Hey guys! In this guide, we talk all about the Demon Hunter set: The Shadow’s Mantle. Let’s start off by posting the “STANDARD” build of the set.

This page entails the pure IMPALE build without FoK for a build utilizing Shadow’s Mantle SIX PIECE SET BONUS. FoK centric Shadow’s Mantle builds are, IMO, better in the M2S2 setup which will go in the future P2 of this guide. I REWORKED THIS PAGE – I’ll fill it in some more after some other site-wide updates.

Demon Hunter: The Shadow’s Mantle
Standard Build | Stat Priority & Re-rolls | Playstyle | Variations | Speedfarming

The Shadow’s Mantle: Build, Skills & Items Setup

The Shadow’s Mantle : Standard Build
Items Skills & Rune
Helm The Shadow’s Mask Impale Ricochet
Shoulder The Shadow’s Burden Grenade (Open) Tinkerer (Open)
Chest The Shadow’s Bane Marked for Death Grim Reaper
Hands The Shadow’s Grasp Vault Rattling Roll
Legs The Shadow’s Coil Vengeance Seethe (Dark Heart)
Feet The Shadow’s Heels Shadow Power (All in effect)
Amulet Traveler’s Pledge Passives
Bracer Wraps of Clarity (Parthan) Ambush Awareness
Ring Elusive Ring (Unity) Leech Perfectionist (Open)
Ring Compass Rose Kanai’s Cube
Belt Chain of Shadows Dawn
Weapon Karlei’s Point Nemesis Bracer  (Open)
Off-hand Holy Point Shot Convention of Elements / Unity
Legendary Gems
Bane of the Trapped
Bane of the Powerful (Bane of the Stricken)
Esoteric Alteration (Moratorium) (Open)
Help! I can't use those skills because they're from the same category! (Turn On Elective Mode)

If you’re not allowed to put two skills on your bar because they’re from the same category – FEAR NOT! This isn’t a bug or a permanent in-game restriction. You simply have to CHECK ON ELECTIVE MODE, via Esc > Options > Gameplay > Elective Mode!

Binding Force Move to Mousewheel up & down is a value change that every player should make IMO. It prevents misclicks and skill misfires, and forces you to move to where otherwise an enemy might be.

 

The Shadow’s Mantle: Stat priority & Re-rolls

Warning, chunky unsightly table – hiding it in spoiler tabs!

CLICK TO REVEAL STAT PRIORITY TABLE
The Shadow’s Mantle : Stat Priority & Rerolls
Slot Item 1 2 3 4 5 6
Head Mask DEX VIT CRIT Impale% RES –
Shoulder Burden DEX VIT RES CDR% Life% AD
Chest Bane DEX VIT RES Life% Elite% –
Glove Grasp DEX CHC AD% VIT CHD CDR
Legs Coil DEX VIT RES – – –
Boots Heels DEX Impale% VIT RES – –
Belt CoS DEX VIT RES Life% – –
Wrist Clarity Light% DEX CRIT VIT RES LoH
Neck T. Pledge Light% CHD CHC DEX – –
Ring C. Rose DEX CHC CHD CDR AD% –
Ring Ring 2 DEX CHC CHD CDR AD% –
Weapon Any Knife DEX DMG% VIT CDR AD%
Off HPShot Light% DEX VIT CHC CDR AD%

If using Vengeance, you need 37% sheet CDR for 100% uptime. Paragon 10, Shoulder 8, Off-hand 8 and Ring 8 should be enough. Avoid it on gloves if possible…

Area Damage is pretty good – it’s one of the few ways to spread that juicy Impale damage. Don’t go overboard, though – sacrificing defensive stats is a little iffy in this build.

Life on Kill found in secondary stats is unbelievable value. It scales extremely well with both Shadow Power and Leech.

There are no truly relevant stat breakpoints in the build, nor any hidden values you should keep an eye out for (except maybe Holy Point Shot‘s Elemental%).

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Playing the Build

Okay before we start: Playing Shadow’s Mantle is, realistically, gimping yourself. I’ll explain more on this later…

Shadow’s Mantle relies purely on Impale to do damage. Anything else is utility. There is almost NOTHING you can do to make anything else feel as powerful as Impale in this build! AND THEREIN LIES THE PROBLEM!

Gunning for Elites in higher GR’s is your best bet. Impale -> Free Vault should be abused for moving around quickly looking for the next good fight. So how does this work?

Travel while in non-lightning CoE, finding better fights. So you found a decent Elite pack? Hopefully it’s a good pack that your Impale won’t really get blocked too much, or you can sit there and tank them. There’s honestly a lot of “filters” before you find an ideal fight…

Why not play “ranged” typical style with Zei’s you ask? Then why the hell are you using Shadow’s Mantle? If you’re going to do the edge of screen killing method – use M6 or UE6!

Variations & Evolutions

Okay before we discuss, let me show you a little table:

 Setup Equip Cube  Note
A Greenstone’s Dawn Ultimately better with S2 mixed sets.
B Karlei’s Dawn Most thematic, and best fits Shadow’s SIX.
C Karlei’s Greenstone’s Probably the worst setup…

So given the above table – we ‘re talking about Setup B in this guide. However, all of the above setups are “ok”, with Setup B being the most consistent.

