Support NeoGAF

[Dahbomb]

It's not just the Marauder build, it's the same for the Cluster arrow build as well (that most DH start with). DPS doesn't matter as much as the base damage of the weapon itself. For Marauder attack speed is a bit more important to reach certain break points but not from the weapon itself.

I honestly should get on that too (craft an Arcane Barb) but I am always low on Blues and I am trying to craft some good Reaper Wraps for my new Wizard.


In other news I was telling a buddy of mine about the possibility of a specific Monk build (my personal theory craft) and someone actually turned theory into reality:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHCht9adVx4

This guy is #1 on the Leaderboards with this build. Note that this build is actually not that easy to make because you need specific items in the specific spots (Mad Stone, Flow of Eternity, 3 Sunwoko pieces with one of them being the Amulet which is really hard to attain) in addition to stacking lots of Cooldown. The result is that you get to dish out a lot of damage and have very good survivability.

TLR version of this build:

Mad Stone applies Exploding Palm upon use of Seven Sided Strike (each hit applies an EP so you can get 7 EPs on 7 enemies at max). It applies the EP rune that you have equipped and most people will use the Impending Doom version because it does the highest raw damage.

Flow of Eternity lowers cooldown of SSS and is a 2H which is buffed in 2.1 along with getting buffed from Sunwoko (so raw damage is high).

Sunwoko gives bonus to 2H weapons and holy damage through creation of clones that hit for 1600% damage every time you spend 75 spirit. With the Mad Stone combo every time you use SSS... because you are also applying up to 7 Exploding Palm they also count towards the generation of those Clones. Each Exploding Palm costs 40 spirit so 40 x 7 is 280/75 is almost 4 and becomes 4 when you include the cost of the SSS itself (and the occasional MoC spam).

Note that using SSS and applying EP does not actually use up 300+ Spirit which is what makes this build so godlike!!!!


Other caveats to this build: Because this guy also has a lot of Spirit regen through having Epiphany almost all the time and through gear, he has comboed it with the gem that gives you +% damage every time you spend resource. He just spams Mantra of Conviction until he gets the maximum possible stacks for the highest possible damage.

Build in action on GR 32.

 

[ZenaxPure]

Somewhere out there on gaf Wallach is really happy and he doesn't know why. Feels like just yesterday everyone was telling him how dumb he was for hating on Kridershot and now we've come full circle. Never understood the love for it myself, got a fairly decent one and went to use it and saw an immediate noticeable damage loss compared to my decent hellrack so I chucked it into the stash never to be seen again.

 

[Dahbomb]

I was never a big fan of Kridershot either. I would much rather have Calamity over it (which I have now).

It's just one of those ultra rare Legendaries that people think.they want because its ultra rare. I would like to have it for my collection but not for usage.

 

[MrDaravon]

Kridershot was the thing to have when 2.0 hit and especially before RoS rolled out, since the Sentry build didn't exist yet and the CA builds of today weren't fully developed and free Frost Arrow was pretty baller + great crowd control when you didn't have CA available. I got that one like week 1 or so, I've only have kept using it because I've never found a weapon with higher DPS and when I switched over to Sentries later once I got a Mara set I obviously didn't realize the damage range on the weapon was all that mattered.

 

[Sarcasm]

I am so lonely doing everything solo =(

 

[ZenaxPure]

since the Sentry build didn't exist yet.

Well, not the current one anyway. RIP 100% crit Sentry/Pet build, I still miss you.

Though, I find the current marauder build more interesting mechanically than the 100% crit one anyway so I don't care that much.

 

[MrDaravon]

I am so lonely doing everything solo =(

There were several hours yesterday morning/early afternoon where I was the only person in the clan online, not like the clan is exactly hopping either lol.

 

[Sarcasm]

There were several hours yesterday morning/early afternoon where I was the only person in the clan online, not like the clan is exactly hopping either lol.

I am not even in the clan heh

 

[Xanathus]

I really really want to get back in and play this but it feels so pointless when you know ladder is coming. Just wish they'd get it done faster (but as bug/exploit free as possible).

