Pariah's Hunter Guide (RoI Edition)

[Kannos1600]

The Pariah's Hunter Guide 2.0
Well hello everyone and welcome to a Pariah's Guide to Hunters. Here I will attempt to cover all aspects of my favorite class in Lord of the Rings Online and hopefully open your eyes to some of the goodness the class offers to you while playing and maybe even show some things you might not of known before while playing the class.
I do however want to thank everyone for the requests for this newer guide and hope it gives you what you were looking for in the end of it all.

The HUNTER

What is the hunter? Some actually ponder this even after character creation. Well if you look at it from a single eye perspective we are Ranged DPS. Not just any Ranged DPS but Single Target DPS. We excell at blowing up 1 target at a time. The Hunter does have some AoE attacks but unlike the Champion we dont have a whole arsenal to utilize to take down alot of foes all at once but in no way does that mean we cant take on multiple foes.

Part of what we do as a Hunter is take on a nice roll of Crowd Control. We are a bit different in this aspect than a Loremaster par say but we are a viable CCer if needed.

In a group the Hunter can encompass many aspects of a group under the right conditions and setup. We can be the silent Guardian protecting our Medic from the enemy while the Front Line Warriors battle the hard pressed enemy. We are the Rain of Steel firing from the rear of the team while laying down some death upon our foes. The front line warrior battling toe to toe with a foe while still using our bow even in the heart of a melee battle.

RACE

Hmm. Races. Well all in all every race holds a bonus in some way to the class. Not 1 race really screams, "PLAY ME!" in my opinion. Some of the races have more Hunter want flavors like the Elf for example. The Elf will give you 2% more bow damage (on auto attacks) as well as higher starting Agility.

The Hobbit has always remained to me as the min maxed race of them all. Not alot of downsides to any class they play but the highest starting Morale/Power of any class they choose to play.

The Race of Man is a good race to play to. With the lack of an actual combat heal for a large portion of your lvling you will gain a trait called Strength of Morale as a Human. This is a great heal for a Hunter at the cost of power but well worth it. As well as the fact that it makes Ettenmoors play that much more appealing if you can survive just a little longer.

The Dwarf. Small but sturdy baby. Dont count out the little sashaying monkey out of the fight. Just think. You have yourself a tiny little linebacker in medium armor. They might be small but you will have max morale of the Hunter at the start of the game vs most other races and even with the Agility cut you still gain in Strength which gives you a parry % to avoid some of the damage you may receive while at low lvls.
All in all I have always gone with choosing a race that you like over all. Find the pros and cons you want to deal with on each race and see what is best for you. The choice is YOURS! (insert Captain Planet voice for that part)

STATS

When looking at the Character Journal page in game some people look at it with the same look you have when programming a VCR (whats a
VCR?!). Others look at it like its a lvl 1 Sudoku puzzle and slam it out and toss it aside. To each to thar own I say to that and I will try to point out the more important stats to you. (Which will still be alot to look at but at least you will know a bit more about them.)
For the 4 basic stats you can easily see the bonuses they give to you via scrolling over them while on the character journal page. All are important as a Hunter but some dont have to play a focus if you really dont want to focus on them. Might for example. Its still useful but you dont need 1100 Might to be an effective Hunter.

In Combat Power Regen (ICPR) = This stat is sometimes overlooked. This represents your continual go in a fight. The higher this is the quicker your going to regen power to keep the fight going. Having a 1000 in this is pretty good to go. If you have more its fine but to some degree this may take away from other stats on you if your focusing to much on this.

Finesse= This stat will come into play later in leveling. This stat lowers your enemies Block/Parry/Evade (B/P/E) Chance. You may have not see a high demand use for this early in the game but when you reach higher levels this will become an important stat to look at. Coupling this with a decent to high agility score and you wont be seeing MISS alot on your screen or even those annoying B/P/E from the enemy to lower your overall DPS.

Ranged Offence = This stat represents how much damage your rocking out. The higher this is the bigger the bang. This stat will couple with your already existing damage and is typically represented by your Agility. Your Agility alone wont raise this stat to a large amount. Hunter Armor from sets as well as gear with raw Ranged Offence will make this stat rise high. Dont be alarmed if you find Hunters running with 20k Ranged Offence later in your leveling career.

Ranged Critical = For now the capstone for this is 25% (certain skills can go over this such as Quick Shot for example but it wont show on your character sheet) but the higher this is the more times your going to see those bold yellow numbers saying EAT IT to the enemy. As well your DEV Crits will be bigger to (Devastated Criticals).

