Frost arrow vs NT vs ball lightning vs impale vs?

**Micahwc** · 12-07-2012, 19:22

Which skill is the best and why?

I like impale combined with sharpshooter, but the only rune I have found worth using is overpenetration. Its good for a guaranteed massive damage critical hit to everything in a line.

I liked ball lightning in earlier difficulties, but I didn't like how slow it traveled. NT seems to be similar to me, though I like the life steal on it.

I don't have anything personal against frost arrow but Its hard to ignore the bright yellow, six digit numbers I see with impale.

Please discuss:

**GIJoeWWW** · 12-07-2012, 19:45

I'm using NT, even after the nerf. It works well with Hungering Arrow and Sharp Shooter. Shoot off a few NT, while they are traveling, fire off a couple of HA, with SS, every hit is critical. Life steal from NT is small, but helps. Tried FA, didn't like it. Difficult to aim, and the slow effect is hardly noticeable. It just doesn't work well for crowd control. Back in D2 days, FA used to have that nice splash effect.

**Slipfoot** · 12-07-2012, 20:38

Im using FA with SS and Cull of the weak.. Works pretty well for me in Inferno. I use HA for my primary. Works well with elite packs too. Yeah the stare is barely noticeable. Really depends on what skills/passives your gonna go with. I have around 250% i think crit dmg and get up to 100K dmg.

**Shadow Hado** · 12-07-2012, 23:51

Originally Posted by GIJoeWWW

I'm using NT, even after the nerf. It works well with Hungering Arrow and Sharp Shooter. Shoot off a few NT, while they are traveling, fire off a couple of HA, with SS, every hit is critical. Life steal from NT is small, but helps. Tried FA, didn't like it. Difficult to aim, and the slow effect is hardly noticeable. It just doesn't work well for crowd control. Back in D2 days, FA used to have that nice splash effect.

I'm currently using the same setup, but with Ball Lightning instead of NT. I really like the "huge" range that Ball Lightning has, and I do the exact same thing as you: fire a couple BL followed by some Hungering Arrows. I also still run Impale with Grievous Wounds for the start of a fight, or sometimes in the middle of one. I also really like Overpenetration, but I figure that's what BL + Hungering Arrows is for.

I tried to use Frost Arrow and I just didn't like it in Inferno. It doesn't have the wide hitbox BL does, and the snare just seemed underwhelming for me most of the time.

**Such Violent Storms** · 13-07-2012, 00:11

Ball Lightning seems to be best, though I like Covering Fire over hungering arrow. Covering Fire/Frost Arrow works well, as CF makes up for the reduced AoE-ness of Frost Arrow. The snare for Frost Arrow works quite well if you have the attack speed to keep them perma-slowed, and/or if you have a Cold-dmg bow.

Cull of The Weak, Archery/Tactical, and Steady Aim as passives with FA. The duration of the slow isn't reduced by slow resistance, only the amount.

**Lanthanide** · 13-07-2012, 01:15

I never got to use NT pre-nerf: was at clvl 58 when they nerfed it.

I started using Ball Lightning in early Nightmare and kept it up until recently in Inferno. With low DPS, the slow movement speed of BL was actually good, because you could pump 3 or 4 of them out into a group and then re-position yourself or use another fast skill to help weaken the group. But now that I have much higher DPS, I can kill Act 1 Inferno enemies in 1-3 shots of evasive fire (cover, of course) and it's just so much faster than sitting around waiting for BL so I found myself hardly using it. So now I've swapped to FA + EF: FA is much faster than BL and also does 170% damage so it's more of a punch and better on single targets than EF is, so now I use FA. Still compared to my earlier playing I use EF more than I used to though.

FA doesn't hit as many targets as BL would, and my experience with FA does not match others on this forum, where they say they have seen the child splinters snake all over the screen (including doing 180 course changes etc) and hitting multiple enemies: in my experience it's firing behaviour is more like multishot, where the splinters will tend to travel forwards or seek enemies out in a cone, rather than anywhere on the screen.

**JackalYYC** · 13-07-2012, 03:13

None of the above.

Still using Cluster Arrow! Love me some burst damage with homing rockets. I find it's reaaaaally handy on the Invulnerable Minion packs, as it goes through the pack, impacting your point of aim, and the rockets tend to hit the super unique in the middle. Also the rockets travel through Waller...walls.

**Shadow Hado** · 13-07-2012, 03:44

Originally Posted by JackalYYC

None of the above.

Still using Cluster Arrow! Love me some burst damage with homing rockets. I find it's reaaaaally handy on the Invulnerable Minion packs, as it goes through the pack, impacting your point of aim, and the rockets tend to hit the super unique in the middle. Also the rockets travel through Waller...walls.

I was unaware of the rockets traveling through Waller walls! Maybe I will give Cluster a shot in Impale's place.

**lanceuppercut** · 13-07-2012, 05:53

impale for me, i use it as a super piercing shot, just have to aim is all

**GIJoeWWW** · 13-07-2012, 13:59

That is good info. Invunerables always give me the most trouble.

Originally Posted by JackalYYC

None of the above.

Still using Cluster Arrow! Love me some burst damage with homing rockets. I find it's reaaaaally handy on the Invulnerable Minion packs, as it goes through the pack, impacting your point of aim, and the rockets tend to hit the super unique in the middle. Also the rockets travel through Waller...walls.