As I have not seen one, (Not a decent one at least) and get asked questions a lot in game, I'll give this a whirl. This is just my opinion. If you find something that works for you, by all means do it. If someone wishes to add to this, just post, and I'll try and edit it. If you feel I'm wrong, post about it and I'll address it as best I can. Sorry, but it's long. Hope it helps a bit.
Please no flames.
So you've decided to start a Shadow Hunter.
Congratulations, you've now embarked on a not so common path, although arguably the most fun. Shadow Hunters are among the Top Damage Dealing classes out there, although lacking an effective stun. As well a Shadow Hunter can be the most efficient puller around, but we'll get to that later.
Getting Started: Weaponry/Armor.
This is somewhat a no-brainer. Of course you will need a Cross Bow and Hunter armor. Though while you are still a Strider I suggest using Warrior Armor and a Cross bow. You'll be slower, but it will be very helpfull to have all that extra P.Def. Especially if you're just starting out and don't have a decent pet yet.Once you Job change to Shadow Hunter, Hunter Armor will be your only option. P.Atk Earrings (Ideally P.Atk/Crit ratio) and Dexterity or Vitality rings will make your life Easier, so invest in them. Personally I use Dex rings, though I hear good things about Vit rings. Luck rings will give you no added HP, which you will need. As well the added amount of crits is nothing compared to the overtime increase of damage you get with Dex rings. However if just starting out, you may find Luck rings useful, but at later levels you'll see that the increased Crit ratio is somewhat lacking. I do not recommend Luck rings, however some people find them useful. Later on you will want to have a Dirk on you as well, but I will explain this later, as it's not something that's completely necessary.
Stone Build.
Dexterity and Vitality stones. You can try agility if you wish, however since evasion...well doesn't work I wouldn't trouble yourself with it. You will need the extra HP and Pdef that the vit stones give. When at higher levels, and using a Dirk for Pvp or Dungeon Soloing be sure to slot it with Vit/Wis. I will explain this later.
Skill Sets: Job 1.
Job 1 skills are some of the best a Shadow Hunter gets, low Mp cost and high damage. Although if just starting out, you should be dumping a Majority of your Jp into Job levels.
JLvl 1-CrossBow Mastery (Adds Patk.) and Armor Mastery (Adds Pdef) will be your main priority, Followed by Avoidance Expert (Increases your evasion by a percentage). You can level Oblivion if you so wish, but I suggest leaving it alone for now, as it's effects are minimal.
JLvl 5- Dual Shot. Fires 2 Bolts. Until you have Hunter Impact, this will be a very useful skill. Though I suggest not maxing it, as it's damage is somewhat lack-luster, and at higher levels I doubt you will ever be using it again.
JLvl 10- Concentration and Thrust Arrow. Concentration is almost completely un-necessary with a Dex build class, as it gives accuracy, just like all your shiny blue Dex stones. Though it can be Useful when Pvping against a Higher level opponent. Thrust Arrow is a very handy Skill, this is the first of your knock backs, it does quite good damage, and gives you a few extra seconds to kill the Mob/Noob before it reaches you.
JLvl 15- Quick Pace, its fun, makes you move faster, aiding you in Farming speed (Distance between mobs) and pulling. Piercing Arrow, your first DoT, and its a good one. This will stop an enemies HP regain by causing it to Bleed. Extremely handy during Boss Fights, This will prevent the Epic Boss "Bug".
JLvl 20- Crossbow Expert is a must of course. It will increase your attack speed.
*Sleeping Dust* This is not completely necessary, though for Pvp, and crowd control in Dp's it can prove to be extremely useful. I suggest waiting a while to level it though.
JLvl 25- Deep Evasion increases your evasion by a large margin. Though it will not completely prevent you from being hit. Handy for Pvp, but as it has a High Mp cost and not a foolproof effect you can stick it in a lower priority for now.
JLvl 30- Cursed Arrow is another DoT. Good initial hit damage, and fair DoT damage.
*Head Breaker* This is not completely necessary, though for Pvp, Dungeon Soloing and crowd control in Dp's it can prove to be extremely usefull. I suggest waiting a while to level it though.
JLvl 35-Critical Shot is one of your best skills overall. It deals 100% Critical damage with 3 Shots and a knock back. This skill is a must have.
JLvl 40-Hunter Impact, your first self buff, and the one you will always use. This will give you a chance to fire 2 shots per attack rather than 1. Max it, Card it, and concentrate on it.
Drain Arrow is the envy of CMs/Healers/and Tanks everywhere. You may notice that our Mp costs are somewhat high, this skills the answer to all your problems. Combined with Hunter Impact you can almost always fill your Mp using this skill. As it drains Mp from the target based on a percentage Vs. the amount of damage you do to the MoB.
Skill Sets: Job 2.
Now that you've fully Ob'd (Yes dammit, fully Ob your char!) and made your class change you've got a huge new arsenal of skills. As always, your passive skills are some of the most important ones, so concentrate on those as best you can. As some of this would be repetitive I will just talk about the ones that were not spoken of above.