 

[Dahbomb]

]Well, not the current one anyway. RIP 100% crit Sentry/Pet build, I still miss you.[/B]

Though, I find the current marauder build more interesting mechanically than the 100% crit one anyway so I don't care that much.

That's coming back in a way with the gem that gives your pets an insane amount of extra crit chance.

 

[ZenaxPure]

That's coming back in a way with the gem that gives your pets an insane amount of extra crit chance.

Yeah I know, but they nerfed it from 100% crit chance at max rank. It'll still be really good but not to the point where you don't want crit chance on any gear at all. I actually thought just from a gearing perspective not having to worry about crit chance was interesting... Dunno why Blizz has such a hardon for everyone always wanting crit/chd all the time always.

 

[MrDaravon]

It wouldn't have been ideal, but I think they should have just pushed out the first Season and then rolled out 2.1 with the second Season, just to have given people a reason to play the last couple of months. I think that a lot of casuals who enjoyed the game and would maybe have stayed on for the first season are way too long gone now. More hardcore people will come back, but I think they've lost a chunk of potential continuing audience.

 

[ZenaxPure]

Yeah I really have to agree. I didn't mind so much at first, but it's just taking too long for 2.1 to come out. Especially now because the scope of 2.1 seems so large, it's reminding me of 2.0 just in the sheer number of class changes and legendary item changes being made (and a lot the legs they aren't changing are going to not roll shitty stats at least).

They are putting more effort into fixing old legendaries then making seasonal ones right now. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that's particularly a bad thing (because a lot of the old legs suck and need to be fixed before making new ones), but I really wish they would have made a few new ones, pushed out a season, and then made the now 2.1, 2.2 instead.

 

[Dahbomb]

Yeah I know, but they nerfed it from 100% crit chance at max rank. It'll still be really good but not to the point where you don't want crit chance on any gear at all. I actually thought just from a gearing perspective not having to worry about crit chance was interesting... Dunno why Blizz has such a hardon for everyone always wanting crit/chd all the time always.

Yeah the max upgrade is 40% now but still that would mean you only really need 20% from gear to have very good crit chance for your pets (60%). So you can in fact still some what get away with not having a lot of CC on gear.

And yeah while its admirable that they are fixing old Legendaries... they should include more Legendaries in the Seasons as well. Right now every class only has one new Legendary to look forward to.

 

[ZenaxPure]

And yeah while its admirable that they are fixing old Legendaries... they should include more Legendaries in the Seasons as well. Right now every class only has one new Legendary to look forward to.

At this point I'd just settle for the one they do add per class actually being useful. Fucking Barbarian one has a cap of 3 ancients and they each do about 180% weapon damage, don't get the rune of your summon ancients, and they don't spawn anywhere near enemies so they have to run before they even start attacking. Basically worthless since it doesn't do for hota what stuff like woh and smk do for their abilities.

Kind of a shame too considering I think it's a more creative approach to make the skill useful then just simply 3x the damage. Hopefully it sees a revision.

 

[CRA5H]

I decided to work on my DH and its running danettas. These are pretty beastly but I don't see many people using them and rather use a 2H/quiver combo. Besides the obvious procs for some quivers and 2H, it seems like you get a heck of a lot more DPs out of dual crossbows. Am I missing something here? For context, I'm running a 4 set Mara ATM.

 

[ZenaxPure]

I decided to work on my DH and its running danettas. These are pretty beastly but I don't see many people using them and rather use a 2H/quiver combo. Besides the obvious procs for some quivers and 2H, it seems like you get a heck of a lot more DPs out of dual crossbows. Am I missing something here? For context, I'm running a 4 set Mara ATM.

Well, like we were talking about a few posts ago the damage range is what actually effects the damage you will do with a weapon. The DPS number on a weapon is a bit of a deceiver as it's effected by the attack speed of said weapon. That's why if you reroll a stat on a weapon to attack speed you will see the DPS go up, but your attacks will do the same exact damage per hit (or less damage if the stat you rerolled away was something like Dex). Basically 2h weapons just have a higher raw damage value than 1h weapons. Normally, though, 2h can't compete with dual wielding (because of 2x green gems), but demon hunters can cheat because quivers offer you a bunch of extra stats while still being able to use your 2h weapon. This is why 2h melee weapons are being buffed in the patch, but, 2h bows/crossbows are staying the same.

