Are demon hunters super squishy?

[Braonie]

inb4l2p. I am about lvl 15 mostly dealing with goatmen and I'm noticing that if I get cornered, swarmed, or caught low on discipline I'm basically toast. It doesn't happen all that often but when it does I can't seem to kill things fast enough or have any wiggle room for error. Like in that goat town when 30 of em swarm you and one ends up being a jailor. Died three friggin times (mostly due to the jailor and getting smooshed by trash)

Meanwhile on my wizard I not only seem more durable, but can toss out much more damage, especially aoe and have room to recover from dumb mistakes. I don't think my gear is all that different between the two either with the demon hunter having the edge there. So I'm wondering if there is just a difference in their survivability or what. Also can some of the other classes take more than a couple hits before going squish? I know some bosses are built to one hit basically, but I'm talking about on just general trash. kiting while low on hatred and discipline is not exactly fun to me.

Basically I'm trying to tell if this is just the way it is. If so I'll deal and adjust. Or if some of the other classes are more durable or have more tools at their disposal to not die.

[Sarval]

Basically, at that point you do not have your main aoe abilities. At mid twenties is when you start actually getting some decent aoe abilties and can really start picking up on being able to kill things quickly, while maintaining hatred. As for being super squishy, yea, you are. Right now I just finished act 2 of Nightmare with a friends who is playing a barb and any time a mob gets to me, it is hitting me for 1k+ while I have 5k hp and anything that explodes, instakills me.

Stick with the DH though, it does it get better. I am loving mine at level 42

[Disenchanted]

Caltrops
Templar
Chakra and RF
???
Profit

That, and stay on your toes vaulting away. Just like in WoW boss fights, half the battle is being aware of where you are so you don't get caught in a bad place. Plan your movements ahead.

Still waiting to even need a potion. Once I needed one, but my Templar healed me first.

Also, maybe you need a weapon change if things aren't melting for you. So far, I've found 2 1H xbows to be much better at killing than a 2H/Quiver combo. (Shame, as my 2H and quiver are rares). This will likely change as gear gets better. But for now, dual wielding is the way to go.

[Faint Of Heart]

I've yet to die on my DH because the survivability skills at its disposal are great. Caltrops + Vault are a pro combo. I shoot and kite everything. I am level 20 and about to finish Act II. The beginning of Act II was pretty devastating as far as damage was concerned, but that's because I didn't know how some monster mechanics were working in close combat situations. Once I could get away from some of the monsters, it became much easier.

[Darsithis]

Yeah it's a struggle without the bigger AoE abilities (and rapid fire is NOT one of those). In the meantime, I'd team up for those fights with someone to help until you hit the 20's

[Disenchanted]

Yeah it's a struggle without the bigger AoE abilities (and rapid fire is NOT one of those). In the meantime, I'd team up for those fights with someone to help until you hit the 20's

No, it's not. But RF is an effective tool if you can force them to bottleneck. For that matter, runed piercing shot is great if you can bottleneck them and keep some distance.

[digger66]

I lay cloptraps every so often so i can fall back to them. Cloptrap plus bola shot with exploding rune. shoot 2 monsters twice nothing lives thru it. I am using imale instead of chakars to get that hard hitting shot off when i need it. I am by no means squishy. also use knockback stun on impale works well when that one mob gets thru. Died a few times but more so because i wasnt paying attention.

[Every Pwny]

Yeah I definitely found demon hunter (19 right now) to be the worst class for taking any kind of damage, I like to have that healing companion with me (he is really weak but the heals are nice). When I play through as the monk (17) though it's like I've never had to use one of my defensive abilities, just spam your abilities until they are all dead. Plus my monk seems to kill things faster too (they do seem op).

[Darsithis]

No, it's not. But RF is an effective tool if you can force them to bottleneck. For that matter, runed piercing shot is great if you can bottleneck them and keep some distance.

Only if you can bottleneck. If you get surrounded, all you can do is spin in a circle, which really wastes a ton of hatred

[Disenchanted]

Only if you can bottleneck. If you get surrounded, all you can do is spin in a circle, which really wastes a ton of hatred

True. But that's when you caltrop/vault.

[Razael]

Once i got Chakram the AoE problems stopped, especially with the Dual Chakram rune.
As far as squishy-ness i tend to agree if for some reason those Wasps get through they take alot of health.

