Why strafe has to be changed BIG TIME!!

[MrSmith]

I mean, srsly, its a lvl 19 skill and one that was great in D2 BUT:

if the numbers don't change A LOT this skill is unbelievable useless. even with like ALL the rune options. Not only that you are slowed to 65% which is later on in the game very crucial i guess;
shooting with 400% speed at random targets for 35% weap.dam... well yeah... so i need to hit every enemy 3 times to make as much damage as when i shoot at them with auto attack, only that cause of the speed bonus i get like 1 free shot. but since it shoots random at enemies i guess even with AUTOHIT i would take less damage cause i could pick them off one by one.

hence even rapid fire is better.....its faster, does more damage and you can aim at will....

Just to compare..... multishot is unlocked BEFORE, has NO CD, costs LESS HATRED and does 140% to each target...

so srsly blizz, either completely remove this skill as its highly redundend OR at least completely rework it.

cause i don't want to end up like D2 where in the end there were only a handful of skills that were useful at all.....

what do you think about this?

[Karpalo]

Strafe has currently highest single target damage potential in the game. Ballistic and rank 4 obsidian rune nets total 660% DPS. If we assume that obsidian rune is 20% rocket damage at rank 1 and get's 15% more damage with each rank it's 7.5 times the DPS with rank 7 obsidian rune. This is only speculation at this point tho since we have no rank 7 rune values available yet.

[MrSmith]

ok well didn't thought of that thanks..... still it seems like that is like the only way making strafe usable when combining with a specific rune + passiv. although i see the potential in this special case (assumed that the additionally fired rockets are also shot at 4 times speed) its somehow strange in terms of the skills basic design.
still the redundancy is given..... with obsidian&ballistics, rapid fire is like the same just weaker....
idk, i dont want to whine around, i just would love to see a skill system where every skill and effect seems reasonable.

but yeah i have to admit due to its nature i didn't thought of using strafe as a single-target killer ;)

still, rapid fire and strafe..... don't know, maybe it would be more interesting if f.e. rapid fire would be a "rune effect" of strafe like you lose the ability to move while shooting but have increased damage....

whatever, should get back to my books and learn instead of nitpicking on theory..... :D

[galzohar]

Remember that strafe allows you to attack while moving. For any other skill you must stand still to deal damage. I think that's supposed to be the main purpose of the skill! Similar to how evasive fire is relatively weak but allows you to gain distance on enemies without spending time casting a vault or running away (which is time you are not attacking).

[MrSmith]

yeah well ok but since the DH has enough movement skills (ok, some of them have quite high disc. costs ) and 65% movement speed is not enough to kite i guess.....you will be hit anyway...
but yeah lets see how it turns out...

i also dislike preparation somehow.....cause with a standard CD of 120s and not being an offensive uber-skill i feel like if you really need it for your style then you have a wrong pick of skills cause youre steadily in need of resources - which you wont get with the 2min CD anyways.
i do like the varieties added for this skill with runes but meh.... if you really RELY on regain of resources so much it wont help that much with a CD like this.....and if not its just a wasted skillslot cause you won't be that much in resource-trouble anyway...

[Scorch Hellfire]

As great as strafe is, I still think multishot and rapid fire deal with crowds better and are just cooler skills in general. I personally would love to see a video of a DH that has a lot of attack speed gear using rapid fire while wielding two hand crossbows and using shadow power while also standing in an alabaster runed slow time bubble (the one that speeds up the attack and casting speeds of allies). That would be ridiculous... Like a minigun that uses crossbow bolts.

[MrSmith]

has it been tested if shadow power increases AS for rapid fire? (and other skills?) cause yesterday i saw a recent video of a guy testing this but he was not sure about it......

[kar]

I think strafe will be great in pvp, specifically with a golden rune allowing you to run at 100% speed (maybe higher than that 100% with a rank 7 rune?). It's a spamable autohit attack while running away from trouble.

