Paragon farming is not fun.  It’s boring, repetitive, and monotonous…but here’s a new spec that will speed up your farming and make it interesting again.

Ever since Whirlwind Barbarians became the best thing since sliced bread, everyone has been trying to duplicate their mindless “hey I’m just gonna run though and kill everything and not get hurt cause I’m OP kthxbai” play style. You know what I mean, we’ve all been in a group with that WW Barb who solos Ubers MP10 blindfolded while reciting Shakespeare and basically carries us all.  All classes want to feel that OP, and Demon Hunters are finally in luck.

There are a lot of Strafe Specs out there that are…interesting.  The best one I found was CinderStrafe, but I thought it could be improved to allow you to farm higher MP content with a few small changes.

The 1.0.6 Solo PerfStrafe Build

This build is designed for Inferno MP 1+ farming.  When rolling with a group, it’s best to choose your skills to have the best synergism with your team.

Here’s the 1.0.6 Solo PerfStrafe build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#eSdgVh!bfX!cccYZZ

Play Style Explained

Ok, I know that some of you looked at the build link and were like “OMFGWTFBBQ???”…Yes, there is NO HATRED GENERATOR.   I know, I know, this seems weird and you’re starting to wonder if I’m trolling you.  Bro…trust me…

First off, a basic video of what this build can do:

Now that you see it works…allow me to explain the basics of it:

1. Always fire up your Shuriken Cloud and get out your Bat Companion before you rush in.
2. If you’re low on Hatred, look for health globes or pop Punishment
3. If you’re low on Discipline, get into melee range more for more Shuriken Cloud crits

See?  Not much to it, just like Whirlwind!  But…there are some finer points.

1. You’re going to need DECENT gear.  Your critical strike chance should be at least 30% and depending on what MP you want to run, you should have a good amount of all resist on your gear.
2. I recommend using the Templar Follower for his Hatred Regen talent.
3. This spec works best in big groups of mobs because you can generate more crits (Night Stalker procs) and get more health globes to naturally replenish your hatred.

Second off, another video of what this build can be when you get it:

Build Overview

Primary – Chakram with Shuriken Cloud

• What?  Yes, that’s right, you’re about to go melee range.  At first this may seem strange, with only 34% weapon damage , but the key is getting more critical strikes and thus, more Night Stalker procs.

Secondary – Strafe with Demolition

• Your Whirlwind.  Demolition’s AOE gernades do 187% weapon damage and has a small AOE, which will quickly clear the mobs.  This is the best rune because of the AOE criticals, which result in you always having enough Discipline to do anything your heart desires ^_^

Action Bar Skills

Hunting – Vault with Tail of Cinders

• DPS Increase.  300% over 3 seconds doesn’t seem like much, until you realize that you can stack trails, and then add that damage to Shuriken Cloud and Strafe.
• Mobility.  I’ve always been a big fan of vault, and it’s probably no surprise to you guys that it’s in my build.  It definitely comes in handy for getting out of clutch situations.

Defense – Shadow Power with Gloom

• Tank This.  35% damage reduction with 15% life steal for 5 seconds will allow you to tank into big packs of  mobs that would otherwise kill you, allowing for effective use of Shuriken Cloud to proc Night Stalker.

Hunting – Preparation with Punishment

• Strafe Up Time.  No Health Globes around? No Problem!  25 Disclipine for all of your hatred back keeps Strafe up and keeps you alive.
• Wait..Don’t you want this for Discipline? No, if you have enough crit and get into melee range to make sure you’re hitting with Shuriken Cloud also, you’ll have unlimited discipline!  If you’re not, then you’re doing it wrong.  9 times out of 10 this is where you need to look at your gear.  30% crit chance is the minimum that I’d recommend for this build, but the more the better since it snowballs.

Hunting– Compainion with Bat Companion

• Hatred Regen.  3 extra hatred per second may not seem like a big deal, but it’s very handy, especially when you never stop Strafing.

Passives

Vengence

• Hatred Regen.  The extra 25 hatred isn’t as important as the ability to restore 20 hatred from a health globe (and 2 discipline).  This is the real key to keeping your hatred up, killing mobs and getting the health globes with this passive.

Night Stalker

• Stay On Target.  You’re going to be using your Discipline often, and this is how we keep it replenishing.  Crits from Strafe’s gernades and Shuriken Cloud will keep this passive working all day long.  Don’t worry about the  chance on this passive, just worry about having enough critical strike chance on your character.

Perfectionist

• Tank Time.  Since we’re squishies, this is what keeps you alive as you dive into piles of enemies.  The Discipline reduction is nice, but the bonus to life, armor, and resistances is key.
• Do I Really Need This?  No, but it will keep you alive longer in higher MPs.  Switch this out for a DPS talent if you need more punch or already have good survivability for what you’re farming.

Gearing

At the time of my previous guides, there was no way to easily link my gear.  There is now, and here it is: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Rwenful-1228/hero/2248051.  Check it out, you can see what I’m rocking.

