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Saltin
Aug 20, 2003
Don't touch

Flumpus posted:

I'm level 31 in Act IV on normal, and use Hungering Arrow, Rapid Fire, Preparation, and Vault almost exclusively (along with a friendly helper bat). Other than starting to work smoke screen in, which seems to be essential for higher difficulties, will this combo be workable moving on to nightmare?

Also, I haven't been to the auction house yet, so I think my numbers are probably low for this level. I do plan on checking it out before starting nightmare, so what kind of dps numbers should I be looking for around level 32? Currently I'm around 330, and think I can do a lot better with a few equipment changes.

You aren't going to like what some of the champion packs in NM are going to do to you if you only have 330 dps. Get upgrading. You want double that for A1 NM minimum. Use elemental arrow with lightning ball rune. You already know you will need smokescreen. It is essential once you leave normal. I suppose you might be able to do NM without it but I like not dying.

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Flumpus
Jul 22, 2007


Saltin posted:

You aren't going to like what some of the champion packs in NM are going to do to you if you only have 330 dps. Get upgrading. You want double that for A1 NM minimum. Use elemental arrow with lightning ball rune. You already know you will need smokescreen. It is essential once you leave normal. I suppose you might be able to do NM without it but I like not dying.

Very good info, thanks!

Definitely plan on upgrading a few things before starting NM (up to 480dps very cheaply already, haven't finished IV Normal yet), and am going to start playing around with skills in Normal now so I'll know what I'm doing for NM.

bacon!
Dec 10, 2003

The fierce urgency of now

AVeryLargeRadish posted:

Those are pretty low, I'm mid way through act II nightmare and I have 3100 dps and 12,000 health at 42. I'd aim for 1500~ dps and 8k health.

What's your auction house secret? I'm at 43 with ~5k health and 1200 DPS with absolutely the highest DPS crossbow I can find

deepshock
Sep 26, 2008

Poor zombies never stood a chance.


Here's my current setup at level 31:

1- Smoke (Displacement)
2- Prep (Invigoration)
3- Fan of Knives (the slowdown one)
4- Multishot (Burst Fire)
L- Grenades (Tinkerer)
R- Elemental Arrow (Ball Lightning)

Vengeance, Archery, Tactical Advantage are my passives.

Except for Smoke/Prep, this is focused on coverage (range and area). Is there anything that'd be better than that for one-versus-many combat?

Dex is 508, Armor is 852 and DPS is 489.83. This character just finished Normal difficulty.

deepshock fucked around with this message at May 21, 2012 around 14:48

Sil
Jan 4, 2007


bacon! posted:

What's your auction house secret? I'm at 43 with ~5k health and 1200 DPS with absolutely the highest DPS crossbow I can find

What's your build? What's your dexterity/+dmg on rings/attack speed etc.

e. steamrolled through Hell Act 4 but Diablo's shadow world is being a pain in the butt. The whole Act has basically been Elemental+Tentacles a few times for massive crits/if anything is alive invis shoot shoot and repeat. I basically 3-4 shot everything except champs and all those have been easily kited.


Now diablo would be ok because his AI is dumb and all his danger moves are dodgeable with smoke, but his shadow buddy and my shadow fellows are screwing me over. I think I just need to kite around the various HP trigger points and wait out my cooldowns. But I am impatient! Still getting big D to half health in like 2 minutes and 3 salvos of crit impales is funny.

Sil fucked around with this message at May 21, 2012 around 14:27

Redchaostry
Nov 26, 2008


Currently 58 in Act 3 of Hell running the following build:

Entangling Shot - Bounty Hunter
Elemental Arrow - Ball Lightning
Preparation - Battle Scars
Smoke Screen - Lingering Fog
Spike Trap - Long Fuse
Companion - Bat Companion

Steady Aim
Tactical Advantage
Archery

Going to switch out Entangling Shot for Bola - Imminent Doom when I get home. Was using Entangling to help offset Reflect damage and speed up life gain, but new piece of gear gives +144 hp on hit.

Currently only running 5800 dps with 21k hp which is a little on the weak side, but trying not to spend to much time/money on the AH. Although 18k gold during my mid 40s doubled my dps, so I do recommend looking on the AH for deals.

--edit
Just saw that Rocket Launcher build only requires 55, so will probably screw around with that tonight.

Sil
Jan 4, 2007


Redchaostry posted:

Currently 58 in Act 3 of Hell running the following build:

Entangling Shot - Bounty Hunter
Elemental Arrow - Ball Lightning
Preparation - Battle Scars
Smoke Screen - Lingering Fog
Spike Trap - Long Fuse
Companion - Bat Companion

Steady Aim
Tactical Advantage
Archery

Going to switch out Entangling Shot for Bola - Imminent Doom when I get home. Was using Entangling to help offset Reflect damage and speed up life gain, but new piece of gear gives +144 hp on hit.

