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DDM_Salvatoris
Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:39 pm

Hunter Updates
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Overview
There's a lot going in for the Month of the Hunter; here's the big picture and a few tantalizing details of what's new for the #1 ranged damage class.

Travel
Fast travel has always been a specialty of the Hunter. Anyone can learn the way home. For the right price, a very fast horse can take you from point A to point B. However, no class but the Hunter has such broad and versatile knowledge of the land of Middle-Earth-or the ability to guide his fellows on their journey.

With the Month of the Hunter, this staple of the Hunter class improves with new and improved skills.


Return to Camp
A new, floating bind point group travel skill
Get your group to (and out of) instances and major landscape camps fast
Look for new map notes to locate these camps around the world

Group Travel Changes
Several of the existing Group Travel skills are available at lower levels
Five new Group Travel Skill Locations have been added
Four of the new travel skills are learned through class quests... find the quests!

Find The Path
The bonus only applies when you are out-of-combat, but the skill is always on
Press the button once, and never worry about toggling it back on after combat
Traveling Ration stack size increased to 50

Tracking
Hunters (and through them, their fellowship members) know the joy of tracking to find just the target you want. New improvements to the experience of tracking give the Hunter more information about their quarry... and even allow them to share that information more readily with their fellows! 

We now display more information on tracked creatures, and you can sort by any column
Monster name has level-relative conning coloration (like you'd see over its head)
The challenge level of the monster, such as Normal or Elite, is now displayed
The approximate distance at the time of tracking is displayed in a third column
Sharing Tracked Targets
Advanced Hunters can share the location and name of their tracked targets with other members of their fellowship on their mini-maps

"Passage of Nature" can now track Dragon-kind
Now, find your worms, salamanders, and drakes... in addition to beasts, insects, and creatures of nature!

"Passage of Foes" can now track Giants
They may not be as evil or mean as Orcs, but they can still be trouble.... Oh, and they leave really big tracks!

Traps, Oils, and Bow Chants
Ever resourceful, the Hunter can make use of many different tools wrought by the hands of skillful craftsmen. Improvements and new additions to the line up of consumable items allow the Hunter to push harder and focus their skills. 

The duration of Fire and Light Oils has increased dramatically
The shortest duration oil now lasts for 5 minutes (yes, minutes!) not 10 seconds
Oils will now last for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, up to 15 minutes at the highest tier
The clever Weaponsmiths of the world have devised new kinds of traps
The Quick Trap drops without any induction
The Strong Trap doesn't trap as long, but it isn't broken by damage
The Lure Trap draws the aggro of animals until the trap is destroyed
The Tripwire gives you a chance to open a Fellowship Maneuver on a target (it won't do it every time, and it will only be usable out of combat)
There are also new tiers of existing traps
Lower tier traps have always had a higher chance of being resisted by monster of higher levels, the new tiers give you a better chance of success against higher level monsters

A new kind of Hunter-only consumable item crafted by Scholars: Bow Chants

5 new items which empower your ranged weapon in different ways-pick the right Chant for the right job!
Foe-finder - Reduced chance for targets to evade bow skills
Shield-bane - Reduced chance for targets to block bow skills
Breach-finder - Bypass some of target's damage mitigation
Wind-rider - Reduced power cost of bow skills
Whisper-draw - Reduced threat generated by bow skills
These buffs last for 20 minutes so each one goes a long way

Bows and Crossbows
Long has the debate raged over which implement was the superior weapon. With the Month of the Hunter's changes, we have decided to make the crossbow a weapon with consistent damage and the bow one with more variability but with the possibility of bigger numbers.

What does this mean in game terms?

Damage:

Bows have a greater variance in damage: the highs are higher, the lows are lower
Conversely, crossbows have a narrower variance
Speed:

Bows now exist at both extremes of speed, both the fastest and slowest ranged weapons are bows
Conversely, crossbows have a narrower range of speeds
The biggest damage numbers will come from bows rather than crossbows-call it the power of the archer's art. However, if random number generators hate you, the crossbow limits your lows as much as it does your highs. 

If you want the fastest possible weapon, or the slowest possible weapon-both will now be bows. This represents that bows may be fired very fast, or that you can take your time. Crossbows are simple to use but are less flexible, and therefore have speeds more toward the middle range of bows.

Ultimately, you may find the special properties of a particular weapon out weighs preferences you may have for speed or damage variance. Then again, maybe you'll steer clear of one or the other because of personal preference.

New Skills
As mentioned above, the Hunter is getting a bunch of new travel skills:

Return to Camp - Travel with your fellowship to your current campsite bind point
Guide to Michel Delving - Instant fellowship travel to Michel Delving in the Shire
Guide to Ost Guruth - Instant fellowship travel to Ost Guruth in the Lonelands
Guide to Evendim - Instant fellowship travel to Evendim
Guide to West Angmar - Instant fellowship travel to a safe haven in Western Angmar
Guide to East Angmar - Instant fellowship travel to the Eastern reaches of Angmar
In addition to the travel-skills mentioned above, we've made new combat-oriented skills:

Heart Seeker - A large damage, long cooldown, long induction "mega-nuke" attack
Strength of the Earth - An In-Combat Power Regen Channelling Skill
Set Snare - A new "free" trap skill which slows and applies sizable damage over time 

Tweaks and Changes
We also made a number of smaller changes to existing skills, traits, and more:

Lowered the level where Hunters acquire the Dual-Wield trait (from 20 to 15)
Increased power restored by Intent Concentration when the relevant Trait is slotted
Increased the duration of the Beneath Notice skill when the relevant Trait is slotted
Trait “Rapid Recovery” grants a greater reduction time to your recovery (from 1.2s to 2s).
Normalized the "Focus" point costs of skills, Rain of Arrows went from 4 to 3, Merciful Shot went from 5 to 6
Reduced the frequency that the "Enduring Precision" trait allows you to gain Focus pips from one every 5 seconds to one every 10 seconds
Some traveling skills now require more rations than others. Traveling to Angmar is a more perilous and taxing journey than visiting the Shire!
Updated category listings in the Auction House to put "Oils and Chants" in a category under class items, also moved the "Traps" category under the class items group
Placing a crafted trap whose effect breaks on damage will now disable the Hunter's auto-attack to help avoid freeing newly trapped targets!
