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[BiggyDX]

I think the Hunter should get some sort of variant of Isabella's "Salty Sea Dog." Given his play style being geared more towards up close combat, it would help strengthen his survivability. I'm sure it's also been said quite often that he needs "I Was Never Here."

[TheThirdRace]

This is a copy of a new topic I made about the rework of the Hunter's trees (http://forum.bioware...trees-reworked/)

Here's my suggestions for reworking the Hunter's skill trees:



The "names" I've given to each line in the trees are self explanatory, but I'll still explain my reasoning.

Basically, I've tried to keep in mind these things while I made the changes:

• Each line on the skill trees must have a theme
• The central line should be filled with passives that you would want all for all builds
• Get access to abilities earlier, you don't want to be level 16 when that happens
• Replace as much as possible the passives or skills that have no use whatsoever for the character

So here's the explanation for each tree lines:

Trapping

#1 Stalker
Being defined like a close range Rogue with a bow, the Hunter benefits a lot from Stealth and its associated passives. It allows him to move "freely" on the battlefield and position himself right for his next attack. He can quickly pick out and enemy and return to the shadows where he came from.

#2 Traps
This is the first "specialization" line of the Trapping tree. Elemental Mines and Spike Trap are defining abilities of the Hunter. I mixed in Tricks of the Trade to show the Hunter is more about controlling the battlefield and helping his teammates.

#3 Dancing Around Death
Razor's Edge is what makes a Hunter a Hunter, besides traps. He's supposed to be close range so this passive is now mandatory. Bloodthirst and Easy to Miss allow the Hunter to move freely on the battlefield, perfect fit for close range combat. Bloodthirst is especially handy since it's not easy to move after firing with a bow, it should give you a little extra boost to avoid some potential hurtful consequences.

#4 Opportunist
This line is gone become the "core" line of the Hunter. Opportunity Knocks allows the Hunter to use traps much more often, playing exactly on the strengths of the character. Looks Like It Hurt also provides the Stamina necessary to continue using those traps. Without those 2 passives, I don't see the Hunter being able to fully realize its trap potential, they gave him a lot of powerful options. The lower cooldowns and better Stamina regeneration should compensate for the clunky animations from firing with a box and mixing non-archery abilities.

Fighting Dirty has been added to this line since it could fit with the "Opportunist" theme. It's not an amazing fit, but it's still a very good passive and it needed a place.

#5 Poison
If you've been following my other "skill tree reworked" thread, you might ask yourself why I've put the remaining abilities on the 5th line instead of the usual 4th. While I agree it's nice to have an earlier access to your abilities, in this case nothing would fit as a follow up for Poison. I didn't want to put Explosive Toxin behind either poison abilities to avoid nudging your choice toward one of the choices. The good thing about making it the last line of the tree is that it allows the Hunter to specialize in poison only he if really wants to. Putting poison on the last line also gives a nudge toward the use of the more accessible traps on line #2 while casting poison abilities as secondary in your arsenal. It's really all about making the Hunter geared toward traps and then adding extra damage on top of those.

As for the abilities, Poison Weapons could be a very powerful combo with traps. Not only this ability gives you more damage overall with the upgrade, but it synergizes very well with auto-attacks in-between traps. As for Toxic Cloud, it's a good AOE to complement your traps. It won't do as much damage to single target as Poison Weapons, but it will outshine it on a group of enemies. Explosive Toxin complement both of those skills very well, it's like a bit of gravy on top of gravy on top of gravy. Those abilities aren't as deadly as the trap ones, but they're really there as a secondary source of damage and control.

Survival

#1 Starting Skill
Explosive Shot is out, Throwing Blades is in. Throwing Blades is a unique ability of the Hunter and I think it's fair to give him access as early as possible. It gives him a bit more personality from the get go and I felt like Explosive Shot was making the Hunter just an Archer clone, a bad one at that...

#2 Marksman
This line all about Archery abilities. Leaping Shot is an excellent ability that works better at close range while Full Draw can be very attractive at long range. I took careful consideration before putting Death From Above and First Blood locked behind those abilities. They both complement their respective abilities while they wouldn't make as much sense without them. Second Wind gives you a good starting option for Stamina regeneration. I think it's good for the Hunter to only have access to Leaping Shot and Full Draw as it distinguish him from the Archer. It's makes the Hunter more limited in its marksman skills and nudge him toward other type of abilities to complement his arsenal.

