An Update: On Upcoming Changes to Hunters

[ppezz65]

I really like the induction-less Quick Shot. I never understood why we were not able fire off some arrows on the move.

[D3-Rook]

As long as my ranged dps doesnt get nerfed and melee remains an option not a necessity I have no problem with adding some melee component. How about attacks that give us morale, power, an attack speed buff or dump some agro etc. A trait in ToF could make these attacks group wide at a diminished rate adding to ToF's utility role.

[sania]

First, as a RANGED class, I would not care to see anymore added melee skills. When I'm on my hunter I expect the mob to be dead before it reaches me most of the time.

I would much rather see something like an increase to our attack range in one of the lines probably not Bow Master but it would be nice considering the nerf to dps in the last update.

I really haven't felt the desire to play my hunter since the last update so I"m hoping that any changes might inspire me to think about it again. I really don't enjoy reading updates where every other sentence includes the word "REDUCE".

Also, I love SS while soloing and it seems like the devs keep wanting to diminish it without any good reason why.

[D3-Rook]

Gad damn it! The morons whining wins again! ZC, if he's still at Turbine go ask Sporkfire what happened to Planetside when they listen to a bunch of whiny brats who threw a tantrum because a change to give options and got the change reversed. I'll give you a hint - Planetside went from 3 servers and possible reactivating another one to barely 1 server in less than a year afterwards. If people whine about a change that gives options, especially when the change isn't even off the drawing board, those are the people you do not want to listen to. Not everyone will like every change, but when people are throwing a fit about a change they have not even a hint about what it actually means. For all they knew your changes could have left Huntsman exactly as it was (ie NO CHANGE TO RANGED DAMAGE) and just added the extra damage to melee. Instead they started screaming worse than the most spoiled 4 year old you have seen when their parent tells them they get no desert until they eat the food they ordered.

Especially when you had changes like those. Want to play an archer go Bow Master (isn't the name a big enough hint?) or stay at range. Want to play a Huntsman then you need to learn when to stay at range, when to go melee, and when to swap between them.

Please do not listen to these people in the future. It really stinks to keep seeing good ideas torn to pieces because some whiny brat can't handle the concept of their way not being the "best" way to play.

Dont turn this into a pissing match. The thread will die or get closed and our ability to shape the future of the class will be lost. Every ones opinion is as valid as yours.

[OldFool]

Add all the melee goodness you want to my Huntsman line - just don't take away anything that is currently there. I personally don't think any melee improvements are required or desirable, but I will not complain about getting new toys that I never play with so long as they don't take any of my old toys away.

[Mateusaran]

I find it rather humorous how caught up some people have gotten with the names of the traitlines. That said, as someone who hunts in real life, I can tell you know that I never want to be in the position of having to take my prey down with blade! A good hunter kills his prey at range and never lets it get close enough to touch him. I understand people don't think a "bowmaster" would necessarily mean that someone would have good melee skills, but in my opinion, improved melee skills would fit better with this line than the Huntsman line. Bowmaster is the solo line and solo is when we hunters will typically see most of our melee combat. For the way the traitlines are currently used, adding improved melee damage and extra focus generation from melee attacks actually makes more sense for the Bowmaster line.

I could see hitting a mob with ranged attacks until they are in melee range, dropping two or three melee attacks to do some uninterupted DPS while generating focus, then hitting the mob with a slow, getting to range and repeating the whole process. What ZC proposed just seems to fit the soloing line much better than it would the raiding line. As a hunter who has used both BM and HM traitlines to solo since the last update, I feel like the focus generating melee attacks are also far more appropriate for helping a BM traited hunter keep his focus bar full rather than the HM traited hunter who has plenty of other options for keeping his focus pretty much full all the time.

I agree with one of the previous posters that Might will still be the ugly stepchild of stats for most hunters and therefore the actual damage done by melee attacks will continue to be negligible compared to our ranged attacks. But, if ZC ever decides to try again to add more function to our melee, hopefully it will be aimed more at soloing and not raiding. Unless of course he wants to throw it into the ToF line to continue to try and make it seem more appealing to the general hunter poplulation.