When building your Hunter keep in mind your Stats do not have a capstone so you can build them without worry of hitting a stat cap and all that hooplah. As well keep in mind of the single minded settup. This would encompass the idea of looking at one stat and building it so high you forego all other stats in favor of this one. For the most part alot of Hunters will look at Agility as this.
Sure its great to have 10k Agility. Woohoo for you! Thing is. When you focus only on 1 stat. You blind yourself to your other stats and can kill your character this way. Alot of people complain the Hunter is squishy. They are right we are but you can work in the squishy department to make your character not so spongey. Vitality, Fate, Will and Might will all help you in this in different ways.
Break apart from the one mind effect and open your stat build to encompass more than just your Agility.

CLASS TRAITS

Before I go into each class trait line I would like to suggest something. Please take the time to aquire all of your class traits on your character. The simple use of versatility of being able to retrait is a great tool to have plus you will have the luxery of testing things out later in the game. I find this a must have to be done for any character I play to enjoy the full aspects of the class in different forms.
To fully delve into every Trait we have right now I have found that the Hunter Section in the LOTRO Wiki has made it a little easyier on me from time to time to over look our Traits when not in game although I do prefer ingame vs a website. Much faster to me.

http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Hunter

First thing I want to say is this. Yes Bowmaster is nice. Try out Huntsman or even Trapper of Foe from time to time. Mix and match. Bowmaster does increase our DPS but the long inductions really kill me when I play so I aim for a more Huntsman traited setup.
Do not count out Trapper of Foe. The Legendary for Trapper of Foe really puts us into a Crowd Control spot and a viable CCer for groups when another CCer isnt available.

Some of my more preferred Traits to aquire and utilize are Barbed Fury, Hail of Arrows, Swift and True, Swift Mercy, Critical Eye, Combat Traps, Stong Intimidation, Barbed Hinderance, Heightened Senses, Deadly Precision, Swift Recovery, Arrow Storm, Resolute Aim, and Deep Concentration. As well as all the legendary Traits we have at our disposal.
With all honesty all of your traits you have on your character sheet are great tools to be added to your arsenal as a Hunter and even the ones I havnt mentioned are still just as important as the ones above. So as I mentioned before. Take the time to unlock all of your options when traiting to maximize your options in combat.

Set bonuses available to use are rather nice with current changes. Although Im still not a huge fan of the AoE Purge Poison cooldown on Trapper of Foe we at least do not have a DPS cut on the trait line so we have no reason to full on avoid it for that aspect anymore.
When trying to figure out what to trait your character you can simply base your trait sets into a base line.

Bowmaster = Standard Attack Speed with more DPS.

Huntsman = Faster Attack Speed with more Focus and Melee Skill recast times.

Trapper of Foe = Standard Attack Speed with increased Crowd Control Capability.

I prefer to mix up the Huntsman and Bowmaster for group play or solo play when not in search of things. 3 BM + 4 HM is my preferred line for this. When in a group with no CCer I will more than happy to trait 5 ToF with 2 HM + ToF Legendary to help out the party.
I have a few Trait Sets I utilize when gaming and I am never afraid to rock out a different settup just for the fun of it or to aid a party in what the may like. Here are a few of the trait sets I came around to toying with:

The Oo Rah Settup:

Traits: Hail of Arrows, Barbed Fury, Critical Eye, Fast Draw Deadly Precision, Arrow Storm, and Resolute Aim

Legendary Traits: Rain of Thorns, Bard's Arrow and Press Onward

Essence of line: The constant use of Rain of Arrows is a focus on this. Great for group play areas where you know you can smash down multiple foes with a simple que of focus build and running them down with RoA asap.

The Man with the Machine Gun Settup:

Traits: Hail of Arrows, Critical Eye, Barbed Fury, Swift and True, Fast Draw, Resolute Aim and Swfit Recovery

Legendary Traits: Cool Burn, Rain of Thorns and Press Onward

Essence of Line: Well your getting the Cool Burn bonus so Burn Hot will be extra useful. Mostly this is to hit the enemy hard and let them know your on the battlefield.

Gaia's Vengeance

Traits: Earthborn, Arrow Storm, Resolute Aim, Deep Concentration,Heightened Senses, Stealthy Shot, and Barbed Hinderance

Legendary Traits: Bow of the Righteouse, Rain of Thorns, and Press Onward

Essence of Line: Keep the storm going with all you have to regen for yourself. Most of your personnal heals are maximized here and power regen at its finest to give you maximum go potential as well as utilizing your Barbed Arrow as your slow focus to stay in Precision Stance and not worry about Strength Stance as much.
I do tend to replace Heightened Senses with Critical Eye with this trait line simply for the power cost reduction is nice from HS but Im not bad on ICPR so I can spare the cost.

