Demon Hunter Bolas Build with Gears of Dreadlands (Patch 2.7.8 / Season 32)

Last updated on Oct 22, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 87 comments
1.

Bolas Variation

The changes made to items in Patch 2.6.9 offer Demon Hunters another viable build path for Gears of Dreadlands specs — one based around Bolas Bolas. This oft-overlooked DH primary offers strong pulling utility that can produce both an excellent standard rift farming build, as well as a Greater Rift pushing offshoot. We generally recommended that you use the build for farming and speeds, but will provide the necessary adjustments if you would like to push with it as well.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Bolas Icon Bolas Bitter Pill Bitter Pill Right Mouse Button Strafe Icon Strafe Drifting Shadow Drifting Shadow 1 Shadow Power Icon Shadow Power Shadow Glide Shadow Glide 2 Smoke Screen Icon Smoke Screen Displacement Displacement 3 Preparation Icon Preparation Focused Mind Focused Mind 4 Vengeance Icon Vengeance Dark Heart Dark Heart
Passive Skills
2.

Rotation

The GoD Bolas Bolas build has a rotation that is all but identical to the main Hungering Arrow Hungering Arrow build. You will strive to cap your Momentum stacks as soon as possible with Bolas Bolas shots, and keep Vengeance Vengeance active at all times. You will spend the vast majority of time spinning through rifts with Strafe Strafe, interweaving a manual Bolas Bolas as necessary to keep up relevant buffs. The remainder of your skill selection augments your utility needs; you will pop Smoke Screen Smoke Screen and Shadow Power Shadow Power liberally throughout the rift, and counterbalance their Discipline resource costs with Preparation Preparation.

3.

Skills and Runes

Your main damage dealer will come in the form of Bolas Bolas, taken with the Bitter Pill Bitter Pill rune in speed farming for the Discipline regeneration — the more Discipline you have available, the more you can speed yourself up with Smoke Screen Smoke Screen Displacement Displacement and Shadow Power Shadow Power Shadow Glide Shadow Glide. If you choose to take this build to GR progression, simply swap the rune slot to Imminent Doom Imminent Doom for its superior damage potential.

Of course, in order to trigger the 4-piece set bonus and maintain the build mechanic altogether, you will have to use Strafe Strafe. The preferred rune is Drifting Shadow Drifting Shadow, as unimpeded movement speed is a crucial part of the agile combat style of Demon Hunters. In very high GR progression, you can also dabble in the rune Rocket Storm Rocket Storm.

Vengeance Vengeance Dark Heart Dark Heart is an omnipresent self-buff in all versions of the build, and the sole reason you will be striving to reach at least 37% cooldown reduction for its permanent uptime.

During speed farming, Smoke Screen Smoke Screen Displacement Displacement and Shadow Power Shadow Power Shadow Glide Shadow Glide will trade turns speeding you up throughout the rift; chain their effects for maximum synergy with the Tactical Advantage Tactical Advantage passive. If you alter this build for progression, take the Lingering Fog Lingering Fog rune on Smoke Screen Smoke Screen instead for the additional safety, and swap out Shadow Power Shadow Power for the additional damage boost from Companion Companion Wolf Companion Wolf Companion.

Both during speed farming as well as progression, you will have to offset your Discipline costs from the Smoke Screen Smoke Screen spam, and no other tool will do this better than the massive, over-time regeneration bonus of Preparation Preparation Focused Mind Focused Mind.

4.

Passives

As far as passive selection goes, you will keep Ambush Ambush from the base build for its massive upfront burst potential. It is also advisable to use Awareness Awareness to prevent any mishaps; overconfidence is an easy pitfall when you start to comfortably trample the content, but the DH remains a rather glassy and burst-prone class. The remainder of your passives will ease your farming considerably. Tactical Advantage Tactical Advantage offers a nice speed boost whenever you pop Smoke Screen Smoke Screen or Shadow Power Shadow Power. Blood Vengeance Blood Vengeance will not only expand your Hatred pool, but also enables a Reaper's Wraps Reaper's Wraps-like effect that replenishes both Hatred and Discipline when picking up health globes. If you choose to take this build to GR progression, swap out Blood Vengeance Blood Vengeance and Tactical Advantage Tactical Advantage for Cull the Weak Cull the Weak and Numbing Traps Numbing Traps.

5.

Gear

You will still be taking advantage of the full 6-piece set bonuses of Gears of Dreadlands. You will either take all six pieces (if you intend to progress with Bolas into GRs), or equip five of the six pieces that you would in progression, but wear Depth Diggers Depth Diggers instead of Cold Cathode Trousers Cold Cathode Trousers (if you stick to standard rift farming). Wearing Depth Diggers Depth Diggers allows you to run another speed run-synergistic power in the armor slot of the Cube, as discussed below. Of course, that necessitates that you complete the GoD powers by cubing a Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur.

