So you’ve reached max level Demon Hunter. What now? Well, it’s farming time! Our Fresh Level 70 Demon Hunter guide helps you out with an easy to use skill build and objectives to bridge your character from “Fresh 70” to “End-game”. The current page details the process if you DO NOT have your free set available…
Fresh 70 Demon Hunter: Free set available! | No free set!
Build | Playstyle | Setting up | Gaining Power! | Bridging to the End-game
Fresh 70 Demon Hunter: No free set
Basic skill setup for bounties, nephalem rifts and low-level greater rifts to get you going!
| Demon Hunter Fresh 70 Build | |||
| Skill | Rune | ||
| Evasive Fire | Focus | ||
| Multishot | Arsenal | ||
| Preparation | Punishment | ||
| Companion | Bat Companion | ||
| Sentry | Spitfire Turret | ||
| Vault | Tumble | ||
| Passives | |||
| Cull the Weak | Thrill of the Hunt | ||
| Ballistics | Blood Vengeance | ||
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Playing the Build & Adjustments
Multishot-Arsenal: Seriously – WAIT FOR THE MISSILES TO HIT. That will define your Fresh 70 Demon Hunter. You can’t spam it yet, and waiting for the missiles to hit will give MAXIMUM VALUE per shot.
Preparation-Punishment first, before Companion-Bat. Learn to use them “When your Hatred is half~” and NOT “When I’m out!”. The sooner you use it, the sooner it’s up.
Sentry-Spitfire Turret is the deadliest skill you have per Hatred spent. ALWAYS use them. See a “fat” enemy type? Use it! Elites? Use two! 20 Hatred is a slim price to pay.
Leave Stragglers to your Follower, Companion and Sentry. Or use a BASIC ATTACK (which most DH’s forget). Don’t be lazy and Multishot to the last man standing.
Everyone is a little different: playstyle, experience or items you get. Look at the tabs below to adjust your build depending on what you need at the time!
More offense or Hatred needed?
Offense is usually categorized in Damage or, indirectly, Resource Gain.
Spitfire Turret – AGAINST BOSSES, use this! When doing bounties, don’t just walk into it. Taking a few seconds to change up any skill to this will save you massive TIME. The skill is recommended in the build above, this is just another reminder of how good it is.
Companion-Wolf is good if you find yourself struggling with elites. Bat is a good rune but once you get a good feel for Hatred managements, you can switch over.
Switching Blood Vengeance to another rune is only wise if you have resource management down. I’d only consider it for higher GR’s…
More defense needed?
Defense is usually categorized in either Toughness or Self-healing capability.
Shadow Power-Gloom: Is the godlike skill combo for pure survivability. If you find a good item that boosts your offense – use this and see yourself one or two torments higher.
Leech is an extremely powerful self-healing tool in the early game. Don’t hesitate to use it if you find yourself waiting around on potions.
Thrill of the Hunt is already recommended in this build, I’d just like to mention that the Slow it provides, along with Multishot’s large AoE, is a huge “defensive” combo.
More mobility needed?
This early in the game, Mobility and Speed is a LUXURY that we cannot invest much in, yet. However, Mobility is tied in to defense somehow to help in dodging and re-positioning.
Vault is already recommended in the build. Tumble is the go-to generic rune since you can basically tumble more. More Tumbles – more distance traveled.
Tactical Advantage ties in greatly with Vault. It is the most bang for buck change any DH can make to gain huge mobility for the cost of 1 passive.
Any other changes to Mobility at this point is too greedy, and I can’t recommend it.
(See: Speedfarming General, Demon Hunter Speedfarming, DH Fastest Speedfarming)
Setting up!
Level 70 Gear, with DEX on everything! Craft yellows! Pick them up! Re-roll! I don’t care! DEX ON EVERY PIECE! You’ll be surprised how many of them DO NOT have primary stat! Try to get VIT on every piece, too.
Fire Element %: On bracer and/or Amulet will affect your output by a HUGE AMOUNT for a mere minutes spent re-rolling.
Followers: They exist! Templar might suck without STR gear, but gives a lot of Healing, CC and Hatred Regen. Do not solo without him!
Other re-rolls: Basic stuff like CRIT CHANCE on Helm, Gloves, Rings, Amulet. Try to get a socket in those too. Don’t bother too much with Crit Damage just yet.
I cannot state how important this is. Just picking up and using whatever yellow you have with bad stats SUCKS. Taking a small amount of time to fix what you can goes a long way in terms of power. On the other hand, don’t be too anal about making the perfect yellow.
Gaining Power!
From here you want to do a mix of Bounties, Nephs and GR’s.
