Lightning/Meticulous Bolts build was a little overpowered, let's be honest here... It was. It was also extremely heavy for the servers and was creating many lag/desync issues... Now, that build has been nerfed heavily but, it's far from being a nerf to DH's...... In it's current state, I would say that DH have been boosted by a very, VERY HUGE margin... Expect more nerfs coming, cause right now, it's retarded. Let me explain...
I have a zDPS monk and my DH partner (my cousin) wanted to try out the PTR. On live servers, we almost completed a GRift 44, missing the mark by roughly 10-12 seconds (and that's the highest we've ever reached). We loaded the PTR and went straight to the trials. My monk still had the same build but my cousin went back to the Fire build that was the previous FOTM (flavor of the moment) with the updated Marauder 6pc and a sub-par Kridershot and Bomb sack for 5 Sentries. His build was essentially the following:
Actives
Elemental Arrow - Immolation
Sentry - Spitfire
Cluster Arrow - Loaded for Bear
Smioke Screen - Lingering Fog
Marked for Death - Contagion
and the obvious Companions...
Passives
Steady Aim
Cull of the Weak
Custom Engineering
Awareness
With this build (and the help of my zDPS monk), Elemental Arrows were landing for 90-115 millions, Cluster Arrows for as high as 700 millions... He was 1 shotting (literally... 1 cluster arrow) some elite packs in T6 rifts... On our first try, we were easily able to clear a Greater Rift 50. Yup.
OP AS F***
Try it on the PTR, while it lasts... I highly doubt this goes live as is!
@Heledar: DH was overpowered as hell from day 1 on last PTR. In the weeks of testing to follow, Blizzard went on to "fix" DH and increased the gap, and we all know it went live. I can see this going live... Blizzard seems to have given up on releasing a patch in total balance, but want players to find out other ways to restore balance (the barb just came up very late in this patch). Maybe there's something to be found in other classes as well - we'll see as soon as people on PTR have found the new sets and familiarized with the new playstyles. Of course, everyone has perfect DH gear after a season of "play DH or forfeit" which is why on day 1 of this PTR everyone is checking out the DH changes first. (Not true for everyone though - for example, Buleh already cleared GR60 on his barb.)
@Heledar: DH was overpowered as hell from day 1 on last PTR. In the weeks of testing to follow, Blizzard went on to "fix" DH and increased the gap, and we all know it went live. I can see this going live... Blizzard seems to have given up on releasing a patch in total balance, but want players to find out other ways to restore balance (the barb just came up very late in this patch). Maybe there's something to be found in other classes as well - we'll see as soon as people on PTR have found the new sets and familiarized with the new playstyles. Of course, everyone has perfect DH gear after a season of "play DH or forfeit" which is why on day 1 of this PTR everyone is checking out the DH changes first. (Not true for everyone though - for example, Buleh already cleared GR60 on his barb.)
No, just the traditional Raekor build. As on live. Only difference is that there are Conduits everywhere. But anyways... this is a DH thread, let's keep it at DH talk ;-)
I wonder what "new" variations, besides the build changes, will come up for the DH. Besides the obvious Kridershot choice, maybe there are other weapons or other items that allow for new interesting synergies? Since you don't need Taskers anymore, I also wonder which other item could be used to combine with M6... or maybe even go full M6 and Restraint+Focus set?
While definitely not new, the other good decent approach to the new M6 is using chakram with Spines of seething hatred. Got to lvl35 solo hardcore (my limit on live is 27); my damage is enough to go another 5-10 levels higher, but the toughness is an issue...
I've thought about the Spines quiver as well, problem is that with the new mechanic of sentries it's even better to have more charges/sentries which makes Bombardier so absolutely insanely overpowered and a must-have... hard to see any other quiver coming close to that. Unless a new Meticulous Bolts shows up ;-) It needs to be something that buffs damage by ~30% or so, which I have a hard time seeing any quiver achieve by now. But would be glad to be proven wrong
If it doesn't let you store additional charges - never found one, so couldn't test - then there is little to no difference unless fighting bosses: everything dies before you can bring out fourth sentry. Or do sentries with no enemies in their range still count (they are kinda "inactive")?
Just saying this: i'ts much easier to start with huge numbers and slowly birnging them down to normal than to raise the bar a little up every time.
Numbers are now mostly for testing how the playstyle turns out to be. Expect a very huge nerf to the set on future PTR iterations that's meant to check how much the damage has impact on the bonus and the DH playstyle, then numbers will be brought on libe with other classes.