But to answer your question in a very specific way: demon hunters are going for 2h/quiver because all of them are aiming for Marauder 6 piece as this is the only T6 build they have right now. Which means the reasoning is twofold really, a 2h weapon (specifically a crossbow) will cause the sentries to hit harder while still attacking at close to the same speed as other weapons (because sentries shooting hatred spenders are fucking weird and you can search the internet for the novels of text about how it works if you wish) and probably most importantly there is a quiver that allows you to place two extra sentries which is absolutely key to running the build. Each sentry deals more damage than you per hit (assuming you have +sentry damage) so having 2 extra sentries out is like having 2 more better versions of you.

 

[Ayumi]

Has it been officially stated that Hell Rift/Khazra Den/etc will be nerfed for XP in 2.1 (I couldn't see that when reading the patch notes), or is there a chance that it will actually happen with tomorrow's scheduled maintenance?

 

[MrDaravon]

Well, like we were talking about a few posts ago the damage range is what actually effects the damage you will do with a weapon. The DPS number on a weapon is a bit of a deceiver as it's effected by the attack speed of said weapon. That's why if you reroll a stat on a weapon to attack speed you will see the DPS go up, but your attacks will do the same exact damage per hit (or less damage if the stat you rerolled away was something like Dex). Basically 2h weapons just have a higher raw damage value than 1h weapons. Normally, though, 2h can't compete with dual wielding (because of 2x green gems), but demon hunters can cheat because quivers offer you a bunch of extra stats while still being able to use your 2h weapon. This is why 2h melee weapons are being buffed in the patch, but, 2h bows/crossbows are staying the same.

But to answer your question in a very specific way: demon hunters are going for 2h/quiver because all of them are aiming for Marauder 6 piece as this is the only T6 build they have right now. Which means the reasoning is twofold really, a 2h weapon (specifically a crossbow) will cause the sentries to hit harder while still attacking at close to the same speed as other weapons (because sentries shooting hatred spenders are fucking weird and you can search the internet for the novels of text about how it works if you wish) and probably most importantly there is a quiver that allows you to place two extra sentries which is absolutely key to running the build. Each sentry deals more damage than you per hit (assuming you have +sentry damage) so having 2 extra sentries out is like having 2 more better versions of you.

This. To provide a good specific example, I actually have a pretty good Danettas in my storage seen here:

Sentry damage is (at least right now) only effected by the base damage range on your weapon, in this case would be the 1272-2187 damage, and that's on a pretty well rolled Danettas near max. Now look at this well rolled Arcane Barb:

The base damage range blows the Danettas out of the water. A top tier roll on a Bow would probably beat out a mid-roll Xbow, but everything being equal Xbows will always have a higher max base damage range since their APS is lower, so their attacks hit harder individually, which is all that matters for turrets.

The sentry quiver is pretty much a requirement like Zenax said; you could maaaaybe get away without it if you rolled the Engineer passive to get 3 turrets that way, but that's iffy and also assumes that dual wielding would beat out a xbow + quiver, but it doesn't. Like Zenax mentioned there's a crazy amount of often slightly conflicting information online regarding how attack speed effects sentries, especially in 2.1. In 2.1 they're fixing how aps works in some way with sentries that's beneficial, but people who seem to have an idea of what's going are saying even with 2.1 1-handed xbows (dual wielded or not) still aren't going to be better than Xbows. Seems like most of the 2.1 BiS weapon arguments revolve around Arcane Barb/Chanon Bolter vs Buriza and/or Kridershot, with the latter two apparently being in contention now with the APS fix along with cold being the way to go for DH's in 2.1 and both of those bows have benefits in that area.

Danettas are still fantastic and usually the best option for trash farming, bounties, etc, but that's about it.

 

[ZenaxPure]

Has it been officially stated that Hell Rift/Khazra Den/etc will be nerfed for XP in 2.1 (I couldn't see that when reading the patch notes), or is there a chance that it will actually happen with tomorrow's scheduled maintenance?

