LotRO Hunter Guide src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/89165" width="630">


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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/overview">OVERVIEW
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| VIRTUES
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style="width: 200px; height: 300px; float: left;"
alt="Hunter Legendary Items"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/89166">

Cruising
for a decon at level 30

HUNTER LEGENDARY ITEMS


Hunter Legendary items come in two flavors: ranged weapon and
melee weapon. Hunters and Wardens are the only two classes that get two
weapons as legendary items - all other classes get a weapon and special
class item. Feel special? You should.

With the new system implemented in Update 2: Echoes of the
Dead, it is much, much easier to get an ideal Hunter legendary item
than ever before. It just might take a bit more work.

The Major legacies to look for on the ranged weapon are the
Critical Multipliers: Focus Bow Critical Multiplier and Induction Bow
Critical Multiplier. No foolin', you want both. Of the Minor legacies,
the one that stands above the rest is Barbed Arrow Bleed Damage, which
is about the same DPS increase as either of the Critical Multipliers
when you work Barbed Arrow into regular shot rotations. Pretty much
everything
else is gravy, but you may also want reduced power cost legacies,
extra damage from Heart-seeker or something disposable to replace with
a Vitality or Agility legacy. Regardless, if your current bow doesn't
have both critical multiplier legacies, find yourself a trash bow that
has the one you are missing, level it to 30, select that legacy and
apply the scroll to your main bow.

For the melee weapon, you want to have as many Major legacies
as possible. The Major legacies to look for are Beneath Notice Cooldown
(your aggro-dropper, important for running with groups), Needful Haste
Duration (shoot faster for longer), Max Targets for AoE (Rain of Thorns
can root up to 9 mobs instead of only 5), Critical Magnitude in
Precision (shots hit harder) and Find the Path Movement Speed.

The most important
characteristic of your bow or crossbow is
not so
much the legacies, but the DPS. Level the DPS first and the
legacies after, and always keep an eye out for the bow that might be
better than the one you have now. Maxed-out higher level
items do more damage than maxed-out lower-level ones, regardless of
what Age they are. The difference between a level 60 First
Age bow and a level 61 Third Age is very, very small and not likely
enough to merit switching considering the strength of the legacies of
the lower level weapon, but this difference is more evident between a
level 60 First Age bow and a level 65 Third Age. The
lower-quality, higher-level Third Age will out-DPS the First Age, and
this does merit an upgrade.

For melee weapons, the opposite
is true. DPS is less important than having loads of good, high-tiered
Major legacies. In fact, if you get a good melee weapon with the right
combination of Major legacies, you may decide not to bump up the DPS at
all.

Considering how easy it is to get level 65 Second Age items
these days, there's no reason to stick with that level 60 First Age
sword you ran the turtle raid six times to get. The legacy scrolls from
deconning one of these bad boys won't work on level 65 items and they
can't hold the top relics. Scrap it and use the item XP rune on
something worthwhile.

More information on LI legacies
can be found on the href="http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Legendary_Items_Guide">Lorebook.


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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/overview">OVERVIEW
| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/solo-play">SOLO
| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/group">GROUP
| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/pvmp">PvMP
|
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/endgame">LEGENDARY
ITEMS | href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/89221/page/2">TRAITS
| VIRTUES
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LotRO Hunter Guide src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/89165" width="630">


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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/overview">OVERVIEW
| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/solo-play">SOLO
| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/group">GROUP
| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/pvmp">PvMP
|
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/endgame">LEGENDARY
ITEMS | href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/89221/page/2">TRAITS
| VIRTUES
|
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/skills">SKILLS


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style="width: 200px; height: 350px; float: left;"
alt="Hunter Trait Lines"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/89173">

This
ain't your grand-daddy's Improved Fleet Stance. Improved Fleetness is
actually pretty good.

HUNTER
TRAIT LINES


Class
traits
are
divided into 3 sets, 8 traits in each set. Each set has a
"capstone" legendary skill that can only be traited
by slotting 5
traits in that line. Slotting multiple traits from the same
set confers other accumulative bonuses. These sets, or "trait
lines," allow the character to really specialize in a particular aspect
of that class. The three Hunter lines focus on raw DPS
(Bow-master line), speed (Huntsman line) and crowd control (Trapper of
Foes line).

The Bow-master line is ideally
suited for solo players.
The
associated class traits generally make ranged skills hit harder by
upping the damage of specific skills or modifying the critical chance.
For set bonuses, Bowmaster heavily favors Strength stance -
it increases the damage and power cost while using
Strength stance. The capstone legendary skill, Cool Burn,
replaces the Burn Hot skill, doing an additional 10% ranged damage for
20 seconds at a further-reduced power cost, and reducing the cooldown
between uses. This is no longer the "kamikaze" skill it used to be.

The Huntsman line is geared
more towards group players.
The
class traits in this line generally increase attack speed, reduce
induction times and reduce skill cooldowns. Set bonuses
further reduce induction times and improve morale and power
regeneration skills. The capstone legendary skill, Improved
Fleetness, does just what it says: improves the Fleetness buff,
increasing attack and extending the duration of this now-awesome
self-buff.

