Hunting Mastery

[Cashondeliveri]

Is hunting mastery nerfed in anniversary edition compared to the old version?

The way i remember hunting mastery is that it had sick dps when using a bow and speccing fully in the marksmanship tree, and helped by passives and some active and sustained skills like study prey and art of the hunt, respectively. It almost didn't what second mastery you chose. The dmg seems nerfed to me now. If so, could anyone tell me how and/or recommend some builds with single target and aoe dps similar to what the hunting tree used to give you?

I want to play with the mod that gives monsters 10x hp and also 10x loot, but i need a class that deals massive dmg for that. If someone has something to recommend, i would also like to add that i never play any class in action rpgs without decent survivability. So i'm looking for for something overpowered in other words :)

[_Mocking_Bird_]

As i know Scattered Shot is Nerfed a lot, in Vanilla you could take out a Group of mobs in 1-2 hits depending on the mob, in the AE R it takes longer.

[chris.ferrantegerard]

I've only played AE edition and not the original but I've heard that scatter shot was nerfed. It still seems pretty efficient overall.

[Iroh]

While it is a bit nerfed, it is still one of, if not THE best dps masteries. My bow brigand is tearing up legendary currently, and very little of my points are in Rogue compared to Hunting. Study Prey + Marksmanship is still ridiculous amounts of damage, and a helluva a lotta fun

[JewelryStar]

Some skills get boost, some be nerf.
But it's still good at general.
About Markmanship skill tree, Scattershot Arrow get " nerf ". At TQ-IT, at lvl12 of Scattershot Arrows can shot7-9 fragments, each deal 162 pierce dmg. From TQ-AE, Scattershot Arrows at lvl12 still shot 7-9 fragments, but deal only 32 pierce dmg per fragment, and deal 132 bleeding dmg for 3 seconds.
So Scattershot Arrows skill in TQ-AE deal much less pierce dmg compare to TQ-IT, but now Bleeding/Pierce/Poison can be boost by Dexterity; and Flush Out be adđ -%bleeding resistance.

[Dakota]

Sounds like it would really be noticeably worse against undead and constructs with all that damage being put into bleeding, further specializes hunting mastery into being great at killing the living.

[Iroh]

Originally posted by Dakota:

Sounds like it would really be noticeably worse against undead and constructs with all that damage being put into bleeding, further specializes hunting mastery into being great at killing the living.

It is indeed harder to kill undead and constructs, but once you get Study Prey and its secondary it helps a hell of a lot. Halfway through legendary now and having no issues other than the normal legendary troubles (resistances mostly. Nothing some clever gearing can't fix, but that's every build really). All in all the nerfs they made don't cause much difference

[sarcastic_godot]

Yes, Scatter Shot has been nerfed - but IIRC that had already happened during TQ-IT times Didn't notice any difference between AE and Ragnarök.

...masses of undead are truly a slowdown, and Study Prey... [edit]...works on one single target, and[end edit] has an eight sec CD. Good against the skeleton or automaton hero, or those statues, but [edit] I find it [end edit] not really that helpful against hordes. And it can get really unpleasant when you're up against e.g. masses of skeleton archers, as your Hunter's DA buff, your defensive strongpoint, doesn't help against them. Or Ghost mages. Ouch. It's less of a problem when you're making an elemental hybrid with Earth, Storm, Dream, Rune, but those builds have their own disadvantages..

That said, Marksmanship and its children is a really strong base attack. If you're into base attack builds, it definitely is a good choice.

Also, it has become extremely powerful with thrown weapons - you still get your Art of the Hunt DA buff, can hold a shield, and their base weapon speed is really fast. So with e.g. The Crow[www.tq-db.net] and a decent shield, and DA buff, which still applies with thrown weapons... ...you can simply ignore melee types until you swatted all those archery mosquitoes, and still have the shield's high resistances and blocks. Stronk! Hurrghar! E.g. Brigands with their high damage per-hit skill procs can pretty much sweep whole Legendary maps clean with little to fear but undead, other archers and, to some extent mages.

TL;DR: Yes, it's strong. But it has some weak points, too.

[Iroh]

Originally posted by suicidal_godot:

Yes, Scatter Shot has been nerfed - but IIRC that had already happened during TQ-IT times Didn't notice any difference between AE and Ragnarök.

...masses of undead are truly a slowdown, and Study Prey... ...works on one single target, and has an eight sec CD. Good against the skeleton or automaton hero, or those statues, but not really that helpful against hordes. And it can get really unpleasant when you're up against e.g. masses of skeleton archers, as your Hunter's DA buff, your defensive strongpoint, doesn't help against them. Or Ghost mages. Ouch. It's less of a problem when you're making an elemental hybrid with Earth, Storm, Dream, Rune, but those builds have their own disadvantages..

That said, Marksmanship and its children is a really strong base attack. If you're into base attack builds, it definitely is a good choice.

Also, it has become extremely powerful with thrown weapons - you still get your Art of the Hunt DA buff, acn hold a shield, and their base weapon speed is really fast. So with e.g. The Crow[www.tq-db.net] and a decent shield, and DA buff, which still applies with thrown weapons... ...you can simply ignore melee types until you swatted all those archery mosquitoes, and still have the shield's high resistances and blocks. Stronk! Hurrghar! E.g. Brigands with their high damage per-hit skill procs can pretty much sweep whole Legendary maps clean with little to fear but undead, other archers and, to some extent mages.

