f13.net

I want people who are playing demon hunters to talk about demon hunters because I seriously like the class but also have no idea what I'm doing because I am terrible at games. <3

I am apparently really prone to getting set in my ways immediately or something, because I am still using the seeking arrows/rapid fire combination for my two mouse buttons. I can run away like a little bitch pretty well, though, with the whole snare/dork flip/vanish combo I have for my number key shit.

i'm trying one, but I not only am terrible at games, but I seem to be worse than average at demon hunter. I gather from forum stats, it's the least played class.

Flipping out is so silly. I'm only about level 15, but I'm using the flaming bolo and the rapid fire.

The chakram or whatever is so hate efficient it's worth using. It also does AE damage.

The flipping IS so silly, especially when you get the rune that shoots arrows out in four directions when you flip.  :why_so_serious:  I hope there's a rune that adds random doves flying up in the background eventually.

I've considered trying out the bolo (my dude is level 15 too, I think? Maybe 16.) but the seeking arrow is a crutch I am reluctant to loosen my grip on. Plus sometimes I get to watch an arrow blow through a dude and then spin around and hit it in the back of the head. I also used the chakram a bit but I didn't especially like it. Maybe once I can rune it I'll give it another try.

 I have fallen in love with rapid fire

rattatattatattatatta

Also silly: Dual wielding hand crossbows. I am considering trying out having a quiver in my offhand instead, but I dunno. The goofiness is pretty amusing.

Is that the spell (attack, whatever) that looks like a chain gun? If so, it's hilarious....

Yup. Not as good solo cause it roots you in place but it's fun in groups.

My DH is only level 16.  I am running

Hatred Builder - Entangling shot with the hits 4 targets rune.
Chakram for large groups
Rapid Fire w/fire damage rune, for single target dps.
Vault, with the shoot nearby enemies when used rune.
Caltrops, with the increased slow rune.

Basically, I kite around slowing with caltrops and Entangling shot, unload as much damage as I can while safe, then repeat.

I made all my clothing white and I look like a snow bunny.

Working through Nightmare on mine.  99% of my time has been duo with a wizard.

I've stuck mostly to the 4-chain arrow as the generator.  The stunning Bolas work great on bosses as well.  Controlling mob movement and keeping shit out of your face has been more important than anything.  I didn't find much use for Discipline skills at all aside from Vault and/or Smoke Screen for a long time. 

For most of Act 3/4 and up to the present my set up has been built around multishot.  Rune its cost in half, run the hate generating pet, and rune Prep so that it's a second Hate bar.  This turns Multi into pretty much a use anytime ability.  Starting to show it's age so I'm trying a bunch of other stuff.

Feeling pretty outclassed by the wizard right now though.

I like the chakram attack, but I find it gets blocked by terrain pretty often.

I've seen a lot (4) of DH's die in hardcore. Seems like a scary class to play. The Chakram skill seems good. I want to see someone not running dw xbows, every single person is.

Well I was running longbow + quiver for part of the evening, but then two really, really good 1h crossbows dropped, so derpy DW crossbows are a go again.

Once I got the double chakras rune that skill got WAY better for me, especially since I am now duoing with Ingmar's witch doctor, and he has a million pets gumming up the works for the mobs, so it's really easy to just spam chakras until everything stops moving.



I have a cloak instead of a scarf now.  :heartbreak:

Once I figured out I could link up two Hatred building skills I enjoyed it more, so I have Chain Gang arrows to open with, then followup with spamming alternating explosive bolos and chakrams. Used a lot of the throwing dagger earlier, especially against big solo monsters, due to the stun - but since switching to chakram I don't think I've depleted my hatred once.

Wasn't very impressed with the backflip shot skill - found I tended to lose whatever I was just targeting, and as a result I end up running straight back in to whatever I was flipping away from.

Slightly disappointing about the clone factor in terms of appearance so far, a friend was playing a female version and we were near indistinguishable. I enjoy the class, but I may switch to melee. I did find out you can use a shield, quiver, or dual wield two one hand crossbows, that was exciting.

I just wish I could look different. The Scarf is a bit much.

DH is fun, flipping is cool. The traps have been quite useful, especially when a fight is scripted - you make a damn minefield.

