An Update: On Upcoming Changes to Hunters

[NameAlreadyTaken]

Hah, that was a fun flashback. I spent forever out there skilling up Guard with my Monk. Good times.

[WhimsicalPacifist]

The more I look at the changes as a whole, the better thought out they appear. If one just looked at a small portion there could be a kneejerk reaction. I think I'll like the changes but will still keep on screaming about my Huntsman package melting. The bacon needs more cheese.

[kerryak]

time for my monthly check-in. No news is no news, I see.




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PS: HAY

[Ayrolen]

time for my monthly check-in. No news is no news, I see.




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PS: HAY

/wave!

I've been leveling my Captain. Got to 60 a couple of days ago! I think I'm liking it more than Hunter...

[VincentVanPort]

time for my monthly check-in. No news is no news, I see.




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PS: HAY

Well some people here heard something and are not overly excited. Might be understandable.

[CWood]

time for my monthly check-in. No news is no news, I see.




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PS: HAY

Hey, Hat. Been wondering where you'd disappeared to. It's been... ...mundane around here without you.

[kerryak]

well, we can't have that!









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this summer has been exhausing. 8 weeks left until the wedding, but we also moved down the street from her job to slice a chunk out of our gas bill from her commute. work has been captain insano. we're putting up 3 renovated bldgs and 1 new student activities center, so planning all that has been keepin' me @ work late.

gaming wise I still dork around w/ sweet on my elf LM w/ her hobbit hunter. (We're wrapping forochel, actually.) We're saving Turbine points for the expansion, hoping they stick that promise.

I shoot things in Rift on occasion on my Marksman (of course), too. And pre-ordered SWTOR, gonna be a bad guy sniper (naturally).

I'll always want to kite/nuke. :X

[NameAlreadyTaken]

We will have to coordinate the LotRO Hunters on to the same SW server. Moar pewpew!

Congrats on your impending nuptials as well. Do you have your honeymoon destination planned? If not make sure you go somewhere all inclusive...sitting by a pool with a bottomless glass of fantastic rum is quite wonderful.

[Ayrolen]

Congrats on your impending nuptials as well. Do you have your honeymoon destination planned? If not make sure you go somewhere all inclusive...sitting by a pool with a bottomless glass of fantastic rum is quite wonderful.

WORD. We've been to Jamaica three times and always stay at a Sandals resort and love it. There's nothing more relaxing than not having to carry a purse/wallet everywhere you go to pay for stuff/tip people. I like to start my buzz at breakfast with mimosas and go from there.

[SerowLOTRO]

There was a new cappy dev diary.
Maybe we'll get one too before the official patch notes come out.

[kerryak]

Antigua, all inclusive, w/ a private pool.






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the joke around the office is I'm only getting married so I can get a week off work, lol.




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def on SWTOR. from what I understand, we won't have to grind to level up our RNG-stat-driven lightsabers.

[Jolandir]

First off it is obvious a lot of people are reacting to things you didn't even say Zombie_Columbus.
You only gave us this much:
Bowmaster: No longer tied to Strength stance.
Huntsman: A true Bow and Blade warrior.
Trapper of Foes: Less crowd control, more of everything else.

I never could understand a "Bowmaster" that was tied to one stance. If you are a master of the Bow you know how to use it in all stances, not just one. So this makes sense that it isn't tied to Strength only. Of course you didn't say it wouldn't be tied to one of the other stances which would be just as dumb.

Huntsman as a true "Bow and Blade Warrior", that is definitely far more like what most Hunter class types looked like and felt like in the movies and also in the books. Legolas seemed much more the Bowmaster rather than the Huntsman, but most other could use them equally well. This should mean that the Huntsman can truly do well with both his/her bow and his sword (dual wielding as well with swords). This you see more in your "Rangers" which we really don't have in this game. Hunters I think were sort of supposed to be like Rangers but unfortunately they really were not developed well enough to be this. Strider seemed to lean more towards the sword but still was fairly deadly with a bow if needed.

