This guide is highlighting my experiences as a solo/small group hunter out in the moors on landroval server at low peak times as im a uk player. It’s based on how we as hunters can defeat our main foe the warg. This is my first contribution on the forums but I regularly read the forums with many people saying how you shouldn’t even roll a hunter especially solo in the moors. I will not deny that the hunter is a very challenging class to pvp with, I went from being a tasty warg snack to being able to successfully solo wargs from a pounce.

It is possible for a hunter with the correct gear/tactics/player skill to defeat r8+ audacity 7 creeps. I should also mention here that for flayer wargs r7+ if they get the pounce on me their mitigation's and armour are just to much for me to dps through(when running 5b2y) however if I can BH NH imp fleet imp focus I can win fights. I have experimented with certain traits1y/3r/3b for flayer wargs and had some success I think that you need to have some red traits at the minimum 2 reds to get the +10% crit. This puts you as a hunter in a awkward position as I see it you have a few trait options
1) 5b2y struggle against flayers
2) 5b2r for the extra dps and forgo you’re tracking ability
3)Hybrid type build 3r/3b/1y and forgo your speed/maneuverability in imp fleet
4)Max dps 5r/2b cool burn and forgo tracking ability and speed/maneuverability in imp fleet

Im not even going to put it in as a option but I would be very interested to hear if any solo hunters trait more than 2 into the yellow line and if so what benefits it gives.

I have used all trait setups plus some more I can say from my experience to get the most kbs renown and comms when geared option 1 for me works the best. So for the purposes of the guide advice will be based on option 1. However and this is important for an under geared r0 audacity hunter option 4 has its benefits as ill explain later.

Ill briefly outline traits as this has been covered previously. I would advise initially as you go out in the moors with 0 audacity and your raid gear to trait using option 4 or 5r (critical eye, fast draw, barbed fury, swift and true, true shot) then heightened senses and resolute aim, legendarys cool burn press onwards and it s a personal choice as to whether you should roll bards arrow or rain of thorns. You will be so squishy that the only viable strategy will be to camo from spot to spot and pick your targets BH to get the kb and importantly move! Its important to make it a habit that you track nature every 30secs don’t always actively track though just so you know what is in the area. However when you gain audacity you will gain some slight survivability this will allow you to run my preferred trait set up of 5 blues (strong draw, swift recovery, resolute aim, rapid recovery, deadly precision ) and 2 yellows heightened senses and barbed hindrance improved fleet and the same mentioned legendarys. When you are able to run fleet stance your will notice that you have the ability to chase down and kill fleeing creeps and also retreat from certain situations.

You will need consumables out in the moors to be competitive essentials include morale/stun/root/focus pots/coffee and breech finders. All of your crafted traps are essential not for their cc as I found that they are mostly useless for holding creeps, what traps do is deny wargs one of their most dangerous abilities their pounce and doing this can let you win the fight. You can also set up ambushes with your 3 minute bear trap also not many hunters use their 5s knockdown ability with the crafted tripwire, you will need to think ahead as it’s a out of combat trap. Catching a warg in this trap is a game changer actually being able to do this is the tricky part.

Briefly bow and melee weapon legacies essential on the bow all your crit multipliers quick shot critical chance BH legacy plus either a vitality or agility legacy. On your melee weapon u need crit precision stance (this is my favoured stance) and needful haste duration for the rest its up to you I use melee crit multiplier agile rejoiner heal chance swift stroke parry and evade and stealth detection. Currently with the stealth detection legacy maxed out its at +3 detect and with most wargs running either +4 or +8 stealth some would say that the leg is useless solo and I would agree with them. However I dont solo all the time and sometimes I will run my stealth detect and stealth purely to try and detect and pop wargs without tracking them. A hunter unbuffed (without any of the old +3 stealth camo legs)can run +5 stealth and +7 stealth detect (I run hammer mark cloak +1 stealth detect +2 stealth and adamant petals +2 stealth 4pieces of the hilf set +3 detect ). If your with a LM with traited stealth detect buff you can run +12 detect with this set up which at times is highly useful. I also have not had this question answered does heightened senses boost stealth detection????

Stats

Like with any freep you need to be reasonably well geared to succeed currently I run
Agility 1894
Health 7471
Phys mastery 24982
Crtical 7695
Tactical mit 8675

Important drops
Gregolin foundry
Sarchol t2 pits
Orc slaves bracelet nice agility and vitality item found in roots 1st boss

Earn your vagabond set with limlight and stanguard kindred standings

These are only guideline figures as I don’t run any orthanc raids, I know that you can get better gear and better stats, Iv found that hitting about 7k health and 1700 agility was a breakthrough for me in the moors and I started winning some of my solo fights.




Rotations

Importantly with all fights you need to very mobile movement is essential learn to strafe away from a target whilst firing of penshots, I see it far to often in the moors where hunters stand still a smart warg will simply run circles round you. Do not just turn and run giving your back to warg at the bear minimum cry of the pred and run or get your slow of and run.

