Hunting Faq.

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osma
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Hunting Faq.

Post by osma »

Hunting, that fine art of gentlemen, is one of the more difficult to understand of the "idle" skills. There are multiple skills that affect it, in addition to hunt masteries and stats, and the number of skills skyrocket if you take into effect that once hunting is done, you still have to KILL the monster you hunt down. This guide is designed to dispel some of the mystery, add in some suspicions that may or may not be true, and give you my take on what you should and should not do to make hunting a more enjoyable and profitable venture.

[Disclaimer: Note that i have done all my hunting as a ranger, and make statements about other guilds based on what I have heard and seen, not experienced. Also note I wrote this when I had 115 mil totals, and animals that are described as "hard" or "easy" might not be for you.]

Hunting is a skill that is performed in the out-world. You don't need any equipment, even a weapon, all you need is to be standing outside and type hunt. Once you do, you will endeavor to find an out-world animal in the room you are standing in. This takes a while, depending on your skills and masteries. The time is more or less random, ranging from forever, to about 1 1/2 min. This long lead time between fights causes hunting to be an ineffective way to make experience, especially early on. Once masteries have been built up, and hunting skills are at or approaching 100%, it becomes more reasonable, but it is definitely slower then a well led and balanced party running
zones.

Hunting can be best described by separating it into 2-3 sections, not counting combat to actually kill the animal. Step one is simply Hunting. Hunting involves sitting still, being bored,
and hoping to find an animal. According to my friends who hunt in real life, this is fairly accurate.

Step two is Tracking. When you actually find an animal, you will see a message saying "You have found some signs of a xxx". Now you have to track it down. This consists of sitting still and waiting to see if you track it down, or if you loose track of it. Tracking is however a little better then Hunting because the filler messages have meaning. Usually if you see "You are almost on top of it" it means the hunt is almost done. Once you actually track down the animal, it becomes a mob in the room, usually with a tag on the end such as <grazing> or <resting>. I don't know if there is a meaningful difference between these tags, and if someone knows of one, I would love to hear. The important part is that as long as that tag exists the animal is not permanent. Eventually if a hunted animal is not attacked, it will "notice you and run away."

This brings us to step Three: First Shot. If you are attacking in melee, spells, etc, then step three has no meaning, just kill it.
[Edit: as said below, spells count as a ranged weapon for first shot]
However, if you use a ranged weapon (throwing or archery) then the first shot will deal much more damage then usual as seen by a message, such as "You deal UNIMAGINABLE extra damage to the buffalo!" Besides extra damage always being good, if you kill it with the first hit, the skin is more valuable. Note that it is the first damage, no matter what, that determines if you get extra damage. If you miss, but have the ability to move silently, you can leave, reload, sneak back in, and shoot again, still dealing
the extra damage, as long as you don't deal ANY melee damage at all.


When hunting, there are a few things to keep in mind that will help you out, especially in the beginning. First, there are two lbd skills: Hunting and Camouflage. What they affect is explained below, but they both go up at any time during the hunt. In fact, it seems to go up most often when the animal is found at the end of step 2. The third is Hunting Masteries (explained in detail way below). It is raised at the end of step 2 as well. This is the only known time that hunt masteries raise, so killing the monster is unnecessary for either skills or masteries.

A final note: It is generally beneficial to move into a new room after every hunt. If the room is hunted out, hunting again will not give more animals. Further, there seems to be a randomly set number of animals in a given room, and rarely more then
one large animal per room. No having 3 mammoths in same place friends. So there is little to no reason to stay in one spot while hunting, especially since most terrain types come in large areas with plenty of rooms of the same type to hunt in.


Skills:
The hunting skill, while the most obvious, and probably the most far reaching, is only one of the multiple skills that affect hunting. The following is a quick list of skills that are known or suspected of helping hunting to work more effectually.


Main Skills
Hunting - the obvious one, is the main skill of Hunting. It is a learn by doing skill that can also be trained in the Masters of Hunting guild, or gotten as a background from the Hunter job. It most likely effects everything involved, but the most obvious effect is that it helps find more animals, making "This area is hunted out" less common.
[edit: judging from a reinc i recently did, which lowered my hunting skill badly, hunting also seems to affect how easy it is to access better mobs. With low hunting, you are much more likely to get reindeer and panthers then wyverns and unicorns]

Camouflage - The other lbd skill raised when hunting. Depending on who you ask it is either harder to learn then hunting, or equally difficult. In addition, it is hard to tell which is more effective, since both affect multiple stages of the hunt. The most obvious effects of Camouflage are more damage on First Shot and making the animal less likely to notice you and run away.

