Skirmish Soldier choice for solo hunter

[babo78]

- For solo hunters what are typically better choice for soldier? Especially at higher level once you hit 50-60s?

I understand that for different skirms, different soldier choice/trait mixup. I'm just looking for general in broad category on what people think is good choice for soldier before I go out and perhaps waste my points in soldier type that's not a good combo with solo hunter in general for skirm.

Currently I been using Herbalist soldier with morale/power regen with light armor training and Eagle's flight for myself. I did spend the marks to have all levels/skill/trait at level-cap.


Background (can skip)
I'm new to LOTRO and about to hit lvl 40 on hunter as elf. I been soloing almost all the way through since I don't have more than 30-40 min at a time to do things on fellowship. Most of exp been coming from solo skirms and task quests. I been noticing it's getting harder to solo through skirms and I begun to wonder if it's my choice in soldier that's one of the causes. So before I spend more of my skirm points (marks?) to upgrade I wonder which soldiers solo hunters at higher level pick for solo skirms.


Thanks everyone for your time and input.

[Skigorn]

I use a Protector on my Hunter and Lore-master. I find the protector to be great at grabbing and keeping aggro, especially at the level cap. This is very nice for a ranged class IMO.

[kerryak]

Archers are powerful DPS, w/ good bleeds, and debuffs that make your ranged attacks more powerful. Vs stuff you can tank, you will shred said stuff much more quickly. Vs stuff you can't, you can slap bleeds and slows in S:S and kite him around while your archer pew pews it to death, ponging it like you would another hunter. It doesn't do as much DPS as you, but it does DPS.

As it complements my role in a group skirmish more fully, and allows me to speed through tier1s when I'm not looking for a challenge, this is my most advanced/leveled soldier, w/ 21s + in all things, and 25 for my skills and the soldiers level.

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That being said, if you've invested in Herbalist, it is a fine soldier and you can use it's healing (and tanking of untouched adds!) to your advantage.


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I have used Herbalist and Precision-spec'd bannerguards to rank 15+, and they were slow and not-as-slow respectively. If you regularly play w/ others, you might want to keep some flexibility. I've used Sage on my RK and Warrior on my Guard. Protector gets good reviews. Ultimately, how you use a soldier depends on how it works. I've adapted to Archer quite nicely, but there is no wrong answer here IMO. (There is a "faster than ... " answer though.)

[Tannus]

I love my protector so much.
Tried banner guard first, but the difference between them was huge once my protector was a comparable level.

[Ayrolen]

I have a Protector and he's awesome in duos and 3-mans, but I've grown to kind of hate him in solos. I kind of wish I'd gone with DPS or healing, to be honest.

[Treerat]

Kind of fond of my bannerguard here. He isn't really great at any one thing, but he always has something that helps. A bit of healing for when things get ugly, damage to speed things up, and he makes a good expendable tank - plus buffs never hurt. The only real downside is that with how limited the controls we have for soldiers are I can't fully make use of his abilities. ><

[kerryak]

Also:

Don't worry about spending points in the "wrong" one (even if there is no wrong one, just one that isn't your playstyle - at the time, anyway!)

Turbine has already done a full skirmish points reset, and will more than likely do so as part of major updates/combat mechanics changes/expansions/level increases.

[Dimoyle56]

I use a protector soldier on my hunter.

Protector is great for keeping everything off of me and if I run with Endurance I rarely have too much problems with him grabbing aggro on things.

Few thing's I've found from trial and error. The protector at high levels uses too much power to maintain the Ultimate skills he can have access to. Unless I'm in a group setting with my skirms I remove Ultimate Solitary defender and replace with reposte.

For training you are going to have to get the defensive training as high as you can, thats his passive block/parry/evade and whilst leveling I found shield mastery helpful til the b/p/e training was 20+, when defensive training hit 20+ I dropped shield mastery and put in the +evade passive, especially handy for all soldiers as I can't control their facing and +evade works all the time. Other training I had on my protector are +melee defense and +heavy armour in group situations I sometimes switch +heavy armour for +in-combat power.

You have to expect that there are times when your protector will be dying every pull, most of the time when this happened I was able to finish the mobs off and re-summon.
Desperate flight if you think you will die that way you can try again. Sometimes I'd go in strength stance to kill those nasty LT's and my protector would tank the other mobs.

Be sure to use camouflage when waiting an attack on the station you're defending. I find If I stand out front and use camo while my protector is closest to where the mobs appear he will grab aggro on them all whilst I target his first mob to kill. Saves having to select and tell him to attack a target.

[elyxthaxzus]

while I agree that all the soldiers have nice advantages as well as disadvantages, I too ended up with a protector. To me it's about using your soldier to balance out your classes weakness. Thus on my guardian I usually run a dps soldier (had good luck with warrior), and on my hunter I went protector. the tank, basically, holds the aggro and you pewpew away.