From a warg pounce

Instantly hit your stun pot (now is the time for elf and dwarf hunters to hit either elf parry or endurance of stone.) Swift stroke, improved scourging blow dazing blow then hit your induction less barbed arrow with traited slow. Instantly strafe and fire off 2 pen shots then hit your focus pot hit pen shot another 3 times. You should have some distance now this allows you a quick shot if your lucky then strafe using cry of the predator on the move if the wargs feared use you swift bow u can here also if u like blindside pen shot combo. Improved scourging blow chain you induction less barbed arrow again then intent concentration strafe and penshots. At this point the warg will either have hipsed sprinted or you got the kb. If he hipses immediately pop down a crafted quick trap and attempt your self heal strength of the earth. During the fight u need to pay attention to any parry responses and hit your agile rejoiner for that small self heal.

Your camoed and have popped a warg on track and he’s within 40ms

This scenario is the fighting situation as a hunter you need to try to get your self in it’s the best start for any 1v1. Pop improved fleet nh bh then imp focus. Open with swift bow blood arrow pen shot barbed arrow. (At this point if the wargie smart he will try and use his escape skills hipses or sprints. If he hipses you need to wait 10 seconds before you can track again or sprints follow and mount track when you can. As long as the warg doesn’t map you can chase him down and burn his escape cds and you can get the kb. Don’t give up to soon continue the chase I have started fights in hh that have ended next to plains outpost.) Spam penshots focus pot penshots again, if the warg turns to chase you strafe straight away to keep your range whilst firing off pen shots, fear swift bow blindside penshot to finish. (The warg might sprint to close the distance in this case don’t panic his first move is likely to be a stun so its risky but u could pop a pot before to gain immunity.)

Tips/advice

You will have what I call tracking games with wargs where they are tracking you and vice versa, at times you have a idea if a warg is nearby to you now is the time to quickly place a trap or snare behind u and a tripwire trap of to the side. Importantly don’t put the the tripwire to close as you want the snare/trap behind you to pop him you can then fight and strafe the warg over the tripwire and use the knockdown to get some vital uninterrupted dps into them.

Always as a general rule have traps set up when ever you are stationary removing the wargs ability to pounce you can be the difference between victory and defeat.

Some wargs will actively drop tracks by staying unstealthed then restealthing as soon as you track them, you can if you’re a hobbit or elf here use your moveable stealth and move in onto the warg that is visible waiting for your track I have done this several times and its very useful strategy.

Don’t forget you can use desperate flight to escape if your quick enough or you can slow your foe and run away get out of combat and df or map out or restealth and hit them again using imp focus.

You can use improved focus on the move; use it to get those few extra crits.

If you are out of all cds focus etc fall back on imp scourging blow and you barbed arrow combo whilst keeping the swift stroke buff up to.

Every so often attempt to fight in difficult situations to test your abilities; I have won some 2v1s by burning down the main threat usually their healer then finishing off the second target.

If an induction is getting interrupted don’t just stand their move and pen shot or go back to imp scourge and barbed combo

At the very minimum trait 2 blues resolute aim and deadly precision or strong draw, this will reduce your focus loss on movement.

I have read that if you use breech finders that you don’t need to trait true shot.

Do not stay in the same spot you will get ganked/zerged move from spot to spot use the terrain, I regularly will set up a ambush standing in cover ill stay visible which is risky but when I get tracked camo to drop the track, then hopefully you can pop the tracker and get the drop on them.

As a general rule only pop a warg on track when he’s distant from you, this should be close enough for you to range him.

When camoed up you are very easily popped by creeps as you are only running +1 stealth, I will sometimes switch to the hammer mark cloak and adamant petals, I have had creep groups run right by me several times the extra stealth level saving me. Have these items quick slotted so u can switch out just before you attack.

Some wargs will instantly hips after the initial attack, if your lucky u can induct a barbed arrow the warg hipses and you hit them after they stealth, this bleed will then pop them out of stealth after the 10seconds of uninterrupted stealth.

To conclude

Don’t be disheartened if you die a lot, its taken me 2 months of at times constant deaths to be viable solo. As a hunter you need to be patient at times and wait for creeps to pass you by. I would advise to start off with going out in a small groups this will help out a lot and hunter plus any other freep class is deadly especially with other stealthers. Remember as a hunter you are the main baine for all wargs as you can track their movements every 30seconds. At the moment the way the class mechanics stand between wargs and hunters recent warg buffs no viable hunter self heals no ability to build focus on the move with quick shot, no +10second ranged long bleeds, no hunter survive buttons the advantage i would say is in the wargs favour, however if you are prepared gear up and employ the right tactics and traits you can win solo fights. I hope that this guide will give those hunters out there who are struggling some tips and hopefully you will have some success out in the moors.

All the best to my fellow hunters

Athreros