This build works as a consistent high damage play-style. You rely less on discipline and more on hatred. Your autoattacks are also beneficial; I will explain why below.
Entangling Shot (w/ Heavy Burden)
I chose this because I feel that most of the other abilities focus on your enemy being slowed. Your passive, Cull the Weak, does an extra 15% damage to slowed enemies. Heavy Burden allows you to focus on a single target to do a large amount of damage. This would be beneficial to boss fights. Don't worry about not being able to kill a large group; I have that covered. Keep reading.
Elemental Arrow (w/ Frost Arrow)
The frost arrow allows you to slow multiple targets to deal with multiple targets thus allowing your passive, Cull the Weak, to once again, be beneficial to your build. Your frost arrow does 170% damage and once it hits the target, it fires multiple arrows which have an effect to slow all affected enemies by 60% for 1 second. Now I understand that 1 second seems extremely short but if you have a high attack speed you'll be able to hit that without problems. The other options do not work with the style of this build.
Vault (w/ Action Shot)
I chose this because this build focuses on keeping distance and slowing the enemy to deal a ton of damage. The other options with Vault didn't have any true worth, in my opinion. Being able to survive and deal damage is important!
Marked for Death (w/ Contagion)
I felt this was the obvious choice because you will be able to single-out the huge targets to deal a lot of damage. At first, I was thinking of doing the AoE mark (Valley of Death) but decided that the reduced duration of the damage buff isn't worth it (That's 15 possible seconds of an additional 15% of damage per attack). Besides, it's better to be able to focus on a single huge target. Don't fret though. Since you have Contagion, you'll be able to focus on a single target, kill it, and NOW you'll have 2 targets with that same effect.
Cluster Arrow (/w Shooting Stars or Loaded for Bear)
For level 41 up to 59 grab Shooting Stars. It will help take out multiple targets and still be a decent nuke. At level 60 you can choose Loaded for Bear or Shooting Stars. This is a tough decision because it's purely situational; you have the choice between doing ONLY fire damage by using LFB (remember, there will most likely be many enemies with fire resistance especially end-game) or doing physical damage if your single-target nuke (based on fire damage) fails by using SS.
Preparation (w/ Punishment.. totally didn't realize this was the name at the time of making this guide lol)
Your shadow action ability will be the most easiest decision ever. The raven (or whatever companion you use) just seems too weak and useless to be worth it; a peck PERIODICALLY for only 30% of your weapon damage? I believe that needs a buff. The life steal just isn't that important to be an ability; you can have life steal with your bow/crossbow anyways. This build doesn't focus on traps at all so the discipline gain/refill isn't that great with this build. You should, however, take the very OBVIOUS rune; Punishment. Punishment costs 20 discipline and allows you to pump out a consistent amount of damage. And if you're doing the build the exact way, you'll have a consistent amount of huge damage. Read on...
Since you'll be spending your discipline on Preparation, of course you won't be able to Vault around a lot. Before you think that your Marked for Death ability is now useless, hear me out. Since you equipped Marked for Death with Contagion, you now can just cast it once and its effect is travelling to the whole group! You won't have to use your Marked for Death multiple times for just one group so you won't need discipline that often. Remember, for this build, Hatred > Discipline.
----- Passives ----- (the ones inboldare the ones I chose)
1. ) Cull the Weak - Very obvious as to why this passive is useful if you read the guide.
2.) You have many options:
Ballistics - Useful for your Cluster Arrow if you're using Shooting Stars.
Archery - Gives even MORE additional damage
Vengeance - I chose this because it allows for you to sustain damage by giving you additional Hatred (25) and you gain Hatred & Discipline when you pick up a health orb.
I have created lots of builds around punishment. All of them with correct other passive choices and high enough crits are viable choices from around NM up. I think that Preparation with or without punishment is must have for almost every action DH out there. You can drop it when you get epic Inferno items at some point and don't need regen from Punishment any more. But it will last you for a long long while even in Inferno.
