Hell Act4 - Safe for Solo DH?

[Ange]

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster here. Please excuse me if I say anything stupid..


My little 60DH has been sitting in Hell Act3 for sometimes now, wanting to make a move into Act4, and perhaps for a Diablo kill. But just my luck as two of my barb friends died back-to-back in the past two days and I'm now considering the possibility of soloing A4 on my DH.


No prior experience with Hell Act4 whatsoever so I'm *very* scared, wondering if fellow DH veterans or just any HC expert could give be some pointers on my chance of surviving A4 here.


My unspectacular stats...
(This is with Sharpshooter on, without SS my DPS is 21.1k)
SS1.jpg


What I'd like to know specifically:


1. With the Oppressor charged attack - could I take a hit? Would I survive if I'm unfortunate enough to get 2 of them charging at my at the same time?


2.Clearing Hell rifts - some of the Hell rifts has huge swarm of mobs right where you zone in, I usually lagged a bit there and worry that lag could have gotten me killed if I dont Smoke Screen in time, or couldnt clear them all out before I get killed?


3.Rakanoth with its Teleport - I've read if you don't run too far then he wouldn't teleport. But *if* I end up going too far...would I get one-shotted?


4.Iskatu with shadow vermins - What would be most effective AOE here? Spike trap? Cluster bomb? How much would they hit a DH for in Hell difficulty?


5.Diablo - I've read some of the DH discussion posts here and it seems that my gear might be enough for a kill. But would it be a tough battle? Or should I gear up some more for a more secure win?




Thanks for any input guys....much appreciated

[lanceuppercut]

You should manage it, I took hell diablio with no more than 25k hp and dps, I know that for a fact as I don't currently have more than that now in inferno, I am struggling where I am now though.

1) If I was being honest I didn't feel "entirely" safe due to oppressor charges taking quite a chunk but never killed me. I don't think I was 60 for hell diablo iirc.

2) Caltrops/jagged spikes gives you a nice bit oif time and damage from being swarmed.

4) Iskatu was a walk in the park, done this for all difficulties: run around spamming caltrops/jagged spikes and hitting iskatu with impale/overpenetration (to get a hit through the crowd)

My skills are very defensive with caltops/JS, vault/tumble, SS/lingering fog, prep/battle scars, HA/PA, impale/overpenetration.

Have stuck with that all the time since 35 when battle scars unlocked.

edit: you have more all resist than I do now, heh! I was 58/59 I think when took down hell Diablo.

[Ange]

Thanks that was very helpful! Was quite apprehensive of Iskatu but that trick you suggested sounds great. I might test the water a bit tonight and see how it goes..


Couple of questions on your build..


Impale/Overpenetration - Are you using this for boss fights or clearing mobs? I find Impale to be quite costly hatred-wise. So in boss fights where there's only 1 enemy does Overpenetration rune provide any additional damage? And if clearing mobs I wonder if Elemental arrow/Ball lightning would be more effective?


Caltrops/JS - I'm using Torturous Ground rune which I found really helpful while kiting Elites, that extra few seconds of immobility and charged attack cancellation saved me quite a few times. Is the Jagged Spike damage worth the trade-off? I know you've got that fancy Nat's set (nice!) but for normal gear DH with Dicp. budget I wonder if Caltrops/JS could slow down the Fast affixes elites enough to get a safe distance?

[lanceuppercut]

I used JS even before I had nat's set, while its not quite as useful as TG's full stun (and infact I am thinking about going back esp in inferno), the thing that really annoyed me about TG was it stuns on initial activation only and up till now i'd found damage over time (in addition to me slapping them in the face with arrows) more useful.

Logically with nat's set I should look to switch to TG due to the regen meaning I can drop more meaning i stun a lot more often and inferno things hitting way harder than I'm comfortable with. It's really a set to build around as my gold find gear has more health and hp, but lower resists as its sub-lvl60 gear.

The impale is definately a personal preference thing, I use it all the time and dont switch out as its my "you, at the back of the crowd, die, now" attack. Granted it's not as effective vs bosses but prior to 60 where changing skills meant not losing NV, I would switch to chemical burn. But overall I found hitting for 250% of multiple things in a straight line, and fast was something I liked as HA's projectile is slower.

