As most of you would probably agree, the DH is pretty much a dead class these days. After I hit paragon 100 several months ago, i took quite a long break until I heard about the new patch and started playing again hoping to get some points for paragon 2.0. I setup a barb and was just shocked at how easy it is to use at mp10 with cheap gear. by cheap gear I mean not even half into what I put into my DH and yet I'm farming legendaries like at least 6 an hour(sounds nice but it's mostly only good for demonic essence). Anyway, with the patch coming, and with it seemingly pointing to generally a more defensive safe play, I think we'll be a great class again Just wanted to share this as I'm hoping my first and real character becomes useful again there's hope for us!
If anyone has been a DH since the pre nerfed inferno days, we don't even need THAT much defensive gear.. we're already used to kiting, trapping and smoking our way out of danger I remember gearing just enough to survive 1 hit and that went a long way
oh I remember those soul lashers.. I had to lure them to the entrace of the keep so that I could smoke screen skip them.. and I'd get pissed at my templar for luring them to me
The way I read it, many of the change in the upcoming patch or patches are likley to made DH a more efficient and yet more balanced class to play. In fact I always do agree with blizzard to the fact the DH is the best class because of its balanced skill set of offensive and defensive skill ( and no less 2 resource type ). The problem DH face today is game economy and lack of variety to builds and gearing. And of course the highly unbalanced DOA in effectiveness. And yet not good enough for those real high hit one shoot ( even impale do not go high enough ).
Its a skill game balancing issue and I do have some high hope for DH in RoS
I'm curious as the why classes have to compete, I mean the point of efficiency previously was because if u didn't keep up with the competition u would fall behind in the trading as by the time you got something it would likely already be considered common and that would make obtaining gear a great deal more challenging. Yet now there is no trade market, no competition due to the fact loot is BoA so to say DH is bad simply because it's not as strong as barb is just as worthless of a comparison as saying it's bad because it's not as strong as the paladin in d2.
U play what u find fun, there is no reason to rush now.
I would nuance my claim as the crushing blow is the worst mechanism ever invented for a Diablo Game and ruins the progression aspect and undermines the difficulty of reaching higher torment levels, and that most efficient classes are based on this stat. So Wait and see.
Crushing blow was in D2.
Crushing blow didn't work the same way. This Crushing blow acts more like static. Off topic: Where did faster hit recovery go?
Don't care if DH is the worst class, still by far the most fun class for me to play. Unlike some I actually find it quite fun to dodge, vault, and kite to avoid damage. I really don't play these games to become the most efficient farmer or to compete with other players. I've been playing since D3 release with no breaks because I make my own fun in the game, I don't subscribe to anyone else's idea of how a game should be played or enjoyed. From what I take from the RoS beta the DH is actually not under powered at all. People are just using the same boring as shit builds they did in D3 with no account of the new synergies RoS presents. If all your worried about is farming legendarys then go with the most efficient class (there is always a clear "one" that is the most efficient). If you want to have fun playing a game and not stressing about "oh man I'm so slow and inefficient" then play the class you want.
Sorry to disapoint but DH are in a worse place in ROS than they were in Original Diablo 3.
Basically, all classes have pulls and group up mechanism as well as high damage AoE, Perma CC or immunity to damage legendary effects while the DH still has to dodge damage in order to survive. In terms of damage it is the worst class by far (Not that it matters too much since Crushing Blow rules the damage of every class.)
Basically, in terms of efficiency and potency it is something like :
- Crusader (Because of bugged Laser and Horse that makes you run through things)
- Barbarian (Because of OP invulnerability belt)
- Monk (Because of Az'tarask fists)
- Witch Doctor (Because of pirhanas, OP frogs with the legenary that makes them aim automatically)
- Wizard (Decent AoE, and lots of perma CC combos)
- Demon Hunter (Has absolutely nothing unique it brings to a group, has worst dps, has worst survivability and worst CC)
I would however remind that the Friends and Family BETA is really not the finished game and things are going to change dramatically. I still think that the DH is beyond Salvation and will never compete with other class because of the 6 skills limitations combined with the 2 ressources system, the very lacking set of skills in many departments (Including CC) and the very fact (that is not going to change anytime soon) that the best way to kill is to group mobs around you and kill them (As every other class does maybe except Wizard) almost all DH skills have blind spots, except those who don't feel like DH spells at all "Fan of knives" or "Strafe".
Basically you have one way to build DH efficiently on the BETA, it is to stack survivability items, stack Crushing Blow, and use a Strafe / Fan of knives or Melee equivalent, equiping the crushing globes mace and play like a barb. I'm pretty sure if it stays that way it won't please Old amazon players of even newer players that want to feel like a ranger hunting demons.
