Developer Diary : Hunter Class Changes in Helm’s Deep

[Arandeath]

So all those stacks of traps taking up space in the kinhouse are now vendor trash and I can use the space for something else! Yay!

Do the recipes go away too? What about all those trap-only mats from my farmer? Can I vendor them off too without fear of losing something that might be valuable later?

a little late to reply,but the option to turn all the useless items back into ingots and convert whatever discontinued mats back into useable mats.

[Teluial]

Hello, good to all hunter of lotro.

Upon further expansion and patch, we can now choose the blue line, red and yellow as you know.

Well, when you start the game, I explain better, when I start a game session if I have a blue reach distance of 30 m. and if I go red I have a reach distance of 40 m.

Well, I've noticed that as you spend time playing in a session these outcomes vary (the same is that with doll Hot improve .)

What starts with BLUE 30 M. / RED 40 M.
You can reach BLUE 40 M. / RED 40 M.
And ends: BLUE 40 M. / RED 50 M.
And if you finish the game session and then again, it starts from the starting point, ie BLUE 30 M. / RED 40M.

And it's not because they have given me some potions, spell, bonus or changed weapons, gained a level or other equipment have changed it, it happens no more. I attached some screenshots.






Was wondering if to begin with, any more and it has happened has been realized and if anyone knows or why.

Greetings.

[Gilstad]

I got a level 50 and a level 24 Hunter. I don't play in groups any more, and don't play as often as I used to. I'm not a LOTRO expert and I'm not a "gamer".

With that said, I'm somewhat negative to the Helm's Deep release changes for Hunter. The new "pin down" shot has thus far been useless to me, as it has such a short range (EDIT: although I haven't used it a lot and I have to get the hang of it). And I miss my "swift stroke", "scourging blow" and "agile rejoinder".

I understand there was a need for less skills, but I would have re-organized the skills differently myself. I would have merged swift stroke and agile rejoinder, with the old healing bonus applied only after a successful parry. The changes to "Low Cut" are good and it would be the only melee skill I would keep exactly the same.

So what I'm saying is I don't approve so much of how you guys re-ordered the melee skills. They're a bit scarce and of course while this is what you desired, I disapprove of the changes.

I liked some of the other smaller changes. EDIT: Like the changes to the stances and the stats they give.

[vineyarddawg]

I've been playing my Hunter since the game was first released, and wanted to put my two cents in on the changes to the yellow line. I played in beta a bit and saw how diligently the devs were working to make the yellow line something that was actually playable for Hunters (unlike pre-HD, in my opinion). As a result, I traited all-yellow when HD first came out and have been playing it for the better part of the last week or so. And I have to say that it has really grown on me. I really enjoy using the 4 different traps (and I LOVE that the triple-trap actually holds mobs, even after you damage them), and the decoy is a wonderful little insta-tank to lay down when aggro'ing multiple mobs that you can't quickly put down. I switched back to blue line for the first time last night for an instance run that wanted more DPS, and I really missed my decoy and traps! I really have gotten used to the CC style of play, and I never thought I'd say this, but the yellow line might actually become my hunter default trait line.

[Arandeath]

so trying out the hunter lines,and red gets 40m range which i like
and i guess it goes to 50m later on which i really like the idea of
that. so yellow gets all the traps i like and use all of the time,which
is good but only 30m range,which i don't really like the shorter
range for a archer/hunter.red line gets set trap that is kinda on
the weak side and pin shot that rarely works.

not really sure of my point other than this character is screwed up
to where i'm going to have to lvl cap him just so i can try to use
points for red for range and dump what ever i can into yellow in
the hopes i can squeeze in enough to get some trap skills.

fml,am i the only one that thinks a char that uses a bow without
some real trap skills is only an archer and not a hunter?

[Arandeath]

the only solution i found so far to have hunter distance & traps is to quickly change to red after throwing a trap.

[Teluial]

I have found that increasing outreach 10 m. occurs when you level. This increase is maintained as long as you play, when you exit the game you lose.

[Ellouhollia]

As there are no updates in the Bullroarer release notes regarding hunters, does anyone know if they are at the least killing off the useless parry response indicator?
Seems that it's just slop at the moment, slop I would rather not see....

[Taragond]

Hail of Arrows and/or Hail of Thorns (hopefully they are named that way since i use a german client) should be given the possibility to be ground-targeted

either by skill like the captains standard or maybe just in case i have no target selected?

[Macroscian]

Hail of Arrows and/or Hail of Thorns (hopefully they are named that way since i use a german client) should be given the possibility to be ground-targeted

either by skill like the captains standard or maybe just in case i have no target selected?

