Right now I'm torn between a DC and a HR. Both are in their mid 20s so it's not like a serious time investment on either, but with the recent mod 5 it's really hard to come across reliable information regarding their viability. It seems that hybrid HR used to be good until just now and that DC is now better than it has ever been, but both statements are ambiguous at best for someone with little experience like me.
What would you guys recommend? And do you have a nice all-purpose build for either?
Can't go wrong with either of those. My current "really played" chars are DC, HR and GWF for a reason.
The DC has become such an unstoppable beast now, it is finally FUN (take that Norfleet!) to play after the long nofun time. The wiki seems to be outdated and I can't look now, but I
think she is a righteous Divine Oracle in a High Prophet set. The set is only T1, but the ability to debuff enemy's armor by 30% is hard to beat by anything else. DC also gets
the best class artifact, the BiS active artifact you'll want to claim with all your alts anyway. Playstyle is like a walking bomb and your high defense/self heal mean you don't really take dmg doing so. It's also very group friendly, since instead of dealing OMGUBERDMG you can buff allies by using divine glow/hallowed ground for about 30%(?) extra dmg/def and debuff enemies resistance by another 20% or so. On top of the 30% from your armor. My dmg record lies at 158000 dmg with a single empowered daunting light on a debuffed dragon. At 13k GS. Yes, DC is pretty OP now.
My hunter is pure archery spec, so I cannot comment on a hybrid spec. But archery is definitly among the top dmg dealers out there. Dmg mostly comes from AoE fields, so you have to "plan the battefield" a little before you start the action. The only "downside" during leveling is, you
should bring a tanky companion, hoping that he keeps them away for a while to work your magic. HR plays definitly a lot more twitchy than the other classes, shifting around A LOT to avoid dmg. Def isn't his strong suit (I guess hybrid/melees fare better).
As I always like to point out, I use the phylactery in the Phantafort as an indicator how much DPS my toons spit out (a stationary object you have to kill ASAP or the boss respawns). While the DC can kill it extremly quick with some lucky crits, the hunter pretty much vaporizes it at a lower GS and useless set boni. IIRC the base crit chance is much higher (plus feat effects from the archery tree), therefore crits come more regulary.