Ehi you! Do you like explosions? Do you like setting your enemies on fire? Then you need help.... but not here!
Since the start of Diablo 3 i loved the concept of a Demon Hunter shooting rockets because.... rockets but in Vanilla the Ballistics passive was a little underwhelming... to not say horrible but things changes and sometimes for the better.
So, what's this build about? It's about using the Ballistic passive and deal damage with fire spells that use a rocket effect.
1) Bolas "Imminent Doom": This skill hits quite hard in single target and gives you AoE when your Multishot isn't avaiable. The biggest downside is the the 2 seconds delay on the explosion, which can be negated with an Emimei's Duffel. If you dislike Bolas without this quiver, you can change your generator with Hungering Arrow "Serrated Arrow" or Granade "Tinkerer" for increased hatred regeneration or with Evasive Fire "Covering Fire" for a bit of escape.
2) Multishot "Arsenal": Now we are shooting rockets from.... i don't know, Demon Hunters are like that. I choose this skill for it's balanced hatred cost, good AoE damage and of course, the sinergy of the build, Rockets and Fire damage.
3) Sentry "Spitfire Turret": Since our fetish for setting things on fire and blow them up with rockets is so strong, we had to modify our sentries too for our needs and they seems happy too. The setup time for sentries isn't worth for your regular white mob packs but for longer fights with Elites or Rift bosses they will do their job quite well, expecially since 2.0.4 enabled crit chance and uncapped crit damage for pets. (Beware, my early tests showed that Rockets from this skill don't crit, probably a bug, maybe not). If you don't like the long time needed to setup a sentry farm, you can replace this spell with something else like Vault for escape ("Trail of Cinders" for the theme or "Tumble") or Rain ofVengeance (i like "Shade" for it's large AoE but you can play with "Stampede" or "Anathema" but i found those two effects hard to aim).
4) Companion "Wolf Companion": things are starting to get a less fiery, but we can't set our beloved pet on fire, we are not monsters. This pet has become the star of the Demon Hunter arsenal since it's huge damage buff for every ally (30% damage increase for 10 seconds) on a relative short cooldown (30 sec). If you opted to use Rain ofVengeance you can time these two to watch your enemies burn under the fire of your spells.
5) Smoke Screen "Healing Vapor": Remember Shadow Power "Gloom"? Well, this is stronger in my opinion. It breaks CCs, it heals you for 15% Health during the invincibility period and you can troll your friends by becoming untargettable and let the enemies kill them.
6) Vengeance "Seethe": Yes, we didn't stop to shoot rockets and now we do it even faster and harder. Unfortunatly, the damage from these rockets and piercing shots isn't fire but Ballistics will increase the damage of our missiles and the hatred regen while under the effect of this spell will make us shoot more Multishot and set up our Sentry easier. Combine it with Wolf Companion's howl, and you will dish damage so much that your enemies will disappear from the screen.
Now, to the passives:
1) Ballistics: the core of the build. Shoot rockets even with your primary skill, double the damage from rune effects. Nothing to say, nothing to explain.
2) Archery: a great passive for every build in my opinion. It's a free damage boost for each weapon type you use.... minus melee weapons. I don't have an opinion or the math knowledge to tell you what's the best effect, but just use your favorite weapon and don't worry too much about min maxing.
3) Steady Aim: As soon as i said to not worry too much about min maxing, i pick this passive because at least i see a bigger number in my dps sheet.... gg me. On a serious note, my play style was always run and kite and i manage to keep up my distance from enemies and playing with wolf and Templar, i have someone to tank them for me.
4) Perfectionist: I always feel that Demon Hunter is a bit squishy in my opinion and i really hate dying, even if it's Softcore. This passive gives me a nice boost of Toughness and really helps me surviving in T3. You can replace it with Ambush for a stronger initiate, Blood Vengeance to regain more resources, Hot Pursuit to kite better or Tactical Advantage to move out of bad stuff faster when you Smoke Screen.
