Disclaimer: i know this is not a very effective build, but the playstyle looks really solid plus there are a lot of good items that create a nice synergy with the build. The biggest issue with it is not damage (sitting at 1 million dps on character sheet and i can still improve the gear quite a bunch) since atm i'm farming GR 24/25, and managed to reach a 27 (got a 23 clear in 7 minutes) but the fact that melee hits tend to oneshot you even sitting at 16k armor and 1200 allres. Though there are some possible solutions i'll explain below.
I played with the Strafe build through all the season since it's a great tool to try new setups without having the effectiveness screwed by a lot of paragon points, and farming the right items on a new char gives a better idea on how to progress wioth it and what is really required to make it work.
The first iteration that came out in my mind, due to discovering that Shuriken Cloud can be spammed during Strafe channeling without interrupting it. Here comes the first mandatory item - Spines of Seething Hatred. SInce i can spam SK, this equals to have 4 hatred/sec costantly, making the build much more sustainable.
I choose Cold damage because of CotW and because i dropped an Etrayu, that boosted my damage quite a lot. Other elements build are possible (fire with a Cindercloth and Ballistic plus Rocket strom for Strafe looks a valid candidate).
I managed to get my BotT to rank 25, granting me a constant aoe slow and thus letting me switch element but keeping CotW. I choose physical because all damage (plus procs from following items) is of this kind and i can get the maximum advantage from + elemental dmg affxes. I switched to a 2h xbow because of much slower hatred consumption and gettign my hands on a MrYan just let me drop my generator completely and just spam strafe. bat + templar + blood vengeance + reapers + mr yan make me sit on a neverenging hatred supply, plus the SK spam. Very likely it's overkill, but it's exactly what i'm searching for - improvements.
Now the questions part.
Items: apart the mandatory quiver and MrYan, i think also Mara4 is great - huge boost to both damage and survivability. Any 2h xbow works, but afaik only Buriza has some kind of synergy with the build (small, but better than nothing). I have the Sah of Knives which procs quite a lot due the number of attacks and hits quite hard - though i don't have a Witching Hour to compare. Alternative Sring of Ears for survial? Need to look at the tradeoff in damage loss. Looking also for a Leoric Crown since the build is all about cooldowns. Currently have death Watch mantle as spauldrs, but the proc isn't that good to justify its usage imho (will use probably Mara spaulders to make room). Ice Climbers are just too good - not being hindered is awesome to avoid stuff while channeling Strafe.
i'm looking for additional inputs since it's likley i have forgot good stuff that i could make a use of.
Legendary gems: i'm using BotT for the aoe slow (CotW synergy) and Toxin becuase of the 10% additional damage at 25. Still thinking about the third - miniconduit looks good for raw damage and movement speed (Strafe makes you run at 75%) but also the stacking damage one (Taeguk?) sounds strong due to constantly spending hatred.
I'm looking for any kind of input here. Again, i'm not trying to sell the build as awesomely strong; it's just a nice deviation from Mara6 and all his variants.
You ment GR 37 or is realy 27? Probably im missing the point here but why play this style if is way worse then what DH can actualy do with others specs?
27 - as i said on first sentence, i'm trying to discover potentially good playstyles which don't involve Mara6 and can represent (with some tuning from Blizzard) real options for our class which is basically based on 7 items more or less (mara6, rorg, t&t) and a really low amount of different abilities.
Pretty sure the shadow set would be awesome for this.
30 yard 80% slow around you
32k loh
Reduce damage taken by 35%
30% movement speed
Only costs 10 discipline
The 30 yard slow means you don't have to rely on the bott for the slow but you are using bott anyway so still, 30 yards up from 15 is quite nice for aoe slow around you.
Might want to go for Nightstalker... Not sure how often would it proc while using strafe.
Also, i would try to get Nats 3piece for 20 extra disc. Quiver must have disc. Soj must have disc... etc...
Sash of knives and Death watch mantle are two items that might work well with this build.
You ment GR 37 or is realy 27? Probably im missing the point here but why play this style if is way worse then what DH can actualy do with others specs?
Because it is fun?
Taeguk is a good gem if you spend fast because it stacks up quickly and at 25 has some extra defense attached, but using an xbow it will not stack very high and stuff will be dead before you get much use out of it. I was using taeguk on a 1hand crusader build and it stacked super high really fast, but when I switched to two-hand it slowed down to not be worthwhile.
