The Hunter, scourge of all groups, raids and to all players trying to complete landscape quests.
Just kidding.
The Hunter class makes a strong play for being one of the most fun classes to play. Although some may see the class as a mindless DPS class (and I’ll admit I thought that a bit at first too) I think one of the reason we see so many Hunters is that playing one is just good fun. I mean who doesn’t like starting up a game, choosing their class, and then running into an enemy-infested lands and doing a massive amount of damage to them? I know I do. And one of the things I loved about my Hunter was actually killing something before it even came within melee range. This may be a no-brainer to most players, but as someone whose main is a Guardian (and who hasn’t played a ranged class seriously since the original EverQuest) this concept is almost foreign.
But I know one thing; I like it.
I like it a lot.
In fact one of the things I noticed with my Hunter is that he didn’t have as many problems as some of the other classes I leveled in the same areas. Quests that characters like my Minstrel and Champion had problems with were a breeze for him. (Remember, this was before the release of Rise of Isengard.) And the travel skills… Oh the travel skills are fantastic! Do you need to go to Bree? No problem. Esteldin? Sure, why not? Angmar? Oh, a couple of levels and some easy quest and presto! Here’s not one, but two different skills that will get you there!
I may have shed a tear in appreciation for these niceties. And the next time I see Zombie Columbus, I may hug him (even if he wasn’t in charge of the Hunter class at that time).
The only issue I had with my Hunter is that due to his survivability I found myself in a predicament that I didn’t have with my other characters. At level 48 he found himself out of quests in Eregion. Apparently I went there just a “tad” too soon and I just didn’t have anything left that wasn’t group-based. I knew that going into Moria at level 48 would be a bit too much for me so I fell back to my previous experiences and went to Forochel. And honestly, I think it was a good decision. I made it through most of the content quite easily being a bit over-leveled for it. And soon enough I was level 50 and had worked myself beyond Acquaintance with the Lossoth; which meant I could get the travel skill and return to the region at my leisure.
Overall, good times were had with my Hunter and I really enjoyed him. I know the class gets a bad rap for being the “easy” class, but seriously look at the skills below. A number of them aren’t so much about doing damage as they are about “making choices”. And I have to tell you, the more I play the class, the more I appreciate the actual thought that has to go into making the choices that players have to make in order to turn the Hunter into the DPS powerhouse that it is.
Hunter skills for level 40-48
| Skill | Skill Effect | Opinion | Level Obtained |
Camouflage |
Allows you to stealth as long as you remain standing still. | This would probably be fairly decent in the Moors or when going AFK for a brief time, but in my gameplay I have little time to actually use it. One thing to note that is that the Stealth Level is only +1, which means it’s not very good; so user beware! | 40 |
Hunter’s Art |
A new ability that provides a self-buff depending on the stance the Hunteris in.Strength: Bonus Ranged DamagePrecision: Bonus FinesseEndurance: Bonus Power Regeneration | This is a new skill that I haven’t had the chance to use as of yet, but it looks promising. | 40 |
Blood Arrow |
An attack that does “exceptional” damage upon a critical hit. However, in turn it will cost the Hunter some Morale as well as Focus to use. | Not a bad skill, but not the best in my opinion. There have been some rare times where I’ve used it outside of the novelty factor, but usually I don’t find myself using it that much. However, in a group where you’re constantly regaining Morale due to group heals this might make it into a more permanent spot. | 44 |
Guide to Rivendell |
A Group Travelling skill to Rivendell. | This is probably one of the more useful of ports, but I feel it comes a few levels too late. It’s still pretty useful, though. | 46 |
Dazing Blow |
A melee attack requiring two weapons that makes two attacks and applies a 5 second Daze. | I honestly don’t use this at all, but that doesn’t mean I’m not missing something. I suppose it could be used for some short-term crowd control, but in my opinion a Daze is not a very reliable way to do so. | 48 |
Rain of Thorns |
An AoE attack that applies a 30 second Root that has a 25% break chance on damage after 1 second. | I like this skill quite a bit, but the high cooldown is kind of a bummer. I didn’t look to see if there are any legacies or traits that would lower the cooldown, so if you know of any please fill me in! | 39+ Legendary Class Book |
Bard’s Arrow |
A ranged attack that applies a 15 second fear that has a 3% chance to break upon receiving damage after 2 seconds. | I didn’t get this until I was very close to 50 so I never got a chance to try it. This seems to be a more reliable form of crowd control, but I’m still not sure I’d give up a Legendary Trait Slot for it. | 39+ Legendary Class Book |
Press Onward |
A skill that will give back both Morale and Power to the Hunter. | I see no down side in this skill. In fact when writing this up I realized I didn’t have it slotted and got a little irritated at myself. | 39+ Legendary Class Book |
| Trait Name | Trait Effect | Opinion | Level Obtained |
Bow of the Righteous |
When this is slotted, you receive power back each time you make a successful ranged attack. | I can’t see any reason not to use this skill. In fact I’d be pretty surprised if it’s not a standard for most Hunters. | Level 45 Class Quest |
October 11, 2011 at 10:08 am
great post, as usual.
