Build Guide
Theory/Background - (The Why)
Patch 2.6.1 brings 300% to 375% Impale bonus damage to Karlie's Points and raises the 6p bonus of Shadow's Mantle from 40k to 50k. With these 2 buffs, this build should be able to clear approximately 11 tiers higher than prior to this patch. This build is made possible by the Holy Point Shot quiver. With this quiver, impale will throw 3 knives instead of one. Each knife gains the 6p bonus damage from the Shadow Mantle Set. Currently its also possible, if positioned very close to a mob, to land all 3 buffed impales on a single target. So for instance the RG will take 3x the damage from impale than it does w/o the Holy Point Shot if standing very close while attacking it. This will greatly increase the effective damage output for impale. Not only that, all 3 knives will return the amount of hatred that is listed on your Karlei's Point dagger. Now with up to 3x the refunded hatred, it is no longer necessary to have a generator, while staying at near full hatred most of the time. This allows using and taking advantage of the Aquila Cuirass chest in the cube for 2x toughness.
Gearing/Game Play - (The How)
Make sure to have at least 36.7% cdr for permanent Vengeance. The required cdr can be accomplished with cdr rolled on one piece of gear, 15% cdr from the Gogok of Swiftness, a diamond in helm and 10% cdr in paragon. Tactical Advantage passive is desirable to use for speed runs. Use Leech for soloing higher GR's. Numbing Traps can be used to buff group toughness if needed. When pushing high GR's in 4man groups the Single out passive should be used and replace FoK Bladed Armor with Marked for Death (either Contagion or Valley of Death). Nemesis bracers are an excellent alternative to Strongarms and are recommended for speed rifting. For pushing GR's in 4 man's, Lacuni Prowlers can be used for increased attack speed to better stack Stricken. For bounties there is no better choice than the Warzechian Armguards. For pushing high GR's with supports, wear an SOJ and cube the Convention of Elements for more damage, since the with supports the Elusive Ring may not be needed.
The ricochet (lightning) rune of Imaple is best used for lower level content where mobs die quickly such as T13 or speed rifts. The reason for this is that with ricochet there is a chance to have hatred returned on the first cast of impale. The overpenetration (cold) rune for impale is best used for higher level content such as pushing solo GR's when using the Pain Enhancer gem. The reason for this is that overpenetration's piercing impales can apply the PE's bleed to a larger amount of mobs around you. With this increase in the number of bleeding mobs withing 20 yds, your attack speed will be higher. That being said the difference is small. So if you have much better lighting gear than cold, then use ricochet even for pushing solo. In 4man meta group play where the DH is the RG killer, it's less important which rune of impale is used (though all things being equal, cold is better due to the piercing knives' ability to better aggro mobs). Therefore for meta, use the rune of impale that matches the element of the best gear you have.
Try to stack life after kill on chest, belt, pants, jewelry and weapon if possible. Life after kill works beautifully with this build. Shadow Power will add 50% of your life after kill to life on hit, the leech passive adds another 75%. Together you will have 125% of LoK as LoH. This is a huge gain in health recovery, allowing for safe passage while playing very aggressively.
Note that if you play at a game difficulty where you are one shotting mobs, it will result in running out of hatred because there will be no opportunities for hatred refunds from Karlei's Point. Some examples of where you might run into this would be power leveling friends or running fast low level GR's to level gems. In order to mitigate this problem so you don't run out hatred, run Seethe instead of Dark Heart, replace Cull the Weak with Blood Vengeance and replace Aquila Cuirass with Visage of Gunes in the Cube.
Make sure to spam Vengeance, bladed armor and wolf when off cooldown. The constant activation of these skills can be achieved by num locking them. Beyond that, all that is required is to cast impale to attack and vault for mobility. Its really that simple. You do need to make sure to impale every 2 sec in order to have free vaults. I personally use vault actively to stun elites and RG's to interrupt their special attacks. This can be be extremely helpful in surviving nasty fights. Note that while vaulting you enter into a smoke screen like state that renders you invulnerable to incoming damage for the brief time you're traveling from point to point. Make sure to keep the elusive ring buff up at all times. This can be done by vaulting or casting shadow power. If you find yourself placed particularly well, as in next to an elite that you are impaling, casting shadow power to proc the elusive buff is preferable to vaulting if you can face tank well enough to stay in place. Note that this build requires hunting and killing mainly elites, especially for speed runs, but higher GR's will require gathering up and killing large packs of trash also. Just make sure to take advantage of the oculus circles when doing so.
