By: Melwhin

For an updated, complete guide to the Hunter, check out our Hunter Class Guide Overview and its associated pages.

With the launch of the book 10 patch we received an update for the Hunter class. We hunters had a lot of new skills added, including some new high-level ones, but the Dev’s also changed a lot of our existing skills. These changes have transformed the hunter class, and players will find that they will have to change the way they play a bit to continue to be successful as a Hunter. It’s not a huge change, but it’s enough that I feel some people could use some advice on the nature of these changes and how they will affect your play.

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Change #1: Increased power requirements for most combat skills.

What Was Changed: Power costs for our ranged and melee combat skills were increased anywhere from 10% to 150%.

What You Should Do About It: Power is now certainly going to be a problem for you in fights against bosses and elites. It also may become a problem for you in extended normal fights if you didn’t pay any attention to Will or Fate before the patch.

+Power, Will, (for greater total power), +Combat Power Regen, and Fate (in-combat power regeneration rates) are now going to need to take more precedence in your stats list, although exactly how much you should add to them is up to you. Find something that strikes a comfortable balance. Also, I highly suggest using Endurance Stance on any longer fights. Precision Stance has changed a great deal (see #2 below), so Endurance should be your primary stance for long fights, as it reduces threat and power usage.

Despite both of those things, you’re still going to have to keep an eye on your power. Luckily, they’ve given hunters a new skill to help a bit in that regard. It’s called “Strength of the Earth”, and you can get it at level 42. It’s an in-combat power over time regen skill, but keep in mind that it’s interrupted by one hit. Thus, it will only really work if you’re in a group where you can hang back and regenerate your power a bit.

Change #2: Enduring Precision focus gain halved.

What Was Changed: The Enduring Precision Trait will only generate one focus every ten seconds instead of one focus every five seconds.

What You Should Do About It: This is a tough one. Nearly every hunter seems to have used this trait to produce virtually infinite focus before the patch, but now it doesn’t regenerate focus enough to be able to use skills fast enough. Likely, this will involve a change in your traits and your shot rotation.

If you want to leave the trait slotted, feel free. It’s better than nothing, but keep in mind it only works with Precision Stance. Coupled with the power cost increase, this means you’re trading the power cost reduction of Endurance Stance (or the +10% overall damage increase of Strength Stance) for this. It’s up to you, and the nice thing is that you can easily switch stances to adjust to a new situation.

I’d suggest slotting the Deadly Precision trait if you have it, because this trait will add one to focus every time you get a critical hit on a ranged attack. While it’s not the same as the old Enduring Precision (especially at lower levels where you don’t crit as much), it’s certainly something, and can be pretty powerful when combined with the new Enduring Precision.

Despite these alternatives, you’ll probably also need to change up your shot rotation a bit. I suggest using Swift Bow to start, then using Quick Shot to build your focus to where you can use focused shots like Precision Shot, Rain of Arrows, and Rain of Thorns. Quick Shot is nice because of the fast induction, increased damage versus auto attack, and the +1 to focus. Pretty much use it as an “advanced auto attack” to fill focus and do respectable damage.

Change #3: Crossbows and bows have same attack speed.

What Was Changed: Regular bows and crossbows both have an attack speed of 2.4 now.

What You Should Do About It: First of all, let me explain how this was a big hit to hunters who used crossbows. Before, when crossbows were considerably slower than bows, but did more damage, they were VERY powerful weapons. If you’re wondering why, it’s because the skill animations remained the same for bows and crossbows. So if you used Swift Bow on a 20 DPS bow and a 20 DPS crossbow, the crossbow would always hit much harder at the same speed.

I assume the devs changed this because it was an oversight on their part that was unfair in practice. Regardless of the reasons, it no longer matters whether you use a crossbow or a regular bow, so you’re free to choose whatever. Sadly, there’s not much to do except re-assess your weapon choice if you were a crossbow hunter.

Change #4: Changes to hunter consumables.

What Was Changed: Oils now last five minutes. New consumables include bow chants, oil wash, and new traps.

