I tried to create a viable Demon Hunter high level build that still has the restriction of one skill from each of the 6 skill groups instead of the standard Elective Mode builds we normally see. The key is the snares and imbolizes in the build for both survivaliblity and additional damage.
Hungering Arrow - Piercing Arrow
While it seems Entangled Shot would be the obvious choice for this type of build, I have enough snaring going on in other skills to not need it here. In a lot of situations once I have a pack snared this will be my go to attack and I want it to hit as many targets as possible per shot. At this point I feel like the extra pierce and the auto guidence to the target will provide that.
Elemental Arrow - Frost Arrow
For the Hatred Cost this is a great snare with decent damage. The idea is fire a shot or two to get a pack snared and then finish the pack up with Hungering Arrow or Multishot.
Vault - Action Shot
I love the Acrobatic rune for a lot of builds, but this one is pretty light on Discipline usage so it's not necessary here. However I don't want to vault into a pack for a stun or need extra vaults because of the snares, so dealing damage is the only thing that's left. I think without seeing the skills Action Shot is the better of the two for this build since I won't be blazing a trail through a pack, just jumping away. So giving out pot shots as I flip away seems better.
Rain of Vengence - Flying Strike
This selection was purely because none of the other skills from the Archery section made sense to me for this build. Also the idea of an Alpha strike to open up on a pack to start (when not on cooldown) and stunning them all seems really strong. Shoot with a Frost Arrow first then use this skill to get all your damage bonuses running to get the most damage out of this skill.
Multishot - Full Broadside
This is just to play clean up when I have the Hatred to spare. Just the straight damage bonus seems best here since we aren't using this a spam skill (Fire at Will), don't need the Discipline (Suppression Fire), and I don't have a need for a PBAoE (Burst Fire). Since I'm not using Balistics, just seems like the flat bonus to damage is best.
Companion - Spider
This is to help with keep up snares and distracting mobs. The extra fire and forget damage is a bonus.
Thill of the Hunt
If the next shot Immobilizes and you hit multiple targets with that one shot they all will be immobilized. This is why all attacks hit multiple targets. I want to make sure when this goes off it hits as many mobs as possible.
Cull of the Weak and Steady Aim
Just flat damage bonuses that should be on all the time with all the snares, the immbolizing effects from Thrill of the Hunt, and using Vault to keep up the distance needed for Steady Aim. 35% extra damage all the time is a huge DPS boost, but it does come at the cost of 2 Passive Skills.
In all I think this could do fairly well at high levels, and it's simple to play. While I'm sure using Elective Mode will produce the most effective builds at the high end, I wanted to show a viable build for those that think it's just too overwhelming to try to create a build with all 153 options (Active Skills, Runes, and Passive Skills) open to you.
This build is meant for group gameplay outside of Normal difficulty. It's too early to tell, but based on what we know most builds for Normal are just going to be heavy damage without too much utility and that will work fine to blast through it ASAP. However, if the claims hold true that higher levels will need more tactics to survive then we are going to need builds that are something more then that. This build is ment to keep mobs under control by stunning them, locking them in place so Wizards can blast them, Melee can get up to them to smash their face, and keep them at bay so the other range classes can keep out of harms way.
Rain of Vengence (RoV), Cluster Arrow, and Grenades all have their stun based runes as this is a stun build. But why did I pick these over the other choices?
RoV is one of the only two skils that can always stun on hit, Impale being the other one. However the Impale stun rune also has a knockback, which if the melee aren't doing themselves on purpose can be annoying to them. Also it's a ridiculious heavy damage attack, but it's cooldown means I need another skill to help out and that's where Cluster Arrow comes in.
Cluster Arrow has a wide AoE and a high % chance to stun (relative to the other skills we have) and it's again very high in damage. Mostly it's the AoE size I care about here. Since we already have two Hatred hogs for skills I needed to ease the burden on my pool. The obvious choice here since I have Cluster Arrow is the Grenadier passive.
This made the inclusion of Grenades obvious as a Hatred Generator. It has a stun rune, it's AoE, and combined with the passive it's a decent amount of Hatred gain. While I like the builds that don't use Generators, this build is just going to eat too much Hatred for me to get by without one.
To help boost my Hatred as much as possible we have Preperation runed to provide Hatred instead, the Bat Companion for a passive Hatred regen boost, and Vengence which gives us a bigger pool and Hatred / Discipline gain with Health Globes.
Next we have Bola Shot. I wanted a way to build up Discipline so Preperation is available as much as possible. Bola Shot can be used after I've done a Prep and used up my Hatred to lock down mobs or for clean up duties when stun isn't needed any more and I'm missing Discipline. If mobs are not on lockdown and it's needed, then throw Grenades instead.
Archery is just for a flat DPS bounus. There really isn't much left to take that will add to the ultility of this build, thus a DPS boost is the next best thing. Most of the time I'll be using Dual Crossbows as I want the fastest firing weapons to proc my Stun / Discipline gain more often. Combine the fast firing with lots of AoE means I'm going to crit fairly often. It's because of that I picked the flat 5% crit bonus over the over time 3% stacking bonus Sharpshooter provides. I would reset that stack far too often, making the flat 5% crit bonus better.
