Demon Hunter Class

To go in-depth with the possible playstyles of the Demon Hunter class, refer to our specific build guides below. If you are looking for some quick tips and tricks on learning the Demon Hunter, keep on reading.

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In general, Diablo 3 builds revolve around a certain highly damaging skill or alternate form to slaughter hordes of monsters with. In the case of the Demon Hunter, this is the entire Archery category ( Multishot, Cluster Arrow, Rain of Vengeance and Strafe), as well as some of the Secondary skill category ( Impale, Rapid Fire, and to a lesser extent Chakram and Elemental Arrow), plus some outliers ( Grenade, Sentry, Fan of Knives). Get a feel for these skills — do you like the way they play out? Do you sense the pattern in their resource management? Can you predict the positioning required to deliver the most damage possible from your selected skill?

Pick one of the listed skills above that you like the most, then take a peek at our endgame build for said skill; try to play out in your head how the full rotation works. Early on, you might have to take an endgame build and adapt it a little — lacking the necessary legendary and set bonuses, you might suffer from lacking Hatred and long cooldowns. Taking out a utility skill and adding a generator like Evasive Fire might be a better route.

Compared to other classes, Demon Hunters have it the easiest with permanent uptime of their strongest buff: Vengeance. Its mighty 90-second downtime will be cut down by more than half with the simple addition of a Dawn — a huge priority in your early gearing strategy, and an item you will strive to obtain through farming and gambling as early as possible. Once you secure a Dawn (and most likely extract it in the Cube weapon slot), a simple dip into Cooldown Reduction on gear will get you the coveted perma- Vengeance.

Adding an extra Visage of Gunes (again, most likely in the Cube) will free up your Vengeance rune slot, which can then alternate from the damage reduction of Dark Heart to the massive resource boon of Seethe.

Mobility is often underrated by the inexperienced Diablo player, but if you are hoping for high tier progression, you would do well to correct that line of thinking. You simply cannot skimp on mobility skills and go fully into damage and/or defenses, especially on a frail and glass cannon-like class like the Demon Hunter. You have multiple options in the movement category for that very reason: from Shadow Power Shadow Glide, through Smoke Screen Displacement, to passives like Tactical Advantage and Hot Pursuit.

Your staple mobility tool however will be Vault — inexpensive, far-reaching and versatile, especially with the Tumble rune.

Cynical as it might seem, the Demon Hunter needs his Companion summon mostly for a meat wall distraction of the enemy, as well as a provider of strong and readily available buffs. The usual inclusion during progression attempts is the Wolf Companion for the extra damage, but do not hesitate to experiment with the extra resources of the Bat Companion or the toughness increase from Boar Companion.

Builds and skill choices are obviously important, but at the end of the day Diablo is a game about farming and equipping the right items. Learning which items will benefit your class the most, and then target farming them through gambling, upgrading rares into legendaries at the Cube and even reforging them into better rolls is crucial.

All 6-piece class sets (Unhallowed Essence, Marauder, Shadow's Mantle, Natalya's Vengeance), as well as the 2-piece weapon set Danetta's Hatred, bring a valuable and powerful playstyle to the class. Demon Hunters also have the class-specific bows, crossbows, daggers and quivers, which are suitably valuable for the class — usually functioning in highly effective pairs like like Yang's Recurve - Dead Man's Legacy, Karlei's Point - Holy Point Shot, Manticore - Bombardier's Rucksack and Wojahnni Assaulter - Sin Seekers. Also, always keep in mind the utility inclusion of Dawn into most builds.

Aside from weapon and quiver combos, Demon Hunters have a number of valuable belts at their disposal: Zoey's Secret, Chain of Shadows and Hellcat Waistguard are notable examples. In the jewelry, Elusive Ring is an important inclusion for your overall survivability in almost any build.

Take note of the variance in Demon Hunter passives according to the content you attempt, as the class has great adaptability in that regard. During Greater Rift progression, where you struggle against the upper limits of your gear and skill, passives like Cull the Weak, Ambush and Awareness will help you squeeze out the absolute maximum of your current setup. During farming, turn to amazing utility options like Tactical Advantage and Blood Vengeance to greatly assist your mobility and resource needs.