one thing id like to point out is that dazing blow, since it lasts for a few seconds, I use to pause the fight a bit to get out some longer inductions. give the guy agitating you most a good whack, and pop out heart seeker, press onward, or strength of the earth, etc.
October 11, 2011 at 10:12 am
^that. Also, dazing blow is great at high levels, especially in Mirkwood, as the improved version can remove corruption.
October 11, 2011 at 11:42 am
I hadn’t thought of that guys, thanks!
October 11, 2011 at 12:41 pm
also, for interrupts, which help a lot when soloing, especially sig mobs
October 11, 2011 at 10:28 am
It’s kinda interesting that I disagree with you on most of the hunter skills that you talked about.
Dazing blow is a perfect ability to use to set up HS or Swift bow.
Blood arrow is good to use at the start of a fight so that you don’t have to always pull power. I find more often than not I run out of power than morale when I’m leveling. This helps speed up the process.
Hunters Art, this skill is pretty meh, I haven’t done much end game stuff yet but I’ve been reading interesting things on Finesse (precision hunter here). I think it would be good in long fights but for leveling it’s meh….
RoT is a great skill to get you out of a bind. A long root is perfect to use if you aggro lotsamonsters.
Bards arrow is very handing in Isenguard when you have to deal with signatures and elites. Being able to Bards arrow them will set you up for a barbed arrow and swiftstroke. My strat with dealing with high mobs is kite them into a trap, do damage, bards arrow them, do damage, daze them, do damage.
I need to try press onward as I still haven’t slotted it after they buffed it.
Overall great post! Glad to see some hunter love! I look forward to seeing your thoughts on the hunter when you get to moria.
October 11, 2011 at 11:44 am
Thanks Caleb! Different opinions are always welcome as I cannot say that I am very good at playing a Hunter.
I will definitely take these into account as I level up the character. 
October 11, 2011 at 1:05 pm
Rereading my first sentence I think I came out a bit harsh… Woops, no offense meant. I’m glad to see hunters played different as that means there isn’t 1 specific way to play them.
What trait line do you run and which stance do you use?
October 11, 2011 at 10:37 am
Press Onward in conjunction with Needful Haste (with Resolute Aim slotted) is a great survival tool.
Blood-arr
October 11, 2011 at 10:39 am
Oops prematurely sent that.
Blood -arrow is a great DPS skill and when you are in a group, it should always be on cooldown. When I was 65 on my hunter, it would sometimes crit for 2k. With more agility and higher weapon damage, I can see it being 5k
October 11, 2011 at 11:42 am
Wow, OK. Great tip. I will definitely keep that in mind.
October 11, 2011 at 11:40 am
Are you kidding? =P Dazing Blow and Bard’s Arrow are essential Hunter skills.
October 11, 2011 at 11:42 am
Blood Arrow is a staple in my rotation as well, since most of the time you don’t get hit for most of the battle and usually run low on power rather than morale.