It's in the patch notes. As for the maintenance tomorrow, I assume it's hearthstones fault as usual.

 

[CRA5H]

Thanks for the replies. I think sticking with danettas would be best until I get my full marauder set. Only at 3 with RRoG so waiting on the helm + chest to go with my trifrcta Taskers.

I really wish I was more informed about 2H/quivers a couple months ago or at least took more initiative to understand their potential because... I made the awful mistake of salvaging my Buriza I picked up while playing on my WD. At the time, I thought the danettas blew this out of the water because of the DPS and I was out of room in my stash... So I decided to salvage it. I really should be blaming Blizzard for not giving us more tabs so I didn't have to do that

 

[Celegus]

Are 2H crossbows/bows also getting that 25-30% damage increase for 2H weapons or are they exempt? Would be kind of silly to drastically improve the already better option.

 

[ZenaxPure]

Are 2H crossbows/bows also getting that 25-30% damage increase for 2H weapons or are they exempt? Would be kind of silly to drastically improve the already better option.

Nope, 2h bows/xbows are staying as they are now.

 

[JayHayabusa]

@MrDaravon @Dahbomb @ZenaxPure

Thx for all the interesting information on the differences between 2 handers and Xbows on a marauder build. Your discussion made me rethink my own build. Currently I am running the best Natalya I have, but your points make it that I'd be better off going with the Manticore I have instead. Do you agree?

[/URL][/IMG]

My current build

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/JayHayabusa-2672/hero/40811808

PS: If the pics are way off, this is my first time posting images here!

 

[Ricerocket]

Yes your manticore will shit over Natalyas right now. With archery bonus is also better on 2h xbow and crit isn't as big a deal on 2.1 with enforcer gem. Still, you can get higher dmg with rolling arcane barb if you need one asap.

I've played some DH on PTR to test the attack speed fix on Sentries and i've found it's still best to go 2h + Tasker and theo.

Currently I stick to 2 hatred spenders but on PTR, 3 hatred spenders will go off smoothly and much faster than Live. I have a chanon bolter but it's 2500ish dps and I don't see a need to use it in 2.1 since I've found COLD M6 + Cull the weak (20% dmg bonus on slowed) is extremely good.

 

[ZenaxPure]

Currently I stick to 2 hatred spenders but on PTR, 3 hatred spenders will go off smoothly and much faster than Live. I have a chanon bolter but it's 2500ish dps and I don't see a need to use it in 2.1 since I've found COLD M6 + Cull the weak (20% dmg bonus on slowed) is extremely good.

Did they actually fix cull the weak to effect sentries on the ptr? It really annoys the shit out of me that it doesn't do it on live as I really like the passive.

 

[garath]

@MrDaravon @Dahbomb @ZenaxPure

Thx for all the interesting information on the differences between 2 handers and Xbows on a maurauder build. Your discussion made me rethink my own build. Currently I am running the best Natalya I have, but your points make it that I'd be better off going with the Manticore I have instead. Do you agree?

[/URL][/IMG]

My current build

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/JayHayabusa-2672/hero/40811808

PS: If the pics are way off, this is my first time posting images here!

I see a lot of discussion about the 1h vs 2h for a maurader build on this page. In theory, yes the 2h with the smaller spread of damage should yield better DPS from the sentries. However, in practice, I don't think it's that cut and dry.

I've done a lot of testing with a manticore (2h xbow), well rolled Uskang (2h bow as seen on my profile) and a nat's slayer (1h xbow) with a variety of different passives and I've settled on using the 2h bow. Higher base damage than the nat's slayer but faster attack speed than the manticore.

Just using sentries I did run after run on Ghom and found very little difference between the manticore and Uskang in clear time. Half a second at best. Taking into account a faster attack speed means more hatred generation and more cluster arrows from ME during normal rift clears, I decided to keep using the bow instead of the xbow.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/garath-1132/hero/40752152

I tried the no hatred generation style of play and hated it. I like firing off my own damage on top of the sentries. It feels like a lot more DPS.