Lord of the Arrow

Traits: Sturdy Traps, Combat Traps, Strong Intimidation, Spring Loaded Traps, Stealthy Shot, Resolute Aim and Swift Recovery

Legendary Traits: Bard's Arrow, Rain of Thorns and Explosive Arrow

Essence of the Line: Controlling where the enemy goes and what it can get done is your focus here. Your traps will be up to par with your overall combat use and well just plain down you get to kick some butt on mezzing things for once. More than 10s. Yippie!

I have many other trait sets I utilize but I felt I would share a few of some I use from time to time that do not encompass usual gameplay. When in the Moors I will sometimes trait on Huntsman that give more melee skill focus to allow certain melee skills to be utilized. Such as Low Cut for example.
Other times when on new maps I will slot 4 HM, 2 BM and Heightened Senses to give me the edge on tracking enemies from further distances and stealthed just to speed things up while questing.
As I said before. Having all the tools in your box before you go on a project is nice so you have something to play with. Rock out those deeds and have some fun with your traits. Break the mold and try something new.

HOBBIES

For now Turbine only has included Fishing in LOTRO so it limits the length of this section. Fishing is a very helpful hobby to look into especially if your vocation as a Hunter is a cook. You will win all kinds of fish that you can use to make many of different foods. Food is helpful in the game more so than some think but its certainly not a crutch.

Plus this is a great passtime when you might be waiting to go on a raid or just for friends to log online to have some fun. So pick up an ale, grab a rod and start casting those lines baby and sit back.

CRAFTING VOCATION

All crafting Vocations are helpful to any class in this game. Some can be straight money maker. A few however will be very helpful in the beginning for you.

Explorer = This vocation is great in many ways. Not only do you get to collect all but scholar nodes in the game with this vocation but you also get to craft your Medium Armor for yourself as you level up. At lower levels of crafting you may need certain items from other crafts to make some decent gear but its well worth it.

Woodworker = If you want to keep up on your main hand weapons and Bows this is the job to do it. You collect your own wood and can make the finest bow around these parts will evar see! Plus farming. I suppose thats fun.

Scholar = This job makes a ton of consumables. This vocation is great for any class with what it offers. You can make alot of hunter style goodies as well as other non class consumables such as potions or combat lore that will greatly help you and friends out in the battles to come.

SKIRMISHES

Skirmishes are very helpful and fun to do. To me these get really boring solo. Still fun though even solo though. They are a great tool to bridge a lvl gap (such as 35 to 45 for example) and offer some good gear at the camps if you know where to look.
Later on in leveling you may want to play these Skirmishes with a raid to aquire some of the really good gear the game has to offer such as your lvl 75 Raid Armor (minus a few pieces). Or to aquire Superior 3rd Marks or 4th Marks.
Your Skirmish Soldier is very helpful in these but the thing is. You MUST put Skirmish Points INTO them to make them useful. Seriouslly. Im not kidding on this. You dont build your soldier up your going to be starring at your screen wondering why the guy is just standing around with his thumb up his butt. Well thats your fault not his! Build him/her up from the ground up and watch them rock out with you!
One large example of this is The Herbalist. Many swear this soldier is useless. Well I can guarantee they havnt put any points into the Herby's Outgoing Healing Trait and the Herby just stands still doing nothing with a full bar of power. Well thar goes my point! Put some points into those skills and watch your Herbalist turn from a no healer to a ZOMG healer!
A few other things to keep in mind about Skirms is knowledge of the runs. Going into a raid Skirm is great but if you have no clue on how to fight some of your enemies your as useful as an unpowered cell phone to make a long distance call to your grandma. Just not going to happen.
Take time to learn how to take down those pesky Lts. They all have weaknesses and learning them is key to survival in Skirms as well as knowing how to keep those NPCs alive. In some instances your NPCs may be healed more than even you or your own people.

SOLO PLAY

In Solo as a Hunter we have the flavor of being pretty darn good soloers. We can take on things some cant even fathom fighting. With a little preperation in battle we can take down some of the biggest baddies Mordor has to throw at us.
Thats the key though. Preperation. Some find this annoying but it will save your hide and a trip to the rally circle if you take time to plan our your battle.

Set traps, focus up to full first, eat consumables and let the wrath come raining down from the heavens baby!

Later in leveling you will get Improved Focus. This is a great opener to a fight. It has a very low buff timer so once you use it let it rip. You will enjoy the bonus DPS for even a mere 5s.