Currently only running 5800 dps with 21k hp which is a little on the weak side, but trying not to spend to much time/money on the AH. Although 18k gold during my mid 40s doubled my dps, so I do recommend looking on the AH for deals.

Ditch steady Aim and get Sharpshooter. Ditch companion and get mark of death(whatever it's called) with either the self heal rune or the hatred giving rune.

Saint Darwin
Jun 19, 2011

The cat problem in the park is Malthusian in scope.

Lumpen posted:

I'm using a hand crossbow + quiver at level 45 with 660 dex and 1800 dps. I'm stacking +crit chance and +crit damage.
Is it better to have a big ruby(+dmg) or a big emerald(+crit damage) in my crossbow?
Someone show me how math works.

I have no math offhand, but know this: the DPS calculation on the character/inventory pane also averages crit chance in that number, so try it.

However it seems that +damage always, always always beats crit.

Bruce Leroy
Jun 10, 2010


Demon Hunter sounded great when I first read about it and now it sounds even better with that great OP.

Two questions:

1. Is the Demon Hunter a good first class to play with? I didn't play the beta and haven't played Diablo 2 in years so I'm a bit rusty. I'm also not great at Diablo games either but I still loving love them.

2. Is the Demon Hunter a good solo class? I frequently play games at weird times when there aren't necessarily many people playing, especially my friends, so I want something that will work well for solo play as well as multiplayer. What I've read about Diablo 3 makes me think that any class will solo well as long as you pick the right build, is this right?

I tend to obsess about class and build decisions in the beginning of any RPG and I'm trying to decide between a Demon Hunter and Monk right now.

Bruce Leroy fucked around with this message at May 21, 2012 around 14:43

Meowbot
Oct 12, 2005


Bruce Leroy posted:

Demon Hunter sounded great when I first read about it and now it sounds even better with that great OP.

Two questions:

1. Is the Demon Hunter a good first class to play with? I didn't play the beta and haven't played Diablo 2 in years so I'm a bit rusty. I'm also not great at Diablo games either but I still loving love them.

2. Is the Demon Hunter a good solo class? I frequently play games at weird times when there aren't necessarily many people playing, especially my friends, so I want something that will work well for solo play as well as multiplayer. What I've read about Diablo 3 makes me think that any class will solo well as long as you pick the right build, is this right?

I tend to obsess about class and build decisions in the beginning of any RPG and I'm trying to decide between a Demon Hunter and Monk right now.

All of the classes are pretty amazing and well balanced for solo/group play. I prefer demon hunter because everything dies before it even gets onscreen. I don't play with other people and will see how far I can get solo before I have to give in to that but there is nothing to obsess over because you can switch skills/runes on the fly and there is never any choice you get stuck with.

Demon Hunter has the best looking skills and character imho, I haven't seen any other characters that were half as impressive and to be honest the witch doctor/monk look kind of lovely in comparison to a good demon hunter graphically.

Oddity
Jun 22, 2003

"This woman here depicted will possess unseen marks. Signs that she will be the one to bring forth my works."

A guide I made for a particular method of soloing the higher difficulties with a Demon Hunter.

The idea: Smoke Screen makes you 100% immune to all damage, invisible, and breaks all CC's. The goal is to abuse the gently caress out of this ability by generating as much Discipline as possible to try to have 100% uptime on Smoke Screen.

Hireling: The Paladin with the Hatred regen aura. Give him strong armor, and make sure ALL of his gear has Strength on it. Strength for the Paladin hireling increases his Armor and damage, and it's multiplied by 2.5. So if you want him to survive so he can buff you, shove Strength down his throat.

Left click - Bola Shot Generate: 3 Hatred - Shoot out an explosive bola that wraps itself around its target. After 1 second, the bola explodes dealing 130% weapon damage as Fire to the target and an additional 110% weapon damage as Fire to all other targets within 7 yards.
Rune: Bitter Pill - When the bola explodes, you have a 15% chance to gain 2 Discipline.

Right Click - Multishot - Cost: 40 Hatred -- Fire a massive volley of arrows dealing 165% weapon damage to all enemies in the area.
Rune: Suppression Fire - Every enemy hit grants 1 Discipline.

1 - Impale - Cost: 25 Hatred -- Impale a target for 250% weapon damage.
Rune: Impact - Impale has a 65% chance to knock the target back and Stun it for 1.5 seconds.
--OR--
Rune: Chemical Burn: Your target will also Bleed for 125% weapon damage as Physical over 2 seconds.

