Hunter offensive setup in the later stages

[Skamander]

What, in your view, is currently the best offensive setup for Hunters, including choice of bows, close-quarter weapons and traits (not armour!)?

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/9987/kairosweaponsac8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

In view of the vulnerability of Hunters in close-quarters combat, I have tried to build up Morale as much as possible. An excellent offensive combination for both fellowships and soloing is the Bane of Forvengwath bow, which drains 166 points of Morale from your opponent and transfers it to you, and the Bow of Righteous epic trait which increases your Power with every successful shot (in my view, by far the most useful epic trait for Hunters).

Other combinations?

[Bell of Eternity]

Well IMO I see too much Might there, you could easily trade some for Agility which is surprisingly low for a hunter. I'd trade the mirrored away for something that boosts agi plus will/fate/vit. My hunter has roughly 2600 morale, 2200 power and 370 agility. Might is around 120-130, the rest close or over 200. This with only three teal items (bow, pocket vial and that book 11 necklace). I forget what virtues exactly I had. The one that boosts Agility of course, and maybe the ones with the biggest boosts to Will, Fate, Armour and Power.

Melee weapon slots are best treated as jewelry slots; equip whatever gives the best stat boosts to suit your build. Don't worry about melee damage, it will be crap whatever you wield.

[Thurondur]

i have a similar setup of 3000 morale and 2000 power ,

and its all good as long as a hunter doesnt get involved too much in melee combat , power is very important actually since the hunter is the best DPS there is ,we need alot of power , where do you get forvengwaths bow

Stats:
might = 250
agility = 375
vitality = 310
will = 230
fate = 180

[Bell of Eternity]

I suppose it is loot from Forvengwath. ;) It is a boss mob in Barad Guralan.

[Halborn]

yes it is from balad gularan

to be perfectly honest the key stats a hunter needs is will vit and agi(being the most important)

with those you are dealing the most damage for the most period of time

However

for solo you would need some might and probably also some decent melee weapons incase you get 3 mobs on you
Yes you use them for stats but they are also important for solo IMO

my hunter stats are as follow

Might : 150
Agility : 389
Vitality 330
Will : 260
Fate : 210

My morale is just short of 3000 and power is just short of 2000 and i deal roughly 140 melee damage ontop of my huge dps with bow

i also use a fortified bow which does the job

p.s in regards to your setup i suggest a bit more ranged critical

[Skamander]

where do you get forvengwaths bow


Forvengwath, one of the early bosses in Barad Gularan. Fairly easy to bring down , and the bow seems to drop about one time in three.

[Scappydog]

My solo build at present gives me around 2800 morale, 1800 power.

Might 212
Agility 446
Vitality 287
Will 239
Fate 168

I've traded Vit and Fate for Agi and find the extra evade/parry makes up for the lost morale. ICPR is around 650.

I could boost the agi some more, but that would drop my morale below a level I am comfortable with.

Personally I have 2 builds, one for solo and one for instances. For instances I drop my agi to around 380 and boost morale/ICPR.

But at the end of the day go for a build that suits you and your playstyle. If anything the discussions on these and the US forums show that there isn't a universal 'best' build, only a personal one.

[Skamander]

If anything the discussions on these and the US forums show that there isn't a universal 'best' build, only a personal one.

Agreed, absolutely. What's interesting is to see what other people think works best and in which circumstances.

[Bell of Eternity]

Yes, there is no single build to rule them all. There's some good rough guidelines to successful hunter, like enough agility, enough power, enough power regeneration, enough morale, but they need to be balanced to playstyle. My own style when soloing, as might be obvious, disregards Might because I go for maximized damage and criticals. I avoid using melee attacks and won't rely on traps or fear to save my bacon.

Against normal mobs and signatures my combat these days can more or less be simplified to quick - penetrating - swift - penetrating - quick. Preferably from extreme range. If the quick's speed bebuff sticks, they're sorely wounded when reaching melee range, weaker ones never get there. If the mob's weak enough and close to death I might even simply wait for penetrating to recycle again and again instead of chancing inductioned shots against their damage. Elites take more strategy or are simply out of my reach. I can bring down elite turtles but a drake's fire hurts just too much for me to consider soloing one (haven't tried recently though).

This specialization works in groups as well. I just switch to endurance stance and let the tanks have their initial aggro build, then start the arrow rain. My power reserve and regeneration, with the slotted power refresh trait, seems to last me quite well through a boss fight of some 40-50K morale. Might be even better once I get the legendary trait from class quest.

Back to subject; ultimately the best build is what you're comfortable playing with. I am with mine, though I'm looking forwards to book 12 changes and how to adjust my style to incorporate the new advantages.

[Samlito]

Forvengwath, one of the early bosses in Barad Gularan. Fairly easy to bring down , and the bow seems to drop about one time in three.

One in three?? Are you having a laugh?? I farmed the hell out of that guy with a group of friends for about a week trying 5 or 6 times a night. Of course the damn thing hasnt dropped and i have given up lol! I envy those that get it on their first try :(

[Skamander]

One in three?? Are you having a laugh?? I farmed the hell out of that guy with a group of friends for about a week trying 5 or 6 times a night. Of course the damn thing hasnt dropped and i have given up lol! I envy those that get it on their first try :(

I wonder whether drop rates have been changed across the board? I know that in the Rift, whereas the teal jewelry drops occured reasonably often at first, for the last two weeks they seem to have vanished entirely.

