1.0.5, the "Whirlwind" DH at long last!

[Galtrovan]

The proc on Demolition is clearly enough to maintain LOH tanking. The question is how to pay for all the Hatred. We could try to do it exclusively with hatred regen like that found on gear or Bat Companion, but that makes us want more attack speed for LOH while wanting less attack speed to conserve hatred.

Instead we should maximize hatred gained per attack:
1) Punishment/Nightstalker is clearly the engine, its the only way to gain hatred per Strafe hit.
2) Crit chance should be maximized on gear and/or with 1h Archery.
3) Vengeance increases max hatred by 20%, which means: increases hatred per attack by 20%. The health globe thing is just gravy.
4) Perfectionist helps by reducing Punishment's cost; however, a 10% reduction is not better than getting 20% more crits by taking crit chance from 50% to 60%.

These are the best 3 passives to keep the engine going. Just as with double tornado barb, a lot of defensive passives look good, but the ones that keep resource engines going are the better choices.

So in your opinion the best 3 passives are Archery/Nightstalker/Vengeance?

My tanking DH has been on ice since Blizzard gutted the build. After seeing this thread, I'd like to try this out to see if I get her playable again.

[Such Violent Storms]

So in your opinion the best 3 passives are Archery/Nightstalker/Vengeance?

My tanking DH has been on ice since Blizzard gutted the build. After seeing this thread, I'd like to try this out to see if I get her playable again.

Yep. Depending on stats, 1H/shield is probably the best option. 1H/1H only usable if you don't need the extra crit from a shield, and I don't even know about 1H/quiver (the IAS from quiver means more hatred drain, but then again you can get hatred regen on a quiver)

[Lord_Vega]

Any more reports on this working in 1.05 Inferno?
Started the build after having gotten flashbacks of my old 1.09 GA/Strafazon in D2, and am currently at level 29 with my DH, having played on MP 10 the entire way. Stafe is pretty much useless so far with only emberstrafe, hoping it gets better with demolition and some better crit items.

Would love to hear more about this from you guys!

[Wolfpaq777]

Just wanted to say thanks for posting this build idea. I'm running a variation of this on MP1 and it's incredibly fast and powerful and fun

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/w...3/hero/3159625

If anyone has any questions let me know.

[Silvist]

Heyo everyone,

My friend happened to be looking for a build that would help him from dying less. Just so happens after all his testing that this happened to be the one to go with.

For me, after doing higher MP levels, I felt exactly the same. So at first I tried this build with just scraps of gear I had left over. Didn't work that well. Then I got my CtC up to about 40%, and that shot up my dmg and survival.

After trying a WW barb, and a CM wiz this build by far exceeds them. Simply because of the range of the attack, and the insane healing. You can hit mobs, while strafing almost off screen with the bombs. This is very useful when fighting a crazy OP elite or key warden on higher MP levels. Cause all you have to do is strafe away from them.

When D3 came out, I attempted a sort of in melee Dh with bombs. Before Gloom was nerfed, and SS was nerfed...it was a great build. Though the painful amount of effort to keep the build going, was just to annoying.

I also was curious if the bomb trait, applied to the bombs from strafe. Though; the passives mentioned seem to be almost impossible to replace. With about 600-700 res all, 1.4k LOH + chakram cloud....I mow through packs of elites like nothing.

Since I wasn't having issue with trash mobs, I swapped out the Sentry for a different skill. I actually tried out mortal enemy, specifically for elite packs. This helped give me a small boost in hatred gen, that really helped me out.

Though I may try SS with breath deep, just to get hatred + jail breaker.

So just wanted to post my feedback on how the build worked for me, and to thank Such Violent Storms for posting it

[theredpredator]

Its funny, I've been experimenting with DH myself lately and without reading any strategies I've come up with the same as you.

Gloom
Bat pet
Strafe demolition
guardian turret

Entangling shot - justice is served
Rapid Fire-Witherign fire

Archery, Vengeance and grenadier.

I get hatred from my windforcie, dead mans legacy and nat armor. I can basicly shoot rapid fire for free. I believe grenadier makes strafe demolition go more cheaply. I get of a lot of spammability and I just strafe threw acts. I get a lot of people leaving the game because they could not keep up with me. They would just spend 10 mins just running for gold before leaving... not having killed a thing.

[Silvist]

I been spending quite a bit of time messing with this build, and I'm seriously loving it. After being able to farm up some good legendary items; I was finally able to start putting a good set together. That being said I noticed something odd.

According to the skill description of strafe itself, it claims it does 156% weapon dmg. To top it off demolition does another 187% random bombs. I guess my question is in regards to the damage it puts out. No matter how much more crit dmg I seem to add, my damage for strafe doesn't drastically increase.

I'm for sure no expert on how damage works, and was curious if anyone could explain what weapon damage actually is. Is it literally?

Right now I have a 850 or so dps 1 handed xbow. Would I see a huge increase if I then went to say a 1k dps 1 handed xbow?

Reason I ask is I'm already at about 52% crit, and 205% crit dmg.

In low monster power lvl this isn't a big deal. Though as you go higher, it takes longer and longer to strafe things down. Even if I go through the mobs to apply the extra shuriken cloud 34% dmg.

[theredpredator]

Im glad I looked at this topic... shuriken cloud seems like its made for a strafe dh

I have a couple of question:

1. does higher ias mean more grenades?
2. Should i go for natalyas grade dmg? or natalyas crit dmg with strafe?
3. Damn i need a soj -.- if i get soj, grenade dmg or crit hit?

[Silvist]

Yeah,

Shuriken cloud + gloom = full heal...if of course you strafe through the mob with it on ;p

I got some ias gear myself, and I didn't notice a huge difference in the amount of grenades thrown. Then again my base weapon is a 1 handed xbow.

[Karth]

Im glad I looked at this topic... shuriken cloud seems like its made for a strafe dh

I have a couple of question:

1. does higher ias mean more grenades?
2. Should i go for natalyas grade dmg? or natalyas crit dmg with strafe?
3. Damn i need a soj -.- if i get soj, grenade dmg or crit hit?

1. Pretty darn sure it does, I'll test in a little while if nobody else chimes in. It is likely to have 'breakpoints' like whirlwind, sprint, energy twister, etc.

2. Strafe! You don't want to spend time throwing grenades. And grenades skill damage won't affect Strafe's damage, including Demolition.

3. Cold damage+crit chance! Slowed monsters get hit by more of the Demolition grenades that are tossed at them.

How does weapon damage work?

Damage goes like this:
weapon damage * (100% + mainstat bonus) * crit damage (if a crit) * special effects.

Since you're using a 1h crossbow, your damage range is pretty huge; you won't see the difference on every single hit. You'll either have to look at your lowest damage hits, your highest damage hits, or average your damage per hit to notice the change. If you make a really big change it should be obvious, but small changes aren't always.