Just got bola shot before I switched to playing monk. The scarf was just too much.

This class make me think I'm re-enacting a scene from a Van Helsing story.  So much fun  :heart:

I named my DH Solomun.  :grin:

Armour dyes.

Are they level based or something, I haven't seen not a one.

Vendor potions guys along the quest route. You have to talk to him to advance so you can't miss him.

If you wear the 'cloak' type armor that is specific to DHs, it hides the scarf.

Caltrops with the immobilize run + the trap that explodes after a couple seconds is awesome.  Huge AoE burst damage.

Which is a goddamn crime. But yeah, scarf-haters, just equip the cloak chest pieces and you'll never have a scarf again.

In Act 2, there are a couple of vendors that sell dyes if the Act 1 guy didn't show up for you (he's apparently random, he wasn't there when I redid that section with Ingmar last night). My DH is in ALL AQUA armor. If there had been pink, I totally would've done that instead.

EDIT: Also, the caltrops + explodey trap seems like it would be awesome, but I was having a hard time making it work because of zombie dogs making it hard for me to predict where to actually lay my traps (without just running into a pack myself, except most of them would be dead via all sorts of shit before the bomb would go off, so SCREW IT SPAM CHAKRAMS FOREVER). I did manage to run my hate all the way down using that, by the way ... but it took a LONG time. <3

Agreed.  I was doing that playing my Demon Hunter solo.  There I would plant the caltrops down at the edge of a group, vault away, plant the trap, watch it explode and then finish off whatever was left with a few chakrams.   I took it into a multiplayer game later and quickly realized it was much less useful as a combo.

I have a pink scarf now!  :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real:

I also have a bat pet (which regens hate) and have re-embraced rapid fire (with the snare rune, coupling that with the passive that increases my damage versus snared shit). I'm using the seeking arrows that break into 3 arrows when they blow through, I can't tell if it's actually good or not, but my arrows are sparkly blue now so it's obviously worth it. I'm also using the turret thing with the heat-seeking bombs. Can you tell I like mostly fire and forget shit?

When does DH get to the point where it can actually deal some damage?  Playing the start of the game solo as DH has been excruciating so far (compared to Wizard or Monk).  I feel massively underpowered and can't use much better weapons because my skills don't work with them.  Admittedly I'm only up to level 6, but I feel like I'm moving at a crawl compared to my other characters.

EDIT: found a 9dps bow and it's no longer super painful.  Still does not feel as fast paced as Wizard or Monk. 

I've been mostly playing a wizard, but I do have a DH up to around 10 I think.  It was very slow at first in comparison, but after a few levels and some low level hand crossbows I had in the stash from my wizard playthrough, my DH is a damn beast.  I'm not sure the pace is as fast as my wizard can get, but it's pretty close, and he feels like he has more survivability. 

Scarf haters can just use vanishing dye too.   I do that constantly on my monk if I have some sort of dumb looking weapon I don't want to be displayed.

It is getting more fun as more skills open up (true of all the classes really).

The "naked" chestpiece still has a scarf, I believe. :P


The thing with the demon hunter at low levels is, as you probably figured out, not being able to really use anything but bows/crossbows if you want to actually, you know, use your abilities. None of the other classes really have that issue. So if you're not getting a bow drop (and it took me a while to actually get one) you're pretty shitty for a while!

I have changed my rapid fire rune again, now it poops out homing missiles (like my sentry turret does) in addition to the arrows. With the bat pet out, I can use it for a loooooong time now. I'm also starting to actually run out of discipline once in a while in nightmare, when I have to kite FOR REELZ. But them's the breaks, I guess.

I love it so far. I'm still level 16 and I like rapid fire (it works quite good against bosses or elite enemies) compared to the wizard (my first choice) it feels like easy mode though.

I especially like the flipping because it get's you out of tough spots to recover/retreat and dual wield crossbows is the most John Wooian thing anyone has ever done in a fantasy setting.

I dislike the skill switching though. I'd like it if different skill sets were more easily accessible to switch them according to the enemies.

It is Diablo though, you always get the items a different class would use

I have a SUPER AWESOME BOW now thanks to Kildy, so now I've broken 1k dps on my sheet. I am pleased.  :awesome_for_real:

I've been amusing myself with a DH for the evening.

