Demon hunters: A Quick DPS Comparison on Steady Aim vs. Custom Engineering

To compare the two passives, I put together a DPS model that simulates a 180s fight on a single, elite target using the standard M6 cold build.

I modeled the numbers using my DH in particular, and assumed a CD time of 5s on sentry drops (due to CDR).

Additional assumptions would include: target being in sentry range 100% of the time, 100% sentry uptime, highest possible uptime on wolf companion activations, etc, etc (basically perfect conditions).

The results are as follows:

Spreadsheet link

Graph:

Ramp Up Period [0-20s]
This is the stretch of time when sentries are deployed in 5s intervals, the first being dropped at 0s.

As expected, Steady Aim comes out ahead with a 16% damage bonus over Custom Engineering. Resulting (in my particular case), a damage differential of a little over 500 million by 20s.

Steady State [15 or 20-180s]
The period of time from the last sentry drop to the end of the engagement.

After the fifth turret is dropped (@20s), Steady Aim's lead over Custom Engineering slowly diminishes at a linear rate, until it hits the break point at 40s. From 40s onward, Custom Engineering has a DPS advantage over Steady Aim.

• At 60s, Custom Engineering has a 3.0% damage advantage over Steady Shot.
• At 120s, Custom Engineering has a 5.5% damage advantage over Steady Shot.
• At 180s, Custom Engineering has a 6.2% damage advantage over Steady Shot.

In Grifts, I find it very difficult to have all five sentries up at one time, within range of my intended target. So I prefer to use Steady Aim due to the quicker ramp up, for faster clearing of trash mobs and elite packs.

Rift Guardian fights, and high density areas with abundant choke points is where Custom Engineering really shines.

In the end, I think that the numbers are so close that it really all just comes down to personal preference.

Here's some more tables,

Note: "By skills" includes Cull of the Weak (20%), Steady Aim (20%), and Wolf Companion (weighted value based on uptime, 8.75%)

Sentry DPS table w/ Steady Aim:

Sentry DPS table w/ Custom Engineering:

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Fresh 60? A mini guide for you on itemization.

Background
Hi, I used to be an addict of d2. During high school, I'd sleep at 10pm and wake up at 3am to farm diablo/mephisto, and then head to school at 7am. I had perhaps 4 amazons, highest being level 93. I played so much that my diablo cd actually shattered into pieces in my cd drive.

In Diablo3, I'm currently playing a glass cannon DH with 65k DPS without sharpshooter and have about about 14million in my stash. Here is my mini guide for new and even experienced players.

Bow vs Xbow vs 1H Xbow
Let me first start by saying I'm not very experienced with 1H Xbow's so you might have to get information on that from a more experienced player.

What's better? Bow or Xbow? In the beginning it's all about getting the highest dps weapon.

Later on when you have decent amount of gold and can afford either one at a similar DPS number, it's about preference. For me it came down to attack animations, the bow just felt and looked 'good' in my eyes.

Itemization
Things you should be focusing on gearing at as a 60:

• Weapon

DON'T GET ONE THAT HAS ATTACK SPEED AS A MODIFIER. The attack speed is already calculated into the weapon. A weapon with 1000 damage and 20% increase attack speed does NOT equal to 1000 damage, and you get a 20% increase in speed. That weapon means 900ish damage along with 20% increased attack speed in order to achieve 1000 damage.

Always look for dex, sockets, +crit damage, as those are the only modifiers that are NOT calculated into the weapon damage number that you see.

• Dex

Make sure you get it on everything. Adds damage, increases dodge chance.

• Max Discipline

More discipline, more smoke screens. Quiver and chest slots are your main pieces that will grant you this. I have + 9 on quiver and +9 on chest, I can get 4 consecutive smoke screens. Other notables are 1h xbows can give you discipline, as well as a good roll hellcat waistguard. Discipline regenerates at 1 per second. Smoke screen costs 14 discipline. Without any +disc gear, you have 30 discipline. 30max disc - 14(ss) +2(regen) -14(ss) +2(regen) = 25 discipline. You will be around 6 discipline after blowing two consecutive SS. Now say you have +8 discipline on your quiver, after using your second SS you will be at (6+8) 14 disc, which means now you can chain 3 SS instead of two. This is very important. Although 2 SS doesn't look very comparable to 3, once Prep is calculated, you will be able to use SS 6 times instead of 4 which will keep you alive much longer.

• Move Speed

Make sure you have 12% on your boots. As for anything above that, it's preference. I used to have 25% move speed until I realized that I get hit by offscreen spears/arrows head on too often.

• Attack Speed

Attack speed increases your overall dps a LOT... on paper. Your dps number shows the damage you'd be doing if you were standing there and attacking, this is very rare in inferno.
My tip: Get the attack speed you feel comfortable with. What do I mean by that? Get a number where you feel comfortable stutter stepping while at the same time being able to shoot while standing at a comfortable rate. My personal number is between 2~2.10 (found in your character info).

• + Crit Chance

I typically always try to hit the round numbers, 20%, 25%, or 33%.
The higher the better, but not if you're sacrificing other stats for it. Most players drop sharpshooter around the 20~25% crit chance area.

• + Crit Damage

If you're using a xbow, make sure to try to get a crit damage modifier or socket. This will add that number +50% from your passive.

• Notable

Inna's blessing belt will give you a bump in dps by 5-6% holy damage, very expensive. Quivers can have damage increase to certain skills such as elemental arrow up to 11% from what I've seen. This is very beastly and costly.

Itemization tl;dr in this order: Increase max disc by at least 8-> 12% movespeed on boots -> Attack speed at your comfortable rate -> Crit chance 20,25, or 33% -> Crit damage


I was thinking about making another guide on skills and/or item slots, if anyone is interested let me know.
Happy hunting!

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Demon Hunter Itemization Guide

Athene uploaded a pretty interesting Demon Hunter Itemization Guide. This is a really great watch as has an interesting philosophy on Attack speed vs. cret cs. dex. Check it out below:



Also remember to check out his demon hunter build:

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