I decided to try and make a Demon Hunter build based around the new Sentry and see how it did. It has actually served me surprisingly well, while my DH is fairly fresh at 60, I got lucky with a couple drops and have been trying my luck killing packs in MP5 inferno. It's not perfect, but I think it's a build that works well, especially for those of us who don't have a lot of crit damage built up yet.
One thing I want to point out for this build is that it a little odd compared to most. Sentries cannot crit so this build will not benefit much from high damage crit builds. You could still go for high crit and just let the Spike Traps do most of the damage. The other oddity is that Sentries do not seem to proc Life on Hit. Because of this they also don't seem cause damage reflection back to the user. This can make Reflect Damage elite packs fairly easy compared to most other builds. Keep in mind this is PTR and is subject to change.
This can be replaced with nearly anything but I chose it for more DPS on my Spitfire Turrent. If you manage to slow the enemy a lot then you could probably replace it with Cull the Weak. I did not choose Archery for this passive as I have a 1H Crossbow and it would increase the critical damage and sentries can not crit. You could possibly replace it with something defensive like Perfectionist.
Custom Engineering
The foundation of the build. This allows you to have 3 sentries and 6 spike traps. This is where the bulk of the damage is going to come from.
Brooding
This was a personal choice due to gear. I have no ways of regenerating health other than to use this and the Boar pet. I do not have any LoH yet and the sentry doesn't seem to trigger LoH either.
Skills - Runes:
Bola Shot - Thunder Ball
I chose this skill for the mix of good AoE and Single Target damage. The rune was chosen due to the fairly high chance to stun the primary target, making kiting a little easier. This could be replaced with any generator other than grenades, "Entangling Shot - Chain Gang" being the 2nd skill I'd recommend in its place.
Spike Trap - Scatter
Combined with Custom Engineering, this rune allows you to put out 6 spike traps in two clicks. It makes kiting and dropping traps in the enemy's path fairly simple and can cause massive AoE damage to large groups who hit the traps all at once.
Vault - Tumble
This is a personal choice rune, I like being acrobatic and it helps to be able to move out of tough situations quickly. Consider replacing if you want something more defensive or another source of damage (based on personal gameplay style)
Caltrops - Torturous Ground
I found Torurous Ground to be more effective at slowing mobs while kiting than Hooked Spines. This is largely due to the slowing effects in inferno are still reduced from their full power.
Companion - Boar Companion
This was personal choice. I have no Life on Hit on my character right now and Sentries don't seem to trigger it anway. This gives me more resistances and some life regeneration to keep me alive
Sentry - Spitfire Turret
This one appears to be the highest DPS Sentry rune. Combined with Ballistics, it can do quite a bit of damage. The latest PTR has the Sentry doing 175% WD and the rockets doing 30% WD. With 3 sentries down, in a single second you can put out around 660% WD without having to actually attack yourself. Once you start throwing your own damage out there with the Sentry you can start putting out very high amounts of damage over time.
Thanks for the video! Very informative, i can't wait to try this build on live.
If you don't mind, i have two questions for you:
- is steady aim working on the turret too?
- have you tested the rune 'chain of torments' with 3 turrets? Does it makes 3 chains attached to you?
Thanks for the video! Very informative, i can't wait to try this build on live.
If you don't mind, i have two questions for you:
- is steady aim working on the turret too?
- have you tested the rune 'chain of torments' with 3 turrets? Does it makes 3 chains attached to you?
Have a nice day
I can't answer with 100% certainty regarding Steady Aim, but my assumption is that it would scale the Sentry damage to your own as long as you could keep away.
I've tried using the chain of torment and I didn't have much luck with it. Getting more than 1 chain to hit a monster was fairly hard, you would have to try to stack the sentry posts in the same spot or they would spread out and not hit the monster. I think my video before this one had me using the chain for a tiny bit. If you want to see, try this link. That should have it somewhere in the middle of the video.
It very well could be that I just don't use the chain well and it's not for me. I'd love to see someone make it work for them.
As a hipster type of player I'd definitely like to try this one out once the patch is released. Guess it's time to lvl up a 2nd DH (my main has too much focus on Crit - and it's a pain having to keep 2 sets of gear and swap out skills everytime)
As a suggestion, it would be nice if you could link screenshots of the skills descriptions in the PTR (here and on the video descrip)? I know they're shown in the video (but briefly and we can't really tell which skill description is going to be shown when), but I found myself accessing the calculator and seeing the old descriptions and searching for the new ones. Just an idea.
Absolutely wonderful! i watched your other video, i think i got a revelation! The whole chain of torment + evasive fire seems to be really a fun combo!
I've been playing a variant of this build on Act III MP III, but I use the Thrill of the Hunt passive with the new Spike Traps Echoing Blast, which gives me essentially a 4.4 sec snare, letting my trade out Torturous Ground for Jagged Spikes. For Elites/Champs, i just stack all my traps in one area, which with echoing blast is a lot stronger than with scatter, since each trap hits 3 times.
