Diablo III: Demon Hunter Guide

[News Portal]

Patrick Vuleta is always on the lookout for games that allow him to play as redheads, but playing as a crossbow-wielding figure of stealth and caltrop-throwing will have to do. Read on for all the tips on playing [app=4089]Diablo III[/app]'s version of Batman.

Read full story →



Read full article by Patrick Vuleta

[Bek]

control + f 'leliana'

was not disappoint

[Yurtles]

So does the hotfix halving the duration of Smoke Screen just ruin everything then?

[Commander Boom]

Since the patch today, nerfing SS to 1 second duration (1.5 runed) with a 2 second cooldown, the perma-stealth strategy that DH's were using to progress through inferno has been broadly crippled. Some players are reporting some success with Vault+Caltrops(stun rune), but many rare or champion affixes now have to be avoided, rather than defeated. Mortar, Waller, Fast, etc., are now very difficult to handle, past act 1 Inferno.

Wizard have also taken a solid hit with the nerf-bat, with the change to force armour crippling the low vit, high HP gen build than many wizards were using.

These nerfs have put DH's and Wiz's back on more or less even footing with other classes (screwed), past act 1 Inferno.

[Marius]

Hotfix?

Bah. I wrote this article yesterday.

GG Blizzard.

I think Smoke Screen is still viable, but in groups now, due to the aggro dump.

[RaTTuS007]

love the jagged spikes rune, drop 3-4 down in the one spot= all enemys die while running through them.

[Marius]

That's one way I want to experiment with taking on Hell. Lay down 5 jagged spikes and 6 spike traps, and then boom, then vault away before coming back to repeat.

I can probably kill champion packs offscreen...

[Syncourt]

To make the builds, remember to turn on elective mode in gameplay options so you can take more than one defensive or hunting skill.

Ey? How do you take more than one skill of the same category? I thought elective mode only allowed you to change their position on the hotbar.

Edit: Oh nm, figured it out.

[Marius]

So I've been doing some testing with smoke screen.

With perfectionist and special recipe now it's still ok... I can go invisible alot. It just needs twitch reflexes as it won't last for long. Not tested it through inferno, but am hoping it will be good enough to handle Hell.

Problem is that the hotfix wasn't done very well. They didn't update the tooltip, and the skill now has a cooldown where it shouldn't - the hotfix notes say nothing about introducing a cooldown.

That seems to suggest it was a kneejerk reaction. If it was at all thought out you'd think Blizzard of all companies would be able to polish out two bugs before hotfixing their game.

I'm expecting the bugs introduced to get hotfixed again, sooner or later. If the cooldown is removed, then the skill is still ok, you'll just need uber +discipline gear.

[M a x]

Loving my DH, good article and advice.

Though maybe I won't love her as much once I reach inferno!

I'm not ashamed to say I will spend up big at the RMAH buffing her senseless (boy, that sounded dirty ) for inferno.

[Marius]

I'm not expecting this to be the end of inferno for DH (or any class). Rather, I'm expecting the strategy to change from stealthing through inferno in **** gear, to farming Hell for three months before entering.

Also, smoke screen and preparation is still a godly combo. Smoke Screen is still the only way to break crowd control, and preparation is still your best discipline regeneration. And you need to use discipline constantly if you want max DPS, survivability, and utility. So any demon hunter without preparation is gimp, smoke or not.

So nothing is really changed by the hotfix, just that demon hunters need to move slower.

[Theyleon]

So I've been doing some testing with smoke screen.

With perfectionist and special recipe now it's still ok... I can go invisible alot. It just needs twitch reflexes as it won't last for long. Not tested it through inferno, but am hoping it will be good enough to handle Hell.

Problem is that the hotfix wasn't done very well. They didn't update the tooltip, and the skill now has a cooldown where it shouldn't - the hotfix notes say nothing about introducing a cooldown.

That seems to suggest it was a kneejerk reaction. If it was at all thought out you'd think Blizzard of all companies would be able to polish out two bugs before hotfixing their game.

I'm expecting the bugs introduced to get hotfixed again, sooner or later. If the cooldown is removed, then the skill is still ok, you'll just need uber +discipline gear.

I suspect that due to localisation and the like they can't update the tooltips without a client patch.

[Marius]

Yeah, probably.

Anyway, I just had to save this fight till post nerf and do it with tactics I was unfamiliar with.



Replaced smoke screen with vault with tumble and tactical advantage. Meant I could cross from one side of the arena to the other in a second.

[Sathias]

That's hardcore Marius (literally)

Well done

[Bronze_D]

look on the bright side... even with DH being nerfed and thus can no longer solo some part of inferno with ease using just end tier hell gear like wizard, you are STILL BETTER than barbarian stuck in inferno.

barbarian goes to inferno...

first elite he sees pack:
vampiric, arcane enchanted, illusionist, minion


game over... time to restart the instance and pray for a better mob next time.

There are ways for barbarian to somewhat handle inferno but generally speaking, for every 1 elite mix that DH can't handle, there will be 3 elite mix that will pulverize barbarians in inferno.