Levelling builds

[Karth]

Since the US servers are down at the moment I thought I'd talk about mid-game builds and such. I'm in A2 and I've played around with various skills, but what I'm using right now boils down to this:

Hungering Arrow (Puncturing Arrow): simply fantastic, destroys anything when I don't have hatred for Chakram or Impale.
Entagling Shot (Chain Gang): Considering replacing this with something else.
Chakram (Twin Chakrams): Eats groups of enemies up like nothing else.
Vault (Action Shot): Too useful to pass up. Speeds up everything on top of keeping me out of trouble in combat.
Tactical Advantage: Again, too useful. 15% extra damage vs distant enemies would be nice since nothing stays in my face very long if it even gets there, but I don't really need it; I can wait until level 20 for that.

With ~120 and change dps in early(I think) Act 2 nothing really slows her down. Not sure what I want to replace Chain Gang with. It currently seems a bit redundant since it is much more efficient to Chakram groups of enemies as long as I have enough hatred, which I mostly do (10 hatred is *cheap* for something as devastating to groups as that). They die too quickly to need to CC them... or if they don't, I'm better off Vaulting back and laying out more Chakrams for them to walk into. With only one Discipline spender I don't really run low on that resource unless I'm using it to run around town.

So what about you guys? Let's hear it. :o)

[SRPang]

Right now, I have:

- Bola Shot (Volatile Explosives)
- Rapid Fire (Withering Fire)
- Multishot
- Caltrops (Hooked Spines)
- Vault (Rattling Roll)
- Marked for Death

This build is a bit heavy on Hatred so I am unable to use Multishot really heavily. It has good AoE though and very strong single-target damage (I can't get over how good Rapid Fire is for single target). Will probably pick up Bat Companion once I can to help with Hatred.

Before this build I had Entangling Shot (Chain Gang) which had better CC and allowed me to spam Rapid Fire more. Am thinking about going back to that build...just want to see how my current one plays out.

[Karth]

Yeah, I've got Multishot now and I'm also considering some changes. I've just picked up a bunch of 'big' skills to test out though so I'll have to play around a bit before I settle into anything. Chain gang has promise with Multishot though; you can slow down the enemies in the front and potentially line up more of the jokers to hit with Multishot so you can improve the efficiency.

I did some multiplayer too, and I have to say that Vault is a bit of a pain when dodging enemies often makes me move far from my party. I think I might try to avoid it for combat and use Smoke Screen instead. Chakrams are also less good in multiplayer; you really want your enemies to be moving towards you or moving around when you fill the air with Chakrams, otherwise you get too many enemies in blind spots and such. I think Multishot will end up better for groups even though it is less mana-efficient (well, unruned..)

[sippin]

Soon as you get out of normal, you have to worry about running into groups of elites that will eat you alive if your build isn't solid. These AoE build's are only good up thru normal from what i can tell.

[SRPang]

I guess time will tell but what do you recommend? More single-target damage?

And completely unrelated but I must say that I've been very impressed with the damage output from Bola. Stacking a couple of them and seeing them blow up and take out entire packs is pure bliss.

[Karth]

Soon as you get out of normal, you have to worry about running into groups of elites that will eat you alive if your build isn't solid. These AoE build's are only good up thru normal from what i can tell.

We'll see. I'm going to take my time to improve gear a good bit before I leave normal... and it isn't like I'm ignoring single-target damage... ohhh! I didn't list Impale (Impact)! Anyway... that tears up elite and rare mobs... especially rare packs since I only have one horrible baddie I need to stunlock with it (and other trash I can chain gang, AoE down, or ignore temporarily via vault/smoke screen)

[obleo]

Currently I am about half way through Normal Act 4. I am using:

LMB: Hungering Arrow (Puncturing Arrow)
RMB: Rapid Fire (Withering Fire)
1: Caltrops (Hooked Spines)
2: Vault (Action Shot)
3: Marked for Death (Contagion)
4: Multishot (Fire at Will)

Anything gets close just Caltrops and Vault away. Multishot is ridiculous for clearing packs. Rapid Fire is the go to skill for bosses. Hungering arrow is great for the homing, just fire off the screen and you are going to hit something (great when your are dodging stuff and need to get some hatred)

[domus]

Here is the build I've been using so far - note I'm exploring every nook and cranny and really enjoying the experience. I will have millions of later runs for zerging. The build has been excellent at quickly clearing large packs and keeping hatred topped off.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...XdQY!Yc!aaZZ.a

Then I hit the Act II main boss last night right.. And wiped repeatedly. Bringing in Hungering, Rapid Fire, Marked & Shadow Power in next build for more attempts tonight. (this was right before I got booted & called it quits after they announced more maintenance) I just wasn't getting enough damage done fast enough.

[gblan]

I have Caltrops/Hooked Spines and Vault macroed and keymapped on my Blackwidow Ultimate kb. One button press and two skills instantly engaged. HUGE lifesaver. The Naga Hex mouse with six side buttons is absolutely perfect for this game.

[Karth]

I'm now in A4 normal with a pretty glass-y DH (~1700 hp, %27% dr, ~17% dodge, but ~600 dps) using a bow to give her a (very) strong multishot and impale and minimize the amount of time I spend plinking with generators. Hatred is no problem like this; I get +1/second from the templar guy and .52/second from gear and only wish I had more hatred during boss fights; the rest of the time I just try not to use Multishot on less than 3 mobs (so tempting! what a lazy man's skill).

Okay, so here's my current build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#abZQdX!aYe!aaaaZZ
Beyond a little bit of fiddling this is pretty much what I expected to end up using (might change impale and not all skills have the runes I want yet).
Puncturing arrow + Impale are a great 1-2 combo for any type of boss or rare mob. Impale a few times to make your generator useful, then alternate between impale and puncturing arrow to keep them stunlocked... but keep some hatred in reserve to multishot once or twice if other monsters join in.
Chain gang slows down any mobs that I can't kill with 1-2 multishots(more effective than just 4x mobs being 60% slowed; the mobs in the back get in a traffic jam with the slowed ones most of the time) and is great for picking off spread-out stragglers that you don't want to waste 20 hatred to multishot.
Multishot: Feels overpowered. I don't know what other builds would be doing at this point in the game, but all the big groups of monsters rushing my dh die in two multishots if I bother to line them up properly, three if I don't. Most elite packs I can kill with just multishot, and it wipes out rare mobs' minions easily so I can deal with them without distractions... and usually the rare is half dead by then too.
Vault: Essential, I couldn't live without it. Use it to position yourself, use it to explore faster, use it in town, use it to get out of dodge when you don't need to spend the extra discipline on Smoke Screen.
Smoke Screen: Gets you out of the really deep trouble. I often use it to drop aggro so my templar can tank without me having to abandon an advantageous position (IE vault), or when facing ranged mobs that attack fairly fast so I can keep burning them down instead of spending half or more of my time dodging projectiles.

Everything's been a cake walk with this so far. I look forward to meeting the A4 boss and dipping my toes into Nightmare so I can get a bit more of a challenge.