One of the best solo classes by far in LotRO is the hunter. While I've played the lore-master and the captain, the hunter's powerful ranged attacks and cleverly-designed skills clearly make up for the lack of a pet. As a hunter, I have been able to take down elites alone and complete quests two to three levels above me.

Playing as a hunter is definitely fun. It is great to be able to take down an enemy in just a few shots and to constantly challenge myself by defeating enemies of higher levels. Hunters in LotRO don't have to buy arrows, unlike hunters in WoW. This makes it very easy to quest far from town, as ranged attacks are always available. Ranged attacks work even when close to the enemy, so I'm never limited to the weaker melee attacks. Hunters also get a 15% run speed bonus early on, making resource mining much easier.

One of the best features for a hunter is the ability to instantly travel to key locations. While other classes often have to spend 40-100 silver to get from location to location, hunters slowly earn the ability to travel instantly to almost any central hub for about 2-6 silver in traveling rations. My hunter is ill-equipped to handle large crowds, which are a central component of many group quests. Fortunately, I can use the fast travel abilities to jump between areas to find quests that I can complete alone.

The only disadvantages to being a hunter that I have found so far are that I miss having a pet and that I get over-confident. After getting used to having a summoned pet with my primary character (lore-master), I miss the security I felt when I had a companion with me. It's nice to be able to use various pets to tank or deflect a few blows, especially when playing solo. Although my hunter deals greater damage on her own, this can be misleading and often leads me to seek out enemies that are too powerful for me. I find that I die more often than I did with the other classes, but I hope that this will improve as I find better strategies.

The hunter seems to be a solid solo class, and players seem to favor hunters. When I tried to join a random group to complete a fellowship quest, there would always be at least two hunters in the party, if not more. It's easy to see why, given their travel abilities and high damage capabilities. Hunters seem to have a lot of advantages over other classes, but they do have their limitations.