Impale struggle at GR100

Demon Hunter
1

Hello folks,
I have a problem to push GR 100 with Demon Hunter’s impale build. I am only able to push GR 90. When I upgraded my ancient items with low level augments I barely finished GR 95. I tried GR 95 many times and I was finally able to finish it during 15 minutes, but it was very tough.

I don’t have any toughness issues, even at GR120 4-man groups, I don’t die at those rifts, but I don’t do any damage.

I tried to push GR 100. I tried at least 60 times, but I can’t push it, no matter what. The real problem is VERY LOW damage. Even with cold convention elements rotation I don’t do any damage. I have even problems to kill Guardians. Last time I fought against Guardian almost 5 minutes!! at GR 95! I also tried to switch from Pain Enhancer to Bane of Powerful (level 116) and Bane of Stricken (level 121). I know that those levels are very low for GR 100, but I don’t see any difference between legendary gems. Even with Bane of Stricken I simply don’t do any damage to Guardian.

Everyone say that Impale is Guardian killer, but I suppose it’s not true. It seems that Impale is very weak set.

My impale build is here. Could you please check it out and tell me where are bottlenecks in my build? I know that I miss 15% Impale damage in my helm and 20% cold damage in my amulet. What other bottlenecks I have? Why I do not do any damage to enemies above GR 95?

D3 planner https://d3planner.com/891810366

PS: I hope Blizzard will buff Impale set at LEAST like this:
(2) Set:
While equipped with a melee weapon, your damage is increased by 20000%.
(4) Set:
Shadow Power gains the effect of every rune and lasts forever.
(6) Set:
Impale deals an additional 300,000% weapon damage to the first enemy hit.

I’m pretty sure, if Blizzard buff Impale set like this, I will be able to push GR 100 between 12-14 minutes.

2

The set is not weak. I did this almost 200 paragon ago…

Take a quick look at my Impale DH that did that clearance…
https://www.d3planner.com/257724838
Her setup is extremely similar to yours except that I’m using the lightning Ricochet variant rather than the cold Overpenetration variant, purely down to the quiver I’ve got.

That’s one thing you’ll notice, my quiver has Elemental, AS, CHC and Impale bonus. Your quiver doesn’t have any Impale bonus. As you noticed already, your helm has CHC but no Impale bonus. So, just from Quiver and Helm, that’s up to 30% Impale bonus you’re missing.

I’m also using different legendary gems to you (and at a lower rank than yours are). You have Trapped, Pain Enhancer and Gogok. I’m using Trapped, Pain Enhancer and Powerful. I can still maintain 100% up-time on Vengeance without Gogok which means Powerful is providing a 35% damage boost against elites compared to your setup.

If we look at your existing DH’s damage breakdown for Impale…
Damage: 30,658,914,404
First Target Bonus: 3,065,891,440,356
Total Damage: 91,976,743,211
DPS: 229,941,858,027
Breakpoint: 24 frames

If I tweak her gear, so your helm and quiver gain 15% Impale each, and switch to Powerful rather than Gogok, like so… https://www.d3planner.com/490913197 …that changes her damage to be…
Damage: 38,656,892,074
First Target Bonus: 3,865,689,207,406
Total Damage: 115,970,676,222
DPS: 257,712,613,827
Breakpoint: 27 frames

That’s an increase of (38,656,892,074 - 30,658,914,404) = 7,997,977,670

( 7,997,977,670 / 30,658,914,404 ) * 100 = 26.087%

You should absolutely be able to push way past GR100 on your current DH, higher if you find suitable helm / quiver, and change gem.

1 Like
3

Thanks for your reply and guide. But there is two things that I disagree with you.

