It’s that time of the “off season” with yet another comprehensive DH guide. Video below:
Quick notes from the video:
UE6 is the starting set and a great one at that for its purpose. You’ll be using this for quite some time even after building into strafe impale simply because it’s the best T16 keys/bounties farmer with the strafe power.
StrafePale has many different setups and ways to play it. It will be the most fun build by far for DH’s. If you want to compete on the main solo leaderboards however, you’ll need to transition to M6 Ray of light.
M6 Ray of Light is still pretty boring, but strong. A seasoned vet could get a GR 150 at around 3500 paragon.
GoD6 has lost most of it’s usual purpose and will fall out of popularity. Guardians though with fortress makes it a bit interesting still. Stuck using vengeance artifact power, which still sucks.
zDH is still zDH but now with vengeance artifact power, meaning zDH can actually contribute a little in the DPS department especially in high GR’s.
All builds and setups mentioned were thoroughly tested in the PTR and have achieved rank 1 on all set boards (cept nats, we won’t talk about nats). All comments welcomed!
I don’t know about that “stuck with using Vengeance artifact power”. I tested GoD with Sages and the strafe artifact. Multi-shot Windchill provides free crit chance (8%) and free BotT procs through the chilled effect.
Sages let’s you drop Teaguk for BotT and Zei’s. I came late to the PTR and but still was able to do a GR 129 at Paragon 1250 or so. The top on the leaderboard during PTR was 131 with the Vengeance artifact and standard set up with about Twice the Paragon.
Also, I did it with a Primal Unbound Bolt, so wasn’t optimized.
I agree it won’t be top of the leaderboard but the strafe artifact is pretty good allowing you to run without Thrill of the Hunt or getting in close to proc BotT and to replace a crit chance roll if you choose to with another stat.
At any rate, GoD isn’t stuck with the Vengeance Artifact, I don’t think.
Thing is, you could have always ran windchill even without the strafe power by just stafe-weaving it in every 3 seconds or so, much like dual generator.
With strafe, while it means you don’t have to cast it yourself, still needs to take up a skill on your bar. Offensively, windchill is roughly as strong as the wolf companion, so if you want a half a GR’s worth of damage potential, you can just slot wolf and pick up the vengeance artifact instead.
Procing BotT has never really been a big issue for GoD6 and most people have ran it without windchill on their bar with good results. Generally speaking, in a push scenario, you don’t want to slow the entire screen so you can gather and pull more efficiently. Even so, you could just run taeguk/zei’s/simplicity if one prefers the midrange and not worry about BotT’s consistency.
While the statement in my video was geared more towards people putting random spenders on the bar for more “damage” (heard this suggested a lot on my stream through PTR), it’s also difficult to recommend the strafe power for 8% crit chance with windchill when wolf companion can give you a similar damage bonus and you get % based damage rockets from casting vengeance with artifact. I’d be more inclined to recommend it if it also changes gameplay or do something you normally could not do with GoD6, but that’s also not the case here either
The main issue from my experience will be the drop rate. It was terrible on PTR and they say it will be doubled, not sure that will be enough. Given that we are needing a specific power on a specific item, it is going to be frustrating if there are very few and we are not lucky.
I ran with Windchill and Wolf. I think it was Vengeance, Wolf, Multi-shot, Hungering Arrow, Strafe, and Smoke Screen.
Edit:
Also, running Multi-shot in the regular set up means you have aim Multi-shot. You don’t with the Artifacts.
I also didn’t worry too much about getting mobs together, they got there regardless of being slowed and the slowed kept them there.
But, I’m not arguing with you, I tried the Vengeance thing and it was worthless, got more out of the Strafe one just in my personal experience.
Edit # 2: Actually, I ran with FoK Bladed Armor over Smoke Screen.
Also, I did a 132 in non season with over 4000 paragon. That’s the best I’ve run since NCS was nerfed. Three away, with under half the paragon seems it does something that you can’t in non season.
Thanks DieOxide, will rewatch your vid later. Much to take in for a non pro .
May I pop a question about an idea I had around theory crafting my (actually @dmkt 's idea) for the strafe pale. If I take Spines of Seething Hatred to make Chakram generate hatred will the strafe power still consider it a spender?
You helped me in another thread about the same build I am thinking of but I forgot to mention this variation. Will try to post as soon as I will start the new season, unfortunately it will be late about half season in.
I see that selling point is quality of life, not necessarily higher achievement by using said artifact. I agree that vengeance artifact is lackluster and overall crappy, but it also does something we couldn’t do before and actually aids in a slightly higher clear than before.
In a guide, I have to take into account what is most likely to be played and/or attempted with the benefits of achieving something greater than they would have otherwise. I’m always interested in niche ways of doing things and thinking outside of the box (ody UE6 strafe, ody M6 ray of light, guardians GoD6 fortress etc), but they’re usually followed by vertical progression or a change of actual gameplay.
Strafe artifact on GoD6 only offers quality of life. The artifact essentially allows players to “numlock” windchill to put it honestly. While cool looking, it doesn’t change gameplay, nor does it give you vertical progression that wasn’t already possible without it. Nothing wrong with anyone wanting to use it, but it’s impossible to account for each individual’s playstyle when putting together a guide while keeping the video length manageable if the primary goal is achievement.
The power keys off the original state of the skills and is not affected by items which change spenders into generators (Spines and Kridershot). At least that is how it was on PTR and should remain on Live also.
Another skill being Knives Expert (Fan of Knives) which removes the cooldown and adds a hatred cost. They were all tested and worked on PTR.
Chakram or Fan of Knives (would love to get that one in there.
Spike trap
Vengeance.
My idea is to cast Chakram, running around strafing agroing mobs when they are close enough to gather up. Set out a spike trap trigger it by strafe and then hit them with impale.
That is gist of it, let’s see if I pull it off in game as well
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Star, are you sure the Spines of Seething Hatred was used?
thank you so much.
