After the request of several people in game asking me to make a guide for hunters, I have finally made one. Just to give you a little information about myself, I have played a Hunter for about 8 months. I made it because I was tired of seeing everyone say it was a worthless class that couldn’t hold its own in most 1 vs. 1 fights. In my experiences on my hunter ,so far, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The hunter holds up just fine on his own when he is played well, given a good template, and of course running potions and charges. By all means, the guide below is just from my own personal experiences. I know there are many ways to play this class, and I will try and touch on some of those as I go through this with you. Please feel free to add your experiences and knowledge below.

Hunter Basics

Mele
The hunter has access to two different forms of mele. The first type is spear and the second type is sword. Since these both have their advantages and disadvantages I will walk through both types in the next few paragraphs.

Spear: Spear damage is based 50% on Strength and 50% on Dexterity. The biggest advantage of Spear is the ability to use either a thrust or a slash spear. Because of this you will at worst have a neutral matchup against your enemies’ armor and at best you will have a strong matchup against your enemies armor. I will list the 5 styles I use on my hunter below along with their effects and other key factors.

Engage: Anytime style, level 6, has a .56 Growth Rate, medium end usage
Wounding Thrust: Follow up style to Engage, a level 15 style, has a .87 Growth Rate, medium end usage, snare effect
Return Thrust: After Evade, a level 4 style, has a .87 Growth Rate, low end usage, small bleed
Extend Reach: Follow up style to Return Thrust, level 8 style, has a .87 Growth Rate, low end usage, combat speed debuff.
Razors Edge: Rear Style, level 39 style, has a .82 or .83 Growth Rate, medium end usage, 5 sec stun

I tell all hunters if you can perform the run through/face method and get off the rear stun that is great. If you cannot perform this consistently than don’t worry because just using the first four styles listed you can do just fine in most fights. I personally only use Razors Edge when an opponent is running away from me. If they are not running away from me then I just use evade styles followed up with my 2 style any timers while backing up and facing to prevent my opponent from landing positional styles on me. With 3 of those 4 styles (everything except Razors Edge) you will have .87 Growth Rates and nice effects.

Sword: Sword damage is based 100% on strength. The advantage of using sword is that you can switch from a 1h sword and shield to a 2h sword during combat. By doing this you can increase your defense while waiting for the 2h timer to come back up. The disadvantage of this is that you will only have slash damage available to you so there will be times in which the damage you are doing will be weak to a particular armor type. I don’t use sword, but just looking at the styles I would suggest the key styles listed below.

Assault: Anytime style, level 10, .4 growth rate, medium end usage
Baldur’s Fury: Follow up style to Assault, level 18 style, .65 growth rate, medium end usage, snare effect
Frost Cut: After Block Style (per Nixian's Char builder) After Evade on my char planner, level 4 style, .85 growth rate, low end usage, small bleed
Niords Fury: Follow up style to Frost Cut, level 39 style, .9 growth rate, low end usage, stun for 7 seconds

When talking to other hunters that have used sword you will essentially be using a fast 1h sword and shield and using it while switching out when the timer for your 2h is up for heavy hits. Since your stun style is an after block style or an evade (I'm pretty sure evade) you will have to start this with your 1h and shield and finish up on it with your 2h for the heavy dmg.

Bow
For bow the same applies to a hunter that applies to a scout or ranger. Bow damage is all based on dexterity and how high you spec in bow. As you can see from the chart below, going beyond 35 spec in bow does not really equate to much more damage. By spec’ing the following amounts in bow you will get the benefits listed below. I prefer 35 bow, but I know some that run with bow in the 20’s and I know some that run with bow at 45. Personally, I feel that 50 in bow is a complete waste since all you essentially get is 1 extra arrow for volley and penetrating arrow 3 which doesn’t do much. Just a couple quick things, Penetrating arrow gives you a chance to penetrate a non-self-cast bubble. Rapid Fire is an ability that allows you to shoot shots at ½ speed and ½ dmg. It comes in very handy against casters and other ranged users. Rapid Fire 2 also uses ½ endurance. Volley is a ground based attack that fires arrows that have a chance of hitting ONE target per arrow within a 350 radius of your ground target. Volley also allows you a huge range increase as well. Sure Shot is a toggle on/off ability that allows you to shoot at normal speed, half dmg, but you cannot be interrupted by ranged attacks.

