Loremaster build to duo with Hunter

[gibbypoo]

Hey all!

I’m on my own Lord of the Rings-esque journey out here on the Appalachian Trail and think I’ve convinced my wife to give LotRO a try when we get back. I’ve sold her on the Hunter as well.

For my part, I’d like to try the Loremaster. What would be a good build/spec/hybrid to complement the Hunter as a duo just doing the story quests and landscape? I’ve played two different times to level cap so I know that it’s not going to be difficult at all. I was hoping to get some thoughts from the community to continue to whet my appetite and give me something to chew on as I hike.

What say you, heroes?

[Polymachos]

I am playing both classes, and used to run my lore master in the blue line. My tactic is to always send my pet in first - the lynx can do some pretty damage and evade/block/parry a lot at the same time - and stay behind in safety. Every now and then when I meet a hunter, the'yll soon find that it could be quite convenient if I do that, because I don't just stand around, but debuff and burn/electrocute the mob, and they can simply dps it without having it move towards themselves. Thus, even bigger enemies will be down in a matter of seconds. All that you have to do, is to start the attacks in a given sequence: the Lore master pet first, in order to pull the aggro, and the hunter second, to do the real damage. And don't forget to concentrate!


Greetings, Polymachos

[Thornglen]

Agreed on the blue-line LM to duo with a Hunter. Between pet, traps, fear, and stuns, the two of you should even be able to handle groups pretty well with some coordination. If the lynx can't hold aggro or dies, just be ready to have your bear run in and grab the aggro off the Hunter.

The one thing lacking is heals (LM used to be a decent off-heal, but something has happened in the past few years; I can barely heal my pet anymore), so duoing a 3-person instance is possible, but takes some care.

Good luck and have fun!

[JERH]

Doing just landscape and quests expect the hunter to kill most mobs before you induct your second spell. You may have to go with the ranged bog warden to get any combat. Other pets take too long to get into combat. Until you get past 70 the pet and hunter will kill everything before you get a chance. You could try 3 mans with a bear pet as tank and see how that works. With the nerfing of the blue capstone imho traiting red is the solo/duo dps trait to choose. Or yellow if you get into doing instances and want to support/debuffs. At lower levels it really doesn’t matter that much as the lm play style is the same.

[gibbypoo]

Thanks for all the replies so far!

I’m leaning toward blue spec but noticed that there’s a few things in yellow that may be advantageous between us. So a few more questions, if y’all will humor me—

1. Is it worth dipping into yellow for CC and Power buffs? I know Hunter can be power hungry on occasion.

2. What’s a good mix and match of gathering and crafting for a hunter and LM to both benefit?

3. Are there class deeds that are shared between the two classes. If not, what are some of the more important class deeds that we should be prioritizing?

Thanks again!

[Estelrandir]

1. Is it worth dipping into yellow for CC and Power buffs? I know Hunter can be power hungry on occasion.

2. What’s a good mix and match of gathering and crafting for a hunter and LM to both benefit?

3. Are there class deeds that are shared between the two classes. If not, what are some of the more important class deeds that we should be prioritizing?

1. No. You have 1 power sharing skill which doesn´t depend on tree. So if you need to share the power, you can do it in any build.

2. Historian for creating potions and oils for hunter + all other potions + class items for both classes. And then maybe cooking or jewellery, since both of these are needed for both classes. From the end game point of view cooking is better.

For landscape it doesn´t matter really, but historian is a good choice I think.

3. class deeds are ... class specific. No two class skills are shared between classes. And it is good to finish them all, because then you have more trait points. (the max number of usable points is 92 and with current end game you can achieve 92, so you need to the everything to achieve the max number. Later, with other updates and expansions, it might be possible that you can ommit some of the deeds because you will be able to achieve max from other sources).


I want to add that landscape is really easy and the most of these things doesn´t matter unless you try something more challenging (e.g. 6-man instances with just two players).


Some other tips for duo with hunter


Blue line is a very good choice. Once you have bog-guardian and enough points, the bog-guardian buffs the group with +5% ranged damage and +5% ranged crit chance. The improved crit chance for hunter is very strong espacially during leveling, when you have very low stats.

Raven is also very good choice. It reduces the fire mitigation on enemies and hunter with fire oil causes fire damage.

Also, you can then choose to go into yellow for more supporting role (debuffs + better healing) or in red line (more personal damage). I would like to add, that choosing the second line should come after your primary tree is filled with everything you want. Specing in the off-trees is more expensive. (around level 70-80 you will have probably one filled tree, so quite a lot of journy will be just with one tree).

[gibbypoo]

1. No. You have 1 power sharing skill which doesn´t depend on tree. So if you need to share the power, you can do it in any build.

2. Historian for creating potions and oils for hunter + all other potions + class items for both classes. And then maybe cooking or jewellery, since both of these are needed for both classes. From the end game point of view cooking is better.

For landscape it doesn´t matter really, but historian is a good choice I think.

3. class deeds are ... class specific. No two class skills are shared between classes. And it is good to finish them all, because then you have more trait points. (the max number of usable points is 92 and with current end game you can achieve 92, so you need to the everything to achieve the max number. Later, with other updates and expansions, it might be possible that you can ommit some of the deeds because you will be able to achieve max from other sources).


I want to add that landscape is really easy and the most of these things doesn´t matter unless you try something more challenging (e.g. 6-man instances with just two players).


Some other tips for duo with hunter


Blue line is a very good choice. Once you have bog-guardian and enough points, the bog-guardian buffs the group with +5% ranged damage and +5% ranged crit chance. The improved crit chance for hunter is very strong espacially during leveling, when you have very low stats.

Raven is also very good choice. It reduces the fire mitigation on enemies and hunter with fire oil causes fire damage.

Also, you can then choose to go into yellow for more supporting role (debuffs + better healing) or in red line (more personal damage). I would like to add, that choosing the second line should come after your primary tree is filled with everything you want. Specing in the off-trees is more expensive. (around level 70-80 you will have probably one filled tree, so quite a lot of journy will be just with one tree).

Fabulous info! Thanks so much!