One of the most important features for you to get is the ability to pick your own combat style in the Riders of Icarus playing. There are two options for you, when in combat both are very different which includes how efficient they are and how they work. Learning both is definitely beneficial, as you can adapt to whichever works the best for you, but understanding the fundamental differences is essential.
For starters, you’ll be relying on different weapons and skills when you’re on your mount, which means no sword and shield for you, warrior - instead, you’ll be using spears, halberds and crossbows to wage war from atop your adorable pet. Mounts (Some of them need to be purchased by Riders of Icarus Gold) change combat for the better, making Riders of Icarus feel more like an action-RPG than an MMO.
Orientation and movement also come to the fore during mounted combat, making battles more engaging and requiring far more skill than the boots-on-the-ground counterpart. This is less evident during the game’s opening where mounted options are limited, but as the variety of weapons and mounts increases this way of fighting becomes essential to progressing through the world.
Action Mode
No matter what in front of you, and you also can attack, this mode is suggested for the physical melee classes to play, this is similar with the Tera. In fact, you do not need to target an enemy and hitting a key to make it attack, the one you need to do is just following, manage yourself to around them, after that to attack them immediately. So instead of simply targeting an enemy and hitting a key to make it attack, you’re actually following, maneuvering yourself around them, and attacking in real-time. This is best for those that are able to actively keep up with positioning, as it makes the flow of battle much smoother. For example, moving from one enemy to the next is as simple as running around as needed. Changing targets is fairly simple as well, since you’re actually moving to whatever it is you’re attacking.
It’s worth noting that unlike similar games, Riders of Icarus is very forgiving when in this mode. The different from other games, the Riders of Icarus is not harsh when you are in this mode. For instance, first when you choose an enemy to attack, and then you turn away to another, the game will target the previous one and not he last one. In this case, you should target your enemy for each time, if you do not target the enemy, you will attack the previous one all the time. To use the tab key to swap, but you should watch where you swing next, in fact it is not a huge problems, but it is definitely something that takes a little practice if you’re already in the mindset of other games and how they handle it.
Standard Mode
This is the setup where you click to move (though WASD still work fine), target an enemy by either clicking or hitting “tab,” and then either click skills to attack or use number keys. The ranged classes are suggested to play this mode, and it can benefits everyone. The attacking are similar with many other games, control the directions for clicking to move, and target the enemy by clicking or hitting the tab button, and then to click skills to attack. This is familiar for most gamers already, and can be a great way to ease into the new game and learn how everything works. For ranged classes it is especially beneficial, in that it’s much easier to attack from a distance when you’re using the click to move feature.
In order to make this work well, learning a new key setup is essential. When moving, WASD is quick and efficient. The downside to the standard mode is that it’s a lot more difficult to play using just the keyboard (which is what many, especially PvPers, prefer to do). However, when moving around an enemy, you want to be able to look around. A and D do strafing left and right, and Q and E do the actual turning. This method of moving takes a bit of practice to get used to, but it is a lot better and easier than using the mouse and trying to manage everything like that. It increases both survivability and fighting efficiency, making the game much more enjoyable.
Key Binding Number Pad
Regardless of the setup you choose to go with (note that you can change your decision at any time through the settings menu, so you can experiment with both and figure out what works best for your personal play style), you will likely want to set up number pad keys to make attacks much more accessible. You can do this at any point by doing the following:
• Hit Escape
• Settings
• Key Bindings
• Under Basic Slot 1-10, set the Secondary keys to the number pad ones
Do note, however, that this doesn’t always work so well if you play using the mouse most of the time. In this case, utilizing the number pad may be more of a hindrance than a help. If you’re not already familiar with playing like this, it’s worth giving it a go. While it may feel a little awkward at first, it makes things a great deal easier once you get used to it. That said, once you get down the keyboard-only play (or at least to a large degree – you don’t need to break away from the mouse altogether), you’ll see a noticeable difference in your ability to progress through the game and deal with various scenarios.
More Options
By opening the doors to picking your own combat style, Riders of Icarus has truly given a choice in how you experience it. It’s great to see a game that doesn’t force you to play their way. Tack on the fact that you can change between the two battle styles at any point, and it makes the system even greater. Whatever the choice, it’s yours to make! You may very well find that you play better with one style using ranged characters and the other when melee, or you may be able to quickly and easily adapt using both.
If you’ve played a lot of MMORPGs then the bulk of Riders of Icarus’ combat will be familiar to you: find an enemy, click on them, then mash your ability buttons until they’re vanquished. There’s a Tab targeting system in place to help cycle through targets for larger battles, but for the most part it’s a simple case of trading blows with enemies until the weakest one dies. For the most part it’s quite tedious, but the range of skills that are available from even early on in the game brings a healthy level of variety to fights.
Once you’ve put enough hours into Riders of Icarus and are nearing its endgame content, the combat resembles nothing of what can be experienced at lower levels, with aerial combat, dragons, and 10-man boss fights becoming the norm rather than bashing thousands of forest critters to death.