Latest dev chat news for hunters

[Llewrend]

[22:20] <Tens_LOTRO> For Hunters, you can expect boosts to all of your melee skills (such as buffs to compliment your ranged abilities), lower costs to crafted traps and oils, and an upgrade to Merciful Shot.
[22:20] <Tens_LOTRO> We are also looking into ways of addressing DoTs breaking Fear.
[22:20] <Tens_LOTRO> (So don’t throw out your wounding bows just yet!)Lower costs, buff to merciful shot, DoT's possibly not breaking fear, all good. "Boost to melee skills" sounds terrible though.

Personally, I've removed all melee skills from my quickslots except low cut. Every group gets a hunter to do ranged damage, not to pretend to be a champion. Ok, the part about giving buffs to ranged combat sort of softens the whole thing but still, try going to throw a melee attack at Thaurlach with your medium armour to get a bit of a boost to your next swift bow... Brilliant.

I think Turbine should seriously re-evaluate the in-combat job of a hunter. Right now it's single target ranged DPS, which is spamming of 3-5 skills; a champion does that also and loads more. Other than that hunters are little more than taxis.

Any similar/different opinions? Please explain why also.

[MéLAnoR]

Thanks for posting log Llewrend , i prefer not to comment before getting more info cause getting buff to melee skills may not be a bad step , giving hunters more versatile combat play and options.Hope it's something improving our ranged skill inductions not just more damage output.We dont need close combat high damage output skills but complimenting ranged abilities if something decent.
Hope they fix the DoT fear bug and check why our CC skills are being ignored/resisted etc..
Cheaper traps , oils sounds good but imo we really need more options regarding in combat traps as bound skills not just consumables.
I wonder how they ll improve MS , hope they make us able to use the skill more frequently.
that's all i can say for now.

[Scappydog]

Agree m8. If I'd wanted to melee I'd have rolled a Champ. Buffs from melee skills might help when soloing one on one, but what we need is reliable methods to keep mob/mobs at range. How the hell are buffed melee skills going to help when you have 2 or 3 mobs pummeling on you because your traps have been ignored or RoT has broken. Unless those skills are so buffed you can finish the mob off with them. But then why are we a ranged class?? I would much rather see reliable roots/traps added than buffs to melee.

Depending on what these buffs are, is it going to mean another respec? More weeks of tinkering with your gear/traits to get it right again? Maybe the 2% Elf Sword damage racial will finally be slotted :), but wait I don't have a sword!! Mind you, that probably doesn't work either, like the +2% bow damage one.

I still consider Bards Arrow to be useless as a Legendary, even if they do sort out the DoT problem, and not worthy of the name.

No comment to make on Merciful shot until I know what the change will be. But if it means I can add it to my quickslots again then fine.

Will be interesting to see how they can implement reduced costs on crafted traps? I will only buy crafted traps if the resist rate goes back to what it was pre-Book 11.

[zimoo]

I'm guessing either cheaper vendor materials (which frankly won't help at all...) or a lower number of gatherable materials needed per item.

[HardOnails]

buffs to melee skills.....

why dont they just go the whole hog, everyone knows they want to do it, ban hunters from using ranged weapons

as for the crafting reduction, big deal, i still have to waste valuable game time messing about gathering mats, crafting traps, waste gold buying pots, and for what? how does this fix our broken class

we are still the only class with no damage mitigation ability in combat

the more changes that are made the more we becoming a "kiting" class yet we are still screwed by the loss of focus when moving and the super glued feet on auto attack when moving

each patch turbine proves yet again they have no idea what they are doing with the hunter class

please remove the pvmp and put us back to how we where - FUN... Im feed up with nurfs and pointless changes because of the R2 wargs with 10 hours played whinning ....

i never thought i would say this as im one of the biggest lotr fans on the planet but well done turbine just like AC2 you lost the plot totally ....

[Elisar]

duno where they got idea to buff melee skills? i never saw hunter using melee and i think that will never change. they wont buff melee so hard it will replace our bow skills so no one will be using them anyway.
they should remove our terrible melee skills and give us 1-2 new bow skills, and if they wanna buff, they can make that Agile Rejoinder to do at least 200-300 damage (since its parry skill).

[Belion_]

^agreed

i hate our melee skill i can run up and do 50 dmg with a melee hit or stay at range and do 230 with a auto attack from my bow gee go figure

[Sirak]

in principal I am not so unhappy about what they say.

