[octopus]

Originally Posted by Solarus

The following skills are available for use to keep a hunter from using any defensive (or offensive) spells:

Conjurer:
- Silence
- Tremor

Silence: can't be cast while Confused.
Tremor: can't be cast while Confused.
While playing a conjurer, Confuse was almost always the first spell cast on me by hunters. Once confused, a support conjurer will be dead long before the 35 to 40 second Confuse wears off.
If by some miracle the conjurer resists Confuse, and manages to start casting Tremor or Silence, she will probably not finish casting those slow spells before she is hit with Ambush or the hunter moves behind her, and the spell is wasted.

Originally Posted by Solarus

Warlock:
- Meteor
- MOD

Meteor: Most likely will be evaded by a hunter. If it isn't evaded, the hunter can utilize their superior speed to either move out of range of the warlock, or move behind him, canceling his slow spells.
MoD: This spell is really nice, however it costs over 500 mana at level 1, and is very slow to cast. Chances are, a warlock will never finish the spell before he is hit with Ambush, wasting the spell. If the warlock is lucky enough to finish casting it, the graphical effects are obvious that it is on, and it's not difficult for a speedy hunter to stay out of range of this spell.

Originally Posted by Solarus

I'm actually quite happy that this thread has caused so much dialogue within the community.

I agree, Solarus. I'm glad you initiated this thread, and I appreciate your ideas and thoughts on balance. I respect your point of view (and Wudy's too), because you seem interested in the overall balance of the game, while many other hunters just say "stop whining" or "end of discussion" because they want to continue with their nearly invincible condition.

I have stated my point of view several times, so I won't go into details, but to me it seems that hunters now face almost no risk of getting killed. They can attack a party of 4 or 5, kill the weakest quickly, and escape with hardly a scratch. Most spells are evaded, they can very quickly get out of range of attacks with just their base speed, and can fall back on SoW and Camo if they start to take some damage. About the only time I see a hunter die is if the group contains hunters as well, and/or multiple barbarians who can Onslaught each other alternately to catch the hunter quickly. I think your suggestion would do much to balance things out again. Hunters would still be deadly, but would face at least some risk when attacking a group of enemies.