Hunters are skillful at indirect combat. Their increased ASPD with bows helps makes them superior to Archers in ranged combat. They are also able to lay mines and traps on the ground to hinder or catch mobs. These traps will cause various status effects (Sandman inflicts the status sleep, for example) or cause elemental damage (i.e. Blast Mine, Land Mine) to a target.
Additionally, they have a powerful subcharacter, the Falcon. Falcons are highly effective at dealing consistent damage, as their damage ignores DEF. Falcons give Hunters the ability to deal damage to multiple monster at once, by gathering enemies together and employing the Falcon with the skill Blitz Beat. If Blitz Beat is not cast manually, however, the damage of Blitz Beat done to each target is divided by the number of targets it hits at that instance, thus making "auto-Blitz" an inefficient method of mobbing. Falcons also have the ability to reveal concealed enemies and destroy enemy traps.
Hunters were once considered overpowered in Ragnarok Online pre-Amatsu patch, while players were still getting the hang of 2-2 classes, since they were capable of MVPing and seemingly only needed two stats: AGI and DEX to be successful at MVP, PvP, and PvM aspects of the game. However, Hunters have their own weaknesses, namely the lack of VIT and STR, except in certain specialized builds.
If you are looking to the Ragnarok Transcendence Hunter Job Change, the quest follows the Classic RO Job Change Quest.
Changing into a Hunter from an Archer requires the player to complete a number of tasks:
Item Collection
Written Test
Battle Test
After completing these tests, the player will be transformed into a Hunter.
Builds
Arrow Shower Build
STR: 1
AGI: 1+
VIT: 60-80
INT: 40-60
DEX: 80-99
LUK: 20-40
Although Hunters gain access to new trap skills, traps are either limited to one target, or has split AoE damage when hitting multiple targets. Therefore, the Archer skill Arrow Shower is still the most reliable AoE. With HP Healing Items, this build can AoE level very effectively and quickly.
Trapper Build
STR: 1+
AGI: 1+
VIT: 60-80
INT: 60-80
DEX: 80-99
LUK: 20-40
Hunter Traps such as Land Mine, Claymore Trap, and Blast Mine deal very high damage and are great for killing single targets. These traps are not even calculated based on ATK (nor MATK) and simply use the Hunter's DEX and INT stats. Therefore, it is possible to use a dagger and shield with this. Other Hunter builds that are more bow oriented can also use traps on the side while mainly using Bow skills, with the Bow still equipped as well. For purely killing with traps, a Moonlight Dagger is recommended for SP regeneration, or a Fortune Sword for Perfect Dodge for more survivability. Shields with Racial Reduction Cards are great for taking less damage from the monsters.
With elemental weakness, traps can deal anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 damage with high DEX (80-99) and medium INT (40-60), which most regular Archer builds will have. This is enough to one-shot any monster weak to the element in the Hunter's level range. Hunters can simply lay down traps, and lead monsters into the traps to one shot them using skillful movement. Because Claymore Trap and Blast Mine will split damage across several monsters, using Land Mine is more preferred as it will always one-shot one monster.
AGI Falcon
STR: 1
AGI: 90-99
VIT: 1-30
INT: 1
DEX: 50-70
LUK: 60-70
Optimal Build
STR: 1
AGI: 92
VIT: 24
INT: 1
DEX: 68
LUK: 69
This build is generally recommended for newer players with less funds. Relying on the use of the Falcon to attack, this Hunter build is specialized on single target ctrl-click killing, which uses minimal HP / SP Healing Items. This build will benefit the most from the Hunter Set , AGI gear, and auto attacking procs. This section previously recommended stacking critical gear to boost damage. Unfortunately, the Hunter does not have access to enough critical boosting gear to be viable.
The Hunter Bow with Hunting Arrow combination is strongest for Hunters, especially if Elemental Converters or Sage Endows are available. The unslotted Hunter Bow is a free gift from the Hunter guild to all hunters that job change at job 50. It can also be purchased in the Payon weapon shop for very cheap. When combined with Hunting Arrows, players receive a 50% ranged damage bonus. Hunting Arrows can be purchased in Mora. Unfortunately Mora is a level 100 zone, so players will either need to get a warp into Mora from other players or purchase the Hunting Arrows off other players through Merchant vend shops.
Arrows, Quivers, and Hotkeys
Placing your arrows and quivers on the hotkey bar will allow players to monitor how many arrows they have left, open new quivers, and equip arrows when out. This can be a life saver in emergencies.
Recovering HP or Healing Items
When mobbing or tanking groups of monsters, especially for AoE leveling, Healing Items WILL need to be consumed and often even spammed. One popular healing item is Fresh Fish due to its cheap cost and low weight. It can be purchased from NPCs off the Chef's Assistant at the docks of Alberta (167, 134) as well as other locations for only 250z each (190z with max Discount).
Eden Group Equipment is free and a great place to start for gear to use. The Bow is a good weapon and generally a good choice for a Hunter and their future classes' use.
It is recommended to look at the Equipment recommendations for the Third Class job to see what equipment to strive for, rather than to spend a lot of money on a piece of equipment that will not be used in the future as a third class. However, some equipment may have a high level requirement, or are transcendent only.
Weapons
After considering what requirement skills have (some skills can only be used with certain weapon types), the Weapon Search tool within the iRO Wiki DB site is very helpful. Generally, for physical classes (both melee and ranged), something with high ATK is best. For magic classes, something with high MATK is best.
Whisper Card - Good for early leveling. Hunters / Snipers can reach a high amount of FLEE with all of their AGI/FLEE increasing skills (Wind Walker, Falcon Eyes, Improve Concentration).
Card Sets
The Hunter Set is decent, and in general to use the set you need to use one card slot in the weapon reducing you total damage, but in this case one of the set bonus is increase the damage by 20% that is equivalent to the increase obtained by Race or Element Cards.
Hunter Bow [1] & 
Hunting Arrow