Move silently - Trained in the Masters of Hunters and by a few main guilds, Move silently seems to have a significant effect in the overall time of the hunt. Opinions vary on if you should actually be in move silently mode, or if the skill simply adds a passive bonus.

Tracking - Because there is so much seeming randomness in the time it takes to hunt an animal, this is a very difficult to test skill. However, it is generally considered to speed up the
"Tracking" section of the hunt, and make "lost tracks" happen less often.

Sub-skills
The following skills are skills that help hunting in some way or another, but people will
argue if they actually provide passive bonuses to it or not.

Hide in shadows - I remember being told that this skill helps hunting, but i don't remember how, or if you have to be hidden for it to work. However, if you are using ranged weapons, and are properly hidden, animals will never/rarely "notice your aggressive actions and approach at a rapid pace". Also, if you have the sniping skill, being hidden activates it to be used on the animal when you finally track it down.

Animal lore - This skill should affect hunting, but again i don't know specifically how. However, even if it doesn't, you are hunting animals after all, so it will help you kill them when found.

Rural combat - I was told this helps hunting as well, but it is one of the skills that might just be a hunting superstition. But again, you are hunting outdoors, so if you have this skill, it can only help you kill more easily.


For those of you who have been keeping score, all of the above skills are easily accessible through the ranger guilds and subguilds. Many of them are also access able to Shifters and Shadowdancers. Because of this, Rangers, Shifters, Army and Shadowdancers are the best guilds for hunting. I am making an assumption with Shadowdancers, because they have many of the useful skills, but Army has a fairly easy time with hunting, not because they are fast at Hunting, but because they have an easier time then most at killing what they find. Other guilds easily can hunt, they just do so at more of a penalty.
[Edit: although some guilds would seem to have problems hunting, it should be noted that some are suprizingly good at it. Just as an example, although epriest dont really get any hunting skills, they can hide behind their minion, keeping them safe, and their high wisdom helps greatly in raising the lbd skills quickly.]

Masteries -
Hunting has it's own set of five masteries. These masteries are simple, one for each of the 5 major terrain types, and are described as adjectives (see help adjectives) starting with no
mastery and going up to maximal (learning). You could say that the masteries are highly classified. There is little information about them other then "They help a bit of everything." However
that in itself is a useful thing to know. Even if it only effects slightly, each adjective of mastery gained will help you in most, if not all aspects of hunting, and the masteries, unlike skills, will never go away for the life of your charector.

As said above, Masteries are developed by tracking down a mob. Killing it is just bonus (experience) points that doesn't affect masteries at all to my knowledge. Because of this, tracking down monsters that are too big for you is a good way to raise masteries faster then just by hunting down the ones you can kill. I was once told that "the bigger the animal, the more of a bonus it gives to your hunting mastery in that terrain." I don't know if he meant bigger as in Kg or as in exp, but in either case, Mammoths, Elephants, and other large monsters are your friends when it comes to raising masteries. However, it should be noted that even if you just find a rabbit, that is enough to raise masteries a slight but specific amount, so anyone can raise masteries eventually.

The two most obvious effects of mastery are time and rares. Masteries seem to make all, or at least smaller animals come faster. When mastery raises, larger animals tend to show up
a bit faster as well.

Rares on the other hand are different. Mammoths for example are huge monsters found in frozen lands terrain, and are 200k+ exp. If a person has no mastery in frozen lands, they will find mammoths only very rarely. However, as masteries raise, the more difficult mobs become more common. By Minimal mastery,
even the rarest monsters can be found, although only occasionally. As masteries raise even higher, the difficult mobs, such as 50-150k mobs become almost commonplace, and the biggest mobs become simply unusual to find.


Terrain
Each of the hunt masteries affect a specific terrain. Having a major mastery in frozen lands will not help you in forest, and vice versa. The five terrain types are as follows: Frozen lands,
in the open, swamps, forests, and rough terrain.

