Hunter – LOTRO Players

Helm’s Deep Hunter Skills: Trapper of Foes

Well, folks, we’ve had some time to absorb the class changes that update 12.0 (otherwise known as the Helm’s Deep expansion) brought to us. To recap, skill traits were replaced with skill trees, and several skills were consolidated, removed or changed as a result. For the hunter, the names remained the same – Bowmaster (red), Huntsman (blue) and Trapper of Foes (yellow), but the way the hunter behaves between lines differs tremendously. In this post, I’ll go over the Trapper of Foes line and focus on some of the combat skills that have changed or are useful when running in this line.

Here are some of my other hunter skill guides:

Helm’s Deep Hunter Skills: The Bowmaster

Helm’s Deep Hunter Skills: The Huntsman

Prior to Helm’s Deep, Trapper of Foes was undoubtedly the ugly cousin of the other two hunter lines. Traps were weak, could only be placed in combat, and always had long inductions. Since most higher level mobs were likely to run right through hunter traps, the cost to DPS that came from traiting yellow was normally deemed not worthwhile. Now, everything has changed. In running Trapper of Foes, I’ve found a more strategic, methodical and survivable build than has previously been seen on a hunter. Combinations of roots, stuns, slows, bleeds and even heals make the Trapper of Foes a very unique LOTRO experience.

Here are a few skills (combat, mainly) that are available to the Trapper of Foes.

General Skills

Quick Shot: Chance to return morale

Effects of quick shot are dependent on stance:

Precision – chance for additional quick shot crit chance

Endurance – chance to return morale

Strength – 40% target speed reduction

Brax’s thoughts: Trapper of Foes is set up to be optimally run in endurance stance. I’ve done this, and the extra morale return is a nice perk. Additionally, trappers get nice evade bonuses from this stance, increasing their survivability further. Reaching the 5th tier of the yellow specialization will allow you to reduce all of your trap skill cooldowns for every successful evade. Clearly, this is the most advantagous stance to run Trapper of Foes in.

Swift bow – launches 3 arrows in rapid succession

Brax’s thoughts: Not much has changed with this skill, so it’s still a great high-damage shot. It’s also good for focus generation, but a somewhat long induction can be reduced by putting a couple of skill points into the Huntsman line. Use Swift Bow to build focus for your hard-hitting, focus consuming shots like Penetrating Shot or Merciful Shot.

Barbed Arrow – Applies a bleed to target every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. 10% target speed reduction

Brax’s thoughts: Barbed Arrow is a nice ranged damage-over-time skill that will generate focus. The 10% speed reduction isn’t as nice as the 40% reduction supplied by quick shot in strength stance, but is a nice little perk if barbed arrow is already a part of your rotation. In Trapper of Foes, barbed arrow can be used to apply additional bleeds to slowed targets who have likely already received a damage-over-time via one of your traps.

Penetrating Shot – Big damage, no cooldown

Brax’s thoughts: Penetrating Shot has always been one of the best “bang for your buck” shots when considering damage vs power consumption. Now that there is no cooldown, rotate it in with Swift Bow, Barbed Arrow and Quick shot to consume and then re-build focus during trap cooldown periods.

Merciful Shot – Big damage, available only if target health is under 50%. Removes up to 3 corruptions. Additional damage if Lingering Wound effects are present on the target.

Brax’s thoughts: I got used to not using Merciful Shot much in the past, due to the 50% health requirement and amount of power it consumes. However, it does do massive damage and the corruption removal is nice. In the Trapper of Foes line, Merciful Shot will do additional damage if a Lingering Wound bleed is present on the target. So, stack up those lingering wounds and then FINISH HIM!!

Distracting Shot: 10 second daze applied to target

Brax’s thoughts: Distracting Shot provides a nice 10 second daze if the hunter has accidentally bitten off more than he/she can chew. Under normal circumstances, the three minute cooldown of this skill makes it easy to forget about. In Trapper of Foes, the cooldown can be reduced to two minutes, and the number of other roots and dazes available in this line enable Distracting Shot to make a more regular appearance in the rotation.

Bard’s arrow: Applies 15 second fear to target

Brax’s thoughts: I hardly ever use this skill in the Trapper line. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a very useful fear skill, but with so many bleeds, slows, and explosions, I find myself with such an abundance of cool skills that the thought of using Bard’s Arrow barely ever occurs to me. Not to mention, as overpowered as the classes are currently, there’s not much sense in scaring off mobs when you can take them head-on and be ok.

