Hunter. Final Spec? Any suggestions appreciated

No idea what my final spec is going to be. Keep hearing anything over 27 bow is wasted.

I have come up with following spec 45 Stealth, 45 Spear, 27 bow 34 beastcraft. I am a kobald and plan on running solo although may duo up occasionally

45 Stealth gives you MOS 8 and as most assassins will spec stealth between 36 and 40 depending on rr I will be quicker than them so even with there better spotting distance they would not keep up with me and have to break stealth to catch me thus rendering some of there most potent styles. I am really worried that if I spec the traditional 36-40 depending on RR infs and ns are just going to eat me for lunch all day long as MoS does not work like before and no camouflage ability.

44 Spear gives me the rear stun which with my superior stealth speed I may be able to pull off followed by a quick shuffle to the side to land side style haste debuff. However should I just lower my stealth and go 50 spear?

27 bow for final crit shot. Played archers before but never with less than 45 bow, just how much dps do I lose?

34 Beastcraft for final pet and 180% speed burst. Gone reasonable BC as I will be solo most the time and its a bit more dps.

Any suggestions or help appreciated but the way stealth works on Pheonix is very different to than what I am use too.

Wed 23 Jan 2019 3:43 PM by chryso

An interesting idea. I look forward to hearing how this works out.

Wed 23 Jan 2019 4:32 PM by kedelin

39 spear is the stun with 44 the follow up.. I would also look at running lower stealth and 50 sword... sword gets ya a evade stun and ragnark rear style...

Thu 24 Jan 2019 3:34 AM by Thinal

Have you tested any of this in i50? Because I ran as high as 50 stealth spec, and the speed difference was minimal enough to be unnoticeable. If it had some marginal effect, I could weigh in that versus more spec elsewhere with either sane or insane weights attached to each, but I saw pretty much no effect.. If you had tested this and found something there, I defer to your better personal insight on this question.

I see no point in 27 archery. Rapid fire at 35 is useful. If you don't find it useful, then 12 bow really isn't going much less damage than 27, so anything in the range of 13-34 seems completely arbitrary.

Thu 24 Jan 2019 2:15 PM by bigdaddyo

how is archery on this server? it was okay on uth, but felt like having 44 spear was a must. use the BC sprint to catch up to a target, hit the 39 stun and 44 followup and a maybe 1-2 more good hits on a side style and you would be collecting rps. here with the crit shot change it might be worth doing 39 stun, 44 followup, crit shot , GG

Thu 24 Jan 2019 4:01 PM by inoeth

bigdaddyo wrote: ↑
Thu 24 Jan 2019 2:15 PM
how is archery on this server? it was okay on uth, but felt like having 44 spear was a must. use the BC sprint to catch up to a target, hit the 39 stun and 44 followup and a maybe 1-2 more good hits on a side style and you would be collecting rps. here with the crit shot change it might be worth doing 39 stun, 44 followup, crit shot , GG

not possible in 5 seconds

Thu 24 Jan 2019 8:51 PM by Tillbeast

Thinal wrote: ↑
Thu 24 Jan 2019 3:34 AM
Have you tested any of this in i50? Because I ran as high as 50 stealth spec, and the speed difference was minimal enough to be unnoticeable. If it had some marginal effect, I could weigh in that versus more spec elsewhere with either sane or insane weights attached to each, but I saw pretty much no effect.. If you had tested this and found something there, I defer to your better personal insight on this question.

I see no point in 27 archery. Rapid fire at 35 is useful. If you don't find it useful, then 12 bow really isn't going much less damage than 27, so anything in the range of 13-34 seems completely arbitrary.

No not tested it as not hit 50 yet, was just theorising so your testing more relevant. Appreciate the advice.

Thu 24 Jan 2019 11:04 PM by Cadebrennus

Tillbeast wrote: ↑
Thu 24 Jan 2019 8:51 PM
Thinal wrote: ↑
Thu 24 Jan 2019 3:34 AM
Have you tested any of this in i50? Because I ran as high as 50 stealth spec, and the speed difference was minimal enough to be unnoticeable. If it had some marginal effect, I could weigh in that versus more spec elsewhere with either sane or insane weights attached to each, but I saw pretty much no effect.. If you had tested this and found something there, I defer to your better personal insight on this question.