- Helltrapper : dropped from Act 4 and 5 cache, it spawns a Sentry, Spike Trap or Caltrop and they will use the rune equipped, in case of this build "Spitfire Turret" and it won't count to the limit of two sentries active at a time.
- Fire Walker : we still like fire, so moving around and kiting will burn our enemies, yay!
- Blackfeather : If you like shooting more rockets than doing fire damage.... well, this baby will help you and it stacks with Ballistics.
- Emimei's Duffel : already explained in the Bolas section.
Yep, i feel the same, but i always liked them, so i just deal with it. With tinkering with some Cooldown reduction, expecially useful for Wolf and Vengeance too, you could cast them a bit faster. I didn't mention Bombadier's Rucksack because the setup would be waaaay to long to be worth and it's not a Custom Engineering or pet centric build. The Emimei made me switch from Hungering Arrow to Bolas istantly, i dislike the delay of the explosion but it's a no issue now.
I have fire DHas well and will look at this and implement some of your skills into my build. Any thought on using Cluster Arrow with the Shooting Stars rune in your build somewhere?
Is your Multishot itself converted to fire damage or is it only the rockets that are fire damage?
Want to mention though on (3), you have Vengeance listed when it should say Rain of Vengeance.
I don't like CA that much, while i aknowledge its insane damage, but the hatred cost is a bit high (solved with a Cindercoat) and Shooting Star will swing the build to physical, for the better probably since we are using Wolf and Vengeance, but i like a thematic build.
Multishot Arsenal is fire, both arrows and rockets. Tested with Fire bracers with similar Cold.
Aaaaand, yes, i had to edit my point 3. I had a lapsus between RoV and Vengeance.... <.<
This build may works wonders with fire gear and I will sure try it later, but I'm really not sold on bolas. Another thing that I'm not a huge fan is SS, but maybe because Vault is my favorite skill in the game.
This build may works wonders with fire gear and I will sure try it later, but I'm really not sold on bolas. Another thing that I'm not a huge fan is SS, but maybe because Vault is my favorite skill in the game.
You can probably try the build I have then, just swap out Cluster Arrow for Multishot. Seifa did mention you can swap out Bola for Hungering Arrow->Serrated.
And Seifa, you're right, w/o Cindercoat (which I now have though no sockets) CA does drain Hatred too fast. I felt night and day difference when I put on Cindercoat. Previously had Beckon Sail with 3 sockets but no way the Cindercoat comes off now.
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Since the start of Diablo 3 i loved the concept of a Demon Hunter shooting rockets because.... rockets but in Vanilla the Ballistics passive was a little underwhelming... to not say horrible but things changes and sometimes for the better.
So, what's this build about? It's about using the Ballistic passive and deal damage with fire spells that use a rocket effect.
The build is: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#WQkSXO!Yefh!ccacbY
Let's do an analysis of skills:
1) Bolas "Imminent Doom": This skill hits quite hard in single target and gives you AoE when your Multishot isn't avaiable. The biggest downside is the the 2 seconds delay on the explosion, which can be negated with an Emimei's Duffel. If you dislike Bolas without this quiver, you can change your generator with Hungering Arrow "Serrated Arrow" or Granade "Tinkerer" for increased hatred regeneration or with Evasive Fire "Covering Fire" for a bit of escape.
2) Multishot "Arsenal": Now we are shooting rockets from.... i don't know, Demon Hunters are like that. I choose this skill for it's balanced hatred cost, good AoE damage and of course, the sinergy of the build, Rockets and Fire damage.
3) Sentry "Spitfire Turret": Since our fetish for setting things on fire and blow them up with rockets is so strong, we had to modify our sentries too for our needs and they seems happy too. The setup time for sentries isn't worth for your regular white mob packs but for longer fights with Elites or Rift bosses they will do their job quite well, expecially since 2.0.4 enabled crit chance and uncapped crit damage for pets. (Beware, my early tests showed that Rockets from this skill don't crit, probably a bug, maybe not). If you don't like the long time needed to setup a sentry farm, you can replace this spell with something else like Vault for escape ("Trail of Cinders" for the theme or "Tumble") or Rain of Vengeance (i like "Shade" for it's large AoE but you can play with "Stampede" or "Anathema" but i found those two effects hard to aim).
