Tonight I did my first Hard difficulty UG... and just my luck, Hunters spawned at the very end. I managed to take down one, but the second one killed me (and I had to redo the final fight - which was honestly just as bad as the Hunters!)
It was cool to see them (this was my first time encountering them) but that was painful! Does lowering the World Tier make Hard difficulty enemies a little easier? I was really struggling with some groups of Elites.
Another question - do Hunters ever spawn on Normal difficulty? I've seen some conflicting reports.
If you are struggling with elites at hard, you may want to consider grouping with other players or build up your gears before attempting solo.
I use a D3 with 9k stamina, recon pulse and flashbang bfb for my UG setup. It is the easiest and unfortunately the most boring setup to conquer UG with minimal risks. Striker is faster at clearing UG, but it carries
With experience, hunters are nothing more than minor annoyance. The tell tale sign of their entry is the sudden silence (no waypoint update) for a few seconds after killing the last critter or wave, followed by the signature EMP static. You have a few seconds to get out of the open and find yourself a chokepoint to defend yourself before they start shooting at you. The chokepoint is preferably one where the hunters will approach you from a known direction, minimal opportunity to flank you, and an escape route to back off from the engagement. Hunters will almost certainly close up to gut you up close, so just wait for 1 of them to get into the open. Never let them close up to melee range, keep a safe distance and kill it before it gets too close, else back off to maintain distance. Always be aware of the other hunters' positions to prevent being flanked. The keypoint is, engage 1 at a time and never expose yourself to flanking.
Again, if you are struggling with elites, its going to be a challenge killing 2 hunters solo. No impossible, just riskier and takes longer time because they hit hard. Not particularly efficient to farm for gears.
Consider grouping with willing veteran players to carry you in higher tier difficulties. It helps to build your gearsets faster.
Hope this helps.
I have 3,500 hours across two accounts. This is basically the exact advice I would give. I mostly go solo, but would be happy to give you a hand for a few runs until you get the feel. Being able to predict when they will drop in is part of the battle. It takes a while to type out exactly what he means by "no waypoint update" but is is basically what it sounds like. Watch the waypoint markers after every room. After a half-dozen runs or so, you'll get the feel for how quickly it updates. When it doesn't, you'll either get "end of phase" or hunters. If you haven't found the named boss yet, it will be hunters. One other thing to note about hunters in the underground, you will ALWAYS get one more hunter than members in the group. If solo, you will only get them once per run, regardless of how many phase (1-3) mission you run. If you are in a group, you can pass lead after you get them to often get them again. I love the hunters. They are the most fun part of the game to me. I like that they aren't just bullet sponge enemies. They vary in their attacks, and seem to use much better logic than standard NPC.Originally Posted by null_divisor Go to original post
The hunters, and all enemies in legendary difficulty will "one hit melee" you to the downed state. However, a properly built solo D3 can handle at least 3 melee axe hits from hunters. This is running about 6200 FA and Stam. Of course a 10k Stam build can handle more, but they don't have much offense so are only suitable in a group.
If you want help my usernames are Bambihunter1971 and Bambihunter71 (the latter being my newer account that I play nightly). I play sometime between 6-10pm CST and however long I can on weekends. I often just log on to do the daily combat and daily crafting for all 4 characters to get the Div Tech to finish optimizing but would stay on longer to help. We can run some 3 phase challenging UG missions if you want to see the full experience of what it can become as you level up down there. I really don't need any gear so could drop whatever I find.