I'm bad at preambulation, so we'll skip to the meat, eh?
Part 1: The Scrapper
Levels 1-10
You've got an axe and a gun or bow. All set to take on the world!
These early levels give a hint of the future. You can go toe-to-toe with opponents, but certainly not as well as a Warrior. Thusly, learn to do your damage before the opponent reaches you.
Basic fighting:
Always open fights with shots from your bow. This is free damage with no risk to you (besides spell casters, but they're even better as they don't close rank and force you to melee). As soon as you get the "Target is too close" message, mash Raptor strike so it applies to your first swing. You want to maximize the use of special attacks. More = better, early on, and always when you're soloing.
Your bow will only "auto-attack" when you're immobile. While special attacks do alright damage, those mana-free arrows are what really pull things down. Kiting is not an option.
Two-handed weapons VS. One-Handed weapons?
The eternal question. I broke it down to; what works? What weapon does the most damage, now? Two-handers were the answer, for me.
Skill Block:
1 - Weapon proficiencies, Raptor Strike, Track beasts
4 - Serpent Sting, Aspect of the Monkey
6 - Hunter's Mark, Arcane Shot
8 - Parry, Raptor Strike (2), Concussive Shot
10 - Track Humanoids, Serpent Sting (2), Aspect of the Hawk (as well as a slew of pet-related abilities)
At level 4 your first skill to help you with this, Serpent Sting, becomes available. Serpent Sting is a short duration nature damage damage-over-time (DOT) spell. I suggest you open your fights with it to maximize damage potential. Wasted time on a DOT is wasted mana. It is not a free attack as the initial 'shot' does no damage; hitting a target already afflicted with Serpent Strike refreshes the timer (15 seconds at rank 1).
Aspect of the Monkey grants an 8% dodge bonus. Learn to love that icon, you'll have it a while.
At 6, you get your second ranged attack, Arcane Shot. This is a free attack that does Arcane damage; spam it whenever it refreshes.
Also granted at level 6 is Hunter's Mark; the legendary, the feared. In addition to a small physical damage debuff, the Mark prevents its target from stealthing and marks the target on your mini-map with a red circle.
Level 8! So close to that pet, yet so far. Train Parry immediately. And Raptor Strike 2, and Concussive shot. Then, go give the nearest pig/bat/spider a concussion. Concussive Shot slows the target by 50% for 4 seconds. That's alot of spare time! Whatever will you do? I usually mixed up a salad, wrote a few more pages on my novel, or fired a couple more Arcane shots and learned to burn through a quiver of arrows in an hour.
Level 10. Finally. Track humanoids is handy for PVE and a necessity for PVP. Aspect of the Hawk is a nifty + to attack power, but I personally don't use it unless I know, for sure, that I will not be in melee.
At this time, your trainer will either direct you to another trainer, or give you a quest to go out and Tame various beasts.
Taming goes like this: you cast the ever-so-slow channeling spell, the monster aggros you and attacks. If you survive the attacks long enough for the spell to finish channeling, the beast will become your pet. You will gain a second, smaller skill bar that sits over your own. Commands can be issued by clicking an icon or hitting ctrl and the icon's corresponding number.
Finish the entire quest immediately. You gain some abilities from the trainer who gives it to you and some from visiting another trainer within your race's primary city.
During the quest, animals tamed will have their racial abilities. Boars have a charge, scorpids have a poison attack, frost bears have a claw attack with a slow component. If you tame that same creature later with the actual taming skill, it will not have any racial abilities.
The only abilities in right now are Growl, Claw, Bite, and Cower. Growl is taught by the "Pet Trainer" and the others are learned by taming and fighting with a creature. Once you learn an ability, it can be taught to other pets (so long as it's a logical ability, scorpions can't learn bite but can learn claw, for example). The only pets that can learn all the abilities right now are Bears, Cats, and Raptors.
Here's a list with what creatures have what rank of what ability
Feed your pet often. Do not look at "happy" as being a +25% damage bonus, look at it as normal damage, Normal as 80% damage, and Unhappy as 60% damage. Also, you must keep your pet happy for it to gain Loyalty. The more loyal the pet is, the more training points available, the more abilities you can teach your pet (this will be more important when they finish pet abilities... if they finish pet abilities). What foods your pet will eat can be identified by hovering your pointer of the "Happiness" icon on the pet screen. Bears and boars will eat virtually anything; most other pets are a bit pickier.
