Blue rotations

[Michaleo]

I recall Vastin saying that the new blue tree would be more interesting.

I've seen people claim over 100k DPS with the new blue tree.

So far, my rotation is not interesting nor is my DPS close to 100k. I would love to see how other people are using the new barrage.

[Bryos]

I've played blue hunter since HD.

I'm modestly geared...I don't raid. I just pve.

Focus generation is more annoying than it used to be.

I never used barrage too frequently before and use it about the same now.

I sill use penetrating shot often along with blood arrow, exsanguinate, swift bow, quick shot.

Barbed arrow most always feel sluggish though...more than it used to. I don't remember if the induction was the same before the blue line nerf.


I suppose Vastin means more interesting to mean not spamming ps or barrage. lol


I still play my hunter some, but I'm playing my guard now mostly(just hit 115 and been playing it since early 2011).

Guard is my main now.

[Strider5548]

I've played blue hunter since HD.

I'm modestly geared...I don't raid. I just pve.

Focus generation is more annoying than it used to be.

I never used barrage too frequently before and use it about the same now.

I sill use penetrating shot often along with blood arrow, exsanguinate, swift bow, quick shot.

Barbed arrow most always feel sluggish though...more than it used to. I don't remember if the induction was the same before the blue line nerf.


I suppose Vastin means more interesting to mean not spamming ps or barrage. lol


I still play my hunter some, but I'm playing my guard now mostly(just hit 115 and been playing it since early 2011).

Guard is my main now.

Agree with everything here and in pretty much the same boat. I don't find the class more interesting at all, that was just BS to make it seem like the changes were positive. I think blue could be improved a lot if you replace the pathfinder trait (make it auto 30% for blue line, not 5 points to get there) with a reduced barrage CD trait.

Right now the rotation is just choppy, barrage becomes unusable at times that are very hard to keep track of, and the CD is completely off other skills so it makes it hard to time using it. That plus focus generation make the class just awkward and annoying to play now.

I still play my hunter since I've vested 11 years into my character, but I'm certainly not enjoying the class as much anymore. Just to be clear, I don't care one bit about the dps nerf. I'm not at all complaining about not having huge DPS #'s, there's a difference between being OP and being fun to play, and the latest update removed both of those things when it should have just removed the first.

I too have started a guard and am loving it. I think the guard will become my new main, I'm just having way more fun than I am with the hunter. Also, not at all trying to get guards nerfed (this wouldn't benefit me), but I remember all the people crying for blue line nerf showing videos of low level hunters one shotting signature mobs. My guard is level 32 now and she can take on a group of elites solo very easily, when I go red trait line I'm one shotting on level mobs consistently. This is just a function of the game being extremely easy.

[valkrye]

I recall Vastin saying that the new blue tree would be more interesting.

I've seen people claim over 100k DPS with the new blue tree.

So far, my rotation is not interesting nor is my DPS close to 100k. I would love to see how other people are using the new barrage.

100k DPS where? I know top hunters who have tried blueline in Fingar T2C (a fight where increased mobility would be advantageous) and they nearly failed power phase because 2/3 hunters in group were in blueline, due to a shortage in DPS. In the previous update, all hunters were blueline and they never came close to failing power phase. If that does not illustrate that blueline is weaker now, then I don't know what will.

This is the last post from Vastin on blue hunters.

I'm still musing over whether the new rotation 'feels' good enough - but in terms of the blue hunter's survivability and DPS there is little question that it remains near the top of the pack. It is possibly even slightly stronger than it was before. That remains to be seen as you folks explore the best builds and play patterns for it.

I encourage people to simply play the game, try out builds and new play patterns and see what works best for you - or ask others for advice. If I know anything about our more experienced players, it is that they are more than willing to give you any and all the advice you might need to get your build working effectively.

Yeah.... this is grossly incorrect. When Vastin posted that, there were threads in Hunter forum that already showed that blueline was definitely weaker than it's previous iteration. There are no other builds to explore, there are no secret rotations that "remain to be seen", the blueline is just a gimmicky line for newbie players for landscape questing. In fact, Vastin's very first post in the Bullroarer forum said that blueline would be receiving increased survivability. Increased survivability AND more DPS? The whole point of blueline revamp was to nerf the DPS because it was too high for a survivability line, and reallocate the DPS to redline. So, you can see that some of these dev statements make no logical sense.

Most of Vastin's knowledge of the hunter class comes from experienced hunters posting things on the forum. Just by looking at these statements in his post, you can tell that he had no idea where the blue line hunter actually stands, he was just making conjecture at the time. He was hoping that the players would somehow discover a way to make blueline work better, but that obviously didn't happen.

[Thorondir]

Except, you are wrong. Blue line hunter is nearly as strong as red line hunter.

Just yesterday, we had one with us for Fingar: Up to the power phase, he was where our other red hunter was - after that while running, he did not loose much while our red hunter lost pretty much all his damage.