I don’t like gearing specially for a build, but in this case it’s helpful.  If you’re going to farm to paragon 100, you might as well take the time to invest in your gear.  Here’s what you should look at if you really want to make this build work:

1. Weapon Choice: Get a 2 Hand Crossbow with lots of Crit Damage and High Dps (READ: buy a MANTICORE) and a godlike quiver (READ: buy a DEAD MAN’S LEGACY).  This combo is awesome for DPS and Crit Damage.  The main thing is the top end damage.  I was running Danetta’s Spite and Revenge, which I loved (and actually had about 50% more crit damage), but they were only around 920 dps each.  I went to a 1090 Manticore.  I never looked back.  Go 2 Hand Crossbow.  I know, I hate the animation also, I hate the weapon speed, I just hate it, but damn…it’s beast.  Guess that’s why everyone’s using it.
2. Critical Strike Chance: You won’t be able to keep your hatred up at all times / survive at all times if you don’t have enough crit.  Crit’s are key to getting more Night Stalker procs, which results in more discipline, which keeps you in god mode.  Get Crit on your gear.  Head, Gloves, Wrists, Rings (unless you’re using a Hellfire with a bad roll, like me…), every place you can get crit on your gear…GET IT.
3. Movement Speed: This isn’t paramount, but it helps in farms, and I just like going fast.  Boots are the obvious choice for + move speed, but a GREAT DEMON HUNTER ITEM that everyone can afford is The Inquisitor.  12% movement speed AND there’s an affix for Strafe Crit Chance…hmm that works nicely, doesn’t it?

Well, I think that’s it.  This seems lengthy for a farming build, but I hope I demystified the PerfStrafe build for you guys.

The Realm of Discord is a bluish-tinted version of the lair of Leoric, the Skeleton King. In it, players will battle Uber versions of Maghda and the Skeleton King (aka Leoric). If successful, players have a chance of obtaining  a Writhing Spine, one of the three components needed to craft a Hellfire Ring.

In this writer’s opinion, this battle is not overly difficult IF approached in a disciplined manner. However, a willy-nilly approach will lead to a lot of frustration and failed attempts.

1. What to look out for:

• Maghda’s swarm of black flies, which she vomits towards players, is very powerful and can one or two-shot many players. You must take care to avoid being hit by these. Not only can they kill you, they can interrupt your resurrection of an downed player in a very nasty way, and can do so from a distance.

• The Skeleton King’s “slow walk” is a little glitchy for some people, but one thing is consistent for everyone: it hurts.  Watch out for his teleport. When he does teleport, he will sometimes appear to walk very slowly immediately after. Some people see an attack here, whereas some report that he only appears to be walking slowly. In any case, when this is occurring, you’d be well-served to avoid being within his melee range unless you are rather sturdy and can take a big hit. Even if you can take a wallop and survive, be mindful of the “adds.”

• The “adds,” which some refer to as minions or horde, are regular soldiers that both bosses spawn, exactly as they did in their respective events in the story line. Maghda’s adds only spawn when she is shielded    I’ve not yet determined what exactly causes the Skeleton King to spawn his, but the point is that they can combine with the bosses’ powerful attacks to make this fight harder than it needs to be if you are not quick on your feet. You need to recognize when you are about to be swarmed and avoid allowing that to happen at or near the same time that you are hit by a boss’ main attack. Similarly, the adds can greatly complicate the process of resurrecting fallen enemies.

• Don’t allow yourself to be “scissored” between the two bosses.  This theme runs through all of the boss fights.  In this case it’s due to the fact that arcane beams  + black flies + massive melee attack + random adds = bad.

2. How to Win

• If playing solo, it’s the same as any other battle in that you need enough DPS to whittle down the bosses and enough survivability to make it through the rough patches. I mainly play melee classes, but I imagine a Demon Hunter’s biggest challenge would be steering clear of the adds while still DPSing the bosses. If playing in a group, it’s best to have someone focus on adds while the others deal with the bosses.  However in either case I highly recommend that you focus on the bosses one at a time.

• Kill the Skeleton King first. Keeping the two apart is critical.  You do not want to be caught between the two bosses at close range (and thus subject to the full might of their hordes as well).  It seems to work best if one person keeps Maghda busy and separated, while the others focus on Leoric and the adds.  The sooner the Skeleton King is down, the better, because he spawns adds frequently, whereas Maghda’s appear to be tied to the quarter marks on her health bar.  Therefore, another good reason to leave her alone until Leoric dies is to keep her adds out of the game until you can focus on her and her adds alone.  Also, Maghda’s arcane sentry is not something you want to spawn anywhere near you when you’re already getting up close and personal with Leoric.

• Once Leoric is gone, Maghda can essentially be trapped in a corner and beaten to death, provided you can live through or avoid her arcane sentries.  She will shield herself and spawn adds every  time a quarter of her health is lost.  Knowing this, you can predict when the adds will appear and give yourself s little space.

These tips should prepare you for a winning foray into the Realm of Discord.  Happy hunting, and stay tuned for articles addressing the other Uber Boss battles.

Sounds simple enough, right?  Well, it can go very smoothly or very poorly depending on how you approach the process. Here are some general tips for making the Uber Boss battles more efficient and successful.

1. Consolidation

You have no control over which boss battle you get when using an Infernal machine.  Therefore, if you are seeking a particular organ or organs for your Hellfire ring, you are at the mercy of random luck when using Infernal machines individually. However, if you have used one and then use another in the same game, you will get a different boss battle. If you open three portals in the same game, you will gain access to all three Uber boss battles. Therefore, it is advisable to consolidate your Uber boss runs into one game if possible, either by teaming with other players that can provide additional machines, or by waiting until you have three machines of your own to use in one session.