Blindside: Mele attack, Interrupt

Brax’s thoughts: Blindside is one of my favorite mele attacks since it not only interrupts inductions, it also generates a good amount of focus. While Low Cut is probably still the most useful mele attack, Blindside is a close 2nd.

Low Cut: Mele attack, reduces target run speed, small chance to apply bleed

Brax’s thoughts: This is another great skill to reduce target run speed, and it’s AoE. This mele skill fits right in with the other slows in Trapper line, and should be used whenever the orcs get a little too close. With all of these target slows, your hunter is going to look like he/she’s moving like Neo in the Matrix!

Dazing Blow: 5 second daze, removes up to 3 corruptions from target

Brax’s thoughts: Honestly, I always forget that this skill removes corruption. I use it occasionally for the daze, and because the animation is one of my favorite Hunter mele’s

Set Trap: Single ground-target trap that roots and can be used in combat

One of the great improvements of the Trapper of Foes line. Based on the yellow specialization, Set Trap will change to triple trap (like the old consumable), and if you decide to allocate your points accordingly, can also be placed at range. Set trap can always be used in-combat, regardless of your specialization. So root away, trappers! You now have more than enough reason to make use of this skill!

Purge Poison: Removes 3 poison effects and increases poison resistance for a duration of 15 seconds on target

Brax’s thoughts: The new trapper line brings another twist to an old favorite. Reaching the 5th tier of the yellow specialization turns Purge Poison into a fellowship skill. That’s right hunters, no more trying to select, stop, purge … doh, he’s out of range…poison from that overzealous guardian who just can’t wait to make the next pull!

Trapper of Foes Specific Skills

Piercing Trap: Initial fire damage and fire damage over time every 2 seconds for 20 seconds. 30% target slow.

Brax’s thoughts: If you watch my video below, I call this trap “snakebite” because that’s what it was called for most of beta. It is a very powerful trap that not only slows and DoT’s the target, but if you trait 3 deep in the trapper specialization, you also gain a morale reflect effect on a target that tripped the Piercing Trap. In other words, this trap not only slows and bleeds a target, but can potentially be another very powerful self-heal for the hunter.

Explosive Arrow: Ranged fire damage to all nearby targets

Brax’s thoughts: This is an interesting skill because it’s the only arrow that the hunter shoots using the ground-targeting system. It’s nice to be able to target a spot for AoE damage, instead of targeting a single mob and the AoE simply affecting those who are nearby him. It’s interesting to me that the description says all nearby targets, which seems to indicate that there is no limit to the number of mobs who can take AoE damage from this skill, as long as they’re within the radius of the target. I find it a little awkward to use since I’m so used to targeting mobs with my arrows. Still, if you’re already ground-targeting for your traps, this mechanic shouldn’t be too hard to get used to.

Decoy/Deadly Decoy: Drops a hunter decoy that draws the attention of nearby foes

Brax’s thoughts: Certified proof that servants of the White Hand need a better vision program. This skill drops a hunter scarecrow that generates threat and can be used as a tank for mobs while the real hunter tees off on his nearsighted foes. Reaching the first tier of the specialization turns this skill into “deadly decoy”, which means after a certain period of time the decoy will explode, doing damage to nearby foes and stunning them for a short period of time. This is a pretty fun skill, and can be extremely useful when pulling multiple foes. Draw them all in to the decoy, and then fire off an explosive arrow or throw down some DoT traps to make them pay for their ocular handicap.

Lingering Wound: Arrow shot that does initial damage and applies a bleed every 2 seconds for 8 seconds

Brax’s thoughts: Yet another nice damage-over-time skill for the trapper line, and this one stacks! Apply this bleed up to four times, and fire off a merciful shot (which applies extra damage when these bleeds are in affect) just in time to take down the uglies.

Rain of Thorns: Applies a 30 second root to multiple enemies

Brax’s thoughts: Rain of Thorns has been moved into the trapper line, which makes a lot of sense. I will usually use this skill as a starting move to make sure I don’t pull too many baddies in at once. 30 seconds is a long time for a root, so you may be able to burn down a couple (one at a time) that you initially root.

Capstone: The One Trap: Big initial damage, Light damage every 2 seconds for 20 seconds, -30% target run speed.

Brax’s thoughts: This capstone does the most damage of any trap in the hunter’s arsenal, and has the best animation (wooden spikes poking up through the ground), to boot! Yet another DoT, yet another target slow. Use this skill whenever it’s off cooldown.