2 - Smoke Screen - Cost: 14 Discipline -- Vanish behind a wall of smoke, becoming momentarily invisible for 2 seconds.
Rune: Lingering Fog - Increase the duration of the effect to 3 seconds.

3 - Preparation - Cooldown: 45 seconds: -- Instantly restore all Discipline.
Rune: Invigoration: Increase maximum Discipline by 10 for 5 seconds when using Preparation.
--OR--
Rune: Backup Plan: There is a 30% chance that Preparation's cooldown will not be triggered.

4 - Companion - Cost: 3 Discipline -- Summon a raven companion. Your raven companion will periodically peck at enemies for 30% of your weapon damage as Physical.
Rune: Bat Companion: Summon a bat instead of a raven. The bat grants you 3 Hatred per second.

Passives:

Nightstalker - Critical Hits have a chance to restore 1 Discipline.

Archery: Gain a bonus based on the weapon type of your main hand weapon:
Bow: 15% increased damage
Crossbows: 50% Critical Hit Damage
Hand Crossbows: 10% Critical Hit Chance

Sharpshooter - Gain 3% Critical Hit Chance every second. This bonus is reset 1 second after you successfully critically hit.

Gear needs:

Main hand: 1 handed Crossbow with high damage w/+ to max Discipline (preferably with Hatred regen)
Quiver: Max Discipline (preferably w/Hatred regen)
Cloak: Max Discipline (preferably w/Hatred regen)

*Note: The Max to Discipline modifier on the above items is very important. It means you can use Smoke Screen more before you have to use Preparation, and it also means you can use Smoke Screen more after you use Preparation, since Prep refills your Discipline bar to full.

Currently, for example, I have 21 extra Discipline, meaning I have a total of 51 Discipline. Discipline regenerates at 1 unit per second. Runed Smoke Screen lasts 3 seconds. That means I can keep up Smoke Screen for 12 seconds without having to do anything, followed up by a Preparation, meaning without attacking mobs or generating any extra Discipline, I will have 28 seconds of 100% invisibility/Immunity.

Of course, you won't just be standing there - you will be attacking, which generates more Discipline.

Here are the abilities and how they help with that goal:

Bola Shot w/Bitter Pill: Because you are using a 1 handed crossbow, they have a very fast attack speed - meaning you will be getting a lot of Bola Shots off. 15% of those will give you 2 Discipline.

Multishot w/Suppression Fire: Multishot is an amazing Discipline generator (and a fantastic source of AOE damage). We normally regen 1 Disc per second, so if you hit 3-4 mobs on this you are generating 400-500% Disc. If you hit more, it's insane. Note: Multishot is Hatred-intensive at 40 Hatred per Multishot, which is why this build really wants extra Hatred regen.

Smoke Screen w/Lingering Fog: Smoke Screen is absurd, so the best rune is the one that simply extends the absurdity. This rune gives 50% increased uptime on it. Exactly what you want.

Preparation w/Invigoration: You will eventually need to use Prep, and this rune gives you an additional 10 for 5 seconds. If you use those 10 Discipline before the 5 seconds, they were "free". Smoke Screen only lasts 3 seconds and costs 14, so you will indeed use that extra Discipline. So this rune = 10 more Discipline!

note: Backup Plan: This has a 30% chance of having Preparation not go on cooldown. This is a "lottery" type rune, where 70% of the time it does nothing, and 30% of the time you win the lottery. I prefer the consistent 10 extra Discipline of Invigoration rune, but if you want to play the lottery, go nuts!

Companion w/Bat Companion: 3 extra Hatred per second is insane. Your base Hatred regen is only 4 per second. So this almost doubles that. You need a bunch of Hatred for Multishot to regen Discipline. This does that.

Impale w/Impact: There comes a time when a pack is whittled down and you just need a good single target Hatred dump. This is that ability. High dps! I chose the stun/knockback rune because if you are down to 1-2 mobs you may run the risk of running out of Discipline, in which case this rune is fantastic is buying that little bit of time for your next Smoke Screen/Prep. Or, you know, it just kills the monster.

Note: Chemical Burn: This adds a 125% weapon damage DoT onto the mob. It's much higher DPS, but no stun/knockback. Reasonable alternative if you just want to kill the monster faster, but I prefer the control of the Stun/Knockback.

Nightstalker: This passive gives you a chance of getting 1 Discipline every time you crit. Nobody is sure on the % but my gut tells me around 50%. This is the reason you want to crit so much, and the reason you take the next passives...

Archery - 1 Handed Crossbows not only attack fast, which generates more Discipline due to runed Bola Shot, but also give 10% extra Crit Chance due to this passive, which generates Discipline due to the above passive.

Sharpshooter - This gives you a stacking 3% crit per second buff that goes away when you crit. This works fantastic with the above passive for more Discipline regen.