  1. Diablo 3 icy-veins and other guides stuff tell, that Demon Hunter ALWAYS needs Gogok. It doesn’t only increase cooldown, but also attack speed and dodge chance. You’re the first one, that doesn’t use Gogok. If I see leaderboards, people use it. Why do you sacrifice DPS over flat damage?
  2. My build is not able to push GR 100. GR 95 is maximum level I can finish during 15 minutes.
4

EU, non-seasonal, DH solo, rank 36, GR129, 14:42…
Trapped, Powerful, Gogok

Don’t assume that everyone takes exactly the same gems. Remember that at these levels Powerful is lasting 2.5 minutes after killing an elite and gives 35% damage versus elites / guardian, with 15% less damage from them. A 35% damage modifier can potentially outweigh 15% AS from Gogok.

If you’re running group content where you can get gems into the 120+ range, it should be fairly trivial for you to get a Powerful levelled up and try it.

Your build is definitely capable of more than GR95 but without seeing you play it, I can’t tell what you might be able to do better, because the problem doesn’t seem to be your build / gear.

5

I tried to do what you suggest me, but in the end its even worse. When I remove Gogok legendary gem I am able to push ONLY GR 80. With Bane of Powerful at level 121, Bane of Stricken at level 121 and Bane of Trapped at level 127 my damage is SIGNIFICANTLY DECREASED… A LOT! I also tried Pain Enhanced at level 122, but it doesn’t help. Damage is still too low for GR 95 and higher.

I am not able to one shot elites at GR 85. Yellow elites takes about 2 - 3 minutes to kill at GR 90. So your suggestion is simply wrong. I had to switch my gem back to Gogok then I am able to push GR 90 ONLY. GR 95 is not reachable at 2.6.7 patch. It seems Blizzard nerfed Impale set even more.

I still not don’t know where is the problem. But when I am very close to the elites I try to damage them, I only see 100 - 1000 milions damage, I almost never see B damage at all. Some people even get T damage, I have never seen T damage with very weak Impale set. It seems that Impale set is not capable of doing T damage at all.

I check out that other people with absolutely garbage Impale gear have much much less sheet damage, but their damage is extremely higher than mine. I dunno understand why.

6

Quite simply, with your gear, you are doing something fundamentally wrong if it’s taking you 2-3 minutes to kill elites at GR90.

If taking advice from someone doing content 20+ GRs higher than you’re stuck at is a problem, that’s fine. Good luck.

Remember when I suggested you get 15% Impale damage on your quiver, boots and helm earlier in the thread? That damage doesn’t show up in your sheet damage, but it’s a huge difference to your actual damage. Likewise elemental damage on bracers / amulet don’t show on your sheet damage, but they also make a huge difference to actual damage. So, elemental and impale bonuses would account for 105% extra actual damage and make absolutely zero difference to your sheet damage figure.

The set’s capable of it just fine. The problem’s clearly not the set.

[ EDIT ]
Just as proof, ran this GR115 for some screenshots…

1 Like
7

Ok, I’m convinced. I get it that I have to do something bad, but I don’t know what it is. When I’m very close to elites, I activate Vengeance spell and attack them. I see only hundreds of M damage and very rarely thousands of M damage. I am not able to kill elites under 60 seconds at GR 90. When I attack Guardians sometimes I am not able to kill them before 15 minutes timer.

If I have good rift with a lot of elites and ocassionally I have plenty of time, it took me 3 - 5 minutes to kill Guardian with Impale set with my build at GR 90.

8

Without seeing your gameplay, I’m not sure what you’re doing wrong either but the “I activate Vengeance” worries me. You should have 100% up-time on that, i.e. it should never be inactive.

1 Like
9

3-5 mins to take down a RG at GR 90? You’re doing something wrong.

Quite simply, and I"m not trying to be rude, you’re doing something wrong. Very wrong.

There’s much wrong with your gear.

Helm - you want dex/chc/impale

TP ammy - you want chc/chd/elemental dmg

bracers and CoE ring are fine

your HPS quiver is crap. You don’t need CDR on it, chc is low, AS is low and elemental dmg is low. Plus, no impale dmg. I wouldn’t waste an augment on that if you paid me.

Boots and pants are fine.

Belt - you ideally want dex/vit/AR and % life. LPS on your belt is worthless.