Open lands - Plains/Meadows - Suggested levels: 1-45. (edit 1-50+)
Open lands is almost the definition of a newbie hunting paradise. The plains and meadows are stuffed full with rabbits, mice, hares, deer and so on. They also have something for the mid-level players, such as deer, wolves, and various cats (puma, leopard, etc). Open lands are sadly lacking in upper level monsters however. With the exception of a few bears, the puma, the unicorn, and the ever present wyverns, all the animals of the open lands are average power or less.
(edit: most/all of the big cats (leopard, puma, cheetah) and bears can be found in plains, making them much better then I first thought for higher midbies)

Animals of note:
Brown bears: Like most bears, very highly damaging in melee combat. Also seem to be good at noticing people who are sneaking. One of the top 10 highest exp hunted monsters.
Unicorns: Excellent animals, they provide a highly valuable skin and a horn that can be used to heal yourself. However, you will NEED to heal yourself, since the unicorn hurts quite a bit, using it's horn to great effect. If you can kill it at all, even over 10-15 min, you can probably get a reasonable (for hunting) exp rate from it. Probably rarest of open lands.
Wyverns: Wyverns are present in most terrain. Their are 3 varieties, and all three hurt badly. Also, they give quite a few skins (2- 4) that are worth quite a bit (8-10k each). However
they are scales not leather, so they cannot be worked except with the skill dragonscale crafting.
Buffalo: Buffalo deal average damage for their experience, and grant 2-3 skins. Can be above average in power or somewhat strong in power.

Forest - Evergreen, Deciduous, Mixed - Suggested levels 10 - 50 - (party)
Forest are seemingly Jack of all trades. They provide a good range of monsters ranging from birds and rabbits, up through wolves and moose, past bears and wyverns, and even into Elephants and Lesser Beholders. Many animals provide multiple and/or valuable skins, and as an added bonus, the terrain has thick vegetation helping with skills such as rural combat, rural concealment, and wilderness retreat. However, the other terrain are all better in specific areas. Forest are a good place to go hunt if you have filled up your kill list with alligators and ridged bears, but don't expect to excel in anything there. (NOTE: E and perhaps D or F grants mastery in both Forest and Rough terrain)

Animals of note:
Mink - a small, easy to kill animal, it's skin provides a very expensive skin for it's size that makes it good, almost effortless cash for most players.
Deer/wolves - The forest abounds with multiple types of deer and wolves. There isn't much special about them, other then the fact that having multiple types that all provide exp in the same general range helps to thin out the kill list, giving nearly full exp per kill.
Bear - The forest have quite a few varieties of bear, most of which provide multiple furs. Newbies beware, even the smallest, black bear hunting ants, hurts quite a bit for their power level.
Wyvern - most terrain have wyverns, and they are all the same three types.
Elephants - I have been told they hurt worse then mammoths. Don't know cause i have never been stupid enough to attack one. Big animal, don't know how much exp or weight.
Beholders - I HAVE been stupid enough to attack a lesser beholder, thinking "hey, it is lesser." Hey kids, that consider command is your friend.


Swamps - Swamps and... swamps - Suggested levels: 30+
Swamps are the cash cows of the Hunting world. The place abounds with tons of cash bearing monsters. However, you have to work for those skins. This area is not considered healthy for low level players due to the limited number of animals that are weaker then below average. With the exception of the puma, all the larger mobs (below average and above) give either multiple skins, valuable skins, or both. And with the exception of a few of them, they all hit extremely hard for their experience.

Animals of note:
Alligator: Alligators hurt a lot and don't give much experience for the effort. To make it worse, they are extremely common and it is nothing to kill 6 alligators out of every 14 mobs hunted, which lowers the exp you actually get by a significant amount. However, at upwards of 20k silver for each one killed (4 skins * 5k), they are a good profit.
Caiman: Almost equal to alligators in every way, they seem to deal as much or perhaps slightly less damage then green alligators. However, they are much less common to find, giving overall more experence.
Vipers: Vipers are dangerous snakes that are unusual to find. They deal poison damage and do poison you with a long lasting, medium damage poison. They come in two varieties, normal
which is small experience and only one skin, or large, which is good experience and 2 skins.
Anaconda: the highest hunting exp of the swamps discounting wyverns, Anaconda deals harsh damage in exchange for 4 low value (for swamps) skins.
Wyverns: ad nauseam .


Frozen lands - Tundra and Glaciers - Suggested levels: 20 - 100 - (Party)
Frozen lands are found along the far edges of Icesus. They are usually under snowfall (surprise), out of the way, and a pain to get to and back from. However, they provide some of the best
"quick" hunting experience in the game with numerous monsters in the 8 - 25k range, 1 going upwards of 50k. Frozen lands are also the prefered for many hunters during hunting events, because at least half of the animals that can be hunted are at least 100kg each, and some are much, much heavier. Finally, Frozen lands are the location of choice for the rare hunting parties. Frozen lands has 4 animals that range from 100-250 experience, and are difficult to impossible to take out solo for most hunters.