You're largely better equipped than I, you should do some testing to see what works best for you.

edit: Just an observation too, custom engineering with a bombadier's rucksack is kind of overkill. I'd replace custom engineering. Things die before sentries expire and I can't imagine you're getting all the sentries out on a regular basis.

 

[JayHayabusa]

Should I go with Steady Aim or Ballistics instead? Since my style of play is deploying sentries and hanging back Steady Aim might better serve me. Is Ballistics that important?

 

[Ricerocket]

Did they actually fix cull the weak to effect sentries on the ptr? It really annoys the shit out of me that it doesn't do it on live as I really like the passive.

Yeah, works now on 2.1, it's must have now heh.

It's so awesome on PTR. Sentries will spam the shit out of Frost Arrow to the point of shooting twice before CA/MS goes off and that's while Cluster Arrow + Multishot goes off so much faster than live.

 

[garath]

Should I go with Steady Aim or Ballistics instead? Since my style of play is deploying sentries and hanging back Steady Aim might better serve me. Is Ballistics that important?

Steady aim. It's pretty easy to keep the distance needed for the bonus. Ballistics is more valuable for my Physical build. Cluster arrow shoots rockets with shooting stars and gets the bonus from Ballistics.

 

[MrDaravon]

Yeah, I've never understood people using Custom Engineering UNLESS you haven't gotten the sentry quiver yet. Duration shouldn't really ever be an issue on the sentries. Ballistics I'm not a fan of either, but someone told me in 2.1 they made the 100% bonus a multiplier and not additive, in which case that seems much more viable.

Honestly I should just hop on the PTR and check this out, but I'm very interested in seeing how the Kridershot works with the new cold sentry build. Seen some people saying it's potentially BiS since you can work Frost Arrow in as the 3rd generator which is pretty great crowd control on top of the cold sentries. I'd imagine it's not as much pure dps as running with a 2h xbow and Impale as the 3rd spender, but seems maybe safer and/or good for groups along with being able to actually play lol.

Edit: Just hopped on PTR and oh my goooooooooooooooooooood. Cold DH sentry build is fucking goddamn ridiculous. I'm running Maras with Taskers, and I'm using a pretty good Kridershot and using Frost Arrow as my 3rd slot (replacing MfD) and Cull the Weak (replacing Awareness). It's so good. My cold ammy/SoJ/Death Wraps aren't as good as my fire ones so I'm taking a bit of a hit there, but this is still pretty OP. My individual sentry CA shots are only doing like half of what my ones on Live do with Fire, but they are popping off way more frequently, everything on the screen is slowed, and using the Krider I can actually contribute damage. 2 shots of Frost Arrow (which will usually hit most of the stuff on screen) make up the CA damage difference and I can do it constantly while generating hatred to fire my own CA blasts as well as making sure I have Hatred for when my Sentry becomes usable again.

I need to do some Ghom runs for testing, but if I could get my cold gear slots on par with my current fire ones (which are all very good) I think overall DPS wise it's probably going to be pretty close either way, but the cold build is way more survivable and is probably amazing for group play, and I think I can keep the Krider in there without too much of a pure DPS loss which would let me actually play and contribute damage. Plus Frost Arrow will usually hit way more enemies than a single CA shot will, combined with generating Hatred to fire more of your own CA shots. Fuck, in enemy groups it may be even better. Goddamn.

Edit 2: Made it to GR 31 on my first try doing GR's at all using this build, not bad. Still need to do some testing, but even if using a Kridershot over say a great Xbow is an overall 10-15% dps loss or something I think I might still do it anyway, being able to actually participate in battles now is rad. Plus in both group play as well as versus enemy groups I think it may come out on top. Only thing I don't like is having to give up MfD, but don't see any way around that unless I drop SS/Vault instead, and that's probably not happening.

For DH's, what 3 legendary gems are probably going to be the best? Enforcer (pet crit chance +%) is a given, but what else? Bane of the Powerful seems pretty solid, most of the other ones seem subjective in battle like the one where you do more damage the further you are away, or the one that does 50% of the damage taken over 3 seconds (which I think people are taking because SS nullifies the remainder if you pop it?).

