Hunter, the class for me?

[Hedagarden]

Hello!

I'm new to lotro and I have been playing the trial version for about a week now and now I've got the full version. I have been trying to find out which class I want to play and after reading alot on the forums (and played some different classes) I think I have made up my mind. I think I wanna be a hunter.
Most of my time is going to be solo play, with the occasional fellowship quests.

Now to my questions.

*Tbh, how are hunters at leveling solo? (Being able to do quests at their own level, killing elites, named and such)

*Future upcoming patches gonna change anything?

*How viable are hunters at lvl 50, both in raids and solo?

*General question, is this game playable at lvl 50 even if you don't raid?

*Which race should I go for? Right now I'm thinking of man because of their heal.

*What vocation is good for a hunter that's gonna solo alot? I'm leaning against tinkerer.

*Any skills I should use more than others?

*Are there any particular trait I should get as fast as possible?

*Any general tips?

Thanks in advance! :)

[Conder]

I'll answer in bold. :)

Hello!

I'm new to lotro and I have been playing the trial version for about a week now and now I've got the full version. I have been trying to find out which class I want to play and after reading alot on the forums (and played some different classes) I think I have made up my mind. I think I wanna be a hunter.
Most of my time is going to be solo play, with the occasional fellowship quests.

Now to my questions.

*Tbh, how are hunters at leveling solo? (Being able to do quests at their own level, killing elites, named and such)
Hunters are fine for solo'ing, but elites are hard for any class. Don't expect to solo them, signatures aren't much of a problem

*Future upcoming patches gonna change anything?
Book 12 will change a few things, I'd advice to check some posts on this board

*How viable are hunters at lvl 50, both in raids and solo?
Hunters are a bit squishy if that is what you mean, in raids you're fine though

*General question, is this game playable at lvl 50 even if you don't raid?
There is tons to do even at level 50. You can pvp, do deeds to upgrade your character and have some major fun instance to run

*Which race should I go for? Right now I'm thinking of man because of their heal.
All races have their ups and downs. Most say elf is best, cause they have a +2% bow damage trait. But humans have a massive heal and hobbit faint death

*What vocation is good for a hunter that's gonna solo alot? I'm leaning against tinkerer.
Most hunters tend to pick woodworker, because they can make their own bows, but having a lot of hunters makes a lot of woodworkers, bows are fairly cheap. I suggest you pick whatever you like.

*Any skills I should use more than others?
This is really something you should find out yourself. Develop your own playstyle. A hunter is a nuke, your job is bring it down as fast as you can. How you do it is up to you

*Are there any particular trait I should get as fast as possible?
All traits ;D, traits are something that show up through your development. Both virtues and class traits.

*Any general tips?
Don't hit mobs that are under crowd control, people hate it. And of course have fun

Thanks in advance! :)

[zimoo]

*Tbh, how are hunters at leveling solo? (Being able to do quests at their own level, killing elites, named and such)

We level solo very quickly, not only because of our highest single target dps but also because of travel skills like a permanent +15% run speed out of combat and ports to the major cities.

but elites are hard for any class

I'd disagree. They may be slow for classes like loremasters/minstrels, but not hard by any stretch of the imagination.

If you plan to solo elites then I'd suggest developing your kiting skills, as we lack survivability in melee.

*Future upcoming patches gonna change anything?

Our melee is getting improved in book 12. For instance, we have 1 melee attack which now adds a few focus (used for higher damage attacks), and another which slightly increases our parry chance, thus making us slightly tougher in melee and also helping us to get off our induction skills (more parries = less induction interrupts).

*General question, is this game playable at lvl 50 even if you don't raid?

That depends on what you like doing. I personally love instances, and would repeat them over and over just for the fun if I could find a decent group :p. There's also pvp as stated, but I personally find that very dull as a hunter.

*How viable are hunters at lvl 50, both in raids and solo?

For trash grinding we are one of the best (alongside champions), due to our high single target dps. If you want to spend the whole endgame soloing equal level elites though I'd suggest a different class :p. In raids we just dps, nothing more really...although there is a few raid situations where hunters are effectively a must (4th rift boss, Zaudru in Helegrod).

*Which race should I go for? Right now I'm thinking of man because of their heal.

Elves and human are most popular, and for that reason I'd reccomend being either a dwarf or hobbit :p

*What vocation is good for a hunter that's gonna solo alot? I'm leaning against tinkerer.

I'd say either explorer or woodsman. Both crafts can boil hides (which you should be getting alot of). Explorers could use them to make their own armour, woodsman could sell them but make their own weapons.

[Havard]

For craft I'd suggest explorer. You are virtually independent of others and can make your own armour. In addition you get wood and ore you can sell for good money.

[Tigerwyn]

well hunters are ok soloeing like any other class but facing an elite may not be as easy signature enemies arent hard book 12 will see some changes to the hunter but to add hunters are probably most wanted class in ettenmores they are most useful in most raids and such for their traps and stances and being able to do significant damage to anything before it gets to them but up close in melee they arent as good but their melee skills are getting damage upgrades in book 12 some general tips are well try not to attract to many enemies at once even two an sometimes be to much for me but at level 50 you should be ok no particular traits , i would go for elf as a race because of their added agility bonus making them an obvious choice for a hunter you should be a explorer or woodworker they make bows which is handy also they get bow chants

but just have fun and dont worry to much

[zimoo]

Hunters are taken to raids for their...traps? O_o

If I lay a trap inside a raid it's for a minor bit of damage (and I do mean MINOR), it's about as reliable in terms of CC as bringing along a level 40 loremaster :p

Or were you still talking about pvp when you mentioned traps? No offence but your post was very tough to read, punctuation is your friend!

Thinking about it more, I'd say historian would be a nice profession to choose. You can make your own bow chants/scroll buffs, as well as keeping yourself supplied with pots (very useful as we lack self healing). After book 12 traps are apparently going to be more viable to make aswell.

[Brophy or wolfman?]

Hunter, the class for me?

no :P