GoD Hungering Arrow Demon Hunter Skills and Runes
On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing GoD Hungering Arrow Demon Hunter in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.7.8 and Season 32.
Active Skills |
---|
Hungering Arrow Devouring Arrow Strafe Drifting Shadow 1 Preparation Focused Mind 2 Shadow Power Gloom 3 Fan of Knives Bladed Armor 4 Vengeance Dark Heart |
Passive Skills |
Rotation
The GoD Hungering Arrow build has a fairly simple rotation — it begins runs by getting your set Momentum stacks to the maximum 20 second duration, achievable by simply shooting out five consecutive attacks; then activating Vengeance, which has permanent uptime with a combination of Dawn and CDR on gear, and reapplying it on cooldown. The majority of your time will be spent channeling Strafe and interweaving it with regular manual Hungering Arrow shots, as you will need to keep up both the GoD and Bastions of Will set bonuses, as well as the Wraps of Clarity damage reduction. The remainder of your skill selection is made up of defensive and utility skills, each appropriate for a different situation — Fan of Knives on cooldown to maintain a slew of synergistic bonuses (see below), Shadow Power whenever you expect incoming damage, and Preparation to keep your Discipline reserve flowing. Always keep in mind the tremendous benefits this build receives from clumped up packs of enemies, and pick your fights accordingly — group enemies whenever and as tightly as possible, skip stragglers or even elites once their companions are cleared out, and generally be cognizant of your dependence on Hungering Arrow pierces.
Skills and Runes
Your main damage dealer will come in the form of Hungering Arrow, taken with the Devouring Arrow rune due to its damage increasing properties with each consecutive pierce (guaranteed via The Ninth Cirri Satchel). The potential of this piercing effect makes it even more desirable than usual to hunt down large amounts of enemies and clump them up into dense packs.
Of course, in order to trigger the 4-piece set bonus and maintain the build mechanic altogether, you will have to use Strafe. The preferred rune is 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 for its added chance for generator procs from the rockets.
A trio of strong defensive skills will bear the brunt of your protection. The staple steroid skill of Demon Hunters, Vengeance, is included not only for its baseline 40% multiplicative damage increase, but also the 50% damage reduction of the Dark Heart rune. While Vengeance requires 37% cooldown reduction for permanent uptime (also noted in the gearing page), you will do well to bump up your CDR past the 40% barrier in order to reach permanent uptime of the 40% armor buff of Fan of Knives Bladed Armor. Fan of Knives will also serve as a proc for Numbing Traps and Cull the Weak in a single, convenient package. Shadow Power is a protective cornerstone for Demon Hunters due to the rune Gloom; unlike Shadow set-based setups, its effect is not permanent in this build and you will need to balance its active use for the Damage Reduction with its hefty Discipline resource consumption. A notable alternative for the Shadow Power slot is the glassier, but more manageable Smoke Screen Special Recipe.
Last but not least among your utility arsenal, you will be taking Preparation with the highest Discipline gain rune, the restoration-over-time of Focused Mind. This powerful resource management tool will allow you to apply Shadow Power (or Smoke Screen, depending on your preferences) much more liberally.
Passives
Cull the Weak is a Demon Hunter mainstay, bringing a multiplicative damage increase against Slowed or Chilled enemies. You will easily reap the benefits of this passive with the help of the Bladed Armor slows.
Ambush complements the burst-oriented nature of the build, front-loading your damage potential against newly encountered enemies. The multiplicative nature of the passive further sweetens the offered 40% damage increase.
Numbing Traps will reduce the damage potential of enemies by a quarter pretty much constantly, with your on-cooldown application of Fan of Knives.
For your final passive slot, especially during high end GR progression, it is recommended that you take Archery to squeeze every last bit of DPS and utility possible from the build. That being said, it is also completely viable and understandable to lean back on the cheat death passive Awareness — on a decent 60-second cooldown, it will spare you the death screen, and is coupled with a brief window of safety and life regeneration when triggered.
Changelog
- 22 Oct. 2024: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 33.
- 09 Jul. 2024: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 32.
- 10 Apr. 2024: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 31.
- 08 Jan. 2024: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 30.
- 13 Sep. 2023: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 29.
- 22 Feb. 2023: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 28.
- 26 Aug. 2022: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 27.
- 13 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 09 Dec. 2021: Reviewed for Season 25.
- 21 Jul. 2021: No changes required for Season 24.
- 01 Apr. 2021: Minor skill revision.
- 18 Nov. 2020: No changes required for Season 22.
- 08 Jul. 2020: Minor clarification to the skill selection.
- 30 Jun. 2020: Guide added.
More Demon Hunter Guides
Builds from Other Classes
Farming Guides
This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.
- Diablo 3 Season 33, Shades of the Nephalem, Official Preview
- Diablo III Patch 2.7.8 Preview: What to Expect in Season 33?
- Diablo III 2.7.8 PTR Delayed
- Season 32 Launches Today! Here Is Everything You Need to Know!
- Diablo 3 Season 32 Starts on July 12th
- Diablo Immortal x WoW Crossover Event: Frostmourne in Sanctuary!
- Blizzard at Gamescom 2024
- Icy Veins Seeking Writers for Zenless Zone Zero: Apply Today!