I realize you chose vault for movement and keeping distance, but your build seems to focus spending your discipline on preparation, if you vault too much to keep distance you're going to lower your dps. Perhaps replace vault with another hatred spender, since you have preparation to replenish hatred I think it would be more beneficial to add another spender instead of a discipline spender. Maybe a skill like "Rain of Vengeance" with the rune "Stampede" to knock back enemies. The reason I suggested "Rain of Vengeance" is because it is a skill you can cast quickly that is going to produce dps while you continue to use your main attacks and save your discipline for preparation.
I like your build very much, just adding my opinion.
I realize you chose vault for movement and keeping distance, but your build seems to focus spending your discipline on preparation, if you vault too much to keep distance you're going to lower your dps. Perhaps replace vault with another hatred spender, since you have preparation to replenish hatred I think it would be more beneficial to add another spender instead of a discipline spender. Maybe a skill like "Rain of Vengeance" with the rune "Stampede" to knock back enemies. The reason I suggested "Rain of Vengeance" is because it is a skill you can cast quickly that is going to produce dps while you continue to use your main attacks and save your discipline for preparation.
I like your build very much, just adding my opinion.
As I said in the last paragraph under Preparation, "Since you'll be spending your discipline on Preparation, of course you won't be able to Vault around a lot." I just feel that it depends all on the person's play-style; if a person likes to be a ninja-esque DH, this build probably isn't for them. I personally won't be vaulting around all the time during fights but some people might. I threw in the Action Shot rune just so you can keep up some damage even if you have to vault out.
Also, to your statement about another hatred spender, I feel that Marked for Death is very important because it costs a small amount of discipline and you won't have to recast it multiple times during the group fights (due to the Contagion rune). Swapping MFD for Rain of Vengeance just doesn't seem like a good idea, in my opinion. You lose an extra 15% damage for the next 30 seconds on a target (which also spreads once you kill the target). I could see the possibility of swapping Vault for Fan of Knives though.
When I was saying swap out for another hatred spender I meant it as swapping out for vault not for MFD. If you're not planning on vaulting much I feel you could put something more useful there, any sort of hatred spender, I just happen to suggest RoV.
When I was saying swap out for another hatred spender I meant it as swapping out for vault not for MFD. If you're not planning on vaulting much I feel you could put something more useful there, any sort of hatred spender, I just happen to suggest RoV.
Yeah but you don't get to use RoV in the Defensive slot. RoV falls under the Archery slot. But I do get what you're saying. Which is why I said Fan of Knives isn't a bad swap for Vault.
When I was saying swap out for another hatred spender I meant it as swapping out for vault not for MFD. If you're not planning on vaulting much I feel you could put something more useful there, any sort of hatred spender, I just happen to suggest RoV.
Yeah but you don't get to use RoV in the Defensive slot. RoV falls under the Archery slot. But I do get what you're saying. Which is why I said Fan of Knives isn't a bad swap for Vault.
The blizzard categorization of the skills is terrible and makes little to no sense.
http://us.battle.net...YPhQ!XgY!aZbZZZ
I find myself using the companion quite frequently in builds as there seems to be no reason to have more than 2 disc or hatred spenders.
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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
When I was saying swap out for another hatred spender I meant it as swapping out for vault not for MFD. If you're not planning on vaulting much I feel you could put something more useful there, any sort of hatred spender, I just happen to suggest RoV.
Yeah but you don't get to use RoV in the Defensive slot. RoV falls under the Archery slot. But I do get what you're saying. Which is why I said Fan of Knives isn't a bad swap for Vault.
The blizzard categorization of the skills is terrible and makes little to no sense.
http://us.battle.net...YPhQ!XgY!aZbZZZ
I find myself using the companion quite frequently in builds as there seems to be no reason to have more than 2 disc or hatred spenders.
The companion seems too weak to be useful in my opinion. Maybe late game/later difficulties it will be somewhat useful if you have a high hatred regen and/or a good amount of lifesteal. As for the early difficulties, I just don't think it's worth it because there are better options to choose from.
Your build is ok. But change passives and/or actives slightly to add some discipline regen (unless you consider you have enough of it from your items). If you are thinking about playing inferno also consider that imo you will have to change your position on a field around every 7 sec top. I also think that every build should have either vault or smoke screen, whatever suites you best (smoke screen will be more useful when playing co-op I think).
