On my Demon Hunter, I used to kite, turn around, and then spam Nether Tentacles. This did a ton of damage: all the monsters were now in a line so it would pass through them and do damage to all of them.
As of 1.0.3, this is now nerfed as nether tentacles will now only damage the same monster once per shot. Instead of Nether Tentacles, is there a better skill that I should be using for a kiting / class canon build.
The Nether Tentacles ability now only causes damage to each enemy once. This means, that they will still pass through each enemy, but now, rather than potentially hitting each enemy multiple times, they will only hit each enemy once.
Source - Skill Rune – Nether Tentacles : Tentacles will now only hit each target once
The fix to Nether Tentacles was aimed at its use against mobs with very large models like Belial, on whom it could tick for damage multiple times as it passed through, providing a very large amount of damage. Its impact on kiting large groups of small mobs should be minimal.
I personally am still using the Nether Tentacles rune on my Demon Hunter, as it is still extremely effective against groups of enemies.
I've had the same problem. After 1.0.3, you may have to rebuild your glass dps dh if you were stacking IAS. I went with all DEX, Crit Damage (and from 2h xbow to 2h bow for more natural atk speed) My damage went from 107k before patch, to 87k after patch, to 109k after rebuild (these numbers are with full sharpshooter of course). Now, to answer your question, I am currently using Chakram with Razor Disk rune. It's working pretty well for me and it may just turn out to be the new NT. But you should try out different hatred spenders and see which kills more efficiently for you. Have fun!
Even though there's an accepted answer already, I would just like to share my sub-build since the fix for Nether Tentacles.
I've been using Entangling Shot/Justice is Served Rune, Cluster Arrow/Loaded for Bear Rune and Companion/Bat Companion Rune.
Try to stack more on Crit Chance and Crit Damage, as well as more Hatred regen gear.
The Nether Tentacles change was a fix, not a nerf. The listed tooltip damage assumes one hit per target, whereas the Lightning Ball tooltip damage assumes two hits per target. Prior to 1.03, however, NT was hitting targets multiple times, making it a straight upgrade from LB, and vastly superior to any other Elemental Arrow rune. Since the change, NT is essentially vanilla EA with a slightly larger radius and 3% healing (which is breathtakingly underwhelming, but there it is).
LB is a good choice now. It has a larger radius than NT, so it doesn't need accuracy. Frost Arrow is also an excellent choice, especially against small elite packs. With good positioning, you've essentially got a perma-slow going. Chakram with the right rune can be good, but you need to get used to the flight-paths.
Answer: I read on the Forums that many have switched to the Lightning Rune of Elemental Arrow.
Two friends of mine who played last night also said they felt that it was much more difficult to kill monsters with Elemental arrow than before. Granted, they both ran Glass Cannon DPS builds and kited with Smoke Screen. They are now unsure of how/where to continue playing.
I, as a monk, have noticed few differences. But I was curious about what other people were using now that Nether Tentacles has been "UnBroken".
Like the Barbarian who "answered", I also like the unconventional builds. My current favorite is my ALT, lvl 60 melee wizard. Not quite as effective as Diablo 2 melee sorc, but close.
Well, you have tons of other abilities and multiple runes. Part of the fun and excitement of D3 is experimenting with different builds. I run a barb and the 'meta-game' at the moment seems to be Wrath of the Berserker, Frenzy w/Sidearm, etc. Well I'm not running that because I like to try different things out. Will I be as effective as others? Maybe or maybe not but I will say that I'm having fun.
I don't have a lvl 60 DH (only 31) so I can't experiment with all the different runes but on my lvl 31 DH I'm enjoying playing around with different builds to maximize my damage output (at the cost of defensive moves).
