Hunters are one of the best classes in Lord of the Rings Online .Deadly, useful in a fellowship and soloing, hunter characters always have something to do, and are always fun to play. While very powerful, hunters can become even more effective when used in such a way to maximize their effectiveness.  The right tactics and understanding the best way to use your hunter abilities can make an good hunter into an outstanding one.

    There are two ways to maximize your hunter’s effectiveness.  One is by increasing your damage as much as possible, the other way is to choose your attacks and the order they go in properly.  In general, your hunter defeats opponents by killing them before they get into melee range. 

Doing Damage

    Damage is one way to maximize the chance of you killing your opponent quickly. You should first and foremost, always look for the best missile weapon available.  There are a few good bows available in the game, and you should keep an eye out for them.  For example, you get a good bow from the quests in Thornley’s Farm, and you should try for that at the appropriate level.  Crafted bows are good, not the best available, but close, and are a viable choice if you cannot find a bow in the right level range.

    You should seriously consider making a lore master to gain access to fire and other oils, or invest heavily in gathering money for oils for your arrows.  The damage you gain from oils can make hard combat easy, and moderate combats trivial

    Always use your focus ability.  The difference in damage you do with focus driven attacks is key to your defeating opponents quickly. Considering that you can easily regain focus using the skill of the same name, you should use your more focus driven abilities right off the bat.  Penetrating shot and rain of arrows both use focus, but have no concentration bar to build up, so you can deliver a lot of damage in the beginning of combat.

    Agility is the primary ability of a hunter.  I will not consider switching to an item which provides less agility than one I already have, even if it provides multiple other qualities, such as increased armor.  After all, why would I need more armor, considering my goal is to defeat attackers before they ever get to in melee range.

Attack Choices

    You need to choose well when you attack.  The temptation is to start with your most powerful attack, such as swift bow.  However, remember that swift bow will not often succeed in killing your opponent.  A better idea is to use whatever ability is most likely to keep your opponent from reaching you first.

    A good combo of starting combat attacks is quick shot, which reduces an opponents movement, then penetrating shot and rain of arrows, and then swift bow.  Your opponent will be slowed down, take some quick damage (penetrating shot and rain of arrows do not need a concentration bar to be used) and then swift bow will finish the deal (hopefully).  Your opponent will likely reach you before your swift bow is activated completely, but most of your concentration will be done when your opponent arrives.  Another great starter is barbed arrow, since you have unlimited time before starting an engagement, and it does damage over time during the combat.

    Don’t forget your melee attacks in combat.  You should use melee attacks as a way to run or do quick damage.  In some circumstances, where I know an opponent is too powerful to be killed before reaching me, I will use barbed arrow on an opponent before they get to me, then quickly use scourging blow and low cut before running away to max range and going back into ranged damage.

    Don’t forget the use of your trap and cry of the predator ability.  I will use a trap before my opponents approach, then attack from behind the trap.  When they charge and hit the trap, I back off maximum range and attack again from a distance.  If you are fighting multiple opponents, I will use the same strategy, but attack the farther opponent.  The nearer opponents gets caught in the trap, while the farther is taken down.  You wish to avoid attacking opponents in traps until you are ready to fight them… doing damage breaks them out of you snare faster.

    Cry of the predator should be used to distract opponents.  Cause an opponent to flee, then run to max range.. attacking will bring them out of the fear of Cry of the predator.  If you use cry of the predator and then immediately attack your feared opponent they will simply attack you from the same distance that they were before you use it.

    One simple way to keep opponents away is to attack from maximum range.  It amazes me how often I see hunters attack from a place too close to an opponent.  Taking the time to move a little farther away will add an opportunity for an extra attack that can make a difference in a combat.

Fighting in a fellowship

    Fighting in a fellowship calls for complete different tactics.  Basically, hunters do too much damage in combat, and as such they will pull attacks from other members of a fellowship.

    First and foremost, you should switch to Stance: Precision from Stance: Strength in combat, because you draw more aggression with the later stance than the former.  Even better, switch to Stance: Endurance, which reduces some of your aggression too.

    Secondly, remind fellowship members to give you a second to gather focus.  Not everyone knows what gaining focus does, and it increases your effectiveness a lot.

    Third, make sure to target your fellowship tank’s target, since your tanker will (we assume) be able to draw aggression.  If you have no target, instead, focus on the same target as your fellowships other damage dealers, hoping to take down opponents very quickly.  Make sure not to attack targets that are being controlled by your fellowships loremaster.

    Fourth, don’t start combats unless you are the designated “puller”.  Even if you draw a lot of aggression, remember that aggression isn’t checked every second.  If you have an enemy who attacks a comrade, you have a critical few seconds to tear into your opponent with ranged attacks before they will check aggression and divert their attention.

    Fifth, take a bit out of everyone.  You don’t automatically draw aggression the second you do damage, instead, you do it by causing more damage than anyone else since the last check of aggression by the game.  Instead of taking down one opponent, consider taking an attack at an opponent, then another opponent, then another opponent, and so on, without focusing upon a single opponent.

    Sixth, avoid area attacks except against weak opponents.  A bunch of opponents can really lay into you unless they are unlikely to hurt you, or are weak in some other way, but when your opponents are not tough, your rain of arrows ability can really lay into your opponents quickly.  However, if you note that your healers and similar are taking a lot of attacks while your fellowships guardian is otherwise busy, rain of arrows can be a way of pulling those attacks toward you, "biting the bullet" so your non combatant fellowship members can do their job.

The Final Word

    Hunters are very powerful characters, and can be an enormously effective force soloing or in a fellowship. Make sure to learn the best way to maximize your damage, number of attacks before your opponent reaches you, and learn best how to fight in a fellowship, and you will never regret making a hunter character.

    Don't forget the tools you can acquire in LOTRO.  I personally carry around food, fire oil, mechanical traps, scrolls of defense and offense, hunter chants and healing potions just for the use.  You can solo like crazy using this equipment, though only to a point.  Hunters are so good at soloing, with this equipment, you can extend how many quests you can solo quite a bit.