Voted for Crossbow and Quiver as most of my builds will be based on heavy damage per shot.
I'll be using the DW Hand Xbows for builds in groups where I'm doing mob control via stuns that are % chance based. Faster shots means more oportunity to keep things on lock down.
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I tried to create a viable Demon Hunter high level build that still has the restriction of one skill from each of the 6 skill groups instead of the standard Elective Mode builds we normally see. The key is the snares and imbolizes in the build for both survivaliblity and additional damage.
Hungering Arrow - Piercing Arrow
While it seems Entangled Shot would be the obvious choice for this type of build, I have enough snaring going on in other skills to not need it here. In a lot of situations once I have a pack snared this will be my go to attack and I want it to hit as many targets as possible per shot. At this point I feel like the extra pierce and the auto guidence to the target will provide that.
Elemental Arrow - Frost Arrow
For the Hatred Cost this is a great snare with decent damage. The idea is fire a shot or two to get a pack snared and then finish the pack up with Hungering Arrow or Multishot.
Vault - Action Shot
I love the Acrobatic rune for a lot of builds, but this one is pretty light on Discipline usage so it's not necessary here. However I don't want to vault into a pack for a stun or need extra vaults because of the snares, so dealing damage is the only thing that's left. I think without seeing the skills Action Shot is the better of the two for this build since I won't be blazing a trail through a pack, just jumping away. So giving out pot shots as I flip away seems better.
Rain of Vengence - Flying Strike
This selection was purely because none of the other skills from the Archery section made sense to me for this build. Also the idea of an Alpha strike to open up on a pack to start (when not on cooldown) and stunning them all seems really strong. Shoot with a Frost Arrow first then use this skill to get all your damage bonuses running to get the most damage out of this skill.
Multishot - Full Broadside
This is just to play clean up when I have the Hatred to spare. Just the straight damage bonus seems best here since we aren't using this a spam skill (Fire at Will), don't need the Discipline (Suppression Fire), and I don't have a need for a PBAoE (Burst Fire). Since I'm not using Balistics, just seems like the flat bonus to damage is best.
Companion - Spider
This is to help with keep up snares and distracting mobs. The extra fire and forget damage is a bonus.
Thill of the Hunt
If the next shot Immobilizes and you hit multiple targets with that one shot they all will be immobilized. This is why all attacks hit multiple targets. I want to make sure when this goes off it hits as many mobs as possible.
Cull of the Weak and Steady Aim
Just flat damage bonuses that should be on all the time with all the snares, the immbolizing effects from Thrill of the Hunt, and using Vault to keep up the distance needed for Steady Aim. 35% extra damage all the time is a huge DPS boost, but it does come at the cost of 2 Passive Skills.
In all I think this could do fairly well at high levels, and it's simple to play. While I'm sure using Elective Mode will produce the most effective builds at the high end, I wanted to show a viable build for those that think it's just too overwhelming to try to create a build with all 153 options (Active Skills, Runes, and Passive Skills) open to you.
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First take a look at the build: http://us.battle.net...lckT!TbV!aabbZb
Now an explanation:
Rain of Vengence (RoV), Cluster Arrow, and Grenades all have their stun based runes as this is a stun build. But why did I pick these over the other choices?
RoV is one of the only two skils that can always stun on hit, Impale being the other one. However the Impale stun rune also has a knockback, which if the melee aren't doing themselves on purpose can be annoying to them. Also it's a ridiculious heavy damage attack, but it's cooldown means I need another skill to help out and that's where Cluster Arrow comes in.
Cluster Arrow has a wide AoE and a high % chance to stun (relative to the other skills we have) and it's again very high in damage. Mostly it's the AoE size I care about here. Since we already have two Hatred hogs for skills I needed to ease the burden on my pool. The obvious choice here since I have Cluster Arrow is the Grenadier passive.
This made the inclusion of Grenades obvious as a Hatred Generator. It has a stun rune, it's AoE, and combined with the passive it's a decent amount of Hatred gain. While I like the builds that don't use Generators, this build is just going to eat too much Hatred for me to get by without one.
To help boost my Hatred as much as possible we have Preperation runed to provide Hatred instead, the Bat Companion for a passive Hatred regen boost, and Vengence which gives us a bigger pool and Hatred / Discipline gain with Health Globes.
Next we have Bola Shot. I wanted a way to build up Discipline so Preperation is available as much as possible. Bola Shot can be used after I've done a Prep and used up my Hatred to lock down mobs or for clean up duties when stun isn't needed any more and I'm missing Discipline. If mobs are not on lockdown and it's needed, then throw Grenades instead.
Archery is just for a flat DPS bounus. There really isn't much left to take that will add to the ultility of this build, thus a DPS boost is the next best thing. Most of the time I'll be using Dual Crossbows as I want the fastest firing weapons to proc my Stun / Discipline gain more often. Combine the fast firing with lots of AoE means I'm going to crit fairly often. It's because of that I picked the flat 5% crit bonus over the over time 3% stacking bonus Sharpshooter provides. I would reset that stack far too often, making the flat 5% crit bonus better.
So that's the build, what do you all think?
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I'll be using the DW Hand Xbows for builds in groups where I'm doing mob control via stuns that are % chance based. Faster shots means more oportunity to keep things on lock down.