So for normal mobs, i woukd kite a bit with caltrops damaging them as they line up into a nice neat line.. I tried BL/NT but didn't get along with them, as my hatred spender is only used when things must die ASAP, otherwise HA does all the donkey work.

As damage goes for bosses, chemical burn would do better if you have low crit chance (else GW for the additional 100%) but I don't take the risk of my uber shot, hitting a minion and being wasted. With iverpenetration, so what if a minion gets in the way, iskatu will still get hit by my impale due to projectile speed..

edit: have come to the conclusion that TG is the way forward, that stun is infact, invaluable

[Realyn]

Long story short, you can steamroll it. Just as a benchmark, a week or so after release I did act 4/hell solo as DH with zero resists, 40k health, 1h crossbow/shield and ~7k dps.

1. Yes you should be able to take 2 hits.
2. Yeah you can die right there, laggs for everyone I know and if you get unlucky you have a ****load of mobs around.
3. No he wouldn't kill you, still - stay close.
4. He's a joke with your gear. Just Ball Lightning your way to victory.
5. And so is Dia, if you don't really suck at kiting you shouldn't take 1 health point of damage.

If you are playing EU and need some help add me.

[Medozg]

Just go do it,they won't be able to touch you,and with DH high mobility even if they get close you can dissappear for second and kill them

Play safe,but you should have 0 problems

On SC,I have 25k life,0 ressists,around 3k armor and 100k dps with SS( you can get that if you get good crit chance xbow) and I'm farming act 1 inferno w/o any problem (sometimes 1 death in whole act because I'm careless) ,but always be sure that mob isn't reflect damage before you shoot at it because that WILL 1-shot you!!!

[Steven Hazani]

Your stats are barely good enough for act1 Inferno, Hell should be no problem.

With all the huge swarms of mobs: I just spammed Ball Lightning and didn't care at all.

If you're worried use Smoke Screen or Shadow Power/Gloom.

I very, very seriously doubt anything in Hell would kill you in 1 or even 2 hits with those stats. 3 maybe for the strong stuff.

[Ange]

Thanks so much for the input guys, greatly appreciated! And thanks Realyn for offering to help, if I've played on EU I would have added you, am on US server tho.

Finally went in for the kill tonight after much procrastinating/whimpering/chickening out in front of the Crystal Arch.
Damaging Diablo was not a problem, although much of my time was spent dodging his attacks.
His meteor move takes around 20% of my HP off, and the one where he spews out a spectrum of laser hurt more, perhaps 30% HP.
Got jailed once, took around 40% HP off. But there were plenty of health globes + fountains throughout the fight so for the duration of the fight I was comfortably above ~70%.

The Oppressor charge took around 20~25% of my HP off, luckily I had not had 2 coming at me at the same time so not much problem there. The swarms of mobs inside Hell rift was not as bad as previously experienced in NM, they were more spread out when I entered. I would still say tho, with a few seconds of lag and a unfortunate large crowd right at the entrance this could still pose a risk for solo DHs.

Onwards to Inferno now, and it felt like an entirely different game.. I guess more farmfest needs to take place before I could actually play in Inferno..

[Steven Hazani]

Act1 isn't too bad. If you can get 1 or perhaps 2 more items with 60+ res all you should be fine. It's later that will get you, as DHs have no static defensive multipliers, only short duration active skills meaning your armor and resists will be low even if you go out of your way to raise them via every means you can.

I know spiderlings were basically impossible for me even when I could die as much as I wanted. I can't imagine dealing with them on HC as a DH. Not alone at least. If someone can tank you should be fine.

[lanceuppercut]

Finally went in for the kill tonight after much procrastinating/whimpering/chickening out in front of the Crystal Arch.

Well done! Nothing to worry about at all was there..!

I think the shadow phase is the worst (it's not so much the clone, rather SD being able to teleport around!) because for 1/3 you can dodge pretty much everything as a DH.