- merciful shot needs improvement
- melee skills, if they really buff them, fine
- lower costs for traps, fine
>> additionally I hope to see a buff for
- bards arrow
- barbed arrow (the DoT is just too small at high levels)

[Daguras]

I'm not interested in melee skills... only use them for getting agro of a nearby minstrel or the odd lowcut. Rarely a mob gets close enough and when they do a quick scourging blow is all thats need to finish them off (except goblins/orcs who get a Blindside when they try to run away).

As for ranged skills, Merciful Shot is already sweet but an upgrade would be OK although I'm not sure exactly would be changed (I'm quite happy with 1000+dmg crits TYVM).

Some kind of very short root (like BAs pin shot) and a silence or interrupt would be nice. A stackable DoT would also be cool... or maybe more variety, like wounds, disease and poison (with as much variety as the NPCs inasmuch they can add block/parry/evade/mitigation debuffs). Maybe the silence shot would even stop a mob calling for help when the fear runs out or is a reactive skill (need crit ranged or something, maybe). Sounds fairly balanced and could give hunters a lot more combat options both solo and in groups...

An extreme range shot would be nice too... big cooldown, low(ish) damage and 60 metre range :D

Cheaper traps is OK too, but preferably give the obvious traps like tripwire to Woodworkers or make them a skill and make us less reliant on Historians (who NEVER post anything useful on AH anyway.. except for the odd ripoff merchant, or people levelling the craft).

One thing that really needs looking at is Class traits... only about half are useful at the moment and other classes use them to define their play style. I'd like to be able to balance my hunter between extreme ranged single target nuking with loads of crits and more support like better fear, roots, poison/disease cure etc.

Not even thinking of effects to PvMP, since the game is PvE oriented.

[nightbyday]

buff melee skills... oh right let me think when would a hunter want to melee and not shoot as there is no dead zone?

On greys... for Fun
errrrm
errrm
ermmm
on spiders or fast intrupt mobs
umm
errr
In Pvmp (i thought no changes to the normal game would be for that)

hunters are ranged, with weak melee skills... champs are melee, with weak ranged skills. Now if champs have heavy armour becuase they get up close and prsonal what do hunters have?

a buff to merciful shot WHY???
raid/fellowships it is not very often that i hunter will have enough focus left for that shot on a boss fight and the induction time mean on normal fights it better to use penertrating. On big bosses 25% hp can be 25k+ are hunters are going to steal aggro for no reason for a shot that won't finish a mob... i could go on more about the benefit of buffing this shot but why bother, lets just say thanks for the buff but no thanks

fears and dots, has to be addressed.

lower costs on oils etc.... err the jacked up prices on AH is the issue here

based on suggested:-
i would like to see a melee buff that stuns (dream)
base auto shots buffed (slotable trait?) so a hunter shots faster harder :P
Dots no break fears (so those times when we use light oil etc another prof cpould mezz.fear and not have it break due to a hunters 'incompatence'.

[Bell of Eternity]

Buffs to melee skills? If I wanted to melee I'd go champion. The entire point of hunter is ranged damage. We don't need more close combat efficiency, we need more ways to keep that mob seeing the whites of our eyes.

[Daguras]

n big bosses 25% hp can be 25k+ are hunters are going to steal aggro for no reason for a shot that won't finish a mob


Merciful Shot has no induction and by the time a 100k hp mob is down to 25% a single skill won't steal agro unless something is very, very wrong. At 25% I'll build full focus then HS, MS, Pen shot, intent concentration (insta-focus), Pen shot, MS and throw in an extra SS or barbed if I have second spare... doesmassive damage every time and doesn't take the agro :D


lower costs on oils etc.... err the jacked up prices on AH is the issue here


They mean crafting costs... number of ingots needed etc.


i would like to see a melee buff that stuns (dream)
base auto shots buffed (slotable trait?) so a hunter shots faster harder :P


For the first, equip a mace or two. If we get a stun skill I want it ranged, like the old light oil crit and the brief stun it gave. Stop a mob for 2 seconds is more than enough when he running towards you :P

I like the idea of a trait modifying our base attacks... needs to be a lot of thought here though as I don't want then option to forsake attack speed for damage etc as that would also affect my choice of bow, then affect power usage leading on to slotting different traits and armour for power regen... we'd end up with very distinct builds that may have difficulty adapting on the fly.

And another idea... poison oil (like fire & light oil) so we can deal poison damage or add a range of poison-based debuffs to our attacks. Perhaps balance it by making it consumed on use and only affects the next skill... the effect applied to the target depends on which skill was used (pen shot could increase crit shot vuln, swiftbow could debuff evade/parry/block, barbed gives better DoT, SS... I dunno, maybe slows attack speed on top of the snare in stength stance...). I'm sure the devs have plans anyway, we'll just have to wait and see :)

[Dirtball]

And another idea... poison oil (like fire & light oil) so we can deal poison damage or add a range of poison-based debuffs to our attacks.How many times do the devs have to say we won't be getting poison as it is an implement of the enemy? Tut tut.