October 11, 2011 at 11:46 am
Awesome, thanks Pickles. If you guys would be willing to throw up your rotations, I’d love to see them! I’m always willing to learn.
October 11, 2011 at 11:48 am
I loved my hunter, but once I hit 65 I kind of gave up on her. She was fun to play solo, but I found it irritatingly difficult to group, so I made a minstrel. Now I get bombarded with requests to team up. It’s a great solo class, to be sure, but I wish I’d had a better experience with raids and grouping.
October 11, 2011 at 12:26 pm
I have to admit that I don’t get any random /tell’s when I am on any of my characters; however I had to put my Minstrel on /anon.
Also, I had a similar experience when I played WoW. I started off with a Hunter, but they were so popular that I couldn’t stand playing it after a while. That’s when I moved to tanking classes such as the Warrior, Druid, and Paladin. These days when playing a game I try to pick a class that has two different functions like healer or tank, dps or tank, etc. That way I have a better chance of getting into a group in one role or another.
October 11, 2011 at 2:05 pm
I tried press onward before but found that in the situations that I needed it the most the induction was too long and kept getting interrupted. Have not yet tried it since the ROI changes to improve those issues. For mostly solo I use RoT, BA, and Improved Fleetness (you don’t get until moria). For grouping I would probably switch BA for BotR, but keep RoT since I have been asked to use that for group cc.
There used to be good focus burn rotations that were the best dps, but since the ROI changes I believe they are out the window and the verdict is still out as to what is best now.
October 11, 2011 at 3:31 pm
Something to keep in mind about the hunter’s CC skills is the break chance with DOTs, which is small with most of the CC skills but 100% after 2 seconds with Dazing Blow.
If you have a Barbed Arrow bleed going and want to use CC, use Scourging Blow first if the mob is close enough, you get a chance for extra damage.
October 11, 2011 at 3:38 pm
Also, when you use Bard’s Arrow be careful where the mob runs off to, he could bring back some of his friends.
October 11, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Bard’s Arrow is a staple for my hunter. Mob’s not dead by the time he gets to you? Pop off Bard’s and not only do you have time to use Press Onward, but the mob gives you some range by running away to boot.
Bow of the Righteous is of dubious value. Unless they increased the power return, It is pretty low compared to Strength of the Earth and such.
October 11, 2011 at 4:56 pm
My hunter has been my introduction to MMORPGs, mostly soloing or going duo with my husband and I have loved playing her. Am just dipping my toes into Isengard so far, so haven’t seen too much with the changes.
For soloing, Bard’s Arrow is really the only CC a hunter has. But as noted above, there are caveats. And another handy use of RoT is for those blasted bats that keep interrupting your inductions!!
Having experienced gameplay with my hunter I am now playing some other classes and enjoying the differences in how the game plays with each.
I will admit, having the strong DPS is my favorite – just stand on the high spot and pick off the bad guys!!
October 11, 2011 at 5:36 pm
As a hunter class lover and enthusiast, I use Dazing Blow quite often. In fact, I like the hunter’s melee damage capacity. I enjoy stand next to the tank and give a few AOE blow with my llittle dagger.
Rain of Thorns is a great skill. You just have to use it wisely.
And when I just got Bard’s Arrow, I became crazy with it at first, making all the orcs run away from me (they run in a very funny way, actually).
October 11, 2011 at 7:50 pm
Rain of thorns is my favourite duel skill against melee classes.
If you use Focus before the duel starts, then rain of thorns, they get stuck in place thanks to the long root. You can then run away, and start using your big skills (heartseeker, burn hot maybe, swift bow, etc), and because it’s only a 50% chance to break it often lasts through a few attacks
October 11, 2011 at 9:17 pm
Camouflage – Great in the Moors, also good for if you’re trying to slip by an enemy as he’s walking towards you. You can stealth briefly off the to side, let him pass, and move on without drawing aggro.
Hunter’s Art – Lots of applications, I use it for the extra finesse boost because my finesse at the moment is pretty meh.