Entangling Shot + lightning DoT thingy is love. Probably not nearly as effective as bola spam was, but it's adorable anyways.

All of my hate goes to Spike Trap abuse right now. Because it's SO ABUSABLE. No LOS requirements. Mobs don't aggro when you plant it. Every champ pack I see before they rush me turns into a fine red paste before they even move.

If I do get jumped, I just plant them at my feet and flip back. Seriously, why do I even have a bow, I'm basically just running around planting land mines all over the world. Also, the 3 seconds of massive lifetap works great with landmine spam.

Class is squishy as all fuck if you get hit, though.

Same experience. Just been messing around but I'm steamrolling things my Wizard needed to kite around the entire dungeon. That PBAOE snare + rapid fire is just insane. Compared to wizard anyway.

I bought a dead killy crossbow from the AH and got the shotgun blast thingy from the archery tree. It one shots normal mobs. Life is good.

I'm struggling against Belial. Phase 1 I drop a Sentry gun and zap/slow/rapid fire the mobs. Phase 2 - bloody Belial teleports the same direction that I flip to escape him. Got to phase 3 once and got 1 shot by his claw :( WTB tank =D

Yeah stuck at phase 3 too.  Only get to him half.  I keep the jump skill to avoid the green fire, but it's pretty inaccurate.  Not sure what the solution might be except repetitive grind?  I bought new crossbows on the AH and that helped, but phase3 has eluded me for over an hour.  Had to go port back to repair fully.

In my experience the solution to most problems on the DH is to abuse the shit out of Smoke Screen.  Get some +Max Discipline, glyph Smoke Screen to be three seconds long and use your favourite flavour of Preparation to keep it up whenever needed.

Far as I can tell it's complete damage immunity.

I just got it before logging last night (heh, "logging" from single player mode...). Does Smoke Screen make you lose aggro completely?

Yes.  It's completely absurd but I have no idea how someone would do Hell without it.  You lose aggro, the mobs just stand around while it's up (if solo), and you can walk through fire and poison or whatever else without taking any damage.

My partner in crime has gotten REALLY good at kiting and playing defensively as he has to deal with everything while I untouchably unleash hot fury.

Tanky Hunter (been playing this to pretty good success as the 'tank' in a hell team game):

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#WQglhT!VfX!ZbYaZZ

The goal is to be able to keep up Shadow Power indefinitely, which most of the time you can get close to doing.  I use 1h crossbow+shield and look primarily for armor and damage on gear, running about 20k hp at level 55.  Hitting as much shit as possible with multishot is essential to regaining discipline, which means that it's not so hot against solo enemies or bosses.  But it is solid against champions and incredible against big packs.  I'm having quite a bit of fun with this.

Nice, thanks. I swear DH is easymode compared to my Wizard. Maybe I'll go, but probably not. Just having Smoke Screen survivability at all is great. I'm not anywhere near the high levels though. No idea what changes.

Your build didn't quite come through but does shield + Gloomed Shadow Power actually let you tank elite packs in Hell?  That's awesome if it does.

At 60 you kinda need a build that can do everything if you want to keep the stacking buff.   I don't see that one working for bosses unless you can keep Gloom up 100% of the time without the Disc leach from multishot.

Hmm, maybe if you stacked crit chance and used Archery + Night Stalker passives you'd be able to use Cluster Arrow the same way as Multishot?  I'd also dump Rain of Vengeance for the Focused Mind / Backup Plan versions of Prep.

I just beat Belial on normal. I used the turret, healshot ability thingie, and the damage mark to make phase 2 go fasta. I couldn't seem to get Belial marked in phase 3. Too far away.
I just kept mobile. Stay out of the crap he plops on the ground, stay ahead of his arm smash by moving along the ledge, and taking potshots and chakram attacks. Takes a while, but I got him at level 25.

I got B on my first try, though I died right after he went down because I'd forgotten to equip proper health potions. Turret and elemental shot was easy maintenance dps while the jump thing kept me alive.

Doh!  Just copy paste it.  For some reason the link craps out.  Many packs are tankable.  Some aren't.  You still need to not stand in arcane beams/desecration pools.  Immune minions are simply impossible (seriously, utterly impossible).  Some are really easy.  I went up against a reflect/vampiricsm/waller and just laughed.

