Thursday, September 22, 2011

Demon Hunter - Rocketeer



Well I'm glad I saved the Demon Hunter for the end of the week, as our fair rogues just got a large number of changes to their skill structure allowing for some skills to start generating Hatred on their own. There are some runestone effects that are out of date, but they shouldn't matter for this build. Demon Hunter's probably have the quirkiest passive out of all the classes in Ballistics. Start throwing in runes that add rockets, and then double the effect for a lot of extra damage. I wouldn't be surprised if a Ballistics build of some kind were to become the norm for end game, at least in terms of damage output

Active Skills
-Rocket Storm
Strafe is unique in that it lets you constantly move around and deal damage to random enemies. With the recent change, your also going to be generating a little bit of Hatred for as long as your strafing. Throw in some rockets that are going to be hitting for 240% damage with the passive and you've got a quasi-aoe-movement-regen skill.

-Fire Support
This is going to fill the role of single target DPS, and it's going to do it with a vengeance! Essentially you'll be able to hold down this attack to turn yourself into a minigun. The damage output on this is high, but so is the cost, so your usage of this skill will probably break down like this:
-Find an opening
-Drain all your Hatred on a marked target
-Dodge and evade while you build your hatred supply back up
-Rinse and repeat
The extra rockets coming off this skill are going to add a whopping 700% weapon damage onto this skill, the only stipulation being that they seek their own targets. For maximum damage on a single foe, your going to want to isolate said target.

-Shooting Stars
Go-to for target aoe, this skill has a pretty large hatred cost, but is much more controllable than Fire Support or Rocket Storm. If there's a specific group, and it's just got to go, this Cluster Arrow is the skill for you.

-Death Toll
This nifty permutation of Marked for Death doubles as a DPS buff for your group, as well as adding some survivability to everybody else attacking the target. You can probably top yourself off by using this in conjunction with Turret and Fire Support

-Spitfire Turret
More punishment for tough foes, this stationary turret has a lot of damage output at a pretty hefty Discipline cost. As with Fire Support, the more you can isolate your target from lesser threats, the more you can direct the damage to a single target.

-Battle Scars
Between Death Toll and Spitfire Turret, this build actually eats up a ton of Discipline. Preparation is the perfect support for this setup. A Golden Runestone here has the added bonus of being a sort of Emergency Potion for when the going gets tough. If you can anticipate needing to use the heal, drop a few turrets to empty the Discipline pool first.

Passive Skills

-Ballistics
This is what brings the pain! There are a few other skills that also use rockets in their effects, so you can add more damage if you feel the need.

-Fundamentals
Helps a ton when it comes to regenerating Hatred, a series of regular attacks after a full usage of Fire Support can have you "reloaded" fairly quickly. It gets even faster if your using a pair of Hand Crossbows. Can't argue with the extra damage either.

-Archery
If you've got a bow, then you'll get a flat amount of extra damage. If you've got a ton of crit, then go for a crossbow. If your using hand crossbows, you might want to try a different passive.

Lots of room for interpretation here. Runestones in Preparation and Marked for Death is where I'd start looking for some variance, followed by the Archery Passive.

With the update to the talent calculator, some of the links may now be busted. When I get some time, I'll go through and try to update them, but the images should still work as a guide if you want to throw the build in on your own!


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