Why do people insist on finding boring and repetitive methods to level up. The game is so much more enjoyable if you play it normally than constantly leaving/joining a game and killing 10 mobs, repeating a quest, or farming some magic area... I couldn't imagine doing that for 4 hours in a row. The game is just as much about the journey as it is the destination.
All D1 and D2 cinematics!!! Even if you have played them already, its still a nice refresher if you haven't seen them in awhile. If not, the D2 ones should still make a decent amount of sense for those that never played it.
Diablo 1:
Diablo 2 + Expansion:
Edit: Also, if you didn't know, you can open up D3 and watch its opening cinematic and then the opening cinematics for each class (about 1-2 minutes long each). Which I assume play after making the specific class.
Even if you could get the aim down, you still have to hit moving targets with it. Its like trying to hit a bullseye on a dart board, but its swinging back and forth on a rope.
I simply can't ever see a reason to use this over Elemental Arrow.
While I will agree that if you have a specific target in mind, it would be difficult to hit it, but chakram wasn't made for that. Proper use of chakram involves spamming it to fill the entire room with them. You shouldn't be aiming for a specific target with it, and if there are only a couple of enemies you are better off using a different skill or a hatred generator. All of the other runes aside from the shuriken cloud rune change the path the chakram follows so maybe those would make it easier to aim as well.
Also, elemental arrow requires your targets to be lined up, which isn't always the case. If the enemies are moving around in a ball, I think chakram would hit more targets than elemental arrow would, because it would curve through it, instead of making a straight line. However, I will agree that elemental arrow is much better in long narrow hallways like in the cathedral levels or crypts, but I think chakram has the advantage out in the open. I've considered switching between the two abilities based on the situation since elemental arrow is a pretty beast ability as well.
Hungering Arrow/Devouring Arrow - This is focused to single-target dps increase. This is the Hatred generator. The "infinite bullets", if you will. And it hurts a good bit.
Chakram/Twin Chakram - This is the theme of your build.
Vault/Rattling Roll - Vault really seems like it's going to be a staple to any DH build. It's intended for that "mobility" aspect Demon Hunter's are famed for, and indeed it is good. The Rattling Roll is for added survivability.
Spike Trap/Scatter - This is for high AoE dps and Scatter speeds things up a good bit!
Caltrops/Torturous Ground - This is another survivability choice. Also with this combination, it snares AND slows thereby supporting accuracy with a subsequent Spike Trap.
Shadow Power/Gloom - Pure survivability. Gaining lots of life and reducing incoming damage when there are lots of monsters and no health globes seems sensible, ya?
Tactical Advantage - Now Vault adds yet another boost to mobility.
Steady Aim - Chakram (the theme of this build) can reach pretty far and decimate everything in its path. This should do well to increase its damage.
Archery - This also seems to be one of those staple choices that you just can't go wrong with.
While I was waiting for people to reply, I surprisingly came up with a fairly similar build to this.
Evasive Fire/Shrapnel - I feel like this can cover the same areas as devouring arrow and vault. Dealing slightly more damage and giving slightly more hatred, in addition to automatically vaulting if enemies are too close. Obviously its more difficult to use than vault but that is where practice and positioning come into play.
Chakram/Twin Chakrams - Self explanatory
Caltrops/Torturous Ground - I chose the immobilization rune because while rooted, those enemies will also keep mobs behind them from moving as well. Also the immobilization gives the spike traps enough time to activate.
Shadow Power/Blood Moon - Chosen for essentially the same reasons. I went with the bonus life-steal rune to increase its potency.
Spike Trap/Scatter - I actually planned on this ability being for smaller groups of enemies like champions or bosses, because of its high damage. The basic plan is to drop this and Caltrops in roughly the same place, then spam evasive fire until enemies get close, and as soon as you backflip, pop shadow power. Shortly thereafter, the enemies will run into your spike trap and you get all the lifesteal from 3 traps going off at once, by the time the survivors get through the trap, you should already have a second set of them ready to go.
Preparation/Battle Scars - I chose this as an "oh shit" button to instantly get a lot of health back and to get more discipline to use shadow power/caltrops more often. Your build has 3 abilities that use discipline which I think is a little much considering how much I plan on using caltrops and Shadow Power, so I feel like preparation is a better choice.
