How to defeat Rakanoth as a Demon Hunter?

Question

I play a Demon Hunter with high DPS but average defense. I usually rely on Caltrops, Vault and the Templar to evade enemies, but I can usually take a few strikes if need be.

However, Rakanoth, the melee boss towards the beginning of act 4 (in the Library of Fate, just off the Gardens of Hope 1st Tier waypoint), is really giving me trouble. He teleports right on me and take away most of my life with one blow, and he does that attack at a higher frequency than I can heal completely, even if I run with powerful potions and Preparation with the healing rune.

What build / strategy can I take to help me defeat it? I'd prefer something which does not require me to change my entire gear.

Difficulty is nightmare, but I have a feeling this question could also apply to hell and inferno.

Answer 1

I think you have several choices to defeat Rakanoth:

1. Build up your Vitality or Armor so that your HP exceeds the damage he doles out with one teleport attack. Then - heal yourself via potion or Nether Tentacles.
2. Rely on luck: As a demon hunter, you should be boosting Dexterity, which means your dodge rate should be non-trivial. Also, if you keep him on the screen, he seems to be less likely to teleport attack you.
3. As far as builds go, Vault and Caltrops won't help against the teleport attack. Smoke Screen paired with the Tactical Advantage passive may be helpful to help you run away once struck. You'll want to maximize your DPS to keep the fight short as possible. The shorter the fight, the less time he will have to teleport attack you. Given that you're on Nightmare, I'd advise Impale + Chemical Burn.

Answer 2

I did this boss on nightmare as a demon hunter and after a lot of deaths and a lot of repair bills I just wanted to try the stunlock spam that been used by rogues in World of Warcraft!

Bola shot + thunder ball rune (left button)

Impale + Impact (right button)

What I did was basically just standing same place and then:

left left right, left left right, left left right...

Your hatred will drain but there's enough room to shoot in an extra bola shot now and then and also add in a turret or something...

Poor Rakanoth was only able to use his AoE twice and summon minions once... he never got the chance to use his one-shot-you-dead-teleport. so was very easy \o/

Answer 3

The following is an excerpt from the link i've shared below (You might find it useful) -

Constantly use potions, as a very effective armor based power. As soon as the battle begins, get away from him. He’ll slash you, before which you should use the armor based power. The power should absorb his attack. Then hit him once or twice, and go to the other side of the map. As long as you’re not near him, he will not spawn his minions, which makes the fight very easy. It also makes it tedious, but its the simplest way to beat him. Make sure to keep potions at hand so that if he slashes you without you using your armor power, you can use the potions and go back to full health.

Referred from - How To Defeat Siegebreaker And Rakanoth

Answer 4

Here's how to beat him:

1. Recognize the sound he makes before teleporting, and hit Smoke Screen! This will allow you to escape the big hit, and is the key to winning.

2. Spec Preparation for the 60% heal, use this in addition to potions for when he does hit you.

3. I used Bola Shot (Thunder Ball) and Impale (Chemical Burn) for this fight, although the first 2 items I mention are really the key to beating him.

Answer 5

Well, I got stuck on this guy as DH on Hell. I don't know if the DPS was enough, but basically everytime he blinked I was dead. I managed to find out a way to kill him but it took a few tries.

1. His standard ranged attack, attacks in an arc. If you are at the right distance away you can easily avoid it by moving at the last minute. Walking away from him is also a safe bet. If using vault be careful you don't hit his arc by trying to circle strafe him.

2. His blink has a very distinctive start. He will lift only slightly off the ground and he will have some stream of air below him. Best Counter is Smoke Screen with Displacement rune or Tactical Advantage passive. Hit it and run when you see him hovering.

3. His adds, I ended up using the Elemental Ball for the fight to fend them off as well as my spider pet. Only had to pop a potion here because of a random lick.

Challenge is to keep the boss in sight while avoiding those quick buggers.

Answer 6

I did what B Michael suggested, and it worked. I would just like to add that using a Remplar might make the difference thanks to his stun, which can spare you a deadly teleport.

A good way to know when to use Smoke Screen is to learn his animation as it's useless to cast Smoke Screen when he is throwing the easily avoidable discs.

Answer 7

In Inferno, I don't think you could survive one hit. The strategy I've considered/heard about is to:

1. Vault - use this to get as far away from him as possible and right after he rams you (go to the other side of the room).
2. Sentry - right after he rams, he doesn't move much so this will dps him slowly.
3. Spike traps - more dps on the area like Sentry.
4. ss/prep...I feel like your timing must be very good though, to dodge his stuff. :/ I haven't thought of another luck-proof way to avoid his ram.
5. Maybe switch out something for Mark of Death.
6. Make sure you're as far from him as possible, always. He won't spawn adds if you're far enough (make sure this doesn't happen). Super important!

Don't try to build Vitality. Go pure damage. The more dps, the faster he'll get down and less rams to avoid. (If only we were like wizards, there's a completely facepalm way of doing him. :P)

Answer 8

He will not jump at you if you stay inside the circle in the middle of the room. At least that worked for me.

Answer 9

This goes for NM: I was being one-shoted a lot of times trying to kill him from distance until I came up with a pretty good tactic. What I did was to stay close to him and burst him with dmg rune caltrops, prep (to be able to pump out more caltrops), marked for death and impale with chemical burn. He died in like 20 sec and I didn't take much dmg at all.

Answer 10

I was killed a bunch of times by the one-shot teleport. Then I tried this: If you go all out dps on him with damaging caltrops and your secondary attack (I used elemental arrow) with preparation he dies so fast he won't get a teleport off!! It means you stay somewhat close to him for the battle, but it won't last long. Good luck!