"Trapper of Foes" is pretty much unique to this game in relationship to what we see mostly in LOTR either the books or movies. The comment, "less crowd control, more of everything else" seems rather silly. If one's mastery is traps as the name suggests, then crowd control is your thing. Yes you can trap animals for their hides and other things I guess, but that really is not a part of the necessity of LOTR. It is a war, not a hunting party. Your traps then need to be against any and all foes humanoid or creature. Traps in this sense are used to stop damage and slow down, inflict a lot of pain to hamper, induce poison into the system or other things to hamper, kill, stop or in other ways reduce their abilities to attack, which is crowd control. So I am not sure how you are going to call this type Hunter mastery "Trapper of Foes" and not have it be crowd control. Even using nets to fling them into trees or to throw over them is crowd control. If you don't want it to be crowd control then what are all these traps for? We have tons of them and I used them very effectively.

Bow chants go very well with Hunters, and especially Bowmasters, but are not as useful on the other two, at least by their titles, so could you bring in melee chants or some sort of thing for your Bow and Blade masters? Why can't a hunter use poisons like the thief. He is a master of the out-of-doors, and should understand about all things that are poisonous, both for use against others and how to heal and control them. The same with beneficial herbs and plants or things from other animals that would fall into this category. We should be able to not only have fire and light potions but poison as well.

If you are intending the Bow and Blade master to be more like one of the Rangers, you should also increase their healing abilities and their abilities to track.

Bowmasters should always have the edge in using the bow. Bow and Blade masters should be very effective with both, but not as good as a Bowmaster with a bow (using Legolas as a good example of this). None of the other should be as good, as variable with traps as your Trapper of Foes. Bow and Blade masters should be modeled more after Rangers. Good with both bow and sword (and definitely the best of the Hunter masteries with the sword), very good at tracking but not as good an all-around tracker as the Trapper of Foes, but potentially better at tracking humanoid opponents.

By the way, you really should allow Hunters and especially Bowmasters to use a bows mounted. Bow and Blade master would usually use a sword mounted but still able to use a bow but not as effectively as the Bowmaster, and the Trapper of Foes could use both but not as well as the other two in their specific areas.

Just my thoughts

[OldFool]

Just because ZC hasn't been around to keep us up to date, doesn't mean that there isn't any news. Given that the release of ROI is about a month off and the beta has been running for over three weeks, one might speculate that the bulk of the changes to the hunter class have been decided upon and implemented. Terms of the NDA prevent those in the know from telling what they know. By the time the NDA is lifted, I would guess that it would be too late for any input from this forum to affect what will be released in ROI. So, my conclusions are as follows:

1. Discussion of what the changes might be at this time is pretty much pointless. What will be will be.
2. Once the details of the ROI changes to hunters are made public, THEN the whining can begin.
3. We should all look at this like Christmas. The ROI hunter will be a new toy for us all to unwrap. We should at least try to play with our new toy for a while before the aforementioned whining begins.
4. If the changes are large enough, those of us who like to analyse the class at great length (and there are a goodly number of those) to determine optimal builds and rotations should be as happy as swine in excrement.

[Thraxz1982]

Just because ZC hasn't been around to keep us up to date, doesn't mean that there isn't any news. Given that the release of ROI is about a month off and the beta has been running for over three weeks, one might speculate that the bulk of the changes to the hunter class have been decided upon and implemented. Terms of the NDA prevent those in the know from telling what they know. By the time the NDA is lifted, I would guess that it would be too late for any input from this forum to affect what will be released in ROI. So, my conclusions are as follows:

1. Discussion of what the changes might be at this time is pretty much pointless. What will be will be.
2. Once the details of the ROI changes to hunters are made public, THEN the whining can begin.
3. We should all look at this like Christmas. The ROI hunter will be a new toy for us all to unwrap. We should at least try to play with our new toy for a while before the aforementioned whining begins.
4. If the changes are large enough, those of us who like to analyse the class at great length (and there are a goodly number of those) to determine optimal builds and rotations should be as happy as swine in excrement.

