Getting around in Middle-earth: Comparing travel speeds

I’ve seen a lot of people asking “How much faster is my war-steed than my normal steed?” As I’ve been wondering the same thing, I decided to get to the bottom of the issue. I chose two easily identifiable landmarks and measured the time it took me to get from one to the other in a straight line. Then I ran multiple trials, averaged the values and came up with these numbers.

Even though I tried to be fairly consistent, these numbers may not be the exact values in-game. My reaction time might have been off or lag could be a skewing factor, however, I feel pretty confident about these numbers. If you do your own tests that differ from these results, let me know.

From my calculations, I made a graph. I make a lot of graphs.

I noticed a couple things based on these figures:

• Walking speed on foot is about 40% of running speed, while walking speed on non-combat mounts is about 20% of their full speed.
• Meta-deed steeds have the same speed as untraited heavy war-steeds.
• If traited, even a heavy war-steed can outrun a stable steed.
• A Warden with Forced March traited on his legendary javelin can outrun a player on a starter steed. Sucker!

Oh, and here’s some slightly more detailed data if you’re into that. All values are in meters/second (m/s) and percentages are based off 100% being the normal run speed of 6.5 m/s.

• Swimming
• Swimming (3.3 – 50%)
• Swimming-walking (1.7 – 25%)
• On foot (100%)
• Running (6.5 – 100%)
• Walking (2.5 – 40%)
• Hunter speed boost
• Max traited (7.9 – 121%)
• Base (7.5 – 115%)
• Starter steed (+32%)
• Gallop (8.5 – 132%)
• Walk (2.0 – 30%)
• Warden speed boost
• Max traited (9.0 – 138%)
• Base (8.1 – 125%)
• Standard steed (+62%)
• Gallop (10.5 – 162%)
• Walk (2.4 – 37%)
• Meta-deed steed (+68%)
• Gallop (11.0 – 168%)
• Walk (2.5 – 39%)
• WS: Heavy (base)
• Gallop (11.0 – 168%)
• Canter (8.8 – 135%)
• Trot (7.7 – 118%)
• Walk (5.5 – 85%)
• WS: Medium (base)
• Gallop (11.5 – 177%)
• Canter (9.2 – 141%)
• Trot (8.1 – 124%)
• Walk (5.8 – 88%)
• WS: Light (base)
• Gallop (12.0 – 185%)
• Canter (9.6 – 148%)
• Trot (8.4 – 129%)
• Walk (6 – 92%)
• Stable horse
• Gallop (13.0 – 200%)
• Walk (8.5 – 130%)
• WS: Max (16.0 – 246%)