src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/89165" width="630">
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
alt="A Hunter Soloing"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/89171">
Orc-waylayer,
meet Hobbit-traplayer. He's been expecting you.
SOLO
PLAY AS A HUNTER
LotRO is a very solo-friendly game. While there are many
instances and raids that require running with groups, most of the
"core" stuff (general quests, epic books) is soloable, and Hunters seem
ideally suited for this.
For
soloing, survivability is
of tantamount importance.
There is slightly less emphasis on maxing out things like
Ranged Offense, and more on improving morale and power and damage
mitigation. Raw DPS can be exchanged for crowd control power,
though most solo Hunters still prefer to use Strength stance to hit the
big numbers more often. A Hunter's mobility and speed move
him quickly from one fight to the next when unencumbered by lumbering
tanks and doddering healers and buffers.
A
good skill rotation is easy
to figure out for soloing:
toggle
Strength stance, start with Focus, lay a trap with Set Snare (and/or a
crafted trap), pick a target and throw a vicious combo like Swift Bow -
Penetrating Shot - Barbed Arrow - Quick Shot - Merciful Shot.
This is a brutal assault against on-level, normal mobs, and
enough to outright kill many of them by the time they get into melee
range. If they do survive this onslaught, they can usually be
quickly dispatched with a few melee attacks or auto-attacks before they
have a chance to do any serious harm.
Tougher
mobs (elites,
over-level normals, etc.) will require a
slightly
different rotation. Burn Hot plus Needful Haste plus Heart-seeker makes
a fine "power-pull" in
these cases, dealing massive damage on the very first shot and
unleashing a rapid stream of big, brutal hits.
In most cases, tougher mobs will close into melee range while
still relatively healthy, and the Hunter will need to throw some melee
skills into the mix, foregoing some of the long induction shots in
favor of speedy attacks. A rotation starting with Swift Bow -
Quick Shot (for the slow) - Penetrating Shot - Barbed Arrow should be
enough to soften the enemy by the time it closes to melee range.
At that point, a melee rotation like Swift Stroke (defense
buff) - Scourging Blow (extra damage from the Barbed Arrow bleed) -
Blindside - Penetrating Shot will deliver a solid blow to the enemy's
morale. But you may want to hold that Blindside in reserve,
as it can be used to interrupt troublesome enemy inductions -
self-heals, frontal area-effect stuns, etc. And you may want to work
Dazing Blow into the mix also, as it can dispel up to 3 corruptions and
give you a brief moment's pause to open up some distance.
When
fighting multiple mobs,
Hunters have few area-effect
skills, but
the ones they do have are quite powerful. Rain of Arrows
delivers a shower of higly-damaging arrows to up to 5 enemies within a
radius of the target creature, and is usable every 10 seconds provided
the Hunter has enough Focus built up to use it. Low Cut is a
sweeping blow with both melee weapons that applies a useful slow effect
in a frontal arc, and is useful if the Hunter needs to retreat a bit to
get off some induction shots. The legendary skill, Rain of Thorns, is
almost
exactly like Rain of Arrows, but it roots up to 5 mobs in place,
allowing the Hunter to more effectively control the fight by selecting
favored targets and fighting them one at a time. One point to
consider, however: Hunter area-effect attacks, particularly Rain of
Arrows, can break carefully-planned traps, mezzes and fears, and can
accidentally aggro nearby creatures.
Of course, area-effect skills are not the only way to deal
with multiple mobs. This is when crowd-control skills come in handy.
The Hunter has at his disposal 2 fears (Cry of the Predator for beasts
of nature, Bard's Arrow for everything else), 2 stuns (Distracting Shot
for ranged, Dazing Blow for melee), 3 slows (Low Cut, Quick Shot in
Strength stance, Set Snare), and 4 roots (Set Trap, Crafted Trap, Rain
of Thorns, Penetrating Shot when traited). The Trapper of Foes trait
line, while damping overall DPS, may make some fights much easier, as
it makes traps stronger and more readily-available. And when things get
really
hairy, there's always Desperate Flight - when the going gets tough, the
Hunter DFs.
Power
consumption can be a real
issue when soloing,
particularly when
using Strength stance, which consumes more power than other
stances. For prolonged fights against mobs with very high
morale, it will be important to be well-stocked with both power and
morale potions. It may be possible to throw down a crafted
trap in the middle of a fight, or use a fear or daze to buy a few
precious seconds of "quiet time" in which to use Strength of the Earth
to regain some power, but having potions handy is generally more
reliable.
It
is usually a good idea to
have lots of potions and crafted
food for
soloing. The Hunter's Purge Poison skill - which is instant
and has no cooldown - negates the need for poison pots, but he must
still rely on external means to combat fears, wounds and diseases.
For crafted food, look for the highest level food you can use
that restores both morale and power in-combat. Most morale-
and power-restoring food has two sets of values: in-combat and
out-of-combat. Out-of-combat regeneration is basically
meaningless, as a Bright Campfire and a moment's pause does the very
same job and doesn't require expensive crafting materials.
Trail food is another great thing to have, particularly trail
food that buffs Vitality or Agility. Of those two,
Vitality-boosting foods are probably the better choice, as a Hunter's
Agility should already be quite high.
Crowd
control plays a
significant role for the solo Hunter.
Traps, in addition to being just plain awesome, can be
life-savers. Cry of the Predator can shake off those pesky
warg adds long enough to finish off your main target.
Distracting Shot, Dazing Blow and Bard's Arrow are great for
temporarily
disabling potentially troublesome adds, and Rain of Thorns allows the
Hunter to put a little distance between himself and the swarming hordes
of baddies.
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
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Lord of the Rings Online Game Page.