Playstyle: Open up the pack with a Smoke Screen + Multishot, while spamming Bola Shot as your filler. When Smoke Screen is about to end, pop it again. Continue Multishotting until there are 1-2 mobs, at which point your Hatred filler becomes Impale, runed however you chose (either Stun+Knockback or the DoT). When you can no longer Smoke Screen, pop Preparation, and go back to step one.

Oddity fucked around with this message at May 21, 2012 around 15:01

THE PWNER
Sep 7, 2006

Come daddy, I'll show you the end-game!


Sil posted:

Ditch steady Aim and get Sharpshooter. Ditch companion and get mark of death(whatever it's called) with either the self heal rune or the hatred giving rune.

Mark of death is a group skill, solo you're just wasting a slot on something that only really gets good mileage on storyline bosses.

Redchaostry
Nov 26, 2008


Sil posted:

Ditch steady Aim and get Sharpshooter. Ditch companion and get mark of death(whatever it's called) with either the self heal rune or the hatred giving rune.

Hmm, I will give Sharpshooter a try. Current play style is Ball Lightning everything that isnt a champion or elite. Champion and Elite eat stacks of three Long Fused Spike traps. Sharpshooter should have enough down time to help with my crit rate.
Doing soloing through Hell trying to catch up to my friends in Inferno.

Mark for Death I'm not sold on though, but I can give it a try. Thanks for the advice.

pyromance
Sep 25, 2006


THE PWNER posted:

Mark of death is a group skill, solo you're just wasting a slot on something that only really gets good mileage on storyline bosses.

Yeah, doing 12% more damage is something you can only benefit from in a group. That's why I don't wear gear when I solo.

totalnewbie
Nov 13, 2005

I was born and raised in China, lived in Japan, and now hold a US passport.

I am wrong in every way, all the damn time.

Ask me about my tattoos.


Does each crit always have the same chance to proc the +1 disc from crit passive?

If so, I wonder if you could stack +hatred for rapid fire (with the passive to decrease cost to 5/s) to allow you to rapid fire forever.

Then stack max discipline and +crit chance (1hand xbow + bait the trap caltrop) and between prep, the extra discipline, and all the discipline you get from crits, maybe stay smoked forever?

Seems pretty hard (impossible?) to pull off but...

Oddity
Jun 22, 2003

"This woman here depicted will possess unseen marks. Signs that she will be the one to bring forth my works."

totalnewbie posted:

Does each crit always have the same chance to proc the +1 disc from crit passive?

If so, I wonder if you could stack +hatred for rapid fire (with the passive to decrease cost to 5/s) to allow you to rapid fire forever.

Then stack max discipline and +crit chance (1hand xbow + bait the trap caltrop) and between prep, the extra discipline, and all the discipline you get from crits, maybe stay smoked forever?

Seems pretty hard (impossible?) to pull off but...

From what I have read, no, you only get the Disc bonus on like, 1/4th of the hits, since Rapid Fire spreads out your weapon damage among many hits. But I haven't tested it.

I don't really have a slot I'd give up for Caltrops though.

Filthy Monkey
Jun 25, 2007



I want to say that night stalker only gives discipline from primary skill crits, but I am not completely sure of that. With massive crit chains on rapid fire and ball lightning, I don't see my discipline filling up in game.

Oddity
Jun 22, 2003

"This woman here depicted will possess unseen marks. Signs that she will be the one to bring forth my works."

Filthy Monkey posted:

I want to say that night stalker only gives discipline from primary skill crits, but I am not completely sure of that. With massive crit chains on rapid fire and ball lightning, I don't see my discipline filling up in game.

That's possible, and would go a long way in balancing it. Which only further illustrates the important of having a fast 1 Handed Crossbow.

Sil
Jan 4, 2007


THE PWNER posted:

Mark of death is a group skill, solo you're just wasting a slot on something that only really gets good mileage on storyline bosses.

That's silly. Hatred regen mark of death is about as much regen as the raven when hitting a boss+12% more damage.

hobb
Sep 20, 2001


I've noticed not a lot of people seem to like caltrops and I find it almost essential to keeping guys away while I spam ball lightning at them. I'll admit its hard to fit it in a build most of the time, I usually skip prep, then find myself wishing I had it, but so far I'm at the end of act II nightmare and caltrops with the 80% slow is just way to useful to keep things away, and letting baller light fry things to actually take out.

Maybe when I get more hatred regen from other sources I'll dump the bat.

General Olloth
Oct 25, 2007

One Vision, One Purpose: The Technology of Peace!

Sil posted:

That's silly. Hatred regen mark of death is about as much regen as the raven when hitting a boss+12% more damage.