[Frankminimia]

Im probably not the best to comment on it because i usually play with 2 barbs and a witch doc but when i do have mobs on me for what ever reason it doesnt seem to bad with all the kiting capabilitie and escape techniques and potion if need be i dont feel squishy, if i stood there tanking them i probably would though considering this is with monsters powered up for a 4 group. So if your playing right it may just be a gear issue, try switching to use more control abilities too like snare shots and traps with vault for escape

[Deleted]

Only if you can bottleneck. If you get surrounded, all you can do is spin in a circle, which really wastes a ton of hatred

Most of the time it's pretty easy to bottleneck your enemies, particularly in the dungeons; hallways are narrow and door's are extremely convenient. You can even use corner, to force the mobs to just walk into your line of fire. Not just that but RF is also darn good against bosses and other elites. Have a conjurer at the back summoning stuff up, vault in, RF him down, and vault back. You can even fan of knives right before vaulting back.

To the question, yes DHs seem pretty squishy but we have a ton of abilities that allow us to keep a distance. Caltrops and vault and the two discipline abilities that I use. I can kite mobs, bunch them up for RF, etc. It is really effective, even with poor equipment and it goes to a whole new level with really descent weapons. I started using the AH only around Act II, and it was worth it. Before I bought a new pair of good crossbows, I could kill stuff decently well, but had to work for it. After, stuff just started exploding. I could almost just stand still and shoot around and an army of mobs would die at my feet.

[Maelstrom51]

Get smoke screen and love it.

[Deleted]

anything that explodes kills me as a tanky barbarian so i just avoid it. and so should u.

other than that yes DH are squishy but they have the capabilities to kite around and dodge.

[Thrage]

Have you thought about upgrading some of your gear, particularly your weapons? Hit up the auction house, see what's for sale. Put in a max buyout of like 3,000 or 4,000, something reasonable, and do some shopping.

You'll be amazed at how much this boosts your damage, and you'll start to welcome the swarms. Those goat men'll be just a knife throw away from death (seriously, it'll one-shot them if your gear is up to date.)

[Evil Inside]

I havent had much problems so far, granted I'm only level 18 at the moment but playing solo I've only wiped about 5 times all together. Main thing is to stay on your toes, you have your traps, you have vault, and some alright aoe. Personally when im up against big packs I put down a trap and use evasive shot + trap when they get close, but while at range bola shot + explosive rune and rapid fire with the reduced hatred cost rune(forget what its called) blows everything sky high, I also toss out some grenades when the opportunity presents itself and everything usually dies.

[Leeroyjgibbs]

Here was my build @ lvl 14

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...#aZYdW!Z!aaa.a

For any group with one big bad and lots of small enemies I would actually start by vaulting past the small enemies so that they didn't get in my LoS on the big bad, use impale + impact to stun, spam hungering arrow, rinse and repeat. Once the big bad that hits hard/spawns enemies/walls/jails/etc... was dead then cleaning up the trash with bola and HA was a breeze.

I hadn't died once or even came close until act three. Then I ran into champion/elite mobs that explode when they die (learned that the hard way going to pick up a rare) and others that seemingly charge you like a jihadist and if 2-3 of them do that and you're unaware then you're dead, no potion will save you.

Hope this helps, good luck!

[endgame619]

Using elective mode I set it up so I'm using entangling shot with the rune that snares 4 guys and bola shot with the extra damage rune and I alternate the shots. I'm using Rapid fire, vault, and the skill that heals me for the damage I do, and the skill that refills my discipline. For my passives I'm using the one that increases damage to slowed mobs and the one that increases damage if you're 20 yards away.

I'm level 23 about midway through act II and since I switched to this setup up I haven't had any trouble killing any mob. Also an easy way to up your damage is to get +damage rings and necklace off vendors, something as simple as a +2-4 damage ring gives a good boost from my experiances.

[DeadmanWalking]

I personally found that DH was one of the most survivable classes next to the witch doctor. Having a class that can spray a boss with one ability and down the boss is a good thing, I was actually playing it on nightmare mode in beta because it could really throw out the damage. There is no reason you should be in range of enemies that don't shoot ranged attacks (and you can kill those first quickly) as you can set up traps and vault away and if it comes down to it you can always kite the enemy backwards, especially since you have already cleared the area behind you. By the time enemies start appearing all around you (like summonded undead) you have access to vault.