Good times either way, cannot fucking wait for 2.1 now.

Edit 3 : Fucked up above and didn't take Ballistics. I swapped out Perfectionist for that and then switched my sentries from cold to spitfire and multishot from cold to fire and immediately made a huge difference, made it to GR 35 on my first go. Could have made it at least one more but I got the most ridiculously awful elite affix group and starting room location possible, died like 10 times in the first room. This also was without any leg gems, crazy.

 

[sgb]

Evening All!!

So i haven't played for about 5 months(since April)

Can somebody fill me in the cliff' version of what has changed/been added/is soon to come??

 

[ZenaxPure]

Can somebody fill me in the cliff' version of what has changed/been added/is soon to come??

Everything I guess. Including minor changes it's too much for one post. You should really just read through the various patch notes and then read the 2.1 notes. It can explain it better than anyone else really can.

 

[sgb]

Thanks!

 

[Prodigal]

Having not played D3 since a few months after release, I'm still trying to wrap my head around all the new additions. Having a good time though!

Also If any of y'all got the RoS phyiscal copy (preferably CE), hit me up if you wanna trade your hearthstone code for a $5 Steam game or something similar!

 

[MrDaravon]

Someone on Reddit found this, it's unrolled. Obligatory fuckeverything.jpg

 

[Pickman]

Someone on Reddit found this, it's unrolled. Obligatory fuckeverything.jpg

Not 750 int? What are these, [Gloves of the Casual]? Just salvage and keep paying Kadala.

 

[Ayumi]

Bleh.. I really hate it when people judge others based on how they choose to play a game. There are worse sounds and animations than Explosive Blast.

http://i.imgur.com/7tpfrQU.png

http://i.imgur.com/BsZqOLt.png

It sucks trying to have fun in the game and suddenly get attacked for having a super rare item. I don't even need to state the obvious here.

After insulting me, he tried to give me advice on what to wear.. I just said thanks for the rift invite, left, and blocked him. ._.

 

[Dahbomb]

The only thing that is obnoxious is the Darklight build in the live version which clutters up the screen and causes so much screen shaking that for some people it makes the game unplayable when there are 2 or more Crusaders using the build. Thankfully they fixed this in 2.1.


As far as DH goes.... there's no reason to be running anything other than a Marauder build. And by that I mean you are either running Physical Marauder or Fire Marauder. In 2.1 Cold Marauder will be extremely good so then you will have 3 Marauder options.

For Marauder build the +2 Sentry Quiver is essential. You can have up to 5 Sentries at one time.... and like said before each of those Sentry is hitting harder than you so if you have 5 of them up there is almost nothing in the game at T6 that can stand up to that. Even a shit Marauder 6 piece set is better than anything else in the game for the class.

I still don't fully understand the attack speed/internal cooldown of the Sentries. The general consensus is that you either use 2 or 3 Hatred spenders depending on your attack speed and break points... most people agree that 2 is the best spot. I would say that depending upon the performance of your Sentry, 3 might be slightly better because the way your Sentry might work is that it might shoot Cluster Arrow, then Arsenal and then a regular old Sentry shot which does low damage. If you replace it with Impale then that 3rd shot instead comes out as Impale which does considerably more damage. This does come at the cost of not having Mark of Death on your skill bar but if you have some other DH on your group then there is really no need for it.

And of course all this math is being turned on its head in 2.1 when they are making additional APS fixes on the Sentry. No idea how that is going to turn out as I haven't played around with that too much... all I know is that Marauder is still godly in 2.1, even more so in fact.

 

[Celegus]

Hopefully that wasn't someone in the GAF clan? No point in worrying about what some random person on the internet thinks, just block 'em and move on. I feel bad sometimes since I play a Firelight Crusader which I don't even like the visuals of, but that's all the game really gave me to work with so too bad!

 

[garath]

The only thing that is obnoxious is the Darklight build in the live version which clutters up the screen and causes so much screen shaking that for some people it makes the game unplayable when there are 2 or more Crusaders using the build. Thankfully they fixed this in 2.1.