Legendary Gem

Bane of the Trapped is set in stone in this build. (First, let’s talk about triggering Trapped. Thrill of the Hunt is the most stable way to do this, while Thunderfury / Slow skill Templar also works).

Bane of the Powerful: is a great option. +Elite damage is great for our goals, given how hard of a time DH has getting +Elite. It also gives a small boost to elite defense.

The other gems?

Moratorium is crazy in this build. Self-healing via LoH is titanic in this build so Moratorium basically reads “Take 35% less damage”. Esoteric Alteration is another great defensive gem.

Unlike most builds, Bane of the Stricken really isn’t needed due to how strong The Shadow’s Mantle’s single target damage is. I guess there will come a time you will need it – in which case it should take the place of Powerful.

Passives

The four passives above are set in stone. There isn’t anything else you’d really want. If you really want to change something, Perfectionist is probably first to go.

Why Leech? Trust me – this is needed. This is not a crutch… It allows for much more mob types to be “doable” instead of “alt+f4”. Since you have to clean up trash while fighting elites at close range, this level of self-healing is needed. It also allows for some pretty insane LoH the more Life on Kill you have.

If you’d rather have a more consistent trapped activation Ambush probably goes out, Thrill of the Hunt goes in. Although I’m not sure if this is worth it.

Items

(Quiver) Holy Point Shot: is taken for +elemental damage, but any Quiver with good DPS stats will do. So, you can use your best rolled ancient quivers.

Accessory Setup: Is damn loose in this build. I personally prefer Endless Walk + Elusive Ring, CoE in Kanai, FnR is also viable.

(Belt) String of Ears: is the best generic choice given the build’s playstyle. However, Chain of Shadows inches ahead. But feel free to experiment with either. Witching Hour or Thundergod’s Vigor for more DPS, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Vault-Rattling Roll + Ancient Parthan Defenders: APD in place of Wraps of Clarity isn’t bad actually. Rattling Roll isn’t the best stun around, so hopefully you can setup your Templar with Fulminator + Wyrdward or something.

Skills

(Skill) Grenade-Tinkerer: I may as well talk about this garbage here. We’re forced to use a generator, it’s either this or Bolas-Thunder Ball. So Grenade it is. +Hatred since this is purely for utility.

Chakram? While there are a lot of supporting legendaries, this is a bad choice. The damage is so pathetic compared to Impale – you’d rather go for RESOURCE GENERATION (not a problem for Karlei’s Point variant). The only reason I’d go Chakram is for the speedfarming evolution with Sage set. God, who am I kidding…

Speedfarming – Build Adjustments

While speedfarming is viable on ALL Demon Hunter sets, this set is probably the worst. Yes I’ve heard it all! “Oh man SM4+Sage3” dude, the only reason you’d go speedfarming on SM4/6 is for “FUN”.

Main Changes:
Goldwrap (Cube) Boon of the Hoarder (OUT: Moratorium) Avarice Band (Worn or Cube)
Passives IN: Blood Vengeance, Tactical Advantage, Thrill of the Hunt.
Passives OUT:Perfectionist, Leech, Awareness. (defensives first to get dropped)

(See: D3 Speedfarming Primer, Demon Hunter Speedfarming)

Demon Hunter: The Shadow’s Mantle
Standard Build | Stat Priority & Re-rolls | Playstyle | Variations | Speedfarming

Other Demon Hunter Guides:

For other DH and other D3 resources, see our D3 Guide Directory.

Well, that’s about it! I hope you have fun Impaling (Fanning and Chakramming) with the Shadow’s Mantle!

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9 COMMENTS

  1. Clear and pertinant, thanks. Observation concerning No quiver being tied to Impale must be outdated, since Holy Point Shot def is.

  2. honestly i love your guides and a big fan on following them, the only thing which i am missing is to understand in the beginning of this guide what a specific build is used for! Pushing higher rifts? Farming? Additional you could talk a little bit more about strength and weaknesses and a very general playstyle (You do this a little bit, but for my taste not enough content to understand if its worth reading the guide :D).

    Thanks for your hard work 🙂

  4. Is this really for patch 2.4.2? Changelog says guide was created Feb 2016 but patch 2.4.2 was released in August.

    Taeguk no longer viable for this build as it only works for channeled skills which this build has none.

  5. I do not know if it’s just me or if perhaps everyone else encountering problems with your blog.

    It appears as if some of the written text within your content are running off the screen. Can someone else please provide feedback
    and let me know if this is happening to them too? This could be a problem with
    my web browser because I’ve had this happen before. Kudos

    • Hello hello! That’s very strange indeed – can you provide a screenshot? It was a bug a long time ago but we addressed that, it only happened in a very niche scenario, too.

      As far as I know you’re the only recent person who suffers from this issue. Again, screenshot would be greatly appreciated! Try updating browser? Hmm..

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