I would nuance my claim as the crushing blow is the worst mechanism ever invented for a Diablo Game and ruins the progression aspect and undermines the difficulty of reaching higher torment levels, and that most efficient classes are based on this stat. So Wait and see.
Little confused by this, have you been watching Modz play his DH? He's tearing things to pieces on Torment VI and not really having problems doing it (not actually sure if he's using CB or not, but I'm pretty sure it's just a blind on hit build with huge AS). Besides, saying that DH's suck compared to other classes with clearly broken items/skills that are obviously going to be tuned before live is a little stupid.
The DH is really strong in ROS. There was a guy streaming with a strafe build, totally owning. There's a 1h xbow that removes the hatred cost of strafe. It's just a matter of time untill people find more viable builds. I think it's not wise to judge the class after barely one month of beta.
Don't care if DH is the worst class, still by far the most fun class for me to play. Unlike some I actually find it quite fun to dodge, vault, and kite to avoid damage. I really don't play these games to become the most efficient farmer or to compete with other players. I've been playing since D3 release with no breaks because I make my own fun in the game, I don't subscribe to anyone else's idea of how a game should be played or enjoyed. From what I take from the RoS beta the DH is actually not under powered at all. People are just using the same boring as shit builds they did in D3 with no account of the new synergies RoS presents. If all your worried about is farming legendarys then go with the most efficient class (there is always a clear "one" that is the most efficient). If you want to have fun playing a game and not stressing about "oh man I'm so slow and inefficient" then play the class you want.
Pretty much this. I've never played the DH thinking it was op, I just played it because imho it is the funniest class in D3.
I've been watching streams and people who play the DH don't have a clear idea of how to play as a DH and only care about efficiency, not about fun. It's like "wut? I have to use my brain to play this class? BS DH's are so weak,blablabla".
I'm pretty exited about the state of the DH right now, and I can't wait to the exp to come out and try it myself. There are so many builds and thinngs that I want to try.
I was worried about the DH when I saw almost zero people playing one, and the rumor was they just sucked. Then I found a guy named ZiggyD I think on YouTube and watched him do a play through, and now I'm extremely stoked for the DH it seems to still remain the 'hardest' class to play mainly because even with high survivability you have to play smart, BUT the DH spenders actually hit hard, and previously horrible runes look to be viable. Cmooooon RoS beta!!
I can't wait to try the changes myself. From what i saw, they all looks pretty sweet. Tons of buffs. Two of my fav skills are cluster arrow and strafe, when i saw the buffs to those i think i got a semi. I'll be so happy to swap out rapid fire, i really don't like standing still.
Infinite strafe build looks pretty damn good. I've seen a few people running it.
I was dreaming up a build while at work, man I wish we had a calculator for RoS, or at LEAST an updated legendary item list! (hint hint dfans!!! lemme in beta and I'll make one myself =P )
I really want to try;
Strafe w/ rocket storm (strafe does 315% now, and the homing rockets do 90%), and the zero cost legendary.
Fan of Knives w/ Knives Expert (the rune removes the cooldown and adds a 30H cost, and FoK does 450% in 20 yards)
Smoke Screen w/ healing vapors (SS breaks CC and grants immunity for 1 second, the rune adds a 15% life gain per sec)
Companion w/ Wolf companion (the wolf does 150% weapon dmg now), and the 3 wolfs legendary (pretty sure it's a cloak)
Chakram w/ Shuriken Cloud (constant 200% weapon damage aoe)
Vengeance w/ Stimulants (rune heals 6% life per second, and vengeance lasts 15s and is just an insane DPS cooldown)
Passives;
Bloody Vengeance (globes grant 40H and 4D)
Hot Pursuit (grants 20% speed when you hit an enemy)
Ballistics (100% additional rocket dmg, and 20% chance to fire a homing rocket for 150% dmg)
Single Out (+20% crit chance against targets that are not within 20 yards of other targets)
The idea here is with free strafe, you move around doing constant damage with both strafe and shuriken cloud. while dumping your hatred with a ton of FoK's that have no cooldown. After watching a couple streams strafe actually hits hard enough to be viable. Hot pursuit which is changed to increase your movespeed by 20% when you hit a target hopefully works with strafe, because that would be pretty sweet to almost completely offset the decrease in speed while using strafe. Bloody vengeance ( 40 hatred and 4 disc per globe ) is there because it's just extremely helpful to get a nice chunk of your resource back.
You get some rocket synergy from your passive and strafe. Since strafe lets you move through enemies vault isn't really needed, and my big defensive skill is smoke screen to pop if I'm about to get frozen, and while 15% of your life when you pop it isn't 'huge', it's still pretty damn helpful when you use it twice or so to heal back up.
