Torrent is kinda useless during fights in late-game areas

[xLєgєиdαяy]

every mini-boss/boss or any strong enemy just kills him in 2 hits, and you can't even evade the second attack because he gets staggered after the first attack, you just accept that you are dead, they should have created a system where you can make a type of food to increase Torrent's life, using materials found in specific areas, or just horse armor lol

[500 huo long heaters]

He's not supposed to be strong

[Evilsod]

Depends on the fight. For stuff like dragons, he's definitely intended for quick repositioning and to evade breath attacks. If you try and do the whole fight from horseback you're going to get punted off it at some point and potentially killed in the follow up.

For other stuff, depends on your build. Hit and run combat with a big weapon or ranged combat is going to be a hell of a lot more effective than slashing at them with a Straight Sword on your Swords/Shield build.

[breadman]

he's for moving from place to place, not combat

[juicy]

torrent is absolutely useful for fire giant though

[mldb88]

Originally posted by Evilsod:

Depends on the fight. For stuff like dragons, he's definitely intended for quick repositioning and to evade breath attacks. If you try and do the whole fight from horseback you're going to get punted off it at some point and potentially killed in the follow up.

For other stuff, depends on your build. Hit and run combat with a big weapon or ranged combat is going to be a hell of a lot more effective than slashing at them with a Straight Sword on your Swords/Shield build.

Pretty much this. It definitely takes some getting used to of course (and mastering holding R2/L2 and turning to multi-hit while dragging your weapon along the enemy) but Torrent does make some fights a LOT easier even in the late game. Commander O'Neil in Caelid has relatively slow wind ups, and if you know his tells, torrent can get you in and out of range as you hit and run, getting a hit as you zip past him. Any horseback enemy is generally easier with Torrent since it gives you the mobility to keep up with them and play more aggressively. Dragons I'd say are a mixed bag. It definitely helps with avoiding their flame attacks but you'll want to use drive by tactics hitting them as you pass by holding R2 and then creating space again inbetween their attacks. Also makes ranged fighting a LOT easier since you can kite enemies more easily on horseback. You have to approach combat completely differently on horseback, instead of parking by the enemy and hacking away you more want to focus on hitting as you zip past, then reposition to dodge or avoid their follow up and zip past for another hit.

[2001 Space Oddity]

Originally posted by breadman:

he's for moving from place to place, not combat

Wrong, with the right weapon Torrent makes the open world into easy mode. IMO halberds have the best moveset for mounted combat, with great swords taking second place only because of their shorter range.

Great spears have good R1's, the R2's are good against larger or mounted enemies but useless against shorter enemies. Scythes have good R1 but the R2 needs to be perfectly timed. Colossal weapons have good R2's but the R1 lacks range and is very slow. Great hammers/great axes have good R2's but the R1's, while faster than colossals, still lack range.

Straight swords and katanas are mediocre, but katanas are a little better because they're longer. Spears and thrusting swords have decent R2's but the R1's are too easy to miss enemies, so I would rate them as mediocre too.

Axes, hammers, fists, claws, and daggers suck because they have no range. I've never used whips though, so I don't know if they're any good.

[Narm]

Originally posted by 2001 Space Oddity:

Originally posted by breadman:

he's for moving from place to place, not combat

Wrong, with the right weapon Torrent makes the open world into easy mode...

It's probably more accurate to say that Torrent's not really for BOSS combat. There are exceptions, but generally against bosses (dragons and fire giant especially) and large enemies (like runebears), he's more for chasing/positioning, mount/dismount i-framing through attacks, and avoiding certain attacks like dragonbreath that can be hard to outrun on foot.

In the overworld against most mobs, he's good for combat, especially against groups. You can kite and do drive-by's, which is pretty safe and effective. And that strategy works on some overworld bosses too, just not all of them.

Your weapon analysis is fairly accurate, and casters have it even easier on horseback just by circling and casting ranged spells.

Basically mounted combat is mostly good for mobs and a few overworld bosses, but bad for a lot of bosses and a few overworld mobs like runebears. Build and loadout is a factor too, like erdtree avatars are a joke to mounted sorcerers, but I'd rather take it on foot with a melee build.

[Sabaithal]

Not sure why people think Torrent is supposed to be useful in boss fights, outside of flying dragons. He's a mode of transportation. meant to shorten the commute between locations.

[breadman]

Originally posted by 2001 Space Oddity:

Wrong, with the right weapon Torrent makes the open world into easy mode. IMO halberds have the best moveset for mounted combat, with great swords taking second place only because of their shorter range.

Great spears have good R1's, the R2's are good against larger or mounted enemies but useless against shorter enemies. Scythes have good R1 but the R2 needs to be perfectly timed. Colossal weapons have good R2's but the R1 lacks range and is very slow. Great hammers/great axes have good R2's but the R1's, while faster than colossals, still lack range.

Straight swords and katanas are mediocre, but katanas are a little better because they're longer. Spears and thrusting swords have decent R2's but the R1's are too easy to miss enemies, so I would rate them as mediocre too.

Axes, hammers, fists, claws, and daggers suck because they have no range. I've never used whips though, so I don't know if they're any good.

fighting on horseback is more annoying than useful as far as i'm concerned

[Augustine]

yeah, it can be a bit dangerous since standing up from being dismounted takes like 5 seconds and some enemies have instant dismount specials. With no i-frame dodge and very poor hit boxes on some attacks, I don't use it in areas I take seriously.

I guess an exception might be with pest threads or ancient death rancor since you can maintain good range and use their omni-directional tracking and just chip enemies to death

[2001 Space Oddity]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

Not sure why people think Torrent is supposed to be useful in boss fights, outside of flying dragons. He's a mode of transportation. meant to shorten the commute between locations.

He makes most mobs super easy, and not only is he good for dragon fights (and not just for outrunning breath attacks) but he's good for Night's Cavalry, Tree Sentinels, Capt. O'Neil, Erdtree Avatars (though I think they're easier on foot), Dragonkin Soldier, and maybe one or two other bosses I can't think of right now. Hit and run tactics with the right weapon makes those boss fights a piece of cake. Especially with the Nightrider Glaive + Lance talisman combo.

As others have pointed out, you need to be careful of some enemies that can dismount you and he's awful for fighting runebears, but most of the time it's easy peasy.

[Carb]

To everybody in this thread, here is the guide to succeed with Torrent and deal serious damage.

1. Do not take any damage.

[PainkilleR]

Who would even want to fight dragons NOT from the horseback?
In my experience dragons are one of the buggiest enemies in the whole game (the top spot still goes to ulcerated tree spirits though...). They clip through the terrain all the time, fly away into the sunset for no reason, disappear into thin air, clip through the player character, land on the invisible clutter. and so on and so forth. And then you can't even see what they are doing for the entirety of the fight, because they clip through the camera view.

I definitely wouldn't bother with dragons if not for the mounted combat. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[MULTIPASS]

The best way to fight dragons is to just stand in front of them and smack them on the head. It's a weakpoint that takes extra damage and breaks their stance easily. Then they fall down face first allowing even more damage to the head and a critical hit. On Torrent you're just wasting time riding in and out for chip damage. Go for the head.

[PainkilleR]

Originally posted by MULTIPASS:

The best way to fight dragons is to just stand in front of them and smack them on the head. It's a weakpoint that takes extra damage and breaks their stance easily. Then they fall down face first allowing even more damage to the head and a critical hit. On Torrent you're just wasting time riding in and out for chip damage. Go for the head.

You can't even reach their head half of the time. Especially with non-great weapons...