2. Efficiency

You must have five stacks of Nephalem Valor to have a shot at the bosses dropping organs. Similarly, you must have five stacks at the time you defeat any Keywarden in order to have a chance that a key will drop. Once you have the five stacks, the only other factor controlling your drops (other than whether you win, of course) is what Monster Power level you have selected. Each level adds 10% to your chances of a drop.   When doing Uber/Key runs you should play on the highest MP level that you can have repeated success on. Unlike regular farming runs, it is worth it to increase the difficulty level because it directly affects your chance of dropping a key or organ. The increased difficulty of the run leading up to the ultimate battle will be worth it when you have a higher likelihood of gaining the reward you seek for your efforts. Also note that it is always advisable to go for an Act I key during these runs while you are five-stacked. Why waste the stacks?

3. Winning

Rather than give a huge number of class-specific tips or builds, I will simply lay out some general strategic considerations that I have seen play out time and time again. In case you are wondering, I personally have four Hellfire Rings and will acquire my fifth tonight.

Gear yourself for the boss fights, and make sure you start the run by choosing the skills that will most likely allow you to survive lengthy fights against opponents that have massive health pools and can nearly one-shot many players. If playing with others, try to set up complimentary skill sets that make the sum greater than the parts of your team. For example, if you have a Demon Hunter and a Monk, the Monk’s job will be to tie up the bosses while the DH lays on as much damage as possible. Survivability is key, as is the ability to counter minions, which some refer to as “adds.”

Realize that you will have to endure a long fight, and no matter how much damage you can put out, you will have to survive long enough to inflict millions of points worth of damage to win. Although you can restart a failed fight, you must also watch your stacks timer and may have to go refresh your Nephalem valor in between fights. Typically, you should be able to do two of the three battles without having to refresh your stacks, but if a battle goes poorly this number can change. In any event you need to be aware of the time factor, and resist the temptation to clear too much content before the boss and Keywarden fights. You’ll need at least one additional stack after you commence the boss battles.

The above tips  provide general guidance focused on achieving Hellfire Ring ownership in an efficient manner.  Check back soon for posts regarding the specifics of each Uber boss battle.

Hello again, and welcome back! I’m still testing a few of our Demon Hunter skills that were recently buffed in 1.0.4, but I wanted to do a quick post on soloing Izual. Pre 1.0.4, I was having a hard time with this fight, and while the patch did change some things, it didn’t nerf the fight in any way.

So what changed? We received some decent buffs, and the 1.0.3 build benefited nicely from them. I’ll go into more detail when I write out the 1.0.4 guide, but for now, here’s the short and sweet version:

• Evasive Fire - damage increased from 125% to 130%
• Impale - damage increased from 250% to 265%, and Chemical Burn had it’s damage increased from 125% to 220%
• Smoke Screen Choking Gas - now does 700% weapon damage over 5 seconds and Weapon damage % is no longer based on attack speed
• Vault  Trail of Cinders – now leaves a trail of fire behind the player dealing 1500% weapon damage over 3 seconds

The Build

Patch 1.0.4 Solo Inferno build preview 2 - http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#fZdhXV!ZTY!bZcccb

Again, I haven’t finalized this build, but I was testing the new rune for Chemical Burn, Smoke Screen, and Vault and managed to get some good progress without any major gear upgrades.  Try them out, they’re really nice for Act 3 and 4 farming as well as boss killing!

The Fight

Izual is a one phase fight, and here are his abilities:

• Frost Nova – AOE freeze with a huge radius that happens about every 30 seconds.  You will get hit by this while you’re kiting him, but it’s not a big deal as you can Smoke Screen out of it.
• Adds – Izual gains 2 demon adds about every 30 seconds.  These can be problematic, as they have a charge ability that normally 1 shots you.  The key here is to use the terrain on the map and keep them out of  direct pathing line of sigh (in other words, stand behind one of the pits and don’t stand infront of them).
• Frost Orbs – this is the same effect as the elite ability “Chilled”.  Basically, about 8 orbs spawn then explode in about 2 minutes.  Just keep moving and you’ll be fine, or Smoke Screen if you get frozen.

The main problem in this fight pre 1.0.4 was handling the adds while continuing to kite Izual.  Izual moves fast, so you need be on it.  Kiting him around the pits on the map is key, and remember to turn and DPS him when you’re able to.  And since we’re talking about kiting, this is where Trail of Cinders comes into play.  If you watch the video, you’ll notice he closes in on me a few time, at which I vault out, leaving the Trail.  This does pretty good damage to him, not as good as Cydaea, but it’s highly effective.  Smoke Screen’s Choking Gas helps add some damage to Izual and his adds as well.

While you’re kiting, remember to try to keep up Chemical Bleed on Izual and keep a set of Spike Traps up that you can kite him over.  Other than that, Vault out when he gets close to you, or Evasive Fire backflip if you’re low on Discipline and Prep is on cooldown.