#3 Growing Threat
Gaps in the Armor is the core passive on this line, it's especially good on higher difficulties (Perilous+). Cheap Shot is also available for additional temporary Armor Penetration. The combination of Gaps in the Armor and Cheap Shot can be devastating on higher difficulties (Perilous+). The Seasoned passive is the normal "stats" passive we find on line #3 of other skill trees.

#4 In And Out
Hook and Tackle isn't the most amazing ability, but it makes playing the Hunter a ton of fun. It's an great ability to combine with Leaping Shot or to simply close the gap with an enemy (it's your "in"). The reason I've put Throatcutter behind Hook and Tackle is because it synergize well it. It's not written in the tooltip, but using Hook and Tackle alone actually damage the enemy when you kick him on arrival. Combine a good bow (damage wise) with Troatcutter and It Beats Walking (Hook and Tackle upgrade) and you can outright kill some enemies just by using Hook and Tackle alone.

Fallback Plan is also an ability shun by the majority of players, but on Nightmare it is simply amazing. It allows you to recoup your health and get out of danger (it's your "out"). The kicker here is that with Opportunity Knocks, you can actually use it with almost no cooldown if you time it right. That means, no need for a Barrier bot, you can take care of yourself even if you're not cloaked. I've paired Sadism as a passive locked behind Fallback Plan because it capitalizes on the fact you regain stamina when you lose health then Fallback Plan can recoup that health so it's a win/win situation. Since Sadism isn't your best Stamina regeneration passive, it doesn't suffer from being locked behind an ability.

The final passive on this line is Evasion. While it does fit the theme for the line, it's far from great at 5% chance only. If it was possible, I would replace it with Salty Sea Dog from Isabella. That passive would fit the theme very well and reinforce the hybrid close and long range style of the Hunter.

#5 Deadly Arrows
While it might appear this line is geared toward a marksman playstyle, I'd advocate it reinforce a mix of traps and auto-attack playstyle even more. Flanking Fire and Strafing Shots are amazing for auto-attacking between the traps you cast. You're already thick in the fray, moving around and flanking are a great way to kill time before setting your next trap. As for Pincushion, it's really about what your weapon is. If you have the Griphon or the Hakkon bows, you'll be amazed how much damage they can deal at very close range. And since they fire 3 shots for each auto-attack, Pincushion capitalizes on that big time when the 3 shots connect on the same target. Of course, you need to be very close to the enemy for that, but that's exactly the playstyle that suits the Hunter.

#6 Evasion
Nothing amazing on that line, Evade is simply there so the standard Rogue "evasion" move is present. It gives you another option and the upgrade can be very fun combined with Stealth.

Additional Notes
As I said earlier, Evasion should be replaced by "Salty Sea Dog" if possible. It would suit the Hunter playstyle much better than Evasion ever will. On the other hand, if Evasion was boosted to 25%, that would be another story.

Ability wise, the Survival tree is weaker on purpose. It's been done so you're encouraged to play the Hunter as a trapper and not as an Archer. You can still mimic an Archer, but you'll be more limited in what you can do. The redeeming quality of the Survival tree is its passives. Most of the passives are very strong for both tree, Trapping and Survival. Again, this has been done to nudge the Hunter toward a trapping playstyle, but it's not like those passives are any worst if you play the Hunter like an Archer.

Opportunity Knocks and Looked like it Hurt are key to making the Hunter a strong character. Traps are clunky to use and they're hard to target. Once cast, it's easy for them to become totally useless if are killed before reaching them or if they simply take another path. It's also important to remember that traps have between 16 to 24 seconds cooldowns, it's pretty long between uses, especially when fights last less than that... Having better cooldowns and Stamina regeneration than normal would help tremendously to negate those problems. Without those 2 passives, I don't think anything can be done to salvage the Hunter, at least by playing him with a strong emphasis on traps.

Yes, I said I wouldn't make another skill tree rework thread for the time being, but I had nothing to do this morning and I had the Hunter in mind...

I've seen Dieb attempt at reworking the Hunter skill trees, I think my attempt is different enough to justify its existence. Thanks Dieb for inspiring me with your thread.

[TheThirdRace]

Completely wishful thinking here, but I think it's harsh to lock an ability behind 3 other passives/abilities... It's also the only skill tree that does that.