Animals of note:
Buffalo/Musk ox - When you see signs of a buffalo, it is either a buffalo of Musk ox. Buffalo can be read about in Open Lands section. Musk ox are plain animals, giving 2 (1?) average skins.
However, in hunting events, their heavy weight is a definite plus.
Ridged bears - For a bear, Ridged bears are some of the weakest, by virtue of the fact that they are average power mobs that actually hit more or less like average power mobs. They give 2 generic bear skins and are not that interesting. They are of note because they make Alligators in swamps appear rare. I can and have hunted 12 ridged bears in a row. If you start getting tired of them, move about 5-10 rooms away and it seems to break up the "pocket." They also appear as
Bear in signs, just like polar bear. If you are hunting polar bears specifically, you will need to hunt somewhat strong or above in order to avoid ridged bears.
Polar Bears/dire lynx/walrus - The Three, these are the typical mobs hunted in party hunts, even if the party is looking for mammoths. They are high exp, high damage, and pitiful skins.
The polar bear gives 4 generic bear skins, the lynx gives ONE skin, and walrus skin (s?) are not worth the trouble it takes to get it (them?).
Mammoth - The big daddy of hunting, Mammoths provide around one quarter of a million experience to the lucky party that can find and kill one. They are the only hunted monster i know of that provides prestige points for killing. They provide 4 skins that sell for around the same price as unicorn and wyvern skins (very expensive).
Wyvern - Only notable for the fact that they are not here. I don't know if it was on purpose or a glitch, but tundra and glaciers are the only places in the game that you can't find them.


Rough terrain - Hills and Badlands - 20 - 60 (hills) or 35 - 100 (badlands)
(Edit: the following best applies to badlands. Hills also have many large animals, such as grizzly bears, puma, and wyverns, but when hunting at above average and larger, basic hills don't have enough large animals to be worth it)
Rough terrain is probably the closest to "solo highbie" terrain there is. The animals are not always difficult, indeed there are a number of animals in the 5-10k range for lower level hunters to kill. However, many of the largest animals can be found in rough terrain. In addition, there are other hazards in rough terrain, most notably random aggressive monsters that seem popular there.

Even if hills are fairly tame, Badlands are well named. Badlands terrain has high concentrations of nasty customers, often with some form of venom, or which deal more damage then average.
Although these common strong monsters make for quick high experience, they are not suggested for lower level players.

Animals of note:
Gigantic bats - These bats are interesting in that they are quite large, deal much less damage then most animals of their size and provide quite a bit of experience. For 2 - 3 arrows, you can usually kill or badly maim a gigantic bat, earning a quick and easy 20k+ experience. Although they give 4 skins, the skins are only worth 250-500 silver each, worthless for that large of a monster. (They are however large, making them excellent for the creation of tents and vial containers). To make up for such good exp for such little effort, they are fairly common to find (at least in badlands) which devalues their experience.
Rattlesnakes - These things are simply not worth it. Unless you not only have the skill hide in shadows, but are actually hidden, rattlesnakes are actually aggressive, not only attacking
you (a nasty surprise if you walked out for a drink) but ruin your first shot bonus. They usually poison you within the first or second attack (not too bad of a poison however). Only bother with them if poison doesn't bother you and/or you have already hidden BEFORE starting the hunt.
Scorpions - In my opinion, do not attack scorpions without a competent air-priest, preferably two, one of which heals you while the other removes poison. Scorpions are not a deadly threat, dealing relatively little damage in melee combat, and only being above average in power. However, if they use their *VENOM* attack, which they do randomly, you will not likely survive without the immediate help of a air-priest spaming healing. The venom is somewhat short lasting compared to many poisons, but it deals massive damage, i would guess much more then double that of a blackadder snake.
No knowledge on skins or exp values, for obvious reason of me not having a handy air-priest when i fought one.
Spiked lizard - A fun little beasty, I have only killed one, and only seen about 4. They are found rarely in badlands (most of these monsters are found only in badlands) and they give a wide range of experience, from 80k to at least 120k. I have little information on them other then that they really hurt and it took me about 45 min to kill one (I was stubborn). However, if you can kill one easily, and can find a way to find them quickly, they are excellent for hunting events. The one i killed is the all-time record at nearly 2,000 kg.
Buffalo - see open lands, but for hunting mobs, buffalo are really good experience for the effort.


