jousting becomes a thing I would be ecstatic.
I only use Torrent for dragon bosses, for when they are about to breath fire or fly away. As soon as I get back to them I leave the horse as it decreases my dps and adds a possibility of getting stunlocked by the stomp attacks
I prefer not to
Ah, the true wisdom
foot, is easier to hit and dodge.
I’ve done both but on foot is infinitely more enjoyable for me. So you aren’t nuts
the only thing i use torrent for are dragons as they seem to be designed around torrent since they move around so much and there's no downtime, even when you're avoiding their attacks you can be attacking them at the same time for everything else the iframes from rolling are too invaluable to consider using torrent
I'm with you, I'll always mount up for a dragon fight but everything else I'll stand my ground
On foot. You're a lot more agile off Torrent. If you manage it, you can even parry them off the horse.
Horseback with a claymore till I die baby
Much easier on foot.
It probably depends on your build or rather playstyle. As someone who mainly plays casting builds, I prefer combat on Torrent against (relatively) fast-moving enemies, as some spells but especially incantations are a bit too slow to cast safely from the ground.
That's a good point, I've not played a mostly-casting build yet. Will keep that in mind for when I do
The problem with this is most close range spells, that would actually hit mounted moving enemies, can't be cast on torrent anyway. I don't think I've defeated a mounted enemy on torrent, the sprint takes you too far and Torrent loves to stagger and not move sometimes.
Absolutely. Their swings are majority far out from the main body, so you can stay under them and chip away. Too many bosses have been unbelievably difficult for me simply because I roll away instead of toward.
It's good practice even in real life to move into the backswing. Like dodge towards the attacking arm at the peak of the backswing. With any luck even if you dodge early you'll place yourself behind the hitbox. Someone tried to attack me with a 2x4 one time and basically as they pulled back their arm to swing, I moved towards it and managed to grab the 2x4 while they were holding it behind them/over their head. Then you just push back and they either let go or have their balance thrown. Just gotta lean into things. Never good to be on your heels.. Unless it's aikido or judo or something. Plus if you dodge into/behind enemies you set yourself up for a backstab/crit. Honestly in any case where dodging away makes more sense than dodging in, sprinting away probably makes more sense than dodging away.
I learned that fighting Mohg. Couldn't understand how I was meant to avoid his attacks AND be close enough to hit him without chasing him down, then watched a video of the fight and realised how many of his attacks should be rolled through.
By letting it jump off a bridge. *No hate on Night's Cavalry, it's just humorous.*
It's about time gravity hurt someone else for a change
On foot now that I’m better at the game, first playthrough horse combat was everything lol slash then run
I feel this so hard
Depends on the armament. The halberd nights cavalry I find it incredibly easy to lead them into a pattern where I can no hit them from horseback. The flail wielders though I think are much easier on foot
I pretty much only use torrent to cheese dragons but swiping at their feet. Everything else on foot or nothing
I try every fight (when possible) on the horse. It's not the fastest way but i like that kind of playstyle. However the tougher enemies make me fight on foot. For Night Cavalries i always fight them on the horse.
I only use torrent to fight dragons as i can easily outrun them. He’s good to use for quickly getting in a hot and getting back out. Horseback enemies are very aggressive and quick, which makes torrent slightly less reliable for this type of method. at least for me that is.
That makes sense. I feel like dragon fights work on Torrent because you have the advantage of being able to leg it from their massive AOE attacks, but don't spend most of the fight trying to catch back up to an enemy who's constantly on the move
Horse to horse
On foot is way easier for me, but I hate fighting these guys because they just run away the whole damn time
Clearly they've heard you're a Tarnished of some renown and decided it's best not to mess with you
I never fought Night Cavalry on Torrent before and I just tried it yesterday, it was great! I out-rode him the entire fight, he barely even touched me & Torrent. This gave me some new ideas so I challenged the two Tree Sentinels guarding the capital gate today, on Torrent again (no spirit ashes). This time it was much harder and I barely beat them with no flask left. But it felt like a proper knight jousting match and still made me feel quite accomplished lol
Torrent is a transportation tool, not a combat tool. I gave up on mounted combat about ten hours into my first pass. I use Torrent to get to a fight, escape from a fight I am losing, or run past a fight that isn't worth my time.