When fighting certain foes keep in mind of Set TRAP and Set SNARE. Nothing says DUMB more than putting a Set Trap down or even Consumable Traps down before a foe who CAN'T be rooted. Set Trap is pointless at this time so put a snare down instead. Set SNARE isnt a great DoT but you know what? Its better than nothing. So stop being a #### and use your skills to your advantage!

A few other things. Try to maintain maximum distance to your foe as possible. Slow them down and unload on them as much as possible before they come to you. If you set a Trap at the midpoint between you and your foe you can sit at max distance and pretty much decimate your foes without them ever coming withint arms reach of you which is pretty darn nice.

GROUP PLAY

From solo running to grouping with people is a large difference in playing than solo. Some think its not but let me tell you. It is. Solo you have 1 focus. Kill them before they kill you and well its only you so you dont have certain mechanics to work with that you do with a group.
Aggro for example. Aggro is the aggression level of a mob to a particular Character. Solo wise this isnt really a factor. You pew pew it, it hates you, you kill it and it stays on you. Enough said right? In a group you typically will have a tank of some kind who will do that for you.

Let the tank tank. You pew pew but let them hold the aggro first and rock out from that point. If you ever want to upset a tank, its when you decide to go full force in combat and pull the aggro off and the tank has to run after what your stealing. Dont do that. It really is annoying for everyone in the party.

Hold off on your skill shots. If you need to use Endurance Stance and hit the foes with Quick Shot to keep from building your aggro as much. Barbed Arrow with its bleed will give you aggro if you bleed them enough and your tank isnt pulling enough aggro to him.
Watch out for your healer. If your healer has aggro they typically cant heal others as good. Peel those baddies off your healer onto you. One hunter dying is better than the full party dying.

Dont be afraid to get into melee. A good position to fight in melee is the flank (the back) of the enemy to your tank. If your not tanking your flanking is what I say alot in a group play session. You have a number of skills you can only do in melee such as Blindside. Yes. It gives you 3 focus but it also INTERRUPTS INDUCTIONS from your enemy. This is an amazing tool to keep the party alive. Many of enemies later on in group play will have some extremely powerful abilities that MUST be interrupted and you arnt the lonely little hunter who cant interrupt those inductions. So get in thar and get some you little wizard of the arrow!

Purge Poison WORKS on your fellow mates other than with Trapper of Foe AoE bonus. Simply target a fellowmate (number of ways to do this) and click Purge Poison. Some foes in the game you probably will be stuck to doing just this for a large portion of the battle and yes its boring but if it means you all will survive then suck it up cupcake and heal your team from those nasty poisons!

Solo you may find yourself only using maybe 1 or 2 stances that you have. In a group you may switch to all 3 all throughout a fight which is okay. Each stance brings to you something different and are all useful no matter what you may think. In a long battle and if traited + geared properly you can easily run Endurance Stance and rock out a nice -42% to your skill costs. Heartseeker isnt so expensive when you put that into play.

PvMP

PvMP is pretty fun. So why not take the one class to the Moors that really sticks a thorn in the side of those pesky Creeps?
If you opt to go to the Moors I would take some time to walk around Galtrev and look at the Hunter gear. Its pretty nice honestly and with some more recent changes you can gain Rank by questing as well as demolishing Creeps to get that gear! Winning!
So anyways. Im not going to go really deep into PvMP but I will give a few pointers out. Try to keep as much range from you and the enemy. Slow your targets and put a bleed on them. Needful Haste will help you in alot of Solo encounters as the extra attack speed will speed up your shots to add more DPS onto the enemy.

Be mindful of your surroundings. Reason for this is most likely your enemy will know your biggest weakness which is kiting you. If you are in the middle of a field with an enemy in melee he will constantly Kite you and your DPS will be cut pretty low.

If you can put your back up to a rock or some other object to lower the amount of kite space your foe has you have taken your own weakness into regard and lowered its radius of penalty onto you.

Utilize your melee skills at this point. Low Cut will slow your foe long enough to break melee and get a few pop shots out. Rain of Thorns will root them temporarily. Try not to rely on Heartseeker so much. Yes you can one shot Creeps with it or put a big hurting on them but the big target recticle lets them know whats going on and will typically find a way to avoid you unless the conditions are met.

Dont forget about your Purge Poison skill please. So many Spiders kill Hunters in the Moors because of this and its actually sad they do when you can easily remove them. Yes its kill or be killed as fast as you can in the Moors but you can at least stave off death in times when you remove poisons from yourself or others.

Many posts will be found on the forums on how to take on specific Creep Classes but for now I will avoid that in here. Im not the best Moors Hunter in the game but I have spent my time in the Moors and do enjoy a good ole fashioned brawl from time to time.

