1.04 Trail of Cinders Build

[Dethklok]

I'm not normally a Blizzard conspiracy theorist, but how can it be a bug when it said 1500% right in the patch notes? Also, doesn't anyone there read the patch notes?

I don't think it's a conspiracy. I think conspiracies require conscious thought.

First, someone coded it at 100% weapon damage per tic at 5 tics per second, instead of dividing it by 5.
Then no one tested it. At all. Or if they did, they didn't think one thing of it.
Then, absolutely no one at Blizzard read their own tooltip. The program tried to tell them what happened, but they didn't pay attention.
Then, someone drafted up the patch notes, probably by running some automated program that looks at differences between 1.03 and 1.04, then automatically dumps the text into a text file. The program tried to tell them what happened, but they didn't pay attention. Again.
Finally, copy, paste, continue not to check product at all, upload to computers worldwide.

Although they euphemize it, this is pretty much Blizzard's story. However, I think Blizzard is using the term "bug" in the loosest possible manner to describe this incident. Technically, it is one: there is a defect in the code Blizzard wrote for 1.04 that is leading to unintended consequences. However, I really think "gross negligence" describes the situation best.

[Greizer]

What is most hilarious about this is that Lylirra posted that they knew about the wrong percentage on the first day the patch came out... And then decided not to ninja-nerf it in order to avoid a public outcry. Instead, they kept silent and let people play with it for however long the patch has been out (ten days? two weeks?), then 'gave a notice of the fix to let people prepare for it'. Apparently it never occurred to these geniuses that their long silence would lead people to believe the skill was either working as intended... or *slightly* more powerful than strictly needed, as a calibrative test of its power ('make it uber to begin with; then if it's too good, tone it down a bit' kind of logic). Not to mention that ofc as soon as the SS thing became known, people started buyng gear specifically for this build... Gear that doesn't work that well on any normal build (no crit chance but mostly just crit dmg). GG Blizz, you screwed up and then you doubled it.

I only hope they'll hear the public outcry (what a nice name for a whiner cryfest ) on the official forums and tone down the nerf a bit. Lowest percentage I need to keep playing is maybe 600, probably 700 percent. I could farm act II with that; act III farming doesn't really work with this build anyway unless you've got godly gear. Charging into mobs is not that healthy when there are fireball lolsters, heralds of BS and puhleasebeast elites around.

[lanceuppercut]

If it goes back down to stupidly low levels, then the risk/reward of using it is gone, I'm not risking my char for pitiful damage, I'd rather just tumble away and slap things in the face with arrows from range.

Maybe a good thing actually, few times I've had the nearly dead overlay appear from, yep, reflect mobs.

[Dethklok]

750% over 3sec would tie it wiith Earthquake's 2000% over 8 sec. If I was in charge I'd make it 45% weapon damage per tic for 675% weapon damage over 3 sec.

[capnlarge]

Their main concern was that discipline should not compete with hatred for damage... I agree that ToC needs to be nerfed but 300 wpn damage over 3 seconds makes it a rune that no one will use. I say half the current damage and make it cost hatred instead of discipline.

[Dethklok]

Even if you set hatred cost to 50, crafty players would be regaining the cost in just over 4 seconds without resorting to hatred generators. On the bright side, Windforce would compete better against Manticore.

[Kalixian]

If you're vaulting into dangerous melee mobs you're doing it wrong. Vault away, slow with ES, let them claw their way towards you through the fire and die.

[Vanadin]

Their main concern was that discipline should not compete with hatred for damage... I agree that ToC needs to be nerfed but 300 wpn damage over 3 seconds makes it a rune that no one will use. I say half the current damage and make it cost hatred instead of discipline.

Then why not turn it into a hatred spender? [Yes, I get the arguments against it.]

Although, that said, if the damage was in fact 300% over 3 seconds before 1.0.4, then—to be polite—Bliz is trying to take us for fools (because then they're claiming they over-buffed a skill that they in fact "had no intention" of buffing at all).

[Kalixian]

I think the lack of QA that allowed this "bug" to go through (if you believe Blizzard) is worse than if they had simly given it an imbalanced buff.

[TrippyHippy]

I made an account here just to say thank you to Kalixian for this build. I only brought Diablo 3 just after the 1.04 patch launched so I couldn't find many effective DH builds and just created my own for Normal through to Hell. I'm only 76 hours in an already level 60 paragon 4 on Inferno Act 2, my build had breezed through all of the other difficulties because I shopped for bargins on the AH with my limited funds. I had an 850dps bow by level 52 so I was just able to spam rapid fire at most elites and they wouldn't touch me. Once I got to Inferno though I relized I was way out of my depth. I breezed through Act 1 and it's bosses but Act 2 handed me death after death. I was about to give up and go on my first serious farming run since starting the game, however Hell Act 3 just bored the hell out of me, I was melting everything like butter and while it's easy money, it wasn't any where near as fulfilling or thrilling as Inferno. That's when I saw Kalixian's build and decided it was time for a change and the difference it made was insane, it made Inferno even more addictive for me.
I was playing through Act 2 and I got a rare quiver with a Max Disc of +9 and then it hit me, why not stack as much Disc on my armour as possible so I could vault even more times before having to use a Disc replenisher. I grabbed a chest armour with some Dex and more another 9 points of Disc bringing me up to total of 48 Disc. I put the rest of my stats into Dex and Vit giving me 94k DPS (With SS), 303% Crit Dam, 42K HP, 2K Dex and 3.6K armour with barely any Res. My armour is not ideal but it was put together on a very thin budget and so far it's held up pretty good on Act 2.
The only changes I made to the actual build were taking out Multishot for Elemental Arrow (Flaming Skull), with the extra 18 Disc I don't need Multishot. Screaming Skull combined with Shock Collar once you are ToC kiting a mob is hilarious. Let them start running along the cinder trails, hit with Shock Collar for snear and then Screaming Skull for fear and they run very slowly back down the trail, un-fear and run back along it towards you, it causes insane damage to those tougher elites and is just too funny to watch, it's like they don't know which way to go whilst they fry. I couldn't decide what to do with RoV so I just left it on and use it if I get trapped by a pack of elites. For passives I went with SS, Perfectionist and Archery, kept Archery on for Screaming Skull since it's great for single target damage and mob control.

For Act 2 Inferno it's been great considering I'm using low budget gear, I'm not sure how my strategy will work in Act 3 without some gear upgrades but I'll give it a go before they nerf ToC into oblivion.