Diablo 3 Walkthrough

Tales of Torment: Demon Hunting, Vol. II

By Peter Brown, 5/18/2012

At this point my Demon Hunter, Tetsuo, is at level 42 in the very beginning of Act II on Nightmare difficulty. I was level 32 when I defeated Diablo, and it took about eight tries to get it right. The first six were at 4 AM and not what I would call elegant or focused, so I had to postpone subsequent attempts until the morning. When the sun rose (mere hours later) I was wide eyed and ready to demolish the Prime Evil. At level 32, with equipment sourced from Normal mode (no auction house goods), I managed to defeat Diablo. It wasn't what I would call easy, but this is the formula that worked for me:

It's pretty similar to my loadout in last week's entry. I changed the rune for Entangling Shot to Shock Collar, since I only need to inflict damage and recharge hatred, rather than entangle multiple enemies. Caltrops is now augmented by the Jagged Spikes rune that causes 45% weapon damage per second to an enemy within the Caltrops ring. This will also help recharge health with the well timed triggering of Shadow Power with the Blood Moon rune. I also subbed the Chakram secondary attack on the "4" quick-slot for Preparation with the Punishment rune. When activated, Preparation will completely recharge my hatred at the cost of discipline rather than a cooldown.

My passive skill slots grew by one so I made a few more changes. Vengeance boosts my Hatred by 25 as well as recharges both Hatred and Discipline when I pick up health globes. Cull the Weak causes 15% additional damage to slowed enemies, which goes well with the Rapid Fire rune that inflicts slow, Web Shot. Lastly, the addition of steady Aim boosts my damage output by 20% as long as there are no enemies within 10 yards.

All in all, my loadout this time works well because it incorporates traits from numerous skills, boosting damage and recharging resources in a particularly efficient manner. It all takes an amount of juggling to properly take advantage of these connections. A typical skill trail plays out like so:

Rapid Fire > Vault (to stun) > Caltrops > Shadow Power > Rapid Fire > Preperation > Entangling Shot > Shadow Power > Vault (to stun)

Maintaining this order complicates the fight a bit, but at least I was able to defeat Diablo this time around and honestly, who doesn't like a challenge? Babies, I'm assuming.

While I don't have footage of this fight, I would like to start the transition to discussing Nightmare difficulty with a clip of my level 40 DH taking on Diablo on Normal to illustrate how quickly the difficulty and loot scales once you upgrade to Nightmare.

If you paid attention, you might notice that once I entered the arena with Diablo I didn't move an inch. I also relied solely on Shadow Power and Chakrams. In otherwords, this was a fight that was too easy. You'll also notice the loot is rather underwhelming.

Now let's fast forward into Nightmare Act II and illustrate how the difficulty and rewards scale between modes. First, allow me to show you my character's current build:

And here are details on a few of the items I'm using.

As you can see, I'm favorable towards items with Dexterity and Vitality boosts. Apart from health, which all classes need, Dexterity is the damage multiplier for the Demon Hunter.

As I work my way through Nightmare, I go back and forth between favoring health and damage output. Of course, when facing a rare Vampiric Plague beast, it makes no difference what I favor, I just lose. Those two stats are the worst to have stacked against you because not only is your health being leeched as the enemy damages you, but there is more damage than usual due to the poisoning (plaguing?), so I'm losing health rapidly, and my foe is regaining his health faster than I can damage him. Yeesh!

So far, Nightmare difficulty is more challenging and rewarding than Normal, which makes me sound like Captain Obvious, but I'm continually grateful for this reality. Nightmare feels like proper Diablo (Diablo II, really). I would advise anyone playing on Normal to ignore the optional dungeons and uncovering every rock. Get through Normal as quickly as possible and save the loot hunt for Nightmare. You'll thank me later.

Tales of Torment: Demon Hunting, Vol. I

By Peter Brown, 5/18/2012

I've been playing as the Demon Hunter for the better part of this week and so far, I'm happy with my first choice. I'm currently level 26 at the beginning of Act III and most of my gaming sessions have been solo affairs. Superficially, the Demon Hunters strengths lie in their ranged-DPS and evasion capabilities, but there are some nuanced abilities that prove to be equally useful depending on the scenario.

One thing's for sure: If you stand still for too long, you are asking to get trampled, especially now that potions require a 30 second cooldown between uses. Compared to Diablo II, this has drastically changed health management. The Demon Hunter does possess some skills that restore health, but using them often means putting more iconic (and useful) skills on the sidelines.

A lot of these skills are earned early on, but they've proven their worth time and time again. Here's an example of how combat tends to play out with this loadout:

Entangle allows me to slow my enemies, Caltrops traps them in place, Shadow Power enables reduced hatred cost and health-leeching, and Rapid Fire and/or Chakram takes care of dealing damage. The choice between the two comes down to the number of enemies I'm facing. Chakram is superior to Rapid Fire for larger groups, although starting with Rapid Fire enhanced by the Web Shot rune is effective at slowing enemies before unleashing your Chakrams.

If you find yourself constantly running out of hatred, a good tactic is to escape the fray, enable Shadow Power, and use the Entangle skill. Both of those skills will replenish your Hatred in no time, allowing you to continue dishing out the pain.

The biggest hangup with this loadout is the reliance on the Entangling Shot and Caltrops. If not executed properly, you'll end up wasting a lot of discipline without slowing down the advancing demon hordes. On the other hand, when you properly entangle and trap your foes, you're in the clear. Shadow Power will keep your Hatred and health in check, two things a Demon Hunter can run out of rather quickly.

When using the Demon Hunter you want to maximize three stats: Dexterity, Vitality, and Armor. Vitality and Armor are your health and defense stats, respectively. Dexterity controls your damage output as well as your ability to dodge attacks.

A great way to increase these stats is through the use of gems and magic or rare items, with the proper modifiers of course. The suffixes you want to look for in magic/rare items are Hawk (Dexterity bonus) and Bear(Vitality bonus). When collecting and refining gems, Emeralds and Rubies are the two types you should focus on.

Here are the three most useful items I have equipped at the moment:

And a shot of my stats/inventory:

Last but not least, here's a glimpse of my Demon Hunter in action against a minor boss in Act III, Gohm.

Until next time, happy hunting!