Here is my overview of the DH in 1.04.- Hungering arrow is probably still the best skill to use on your Left click. At high crit levels Spray of Teeth or Devouring Arrow mows down through packs of mobs incredibly fast while maintaining very competitive single target damage.
- Bola Shot is now competitive in that its damage has been buffed to be a viable (and fun) alternative to Hungering Arrow. Acid Strike in particular is now a poor man's Spray of Teeth and will mow through trash, but I can't bring myself to use Imminent Doom. The damage looks good on paper but the agonizing 2 second delay before ANY damage happens is obnoxious. In the time 1 Imminent Doom bola detonates I could've fired 4 Devouring Arrows and exploded the mob already.
- Rain of Vengeance got a massive damage buff, but the skill is still too unpredictable to be used reliably for damage. Not worth the skill slot unless you are using Stampede entirely for its utility.
- Trail of Cinders does great damage, but in most cases it's far quicker, safer and easier to just explode the pack of mobs with regular abilities than vault over it. The skill is incredibly strong against bosses though, and slow moving Champion and Elite packs that walk over it just melt.
- The new Multishot is AMAZING. I've switched to Multishot with the Full Broadside rune as my hatred spender. This ability combined with Spray of Teeth lets me mow down through trash and champion packs like if I was playing on Hell. Stuff just drops, and my cleartimes have increased drastically.
- Chakrams got a nice damage buff but once again, too unpredictable to use in any meaningful way.
- Cluster Bombs is still great but with the new Loaded for Bear buff, it can be switched out and used effectively.
- Turrets are still bad, and they still cost Discipline to use.
What changed for me in this patch: dropped Cluster Bombs and replaced with Multishot Full Broadside for faster clearing speeds. Dropped Smoke Screen (Shadow Power is really all I need) for Vault with Trail of Cinders as it helps me deal with Fast mobs (and Demonic Tremors, they didn't really fix them), and dropped Caltrops for Bat Companion. I'm clearing Act 3 faster than ever, mowing down through everything thanks to the new Multishot. Replacing Cluster Bombs with Multishot has greatly increased my enjoyment of the game, as it's a very snappy and responsive skill compared Cluster Bombs.