Have you thought about replacing one of your skills with gloom? 35% damage reduction would be nice and with the passives you have you could keep it up a lot.
Also, have you thought about running M4 and Nat4? With a RoRG you could fit both in and it would get you a nice discipline boost using ring/cloak/wep for nats and shoulder/helm/gloves for Mara. That might give you hatred problems going to the hand bow, but it would open up rain of vengeance as another damage source and allow you to use taeguk again getting more armor and damage. Mini conduit would also be fun.
Man I have everything but the pants and you are making me think this would be a fun build for T6 rift farming. Just run through everything and watch it die!!!! I will have to try it out!
I will probably experiment with the two set setup mentioned above and taeguk, slow, and probably hoarder. Make this my build that I use to farm bounties and rift shards. I don't have illusory boots though, I seem to remember that you can just strafe around frozen stuff and you would have to SS to get out of jailer, but everything else seems like it would be okay.
Maybe I will try with a frostburn or cindercoat and see what I can get away with... Looking forward to it tonight!
Pretty sure the shadow set would be awesome for this.
30 yard 80% slow around you
32k loh
Reduce damage taken by 35%
30% movement speed
Only costs 10 discipline
The 30 yard slow means you don't have to rely on the bott for the slow but you are using bott anyway so still, 30 yards up from 15 is quite nice for aoe slow around you.
Might want to go for Nightstalker... Not sure how often would it proc while using strafe.
Also, i would try to get Nats 3piece for 20 extra disc. Quiver must have disc. Soj must have disc... etc...
Sash of knives and Death watch mantle are two items that might work well with this build.
Indeed looks a great option. Atm i have Nightstaker and i don't feel to need more discipline that i already have and i spam SS that costs 14 Discipline.
Anyway 3Mara + 3 Shadow = 6 slots of gear - this means having no choice but to use MrYan as offset piece, and precludes the access to really strong pieces like Leoric or Ice Climbers. Will anyway try to get it and try if it works (i don't think it will be a problem to reach nearly 100% Shadow power uptime).
EDIT: this in the optic MrYan are in fact the best offset you can get your hands on. Also there's a lot to test about which affixes should i aim for on gear (suppose CDR will prove to be kinda good).
You ment GR 37 or is realy 27? Probably im missing the point here but why play this style if is way worse then what DH can actualy do with others specs?
At around 34+ reflect damage hurts like crazy. There is no way you can actually shoot these mobs, waiting for the thorns to go down would make you miss the goofy 15min timer. If enrage (time mechanic) was such a terrible idea in the begining why would they put timers on trials and grfits?
Why not go fire true? Demolision does huge damage. Also dont forget your resource reduction gear.
I think you should give up on m4 and just go for shadow's chest + gloves + boots.
I also think you should consider going for dw Kmar + Nat. That way you can get the 3p nat bonus using nat's ring and also get the tenclip bonus. Not to mention that this setup leaves the helm slot open so you can go for broken crown which is imo bis for any build that utilizes the shadow set.
The rcr from hexing pants + paragon + some rolls on your gear might be enough to maintain hatred. You can still use bat companion and maybe even preperation punishment.
Ice climbers are awesome for strafe builds but going for shadow's means you can't get hexing pants + ic which brings us back to the original idea of using m4. Technically you can combine m4 + shadow but you won't be able to use hexing pants / ic / broken crown and also no nats unless again, you go for the xbow.
If you go only m4 gloves + chest + shoulders, you can use broken crown + hexing pants + ice climbers.
I am personally leaning towards the first option (shadow + nat (xbow+ring) + kmar + hexing pants). I've been theory crafting this build in my head for a while now but never got around to testing it because it would mean that i have to reroll a bunch of stuff and use two gifts. Let us know how your testing goes ^^
Taeguk gem would be good for this build. While your strafing, you're keeping the stacks up, when you're not just hit Shuriken cloud every 3 seconds to keep the stacks from falling.
I am personally leaning towards the first option (shadow + nat (xbow+ring) + kmar + hexing pants). I've been theory crafting this build in my head for a while now but never got around to testing it because it would mean that i have to reroll a bunch of stuff and use two gifts. Let us know how your testing goes ^^
I got a nice shadow chest yesterday, and i have also a nice Nat xbow in stash - if i manage to get all the items i will surely give it a shot. Anyway dual-wielding has 2 downsides: no Chakram quiver and very fast hatred drain (i tried a little dw with random weapons while leveling). Sure anyway i didn't have the gear i have now (especially Hex) so it could turn out working better especially if i take the Archery passive for the 1 haterd/sec.