Since this is a purely Bolas Bolas-oriented setup, your weapon and offhand are going to be the dedicated legendaries Leonine Bow of Hashir Leonine Bow of Hashir and Emimei's Duffel Emimei's Duffel. They both increase Bolas Bolas damage and add their unique angle of utility to the build — the bow adds a sizable, 24-yard radius pull, while the quiver makes the delayed detonations of the Bolas Bolas instantaneous.

If you push with Bolas Bolas, you will have to use Wraps of Clarity Wraps of Clarity for their massive protection bonuses. When speed farming however, their defensive utility will be quite the overkill; the slot is best taken by a utility legendary instead. Either wearing Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers and cubing Warzechian Armguards Warzechian Armguards or vice versa will speed up your clears with more frequent elites and environment destruction speed boosts.

It should be noted that your jewelry during progression and early farming can still be the Bastions of Will set (Focus Focus and Restraint Restraint); however, once you perfect your character and no longer want for burst, you should use utility-focused jewelry instead. A combination of Avarice Band Avarice Band and a Lightning damage Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan is a nice alteration. The union of Avarice Band Avarice Band with Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder will greatly improve your speed, as well as feed into your gold reserve for the costly GR empowerments. The Lightning SoJ will simply be a consistent, care-free damage increase as you farm.

Note that the elemental roll recommendations above, as well as the ones in the table below, assume you will be using the Bolas variant for speed farming. If you opt to push into GRs with Bolas Bolas Imminent Doom Imminent Doom, simply swap those elemental rolls into Fire.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Dexterity
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Dexterity
  2. Area Damage %
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. All Resistance or Vitality
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Dexterity
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Reduced damage from Elites
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Dexterity
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Lightning Damage %
  4. Vitality
  5. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Hands
  1. Dexterity (replaced by CDR at High Paragons)
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Dexterity
  2. Bolas %
  3. Vitality
  4. All Resistance
  5. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Dexterity
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Bolas %
  4. Vitality
  5. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Dexterity
  2. Vitality
  3. All Resistance
  4. Armor
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Lightning Damage %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage or Average Damage Increase
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage or Average Damage Increase
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  2. High Weapon Damage
  3. Dexterity
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Area Damage
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Off-hand
  1. Dexterity
  2. Crit Chance
  3. Area Damage
  4. Bolas % Damage
  5. Attack Speed
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)

To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.

5.1.

Altar of Rites

The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.

Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).

Altar of Rites Planner

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

6.

Gems

Similarly to the main GoD build, the Bolas alteration takes Taeguk Taeguk, Simplicity's Strength Simplicity's Strength and Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder during farming. Naturally, if the build is taken into Greater Rifts, you will substitute the latter with Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken.

Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

7.

Kanai's Cube

Dawn Dawn is nearly unavoidable in its inclusion, as it almost single handedly allows you permanent uptime of the valuable Vengeance Vengeance cooldown, and requires only a modest CDR investment (37% or higher) on your part.

If you choose to progress in GRs with Bolas, Depth Diggers Depth Diggers are unavoidable in the armor Cube slot due to optimal distribution of jewelry and other key pieces in the setup. During farming however, Depth Diggers Depth Diggers are moved from a cubed to a worn item, this allows you to run a synergistic bracer in this slot; simply equip your better roll between Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers (for the additional elite spawns at shrines and pylons) and Warzechian Armguards Warzechian Armguards (for the increase of speed from the frequent environment destruction of Strafe Strafe), and cube the weaker.

With Depth Diggers Depth Diggers equipped, you will need to maintain the valuable 6-piece bonus of Gears of Dreadlands set via a Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube jewelry slot. During GR progression, this slot will be taken with the cyclical elemental damage increase of Convention of Elements Convention of Elements.

In your 4th Kanai's Cube slot in Season 33, you should add either Krelm's Buff Belt Krelm's Buff Belt for additional movement speed during farming (and especially bounties), or if you intend to push with the build, you should use the Elusive Ring Elusive Ring for its massive damage mitigation after Smoke Screen Smoke Screen use.

The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.

8.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during standard rift farming for keys is the Enchantress due to her numerous utility bonuses, allowing you to smooth out your speed runs even further.

For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.

9.

Legendary Potion

The preferred potion for this build is Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid, which will allow you to break through movement-impeding Elite affixes — generally a problem for builds that move based on channeling effects.

10.

Changelog

  • 22 Oct. 2024: Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
  • 09 Jul. 2024: Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
  • 10 Apr. 2024: Guide reviewed for Season 31.
  • 08 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
  • 13 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 09 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 21 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
  • 01 Apr. 2021: Minor skill revision; added follower recommendation.
  • 18 Nov. 2020: Added S22 Cube recommendation.
  • 30 Jun. 2020: Guide added.
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