[Delirium]

stop messing around with changing the same class over and over and get working on new pvp classes/maps geez

I second this, somebody else made a great class and now you want your name on it, get over yourself already.

Heres a thought try fixing something thats actually wrong with the class, like the so called "instant" skills that are anything but that because of the stupid animations that plant/delay you from doing something else.

Yea we know, this is REAL work, no bodies interested in that.

[Delirium]

Add all the melee goodness you want to my Huntsman line - just don't take away anything that is currently there. I personally don't think any melee improvements are required or desirable, but I will not complain about getting new toys that I never play with so long as they don't take any of my old toys away.

LOL, but now you are uber meleerz! So therefore we needs to nerf ya,... (again)

yea no thanks, go "fix" some other class, sheesh you guys are like the government, the chances of you actually doing anything positive to anything you lay hands on is less than 50%.

[Darkheart06]

Personally, I'm intrigued by a "true bow and blade warrior". I've always wanted a playstyle similar to the Rangers and some of the elf NPCs in the game. If this is finally my chance to do so, I support it completely

[FoxFire]

Personally, I'm intrigued by a "true bow and blade warrior". I've always wanted a playstyle similar to the Rangers and some of the elf NPCs in the game. If this is finally my chance to do so, I support it completely

I'll 2nd that.

[ScrappyTheGreat]

Disclaimer: I haven't read all 200-some-odd posts

I don't play a champion, but from what I can gather, it looks like champs are getting an overhaul to their stances, and their trait lines give bonuses to those stances. I wonder why hunter stances are getting phased out of the trait lines?

Don't get me wrong, I think traitline bonuses that are independent of stance is a great idea... i just wonder why there are two different traitline-stance-bonus-philosophies btwn the new champ and hunter changes? /shrug

[NameAlreadyTaken]

Because different people with differing design philosophies and visions for each particular class are handling Champion (Orion) and Hunter (ZC) updates. They're also different classes, with different needs/playstyles/etc. so what's good for one might not be good for the other.

[Yosoff]

Disclaimer: I haven't read all 200-some-odd posts

I don't play a champion, but from what I can gather, it looks like champs are getting an overhaul to their stances, and their trait lines give bonuses to those stances. I wonder why hunter stances are getting phased out of the trait lines?

Don't get me wrong, I think traitline bonuses that are independent of stance is a great idea... i just wonder why there are two different traitline-stance-bonus-philosophies btwn the new champ and hunter changes? /shrug

In my opinion, hunters are being done right and champs are being done wrong. I'm sure most people would say there's a grey area, but I don't see it. I love the idea of having the flexibility to combine any trait line with any stance. The more options the better. Champs are being forced down one road of the other. They're either going to ignore entire trait lines and stances or re-trait between every trash clear and boss fight.

[Forgotten_Legend]

different traitlines tied to stances? actually... minstrels and warspeech, burglars and ?all? their stances?

actually it appears that AoE damage is getting boosted in the AoE line for the new AoE stance, and the tanking stance is going to get better while traited for tanking... but the new stances ALSO change more skills, too... kind of like how each hunter stance changes quick shot... except that each champ stance affects different skills per stance.

speaking of stances altering skills... is there plans on additional hunter skills being affected by hunter stances?

i still recommend removing the induction speed bonus from huntsman and instead making it passive traits earned at higher levels... (maybe 5% reduction at 35, another 5% at 45, another 5% at 55, another 5% at 65... well, you get the idea)

[FoxFire]

i still recommend removing the induction speed bonus from huntsman and instead making it passive traits earned at higher levels... (maybe 5% reduction at 35, another 5% at 45, another 5% at 55, another 5% at 65... well, you get the idea)

I like that idea. It's the one thing that makes me reluctant to switch out of any huntsman traits, even when others might be better suited for what I want to do.

