Lets discuss tank builds

[EquiLa]

I'm currently trying to play a pure stunlocking LoH build, without gloom and natalya. Here's the build http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#UYlVXe!XUT!cbaccc. 20K dps, 4K armor, 570 AR avg, 64k life, 33% dodge, 1600 LoH, 15% stun/freeze, 20% cc without ss, no shield. Act 2 is easy, can tank 3 elites packs at the same time, the only ones that are somewhat annoying are the guardians spitting fire on the ground. I switch smoke with gloom against belial just to move safely during meteor attacks. Act 3 is almost fine, ghom runs are smooth, I avoid arcane beams. Keep tanking Ghom and azmodan doesn't require gloom at all. Most of act 3 elites are fine overall, unless some dirty ranged combos. CaC elites are almost permanently stun/freezelocked ..

Sounds really interesting.

How did you get such high numbers of Stun/Freeze? 2x Weapon + Gloves is the only spots I can come up with that gives stun.
Why Rain of Vengence? Decent proccrate for Stun on it?

Think I'll give this a try, been searching for something fun to test.

Edit:
Freeze = Belt 5% / Weapons 3%
Stun = Gloves 5% / Weapons 3%

[thefranklin]

Speedloader: Sounds fun, but you are in the same boat Equila is compared to most people: your gear is really good and whatever you do will work fine Are you dual wielding or using a 2hander?

I have been crushing act 2 with a 500k 1120 dps 600 loh 2h crossbow. Not sure what weapon I want to invest in next (1h or 2h) and I only have about 3 mil in my account so it will take a little more saving. My defensive stats are 42k hp with 550 all resist and 5k defense when not shielded. I get 20k-21k dps with 2h, and only like 14k dual wield. I have been using spike traps as my spender, and even at only 20k dps they hit pretty hard in act 2.


I tried Dark Cloud but found it ~meh. I don't even like Shuriken Cloud that much, either, but it does a great job of proccing extra loh for me. Does Nightstalker help you that much?

[Virility]

I'm currently trying to play a pure stunlocking LoH build, without gloom and natalya. Here's the build http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...VXe!XUT!cbaccc. 20K dps, 4K armor, 570 AR avg, 64k life, 33% dodge, 1600 LoH, 15% stun/freeze, 20% cc without ss, no shield. Act 2 is easy, can tank 3 elites packs at the same time, the only ones that are somewhat annoying are the guardians spitting fire on the ground. I switch smoke with gloom against belial just to move safely during meteor attacks. Act 3 is almost fine, ghom runs are smooth, I avoid arcane beams. Keep tanking Ghom and azmodan doesn't require gloom at all. Most of act 3 elites are fine overall, unless some dirty ranged combos. CaC elites are almost permanently stun/freezelocked ..

I had looked into the freeze modifier but just on the weapon, I managed a bow with around 3% i think, the frequency of freeze seemed to prefer the white monsters over the elites(my luck), I could not tell whether the piercing hunger arrow would freeze multiple monsters much like the pierce skill would using freezing arrow in D2 (which really was my hope). I recently found a belt with the freeze modifier(for a barb) on it and it reminded me of my half hearted attempt at freezing hunger arrow.

You seem to have found something very interesting.

[speedloader]

Sorry for the delay ..

3.8% stun on bow (much higher than 1handers)
4.8% on gloves
2.5% on quiver (you forgot them)
4.2% freeze on belt

Dark cloud proc stuns/freeze, LoH, and night stalker. I kept it mainly because it's useful when fighting frost/nightmare elites, it often saved my life when I could not avoid being frozen. Since it also doesn't kill act3/4 trash mobs, I often use them to proc more LoH when fighting elites. I like it a lot.

My gear is not over the top. When I wrote the previous post, it cost less than 30M (european server). If you're looking for maximum stunlocking, a bow is perfect. For maximum LoH, dual xbows. I'm not sure wearing a shield would really help but never tried tho.

Night stalker indeed helps, here are two vids I recorded recently for another forum, inferno diablo and whimsyshire .. hope it'll help



And http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xsk...oll_videogames

I had looked into the freeze modifier but just on the weapon, I managed a bow with around 3% i think, the frequency of freeze seemed to prefer the white monsters over the elites(my luck),

Not your luck, elites resistances to CCs seem to affect frequencies rather than durations.

[Kinmaul]

I'm actually liking Fan of Knives - Retaliate less and less as I get more dex. At 1858 dex my dodge chance is 38.5% and if I get a dodge streak going it can take a few seconds for Retaliate to proc which cuts into the dps by quite a bit. Since it's a 10 second cd every extra second it takes to proc is an effective 10% dps loss for the skill. I still like Fan of Knives, but I've been messing around with the other runes as they are more reliable.

Besides that though this guide has been a huge help in getting my tank DH off the ground. I'm already halfway through a4, but I was able to steal a lot of gear from my monk who has finished the game. I'm sure I can finish the act, but I've been busy and haven't had much time to play. Great job with the write up.