Yep I dumped my bat for mark. To me I can remember to put the mark up and get more damage much more often than I can remember to put the bat back on when I die. Seriously, it has no character pane or buff icon or anything. Maybe if they fix that I'll try it again.

Yaos
Feb 22, 2003

She is a cat of significant gravy.

I like to thing "how can I be a dick with my build?" I've gotten a little bat that flies about and annoys monsters which makes me hate them because they don't like my bat, I've got mark of death with contagion so all the AOE groups can get it if I kill them correctly. Smoke screen is amazing, not just for the 100% invulnerability it gives, but also because you can train monsters on jerks that go AFK in the middle of a dungeon and never come back.

If you use elective mode you can have multiple skills from one tree or whatever they call them, I have companion and mark of death on my hotbar. I'm thinking I'll drop companion for the ball lighting since my main attacks generates 4 hatred and hits 3 monsters at once. I need to get my attack speed up so monsters just have to walk into a wall of fire.

Yaos fucked around with this message at May 21, 2012 around 15:44

straw man
Jan 5, 2011

"You're a bigger liar than I am."


hobb posted:

I've noticed not a lot of people seem to like caltrops and I find it almost essential to keeping guys away while I spam ball lightning at them. I'll admit its hard to fit it in a build most of the time, I usually skip prep, then find myself wishing I had it, but so far I'm at the end of act II nightmare and caltrops with the 80% slow is just way to useful to keep things away, and letting baller light fry things to actually take out.

Maybe when I get more hatred regen from other sources I'll dump the bat.

Caltrops was great until early Hell; then Smokescreen became mandatory and the tactical style didn't really allow caltrops to have much use. I started noticing that the discipline I was spending on it was keeping me from smokescreening as often as I wanted.

Tokubetsu
Dec 17, 2007

Love Is Not Enough


I was a big Rapid Fire fan but act 3 and IV of nightmare with a buddy turned me into a massive impale fan. It's nice having a high damage skill that you can just fire off. I don't miss Rapid Fire.

Bruce Leroy
Jun 10, 2010


Wow, Oddity's build seems almost too good to be true. That definitely puts Demon Hunter over the bar and I know exactly what my first character is going to be.

Is that build just for higher level characters, as you seem to imply? If so, anyone have a good starter build, including the ones from the OP?

ChewyLSB
Jan 13, 2008

Should I get hit with sanctions or batteries?

So for Impale, the Greivous wounds rune... does that mean it does 100% extra weapon damage (i.e. 350% weapon damage) or does that mean that crits are basically doubled in addition to what they do initially? So like if I'm critting for 25k beforehand does that mean I crit for 50k with the rune or does it mean the first thing which actually seems kind of bad.

Yaos
Feb 22, 2003

She is a cat of significant gravy.

Tokubetsu posted:

I was a big Rapid Fire fan but act 3 and IV of nightmare with a buddy turned me into a massive impale fan. It's nice having a high damage skill that you can just fire off. I don't miss Rapid Fire.
That's what I have on my left mouse button, evasive shot with the triple bolt rune is on my right mouse button. The description does not tell you how cool that rune is though, it says it can hit 3 enemies, it does not say that it will hit any 3 enemies in a cone that widens the farther it goes from you and I'm fairly sure the range goes at least to the edge of the screen. It's pretty much a shot gun. Only issue is the 3 enemy limit on it, but you can make up for it with a faster attack speed or getting another AOE attack like multi-shot.

Yodzilla
Apr 29, 2005


I just unlocked Ball Lightening and I'm having a good ol' time just shooting BFG blasts all over the goddamn place.

Himuro
Jan 13, 2007

by Y Kant Ozma Post


Baconroll posted:

You may want to hit the auction - I'm in Act 2 on nightmare and have 2200 DPS at level 42.

What in the hell is your equipment and what will this cost me?

Himuro fucked around with this message at May 21, 2012 around 16:45

Cuckoo
Apr 27, 2007

Look at this stuff
Isn't it neat


Himuro posted:

What in the hell is your equipment and what will this cost me?

I'm 3.1k at 45. It's easy, all AH rares with a minimum dex rating and reasonable buyout price, perfect rubies in weapon slots and emeralds everywhere else (with amethysts for life here and there if you feel too squishy.)

On that note, feeling squishy is exactly why I'm here. Maybe I went too far into the glass cannon route because holy poo poo am I dying a lot. Actually dying isn't a big deal of course, but I'm worried it's vitality related. I'm at 4k life at 45 and my monk buddy at the same exact level is 10k. Am I low?

Shugojin
Sep 6, 2007

ONE HUNDRED CUPS OF COFFEE.


I recently started using Ball Lightning and holy gently caress I don't even SEE half the enemies anymore.

