Just started Hell difficulty on Diablo 3 yesterday... Really didn't expect the shit storm that was to follow.
Now... given I knew that as the difficulty levels were going to ramp up as I beat each play through of the game, I completely under-estimated the jump that would happen between Nightmare and Hell difficulties. I was debating changing the name of this post to "The Guide to How to Die in Hell Mode". Changed my mind at the last minute though as writing a guide to dying would be either pointless or hilarious. Depending on whoever reads it.
So generally when I play a game, I can usually get a feel of how hard it's going to play out within the first hour or two of playing it. With Diablo 3, I couldn't tell you whether I'm going to be able to beat the next section of the game without breaking a sweat. This was evident when in the first 20 minutes of the first level of the game, I died. Pure and simple. Now looking back, I don't think there's been a game where I just outright lost in the first 20 minutes in quite a while. If you don't count multi-player matches. It was kind of one of those moments that when it happened, I just sat there for a second thinking, "Really?". More than anything it made me change the way I played my character and now that I think about it I think that's what makes Diablo 3 such a great game. It constantly makes you re-evaluate how you use your character to get through the next phase.
For example, I never really had a problem with clusters of enemies. Mainly because they could never get close enough to me to really cause me any real threat. But in Hell, the health of enemies grew exponentially compared to Nightmare. A couple times I found myself completely surrounded losing health at pretty astonishing rate. With my only saving grace being an ability to literally jump out of bad situations. So now I look at just another challenge in Hell mode. Do whatever I can to ensure I don't get surrounded.
Another big ass difference with how this game works as you progress is how bosses fight you with each increasing difficulty. In lower difficulties, for example, the Skeleton King was a pretty straight forward fight. Avoid his swinging attacks, run when he teleports on you, kill his minions when he summons them, blah blah blah, and you're done. In Hell mode, he started doing things which made my life as a Demon Hunter... shitty.
First off, he teleports way more than he ever used too. I've never had to kite so much in quite a while on this game. Seriously felt like some of my fingers were going to fall off by the time it was all said and done. Like have you played a game where you have to mash a button as hard as you can to survive? This would put them all to shame... I mean holy shit. Secondly, when he summoned his minions... he summons them ON TOP OF YOU. The aggravation this was causing made me want to kick my cat clear across the room... Especially when 3rd time getting surrounded and finding myself trapped and before I could get away seeing this...
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
It probably took me a good 15 minutes to finally figure out how to beat him. It boiled down to instead of hitting him with all of my energy to try to take him out as quickly as possible, saving some of that energy to kill all of his summoned skeletons before they could put me in a position where I couldn't go anywhere or I had no energy left.
With the King being defeated, the next part of the game wasn't too bad. The village area was easy since the acolytes can be brought down almost effortlessly. And the rares which can be found can just be kited through the streets all day. All in all was able to get through it pretty easily. The spiders in the cave as I was almost to the Queen were a bit of a pain in the ass since they run at the speed of sound and if they surround you, you're dead. The Queen herself wasn't a big deal either. Was able to get through her lair on the first try.
By the time I was done for the night, I was just about to enter Aranene's Castle. Should be an interesting end to the first Act. Very curious how angry I'm about to get when I fight the Butcher... but time will tell. I've at least learned that I'm either succombing to the effects of aging and losing the gaming edge I once used to have. Or Blizzard developed a game that's going to make me want to punch babies when I'm finally done playing it. Especially if this isn't nearly the hardest shit it's going to throw at me. (I'll be honest, I was able to beat "I Wanna Be The Guy" and it didn't cause me nearly as much frustration as this game in Hell mode has caused already.)
Anyway, enough venting... As I was playing through Hell mode, I found I realllllllllllllly had to modify my play style to get through it. But I found the following setup to work really well in most situations for a Demon Hunter for Hell mode:
NOTE: The remaining blog below has a lot of information regarding information for a Demon Hunter build. If you're not interested... I suggest to stop reading here as it's probably going to bore the hell out of you.
Primary: Bola Shot
Rune: Thunder Bolt
I was really torn between using bola and entangling shot for a while, but eventually stuck with bola for a few good reasons. First, when using entangling shot, it only slows for 2 seconds (4 if you use the Heavy Burden rune). I found that on most regular mobs, it works just fine. However, I really think when you play Diablo you should be tailoring your builds to those which will help you defeat Rares, Champions, and Bosses. This was evident when I was running with entangling shot and encountered the first rare in the level. Now, the developers at Blizzard, as clever as they are, must have been pissed off when they decided they were going to stack enemy abilities as the difficulty level rose. For example, on Normal, an enemy could have a single ability (Fast, Mortar, Frozen, etc...). On Nightmare, they had 2 abilities, Hard they have 3, etc... Because of this, the chances of an enemy having a movement impairing (Walling) or enhancing (Fast) ability goes way up. This really negates the point of having a kiting ability such as entangling shot where the whole point is to fire, run away, repeat. If the enemy is walling you in... where are you running to? If the enemy is faster then you... even when you slow it... does it matter where you run?