I see no point in 27 archery. Rapid fire at 35 is useful. If you don't find it useful, then 12 bow really isn't going much less damage than 27, so anything in the range of 13-34 seems completely arbitrary.

No not tested it as not hit 50 yet, was just theorising so your testing more relevant. Appreciate the advice.

I second Thinal's logic in this. Either stay with autotrained Archery or get 35 Archery minimum. No reason to bother between 14-34 Archery. Gets you more points for melee. I prefer Sword because you can use the styles with Shield or 2hander and not miss anything.

Fri 25 Jan 2019 11:13 AM by jelzinga_EU

Cadebrennus wrote: ↑
Thu 24 Jan 2019 11:04 PM
I second Thinal's logic in this. Either stay with autotrained Archery or get 35 Archery minimum. No reason to bother between 14-34 Archery. Gets you more points for melee. I prefer Sword because you can use the styles with Shield or 2hander and not miss anything.

What do you mean not miss anything? By going Sword (compared to Spear) you miss Weaponskill, positional stun and ability to switch between Slash and Thrust damage. The "advantage" of going 1H/Shield or 2H is not there, going 1H for anything except breaking bubbles is useless. You can also break bubble with a fast 1H weapon with Spear-spec. Trust me, an unespecced shield is absolutely pointless to use as hunter.

The point of 27 Archery is probably the final Critshot. To be honest, I got no idea about comparing 27 vs 35 Archery.

As for the other lines/spec:
* Pointless to go that high Stealth, the increased MoS-speed is not worth it. The original " I will be quicker than them so even with there better spotting distance they would not keep up with me and have to break stealth to catch me thus rendering some of there most potent styles. " only counts if they somehow chase you in Stealth. This is a very unlikely scenario, most will break Stealth and sprint up to whack you once they notice you're faster. Avoiding the BS/PA has little to do with that

* I always wonder why people are mentioning 34 BC. The pet STR/CON buff is not worth it and neither is the better Speed. 32 BC is a fine stop-point too

You can go, from RR1 onwards 32 Beast, 44 Weapon, 35 Archery and Composite Stealth with points to spare. I would advice going that route first, then you will notice what you want to focus on (more melee or more archery) and at higher RR's respec towards more of what you want.

Fri 25 Jan 2019 5:22 PM by Cadebrennus

jelzinga_EU wrote: ↑
Fri 25 Jan 2019 11:13 AM
Cadebrennus wrote: ↑
Thu 24 Jan 2019 11:04 PM
I second Thinal's logic in this. Either stay with autotrained Archery or get 35 Archery minimum. No reason to bother between 14-34 Archery. Gets you more points for melee. I prefer Sword because you can use the styles with Shield or 2hander and not miss anything.

What do you mean not miss anything? By going Sword (compared to Spear) you miss Weaponskill, positional stun and ability to switch between Slash and Thrust damage. The "advantage" of going 1H/Shield or 2H is not there, going 1H for anything except breaking bubbles is useless. You can also break bubble with a fast 1H weapon with Spear-spec. Trust me, an unespecced shield is absolutely pointless to use as hunter.

The point of 27 Archery is probably the final Critshot. To be honest, I got no idea about comparing 27 vs 35 Archery.

As for the other lines/spec:
* Pointless to go that high Stealth, the increased MoS-speed is not worth it. The original " I will be quicker than them so even with there better spotting distance they would not keep up with me and have to break stealth to catch me thus rendering some of there most potent styles. " only counts if they somehow chase you in Stealth. This is a very unlikely scenario, most will break Stealth and sprint up to whack you once they notice you're faster. Avoiding the BS/PA has little to do with that

* I always wonder why people are mentioning 34 BC. The pet STR/CON buff is not worth it and neither is the better Speed. 32 BC is a fine stop-point too

You can go, from RR1 onwards 32 Beast, 44 Weapon, 35 Archery and Composite Stealth with points to spare. I would advice going that route first, then you will notice what you want to focus on (more melee or more archery) and at higher RR's respec towards more of what you want.