Passives:
Steady Aim - Dps
Brooding - Chosen for some more survivability. This build may seem like it has a lot already with shadow power and preparation/battle scars, but I feel like its better to have too much than not enough when you are starting out with a build, and this could easily be swapped for a dps passive if that turns out to be the case.
Numbing Traps - Since I'm using 2/3 of the abilities this passive affects, I figured why not? As mentioned before this could be swapped for a dps rune if needed.
i think without true practice, this is one of the many builds that is going to need experimentation. too many variables at this point. beta didn't really do chakram any real justice, but i feel this is a build worth checking out.
I tried it a few times on the beta, and the last time I tried chakram it looped around and missed 3 separate of mobs. Room full of mobs, and it didn't hit shit....
Making a build based on this skill is like making a build based on Energy Twister for a wizard.
Your primary dmg is just randomly flying around, and you sit back and hope it hits something.
I have to strongly disagree here. Chakram is vastly different than energy twister. First of all, energy twister is 100% random, but chakram has a set path that it always follows. I used it a lot in the beta and got very good at hitting targets with it. Secondly, energy twister does damage over time so if an enemy runs thru it they take little damage, chakram does full damage no matter how long they stand in it. Thirdly, chakram is incredibly cheap compared to energy twister, allowing you to spam it and make up for the fact that it is difficult to aim. Moving small amounts between casts allows you to vary the path the chakram follows by slight amounts allowing you to cover a vast majority of the room.
I picked evasive fire because I really like the graphical effect and powerful sound of it (which used to belong to impale). Twin chakram rune because the whole purpose of the skill, IMO, is to spam it and fill a room full of swirling blades. And Caltrops for a good AOE slow to keep enemies away while you spam chakram.
Feel free to fill out the rest of the build, but I would prefer you try not to alter these 3 abilities other than maybe the runes for caltrops/evasive fire. Providing a strategy for how to use the build would be a bonus!
I've been browsing around in the different class forums and looking at peoples builds, there are definitely some abilities that a lot of people are choosing in their builds, but I wanted to focus on abilities that most people don't choose or consider in their builds (and perhaps discuss why that may be?)
To start off, I don't think I've seen anybody make a build with sprint in it for the barbarian. Why chose it when charge does basically the same thing in addition to dealing damage and generating rage?
What are some abilities that you have never (or rarely) seen included in builds?
Chose this ability because cleave is awesome and getting bonus fury for hitting multiple targets will be very useful.
Uses: generating fury, synergizes with Ground Stomp (clumping them up means you can hit more targets)
Seismic slam: Shattered Ground
Easily my favorite Barbarian ability, picked shattered ground for more damage and knockback. I was torn between the extra damage rune and the 15 fury cost rune.
Uses: fury dump, synergizes with Ground Stomp (allows you to hit more) and the knockback allows you to get enemies off you if they are dangerous/explosive.
Ground Stomp: Wrenching Smash
The stun will be incredibly useful. Picked the rune to group enemies up easier for cleave/seismic slam/earthquake. Potentially allows you to pull enemies away from squishy allies.
Uses: stunning strong enemies, grouping spread out enemies up for AOE.
Ignore Pain: Ignorance is Bliss
Defensive cooldown. Runed for 20% lifesteal (I still can't believe that's a rune).
Uses: Pop when hp gets low, then spam Seismic slam or Earthquake to take advantage of the lifesteal.
I would imagine you can get a TON of health back if you popped earthquake and this at the same time.
20% lifesteal for 5 seconds every 30 seconds (not to mention the 65% dmg reduction).
Revenge: Vengeance is Mine
Since you are most likely to be surrounded a lot, revenge should come in handy, Runed for lifesteal/fury generation. This may seem counter-intuitive since ground stomp will be stunning enemies, but I'm sure you will be getting hit plenty to activate this a lot (and ranged enemies will still be hitting you anyways).
and finally...
Earthquake: The Mountain's Call
Used for taking out strong enemies and in conjuction with Ignore Pain for massive lifesteal. Picked the fury cost/cooldown reduction rune so that it can be used with ignore pain more often, and without a fury cost you don't need to worry about saving enough fury to be able to use it in a pinch for HP (also I wouldn't want to interfere with my seismic slam spam). Also, seismic slam can be used to throw enemies back into the AOE if they escape it.