If you have any other hunting advice, please feel free to post them below. Thank you and I hope you learn to enjoy hunting as much as I do.
Last edited by osma on Tue Apr 21, 2009 07:25 am, edited 5 times in total.
apog
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Re: Hunting Faq.

Post by apog »

osma wrote:This brings us to step Three: First Shot. If you are attacking in melee, spells, etc, then step three has no meaning, just kill it.
This is partially wrong. Spells hit just like archery/throwing. Mage spells, off healer spells, pretty much any ranged back row spell will get the damage bonus. I'm not sure about sorc spells or coven spells.
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comas
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Post by comas »

*claps briefly at Osma.

Seriously thanks man, now I won't be asking for hunting info on Ranger channel!

Kudos!
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osma
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Post by osma »

Spells hit just like archery/throwing. Mage spells, off healer spells, pretty much any ranged back row spell will get the damage bonus. I'm not sure about sorc spells or coven spells.
Thanks, I didn't know spells counted as ranged for First Shot. If anyone knows about sorc or coven spells (infecti as well?) affecting first shot of hunting, please let us know.
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Post by tilamond »

what about Water spells?

Thanks man, nice info
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daic
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Post by daic »

Instakill with coven spells was quite usual while hunting. Kinetic spike and diet of wasps was my favourite ones.
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klarh
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Post by klarh »

Infecti spells work, pretty much anything with a one-time-hit-when-you-cast-it effect does the job I believe. As for coven spells, I don't think scourges and desecrations get the bonus, but it's been a while since I was a coven.
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odovacar
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Re: Hunting Faq.

Post by odovacar »

Thumbs up for the informative guide.
osma wrote:Once you actually track down the animal, it becomes a mob in the room, usually with a tag on the end such as <grazing> or <resting>. I don't know if there is a meaningful difference between these tags, and if someone knows of one, I would love to hear.
I think that it's related to camouflage and you can also observe <nervous> sometimes. I believe it effects the amount of extra damage dealt with first shot (nervous probably causing the least extra damage).
osma wrote:Note that it is the first damage, no matter what, that determines if you get extra damage. If you miss, but have the ability to move silently, you can leave, reload, sneak back in, and shoot again, still dealing the extra damage, as long as you don't deal ANY melee damage at all.
I might be wrong here, but I think you don't get as much extra damage when re-trying the first shot after you miss the first time. (i.e, the target is more nervous).

And one more thing which might help, though it relates more to the killing-the-target part: Favorite hunting weapons. Naturally, ranged weapons are the weapons of choice, so I would recommend a spear or a bow. Both have advantages and disadvantages, so you'll have to pick your favorite (or combine the two some way).
While spear usually deal more damage and you can train throwing by doing, there is always the chance you might lose your favorite spear to a mob you can't finish. Some magical spears are known to always return to their owners though, and templars also have a neat spell to help them with that.
If you fear for your spear, you can always spare that one arrow (or a few more) and use a bow. But the damage depends a lot on your shooting related skills and most main guilds don't train archery, so you'll have to take archers levels to perfect those.

Happy hunting.
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arthor
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Post by arthor »

yup, mage spells deal great devastation as first strike spells, I have killed 40k bears with the first ball. So a caster CAN be a great hunter character as well.
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Post by goderic »

arthor wrote:yup, mage spells deal great devastation as first strike spells, I have killed 40k bears with the first ball. So a caster CAN be a great hunter character as well.
Impressed! What are your relevant stats / percentages?
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odovacar
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Post by odovacar »

Sticky plz? Or move to HOWTO section?
This is valuable information.
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trapping

Post by renba »

unfortunately, nobody has extensive information on trapping here yet.
whenever you hunt in a party of 2 or more, a player not hunting the game can attempt to set a trap in the room (be careful party members don't walk into it) to lead the animal into, so that when it is found it is instantly hit by the trap (this negates first shot damage, but you never lose game if your trap is sprung and does some damage itself.)
The damage traps deal to hunted game for me has been quite small, however I never have shown strong trapping skills yet.
Personally I only have tried mage traps much so far.

Does anyone have any more information on trapping hunted creatures?
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xerene
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Post by xerene »

Sraak is quite a trapper I hear, he might have some valuable info for this section!
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odovacar
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Post by odovacar »

xerene wrote:Sraak is quite a trapper I hear, he might have some valuable info for this section!
Did you mean tripper?
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