Unfortunately, my blue hunter sucks (around 20-30% less than that random fellow), so i cannot give any advice - actually i would receive some as well as the only thing i know is, that Blue Line Hunters are really good if played well (nearly as good as red line ones)

[MaxHunter]

... Most of Vastin's knowledge of the hunter class comes from experienced hunters posting things on the forum. Just by looking at these statements in his post, you can tell that he had no idea where the blue line hunter actually stands, he was just making conjecture at the time. He was hoping that the players would somehow discover a way to make blueline work better, but that obviously didn't happen.

/agree

[Xerothain]

Except, you are wrong. Blue line hunter is nearly as strong as red line hunter.

Just yesterday, we had one with us for Fingar: Up to the power phase, he was where our other red hunter was - after that while running, he did not loose much while our red hunter lost pretty much all his damage.

Unfortunately, my blue hunter sucks (around 20-30% less than that random fellow), so i cannot give any advice - actually i would receive some as well as the only thing i know is, that Blue Line Hunters are really good if played well (nearly as good as red line ones)

Did you think of that your red Hunter wasn´t on top of what is possible in red Line?

I´m playing Hunter as a Main for 8 Years, all Builds. Raid T2C and PvP. Since U22.2 Red Line is roughly by 30 % stronger than Blue Line. With Fingar i´d suggest to measure some other Fight. There´s more to Movement, DMG - Stop, Change Targets and so on. Due to movement i´d say that Blue Line can come closer, but never ever reaches red Linie when it comes to an "all out" Situation.

[Michaleo]

When I started this thread a week ago, I hoped to see how other people are using the new blue tree rather than rehashing the same issues that have been discussed elsewhere. I didn't post my current approach because I didn't want to hear what I was doing wrong; I wanted to learn what worked. Comparisons to red aren't interesting to me, since I just want to get the most out of blue.

I'm not an A+ raider, and am happy with a B, as in Blue, using Bleeds and Barrage, and being Burly with evade and incoming healing rather than a glass cannon. I am able to trait deep enough in red to get Deadly Precision.

As I have explained elsewhere, my approach to Barrage is to treat it like two different skills. If I'm on a mob that will last long enough to get to Barrage 3, then I will do 3 Barrages as fast as possible and take the supercooldown. If I'm in a mixed fight where I might not get to the Barrage 3, I do something else for 6 seconds after the first Barrage so I stay on Barrage 1 and have the option to do Barrage 1-2-3 if the next mob justifies the 3 skills and supercooldown.

Here's my usual opening:
Barbed Arrow only if I'm starting, doing the induction out of combat
Penetrating Shot gets the debuff going
Barrage 1
Blood Arrow
Exsanguinate traited 100% chance, add a bleed
Barrage 2
Heart Seeker traited to add a bleed
Barrage 3
Penetrating Shot to renew the debuff
Barbed Arrow more bleeds

At this point, I have 3 bleeds ticking at least for a few seconds and inductionless skills are on cooldown. Depending on crits, I may need some focus so I'll do a Swift Bow or Quick Shot or two.

The cycle times for Blood Arrow+Exsanguinate+cooldown, Barrage 1-2-3+cooldown, and Barbed Arrow+bleeds are about the same, so the goal is to keep them roughly in sync. Since Heart Seeker has a long cooldown, I use Swift Bow instead most of the time.

What are other blue hunters doing?

[Happychappy]

Don't you use Upshot? Rapid fire is pretty pointless now.

[Michaleo]

Don't you use Upshot? Rapid fire is pretty pointless now.

Are you able to trait Upshot in blue? Would love to see how you use that.

[Happychappy]

Are you able to trait Upshot in blue? Would love to see how you use that.

Of course you can with enough skill points. 89 does it. Just go as far as 2 points in precision in blue line and then all red.

I don't see the point in rapid fire with all the cool downs on focus skills except for pen shot, which has bad damage to spam with anyway. Now if it removed Barrages cool down so it could be spammed for a short duration then it might be worth it or became a passive and allowed Barrage to be fired 2 extra times before it went on cool down or reduced cool downs of Barrage. Anything would be better than it currently is.

[MaxHunter]

Of course you can with enough skill points. 89 does it. Just go as far as 2 points in precision in blue line and then all red.

I don't see the point in rapid fire with all the cool downs on focus skills except for pen shot, which has bad damage to spam with anyway. Now if it removed Barrages cool down so it could be spammed for a short duration then it might be worth it or became a passive and allowed Barrage to be fired 2 extra times before it went on cool down or reduced cool downs of Barrage. Anything would be better than it currently is.

A red and blue guide from here will be appreciated:
https://lotrottp.lotrostatus.com/l.php

Thanks!!

[Oelle]

A red and blue guide from here will be appreciated:
https://lotrottp.lotrostatus.com/l.php

Thanks!!

that traitplanner is outdated. not really helpful
I dont know if any is up to date though. And with more class balance hopefully with u23, there will be further changes soon^(tm).

[MaxHunter]

that traitplanner is outdated. not really helpful
I dont know if any is up to date though. And with more class balance hopefully with u23, there will be further changes soon^(tm).

Yes, I noticed this one is also outdated:
http://tp.thebeardedminstrel.com/

[Michaleo]

Of course you can with enough skill points. 89 does it. Just go as far as 2 points in precision in blue line and then all red.

I see that it is technically possible, but I am interested in learning what traits you end up with, and what your rotation looks like.