I saw a lot of Demon Hunters who doesn't know how to play the class at it's highest potential, so I decided to make a guide on how to be the most efficient on low MP levels with low budget and low-mid MP levels with higher budget.

The main skill of this build is the passive called "Vengeance", we'll use this to maintain discipline and kill elites faster by gaining hatred from the health globe they drop.





Skills:



1. Hatred "generator":

These skills doesn't really generate hatred compared to the hatred generation from passive, the only advantage of this skill is that it doesn't cost hatred, with the right gear, we don't really need to use this skills, it can be changed to anything else, but it's good against goblins and finishing the elites if they managed to stay alive after we spent our hatred.

Choices(personal preference):

Hungering Arrow - Spray of Teeth: Best single target damage skill.

Anything else.



2. Low hatred cost, high aoe skill:

To be able to clear large pack of mobs, we need a spammable skill because they don't always leave health globes to regenerate our hatred and there is a larger delay on big hatred spenders.

Choices(personal preference):

Multishot - Fire at Will: Instant damage, high aoe.

Lightning Arrow - Ball Lightning: A small delay on dmg, higher aoe.



3. High hatred cost, small aoe, high damage skill:

To kill elites as fast as possible, we need to use one skill that has a really high damage.

Choices(depending on gear and a little bit personal preference):

Spike Trap - Echoing Blast: This is the best damage/hatred skill, it's the best choice if you want to do the highest MP you can with your gear, the only disadvantage is the 1.2 seconds arming time

Spike Trap - Scatter: This is the highest aoe skill, it's good against elites that run away or in narrow corridors, where you can place all 3 traps on each other.

Cluster Arrow - Cluster Bombs: This requires a more dps because you can't let the elites reach you, since you can't shoot all of them if they surround you and taking time to position is loss of dps. You also need some practice with the aiming but you can kill elites faster with it on low MP than with Spike Trap. (Shorter delay between cast and damage.)

Cluster Arrow - Loaded for Bear: This requires the most dps, since it's the lowest damage/hatred. The positive aspect of it that it doesn't require any aiming because it's an instant damage.



4. Health regenerating skill:

You can only fight against reflects damage elites if you have this skill.

Choice:

Shadow Power - Gloom: It's the only viable skill for this purpose, the reduced incoming damage helps to stay alive while the spike trap arms. You mostly want to use it against elites, you can get health back from health globes against trash mobs. (With really low budget, you will need to use it against trash mobs too.)



5. Hatred regenerating skill:

You need this to maintain your hatred against trash mobs if you don't get enough health globes, you can run out of hatred without it. It's a 1 time cast, you only need to recast it after joining game or if you die.

Choice:

Companion - Bat Companion: There is no other skill that give +3 hatred/sec.



6. Mobility/Defensive skill:

It's important to get good mobility on a ranged character, since it's one of the core stats for defense. And of course it speeds up farming.

Vault - Tumble: You can get out of almost any situation with it, it can break roots and you can get away of freezing before the ice balls explode. It gives bonus movementspeed with the Tactical Advantage passive.

Preparation - Battle Scars/Invigoration: If you play with a really low budget, you might need to use this (especially in HC). If you can kill most elite packs without running out of discipline, than Vault is a better defensive skill.





Passives:



1. The core passive:

Vengeance: This regenerates your discipline (More defense with Shadow Power, more mobility with Vault) and your hatred (More damage->even more regeneration). In addition, it also increases your base hatred.



2. High damage skill boosting passive:

Custom Engineering: You will be able to place 5 traps from 150 hatred, instead of placing 3 then waiting till they explode. (Or 2 set spike traps if you use the scatter rune)

Granadier: Lowers the cost of Cluster Arrow, so you will be able to shoot 4 arrows instead of 3 if you have some hatred cost reduction on gear.



3. Mobility/Defensive passive:

Tactical Advantage: Use this if you are using Vault, it boosts your speed by a lot.

Perfectionist: Use this if you are need preparation, it boosts your defense and lowers the disciline cost on Shadow Power.





About stats:



EHP:

Vitality, %Life: You need around 35k hp to comfortably farm act3 MP0-1.

All resist: You need around 350 resists to comfortably farm act3 MP0-1.

Armor: You need around 3500 armor to comfortably farm act3 MP0-1. (You will more or less have it without +armor on any item)

You can get more defense (especially for higher MP), but in most cases, higher damage gives you more survivability. (More life from life steal, faster health globes->more dmg->even more life from life steal.)



Damage:

Dexterity, Critical Hit Chance, Critical Hit damage, Average Damage: These are the stats that makes you hit hard, you want to get them as high as possible.

Attack speed: This doesn't increase your damage too much, only get it if you don't lose other stats. (You won't be able to place more traps or shoot more cluster arrows and the hatred regen from the hatred regenerating skill is really small compared to the Vengeance and even the passive hatred regen)



Others:

Movement Speed: You need at least 12% on your boots and 12% somewhere else if your budget is not super low. Maximum is 25%, so don't get more

Pickup Radius: Get it on at least 1 or 2 items, it helps you collect health globes to regenerate hatred and discipline.

Max Discipline: Getting 9-10 on 1 item (quiver or cloak) is really important, you will have a larger buffer to use Vault and Shadow Power.

LoH, Life regen: These doesn't really help.

Life steal:

If you have low damage, every bit of +dmg helps, so you probably shouldn't get it (and it doesn't heals that much with lower damage).

If you have really high damage, you have +%dmg and 2 socket Manticore, so there is no place to get it.

If you have medicore damage (about 120k-250k), then it can be useful on mid MPs (MP3-6, depending on your damage), so you don't need Shadow Power against trash mobs, and don't need to use it against elites 100% of the time. Less discipline spent on Shadow Power=more discipline to spend on Vault. It's completely a personal preference if you get it or not, you'll have 5-7% less damage for the same price, so it's your choice if you want to kill a little faster or Vault a lot more.

Hatred Regen: You will most likely have it on Dead Man's Legacy, it's not a must to get on gear.



Skill bonuses:

Cloak:

Spike Trap: This is the only useful skill bonus on a cloak, you should always want to get it.

Quiver:

Hungering Arrow: You won't really use this skill, so it's not that good.

Multishot: Increased Critical Hit Chance only helps in longer fights, you want to kill trash packs in 1-2 shot on lower MP and 3-4 shot on mid MP, so it's not useful.

Elemental Arrow: It's good but really expensive, get it if you want and have the budget.

Cluster Arrow: It's also useful and you can find some cheap quivers with high Cluster Arrow bonus.





Gearing:



You need a 2-Handed Crossbow to get the highest possible damage/hit.

It's the best to get all your not-offensive stats on quiver + boots + pants + belt + chest + shoulders + bracers without using vitality gems, so you can go for maximum damage on other pieces.

Legendaries:

Manticore: Almost noone picks up rare crossbows anymore, so you probably won't find a good one that's better than a cheap Manticore.

Dead Man's Legacy: Almost noone picks up rare quivers anymore, it's really easy to get one with max discipline.

Hellfire Ring: You need it if you want to level up as fast as possible.

Sets:

Inna: Pants are the best place to get movementspeed. Belt gives you a lot of dps if you get it with the set bonus.

Natalya: The cloak is a musthave item for almost any budget. If you have the cloak, you have to get at least 1 more item for the set bonus. The ideal is to get 3 pieces, or you can even go for 4 piece set bonus.