Triple DH Fire + Ice + Lightning

[traedoril]

I am theorycrafting here. I currently run 2x fire and 1 frost DH but I was considering turning one of the fire DH's to Lightning just for fun. I am clearing 30+ GRifts easy and T6 rifts are a joke now. I want to have some fun with it, but still be competitive.

Are there any bonuses to adding a lightning dh in?

[Samefudge]

Might melt your PC, but worth a try :D

[Samefudge]

Actually another downside to the lightning build is the need to self-fire the Helltrapper to proc more sentries. That can get VERY problematic when you multi-box in a laggy environment.

[Ishar]

The big downside I see is that their play styles conflict, a bit. Lightning needs to pewpew, which probably means being much closer than fire/frost DH's, who can drop their sentries and run away.

Lightning might be worth pairing with other characters that need to be relatively close in to do their DPS, though.

[Ellay]

I'd actually go full Lightning on all of them. It's been found to be the highest DPS in the game - granted you have to pew pew up close but if you play your cards right you can have smokescreen up indefinitely.

[Nordster]

I agree with the others that said Lightning is a different game play and doesn't mix well. However, if you do a lightning ballistics build you can add CC to your team (not damage). Your lighting DH can have elemental arrow Lightning Bolts & Cluster Arrow which will keep pretty much anything (rift bosses included) locked down 95% of the time.

I run 4 DH: 1 cold, 1 lightning, 1 fire and 1 physical. The cold for the bane of the trapped & cull of the week, the lightning for the CC stuns, the physical for the knockback + strongarms and the fire for damage.

[Ishar]

How does that compare to just doing 4 Fire/Frost DH's and dropping sentry's and running?

[Nordster]

How does that compare to just doing 4 Fire/Frost DH's and dropping sentry's and running?

It's the same gameplay. About the only thing you're missing out on is the 30% damage while using strongarm and the stuns the lightning gives (only helpful while doing GRifts). Mixing the elemental types also helps with loot share. If a %cold ammy drops, I only have one toon that is going to use it - makes it quicker to gear up all the toons that way.

[traedoril]

Okay, so after a week of testing it out, I have noticed a couple things: (I have triple kriderShot)

Lightning needs to fire Elelemental arrow ALOT. With Meticulous bolts (30 something % slower ball lightning) You generate ALOT of hatred but you need a ton of the bolts out there to keep up damage.

Stuns are OP. With Custom Engineering it seems like anytime I have three sentries down (elites, champs and bosses) they stay stunned forever. Add in the fact that I am using Strongarms and dmg is insane.

I have changed my play slightly for normal (T6) rifts. I bait enemies back to a sentry filled spot. I pretty much put 3 sentries down somewhere and kite groups back and laugh as they get slaughtered. This is not by any means required, its just a lot of fun.

GRifts are the same I am still clearing lvl 36-38 rifts and just missing the timer on 39+. I think this is a product of my skills more than that of the build.

Overall the synergy is good. I think that the dmg output by lightning is the same as that put out by fire/frost you just don't see the big numbers. I can clear Grifts lvl 32 solo on all three. The synergy is what allows me to get up past 35.

Overall grades:

A+ for Normal rifting (mainly because of the sentry ambush)
A for Grifts (like I said probably me)
A for Everything else. Bounties are stupid easy when boxing, Grom is a joke. Greed same. Whimsyshire is too easy.

If my brother-in-law wasn't playing the game I think I would add in a fourth Phys DH just for another strongarms buff. He runs a Monk and lets face it, they should be in every group. (I think he likes the free loot)