Another Hunter Guide

[Marithil]

I took this idea from an old trait set up and tweaked it a bit. This particular hunter guide is focused on Focus. How to get, how to keep it, and how to spend it.

TRAITS

Huntsman

Strong Draw-http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Trait:Strong_Draw

Arrow Storm-http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Trait:Arrow_Storm

Enduring Precision-Focus increases by 1 every 10 sec. you are in Precision Stance.

Resolute Aim-http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Trait:Resolute_Aim

Swift Recovery-http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Trait:Swift_Recovery

Bowmaster

Deadly Precision-http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Trait:Deadly_Precision

Hail of Arrows-http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Trait:Hail_of_Arrows

The switchable Huntsman trait is Resolute Aim. I would recommend if you wanted to switch it out for another Bowmaster trait of your choosing, to get that extra 5% crit mult.

Legendary

Press Onward/Bow of the Righteous-http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Trait:Press_Onward
BotR is only needed if you have major power problems.

Rain of Thorns-http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Trait:Rain_of_Thorns

Bards Arrow-http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Trait:Bard%27s_Arrow

Legendary Weapons

Melee

There are a few really nice legacies to get your hands on. First, and this is imperative to the set up, is Crit Magnitude in Precision Stance. Getting the up to 13% is a good bonus. Another necessary legacy is Needful Haste Duration. Pump that up to the max. Some others are +Parry rating to swift stroke, + AoE targets, Agile Rejoinder heal chance, and Beneath Notice CD.

Bow

If you can swing both Focus crit and Induction crit multipliers that is awesome. But your bow must have at least one of them. Two of the very best legacies don't actually get a lot of attention, but they are very well deserved and those are; -Ranged Skill Block Modifier and -Ranged Skill Evade Modifier. You cannot hope to do high DPS if you are missing or they are B/P/Eing half of your attacks. I strongly recommend those two. Other good legacies are; -Merciful Shot CD (Especially if you switched out Resolute Aim for Quality of Mercy), any of the -Power cost legacies or -Threat cost legacies, and maybe if you are like me and tend be a ranged tank, +Ranged Evade.

Personal Stats

Critical Chance

This is the backbone of the setup. It is necessary to get this maxed or near maxed. The more crits, the better.

Ranged Offense

7000 at least! 7200-7500 is good.

Morale and Power

My morale is at 5300 and my power is 3000. That is decent. I hope to get to 5500 and 3200, but I think I am happy with my current setup. The morale is all up to the player. If they solo fine with 5000, great. But the power needs to be at least 3000 for you to be sustainable. You can mitigate morale by adding parry/evade bonuses, and by having threat reducers on you. But there is no mitigating for raw power.

Agility

I know there is a point of diminishing returns but you need to get this up there. 620 at least, unbuffed. Mine in at 648 unbuffed, and that makes my crit chance maxed.

Vitality

Get this high as well. You want to be around the 500 range or better.

Will

My current will makes me a bit sad, so I will be getting the Tombs from the LOTRO Store to buff this up. The new Helegrod armor set helps the will problem, but at the cost of Fate. So keep this in mind when gearing yourself. My Will is at 209, you want it to be around 250 if possible.

Fate and In-Combat Power Regen

Fate is important, but not nearly as important as stating straight ICPR. My current Fate is 333. 330-350 is a decent amount. But you must remember to stat ICPR. ICPR must be over 1000 unbuffed for this build to work. 1200 unbuffed is recommended. Mine is right in the middle at about 1100 and I still have power problems from time to time. To help with this you may trait Bow of the Righteous.

Parry and Evade

These are nice to have high, but not at all necessary. If they are around 8-10% respectively, then you are doing good. Get that +parry rating for Swift Stroke, and you should be set. And if you are real intent on this, get up your bows +ranged Evade legacy.

How it all works together.