I'm kinda underpowered I guess, I only have like 1.6K DPS in mid-act 2 nightmare. though I still steamroll everything so I guess it's only underpowered by comparison.

Sil
Jan 4, 2007


Finally soloed Diablo on Hell after 5 attempts. The secret for me was to get 2 +8 discipline items, gigantic crossbow crits(got a 750 dps one of the AH, this is pretty much mandatory*) and just spam bonus crit damage impales whenever sharpshooter was maxed while running around invisible the rest of the time.

Was 1-shotting the realm of shadow illusions, hitting everything for 70-85k when my impales crit(every time I used them).


Super stressful but actually quite satisfying. I had Sharp, Archery, and Vengeance(the extra discipline in the health globes really helped during the shadow phase). Diablo himself was easy, juked everything he had with endless smoke spam.


Of course he dropped blues


Obviously it's not a huge deal anymore but maybe it'll help people who haven't beaten Hell yet

*I was trying to do him in a group with 3 other DH. All were 60, none had smoke, none had a weapon with more than 500 dps. Get smoke and a lot of discipline. Get a 700+dps weapon. Just do it.

melon farmer
Oct 28, 2009

My boy says he can eat fifty eggs, he can eat fifty eggs!

Bruce Leroy posted:

Wow, Oddity's build seems almost too good to be true. That definitely puts Demon Hunter over the bar and I know exactly what my first character is going to be.

Is that build just for higher level characters, as you seem to imply? If so, anyone have a good starter build, including the ones from the OP?

At a reasonably low level you can have something like:
Entangling shot w/chain gang
Rapid Fire w/ web shot
Caltrops with extra slow
Vault
2 skills to taste

And run cull the weak/steady aim/your choice as your passives. It's not the highest dps build, but has good crowd control by virtue of being heavy on the snares. You can drop a caltrops and vault away anytime mobs get close, where you will then do something like 35% extra damage to the slowed and far away mobs

-B l a z e i n g-
May 11, 2010


Wonder how many peeps made a dual wielding DH named 'Dante'.

Obscurity
May 12, 2010

I couldn't decide on which anime to make my avatar.


Bruce Leroy posted:

Wow, Oddity's build seems almost too good to be true. That definitely puts Demon Hunter over the bar and I know exactly what my first character is going to be.

Is that build just for higher level characters, as you seem to imply? If so, anyone have a good starter build, including the ones from the OP?

I posted this a few pages back. Since posting I've hit 60 and changed my build up a bit, but this is still a good general guide:

Obscurity posted:

I'm bored at work so I thought I'd drum up some helpful info for those either just starting a Demon Hunter or those confused on what works best. I am currently 52 in hell and have tried a combo of all abilities discounting the 56+ runes.

I'm going to post general builds that work very well for the level range in which you use them with a brief description on what to do. These are just general builds, and are by no means the most optimal for you. Builds rely completely on your preferred playstyle. This is just a starting point.

Level 1-10: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculat...hunter#bcYd!a!a

Entangling Shot does 75% damage per target it hits, and slows their movement speed. This is great for CC and AoE damage while generating hatred. Chain gang rune at 9 increases the amount of monsters you're hitting with CC and damage.

At level 5 you get Rapid Fire. This is your first high damage spell with good single target DPS for bosses. Caltrops are nice for escaping from large groups, and Vault is as well.

Level 11-19: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculat...WcYdhX!b!aaaa.a and then at 18 switch to:http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculat...beYdhX!b!aaaa.a

This is one of the funnest level legs as you start getting all of your toys. At level 11 you unlock Bola Shot and the Withering Fire rune for Rapid fire. Bola shot is very nice AoE damage, and it generates hatred, plus it has a large radius with the Volatile Explosives rune. Rapid Fire w/ Withering Fire rune allows you to spam Rapid Fire for a long duration.

Your Caltrops now slow mobs to a crawl for ultimate CC. Your Vault does damage if near enemies, and you now have access to Smoke Screen for invulnerability and movement speed. Fan of Knives is awesome for large crowds since it CC's them, and does large damage.

Note: At 18 you get thet Twin Chakrams rune for your Chakram ability. At this point I'd switch to Chain Gang Entangling Shot to get a large CC going and then Chakram everything. It's very powerful.

Level 20-29: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculat...eXTZh!cb!aaaZZa
This level range is where you start getting a multitude of build possibilities emerging. There are a lot of different routes you can take, and all are pretty effective. The build I'm linking is going to be the build I preferred to roll with while trying out other possibilities.

With this build you get really good CC with Entangling Shot, Bonus damage on your entangled targets from Cull the Weak passive, Massive AoE damage with Twin Chakrams which is arguably one of the best AoEs we get, an unkillable bat pet that generates 3 hatred/sec for you to spam more abilities with, and a single target DPS move for bosses with Impale using the Chemical Burn rune..this is very good for Azmodan and Belial since you'll need to move a lot for their fights.