Sand Dwellers (when sanding) and spinning Dervishes will reflect impales which can and will proc/rip not only the DH but the entire party. Please be very careful around these mob types and make sure not to fire into them especially when in a party.
Summary/Wrap Up - (The Results)
The build is very simple to play and a hell of a lot of fun. It gives insane mobility, good damage and high survivability. In fact fully self buffed with all dps gems and nems, its not uncommon to exceed a toughness of 500 mil at low paragon. That's awesome toughness for a dps class with no support. This build can be used to compete for pushing the highest GR's for both solo and group play. For speed farming it is superb. GR 85's are taking under 4 min to clear (with 2 mil+ dps). Normal rifts are fast and fun. Split farming 4man T13 bounties is very efficient. In short the build will do everything you need and want within Diablo 3.
I have thoroughly enjoyed playing and testing out this build and I hope you will find as much enjoyment with it as I have. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions. Please Upvote if you find this guide useful. Thanks.
I am however thinking you could do this: run Unity and cube Convention. So basically you are giving up Elusive but gaining 15% to Elites and 50% damage reduction with Unity. If I get a gg Unity I may give this a try.
ps. I think a Unity with both crits so you can roll of mainstat for a socket would be the best. I have a non ancient one with that so I know it is possible!
TLDR: A Unity can be used instead an Elusive ring to gain 5-10% damage to elites at the expensive of giving up 25% more toughness.
@GambitST,
I will try to give some examples of DPS that can generally clear a range of GR tiers. Do know that there are a lot of variables that come into play when you are at the limit. Namely, the maps, mob types, general density level, how many and which pylons that you get are very influential as to whether or not a GR will be cleared in time or not. Also there is the skill level of the player and how well he/she executes that skill. That being said, I would say that in order to beat a GR 80 one might need 700-900k DPS. Beating a GR 85 can be done with 1.2-1.4 mil DPS. Beating a 90 will require 1.8-2.0 mil DPS. Beating a 95 would require 2.3-2.5 mil DPS. These are numbers are reflective of my personal experience which has been in HC nearly exclusively. In SC it may be possible to do better.
You are correct that the playstyle that you choose implement has to be adjusted to match whether you are using the BotP or PE. With the BotP it is certainly desirable to isolate elites. As you alluded to, gathering up large packs is optimal when using the PE. I would suggest that for solo that you do not roll ias on gloves, but rather have vitality. I personally have found that its hard to avoid mobs crowding into the elites. So rather than fight it, I chose to embrace it. PE fits into this very well. You would be surprised how much progress that you can gain from the right packs of whites. With the PE the ias is amazing too for surviving, because of the extra life on hit. If you do chose to use PE, having some area damage on gears can be helpful too. In the end, the playstyle that I think is optimal to clear the highest solo GR's fits the PE best.
When I started putting this build together on the PTR, I used Nemesis bracers. In fact I stubbornly stuck with them over the Strongarms for a long time. What influenced me to change was because I started using PE and Strongarms pair really well with it, but also plyons are bugged now in GR's and spawn Dervishes way more than they should (seems like 1/3). Those dervishes completely waste Nems, as a result I found that Strongarms give more consistent clears when pushing the highest GR's solo. I by far favor using Nems for speed rifts though.
I hope this helps shine some light on these matters. Good luck and happy hunting!
Great thoughts. Honestly I am struggling mightily with GR 96 which just seems beyond the DPS capabilities of my build (and play style ability). I got what is essentially a perfect Unity. 50/6 +15% Elites and a socket. It is ancient so I will augment it and I think maybe when I am at appropriately high paragons I may be able to offset the toughness loss with extra vit. I think it *could be* end game viable for pushing/fishing. I think it would also probably work better to go with Nemisis bracers when using this ring and essentially go Elite/Pylon hunting.