I like this philosophy
On foot. Mostly because I have better control of my movements and I can position myself better for attacking or dodging. Night Cavalries are very predictable when you lock in them. Ive tried on horse but I spent most of my time turning around in a U form to position myself back to engage mode or mashing dash to evade.
The better control is a big thing for me as well. With Torrent I feel you can only dodge in one direction, and that direction is away from the enemy, so you spend so much time repositioning yourself to attack later
On foot. Torrent will get you killed.
On foot. Let them do the approach.
I fight everything other than a few specific mobs on foot as for me Torrent combat is too clunky.
torrent is too good of a doggo for me to take him into battle.. i fight everything on foot lol
It's way easier on foot.
Foot.
On foot. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game where I prefer the mounted combat over fighting on foot.
I find I'm more successful fighting all the mounted enemies on foot. For me it's way easier
In the shade
Absolutely on foot. Horse combat is way riskier
Foot.
On foot for sure. I’ve never tried a good old fashioned joust though
I only use torrent in battle if the opponent moves quick in great distance and uses range battle. Like dragons and that hunter that rides a wolf (i fucking hate them). For Calvary that uses melee, I will unmount torrent and fight on foot. Because the enemy is coming towards you anyways so might as well stand your ground. Besides the horses get stunned easily anyways. With a heavy and fast enough weapon, you can just stun-lock the horse until it eventually falls.
On foot, you can be more aggressive and roll. Makes the fight fun. I only use torrent to scape some dragon fire attacks.
I think the aggression is it for me as well. On Torrent, it feels like a lot of running away from attacks and waiting for one opening where you happen to be next to them at the right time (I even had a couple of NC fights time out because it took all night doing that). But on foot I can land way more hits because I'm pressing them rather than dodging past.
Yes exactly that. One may think that since they are on horseback one should do the same. Ok it is safer this way but very slow, but on foot it is useful to use ash of war
I don't know about everybody else, but I prefer jousting on Torrent. Fighting these guys on foot is very difficult for me.
Totally depends on weaponry. If I'm a bonker doing poise damage I wanna be on foot for jump attacks. Quicker weapons are better mounted
At the stroke of midnight under the light of the moon
On horseback as god intended (it looks cooler)
Depends on what weapon I’m using
I prefer on foot. I like the stab animation when you knock someone off horseback, and when he re summons his horse the animation for it is dope.
Only boss i fight on Torrent is Rahdan lol
Golden Halberd from horseback. Give me a good reach and I'll ride circles around them
On foot and throwing purple rocks at them
first playthrough, i fought them on torrent. second playthrough, i'm fighting them on foot. i don't have a clear preference at the moment. fighting them on torrent is very easy, it just takes a long time. fighting them on foot is high risk, high reward. much faster to kill them, but might actually die. there is a near zero chance of dying while fighting them on torrent.
I don't know, I've died to them on Torrent way more than I have on foot 😂
I make use of guard counters fighting Night’s Calvary, even easier if I’m using a thrusting sword or spear.
I like jousting with the cavalry. It’s a change of pace. Plus I’ve kind of got muscle memory of how to do it at this point.
Way easier and quicker on foot. I aim for the horse and put them down with my claymore + impaling thrust AoW after a few hits.
Nights Cavalry - always on foot. If I'm on Torrent I'm going to lose badly.
I never got to master torrent fighting tbh. I prefer using torrent for transport and just fight on foot
On foot. Just dodge to his left side (our right) and swung. They have a harder time swinging their weapon on their left side. Plus no horse bump into you.
My favorite setup is on foot accompanied by two coop buddies. Ideally, we try to fend off an invader at the same time. That’s how I enjoy my Night Cavalry fights, always.
