Good evening good people of Diablo Fans. I have been perfecting a build on my DH recently and felt it was finally ready to share:
Overall this build does great damage, single target and AOE. It also makes you nearly impossible to kill which was a goal of mine... I just hate losing those pools of reflection :'(
Passives:
Archery: Passive Damage boost, pretty much mandatory
Grenadier: The backbone of the build. This passive increases the explosion radius of your grenades by 20% (very helpful), increases the damage of your grenades by 10% (pretty helpful) and grants you a 100% chance to drop a grenade upon death for 1000% damage (not very helpful but kind of neat I guess).
Brooding: This passive has been significantly buffed with 2.0 and provides a substantial, scaling HP Buff. (1.5% of your hp stacking 3 times when you stand still) Since you will be standing still to channel Rapid Fire: Bombardment, this buff will almost always be active.
Active Skills:
Grenade: The targeting issues that were present around launch seem to be corrected and the increased damage and explosion radius from Grenadier make this skill formidable. There is more than one viable rune choice for this skill.I typically use either Gas Grenade (Single Target DPS) or Grenade Cache (AOE). Stun Grenades and Tinkerer are also viable if you want to stun or need additional hatred generation. I do not like Cluster grenades because the damage output is so much lower (in my experience). The 200% damage from Cluster Grenades is spread out over an 8 yard radius, resulting in some very low damage numbers.
Rapid Fire (Bombardment): This skill, A.K.A "The Grenade Hose of Doom" does amazing damage in general and provides the highest AOE damage of any Rapid Fire rune. The Grenadier passive increases the radius of the explosion and the damage even further, making this a very powerful skill (535%weapon damage).
Smoke Screen (Healing Vapors): This is an amazing skill / rune combo that was added recently. It breaks CC, heals you and makes you untarget-able for a short duration. This can be used while channeling Rapid Fire and along with Life on Hit and the Brooding stacks, you can survive almost anything.
Preparation (Battle Scars): This has been a favorite of mine since launch. It's a great emergency heal and refills your Discipline so that you can continue using Smoke Screen. You will be very hard to kill.
Companion:There are many viable choices here. Pick the one that compliments your gear. (Bat for Hatred, Boar for Defense, Wolf for Damage, Spider for CC). I almost always run with the Wolf for the amazing damage buff it provides (30% damage for everyone within 60 yards for 10 seconds). You can pop this right before Rain of Vengeance for Massive Damage.
Rain of Vengeance (Shade): I was skeptical about this rune before I tried it, but I am a believer now. This rune has a HUGE radius and does amazing damage. You can aim it where ever you want (it is deployed at your cursor position) and you can use it while channeling rapid fire.
How to Play:
Use Rapid Fire until you run out of hatred and then spam your grenades to regain it (Pretty Self Explanatory).
If you become overwhelmed or see an elite pack, you can pop the Wolf Active Skill (30% Damage) drop Rain of Vengeance on them and shower them with Rapid Fire Bombardment. Most enemies will melt within seconds and you will not have a scratch on you thanks to Smoke Screen, Preparation and Brooding.
I have had great success with this build from Torment 1-5. My damage is still a tad low for torment 6, however ,and I have not been able to properly test it. This build does not require any special legendaries to use, but can be improved with them.
The build looks cool I'd like to try it on my HC DH.
I have one question hope you can help clarifying,is Grenadier affect RF Bombardment? I always thoughtit only affect the "Grenade" skill..
What does it affect? Can you provide a list so I can explorer more possibility.
Thanks.
Grenadier does indeed improve Rapid Fire Bombardment. It will improve any skill that describes the damage as a grenade in the tooltip, much in the same way Ballistics will improve any skill that uses Rockets.
In fact, Rapid Fire (Fire Support) with the Ballistics passive is also very viable but works best on single targets (Bosses / Ubers).
I'll try to post a complete list when I get home a little later today.
I was actually using a similar setup doing Mira runs. Absolutely love it in groups, particularly if you have a tank-like class that is able to group things up for you. In that type of setup, I also like the flying strike rune for Rain of Vengeance.