Blood Arrow – Don’t get scared by the morale loss, it’s minimal. This skill is part of one of my regular rotations, since it conserves power, has no induction, and can pack a pretty hefty punch, especially if you’re traited/equipped for crits. Focus skills do more DPS than induction skills, simply because they have no induction. Don’t forget that.
Dazing Blow – Best melee skill in a hunter’s arsenal, with the possible exception of blindside. Awesome for setting up long induction skills like Heart Seeker, Strength of Earth, and Press Onward. This skill leads into Heart Seeker perfectly; the daze is JUST long enough to get it off.
Rain of Thorns – The ultimate Moors hunter skill. It will pop wargs out of stealth AND root them so the raid can go and kill them. Just don’t go using it on my wargie, he gets angry. Yeah, it has a long cooldown, but in my opinion hunters are made to sit patiently and wait, rather than go to their opponent.
Bards Arrow – Another essential skill, in the Moors and elsewhere. In the Moors, this can be used to basically block a foe from using any skills for 30 seconds, assuming they don’t get hit, which is an obscenely long time if you happen to be a healer (That’s why you should ALWAYS have fear pots in the Moors). In PvE, it can be used to put some distance between you and whatever you’re fighting, or to turn a 2-on-1 fight into 1-on-1 for enough time for you to kill one of the enemies. Hunters can have excellent crowd control, using this skill in combination with Rain of Thorns, traps, slows, Cry of the Predator, and Distracting Shot. Lastly, since a NPC enemy will be running from you, you can again use this to set up big induction skills as they run.
Press Onward – Awesome skill; use it in combination with Strength of Earth to make sure you never run out of power. Also nice because it gives you a large amount of morale and power back, and doesn’t have a massive cooldown.
Bow of the Righteous – Basically useless, due to the very small amount of power regained with each attack. If it wasn’t a legendary trait, I’d use it, but my trait slots can be better used elsewhere. Use Press Onward coupled with Strength of Earth to keep your power up instead.
=====================
I have a couple rotations that involve these skills. Usually I’ll open up an attack with Swift Bow -> Barbed Arrow -> Blood Arrow and hope for a big crit (which I often get, I’m usually traited for it when soloing).
I will use that rotation until the mob gets to me, then I’ll hit it with Blindside -> Dazing Blow -> Heartseeker.
If the mob is still alive, I use Bard’s Arrow -> Press Onward (if necessary) -> Swift Bow -> Barbed Arrow -> Blood Arrow. If you can keep the enemy rooted/dazed/feared/slowed, most enemies should go down pretty easily, as they won’t really get a chance to hurt you.
October 12, 2011 at 3:44 am
Hi Guys,
A little off topic i know but i dont know how to contact you otherwise. When i tried to visite you guys this morning my browser (Firefox) warned me about CSTM beeing an attack site for badware and didnt allow me to load it.
I know you guys filter these posts so i thought id try through here.
My protection software showed me to this place when i tried to ignore it:
http://www.stopbadware.org/firefox?hl=nl&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.casualstrolltomordor.com%2F
I hope it helped … or maybe the problem is on my end?
anyways, regards
Bert
October 12, 2011 at 5:59 am
The site did have some issues but Merric corrected them last night. The site now is clean however, it could take a day or two for google to clear the warning. The site is safe to view without issue.
October 12, 2011 at 7:29 am
That’s great to know. I was shocked to see it being flagged as malicious site by google chrome. I’m typing this on my phone now coz I still can’t access the site on my computer now.
October 12, 2011 at 11:35 pm
Bards arrow was what I used to get my fearing deed finished, it does suffer from a ridiculous number of immune mobs in RoI content I’ve found.
Combined with a trap it was pretty good for fights involving 3 melee mobs, trap would be first to reach you and then all you needed to do was to burn down one then other before the fear broke. Works well unless it has a dot ticking that’ll break the fear.
Hunter’s art has only been used so far for higher HP sigs for the finesse and a couple of times for the regen when a buff’s dropped. Build focus, maybe pop haste then open with heartseeker and art to avoid doing the silly arrow-waving animation midcombat, pokemon style “I choose you mr pointystick!”
