D3 S28 Demon Hunter Fresh Level 70 Guide | 2.7.5

Get these three to L25 ASAP:

Bane of the Powerful: A great first pick as always. Generic +DMG that’s “always on” and helps surviving elites! Cheap to build up since L25 “maxes” its power.

Moratorium: Hey, hey, wait a second! Moratorium is the exact gem you need to give you a better quality of life. Most, if not all, enemies will straight up die to Impale – there is no other gem that will consistently improve its power (aside from Stricken, lol). Moratorium synergizes extremely well with self-healing and you have a lot of that. It’s the one gem that will help you push torment levels compared to any other in the list. When you’re done with it – use it for augments for your seasonal journey!

The next option really depends if you need offense or defense.

You can use Esoteric Alteration early, and invest in it further or simply use it for augments later. Toughness becomes an issue real quick so this is an option. This beats Moratorium in the late game, but using both in tandem really helps your defense right now.

Bane of the Trapped: Basic DPS gem, while seemingly difficult to trigger – getting up in their face works quite well, given the L25 bonus. This is the best generic choice to level up next.

Any other gems worth it?

Bane of the Stricken: To be honest, I don’t know if Shadow’s Mantle will ever “need” Stricken.  It is the best DPS gem after the two above, simply for “+25% damage to Rift Guardian and bosses”.

Esoteric Alteration: A late game substitute for Moratorium… keep it in mind. Sometimes adding defense aids in GR speeds more than defense would (consistency of clearing).

Boon of the Hoarder: a must when speedfarming.
(See: Speedfarming General, Demon Hunter Speedfarming Primer, Best DH Speedfarming)

KILL DEEZ ELITES.

It should be pretty obvious by now. Impale ain’t the best anti-group tool. And killing enemies 1 by 1 sucks. But if elites barely take any longer than a pack of whites…. why bother with the whites?

If an elite kills you easily with a bad affix stack – leave. Just leave, man.

Hatred management is only difficult if you try to kill every single creep out there. Try to just shoot random Impales while Vaulting around. Kill fat enemy types while searching for elites!

Stack defense and try higher difficulties than you’d think possible. You’ll be surprised at how powerful Shadow’s Mantle is.

The playstyle of Shadow’s Mantle is all about positioning and timing (much more so with the full build). If you plan on clearing high rifts without the elite killing mindset, you lost.

More offense or Hatred /Discipline needed?

Offense is usually categorized in Damage or, indirectly, Resource Gain.

In case you haven’t noticed, the chasm between your single target damage and AoE damage is… irritatingly large… So it’s very hard to quantify what passes for a useful DPS increase.

Improving AoE damage is a losing battle – you need a very specific combo of items for your AoE to be relevant (Greenstone + FoK + CoE).

For resource gains: Blood Vengeance, Night Stalker and Preparation-Punishment are pretty much the best “balance” for your Hatred need. If you need any more, Companion-Bat is there, but honestly, I would look into CUTTING some of these – once you get into the “elite killing” mindset.

Ambush is something you should always have. It increases our one punch potential by a huge margin. Don’t leave home without it.

Cull the Weak + Thrill of the Hunt is a classic combo we can turn to! The cost of 2 passives isn’t too heavy this early on. You can live with just Cull the Weak once you have Bane of the Trapped at 25, or have a fully setup follower.

Vengeance is only placed in your bar once you have Dawn.

Barring the above, the rest are purely niche impractical offensive boosts.

More defense needed?

Defense is usually categorized in Self-healing or Damage Reduction.

Just to remind you, Shadow Power with all runes gives movespeed, damage reduction and an utterly ridiculous 50k+ Life per Hit. Life per Kill on secondary stats also contributes a lot to LpH.

Leech is the only other self-healing you’ll ever need, if you’re in the market for it – which I doubt.

Damage Reduction isn’t easy to come by as a Demon Hunter. We already use Perfectionist in our recommended build.

Vengeance-Dark Heart is a massive toughness boost, but again, useless without Dawn in the cube.

Awareness is something you’ll want in the near future – as you’ll be replacing many of our passives when your build matures.

