Could someone explain the advantages and disadvantages to each of the DH weapons? What build/style is each weapon suited to? What stats should I look for in each given weapon? What stats should I look for in my other gear when carrying a given weapon?

I am new to DH. Just started one and I am 53. Got an 1150dmg, 70 crit, 400 LOH bow for a million bucks. Not sure how to build around it or what I should look for instead.

Thanks guys!

Hey there,

I played around pretty much with my DH,used a crossbow for a very long time and now switched to a bow.
In my opinion crossbows are the best for mid-gear towards end gear builds because they are cheap and they hit really hard and because DH is mostly about kitting you don`t really need a bow.(also remember a crossbow is the best weapon to use for the archery passive,+50% crit damage,the +15% damage from bow is pretty insignificant and the atk speed bonus for 2x xbows is useless as you lose the atk speed from the quiver.
The bows are not that bad,but you should only get one on a very good deal because as i said,crossbows are way better,the only thing you get when using a bow is a better hatred regeneration and a slightly better mobility.
As for the 1h crossbows,i think they are the end game weapons as 2x1h xbows with 200 dex,10 discipline and crit damage+socket maybe can overwhelm and xbox/bow,high dps,high atk speed,best crit and you also get discipline wich is the most important thing for a DH but finding such xbows or something close to them is hard and very expensive.

Hope this helps,remember it is only my opinion..

Thank you, that is very helpful. I thought that it would be best to use a one hand crossbow for the crit chance, LOH, and attack speed,, but I bought the bow when I saw what I thought was a good deal. I will most likely use of the ball with two farm act one, and save for better gear. Given that I will be stuck with the boa for a a while, what sort of gear would you use to build your character around it?

Well,depends on your playstyle,i like going full damage glass cannon,i think that is the best way for a demon hunter learning to kite get 10 discipline on both chest and quiver and maximize your dps output,depnds on everyone playstyle.

@Korlomovic here's a pretty good video about the weapon choices: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsmJnSC8JbE

I still prefer the 2 handed xbow i like how consistent the damage is on it compared to the others even though the other bows. I dont think i will change

Like zomboy said, crossbows have a better range in damage (the min vs max), but I think bow is very useful if you are kiting a lot. The 1.1 vs 1.4 atk spd makes a huge difference when stutter stepping. If you choose 2h xbow try to get some atk spd in items, unless you can cope with the slow firing.

Posted by therookie0709 at 08/24/2012 03:19 AM

@Korlomovic here's a pretty good video about the weapon choices: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsmJnSC8JbE

Thx nice vid

bow is definitely the best, xbow just feels a bit too slow :p

for me Bow Crit damge, 200+Dex, socket to add another gem for crit damage + attacked speed

I played with a Crossbow for a long time but I'm just in transition to 2x Hand Crossbows. The amount of crit damage you can get is absolutely insane, even on a pretty tight budget. Without sockets you can still manage around 180-190% crit damage from your weapons while still getting decent DPS on the Hand Crossbows and spending maybe a couple million gold if you're shooting for the ~1100+ DPS range or much, much less if you're willing to settle with ~1000 DPS.

Is discipline a higher priority than choosing between 2h bow, 2h xbow, and dual guns? I keep seeing people typing how each of the three is the best, but then not a lot of text about discipline.

Well you can get +discipline on hand crossbows, but you can also get it from Cloaks and Quivers. I personally like 2h bows unless you can get a good Manticore and Dead Man's Hand because then you'll have a bunch of attack speed and not really suffer the downside of shooting slowly with a 2h crossbow.

This guy's blog post explains the how attack speed, crit damage, and crit chance are valued for each different weapon type. It's an interesting read. Take a look! http://diablo[filtered].blogspot.com/2012/08/demon-hunter-gear-synergy-crossbows.html

Edit: Part of the link was filtered out because of a curse word. It should read diablosh*t. Fill in the blank :P

crossbows seem more attainable on the ah.

I can't use xbows it's too slow for me

Do you prefer speed or power? 2h bows are faster but 2h xbows are stronger. I prefer the former.