Some demon hunter questions

[Snowbird]

The more I look at the abilities of the demon hunter the more questions I have about things.

Heres my first question,

Do the bonuses from the passive skill 'archery' affect all of your abilities? Or just the abilities that use that particular weapon(like hungering arrow, rapid fire, etc.)

"Archery

Gain a bonus based on the weapon type of your main hand weapon:
Bow: 15% increased damage
Crossbows: 50% Critical Hit Damage
Hand Crossbows: 10% Critical Hit Chance"

So by the way it reads, it makes it sound like if you are holding a crossbow, all of your abilities, including things like fan of knives and a "loaded for bear cluster arrow" will deal 50% more critical hit damage? Am I understanding this correctly? So, with sharpshooter full, you can walk into a mob of enemies with retaliate on(which deals 464% weapon damage to every enemy when you're struck), and get an auto, huge crit damage? Dealing upwards of 800% or more weapon damage to every enemy? Or does it roll a critical hit chance for each monster that your ability hits? If that is true, is that the same for an explosion ability like Cluster Arrow, or would a critical hit on that hit every target with a crit?


Another question is if a player is dual wielding crossbows, does he lose significant damage in basically every single ability now that EVERYTHING is based on weapon damage? I was excited to dual wield crossbows, but now it looks like abilities that I was very much looking forward to like fan of knives and chakram have to take a solid chunk out of their damage cause I am dual wielding. Is that how it works, or do I not understand it correctly?


Will it actually be possible to go around with a sword and a shield, perhaps with a weapon that can do more than a ranged one, avoiding the abilities that require a ranged weapon? I have heard people talk about it but would it really be viable, or do-able?



I just feel the more that I look at a demon hunter, the better off you would be with just a standard single bow or crossbow(mostly due to EVERYTHING being based off of weapon damage), which I'm not that interesting in using.


Any comments or answers would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys.

[HardRock]

So by the way it reads, it makes it sound like if you are holding a crossbow, all of your abilities, including things like fan of knives and a "loaded for bear cluster arrow" will deal 50% more critical hit damage? Am I understanding this correctly?

Since we don't have access to Archery, it's impossible to tell for sure, but most likely that's the case, yeah.


So, with sharpshooter full, you can walk into a mob of enemies with retaliate on(which deals 464% weapon damage to every enemy when you're struck), and get an auto, huge crit damage? Dealing upwards of 800% or more weapon damage to every enemy? Or does it roll a critical hit chance for each monster that your ability hits? If that is true, is that the same for an explosion ability like Cluster Arrow, or would a critical hit on that hit every target with a crit?

Critical hits are calculated per target, not per attack.


Another question is if a player is dual wielding crossbows, does he lose significant damage in basically every single ability now that EVERYTHING is based on weapon damage? I was excited to dual wield crossbows, but now it looks like abilities that I was very much looking forward to like fan of knives and chakram have to take a solid chunk out of their damage cause I am dual wielding. Is that how it works, or do I not understand it correctly?

You lose damage, but gain attack speed. If you're using good weapons, your DPS should be similar to what you could do with a two-handed weapon of the same level. Of course, you will be spending your resource more quickly with faster weapons, because of the lower damage, but your faster attack speed should counter that with better resource generation.


Will it actually be possible to go around with a sword and a shield, perhaps with a weapon that can do more than a ranged one, avoiding the abilities that require a ranged weapon? I have heard people talk about it but would it really be viable, or do-able?

It's certainly doable, but it remains to be seen if that will be a viable thing to do in the endgame.

[Snowbird]

But dual wielding crossbows doesn't reduce the CD's on any of your abilities, does it?

[HardRock]

No, with offensive skills that have a CD, you're better off with a two-hander. On the other hand, if you have a defensive skill that has no CD, then you can use that more often if you dual-wield, because of the increased resource generation.

Basically, whether DW or 2H is better comes down to personal preference and/or skill choices.

[lucidlore]

Rain of Vengeance is the Dh's only substantial offensive skill with a CD anyways, so I don't really see it as much of an issue.