How this all works is quite simple. Start a fight with full focus, end with at least half of it, while using all your focus attacks all the time. This set up allows you to keep a high amount of focus, even when you are using your focus attacks to their max. With the right kind of rotation of skills, your DPS will skyrocket. Unfortunately so will your power costs, which is why you should have high ICPR, and hunters have that cool skill, Strength of the Earth. Use it, love it. It times of desperation you can also use Press Onward in combat. Also as stated above you can throw out Press Onward, or any of the other legendaries for Bow of the Righeous to help combat power loss. However, the best and most effective way to fight lack of power is too concentrate on your skill usage. Don't go balls to the walls focus attacks all the time. The reason you have this capability is so you can throw high damage out when it is needed, with out having to rely solely on high crits and others to buff your damage. The Hunter is self-sufficient if you play it just right. You don't need to be the best of the highest, you only need to be the most consistent. And with all of the hunters ability to heal at need, and to regen it's own power, they are exactly that, self-sufficient.

Hints and tricks

1. Use Needful Haste every time it is up
2. Keep intent Concentration for when you may find yourself low on focus. By the time it happens again, you should have it back up. If not, you have Blindside to mitigate the time difference.
3.Use swift bow sparingly if not in NH, instead use more Quick Shot.
4. Barbed Arrow is good. Every 10-15 seconds or so. Do not waste time over using it.
5. Watch your morale when using Blood Arrow. I find it in my rotation a lot, but be careful.
6. Find the right balance of power usage on skill usage. Only go crazy with the focus attacks when you really need to kill something. (or are just sick of going slow or fighting the same mob.)
7. Use Precision Stance. It gives you much more playing possibilities than the other stances. You can switch to Endurance if you need to for threat or power.

Addendum

Armour and Gear

There is no substitute for the original Moria Watcher gear. That -Needful Hast and Intent Concentration is amazing, especially in this setup. The new Helegrod gear is pretty good. You lose some fate, but you gain will. The set bonuses are good as well. At set 4 you gain a -2 second to swift bow CD and at set 6 you gain -1 second CD to Penetrating shot. Both of which you can see as good for this particular build. I do hope to get the new Helegrod gear myself. As for the new Annuminas gear, it is decent, but not great. If you are having agility problems, or minor morale problems this is a good set for you. If not, don't bother. But it does look cool.

As for Jewelry and the like, keep in mind the earring that drop off Gorothul in SG. Get 2 of them, if you don't have them, the maladrhim rangers earring are good as well. There is some good armlets that drop in SH, WP, and Dungeons Hard Modes. Look into those for sure. BG has a really good +70 agility bracelet if you can get in there. As for rings, Ril-mir a the end of SG is always a good one. But the crafted stuff is still good. There are a few more good rings, but their location slips me at this time. I still use the Forges rare necklace drop from HM last boss. Though there is a rep necklace that is the same for the maladrhim I think.

[Rainbowdoddle]

Some good points Mari. I've listed some points/theories that I use, not so much as a guide but how I approach using Rainbowdoddle, it seems to work for me for the most part and obviously guides how I use my hunter. At the moment my morale is around 5700 and my power on/around 3000 - but i do have power problems in longer battles.

Since I do a lot of solo questing I have always tried to keep the highest morale possible - if i can stay alive long enough I can dps the hell out of my opponents. My gear, jewellery and weapons are all chosen with is in mind as much as possible. Also I am not too shy to use the occasional food or health/power pots top-up.

With the legendary weapons, slot those items that help morale or vitality and power. I always use the strength stance, probably again because i am a bit lazy and don't explore my options enough -> and as you guys keep having to remind me when we are fellowing or raiding to get out of the bloody strength stance because i keep taking the aggro off the tanks. At range I can easily bring down a 8-10k enemy to well below half by the time they are in melee range.

My legendary traits I use are Bow of the Righteous, Bards arrow and Rain of thorns. I need BOTR for the power replenish, bards arrow is always good to thin a crowd if needed or give me a little space to use strength of the earth for power replenish, leg weapon traits combine with this to give me the best SOTE power I can get and then I just start again and wail on them with dps. I do use heart seeker occasionally and it is always good when you see that shard/flake dropper and you can solo a 18-22k enemy, throw in some Bards arrow, RoT etc to fear/root them and get your distance for another barrage of high level dps - watch to get them below 50% and them hit them with improved merciful shot. Don't forget to use oils and chants - especially if you have your own scholar to make them for you and save you the coin the AH would claim.

I haven't started on the new gear yet but look forward to it and wonder where the next level of tailored medium armour will go to in new expansions - will it out do this new stuff (since Radiance doesn't seem to matter any more) or will it just sort of level out and be no real improvement to morale/vitality/power etc.

Thanks for reading,
Rainbowdoddle