In other words, there's no news.

1. Pretty much.
2. There will be a lot of that unless they turn us into 40 meter RKs for damage, that can rez in combat, with heavy armor and burg-like melee DPS.
3. This is closer to Christmas where mom lets on to you (a boy) are about to get a kind of a doll. This will induce some rage. Even if the 'doll' is really the original complete GI Joe action figure set!
4. I'm one of those people and I think I can answer for all of us here at overanalyseeverythinghunter.ne t... "Not if the changes suck."

[Fin.]

I understand that currently we are at the "what will be will be" stage. But it is shame that other classes were allowed to post feedback and propose adjustments while we were not.

[Aule]

I'd love to see the huntsman become a more balanced range/melee type. If that can be done w/ just 1 or 2 traits (even if legendary), great. If it needs more extensive reworking, that's fine too. I don't want to see the hunstman become just another pure melee DPS by any means, but a balance or mix would be a lot of fun.

[drexele]

well still no new posts of any intrest to me /sigh

[NameAlreadyTaken]

Discussions of booze and tropical beaches aren't interesting? Fine, party pooper, how about this? Counter Defense will boost Ranged and Tactical crit chance along with Melee come RoI.

Not Hunter specific, but definitely should be of interest.

[Eldrandir]

Discussions of booze and tropical beaches aren't interesting? Fine, party pooper, how about this? Counter Defense will boost Ranged and Tactical crit chance along with Melee come RoI.

Not Hunter specific, but definitely should be of interest.

Beaches are more interesting.

[MurkyMajare]

Looking at how much talk between the devs and players there have been on some of the other classes, has there been any at all for the hunter?

I am dreading the upcoming (if there even is one) dev diary about the hunter and the nerf change notes we will get once again.

Being like 3rd / 4th on the single target dps and like 8th on the multiple target dps isn't fun any more.

As for melee? I'm a hunter darn it, not a champion. :P
Then again, considering I get like 2 shots off before I am in melee, I suppose it is good to have some actual melee skills as well.

I just would like to be useful in raids again, and not passed over because "nah, we need more dps, lets bring another guardian" or something.

I tried looking in this thread, and others, but do we know anything about the coming changes at all?
(Appart from the "SS not tied" (whatever that means) and "more melee")

[Dargathi]

My thoughts..

I've been involved in many MMO's over the past xx years, from everquest and beyond, in all of these games they have a physical ranged DPS class.

I have to admit I love the hunter as it is, (ok so I have only got to L49 so far... but I'm working on it ;o)

Hunters have 3 trait lines, and it looks like the plans are for Hunters to have with 1 Solo (including a bit more Mele) 1 Raid (pure ranged) and 1 Utility.

The only addition I would like to see is some form of "escape".

60 second cool down, the Hunter leaps backwards out of combat (as if they had been knocked back 20 feet) during the animation the target is stunned however any movement de-buffs are immediately removed. Requires 6 focus.

Possibly added as a bonus when you feat 3 or 4 into your ranged feat tree.

[Ayrolen]

I am dreading the upcoming (if there even is one) dev diary about the hunter and the nerf change notes we will get once again.

Nice hyperbole. When was the last time Hunters got nerfed?

[NameAlreadyTaken]

Being like 3rd / 4th on the single target dps and like 8th on the multiple target dps isn't fun any more.

You're doing it wrong.

[MurkyMajare]

Nice hyperbole. When was the last time Hunters got nerfed?

Hmm.. not quite sure...

When as the last time we got an update? :P

(where HS and other skills got reduced damage and such).

[Eldrandir]

Being like 3rd / 4th on the single target dps

You should at least be equal to RK & Champ if not slightly better, if your not your doing it all wrong.

..

When as the last time we got an update? :P

(where HS and other skills got reduced damage and such).

November 2010 & March 2011, but it was not a nerf at all.