JLvl 5- Poison Shot. This skill is your best option for pulling. It's low Mp, High damage, and fast cooling. As well as causing a hard hitting DoT. This will Chain Mobs while running Dusk Style.
JLvl 10- This is when you will get your Toggles. As these are something you will always be using, put a lot of effort into them. Dusk Style will be your Dp'ing and pulling Toggle. Always use this in Dp. Not only does it increase Atk speed and Cast Speed it also will bring your threat level down to about zero. With this skill active, no matter how much damage you do if someone else touches the mob you will lose all aggro. As well, you cannot take aggro off anyone with this skill active. Burning Style will increase your attack power and your threat level but decrease your defense. This skill is a BIG NO NO in dungeon parties. It will get you killed, no ifs' ands' or buts'. Though in Dire Emergency situations in a Dp it can take aggro away from dying members, allowing you to run MoBs while the party is getting their stuff back together. That is a last resort though! Use this skill while farming, the P.Atk boost is quite nice Vs. Field Mobs. Agile Style increases your movement speed and evasion while decreasing your P.Atk. Again, this is not wise to use in a Dp. If you take a lot of Damage in the field, then this may be a farming option for you. As it is, I mainly use it for travel, as its mov speed bonus will stack with a mount.
*Toggles in the field are totally up to your preference, play around with them until you find one you prefer. However, only use Dusk Style in Dp's. Do not use Burning
JLvl 15- Stun Shaft is your first stun. Excited? Don't be, it hardly ever works. But it is instant cast, and outputs a great amount of damage. Sudden Rush This can be used for travel, or escape. It increases your movement speed by 50% for a short time. It will also make people on Lydians/Quillins give you the "o.0" as you run past them on foot. *A tip for Traveling: Hit Sudden rush when you have to cover a large open field. Even when the skill runs out you will still be moving just as fast if you only click once into the distance.
JLvl 20- Bolt of Destruction,one of the hardest hitting skills you have, Fire 3 High powered Bolts.
Rapid Fire is your first AoE (Area of Effect) it fires bolts that hit similar to BoD, but it will also hit all mobs around the one you shot. Mp cost is very high. *Tip-This skill works with a Long Bow. Which will result in INSANE damage. It's also handy for removing multiple targets from a dying Ursa cave mage class. 
JLvl 25- Defect Aiming, This skill at the moment is useless, it really does not make enough of a difference to be taking up a slot on your quick bar. So this is a low priority to level in my opinion.
Provoke Shot is an interesting skill, but to be used with caution. It gives a massive P.Def debuff, but also gives the target a massive P.Atk boost. The description says light attack, but this is one of your most hard hitting skills, again though, use with caution. Using this on a boss in a Dp is a very quick way to get hated by a Tank. I suggest only using this when fighting with a Mage class.
JLvl 30- Blinding Shot *Refer to Stun Shaft*
Subtle Enmity is useless, don't worry about it until you have more Jp than you know what to do with. It provides another threat decrease self buff, but is somewhat obsolete with Dusk Style. (Using it in Combination with burning doesn't work. You will take aggro, and you will use a lot of mana rebuffing this.)
JLvl 35- Cry of Arrows will greatly increase your attack speed, but will also root you to the ground. (While active, you cannot move.) This is both useful for Pvp and re-filling your Mp in combination with Drain Arrow. However, make certain your targets are in range when hitting this skill.
Vengeance Shot is another AoE, it will fire 1 Bolt at your target and all surrounding targets. It is very hard hitting, but due to it's mana consumption, it is not very practical.
JLvl 40-Thunderbolt Arrow is a self buff and your best skill for stuns, often this is more reliable than Stun Shaft. As well as giving a 5% chance to stun, it also adds 225 damage at max level. This skill can often Stun lock an opponent, which is extremely handy. Spiral Arrow is the last of your 3 knock backs. It is a sort of AoE knock back, but only works in a straight line. It is slow, and has higher Mp consumption, not exactly a good one to rely on. Hail of the Underworld looks cool, does high damage and can un-cloak sins. It is an AoE that fires directly around where you are standing. However it has High Mp cost, and causes lag. Cascade of Darkness is the final AoE you have, it does the most damage for one shot out of all other skills. It will rain arrows on your opponents in the vicinity of your initial target. However, only one powerful bolt will hit each target, and its Mp cost is extremely high.
PVP
This can be tricky with a Shadow Hunter, as we don't have a good stun. In PvP a dirk will be your best friend. As I stated before this weapon should be slotted with Vit/Wis. The Vit stone will soften the loss of Hp from un-equipping your crossbow to equip the dirk. The Wis stone is needed for HB, to at least give you a slightly better chance for success. It normally doesn't fail, but sometimes it will. Otherwise this Dirk can be clean or upped, it won't really matter. Uping it will give you a tidy little damage boost for you Head Breaker hit. I will layout the standard rule of thumb for SH PvP, but by all means, if you have a system that works and you like, use it. Here's a condensed version. Be Sure to have your standard self buffs up. (Impact, Thunder, Quick Pace,A Style, and if needed concentration.)