27 Bow gets you the last Crit Shot (IX)
30 Bow gets you Penetrating Arrow 1 (kind of useless.)
35 Bow gets you Rapid Fire 1 and Volley 1 (3 arrows)
40 Bow gets you Penetrating Arrow 2 (more dmg IF you pop bubble) and Volley 2 (4 arrows)
45 Bow gets you Rapid Fire 2, Sure Shot, and Volley 3 (5 arrows)
50 Bow gets you Penetrating Arrow 3 (full dmg IF it pops bubble) and Volley 4 (6 arrows)

*This chart was put in a thread by Sethor one of the Old GM’s on the server:
5.5delay bow 16.5dps rr5 Saracen scout
50bowspec: critshot-cap = 1070 | regular shot-cap = 535 | WS (using charge) = 1562
45bowspec: critshot-cap = 1052 | regular shot-cap = 526 | WS (using charge) = 1515
40bowspec: critshot-cap = 1034 | regular shot-cap = 517 | WS (using charge) = 1469
35bowspec: critshot-cap = 1014 | regular shot-cap = 507 | WS (using charge) = 1423

Stealth
This determines a couple of things for the Hunter. For starters it gives you your base movement and stealth detection radius. It also comes into play on whether or not you become unstealthed while pulling back on a bow shot. Most people will tell you that it is a must that you have 50 composite stealth, but that is not necessarily true. If you plan on using your bow to open with on stealther or visi's then your composite (stealth skill including +'s from items) will need to be at 50. At a 50 composite spec in stealth you have a base chance of 20% on coming unstealthed on a crit shot and it can never be lower than that. For every level below 50 composite stealth you have you have a 2% chance of coming unstealthed on normal and rapid fire shots and that adds to the base 20% on crit shots. So at 50 composite it’s a 0% chance on normal or rapid fire shots of coming unstealthed and a 20% chance on crits. At 48 composite spec in stealth you will have a 4% chance on normal and rapid fire shots and a 24% chance on crit shots.

One more note on Hunters stealth, remember that regardless of how you spec, your Mastery of Stealth bubble is always greater when stationary and less when you are moving around. I always try and explain this to new stealthers and they think I am nuts. It is very easy to test tho. Get a buddy (w/ same MoS) and have one of you stand there while the other gets out of stealth detection range. Now have the person out of stealth detection range move into the bubble. The person moving will not see the stationary person as fast as the stationary person will see the person moving if they have the same MoS. The reason for this is that from what I have been told on live the stealth detection bubble is pulsating very quickly kind of like sonar. When you are moving around that bubble is moving with you and because of the natural lag of the game it makes that bubble smaller. Any hunter with MoS 3 or more that has been moving around without camo and almost run's into an assasin before seeing them know's what I'm talking about. When I have camo up I will roam, but if camo is down I find a good spot to sit and wait with my bow drawn. You would be amazed at how many times I pop stealthers right next to me that dont see me since they are moving and I'm not. It comes in VERY handy.

This is figuring both people have the same stealth detection skills and camo down for both:

Player A (stationary) Player B (moving)= Player A will see Player B first.
Player A (moving) Player B (moving)= both will see each other around the same time (depending on any lag) but will not see each other till they are really close to each other.

Also, once a player is in your stealth detection bubble you will find you can go a lil further back and still detect them.

To illustrate this Drift made an AWESOME post that I will now copy:

Stationary:



Moving:



Beastcraft
This is the casting spec for the Hunter. If offers you the ability to buff yourself with an AF buff, a Dex/Qui buff, and a speed shout. It also allows you to call out a pet of your own or even convert certain PvE mobs into your pets.
There are different levels of the AF, Dex/Qui, and speed shout buffs depending on how high you spec it. I will just touch on some of the higher levels to keep this somewhat short:

AF: lvl 18 (28 AF), lvl 23 (33 AF), lvl 31 (41 AF), and lvl 42 (52 AF)
D/Q: lvl 21 (39 value), lvl 30 (51 value), lvl 40 (63 value), lvl 50 (75 value)
Speed Shout: lvl 16 (150% 30 sec), lvl 25 (165% 40 sec), lvl 34 (180% 50 sec), lvl 43 (195% for 60 sec)

Now let’s move on to the pets that hunters have access to. You have access to 3 different kinds of pets as a hunter. The first kind is the hunters’ avatar that you can call out instantly and it is based on your level. The higher you spec BC the higher the pet level will go. At level 32 in Beastcraft you will have the highest level hunter avatar at 82% of your level. This pet also has a 2 minute recast timer. This is important if you get into a fight with say a minstrel or any other class with CC. If you just call the pet out and it gets mez’d then you have to wait 2 more minutes to call out another one. However, if the pet has been out for 2 minutes and it gets mez’d then you can just release it and call a new one out immediately. I usually keep a pet out for this reason.

