Shadow/Marauder FoK Demon Hunter Speed Farming Variation

The Shadow Fan of Knives Demon Hunter deals with regular Rift farming decently all the way through the highest Torments, making it a viable build for the task.

Within the limited scope of regular difficulties, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.

Active Skills
Impale Impact Fan of Knives Pinpoint Accuracy 1 Vengeance Dark Heart 2 Vault Action Shot 3 Companion Wolf Companion 4 Shadow Power Gloom
Passive Skills
Ambush Tactical Advantage Cull the Weak Blood Vengeance

The timing nature of the Lord Greenstone's Fan mechanic is disregarded in speed farming, where In-geom will ensure Fan of Knives is available for every elite encounter. This variation takes Impale, but only uses it as a proc to Chain of Shadows, allowing you to spam Vault for mobility. Note that in the place of Marked for Death, you will run Shadow Power — because in regular farming you take advantage of the Shadow set 4-piece, which enables the skill and all its runes permanently.

You will still be using Pinpoint Accuracy like the progression spec, but by stacking plenty of cooldown reduction and wearing In-geom you will cut the Fan of Knives downtime enough to be unnoticeable.

In speedruns, the tame health numbers and quick fights devalue Bane of the Stricken and its companion generator skill. You will be taking Impale instead; not for its damage potential, but its interaction with the Chain of Shadows belt and resulting mobility.

When farming regular Rifts, build up mechanics like Sharpshooter are set aside, and you are free to take advantage of the enormous mobility allowed by Chain of Shadows by slotting Vault. The preferred rune is the offense-oriented Action Shot, whose guaranteed crits will feed into speedrun-appropriate DoT gems like Pain Enhancer.

Since this build excels at mixing with the Sage set for additional Death's Breaths duritng normal Rifts, you will only be taking Wolf Companion for a boost of damage.

The use of Shadow Power is relegated to speed farming, where you will be free to run the Shadow set 4-piece set bonus — granting you the effects of all the runes and making the skill last forever. As a side note, this allows you to pick the differently colored wings from the runes according to your transmog tastes. You will still passively enjoy the skill's damage reduction bonuses, movement speed increase, and increased Life per Hit.

Lastly, the progression-oriented Sharpshooter and Numbing Traps passives will be replaced during speed farming by Tactical Advantage and Blood Vengeance respectively. Blood Vengeance will not only expand your Hatred pool, but also enables a Reaper's Wraps-like effect that replenishes both Hatred and Discipline when picking up health globes. This passive will benefit immensely from the worn Avarice Band in Torment runs and results in stable resources despite the heavy spending when speedrunning. Tactical Advantage will be used to bolster your maneuverability with an impressive 60% increase to your Movement Speed after using Vault.

The Death's Breath speed farm spec takes Sage's Purchase and Sage's Passage by necessity, as the head slot is taken by Leoric's Crown. This leaves the Shadow set to occupy the shoulders with The Shadow's Burden, the chest with The Shadow's Bane and the pants with The Shadow's Coil. You will complete the sets' 3- and 4-piece bonuses respectively by cubing a Ring of Royal Grandeur.

In the regular Rift farming variant, your helm slot will be taken by a Leoric's Crown. This unique item's superiority in providing CDR with a slotted Flawless Royal Diamond will work in conjunction with In-geom to get you as close to perma- Vengeance as you possibly can without a cubed Dawn.

In normal rifts, where you can easily overkill on toughness and mobility becomes a priority, a belt slot alternative is found in the Chain of Shadows belt. It enables free Vaulting for 2 seconds after using Impale — a power that single-handedly allows you to cover great distances, ignoring the limitations of your Discipline pool.

Pain Enhancer and Gem of Efficacious Toxin will accompany Bane of the Stricken in your other two gem slots for Torment farming. Both the buildup mechanic of Bane of the Stricken and the protection of Esoteric Alteration are overkill in Torment difficulties, incentivizing you to pick up these strong DoT gems instead. The bleed and poison effects (mostly applied by Vault Action Shot) will clean up random trash that is not worth your Fan of Knives, or finish off anything remaining after you burst and move on.

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

In regular Rift farm, your priorities shift from conserving Fan of Knives to spamming it as often as possible, necessitating the switch of the weapon Cube slot to In-geom. Note that you can wear your better rolled item between Lord Greenstone's Fan and In-geom, and cube the weaker.

Warzechian Armguards are a suitable swap for the armor Cube slot, since speed is your primary concern.

The wait-and-burst tactic of Convention of Elements is out of the question in regular Rift farm, and the jewelry Cube slot is best spent on Ring of Royal Grandeur, as it allows you to include Sage's set for its additional Death's Breaths.

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.