Sleep the Target, Either with dirk already equipped or with Crossbow. Equip Dirk, HB Target, Equip CrossBow, Provoke, Cry of Arrows, when Fear runs out, use your Knock backs, and skill spam. (IF the targets still alive, most classes will have problems with the first Cry of Arrows) Thats the basics of it. Every situation is different though, and sometimes this scenario is not possible. Since E5 Part 2 PvP is more of a coin toss, if all else fails, start skill spamming and pray. If you are fighting a CM/WL/Healer with Staff be sure to smack them with Provoke as they will receive no to minimal benefit from the P.Atk boost, but avoid using that skill on Archers, that's just suicide. Always be sure you have Thunderbolt Arrow up and running, as this can stun-lock. It's saved my butt quite a few times.
Dungeon Soloing
Be sure to have a way of healing, either Bpix or groceries. You'll need your Dirk to do this effectively, HB the mob and it usually won't make it back to you. Otherwise just skill spam, be sure to remember to use your Sleep if you need it. Very handy if you aggro'ed multiple MoBs, or if you need a few seconds for a rebuff/skill cool. Since the destruction of Sirens, dungeon soloing is a lot harder now on a shadow hunter. (At least for me it is.) So really, I wouldn't bother with it. After all, your exp and loot will be better in the field.
Belt Pets
There are three belt pets that are somewhat easy to get and will benefit your Shadow Hunter the most in my opinion. These are my recommendations:
1. Skeleton-10% Agility, 10% Attack Speed
2. Yeti- 10% Vitality, 10% P.Def
3. Poultry- 5% P.Acc, 5% Dexterity <~If your on a budget.
Main Pets
This can be disputed, and it all depends on what you like to do the most and how you play. I'll give you my recommendations, but a Shadow Hunter can make just about anything work.
The best pet, would be a Kenta, but that's for people with more luck than common sense.
For Dungeon Partying a Skeleton is a very fine pet to have for its attack speed toggle. This will help you single shot pull faster.
If you like to farm a lot a Bpix or an Rpix will probably better suit you. As these pets have a slight range. Melee pets for the most part will spend half their time chasing the MoB, so in the end, the Bpix is going to do more damage than an Orc/Yeti etc.
You can make use of an Orc or Hawk toggle though, even though the pet itself will normally never hit the MoB.
Pulling, Your role in a DP
If you've joined as a DD and the party wants someone else to pull:
Dd'ing in a Dp is pretty simple, keep dusk up,all your self buffs and whack away at MoBs.
If you're the puller though there is more to consider. This is really evident if you don't know the people in the party. You have to judge what the party can handle effectively. Pull too much and everyone can die, pull too little and the exp will suck. So first thing to do is to pull light and gradually increase the amount of MoBs you bring to the party, keep an eye on the healers Mp and the Tanks ability to hold the targets, you will be able to see when you've reached the max the party can handle. Usually the easiest way to judge this is to watch the Tanks Hp, and the speed at which the party brings down the MoBs. Normally after the first couple kills, you can tell how the party will perform. Be sure to be running Dusk Style, I can't stress that enough. Along with the rest of your main self buffs. (Ie. Quick Pace, Hunter Impact, and Thunder) Thunderbolt Arrow can either help or hinder pulling, but if the party can handle 4+ MoBs at a time, I suggest keeping it up.
Poison Shot will be the mainstay skill you will use for pulling. With this you can Chain aggro MoBs while on Dusk Style. Other skills will do the same but Poison has the lowest cool time, and Mp cost. So use it well. With Dusk you can also single out Linked MoBs without aggroing all of them, this is good if your party is lacking people, or having problems.
Always ensure that your always bringing fresh MoBs to the party. Again this depends on the parties kill speed, and is something you will have to judge for yourself. Just think of it like this: The Party should always be killing, for every MoB that dies, you've got another one right there. Once you've got the parties speed down, then you can determine a comfortable flow of MoBs to feed them with.
This varies from Dungeon to Dungeon and from party to party.
*Be Aware of Backspawn* Often this can kill a party, and it's often un-predictable. So do use caution when pulling on top of a spot that has it's own spawn. Usually problems like backspawn aren't bad provided the party isn't soloing 4 or 5 mobs at once. (If they all die at once, they usually all spawn at once, combine that with freshly pulled MoBs will equal pain.)
Pulling boils down to your judgment, and the quality of the party.
Cards
I'll not go into too much detail here...as I seem to have rambled on quite a bit. The ones you will want to concentrate on are:
Hunter Impact
Poison Shot
Rapid Fire
Bolt of Destruction
Thunderbolt Arrow (For Mp Management)
Drain Arrow
Cry of Arrows
Original Link:http://rappelz-forum.gpotato.com/viewtopic.php?f=434&t=938184 |
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