This is a matter of choice and gameplay. In general Light Armor sets focus on will, fate and other non-DPS stats that help with a more passive (but active skill using) setup. Inthe other hand Medium Armor has more balance torwards agility for a more DPS type build.

If you like to solo a lot and you are a War Speech addict medium armor may be the choice for you.

If you prefer to focus on healing, groups and fellowships, be able to keep power and do some massive healings light may be the choice for you

You can always mix pieces depending on the stats you prefer.

A not-so-used item for hunters is the tripwire trap. It knocks the mob to and opens a Fellowship Maneuver (not always).

Though it is not 100% reliable it is a good alternative when there are no classes that can effective open a FM during a fellowship.

At the beginning your skills will not be enough to make yourself a survivor in Middle Earth. That changes as soon as you get closer to level 50. So at the beginning try to get the traits that will help you to kill mobs like the staff bonus damage and also the traits for healing yourself / ally.

Learn to use your pet (bear for melee, crow for ranged) and learn the skill types (ranged, tactical, melee) and damage types (after level 20 you an check mobs). Every mob has a weakness for a certain type of damage. Beleriand damage is the most common at higher levels but some mobs have different mitigation types.

lately a lot of buzz about Beleriand Damage Bows have been around. The truth is that when you reach level 50 and you are into Raids and Instances you will need to check (or ask a friendly Lore master) damage types.

A great example is Cudur (Ettenmoors Bow) one of the best bows around. Great for soloing but useless in places like Sarnur Instance where Westernesse and Light Damage will outperform Beleriand Damage weapons.

Lots of Lvl 50 weapons have light damage and that is good but for certain mobs (ask a friend Lore-Master) specially in the rep dungeons you will need Westernesse and Ancient Dwarf Make damage to get the most from your weapons. Those three damage types are the most common. Light will work on both situations.

Here are some tips about the change which BTW made us more powerful.

Basics: we are RANGED but when soloing we spend 50% of the fight at melee thats why Turbine improved the melee skills.

Use Swift Arrow as an opener and all the usal stuff but learn to use the melee skills. Check the blindside skill: adds with no induction 3 focus (that will let you use penetrating shot soon after) and check the other skills (like swift stroke) for a +8% parry chance. At level 50 this is more than 20% parry chance…
Learn to combine the new skills to deliver more DPS in less time by avoiding induction times. If you are waiting for a cooldown use some of the melee skills that are ready to go since they deal more damage now and provide som bonuses.

2 Guardians, 1 Lore-Master, 1 Minstrel, 2 Hunters

Group will handle aggro (GRD), Hunters can take on the tanked mobs while Lore-Master handles adds and Minstrel Heals

Champions, Minstrel, Lore-Master and Burglar can make a kick ass fellowship. You will have multiple mobs DPS (CHM), Debuffs (LRM + BRG) and Healing + Power (MNS+LRM).

Eat food if you know you are going to have a big fight or if you are going to solo multiple mobs (if yo know you can) since DPS are low for this class and the fight will be long so the chance to loose power is 100%.

Champions can tank in small groups because the ability of getting aggro and handling multiple mobs. Specially with a minstrel behind healing and some other classes combos. But do not expect to replace a guardian and forget about doing this in raids. Every class has its own pros and cons.

Since fervor and other skills help the idea that we are a DPS class at the cost of receiving damage we need to rely in food. Using food and managing our skills well are our main tools to deliver DPS to multiple mobs and to stay in good shape in long fights. Specially for soloing.
Using good weapons is a must also to optimize this.

Some tips:

- Might is useful but focus on Agility without forgetting about Will and Fate. keep agility over the others and Might over Fate. Might and Agility will help with parry and critical hits.
- Use will and In-Combat Power Regen (ICPR) if you notice power is running fast.
- Do not trust blue items from jewelers, lots of people is rushing for this (and raising the price at the AH). You can get better items from Angmar quests that will be more Hunter focused even though they are purple items.
- Use traps and focus as much as you can. Use crafted traps, chants and fear (Bards arrow, Cry of the predator) to deal with multiple mobs.
- Use Rain of Thorns to deal with multiple mobs too. Notice the spider icon to see who is trapped and focus on other mobs first.
- Use food and athelas potions to keep you alive.
- Use quick shot to slower enemies.
- Get used to maintain focus so you can use Merciful Shot to finish a mob. This saves time, power and health.

- Stay away from Barz when he says “Ill Gnaw your bones”. He will do an instakill onthe nearest player.

- When Barz says “No power is stronger then Barz” he will get power from a random character. minstrels should NOT heal while he says this or they will get aggro.

The trick to sirvive here is to chain mezz the goblins. Mezz one, kill, search, kill the other one. Repeat.