Player Guide: Class Changes Summary: Hunter

[ddave]

Re Agile Rejoinder, I am not in Beta but from what I've read Quick Shot in Endurance Stance is now a good in-combat heal.

[Widoch]

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

I saw that last night and rejoiced. I thought the physical mastery thing was a little bit silly, to be honest.

Re Agile Rejoinder, I am not in Beta but from what I've read Quick Shot in Endurance Stance is now a good in-combat heal.

It's not great, to be honest. It's a pretty small heal and no one is going to be running in Endurance as a hunter. The point of a hunter is to kill stuff before it kills you and the Quick Shot Endurance heal, at this moment, doesn't make up for the loss in DPS. Yes, you get healed, but it's not enough to make up for the extra hits you'll take because you're killing stuff slower. Also, it's a proc skill rather than being at will, so AR was nice to use as a "fill-me-up" between fights to move on faster but the Quick Shot heal won't work that way because you don't know when it procs.

[SerowLOTRO]

To the folks in beta,

Has there been a reduction in the animation delays?
Especially after casting Barbed Arrow and Merciful Shot?

I'm asking because I know the Captain and Champion have had sped-up animations.

[Orodbril]

I saw that last night and rejoiced. I thought the physical mastery thing was a little bit silly, to be honest.



It's not great, to be honest. It's a pretty small heal and no one is going to be running in Endurance as a hunter. The point of a hunter is to kill stuff before it kills you and the Quick Shot Endurance heal, at this moment, doesn't make up for the loss in DPS. Yes, you get healed, but it's not enough to make up for the extra hits you'll take because you're killing stuff slower. Also, it's a proc skill rather than being at will, so AR was nice to use as a "fill-me-up" between fights to move on faster but the Quick Shot heal won't work that way because you don't know when it procs.

I don't think it's a proc. It's rather a one-time heal, every time you use/hit with QS. So without enemy absolutely no heal with QS. ^^

[Kongas]

I don't think it's a proc. It's rather a one-time heal, every time you use/hit with QS. So without enemy absolutely no heal with QS. ^^

Yea, it's not a proc but I found it pretty useless.

[MonkeyFunker]

So... is it just me or are there going to be a lot of Red-line hunters a week from now?

For me, Rain/Hail of Arrows is almost enough to swing things all on its own. On live now I'm 5B/2R (or 4B/3R depending), will be sad to say goodbye to Blue.

[Widoch]

So... is it just me or are there going to be a lot of Red-line hunters a week from now?

For me, Rain/Hail of Arrows is almost enough to swing things all on its own. On live now I'm 5B/2R (or 4B/3R depending), will be sad to say goodbye to Blue.

I've been running mostly in red myself on BR, but I've grouped up with several hunters who are happy with blue. It's all about play style. I even ran in yellow a bit and found it kind of fun in the big battles when fellowshipped with a DPS class.

The blue line is quick, and I mean really quick, so if that's your play style it'll get used. I can't imagine using anything but the blue line for slayer deeds.

[TKH]

I think most of Hunters (include me) will go Red, because this line is optimal for landscape questing. But there is no punishment for trying out other lines too (which I will try)

In group content, I may consider run as yellow Hunter (it starts to sound like Power Rangers for some reason), but I think red still do nicely here. However, if the instance requires moving a lot (like Battle for Erebor), I will switch to blue-line. Rooting at the end of Swift Bow when trying to avoid a catapult strike is not funny.

For Moor, I think most will run in blue-line. Red-line hunter may appear here if grouped, and yellow-line sounds fun in defending.

[Forgotten_Legend]

two corrections:

strong draw applies bonus damage to ALL focus skills now.

endurance shot quick shot heal is 100% of the time while in endurance stance. the "chance" percentage listed on the skill tooltip is for the bonus focus. it says 30% after you acquire improved quick shot. if you trait for bonus focus from huntsman trait, you could see up to 50%.

and another beta 6 change:

the physical mastery, critical chance, and mitigation traits have been changed to be 1% per rank. 5 ranks. 5% at max rank.

[Widoch]

I think most of Hunters (include me) will go Red, because this line is optimal for landscape questing. But there is no punishment for trying out other lines too (which I will try)

In group content, I may consider run as yellow Hunter (it starts to sound like Power Rangers for some reason), but I think red still do nicely here. However, if the instance requires moving a lot (like Battle for Erebor), I will switch to blue-line. Rooting at the end of Swift Bow when trying to avoid a catapult strike is not funny.

For Moor, I think most will run in blue-line. Red-line hunter may appear here if grouped, and yellow-line sounds fun in defending.