Having all pets anyway is really strong - if i'm not using Mara4, i'll need to choose between Wolf and Bat.
@chadwx: i'd give it a try iof i can get my hands on a Cindercloth - in a fire build it will take the place of Hexing pants (more or less the same bonus but not tied to movement.
Did additional testing - DW is out of question since even with all the passives/gear hatred drain is way too fast to be sustainable; plus while you attack faster, you hit for a lot less (especially with FoK) resulting in a slower progress overall. I dropped a Pus Spitter and i'm happy with it since the damage proc isn't bad but it seems to be fired around randomly (and this sucks) not hitting mobs very time (but it procs a lot).
Taeguk works really well, but it's annoying to have just a 3 sec buff - imho it should be 5 to give you a little more room to keep it up. Anyway, the level 25 perk looks good too, since additional armor % is never bad.
As for elements: physical nets you the buggest raw damage, because it affects all your abilities (give the same amount of elemental dmg %on your gear). Fire isnt as good as expected, even with Ballistic passive and Rocket Storm rune (i have to try Demolition + Grenadier coupled with the vengeance fire rune, which fires grenades too - may be more efective).
For the moment, Cold seems the way to go. The Icy Trail rune does a lot of damage plus being an incredible tool to kite enemies with. I also think it's possible (in an easy way) to reach enough CRD to reach nearly 100% uptime on the Cold FoK armor buff, which means 40% more armor.
All this said, i hope to see more support to this build in the future. The mechanics and synergies are here and working prettu well; it needs a definite amount of raw power increase and some survivability (using unity solves basically any issue about too much damage).
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I played with the Strafe build through all the season since it's a great tool to try new setups without having the effectiveness screwed by a lot of paragon points, and farming the right items on a new char gives a better idea on how to progress wioth it and what is really required to make it work.
Where it begins - http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#UiSXfe!bcXf!YaZbZc
The first iteration that came out in my mind, due to discovering that Shuriken Cloud can be spammed during Strafe channeling without interrupting it. Here comes the first mandatory item - Spines of Seething Hatred. SInce i can spam SK, this equals to have 4 hatred/sec costantly, making the build much more sustainable.
I choose Cold damage because of CotW and because i dropped an Etrayu, that boosted my damage quite a lot. Other elements build are possible (fire with a Cindercloth and Ballistic plus Rocket strom for Strafe looks a valid candidate).
Where i am now - http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#iOSXfe!bcXf!bbZbcc
I managed to get my BotT to rank 25, granting me a constant aoe slow and thus letting me switch element but keeping CotW. I choose physical because all damage (plus procs from following items) is of this kind and i can get the maximum advantage from + elemental dmg affxes. I switched to a 2h xbow because of much slower hatred consumption and gettign my hands on a MrYan just let me drop my generator completely and just spam strafe. bat + templar + blood vengeance + reapers + mr yan make me sit on a neverenging hatred supply, plus the SK spam. Very likely it's overkill, but it's exactly what i'm searching for - improvements.
Now the questions part.
Items: apart the mandatory quiver and MrYan, i think also Mara4 is great - huge boost to both damage and survivability. Any 2h xbow works, but afaik only Buriza has some kind of synergy with the build (small, but better than nothing). I have the Sah of Knives which procs quite a lot due the number of attacks and hits quite hard - though i don't have a Witching Hour to compare. Alternative Sring of Ears for survial? Need to look at the tradeoff in damage loss. Looking also for a Leoric Crown since the build is all about cooldowns. Currently have death Watch mantle as spauldrs, but the proc isn't that good to justify its usage imho (will use probably Mara spaulders to make room). Ice Climbers are just too good - not being hindered is awesome to avoid stuff while channeling Strafe.
i'm looking for additional inputs since it's likley i have forgot good stuff that i could make a use of.
Legendary gems: i'm using BotT for the aoe slow (CotW synergy) and Toxin becuase of the 10% additional damage at 25. Still thinking about the third - miniconduit looks good for raw damage and movement speed (Strafe makes you run at 75%) but also the stacking damage one (Taeguk?) sounds strong due to constantly spending hatred.
I'm looking for any kind of input here. Again, i'm not trying to sell the build as awesomely strong; it's just a nice deviation from Mara6 and all his variants.
Might want to go for Nightstalker... Not sure how often would it proc while using strafe.
