New set for each class announced: DH set speculation

Demon Hunter
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It’s time for another speculation thread now that we know every class is getting a new set! What do you think we DH are getting? Here are my observations:

We currently have 4 sets:

  • Natalya’s Vengeance: The original class set centered around Rain of Vengeance and damage buffs to all skills. Originally, in pre-2.0 days, this set was known for its discipline bonus (or in the legacy version, for discipline regeneration +2)! Now it has seen renewed use in combination with Marauder’s 4 piece or with Rapid Fire; the “rain” part of the set has merely been relegated as a “buff” and provides minimal damage itself.
  • Embodiment of the Marauder: This set, added in patch 2.0, was aimed to be centered around pets and sentry play. This set has seen design changes that have since buffed the player more than the pets; in its first iteration the sentries fired by themselves! Currently, while the set by itself is usable it not as common a choice as other sets; the 4-piece set is however often used in conjunction with Natalya’s.
  • The Shadow’s Mantle: This set, also added in patch 2.0, originally had no focus and merely provided an additional cheat-death (similar to Beckon Sail’s ability) and the 4 piece set (maximum number) simply added all runes to Shadow Power (but without the infinite duration). Now it’s a staple for every DH seeking elite and boss killing power with one of the best single-target damage setups!
  • Unhallowed Essence: This was the final set to be added for DH in patch 2.2. This set’s focus never strayed and has always remained as the Multishot master set; it also is the clear winner of sets in many speed farming variations for DH. As a ranged specialist, this set provides some of the highest damage multipliers for attacking wide areas but lacks some defensive options of other sets.

So with that review, we can begin to speculate what’s next for DH! The obvious avenue to explore is to examine “what was left out”, as in what skills or playstyles are not really accessible by the current 4 sets? A new set should have synergy with some underused or awkward skill choices.

So let’s break down every skill in the DH’s repertoire!

  • Primary skills are buffed by Natalya’s, Marauder’s, and Unhallowed sets.
  • Impale is central to the Shadow set.
  • Rapid Fire is okay with the Natalya’s set but it isn’t ideal and lacks a focused set (LoN sorta works).
  • Chakram and Elemental Arrow can be used with the Marauder or Unhallowed set but remain very weak due to weak supporting legendaries.
  • Caltrops has NO specific set synergy with anything!
  • Smokescreen has NO specific set synergy with anything!
  • Shadow Power is central to the Shadow set.
  • Vault is central to the Danetta’s set (which is generally useless outside of speed exploration purposes).
  • Preparation isn’t specifically central to any set but is often tied to Unhallowed only for the extra discipline from the Invigoration rune.
  • Companion is central to the Marauder set.
  • Marked for Death has NO specific set synergy with anything!
  • Fan of Knives has NO specific set synergy with anything!
  • Spike Trap has NO specific set synergy with anything!
  • Sentry is central to the Marauder set.
  • Vengeance is central to the Marauder and Unhallowed sets, and is basically always used except in the Natalya/Marauder build!
  • Strafe has NO specific set synergy with anything!
  • Multishot is central to the Marauder and Unhallowed sets (primarily the Unhallowed set).
  • Cluster Arrow is central to the Marauder set.
  • Rain of Vengeance is central to the Natalya’s set.

From the above list, we also note the following: Marked for Death could be perhaps integrated into the Shadow set somehow for elite and boss killing. Next, Strafe and also Rapid Fire seems best suited with Natalya’s (the barrage of arrows lore fits well here) but there should be some additional tweaks done here such as Rain of Vengeance not interrupting channeled skills.

The remaining set-less skills are Caltrops, Smokescreen, Fan of Knives, and Spike Traps. All these skills fit into a “stealth trapper” category.

Thus, my prediction is, the new DH set will focus on stealth and traps.

Blizzard even tried to make spike traps viable several times in the past with several buffs to certain legendaries but the skill’s cooldown has left it far behind the class meta. It’s possible a new set perk might even be to remove the cooldown of spike traps and make them pull targets into them!

What are your thoughts? Do you have different ideas to what this mysterious 5th set might be? What would you like to see from a new set?

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I hope not lol.
It would be nice for either Chakram and Elemental Arrow
or even both.
plus both already have some items that could go with it

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I was thinking along your same lines, Iria.

Spike Trap seems a logical choice. It appeared at first that it could be worked into Marauder as a “trap” set with sentries. But they didn’t go that route.

So Spike Trap would be something I would like see get its own set like I said in another thread.

I would also like some of the Spike Trap items be re-worked or at the very least have damage multipliers added to them. They’re also adding new items and old items are getting legendary effects.

So it’s possible either a crafted item like Archfiend Arrows or a quiver like Fletcher’s Pride might get a new affix to go with Spike Trap too. Something I mentioned in a post some time ago.