Note: At 24 you get Ball Lightning rune for Chain Lightning. Play with this compared to Twin Chakrams and use whichever you feel works best for you. They're both arguably equal, but require different playstyles to utilize to max potential.

Level 30-39: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculat...Xdcl!bce!aaZbba
This is another level leg where customization and playstyle will play a large role. The build I linked is somewhat general. It gives you CC w/ Entangling+Chain Gang, AoE w/ Twin Chakrams, Defense/Mobility w/ Smoke Screen and Vault, Large Boss DPS with Rapid Fire+Fire Support rune, and a free AoE dps ability with Rain of Vengeance. The passive are a huge DPS gain with Archery boosting bow damage and crossbow crit, and Cull the Weak boosting damage against your entangled targets.

Variants include but are not limited to:
Twin Chakrams -> Ball Lightning
Entangling Shot -> Bola Shot w/ Thunder Ball rune for stun spam
Rapid Fire -> Impale w/ Impact Rune for stun spam
Rain of Vengeance -> Bat pet or any other disc move
Vengeance -> Steady Aim for pure DPS passives

Level 40-49: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculat...XdVc!bea!YaZbbb

Again a large amount of customization and playstyle comes in here. I kept Entangling because in Nightmare and on CC becomes pretty important. The Justice is Served rune gives good hatred generation as well. I added in Preperation w/ Battle Scars because this serves two purposes. It gives you more discipine for Smoke Screen chaining, and it also heals you for a decent amount upon use. I'm level 52 with 15k HP, and I get healed for about 8k.

Variants include but are not limited to:
Twin Chakrams -> Ball Lightning
Entangling Shot -> Bola Shot w/ Thunder Ball rune for stun spam
Rapid Fire -> Impale w/ Impact Rune for stun spam
Preperation -> Bat pet or any other disc move
Vengeance -> Steady Aim for pure DPS passives
Tactical Advantage -> Cull the Weak for pure DPS passives


Level 50-59: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculat...XdVc!bYa!aaZbbc

This is the build I'm currently using in A1 Hell. I prefer Ball Lightning over Twin Chakrams because I don't like having to learn positioning on AoE moves. The Bombardment rune (which I dont quite have yet) is going to be nice to add on to Rapid fire as it does splash AoE while still focusing on your single target. I opted for Tactical Advantage for extra mobility as I often run into champions with the "Fast", "Teleport", etc affixes and they are a pain to deal with when coupled with certain other affixes.

At this point I have faith that you'll have played enough with your class to know what type of build works best for you so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Edit: I may switch to http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculat...XYVc!bYc!aaaabc

Level 60: ???

This level is going to be debateable on which build is absolute best. Up until now you could switch your spec around to suit your situation, but at 60 with the addition of the Nephalem Valor buff most people are likely going to aim at keeping one solid build.

Some builds I have came up with that should work:

Solo: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculat...XdVY!VYf!YZabbZ

This build focuses heavily on CC and defense without sacrificing too much dps. Hungering Arrow + Devouring rune is the highest DPS generator we have. This is great for bosses. Elemental Arrow+Ice Arrow is decent damage to multiple targets at 170% per arrow, and also slows the mobs it hits. Caltrops + Numbing Traps Passive will ensure not only that you stop your enemies in their tracks, but also any ranged mobs caught in the trap will have their attacks reduced when they're shooting at you.

Disc move defense:
Smoke Screen + Discplacement - Invulnerability + boosts movement speed
Vault + Tumble - Cheapest way to Vault, and vaulting out of a waller's wall or vaulting in to trap and then back out is very nice.
Preperation + Battle Scars - Restoring Discipline and healing yourself in the process? Seems like a no-brainer.

Group play w/ a Melee tank (Defensive Monk/Barb build): http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculat...XdVk!bYe!Yaabbc

In a group with a defense oriented Monk or Barbarian you're not going to need to rely on your defense as much and can focus more on damage. That's not to say you should throw all caution to the wind, though.

This build changes Frost Arrow to Ball Lightning for higher AoE focus, takes out Perfectionist for Archery for more DPS, and gets rid of traps for Turret w/ Guardian rune to give 15% DR to your allies. You'll probably just spam Hungering arrow on bosses, with Ball Lightning for any adds. To increase DPS on bosses you could maybe take out Vault and throw in Impale w/ Chemical Burn or Rapid Fire w/ Fire Support.

MMD3
May 16, 2006

Montmartre -> Portland

I just finished Act 1 last night and am only maybe an hour into Act 2. I've got a few noob questions.