What I mean is you can still use Sword styles with a Shield for a bit more defense. With a Spear out you have very little defense. Unspecced Shield still gives you the best block rate out of any unspecced Shield user due to your high Dex which is important vs other Archers. That's what I mean. When it comes down to styles of Sword vs Spear it's all about personal preference. Rear styles are more useful in group play and evade styles are more useful in solo play.

Fri 25 Jan 2019 6:16 PM by sinadin

talking about Hunters ...which spear styles are prefered? Engage or Lancer (and followups)?

thanks

Tue 29 Jan 2019 9:26 AM by inoeth

sinadin wrote: ↑
Fri 25 Jan 2019 6:16 PM
talking about Hunters ...which spear styles are prefered? Engage or Lancer (and followups)?

thanks

engage+follow up

Sun 3 Feb 2019 8:45 PM by Hodge

Sword gives evade after 7sec stun and behind style Ragnarok. Wouldn't these make sword worth it?

Sun 3 Feb 2019 9:28 PM by Quik

Sword is popular by a lot of hunters also because of the styles.

It really comes down to how much you want to spec archery and how much you want to spec melee.

More archery you will probably go Kobold + Spear.

More melee a lot go other races and sword.

Personally I think Hunters are in the best place of all the archers and would be one of the reasons I would play Mid. I love hunters on this server they are in a very good place. If Valk's are ever added I would switch to Mid immediately and play a Valk and Hunter the most.

Sun 3 Feb 2019 10:11 PM by Tillbeast

Final spec is
35bow
45spear
38stealth
34beastcraft

got 60 points still to spend which will prob go into stealth, just unsure as of yet. I am going to drop bc down to 32 and put an extra point into stealth too giving me 40 stealth for next level of MoS.

Finding hunters to be aweful to be honest without purge (10 min cd) and Ignore Pain 5 and high determibation they suck. Cannot beat assassins due to the way MoS now works, worse part of I can't avoid them either. Casters who have a bubble up and quick cast available are virtually untouchable without purge, they just qc a mezz and then mezz pet which is so slow and they now have initiative. Unless you get lucky getting a rapid fire shot off you are dead. At the moment only reliable way of getting rps is killing greens and blues who are levelling which I am loathe to do.

Finding a lot of obstacles in way for archers, bubble, quickcast (be nice if we had same ability for a bow shot), slow ass pet (for hunter) 15 sec crit immunities, new MoS rules, no truesight ra. I could level a dark sm and kill something 3 times faster than I could with a hunter, hell even my aug shaman has as many solo level 50 kills as my hunter.

Sun 3 Feb 2019 10:18 PM by Quik

Archers won't ever beat assassins unless they bring poison back down to earth. Right now as OP as it is assassins only real enemy is their own ability to hit you with as many different poisons as they can quickly lol.

Mon 4 Feb 2019 7:53 AM by inoeth

my short review to sword:
draw out is great with high to hit bonus you nearly never miss a hit
evade+follow stun is great!
ragnarok is great too and it has a very powerfull ASR
you can use 1h swords (skald 1h TG sword with str/con debuff)

but

most enemys you face are slash resistant!
most enemys you face have dual wield and therefore your evade is halfed therfore you barely evade
most enemys you face will instantly purge your stun therefore you will nearly never use ragnarok unsless you want to strafe.
average sword dmg on slash resistant enemy with 4.7 weapon = 150

conclusion:
sword is great if you have access to legedary weapons but not on a classic shard while bound to slash dmg only.
so no recommendation from me for sword.

high spear spec is the way to go, even if you miss alot more the dmg is higher (average spear dmg on neutral armor with 4.5 spear = 190)
also the engage+wounding thrust combo has a 14 sec snare, so if yo uare a true hunter you can use that to get range and fire your bow

(sword has a snare combo too but its only 9 sec)