If you’d like to see further explanation of the Trapper of Foes specializations and see the skills in action, check out my video (* from beta):

—

Helm’s Deep Hunter Skills: The Bowmaster

Well, folks, we’ve had some time to absorb the class changes that update 12.0 (otherwise known as the Helm’s Deep expansion) brought to us. To recap, skill traits were replaced with skill trees, and several skills were consolidated, removed or changed as a result. For the hunter, the names remained the same – Bowmaster (red), Huntsman (blue) and Trapper of Foes (yellow), but the way the hunter behaves between lines differs tremendously. In this post, I’ll go over the Bowmaster line and focus on some of the combat skills that have changed or are useful when running in this line.

Here are some of my other hunter skill guides:

Helm’s Deep Hunter Skills: Trapper of Foes

Helm’s Deep Hunter Skills: The Huntsman

The Bowmaster line is built around the strategy of scoring high-damage critical hits at long range in order to fell your foes before they can get close enough to hurt you. Pre-Helm’s Deep, most people played hunters using the Bowmaster strategy with complimenting trait builds, so that aspect of the build should not be new. However, a few new skills and enhanced specializations may require some tweaks to the rotations of even the most seasoned of Bowmasters. The max range of the Bowmaster is 40m compared to 30m for the other two specializations.

Here are a few skills (combat, mainly) that are available to the Bowmaster.

General Skills

Quick Shot: Chance for additional focus point, up to 50%

Effects of quick shot are dependent on stance:

Precision – additional quick shot crit chance

Endurance – returns morale

Strength – 40% target speed reduction

Brax’s thoughts: Quick shot is pretty much the go-to shot to use when more powerful shots are on cooldown, or when managing focus, power or threat. The Bowmaster seems to be designed to be run in strength stance, and the additional slow applied to your target while in strength stance could be enough of an edge to allow you to burn them down before they reach you.

Swift bow – launches 3 arrows in rapid succession

Barbed Arrow – Applies a bleed to target every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. 10% target speed reduction

Penetrating Shot – Big damage, no cooldown

Merciful Shot – Big damage, available only if target health is under 50%. Removes up to 3 corruptions. Can be traited to apply additional damage to targets with a bleed.

Brax’s thoughts: I got used to not using Merciful Shot much in the past, due to the 50% health requirement and amount of power it consumes. However, it does do massive damage and the corruption removal is nice. In the bowmaster line, your specialization will allow the use of Merciful Shot when the target is at 70% morale instead of 50%, making it useful much earlier in the rotation.

Distracting Shot: 10 second daze applied to target

Brax’s thoughts: Distracting shot isn’t as useful in the Bowmaster line as in Trapper of Foes, due to a very long cooldown time. However, it’s always nice to have an extra daze in your pocket.

Bard’s arrow: Applies 15 second fear to target

Brax’s thoughts: Bard’s arrow can be useful during solo play with a multi-mob pull, or in groups when you want to burn down one target while the other one runs around like an idiot. Fifteen seconds is a long time to not have to worry about a bad dude. When using Bard’s arrow, I most often use it to start a pull. If I’m using it when I’m already in-combat, I’m probably in trouble. But it could be a nice last-second “oh shoot” skill to scare a mob off and give you enough time to either heal up or run away.

Blindside: Mele attack, Interrupt

Low Cut: Mele attack, reduces target run speed, small chance to apply bleed

Brax’s thoughts: This is another great skill to reduce target run speed, and it’s AoE. In the Bowmaster line, Low Cut can also be traited to apply a 3 second root to the target, so if those ugly orcs get too close, hit ’em with a low cut, back up, and finish them off!

Dazing Blow: 5 second daze, removes up to 3 corruptions from target

Brax’s thoughts: Honestly, I always forget that this skill removes corruption. I use it occasionally for the daze, and because the animation is one of my favorite Hunter mele’s

Set Trap: Single ground-target trap that roots and can be used in combat

Brax’s thoughts: It’s nice that this is still a skill that all hunters get, regardless of where we put our points. It provides some element of crowd control no matter which tree you decide to run in. Traps can now be used in-combat, so dust off this skill, you may need it for pulls where you want to burn down an archer while rooting a mele mob!