At level 20 this is what my build looks like for solo'ing, am I doing this right?
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculat...n-hunter#acXdhi!ca!aZaa

How should I be building my followers for support while solo'ing in order to ensure I don't f-up and pick a bad skill? I just gave the enchantress the Forceful Push which seems to make sense as a DH. Does anyone have a recommended Followers skills link?

When I'm running with a party I seem to be using tangling shot the most but I dunno if my focus should be on snaring or just straight DPS.

Advantages to bow+quiver vs. dual-wielding 1H crossbows? Currently my highest DPS bow is a 1H but I haven't figured out a way to make using 2x 1H weapons do more damage than using a quiver. also haven't figured out any reason to carry daggers or whatever instead of bows. Will I always essentially just be using bow+quiver?

Yaos
Feb 22, 2003

She is a cat of significant gravy.

MMD3 posted:

I just finished Act 1 last night and am only maybe an hour into Act 2. I've got a few noob questions.

At level 20 this is what my build looks like for solo'ing, am I doing this right?
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculat...n-hunter#acXdhi!ca!aZaa

How should I be building my followers for support while solo'ing in order to ensure I don't f-up and pick a bad skill? I just gave the enchantress the Forceful Push which seems to make sense as a DH. Does anyone have a recommended Followers skills link?

When I'm running with a party I seem to be using tangling shot the most but I dunno if my focus should be on snaring or just straight DPS.

Advantages to bow+quiver vs. dual-wielding 1H crossbows? Currently my highest DPS bow is a 1H but I haven't figured out a way to make using 2x 1H weapons do more damage than using a quiver. also haven't figured out any reason to carry daggers or whatever instead of bows. Will I always essentially just be using bow+quiver?
I would put something else in other than vault since smoke screen provides the same functionality (getting you out of the fight) by making you invincible and dropping all aggro. You don't need a movement passive skill since your smoke already gives you pretty good speed. If you turn on elective mode in the options screen you choose skills from other groups of skills. That rune and speed passive mean you'll be hitting almost double speed when you use smoke screen and you really don't need that, you should try a different passive

Other skills are cool, just depends on if you want to do lots of AOE (packs of monsters are about 99% of the game) or lots of single monster damage.

I'm using Templar with all the left side skills and he seems to be pretty on the ball. Your henchmen do very little damage so only use them for the skills and their ability to distract monsters every now and then. If you do find you don't like their skills you can change them, right click their portrait and choose "retrain" and you get to re-pick their skills.

I've been using a bow and quiver for quite some time now. Melee weapons are completely worthless for a DH and I'm pretty sure unlike other classes you can't use melee weapons as ranged weapons.

Yaos fucked around with this message at May 21, 2012 around 18:23

Leo
Oct 25, 2005



So I assume all of these 1000+ DPS crossbows are from act 4 inferno? I'm farming act 2 inferno and haven't seen any weapon even close to that damage.

MMD3
May 16, 2006

Montmartre -> Portland

Yaos posted:

I would put something else in other than vault since smoke screen provides the same functionality (getting you out of the fight) by making you invincible and dropping all aggro. You don't need a movement passive skill since your smoke already gives you pretty good speed. If you turn on elective mode in the options screen you choose skills from other groups of skills. That rune and speed passive mean you'll be hitting almost double speed when you use smoke screen and you really don't need that, you should try a different passive

Other skills are cool, just depends on if you want to do lots of AOE (packs of monsters are about 99% of the game) or lots of single monster damage.

I'm using Templar with all the left side skills and he seems to be pretty on the ball. Your henchmen do very little damage so only use them for the skills and their ability to distract monsters every now and then. If you do find you don't like their skills you can change them, right click their portrait and choose "retrain" and you get to re-pick their skills.

I've been using a bow and quiver for quite some time now. Melee weapons are completely worthless for a DH and I'm pretty sure unlike other classes you can't use melee weapons as ranged weapons.

hmmm, so I can trade in Companion in place of Vault if that makes sense, not sure how useful the raven is so far but I'll give him a shot... then what are you suggesting for more AOE? Chakram instead of Rapid Fire?

I'm having a really hard time getting a sense of which abilities do more damage than others relatively speaking, I feel like the rapid fire is more powerful than Chakram and I like that I can use it to slow enemies if I'm using Hungering Arrow as my primary but I haven't played with Chakram enough I suppose.

Is grenades actually powerful enough to make it worth it's limited range as an AOE? I feel like Hungering Shot and Bola are both pretty good for taking out packs so far.

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Libertine
Jun 21, 2004

Bear Don't Care


I just tried him for the first time and I can't tell: does the Bat Companion actually attack anything or does it just sit there looking cute generating hatred? I feel like I finish entire fights with 50 guys swarming me and he's just sitting on my shoulder the whole time.

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