Finally, this kill was done in myd gear, which can be best described as “wonderfully average.”  It’s shown at the end of the video, but I’m using a 1k DPS bow and I have roughtly 2k Dex, 37k health, sub 200 resists, ~95k DPS with Sharpshooter, and ~44k DPS without.

Leave me a comment if you have any questions or would like to see other kills.  Thanks all and I hope this helps!

I’m going to go into super boring detail in another post, but I wanted to share this preview and let all of you know that CYDAEA IS KILLABLE AGAIN! Cydaea was significantly buffed in 1.0.3, but due to some recent buffs she’s now very killable.

The Build

Patch 1.0.4 Solo Inferno build preview – http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#fZdhXV!ZTY!bZccZb

I haven’t finalized this build yet, but it’s basically the same as my 1.0.3 build with 2 modifications:

• Vault with Trail of Cinders – 1500% weapon damage over 1.5 seconds.   This. Is. O. P.
• Impale with Chemical Burn – Impale was buffed from 250% to 265% weapon damage, and Chemical Burn was buffed form 125% to 220% weapon damage over 2 seconds.

The Fight

Cydaea consits of 2 phases:

Phase 1: Main Phase

• In this phase, which she starts out in, Cydaea runs around the room and has 3 abilities.
• Venom Spray – She shoots bolts of poison in a 30 degree arc aimed at the player.  This does little damage, and you can tank it or Smoke Screen it.
• Web Shot – this is a snare that affects the character for about 2-3 seconds.  We can counter this with Smoke Screen or Vault.
• Spawn Adds – she spawns a pool that produces 4 small spider adds, each with approximately 80k health.  Try to position yourself to hit Cydaea and the adds when you’re DPSing.  Use Spike Traps to clear them, and don’t get too close, they hurt!  At ~37k health with about 200 resist all, I can survive about 1 hit from an add.

Phase 2: Add Phase

• Cydaea goes into the ceiling and begins to spawn pools of adds similar to phase 1.  The pools are normally close to where your character is, so it’s important to keep kiting.  She spawns about 6 pools for a total of 24 adds.

This fight was a DPS check, as the challenge was how to manage the adds and still DPS Cydaea after the first Phase 2.  Fortunately, we don’t need to worry about this now as you should be able to kill her in the initial Phase 1!

When the fight begins, drop Spike Traps and dump all of your hatred in Impales on her.  She’ll run around for a bit until stopping to start casting her Venom Spray.  When she does, VAULT over her! The damage from Trail of Cinders will melt her face!  In the video above, I take her out in about 30 seconds and it’s not a very clean kill.  I’m sure I could do it faster, but I wanted to show you guys just how easy it is with less than perfect play.

The great thing about this is that my gear is pretty average.  I’m using a 1k 2 Hand bow, have about 2k Agility, and my DPS is ~90k with SS and about ~40k without.  Even with lower stats, you should be able to kill her using Trail.  Give it a try and let me know!

The Build

Patch 1.0.3 Solo Inferno build – http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#fZdSXV!YTa!bbbcZb

I”m using the 1.0.3 build described here, with one small exception, I’m using the wrong Preparation rune. /sadface. I was testing Backup Plan, forgot to switch it out, and didn’t want to lose my NV 5 stack on the chance something epic may drop (but it didn’t). As you can see in the video, I didn’t need to prep that often and when I did, it didn’t trigger Backup Plan (as usual lol). So, sorry for party rockin ^_^

The Fight

Belial consists of 3 phases:

Phase 1: Ads

• About 20 Veiled Sentinels spawn, starting with a group of 4.
• Try to stay on the bottom part of the map.  The ads can spawn anywhere, and it’s possible for them to spawn out of sight.  If this happens, they won’t directly attack you and you can clean them up later.
• Between Spike Traps, Impale, and Evasive Fire, you should be fine.  If you get stuck in a corner, try not to use Evasive Fire or you’ll quickly deplete your Discipline.  Remember to use Vault and Smoke Screen to stay out of melee range.
• DON’T EXIT THE CINEMATIC between the phase changes!  This gives you time to replenish your Hatred, Discipline, and recharge your Sharpshooter!

Phase 2: Belial Humanoid Form

• In this phase, Belial will attempt to melee you or cast his ranged fireballs.
• If you stay close to him, he won’t fly across the screen and you can kite him easier into your Spike Traps.
• There used to be a pathing bug with him, but that’s been fixed.
• If you’re using the Templar, try to position yourself directly behind him when Belial casts his fireballs.  If done properly, your Templar will soak one of the fireballs and you will be free to DPS.
• Ads spawn after his first use of fireballs, so do as much DPS as possible in the beginning of the fight.  Aim to have him to 50% health when the ads start to spawn.
• Again, try to stay on the bottom part of the map so you can ignore the ads that spawn at the top.
• Vault and Smoke Screen are key here.
• This phase ends once Belial’s health reaches 10-15%.

Phase 3: Belial Demon Form

• Start the phase in the far bottom right corner.
• First, he will do his Arm Smash attack.  A green pool will form where he’s going to strike, but this attack has a very big hit box, so make sure to move as soon as the pool appears.  Just stay on the bottom of the screen, Vault left, then run back to the far right corner.  Being in this corner will allow you never to be hit by his left arm smash.
• After a few arm smash attacks, he will do his Acid Breath AOE.  Just DPS and use Smoke Screen when the breath is about half way to you.  That will ensure you don’t get hit by it.
• Finally, he will do his Acid Pools AOE.  Pools will spawn on the floor and then explode for AOE damage in about 2 seconds.  Stop DPS here and focus on avoiding the pools.  You can use Smoke Screen to avoid the AOE damage, and the run speed increase from Tactical Advantage really helps out.
• He repeats those 3 abilities until you kill him.

