D3 S28 Demon Hunter Fresh Level 70 Guide | 2.7.5

S24’s (Ethereal Memory) unique mechanic is the Ethereal Item system. Let me provide you a quick TLDR right here. If you’re curious about how Ethereals affect you (in the context of a fresh 70) I have a more detailed writeup near the end.

Ethereal items QUICK FAQ AND INFO

• Each class has THREE Ethereal weapons. They’re MONSTROUSLY POWERFUL.
• Ethereals roll with a random LEGENDARY POWER from an item of that class.
• Ethereals roll with a random CLASS PASSIVE from that class. (like Hellfire)
• Ethereals have their own “special stat rolls” which are incredibly powerful. Example of such is +100% (up to 300% for some) to all skill damage. Not only are they strong, but there are LOTS OF ROLLS. Wall of text level. Some of them are pretty unique like the DH “increase damage per paragon level”.
• Their drop rate is “rarer than ancients, less rare than primals”.
• Ethereals will vanish after S24.
• In case you missed it, Ethereals WILL vanish after Season 24. Ok?

For the purposes of this guide (a focus on Fresh 70), picking up an Ethereal will almost always be great for you. But, as your build gets more specific, obviously, the randomly rolled Legendary power will dictate its usefulness to your build.

Obviously, a well rolled Ethereal with a Legendary power you can use is a
giga-tier god-level world-shattering item.

REROLLING YELLOW ITEMS IS SUPER LEGIT, CHEAP, AND UNDERRATED.
Nicely rerolled yellows will carry you for a LONG TIME.

Craft a 2H Crossbow. If you have nothing bettter, a heavy 2-handed weapon is always best to maximize “damage per skill”. Stats you want are DEX > VIT > LpH / Socket > Any.  Sockets can be used for more LpH or damage.

GET ALL RESISTS INSTEAD OF ARMOR!

Demon Hunter is an DEX Class – meaning you get free ARMOR from all the DEX/STR on your gear. This results in a huge lack of ALL RESISTS. So, in your reroll strategy REMOVE ALL ARMOR ROLLS as they’re pretty much USELESS – and replace them with ALL RESISTS. ALLRES is your best defensive stat by a LARGE MARGIN. Socketing Diamonds also gives you ALLRES. VIT is your other main defensive stat.

SELF HEALING IS GREAT EARLY ON. In the case of Demon Hunter, you want Life Per Hit! It’s a gigabuff to survivability especially at this stage of the game. You usually want this in weapons (where they roll huge), but LpH rolls in many different gear slots. Get a roll or two!

Belt: Is a huge source of defense. DEX > VIT > RES> Life%. You’ll be surprised how a single item can give you a whole load of toughness on.

Rings and Amulet: You NEED sockets to prep for legendary gems. Get any stat on these that you feel you’re missing. Feeling soft? Get defenses. Need DPS? Crit and DEX. Feel free to roll “random helpful stats” on these for now, instead of the usual endgame CHC/CHD/DEX.

GEMS: For body pieces you’ll want Diamonds for ALLRES. Helm may vary (Amethyst for Life%, Topaz for resource cost reduction, Diamond for Cooldown Reduction) depending on your needs. Considering Demon Hunter and this season… hmm… TOPAZ in Helm.

Helm, Gloves, Shoulders, Boots? I wouldn’t bother too much with these since we will get them from the Haedrig’s Gift bags pretty easily.

Chest / Legs: You want STR VIT ALLRES Sockets (3/2). Life% isn’t bad either. Even if you do get this from your free set – you want decent fillers here since they give such huge defenses.

Elemental% can be found on Bracers and Amulets. The element you want is Lightning%, since the Rain of Vengeance rune we want is Shade.

Skill% (Skill%) can be foudn on chest and shoulder (Rain of Vengeance%). Other skills are unimportant to the build. These two rerolls can potentially mean up to 30% increased damage. It’s safer to roll on Shoulder > Chest, so you don’t lose that many defensive stats.

Equip a pet! (Default F1 for “cosmetics menu”). They pick up gold for you!

Getting the “correct” stats beats getting the “perfect” stats for now. REMOVE USELESS STATS and get any USEFUL STAT for massive gains in power.

Remove useless stats

• Life Regeneration – garbage.
• Attack Speed – it usually an endgame tune-up stat.
• Excess Resource Cost Reduction – Is a crutch, and only niche builds need it.
• Excess Cooldown Reduction – Only useful for an endgame “need”.
• Armor – Useless for us, take ALLRES or VIT instead.

Take better stats

• DEX VIT – can’t go wrong with these. Your core stats!
• ALLRES Life% – Great defensive stats.
• Life per Hit – Great early game sustainability.
• CRIT Stats (CHC / CHD) – More for endgame, but I’d take this over garbage stats.