Train your chosen pet in all available abilities ASAP. The Skills are compulsory. No arguments. With just claw and bite, my raptor can pull aggro off me. With growl, he gets himself frequently killed. You can turn off the pet's auto-cast of the skills.
Play with your pet. Love your pet. Understand, however, that your pet is expendable and can always be revived. Your death isn't as negligible.
Part 2: The Skirmisher
Levels 11-20
My fights at this point went something like this: Concussive Shot, Arcane shot, Serpent sting, sick the pet, continue firing until either the leggy-snake grabbed aggro or I was in melee. If the former, chain arcane shot as it refreshed, if the later; chain Raptor strike.
Skill Block:
12 - Arcane Shot (2), Distracting Shot, Wing Clip, Mend Pet
14 - Scare Beast, Eyes of the Beast, Eagle Eye
16 - Raptor Strike (3), Immolation Trap, Mongoose Bite
18 - Serpent Sting (3), Multi-Shot, Track Undead, Aspect of the Hawk (2)
20 - Growl (3), Polearms, Dual Wield, Distracting Shot (2), Arcane Shot (3), Mend Pet (2), Freezing Trap, Aspect of the Cheetah, Disengage
12
I don't use a custom UI. At level 12, I had to make a second skill tab to remain effective: one for ranged fighting, one for melee. Wing clip is a handy ability being a longer-lasting melee form of Concussive Shot. Distracting shot is nice for picking aggro off the softer groupmates, but when solo there's not much use. Mend pet is a channeled pet heal over time. First rank heals 20 damage a second for five seconds. Sometimes it will save your pet; but usually it's better just to try to kill your opponent before they kill your pet.
14
Scare beast, a Beast fear, could be useful for crowd control, Eyes of the Beast puts you in control of your pet and is a toy at best, Eagle eye is a sight zoom and very handy for scouting areas. It creates an "area of effect" pattern circle, where you click that circle is where your perspective will "bind" while you're channeling the spell. So far, I haven't found a range limitation. Outdoors only, though.
16
Immolation Trap is a nice fire-based damage over time, though a bit tedious to use. You place a bear-trap looking object on the ground. The first enemy to wander near it gets blasted with a little fire and burns for a few seconds. Traps can only be laid when out of combat. Mongoose bite is a free melee attack that can only be used after you dodge. Can be skipped if you're short on cash or never melee. It's nice to have free damage, but I forget to use it half the time.
18
Multi-shot's a joy. There's just something amusing about hitting three targets at once. Fantastic for those dock-ship brawls that occur so often in Rachet. It's also useful as an additional attack when playing hit-and-run PVP. A bit hard on the mana, though.
20
Dual wield is a matter of what weapons you have available, as is Polearms.
Freezing trap is basically a 10 second polymorph and can be a nice way to park anticipated adds for a few seconds. Aspect of the Cheetah changes your life. It's 30% faster run-walk, just don't get hit or you'll be instantly dazed. Disengage removes you from combat, which definately has possibilities, I just need to play around with it more.
At level 20, a well-planned fight went like so: enter bow-range with the target, take a couple steps forward, lay an Immolation Trap. Step back a couple yards to maximum bow range, fire a concussive shot, arcane, serpent, arcane, sick pet so that the pet meets the target after it has hit the trap, chain arcane, refresh serpent if needed. Of course, I spent a good bit of time in melee as well. Well-planned fights get old. Quick.
Part 3: Head-hunting 101
Early Player vs. Player Combat and the Hunter's Role
As you might have noticed, you don't hold up too well in melee. Yeah, the Hunter can hold itâs own for a short while, but generally you want the better-armored pet to be taking the heat.
Players will ignore the pet. If they don't, you'll have an easy win and should rightfully proclaim "wtf noob!"
First, one on one combat.
Hunters do not do well in hand-to-hand combat with warriors. We just don't. Keep 'em at an arm's length. Kite them as much as possible and use concussive shot and wing clip liberally. A rogue, once marked, can be effectively kited and your pet can eventually wear them down. Robe casters are candy if you get the drop, as are you if they get the drop. Hybrids, I haven't had a great deal of experience with outside of mass combat. Against other hunters... the first shot and the better bow wins.