They want to hear what you think, and so do I:

Option 1: Set a Magic Find Cap

This option would include setting a cap on the total magic find you have at any given time. Nephalem Valor already contributes 75% to this, so players would need anywhere from 25% to 125% more +Magic Find to reach a 100-200% +Magic Find cap.

This option does not remove the incentive to swap gear in and out, it just makes it easier. While the hard cap would add an interesting element to gearing-mechanics, it wouldn’t solve the problem in my opinion.

Option 2: Slowly Adjust Magic Find Over Time

As soon as you equip as piece of +Magic Find gear your Magic Find remains the same but starts to go up over a period of time. If you equip a +20% piece but already have +100%, you might see 101% for a few seconds, 102% for a few seconds until a minute later you reach 120% total.

This option would certainly solve the problem.

Option 3: Use your average Magic Find % or your lowest Magic Find % of the last 5 minutes

This would essentially introduce a moving average of your magic find over the last 5 minutes. This would certainly solve the problem of swapping in Magic Find gear but it adds unneeded complication to the game. This is a terrible option in my opinion.

Option 4: Zero-Out Your Magic Find % for 3 Minutes After Swapping

Initially this seems like the best option, but Blizzard points out that some players would be confused why their stat is at 0% while others would be unduly punished for swapping other gear. It’s not necessary to reset Magic Find completely, so in light of option #2 above, this option kind of sucks.

Option 5: Gear Swapping Interacts with Nephalem Vaor

Blizzard tossed this option into the list to encourage more conversation while listing 2 long paragraphs of “cons” and only one sentence of “pros.” They obviously don’t like this option and neither do I. It’s not necessary to tweak NV just because players are swapping in and out Magic Find gear.

I definitely think Option 2 (slowly adjust Magic Find) is the obvious winner and will be the one that Blizzard implements. You can read their full post here, either way please vote above and let me know what you think.

This is obviously not how Blizzard intended Magic Find to be used and of course we’re also not sure whether this works since it’s all speculation. It seems it does though, since Blizzard hasn’t stated otherwise. It’s also pretty inconvenience, having to swap in a dozen pieces of gear to boost MF during combat

This has a negative effect on the value of Magic Find and DPS gear; since players don’t think they need gear with both on it. Instead they just grab pure Magic Find for cheap off the auction house and throw it in their inventory. They just need to be strong enough to land the killing blow.

In response to this issue Vaeflare at Blizzard posted yesterday:

“I wanted to jump in quickly to say that this is one of many topics we’ve been discussing with the developers recently, and that we have a juicy blog post coming up that will delve a bit more into some of the MF swapping solutions we’re considering.“

So what’s the big deal? Blizzard is going to address this issue, likely with a fix. It could be anything from locking your Magic Find when you start combat to dropping your Nephalem Valor buff when you change your equipment. What’s the effect of this going to be? Players are going to actually have to get DPS and Magic Find gear to take advantage of Magic Find at all. This is going to shoot up the value of gear that has both stats. This could be a significant opportunity to make some gold or real money speculating a game change. Good luck!

The big difference in Diablo 3 is that gear is not bound to you, so the amount of gear in the system is limited more so than in WoW. Drop rates of legendary gear are so insanely low that many players play to 60 and then through Inferno without seeing a single legendary drop. Some players report that after leveling to 60 5 times and spending 300+ hours playing they have not found a single valuable legendary. Of course, a level 60 legendary is worth 150-200k just for the Fiery Brimstone, but who wants to play for 50-100 hours to find a legendary for that?

Rares and set items are also extremely rare. Even though you will find dozens of rares and even be able to sell some on the auction house for gold, the chances of you finding a set item you will use is extremely rare.

Due to the fact that there are no predictable ways to get upgrades from farming Inferno, players have the incentive to collect gold so that they can buy upgrades. Let me know if I’m wrong, but I don’t know a single player who geared up their character without the auction house but was still able to clear Inferno or beat the first and second act in a reasonable amount of time.

The process of farming gold sucks, yet it’s the only practical way to gear up your character and this is why farming in Diablo 3 sucks. Farm X amount of gold to buy an upgrade is not nearly as fun or rewarding as beating a boss in hopes that he drops a specific upgrade; even if both activities take the same amount of time.

Why is it this way?

Why did Blizzard design the game this way? The answer is obvious, they wanted everyone using the auction house; especially the real money auction house. Bringing in $1 for every transaction and 15% of future commodities auctions, that’s a lot of revenue. Instead of creating avenues for players to gear their own characters up without trading with large fees, they made drop rates extremely low and made sure that gold was scarce enough to act as the exchange currency.

Unfortunately the only way to fix this is to create gear that binds to your character and is earned by beating a certain milestone in the game. Crafted gear would then gain value as it would be the only currency based way to gear your character. Just like in World of Warcraft some Best in Slot crafted pieces could exist, but you would still likely need a combination of manual progression vs. purchased upgrades. Until then, farming in Diablo 3 will continue to suck.

