As a DH exploring the potential of pets (sentries and companion) and getting as little crit-related damage as possible, I'm fairly happy about this change and expect a total gain of about 15-20k sheet damage and ~30% damage gain on pets. To reiterate their design philosophy :
"Our goal is that some, but not all, builds prefer socketing Ruby in their weapons over Emerald"
The DH class as a whole has always felt like it was designed to favor attack speed more than crit but alas the game was incredibly incomplete on release as far as class design goes.
I think people look at their dmg on their profiles and see big numbers but dont really see the larger picture in that an increase to flat dmg is quite important as well...relying on crit dmg isnt always the best thing.
Hard to quantify but Id prefer to always one hit something as opposed to one hitting something when I crit half of the time.
I would say yes and no. Once you reach upwards of 65% crit with ZOMG MANTICORE giving you an easy 400%+ Cdmg, you start critting consistently for good damage.
Sheet damage IS overrated though but people need a way to rank themselves
I did the math, 110% crit damage vs. +160/160 min/max damage. The latter drops my DPS by 12K. No can do, especially with over 50% crit chance (56% with Pinpoint and up to 71% with Deep Freeze Frost Nova).
It's 'substantial' as in we'll see that an increased number of players won't mind using attack speed instead of crit, which is nice.
Some skills are better/cooler with high attack speed, so that's another thing to consider.
I do believe this is the instance where it really is beneficial. Unfortunately my build is around skills that have no use for atk speed so really I think emerald is still the way to go.
I'm gonna play around with it, at 60+% crit and 550+% CD I don't anticipate changing my Manticore's Emeralds into Rubies. I like sentries and I use a bat so it's worth checking into. At least now it's worth even considering vs. just "Nope".
I did the math, 110% crit damage vs. +160/160 min/max damage. The latter drops my DPS by 12K. No can do, especially with over 50% crit chance (56% with Pinpoint and up to 71% with Deep Freeze Frost Nova).
What happens if you recalculate that with only half of that crit chance, assuming that the player is lacking some gear or just prefers stacking ias over crit chance/damage (assuming regular people can only afford 2 out of 3 trifecta stats on an item at best)? Crit chance and crit damage buff each other insanely high, if you cut back on one end it should become noticeable less attractive - shouldn't it?
Exactly, it applies for me (or for anyone stacking high crit chance). But if your crit damage is already low and crit chance is also low, the ruby will play a much different role.
All I can think of is PvP (as Turtel mentioned), where weapon damage is crucial. Also for twinking lower level alts, massive weapon damage will certainly help with the leveling process by killing faster (I'm leveling a WD, and a CC+CD 180 int Hellfire Ring is far worse than a mediocre average damage 220 int Hellfire Ring).
Obviously the more crit chance you have, the better +crit damage is. It goes without saying that if you're sitting at 60% crit chance, then +crit damage is going to be the best choice. If emeralds weren't worthwhile then, they never would be. However, +damage is better the faster your weapon is, and if you choose not to focus so much on crits, it might open up new build possibilities for you. Not just in skills that don't crit, but also by forgoing +crit passives, etc.
I think if nothing else, newer level 60s that haven't capped out their crit chance will probably be better served sticking with Rubies for a while.
I have a barb with 60.5% CC and 480% CD. If I drop to 380% CD with a ruby in my weapon, I gain about 5k more dps than if I were to go with the emerald and 490%CD. In fact, the radiant star ruby is actually a small dps gain over the marquis emerald for my barb. My WD sees smaller gains from the marquis ruby (but not the radiant), but it's also a few k dps better there too (also 48CC and 460CD).
On the other hand, my wizard with 54% CC and 430% CD will gain 2400 more dps from going to 440% than from dropping to 330% + marquis ruby. My monk also looses dps with the ruby vs the emeral (49CC, 340CD)
I think if you're running 50%-60% CC and over 450% CD the rubies start to become better (this is assuming you have a weapon dmg % modifier on your weapon to help the ruby along). The higher you are over 450% CD (ie, 350% with the ruby in weapon), the better they become but I haven't really worked out the math on that, it's just observational from the above examples and looking for the common traits.
The DH class as a whole has always felt like it was designed to favor attack speed more than crit but alas the game was incredibly incomplete on release as far as class design goes.
Right now I'm going without generators (Ball Lighning and Beastly Bombs for dmg), high-end black crossbow build, 1.5 attacks/sec. Below that I don't feel comfortable, but otherwise every attack speed upgrade works against my build. Yes, technically my dps would go up if I'd equip more IAS, but every upgrade that doesn't reduce other stats is in the billions. I don't feel this gimmicky at all, one-shotting most enemies up to MP4, viable to farm up to MP7. Actually the build is very convenient to farm mid MPs very fast, as I can expect every ball hitting for 300k on every target on it's way (technically only about 90% for at least one crit from the two hits/ball, but that's high enough ).
I don't think DH was designed to favor AS. Three weapons, with the mandatory Archery passive define the DH design. Bow builds were useless before 1.07, but now with the new rubies sentry builds may see some love.