The 2nd kind of pet you have access to is animals. At level 32 in Beastcraft you can charm a normal animal (undead do not work) that is no more than 82% of your level (42 at level 50). The one animal in Emain that I prefer to grab is the Megafelid outside of MTK. This pet does not have quite as much health or speed as the hunters’ avatar but it hits a lot harder and doesn’t seem to miss quite as much.

The 3rd kind of pet you have access to is insects. At level 35 in Beastcraft you can charm an insect up to 82% of your level (also 42 at lvl 50). This works exactly like the charm animal spell. The only insect I have ever charmed was the arachite priests that are like an lvl 18 spider that casts heals. I’ve never found any that were worthwhile in Emain.

You also get access to a Str/Con buff for your pets. Level 10 (18 s/c), level 17 (23 s/c), level 24 (29 s/c), level 33 (36 s/c), and level 41 (42 s/c). This will help the pet take more dmg and give more dmg out.

A couple of quick notes on Pets, for starters the S/C buffs do make a big difference on the dmg output of your pets. As an example, when using my hunters avatar against keep guards my pet does between 30-40 dmg unbuffed and between 50-60 dmg with S/C buff. My Megafelid does between 40-50 dmg unbuffed and between 60-80 dmg buffed.

Running with a charmed pet also has its advantages. The biggest advantage is that in a very close fight that you lose and the enemy is very low on life, the pet now becomes a mob and has a great chance that it will continue fighting the player for you and possibly finish the enemy for you. Another option I have used is to send my charmed animal pet on an enemy while I am stealthed. Once that enemy attacks my pet then I can release that pet and call my hunter’s avatar pet out. That gives me a pet and a mob to help me in very close fights. The only downside to these 2 things is that you will receive less RP’s because they are mobs now attacking them. You will also not get a solo kill if you do this.

Races
You can choose between Norseman, Kobold, Valkyn, Dwarf, or Frostalf for your hunter. Really I have seen all 4 classes work just fine but you should look at what you want to do then pick your race from there. If you plan on being more mele oriented and using sword than a Norse or Dwarf would be better since they have higher Con and more Strength. If you plan on going more bow oriented then a kobold or Valkyn will work just fine because of the higher Dexterity.

Spec Options
On my ranger guide I give all kinds of spec options depending on the ranger you want to play. On hunter I don’t feel there is a need for this. You have a lot of points to spread out and really only 4 lines to spec into. Also, with no auto training on this class it makes the specs even that much easier. I will put down my spec out of Thid and show what I plan on doing at later realm ranks just so you can see the process. Realize that there are many other options here.

While leveling up my hunter I generally went with the idea that I wanted my skills in this order or priority: Beast Craft, Bow, Spear, and Stealth. I would always try and keep my Beast Craft at my level, than I would put extra points into bow and spear almost equally. I never put points into stealth until the level or 2 before a BG.

Brae Spec (lvl 35): 32 Beastcraft, 20 stealth, 20 spear, 24 bow
Wilton Spec (lvl 43): 40 Beastcraft, 25 stealth, 27 spear, 30 bow
Thid Spec (lvl 49.5): 40 Beastcraft, 35 Stealth, 39 spear, 35 bow
Emain at 4L2 out of Thid: 42 Beastcraft, 36 Stealth, 39 spear, 35 bow
Emain at 5L0: Same as above only go with 36 bow and 35 stealth
6L0: 43 Beastcraft, 34 Stealth, 39 spear, 35 bow
At 8L0 I would like to try: 50 Beastcraft, 32 stealth, 32 spear, 35 bow (Since I never really use the rear stun losing it shouldn't hurt to much and now with more dex and quickness I should swing faster and do more dmg w/ spear and bow.)

RA’s
The RA’s for a hunter are dependent on how you want to play your hunter. I would say the 3 big ones that I feel everyone needs is Mastery of Stealth 3, Ignore Pain 2, and Purge 1 or 2. After those 3 RA’s I would say Mastery of Pain, Physical Defense, and Toughness are all very nice if you plan on being Hybrid or mele based. If you plan on kiting a lot then worry more about long wind, higher Mastery of Stealth, Falcons Eye, and Aug Dex. The RR5 for hunters is a 350 AOE 50% snare that lasts 20 seconds. Any form of dmg on any opponents caught in this snare will drop the snare.