[shoraz]

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/K.../hero/11662754

that's my friend's DH tank on hardcore. Works in a1/a2. For a3 still needs better gear tho.
Caltrops is procing LoH like crazy.

[Kinmaul]

Oui!! I don't think I would use this build on HC in a3/a4. Your friend is living on the edge!

Finished up a4 with a 5 stack Diablo kill. http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/K.../hero/22758046

Edit:
I had to swap out Grenades for Hungering Arrow on Belial in a2 because it seemed like in p3 they just flew off the edge and did no damage to him. My dps and LoH returns were pathetic until I swapped to HA and then he went down easily.

[EquiLa]

Sorry for the delay ..

3.8% stun on bow (much higher than 1handers)
4.8% on gloves
2.5% on quiver (you forgot them)
4.2% freeze on belt

Dark cloud proc stuns/freeze, LoH, and night stalker. I kept it mainly because it's useful when fighting frost/nightmare elites, it often saved my life when I could not avoid being frozen. Since it also doesn't kill act3/4 trash mobs, I often use them to proc more LoH when fighting elites. I like it a lot.

My gear is not over the top. When I wrote the previous post, it cost less than 30M (european server). If you're looking for maximum stunlocking, a bow is perfect. For maximum LoH, dual xbows. I'm not sure wearing a shield would really help but never tried tho.

Yepp, you're totally right. Missed them

I bought a set with 2x 900 dps ~800loh/2.5 stun 1hXbows, 5% stun gloves and 4.8 freeze belt and tried it out but wasnt really my cup of tea. I prefer having a shield instead of 2x xbows(or bow/quiver as in your case). Its a bit too unreliable for my taste and I feel like you're giving up too much getting those stats aswell on very affix heavy spots. Gloves and weapons arent exatly the place you want to aim for yet another stat

I'm actually liking Fan of Knives - Retaliate less and less as I get more dex. At 1858 dex my dodge chance is 38.5% and if I get a dodge streak going it can take a few seconds for Retaliate to proc which cuts into the dps by quite a bit. Since it's a 10 second cd every extra second it takes to proc is an effective 10% dps loss for the skill. I still like Fan of Knives, but I've been messing around with the other runes as they are more reliable.

I'm on the same track as you, I really like the extra damage from Retaliate but it proccs off ranged attacks aswell which can make it wiff vs casters soemtimes which is a bit annoying. The dodge doesnt really matter I think since the cooldown starts as soon as you activate it, not when you use it. Correct me if I'm wrong, tried it a couple of times and seems correct.

Hail of Knives perhaps? Hits a bit more enemies and its easier to get those pesky runners. So used to retaliate I haven't really considered the alternatives. Farming Vault of the Assassin now and I feel like this might be a good choice with all the casters there.

Besides that though this guide has been a huge help in getting my tank DH off the ground. I'm already halfway through a4, but I was able to steal a lot of gear from my monk who has finished the game. I'm sure I can finish the act, but I've been busy and haven't had much time to play. Great job with the write up.

Thanks, was hoping it would help someone or at least catch someone interest to try out a different playstyle

Ye, I'm currently leveling my last char, a monk, planning on using my demon hunters gear on him when I get him to 60 and see how it goes.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/K.../hero/11662754

that's my friend's DH tank on hardcore. Works in a1/a2. For a3 still needs better gear tho.
Spike trap is procing LoH like crazy.

I'm not really a fan of using Natalya but thats a nice setup he's got there.

Oui!! I don't think I would use this build on HC in a3/a4. Your friend is living on the edge!

Finished up a4 with a 5 stack Diablo kill. http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/K.../hero/22758046

Edit:
I had to swap out Grenades for Hungering Arrow on Belial in a2 because it seemed like in p3 they just flew off the edge and did no damage to him. My dps and LoH returns were pathetic until I swapped to HA and then he went down easily.

Grats! You're ahead of me then

Been stuck in mid A4 for more then 2 months now and havent had the heart to even try, afraid I'll loose interest in the game if I finish it up..bit weird but well.

I've been doing full clears in A2 ending with Belial for quite some time and I havent really had that problem. Where did you position yourself? Tried the lower east corner?

Major update of the main post coming up this week hopefully. Just gotta put some time into it.

[Kalixian]

Great build. I'm finally progressing through act 2 and once I get some more health it should be a breeze.

I use hail of knives instead of retaliate; it's a good skill but seems unnecessary with awareness (which is awesome). I may drop it for something defensive, probably smokescreen for a panic button against nasty elites.

Thoughts on attack speed vs crit damage? Crit damage adds huge dps (using nightstalker with 43% crit) but IAS should give more life on hit, right? Will it increase LOH from jagged spikes and shruken cloud or just from the faster grenades? Does jagged spikes benefit from crit?

[Arthwyr]

Great build, works well for melee, but I'm getting pwned by groups of ranged mobs on Act3, especially heralds, flying monsters and those javelin throwing goats.

Every time I close them down they run away, which means they're not standing in the caltrops (no LOH, no slow) and none of my abilities can hit them apart from grenades and impale, neither of which work well against packs of ranged mobs.

Anyone got any tips on how best to handle them?