Just about any of them would work, but I enjoy the ability for my tank to hold the mobs so I can choose which ones to pull off at my lesiure. And if your going that route, as said above, stack his armor/def/health buffs.

also, I haven't skirmished in awhile (just came back after a few months break), but unless they changed it, the skirmishes do a huge step up in difficulty in your 40's...they initially had toned down earlier level skirmishes to ease folks into it. the 40's were tough on all my toons. cept my guard.

[Thuleos]

I use protector..im not a fan of the herbalist on any of my toons. When u solo its nice to have some extra dps whether it small or big...herb just heals etc. And when you duo or do grp stuff its better to have a dps type soldier.

[PipeweedAficionado]

I went for a Herbalist on my hunter, thought it was great. However, after leveling some alts and trying out some other options, I most certainly regret investing so many SM in my herbalist. If we ever get a reset, or some store item that resets your solider - I will be changing to either a protector or archer. It's all about speed, the healing is pretty redundant in solo skirmishes.

[Krishal]

I'm pretty sure i got the solution to your problems. I have solo skirmed from high 30s to almost lvl 49 right now and i'm pretty sure what you're looking for is a soldier that can do high damage while being able to tank. The warrior is what you are looking for...it can tank and can help you kill the regular mob fast but you might be thinking in your head what about the elites that are with the mob...well the solution to that is BARD'S ARROW! It'll fear that ELITE meaning that it will wonder around for 15secs which is enough time for 2 DPS units(u and the warrior) to make quick work of the regular mobs and after that you two can ripe that elite up lol!

Seige of Gondamon is the perfect map for employing this combo. Just let the defenders die during the start when a elite is mentioned to come that way. Also you will easily have time for filling up your focus bar before the next mob arrives. oh and sometimes the warrior seems to be a bit of a slow walker so simply re-summon your soldier and unlike in other skirms in gondoman your warrior will always be in front of you so the charging mob will pick him as the target...you can even start the attack when the mob is at a distance and the mob will still target the warrior which will be in front of you. The more marks you pour into the warrior the more exp per hr you'll see And its a good idea to use that healer for other skirms you do for the extra exp from the dailys. Hope that helped out a lot! But I gotta warn you that skirms get boring when you hit around 50 where the exp from questing in moria(50-60) and mirkwood(60-65) is said to be actually good.

[OrcSmiter]

I like herbalist - I realize that a warrior or archer might mean faster skirmishes, but if I die while handling a large pull in Trouble in Tuckborough, or make a mistake, the odds are a lot better that I'll live through it.

Previously, I had tried protector, and hated it, and played around with warrior some, and it was fine. Since I run a lot of barrow downs survival skirmishes, however, I needed a high-level herbalist anyways (the way I lead that skirmish, I only allow herbalists, perhaps some others do it differently, but if I'm leading the group, that's how I want it), and found that it works pretty well for solo skirmishing as well.

Anyway, I thought I'd throw in the mention of the BD Survival skirmish, as that's pretty much the most efficient skirmish marks you can get, although you said for solo skirmishing specifically, it may be something to keep in mind. Also, survivability is always a good thing, and an herbalist adds a ton of that.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

I had an Herbalist before our soldiers were reset, and I respent as an Archer after. For solo Skirmishes the Archer is far and away the superior choice, at least to me. The Herbalist let me just face tank everything, and that's nice. The Archer forces me to CC a bit but everything dies much faster and I'm still never at risk of dying because I no longer have the Herbalist's heals. The Archer does a metric ton of damage, you'll blow through all your Skirmishes faster.

If I ever did group Skirmishes any more the Herbalist might still be a good choice. So long as they don't get looped just healing themselves they do add some survivability to your group. I haven't done a group Skirmish since scaled instances were added though so that upside of an Herbalist is no longer of value. If I ever do one again people will just have to settle with a pile more ranged damage from my Archer.

[Lycaunoss]

Well I guess I buck the trend then since it looks like I'm the only person who's going to suggest Sage. Absolutely love the sage and I doubt I will go back to Herbalist unless I'm doing 6-12 mans without a healer.

[davehenrie]

I am a-bit confused by the whole skirmish soldier deal. I'm a lvl 26 Hunter who has done the two Skirmish training quests. Save Bree and all that, got the Horn to call my soldier but the item is never active. It is always greyed out. It worked during the tutorial, but since then, nothing.

Thanks in advance for any tips...
dh

[Lycaunoss]

I am a-bit confused by the whole skirmish soldier deal. I'm a lvl 26 Hunter who has done the two Skirmish training quests. Save Bree and all that, got the Horn to call my soldier but the item is never active. It is always greyed out. It worked during the tutorial, but since then, nothing.

Thanks in advance for any tips...
dh

You should have two skills. Summon soldier and direct soldier. Summon only works when you are out of combat. You can also summon the soldier by clicking on the circle thingy that appears when you are in a smish where their morale/power/name is. I'm pretty sure there is a skirmish forum on here somewhere still and there is likely some kind of guide which will explain things a little better than I am.

[MalcolmReynolds]

@davehenrie, you need to be in a skirmish instance for those skills to be active, you can't use your soldier in the "open world".


to the main topic - nobody ever mentioned Tier2 and Tier3 skirmishes
for the Tier1 i think every soldier is viable, some are better than others but you will do decent regardless;

however i hear that for Tier2 and Tier3 the herbalist is a must. any comments on that?

