I think my shadow impale build has taken me as far as it’s going to go and I’d like to try a Natalia/Rapid Fire build. I’ve got all the basic stuff, but I haven’t seen a usable weapon. A decent Dawn just dropped for me, and it’s taken so long to get it that I don’t want to screw up the roll. Don’t bother looking at my profile as I’ve almost certainly re-equipped my shadow gear. But here are the stats:
2761 dps
1175-1435 Holy damage
993 dex
23% area damage
8% resource cost reduction
vengeance cooldown 56%
Hardly a dream weapon, but it’s the best I’ve seen in a long while.
So what’s the best reroll for this?
Funnily enough, I am someone who started with Natalya Rapid Fire build and about to change to Shadow Impale.
Dawn dropped quite early for me, it was also ancient with decent stats, apart from the most important one - it had 53% vengeance cooldown. So for a long time I had to wait out the vengeance cooldown to re enter fights. A couple of days ago I got fed up and simply reforged the item in cube. I just thought that I would have to be really unlucky to get a roll thats lower than my 53%. In the end I got lucky, not only did it roll ancient, it came with 64% in vengeance cooldown and decent other stats, so thats what I would suggest to you as well.
For Dawn the best stats are: Socket (Preferably from Ramaladni’s gift), Dexterity, High damage, Area damage, cooldown reduction.
Can you tell me about Shadow Impale? How did you find it? How far along are you in terms of GR progression?
Many here are far more knowledgeable than me, but I’ll answer your questions. I discovered the shadow build maybe in '17 when it was one of the better builds going. I’ve been away from the game for a while and haven’t kept up with the better DH builds, so when I started this season, I went back with what I knew. I find that it kicks a$$. Until it doesn’t. was able to progress quickly through GRs until the upper 90s when I kind of hit a hard wall. At this point, I can do a GR96 while making dinner with the other hand, but I haven’t done GR100 yet. Not even close. And I even crafted myself a primal dagger. One problem is that I’m snakebit as far as getting a useable Traveler’s Pledge. I’ve probably seen a hundred drop, but almost none of them come with a socket, and those that do have no decent stats.
Sounds good! It can be very powerful from what Ive heard. I have all the gear needed for it, so Ill probably try it out tonight. Would you say your build (gear at least) looked like in this guide here?
https://www.icy-veins.com/d3/demon-hunter-shadow-impale-build
I am not yet at GR96 level myself, but from what I understand there is a big difference between 96 and 100. What seems to be the problem? Are you lacking in damage, toughness or both?
My gear is mostly the same as that build, but since I haven’t found a usable Traveler’s Pledge, my jewelry is Focus/Restraint and Flavor of Time.
That’s what I thought as well and asked about it, but several people said that I was nuts and the progression isn’t any tougher up there than at any other point along the way. Turns out I’m just a weakling.
I’m lacking in damage. I can usually survive ok at 100, but it takes me forever to bring down the elites.
I remember that I ‘‘felt it’’ when I started using both TP and Compass Rose - its a nice bonus. Perhaps thats what youve been missing? I am not sure how much standing is involved in a shadow impale build, but perhaps that can work. Other than that, Aughild helps with elites, but you already have that. Are you using the 3 legendary gems suggested in the Icy Veins link?
It’s absolutely due to jewellery choice then. To get both bonuses from Focus+Restraint you need to alternate between Hatred generators and spenders. When doing so, that results in a 225% damage bonus (100% standard, 50% bonus takes that to 150, second 50% takes that to 225) but a standard Impale build doesn’t include a generator, so you’re only getting the 50% bonus, not the 125%.
Compare that to the Traveller’s / Compass, which gives you up to 100% damage bonus whilst you stand still, and 50% mitigation whilst moving. Even a poorly rolled Traveller’s / Compass would be more useful than a well rolled Focus+Restraint in this build, because an Impale DH regularly vaults through lots of trash mobs (where the mitigation bonus helps) and then stands still next to elites to nuke them (where the damage bonus helps).
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Thanks, Meteorblade. Your non-season shadow build has always been an inspiration. You’ve got over quadruple the damage that I do. Perhaps I’ve got to work harder to find split bounties so I can reforge more TP ammys.
Taking my first steps with Shadow Impale now. Quick noob question first - how do you sustain the impales? I can press it like 6 times, before I run out of hatred.
I think I have my answer. You just learn that you are not a spammer anymore and think about who and how you engage, right?
That’s totally accomplished with the Karlei’s Point dagger. Every time you impale a mob that has already been impaled once, you get 15 hatred returned. So just keep spraying into packs of mobs or elites and you’ll find that your hatred almost never runs out.
But it’s important to understand that you can easily be OP. If you can comfortably clear at torment 16 and then decide to plvl someone at torment 6, you’ll find that you’re one-shotting everything and there’s no one left alive to get impaled a second time. So in that case, you have to cripple yourself some. Maybe remove your jewelry.
Aye, it works! I tried spamming impales while in the city and quickly ran out of hatred. Which of the 3 legendary gems would you suggest leveling first? All 3 of them are 25-29 lvl at the moment.
Trapped. A higher level Trapped gives you a big damage boost. A higher level Gogok gives you a small toughness boost (from the dodge). A higher level Pain Enhancer does almost nothing (the DoT damage from the gem doesn’t get buffed by any of your Impale bonuses, so it does almost no damage in comparison).
Your main DPS gems (so in the case of S6 Impale, just Trapped) should be roughly the same level as the rift level you are currently clearing. The difference between a level 33 Trapped and a level 100+ Trapped is a significant amount of damage.
Extra levels on your Gogok are nice for a bit more toughness, but not as important as more levels on your Trapped. Extra levels on your Pain Enhancer don’t do much at all, so level that gem last.
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Thank you for the detailed description, levelling Trapped first.