I'm not sure if cluster arrow would work simply because the hatred cost is so high, but I could see a crit build working with a lower hatred cost ability.  Would have to really build for it.  I have +12% crit chance right now and that just makes my build viable.  Would need alot more to ditch multishot.

Yeah, I moved to stacking +discipline and just smokescreening, and it's kind of absurd how good it is.

Current build:

Bola shot (+range)
Rapid Fire (-hatred)
Smoke Screen (3 secs)
Vault (cheaper 2nd vault)
Shadow Power (30% leech)
Prep (+max discipline)

I feel like I should get rid of something out of those last 4 skills, to add an AOE hatred sink, but I'm not sure what. Well, I know, it should be Vault, but it's such a quality of life thing to just zip around the map so fast.

Vault or Shadow Power.  If you like the mobility take the passive that gives speed boost on Smoke Screen.  You can fucking book it forever and skip whatever you want.  Learned that when getting the Whimseyshire staff together.


Been slogging through Inferno and got the Butcher down.  Core skills have been:

Smoke Screen + Duration
Pet + Hate
Preperation + 30% Freebie

The damage skills are still changing a bit but as a starter reccomendation through Hell+:

Multishot + either half cost or +Disc.
Cluster Arrow + Loaded for Bear (This hits like a truck)
Left Mouse is a bit of a toss-up but normally use the +Hate version of Entangle or the Arcane Bolas.  If I was good with grenades I'd run +Hate nades with the nade passive. 

My normal passives are Vengeance + Archery + Random one.  You need to get your Discipline pool as high as possible too.  Over 50 is not hard at all and makes a big difference.

Elemental Arrow + rune is seriously overpowered.

Smoke Screen + Duration
Bola + electrical charge
Vault + Stun
Hail of Arrows (Awesome for crowds)
Trap
Elemental arrow + frost (the arrow splits drop large crowds like flies)

combine with faster hatred regen and you kill all the things, especially with a fast bow

Just press the right mouse button until hatred is used up, lose aggro with smoke screen and get out of tight spots with vault, drop hail of arrows every time the cooldown is up use traps liberally on choke points or stunned targets. Asmodan took like 30 seconds to kill.

2H Bow + Quiver is hands down better than dual wield btw.

I'm kind of liking the flexibility of DH a lot.

Smoke Screen + Duration is mandatory. I feel like Prep feels pretty essential since it saves me a lot of kiting. Everything else is pretty flexible.

I've dropped both Vault and Shadow Power from my build: it's a lot easier to just not get hit, and if I really need to run, I have the Tactical Advantage passive.

Smoke Screen duration nerf hotfixed in!

 :awesome_for_real:

EDIT: Oh, wait. This is much worse than expected. Duration is now 1/2 seconds, but CD is still 2/3 seconds. So there's no chaining this together anymore.

Haven't played with the new version but my DH had kinda brick-walled at Inferno Act2.  Farming late Act I with chain Smoke Screen was already going to be tedious, if it turns out to be impossible now then I'm not too heart-broken.    There are other classes to try while I wait for more crazy people to group with for Inferno.

I'm still playing my tank demon hunter in act 1 inferno and it's still working.  I do way more kiting/play more defensively but still works.  Some of this might be due to the fact that I have an awesome weapon and that nether tentacles is overpowered as shit.

Bolo+thundering
Elemental+Nether
Prep+45 over 15 (very good as long as you dont have +disc items)
Impale+Awareness
Multishot+Suppression
Shadow+Gloom

Archery
Perfectionist
Crit gives discipline (forget name).

35k health 4.8k armor (with enchantress) 120-170 resists 11000 damage

Sharpshooter + Ball Lightning (or Nether Tentacles once you get that high) is insane.  The crit rating doesn't reset until the first projectile hits.  Since these are so slow, if you shoot from long range you can get 4 off before the first hits.  4 guaranteed crits on a nice AE spell = devastation.

They're both crazy good because on larger model targets they hit 2-3 times, and the cost is essentially nothing.

I can't get past phase2 of Diablo.  Any suggestions?  Smoke doesn't work or was nerfed.