[NameAlreadyTaken]

I've done a few Tier IIs out of boredom with my Archer. I haven't bothered with a Tier III though as the rewards aren't worth the extra time it takes to clear the space. If you'd like I'll go give one a whirl just to say it can be done with an Archer.

[opurt]

Warrior for me. It holds aggro on all the mobs while doing decent damage on them while I pick them off one at a time. No problems for me. About the only time he ever dies is when I screw up a pull.

[JeanCarlo]

I have a Protector and he's awesome in duos and 3-mans, but I've grown to kind of hate him in solos. I kind of wish I'd gone with DPS or healing, to be honest.

Agreed on this, esp on Solo. Tho Protectors are great at what they do, but what they can do is pretty much "wasted" when solo as you can more than share tanking with an Herbalist with the added benefit of MRL and PWR healings. It's like being in a fellow with a Guard 5 levels above you against mob that equal to Your level.

Also:

Don't worry about spending points in the "wrong" one (even if there is no wrong one, just one that isn't your playstyle - at the time, anyway!)

Turbine has already done a full skirmish points reset, and will more than likely do so as part of major updates/combat mechanics changes/expansions/level increases.

I'd be careful of this assumption; they only gave us back our Skirm points because the entire Skirm was "moved" down in level and I don't see them doing this again.

[Dionysus9]

. . .however i hear that for Tier2 and Tier3 the herbalist is a must. any comments on that?

I have an herbalist and I've run my share of Tier2 Strike Against Dannenglor skirmishes, some at level 66/67. I've run it on Tier 3 (65) and it's do-able with the herbalist, but its a total waste of time because the extra marks that you get aren't anywhere near the risk (of damage to equipment from morale loss) and extra time it takes to clear the instance. So I would say running Tier 3 solo is a waste of time and don't worry about it.

In the Tier 2 Strike Against Dannenglor with a non-maxed herbalist, and even at level 66, she does a pretty good job tanking as long as you keep an eye on her morale and pull mobs off her if she's taking too much heat.

That being said, I have a level 26 Warden on Riddermark and I chose Archer for his skirm soldier (since I can self-heal)-- and I tell ya, that Archer can do so much more DPS than the Warden, its not funny. Most of the time I will try and tank everything while he simply one-shot or two-shots the mobs one after another. The Archer also seems to hold up pretty well if he gets into melee-- which doesn't happen often.

If Turbine does a skirmish mark reset, I think I might go Archer for the sheer DPS goodness that two ranged units would bring to the table. The Herbalist is good, but she does almost no DPS and can't tank indefinitely-- and while her heals are noticeable at Tier 2, they aren't so crazy good that I couldn't live without them if I had some serious extra DPS instead.

I'm hoping for the skirmish mark reset and going for Archer if we get it.

[Thrandiul110]

I've done a few Tier IIs out of boredom with my Archer. I haven't bothered with a Tier III though as the rewards aren't worth the extra time it takes to clear the space. If you'd like I'll go give one a whirl just to say it can be done with an Archer.

I disagree a bit with that. I do tier 2's all the time and often get twice the amount of skirmish marks I would normally get due to the increased special mark drop rate.

Personally I use a protector. When you don't have the force taunts, you'll be able to peel the mobs off of the protector one-by-one and he'll act as a great "crowd control" bot. When you do get the force taunts, all you have to do is attack his target and you will never get aggro. They do cost a bit of power, but with the in-combat power regain training the protector will usually last a good minute and a half, which should be more than enough time for the boss/wave to die. (The fact that he spams it is actually a good thing, as it lets him never lose aggro. The single-target taunt is 15 seconds, and I believe he has a 10-second AoE one.)

A word of warning though: The final boss of Protectors of Thalgulhad I haven't even figured out how to do with a protector. I usually resort to doing it on tier 1. The reason is you have to guide the boss to the catapult, and with the protector force-taunting he'll just have the boss stand there and will quickly die.

[Krishal]

no matter what soldier you'll be running...remember bard's arrow is a must have since it will keep the elite feared away for 15/20secs while you're dealing with the regular mob! plus it only has like a 30sec cooldown

herb. can tank well aslo since she'll heal herself while you take the mobs off her one by one. but she won't be able to tank that elite so you see you'll need bard's arrow also here

[babo78]

Thanks for wonderful advices and inputs everyone. I've hit lvl 44 now and nearing 45. I was able to get my 3 beginner legendary traits (bard arrow, press onward, and rain of thorn) before I restarted skirms and that made the pretty big difference.

I'm still having mixed result with protector vs. herbalist in my low lvl at tier 1. I am able to get through without dying with herbalist but take longer. With protector I get through faster but sometimes I die because I get too into my solo mode and just unload too quickly.

Now I'm stuck for a bit as I gather or buy TP to get the limit trait for skirm. So I'll check in soon when I hit higher level and get my limit removed for skirm!

Thanks again everyone.