The mechanics on DH are simple, which makes it easy to pick up and play.
There are no stack counts reflecting surrounding density apart from standard stuff like Pain Enhancer.
Distance calculation mechanics are minuscule or available to other classes:
- Zei’s is not specific to DH class.
- Steady Aim is minuscule 20%.
- Single Out is minuscule, may amount to 40% more damage when conditions are met.
Hebalon hit the nail on the head for why our game play is incompatible. One other point, enemies move when you’re not stationary, they instead travel towards us, which reduces density and area damage.
If they ever did remedy this issue, and made DH ranged builds more focused on separating density, or gave us a role in group play where we become very strong when the trash is gone… what would the game play be like? What would the itemization look like? How would it affect a solo and group play?
I am thinking of affixes / legendary effects that already exist:
- Elite damage %
- Gain % Damage when X enemies are within Y yards
- Gain % Damage for every Y yards from your target.
- Gain 30% damage reduction against ranged attacks.
More unique takes on them:
- Gain 300% more damage, but it is reduced by 20% for every target within 5 yards of the enemy you hit.
- You no longer deal area damage, but damage is increased by 150%.
- You deal 100% more damage when no allies, pets, or followers are within 25 yards.
- Enemies that pierced from more than 40 yards away take 75% damage from your attacks for the next 3 seconds.
- Enemies hit by your attacks have a chance to be pulled back and immobilized for 8 seconds.
- Each enemy knocked back within 30 yards grants a 10% damage bonus for 10 seconds and only applies to targets you hit surrounded by 10 or fewer enemies within 10 yards. (this is for 4-man groups, where your zbarb/zmonk groups many targets, or when you bust out a Windforce and become superman. There are some wonky ways to pay this solo, where you’d drag a herd of trash behind you and demolish isolated stuff ahead, it’s probably hard to keep pockets of 10 targets together without losing the bonus)
In groups, I would suggest a role that lets us quickly finish elites. If the Trash Clearer is smacking stuff down for 100Q+ every 30 seconds, we should be able to very easily hit 10 or less targets (with typical debuffs) for 3Q per second so the team can move on. Perhaps the last mechanic cited is a way to build up to this number. I can see a zbarb harpooning trash away from elites so it can die quicker.
I don’t think every DH build should avoid Area Damage, or grouping mobs together, ie Cluster Bombs, Impale, Grenades – HOWEVER, there should be a distinction in how we build our ranged and melee builds. Some of the suggestions above could be reversed for close ranged play styles.