CANDY MOUNTAIN HERE I COME BABY!

GEAR

With recent changes to gear I have felt Gear is more or less simplified to classes to a degree. While lvling up your Armor itself can be set to focus on your primary stat you use to do what you do best as a Hunter. DPS. Aiming for the Agility based Gear seems to be the focus on the armor from what I have seen to a degree but this isnt entirely true. ( Ettenmoors Gear for example encompasses a more Morale Driven settup )
Aside from the armor you can easily encompass other lacking areas in your jewllery slots to bring your hunter to the world you want him to be. Not to say in any absolution form but at end level when you hit 75 currently you can easily garner up your Galtrev Armor pieces for your agility easily. Each piece alone gives you 122 Agility a piece. This leaves you with 732 agility alone without even touching your Cloak or your other slots of jewllery. Thus opening you to building the rest of your character sheet into what you want.

Want high Morale? Go for it! Put on all that Morale building gear on the bling bling. Need more ICPR? Wooo baby build it up! Some nice bracelets gives a good 100+ ICPR if you need it with end game gear (for now).
Some seem a little confused by this but if you take time to see how you want to build your character and have a goal in mind you can easily achieve it by gearing up in the way you want your Hunter to be.

VIRTUES

Well now that RoI has been sent out in full swing we have a nice handy update to all the virtues as well. Or at least a good chunk have been altered.
Ive found that my gear can easily fill me in on Agility and actually have removed Determination (for now) from my Virtue slots but I wouldnt poo poo this one out honestly. Remember that the higher your agility is your will have overall more DPS as it all adds up.

With the new gear lineup Hunters feel a bit more squishy to many players. To some degree they are correct. We are squishy. How can you fix this? Look for some gear and traits that give you Physical Mitigation. This will help you lower the damage from enemy attacks that land in melee which for the most part even as a Hunter you will still end up fighting in melee alot.

Morale based Virtues are very helpful to. Zeal has had a nice change of heart and has made it with my standard slotting (thanks to a random tell from another player in game or I wouldnt of noticed this myself).

So take some time to look over the traits and dont be afraid to untrait and retrait depending on where your going. If your up against alot of foes who throw in alot of Debuffs and the damage can be controlled you can easily trait up to have some more Resistances vs Mitigations to help in this aspect.

Nothing is sure fire cure but all in all. Its better to be prepared even a little than to not be prepared at all.

SHOT ROTATION

Shot rotations. Well this all differs but the end result will always be the same. Depending on your trait build you may alter your setup a bit. At lower level before you get some of your Stances and Traits I have found while Leveling a small quick shot rotation helps in this.

Set Trap = Move back to max range with Trap inbetween you and your foe. = Strength Stance = Quick Shot to Slow foe = Barbed Arrow = Swift Bow = Penetrating Shot = Build Focus back up with Quick Shot for more Penetrating Shots and keep the bleed on your foe. The reason for the Trap is to stop your foe in the mid way point so you can cut him down a bit more before he reaches you in melee.

As you level up you will later on get more to your aresenal such as Focus and Intent Concentration. These skills will make things a little easyier on you and speed up combat. One of my more favorite current end game level rotations to run with the new Improved Focus buff is:

Precision Stance = Set Snare at midway point between you and foe at maximum distance = Improved Focus for 5s buff to DPS = Barbed Arrow = Improved Penetrating Shot = Improved Penetrating Shot = Improved Penetrating Shot = Intent Concentration = Barbed Arrow = Merciful Shot (if available) = Improved Penetrating Shot.

Some of the IPS (Improved Penetrating Shot) picks can easily be replaced with Blood Arrow if you wish to conserve Power. This skill is a great tool to help control power issues if your Morale isnt in question during a battle as well it has a nice pay out on a Crit Hit.

When in long drawn out fights we have a new toy to our toy box. Hunter's Art. Each Stance will garner a bonus to Hunter's Art and give us a buff from it. For about 20s you will receive 1 of 3 buffs depending on your stance.

Strength Stance gives us an increase to Ranged DPS. Precision will increase our Finesse Rating and Endurance will give us an increase in ICPR. Each are useful in a fight in one way or the other. Although to some degree I have found the ICPR buff from Hunter's Art isnt as worthy as it should due to the cost of Hunter's Art vs the bonus it gives so I tend to aim it towards the use of Strength or Precision for the most part.
Now lets go into some multiple targets shot rotation. To some degree we wont see this unless you opt to group play which....you should do. LOTRO is 100x more fun with a good group of mudmonkeys than it is to solo the game with your AI driven Soldier in a Skirmish.