That's the shadow part, right?  Vault (glyphed for stun, which works) helped a lot with the Diablo fight for me.  As long as I was able to keep distance, I was doing well.  I can't remember if I stuck with dual chakram or went for single target with rapid fire. 

Is it the Shadow Clone giving you trouble?  I found I needed to drop a ton of bricks on him as soon as he spawned.  I'd try Cluster Arrows or maybe the stunning version of Impale and hold enough Hate to make it hurt.

I just finished this on Normal in one try. I went with a "evasion" build an let my Sentry do a lot of the work. Make sure you have enough potions available since Phase 2 doesn't have the healing wells. I basically just ran around a lot letting my Sentry plink away at Diablo. My clone I did try and beat down as fast as possible. My skills were:

LM - Bolo Shot (Thunder Ball) - this was my main attack in Act 4 and I didn't bother to change it for Diablo
RM - Elemental Arrow (Ball Lightning) - same as above
1 - Vault (Action Shot) - Should've gone with Rattling Roll but it worked out okay
2 - Smoke Screen (Lingering Fog)
3 - Preparation (Invigoration)
4 - Sentry (Spitfire Turret)
Passives - Vengeance, Cull the Weak, Archery - these were the passives I was using in Act 4 and I didn't bother to change them up for Diablo

If I had to do this again I probably would switch out Vault for Caltrops (with Jagged Spikes) or Spike Trap for some extra damage instead of the extra "evasion" skill.

I had 293 DPS with 3170 HPs.

 I'm getting one-shotted (his charge/teleport ability) by Izual on Nightmare, level 47.  I had a pretty easy time to there, but I guess this means I need a lot more vitality? Or am I just a little too low for what I'm doing?

Current build:
1H+Shield

Smoke (+duration) / Bat companion / Prep (+heal)
Multishot (-cost)
Implale (+stun)
Bolo (+stun)

Figured it out. Kite around the circles: he can't charge.

Diablo took a little trip to the AH for some more vitality to make phase 2 more comfortable, but was not that bad. Stunlocks for the win.

Yeah kiting seems to be the way to go for most big fights. I still couldn't solo Diablo in phase2 which is disappointing.  Guess it was my gear.  Finally did it with a PUG. 

Ferret companion rune means TWO ferret pets rather than one.  :why_so_serious:

That REALLY should have gone to the barbarian.

LMAO. I loved that movie when I was a kid.

Can't say I disagree.

Finally cracked Inferno Belial.   3k Armour, 25k DPS, 36K Health.

Conventional wisdom appears to be go glass cannon and pray but I've come around completely and heartily recommend paying attention to Resist All, Armour, and Vitality in about that order.  Reduced damage from melee attacks (read: String of Ears) pushed me over the top.  Being able to take 2-3 hits w/o dodging or having to use a cooldown is amazing.

I use this for Zoltun farm runs and it's what I found best for Belial:  http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#bRXgVl!feX!acZYcc

I lean more heavily on Gloom now than Smoke Screen and with a good connection you could probably drop Smoke Screen for stunning or cheap Vault.  I also replace the Nightstalker passive regularly with Tactical Advantage, Cull the Weak, or Sharpshooter depending on the situation.  I'd really like to drop Preparation for something a bit more interesting but I don't think a good weapon or chest slot with +Max Discipline exists.  Aside from quivers the DH exclusive gear is garbage.

When i play im usually in 3-4 man groups i go all out stun/fear
Greandes + stun rune
Elemental arrow + the fear skull things
Shadow + Gloom
Prep + i don't remember... one of them
Sentry + homing arrows
Cluster arrow + stun bombs

Grenadeer, the +3 crit a second, and archery usually

Actually works pretty good

I just got my DH to 60 and swapped over most of my monk gear.   Because I had a lot of life on hit and attack speed (for monk) I found something useful.    Caltrops with the damage rune will proc life on hit very fast.   This lets me easily destroy reflect damage packs and also lets me kite mortar packs fairly safely.   I recommend buying a couple cheap 1hers with 400 or so life on hit and just swapping them in when you're having trouble with those nasty reflect packs.   Caltrops with damage rune is amazing for pretty much anything anyways.