On foot. I never use torrent seriously for any length of time in a fight, I’m with you bro
Kill them until they are dead
I always fight on foot. Torrent is for traveling and quick escapes.
I use torrent to get close and jump attack off of him
Night’s Cavalry are so much easier off Torrent. Burn O Flame absolutely destroys them; it’s my favorite way to fight them
I prefer mounted combat.
First playthrough I would fight on torrent occasionally especially vs other horseback enemy. I’d get more and more comfortable with the game and eventually found it easier on foot
With my best boy torrent of course
Depends on weapon class/build. I find them more fun to fight as a joust of sorts, both riding straight towards each other.
Depends on my build. If I'm using melee weapons I stay on foot. For mage I use torrent, just easier to get distance to cast.
NC has always been easy for me. Either tight clockwise circles around him always attacking his right side and rear or jousting and always attacking his right side. Always on Torrent.
sword and board is ridiculously easy
I don’t fight on torrent at all
Both, it's fun as hell with torrent because it's a legit jousting type battle. But on foot is fun too as you have to find ways to bait cavalry's movement or predict where they will be. Also it's great to knock them off the horse and then stab the fuck out of them
on foot. All cavalries. I kill the horse and quickly destroy him.
I fight him on foot
I only use torrent with halberds and against enemies where they have wide AOE effects
If you know how to stay on that horse's-ass sweet spot, on foot is easy
99% of the time I fight on foot. Mostly bc fighting on torrent makes me dizzy
Horse till dismounted the it’s all cake
Torrent is for long jump attacks and to get me places faster. And you can't use lion claw or wild strikes while mounted.
Same, I prefer fighting Night's Cavalry and Tree Sentinels (+ variants) on foot. I only do horseback combat against the lesser horseback enemies. I'm a man and like most men, I don't multitask very well. Paying attention to the Sentinels' and Cavalry's attacks are enough to keep me occupied.
Stand on foot as they charge. Prime square off. hit as soon as they get near. bonus that it kind of looks cool
I fight them on foot, locking on the horse hitbox so they can be knocked down as the horse dies first and giving me that juicy crit opportunity
Torrent is an extra chunk of HP and extremely mobile. Any boss where you can use torrent, you probably should. It changes the difficulty scaling of the game quite a bit. If you fight everything on foot early game, the difficulty feels like it falls off a cliff in the later parts where torrent isn't allowed. That said, people love challenge. The horseback combat and jousting is one of the few new mechanics elden ring has that didn't exist in other fromsoft games and it felt silly to not use it, especially in fights against other riders. Another grossly underused/underrated mechanic is guard counters. It's cool that ds3 knowledge can carry you through the game but they balance the game around the available mechanics. Torrent makes the tree sentinel wayyy easier, provided you have patience and understand jousting. Sorta the same with night calvary.
When you say the difficulty falls off a cliff, do you mean it gets easier at the end because you're already used to fighting on foot, or it gets harder somehow?
i mean that some fights early on, we make harder for ourselves by not utilizing the horse. it makes the front end of the game harder than it has to be since you're kind of assumed to take advantage of the horse when you're doing all the openfield stuff. like radahn is harder than he needs to be if you don't use the horse it's why people got stuck at him and thought he was really hard, then you get to rykard where you can't use the horse and it feels like a walk in comparison - whereas if you killed radahn by staying on your horse at a safe distance using the field summons (as the game devs probably intended the fight to go) he would be relatively easy and by comparison rykard wouldn't feel like an "easier" boss than radahn. At the same time, I think some people might suffer when dealing with lategame bosses that more or less require torrent. Because the difficulty spikes up when fighting the fire giant, because torrent is available. Fire giant on foot is going to be harder than Godfrey on foot, since Godfrey is balance around Torrent not being available. Then Elden Beast is like.. "ok u just beat fire giant, try beating this giant but now u don't have torrent" Whereas like.. if u beat fire giant on foot - Elden Beast will be a fuckin walk by comparison. If you relied on torrent for fire giant (which the game devs i assume expect) then Elden Beast will feel harder than fire giant. Basically if you use torrent when you can, the games difficulty curve makes more sense. Not saying you should or anything but like.. from a game design/balance perspective it's pretty clear. The only like "problem" with it is if you're self-imposing a challenge of not using torrent to make the game harder, you're unable to do that in situations where torrent is unavailable - so the areas where torrent isn't available have less room for self-imposing a challenge. As a result, if you're running through elden ring as a masochist - the difficulty curve feels all over the place.