Yes we are great at taking on a foe alone. What about multiple foes? Well we are good for that to. I have been listening to talks on traits as well as playing with traits on the Hunter Class for a bit now and find that we have a nice way to increase our AoE effectiveness to a slightly nutty way.
1 trait..Arrow Storm. Split Shot and Rain of Arrows will have cooldown reset by critting on the use of the skill. Interesting right? I think so. Considering both skills hit multiple foes and if you crit just once on any of the targets you get the skill reset to use again.

Now to keep it rolling you will have to keep your Focus up. I find using Precision Stance greatly helps this for the simple fact you gain 1 focus every 5 seconds for free now and when you level up and receive Improved Quick Shot you will find Focus isnt as hard to maintain since IQS gives you 1 focus normally and 2 if you crit on it.

Simply put you hit RoA or SS and crit 1 time and it resets. Use it again and if it Crits again you rinse and repeat. If you need some Focus to keep it rolling just pop off some QS or IQS a few times and then rock out some more AoE goodies.

Keep in mind of the distance of foes with Split Shot though. Split Shot will only hit multiple targets when they are pretty close to each other. Unlike RoA which has a pretty nice circle to hit into you will need to keep multiple foes together if you plan to hit them with SS.

Reading some gripes about Split Shot and the fact it has a low AoE range for some reason is an issue? I dont feel this is an issue. This skill I have had more fun with when utilized in a group settup vs Solo. Some skills I almost never use Solo such as Distracting Shot which I almost only ever end up using in a group play scenario but thats aside the point. Split Shot is a pretty nice skill to increase our AoE area of DPS which isnt nearly (and shouldnt in my opinion) as good as a Champ.

Many of other types of Shot Rotations exist. These are only a few suggestions I came up with but find a rotation thats good for you. If you happen to have Barbed Hinderance Trait to give Barbed Arrow a 40% Slow in any stance you can easily start off a fight with Barbed Arrow vs Quick Shot to slow your foe. The extra DoT hitting them at the start can greatly speed up a fight.

While battling foes do not forget about your non ranged skills that can greatly increase your % of success in battle. Needful Haste, Fleetness and other skills will greatly aid you while fighting. If you trait properly enough the skills of Needful Haste and Fleetness will become something you use on a daily basis to destroy foes faster than flies on poop. I know my analogies are magical.

LEGENDARY WEAPONS

As your leveling up you will eventually come across the use of Legendary Weapons. These can be aquired at lvl 45 and used from that point on and if you do get one at 45 you wont be finding a bow to oust it anytime soon. Since we are a DPS class you will always want to keep in mind that the DPS of your weapon comes in a two fold flavor mixer.
Your first Flavor will be the Level of the weapon. The higher the weapon the more DPS it will give you as a whole. The second Flavor of your mixed berry weapon goodness is the Age of the weapon.

A First Age 60 will deal more damage than a 60 Second or Third Age. As well you may want to note that a First Age will also give you a larger DPS hold point when upgrading to your next weapon. If you find yourself with a decent 60 FA Bow and lvling to 65 you can easily use a 60 FA to hold over till you slap on that 65 when the 65 of any age will greatly oust the DPS on the bow of 60.
We do have a few legacies you may want to look for on your bow that will greatly increase your DPS.

Increased Quick Shot Crit Rating
Focus Bow Crit Multiplier
Induction Bow Crit Multiplier
Barbed Arrow Bleed Increase
Burn Hot Damage
Heart Seeker Damage
Merciful Shot Cooldown
Quick Shot Slow Increase

These are just a few of the legacies we can receive on bows but the ones Ive mentioned above are pretty much the ones I look for on a bow at all times. Namely the Crit Multiplier Increases.

Now lets talk a little about our main hand legendary weapons. We arnt Melee DPS so I dont look for the lvl of the weapon for my DPS on this or even for age at that matter. What matters on these are the legacies, the legacy levels as well as the Age of the weapon to determine how much of those preciouse Legendary Points you will have to play with.

Honestly to me we have no big huge down fall to keeping a lower level main hand weapon of any age. Once you get the desired Legacies at a good level and spend your LP on them for the best possible bonus then you really only need to focus on the bow for all intents and purposes.
Skipping your melee weapon probably isnt the best idea though. Keep in mind that the better Age it is and level you have it you will gain more Legendary Points to use as well as you can use better Relics if its at a higher level.
Some of the legacies I look for on my Main Hand Weapon are:

Needful Haste Cooldown
Agile Rejoiner Heal Chance
Low Cut Bleed Chance
Crit Magnitude in Precision Stance Increase
Stength of the Earth Morale Regen Increase
Find the Path Movement Speed Increase
+ AoE Targets (works with all AoE skills including melee attacks)

My only gripe though about one of my more favored legacies is that with current changes you cannot utilize the SoTeMR Increase until you receive the Improved Version of the skill which will come to you way later in the leveling process. IMO it shouldnt be this way but alas it isnt my call.