TL;DR: Yes, it's strong. But it has some weak points, too.

Study Prey is not just a single target. I am literally using it in my current build, and it's the game changer for any bow build when you get it. You have to target one guy, but it has a radius that hits a bunch of dudes. I wouldn't have mentioned it otherwise.

[sarcastic_godot]

I stand corrected, thanks. Haven't pushed it up enough, it seems, to reliably get the whole mob lump.And, yes it's a game changer. Editing above...

[JewelryStar]

Originally posted by suicidal_godot:

I stand corrected, thanks. Haven't pushed it up enough, it seems, to reliably get the whole mob lump.And, yes it's a game changer. Editing above...

Study Preys target monster in its radius, that effect already in TQ-IT.

[Iroh]

Originally posted by suicidal_godot:

I stand corrected, thanks. Haven't pushed it up enough, it seems, to reliably get the whole mob lump.And, yes it's a game changer. Editing above...

Your edit still states that it's not helpful against hordes and yet I mow through them like theyre nothing when i use it. Care to explain how it isn't helpful. An 8 second cooldown is pretty low. I have had zero issues with this

[sarcastic_godot]

Originally posted by suicidal_godot:

[...]
...masses of undead are truly a slowdown, and Study Prey... [edit]...works on one single target, and[end edit] has an eight sec CD. Good against the skeleton or automaton hero, or those statues, but [edit] I find it [end edit] not really that helpful against hordes. And it can get really unpleasant when you're up against e.g. masses of skeleton archers, [...]

Originally posted by Boboturk:

Originally posted by suicidal_godot:

I stand corrected, thanks. Haven't pushed it up enough, it seems, to reliably get the whole mob lump.And, yes it's a game changer. Editing above...

Your edit still states that it's not helpful against hordes and yet I mow through them like theyre nothing when i use it. Care to explain how it isn't helpful. An 8 second cooldown is pretty low. I have had zero issues with this

*shrug* I tend to munch through them faster then 8sec per mob lump...

Sorry for being a nitpicker - I wrote "not really that helpful", which is different from "not helpful".

I left my first post moderately as I wrote it. and did so to correct my initial error without distorting the context of your correction (which I appreciated). Plus, I've written further down that it _is_ a game changer.

But where the target density is high, I mostly run faster than 8sec per lump, and probably wouldn't even save time by saving a shot or two. That's for Brigand. With my Avenger, I don't notice a speed difference, the fire and phys damage hits them good enough. Make of it what you wish, I churn through stuff faster without using SP on everything, but then I'm maybe somewhat overgeared.

When I'll be back to farming a fresh pair of Stonebinders, I'll give kiting and SPing everything on the big square there a try. Or in those Act 4 crypts, getting the keys. Maybe I'll be a convert then. Currently I stand by my statement.

[Iroh]

Originally posted by suicidal_godot:

Originally posted by suicidal_godot:

[...]
...masses of undead are truly a slowdown, and Study Prey... [edit]...works on one single target, and[end edit] has an eight sec CD. Good against the skeleton or automaton hero, or those statues, but [edit] I find it [end edit] not really that helpful against hordes. And it can get really unpleasant when you're up against e.g. masses of skeleton archers, [...]

Originally posted by Boboturk:

Your edit still states that it's not helpful against hordes and yet I mow through them like theyre nothing when i use it. Care to explain how it isn't helpful. An 8 second cooldown is pretty low. I have had zero issues with this

*shrug* I tend to munch through them faster then 8sec per mob lump...

Sorry for being a nitpicker - I wrote "not really that helpful", which is different from "not helpful".

I left my first post moderately as I wrote it. and did so to correct my initial error without distorting the context of your correction (which I appreciated). Plus, I've written further down that it _is_ a game changer.

But where the target density is high, I mostly run faster than 8sec per lump, and probably wouldn't even save time by saving a shot or two. That's for Brigand. With my Avenger, I don't notice a speed difference, the fire and phys damage hits them good enough. Make of it what you wish, I churn through stuff faster without using SP on everything, but then I'm maybe somewhat overgeared.

When I'll be back to farming a fresh pair of Stonebinders, I'll give kiting and SPing everything on the big square there a try. Or in those Act 4 crypts, getting the keys. Maybe I'll be a convert then. Currently I stand by my statement.

To each their own. I also tend to nitpick, so sorry if I came off as overly critical of your opinion, it was not meant as such. With my bow Brig I also do clear the mobs faster than that 8 seconds, but I just start shooting the next group anyway, if the Cd is up and I still need it on that group I burn it again, otherwise I wait til the next group. It all goes pretty seemlessly for me, but everyone has their own method. The only reason I even argued it was cuz I didn't want the OP thinking it isn't viable cuz it totally is in my current experience. Definitely not tryin to make a fuss. I just really love Hunting mastery and will likely end up making every combo class I can with em eventually. Can't seem to get enough of this game. Only a few hundo hours on AE, but many more on the orig on Steam, and several thousand on the retail version before I even got it on Steam. And yet when people ask me what my favorite game is, for some reason I still have trouble answering lol. Anyway, i'll stop rambling now :P

[kekkuli]

Yeah scatter shot was nerfed a lot. Something like 80% of it's damage is bleeding now instead of piercing. Kind of useless because bleeding doesn't stack in TQ anyways.