Can't link yet, replace dots and // after http for link.
http: us battle net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#WRgYhk!aUf!ZaYbaZ
I assume you'd use archery once geared in place of brooding for damage or numbing traps for a basically screen-wide -20% incomming damage (sentry, caltrops, AND spike all trigger the effect), and I assume sentry doesn't work with night stalker if it doesn't work with LoH, this does look cool indeed.
This build is ridicously fun! I decided to give it a go with approx 70k dps and go for archery (bow as wep) and shadow power - gloom instead of caltrops and preparation instead of vault as I have the HP and AR to take a few hits. Takes little time to get used to, but even MP6 is being pretty easy.
I'm glad it's proving to be useful as well as fun. I always had a facination with the sentry before the patch, but after trying it for a bit I found it not nearly as useful as other abilities. I'm glad they updated it to be a major damage dealer. It's fun to be able to make quirky builds like this and it's even better when the builds turn out to be better than you expect.
I might have to try some of these defensive variants of the build, they sound quite nice.
Tried this and i have to ask, is it just me or does damage reflect get ignored sometimes with sentrys?
There has been several elites which dont reflect from sentrys, then again some do. Need more testing with this but curious to know if anyone else has encountered similar scenarios
There was a recent hotfix to repair a bug where Reflect Damage was not being triggered by pets. I think Sentries just trigger Reflect Damage all the time now.
I've been hearing about sentries reflecting damage now, it's really a shame. I would think if they could refelct damage they should be able to proc LoH to compensate. Maybe I'll make a post on the official forums requesting it. I have my doubts they'll do it though.
Well, this is getting a bump back up. It's a bit dusty, but it should work very well with the upcomming 1.0.7 build. Not only is refelct dammage not always on anymore but Sentries and pets no longer trigger reflect damage! Hate Reflect damage? This could be the build for you
One thing I want to point out for this build is that it a little odd compared to most. Sentries cannot crit so this build will not benefit much from high damage crit builds. You could still go for high crit and just let the Spike Traps do most of the damage. The other oddity is that Sentries do not seem to proc Life on Hit. Because of this they also don't seem cause damage reflection back to the user. This can make Reflect Damage elite packs fairly easy compared to most other builds. Keep in mind this is PTR and is subject to change.
Build (calculator not yet updated to 1.0.5):
http://us.battle.net...dYSk!hUd!ZcbZba
Passives:
Cons: Needs more Turtles, idk that's just me though.
You're a wizard Harry.....
If you don't mind, i have two questions for you:
- is steady aim working on the turret too?
- have you tested the rune 'chain of torments' with 3 turrets? Does it makes 3 chains attached to you?
Have a nice day
I can't answer with 100% certainty regarding Steady Aim, but my assumption is that it would scale the Sentry damage to your own as long as you could keep away.
I've tried using the chain of torment and I didn't have much luck with it. Getting more than 1 chain to hit a monster was fairly hard, you would have to try to stack the sentry posts in the same spot or they would spread out and not hit the monster. I think my video before this one had me using the chain for a tiny bit. If you want to see, try this link. That should have it somewhere in the middle of the video.
It very well could be that I just don't use the chain well and it's not for me. I'd love to see someone make it work for them.
As a hipster type of player I'd definitely like to try this one out once the patch is released. Guess it's time to lvl up a 2nd DH (my main has too much focus on Crit - and it's a pain having to keep 2 sets of gear and swap out skills everytime)
As a suggestion, it would be nice if you could link screenshots of the skills descriptions in the PTR (here and on the video descrip)? I know they're shown in the video (but briefly and we can't really tell which skill description is going to be shown when), but I found myself accessing the calculator and seeing the old descriptions and searching for the new ones. Just an idea.
I'm really inspired now, you've made my day!
Big Thank You
Can't link yet, replace dots and // after http for link.
http: us battle net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#WRgYhk!aUf!ZaYbaZ
When I read the patch notes, sentry stuck out to me as well. Not only does it and the damage rune increase in effectiveness by almost 220% (320% of original value) a piece, it picks up all kinds of synergy from the remodled passives. I'm now looking at two builds with a few possible variances. One is basically the build you listed, maybe with some minor deviation, and the other is: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#WRlgSV!aeY!ZacYbb , which I may have to make additional deviations from IF different types of stuns/snares share diminishing returns, etc, such as http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#WRdgSV!aeY!ZaYYbb or http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#WRdgSV!aeY!YaYYbb.
I'm glad it's proving to be useful as well as fun. I always had a facination with the sentry before the patch, but after trying it for a bit I found it not nearly as useful as other abilities. I'm glad they updated it to be a major damage dealer. It's fun to be able to make quirky builds like this and it's even better when the builds turn out to be better than you expect.
I might have to try some of these defensive variants of the build, they sound quite nice.
There was a recent hotfix to repair a bug where Reflect Damage was not being triggered by pets. I think Sentries just trigger Reflect Damage all the time now.