So what happened to us in 1.0.3?  2 major things and 1 minor one:

Increased Attack Speed bonus values on weapons and armor have been reduced by 50%.

• If you were stacking IAS, like I was, then your DPS took a major hit.  I know mine did.  I went from something over 2.2 attacks per second to about 1.7.  That hurt.  IAS was the key component for sustained DPS and also super important for Hatred regeneration. This nerf sadly affected all gear that players had already spent millions of gold on, rather than just new items, which was contrary to how things used to work in D2. I’ll agree and say Demon Hunters were putting out high numbers, but I still don’t feel that a 50% reduction was needed.

Nether Tentacles will now only hit each target once.

• This was also a huge hit to our DPS. Hitting a target 2-3 times with one Nether Tentacle was amazing for our damage output, allowing us to easily clear waves of mobs and quickly pump damage into Elites. I’m still amused that they listed this as a bug, when it was really a nerf. The developers and play testers had to have known the mechanics of this skill. Be that as it may, this skill was god like pre 1.0.3 and everyone was using it. When everyone starts using a certain skill, it normally gets nerfed, so other classes can’t complain about how OP it is. Ah…the joys of game balance…

Evasive Fire no longer fires through Elite Waller’s walls.

• This never made it into the patch notes, but it’s worth mentioning since the way Blizzard wants us to play this game is to run around and kill elites. This isn’t a huge change, but it was very nice versus Wallers. This definitely was a bug and now that it’s fixed, it will only make the game more challenging and therefore more fun to play! Now lets see how long it takes Blizzard to fix the fact that Evasive Fire still shoots through some environment walls and around corners and doorways ^_^

So what does this mean for us as we progress through Inferno? We need to change the way we think about how we deal damage. Before 1.0.3, Demon Hunters were free to gear however they wanted and still progress. I don’t feel like that necessarily the case any more. The change to Nether Tentacles coupled with the reduction in IAS means we need to change our play style to keep our DPS high. Thankfully, we still have the means to do this.

The 1.0.3 Solo Inferno Build

This is a build setup for solo play in Inferno. It can be used in groups, but when grouping, I’d recommend picking skills with better synergism for your party.  This build is very close to my previous Demon Hunter Solo Inferno build, but with new changes for patch 1.0.3.

Here’s the link the Patch 1.0.3 Solo Inferno build - http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#fZdhXV!ZTY!bbbcZb

Build Overview

For those of you who have been using the previous build, you won’t see any drastic changes here, just changes to our Secondary and one of our Passives.

This build is about survivability through mobility, while keeping our DPS above Inferno requirements.  It’s designed to take advantage of your Nephalem Valor stacks and kill elites and bosses. This build, when played properly, should allow you to beat 99% of the elite combos in Inferno.

Primary – Evasive Fire with Covering Fire

• Survivability is paramount. Demon hunters are one of the “glass cannon” classes of the game, and this becomes even more evident upon reaching Inferno. You will be 1 shot by the zombies in Act 1, the damage output of the normal monsters is just plain ridiculous. Think this is bad? Just wait until you get to monsters that actually move fast. This is why we use Evasive Fire. It keeps us out of melee range for a small Discipline cost (4), which keeps us alive, which keeps us farming mobs. Most elites in Inferno are insanely fast, and this helps you kite and survive.
• Good damage output and great hatred regen. At 125% weapon damage and 4 hatred regen per shot, this is the most efficient damage per hatred regen skill we have.
• Conical hit box of Coving Fire. Covering Fire fires out in about a 45 degree area, allowing you to quickly kill waves of mobs and clear environmental objects.
• No missile travel time. Shots of Evasive Fire hit their target immediately unlike any of the other ranged hatred regen skills (Entangling Shot, Bola Shot, Piercing Arrow) . This allows you to easily hit fast moving mobs that sometimes dodge your attacks, like the insects in Act 2.

Secondary – Impale with Overpenetration

• Beast Mode On.  At 250% weapon damage for 25 hatred, this is the best all around ranged DPS skill we have.  It allows us to quickly damage a target and keep moving, which is key in Inferno.
• Penetration!  Impale has some very nice runes for elite killing, namely Chemical Burn (125% weapon damage bleed) and Grievous Wounds (increase crit damage by 100%).  However, in this guide, we’re not using this skill to primary kill elites.  Spike Trap is still our primary damage dealer.  Overpenetration is used for our AOE and is necessary for clearing packs of mobs.  It becomes highly effective when kiting groups of enemies into groups where you can hit multiple targets in 1 shot.
• Can’t I switch this??? The Rune? Yes.  The skill? No.  I’ll explain this below.

Action Bar Skills

Hunting – Vault with Tumble

• Keep on moving! In Inferno, you have to kite. You stand still and you die. The movement Vault provides is extremely important for kiting, getting away from avoidables, positioning, and escaping nasty elites (think Vortex, Plague, Molten, Mortor, Teleporter, etc.). Vault also allows you to get out of corning situations, allowing you kite into dead ends (useful in the dungeons at end of Act 1 or anywhere with long corridors where you can’t kite in circles.
• You will use this more than once! Tumble is key to beating the super fast moving elite mobs you’ll encounter in Inferno.
• You can use this to escape and reset the fight! Spamming Vault at full Discipline will allow you to out run any mob and get beyond their aggro radius. This alone has saved me multiple deaths and costly repair bills.