As Blizz has said multiple times, the level of M6 DH and dot WD is what they intend to bring up to the other classes. The changes to Mara6 are intented to change the playstyle, not to nerf the class.
i second what the ts said... m6 is insanely buffed now. the burst dmg is so sick. i easily reach GR 40 solo no unity without much effort. and with the new season's bow, dh is gonna dominate leaderboards more than ever i think. in comparison, monk's swk felt so nerfed! i failed to clear GR30 with my monk now when previously i cld do GR33-34 solo wo unity. obviously im gonna have to switch out my gifted flying dragon... eff it.
As soon as I read the patch notes about all the changes to Discipline regeneration and the changes to Smoke Screen, I realized Blizzard was nerfing permanent Smoke Screen (or near permanent). I can't wait to hop onto the PTR and test my M6 though and see if Ball Lightning + 5 Sentries is still good
Lightning/Meticulous Bolts build was a little overpowered, let's be honest here... It was. It was also extremely heavy for the servers and was creating many lag/desync issues... Now, that build has been nerfed heavily but, it's far from being a nerf to DH's...... In it's current state, I would say that DH have been boosted by a very, VERY HUGE margin... Expect more nerfs coming, cause right now, it's retarded. Let me explain...
I have a zDPS monk and my DH partner (my cousin) wanted to try out the PTR. On live servers, we almost completed a GRift 44, missing the mark by roughly 10-12 seconds (and that's the highest we've ever reached). We loaded the PTR and went straight to the trials. My monk still had the same build but my cousin went back to the Fire build that was the previous FOTM (flavor of the moment) with the updated Marauder 6pc and a sub-par Kridershot and Bomb sack for 5 Sentries. His build was essentially the following:
Actives
Elemental Arrow - Immolation
Sentry - Spitfire
Cluster Arrow - Loaded for Bear
Smioke Screen - Lingering Fog
Marked for Death - Contagion
and the obvious Companions...
Passives
Steady Aim
Cull of the Weak
Custom Engineering
Awareness
With this build (and the help of my zDPS monk), Elemental Arrows were landing for 90-115 millions, Cluster Arrows for as high as 700 millions... He was 1 shotting (literally... 1 cluster arrow) some elite packs in T6 rifts... On our first try, we were easily able to clear a Greater Rift 50. Yup.
OP AS F***
Try it on the PTR, while it lasts... I highly doubt this goes live as is!
Sentry - Spitfire still good since your not running ballistics anymore? Maybe run Polar station to proc Cull the Weak
I just tried 3 builds, cold, fire, lightning, all with kridershot and bombardier,
I can confirm that also elemental arrow gets 40% dmg per sentry. it says ingame on set, generators and spenders get buff
For cold I used maelstrom+ballistic, I saw up to 270 mil crits, for fire I used loaded for bear, up to 220 mil crits but much harder to play solo since no cc, for lightning I used dazzling arrow and stun elemental arrow and it was great cc but crits up to 190 mil
Also I noticed that sentries shot their regular bullets and if I shoot spender, sentry shoots both
I did not play much, ping too high to play, I tried 3 trials and I easily got 41, I did not finish because it was too hard for ping and I died too much and this respawn is idiotic, I get into map, I get 2 insane elites, I die easily and I can not revive at checkpoint instead I get +5 sec for each death up to 30 sec, so I die 6 times and I need to wait 30 sec !!!
I do not think this setup is going to get nerfed because since you must be moving much sentries and you will not shoot too much so you need so big crits to compare solo with other classes. But real power for DH lies in party with some tank. I personally hated grifts so I did not play much, I did not go solo over gr38 but but those 3 41 grifts I would finish easily if I had nerves and ping would be better, elites are going down fast
All in all, I like the change, I did get a little rusty for DH since my favorite now is charge barb but I think me and my first love DH are gonna spend some good time together once 2.1.2 gets live
Personally I'm pretty excited, because the purely passive sentry build always kind of bores me, which is why I use Kridershot half the time even if it isn't currently "optimal". These changes are very similar to some ideas I had a while back that I hope should open up some more build diversity (especially since hatred regen actually will be a DPS boost again...).
Sentries will no longer receive the 100% damage, only the player, nerfed already.
I am not sure if it will be a nerf, cause our shooting was 200% with 5 sentries and that takes some time to plant and I was having problems planting 5 sentries and actually having them all shoot at mobs even on gr42 and I sure did shoot at mobs, so now I will be more than double stronger and sentries will be double weaker so hmm, not sure it is a nerf but hell, we need to test but my bear was doing around 250mil, now it will do 600mil ? hugh
Sentries will no longer receive the 100% damage, only the player, nerfed already.
Sort of. But we now receive a 500% buff (up from 200%) when we have 5 sentries out. So our sentries lose the 100%, halving their damage but we gain an additional 300% ourselves. Overall its a slight nerf but its the right thing to do.