4) Companion "Wolf Companion": things are starting to get a less fiery, but we can't set our beloved pet on fire, we are not monsters. This pet has become the star of the Demon Hunter arsenal since it's huge damage buff for every ally (30% damage increase for 10 seconds) on a relative short cooldown (30 sec). If you opted to use Rain of Vengeance you can time these two to watch your enemies burn under the fire of your spells.
5) Smoke Screen "Healing Vapor": Remember Shadow Power "Gloom"? Well, this is stronger in my opinion. It breaks CCs, it heals you for 15% Health during the invincibility period and you can troll your friends by becoming untargettable and let the enemies kill them.
6) Vengeance "Seethe": Yes, we didn't stop to shoot rockets and now we do it even faster and harder. Unfortunatly, the damage from these rockets and piercing shots isn't fire but Ballistics will increase the damage of our missiles and the hatred regen while under the effect of this spell will make us shoot more Multishot and set up our Sentry easier. Combine it with Wolf Companion's howl, and you will dish damage so much that your enemies will disappear from the screen.
Now, to the passives:
1) Ballistics: the core of the build. Shoot rockets even with your primary skill, double the damage from rune effects. Nothing to say, nothing to explain.
2) Archery: a great passive for every build in my opinion. It's a free damage boost for each weapon type you use.... minus melee weapons. I don't have an opinion or the math knowledge to tell you what's the best effect, but just use your favorite weapon and don't worry too much about min maxing.
3) Steady Aim: As soon as i said to not worry too much about min maxing, i pick this passive because at least i see a bigger number in my dps sheet.... gg me. On a serious note, my play style was always run and kite and i manage to keep up my distance from enemies and playing with wolf and Templar, i have someone to tank them for me.
4) Perfectionist: I always feel that Demon Hunter is a bit squishy in my opinion and i really hate dying, even if it's Softcore. This passive gives me a nice boost of Toughness and really helps me surviving in T3. You can replace it with Ambush for a stronger initiate, Blood Vengeance to regain more resources, Hot Pursuit to kite better or Tactical Advantage to move out of bad stuff faster when you Smoke Screen.
Core Legendaries:
I would say that the items you need for this build are those that boost your fire damage like:
- Andariel's Visage.
- Cindercoat.
- Magefist.
- Stone of Jordan.
Honorable mentions:
- Helltrapper : dropped from Act 4 and 5 cache, it spawns a Sentry, Spike Trap or Caltrop and they will use the rune equipped, in case of this build "Spitfire Turret" and it won't count to the limit of two sentries active at a time.
- Fire Walker : we still like fire, so moving around and kiting will burn our enemies, yay!
- Blackfeather : If you like shooting more rockets than doing fire damage.... well, this baby will help you and it stacks with Ballistics.
- Emimei's Duffel : already explained in the Bolas section.
If you want to look at my profile (why would you?) this is the link: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/seifa-2832/hero/6852605
Happy explosions.
Edit: corrected some spelling errors and wrong spell names....
Is your Multishot itself converted to fire damage or is it only the rockets that are fire damage?
Want to mention though on (3), you have Vengeance listed when it should say Rain of Vengeance.
Multishot Arsenal is fire, both arrows and rockets. Tested with Fire bracers with similar Cold.
Aaaaand, yes, i had to edit my point 3. I had a lapsus between RoV and Vengeance.... <.<
And Seifa, you're right, w/o Cindercoat (which I now have though no sockets) CA does drain Hatred too fast. I felt night and day difference when I put on Cindercoat. Previously had Beckon Sail with 3 sockets but no way the Cindercoat comes off now.