Bola Shot with the Thunder Bolt rune at least provides a very good chance (35%) where a single enemy can become stunned and immobilized for 1.5 seconds. That's 1.5 seconds. Yes I said it twice, but because it's that important. That's HUGE. It provides a big opportunity where if you kite using Bola Shot, there's a very good chance you can stun one or more enemies and run away before they get to close to pound that ass of yours. Plus the added bonus that the shot is an AOE effect with 130% weapon damage increases the damage output in clusters of enemies.
Secondary: Impale
Rune: Chemical Burn
Impale provides a huge DPS nuke for enemies which are a pain in the ass to manage otherwise. The initial strike itself does 250% weapon damage. Plus with the Chemical Burn rune, provides an additional 125% weapon damage over 2 seconds. So in essence, for the cost of 25 energy you can hit for 375% weapon damage. Compare that to most other nuking abilities for the demon hunter and the only one which might come close is Cluster Arrow with Loaded for Bear. The only thing I don't like about Cluster Arrow is it costs double the energy cost of Impale (50 energy vs 25 energy). Which means if you don't have the Passive Ability - Vengeance you can only let off 2 volleys of the ability before having to wait. So for immediate burst damage, it may trump Impale, but for long term DPS, Impale is the way to go.
Key 1: Elemental Arrow
Rune: Frost Arrow
This is your main crowd control ability when you encounter massive mobs of regular enemies or 3-4 rares/champions. It does 170% damage with the Frost Arrow rune plus splits after hitting the first enemy and hits any nearby enemies behind it for the full 170% damage still AND it slows enemies for 60% for 1 second which it hits. It allows you to spam massive amounts of DPS on large groups without providing them too great of a chance to surround or overwhelm you.
Now, I should mention that when I get to level 59 I intend on switching this ability to Nether Tentacles. Reason being is if you search Demon Hunter builds, I really can't find many which don't have this ability. Plus if it returns 3% health from damage and can hit multiple enemies, I think the return on life investment from this will probably keep me alive in later levels.
Key 2: Vault
Rune: Tumble
The key point of using a Demon Hunter is to stay mobile and away from your enemies as much as possible. Doing damage at range if you can. Vault provides a quick escape in sticky situations where you literally can't run anywhere or gets you away from AOE attacks which you know are coming safely. With the Tumble rune, it also gives you a second window at almost no discipline cost to Vault again. Increasing the chance you can avoid a very large group of enemies that have you pinned against a wall.
Key 3: Companion
Rune: Bat Companion
Having a bat as your third slot isn't so much for any kind of damage bonus. It's more just the increased hatred you generate without having to spam your primary ability to get back the hatred you need to use your better DPS'ing abilities. The bat provides an additional 3 hatred per second! Plus it's a one and done ability meaning once the bat is alive, so long as you don't die, it never goes away. With that you can really neglect it's discipline cost. So unless you have a rune on your primary ability which increases your hatred regen then having a bat will give you that regen for free without having to use it. Simply put, it means a LOT of hatred regen when you use your primary ability, and a good amount of hatred regen when you don't.
Key 4: Caldrops
Rune: Torturous Ground
Caldrops is your fail-safe in case a mob is getting way to close and you don't have a lot of energy to spend to get away from them. Since any enemy in the area is slowed for 60% it really enhances your ability to kite quite well. Plus with the Torturous Ground rune, any enemies which are in the Caldrops range when it activates are stunned for 2 seconds. Which is pretty huge and follows the reasoning why I chose Bola Shot over entangling shot. I just don't see a slowing ability doing much to higher level mobs versus using a stun ability.
Passive Abilities:
Archery:
Since I primarily like to use Bows, this is a must-have ability since an additional 15% damage output is just awesome. If you're using One-Handed or Two-Handed crossbows, I don't think this ability is the best bang for your buck. Especially if you're using the Sharpshooter ability. I'd probably suggest swapping it out for Vengeance or Brooding to increase your survivability depending on your style of play. If you like to kite, go with Brooding, since the 1% per second life is massive if you can keep away from your foes. If you like to fight head on, Vengeance will allow you to keep up your DPS up in enemy engagements with the +20 Hatred and +2 Discipline per health globe.
Steady Aim:
The purpose of a Demon Hunter is to fight from range. This ability provides gives you that extra damage when you're doing just that. I was fighting between using this or Cull The Weak for a while. But what eventually sold me on this is that as long as you play a Demon Hunter the way you normally should to stay alive, by kiting and running away, you're going to put distance between you and the enemy naturally. Yes they're going to be slowed most of the time, but the additional 5% damage for just staying away is too much to give up at higher levels.
Sharpshooter:
When I first looked at this ability I originally didn't like it at all. I didn't see how a single crit chance with a slow regen would have any effect on what I was doing. I was completely wrong. This actually provides a substantial damage output boost. What's even better is the dev team at Blizzard made sure you know it too. When you equip this ability, take watch over your output DPS stat. The rate at which it rises just puts a grin on my face :)