I was running a few big battles a day or so ago and my full focus upshot was hitting NPCs for 20k - 30k moral on a crit/dev in a full red build. I'm wondering how those DPS numbers will translate into PVP? Even if mitigation knocks it in half, a red hunter crit hitting most classes for 15k would be quite valuable I would think. My rain of arrows was crit hitting for 8k - 9k on multiple targets. Makes me wonder how many red hunters we'll see in the moors.

A pair of hunters red / yellow would be interesting. One hunter to CC and one to blow stuff up.

two corrections:

strong draw applies bonus damage to ALL focus skills now.

endurance shot quick shot heal is 100% of the time while in endurance stance. the "chance" percentage listed on the skill tooltip is for the bonus focus. it says 30% after you acquire improved quick shot. if you trait for bonus focus from huntsman trait, you could see up to 50%.

and another beta 6 change:

the physical mastery, critical chance, and mitigation traits have been changed to be 1% per rank. 5 ranks. 5% at max rank.

Thanks for the note.

[AtonuTragona]

I'm not sure how the devs can possibly remove stealth detection from hunters. But whatever, I'm going to play this disaster anyway.

Can someone post an optimal Red Line Skill tree + legendaries + LIs for Helm's Deep?

I didn't do beta and just want to jump in. Sure I'll experiment at somepoint, just want to get off to a fast start.

[Widoch]

I'm not sure how the devs can possibly remove stealth detection from hunters. But whatever, I'm going to play this disaster anyway.

Can someone post an optimal Red Line Skill tree + legendaries + LIs for Helm's Deep?

I didn't do beta and just want to jump in. Sure I'll experiment at somepoint, just want to get off to a fast start.

Having done BETA and been in communication with dozens of hunters as I built this guide, I don't think any of us can give you an optimal lineup until stuff goes live. There's going to be changes we haven't seen yet.

[Rumfigger]

Thanks, devs, for making Hunters fun to play again. No doubt there will be folks (more likely those who don't regularly play a hunter) who will complain they are overpowered (red line) once again. Remember watching the movie and seeing how lethal Legolas was? Seems the devs have made hunters more like that. Although I would not be terribly disappointed if the self-healing ability weren't as great, since that is something hunters would/should not expect to have, taking whatever aggro they generate 'on the chin'.

The Trapper line is even fun. The exploding decoys are a hoot!

[Alegrya]

Managed to play briefly last night, while the red line is more powerful hit-wise than it was before Hunters now definitely live up to their squishy name. The lack of AR skill was really, really noticeable. Until I can spend more time working out a balance between power and survivability there will be a lot more food used to bolster healing in and out of combat when soloing. Overall I'm finding that my gameplay is largely the same as before the skill revamp. Kind of wishing I had more kiting *ability as I'd be more likely to secondary trait blue line than yellow.

*Edit for clarity.

[araquin]

The loss of Agile Rejoinder on top of your other changes makes me feel ill...

I am sure a lot of thought went into this big revamp of the Hunter. Perhaps it looks really nice on paper. However, my opinion is that you have just ruined my favorite class. Classic case of fixing what isn't broken

[mysterio2]

In the trapper of foes spec line, is Decoy one of those 'trap parts to be added in later', or did I miss something on how to get it? I put enough pts in the top tier of ToF, but didn't see the decoy skill / icon.

[Naraca]

You get Decoy and Lingering Wound as soon as you choose the ToF spec; same for Pinning Shot under Bowmaster. There's a slew of skills and passive effects you get when you choose a spec, but there's nothing on the Trait Tree Panel which shows them; they should have a tooltip for those effects just above the spec bonuses at the left. Not worth over a gold to de-spec and re-spec just to look up what each spec grants me (-.-)

[Rumfigger]

In the trapper of foes spec line, is Decoy one of those 'trap parts to be added in later', or did I miss something on how to get it? I put enough pts in the top tier of ToF, but didn't see the decoy skill / icon.

I have it on my 25 hunter. Using it is tricky, though (to me), as the range it will attract foes is almost in aggro range. Perhaps it is meant to distract them once in melee range.

[Thorskov]

I fail to see how taking half my skills away and making me earn only some of them back can possibly be seen as an improvement. I'm sure I can't be the only person that hates this update. How is restricting players a good thing? Any new skills that seem somewhat good are no where near worth the cost of having everything changed and restricted so severely.

[Mildford]

Classic case of fixing what isn't broken

Our survivability was actually horrible.
And AR helps less than you might think. Parry-gated, melee range, unimpressive HoT, 10(?)s cooldown.

On the other hand:
PO has a shorter cooldown and induction, and you can get it pretty early.
CotH is available at level 20.
You can kite with blue line, heal yourself with S:E QS - 100% chance to heal; 40m range, no event gate, heals more than AR even with maxed legacy, place traps with yellow line and blow up stuff in (particularly) red.

We are buffed.