It'll be interesting to see to where ruby builds go. My build wasn't good on PTR, but my IAS gear wasn't ideal yet. I sniped some more since, so I'll try my sentry build on live once more, but I don't see them used in the practice, maybe against ubers.
You really must understand your class, build, and current gear to know what will be best. What's worse is that the char sheet is not an accurate reflection of effective dps for some specs. It's times like this when I really wish there was a damage log saved to a file so that we could accurately assess our dps.
Btw. the ruby could be pretty strong for characters with heavy elemental dmg (Zuni boots, SoJ, TR amulet, triumvirate etc.) Obviously it still depends on crit values, but there might be a point where the elemental dmg will make the ruby better.
If you're using a black weapon like you should with elemental dmg then the elemental dmg is going to multiply both gems by the same percentage.
You really must understand your class, build, and current gear to know what will be best. What's worse is that the char sheet is not an accurate reflection of effective dps for some specs. It's times like this when I really wish there was a damage log saved to a file so that we could accurately assess our dps.
At the very least the character sheet should break down "weapon damage" into a separate stat. That'd help clear a lot of things up for most players. 9/10 times that's a more important stat than DPS, especially since DPS is really just weapon damage multiplied out by attacks/sec crit chance and crit damage (more or less).
The character sheet shows us all the components of the DPS calculation except weapon damage, and they really should get that in there.
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pretty sure on ptr it was only 120/120 and 150/150
Is this substantial?
"Our goal is that some, but not all, builds prefer socketing Ruby in their weapons over Emerald"
The DH class as a whole has always felt like it was designed to favor attack speed more than crit but alas the game was incredibly incomplete on release as far as class design goes.
Hard to quantify but Id prefer to always one hit something as opposed to one hitting something when I crit half of the time.
Sheet damage IS overrated though but people need a way to rank themselves
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
I do believe this is the instance where it really is beneficial. Unfortunately my build is around skills that have no use for atk speed so really I think emerald is still the way to go.
Conform or be cast out.
My Demon Hunter: http://tinyurl.com/anufqzj Yes, THAT Analogkid- pissing off Hunters since 2007.
Exactly, it applies for me (or for anyone stacking high crit chance). But if your crit damage is already low and crit chance is also low, the ruby will play a much different role.
All I can think of is PvP (as Turtel mentioned), where weapon damage is crucial. Also for twinking lower level alts, massive weapon damage will certainly help with the leveling process by killing faster (I'm leveling a WD, and a CC+CD 180 int Hellfire Ring is far worse than a mediocre average damage 220 int Hellfire Ring).
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
I think if nothing else, newer level 60s that haven't capped out their crit chance will probably be better served sticking with Rubies for a while.
I have a barb with 60.5% CC and 480% CD. If I drop to 380% CD with a ruby in my weapon, I gain about 5k more dps than if I were to go with the emerald and 490%CD. In fact, the radiant star ruby is actually a small dps gain over the marquis emerald for my barb. My WD sees smaller gains from the marquis ruby (but not the radiant), but it's also a few k dps better there too (also 48CC and 460CD).
On the other hand, my wizard with 54% CC and 430% CD will gain 2400 more dps from going to 440% than from dropping to 330% + marquis ruby. My monk also looses dps with the ruby vs the emeral (49CC, 340CD)
I think if you're running 50%-60% CC and over 450% CD the rubies start to become better (this is assuming you have a weapon dmg % modifier on your weapon to help the ruby along). The higher you are over 450% CD (ie, 350% with the ruby in weapon), the better they become but I haven't really worked out the math on that, it's just observational from the above examples and looking for the common traits.
-dolynick
Right now I'm going without generators (Ball Lighning and Beastly Bombs for dmg), high-end black crossbow build, 1.5 attacks/sec. Below that I don't feel comfortable, but otherwise every attack speed upgrade works against my build. Yes, technically my dps would go up if I'd equip more IAS, but every upgrade that doesn't reduce other stats is in the billions. I don't feel this gimmicky at all, one-shotting most enemies up to MP4, viable to farm up to MP7. Actually the build is very convenient to farm mid MPs very fast, as I can expect every ball hitting for 300k on every target on it's way (technically only about 90% for at least one crit from the two hits/ball, but that's high enough ).
I don't think DH was designed to favor AS. Three weapons, with the mandatory Archery passive define the DH design. Bow builds were useless before 1.07, but now with the new rubies sentry builds may see some love.
It'll be interesting to see to where ruby builds go. My build wasn't good on PTR, but my IAS gear wasn't ideal yet. I sniped some more since, so I'll try my sentry build on live once more, but I don't see them used in the practice, maybe against ubers.
You really must understand your class, build, and current gear to know what will be best. What's worse is that the char sheet is not an accurate reflection of effective dps for some specs. It's times like this when I really wish there was a damage log saved to a file so that we could accurately assess our dps.
At the very least the character sheet should break down "weapon damage" into a separate stat. That'd help clear a lot of things up for most players. 9/10 times that's a more important stat than DPS, especially since DPS is really just weapon damage multiplied out by attacks/sec crit chance and crit damage (more or less).
The character sheet shows us all the components of the DPS calculation except weapon damage, and they really should get that in there.