[Daguras]

Ornate Black Ash Spear + Hausdrepa (mirrored AS dagger for raids) for me - 2% parry, loads of agi, +135-180 morale, IPR and some other stats. There's a nice spear from the Blackfang quest chain in Northern High Pass if you can't get the crafted. With traits I run 25% shadow resist & 18% fear resist, often switching fear/shadow resist for wound resist depending on the mobs.

In damage mode I run 2900 morale, 480 agi, 275 might, 24+% ranged crit and this is enough to kill normal mobs before they're even close to melee range. Even if they get close, 16% evade and parry is pretty handy.

Morale/raid build I have 420 agi, a bit less might 21% ranged crit and ~3200-3300 morale. Lower damage, lower parry/evade and higher morale... doesn't make much sense to me since mobs have more chance of getting close and you have less chance to avoid. Still, it works for raids and groups if agro is kept under control (see, good reason for reducing ranged damage output).

With this I can solo Malenhad turles, West Angmar drakes (think Bloodstones area), some East Angmar elite men/dwarves/orcs including the Nan Gurth and the friendly shard dropping worm in south high pass (Rodlug or something). Often its pure luck and Lembas ticks that gets me through, others it's strategic traps, most is just sheer determination. Hunter is a tough class to play and kicking ass against tough mobs is loads of fun. Actually getting to those mobs in one piece usually needs a group... :D

Don't get me started on tactical resistance tho... we have absolutely no way to survive stacked DoT's unless they're poison and single "decrease will/fate by way over 200 for 3+ minutes" zeroes our in combat regen. Pots are useless with their massive cooldown and never seem to remove the most painful debuffs. All part of the "challenge" I guess *ahem* :P

As I say in every stats discussion, any hunters on Gilrain who want to group and kill stuff just for fun are welcome to give me a shout. I've always wondered how long it takes for 6 hunters to kill a Hoartusk... one shot? maybe 2? ;)

[Aevenstar]

Forgive a newbie intrusion, but these 'builds', of which you speak, are managed how, exactly?
The only changes to my stats, that I've noticed, seem to come about by levelling and equipping better gear. Is it actually possible to shift points from, say, Power to Agility?

[Kheld]

Virtues can be swapped in & out at the bard.

If youve hit rank 6+ for a virtue, you can get 150+ Morale (Valour?), Shadow Resist, Wound Resist etc (essential for Raids).

Do a search for Virtues, there are some good compilations here on the forums/net which show what you get & how you get it.

[Scappydog]

Its all about juggling all your armour/weapons/jewellery/traits to give you a build that works for you. You could for example, swap out a piece of armour that gives +vit and +might ( dropping your morale and parry etc in the process ) for a piece that gives +agi and +will ( higher crit chance, higher evade, more damage, more power and increased power regen ).


If you hover your mouse cursor over the main stats like Agility etc in the Character window it will show you what each one does. You then use that knowledge to guide you in selecting what armour etc to wear.

I wouldn't worry to much about it at level ten, except to start the learning curve about how all the stats effect you.

[OMWiener]

Aye i'm still changing my build according to situations etc, i have a chest full of spare parts at my bank just for raiding/soloing/pvp.

[iBilly]

I think I have around the following at the moment:

200 Might
440 Agility
300 Vitality
260 Will
220 Fate

20% Ranged Critical
16% Evade
15% Parry

3200 Morale
1900 Power
680 In-Combat Power Regen

That is in my agility based setup (Moonstone rings, rather than Etched/Brilliant Misties, and some other changes like Laerdan's necklace, Elrond's cloak, etc).

I find the balance between agility and morale is great, and I managed to keep my ICPR pretty high considering the amount of morale/agility I have and the lack of 'epix' I've managed to get my hands on so far.

If I could make one change to my character right now, it'd be to get 5 luminous stones from the ED so I can get that Cudur bow, fantastic weapon for us. I currently use the Fortified Black Ash Bow or Bow of the Hunt, as I lack a decent alternative at the moment. My melee weapons are the Mirrored AS Dagger and Ornate BA Spear.

[MéLAnoR]

My current low risk solo (when i go to farm some mobs with low risk to be incapacitated) set is around these stats :

The traits are currently set to pvmp so i guess the crit 'd fall to 22,5 once swap take heigtened sense with stg.else.
I'll add a second etched adamant ring there so my morale will drop more but giving me more parry chance.I love getting into melee fights nowadays :P
This build is lacking ICPR (498 above) and decent power i know but i 'd not need much while farming since i track an area and move around mostly i gain power fast out of combat.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/1440/screenshot00117wl4ry8.jpg

[iBilly]

Impressive bank balance.

[Amwrath]

Impressive bank balance.
After that comment I had to go back and check it.. An impressive amount would have been 100g. ;)

[iBilly]

Speaking as someone who has never had over 12g at any stage of the game... it's impressive.

:]

[Tigerwyn]

I reckon my hunter is only

98 might and
100 agility

so i need to raise might and agility but its hard finding items or weapons giving might and agility

[MéLAnoR]

Impressive bank balance.eek , i always sansure those things :( it was kind a late and i forgot *sigh*
Though now it's edited .. ;)