Anyway, the point is, outside of items that already support sets, Spike Trap has the most items to support the skill but because all of them miss a damage multiplier, none of them are used. I’m looking for either an old item or a new item to get one or two to coincide with the set’s release.

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My first thought when I read about a new set was “Oh no, we’ll get a Spiketrap-Set”. After what they did to this skill a few patches ago (absurd complex usage, ridiculous bracers), I am afraid of the worst.

However, it could be possible that the build something around Elemental-Arrow. When UE-BL was popular, one of the Devs (iirc John Yang) was talking about being “offended” that UE wasn’t played with MS, but with EA. Then they buffed (or even introduced?) Yangs Bow und DML.

It would be nice to get this skill back. Maybe with a set bonus like “EA gains the effect of all runes”(*) or something like that. Of course with a buffed Krider and/or Augustines.

(*) I know that’s kinda unlikely because of heavy clutter on the screen, but it would be fun, imho.

Or something with Chakrams, along with an item “Chakram gains the effect of Shuriken Cloud”

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A Caltrop / Spike Trap Set

2-piece Your Caltrops no longer cost resource. When a Caltrop is sprung on an enemy, it instantly deals 4000% weapon damage.
4-piece Gain 12% damage and take 12% less damage for every caltrop you lay.
6-piece Spike Trap and Caltrop damage is increased by 6000% for every caltrop sprung, and increased by 18000% for every caltrop that isn’t sprung. Increase the detonation radius of Spike Trap to 25 yards.

Supporting Legendary Items

  • Cape of the Dark Night, drops caltrops every time you are hit, (5 sec limit)
  • Helltrapper, chance on hit to summon a Sentry, Caltrop or Spike Trap
  • Omryn Chain, caltrops drop when using vault.
  • The Demon’s Demise, The blast from Spike Trap will damage all enemies again after 1 second.
  • Trag’Ouls Coils, Spike Traps gain the Impaling Spines rune and are deployed twice as fast.
  • Channon Bolter, Your Spike Traps lure enemies to them. Enemies may be taunted once every 16 seconds.

There are 3 items legendary items that auto-deploy caltrops, but they offers very little benefit since you can only have 5 caltrops out at once, either allow these items to exceed the limit, or change them to increase the damage or add utility.

Passive Skill
Increase the maximum number and charges of Sentries to 3 and number of Spike Traps to 5.

How It Would Play
The 6-piece bonus rewards the player with extra damage for laying your caltrops AWAY from the crowd (so they don’t get sprung). This motivates the player to not stand in the middle of density. You gain up to 3x more damage by playing it ranged, strategically laying your caltrops in open space away from enemies, while placing and detonating your spike traps in the density. The legendary items that auto-deploy Caltrops and Spike Traps might not make the game play feel so clean, but overall they should be buffing damage.

The goal of the 2-piece bonus is to have a quick way to kill a rift guardian in solo push. You could also hybrid this set with S2 or N6.

When you get to the rift guardian, you will likely nuke it with Caltrops, but there might be opportunities to do more damage by using Spike Trap, especially with bosses like Hamelin or Saxtris.

Bonus Legendary Effects
Bracer: Enemies Marked for Death take 500% more damage from your Spike Trap.

To put a twist on the 6-piece bonus, I’d like to see a new legendary effect introduced that makes all deployed caltrops and spike traps glide towards your target upon casting Marked for Death, if a collision occurs the spike trap/caltrop will detonates. The presentation would be freaky – watching 10+ objects glide across the map towards your target.

Related Topic
Do you think they will make set dungeons for each class set?

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Probably.

It would be a bit counterintuitive to be playing a set during a season, go try to run a set dungeon, and then realize that there isn’t a set dungeon for that set.

Many players would probably know that and plan around it, but there’s a decent-sized portion of the playerbase that would be really frustrated once they realized they couldn’t complete that portion of the journey with the set they were using.

I think it’s pretty likely they’ll add set dungeons for any new 6p sets. It’d be more intuitive and would lead to a better gameplay experience, especially for less knowledgeable players. And from what I can tell, Blizzard places pretty high value on that kind of thing.

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they also said they’re looking into different systems in the game. One of those I suspect is Set Dungeons. So they’ll probably either get easier to harder but I could also just see them adjusting the set dungeons that folks can go into over geared and have to remove gear or even go in with a blue or low-level yellow weapon to complete.

I’m not sure if I like that might touch a set dungeon like Shadow or Marauder, but doing something MoTE or WotW, I could get behind.

edit: Sorry, Iria. I know this post doesn’t really relate to your opening post. I hope this doesn’t derail what you want to talk about.

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What if they just rework Blackthorne’s Battlegear set. It is working on all classes :))

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Could you imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth that would take place if that was their plan? :slight_smile:

A Cleric set for each class would be nice, each class could provide their own support. But that would also be poorly received.

