Do you like shooting demons, spiders, worms, half-bodied zombies and pigmies that do nothing but mind their own business? Do you know that with Patch 1.0.4. there are even more hurtful ways to do it?
Below are our first impressions on how Demon Hunters play out after the new patch.
Below are our first impressions on how Demon Hunters play out after the new patch.
"In fact, the only change that saves this part of the patch from total disaster is the damage buff to Bola Shot and its runes, going up to 260% from 210%. "
"Sexy ladies and stylish gentlemen of the brotherhood of hunters, meet Rain of Vengeance – your old forgotten friend that did a tickle of a damage until it got revamped, receiving the biggest DPS boost in the history of Diablo 3 patches."
Multishot's crits are taking care of these thrash mobs effortlessly
That moment when Vault's white damage is higher than Multishot's criticals
I used to be a tankventurer like you…
…but then I took a nerf arrow to every single skill I used so I had to sell all my gear and switch to ranged or roll a Monk alt.
There are no illusions that people will be pissed about the tank Demon Hunters being scratched off the list of viable builds just as there are no illusions that the build were in its core broken, despite its different and alternatively fun nature. With four separate LoH generators fueled by both Hatred and Discipline, tank Hunters were just a tad away from the state of unquestionable immortality intrinsic to Act I Barbarians.
The “Where did the DH's get stabbed and how much did it hurt” tour starts at Caltrops — once the skill with the highest LoH coefficiency in the build - and its newly found inability to return life. As if that was not a mean enough punch, the Grenades’ LoH was also nerfed to 16,5% down from 50% and the one of the Shuriken Cloud rune is at 12,5% down from 33% (not that anyone cared at that point). As the only source of life return left was Shadow Power (which was never used for healing in the first place), Demon Hunters were ultimately forced to stray away from the path of the tank for good, those high-armor Dex/Vit shields now a thing of the past.
Good that there’s always a twist in the end, as we’ll see a little far down the road, tank Hunters are anything but gone.
On Hatred and how to fuel it
With the coming of patch 1.0.4., Demon Hunters were awaiting, among other things, a fix on their hatred generators and a break of the stagnation imposed by the unmatched power of Hungering Arrow. After days of testing one could say that a diversification effect is in place, albeit not to the extent that Demon Hunters wanted.
To get the minor things out of the way: the DPS buff on Entangling Shot just won’t do it and after 50+ hours of 1.0.4. public games playtime I am yet to encounter a DH that uses it. Furthermore, with tank Demon Hunters out of the picture, Grenades joins ES in the company of generators that no one will use thanks to its melee nature and the relative inaccuracy of aiming. If we draw the line here and now, it’ll look like the variety in hatred generators has been cut down instead of improved.
In fact, the only change that saves this part of the patch from total disaster is the damage buff to Bola Shot and its runes, going up to 260% from 210%. Acid Strike was promptly hired as replacement for Puncturing Arrow in my build and I found it strong in both solo and group play, especially against elite packs. The three bola shots at once guarantee that every second every mob in the pack will be taking 260% weapon damage, a value slightly higher than the average percentages for Hungering Arrow, which are usually between 230% and 240%. It becomes inferior for single target DPS-in, however, and this is what will keep the question of choice alive.
Overall, there lingers the strong doubt that the majority of the player will reconsider the use of Hungering Arrow. It deals damage without delay, it’s amazing against single targets and unlike Bola Shot it never misses. In all honesty, the work done in the hatred generation department accomplished little to nothing.
From useless to broken: Spending resources with the new tools
Sexy ladies and stylish gentlemen of the brotherhood of hunters, meet Rain of Vengeance – your old forgotten friend that did a tickle of a damage until it got revamped, receiving the biggest DPS boost in the history of Diablo 3 patches. Everything about RoV is ridiculously buffed, peaking at the Dark Cloud rune, whose damage has been increased more than 23 times! Even with the increased damage on Caltrops – previously a personal favorite of mine – I was forced to drop it for Dark Cloud and its 792% of auto-aimed DPS that is dished out regardless of kiting, shooting, juking or simply running for your life.
The buffs continue pouring like a summer rain as we go on to Multishot and its reduced hatred cost from 40 to 30, giving a 33% DPS increase per one full Hatred exhaustion. Those who’ve grown tired of Cluster Bombs or Elemental Arrow should try it with the Fire at Will, Full Broadside or Arsenal (plus Ballistics passive) runes and see how well it’ll go.
Yet nothing thus far – nothing! – beats the ludicrousness called Trail of Cinders, a skill as broken on paper as it is in-game. Previously a rune overlooked in favor of Tumble, ToC has now evolved into the “over time” skill with the highest dps in the entire game with 1500% weapon damage over three seconds, beating Barbarians’ Earthquake twice when comparing “damage per 1 second”. It remains without cooldown too, meaning that it’s very likely a defensive skill is to become hunters’ most used and most effective offensive ability and the one that can sway the tanking hunter concept from one OP state towards another.
Turns out we can hold on to those tank items after all and start bowling in and out of packs, doing record breaking damage for the cost of 6 Discipline. Enjoy it till it lasts.
Patch 1.0.4. skill builds
This is the build I personally used and even with mediocre gear I had a smooth run through Act III and most of Act IV, running with 34K dps, 3000 armor and ~500 All Resist. I tried interchanging Multishot with the buffed up Chakrams but dropped it as its attack animations makes it way harder to accurately target moving targets and because of Multishot's wider spread. Night Stalker can be dropped in favor of Sharpshooter and Dark Cloud can be swapped to Stampede.
