Nightgaunt - Crowd Control Demon HunterConceptOriginally, this was my magic find build. I planned to rely on being in a group and spreading around crown control effects while the others did the real damage. However, I determined that the magic find from my primary barbarian's paragon level combined with the fact that he can farm MP3 made him more efficient for item hunting. So, I decided to craft a bunch of new equipment to replace most of the magic find items my demon hunter was wearing. (She also got my primary demon hunter's old crossbow since I recently found the Manticore.) This upped both her offense and her defense in a big way (+25k damage, +10K life), allowing her to now farm MP3.
Anyway, even with the new equipment, the concept behind the build is essentially the same: Spread around as many crowd control effects as possible. When I first designed the build I wanted to try to make a demon hunter that didn't use any bow related skills *gasp!*. To that end, Bola Shot is the only bow related skill in the build. (I needed a good single target attack and the Bola Shot still fits in with the whole explosive device theme.)
Build: SkillsProfile: NightgauntStrategyThe strategy here is to impair creatures with slow, stun, and immobilize ("pinned"), then dish out damage with bola/grenades and traps. There are several crowd control effects that this build utilizes:
Slow -
Caltrops (
Hooked Spikes rune),
Companion (
Spider Companion rune)
Stun -
Bola Shot (
Thunder Ball rune),
Grenades (
Stun Grenades rune),
Fan of Knives (
Fan of Daggers rune)
Immobilize (Once every 7 seconds.) -
Spike Trap,
Fan of KnivesPassive Skills: All three passive skills enhance various active skills as follows:
Thrill of the Hunt - (Works with
Spike Trap and
Fan of Knives.) Every 7 seconds the next skill that costs Hatred immobilizes the target for 2 seconds. This works great with AoE skills as it affects multiple targets. Combine with
Spike Trap's Echoing Blast rune and you can keep a group of enemies rooted in place even longer.
Cull the Weak - (Works with skills that slow. See above.) Damage against slowed enemies increased by 15%.
Numbing Traps - (This build uses 4 of the 5 skills listed!)
Fan of Knives,
Spike Trap,
Caltrops,
Grenades, and
Sentry reduces enemy damage by 20% for 3 seconds.
Before Combat: Summon the
Spider Companion and make sure to re-summon it when it dies. It has collision detection so it's useful as an extra target/obstacle for enemies and it runs really fast so it's likely to slow an enemy before you even begin attacking.
Entering Combat: Throw down a
Spike Trap to immobilize the enemy, then attack with either
Bola Shot (single target or small group) or
Grenades (Big group).
Combat: Continue to attack with the main or secondary attack as the situation warrants while placing/replacing
Spike Traps every couple seconds. As the enemy starts to close in drop a
Caltrops at your feet along with a couple
Spike Traps and start backing away from the enemy. If anything gets within melee range use
Fan of Knives to stun everyone around you and escape to safer ground.
Preferred FollowerI use the Enchantress because she has some skills that really compliment this build.
Forceful Push and
Missile Ward are both great defensive skills for a ranged character, keeping melee enemies from closing in and reducing the damage of ranged enemies, respectively.
Erosion is a very effective AoE damage spell against slowed, stunned, and immobilized targets since those effects keep them in the damaging area longer.
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