As far as DH goes.... there's no reason to be running anything other than a Marauder build. And by that I mean you are either running Physical Marauder or Fire Marauder. In 2.1 Cold Marauder will be extremely good so then you will have 3 Marauder options.

For Marauder build the +2 Sentry Quiver is essential. You can have up to 5 Sentries at one time.... and like said before each of those Sentry is hitting harder than you so if you have 5 of them up there is almost nothing in the game at T6 that can stand up to that. Even a shit Marauder 6 piece set is better than anything else in the game for the class.

I still don't fully understand the attack speed/internal cooldown of the Sentries. The general consensus is that you either use 2 or 3 Hatred spenders depending on your attack speed and break points... most people agree that 2 is the best spot. I would say that depending upon the performance of your Sentry, 3 might be slightly better because the way your Sentry might work is that it might shoot Cluster Arrow, then Arsenal and then a regular old Sentry shot which does low damage. If you replace it with Impale then that 3rd shot instead comes out as Impale which does considerably more damage. This does come at the cost of not having Mark of Death on your skill bar but if you have some other DH on your group then there is really no need for it.

And of course all this math is being turned on its head in 2.1 when they are making additional APS fixes on the Sentry. No idea how that is going to turn out as I haven't played around with that too much... all I know is that Marauder is still godly in 2.1, even more so in fact.

That's pretty much it. There is nothing better than Maurader build for DH. It's like having 5 invulnerable DHs plunking away on anything that moves. It's ridiculously strong. It almost doesn't matter what you do from there.

 

[Ayumi]

Hopefully that wasn't someone in the GAF clan? No point in worrying about what some random person on the internet thinks, just block 'em and move on. I feel bad sometimes since I play a Firelight Crusader which I don't even like the visuals of, but that's all the game really gave me to work with so too bad!

No it wasn't. Fortunately!

I understand that Explosive Blast with Wand of Woh and 50% CDR can be annoying as heck, but seriously, I don't complain every time I play with a WD and DH. Their animations tend to lag my game so much that it's almost unplayable (it makes RG fights very jumpy/weird sometimes). I don't really care as long as I do my job and also don't die.

 

[XShagrath]

I'd totally play with you, Ayumi. No in-game stuff would bother me, since I don't have any sound on at all. After hearing sound effects and little voice clips 5000000000 times, I just shut everything off and listen to music whenever I play.

 

[Dahbomb]

Did they actually fix cull the weak to effect sentries on the ptr? It really annoys the shit out of me that it doesn't do it on live as I really like the passive.

It's in the patch changes.

Yeah, I've never understood people using Custom Engineering UNLESS you haven't gotten the sentry quiver yet.

Think of the damage you gain by just having even ONE extra Sentry on the battlefield...

The only reason why I wouldn't have Engineering is if I want a defensive passive... because the offensive boost from having even one extra Sentry is pretty insane especially on higher GRs.

 

[MrDaravon]

The only thing that is obnoxious is the Darklight build in the live version which clutters up the screen and causes so much screen shaking that for some people it makes the game unplayable when there are 2 or more Crusaders using the build. Thankfully they fixed this in 2.1.


As far as DH goes.... there's no reason to be running anything other than a Marauder build. And by that I mean you are either running Physical Marauder or Fire Marauder. In 2.1 Cold Marauder will be extremely good so then you will have 3 Marauder options.

For Marauder build the +2 Sentry Quiver is essential. You can have up to 5 Sentries at one time.... and like said before each of those Sentry is hitting harder than you so if you have 5 of them up there is almost nothing in the game at T6 that can stand up to that. Even a shit Marauder 6 piece set is better than anything else in the game for the class.

I still don't fully understand the attack speed/internal cooldown of the Sentries. The general consensus is that you either use 2 or 3 Hatred spenders depending on your attack speed and break points... most people agree that 2 is the best spot. I would say that depending upon the performance of your Sentry, 3 might be slightly better because the way your Sentry might work is that it might shoot Cluster Arrow, then Arsenal and then a regular old Sentry shot which does low damage. If you replace it with Impale then that 3rd shot instead comes out as Impale which does considerably more damage. This does come at the cost of not having Mark of Death on your skill bar but if you have some other DH on your group then there is really no need for it.

