Dark Hunter Splash > for paladin?

[Col Kurtz]

someone sent me a PM suggesting to try 15/5 pali/dark hunter.

suggesting this combo as a TWF can produce premium dps against red names and bosses?

I have 1 more pali life to run and was curious what from dark hunter tree makes this worthwhile. I just scanned the tree quickly and do not see why 5 DH lvl's ?

Only thing that looks good is ''Bleed Imbue'', but that requires only 1 lvl of DH ? anything else I missed that would make this combo desirable?

Feats as well, not seeing why 5 lvls of dark hunter?... by lvl 3 you would have TWF feat and die hard..& the lvl 4,5 free feats look like a waste of space.

Either way , I doubt I'd try it > but, figured I'd ask here where the dark hunter, ranger specialists hang out/hey you never know

 

[Clagor]

Access to tier 5 Tempest Enhancements

https://ddowiki.com/page/Tempest_enhancements

 

[DDObot]

To be a bit more specific, 5 darkhunter gives access to t5 tempest enhancements for the twf goodies, along with trapfinding/SA dice.

DH tree t3 gets all sorts of SA and +3 imbue dice, which works wonder with KotC imbue from pally.

 

[Col Kurtz]

Access to tier 5 Tempest Enhancements

https://ddowiki.com/page/Tempest_enhancements

ah, so investing heavily into that tree... Is this splash more for those with 90 ish action points? I see a lot of builds utilize those extra unlocked racial points

 

[unbongwah]

It's a modern-ish twist on a very old build concept: combine tier-5 Tempest with Holy Sword + Zeal + KotC bonuses. Dark Hunter instead of regular ranger gives trap skills and extra sneak attacks but you lose access to most good Favored Enemy options.

Presuming you use Favored Weapons, the Enhancement spread is something like 40 Tempest / 24 KotC (Light imbue + 3 dice) / 16 Dark Hunter (+3 Imbue dice, +3d6 sneak attacks).

 

[DDObot]

Not necessarily, but there are some neat things you can do with 16 racial points with 15/5. Razorclaw comes to mind.

But no, max racial AP is not required to make 15/5 work

 

[Col Kurtz]

It's a modern-ish twist on a very old build concept: combine tier-5 Tempest with Holy Sword + Zeal + KotC bonuses. Dark Hunter instead of regular ranger gives trap skills and extra sneak attacks but you lose access to most good Favored Enemy options.

Presuming you use Favored Weapons, the Enhancement spread is something like 40 Tempest / 24 KotC (Light imbue + 3 dice) / 16 Dark Hunter (+3 Imbue dice, +3d6 sneak attacks).

ty

 

[unbongwah]

ah, so investing heavily into that tree... Is this splash more for those with 90 ish action points? I see a lot of builds utilize those extra unlocked racial points

You would only "need" a bunch of extra racial APs for something super-specific, like Scourge Aasimar using morningstars:

• 40 Tempest for tier-5s
• 24 KotC for Light imbue bonuses, free Knight's Training, and Censure Demons
• 17 Scourge for Destroyer of the Dead
• 13 Dark Hunter for +3 Imbue dice

And even here, you could just skip Dark Hunter and pull off the build with a mere 81 APs.

 

[Col Kurtz]

so I wasnt thinking of doin TWF ,but it looks like this isn't to bad like a TFW ranger but can heal himself a little better... guess it's dodge focused with light or maybe medium armor? my melee set right now has heavy

 

[unbongwah]

guess it's dodge focused with light or maybe medium armor?

Not necessarily, though if you take Dodge+Mobility you can also take advantage of Improved Dodge+Mobility enhancements in Tempest. But Dark Hunter 5 / paladin 15 doesn't get Evasion (unless you grab it from an Epic Destiny or Tabaxi's Lucky Cat) and doesn't qualify for Underdark Armor, which would be the main incentives to use light / medium armor instead of heavy IMO.

 

[Onyxia2016]

It's a modern-ish twist on a very old build concept: combine tier-5 Tempest with Holy Sword + Zeal + KotC bonuses. Dark Hunter instead of regular ranger gives trap skills and extra sneak attacks but you lose access to most good Favored Enemy options.

Presuming you use Favored Weapons, the Enhancement spread is something like 40 Tempest / 24 KotC (Light imbue + 3 dice) / 16 Dark Hunter (+3 Imbue dice, +3d6 sneak attacks).

Wow, you had to brave the deep catacombs to unearth that build.

Being one that plays a lot of paladin or cleric lives, I think I played that or a build very close to it long ago.
With a little tweaking I can see it being viable with DH.

 

[Grunndi]

With Pally saves you absolutely want to get Evasion from SD (plus all the sneak dice and threat reduction). LD t5, Fury T4, SD t3 would be my go-to ED setup for this split.

And if you have the AP, exalted smite makes for a great attack to combo with Adrenaline.

 

[Rugar]

Personally, I'd give up Zeal and go for a 14/6 split. This would still let you get Holy Sword but you'd also get Underdark Armor. Then you go the full Heavy route.

 

[Arsont]

Personally, I'd give up Zeal and go for a 14/6 split. This would still let you get Holy Sword but you'd also get Underdark Armor. Then you go the full Heavy route.

Assuming you mean full medium, unless the enhancement text is incorrect.

This is something I've considered, but as a bow/twf hybrid, using Horizon Walker for the most part (and possibly with Sacred Fist instead). The 14/6 and 15/5 builds are really different concepts, though they play similarly.

Problem with losing 10%ds is that it's a substantial dps loss compared to 15/5, especially when using Tempest. You lose ds not just on main hand, but offhand too. This also affects your imbue damage, something twf excels at.

Granted, I don't think most content is hard enough that anyone would notice the difference, but they seem to me to be two different builds with different end goals.

 

[Rugar]

You were correct, as far as I know I should have said "Full Medium".

However, if you are going for the TWF route you are likely getting your threat range (DWS) and multi (Tempest) from other places and so won't need Holy Sword. Since they changed HS to a competence modifier, it is far less important to split builds.

 

[Grunndi]

DWS Crit range needs 12 ranger levels and 21 AP in DWS (tempest Crit multi also needs 12 ranger levels). That’s an entirely different build (and prob better off as a 20 rgr/DH), than a 15/5 pal/DH.

 

[Rugar]

Fair enough.

 

[Arsont]

DWS Crit range needs 12 ranger levels and 21 AP in DWS (tempest Crit multi also needs 12 ranger levels). That’s an entirely different build (and prob better off as a 20 rgr/DH), than a 15/5 pal/DH.

The old Monster build comes to mind, and other variants of ranger/fighter/monk combos. Wonder how those would work with DH instead of standard ranger?

 

[Kindaru_Khan]

The old Monster build comes to mind, and other variants of ranger/fighter/monk combos. Wonder how those would work with DH instead of standard ranger?

Add S-kai's whirling attack now that scimi's are treated as light weapons 5Aps in Tempest. Been trying to figure a nice end game build based on this with DH dex build with imp evasion.