Some questions about the pew pew class

[Saurfenion]

Sorry about the lame title but after helping my gfs hunter alot the last couple of days..pew pew..I cant stop hearing the arrows of Swift..pew pew..Bow flying past me on every pull..pew pew.. I must have heared the sound tentousands of time in just a few days.. pew pew..

Ok enough jokes, but we had some small questions:
1) Looking at the legendary traits my gf is leaning towards Bow of the Rightiousness (power on hit), Rain of Thorns (aoe root) and Shot in the Dark (the fear arrow).. Some of the line legendaries seem to be ok, but in non of the lines we like 5 traits.. So we wondered how bad it is to actually spec over all 3 lines and ignore the 5-set legendaries? Or are we really missing something?

2) Does the line bonus of any of the lines make the line a must while leveling (so is it important to get 4 in the same line for any of the lines?

3) Personally we where thinking that dps is/most important for leveling (always duo or more ppl), which results in?
The Bowmaster
* S2: +5% Ranged Crit Damage
* S3: +10% Ranged Crit Damage, +5% S:Strength Damage, +10% S:Strength Threat
* S4: +15% S:Strength Damage/Threat/Power
Traits:
* Swift and True: +8% Swift Bow damage
* Critical Eye: +400 Ranged crit chance (2% or 3.3%)
* True Shot: -0.1 target's mitigation on Penetrating Shot (only to get the s4 bonus)
* Hail of Arrows: +3000 crit chance (15% or 25%) & +25% crit dmg for Rain of Arrows (more or less only for s4 bonus, but )

The Trapper of Foe
* none
Traits:
* Combat Traps: Your set trap may now be used in combat

The Huntsmen
* S2: +2s before focus loss
Traits:
* Fast Draw: -10% Barbed Arrow induction / -20% Swift Bow induction
* Resolute Aim: This trait prevents setback inductions while using needful haste
Are we missing any must have traits? Is this a really bad idea? Should she focus on anything else for leveling other then dps?

4) Currently she is only using Fire Oils (from the hunter specific usables).. And we are wondering if its more worth it using any of the other usable stuff like bow-chants, etc?

5) Any other advice is welcome too :)

Ps. Im leveling a champ together with her, which might influence some of your answers :).. Hope to get some great advice :).

[Anda%]

the 'must have' traits vary per every individual's playing style, i think

will try to answer the question from my knowledge, although more experienced hunters may know better:

1., speccing all over makes you to lose some dps/cc/utility, based on which line do you ignore the most. for some time i've been using huntsmen/trapper line and my cc was quite okay (gave up quite a chunk of dps, though). later i respecced for dps, keeping two traits from the huntsmen line (keeping the bonus of not losing focus) and my dps has increased a lot, meaning the enemy dies much faster; for myself, i'll definitely go and try out the full bowmaster set. grouping with you as champ, it can be an option for your gf to keep an eye on the cc, so you can handle more difficult fights where pure dps is not enough

2., see above, basically you sacrifice certain portions of your optional dps/utility/cc

3., it's OKish, imo, iirc i use something else instead of true shot; and i like the huntsmen traits! :)

4., she can use oils AND bowchants simultanuously! if she has some old power-conserving chants, she can even use those with the new power-conserving hunter-book.
as for the oils, i prefer (refined) light oil to fire, as the fire DoT breaks fear/stun. your burglar/LM/RK friends may like she better if she uses light oil

5., i'm sure others will provide more insight :)

[Sidamos]

1) Nope, you haven't missed anything. That's the typical setup nowadays. Hunters
which use one of the new legandary traits are kinda rare. However I see more who
have equipped 5 or more in Bowmaster.

2) Imo 4 Bowmaster is actually a must-have for the solo-game.

3) Typical Solo-setup is 4 Bow/3 Huntsmen. Instead of "resolute aim" use the trait
to reduce needful haste for 60seconds to 2 minutes

4) oil only with bow - crossbow without oil

5) nothing is perfect, try around with traits. some prefer this, others that

Trapper of Foes seems very good for PvMP. For groups I can't really say much.
I tried it once entered with a mixed feeling and left with a mixed feeling...It's
really, really odd to play so in an instance.

[Saurfenion]

Thank you all for all the responses :).. First of all when things tend to get hard, i rather switch to glory mode (+shield) and some instant buffs (like suddent defense) and let my gf go all out on her hunter..

Or on small fellowship bosses i just go controlled burn + sudden defense + blade blocking (or something) and we both go all out ;) which so far was good enough..

We even managed to duo whole goblin town at 53 (me) and 46 (my gf) upto the last 5 quests in the throne-room which we are going to try tonight (was getting to late last night), so we already managed to kill 4 or 5 of those small FS bosses and often ended up with like only 10% or 20% morale lost because of the extreem high amount of dps we do together..

This just seems to work better then having her trying to cc since when things are getting hard (she can still open with roots, fear, traps, etc), its much easier to just lower all incoming damage on me when its really needed, rather then always missing around 30% of damage on her..