You can check out the video above for some in-game footage of the build but it is no rocket science. Roll in and out of mobs and let Trail of Cinders do its 1500% magic. Don all that tanky Dex/Vitality gear we foolishly condemned as useless at the start of this feature so you don't die.
…but then I took a nerf arrow to every single skill I used so I had to sell all my gear and switch to ranged or roll a Monk alt.
There are no illusions that people will be pissed about the tank Demon Hunters being scratched off the list of viable builds just as there are no illusions that the build were in its core broken, despite its different and alternatively fun nature. With four separate LoH generators fueled by both Hatred and Discipline, tank Hunters were just a tad away from the state of unquestionable immortality intrinsic to Act I Barbarians.
The “Where did the DH's get stabbed and how much did it hurt” tour starts at Caltrops — once the skill with the highest LoH coefficiency in the build - and its newly found inability to return life. As if that was not a mean enough punch, the Grenades’ LoH was also nerfed to 16,5% down from 50% and the one of the Shuriken Cloud rune is at 12,5% down from 33% (not that anyone cared at that point). As the only source of life return left was Shadow Power (which was never used for healing in the first place), Demon Hunters were ultimately forced to stray away from the path of the tank for good, those high-armor Dex/Vit shields now a thing of the past.
Good that there’s always a twist in the end, as we’ll see a little far down the road, tank Hunters are anything but gone.
On Hatred and how to fuel it
With the coming of patch 1.0.4., Demon Hunters were awaiting, among other things, a fix on their hatred generators and a break of the stagnation imposed by the unmatched power of Hungering Arrow. After days of testing one could say that a diversification effect is in place, albeit not to the extent that Demon Hunters wanted.
To get the minor things out of the way: the DPS buff on Entangling Shot just won’t do it and after 50+ hours of 1.0.4. public games playtime I am yet to encounter a DH that uses it. Furthermore, with tank Demon Hunters out of the picture, Grenades joins ES in the company of generators that no one will use thanks to its melee nature and the relative inaccuracy of aiming. If we draw the line here and now, it’ll look like the variety in hatred generators has been cut down instead of improved.
In fact, the only change that saves this part of the patch from total disaster is the damage buff to Bola Shot and its runes, going up to 260% from 210%. Acid Strike was promptly hired as replacement for Puncturing Arrow in my build and I found it strong in both solo and group play, especially against elite packs. The three bola shots at once guarantee that every second every mob in the pack will be taking 260% weapon damage, a value slightly higher than the average percentages for Hungering Arrow, which are usually between 230% and 240%. It becomes inferior for single target DPS-in, however, and this is what will keep the question of choice alive.
Overall, there lingers the strong doubt that the majority of the player will reconsider the use of Hungering Arrow. It deals damage without delay, it’s amazing against single targets and unlike Bola Shot it never misses. In all honesty, the work done in the hatred generation department accomplished little to nothing.
From useless to broken: Spending resources with the new tools
Sexy ladies and stylish gentlemen of the brotherhood of hunters, meet Rain of Vengeance – your old forgotten friend that did a tickle of a damage until it got revamped, receiving the biggest DPS boost in the history of Diablo 3 patches. Everything about RoV is ridiculously buffed, peaking at the Dark Cloud rune, whose damage has been increased more than 23 times! Even with the increased damage on Caltrops – previously a personal favorite of mine – I was forced to drop it for Dark Cloud and its 792% of auto-aimed DPS that is dished out regardless of kiting, shooting, juking or simply running for your life.
The buffs continue pouring like a summer rain as we go on to Multishot and its reduced hatred cost from 40 to 30, giving a 33% DPS increase per one full Hatred exhaustion. Those who’ve grown tired of Cluster Bombs or Elemental Arrow should try it with the Fire at Will, Full Broadside or Arsenal (plus Ballistics passive) runes and see how well it’ll go.
Yet nothing thus far – nothing! – beats the ludicrousness called Trail of Cinders, a skill as broken on paper as it is in-game. Previously a rune overlooked in favor of Tumble, ToC has now evolved into the “over time” skill with the highest dps in the entire game with 1500% weapon damage over three seconds, beating Barbarians’ Earthquake twice when comparing “damage per 1 second”. It remains without cooldown too, meaning that it’s very likely a defensive skill is to become hunters’ most used and most effective offensive ability and the one that can sway the tanking hunter concept from one OP state towards another.
Turns out we can hold on to those tank items after all and start bowling in and out of packs, doing record breaking damage for the cost of 6 Discipline. Enjoy it till it lasts.
Patch 1.0.4. skill builds
This is the build I personally used and even with mediocre gear I had a smooth run through Act III and most of Act IV, running with 34K dps, 3000 armor and ~500 All Resist. I tried interchanging Multishot with the buffed up Chakrams but dropped it as its attack animations makes it way harder to accurately target moving targets and because of Multishot's wider spread. Night Stalker can be dropped in favor of Sharpshooter and Dark Cloud can be swapped to Stampede.
You can check out the video above for some in-game footage of the build but it is no rocket science. Roll in and out of mobs and let Trail of Cinders do its 1500% magic. Don all that tanky Dex/Vitality gear we foolishly condemned as useless at the start of this feature so you don't die.