[SCHawks73]

Good lookin Guide Pariah! I got down to the Race section and seemed like a good read so far, but I think it is going to be a bit hard to read the bigger sections. Not because they have so much information, but there is no breaks between the paragraphs. If you don't mind going through and breaking up the different paragraphs that might make it easier to read on a lot of us. If not, I understand and I will try to read it at a later time.

Thanks for the time/effort you put into this, looks great!

[Nuth_KM]

Overall a good read. I can tell you are trying to put a positive spin on the Hunter and I commend you for the attempt.... but please make sure to stay factual.

Your comment under the PvMP section relative to Heartseeker: "Yes you can one shot Creeps". Totally NOT true. You'd be misleading a new Hunter venturing out in the 'moors who might think that this happens. It doesn't.

[Meto]

Overall a good read. I can tell you are trying to put a positive spin on the Hunter and I commend you for the attempt.... but please make sure to stay factual.

Your comment under the PvMP section relative to Heartseeker: "Yes you can one shot Creeps". Totally NOT true. You'd be misleading a new Hunter venturing out in the 'moors who might think that this happens. It doesn't.

Agreed... not even close. I have managed 4k crit on a creep ONCE and that is not close enough to one shot a creep

[HunterArrow]

thats a fail crit, hunter on our server hit 10k without even going all out for a hs build. that can 1 shot a creep

[Nuth_KM]

thats a fail crit, hunter on our server hit 10k without even going all out for a hs build. that can 1 shot a creep

Post a screenshot or I absolutely guarantee it never happened

[Tannus]

Just want to throw in tehre for the solo hunter that improved fleetness can be really really really good.
If you've got the room to kite you can run around indefinately. Fire off the occasional barbed arrow for the slow and the 10% in combat run buff will keep you out of harms way. The built in focus generation and not losing focus while moving means you can always have imp fleetness going.
I've won some fights that I had no business winning due to slowly chipping them down with the auto attacks and running lots.

[WhimsicalPacifist]

Just want to throw in tehre for the solo hunter that improved fleetness can be really really really good.
If you've got the room to kite you can run around indefinately. Fire off the occasional barbed arrow for the slow and the 10% in combat run buff will keep you out of harms way. The built in focus generation and not losing focus while moving means you can always have imp fleetness going.
I've won some fights that I had no business winning due to slowly chipping them down with the auto attacks and running lots.

This can be combined with Improved Scourging Blow to keep the mob perma-snared. It feels like being a pseudo-Runekeeper as you kite and only intermittently go into melee range.

[Leonide]

Post a screenshot or I absolutely guarantee it never happened

Well, I dont know if the guy actually did a 10k HS but IT IS possible.

On mid ranked creeps my HS does minimum 5k on crit. On a 1on1. Thats with the 10% draigoch bonus but without the legacy. Precision stance, no burn hot, no focus pot, no cappys buffs, no to arms, no OB, no RW, no etc.

Inside a group with BB I actually did a 9.7k HS on a reaver. Not one shoted but very close too. I dont have a screen shot for that one and cannot reproduce because it needs 1) Luck 2) Fight and group set up. But I can reproduce the 5k easely.

Thus, I have no difficulty with a 11k HS in optimal conditions (which we never have).

That said, HS in the moors is not that good. 90% of the time it's a weak DPS choice. If you are a good hunter with decent DPS, those BA will not let you use that shiny yellow cross withtout some pew pew in the butt. Thres resolute aim but still. 75%+ its off.

[Estranger]

I had a 10k HS this weekened on a low ranked BA. But my morale was 4.7k which is of course ridiculously imbalanced. So yes agreed, if a hunter is trying to achieve any sort of balance between survivability and dps, 10K is impossible.

Also, if you are purging poison against a spider in a 1v1 you deserve to die.

[kballard]

Agreed, a one shot is indeed possible, solo I have hit 9-10k devs but, as noted, my morale is about 4.8k with 2k agility lol. I do that just for the fun of it, I will not survive long. Granted one shotting is a lot of luck and impractical most of the time, but IT IS POSSIBLE. I have personally done it to rank 7 and lower creeps, but swiftly die afterwards haha.