Also, i would try to get Nats 3piece for 20 extra disc. Quiver must have disc. Soj must have disc... etc...
Sash of knives and Death watch mantle are two items that might work well with this build.
Taeguk is a good gem if you spend fast because it stacks up quickly and at 25 has some extra defense attached, but using an xbow it will not stack very high and stuff will be dead before you get much use out of it. I was using taeguk on a 1hand crusader build and it stacked super high really fast, but when I switched to two-hand it slowed down to not be worthwhile.
Have you thought about replacing one of your skills with gloom? 35% damage reduction would be nice and with the passives you have you could keep it up a lot.
Also, have you thought about running M4 and Nat4? With a RoRG you could fit both in and it would get you a nice discipline boost using ring/cloak/wep for nats and shoulder/helm/gloves for Mara. That might give you hatred problems going to the hand bow, but it would open up rain of vengeance as another damage source and allow you to use taeguk again getting more armor and damage. Mini conduit would also be fun.
Man I have everything but the pants and you are making me think this would be a fun build for T6 rift farming. Just run through everything and watch it die!!!! I will have to try it out!
I will probably experiment with the two set setup mentioned above and taeguk, slow, and probably hoarder. Make this my build that I use to farm bounties and rift shards. I don't have illusory boots though, I seem to remember that you can just strafe around frozen stuff and you would have to SS to get out of jailer, but everything else seems like it would be okay.
Maybe I will try with a frostburn or cindercoat and see what I can get away with... Looking forward to it tonight!
This skill set is a lot more refined on what i was using, so thank you for spreading the Strafe love
Anyway 3Mara + 3 Shadow = 6 slots of gear - this means having no choice but to use MrYan as offset piece, and precludes the access to really strong pieces like Leoric or Ice Climbers. Will anyway try to get it and try if it works (i don't think it will be a problem to reach nearly 100% Shadow power uptime).
EDIT: this in the optic MrYan are in fact the best offset you can get your hands on. Also there's a lot to test about which affixes should i aim for on gear (suppose CDR will prove to be kinda good).
Why not go fire true? Demolision does huge damage. Also dont forget your resource reduction gear.
I also think you should consider going for dw Kmar + Nat. That way you can get the 3p nat bonus using nat's ring and also get the tenclip bonus. Not to mention that this setup leaves the helm slot open so you can go for broken crown which is imo bis for any build that utilizes the shadow set.
The rcr from hexing pants + paragon + some rolls on your gear might be enough to maintain hatred. You can still use bat companion and maybe even preperation punishment.
Ice climbers are awesome for strafe builds but going for shadow's means you can't get hexing pants + ic which brings us back to the original idea of using m4. Technically you can combine m4 + shadow but you won't be able to use hexing pants / ic / broken crown and also no nats unless again, you go for the xbow.
If you go only m4 gloves + chest + shoulders, you can use broken crown + hexing pants + ice climbers.
I am personally leaning towards the first option (shadow + nat (xbow+ring) + kmar + hexing pants). I've been theory crafting this build in my head for a while now but never got around to testing it because it would mean that i have to reroll a bunch of stuff and use two gifts. Let us know how your testing goes ^^
Having all pets anyway is really strong - if i'm not using Mara4, i'll need to choose between Wolf and Bat.
@chadwx: i'd give it a try iof i can get my hands on a Cindercloth - in a fire build it will take the place of Hexing pants (more or less the same bonus but not tied to movement.
I just hope to get the items to test out
Taeguk works really well, but it's annoying to have just a 3 sec buff - imho it should be 5 to give you a little more room to keep it up. Anyway, the level 25 perk looks good too, since additional armor % is never bad.
As for elements: physical nets you the buggest raw damage, because it affects all your abilities (give the same amount of elemental dmg %on your gear). Fire isnt as good as expected, even with Ballistic passive and Rocket Storm rune (i have to try Demolition + Grenadier coupled with the vengeance fire rune, which fires grenades too - may be more efective).
For the moment, Cold seems the way to go. The Icy Trail rune does a lot of damage plus being an incredible tool to kite enemies with. I also think it's possible (in an easy way) to reach enough CRD to reach nearly 100% uptime on the Cold FoK armor buff, which means 40% more armor.
All this said, i hope to see more support to this build in the future. The mechanics and synergies are here and working prettu well; it needs a definite amount of raw power increase and some survivability (using unity solves basically any issue about too much damage).