Player Guide: Class Changes Summary: Hunter

[Kongas]

I'm sure the hunter remains good at dps, although nowhere near as good as the RK for single target. The issue for me was the loss of enjoyment. I don't care that I can 1 shot mounted wargs now. I don't care that I have new variations on dps skills. My dps was fine before and this is just more of the same. What I don't like is the simplification of gameplay. I enjoyed having a full range of skills to deal with situations in my own style. Sure - the hunter is 'effective' - but for me it's now just too boring.

I don't pay to be bored.

I don't know why they want to constrict player choice but I don't pay for that either. I have plenty of tp and a lifetime sub so I can still play LOTRO-LITE if the mood takes me.

And this is nothing about fearing 'change' before someone comes up with that red herring. I went into the beta happily anticipating good things. Learning the new hunter takes a couple of skirmishes, if that. And I have not been afraid to go learn to play other MMO's having seen what's coming.

For me this is all to do with simplifying the game and the class to the point where it is too slow, dull and plodding to be worth my money and time any more.

I'm speaking only about myself here - other people may well love it. Good luck to them.

I'll continue to play occasionally but LOTRO will no longer be my main game and this is something i'm quite sad about.

[Sunspot6]

Where is Split Shot? I don't find it anywhere in the post, so I'm wondering where it wound up.

Huntsman Line - Tier 2

[Ellouhollia]

Well...Agile gone? No stealth detection? Forced roles?

Ok...I see...back to meh guard for now...jury's out on hunter, but TBH - these changes seem inappropriate to a class that was FINALLY coming back into its own.

Good Hunting,

Ell

[ChromiteSwiftpaw]

Well...Agile gone? No stealth detection? Forced roles?

Ok...I see...back to meh guard for now...jury's out on hunter, but TBH - these changes seem inappropriate to a class that was FINALLY coming back into its own.

Good Hunting,

Ell

The guard is definitely more fun for DPS now, although I haven't tested any tanking with the new changes. I don't think I'll like the tanking side of things there anymore.

[Widoch]

Huntsman Line - Tier 2

Thanks for the info.

[Orodbril]

At first: Thank y'all for making this guide. It's a really nice work and I appreciate the time you spent on creating it.

Because I'm just working on the translation into German of this guide, I have found some errors in this guide.

1st:

Legacy Changes

• Gear can no longer be swapped in combat. This includes armor, jewelery, pocket items, main-hand, off-hand and bows.

I have tested it again, because in the German forum there was a different opinion on it. And I found out, that you can switch main-hand, off-hand and the items in the ranged fight field, so also the captain's banners, but not the class-items like the books or the runes or rune bags.



2nd:

***Huntsman***

Set Bonuses

Tier 5 - Earthborn – Focus gain when using Strength of Earth

This trait also recover morale with the skill Strength of Earth. The normal version only recovers power.

3rd:
Split Shot is either missing in the gained skills-list of huntsman or it should be added to additional skills and buffs. I would prefer the second one because there are 4 different tiers of this skill.

4th:
"Chance of hit isn't reduced during movement" or a similar sentence is missing in the general huntsman description (in the part of the max. range and induction on the move)

5th:
"Chance on reducing induction and increasing the attacking-speed of Swift Bow by any damaging skill" or a similar sentence is missing in the general bowmasters description

I just would add these 3 last things because they're skills basic influence of a trait line.

[Orodbril]

Perseverance (Bowmaster) has only 3 tiers (except you count Press Onward itself here, too)

Needful Haste Increase (Bowmaster Tier 1 Set-Bonus) increases the chance to activate Needful Haste, not its duration

Marksman (Bowmaster Tier 3 Set-Bonus): attacks have a chance to decrease the critical defence of the target, not to decreased cooldown on crit (propapbly something changed with the Set-Boni, so T4 is now T3 and T5 became T4, T6 became T5 and T7 became T6, while there the old T3 is now T7)

Crit Magnitude (Bowmaster Set-Bonus): doesn't increase crit-chance, it increases critical damage

[Widoch]

Perseverance (Bowmaster) has only 3 tiers (except you count Press Onward itself here, too)

Needful Haste Increase (Bowmaster Tier 1 Set-Bonus) increases the chance to activate Needful Haste, not its duration

Marksman (Bowmaster Tier 3 Set-Bonus): attacks have a chance to decrease the critical defence of the target, not to decreased cooldown on crit (propapbly something changed with the Set-Boni, so T4 is now T3 and T5 became T4, T6 became T5 and T7 became T6, while there the old T3 is now T7)

Crit Magnitude (Bowmaster Set-Bonus): doesn't increase crit-chance, it increases critical damage

Thanks so much for the feedback. It's hard to keep track of all the changes, so you guys helping is invaluable. I've updated the guide with these changes.

[Hothoen]

"Crafted traps will be going away, but there will be a new item called Trap Parts that will enhance trap skills. This item will not be in for the release but will be added in a following update."

This change doesn't sit well with me. I actually use crafted traps every now and then. Making them was virtually the only reason to level weaponsmithing for a Hunter, apart from the occasional LI.