The companion seems too weak to be useful in my opinion. Maybe late game/later difficulties it will be somewhat useful if you have a high hatred regen and/or a good amount of lifesteal. As for the early difficulties, I just don't think it's worth it because there are better options to choose from.
I have doubts about that.
If you use 1 hatred generator, then you have 5 skill slots left. That means you can have 3 hatred spenders + 2 Disc Spenders or 2 hatred spenders + 3 Disc Spenders. With the rather small discipline pool it seems insane to try to use 3 discipline spenders, and if you tried you would certainly need a method to regen disc. Even then, could you really use all 3 of them enough to merit a slot? We could certainly afford to use a 3rd hatred spender, but what for? Is 2 Hatred spenders and 1 generators not enough attacks to cover most situations?
Some versions of Prep fall into the same category as the companion, where they don't actually cost anything. I like to have this 1 neutral skill t balance the builds. Thats my general build philosophy anyways.
Also, I think you are underestimating the companion. Entangling shot only generates 3 hatred per shot, so you would have to fire entangling shot more than every other shot to it to match the hatred generating capabilities of the bat companion. The 30% dmg is nothing amazing, but considering its passive, thats quite good imo.
In later difficulties, you might have sufficient hatred generation and prefer the ferrets for that additional 10% gold. Not having to run around and pickup gold yourself also saves time, so its a win/win.
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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
When I was saying swap out for another hatred spender I meant it as swapping out for vault not for MFD. If you're not planning on vaulting much I feel you could put something more useful there, any sort of hatred spender, I just happen to suggest RoV.
Yeah but you don't get to use RoV in the Defensive slot. RoV falls under the Archery slot. But I do get what you're saying. Which is why I said Fan of Knives isn't a bad swap for Vault.
I haven't been invited to play beta so I don't know how the skills work, but even with the elective mode (whatever its called) the particular slots still apply? Such as, defensive, archery, etc.
When I was saying swap out for another hatred spender I meant it as swapping out for vault not for MFD. If you're not planning on vaulting much I feel you could put something more useful there, any sort of hatred spender, I just happen to suggest RoV.
Yeah but you don't get to use RoV in the Defensive slot. RoV falls under the Archery slot. But I do get what you're saying. Which is why I said Fan of Knives isn't a bad swap for Vault.
I haven't been invited to play beta so I don't know how the skills work, but even with the elective mode (whatever its called) the particular slots still apply? Such as, defensive, archery, etc.
No, you can put whatever you want wherever you want, and there is no limit the # of skills from a category you can use.
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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
Your build is ok. But change passives and/or actives slightly to add some discipline regen (unless you consider you have enough of it from your items). If you are thinking about playing inferno also consider that imo you will have to change your position on a field around every 7 sec top. I also think that every build should have either vault or smoke screen, whatever suites you best (smoke screen will be more useful when playing co-op I think).
The passives synergize perfectly with all other spells. Vengeance could be changed though for later difficulties, it just depends on what happens really.
The point of the build isn't to rely on discipline, as said many times before. As for the smoke screen being useful when playing co-op I don't think you'd actually need that. If you have a Barb, they'll be tanking damage for you. If you have a monk, they'll be in the enemy's face. If you have a WD, the minions can tank damage. So you won't really need to go invis.
The companion seems too weak to be useful in my opinion. Maybe late game/later difficulties it will be somewhat useful if you have a high hatred regen and/or a good amount of lifesteal. As for the early difficulties, I just don't think it's worth it because there are better options to choose from.
I have doubts about that.
If you use 1 hatred generator, then you have 5 skill slots left. That means you can have 3 hatred spenders + 2 Disc Spenders or 2 hatred spenders + 3 Disc Spenders. With the rather small discipline pool it seems insane to try to use 3 discipline spenders, and if you tried you would certainly need a method to regen disc. Even then, could you really use all 3 of them enough to merit a slot? We could certainly afford to use a 3rd hatred spender, but what for? Is 2 Hatred spenders and 1 generators not enough attacks to cover most situations?
Some versions of Prep fall into the same category as the companion, where they don't actually cost anything. I like to have this 1 neutral skill t balance the builds. Thats my general build philosophy anyways.