Camouflage: Toggle skill for stealth, movement breaks stealth. Specialization can increase stealth +8 and increase critical chance by 50% when shooting from camouflage

Brax’s thoughts: I used camouflage a lot when I was leveling during solo play where mob density was high and I needed to pick my way through without getting mobbed. With the bowmaster specialization, if you reach the 2nd to last tier, you are awarded a nice 50% critical chance increase when firing from camo. That’s a nice little buff for simply disappearing prior to taking your first shot!

Bowmaster Specific Skills

Heart Seeker: High damage, high induction time, Heart seeker is now a part of the Bowmaster line. Heart Seeker can now be traited to apply an 8 second bleed and reduce the target’s incoming healing by 50%

Brax’s thoughts: I prefer to use Heart Seeker in longer group bossfights due to the long induction. When you get to the point in the specialization that Heart Seeker that a bleed is applied, using it in this situation makes even more sense. Just be careful if your build doesn’t include much power, because Heart Seeker will chew through it quickly.

Pinning Shot: Applies a five second root to the target

Brax’s thoughts: This root has a 50% chance to break if the target takes damage after one second, so it’s not a great way to pin a target down unless you need some extra time to hit press onward for a quick heal. It’s only five seconds, so probably not long enough to pin one mob down while you burn a second, unless you’re really fast. Also, auto attacks will break the root, so if your intent is to root them for the full five seconds, make sure you target away from them quickly or stop your auto-attack as soon as you get the root applied. If you do decide to root one mob to burn the other, make sure you root a mele mob and a ranged one

Press Onward: This skill has been moved into the bowmaster line and restores a moderate amount of morale and power. Press Onward has a 3rd tier red tree enhancement called “perseverance” that has 3 ranks, and can increase the amount of morale and power returned by up to 15%

Brax’s thoughts: While the amount of morale and power returned using this skill is not overwhelming, it’s the only self-heal accessible to the bowmaster. It’s an induction skill, so it can be easily interrupted. As mentioned above, if used in combination with a Pinning Shot or Set Trap, you may be able to buy yourself enough time to Press Onward and save your skin. I find this skill most useful in group play, though, when long boss fights put power at a premium and tanks can keep mobs from hitting you while the induction timer is ticking.

Rain of Arrows: Ranged AoE attack

Brax’s thoughts: I use Rain of Arrows strictly in groups when I’m sure the tank has grabbed at least a majority of the targets. Two ranks of Rain of Arrows can increase the critical chance of the skill by 10%. The next tier skill (Hail of Arrows) will reset the cooldown of Rain of Arrows each time it crits. My experience has been that only one of the targets in the group is required to crit for Hail of Arrows to take effect. Thus, the more targets hit by your Rain of Arrows, the greater the chance for a crit and the better chance you’ll have to fire off another Rain of Arrows immediately. In other words, the larger the group of targets, the more effective your Rain of Arrows/Hail of Arrows combination will be.

Burn Hot: Increases ranged damage by 20% and decreases bow skills power consumption by 10% for 20 seconds

Brax’s thoughts: Burn hot is a fantastic way to finish off a boss fight in a group when you’re absolutely sure that the tank will not lose aggro. That’s why I like to pop it towards the end of a long fight, provided I have enough power to do so, since Burn Hot requires a hefty amount of power to use. I haven’t really found a need to use Burn Hot when soloing on the landscape. The Bowmaster line burns down mobs fast enough as it is without spending over 1000 power on a 20% damage bonus.

Upshot (Capstone): Does additional damage for each focus point consumed

Brax’s thoughts: Upshot is a really nice addition to the hunter skills lineup. Not only does it do a good amount of damage that increases with additional focus, but there’s no induction, so you can fire it off any time, as long as it’s not on cooldown. In the linked video, I was able to fire an Upshot from Camouflage and get a crit that was over 10,000 damage…and that was using a level 85 bow. I’ll bet some of the best number crunching hunters will be able to one-shot Westemnet landscape mobs with devastating Upshots using better gear/stats than mine!

If you’d like to see further explanation of the Bowmaster specializations and see the skills in action, check out my video:

—

Helm’s Deep Hunter Skills: The Huntsman

Well, folks, we’ve had some time to absorb the class changes that update 12.0 (otherwise known as the Helm’s Deep expansion) brought to us. To recap, skill traits were replaced with skill trees, and several skills were consolidated, removed or changed as a result. For the hunter, the names remained the same – Bowmaster (red), Huntsman (blue) and Trapper of Foes (yellow), but the way the hunter behaves between lines differs tremendously. In this post, I’ll go over the Huntsman line and focus on some of the combat skills that have changed or are useful when running in this line.