[SerowLOTRO]

I guess it's probably easier to balance further general Champ changes in the future through their stances. Champ tank too good? Nerf Glory. Champ ST damage not competitive with other damage dealers? Buff Fervour. In contrast, Hunters aren't true multi-role characters, we have ranged damage, ranged damage, and weaker ranged damage but stronger CC. There's not much point tying a stance to any particular trait line for us.

[Aestiliath]

OK ZC, let's do it !!
It'll be great to have another combat style (a mix of close combat+distance).
Hunter need more mobility and a better way to handle close combat (like in pvmp for example).
And of course shoots on the move !
I know that some of you hate this idea but we're in a game, not in real world. It's quite boring to stay at 40 meter and pewpew for 15-20 minutes.
Let's make us more similar to Legolas ZC (film version of course).

[de4thm4ge411]

You mean the trait line called "TRAPPER of foes" is gonna be less CC? If you wanna redo the trait lines then please just completely redo them instead of just switching stuff from patch to patch for each new raid that comes out, etc...I'm all for change..but if you're gonna redo the basics of the hunter..make sure you don't screw it up and then say "Sorry...it was a good idea! Just wrong implementation" (Aka. The Turbine Motto)... so please..change things.. But might I recommend posting what the full details will be so we can comment on it, when you have them?

[Forgotten_Legend]

You mean the trait line called "TRAPPER of foes" is gonna be less CC?

and more focused on "traps"... (among other things)... maybe you missed that part

but yes, eventually they will give us more details, just like how orion gave us LOTS of details on proposed changes to the champs, may we hunters and all other classes get the same disclosures!

[Disstemper]

Was there a target release date? Are changes coming with update 3 on monday?

[Forgotten_Legend]

Was there a target release date? Are changes coming with update 3 on monday?

the proposed changes will most likely be slated for fall release... as part of isengard expansion, but it could possibly come sooner if all the ideas transfer from paper to in-game before then, and balance right.

by the way, here are monday's release notes: http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Updat...ador,_Official

[NameAlreadyTaken]

You mean the trait line called "TRAPPER of foes" is gonna be less CC? If you wanna redo the trait lines then please just completely redo them instead of just switching stuff from patch to patch for each new raid that comes out, etc...I'm all for change..but if you're gonna redo the basics of the hunter..make sure you don't screw it up and then say "Sorry...it was a good idea! Just wrong implementation" (Aka. The Turbine Motto)... so please..change things.. But might I recommend posting what the full details will be so we can comment on it, when you have them?

Removing the terrible root effect from Penetrating Shot at 4 ToF traits would technically leave the trait line with less CC but still be an incredibly welcome change. Sometimes less is actually more...

[thecman02]

Removing the terrible root effect from Penetrating Shot at 4 ToF traits would technically leave the trait line with less CC but still be an incredibly welcome change. Sometimes less is actually more...

Yeah, until I can get Blood Arrow down to a spamable cd speed... (OD set bonus) I really miss having penetrating shot.

[kerryak]

Removing the terrible root effect from Penetrating Shot at 4 ToF traits would technically leave the trait line with less CC but still be an incredibly welcome change. Sometimes less is actually more...

I'll drink to that.

/cracks open a cold one

[Zardra]

OK ZC, let's do it !!
It'll be great to have another combat style (a mix of close combat+distance).
Hunter need more mobility and a better way to handle close combat (like in pvmp for example).
And of course shoots on the move !
I know that some of you hate this idea but we're in a game, not in real world. It's quite boring to stay at 40 meter and pewpew for 15-20 minutes.
Let's make us more similar to Legolas ZC (film version of course).

Yeah i'm up for it too! I use my melee skills a lot and wouldn't mind at all seeing them upgraded. Maybe some people think i'm doing it wrong if i have to use melee skills to finish a fight, but I say it can't be right if your not using every resource at your disposal including all your skills. My biggest mistake in game, so far, was makeing a hunter as my first class. Now when i try to play a melee alt I find i've been spoiled by starting with a strictly ranged class. It's embarrasing when you find yourself standing 20 feet from a mob button smashing melee attacks to no effect.