Also, it hasn't yet been mentioned that faster attacks = more crit procs for builds that can exploit them (although rapid fire does this too)

edit:
I whipped up a pvp build that focuses on strafe here:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#YRUijk!aXV!bbYcab

Similar build, but with rockets:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#YRUijk!aXS!bcYccb

[MrSmith]

yeah for pvp but even though i will love pvp i think skills shouldn't be in the game only cause of usefulness in pvp.
but for strafe, i don't want to elaborate and whine more on it since if its really going to be that bad blizz will patch in anyway... i hope ;)

Ah, btw one BETA question: when using hotkeys for skills, are they instant and aimed at the current cursor position? or do i hold down the hotkey? or press e.g. "1", point at the location, click, and then the skill is executed?

[Tamer]

strafe = AOE (it randomly switches from target to target during the firing sequence)
rapid fire = single target

these shots are different and have different uses

[galzohar]

In practical terms it's not an AOE if its total damage done (damage per monster X number of monsters) does not scale up at all when there are more monsters around.

They still have different uses, of course, since rapid fire is more DPS but strafe allows you to move.

[Karpalo]

Strafe is not really AoE. Targeting is random if there are more than one target present, but damage potential is always the same whenever there are 20 enemies or just 1.

Real AoE skills can deal thousands of % weapon damage per cast, but it's just equally divided between the targets.

Mano i mano aka against single target Strafe beats even rapid fire in damage.

[Soval]

Strafe
Hatred Spender
Cost: 15 Hatred
Shoot at random nearby enemies for 140% weapon damage while moving at 65% of normal movement speed.The revised description on the D3 site. Looks like they may have changed how the spell works.

[reflexii]

I don't think they've really changed how the spells work. They have just changed the way how the skills are shown on tooltips. Lets make a few examples:

Rapid Fire now: Rapidly fire for 228% Weapon Damage as Physical.
Rapid Fire before: Rapidly fire arrows at six times of your normal attack speed. Each arrow deals 38% Weapon Damage as Physical.

Strafe now: Shoot for nearby enemies for 140% Weapon Damage as Physical.
Strafe before: Shoot arrows at four times of your normal attack speed to nearby enemies. Each arrow deals 35% Weapon Damage as Physical.

Earthquake now: deals 2000% damage over 8 seconds.
Earthquake before: deals 250% weapon damage per second over 8 seconds.

At least this is how I remember the tooltips being in the skillcalculator before the patch. Correct me if I'm wrong! :)

Cheers!

[Karpalo]

Yeah seems like those changes only affect the tooltips. They made them more simple (read more vague) and now strafe looks like **** compared to rapid fire, even when runed it's superior damage.

[Kblavkalash]

I don't think they've really changed how the spells work. They have just changed the way how the skills are shown on tooltips. Lets make a few examples:

Rapid Fire now: Rapidly fire for 228% Weapon Damage as Physical.
Rapid Fire before: Rapidly fire arrows at six times of your normal attack speed. Each arrow deals 38% Weapon Damage as Physical.

Strafe now: Shoot for nearby enemies for 140% Weapon Damage as Physical.
Strafe before: Shoot arrows at four times of your normal attack speed to nearby enemies. Each arrow deals 35% Weapon Damage as Physical.

Earthquake now: deals 2000% damage over 8 seconds.
Earthquake before: deals 250% weapon damage per second over 8 seconds.

At least this is how I remember the tooltips being in the skillcalculator before the patch. Correct me if I'm wrong! :)

Cheers!

If it's true then it's super confusing now. How am I supposed to know that strafe does 140% damage over 4 arrows shot? I have no words for this BS.

[soulzek]

Numbers can (and will) change quickly and frequently. If the core idea of the skill is fine, then the skill is fine.

[Nizaris]

I'm somewhat curious as to whether or not you can Vault while using Strafe. Now that would be interesting.

[Karpalo]

I would assume it cancels the channeling. Naturally you could active strafe again right after you are done with the vaulting. It doesn't have separate activation hatred cost.