BH sets Suggestions

[Arionthe]

Just started playing BH. Wow, just WOW. Kudos for a fun class. My intuitive feel about this class leads me to want to make the following suggestions regarding the BH sets.
Currently Full Assault set dominates the LB. I can really see why. It is a really well designed set that reinforce the strengths of a certain playstyle.

Assault 2: +5 scatter projectiles (71.5% increase in DPS potential)
Assault 4: Movement speed bonus when attacking (SPEED KILLS and you always want MORE SPEED)
Assault 6: RF CD halved (OH MY GOD, giggles like a teenage girl meeting the dream crush)
RF uses normal attacks which means you spit out more assault 2 enhanced scatter shot attacks. Woot!

In this game, there are two areas of consideration for DPS. Single Target (bossing) and Mob damage (everything else). This set excels in both. Currently this set allows the highest DPS potential for BOTH situations. No brainer especially for PC users. Quick explanation, RF fires 8 normal attacks in quick succession. Since normal attacks trigger alacrity, the CDR monster, this means Full Assault BH can trigger the MOST alacrity of any build out there; thus, allowing them to spam more specials than anyone else. Based on my current playing experience, I can almost fire off RF every 3 secs. Which also means that BH has a near permanent 200% CD boost as well from RF (3sec 200%CD from RF). RF also adds 350% damage to normal attack. From TG testing of the poison ammo mechanics, it seems like 350% damage is added to EACH PROJECTILE. Thus a huge boost to scatter shot normal attack when the set 2 bonus of 5 more projectiles simply multiplies that further. Bravo.

Unfortunately that leaves the Stalker and Haovc set in the dust, especially the Haovc set.

My suggestions below will bring those sets closer to the glory that is Assault. More importantly, I believe sets should serve individual purposes. Ie one set should be stronger in one area, while another exhibits strength in a different area.

Stalker Set (THE BOSS KILLER)
Stalker 2: Lethal Shot has 25% more chance to Crit (just additive to inherent CD %)
Stalker 4: 200% CD
Stalker 6: 20% chance to Snipe (current proc, but perhaps slightly higher than rank 1)

This makes lethal shot the normal attack of choice for Stalker user. The motto here is hit HARD. Set 4 bonus further enhance that by increasing the CD. 200% CD might seem excessive at first, but as noted above, the assault set current RF CD bonus effectively means the assault users enjoys a near permanent 200% CD bonus. Set 4 bonus will also help the set 6 proc. Since this set is meant to be the best at bossing, the old bonus pierce chance bonus is discard as it doesn't add anything when bossing. 200% CD, now that's juicy.

Havoc Set (for when you absolutely, positively need to kill every single last one of those Mf'ers in the room / Mob damage king)
Havoc Set 2: Explosive Shot always explode on impact
Havoc Set 4: Explosive Shot and Heatseeker missiles have 50% larger blast radius
Havoc Set 6: 20% chance to proc rank 5 Heatseeker (seems like heatseeker is weaker than snipe, so higher rank proc is warranted), attack can occur no more often than once per 25 attacks (more proc of this to simulate the battle field effect of MRLS, Multiple Rocket Launch System. Check some youtube video of this bad boy).
By having a bigger explosion radius as well as 100% for explosion when using explosive shot, this makes the ES the normal attack of choice for this set. When pierce kicks in, more fiery hell will be experienced by those unfortunately enough to oppose the Havoc user. Of course this set loses out to both Assault and Stalker when bossing. But the massive and frequent AOE damage doled out by this set user will put a smile to anyone who loves carnage and blood splatter.

Lastly the goal is for Assault set to be 2nd best at bossing and 2nd best at Mob damage. Stalker Set to be the best at bossing and 3rd best at Mob damage. Haovc set to be, I don't think I need to spell it out here.

Comments?

[adjacentengels]

Of course this set loses out to both Assault and Stalker when bossing. But the massive and frequent AOE damage doled out by this set user will put a smile to anyone who loves carnage and blood splatter.

The obvious use-case for this would be XP grinding where you don't kill the boss. You probably already knew that, but figured I would spell it out since it wasn't already.

[mattks1]

I use stalker for xp grinding. Its really a nice set up for that. I like snipe too because I can keep my distance a little more so when I get done with one mob I don't have to move much.

[Arionthe]

If you play on mobile, pile some vit and armor and try full assault instead. I compared the two sets, assault is much faster. The set bonuses just work better together. Don't try to follow the top of the leaderboard build blindly. Those are PC users that can precisely control movement and spam skills like no tomorrow. On mobile you will need to make some adjustments for a more forgiving gameplay experience. That's simply my advice. Once your BH can just stand there and RF against the mobs (you move pack to pack), it's an eye opening experience. I would trade off some dps for more recovery/toughness so you don't have to move/kite/dodge.

[Eso]

I play both, at least used to. Assault on PC and Stalker on mobile. Mostly agree but a couple points:

• Havoc does need some serious buff as it's primary aoe heatseekers is a decent cc skill but still far too weak at high lvl even with the extra missiles bonus. Everything from the cooldown of heatseekers, to the actual damage of explosive shot itself needs work. Your suggestion is a good place to start, explosive shot always exploding and with bigger radius would be a big boost, but the real problem here is the damage itself. Assault6 scatter shot is a better at cc, while lethal shot gets help from snipe procs. Explosive shot wants to be both, but excels at none making it imo the worst primary in the game.

• Stalker probably needs some minor tweaking, but not as badly. It's a pretty great set as is and not 'in the dust' as you say. If we were to get PvP tommorow, and if PvP in this game is anything like the ones in other games of this sort I can say with confidence that Stalker6 would beat out Assault6 in a head to head assuming they're both in capable hands. LB is just one aspect of the game and you gotta consider things like play style and the difference in range between scatter and lethal etc. So no I don't think that it should get a significant buff especially that extra 200% CD and 25% more crit chance on lethal shot would make it at least 65% chance to crit for most end game players including me + over 1500% crit dmg, PLUS another 200% from RF which would then become an insane 1700. This would relegate Adventurer's set even further into obscurity.

• Imo the set that needs some real buff atm are Mage's Arcanist and and any of Warriors sets. These should be prioritized over any BH set buffs because BH already has 2 viable sets for trials while Mage only has Apprentice and Warriors are forced to use Adv4 and Jug2 simply because all of their set bonuses are crap compared to other classes.