Passives:
Bloodthirst for more lifesteal (WHY NOT?!) Tough as nails and Nerves of Steel for more armor (taking less damage means the HP you get back from lifesteal is worth more).
Cons to this build:
You have no mobility abilities. Forcing you to rely solely on proper cooldown usage for survival.
No shouts for buffs. Kind of a party pooper. Which is the reason I picked the two armor passives to make up for the lack of buffs. Hopefully the Barbarian could make up for his lack of party buffs by keeping enemies away from allies.
Possibly low dps, although one of the two armor passives could be switched out for a dps passive if the survivability is not needed.
Probably crappy against a single target (how often are you fighting one guy anyways?)
Diablo 1:
Diablo 2 + Expansion:
Edit: Also, if you didn't know, you can open up D3 and watch its opening cinematic and then the opening cinematics for each class (about 1-2 minutes long each). Which I assume play after making the specific class.
While I will agree that if you have a specific target in mind, it would be difficult to hit it, but chakram wasn't made for that. Proper use of chakram involves spamming it to fill the entire room with them. You shouldn't be aiming for a specific target with it, and if there are only a couple of enemies you are better off using a different skill or a hatred generator. All of the other runes aside from the shuriken cloud rune change the path the chakram follows so maybe those would make it easier to aim as well.
Also, elemental arrow requires your targets to be lined up, which isn't always the case. If the enemies are moving around in a ball, I think chakram would hit more targets than elemental arrow would, because it would curve through it, instead of making a straight line. However, I will agree that elemental arrow is much better in long narrow hallways like in the cathedral levels or crypts, but I think chakram has the advantage out in the open. I've considered switching between the two abilities based on the situation since elemental arrow is a pretty beast ability as well.
While I was waiting for people to reply, I surprisingly came up with a fairly similar build to this.
http://us.battle.net...YgSV!YdV!aaZZab
Evasive Fire/Shrapnel - I feel like this can cover the same areas as devouring arrow and vault. Dealing slightly more damage and giving slightly more hatred, in addition to automatically vaulting if enemies are too close. Obviously its more difficult to use than vault but that is where practice and positioning come into play.
Chakram/Twin Chakrams - Self explanatory
Caltrops/Torturous Ground - I chose the immobilization rune because while rooted, those enemies will also keep mobs behind them from moving as well. Also the immobilization gives the spike traps enough time to activate.
Shadow Power/Blood Moon - Chosen for essentially the same reasons. I went with the bonus life-steal rune to increase its potency.
Spike Trap/Scatter - I actually planned on this ability being for smaller groups of enemies like champions or bosses, because of its high damage. The basic plan is to drop this and Caltrops in roughly the same place, then spam evasive fire until enemies get close, and as soon as you backflip, pop shadow power. Shortly thereafter, the enemies will run into your spike trap and you get all the lifesteal from 3 traps going off at once, by the time the survivors get through the trap, you should already have a second set of them ready to go.
Preparation/Battle Scars - I chose this as an "oh shit" button to instantly get a lot of health back and to get more discipline to use shadow power/caltrops more often. Your build has 3 abilities that use discipline which I think is a little much considering how much I plan on using caltrops and Shadow Power, so I feel like preparation is a better choice.
Passives:
Steady Aim - Dps
Brooding - Chosen for some more survivability. This build may seem like it has a lot already with shadow power and preparation/battle scars, but I feel like its better to have too much than not enough when you are starting out with a build, and this could easily be swapped for a dps passive if that turns out to be the case.
Numbing Traps - Since I'm using 2/3 of the abilities this passive affects, I figured why not? As mentioned before this could be swapped for a dps rune if needed.
I have to strongly disagree here. Chakram is vastly different than energy twister. First of all, energy twister is 100% random, but chakram has a set path that it always follows. I used it a lot in the beta and got very good at hitting targets with it. Secondly, energy twister does damage over time so if an enemy runs thru it they take little damage, chakram does full damage no matter how long they stand in it. Thirdly, chakram is incredibly cheap compared to energy twister, allowing you to spam it and make up for the fact that it is difficult to aim. Moving small amounts between casts allows you to vary the path the chakram follows by slight amounts allowing you to cover a vast majority of the room.