[Kannos1600]

Thankyou for the feedback and I didnt realize it was so clumped together with the original set post. Once I have more time to post again on the Forums I will try to break the sections down a bit better.

A few things I wanted to comment on what Ive read in here.

You can 1 shot Creeps with a HS. For the most part you will want to be geared for it in all the places we will need it to be. Yes its not very common to see 10+k HS anymore. They are very much possible to gain and not impossible to see you take out a creep on them.

All of it would boil down to the right fight. If you waltz out to the Moors top of the line gear and spot yourself a greenie then most likely yes your going to make him crawl back to the hole he once rolled back on and it can be reversed for a Sig Creepie that will look at you like your nuts trying to scare him with that HS shot.

As for the Improved Fleetness. Yes it is useful in solo. The increased attack speed alone is very helpful in making it an awesome couple move with your Needful Haste .

Again thanks yah all for the feedback on it and hope it helps out with those who are looking for it. Back to the real life grind.

[Kannos1600]

Edited to be more reading friendly and less of 1 huge #### paragraph.

[Valuvian]

Great work my friend, a really good read and it has given me some great food for thought, back to the drawing board for me lol

[Gabeotaz]

thanks for the in-depth guide! as a recently capped player I needed much of this advice.
looking forward to finding the best build for the 'moors over time!

[beast168]

Firstly, great guide.Was wondering if someone could help me. Is there a setting or something you have to do to be able to fire whilst moving? I can't seem to be able to do it. Thanks ahead for your help.

[beast168]

Great guide.
Is there a setting of something you have to do to be able to fire whilst moving?

[zalladi]

Great guide.
Is there a setting of something you have to do to be able to fire whilst moving?

TO fire whilst moving should be automatic, and has always been automatic; no buttons or settings are required to be changed.
Try attacking a monster, run some fair distance and turn to face him, if your character does not auto attack, there is one common problem:

~Sometimes after using certain skills, the coloured ring around the base of the mob will turn orange, saying that you cannot attack that enemy unless YOU use a skill. So in order to auto attack here, right click the mob, and this coloured ring should turn red to shows that you are attacking.

Whenever it turns red, your character should auto attack when facing the enemy.

[Jarnos]

Great guide.
Is there a setting of something you have to do to be able to fire whilst moving?

If you mean non-auto attacks ( which has been explained) but skill shots it depends.

Fast skills like Blood Arrow and ( Improved) Penetrating Shot can be used "on the move"
Induction skills like Barbed Arrow and Swift Shot can't be used.
The induction will only work when standing still.

[Kannos1600]

If you are looking to fire your attacks off such as Swift Bow etc you cannot do that. We are a stand your ground kind of smasher from a range.

We can auto attack automatically though.

On a small trick of sorts you can if you have the proper focus you may fire off skills such as PS, MS and BA that simply que from use and no induction but the skill will still stop you in place to complete the attack.

If you are attempting to kite foes in specific instances I have used the Quick Shot Slow and auto attack on them till I get enough distance to fire a barbed arrow on them or the such and to reapply the Slow Debuff. This obviouslly only works on foes who can be slowed as certain foes cannot.

[European1000]

Only two attack skills can be used on the move; Penetrating Shot and Blood Arrow. They can even be used in midair, for instance if you are getting knocked in the air by a troll.

Great guide yes! Personally i think the power reduction legacies on the main weapon is a lot more useful than the crit multipliers on the LI Bow though, and this is especially true after RoI, when our power pool has generally gone down. That is, if you are interested in being able to keep up your dps for PvE and not just killing creeps in Ettens.

[Quizzus]

Hunter Art also can be used on the move. Why use it in the first place is totally another question .

[Silverfoot]

Thanks for putting this together. Gave a lot of food for thought. Appreciate your effort.

[MrJaZn]

thats a fail crit, hunter on our server hit 10k without even going all out for a hs build. that can 1 shot a creep

Post a screenshot or I absolutely guarantee it never happened

Was lurking through various class forums and found the 2nd quote funny. Here's your screenshot in regards to the first quote. http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...nShot01050.jpg

I don't remember if he was traited for Cool Burn or not. Grats on being another Hunter who underestimates his class because he can't put out dps as well as top tier hunters in the game.

[Kannos1600]

Was lurking through various class forums and found the 2nd quote funny. Here's your screenshot in regards to the first quote. http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...nShot01050.jpg

I don't remember if he was traited for Cool Burn or not. Grats on being another Hunter who underestimates his class because he can't put out dps as well as top tier hunters in the game.

I couldnt resist after seeing the link to the picture.