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The set for elemental arrow would be Unhallowed, if they ever decide to buff the Elemental arrow bow.

We only use Yang’s Recurve because it triples dmg, doubles attack speed and halves resource costs. It’s simply way stronger in comparison.

Make the elemental arrow bow deal 800% increased dmg and Unhallowed will run it.

Similarly, chakram is part of Marauders, it just deals sh*t dmg. If they buff the chakram legendaries, Marauder’s will use it. Heck, even Impale could use the Shuriken shroud rune for added AoE if it did enough dmg.

But, I digress, I’m with you and I’d much rather have an Elemental Arrow set than an awkward trap set. Frost Arrow just looks cool.

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I think Spike Trap is unfortunately a lost skill. It is too awkward and would require another rework to make it interesting and viable. It’s just too much resource for a team we know is very small. I would love to be proven wrong though! Given this, I think the easy ‘exit’ would be a Chakram or Elemental Arrow (or even a hybrid) set. The supporting items already exist and just need to have a multiplier added, and both work similarly (these skills become generators).

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what about a set similar to Tal Rasha’s built around EA with Kridershot and Augustine’s???

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What I’m really interested in is that thing about re-working legendaries to have new affixes. I like what someone said about re-working cape of the dark night. I’d also like something done with Blackfeather and possibly a few more cloaks added.

At any rate, that rocket Blackfeather fires is way too weak considering we don’t have a passive, as far as I know, that raises dodge chance and getting hit in High Grifts isn’t advised for any build concerning DH’s. Since folks are mentioning that they’d like a set to go with Chakram or Elemental Arrow, an idea that struck me was giving Blackfeather an affix to effect one or both of those skills or to effect generators in general.

With that in mind, the set could include a belt instead of a chest piece. We’ve got three choices for belts, Hunter’s Wrath, Zoey’s Secret (which was specifically designed for Marauders) and Witching Hour. Though ideally if a set boosts Chakram or Elemental Arrow, they’d also re-work Hunter’s Wrath to work with those skills when items like Kridershot and Spines of Seething Hatred turn them into generators, but if they don’t, then a set belt wouldn’t be costing us too much as long as either Blackfeather is re-worked or a new cloaks created to also work with Chakram and/or Elemental Arrow. The set using a belt piece instead of a chest piece would allow us to equip a cloak without using RoRG, which, to me, would at least make the loss of Hunter’s Wrath or Witching Hour palatable.

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I’ve always been on board for a Spike Trap and Caltrops set, but the current version of the ST skill is atrocious and needs to be reverted to more the literal trap version. As well, I would tweak some of the existing legendaries to better this end.

  • Omryn’s Chain: Drops a Caltrops every time you vault, increases the range of Caltrops by 20 yards, and triples the duration foes are affected by Caltrops.
  • Cape of the Dark Night: Increases damage done to foes within or affected by Caltrops by 300% and adds an additional 25% for every enemy affected.
  • Demon’s Demise: Spike Trap damage and the total number you can place is doubled. (Would also prefer this item changed to a 2h crossbow for a higher damage range)
  • Trag’Ouls Coils: Doubles the explosion radius of Spike Traps and regains 1 Hatred for every mob hit by a Spike Trap.
  • Channon Bolter: If a Spike Trap has not been detonated within the past 5 seconds, your next deals 50,000% additional damage and stuns all foes in range for 3 seconds. Otherwise, Spike Traps deal y% additional damage.

I left out Helltrapper between it also deploying Sentries and the fact I’m a firm believer ST should be a 2h crossbow-focused skill. My take on a dream set should also keep the above in mind.

  • 2p: Spike Traps now explode 3 times before being spent with a 1 second delay between each explosion. The damage of Spike Traps is increased by z% and the speed they are placed is increased by 500%.
  • 4p: Gain 4% damage reduction for every enemy within or affected by Caltrops for 10 seconds, up to 60%. The duration of Smoke Screen is also douled, but performing an action other than Vault, Caltrops, Spike Traps, or Grenades removes Smokescreen and puts it on tripled cooldown.
  • 6p: Spike Traps placed while under Smokescreen deal xyz% damage. Spike Traps hit by Grenades or other exploding Spike Traps also detonate all remaining charges instantly. The Discipline cost of Vault is also removed while under the effect of Smokescreen and Bat Familiar replenishes 1 Discipline per second.

I was intentionally vague on some damage numbers just because there are a lot of moving parts in this equation as well as additive and multiplicative aspects. The Smokescreen aspect and weapon combinations are also intended to keep us from needing the Dawn/Vengeance combo to make this work. But in general, I would view the play style as vaulting around a pack of mobs to get the Caltrops down, laying the Traps while still undetected, and then detonating them with the Grenades to more swiftly repeat the process. I also know this is highly reliant on ST solely becoming a Hatred Spender with a normal 3 deployment limit before factoring in other bonuses. The CE passive can also add 1 and possibly more damage. Some ST runes may also need more specifically reworked to facilitate set use (like changing shooting lightning bolts to lightning novas or making Impaling/Custom Trigger more interesting).