I picked evasive fire because I really like the graphical effect and powerful sound of it (which used to belong to impale). Twin chakram rune because the whole purpose of the skill, IMO, is to spam it and fill a room full of swirling blades. And Caltrops for a good AOE slow to keep enemies away while you spam chakram.
Feel free to fill out the rest of the build, but I would prefer you try not to alter these 3 abilities other than maybe the runes for caltrops/evasive fire. Providing a strategy for how to use the build would be a bonus!
Barbarian:
Seismic Slam (you mean I can punch the ground and cause EXPLOSIONS!?)
Demon Hunter:
Chakram (at first the ability seems underwhelming, but when spammed you can fill a room with swirling blades)
Wizard:
Arcane Torrent (who doesn't want tons of arcane projectiles flying out of their fingertips?)
I haven't found a single awesome ability for Witch Doctor or Monk yet. I will still play them eventually, but these are my top 3.
To start off, I don't think I've seen anybody make a build with sprint in it for the barbarian. Why chose it when charge does basically the same thing in addition to dealing damage and generating rage?
What are some abilities that you have never (or rarely) seen included in builds?
http://us.battle.net...YRVT!dVb!ZZZbab
Focuses on lifesteal/AOE/survivability.
Abilities:
Cleave: Reaping Sweep
Chose this ability because cleave is awesome and getting bonus fury for hitting multiple targets will be very useful.
Uses: generating fury, synergizes with Ground Stomp (clumping them up means you can hit more targets)
Seismic slam: Shattered Ground
Easily my favorite Barbarian ability, picked shattered ground for more damage and knockback. I was torn between the extra damage rune and the 15 fury cost rune.
Uses: fury dump, synergizes with Ground Stomp (allows you to hit more) and the knockback allows you to get enemies off you if they are dangerous/explosive.
Ground Stomp: Wrenching Smash
The stun will be incredibly useful. Picked the rune to group enemies up easier for cleave/seismic slam/earthquake. Potentially allows you to pull enemies away from squishy allies.
Uses: stunning strong enemies, grouping spread out enemies up for AOE.
Ignore Pain: Ignorance is Bliss
Defensive cooldown. Runed for 20% lifesteal (I still can't believe that's a rune).
Uses: Pop when hp gets low, then spam Seismic slam or Earthquake to take advantage of the lifesteal.
I would imagine you can get a TON of health back if you popped earthquake and this at the same time.
20% lifesteal for 5 seconds every 30 seconds (not to mention the 65% dmg reduction).
Revenge: Vengeance is Mine
Since you are most likely to be surrounded a lot, revenge should come in handy, Runed for lifesteal/fury generation. This may seem counter-intuitive since ground stomp will be stunning enemies, but I'm sure you will be getting hit plenty to activate this a lot (and ranged enemies will still be hitting you anyways).
and finally...
Earthquake: The Mountain's Call
Used for taking out strong enemies and in conjuction with Ignore Pain for massive lifesteal. Picked the fury cost/cooldown reduction rune so that it can be used with ignore pain more often, and without a fury cost you don't need to worry about saving enough fury to be able to use it in a pinch for HP (also I wouldn't want to interfere with my seismic slam spam). Also, seismic slam can be used to throw enemies back into the AOE if they escape it.
Passives:
Bloodthirst for more lifesteal (WHY NOT?!)
Tough as nails and Nerves of Steel for more armor (taking less damage means the HP you get back from lifesteal is worth more).
Cons to this build:
You have no mobility abilities. Forcing you to rely solely on proper cooldown usage for survival.
No shouts for buffs. Kind of a party pooper. Which is the reason I picked the two armor passives to make up for the lack of buffs. Hopefully the Barbarian could make up for his lack of party buffs by keeping enemies away from allies.
Possibly low dps, although one of the two armor passives could be switched out for a dps passive if the survivability is not needed.
Probably crappy against a single target (how often are you fighting one guy anyways?)
Thoughts?
My first Barbarian build, focusing on siesmic slam (the coolest ability ever).
Cleave with +fury rune for more Fury.
Siesmic slam with +dmg rune.
Ground Stomp with a rune that pulls enemies in, to make cleaving more enemies for more fury easier.
Earthquake for even more AOE, runed for no fury cost, so that it doesn't interfere with siesmic slam spam.
Revenge runed for fury regen and life steal for survivability.
Ignore Pain runed with 20% lifesteal for more survivability .