Please explain, I get the idea but not the reason! While it sounds interesting, it also sounds exceedingly slow. I find the ground targeting clunky and a bit awkward for any skills, especially traps (if I truly want to select a specific spot, there are 2 or 3 different ranges...).

(If you just want to train the deed, you can simply use training dummies I guess - the only reason I can see!)

[Taragond]

You're right, of course, for standard use it would be too slow, that's why it should be optional...

One point would be to make it possible to hit for example 2 (or more) targets in it's radius without one of them necessarily standing at the center.

Also, given what it does, it would be possible to target an enemy standing behind an obstacle and there is no logical reason you couldn't do that...

I already had those thoughts when ground-targeting wasn't implemented yet...now I felt was the time to finally ask for it

I love my captains standard even more since i can pick where to put it and i don't feel much slower with it either because while one skill ist executing i already can hit the standard and click the spot on the ground before the other skill went through.

[Macroscian]

You're right, of course, for standard use it would be too slow, that's why it should be optional...

One point would be to make it possible to hit for example 2 (or more) targets in it's radius without one of them necessarily standing at the center.

Also, given what it does, it would be possible to target an enemy standing behind an obstacle and there is no logical reason you couldn't do that...

I already had those thoughts when ground-targeting wasn't implemented yet...now I felt was the time to finally ask for it

I love my captains standard even more since i can pick where to put it and i don't feel much slower with it either because while one skill ist executing i already can hit the standard and click the spot on the ground before the other skill went through.

Oh of course...I'm so used to the rain of arrows thing I didn't even see that potential =) Thank you - and agreed, it would be nice (even if I personally probably would not use it unless specifically for rooting - hard to teach old dogs fresh tricks etc ).

[Taragond]

Oh of course...I'm so used to the rain of arrows thing I didn't even see that potential =) Thank you - and agreed, it would be nice (even if I personally probably would not use it unless specifically for rooting - hard to teach old dogs fresh tricks etc ).

That's one point why i would make it optional

But for example, the captain now has a choice, by giving one skillpoint in an additional "trait" to make his standard from enemy-target to ground-target. (like hunters traps in yellow, i know...i didn't test it yet but i will )
I'd like the addition but i wouldn't mind to spend an extra skill-point for tier2 of that "trait" to make it both: If i have an enemy selected it should be the target, if not, it's intended to be ground-target.

It would just be perfect...
But I guess, i would also understand, i you wanted to give that level of control only to tha yellow traitline...can't say it wouldn't make sense

But it definitely would give me a strong motivation to go try that yellow line already...

EDIT: btw, I definitely see that second tier as a good candidate to go into every classe's traitline which makes something ground-targeted!

[Frisco]

I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere, but are any other Hunters having trouble with Rain of Arrows breaking immediately? On multiple targets? It's like the root component is hitting first and then the damage component hits and breaks the root 25% of the time.

[Macroscian]

I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere, but are any other Hunters having trouble with Rain of Arrows breaking immediately? On multiple targets? It's like the root component is hitting first and then the damage component hits and breaks the root 25% of the time.

I noticed any DOT will break stun daze root. Are you using some oil? Perhaps also true for traps, I think I recall it breaking trap immediately as the DOT kicked in from barb arrow bleed.

[Frisco]

I noticed any DOT will break stun daze root. Are you using some oil? Perhaps also true for traps, I think I recall it breaking trap immediately as the DOT kicked in from barb arrow bleed.

Nope, this is my first attack on the target I'm noticing it on, and using Light Oil. It's the second wave of sorcerers in Sword Halls--I kill the signature mob, then RoT the two elites right as I target them. Immediately after I use the skill, I get the "X has been released..." message. At first I thought it might have been a lagged auto-attack, but even the non-targeted mobs are breaking root immediately a decent percentage of the time.

Not a big deal nowadays, but if they ever release difficult content, it could become problematic.

[Macroscian]

Nope, this is my first attack on the target I'm noticing it on, and using Light Oil. It's the second wave of sorcerers in Sword Halls--I kill the signature mob, then RoT the two elites right as I target them. Immediately after I use the skill, I get the "X has been released..." message. At first I thought it might have been a lagged auto-attack, but even the non-targeted mobs are breaking root immediately a decent percentage of the time.

Not a big deal nowadays, but if they ever release difficult content, it could become problematic.

Hmm I helped with a GS run a few weeks back and the root seemed to happen with no problems. However not really tried since then and it was just trash mobs. Agreed, that could get ugly fast if it was truly needed!