And speaking of LIs, this talk of legacies being currently untested isn't exactly filling me with confidence either.

Bowmaster sounds like it's virtually the exact same playstyle I've been using for forever anyways, so not much worry there. I am sad to see that I'll be losing Rain of Thorns and Agile Rejoinder though.

The trap thing is a bit of a surprise, I would use them to solo quests that were otherwise way too difficult for me. Being able to build your character one way, and still throw down a triple trap probably made the trapper build a joke. I never used it. Now, I guess I have to consider that path if I want to have any kind of crowd control.

This game revision reminds me of 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons. 2nd edition was very restrictive. 3rd ed tore down the walls and allowed for unlimited player customization. 4th edition built the walls back up. I liked 3rd ed the best. Having said that, I will try very hard to get over it and just have fun. I am all for anything that takes 2 or 3 of those skill bars off of my screen.

[Kongas]

I am all for anything that takes 2 or 3 of those skill bars off of my screen.

CNTRL-/ unlocks your skill bars and allows you to remove all the skills you want.

[Hothoen]

CNTRL-/ unlocks your skill bars and allows you to remove all the skills you want.

Thanks, I was aware of that. I wont do it, because I never know what skill I might want to activate!

[Orodbril]

Wounded Prey (Trapper of Foes T6 Trait (not Set Bonus)) is missing in the Guide: merciful shot (or mercy shot, however) does additional damage for each tier of lingering wound (stacking skill), DoT is removed afterwards

[Orodbril]

Set Bonuses of Trapper of the Foes changed their sequence, too.

It's now this way:

Tier 1 - Deadly Decoy – Deadly decoy explodes

Tier 2 - Triple Trap – Set Trap becomes Triple Trap

Tier 3 - Master Trapper – Trap damage and duration buff

Tier 4 - Strong Intimidation – Improve Fear Skill Buff

Tier 5 - Heightened Senses – Improved stealth detect, evade buff, trap cooldown reduction

Tier 6 - Purge Poison – Effects entire fellowship

Tier 7 - Sturdy Traps – Trap Grace Period Improvement


And Master Trapper has different effects on Piercing Trap, Set Trap and Deadly Decoy (1st moral recovery, 2nd target gets more damage, 3rd: increased chance for critical hits on the target). With the 3rd skill I#M not sure if it's exactly right.

[Orodbril]

• Explosive arrow - ToF: Heavy fire damage to all enemies around target; 1200 damage at 85, 30 sec cooldown

Transposed digits?

I have 2110-2714 insteadt of 1200... o.O



• Snakebite trap - ToF: 1 min cooldown, causes bleed and slow

Name was changed to Piercing Trap



• Exsanguinate - HM: Blood arrow has chance to unlock, heavy bleed (545 per 2 secs, for 10s) 45s cooldown

Exsanguinate also makes initial damage of the same amount before bleeding.

[Widoch]

Orodbril, I did notice those difference yesterday when I logged into BETA. I'm actually out of town this weekend, but I will definitely get BETA 6 updates and changes posted by Monday. Sorry for the delay guys.

[Kongas]

Thanks, I was aware of that. I wont do it, because I never know what skill I might want to activate!

Which is the reason why there is no 'skill bloat'. All skills are useful. My fun came from having my own style of play using all the options I had. It was what made me a 'better' hunter than some and it was what (along with the equally experienced officers in my kin) allowed us to lead inexperienced and unbalanced kinship groups into group content.

Now there is no skill in playing a hunter and no fun. So I can kill pretty much anything with a 4 shot rotation. Big deal.

This is now just another dumbed down entry level MMO pasted reusing the graphics from LOTRO.

[Lifthil]

What type of details were you hoping for? I honestly want some feedback in regards to this. My thinking at the moment is that the hunter has always been one of the least complicated classes game play wise and really with HD it seems to be simplified even more. The guardian guide has a lot of stuff differentiating between DPS/Bleed, aggro, and evade builds. Hunters basically DPS, less DPS but faster, or CC stuff.

If there's something you'd like to have fleshed out more, let me know and I'll see what I can do. I'm just pointing out what I've been able to confirm is different from live and really, unlike aggro or RK attunement, warden gambits or even burg builders, DPS as a mechanic and the way a hunter does it haven't changed all that much.

Anyone else who was in BETA care to remind me what our Dev said was happening with Hunter's Art? Trying to dig through the hunter forums to find it is proving difficult.

Sorry, I guess I should have been more detailed in my request for more details. I was specifically thinking of how the Guardian guide tells us what tier each trait comes at (the traits, not the set bonuses). It's very important when thinking of hybridization/dips.

I'm not in the beta, but my impression was that the Hunter's Art skill was going away, and its effects were getting rolled into the stances themselves...but only for the first 10 seconds, which I complained about earlier.

[Dordain]

The trap thing is a bit of a surprise, I would use them to solo quests that were otherwise way too difficult for me. Being able to build your character one way, and still throw down a triple trap probably made the trapper build a joke. I never used it. Now, I guess I have to consider that path if I want to have any kind of crowd control.