[Oakleif]

Hi all,

I haven't played my hunter yet since the changes, been trying to figure out what changes happened to my warden first.

My question is this... since you can change trait path any time out of combat, could you pop into yellow, lay out whatever trap you wanted, then change to red/blue to pull and fight? Its not CC during the combat, but my impression is that you'd get the crowd control to manage the pull.

Yes, no?

[Macroscian]

Hi all,

I haven't played my hunter yet since the changes, been trying to figure out what changes happened to my warden first.

My question is this... since you can change trait path any time out of combat, could you pop into yellow, lay out whatever trap you wanted, then change to red/blue to pull and fight? Its not CC during the combat, but my impression is that you'd get the crowd control to manage the pull.

Yes, no?

Yes but - and a big'un - currently quickslot layout doesn't save (I know it says it does but...not from what I have found), it will get messy when you change. Also it's so incredibly slow to hang around switching trees but it would certainly do wonders for a couple of quests I ran where no matter what you do, you get smacked around pretty badly as you try to save NPCs from killing themselves on a horse of foes. It is also a nice idea to use yellow a bit in bug battles Dike protecting gate from sappers.

[Widoch]

I fail to see how taking half my skills away and making me earn only some of them back can possibly be seen as an improvement. I'm sure I can't be the only person that hates this update. How is restricting players a good thing? Any new skills that seem somewhat good are no where near worth the cost of having everything changed and restricted so severely.

Look at the guide before you flip out. They did not take away half of your skills and are not making you earn only some of them back. They actually introduced more skills than they took away. It's simply math.

[Ellouhollia]

Made some other comments about the update in general which I won't repeat here, but switching specs and key binds is a bit of an issue.

For some context, running 85 Jewels (with a couple of 85 pieces), 2nd Age Bow, 2nd Age sword - crafted/###### quest gear (so - my perspective may be quite flawed - but meh).

--> Greenie = no problem
--> Ranked Reaver = problem, but I won a couple
--> Ranked Warg = Game Over, where the hell is my SS, where is my CotP, where is my AR, does low cut even root a warg!?

For the love of whatever, just please for the sake of muscle memory give us SS and AR at the very least back. I don't even care if AR doesn't heal anymore, just make it a nasty strike. You do still give us a parry response....which in-turn triggers useless muscle memory (or some unintended skill due to the new mappings).

Anyway - having tangled with some creeps, yes I know with #### gear, Aud 1, I am thinking the melee skills need to come back...but I'll reconsider when you guys actually launch HD (you know, pots, armor, etc...)

Good Hunting,

"Ell"

[gripply]

So... is it just me or are there going to be a lot of Red-line hunters a week from now?

For me, Rain/Hail of Arrows is almost enough to swing things all on its own. On live now I'm 5B/2R (or 4B/3R depending), will be sad to say goodbye to Blue.

My hunter was never my main, so don't take this as gospel, but I figure, everyone's a bit confused, so what the hey... I use my hunter as a crafter, but I have this thing about keeping him updated and somewhat useable, so I started the Misty Mountains with him over the last few days at level 42. I figured I'd work up to Black Ash wood areas. At first, I thought.... oh dear, they nerfed it.. It stands to reason... he was the Tazmanian Devil of the old game, and of course he'd be nerfed.

But then I spend a LONG time carefully reading the skills and noticing that all my old hunter traps said "can be turned into ingots by a weaponcrafter" meaning, they don't work anymore.

OK, anyone besides me using those old traps and lures? I was. Like I said, I was just having fun and I craft a lot.

So maybe it makes sense that I paid a LOT of attention to the yellow trait line. Here's what I do, and it works on orange normal mobs... onesy twosy, or maybe two on one...

set trap
attack (ranged)
they get stuck for a second, but the point is, they take massive damage that they don't block like they would my bow
activate lure/dummy, they attack that as I dps more
use BLEED effects over and over because they stack 3x and their cooldown is short, and their induction is nil

I organized my attacks by speed of induction, focused on speed of induction and extra damage in the blue and red extras.

I can't help you with grouping or any of that stuff, and obviously you won't be long range, but 30m is long range enough for soloing. This works for me for now, and I don't feel nerfed.

+++ Edit +++
I have to amend this post. I tried skirmishing with my hunter at level 44. It's just about impossible. I was skirmishing at level 42 and he was dying in Tuckborough. I had to get lots of help from other players to figure out how to get another level or two to get his LI's. The problem seems to be that everything deflects so much. Other players in that thread who have tried it at similar levels also got "deflects" messages. We simply can't hit at mid level before we get the LI legacy to reduce evade and/or block of enemies. And since we can't simply close the distance and melee anymore, it's rock and hard place. One on one with a solo mob, sure fine. But a skirm is misery.