Hunters do their damage slower than other "DPS" classes. We do not, innately, have any heavy hitting attacks. We've got gobs of little, fast attacks, but that's not our real edge...
Above all else, the Hunter's biggest asset is Situational Awareness.
What is Situational Awareness?
Situational Awareness refers to the degree of accuracy by which one's perception of his current environment mirrors reality.
In other words, being aware of what and who's around you at all times. Noticing of an enemy before they notice you. Seeing, without being seen. See that little "-" symbol by the mini-map? Click it until it greys out. Never adjust it again. Humanoid Tracking, Hunter's Mark, and eventually Track hidden are your greatest assests. Learn what kind of monsters stalk an area, learn their usual wandering patterns, then pursue anything abnormal. Stalking a group of raiders for twenty minutes until one wander's off by himself and never knowing that that lonesome humanoid is a gnome warlock until the moment you draw a bead and fire is certainly an experience.
Watching his friends circle back in search of you's fun, but how about doing it from behind a tree within /say range of them?
You do not fight players, you hunt prey.
That, is the Hunter's edge.
In mass brawls, just sit back, pick your targets, and fire away. You're not a priority like mages and priests, and you're not as visible as warriors and paladins.
Part 4: ...Back to the Bows and Axes.
Talents
On my Troll, I've gone all Marksmanship tree for talents. Aimed shot gives a nice heavy hitting opener, but the "casting time" on it's too long for continuous use. Better off just plinking out regular shots after that first smack.
On a whole, I'm quiet impressed by the Hunter talent trees. The Survival tree is the best warrior passives on one tree, and Marksmanship's just fun stuff. The Beast Mastery tree's all good, but the whole pet system needs to be finished, still.
- My first shot at something like this and it's pretty late. Forgive any discrepancies, please. Corrections will be made as soon as I can.
Part 1: The Scrapper
Levels 1-10
You've got an axe and a gun or bow. All set to take on the world!
These early levels give a hint of the future. You can go toe-to-toe with opponents, but certainly not as well as a Warrior. Thusly, learn to do your damage before the opponent reaches you.
Basic fighting:
Always open fights with shots from your bow. This is free damage with no risk to you (besides spell casters, but they're even better as they don't close rank and force you to melee). As soon as you get the "Target is too close" message, mash Raptor strike so it applies to your first swing. You want to maximize the use of special attacks. More = better, early on, and always when you're soloing.
Your bow will only "auto-attack" when you're immobile. While special attacks do alright damage, those mana-free arrows are what really pull things down. Kiting is not an option.
Two-handed weapons VS. One-Handed weapons?
The eternal question. I broke it down to; what works? What weapon does the most damage, now? Two-handers were the answer, for me.
Skill Block:
1 - Weapon proficiencies, Raptor Strike, Track beasts
4 - Serpent Sting, Aspect of the Monkey
6 - Hunter's Mark, Arcane Shot
8 - Parry, Raptor Strike (2), Concussive Shot
10 - Track Humanoids, Serpent Sting (2), Aspect of the Hawk (as well as a slew of pet-related abilities)
At level 4 your first skill to help you with this, Serpent Sting, becomes available. Serpent Sting is a short duration nature damage damage-over-time (DOT) spell. I suggest you open your fights with it to maximize damage potential. Wasted time on a DOT is wasted mana. It is not a free attack as the initial 'shot' does no damage; hitting a target already afflicted with Serpent Strike refreshes the timer (15 seconds at rank 1).
Aspect of the Monkey grants an 8% dodge bonus. Learn to love that icon, you'll have it a while.
At 6, you get your second ranged attack, Arcane Shot. This is a free attack that does Arcane damage; spam it whenever it refreshes.
Also granted at level 6 is Hunter's Mark; the legendary, the feared. In addition to a small physical damage debuff, the Mark prevents its target from stealthing and marks the target on your mini-map with a red circle.