Shoulders - not sure why you’re running % life on it rather than CDR. The % life is not needed.

Gloves are fine.

Compass rose - a nice ancient, swapping IAS for chc would be better, but if you can stack enough IAS, you’ll hit a high enough break point to make up for the dmg loss from not having IAS on the ring (need to hit break point 22 for it to be worthwhile imho).

Your karleis point is perfect - even has LPK as a secondary.

Looking at several pieces of your gear, you’ve fell into the newbie trap of “if it’s ancient, it’s better”, which is a very wrong attitude. A non ancient with the right stats is worth way more than an ancient with bad stats.

You’re running cold dmg, it’s much harder to maintain hatred and gain the benefits of aquila’s in the cube when hatred is low. You’re better to switch to lightning imho.

I typically run trapped/gogok/powerful. Just remember, you need to kill ALL members of the champ or elite pack to gain the powerful gem’s bonus dmg.

Without seeing play style, it’s hard to say what is going wrong, but my guess is that you’re not vaulting from pack to pack and you’re not right up close to your target when firing off impale. You want to be in the elite’s face when you fire off impale to ensure that all daggers hit your target. All 3 daggers can crit and proc the set’s bonus dmg buff too btw. Yes, some mobs might require you to kite them from a distance, but most mobs you want to be right in the mix of things with them. impale is a melee build.

As a FYI, I did a 121 last season at p1300 with 1.5 mins to spare. And, I’m on console ps4 which has crappy mob density and the stupid NG mechanic that cripples us, both of which the PC version of the game has no issues with due to the game working differently on PC. As a 2nd FYI, I finished rank 14 in s13, rank 12 in s14 and s15. I know what I’m talking about.

This is my s18 build (it’s not up to date as I got a few nice primals towards the end of the season), but it’ll give you an idea…

https://www.d3planner.com/499521161

note the difference in dmg for my elemental DPS vs yours (it’s double)…

Are you able to upload a video of your gameplay to YouTube and post a link to it? That way we can at least critique your play style.

10

It seems you do not understand this game at all. If you think my Quiver is crap, they you simply do not know what are the MAXIMUM stats for Quiver items. My quiver is DECENT, but it is not perfect.

Let’s talk about what nonsence you wrote:
your HPS quiver is crap. You don’t need CDR on it, chc is low, AS is low and elemental dmg is low. Plus, no impale dmg. I wouldn’t waste an augment on that if you paid me.

If you carefully read Shadow Impale guide at icy-veins you will know that you need these stats:

  1. Dexterity (maximum is 1000, i have 982, it is not crap, it is almost maximum)
  2. Crit Chance (maximum is 10%!!!, i have 10%, so it can’t be LOW if 10% is maximum dumb boy)
  3. Cold Damage % (maximum is 20%, i have 19% and again you said elemental dmg is low?! Really?! 1% is HUGE amount of damage? Really?! 19% or 20% is almost identical, just do the math.
  4. Impale Damage % (i miss this one, i need 15% instead of reduce cooldown)
  5. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat) (i also have this, maximum is about 38K and I have 34K - it is decent)

You should use d3planner first before you make those false statements.

I already made an official ticket to Blizzard support. Do you really know why I did not do any damage? Because it was a bug in Diablo 3 code. Some accounts were affected and some sets did MUCH LESS damage because of this bug. They need to “correct” some data in my profile, after some correction my damage was DRASTICALLY increased and I didn’t do any change to my build.

11

LOL…OK…good luck with your ticket.

impale can run with lightning/cold/physical/fire - most players will run with lightning or cold as they offer the best performance. Lightning allows easier hatred management, cold offers the potential for most dmg (unlimited daggers potentially) and pairs well with stacked AD.

LOL @ requiring health globe bonus on quiver…it’s desired, but you are far better off getting LPK on chest, pants, weapon and if possible, bracers and amulet. That combined with the shadow power skill (you get 25% of your LPK as LPH) and the blood moon rune (LPH goes from 25% to 50%) adds a decent amount of recovery. No need for health globe bonus. If you can get -7 ranged dmg on chest along with LPK, bonus (it’s hard to roll though).

