The Top 10 Reasons Why Hunters are an Awesome LOTRO Class

"Say 'herro' to my ritter friend!"

Everyone knows Hunters are awesome. How awesome, you ask?

"Please, Mr. Hunter, could you port me to Rivendell?"

"Oh, please, Mr. Hunter, could you take me to that camp site?"

"Oh, Mr. Hunter, your DPS is sooooooooooo big!"

To which all Hunters say, "THAT'S RIGHT! And don't you forget it! Now get over here and meat shield me from this horde of Uruk-hai I just accidentally pulled."


We Hunters have heard it all -- we totally get why we're awesome and your admiration is both fully appropriate and accepted. Foregone acceptance of Hunter awesome-ness notwithstanding, however, here are a few more reasons why Hunters are an awesome LOTRO class.

1. Ports. Long before Middle-earth got Uber, Hunters were the main mode of rapid transport. Once upon a time those skills consumed Travel Rations, which only a few of us old-timers still carry around in our vaults as tributes to those bygone days. They also grow some really interesting mold after about year six.
2. Run Buffs. There are few things more satisfying than seeing your fellowship hustle across the landscape like so many six-year-olds who just kicked an ant hill and knowing it's solely because you graciously invested points in Find the Path. Besides, faster travel = less time to targets. Less time to targets = more killing. More killing = happy Hunter!
3. Ranged DPS. Don't you feel sorry for those poor, medieval schlubs who have to hoof it all the way to their target to start dealing damage? Me neither. Let fly with Heart-Seeker and drop that foe just as the pathetic Champion finally manages to reach it. Then laugh at him. A lot.
4. Traps. Since Lore-masters have all but abdicated their previous role as kings of crowd control, yellow line Hunters have stepped up to the plate. This also led to the revelation that every bad guy in Middle-earth is apparently owed lunch money by some dude in a floppy cap with skinny arms who carries a stick bow around with him.
5. Tracking. I know you thought it was because he revealed himself to the Dark Lord in the palantir, but the real reason Denethor descended into madness was because he tried deeding bog-lurkers in the Lone-lands without a Hunter. 
6. Crit Buff Out of Stealth. Yes, you Burglar's thought you were all that and a side of bacon, but we Hunters have a very reliable crit buff when attacking from stealth too. Stick that in your hand-carven pipe and don't inhale it!
7. Swift Bow. I don't recall my History classes giving Elves credit for invention of the machine gun, but obviously they should have. Revisionist historians. Pshaw.
8. Hunter Tank. Guardians and Wardens are so overrated. Who needs one of those pokey slugs when you have a Hunter? I pull and hold whole rooms of mobs before the main tank has even pulled on his helmet. Now I just need to teach that lazy healer how to keep me alive. Sheesh... we hunters have to do everything...
9. Rain of Thorns. Let's be honest: this is one of the most iconic LOTRO skills -- always has been -- and that's because it's (say it with me!) awesome. Who else has anything close to this ability? Yeah, yeah, the yellow line Lore-master does. Whatever. Who plays that?? "Let's see... overly aggressive lawn pestilence versus flaming lightning storms of death... Golly Gee, it's such a hard choice!" 
10. Heart-Seeker. There was a time you had to reach the level cap of 50 in order to access this skill instead of getting it at level 7, like you can today. But hey, we long-time Hunters aren't bitter. It's not like we spent sleepless nights with the Heart-Seeker skill icon burned into our retinas, tirelessly completing every quest from Celondim to Carn Dum in relentless pursuit of acquiring it. It's also not as if, once we finally reached it, we traveled back to all of the low-level areas and started one-shotting every mob in sight just to show how devastatingly awesome the skill was for all of the noobs who just entered the game. Nah, I would never do a thing like that.

Padhric
Master of Toons