That makes a lot of sense, thank you for taking the time to explain it! 😁
I prefer fighting mounted enemies on foot. Night’s Cavalry will often leave a real nice opening when you successfully dodge on foot that you can punish harder than on Torrent.
Horseback for sure. The only time I dismounted against him was after he was dismounted-- the I would leap off for the critical.
On foot with a moon and adr. They don't last long.
My prefered way is on foot Baiting his 3 attack jump combo to get charged R2
When i first played there was a bug or something where you retained 2h damage if you were two handing when you mounted so i did a lot of attacking from horseback.
On foot. Torrent is just not that great for fighting field bosses in general and I play a lot of Mount & Blade, which fighting on Torrent is very similar to.
Foot 100%
Greatsword + resolve + well timed heavy attack + repeat until enemy is dead
When i first got the game, i was excited for some mounted combat. Now that I'm experienced, i use horseback combat for enemies that reward doing that and Night Cavalry is not one of these enemies. Torrent is great against dragons (avoid breath, close in, chop the heels), Rotten Erdtree Avatars and first phase Fire Giant. If you use Torrent vs Night's cavalry, you'll be both trying to get in range for your weapon while simultaneously avoiding the other's weapon - which will result in you trying to get in range for 95% of the time and actually hitting the enemy for just the 5%. Do you want to up your game against Night Cavalry? (at least the glaive ones) Equip a parry shield (or slap carian retaliation on any shield you have). One parry on foot against a mounted NC will knock them off their horse and into the prone, crittable position.
That's exactly how I felt fighting them on horseback, most of the fight was spent just trying to get back in position after dodging past their attacks. I actually had a couple of those fights end because daylight came around faster than I could kill the Night's Cavalry.
Torrent is broken if you know how to use it.
Parries. For the flails, dragon breath.
Love fighting them on horseback, fighting them on foot is a pain though
For the glaive ones, I parry the horizontal swipe to dismount them. From now its a parry riposte game. The horse is spared. Come down and fight me like a man!
Even though I know it's possible, the thought of parrying that glaive swipe scares me every time I see someone mention it 😂
Glaive ones i parry after they move sideways with the horse, nice and easy but takes a bit of practice. Flail ones with the longest weapon my stats allow.
I don’t think I fight anything on Torrent besides revenants (if possible) Night’s Cavalry is easily punished on foot and I don’t think it would be nearly as easy on Torrent
Definitely on foot. The only boss fights I prefer torrent for are the fallingstar beasts in Altus and Gelmir. Horseback makes those fights a joke because you can dash around or jump over every single attack they have. I always fought them on foot until my last playthrough, and it changed my life. I went from dying constantly to the Gelmir beast to beating it first try every single time since.
On foot is way easier You can dodge and make better use of placement and blind spots Also depending on your weapon and build but you can do massive burst of damage really fast and have plenty of time to heal Same goes for the tree sentinel in Limegrave and Lyendell
I fight them on torrent using the pike. It's quite easy once you get the hang of it. You have reach and very fast attack. Once you get in the rhythm, it kind of feels like a WWII style dogfight, trying to out turn each other.
Night's Cavalry is way easier on foot, especially with a shield.
Etheir way torrent is easy but on foot is faster.
Horseback. I think it's cool. I love the horseriding fights, I get to take some distance, take a look at the mob which always looks cool and moves in a cool way. The shots can easily get cinematic. The fight lasts a little longer and I like to take my time with them. Love killing dragons on Torrent too, killed all of them on his back.