Defense – Smoke Screen with Lingering Fog

• This is your Vanish! All my Rogue players know what I’m talking about! This is your only immunity ability and has endless uses in many situations like: breaking elite Jailor’s jails, escaping snares, avoiding incoming damage (think Molten elites and enemies that get into melee range). It can also be used to escape the Butcher’s meathook! This should never happen because you’re using this build have super mobility, but if it does quickly pop Smoke Screen and you will exit the stun and escape unharmed!  Also, use this versus Reflect Damage mobs to not take damage!
• 1.5 seconds is still worth it. This was nerfed hardcore due to massive exploits which are no longer possible, but it’s still long enough to drop aggro, reposition, and get back in the fight.

Hunting – Preparation with Battle Scars

• HEAL MEAH! This is your only heal outside of potions, and in Inferno, you will need it! This has saved me countless times and I can’t imagine soloing without it.  This becomes even more important now that we’re no longer benefiting from Nether Tentacle’s regen.
• Endurance for kiting. This keeps you alive and gives you a lot of endurance in long elite and boss fights by making kiting very viable. If you can kite the enemy for 45 seconds, you can heal and get back in the fight.

Devices – Spike Trap with Scatter

• BIGABDABOOM. 3 275% weapon damage AOE traps for 30 Hatred is like cheating.  This is your main source of damage for everything, minus some bosses like Belial where you need a ranged attack to hit him.  This is amazing for kiting elites and clearing packs of mobs. The high hatred cost is offset by the fast hatred regen with Evasion Fire.
• Place them anywhere. You drop your traps where your mouse is, so you can throw them very far making them very effective.

Passives

Sharpshooter

• It’s time.  3% Critical strike chance increase every second until you crit and then you keep that crit rating for 1 second.  Unless you’re running around in amazing gear with over 30% crit rating, this skill will be a huge DPS increase for you when used with this build.  While kiting around, this charges up your crit so you can chain your abilities, like timing an Impale to Hit right as an Elite walks over a Spike Trap!  Things like this are the key to quickly taking down elites.

Tactical Advantage

• Super Speed! 60% movement speed, even for 2 seconds, is amazing in Inferno. You’ll kite better, escape better, live longer, and kill more demons because of this skill. The ability to reposition, or to run, will help you in all situations in this game.
• Super Synergy! This talent is triggered from Vault, Smoke Screen, and the Evasive fire backflip. Hmmm…those abilities sound familiar… This talent works will all of this build’s core survival abilities! This makes it a must have!
• Inferno is Kite or die! I can’t say this enough, you have to keep moving and have almost no time to stand in one spot and turret. “OK, but the critical strike buff stacks while you’re not using it, so while you’re kiting you build up more DPS.” This is true, but this argument is flawed in that it fails to consider how many times you’ll be able to actually strike the enemy before you run out of space, Discipline, or health. Until Inferno, I think Sharpshooter is a must have, but once you get into the end game, mobs move too fast and are not as effected by slows and CC as they were. You will NEED the speed boost that comes from this talent. Finally, remember this: “you can’t DPS a target if you’re dead.”

Steady Aim

• 20% damage is nothing is in 10 yards of you. Evasion Fire backflip is 15 yards, so this will normally be in effect!
• But I like Archery!  That’s totally cool, and if you have over 30% Crit Rating, drop Sharpshooter and pick this up for damage.  Also, depending on your weapon choice, it may be best for you to use Archery.  How do you know if it’s better?  Use a DPS spreadsheet, here is a link to the Forums for the one I use.  Dretar! You’re the man!

Q & A

So…Why Impale?

• High DPS and high mobility.  Patch 1.0.3 changed the way we were able to output high DPS.  The reduction in IAS and the nerf to Nether Tentacles means that we can’t rely on sustained volleys of a skill to clear packs, kill elites, and down bosses like we used to.  Impale gives us a high DPS skill that works perfectly with this build and with the play style this build encourages.  While kiting elites, you normally only have time to turn and fire one shot, and this is the ideal situation for using Impale with Overpenetration.  Kiting often tends to tightly group mobs in a linear fashion, allowing you to hit multiple targets in one shot.  Also, while you’re kiting, Sharpshooter is charging up your Critical Strike chance, allowing you to do massive damage with even more mobility.
• Not Attack Speed dependent.  Most of the normal secondary skills really benefit from high IAS, because this allows you to put more rounds on target in less time.  To put it in MW3 terms, think of all other ranged DPS skills as sub machine guns, and Impale is your sniper rifle.  You don’t need a lot of shots from a sniper rifle to do serious damage, and the same is true of Impale.  You can get away with less IAS and still do great damage.