The 4/3 build seems very nice too indeed.. But incombat traps seem like a life safer too, no? Hmm what is the difference between light and fire oil? Think we only saw fire oil but then again we almost dont spend any time at ah and just level and level and level (she made 23 tot 47 in less then a week real life lol :P).

[Anda%]

both fire and light oils are made by scholars

- fire oil adds fire damage to the hunter's hit and puts a DoT on the target if the hunter achieves a critical hit
- light oil adds Light damage to the hit and on critical hits applies a 'Blind' debuff on the target (it will miss more often)

[Scappydog]

Fire oil changes damage the type to Fire on the highlighted skills and gives a Fire Damage DoT on crits.

Light Oil changes damage to Light on the highlighted skills and gives the mob a short duration increased miss chance on crits.

Non-highlighted skills and auto-attacks remain the normal bow damage type.

I usually carry both oil types and swap around as needed depending on mob type/solo/fellow play.

Like quite a few other hunters I've gone for the hybrid build, currently 3 Bow/4 Hunt. But 4 Bow/ 3 Hunt works just as well.

[MéLAnoR]

Sorry about the lame title but after helping my gfs hunter alot the last couple of days..pew pew..I cant stop hearing the arrows of Swift..pew pew..Bow flying past me on every pull..pew pew.. I must have heared the sound tentousands of time in just a few days.. pew pew..

Ok enough jokes, but we had some small questions:
1) Looking at the legendary traits my gf is leaning towards Bow of the Rightiousness (power on hit), Rain of Thorns (aoe root) and Shot in the Dark (the fear arrow).. Some of the line legendaries seem to be ok, but in non of the lines we like 5 traits.. So we wondered how bad it is to actually spec over all 3 lines and ignore the 5-set legendaries? Or are we really missing something?
ıf your not specfying on stg like major cc or hel in combat then hybrid sets are always better for solo or duo play.
and yes Botr + RoT + BA is the routıne here.

2) Does the line bonus of any of the lines make the line a must while leveling (so is it important to get 4 in the same line for any of the lines?
4 bowsman is a great Dps but a wiper in groups if you dont play right
4 huntsmen is the most fun set with reduced reduction and in fact can provide much better ongoing dps in instances or raids.
4 trapper = at least %50 dps loss compared to 4BM but interesting setup to play like a loremaster
id try each in several occasions and see what fits on your personality or your gf.

3) Personally we where thinking that dps is/most important for leveling (always duo or more ppl), which results in?
Dps is not king in levellng its the effective play in certain time.
major dps might cause you run out of power and actually mıght ruin the fun of your partner so id not go 4bowsman in duos.

Are we missing any must have traits? Is this a really bad idea? Should she focus on anything else for leveling other then dps?
Deadly precison > True Shot
Resolute aim is must have also the trait which decreases the pen.shot
dont bother with haill of arrows or the other RoA trait but focus on single target dps cause after bpe and crit nerf those traits are not so beneficial and i have read some comments that HoA might be buggy.
when levelling to open resolute aim you ll need frequent needfull haste skill usage thus equip swift recovery.
if using trapper set deep concetration is a must have imo which can supply you with %25 power every 2 min traited.

4) Currently she is only using Fire Oils (from the hunter specific usables).. And we are wondering if its more worth it using any of the other usable stuff like bow-chants, etc?
we used to have %10 power decreasing chants if you have those keep them for hard content.
buy or craft a book of power/thread decreasing class item.
as chants - mitigation chants are great.

5) Any other advice is welcome too :)
since you duo champ/hunter make her do the pull and always use voice to avoid wasted CC when your champ is rady to burn mobs to aoe.
make your gf be ready to root mobs if your in trouble so rot might be reserved to last.
if she loves aoe then she can trait to Hoa and other RoA trait to join Aoe madness.
always try occasional insane pulls to face dıfficult moments its just so fun to help each other from dying since as lovemates you have to take care each other much mroe ıntense.
and be ready to die for you lovepie :P

Ps. Im leveling a champ together with her, which might influence some of your answers :).. Hope to get some great advice :).
see the bold written section

[Skamander]

Quote: "dont bother with haill of arrows or the other RoA trait but focus on single target dps cause after bpe and crit nerf those traits are not so beneficial and i have read some comments that HoA might be buggy."

Regretably, I must disagree with Melanor on this one. I have taken part in as well as led raids on all the 6-man Moria instances time and again, and Hail of Arrows/Rain of Thorns are amongst the most useful abilities for a Hunter, provided he knows when to use them - and when not. For instance, when faced with a group of 2-6 mobs, we usually have a Hunter lead with RoT, instantly followed (if available) by LM/Burglar stuns and mezzes. If you have an effective tank who can quickly regain aggro, plain old Hail of Arrows, used over and over again, is also immensely effective against large numbers of meleeing mobs, for instance the orcs who precede the first boss in Fil Gashan.

And I've noticed that since Moria, RoT is much more effective, with far fewer failures than in SoA.

[Scappydog]

Agree with Skamander about RoT. I use it all the time in the 6 mans now and it can be damned useful. It certainly is far more effective ( like all the traps ) since MoM.