Currently I am playing Lord of the Rings Online as a hunter on Treebeard. I wanted to post this guide for anyone who may be interested to see how I build my character and get it ready for raids at the current level 75 cap.
Trait Tree Setup
As of Update 35 the above picture is what the hunters red-line skill tree currently looks like. The focus of this build is to do burst DPS while still maintaining a good tactical and physical mitigation which is required for doing the Tower of Orthanc also called ToO. To this point I have added skill points to the yellow line which gives my character +5% tactical and physical mitigations. You might notice that I did this at the cost of Bodkin Arrows and True Shot traits which I deemed to be worth the trade-off.
As a hunter the focus is all about burst DPS and thus it is important that all hunters who wish to do raid content need to use gear that will help them achieve the following stat caps:
- Physical Mastery: 200%
- Physical Ranged Mastery: 200%-215% (Note: using buffs you can actually achieve a mastery greater than the stat cap of 200% this is because buffs are additive and thus when I am in a raid using buffs from items and from other players effects I can usually get to around 215% physical ranged mastery which can be seen in the character menu when you hover over your physical mastery number.)
- Critical Rating: 25%
- Devastating Hits: 7%-8% (Note: I personally usually sit at 7.8% becuase you will give up some crit rating by swapping in a more defensive cloak than say the Draigoch’s Lair cloak you get from framing the three scales that drop from there. An example of a cloak I swap to is Sarchol from the Pits of Isengard.)
- Tactical Mitigation: 50% (Note: ok so this isn’t the easiest number to reach and let’s be honest not everyone is going to have the best gear to reach the tier 2 cap of tactical mitigation, but the reason Is put 50% which for hunters is the cap is becuase the closer you can get to having 50% or 15,000 tactical mitigation as a hunter the better your chances of staying alive in a t2 raid are. For T2C ToO this becomes important becuase some of the mobs in that raid hit really hard and if they have a random aggro mechanic you may have to survive a few hits.)
- Physical Mitigation: 50% (Note: You will get to t2 cap without trying just by getting the gear required to make the rest of these stat caps.)
Personally, I don’t think it is worth looking at the gear I used to get these numbers as there are so many ways to do so. As long as you are nearing those numbers at the very least you should have no problem doing t2c ToO and Draigoch’s Lair on the level 75 cap.
Skills Rotation Tips
So far, the best skills rotation I know of came from a kin member of mine in Dances with Ents on Treebeard called Madelyn. They suggested that a good way to do your rotation is as follows:
Focus->Camouflage->Burn Hot->Heart Seeker->Upshot
Once we do that, we go into a more constant rotation of building focus using Quickshot and then keeping Heart Seeker on cooldown as well as using Penning Shot and Pen Shot to build up the Upshot’s power. Just remember to never use Upshot without full focus. It’s also good to use Swift Bow and cancel it with Blindside to build focus as well. These are just some suggestions on how to effectively get good burst damage as a hunter.