From the skill perspective, you’d be setting Grenades, Spike Trap, Smokescreen, Vault, and Bat Familiar. The 6th could be Caltrops for direct manual placement, or something more flexible like a Marked for Death or even a Preparation skill. Passive choices would likely entail Custom Engineering and Cull the Weak. The others may depend on your needs, but something like Numbing Traps could be handy and maaaaaaaybe Blizzard could do something to make the Grenadier passive actually good here.

But I digress, probably not gonna happen and I wouldn’t be surprised if all these new sets are just 2-piece types.

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Maybe with a set bonus like “EA gains the effect of all runes”(*) or something like that. Of course with a buffed Krider and/or Augustines.

That would certainly make the current legendary property on Augstine’s more interesting.

I’d like to see a set that grants us the toughness to stand around and channel, like Rapid Fire, and I could also see that including Chakrams, instead of having to constantly be on the move before we have enough time to take advantage of getting fully stacked.

I think I’d rather see the legendary items that compliment Elemental Arrow buffed, rather than see an entire set created around the skill. How will a set that buffs EA damage change the way I play as a demon hunter to provide a new experience that sets it apart from the other DH sets? I don’t see it changing the basic, tumble, shoot, rinse, repeat approach.

This talk of a Spike Trap-based build sounds like it may offer a different way to play the class, I see a new play-style/experience as a good thing. My concern is I don’t like Spike Trap and Caltrops as skills. I don’t like how they play. They feel clunky to me. They are not fun for me.

Standing there, screaming, as I channel Rapid Fire at any demon that dares approach, leaving a trail of bodies in my wake…that appeals to me.

We are Demon Hunters! Demons fear us! We shouldn’t always be running from them.

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When Demons have nightmares, they are dreaming of us!

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I hear what Yvetzel is saying, it’s straight forward to buff the legendary items associated with Chakram and Elemental arrow since we have 3 sets that encompass these skills UE6, M6 and N6M4, each can likely clear GR110+ today.

Elemental Arrow and Chakram already have decent skill rune options, they just need more power. Whether you dedicate a set to a certain skill(s), or just upgrade a legendary item – doesn’t matter as much.

DH has a lot of projectile type attacks, many practically do the same thing. With the exception of Slow Ball, EA and Chakram play just like Multishot – you’re stutter stepping and shooting trying your best not to die. So I think it’ll be good for the game to just give those a damage buff – this way the battle field is not filled with UE6 Multishot clones.

In the case of Spike Trap and Caltrops, they could lean on S2, N6 and LoN as the base set to buff, but… like everyone has expressed, there are so many fundamental problems with those two skills beyond their lack of damage modifiers.

The funny thing is that people would play today’s Spike Trap in groups if it was capable of trash clearing 4player GR140-150 with the current clunky play style. We know it’s going to take several legendary effect revamps to fix this mess, that’s why i’m in favor of seeing DH get a new set to address the akwardness.

Saidosha’s ideas are great: making time a factor of how hard Spike Trap hits, while also encouraging their deployment while under Smoke Screen. I think it’s a cool concept and supports doing big and infrequent explosions with a some strategic prep work (definitely worthy of GR150 trash clearing role – for those who don’t get caught!).

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I was thinking through a weird strafe/rapid fire set.

The Arrogant Rogue

2pc: Demon Hunter can now use all skills while holding a melee weapon and gains 50% increased movement speed.
4pc: While channeling, all skills use 90% less resource and all skills can be used without breaking channel.
6pc: Gain 500% damage and 15% damage reduction for 3 seconds when you use a hatred spender, and 100% damage and 20% damage reduction for 5 seconds when using a discipline spender.

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Depending on what slots this fictitious new set would occupy, if it includes two of the following: a melee weapon, belt, bracer, ring, or amulet, then one could make a MONSTROUSLY overpowered N6/S2/AR2 build by multiplying the 61x S2 multiplier with the 141x N6 multiplier (8601x) since you can then use Rain of Vengeance with a melee weapon.

Developers have to be very careful in how they introduce new toys.

Edit: PMG is right (I forgot about the weapon issue), I adjusted the requirements to make a broken setup with RoRG:

Nats ring + helm + boots + pants + gloves
Shadow shoulders + chest
“Arrogant Rogue” bracer + amulet

then equip a melee weapon and gg lol

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What about a set that would allow us to dual wield a dagger/hand crossbow???

Imagine a combo MS/Impale playstyle where you blast trash mobs from distance until you can isolate that poor elite/champ at which point you vault in and stab that sumbizitch in the throat…

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