Here are some of my other hunter skill guides:

Helm’s Deep Hunter Skills: Trapper of Foes

Helm’s Deep Hunter Skills: The Bowmaster

The major selling point of the new Huntsman is the ability to fire on the move without penalty, even through inductions. Since you don’t have as much range or damage output as the bowmaster line, you need to rely on speed of both character and skills. If you’re playing the huntsman like a hunter was traditionally played pre-skil tree (that is, standing back and firing big, powerful shots), you’re probably going to wonder what all the fuss is about.

According to Turbine, the Huntsman is a “mid-ranged mobile harasser”. While traiting Huntsman, I’ve definitely felt mobile AND harassing, but haven’t really noticed the loss of range. Most enemies close fast enough to get within the Huntsman’s range quickly anyway, so you may only be missing out on the initial “pull shot” in solo play, and may not be able to stand as far back from the mobs in group play. Personally, I’ve found the Huntsman line to be the most fun to play due to all of the movement and action involved, and also possibly the most survivable of the three lines thanks to a number of speed buffs/debuffs that make the hunter a viable damage kite. I certainly am not putting up the “big shot” numbers of the bowmaster line, but the speed with which I can get arrows off makes up for it. No more standing around and watching the induction bar for this hunter.

Here are a few skills (combat, mainly) that are available to the Huntsman.

General Skills

Quick Shot: Chance for additional focus point, up to 50%

Effects of quick shot are dependent on stance:

Precision – additional quick shot crit chance

Endurance – returns morale

Strength – 40% target speed reduction

Brax’s thoughts: Quick shot is pretty much the go-to shot to use when more powerful shots are on cooldown, or when managing focus, power or threat. I prefer to run in precision stance so that I don’t have to worry about focus management as much.

Swift bow – launches 3 arrows in rapid succession

Brax’s thoughts: Not much has changed with this skill, so it’s still a great high-damage shot. Reduction of induction time with hunstman traits make this a regular in the rotation.

Barbed Arrow – Applies a bleed to target every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. 40% target speed reduction

Brax’s thoughts: This is my new favorite speed debuff skill. When kiting as a huntsman, rely not only on your speed buffs/procs, but also your target speed debuffs to make sure that the bad guy can’t catch up with you!

Penetrating Shot – Big damage, no cooldown

Merciful Shot – Big damage, available only if target health is under 50%. Removes up to 3 corruptions. Can be traited to apply additional damage to targets with a bleed.

Distracting Shot: 10 second daze applied to target

Brax’s thoughts: Distracting shot isn’t as useful in the Huntsman line as in Trapper of Foes, due to a very long cooldown time. However, it’s always nice to have an extra daze in your pocket, and now that you can fire it off while moving, it may come in handy.

Bard’s arrow: Applies 15 second fear to target

Blindside: Mele attack, Interrupt

Brax’s thoughts: Blindside is one of my favorite mele attacks since it not only interrupts inductions, it also generates a good amount of focus. Since traiting huntsman, I don’t find myself in mele range as often (since I’m kiting, now), but will occasionally run up to a healing mob and attempt an interrupt.

Low Cut: Mele attack, reduces target run speed, small chance to apply bleed

Brax’s thoughts: This is another great skill to reduce target run speed, and it’s AoE. So if those ugly orcs get too close while you’re kiting around, fire off a low-cut and watch ’em try to keep up!

Dazing Blow: 5 second daze, removes up to 3 corruptions from target

Brax’s thoughts: Honestly, I always forget that this skill removes corruption. I use it occasionally for the daze, and because the animation is one of my favorite Hunter mele’s

Set Trap: Single ground-target trap that roots and can be used in combat

Huntsman Specific Skills

Barrage: Damage increases with each use

Brax’s thoughts: This is one of the new skills from the Helm’s Deep expansion. It’s got a short cooldown, but eats up focus. Use it in your rotation like Penetrating Shot. Mix it in with Swift Bow, Quick Shot and Barbed Arrow in order to keep focus managed. Try to get as many Barrage’s in as possible, since the damage keeps increasing the more you’re able to use on a single mob. The damage increase does seem to be mob specific, so successive usage isn’t required for the damage increase to take effect.

