Shooting Stars crit chance build

[swayzesghost]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...Ygd!ebT!YZaaYb

Seeing no love for cluster arrow, I started devising a playstyle built around it. The objective of this playstyle is to get as much equipment in the following areas as possible:

1. Critical chance
2. Critical damage

Using a heavy crossbow lends the extra 50% crit damage from Archery. The point of this style is that the following can happen:

Critical AoE explosion of Cluster arrow -> 3 critical shooting star rockets come out

Though it's rare, it does happen, and the damage is immense. No other attack feels as powerful in Inferno to my knowledge. The crit from the explosion doesn't carry over to the rockets, they're each calculated seperately at the base crit chance from what I can tell. So the objective of the build is really to fire cluster arrow as frequently as possible, preferably into groups.

I've sacrificed most of my vit for pure dex, and I outdamage just about every other player I've ever met on the way up to Inferno.

UPDATED....UPDATED...UPDATED....UPDATED...

Switch out marked for death with Preparation, the one that refills all hatred for 25 discipline. It is now extremely important to have +discipline on your quiver and armor, as you can easily gain enough to use preparation twice in a row, while increasing your escapability with vault, shadow power, and caltrops. Now onto the passives:

Night Stalker - Crits from the shooting star rockets help refill discipline, which in turn refills your hatred.
Vengeance - +25 Hatred allows for 3 shooting star rockets consecutively.
Sharpshooter - Increasing crit % vital to this build as your objective is to shoot critical rockets.

Okay, now things just got nasty. The following sequence happens frequently now:

Shoot 3 rockets
Preparation
Shoot 3 rockets
Preparation
etc....Every time you increase your crit chance on your equipment you basically give yourself more discipline regen. Hatred regen is important too. This build is all about resource management.

Note that during downtime when you have no hatred, shoot your entangling shot and then right click and use your no-hatred cluster arrow...The regular arrow does 100% damage as opposed to 75% from entangling shot, bigger crits with normal attack!! (argh blizzard)

[Qvardz]

I really like the cluster arrow too, it feels incredibly satisfying. Also it is a surprisingly good single-target skill, thanks to 3 rockets going to the same target.
Have you tried Ballistics passive instead of Vengeance? It should increase rocket damage from 175% to 262%, multiply it by 3 rockets and the result must be pretty impressive!

[swayzesghost]

I was using Ballistics to begin with, but with Vengeance you get a whole nother cluster arrow out, so I think it trumps on damage and versatility since I don't use any other rocket-based skills.

[The Kiezer]

I really like the cluster arrow too, it feels incredibly satisfying. Also it is a surprisingly good single-target skill, thanks to 3 rockets going to the same target.
Have you tried Ballistics passive instead of Vengeance? It should increase rocket damage from 175% to 262%, multiply it by 3 rockets and the result must be pretty impressive!

If there is only one mob and you use Cluster Arrow/Shooting Stars on it, it will take damage from a) the initial blast and b) only one of the rockets.

For 50 Hatred, I think CA should be a versatile damage dealer and the rockets should all be able to hit the same target if there are no others around.

Excited to pair Vengeance with Grenadier and Ballistics. That's a massive amount of damage right off the bat, although it might be more beneficial to take Sharpshooter instead of Ballistics to fire off 2 sure-fire crits at the beginning of an encounter.

[swayzesghost]

If there is only one mob and you use Cluster Arrow/Shooting Stars on it, it will take damage from a) the initial blast and b) only one of the rockets.

This is wrong, as I've been playing this build for over thirty hours now. All three of the rockets do seek back to the same target.

[Freddeh]

I wish a build like http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...YVT!ghX!YbZcZZ was actually viable, with a lot of crit you can have almost infinite hatred using Rapid Fire, with a MASSIVE spike damage in the form of 8 Cluster Arrows.

But Steady Aim is basically a required talent (so much practically free damage), and even in groups, SS/Prep is required to just live.

[swayzesghost]

Have to go back and eat my words to an extent, in lieu of further testing. It seems that shooting stars, used on a single target, only results in a single rocket seeking the original target. Need to do more testing to be absolutely sure, as I feel like there's a % chance that the second or third rocket may seek the original target as well. Rockets will seek out pots and barrels and things like that in some cases.

This definitely lowers its viability as a pure single-target skill, but I feel it's uncontested in groups.

[swayzesghost]

Rolled this post into original post.