Also, I think you are underestimating the companion. Entangling shot only generates 3 hatred per shot, so you would have to fire entangling shot more than every other shot to it to match the hatred generating capabilities of the bat companion. The 30% dmg is nothing amazing, but considering its passive, thats quite good imo.
In later difficulties, you might have sufficient hatred generation and prefer the ferrets for that additional 10% gold. Not having to run around and pickup gold yourself also saves time, so its a win/win.
From what I've seen even on the Blizzard skill video it just seems too weak. (LINK: http://us.battle.net...ctive/companion) As you can see in the video, the DH appears to have pretty decent gear. We don't know the actual gear specs in the video but it seems decent. In the video you can see the bird attacking (granted, we don't know what runes or if there are any runes involved) but the only kills that are made are by the demon hunter. Like I said, 30% weapon damage just seems too low especially when it only attacks periodically. Only time will tell.
When I was saying swap out for another hatred spender I meant it as swapping out for vault not for MFD. If you're not planning on vaulting much I feel you could put something more useful there, any sort of hatred spender, I just happen to suggest RoV.
Yeah but you don't get to use RoV in the Defensive slot. RoV falls under the Archery slot. But I do get what you're saying. Which is why I said Fan of Knives isn't a bad swap for Vault.
I haven't been invited to play beta so I don't know how the skills work, but even with the elective mode (whatever its called) the particular slots still apply? Such as, defensive, archery, etc.
If you look at the calculator (http://us.battle.net...or/demon-hunter) there are 6 categories with each of their own set of skills to choose from. You can only choose the skills INSIDE that single category. You can't have vault as your primary skill or any other category, you can only have vault in your defensive category.
Apparently I was wrong... I didn't realize you could have skills fit into other categories. My mistake. This is actually pretty good news for me. Now I can make my build even better haha. Blizzard's category system is definitely weird.
I understand what you're saying pitchShifter567, but I was under the impression those six categories apply if you do not have elective mode selected, if you have elective mode selected then you can put whatever you want wherever you want. As I said before, I haven't played beta or anything so I could be completely wrong; I'm going based off of what I have read about beta.
Yah he seems to rarely attack and when he does its only 30% dmg. But I have no problem with that, he isn't there to do dmg in my builds. He is there to either give me 3 hatred/sec or to pickup gold.
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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
I understand what you're saying pitchShifter567, but I was under the impression those six categories apply if you do not have elective mode selected, if you have elective mode selected then you can put whatever you want wherever you want. As I said before, I haven't played beta or anything so I could be completely wrong; I'm going based off of what I have read about beta.
Even I played the beta for 5 hours on DH and still wasn't aware that this was possible. It wasn't really apparent to me that you could do this.
I understand what you're saying pitchShifter567, but I was under the impression those six categories apply if you do not have elective mode selected, if you have elective mode selected then you can put whatever you want wherever you want. As I said before, I haven't played beta or anything so I could be completely wrong; I'm going based off of what I have read about beta.
Even I played the beta for 5 hours on DH and still wasn't aware that this was possible. It wasn't really apparent to me that you could do this.
So it is possible with elective mode selected? Since I truly don't know for 100%. If so, that opens up a lot more build possibilities for you to try out
I understand what you're saying pitchShifter567, but I was under the impression those six categories apply if you do not have elective mode selected, if you have elective mode selected then you can put whatever you want wherever you want. As I said before, I haven't played beta or anything so I could be completely wrong; I'm going based off of what I have read about beta.
Even I played the beta for 5 hours on DH and still wasn't aware that this was possible. It wasn't really apparent to me that you could do this.
So it is possible with elective mode selected? Since I truly don't know for 100%. If so, that opens up a lot more build possibilities for you to try out
It does indeed! I thought we were ridiculously restricted haha
That is good news it does work. I believe that those six categories are in place for the "newer" player, to make the game easier for them and elective mode is for more advanced players, that is what I have read. I would be interested in to see what other builds you come up with now, knowing about the elective mode.
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This build works as a consistent high damage play-style. You rely less on discipline and more on hatred. Your autoattacks are also beneficial; I will explain why below.
Entangling Shot (w/ Heavy Burden)
(the ones in bold are the ones I chose)
1. ) Cull the Weak - Very obvious as to why this passive is useful if you read the guide.
2.) You have many options:
I like your build very much, just adding my opinion.
