I love the visual effect and crowd control capabilities of Entangling Shot, but the 75% 90% weapon damage property seems to make it very weak compared to other Demon Hunter primaries such as Hungering Arrow, which does 115%.
Is there a playstyle or rune that makes Entangling Shots more viable?
Update: With the 1.04 patch, the damage of Entangling Shot has been increased from 75% to 90% weapon damage. This certainly helps to make it more viable, but it still seems underused compared to Hungering Arrow, so I believe that the question is still valid.
Best Answer
What I didn't realize at first - mainly because the skill description does not really explain it - is that Entangling Shot actually damages 2 enemies per shot (or 4 with the Chain Gang rune). So that's
75% * 2, which suddenly does not seem that bad, especially with the slowing effect. That makes it viable at low levels as a "mini-AoE" weapon, similar to Hungering Arrow. In later levels the slow effect becomes the more important thing, and can really make a difference.I personally think every Demon Hunter needs some way to slow down enemies. If you're not fond of other slowing skills, this might just be the one for you, though I agree that in the long run this causes less single-target damage than any other DH skill, and less AoE damage than other DH AoE skills.
Frankly, I don't rely on my hatred generator for damage, only for - well - hatred generation :) having it slow multiple enemies at once is a definite plus.