I’ve been using d3planner for several years mate. I’ve also been far higher ranked on the LBs for a good number of seasons. You have 1700 paragon and you can’t crack a GR 100…how did I manage a GR 121 last season with 400 paragon less than you I wonder…perhaps I understand the build very well and have a modicum of skill.

Anyway, there’s an old saying in English - you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink…

Do me a favour - make the changes that I suggested to your gear in d3planner and see what happens…your dmg will jump dramatically. Use elemental DPS and not sheet dmg. Sheet dmg does not show all dmg output and is very misleading. You can (and should( also set the simulate tab up correctly so you can run sims…again, you can use the skill priority and simulate sections on my d3planner account to set yours up so you can better gauge things…

https://www.d3planner.com/499521161
12

I’ve been doing HC this season, did a 108 last night in 8 mins, 7 mins to spare. No augments, p740. All ancient other than chest, but some pieces are still not wholly optimal (amulet, pants, helm). I reckon I can do a 110 “as is”. lgems are all below lvl 90 too btw. Was rank 19 last night, doubt I’ve slipped too much, if nothing at all.

14

115 down for rank 6 with 4 mins to spare (and crappy mobs/maps, great pylons though). 7 lvl 100 augments, p905. And I’m being conservative - with this run, awareness procced 30 mins into the GR. I went back to town and waited the minute for awareness to cool down and then went back into the GR and went on. Minute lost, NG lost (half dmg, need to get NG going again, which is always slow at the start) and still finished with 4 mins to spare.

15

I don’t know if this post is up to date, but I see it being relatively recent. It interested me, since I am also an Impale user.

I checked OP’s gear and I am astounded.

My gear is A LOT worse - https://www.d3planner.com/358499198

I returned to the game recently, after about 4 years, yes, 4 years break - except the time when Necromancer pack was introduced, and I played a season on Necromancer. And I am using my extremely old gear, except for the weapon, whose main perk was changed in the meantime from only generating hatred to both, hatred regen and bonus dmg to impale.

And with this crappy gear, with rather low paragon (1,1k atm), and low level gems I farm GR90. I can kinda farm GR100 (5-8 min to complete each time).

My best is GR110, since it is just the highest I did so far. I completed it rather easy, I wasn’t pushing or anything (like, fishing for good map/mob type). Just tried to see if I can do it, and I did.

Thus, I do not understand the struggle OP seems to have.

16

The thread was started on 9th November 2019, i.e. three months ago. I came to the same conclusion back then though, i.e. it’s not the gear / build that’s the problem, it had to be the way the OP was playing it.

17

Kind of a late responce, but anyway. It could provide some help to anyone who sees it.

Do not use the sheet damage as your only indication. Area damage, Impale % damage and elemantal % damage are stuff that are not calculated there and especially area damage is the most important mechanic of the game when you are trying to push.

But since your damage is ridiculously high, i am guessing there is also a chance that your positioning is wrong. You have to be at melee range to take full advantage of all the throwing projectiles otherwise you are a lot weaker when hitting from range.

Lastly, since you have both impale and fan of knives on your hotbar, be sure to only use impale as your damage dealer. The other one is useless.

Basically i agree 100% to the other guys here commenting on your build.

Back in season 18 i was easily doing 100’s with the cold rune just like yours in 3-4 minutes depending on the mobs and the dungeon layout. Most of my items were semi decent i guess, only had one primal helmet and i used 7 augments with (average) 90 level gems. At some point i did a 110 within 8-9 minutes and my paragon was around 1.3 K at that time. Only basic difference is that i used the RoRG and the crimson set (belt & pants) and stacked some cooldown reduction wherever i could afford. And when i was farming i could go without the toughness and replaced the Aquila cuirass with Nemesis bracers.

PS. I do not consider myself to be a good demon hunter player. This is the class that i 've played the least. I just copied stuff from guides and other players.