Hunter Gameplay

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Gameplay

Hunters use ranged skills to deal damage to their enemies. Their basic skills like  Quick Shot and  Barbed Arrow generate Focus, which is consumed by more powerful skills to deal greater damage.

• Blue-line (Mobile Damage): Hunters specialized in the Huntsman trait tree use mobility to their advantage, removing inductions from all of their skills. While slightly out-damaged by Red-line Hunters, they are versatile damage dealers with improved sustainability and excellent kiting ability. Their core gameplay revolves around the  Volley trait, which improves the damage of Focus-consuming skills when used back-to-back. Blue-line Hunters also apply bleeds with their ranged skills, and cash them out to deal bonus damage with their melee skills.
• Red-line (Stationary Damage): Hunters specialized in the Bowmaster trait tree can output high amounts of damage at the expense of having longer inductions. They gain access to strong focus-consuming skills like  Upshot and  Rain of Arrows. With  Burn Hot, they are incapable of incredible burst damage. Red-line Hunters excel in encounters where movement is not required as much.
• Yellow-line (Pure Support): Hunters specialized in the Trapper of Foes trait tree inflict potent debuffs on their enemies with their ranged attacks. With the  Combat Focus skill, yellow-line Hunters can generate Focus quickly to use many Focus-consuming skills in a row. Yellow-line Hunters also excel at crowd control. Their capstone skill,  Horn of Oromë, is a powerful healing skill that can help save the fellowship when taking heavy damage.

This class is recommended for newer players to want to play damage roles. It's relatively simple to play, and is usually a solid pick when forming a fellowship. Red-line and Yellow-line are the most commonly played lines in the endgame, but Blue-line is exceptional in landscape and in PvMP.

Focus

Focus Resource Bar of the Hunter

In addition to Power, Hunters use another resource: Focus. Some abilities generate Focus (such as  Quick Shot), while others, generally more powerful abilities, consume Focus. Focus-consuming skills can only be used if the Hunter has generated the required Focus on their resource bar. A Hunter can have a maximum of 9 Focus (each 'pip' on the Focus meter represents 3 Focus, also marked by a small crosshairs icon).

A Hunter must stand still to maintain their Focus. The Focus meter will start to deplete if a Hunter begins moving, and can quickly empty to zero if a Hunter moves too much. Choosing to specialize in the Huntsman (blue) trait tree will entirely remove this penalty. To generate Focus outside of combat, Hunters have access to the Focus skill, which grants the Hunter max focus over the course of 3 seconds.

It's important for Hunters to monitor their Focus, as many of their most powerful skills require the resource to be used. Because Focus generation is sometimes dependent on additional variables (granted through traits), the rate of Focus generation is not always consistent. The Hunter has access to emergency skills and items that grant immediate Focus to help mitigate this difficulty.

For more information, see Focus.

Traps

Hunter Traps

Trap skills are a unique Hunter utilization that allow the Hunter to place a trap on the battlefield. Each trap can only affect a single enemy. After execution of the skill, the trap will be located in front of the Hunter, and lasts until an enemy enters it (or until it expires after 1 minute). While the Hunter does not have default access to Traps, certain traits in the Trapper of Foes specialization grant access to and improves these skills.

For more information, see Traps.