But what about [insert skill name here], isn’t that still viable?  Let’s have a look:

• Rapid Fire – I really love this skill, I love the animation, the damage, and the turretting, but NO, ths is not viable. When you’re soloing in Inferno, YOU HAVE TO MOVE.  You don’t have time to channel, end of story.  Now if you’re in a group, then this can be decent since it has a good % damage to hatred ration as time goes to infinity (calculus anyone?), but for soloing its a big negative.
• Cluster Arrow – I hear a lot of people use this and I can’t imagine why.  This is an OK skill, but it’s not a true ranged attack.  50 Hatred for 250% plus 100% damage sounds cool, but it’s not.  Besides the high Hatred cost and small damage radius, the main thing I hate about this skill is that you have to aim it.  “Wait, but you have to aim Spike Traps too.”  Yes, but  we’re comparing this to Impale.  The difference is that we need a ranged attack that can go off screen.  This is what Cluster Arrow should be.  Since it’s not, it’s in direct competition with Spike Traps.  Again, Spike Traps with Scatter does 3 275% weapon damage AOE traps for 30 Hatred which is 9.1% damage per Hatred per trap compared to 10.8% for cluster arrow with the Loaded for Bear rune.  Obviously if you can hit with all 3 traps, Spike Trap wins, but it also wins because you can place them out of Line of Sight in some situations, like through doorways, around corners, and on different heights.  Plus, Spike Trap stays for 30 seconds or until it blows up, where as with Cluster it’s an all or nothing shot.
• Chakram – Here’s another skill that makes me go hmmmm.  It has a nice % damage to Hatred ratio, but I just don’t like it.  Most of the runes cause the projectile to move either too slowly or in curves where it can collide with the environment and end the effect.  This makes it a gamble, as you never really know if it’s going to hit your target.  It may be useful in wide open areas, but then again, so is Impale, and Impale works in all environments.
• Multishot – I like this skill, and I really like the Suppression Fire rune (returns 1 Discipline for every hit).  The problem I have with it is the low % damage to Hatred ratio.  It’s just not effective in Inferno, even with Full Broadside (214% instead of 165% damage per shot, results in only a 5.4% damage to Hatred ratio) it just can’t compete with Impale Overpenetration in single target or multiple targets.
• Elemental Arrow – This was our bread and butter until Nether Tentacle got fixed (nerfed) and I miss it, but some of the other runes are still viable.  Frost Arrow has a very nice 17.5% damage to hatred ratio, small CC radius, and gives you CC which are all awesome, but most elites won’t be affected by it’s slow.  If you’re looking for CC, try Screaming Skull.  The 1.5 second fear is awesome since the enemies actually run away from you, giving you more time to reposition.  The thing about these two runes is that with this build, YOU DON’T NEED CC.  Also, for these skills to be useful, you need to do a little turretting with them, and you won’t have time to stand still and DPS in the later acts.

OK, so what kind of gear do I need to make this work?

This isn’t a gear-dependent build, and it shouldn’t be.  Unless your gear is just god awful, anyone should be able to pick up this build and benefit from it.  Now with that said, the skills in this build and the play style do benefit from some certain stats more than others, and here they are:

• Critical Strike Damage – Kiting with Sharpshooter allows for a very high crit rate, so take advantage of it and start getting more Crit Damage bonuses on your gear.  One way to get Crit Damage is to use a 2 handed crossbow and pick up Archery over Steady Aim.  If you’re already using a 2 Hand Crossbow, do this.  If not, I wouldn’t worry about it too much.  I personally don’t care for the crossbow animation and hate the slow attack speed, but this build aims to be attack speed independent by making heavy use of Spike Trap and the occasional Impale, so they can work.
• Critical Strike Chance – Start looking for this on your gear.  Get above at least 25% and then drop Sharpshooter and pick up another talent, like Archery.
• Movement Speed - Do yourself a favor and make sure you 12% Movement Speed on your boots.  This will do wonders for your kiting.

Well you must have godlike gears…

LOL, I wish!  That’s why I’m still playing!  Seriously, I would consider my gear to be above average, but far from best in slot.  In my previous post, many people asked what kind of gear I was running.  My current gear, which hasn’t changed much, focused on IAS and Dexterity.  I have about 1800 Dex and I use a 1000 DPS 2 Hand Bow that has where my attacks per second are about 1.7 and am lucky that some pieces have Crit Damage on them.  My current setup has about 99% Crit Damage with no extra Crit Strike.  I don’t have any Hatred Regen or extra Discipline at the moment, but would love to get my hands on some!  My calculated DPS with Sharpshooter maxed is about 57k, not too crazy when you hear about people with 122k DPS lol.

Basically, my gear is constantly evolving, just like all of yours.  In some of my recent videos, I’ve been showing my stats at the end.  I’ll continue to do that and if you have a question, leave a comment and I’ll do my best to respond.

Videos

Here are some clips of this build in Act 3 Inferno of patch 1.0.3 versus some good elite combos.  The ones that give me the hardest challenge are mobs that have a normal ranged attack coupled with Mortar, and Reflect Damage is really a bitch now, but we can still do it.

Healthlink Mortar Nightmare Frozen

Jailor Healthlink Knockback Molten

Reflect Damage Molten Electrified Descerator

Waller Reflect Damage Electrified Horde

Pulling 3 packs in Act 2 lolz

Coming Soon…

I’ll be adding more videos and trying to do that Gear Guide I had been putting off due to the proposed IAS nerf.  If there’s something else you guys would like to see or have me write about, post it in the comments.  Cheers!