Trapper of Foes is the CC line.
The traits generally
make
crowd-control skills work a bit better or last a bit longer, and help
the Hunter conserve and regenerate power and reduce threat.
Set bonuses further improve on CC skills and reduce threat,
but at the cost of ranged damage. The capstone legendary
skill, Explosive Arrow, replaces Distracting Shot, increasing the stun
duration to 30 seconds and reducing the cooldown. While the
hit to ranged damage may be unacceptable for many Hunters, the utility
of greatly-improved CC and the area-effect Poison Purge makes this a
viable trait line for PvMP or group play.
 It puts the Hunter on par with Burglars and Lore-masters for
keeping mobs locked down and out of the fight. It is
important to remember, however, that Hunter CC is rarely ever the
reason Hunters are wanted in instance groups.

Many PvE Hunters stay with a
combo of Huntsman and Bowmaster
traits.
The combination of 4 Huntsman, 3 Bowmaster gives a good mix
of speed, survivability and power - it opens up Improved Press Onward,
reduces inductions significantly and boosts damage in Strength stance.
This is a great setup for group or solo play. In
groups, Hunters tend to avoid Strength stance anyway, which makes going
with mostly Bowmaster traits something of a waste. For solo
play, it does reduce DPS in Strength stance a bit, but it sigificantly
improves inductions, making it more likely for the Hunter to get shots
off while being attacked.


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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/overview">OVERVIEW
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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/overview">OVERVIEW
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| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/group">GROUP
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| VIRTUES
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style="width: 200px; height: 300px; float: left;"
alt="Hunter Virtues"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/89174">

Determination
is a Hunter's best pal. You pretty much have to be Determined to want
to undertake the Crawler-slayer deed in Trollshaws.

HUNTER
VIRTUES


Virtues
- Ah, the joy of
grinding
deeds to
rank up virtues. This process is the base definition of
"grinding," and for some it is more like work than playing
a game.
On the plus side, grinding deeds for Hunters is actually
pretty easy - exploration deeds go fast because of the Hunter's blazing
speed, and slayer deeds go fast because Hunters tend to kill things
quickly.

Some players will find it
easier to work on these
deeds as they work their way through a given area, gaining experience
from near-level mobs, learning the ins and outs of newly-acquired
skills. Others prefer to tear through an area as quickly as
possible, chasing the next level, and then go back later to complete
deeds when the mobs are no longer a challenge. Either way,
having a good set of deed-earned virtues is one of the things that
separates good hunters from mediocre ones.

A fairly obvious Hunter virtue
is Determination. At
rank 10,
this provides +30 Agility, +45 in-combat morale regeneration, and +58
maximum morale. There are plenty of ways to rank this one up
by killing things: 90 barghests in Bree-land; 90 slugs in the Shire; 90
wolves in Ered Luin; 270 wargs in North Downs; 360 crawlers in
Trollshaws; 360 snowbeasts in Misty Mountains; 360 salamanders in
Evendim; 450 wargs in Angmar; 360 crawlers and lizards in Eregion; and
all 7 uruk captains in Eregion. That's 10 already, and there
are more in Moria, Lothlorien and Mirkwood.

Most endgame-focused Hunters
will have a similar set of
virtues, and
almost all of these include Determination in the lineup. A
lot of the time, it boils down to personal preference, but there are a
number of factors to seriously consider when choosing a good set of
virtues.

  • Having more morale usually
    helps. Justice and
    Valour both offer additional maximum morale, but virtues that increase
    Vitality (Loyalty, Honour, Fidelity) also increase maximum morale,
    since morale is based on Vitality.

  • Will is often neglected when
    choosing gear, and as a result
    Hunters tend to have fairly low Power scores. Loyalty,
    Honesty and Fidelity all increase power directly, while Wisdom,
    Idealism and Confidence all increase Will.

  • Having some kind of damage
    mitigation helps.
    Compassion, Charity and Patience all offer ranged defense
    bonuses, and Discipline, Innocence and Zeal all add melee defense.
    Ranged defense is slightly more important for fellowship
    builds, where Hunters must occasionally take ranged aggro off of
    healers and act as ranged tanks for short periods. For solo
    play, melee defense is more important, since there are no meat shields
    to hide behind.


A sample virtue set for general
PvE: Determination (for
Agility and
morale), Loyalty (Vitality and power), Valour (morale), Justice
(morale), Compassion (ranged defense). This is a fairly
common setup for Hunters, with a big boost to morale (over 400) and
non-combat morale regeneration (over 670), +30 Agility, +1000 ranged
defense for short-term ranged tanking, and a small boost to power and
power regeneration.


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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/overview">OVERVIEW
| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/solo-play">SOLO
| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/group">GROUP
| href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/pvmp">PvMP
|
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/endgame">LEGENDARY
ITEMS | href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/89221/page/2">TRAITS
| VIRTUES
|
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/hunter/skills">SKILLS


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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