My current RA's on my 7L0 Hunter are MoS4, IP2, Purge2, Mastery of Pain 2, PD2, Toughness 1, Long Wind 1
RA's down the road (8L6) will be MoS4, IP2, Purge2, Mastery of Pain 3, PD3, First Aid 1, LW 1

I realize that this was not quite as in depth as my guide on rangers (viewtopic.php?f=62&t=27267), but a lot of the information I gave on my ranger post also carries over to the hunter. Feel free to check it out and see if any of it will help you out. Everyone please feel free to correct me on anything that was wrong above and also feel free to put in your own personal spec’s and styles. I will say this, any hunter that wants to have consistent success on this server will need to run good charges and potions, just like any other solo toon on this server. I will try to add in more to this post when I can.

Nice thoughtful guide for the hunter.

Despite the flack hunters get there is a steady stream of people creating hunters. The main problem I see with them is they are not wanted in groups.

All I need now is a re-spec stone to sort the mess I have made of mine : P

Actually I had a great time in Braemar, with a slightly high bow and stealth spec. Though most of my RPs came from adding. Not sure my SB felt that much better (Both were drop and DF equiped).

Excellent Analysis.
There is a lot to read so I will make my additions brief

Spear vs Sword. One reason I prefer spear is that you will fight a lot of assassins, and they use str/con debuff. As such, your sword damage (based entirely on STR) is more affected than spear damage (where high dex keeps it up).

Arachnite priests can be charmed in Myrkwood at level 19/20. This can be your XP pet till lev 35+ by grabbing them and running to Skona. They only cast heal ONLY if you place them on passive and ONLY when you go below 50% health. They heal for 81! With good armor you'll not often be hit for more until mid 40s. Its almost too easy and makes XP extremely boring cause there is little chance you'll lose. Also they cast an AF buff on you if you dont have yours up. So remove your AF buff, the pet gives you one, then cast yours and they stack

RAs. Many players in Brae expect you to have LW1, prolly the first RA point you should take. Im big on Physical defense as it helps you in PVE and RVR (to my knowledge). So I speced that first.

Armor is cheap cheap cheap for hunters. Everyone who is skilling up armorcraft is doing so on studded. Enjoy the savings. Spellcraft Slash, thrust, crush resists onto your armor. It doesnt take much spellcraft (only around 600) to get all your resists, Many of your Stat buffs can come from jewelry

Also I run a LOW stealth spec. Its not used as much but low stealth combined with MoS can be a very powerful form of enemy stealth detection when you practice. It is very useful for running with a group

wha..a group?!! ...yes, we hunters do group! and group well! In groups hunters break off from the pack when engaging and enemy group....use the speed buff to take a wide arc around the two colliding enemy forces and flank to their rear. Any enemy that may see you and moves to engage, immediately loses interest when you stealth during the fight. Many healers, casters tend to stand at the back end (The good ones often follow the train) where you can pepper them with arrows and your dog. Also, many archers think only the low speed bows count ....like some sort of Archer p;issing contest. Make no doubt, Mid has some of the quickest bows and they are HUGE in Group fights. Buffed quick these can fly at 2-2.5 secs at 200dam each.

Great read!
Torential (Yea! I know it's misspelled but some damned Lev 1 alb took the name!)

Nice guide, thanks for making it. I have many questions still but these are the main ones:

Fast spear or slow spear?

Does +beastcraft on gear result in anything?

I have seen epic bows with procs on them. Is this a proc when the arrows land or is it useless?

What is the best tinctures for hunters armor?

What pots to run with in BGs?

Would lower quickness increase the damage of crit shot?

Fast Spear or slow spear?

I prefer fast spear over slow spear. Currently I am running with crafted MP 4.5 and 4.7 spears which are the fastest 16.5 dps crafted spears. I've looked but have yet to find a MP 16.5 dps spear that is faster. If you know of one please let me know!

Does + beastcraft on gear result in anything?

Nope

I have seen epic bows with procs on them. Is this a proc when the arrows land or is it useless?

Procs on bows are not implemented on this server and I wouldnt count on them being implemented in the near future. I run with a Str/Con Debuff charge on mine. Charges work, procs do not.