What You Should Do About It: The oils are now actually worth using in many cases. Use fire oil against creatures of nature and light oil against undead especially. These are a big step up from common damage, so if you have a common damage bow, it’s good to use these in any situation. Oil wash removes the oil from your bow, because if you do have a bow that doesn’t do common damage, the damage your bow does (like Westernesse, Belariand, or Ancient Dwarf) may be more effective against that type of mob.

Bow chants are nice because they add to the attributes of your bow. Examples are chants that lower power costs of skills, chants that lower threat generated, and chants that reduce enemy chance to evade or block. They can be great for adding to or balancing out benefits from stances especially. These are crafted by scholars and last twenty minutes. Only one can be active at a time.

There are also a bunch of new crafted traps available for use. There’s a trap that can be set up instantly in combat, a trap that doesn’t release on damage, a trap that can open a conjunction (fellowship maneuver), and a trap that creates a decoy that mobs will attack instead of you. These are certainly useful, but they’re all crafted so keep in mind that they won’t be cheap.

Change #5: The tracking window has been greatly improved.

What Was Changed: The tracking window now shows the name of the creature tracked, the type of mob it is (normal, elite, elite master, etc), and how far away from you it is (near, distant, very distant, etc).

What You Should Do About It: Well, it’s a great addition, and makes tracking much easier… so track more! At the very least you can use the tracking panel to quickly see the foes in the area and how you stack up to them.

Change #6: Changes to Rain of Arrows, Rain of Thorns, and Merciful Shot.

What Was Changed: Rain of Arrows cooldown lengthened, but costs less focus. Rain of Thorns costs more focus, and Merciful Shot is now only usable at 25% enemy health and costs more focus, but the cooldown is greatly reduced.

What You Should Do About It: Rain of Arrows is now more of a skill to use whenever you have the focus when the need arises. The cooldown length means that you won’t be able to use it as much in a fight, but the focus reduction means you can use it without worrying about blowing as big of a chunk of focus on it.

Rain of Thorns now costs six focus, so it’s pretty much only usable as an opener, immediately following a pull, or right after using Intent Concentration. It’s still a great skill though, and worth using once you’ve earned it.

Merciful Shot got hit hard, and in my opinion isn’t really worth using much anymore. It still only hits a little harder than Penetrating Shot, but now it will use almost all your focus, and can only be used at the very end of a fight. Maybe useful on a boss when you have focus to burn, but I don’t see a lot of use for it otherwise.

Change #7: Major update on the hunter travel skills.

What Was Changed: Your travel skills all cost more than one travel ration now (two, three, or four depending on the area), and the racial travel skills now cost one travel ration instead of none. There are several new travel destinations, some only after a class quest is completed, to areas like Ost Guruth, Tinnudir in Evendim, East and West Angmar, and Michel Delving. There is also a new Return to Camp skill which lets you return to a chosen campfire on the map, generally found outside instances.

What You Should Do About It: There are now more places to travel to, but they all cost more to go to. I recommend stocking up on travel rations to save yourself trouble, since they only cost two silver. Keep an eye on how many you have if you travel a lot, because they will go down a lot more. Use Return to Camp to quickly get your group to an instance, and don’t forget to make good use of your map because it’s free.

Change #8: New Skill: Heartseeker.

What Was Changed: Nothing was changed, but a new skill was added for level 50 hunters. It’s called Heartseeker, and it generally does over 1300 damage, has a five-second induction, a five-minute cooldown, and cannot miss or be evaded, blocked, or parried.

What You Should Do About It: Heartseeker is a powerful new skill for sure, but keep in mind that it is by no means a core skill for a hunter. Yes, it is remarkably powerful, but you can only use it every five minutes and it has a very long induction. Heartseeker makes a great opener in a tough fight, or can be used easily against a powerful foe that you have trapped or rooted. But Heartseeker generally doesn’t fit outside of these sorts of situations. You’ll never get it off against an enemy who is in your face and hitting you with a sword, so you have to be careful about when you use it. It’s a powerful weapon in a hunter’s arsenal, but by no means is it a do-all, end-all skill. You can easily do a similar amount of damage at level 50 with a Swift Bow and Penetrating Shot combo in just a little more time.

This concludes my guide to the hunter class post-Book 10. I hope you learned something, and if you have any corrections or suggestions, please contact me and let me know. Thanks!

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