Level 8! So close to that pet, yet so far. Train Parry immediately. And Raptor Strike 2, and Concussive shot. Then, go give the nearest pig/bat/spider a concussion. Concussive Shot slows the target by 50% for 4 seconds. That's alot of spare time! Whatever will you do? I usually mixed up a salad, wrote a few more pages on my novel, or fired a couple more Arcane shots and learned to burn through a quiver of arrows in an hour.
Level 10. Finally. Track humanoids is handy for PVE and a necessity for PVP. Aspect of the Hawk is a nifty + to attack power, but I personally don't use it unless I know, for sure, that I will not be in melee.
At this time, your trainer will either direct you to another trainer, or give you a quest to go out and Tame various beasts.
Taming goes like this: you cast the ever-so-slow channeling spell, the monster aggros you and attacks. If you survive the attacks long enough for the spell to finish channeling, the beast will become your pet. You will gain a second, smaller skill bar that sits over your own. Commands can be issued by clicking an icon or hitting ctrl and the icon's corresponding number.
Finish the entire quest immediately. You gain some abilities from the trainer who gives it to you and some from visiting another trainer within your race's primary city.
During the quest, animals tamed will have their racial abilities. Boars have a charge, scorpids have a poison attack, frost bears have a claw attack with a slow component. If you tame that same creature later with the actual taming skill, it will not have any racial abilities.
The only abilities in right now are Growl, Claw, Bite, and Cower. Growl is taught by the "Pet Trainer" and the others are learned by taming and fighting with a creature. Once you learn an ability, it can be taught to other pets (so long as it's a logical ability, scorpions can't learn bite but can learn claw, for example). The only pets that can learn all the abilities right now are Bears, Cats, and Raptors.
Here's a list with what creatures have what rank of what ability
Feed your pet often. Do not look at "happy" as being a +25% damage bonus, look at it as normal damage, Normal as 80% damage, and Unhappy as 60% damage. Also, you must keep your pet happy for it to gain Loyalty. The more loyal the pet is, the more training points available, the more abilities you can teach your pet (this will be more important when they finish pet abilities... if they finish pet abilities). What foods your pet will eat can be identified by hovering your pointer of the "Happiness" icon on the pet screen. Bears and boars will eat virtually anything; most other pets are a bit pickier.
Train your chosen pet in all available abilities ASAP. The Skills are compulsory. No arguments. With just claw and bite, my raptor can pull aggro off me. With growl, he gets himself frequently killed. You can turn off the pet's auto-cast of the skills.
Play with your pet. Love your pet. Understand, however, that your pet is expendable and can always be revived. Your death isn't as negligible.
Part 2: The Skirmisher
Levels 11-20
My fights at this point went something like this: Concussive Shot, Arcane shot, Serpent sting, sick the pet, continue firing until either the leggy-snake grabbed aggro or I was in melee. If the former, chain arcane shot as it refreshed, if the later; chain Raptor strike.
Skill Block:
12 - Arcane Shot (2), Distracting Shot, Wing Clip, Mend Pet
14 - Scare Beast, Eyes of the Beast, Eagle Eye
16 - Raptor Strike (3), Immolation Trap, Mongoose Bite
18 - Serpent Sting (3), Multi-Shot, Track Undead, Aspect of the Hawk (2)
20 - Growl (3), Polearms, Dual Wield, Distracting Shot (2), Arcane Shot (3), Mend Pet (2), Freezing Trap, Aspect of the Cheetah, Disengage
12
I don't use a custom UI. At level 12, I had to make a second skill tab to remain effective: one for ranged fighting, one for melee. Wing clip is a handy ability being a longer-lasting melee form of Concussive Shot. Distracting shot is nice for picking aggro off the softer groupmates, but when solo there's not much use. Mend pet is a channeled pet heal over time. First rank heals 20 damage a second for five seconds. Sometimes it will save your pet; but usually it's better just to try to kill your opponent before they kill your pet.
14
Scare beast, a Beast fear, could be useful for crowd control, Eyes of the Beast puts you in control of your pet and is a toy at best, Eagle eye is a sight zoom and very handy for scouting areas. It creates an "area of effect" pattern circle, where you click that circle is where your perspective will "bind" while you're channeling the spell. So far, I haven't found a range limitation. Outdoors only, though.
