Mastering the CA DH: The Hand Crossbow DPS is a lie.

by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

The Cluster Arrow Demon Hunter has positioned itself strongly on the minds of players as one of the most powerful DH Builds out there. In this mini-series we will look at the fine print on the Cluster Arrow Demon Hunter so we can make informed selections on our items and skills that will make us the strongest we can be.

Last week on the first part of the series we looked at how Attack Speed was a bit overrated and Resource Cost Reduction was likely the wiser option, this week we will look at a head to head comparison again so we can continue to make the best possible choice.

What weapon should you wield, Bow, Crossbow, Hand Crossbow or Duals?

It’s no secret that Hand Crossbows lend themselves to have a pretty high weapon DPS number, there’s even an arms race on the Westmarch Workshop podcast’s community section on who can submit the Nat’s Slayer with the most damage.

When you combine that high dps numbers with the ever beloved weapon socket, for many Demon Hunters Dual Wielding Hand Crossbows is an obvious choice. But the thing is, most of those DH’s are actually Cluster Arrow DHs and fast attacks isn’t really what we should be going for.

As you’ve probably realized by now, Hand Crossbows have a 1.6 Attack Speed which means that much of their big DPS relies on that big fat Attack Speed. This also means that each of their attacks aren’t quite as potent as a 2700 weapon DPS number would lead you to believe.

And just like Neinball himself mentioned on the podcast, it’s very important that your first Ambush-fueled Cluster Arrow hits as hard as possible.

With that in mind, I’ll hypothesize that (2 Hand) Crossbow + Quiver is (way) superior for Cluster arrow builds. Lets try and use math to prove that Hypothesis.

Proving the Hypothesis:

Note: From now on, I’ll refer to (Two Handed) Crossbows as Two Handers. I don’t mean bows when I say Two Handers, I never mean bows, not today, not in any fasion. But bows aren’t considered here since I believe them to be inferior to both crossbows and hand crossbows.

The Best Hand Crossbow you can get will have 1292-2219 damage, that’s what you’d get with a +10% Damage and the highest possible Damage Roll. That’s an average of 1755 damage per shot (not per second, but per shot).

For Two Handers the top damage is 2175-2678 or an average of 2427 damage per shot. That’s a 38% base damage per shot edge for the Two Handers, we can’t forget Hand Crossbows fire 45% faster though.

As of now the Dual Wield option would still deal more damage if you were spamming the normal attack (no skill) but of course, you are not doing that in actual gameplay, also since each shot is faster but weaker your ambush won’t be as effective.

Let us take a closer look at the optimum setup for both options, I’m going to equal the dual wield attack bonus to the attack speed on the quiver so don’t panic if you don’t see either of them on the calcs. They seem to average into something pretty similar, but you’ll have to trust me on that one.

Dual Wield:

Even though 10% extra damage isn’t very strong when dual wielding, big DPS numbers are just too shiny to pass on for many players thus we will consider that our dual wielder friend is looking for them on his Hand Crossbows. We are trying to disprove that big numbers on your weapon is the key for CA builds after all.

Each Weapon:

1. 10% Damage
2. 750 Dexterity
3. Socket
4. 12 Discipline

Total: 2 sockets, 24 discipline, 1500 dexterity (and 45% attack speed over 2 handers)

2 Hand + Quiver:

Weapon:

• 750 Dex
• 10% Damage
• Socket

Quiver:

• 10% Crit Chance,
• 15% Cluster Arrow Damage
• 750 Dex
• 10% Resource Cost Reduction (or Hatred Regen),
• 12 Discipline.

Total:

1 Socket, 12 Discipline, 1500 Dexterity, 10% Crit, 15% Cluster Arrow, 8% Resource Cost Reduction (and 38% Damage over Dual Wield).

Comparison:

Dual Wield: +12 Discipline, +130% Crit Damage, +45% attack speed,

2 Hander: +10% crit chance, +15% cluster arrow damage, +8% resource cost reduction, +38% plain damage.

The Archery Passive is to be considered too as you probably have it, that would change things to.

Dual Wield: +12 Discipline, +80% Crit Damage, 1 hatred/second +45% attack speed,

2 Hander: +5% crit chance, +15% cluster arrow damage, +8% resource cost reduction, +38% plain damage.

Conclusions:

You can see that both options are pretty even for straight out sheet DPS, you’d have to run the specific calculations on the Crit Chance and Damage for your level of gear to get the specifics. When we take into account that we are running a CA build then we can realize that the 2 Hander gives you stats that are much better suited for your build.

Your Cluster Arrows will be almost 50% stronger (and 8% cheaper) which means that your hatred will be much more efficient. Also, higher Crit Chance means that you are more likely to get that big Ambush crit, making one shots a very common occurrence.

The low Attack Speed will also make much better use of your passive hatred regeneration, your [d3item name=”Reaper’s Wraps”], and Preparation – Punishment.

Therefore I can safely say that at least for CA builds, (2 Hander) Crossbow + Quiver is the superior choice. Don’t be blinded by the shiny DPS numbers on the Hand Crossbows, as they are nothing but a big fat lie.