I have a zDPS monk and my DH partner (my cousin) wanted to try out the PTR. On live servers, we almost completed a GRift 44, missing the mark by roughly 10-12 seconds (and that's the highest we've ever reached). We loaded the PTR and went straight to the trials. My monk still had the same build but my cousin went back to the Fire build that was the previous FOTM (flavor of the moment) with the updated Marauder 6pc and a sub-par Kridershot and Bomb sack for 5 Sentries. His build was essentially the following:
Actives
Elemental Arrow - Immolation
Sentry - Spitfire
Cluster Arrow - Loaded for Bear
Smioke Screen - Lingering Fog
Marked for Death - Contagion
and the obvious Companions...
Passives
Steady Aim
Cull of the Weak
Custom Engineering
Awareness
With this build (and the help of my zDPS monk), Elemental Arrows were landing for 90-115 millions, Cluster Arrows for as high as 700 millions... He was 1 shotting (literally... 1 cluster arrow) some elite packs in T6 rifts... On our first try, we were easily able to clear a Greater Rift 50. Yup.
OP AS F***
Try it on the PTR, while it lasts... I highly doubt this goes live as is!
@Heledar: DH was overpowered as hell from day 1 on last PTR. In the weeks of testing to follow, Blizzard went on to "fix" DH and increased the gap, and we all know it went live. I can see this going live... Blizzard seems to have given up on releasing a patch in total balance, but want players to find out other ways to restore balance (the barb just came up very late in this patch). Maybe there's something to be found in other classes as well - we'll see as soon as people on PTR have found the new sets and familiarized with the new playstyles. Of course, everyone has perfect DH gear after a season of "play DH or forfeit" which is why on day 1 of this PTR everyone is checking out the DH changes first. (Not true for everyone though - for example, Buleh already cleared GR60 on his barb.)
I love it
I wonder what "new" variations, besides the build changes, will come up for the DH. Besides the obvious Kridershot choice, maybe there are other weapons or other items that allow for new interesting synergies? Since you don't need Taskers anymore, I also wonder which other item could be used to combine with M6... or maybe even go full M6 and Restraint+Focus set?
Numbers are now mostly for testing how the playstyle turns out to be. Expect a very huge nerf to the set on future PTR iterations that's meant to check how much the damage has impact on the bonus and the DH playstyle, then numbers will be brought on libe with other classes.
As Blizz has said multiple times, the level of M6 DH and dot WD is what they intend to bring up to the other classes. The changes to Mara6 are intented to change the playstyle, not to nerf the class.
so... maybe m6 will get real nerfing soon.
I can confirm that also elemental arrow gets 40% dmg per sentry. it says ingame on set, generators and spenders get buff
For cold I used maelstrom+ballistic, I saw up to 270 mil crits, for fire I used loaded for bear, up to 220 mil crits but much harder to play solo since no cc, for lightning I used dazzling arrow and stun elemental arrow and it was great cc but crits up to 190 mil
Also I noticed that sentries shot their regular bullets and if I shoot spender, sentry shoots both
I did not play much, ping too high to play, I tried 3 trials and I easily got 41, I did not finish because it was too hard for ping and I died too much and this respawn is idiotic, I get into map, I get 2 insane elites, I die easily and I can not revive at checkpoint instead I get +5 sec for each death up to 30 sec, so I die 6 times and I need to wait 30 sec !!!
I do not think this setup is going to get nerfed because since you must be moving much sentries and you will not shoot too much so you need so big crits to compare solo with other classes. But real power for DH lies in party with some tank. I personally hated grifts so I did not play much, I did not go solo over gr38 but but those 3 41 grifts I would finish easily if I had nerves and ping would be better, elites are going down fast
All in all, I like the change, I did get a little rusty for DH since my favorite now is charge barb but I think me and my first love DH are gonna spend some good time together once 2.1.2 gets live
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/iGGi-2191/hero/87768679
would it be fair if they interchanged them wherein the two piece gives you the pet family?
Companion calls all companions to your side.
Sentries cast your Hatred spender when you do.
Your generators, Elemental Arrow, Chakram, Impale, Multishot, and Cluster Arrow deal 100% increased damage for every active Sentry.
I am not sure if it will be a nerf, cause our shooting was 200% with 5 sentries and that takes some time to plant and I was having problems planting 5 sentries and actually having them all shoot at mobs even on gr42 and I sure did shoot at mobs, so now I will be more than double stronger and sentries will be double weaker so hmm, not sure it is a nerf but hell, we need to test but my bear was doing around 250mil, now it will do 600mil ? hugh
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/iGGi-2191/hero/87768679