Split Shot: Targets multiple foes, up to 5

Brax’s thoughts: Split shot is the only ranged AoE skill available to the Huntsman now that Rain of Arrows has been moved into the Bowmaster tree. Hence, you are now able to trait for Split Shot to damage up to five foes. Use it in groups when the tank already has all of the aggro, not in solo play to make a pull.

Strength of the Earth: Returns power and morale, and can be traited to increase focus as well

Brax’s thoughts: This is not a combat skill, but thought it was worth mentioning since it is now granted as a part of the Huntsman tree. This skill returns morale and power, can be used in-combat, and can now also be traited to increase focus, also. Although the quantities returned are relatively small, I use it a lot to help manage power in long group boss fights like the Turtle.

Blood Arrow: Can be traited to restore 6% of maximum morale on critical hit

Brax’s thoughts: I used to never use blood arrow. Yes, it did major damage, but it also cost the hunter some morale – which is something I never seemed to have enough of! Now, Blood Arrow still does a nice amount of damage, but it also can be traited to return morale, and has a chance to unlock the skill….

Exsanguinate: Blood arrow has a chance to grant this skill that causes a large bleed on the target

Brax’s thoughts: These two in combination do a nice bit of damage without a major cost to power, plus if you’ve traited merciful shot (or heart seeker, which is a bowmaster skill) to do additional damage on a bleed target, you could really put some hurt on a mob using a Blood Arrow -> Exanguinate -> Merciful Shot combo.

Scourging Blow: Applies additional damage if target has barbed arrow bleed, stops the bleeding

Brax’s thoughts: Scourging Blow is probably one of my least-used mele skills, mostly because I try my best not to be in mele range when traited huntsman. It seems to fall behind Low Cut, Blindside, and Dazing Blow as beneficial to my play-style. Having said that, Scourging Blow does do a nice bit of damage for a hunter mele, so if you do find yourself backed into a corner with your other skills on cooldown, it might be a good one to use.

Capstone – Rapid Fire: Causes skills to have no focus cost or requirement, increases physical mastery rating, can be traited to include a stacking physical mastery buff

Brax’s thoughts: I’ll admit it. I didn’t get this capstone at first. It’s not even really a combat skill, is it? What is this, Lore-Master gets “Sic ‘Em”, and we’re stuck with … this? But boy, was I wrong. I love this capstone. Hit it right before you want to smash a mob with a simple, quick, focus-free rotation of Penetrating shot/Barrage for a period of six seconds. Pen Shot has no cooldown, and Barrage has a one second cooldown. so you can pretty much fire away to your heart’s content. And don’t forget about the damage bonus for continuous use of Barrage! Not to mention, the Rapid Fire cooldown is a mere 90 seconds, so it can be used often. Even if you don’t burn the mob down before he gets to you, you can continue to fire on the run without a miss penalty, because – hey, you’re a Huntsman!

If you’d like to see further explanation of the Huntsman specializations and see the skills in action, check out my video:

—

Helm’s Deep Hunter Trapper of Foes: A Deeper Look

This week I started playing around with arguably (with the exception of perhaps the Lore Master pet tree) the trait line that has endured the most changes for the Helm’s Deep expansion: the hunter’s Trapper of Foes line. I’ve never given Trapper of Foes much of a chance, mostly because it was widely seen as boring and ineffective. Boy, was I surprised when I started messing around with the beta version of Trapper of Foes. This trait line has gotten a front-to-back overhaul and now focuses not only on crowd control, but also stuns and damage-over-time. It actually reminds me a bit of how the current Lore Master functions on live servers. Some of the highlights:

Trap and Triple-trap are now skills – no need for consumables

Decoy and Deadly Decoy – throw down a threat-generating scarecrow, and watch it blow up in your enemies’ faces!

Explosive Arrow – damages multiple targets in a selected area with fire

Ranged trapping – don’t feel like luring that dangerous predator over your way? Toss a trap in his direction!

So potent are the slows, stuns, DoT’s and roots that I was able to kill a couple of single mobs easily without even firing an arrow! I’m guessing that the true value of this class will be revealed in situations where most hunters currently struggle: dealing with 3 or more mobs at a time. Check out the video below and let me know what you think of the new, improved trapper line.

—

Helm’s Deep Hunter Skills Video: A First Look

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then is a video worth a million? Regardless of the exchange rate, sometimes there’s just no substitute to seeing something for yourself. I made this video to show the new skill trees in action, and to specifically show how they will influence the hunter class in battle. Enjoy, and let me know your thoughts!

—