And of course all this math is being turned on its head in 2.1 when they are making additional APS fixes on the Sentry. No idea how that is going to turn out as I haven't played around with that too much... all I know is that Marauder is still godly in 2.1, even more so in fact.

Yeah, the APS stuff with sentries is weird, but I think even at high breakpoints people have done the math and 3 spenders doesn't wind up being better than 2. Then there is weirdness where on Live Taskers apparently mostly/only affects the attack speed of the regular bolt and not your spenders, but in 2.1 they've fixed that, etc. There's a weird confusing mess of information about that, but on PTR I do notice a huge difference in firing speed with Taskers on as compared to Live, and apparently something with how they fixed APS in 2.1 makes them fire faster even without Taskers, which is why people seem to be saying 2.1 is where it makes sense to go to a 3rd spender (as opposed to now).

Think of the damage you gain by just having even ONE extra Sentry on the battlefield...

The only reason why I wouldn't have Engineering is if I want a defensive passive... because the offensive boost from having even one extra Sentry is pretty insane especially on higher GRs.

Outside of RG's almost no encounters on Live last long enough for me to get a 5th turret up. Can't comment much on GR stuff though.

 

[ZenaxPure]

Outside of RG's almost encounters on Live last long enough for me to get a 5th turret up. Can't comment much on GR stuff though.

It's a situational thing really, it's great for rift guardians and great for dense areas where you have 3+ elite packs in close proximity (because there is no way you're killing multiple packs before you can get out 5 sentries) or open field areas like the blood marsh. But when you have rifts that aren't as dense it's obviously not as useful.

Personally I always run with it because even though it's situational none of the other offensive passives really make up for the damage lost when you do come across times where you can get out a 5th one (which happens pretty regularly in my rifts anyway).

That is all spoken from a solo pov of course, things get weird on live when you run with a group depending what is in it.

 

[garath]

It's in the patch changes.


Think of the damage you gain by just having even ONE extra Sentry on the battlefield...

The only reason why I wouldn't have Engineering is if I want a defensive passive... because the offensive boost from having even one extra Sentry is pretty insane especially on higher GRs.

But you so rarely get all the sentries out. Even on bosses, the extra 20% damage across the board would be pretty close to the extra sentry when the extra 20% damage is useful ALL the time, not just for bosses.

When I was still playing regularly I would solo T5 pretty comfortably and hardly ever got more than 3 sentries out.

 

[ZenaxPure]

When I was still playing regularly I would solo T5 pretty comfortably and hardly ever got more than 3 sentries out.

Honestly anything below T6 doesn't mean much in this context, enemy HP is almost doubled each jump of torment. Of course you can get by with a lot less on T5 compared to T6, that is why so many other builds still work on T5 that are completely dead on T6. I assume my demon hunter can do T5 with only 3 sentries as well, but I pretty much always get 4 out on the average elite/champ pack on T6 (unless it's a typically low health mob). And on the flipside I can pretty much always get 5 out on an elite pack where the elite mob in a naturally bulky type (and it's guaranteed if it has shielding).

Of course stuff like CDR factors into this as well, my demon hunter has around 40% because the way my gloves rolled so I can pop out sentries at a pretty fast pace in the first place.

Also for what it's worth steady aim is not useful "all" the time. It's pretty much trash when you encounter mobs that try to bum rush you, so basically nearly all act 5 mobs and some other guys. It's easier to maintain with vault, but, most people on T6 don't run with vault since smoke screen is infinitely better for survivability. The only way you can run both vault and smoke screen is by giving up another DPS increasing ability.

 

[Anoregon]

Jesus christ how the fuck is 2.1 not live yet

 

[Ayumi]

I'd totally play with you, Ayumi. No in-game stuff would bother me, since I don't have any sound on at all. After hearing sound effects and little voice clips 5000000000 times, I just shut everything off and listen to music whenever I play.

Yah, I turned down the effects volume and master volume a long time ago and always play with music on instead. It makes me feel more badass too!

Btw guys.. this kinda freaked me out when I realized who joined my party earlier..