As I said in the last paragraph under Preparation, "Since you'll be spending your discipline on Preparation, of course you won't be able to Vault around a lot." I just feel that it depends all on the person's play-style; if a person likes to be a ninja-esque DH, this build probably isn't for them. I personally won't be vaulting around all the time during fights but some people might. I threw in the Action Shot rune just so you can keep up some damage even if you have to vault out.
Also, to your statement about another hatred spender, I feel that Marked for Death is very important because it costs a small amount of discipline and you won't have to recast it multiple times during the group fights (due to the Contagion rune). Swapping MFD for Rain of Vengeance just doesn't seem like a good idea, in my opinion. You lose an extra 15% damage for the next 30 seconds on a target (which also spreads once you kill the target). I could see the possibility of swapping Vault for Fan of Knives though.
Yeah but you don't get to use RoV in the Defensive slot. RoV falls under the Archery slot. But I do get what you're saying. Which is why I said Fan of Knives isn't a bad swap for Vault.
http://us.battle.net...YPhQ!XgY!aZbZZZ
I find myself using the companion quite frequently in builds as there seems to be no reason to have more than 2 disc or hatred spenders.
Epicurus
The companion seems too weak to be useful in my opinion. Maybe late game/later difficulties it will be somewhat useful if you have a high hatred regen and/or a good amount of lifesteal. As for the early difficulties, I just don't think it's worth it because there are better options to choose from.
I have doubts about that.
If you use 1 hatred generator, then you have 5 skill slots left. That means you can have 3 hatred spenders + 2 Disc Spenders or 2 hatred spenders + 3 Disc Spenders. With the rather small discipline pool it seems insane to try to use 3 discipline spenders, and if you tried you would certainly need a method to regen disc. Even then, could you really use all 3 of them enough to merit a slot? We could certainly afford to use a 3rd hatred spender, but what for? Is 2 Hatred spenders and 1 generators not enough attacks to cover most situations?
Some versions of Prep fall into the same category as the companion, where they don't actually cost anything. I like to have this 1 neutral skill t balance the builds. Thats my general build philosophy anyways.
Also, I think you are underestimating the companion. Entangling shot only generates 3 hatred per shot, so you would have to fire entangling shot more than every other shot to it to match the hatred generating capabilities of the bat companion. The 30% dmg is nothing amazing, but considering its passive, thats quite good imo.
In later difficulties, you might have sufficient hatred generation and prefer the ferrets for that additional 10% gold. Not having to run around and pickup gold yourself also saves time, so its a win/win.
Epicurus
I haven't been invited to play beta so I don't know how the skills work, but even with the elective mode (whatever its called) the particular slots still apply? Such as, defensive, archery, etc.
Epicurus
The passives synergize perfectly with all other spells. Vengeance could be changed though for later difficulties, it just depends on what happens really.
The point of the build isn't to rely on discipline, as said many times before. As for the smoke screen being useful when playing co-op I don't think you'd actually need that. If you have a Barb, they'll be tanking damage for you. If you have a monk, they'll be in the enemy's face. If you have a WD, the minions can tank damage. So you won't really need to go invis.
From what I've seen even on the Blizzard skill video it just seems too weak. (LINK: http://us.battle.net...ctive/companion) As you can see in the video, the DH appears to have pretty decent gear. We don't know the actual gear specs in the video but it seems decent. In the video you can see the bird attacking (granted, we don't know what runes or if there are any runes involved) but the only kills that are made are by the demon hunter. Like I said, 30% weapon damage just seems too low especially when it only attacks periodically. Only time will tell.
If you look at the calculator (http://us.battle.net...or/demon-hunter) there are 6 categories with each of their own set of skills to choose from. You can only choose the skills INSIDE that single category. You can't have vault as your primary skill or any other category, you can only have vault in your defensive category.Apparently I was wrong... I didn't realize you could have skills fit into other categories. My mistake. This is actually pretty good news for me. Now I can make my build even better haha. Blizzard's category system is definitely weird.
Epicurus
So it is possible with elective mode selected? Since I truly don't know for 100%. If so, that opens up a lot more build possibilities for you to try out
It does indeed! I thought we were ridiculously restricted haha