Vengeance with stimulants (which grants 6% life each second) is there for the DPS as well as another healing cooldown.
One weakness I foresee with this build? It has lower single target than other DH builds. Once you've got 1 elite / champ / boss left then obviously there's better nukes for the DH. I try to offset this however with a couple things; Companion w/ the 3 wolf legendary (450% combined damage from them per attack), rocket storm and ballistics which since they home in, should work well against 1 target, and of course the awesome Single Out passive, which grants 20% crit chance to any targets that are not within 20 yards of other enemies.
Edit; Apparently there's awesomeness in the form of pants that grant 25% resource regen and 25% dmg while moving /drool
Infinite strafe build looks pretty damn good. I've seen a few people running it.
I was dreaming up a build while at work, man I wish we had a calculator for RoS, or at LEAST an updated legendary item list! (hint hint dfans!!! lemme in beta and I'll make one myself =P )
I really want to try;
Strafe w/ rocket storm (strafe does 315% now, and the homing rockets do 90%), and the zero cost legendary.
Fan of Knives w/ Knives Expert (the rune removes the cooldown and adds a 30H cost, and FoK does 450% in 20 yards)
Smoke Screen w/ healing vapors (SS breaks CC and grants immunity for 1 second, the rune adds a 15% life gain per sec)
Companion w/ Wolf companion (the wolf does 150% weapon dmg now), and the 3 wolfs legendary (pretty sure it's a cloak)
Chakram w/ Shuriken Cloud (constant 200% weapon damage aoe)
Vengeance w/ Stimulants (rune heals 6% life per second, and vengeance lasts 15s and is just an insane DPS cooldown)
Passives;
Bloody Vengeance (globes grant 40H and 4D)
Hot Pursuit (grants 20% speed when you hit an enemy)
Ballistics (100% additional rocket dmg, and 20% chance to fire a homing rocket for 150% dmg)
Single Out (+20% crit chance against targets that are not within 20 yards of other targets)
The idea here is with free strafe, you move around doing constant damage with both strafe and shuriken cloud. while dumping your hatred with a ton of FoK's that have no cooldown. After watching a couple streams strafe actually hits hard enough to be viable. Hot pursuit which is changed to increase your movespeed by 20% when you hit a target hopefully works with strafe, because that would be pretty sweet to almost completely offset the decrease in speed while using strafe. Bloody vengeance ( 40 hatred and 4 disc per globe ) is there because it's just extremely helpful to get a nice chunk of your resource back.
You get some rocket synergy from your passive and strafe. Since strafe lets you move through enemies vault isn't really needed, and my big defensive skill is smoke screen to pop if I'm about to get frozen, and while 15% of your life when you pop it isn't 'huge', it's still pretty damn helpful when you use it twice or so to heal back up.
Vengeance with stimulants (which grants 6% life each second) is there for the DPS as well as another healing cooldown.
One weakness I foresee with this build? It has lower single target than other DH builds. Once you've got 1 elite / champ / boss left then obviously there's better nukes for the DH. I try to offset this however with a couple things; Companion w/ the 3 wolf legendary (450% combined damage from them per attack), rocket storm and ballistics which since they home in, should work well against 1 target, and of course the awesome Single Out passive, which grants 20% crit chance to any targets that are not within 20 yards of other enemies.
^In addition, they're a few legendaries that work really well with the build. One is the pants that allows 25% more damage + 25% resource generation as long as you're moving.
^In addition, they're a few legendaries that work really well with the build. One is the pants that allows 25% more damage + 25% resource generation as long as you're moving.
zomg I forgot about those!!! This is why we need an updated comprehensive list of new legendaries!!!!
I'm really enjoying the DH on the ptr, the changes are great.
Favorite skills:
Companion updates are awesome. The wolf is very fun to use.
Frost Arrow is amazing (as someone mentioned) combined with thrill of the hunt nothing can touch you
Chakram (The rune that gives you bladed armor and does constant damage) and Fan of Knives (The rune that removes cd) are a lot of fun together, tons of damage.
Hot Pursuit- Is this bugged? This would be an amazing passive but the movement speed won't go over the cap
Hot Pursuit works for me. Im using it with a Strafe/chakram cloud/fan of knives/punishment/wolf build and its a lot of fun. Ran it on Torment 2 (60) with no problems.
If I get lucky and get that bow that reduces strafe cost to 0, it'll be even better. I can then run the fan of knives rune that removes the cool down but adds a hatred costs as i'll have plenty of hatred for it. Some other legs that would be good would be the bracers that give you a short burst of ms when you break an object as with strafe you're constnatly destroying everything as well as the 25% damage/resource with movement pants.
my over 1000 hr DH: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Robbie-6838/hero/1376697
versus my cheap efficient barb: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Robbie-6838/hero/28395879
Its a skill game balancing issue and I do have some high hope for DH in RoS
U play what u find fun, there is no reason to rush now.
