Melee DHs - no more?

[Karth]

Caltrops
Skill Rune - Jagged Spikes - Can no longer trigger procs
Chakram
Skill Rune - Shuriken Cloud - Weapon damage increased from 30% to 34%Proc coefficient reduced from 0.333 to 0.125

Grenades
Skill Rune - Gas Grenades - Proc coefficient reduced from 0.5 to 0.165

Are melee DHs sunk? Can they even generate enough Discipline to keep Shadow Power up as a replacement for all these skills they used to obtain Life on Hit?

[iThinman]

So much for build diversity. What the hell is their motivation for this one?

[Karth]

So much for build diversity. What the hell is their motivation for this one?

I suspect this is related to all the procs on the new legendary items, like they said to wizards when they cut Wicked Wind proc coefficients in half. I'm starting to wonder if the procs on these legendary items are going to be worth all of this.

[Virility]

The change is harsh, would of been happy with the proc cut by half. No longer will caltrops, shuriken cloud keep you alive while frozen and getting beat on. At least the other skill used to proc loh has not been touched.

There will not be enough to proc rate return to keep Shadow active during a difficult fight. There may not be enough loh return to keep you alive regardless.

So much for skill creativity, and build diversity.

[SixteenTons]

Well, that was fun while it lasted. Glad I pushed through and finished Inferno with my tank DH this weekend.

Couldn't they have just adjusted the procs skill by skill so that Caltrops and a Puzzle Ring wouldn't just start popping out Treasure Goblins like Pez?

Was thinking about trying to get LoH to an even higher number and trying to make Stun Grenades work - guess that project starts tomorrow.

[Karth]

Couldn't they have just adjusted the procs skill by skill so that Caltrops and a Puzzle Ring wouldn't just start popping out Treasure Goblins like Pez?

That particular one is based on you getting hit, not doing the hitting. XD I wish all the melee DHs good luck; I was going to start regearing my DH for the build but no more; my barb's been wounded by the Overpower change so I'm going to need to work on his gear before I can play around with new builds for my alternate chars. I'll keep an eye on things and see what develops.

I also noticed that while Gas Grenades got nerfed, unlike every other generator except HA, none of the grenade runes got a buff. Are there more people using other grenade skills that I'm not seeing? What's going to be the point to grenades when other generators deal so much more damage and are for the most part easier to aim, too?

[WhiteGiant]

well thats a pitty and pretty weak. Tank DH was the only kind of DH i actually had fun with.

besides that i only played DH for the obvious death zerg + Kite strategy for pre 1.03 (act 3) - which wasnt particular fun ; but it was atleast effective ...

now all DH are going back to glass canon builds and " hide behind teammates" except that more different hatred spenders will be used ... which doesnt make much of a difference mechanically or from a gear setup standpoint....


additionally it invalidates even more passive skills from the roster such as ; Numbing trap , nightstalker , cull the weak ,grenadier and costum engineering.

great job Blizzard. way to improve build diversity.

i feel like they should. rather split up the procc coefficient into multple sub categories such as.

LOH
on crit effects. ( battlerage , AP on crit , Nightstalker )
Costum proccs. Legendary proccs , CC (stun blind freeze etc )

[Kalixian]

I also noticed that while Gas Grenades got nerfed, unlike every other generator except HA, none of the grenade runes got a buff. Are there more people using other grenade skills that I'm not seeing? What's going to be the point to grenades when other generators deal so much more damage and are for the most part easier to aim, too?

They said something about grenades getting an overhaul in a future patch; they tried to do it for 1.04 but couldn't get it right.

[EquiLa]

well thats a pitty and pretty weak. Tank DH was the only kind of DH i actually had fun with.

besides that i only played DH for the obvious death zerg + Kite strategy for pre 1.03 (act 3) - which wasnt particular fun ; but it was atleast effective ...

now all DH are going back to glass canon builds and " hide behind teammates" except that more different hatred spenders will be used ... which doesnt make much of a difference mechanically or from a gear setup standpoint....


additionally it invalidates even more passive skills from the roster such as ; Numbing trap , nightstalker , cull the weak ,grenadier and costum engineering.

great job Blizzard. way to improve build diversity.

i feel like they should. rather split up the procc coefficient into multple sub categories such as.

LOH
on crit effects. ( battlerage , AP on crit , Nightstalker )
Costum proccs. Legendary proccs , CC (stun blind freeze etc )

Nice post.

I really dont have a clue how they're justifying the procc rate reduction with "The new legendarys", perhaps that 30% (!"#!) procc rate on that new item is out of line and not the procc rate or skills? Bah, could have gone a much better route with this one.

I dont have a clue how to justify the use of most of the passives any more and it really feels like they're trying to streamline the speccs even further.

Time will tell if the playstyle recovers. hopefully there's some way around the horrible mechanics and I will put in quite a bit of effort to make this work so stay updated

[Coolhwip]

Pretty pathetic changes, tank DH was the only fun spec after having literally tried them all. I had like 170k dps on my glass cannon set before I sold it all because it was boring as hell. Notice also how devious and sneaky they were about the class changes. First they only announce the majority of buffs and save all the nerfs for the actual patch notes. A half truth is worse than a lie.