In the meantime I'm going to switch to Pain Enhancer; wear strong arms and try to get a set of shoulders with AD as well as cool down on them (the Holy Grail). I am starting to think this approach is more consistent and slightly less "fishy" than going the BotP way when you start getting to the limits of the build. Anyway, last I checked we have people clearing 98 with this build and with gear that is about as good as mine which is a bit demoralizing, either I suck or these guys are brilliant players, probably a bit of both :/
ps. Primal TP Amulet which I can choose between 10% cc or 20% elemental. I am missing cc on my Compass Rose, which has 6ias; +damage range and 50 crit damage. My own tests have been inconclusive, it almost seems like a wash no matter which I chose. I guess an amy with ele/cd and cc is what I need to keep farming for..
Companion (wolf) over Marked for Death. As far as I understand both give 15% dmg bonus, while MoD (valley of death or contagion with some practice) is always up and companion not. So what's the reason people run with companion?
Hi all.
at the moment i am loving this build. never played a DH before then i saw this and decided to give it a shot.
I am up to GR66 and seem to have hit a wall. specifically with reagards to my dps.
my armory is https://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/ValhellaMage-2966/hero/93022241
any help would be appreciated.
Both are viable options that have advantages and disadvantages (Wolf gives more burst, MfD is more consistent). In the end its a personal choice, either can work fine. Good luck.
Thanks.
Hey, mate, im done 90GR on 880 para, with 10,500 dex and~1,6 mil Dps. And im shift Diamonds for Emerald, was extreamly, but im done without death) Diamonds best in slot.But im play on ps4, and we are have a Nephalem glory balls, which double dps. But anyway PE its great gem. Now basicly i have AS 2.41 its Brake#34, whith Gogok i catch Brake#35, and its a jooooce) And in huge pack AS rising crazy 110-120%= 3,21-3,41, so my advice use PE)
Thnx for guide!
P.S. 90GR was cleared without Caldesann, no augs)
Those people have absurdly high paragon, which gives them much more dps than the rest.
Without enough dps you'll hit the metaphorical wall and get stuck.
That is why you can't go further. Also map layout, mob type/density and the right pylons play a huge role in clearing the rift.
Ofc, the player's skill play a crucial role as well.
I think you are right, very high paragons will increase dps making higher clears possible. I also think a serious commitment to fishing; understanding what type of grift and mob types the build shines on etc all make a difference. I did get a 96 clear after getting an elemental/crit/crit amulet and switching to pain enhancer + ad on shoulders, but even then I had to work hard and a well placed conduit gave me the lead I needed. I'm going to take a break from solo pushing for a week or so and just grind paragons. Honestly solo pushing beyond the limits of your build is not that much fun IMHO.
I've been reading the posts regarding Ricochet over Overpenetration and deciding which to use. Currently the only thing covered between the two is hatred return, which both are perfectly capable of, but the thing is, which is best regarding Pain Enhancer?
I've been trying both and it seems I get far quicker and more reliable stacks of PE with Overpenetration compared with Ricochet. Ricochet seemed to under perform for me in all situations.
So yeah, I'm wondering why Ricochet is typically the chosen rune?
Also, is it worth levelling PE above 25? The bleed seems entirely negligible.
Although I have not used it think Over Penetration is fine. It is the Physical and Fire runes that are the most problematic, so if you seem to be getting better results with Cold and have gear that supports it then 100% stay with it. Another advantage of cold is you can run Frostburns in the cube in your group version to further increase your dps (if you don't mind giving up Aquila). I guess the same is true of Fire, you could use magefist.
As far as the rune to use for impale with regards to the effect on PE, I feel that overpenetration has a small advantage over ricochet. That is the main reason I think using the cold rune has a small advantage over lightning for pushing. Of course if u have significantly better gear in lightning, I would use that for pushing, and cold if that is your best gear.
For lower level difficulty, like T13 or speedy GR's, I think ricochet has the edge, because it has a chance to return hatred on the first cast of impale. This will result in better hatred management when mobs are dying very quicly.