What is the best tinctures for hunters armor?

I would suggest either dots or albalatives. If you are playing a true hybrid or mele then I reccomend dots for the extra dmg, but the problem with this is that those dots will ruin your RR5 if you try and use it and kite and a dot or bleed is on them. If you are a sniper/kiting hunter and plan on using the RR5 alot in combat to kite then you might be better off using albalative or even DD procs.

What pots to run with in BGs?

Hmmm, thats tough. I didnt really run any pots or charges in the BG's until Thid. Now I did use the Sun Scorched Cloak (think that is what it was called) which was a quest item that had a decent s/c charge on it. I used that through all 3 BG's. I also normally ran w/ a water pot as well. When I was in Thid I ran the same as I do now, which is Str/Con, Haste, Albalative charges and then I run Dex, Con, and Str potions. I also keep end over time pots, insta heal pots, and heal over time pots on me.

Would lower quickness increase the damage of crit shot?

Nope. At least I dont believe it will. I'm almost 100% positive that the only factors in bow are Dex and weapon spec. I will test this tonight though if I get a chance.

So how exactly do I spec my hunter?

In reply to my ranger guide:

_Oglop_ wrote:So how do I spec my ranger?

I ain't readin' all dat!

The joke so nice he said it twice

RonELuvv wrote:Fast Spear or slow spear?

I prefer fast spear over slow spear. Currently I am running with crafted MP 4.5 and 4.7 spears which are the fastest 16.5 dps crafted spears. I've looked but have yet to find a MP 16.5 dps spear that is faster. If you know of one please let me know!

Dragon spear(thrust) is 4.5 as well!!! Nice skin and we need to test that dot proc!

Seems this guide has helped a lot. Plenty of Hunters adding these days!

Probably all the Hib's that got tired of adding everything on their rangers. They decided to switch it up and start adding on hunter instead. Its ok, I got the answer to that problem and its name is Zacknafein.

Where to get RPs after Thid? I can't find anyone...

It depends on what time you are playing Joab.

If you are playing during Euro time then AMG may be a bit to zergy for you to be able to solo. If you have some buddies to go with you it can be alot of fun. If you are solo then maybe camp MMG in Emain and wait for the occasional Alb/Hib solo stealther to come through. You can also camp the Hibernia horse route, allthough make sure you move around or they will come hunting for you. You can also hit the Frontier Dungeon, DF, or watch for people doing tasks in other realms then camp them.

If you are playing during American time then AMG is pretty much the way to go. More often than not the action is pretty slow at that time of night so camping in the above listed areas doesnt normally end up in many RP's. The good news is that during American time it is much easier to get a fight w/out players adding in. The bad news is that most of the players that come out to AMG during this time are generally a bit higher RR and pretty tough.

Is there a list of good items for Hunter?

Emettin wrote:Is there a list of good items for Hunter?

It's hard to say what is "good". If a certain combination of items allows you to cap your template, then it's good. Of course, you want some charges in your temp(like 150 ablative - bracer of shattering, dragonscale bracelet, cloak of the wicked), but you can also swap charges(which again limits your inventory space for pots). I need to test dragon spear with someone, was planning to do it with Zack, but haven't seen him on. Dragon spear has heat dot proc, so it should stack with your reactive matter procs on gear. Also, Bow of Bedlam is the slowest bow, but from what I understand, hunter bow dmg is not epic anyway, so player crafted is fine(remember, more drops you use, template gets more expensive).

If you are into ablative over reactive dots, you might consider dragon sleeves and tiara of eternal retribution(both have 150 ablative proc). Personally, I am using 2 heal procs in my temp, and 4x reactive dot. I cannot tell you how it works, because my hunter is still level 42, so procs don't work yet xD. You can find these procs on adamantine barrier(vest) and everlasting twilight sleeves. As far as I know, most drop spears are too slow(and everyone seems to agree fast spears are better), so that's another + for dragon spear, since it's 4.5 speed. Naturally, tajendi 2 sortrom necklace is a very high utility item with a nice charge, gatekeeper bracer of chaos is not bad, medina's stalking belt...all very decent utility items, but as I've said, whatever caps your temp is good. Fridig glacier skin(hunter version) cloak is the highest utility cloak for a hunter, but it's a bit messy, cause it gives slash resist(very common for midgard), so you might end up overcaping.

but from what I understand, hunter bow dmg is not epic anyway

It isnt that bad. I crit assasins for around 600 dmg!