But this is exactly what I'm saying. If you're not spending all your Disc on Shadow Power - say because you're using the Smoke Screen rune that gives 10% of your maximum life back over 1 second on activation - then interrupting your channel to Vault isn't as bad, because it doesn't mean "wasting" the Shadow Power snapshot. People might even try non-channeled hatred spenders, instead of the main choice being which RF rune, or maybe Emberstrafe or Stinging Steel. Furthermore, DHes are getting almost across-the-board buffs to their hatred spenders, lowering cost and raising damage. They're even making Echoing Blast baseline on Spike Trap (at the cost of some damage, but Scatter is scary DPS now). They're putting more "cannon" into DH's, and toning back some of their sustain options, so there are choices that aren't "facetank everything". And if you're in the mood to facetank, the new Brooding is kind of great for RF builds, giving you very strong life regen while stationary.Quote from FlutterKree
Quote from OtterSeaborne
... you do have Smoke Screen and Vault, you know. You can Vault clear of TPs, vortex, frozen, and SS out of Jailer and Knockback's slow. No other class has such good CC breaking on low-to-no cooldowns. Yes, it costs Disc - but with Gloom and Punishment nerfed out of "mandatory", you might try spending your disc there, not relying on snapshots and actually using Hatred builders. You'll even have a big burst heal rune for SS.
It is still the core problem with the DH. SS and vault are okay but they are useless if thats all your doing in a fight. many a time i have vaulted away just to get sucked back in and killed. And if you have to use both in a build, that means something is wrong and it would also make it to where all you are doing is Vaulting or SS'ing half the time, slowing down the clear time to agonizingly slow times.
I used to use Vault but i have taken a liking to using caltrops in my Strafe build for the extra 10% crit chance. The vault was actually hurting my build. when i actually used it to get away id lose the charge up on strafe and would not have enough disc to use shadow power. I like my build but these changes would ruin it.
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DH is the only class without inherit defense in the stats or damage reduction. Yeah they should take less damage as they are so posed to be farther away from the fights, but that's never the case is it? If you are soloing mp10 will you always be far away from the mobs? Yeah vault and SS make it so you an escape but they just drain your disc for other things and making your fighting time less.
the way i see it, LS/gloom/perfectionist are all ways put in to make the defenses of the DH a tad bit better. removing LS removes the DH's defense slightly. Now if you want to Vault and SS around all day running from monsters kiting and taking a hour+ to do fields, then go do so.
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I dont see the Punishment change as a nerf, more of a balance, and i honestly didnt really use gloom until lately, ive done fine without it, instead ive used night bane for longer Strafes. but then again ive never gone out of mp4/5 (mostly due to im poor)
I'm not meaning you run from everything. But if TPs, vortexes, jailer or frozen is troubling you the way your post suggested, the DH has the best tools bar Thrive on Chaos right now to deal with those, and the patch is planning to make them better. Strafe builds, like non-permazerk Whirlwind builds, Tempest Rush or Dashing Strike monks, or Furious Charge spam builds, are naturally vulnerable to Jailer because they rely on a movement ability. It's the price you pay to get DPS while moving. Thrive on Chaos just let you ignore this price, so everyone got used to that as "reasonable". It isn't, permazerk is going away, and DH's can still break every jailer with one ability while monks, WD's, barbarians and wizards all have 16-second cooldowns at best on their snare breaks.
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I'm not meaning you run from everything. But if TPs, vortexes, jailer or frozen is troubling you the way your post suggested, the DH has the best tools bar Thrive on Chaos right now to deal with those, and the patch is planning to make them better. Strafe builds, like non-permazerk Whirlwind builds, Tempest Rush or Dashing Strike monks, or Furious Charge spam builds, are naturally vulnerable to Jailer because they rely on a movement ability. It's the price you pay to get DPS while moving. Thrive on Chaos just let you ignore this price, so everyone got used to that as "reasonable". It isn't, permazerk is going away, and DH's can still break every jailer with one ability while monks, WD's, barbarians and wizards all have 16-second cooldowns at best on their snare breaks.
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They're even reducing the AP cost of Energy Twister, so I'd say CM is off their radar, and the nerf/replacement didn't make this build. One idea of mine had been CM giving a 1 second buff that increased cooldown speeds by 100% - maths out exactly the same unless it refreshes inside 1 second, in which case it's still good (halves all cooldowns) but not permafreeze good. I mean, if you've got Black Hole, Pulsar and Cold Snap, you'd have a pretty good lock, but that's a lot more commitment than many current CM builds.
Overall, it just feels good. The grammar changes are nice, there's a bit more of a reason to use certain elements, or combinations of elements, and wizards get more good choices of elemental spells. Barbarians look like Relentless is getting turned into a revival passive, and Seismic Slam having a reliable stun is amazing. New Whirlwind - Hurricane has the potential to be a massive farming tool, using Cleave - Reaping Swing and Battle Cry - Bloodshed to kill most of them, Sprint - Run like the Wind to make sure the stragglers die while getting you to the next pack, then gather with Whirlwind.
And Witch Doctors do have a couple of changes. One rune of Spirit Barrage now has a 2 second Charm attached, and one rune of Firebats removes the mana cost entirely. Pretty major, really.
Oh, and the 140% movement slow on Ray of Frost - Numb is probably not accurate. Unless it makes them move backwards. Which would be awesome, but kind of impractical.
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As far as getting rid of the 14% fire damage, you could try to find an Andy's with lower fire damage taken, but you could just as easily snap up a Storm Crow with high Lightning Damage and Crit Chance, or even a Vitality Mempo of Twilight. A lot of people think a Mempo with no crit is next to useless, but a good Vit or Int/Vit roll makes it an enormous EHP piece.
Finally, if there's issues with EHP, don't run Glass Cannon. I'd say look at getting a Buriza-Do Kyanon for your Scoundrel and running Cold Blooded if you need more damage, Temporal Flux if you have issues getting swarmed, and Galvanic Ward if you can't find somewhere good to drop Archon and rebuild it every 2 minutes.
Don't worry too much about the specific kind of weapon. Just find a one-hander with high lifesteal and everything else okay. It'll be a DPS loss from the EF, but between no fear proc and the extra lifesteal, it'll speed up your runs on numerous fronts.
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Though seriously, a cone attack that shoved everything in it towards the centre line would be sweet. Seismic Slam rune? Stone Vise, say? And then you could use Ancient Spear - Harpoon with No Escape, or Furious Charge, for the line attack.
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I wish Mirror Images was better. I'd like to see them get aggro more reliably, and cast a wider range of abilities - this is critical with Mirror Mimics, because even though it looks comparable with Slow Time/Time Stretch (defensive cooldown with DPS buff, affected by Illusionist, and the worse of the two DPS runes), it often isn't because the mimics don't cast your actually damaging spells. I tried it with Sleet Storm one time, and my mimics would literally walk up and autoattack because I didn't have an Image-friendly spell. I loved the utility of breaking freezes, Illusionist resets, and the potential for a little DPS, but I just wish Mirror Mimics would actually cast AP spenders like Sleet Storm.
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