Crushing blow didn't work the same way. This Crushing blow acts more like static. Off topic: Where did faster hit recovery go?
You're a wizard Harry.....
Little confused by this, have you been watching Modz play his DH? He's tearing things to pieces on Torment VI and not really having problems doing it (not actually sure if he's using CB or not, but I'm pretty sure it's just a blind on hit build with huge AS). Besides, saying that DH's suck compared to other classes with clearly broken items/skills that are obviously going to be tuned before live is a little stupid.
Pretty much this. I've never played the DH thinking it was op, I just played it because imho it is the funniest class in D3.
I've been watching streams and people who play the DH don't have a clear idea of how to play as a DH and only care about efficiency, not about fun. It's like "wut? I have to use my brain to play this class? BS DH's are so weak,blablabla".
I'm pretty exited about the state of the DH right now, and I can't wait to the exp to come out and try it myself. There are so many builds and thinngs that I want to try.
Vengeange looks sick too.
I was dreaming up a build while at work, man I wish we had a calculator for RoS, or at LEAST an updated legendary item list! (hint hint dfans!!! lemme in beta and I'll make one myself =P )
I really want to try;
Strafe w/ rocket storm (strafe does 315% now, and the homing rockets do 90%), and the zero cost legendary.
Fan of Knives w/ Knives Expert (the rune removes the cooldown and adds a 30H cost, and FoK does 450% in 20 yards)
Smoke Screen w/ healing vapors (SS breaks CC and grants immunity for 1 second, the rune adds a 15% life gain per sec)
Companion w/ Wolf companion (the wolf does 150% weapon dmg now), and the 3 wolfs legendary (pretty sure it's a cloak)
Chakram w/ Shuriken Cloud (constant 200% weapon damage aoe)
Vengeance w/ Stimulants (rune heals 6% life per second, and vengeance lasts 15s and is just an insane DPS cooldown)
Passives;
Bloody Vengeance (globes grant 40H and 4D)
Hot Pursuit (grants 20% speed when you hit an enemy)
Ballistics (100% additional rocket dmg, and 20% chance to fire a homing rocket for 150% dmg)
Single Out (+20% crit chance against targets that are not within 20 yards of other targets)
The idea here is with free strafe, you move around doing constant damage with both strafe and shuriken cloud. while dumping your hatred with a ton of FoK's that have no cooldown. After watching a couple streams strafe actually hits hard enough to be viable. Hot pursuit which is changed to increase your movespeed by 20% when you hit a target hopefully works with strafe, because that would be pretty sweet to almost completely offset the decrease in speed while using strafe. Bloody vengeance ( 40 hatred and 4 disc per globe ) is there because it's just extremely helpful to get a nice chunk of your resource back.
You get some rocket synergy from your passive and strafe. Since strafe lets you move through enemies vault isn't really needed, and my big defensive skill is smoke screen to pop if I'm about to get frozen, and while 15% of your life when you pop it isn't 'huge', it's still pretty damn helpful when you use it twice or so to heal back up.
Vengeance with stimulants (which grants 6% life each second) is there for the DPS as well as another healing cooldown.
One weakness I foresee with this build? It has lower single target than other DH builds. Once you've got 1 elite / champ / boss left then obviously there's better nukes for the DH. I try to offset this however with a couple things; Companion w/ the 3 wolf legendary (450% combined damage from them per attack), rocket storm and ballistics which since they home in, should work well against 1 target, and of course the awesome Single Out passive, which grants 20% crit chance to any targets that are not within 20 yards of other enemies.
Edit; Apparently there's awesomeness in the form of pants that grant 25% resource regen and 25% dmg while moving /drool
sounds awesome
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zomg I forgot about those!!! This is why we need an updated comprehensive list of new legendaries!!!!
/whineOFF
The new damage to Frost Arrow and ES are AWESOME. I love the feeling of slowing enemies down and spamming FA.
Hot Pursuit works for me. Im using it with a Strafe/chakram cloud/fan of knives/punishment/wolf build and its a lot of fun. Ran it on Torment 2 (60) with no problems.
If I get lucky and get that bow that reduces strafe cost to 0, it'll be even better. I can then run the fan of knives rune that removes the cool down but adds a hatred costs as i'll have plenty of hatred for it. Some other legs that would be good would be the bracers that give you a short burst of ms when you break an object as with strafe you're constnatly destroying everything as well as the 25% damage/resource with movement pants.