I don't need the hatred builder, so I switched RF Bomardment to LMB and use MfD Mortal Enemy for very long fights. My DH is currently only Lvl56 and has no +hatred/s on her gear. I will replace the Bat companion with Wolf companion at Lvl60 and switch the MfD rune if I can live without this boost on very long fights. RF Bomardment works without the hatred from MfD Mortal Enemy for an very long time and 2-3 +hatred/s on my gear will be enough to switch the MfD rune too.
Gonna try it out for sure, but how do you deal with elites with Mortar/Desecration/Frozen/Plagued/Frozen Pulse and the other various Aoe? Since relocating really hurts the rf build and some of the aoe abilities makes it necessary to move alot.
How much are you able to tank?
EDIT: Also, using rain of Vengeance during RF will cancel RF and make you pay the 20 hatred.
This build is very tankey and can live through almost anything (LOH and AR help too).
Popping Smoke Screen (Healing Vapors) while channeling Rapid Fire (Bombardment) will heal you and also make you immune to damage. Bombardment does AOE which means you will be hitting more enemies and receiving more life on hit. With brooding, preparation, smoke screen, and a potion there is no reason you should die. In most fights I remain stationary, channeling rapid fire and using smoke screen, the elites are dead before I take any real damage.
I will double check on ROV later, but, in my experience the shade rune does not break the channeling of Rapid Fire. At any rate, you could pop it and then channel Bombardment right after
The build looks cool I'd like to try it on my HC DH.
I have one question hope you can help clarifying,is Grenadier affect RF Bombardment? I always thoughtit only affect the "Grenade" skill..
What does it affect? Can you provide a list so I can explorer more possibility.
Thanks.
Grenadier does indeed improve Rapid Fire Bombardment. It will improve any skill that describes the damage as a grenade in the tooltip, much in the same way Ballistics will improve any skill that uses Rockets.
In fact, Rapid Fire (Fire Support) with the Ballistics passive is also very viable but works best on single targets (Bosses / Ubers).
I'll try to post a complete list when I get home a little later today.
Thanks for all of the feedback!
I can confirm "grenadier" passive does now improve RF bombardment. I just tested myself using a lvl 3 crossbow on one of the barfing slime walls in the cave of the betrayer.
The radius of grenades and the damage were increased as listed in the passive with RF - bombardment.
I also tested this with strafe - demolition, and although i could not verify the radius boost (since they automatically shot directly at the slime wall), I can verify the 10% damage boost works for that too.
And i also checked with cluster arrow. It does not affect the initial "cluster arrow" but the grenades that blow up afterward are boosted by the passive.
So yay for this passive actually being useful now!
For reference here are two screenshots of RF - Bombardment to show off the radius boost: First photo is WITHOUT grenadier passive, Second photo is WITH grenadier passive. Both were taken standing in the same spot and aiming at the same area. As you can see no numbers on the first, but numbers on second... Cool.
Rapid fire is the worst, forces you to be immobile. With other skills getting good damage buffs, I don't see why you adhere to that skill unless you have gear that jacks it up
Overall this build does great damage, single target and AOE. It also makes you nearly impossible to kill which was a goal of mine... I just hate losing those pools of reflection :'(
Passives:
Archery: Passive Damage boost, pretty much mandatory
Grenadier: The backbone of the build. This passive increases the explosion radius of your grenades by 20% (very helpful), increases the damage of your grenades by 10% (pretty helpful) and grants you a 100% chance to drop a grenade upon death for 1000% damage (not very helpful but kind of neat I guess).
Brooding: This passive has been significantly buffed with 2.0 and provides a substantial, scaling HP Buff. (1.5% of your hp stacking 3 times when you stand still) Since you will be standing still to channel Rapid Fire: Bombardment, this buff will almost always be active.
Active Skills:
Grenade: The targeting issues that were present around launch seem to be corrected and the increased damage and explosion radius from Grenadier make this skill formidable. There is more than one viable rune choice for this skill.I typically use either Gas Grenade (Single Target DPS) or Grenade Cache (AOE). Stun Grenades and Tinkerer are also viable if you want to stun or need additional hatred generation. I do not like Cluster grenades because the damage output is so much lower (in my experience). The 200% damage from Cluster Grenades is spread out over an 8 yard radius, resulting in some very low damage numbers.
