Help me reach 80k Dps (or more) ?

[wcparker]

I'm very happy with my Demon Hunter so far. I'm up to about 68k dps, with what I would consider acceptable survivability. I'm trying to figure out the cheapest improvements that remain to be made, my current goal is to reach ~80k damage.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/wcparker-1947/hero/21482016

I've identified three areas where I could improve.


More Dex: My gloves and cloak are well short of the theoretical max. Cloaks with 100 natural dex and 3 sockets are coming up insanely expensive on the AH, but I suppose I just have to snipe one with empty sockets.
More Offensive Stats: My gloves could have crit damage, my rings could have crit chance, and my amulet could have crit chance and/or attack speed. Again the prices are high, but if this is the next step I'll start saving.
Better Weapon: I found my weapon myself and I love it, but it's a bit of a crutch. Reasonable damage, high dex, vit, and LoH. If I got rid of it, I'd take a big stat hit, and I have no idea how I'd kill Reflect Damage packs. On the other hand, I could add 100% bonus crit in this slot. If I was going to take this approach, can you tell me what damage and stats I would be reasonable to aim for on an upgrade? Also if I'm doing this, I think it would make sense to wait for 1.0.4 and the proliferation of high-damage weapons. Do you agree, or am I already past the point where that will help?

Is one of these the cheapest way to boost my damage? Or something else entirely? Thanks for your advice!

[Adeyj]

Ok IMO...
Cloak - search for one with under 100 dex & 3 sox with other stats you want, under 100 will be much cheaper.

Your crit chance isn't very high, probably Ammy would be the best option.
As for reflect elites, try shadow power - gloom, it's just awesome. This might free you up to get a high dmg weapon with nice dex.
You sound like you already know what you need to me though ; )
or you could use sharpshooter till you get the crit chance up.

[wcparker]

Thanks! A couple questions and comments:

Amulet: Would you sacrifice any of the stats on my current amulet (if so which)? Or would you look for an amulet with say 7% crit, 60% crit damage, 150 Dex, and 100 Vit? That's a hell of an amulet, but if it's the only place to go so be it.

Shadow Power - Gloom : What would you take off of my skillbar? My guess would be Caltrops or Vault, but I'm not sure which. It's probably relevant to mention that while I've been experimenting with Cluster Arrow, my usual spender is Frost Arrow.

I don't care for Sharpshooter, because it makes me not want to shoot things (hitting a trash mob or firing a Hungering Arrow wastes potential damage).

[Virility]

crit chance to >30% to take advantage of crit damage, this will move the number higher, more dex is a no brainer

your gems are not consistent with the quality of your gear, you have put together good quality parts and you stick sub 40 dex gems in slots??

when you consider changing a piece, consider the armor value as well as the stat(s) you are upgrading

give your bow to the scoundrel, get one with crit damage-you want a bigger damage number start working towards getting the proper weapon, if you are unsure as to the raw improvement use one of the many fine damage calculators available so you can make an informed decision, 145 dex is not trivial, so select your new bow accordingly, you have about 2-300 more dex to add without losing vit, resists and still improving your armor

you are going to have to choose crit chance/damage over ias in some places or get very lucky and find all three, ias adds a surprisingly nice boost to dps, you'll have fun struggling with the choices.

[Adeyj]

Id be tempted to drop the vault, but obviously thats only my preference.

[Wurmer]

Already a lot of good suggestions. My 2 cents would be to go for critical damage as well. It's the best way to improve your DPS. I have critical damage anywhere I can use it. Fully geared for damages my DPS is around 97K. Let me make another suggestion if you please. High DPS is all very good but you also need to think about survivability as well. I don't know where you're playing at the moment but I am guessing that you are in inferno. It's been my experience that high DPS does not grant survivability, it's important but don't go crazy just for the sake of having high DPS. My DH die a lot less since I've upgraded its gear with all resistance, it helps quite a bit but I still die in A-2 now and then. All my resistances are between 500-600. I have also started to use a shield with good mods on it and all resistances as well. My current setup allow my around 58k but my LOH is a bit low for my taste around 400, my HP is around 42K. If I could up my LOH to 800-900 that would be really nice but this requires some major gold spending in order to get a weapon that provides both LOH and critical damage with good base damage. In A-3, I have yet to fathom how to survive for a decent amount of time. Another example, my son has a DH that does around 120k DPS with above average gear, he can hardly survive in act-3. There is no amount of DPS that will you keep out of arms way. A balance is needed.

[Adeyj]

Without splitting hairs crit damage is not always going to be the best way to improve your dps. Doubtless it will improve it, but if you have naff all crit chance you would be better off improving crit chance or dex.
5-600 all res is great... How many hits can you take in act 3? What's your vita too? The important thing about LOH is that the percentage that is returned varies between skills. If I remember hungering arrow is about top with 65% returned. I'm running with about 1200 LOH and 2.6% leech and it won't help at all if you die in 1 or 2 hits. Don't get me wrong it helps, but shadow power gloom works much better as it can heal you in a couple of decent shots.
About act 3..... I found it much easier once I was clear of the battlements, it was nasty up there.

[thefranklin]

I want your bow.

i agree with Wurmer in that you need a bow with a hole in it and put an 80%+ crit damage gem into it. (it's at this point you hand me over your bow, sweet find btw). I have seen a lot of people with damage much higher with 2k dex or even less. Using Cluster Bombs with only 2 shots at a time (use Grenadier, it is better) and increased attack speed does not make much sense. I would swap that out of the rings and put on cirt chance instead. I also liked using Justice is Served for extra hatred for more Cluster Bombs, but I am guessing you have tried that and didn't like it.

I have never been a big vault or Shadow Power user, but if Reflect Damage is the only mob giving you troubles, drop out SS for Shadow Power. I guess the only other time you use it is when you get walled? You do have some decent resists (your armor is low and helps just as much as all resist).

Oh and your quiver can be a lot better. Here is the reason I wanted your bow http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/t...7/hero/3781560.

[Wurmer]

What's your vita too? The important thing about LOH is that the percentage that is returned varies between skills. If I remember hungering arrow is about top with 65% returned. I'm running with about 1200 LOH and 2.6% leech and it won't help at all if you die in 1 or 2 hits. Don't get me wrong it helps, but shadow power gloom works much better as it can heal you in a couple of decent shots.About act 3..... I found it much easier once I was clear of the battlements, it was nasty up there.

My vita is around 46K and since that post I have upgraded my gear with all resistance most of them are 750-850. I can see a major improvement. About LOH, I guess it all depends on your play style and the skills you use. I like to use grenades for hate generation, it's also a good life leacher skill providing that you have enough. I've been fooling around a bit and I definitely see a difference between 400 LOH and 900. In order to get that much LOH, I must sacrifice quite a bit of DPS. As for your question, I can take 5 or 6 hits in A3 but it depends on the monsters I am facing. Some of them, I just stay clear and don't try to tank them. Monsters such as skull splitter and pain monger, those do too much damage for me to tank. Some other monsters give me some trouble, the hell flyer deal major damage with there fire balls.