For clarity this box contains info and builds if you currently have 0 pcs of the Natalya’s free set, going for 2 (you don’t have any Haedrig’s gift bag, going for the first).

If you have a powerful legendary – edit the build to accommodate it if needed.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

The entries in these early chapters are dead easy. The build above gives you a good balance of offense, defense and speed built in to help you breeze through this as mindlessly as possible.

Hard Mode on for Chapters 1 & 2. Clear through all the entries on Hard. Just up the difficulty to complete one Neph on Expert.

Don’t forget to level up all the NPCs in town. Completing your weekly Challenge Rift will help you get resources to do this easily, if you haven’t already.

When you’re done here, get your first free set from your mail, and proceed onward.

For clarity this box contains builds and info if you currently have 2 pcs of the Natalya’s free set, going for 4 (you have the first Haedrig’s gift bag, going for the second).

From now on, change your mindset: Trigger as many Rain of Vengeance‘s as you can!
Everything else in your kit is to facilitate this RoV spamming playstyle!

Why use the Shade rune? I experimented with non-Shade runes thinking Shade is only good for high-end GR. Turns out Shade just felt better on average. The AoE is MASSIVE and it simply deals damage “faster” than the physical. Try out other runes if you like.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

Difficulty: Although there are entries here that need to be finished on Master, you can still complete the bounty cache, if you haven’t already, on Hard. For the bounty, try to do the whole five acts as you’ll need to do this down the line anyway.

These entries are still on the easy side, so we can be a little lax with our build making as little sacrifices as possible to retain good DPS, Speed and some thought to defense. When you’re done with this chapter, collect your 2nd set of free set and let’s finish the next chapter for the remaining free gear!

No changes to the build (yet). Keep triggering Rain of Vengeance! You don’t really need to change anything for these difficulty settings.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

This build will be the baseline for all entries in this tier (Torment II, IV, and GR20) While this build may seem overkill for the Torment II entries, you may as well prep up for the harder parts of this tier.

Upgrade a Rare to Legendary w/ Kanai’s Cube: I’d go with 1h Crossbows, crossing your fingers for Dawn.

Complete a Torment I Rift: This will be the minimum level you should be farming at should you need to do it. Increase if you can easily obliterate a rift. There’s also a “Kill a Torment II Boss” entry here which should be easy.

Complete any other odds and ends that you can, before proceeding to Torment IV.

A more tryhard build that sacrifices resource regeneration for toughness and damage. If you feel like its overkill, revert some of the changes – but this ensures your survival as RoV should do more than enough damage. Reapers Wraps starting to look good ey?

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

In Torment IV things get real. For many of the free sets, this place is the breakpoint wether your build needs help or not. And for S24 and Natalya’s -.

• Kill Odeg – Keywarden in ACT I, Fields of Misery.
• Kill Sokahr – Keywarden in ACT II, Dahlgur Oasis.
• Kill Xah’Rith – Keywarden in ACT III, Stonefort.
• Kill Nekarat – Keywarden in ACT IV, Gardens of Hope 2nd Tier.
• Kill Specific Boss – Check your journal to see who it is this season.
• Keywardens maps have a key icon next to the waypoint. Purple arrows point you to their location after a short while once you’re in their respective map.

For the boss and all Keywardens – STRAIGHT UP RUSH TO THEM!
Ignore ALL TRASH and just beeline! Get it done ASAP!

You’ll really notice the if you’ve neglected your temporary yellow gear and rerolls. Hopefully you have powerful legendary to carry you (and even if you do), you will notice if you’ve neglected your gear. Refer to the very top setting up tab if you need help.

Either way, this is a good time to take a closer look at your items and get as many powerups and rerolls stated in the setting up tab above.

USE THE SAME BUILD AS THE TORMENT IV TAB!

Natalya’s GR20 isn’t so bad. SURVIVING is your only issue. You have more than enough damage to clear this. This isn’t really your fault – Natalya’s 4pc has NO DEFENSIVE BONUSES. Ouch!

So take all the defensive options listed in the build and give it a go. Remember to do basic rerolls to get as much “DEX + VIT + ALL RESISTS” in all your gear where it makes sense. Socket Diamonds into your gear for allres, and so on.

You should have an idea of how strong you are given the tasks leading up to this. Be practical and don’t be afraid if your build needs a little help. If you’re weak – Quickly get FOUR GR keys, then complete lower level GR’s. Socket the best Legendary Gems you get (avoiding Legacy of Dreams, obviously).

The “ultimate” challenge gating you to getting your full six piece free set! The difficulty varies wildly on your class and seasonal set. As someone who has cleared GR20 with EVERY SINGLE SET AND CLASS WITHOUT ANY OTHER LEGENDARY – let me tell you, they’re not all created equal.