Rapid Fire (Bombardment): This skill, A.K.A "The Grenade Hose of Doom" does amazing damage in general and provides the highest AOE damage of any Rapid Fire rune. The Grenadier passive increases the radius of the explosion and the damage even further, making this a very powerful skill (535%weapon damage).
Smoke Screen (Healing Vapors): This is an amazing skill / rune combo that was added recently. It breaks CC, heals you and makes you untarget-able for a short duration. This can be used while channeling Rapid Fire and along with Life on Hit and the Brooding stacks, you can survive almost anything.
Preparation (Battle Scars): This has been a favorite of mine since launch. It's a great emergency heal and refills your Discipline so that you can continue using Smoke Screen. You will be very hard to kill.
Companion: There are many viable choices here. Pick the one that compliments your gear. (Bat for Hatred, Boar for Defense, Wolf for Damage, Spider for CC). I almost always run with the Wolf for the amazing damage buff it provides (30% damage for everyone within 60 yards for 10 seconds). You can pop this right before Rain of Vengeance for Massive Damage.
Rain of Vengeance (Shade): I was skeptical about this rune before I tried it, but I am a believer now. This rune has a HUGE radius and does amazing damage. You can aim it where ever you want (it is deployed at your cursor position) and you can use it while channeling rapid fire.
How to Play:
Use Rapid Fire until you run out of hatred and then spam your grenades to regain it (Pretty Self Explanatory).
If you become overwhelmed or see an elite pack, you can pop the Wolf Active Skill (30% Damage) drop Rain of Vengeance on them and shower them with Rapid Fire Bombardment. Most enemies will melt within seconds and you will not have a scratch on you thanks to Smoke Screen, Preparation and Brooding.
I have had great success with this build from Torment 1-5. My damage is still a tad low for torment 6, however ,and I have not been able to properly test it. This build does not require any special legendaries to use, but can be improved with them.
Let me know what you think!
(Edited for Formatting and Typing Errors)
Thanks!
I have one question hope you can help clarifying,is Grenadier affect RF Bombardment? I always thoughtit only affect the "Grenade" skill..
What does it affect? Can you provide a list so I can explorer more possibility.
Thanks.
WIll try this out on my DH. My gear has a lot of bonus to RoV so it should fit well.
I see the line in the sand. Time to find out who I am. Looking back to see where I stand. Evolution.
Member of the Dfans clan.
BNet Tag: Evolution85#1878
In fact, Rapid Fire (Fire Support) with the Ballistics passive is also very viable but works best on single targets (Bosses / Ubers).
I'll try to post a complete list when I get home a little later today.
Thanks for all of the feedback!
:: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#cjXVSl!gdf!cYbbZZ
I don't need the hatred builder, so I switched RF Bomardment to LMB and use MfD Mortal Enemy for very long fights. My DH is currently only Lvl56 and has no +hatred/s on her gear. I will replace the Bat companion with Wolf companion at Lvl60 and switch the MfD rune if I can live without this boost on very long fights. RF Bomardment works without the hatred from MfD Mortal Enemy for an very long time and 2-3 +hatred/s on my gear will be enough to switch the MfD rune too.
Popping Smoke Screen (Healing Vapors) while channeling Rapid Fire (Bombardment) will heal you and also make you immune to damage. Bombardment does AOE which means you will be hitting more enemies and receiving more life on hit. With brooding, preparation, smoke screen, and a potion there is no reason you should die. In most fights I remain stationary, channeling rapid fire and using smoke screen, the elites are dead before I take any real damage.
I will double check on ROV later, but, in my experience the shade rune does not break the channeling of Rapid Fire. At any rate, you could pop it and then channel Bombardment right after
The radius of grenades and the damage were increased as listed in the passive with RF - bombardment.
I also tested this with strafe - demolition, and although i could not verify the radius boost (since they automatically shot directly at the slime wall), I can verify the 10% damage boost works for that too.
And i also checked with cluster arrow. It does not affect the initial "cluster arrow" but the grenades that blow up afterward are boosted by the passive.
So yay for this passive actually being useful now!
For reference here are two screenshots of RF - Bombardment to show off the radius boost: First photo is WITHOUT grenadier passive, Second photo is WITH grenadier passive. Both were taken standing in the same spot and aiming at the same area. As you can see no numbers on the first, but numbers on second... Cool.