16
Immolation Trap is a nice fire-based damage over time, though a bit tedious to use. You place a bear-trap looking object on the ground. The first enemy to wander near it gets blasted with a little fire and burns for a few seconds. Traps can only be laid when out of combat. Mongoose bite is a free melee attack that can only be used after you dodge. Can be skipped if you're short on cash or never melee. It's nice to have free damage, but I forget to use it half the time.
18
Multi-shot's a joy. There's just something amusing about hitting three targets at once. Fantastic for those dock-ship brawls that occur so often in Rachet. It's also useful as an additional attack when playing hit-and-run PVP. A bit hard on the mana, though.
20
Dual wield is a matter of what weapons you have available, as is Polearms.
Freezing trap is basically a 10 second polymorph and can be a nice way to park anticipated adds for a few seconds. Aspect of the Cheetah changes your life. It's 30% faster run-walk, just don't get hit or you'll be instantly dazed. Disengage removes you from combat, which definately has possibilities, I just need to play around with it more.
At level 20, a well-planned fight went like so: enter bow-range with the target, take a couple steps forward, lay an Immolation Trap. Step back a couple yards to maximum bow range, fire a concussive shot, arcane, serpent, arcane, sick pet so that the pet meets the target after it has hit the trap, chain arcane, refresh serpent if needed. Of course, I spent a good bit of time in melee as well. Well-planned fights get old. Quick.
Part 3: Head-hunting 101
Early Player vs. Player Combat and the Hunter's Role
As you might have noticed, you don't hold up too well in melee. Yeah, the Hunter can hold itâs own for a short while, but generally you want the better-armored pet to be taking the heat.
Players will ignore the pet. If they don't, you'll have an easy win and should rightfully proclaim "wtf noob!"
First, one on one combat.
Hunters do not do well in hand-to-hand combat with warriors. We just don't. Keep 'em at an arm's length. Kite them as much as possible and use concussive shot and wing clip liberally. A rogue, once marked, can be effectively kited and your pet can eventually wear them down. Robe casters are candy if you get the drop, as are you if they get the drop. Hybrids, I haven't had a great deal of experience with outside of mass combat. Against other hunters... the first shot and the better bow wins.
Hunters do their damage slower than other "DPS" classes. We do not, innately, have any heavy hitting attacks. We've got gobs of little, fast attacks, but that's not our real edge...
Above all else, the Hunter's biggest asset is Situational Awareness.
What is Situational Awareness?
Situational Awareness refers to the degree of accuracy by which one's perception of his current environment mirrors reality.
In other words, being aware of what and who's around you at all times. Noticing of an enemy before they notice you. Seeing, without being seen. See that little "-" symbol by the mini-map? Click it until it greys out. Never adjust it again. Humanoid Tracking, Hunter's Mark, and eventually Track hidden are your greatest assests. Learn what kind of monsters stalk an area, learn their usual wandering patterns, then pursue anything abnormal. Stalking a group of raiders for twenty minutes until one wander's off by himself and never knowing that that lonesome humanoid is a gnome warlock until the moment you draw a bead and fire is certainly an experience.
Watching his friends circle back in search of you's fun, but how about doing it from behind a tree within /say range of them?
You do not fight players, you hunt prey.
That, is the Hunter's edge.
In mass brawls, just sit back, pick your targets, and fire away. You're not a priority like mages and priests, and you're not as visible as warriors and paladins.
Part 4: ...Back to the Bows and Axes.
Talents
On my Troll, I've gone all Marksmanship tree for talents. Aimed shot gives a nice heavy hitting opener, but the "casting time" on it's too long for continuous use. Better off just plinking out regular shots after that first smack.
On a whole, I'm quiet impressed by the Hunter talent trees. The Survival tree is the best warrior passives on one tree, and Marksmanship's just fun stuff. The Beast Mastery tree's all good, but the whole pet system needs to be finished, still.
- My first shot at something like this and it's pretty late. Forgive any discrepancies, please. Corrections will be made as soon as I can.
"AND THEN THE PALADIN TOOK MY EYES!"
Forever oppressed by the GOLs.
Grom Hellscream: [Orcish] kek
Forever oppressed by the GOLs.
Grom Hellscream: [Orcish] kek