This game revision reminds me of 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons. 2nd edition was very restrictive. 3rd ed tore down the walls and allowed for unlimited player customization. 4th edition built the walls back up. I liked 3rd ed the best. Having said that, I will try very hard to get over it and just have fun. I am all for anything that takes 2 or 3 of those skill bars off of my screen.

Good analogy. I liked 3.5 the best.

[Gilean-EU]

I did some LI testing so here's legacies as they are in Beta 6:



Bow Major

Name	Min	Max
Focus Bow critical multiplier	+3%	+25%
Focus Bow power cost	-1%	-10%
Induction Bow critical multiplier	+3%	+25%
Induction Bow power cost	-1%	-10%
Merciful Shot cooldown	-1	-10
Quick Shot critical chance	+1%	+5%
Ranged Skill Evade Chance modifier	-359	-511
Ranged Skill Block Change modifier	-359	-511
Strength Quick Shot slow	+1%	+10%

Bow Minor

Name	Min	Max
Burn Hot damage	+1%	+10%
Distracting Shot cooldown	-1	-15
Distracting Shot resistance penetration	-860	-1260
Focus Bow threat down, rating	9	17
Heart Seeker damage	+2%	+20%
Hunter Damage Over Time	+6%	+50%
Induction Bow damage	+1%	+10%
Quick Shot damage	+1%	+10%
Ranged Evade rating	+359	+511

Melee weapon Major

Name	Min	Max
AoE Skills Maximum Targets	+1	+5
Beneath Notice cooldown	-5	-120
Blindside critical rating	+660	+1040
Find The Path movement speed	+1%	+6%
Improved Strength of the Earth morale regen	+1%	+40%
Melee critical multiplier	+3%	+25%
Needful Haste duration	+1	+15
Precision Stance critical magnitude	+1%	+13%

Melee weapon Minor

Name	Min	Max
Desperate Flight cooldown	-10	-600
Low Cut bleed chance	+1%	+50%
Melee Critical rating	+264	+416
Merciful Shot critical multiplier	+1%	+10%
Power Restored by Deep Concentration	+2%	+30%
Press Onward cooldown	-5	-90
Stealth Detection	+1	+3
Strength Stance Damage	+1%	+10%

[Lady_berry]

My reaction to HD: "Lots of changes, yeap, meh, I'll make it work."

One thing stands out for me though, and I'm not going to go into great detail because a text wall is boring to look at.

Just tell me, why is the ranged class losing 10m of range? Its such a simple question, and there are so many reasons why it just doesn't make sense.
Why is my range nerfed because I value movement over standing still?

Whichever way you spin it, it is negative and benefits no one. Every blue line hunter I have spoken to on my server is not happy about it. Why is the player base being ignored? This shouldn't even happen.

For me, I can deal with the rest of the changes. I always have. But this is breaking point, answer the question please.

[Nathurin]

Why is this being removed? I can credit this skill with saving my hunter many times, I bumped it up to 200% healing with my LI and it makes a great difference! Will it at least be replaced with another quick, combat healing skill?

[Macroscian]

Why is this being removed? I can credit this skill with saving my hunter many times, I bumped it up to 200% healing with my LI and it makes a great difference! Will it at least be replaced with another quick, combat healing skill?

It seems that is a no and noone knows why. There's a barter set that gives you run speed and temporary bonus morale (jewelry I think) from big battles, I guess incentive to get that? Run+temp morale - why this dev loves to kite, nobody knows. Kiting. I would like to express just how I feel about getting 276571365 new ways to kite but it would get me banned.

[Widoch]

why is the ranged class losing 10m of range?

With the blue line it kind of makes a little sense, I think. If you want to be able to use inductions on the move, they balance that out by reducing accuracy (i.e. reducing your range). For the yellow line, I don't understand it at all. I would think if you were using traps, and something was caught in a trap, that would make hitting it with an arrow much easier and therefore your range wouldn't suffer at all.

[Orodbril]

Set bonuses are described and are only acquired for every 5 points spent in the specific tree. For example, if you specialize in huntsman, spending points in bowmaster will not advance the huntsman set bonuses nor will it provide you with bowmaster set bonuses because that is not your specialized tree.

I got a notification, that this changed. I looked it up and yes, it changed.

When you're e.g. bowmaster and spend e.g. 2 points into 1 tier of Impact Arrows, your set bonus in Bowmaster is increased by 1. So for evry 2 points spend in other specialisations your set-bonus is increased by 1. Or in other words: each tier of any trait in the other 2 specialistions gives you one point for your set-bonus.


Also Impact Arrows now increases the ranged damage instead of increasing physical mastery.

Trapper of Foes you could add "Traps could be used on the move" and "Traps have no induction" to the spec bonuses.

[SerowLOTRO]

Why is this being removed? I can credit this skill with saving my hunter many times, I bumped it up to 200% healing with my LI and it makes a great difference! Will it at least be replaced with another quick, combat healing skill?

I think it's being replaced with Press Onward, in a way.

Currently, AR has a cd of 10s, and heals for roughly 1000 (with legacy).
Come HD, PO will have a cd of 30s (with legacy), and heal for roughly 3000.