Just read a post on the LOTRO hunter forums about this.

Aparently now the fear breaks when the target takes damage, making the skill useless.

After every bow skill used there is an auto-shot, this means that using bards arrow will give me half a second of fear not to mention the Damage over time that some bows have as well.

Aparently I'm not gonna be able to farm for Beryl shards for the single use recipes and turtle claws for my GM woodworker optional crit item any more, but have to buy them at insane prices at AH.

DDM_Dragonlord wrote (View Post): › Aparently I'm not gonna be able to farm for Beryl shards for the single use recipes and turtle claws for my GM woodworker optional crit item any more, but have to buy them at insane prices at AH.

... like everyone else ;)

This only makes sense, IMO. Why if you give something fear then hit it, would you not expect them to defend themselves. And the other one, think of it as a stun, or they will take the fear out of it.

If you were feared to the point where you were unable to act, would you turn and resume the attack?

The only kind of mobs I will be able to kill now are the trivial ones I never had any problems killing before.

I have no way of self healing in combat, I rely on those fears to kee the mobs at range long enough for me to survive the encounter even if it means I have to do some melee fighting.

Nearly all my bow skills use an induction timer, and those who don't requiers focus, which are generated form the skills with induction timers.

The induction timers will be either knocked back or interrupted if I'm attacked, this measn i will take even more damage before i can dish out my own and will in the end kill me before I can kill my target.

Try playing a hunter and kill a 45 elite with 8-9k healath without being able to use fear. You will most likely be unable to kill it.

As it Is I have problems enough getting what I need for my proffessions, with this change it will be impossible.

You are not supposed to kill elites easy, that is why they are elite.

I have played a hunter and you have many options available to you before the mob even gets to you. If you were supposed to keep them at range, they would have not allowed you to use a close range weapon. You just have to think now, instead of just hitting the buttons and waiting for it to die. Like all the other professions that got a 'month'.

I have a lvl 50 hunter on the test server, and I don't notice it being under-powered compared to other classes. I can have a mob at my level half dead before it gets to me, and a one shot kill skill (heart seeker). I haven't seen a skill like that on any other class.

On my minstrel, I can't kill an elite with 8 or 9 k health either. I have one fear, and it only lasts about 5 seconds... I also have ZERO travel skills, even after the next patch. All classes in this game are support classes really, none of them are all that effective solo. They aren't supposed to be.

What you are talking about are non elites, try taking on one of the lvl 45 elite turtles in Angmar, or a signatrue mob your own lvl.

Try looking at the forums, and see what other hunters have to say about this.
There are some very good arguments for leaving it as it is.

I find it odd that you as a minstrel can't take down a mob with 8-9k HP, as I have seen several of those kill the same mobs as me, faster than i can.
As a minstrel, those 5 seconds of fear can be used to heal yourself, hunters have no self heal unless they are a human, and I'm an elf.

Hell, I most likely will not even be able to kill the signature mobs in IB anymore.

With the exception of Minstrel and not including the human 3k heal that has a 1 hour cool down, who does have heals for themselves? That are efficient?

3 classes comes to mind, the captain, the champion and the Loremaster.

What you aparently fail to realise is that hunters relies on the range skills to take down their prey. Our melee skills are nowhere near gooe enough to kill a mob compared to other classes.

Our armor is no enough to prtect us from the damage we take, and the little morale regen we would get from the 15 seconds the fear lasts (if we are lucky enough that it lasts that long, usually ennds prematurely) is nothing compared to the damage we take.

I could list a large number of good reasons why this is a bad moves,but I'm not in the mood for typing long posts.

Instead I'm gonna let 20+ pages of pissed of hunters on the LOTRO hunter froums, as well as a large number of ppl leaving the game post patch, speak for me.

The worst part is that his was not even mentioned in the patch notes, but just left there for ppl to find out on their own.

Captain can't heal themselves, they can only heal others.

And if people are relying on a test server to decide if they stay or go, they really shouldn't even bother with MMO's. Many games have test stuff in the test servers to test things out.

go over to wow where a warlocks fears & horrors aren't broken by damage :D

WoW still up? :P

The thing is, the skill was never meant to be a magic leash, or a kite string... it's a crowd control skill. It's for dealing with adds, not for giving you a free safe attack. All the other fear and stun skills either break with combat, or or only last a few seconds.

I agree with you on hunters needing a heal. You could use a low level, conditional heal like the guardians 'catch a breath', but you some evac abilities instead.... like the fear that doesn't break until the mob takes damage ;)

DDM_JuicedGoose wrote (View Post): › go over to wow where a warlocks fears & horrors aren't broken by damage :D

I gave up WOW for LOTRO, I got tired of all the bots and gold sellers.
Too many "kids" around as well.

Besides, the fear is currently the ONLY skill we hunters have that makes us able to take down a Signature or elite mob.
This nerf now makes that impossible for us, all we can do now is sit back and look at everyone else farming what we need and selling them on AH at ever increasing prices.

DDM_Dragonlord wrote (View Post): › Besides, the fear is currently the ONLY skill we hunters have that makes us able to take down a Signature or elite mob.

Must have been nice to have a skill that allowed you to take down an elite...