Serious out-of-balance with hunters

[Vaylos]

Well, on the whole escapist issue, why not just implement what every MMO and it's great aunt has done, and slow movement for all classes by 50% when their HP falls below 25%? This would make it MUCH harder for hunters (or any other class for that matter) to get away successfully if they wait too long. This also forces all classes to decide whether to fight or flee much sooner in battle, which means they have to realize sooner whether or not they are out matched. Otherwise, you're pretty much committed, for better or worse.

As for camo, I like the longer time, but I agree that it should be interruptable during casting, so it would be much harder to cast in battle. Also, seeing as it's considered offensive, it probably shouldn't be castable while under SoW. But I like the direction the hunter has taken as being more of a stealther class than it has in the past. We're kinda sneaky...a la Thief...at least that's how I look at it...

And for the record, though I'm only lvl 29 on my hunter, I'm still loving the shortbow. It complements my setup quite well so far. I may switch to a med speed longbow for war, but I don't know...I don't like the skill tree in longbow as much. ...might just throw some extra points into long to keep as a backup. Guess I'll have to test things later to see what works.

I have to say though, in past experience playing lightly armored classes (nightshade on DAoC) since we tend to take damage out the arse, evasion is key, although...it seems to me so far, that the way evasion is implemented right now is a bit.....wierd. It doesn't seem to be a steady thing, more like you either evade a heckuva lot in a fight...or hardly at all, and that seems wrong to me. I mean there should be some variation sure, but this is like night and day. Wonder if NGD over-engineered the dice roller. o.O I've always been fond of principles of KISS when it comes to random number generation. Nothing fancy, just make sure it -works- and that it -works well-

I might delete-recreate my barb as well, and take a more Dex oriented approach to see if that improves the evade rates a bit. -ponder-

[CumeriTarenes]

Originally Posted by Vaylos

Well, on the whole escapist issue, why not just implement what every MMO and it's great aunt has done, and slow movement for all classes by 50% when their HP falls below 25%?

good idea but it would make ppl with low hp even dieing faster because they are doomed with it. For melee classes in big wars this would be a realy bad advantage.

Originally Posted by Vaylos

Also, seeing as it's considered offensive, it probably shouldn't be castable while under SoW.

It is not necessary to change son of the wind. Just change camo that it's casting is canceled when beeing attacked. Same mechanism than when you try to log out while under attack.

[aric_swartzell]

How do people use shortbows? I guess it'd get better if I had rep shot. But I find the damage over time about the same, I can fire off more spells per amount of time...but I only have two damage spells to fire, so that's kinda moot. And the range is less. I must be missing something as several of the best hunters I know use shorts.

[ncvr]

Dual Shot can hit harder than shield pierce, it already does on my lvl 16 hunter...

[CumeriTarenes]

Originally Posted by aric_swartzell

How do people use shortbows? I guess it'd get better if I had rep shot. But I find the damage over time about the same, I can fire off more spells per amount of time...but I only have two damage spells to fire, so that's kinda moot. And the range is less. I must be missing something as several of the best hunters I know use shorts.

short bow tree is awesome. But I have to admit I suck with short bows, I am too used to range and a fast weapon is just too fast for my slow brain and my slow movements of my fingers.

dual shoot rules out shield piercing, lower cool down and less mana for almost the same damge (but it depends on the bow)

dex passive is very good, if you have short bow tree on a higher lvl (most long bow users have short bow on 7 or even 11 because of dex passive) you can even get a higher passive. You will notice that with more dex your spells hit more often, also you will evade more

conc buff is freakin awesome, you can even hit almost every attack on very hard mobs with it, without a lot are either resisted or evaded. At lvl 5 duration is almost cooldown

tear apart is a great spell too, makes dmg independent from armor and is the most powerful damage spell of a hunter. break apart from long bow tree realy sucks inmho, long cooldown, long casting time, much mana. I as a marksman don't use it, I have much better damage spells. But I am not realy sure which effect the -const of break apart has...

hit chance passive is also great, especially for hunters who rely a lot on basic damage and less on damage skills.

hinder is also good, especialy when you are chased, but it is also often used when you chase somebody to slow him down, mostly used when ensnarring arrow missed

and finally rep shoot...very good dmg spell...imagin you are a hunter and use camo to neak to a group of levelers. You get yourself in position and cast it...
or in fort wars after breaking the door, or after a terror...

short bow tree is realy better than longbow imho...but as I said...I am too dumb to use it. I only switch to fast short bow sometimes when I realy need the attack speed, especially when facing a barb.

But at big wars short bow is in disadvantage because of the range

just my 2 cents, even when they are off topic...but actually there is not realy a topic to discuss things like this. We should discuss much more about spells, spell combinations and spell timing than about which spell to nerf next or which spell needs a change