Companion-Boar is not bad, but sub-optimal. Only use this if you’re dying for some defense (lel). As well as Numbing Traps if you can trigger it.

There’s not much more you can get in this department with Shadow’s Mantle. While there’s a lot of good items to help you out there, the base DH kit is slim in this category.

More mobility needed?

Luckily we have +30% movespeed rolled into the 4 piece!

Tactical Advantage is a godlike passive to increase speed. Never bounty without it! You can EASILY squeeze this in by removing one of the Hatred passives.

Hot Pursuit passive if yer really itchin’ to clear bounties faster.

Other changes for speed at this point are too greedy and I can’t recommend it.
(See: DH Fastest Speedfarming, Demon Hunter Speedfarming ,Speedfarming General)

There are really only four items I want here; namely, Holy Point Shot, Nemesis Bracers, Chain of Shadows, and Goldwrap. The ordering of when you want to get what is up to you – depending on your goals.

Quiver: Holy Point Shot is probably the most responsible recommendation I can give to the world at large. While I value many of those four items nearly equally in the early game, admittedly this one has the most “pronounced” effect – effectively tripling DPS.

Bracers: would be my first go-to. Nemesis Bracers are what you’re after here! Wraps of Clarity and Ancient Parthan Defenders are also ALL usable for variants of Shadow’s Mantle builds. Nemesis speeds our farming by a lot, so that’s why I’d go for that first.

Belts: It’s only Chain of Shadows and Goldwrap. Personally, I would wish Goldwrap drops first to help out with early farming of higher torments.

Aside from these? There isn’t much else out there that doesn’t require, at least, a combination of items. While it’s not recommended – you’re gonna have to spend shards on rings from now on, which cost 50…

Rings: Compass Rose, Elusive Ring, Unity – all great.

I might as well remind you here to do bounties for:
Ring of Royal Grandeur: Act I bounties, to fit all our greed.
Avarice: Act III bounties, for speedfarming.

Using Death’s Breath – Rare to legendary:

Without a doubt, the first thing you should be dumping death’s breaths into is upgrading Daggers for Karlei’s Point. Lord Greenstone’s fan is a welcome filler to help with AoE. Both of these Items affect your build in some way.

Karlei’s Point allows us to ditch all resource generation skills and passives – since we can NEAR INFINITELY IMPALE. Adjust your build accordingly. For Lord Greenstone’s Fan, simply add FoK into your build for an AoE wipe.

Upgrading 1h Crossbow for Dawn is the next step. Permanent Vengeance is good, I hear. Use the Dark Heart rune, or Seethe is you somehow need the Hatred…

Upgrade Quivers for Holy Point Shot if you can’t get it from Blood Shards. While this gives you a gigantic increase in power, I list this third as it has the least utility compared to Karlei or Dawn (DPS isn’t a problem early on, defense and resources are).

While I wish DH’s could use Furnace, we can’t. There’s no other weapon in the game aside from the four above which have relevance to Shadow’s Mantle.

The Classics: Good for any type of newer character and even the most battle-hardened of builds.

Ring of Royal Grandeur: “Break” your 6-piece to make space for a good filler item!

Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac: Infinite Resource with Preparation-Punishment, Vengeance… a great “filler” ring that can allow you to “cheat” past proper gear rolls on CDR.

Reaper’s Wraps: Not so relevant on DH but can free up a passive slot (Blood Vengeance). Kill Malthael for the plans – and craft it! A legit early boost with no RNG reliance.

Accessory Sets: Focus–Restraint or Traveler’s Pledge. Completing any of these 2-sets is a vast power jump. +100%++ is substantial for only 2 slots.

Convention of Elements: Good ‘ol CoE. Wear it, Kanai it, as a filler or till the end of time. Learning to maximize CoE in any build you choose is a turning point for higher GR’s.

Unity: Straight 50% damage reduction in the cube. Too bad you need two of ’em.

Goldwrap + Avarice + Boon of The Hoarder: I don’t care how many times I have to remind you about this combo. Be on the lookout. Avarice drops from ACT III bounties.