Dazing blow is good if you a low on health and need space to get a heal off though as with bards it suffers in RoI from immunities. Shame, as a fair number of quests have you talk to someone who then aggros and hunters work far better from range.
I found rain of arrows nice but the long CD made it less useful than the single target fear to me.
The stealth skill is pretty situational but useful to remember about even if it’s just to nip in through a doorway.
Bow of the righteous gives minimal power returns so could be better. As others have said it’s not really able to boost power gain as much strength of the earth or press onward.
Blood arrow gets used in fights that start and end at range, the morale loss ups each level and if you dont boost health with gear as you level then you’ll become very squishy up close when using it.
A lot will be down to playstyle. I tend to pick my fights with care and if possible end up with the corpse more or less where they started. Though I do hate the way a craban sat in a tree can be out of line of sight due to a leaf beside the twig they’re sat on.
October 13, 2011 at 1:02 pm
I might be the only hunter here that doesn’t use Bard’s Arrow. It’s a useful skill but there are just so many other skills out there that are more appealing to me to slot for. I tend to use Distracting Shot in its stead.
With the new arrow skills out I’m still working on a good rotation, but presently it is Swift, Quick, Barbed, Penetrating, Blood, Hunter’s Art, Merciful, Heartseeker (Hunter’s Skill, RoT and RoA are used only for mobs or if I am crowd controlling before a pull).
Being that I have been a solo player (until I joined LMB) my fighting style is based a lot on set-up before a fight. If there are more than two (or one really nasty elite) I’ll generally set out a trap, walk a few paces away, set out my skilled trap and then start firing with my rotation. I fight mostly in Precision (using Righteous Bow as a LT for power control). I’ve been finding more and more that some of the elites in Dunland will just walk through my traps as if they weren’t there. When that happens I break out the melee skills. I’m not a tank, but I can take things down fairly quickly with just my sword skills. My favorite maneuver is to use Dazing Blow and then Heartseeker. The daze lasts long enough to pull heartseeker off, depleting a great deal of thier morale. Dazing Blow also works fairly well when you need to run back into a ranged position.
Another tip I’d recommend is to slot for heals on your Agile Rejoiner skill (melee). I’ve got this cranked up as high as I can on my sword so that if I do find myself in a melee situation that skill can give me a boost of health when I need it most. It has bee a huge life-saver in some instances.
Camoflauge I rarely use but it does come in handy when you are in a situation where you are low on health and standing in an area where wanderers are at the premium. Isengard comes to mind. I started breaking this out just to help restore my hp and power before lopping into another fight.
Of course, the best part of being a hunter, imo, is acting as a scout. I love sneaking around stuff, assessing how to take it down and then setting up accordingly. Sounds a bit like a burg, doesn’t it?
If you have not done so, try learning how to kite on a hunter by running in Fleet Stance. It takes a while to get the hang of, but I love doing fighting this way. Typically I run in Precision (Huntsman traited), but occasionally I’ll break out the Fleet Stance and start kiting stuff around just to see how long I can do it.
October 14, 2011 at 9:35 pm
My first LOTRO character ever is a hunter, I love the class. It makes me sad when people claim Hunters are all testosterone-crazed fifteen-year-olds who just want to massacre everything that moves.
The massive damage is lovely, quite so, especially for a mostly solo player like me, Hunter and Rune-keeper are the classes I feel most comfortable playing, I rarely struggle with them and these are the two classes where at some point I also had run out of available quests after doing all the orange/red ones.
But the other thing I absolutely love about Hunters is, well, that they are hunters. I basically wanted to play a Ranger and I rolled the class that seemed closest to the experience. The port and tracking skills are brilliant and something I awfully miss on the rest of my characters. I used to neglect traps, but since I levelled up my weaponsmithing by making hundreds of supreme traps, I’ve realised how nice it is to have them ready. And I LOVE attacking things 40 metres away.