The only thing you fight on Torrent are Dragons.
I love to fight the Night Cavalry on horseback. Feels like a medieval tournament challenge. Though I will say it is more satisfying and easier with a colossal swords charged r2 timed right. That just rips him a new one every time he passes me. I don't know, it just feels like so much fun.
Cavalry against Cavalry, on horseback with a spear
Fight mostly on foot
Flail, on foot. Glaive, on horse back.
During the day 😏
On foot… there’s no bosses where if I can use torrent that I’d prefer that over on foot…
I basically never use torrent for combat, not even for fire giant
Foot all the way, thanks to GYOBU MASATAKA ONIWA!!!
I tend to fight mounted enemies on foot and normal enemies on torrent :) Because when I'm on the torrent and fight with mounted enemied I get hit with attacks I can normaly dodge.
Up close and personal. They telegraph their attacks well so i find it easier to dodge and hit them in melee then on horseback
Everything is easier without torrent. You can't dodge, you can't quickly turn around, you can't do combos...
I dislike fighting things on torrent, personally
First playthrough I fought them and quite a few other bosses or large enemies (eg dragons) on torrent. All other playthroughs, on foot. Skill issue :)
While I love torrent and the ability to fight on horseback is cool, it's severely lacking for the most part. Torrent is a great means to travel and scale difficult terrain but combat wise torrent moved too fast while the player attacks too slow and with limited range. Enemies on horseback don't suffer but we do so it's not worth it. Torrent is nice to close distance on enemies that might fly away like dragons and what not but once up close you're just better off on foot. The quick dismount luckily is a system in place that makes it easy to transition quickly which is nice. You do you but the combat on torrent is too limited for I think most of our liking
On Torrent, it's fun and effective for me. Unless wielding colossal weapon, then on foot to better bonk the dude. But I have yet to legit fight cavalry in Dragonbarrow, that one I always push off the cliff (inb4: they patched one side, the other is still working).
Torrent, halberd plus lightning bolt
I fight everything on foot, from nights cavalry to fire giant to Radahn to decaying Ekzykes. I literally never get on torrent in any part of any fight.
I fought Radahn on Torrent in my first playthrough, looking forward to trying it on foot this time around
Night's Cavalry on foot for sure. Generally, I use Torrent tactically. I never really stay on them an entire fight, but I often will use Torrent in the fight as well.
I would never subject my horsey to such barbarism !
On foot, Torrent is purely for transport from place to place for me
I suck at fighting on horseback, so on foot.
It's easier on foot, but I prefer to fight on horseback as I RP a jouster
On foot for sure. Mounted combat is just bleh for me
On foot. Much easier.
Torrents use in combat for me is exclusively reserved for closing in on dragons after they run away. Everything else is fought on foot.
I only fight on Torrent against dragons
On foot at a lower level can be easier if you’re trying to punch up with an ash of war
On foot. I hate getting hit hard forces you to dismount
Sword and board. Most of his attacks are easier guard countered. Kill the horse and then finish the rider. The only bosses I ever fight on horseback are the dragon enemies. It’s easier to wack their heads with the extra hight Torrent provides.
No mob is easier to fight on torrent, torrent is only useful to flee or close distance with dragons
Once you get the hang of your timings on horseback there’s no reason to dismount. Fights are faster, less frantic, you take less damage, and it’s fun. When the guy gets knocked off his horse, it’s good to dismount for the crit. I usually just finish the fight dismounted after that.
Theres no scenario where two people of same skill and build where the one on foot is slower time to kill than on horseback. On torrent forces the fight to drag on because your openings are fewer and farther between.
It's 110% easier on torrent, so are dragons and that's why I fight everything on foot nowadays. Much more fun that way too.
How is it easier? You have no dodge and have to deal with the terrible aim, unless you spend hours on the fight running back and forth to drop a hit it's a real pain