[Datus]

Well seems to me there doing a good job of balance.
Only thing that needs looking at for ranged is
Merciful shot (foucs cost + 25% health) which they say is being addressed.
Barbed Arrow not doing enough dot damage which isnt being addressed i think.

Melee improvements I welcome as Im using them a lot now to compliment my ranged when I solo or small groups.

So for me Im happy and looking forward to it....

[etelemnar]

While broadly happy to welcome any improvements, it strikes me as odd that they might highlight melee buffs. The only reason we need melee buffs is because our traps aren't trapping and our DoT's breaks the fear on Cry of Predator/Bards Arrow.

Surely, it would make more sense to fix the traps rather than improve melee skills? (I know they've said they're looking at existing DoT's breaking fear so I will hold fire on that until I know what they plan to do).

[AmpliFied_SouL]

I am waiting for the complete changelog of book 12, to read about the nerfs we' re getting.

[Murky Majare]

Cheaper material costs on crafted traps does not help a hunter at all...

It does however mean that those that sell traps to us - demanding outrageous prices - now will earn even more coins than before.

More / better melee is good I guess, since we hardly can keep monsters at a distance any more.

Reading on the us boards, apparently the devs believe that hunter players are very satisfied and that they have listened to us and given us what we want...

so with that... um... errorous understanding of the actual / general attitude, the chance of them actually making positive changes for the hunters (for once) is nil, zip.

[Darzil]

Cheaper material costs on crafted traps does not help a hunter at all...

It does however mean that those that sell traps to us - demanding outrageous prices - now will earn even more coins than before.


I can't sell them on AH for more than the NPC will buy them for, way below cost.

The only top level trap I have is the Superior Triple-Trap. Three cost 18.48 plus 12 Ancient Iron Ore and 4 Dwarf-iron Ore. The other traps will have the same cost (other than the lure traps), but make make 4 rather than 3, depending on the recipe.

What are the outrageous prices being charged ?

Darzil

[Murky Majare]

Sets of five superior traps have been tried sold for 500-800 silver.
Other type (in five) (can't recall name now) I have often seen around 700-750.

(Edit: I have no idea if they actually sold or not... But the few traps Ive have seen for sale have been that high).

Reducing the cost to make by, say 2 ingots, is not exactly going to lower the cost from 700 to say 692...

But even if the crafter earns nothing from it, and only ask some 45-60 silver from a set of three. That does add a cost to the hunter of 15 to 20 silver per trap they use... and Ive have yet to earn anywhere near that in loot from the monster. Often I only get around 4-7 silver... which of course is way below the crafting cost to make it.

It was my point that even if they lower the cost for making traps... it is /not/ a boon / benefit / whatever to the hunter, and it certainly do not compensate for the continous nerfing they have slammed the hunters with in every patch so far.

These traps are too expensive to use (oh, and lets not forget that their cooldown of 3-5 min, means... if we are to follow the devs. notion of "just use traps", means that we can only attack one monster per five min).

And as others have noted...the traps hardly even works anymore.

[Ueauvan]

never ever seen a trip wire for sale on the ah, possibly the one friendly fs trap as it can open a conj but even so, im not happy with their suggestions, melee improvements ??? gimme a break. i look forward to more weakening of the hunter class.
one thing they do for rangers in ffxi is increase damage multiplier by range and there being a sweet spot where its maximised. annoying to get used to but different approach. logical closer you are the more damage you should do. eq has the same damage regardless of range and i gave up in d&do as shot cycles for bows took so long compared to melee

[nightbyday]

at Daguras:-

any damage spike can cause aggro switch... no aggro meters who knows how close to the 'edge' you are. But you right a sensible hunter would indeed save a shot like till 'boss' is near its end HS, merciful, penertrating nice end :P my point is whats the point of 'modifying it as it has limited uses already HOWEVER if it changed to say 10% hp and zero focus need.... OHHHH!!!!.

yeah i ment crafting costs of items, lesser amount of items needed to make would mean cheaper to make and lesser to buy on AH (most hunters opt tailor, woodworker before metal smith?), i doubt prices would change, even if you got more per stack on compleation. Of course this adjustment would be nice but hardly ground breaking.

i still modifaction to melee WTF>>>> Modifying a hunter by traits? yes definatly a way to work

#shrug let them do what they want i will still play my hunter

Edit:-
What i would like to see it our snare trap actually 'snare' monsters, a trap like that would be standard use lay trap, slow mobs, give fellowship time.