I’m not the sort of Hunter who runs into the middle of the camp with Strength Stance on and aggroes the next three mobs (but I usually go get the popcorn when I see another Hunter go for it), I’m the sort who sneaks around the back of the camp, tracks down the boss, waits until the patrols move out of the way and then cherry-picks the enemies, taking them down one by one. It’s awesome.
About those skills:
Camouflage: Indeed, I do use it frequently when I go AFK in unsafe places. Otherwise, it comes quite handy when I want to avoid enemy patrols and wandering mobs, plus in Ettenmoors, you can hide in plain sight and wait for the monsters.
Before RoI, I used the Cloak of the Greyhammer for its +2 stealth level to improve on my camouflage.
Blood Arrow: I use it a lot. At least, I used to. It’s great in groups but also in solo play when you want to finish off a mob quickly and you’re full of morale. It basically does turns with Penetrating Shot, when one’s on cooldown, use the other. It was especially good pre-RoI when there was a trait that made both PS and BA cost only 2 focus points and I could use them more often.
Not to mention the zero power cost makes it your best attack when you’re in a long power-draining fight (say, soloing Mordrambor in the epics, and obviously group boss fights).
But since I got the improved no-cooldown Penetrating Shot from RoI, I haven’t been using it much, either.
Guide to Rivendell: Yeah, too late, I had to map Rivendell. But it comes handy in the epic questline when you get all those, ‘oh, I know we’re in Angmar/Evendim/Valinor but could you just pop out to Rivendell to get me a coffee and say hi to Elrond?’ quests. My other characters had to leave a small fortune at the stables.
Dazing Blow: it’s very useful when I need to stop the enemy from clobbering me so I can finish a Press Onwards induction before it’s too late, or when I need to interrupt the enemy’s own healing induction and Blindside is on cooldown.
Bard’s Arrow: Hunter CC is generally rubbish and Bard’s Arrow is the best in-combat CC you get, in pair with Cry of the Predator. Certainly better than Distracting Shot, unless you’ve got the DS legendary trait. Not only is the effect longer, but the enemy runs away so you gain extra seconds while they run back.
Bow of the Righteous: It’s a cool trait when you haven’t got any better ones, I used it myself for a long time, but it doesn’t grant that much power so I don’t miss it. I’m sporting Bard’s Arrow – Press Onwards – Improved Fleetness (yes, Huntsman, how did you guess?)
Good hunting!
October 15, 2011 at 7:45 am
Bow of the righteous is very much a useless waste of a traitslot, because the power it gives back is so minimal, you won’t even notice it.
Slot Bard’s arrow instead, a hunter (especially on its own) can never have enough interrupt/daze attacks ready.
Blood Arrows greatest upside is the fact that they need no induction and only minimal Focus cost. The hit to morale makes it much more viable as either a starting attack (after swift bow, for instance) or as a finisher-move than a regular attack, though. Since it’s only really damaging if it crits, it’s also kind of a gamble.
Hunter’s art? Almost no cost, no induction, gives buff – nothing much to think about here.
Rain of Thorns and Dazing blow also share the same upsides – no induction, interrupt and a chance for the hunter to get some distance between him and his target (or just shot your dazed foe with a heartseeker without the need to worry about interrupts). Also, RoT is one of the few AoE attacks hunters get, that alone makes it worth slotting.
One thing i can heartily recommend for every hunter: Needful Haste (minor induction and attack duration reduce) + Swift Recovery (-30sek cooldown on haste) + Resolute Aim (No induction setbacks while Needful Haste is active).
Plus, there’s a legacy for melee epic weapons that extend the needful haste duration up to 15 seconds (so, at best 45sec haste, 1min cooldown = almost no worry about induction interrupts, which removes one of the main weaknesses of a hunter) Try it out if you get the chance.
October 26, 2011 at 2:24 pm
Hunter is most definetly the funnest class in thr game. I usually use presicion but endurance stance is definetly made for instances, since i always have about 0 power left and the poor tank cant mach my aggro
What stances do u others usr and why?