Hunter: Initial Reactions

As we all know, Jagex has recently released the Hunter skill. After weeks of rumors, from a bug which revealed it to be in development about 3 months ago, as well as complaints after its official release about it being a clone of Slayer, it has been released to the public. How has it fared? Read on...

Thankfully to most, Hunter is NOT another Slayer. It involves killing things, but there is NO combat involved. It involves hunting down and finding (then quickly killing) small, furry creatures for the most part. There are deviations (large beasts, and bird trapping), however. I decided to take a few anonymous surveys to find out how much the average user actually enjoys Hunter. Knowing that Hunter has many subdivisions, I had a separate survey for each. Here are the results.

• Tracking: Most people found Tracking to be rather fun at first, but soon got bored with it, mainly because of its low exp <-> time rates. The polar Hunting ground has an interesting twist with the small caves, but for the most part, it is the same in all areas. Desert Tracking is rather difficult, due to low amounts of cacti in the area, so water becomes an issue- However, it does give better exp than most other things at its level.
  
  
• Bird Hunting: The majority of users found this to be the most efficient way of gaining levels in Hunter. Seen in the Feldip Jungle at any point in time are HUGE amounts of players, standing with even more bird traps. The experience is considered to be rather high, and most people use this method of hunting until they can trap Salamanders. However, many users find this very slow and boring, and once the initial wave of people using hunting dies down, it will be very quiet in the hunting areas, making it even duller.
  
  
• Butterflies: I was hard pressed to find anyone hunting butterflies, except for those whom had JUST gotten 15 hunting and were trying it out. It can be very annoying trying to catch them, and they give low exp compared to other methods at the same level. The only bonus to this is the stat boosting uses that butterflies give, which can be fun to use in Castle wars or in a group P-K trip.
  
  
• Deadfall: While somewhat funny to watch, squishing small, furry animals is NOT very useful. The exp, while decent, is not in proportion to the time spent waiting for the animals to fall into traps. The loot gained from this, which is mostly ranging equipment (The spiked vambraces are totally useless, and the Hunter's Crossbow and its bolts can't stand up to a Magic Short bow), is kind of bad, but the polar Hunter zone provides Herblore secondary ingredients. Add these cons with the fact that only one person can use a rock at a given time, and you've got a fairly useless power here.
  
  
• Box Traps: I could NOT find anyone using a box trap. Therefore, I assume its bad exp. I may be wrong.
  
  
• Net Traps: These are said to be the best way to gain Hunter exp, once you have the proper level. Fast, easy, and cheap, Salamanders can also be SOLD to make some profit. The net spots are always full of people, and anyone with high Hunter will tell you to go here to raise your level. The only downside here is that eventually people will realize the salamanders are NOT very useful, and so the prices will drop to very low levels.
  
  
• Pitfalls: I found it somewhat difficult to find people using Pitfalls, much like Butterflies. The general consensus is that it's nice to do it to get the outfits from it, but afterwards it's just better to hunt Birds/Salamanders. Mainly this is from the fact that it takes a while to do this, the exp is not too great, and you have to put yourself in danger to do this. Skillers hate this one.
  
  
• Falconry: Falconry is a bit like Pitfalling, except the loot is great. The exp from it is not as good as other methods, but the materials gained from this method are some of the ONLY things that are useful for something other than raising hunting- namely, the spotted capes and Gloves of Silence. Cons to Falconry involve masses of people doing it and the 500 gp charge to use it.
  
  
• Imps: I couldn't find anyone with a high enough level to use the magical Imp Boxes. I assume this is fairy good exp (given the requirement), and the banking can be useful, for quests and such.
  
  
• Overall: Most people found Hunting fun, but did not like the fact that for now it does not have too many practical uses. Another complaint is the imbalance between methods of hunting and their exp, which some believe forces people to train a certain way. Many people found this to be a fairly solid addition to the skill chain. After each interview, I asked users which of the most recent 4 skills they had enjoyed the most (Slayer, Farming, Hunting, and Construction). Here are the results. (From 65 people)
  
  Slayer: 46%
  Hunting: 22%
  Farming: 20%
  Construction: 12%

Therefore, the consensus is that Hunting is the best new skill to hit RuneScape in the past year and a half.
Hopefully Hunting will be followed up with more updates and new ways to hunt, as well as Quests.

Happy Hunting!

Written by: Hogie Hutt
Edited By: Fullmetal Shinobi
Coded by: Hoof NoobQuest