Unlocking Kanai’s Cube
Unlocking and using Kanai’s Cube gets us 3 extra legendary powers. This is a reminder, and should be the first place you look to increase power at little effort.
Getting your legendary gems
Have ’em? Good. Dont? Get ’em! It’s the surest way to power up without relying on RNG. We recommend using any of the following for your Fresh 70 Demon Hunter.
TL;DR: Powerful (25 for now) > Wreath (25 for now) > Trapped (As high as you can)
Bane of the Powerful: Is a great early to mid-game gem that beats most gems until they’re 40+. Just level it to 25, it’s has great returns on investment up until that point.
Wreath of Lightning: is technically a filler gem. Whether you level it or not is up to you, but having a L25 WoL is something every aspiring speedfarmer should have anyway. It gives solid DPS in the early game, and upgrading it isn’t a waste of time since it has other uses.
Bane of the Trapped: Is one of the staple DPS gems, and is easily triggered with Thrill of the Hunt. You’ll never be sad owning a highly leveled BotT.
Filler gems? Efficacious Toxin, Pain Enhancer, Mirinae, Wreath – any gem that does damage (but probably not leveled up if its not part of DH usual gems) can be a solid filler early. Don’t hesitate to slot and switch fillers frequently depending on what drops first.
Bane of the Stricken and Zei’s Stone of Vengeance are more of late game gems, and you should use them once you’re a little more progressed.
Boon of the Hoarder is a great gem to invest in (See: Speedfarming for any class, Demon Hunter Speedfarming). Get it going once you get Goldwrap + Avarice.
Items to look for
Use your resources wisely! Some legendaries are more value than others for your Fresh 70 Demon Hunter.
Using Blood Shards:
Any “body piece” is great since you have a chance to get set items – even a 2 piece is a large spike in power. Of course, slowly building up a 4 or 6 set is part of this.
Quivers: A bunch of quivers, ALONE, will rocket your DPS! Look out for…
- Bombardier’s Rucksack: Up to 100% Sentry damage.
- Dead Man’s Legacy: Up to 100% Multishot damage.
- Meticulous Bolts: You may be surprised to see how STRONG this is early on.
Belt: Of course, Goldwrap. Aside from this…
- Crashing Rain: is AMAZING early on. RoV will one-shot most elites with this.
- Witching Hour: is the good ‘ol go-to DPS belt.
- A lot of decent belts (Hunter’s Wrath, Zoey’s Secret)
Chest: Cindercoat and Cloak of the Garwulf are good. Remember if you’re looking specifically for Cindercoat, spend shards on Monk.
Bracer: Wraps of Clarity is the only value here. Defensive, but key to MANY builds.
Head: Visage of Gunes is the partner in crime of Dawn. Always good to own.
Using Death’s Breath – Rare to legendary:
TL;DR: Manticore is the single most powerful weapon you can obtain to increase your power. Use Death’s Breaths to upgrade 2H Crossbows for it. (Yang’s Recurve is 2nd)
You may or may not know which set you’re chasing for, but there are some extremely notable DH weapons that, unsurprisingly, are good for a Fresh 70 Demon Hunter or in the end-game:
- Yang’s Recurve (2-hand Bow) Massive Resource Cost Reduction
- Manticore (2-hand Crossbow) Up to 80% Cluster Arrow damage
- Dawn (1-hand Crossbow) Dawn is VERY GOOD for any build
- Kridershot: Great filler bow. Literally SPAM a spender?
Manticore and Yang’s Recurve are EXTREMELY POWERFUL in this stage of the game or any. So given that information, using your DB’s to find one of them is great. Note that Yang’s Recurve is used for the best speedfarming build for Demon Hunters.
Dawn is extremely powerful, but quite poor if you wear it. It cannot “carry” your build by itself! Kanai’s Cube, however… and here you have one of the staples.
The Classics: Good for any type of newer character, and even the most battle-hardened of builds.
Ring of Royal Grandeur: Makes your journey one piece shorter. Always good to have. These drop from ACT I bounties. It’s even part of many end-game setups!
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% or +225% 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.
Bridging to the End-game
D3 end-game basically consists of 2 main objectives: Clearing high-level Greater Rifts and Speedfarming. I recommended building up your speed-farming set first. Let’s be realistic though, speed-farming is more about tweaking what you have RIGHT NOW!
- Fastest Demon Hunter Speed-farming Build
- Demon Hunter Speed-farming Builds & Primer
- D3: Speedfarming with any class!
Learn more about the DH sets! To help you decide what to aim for.
- Demon Hunter Leveling Guide
- Demon Hunter Support Builds
- Embodiment of the Marauder (Sentry copies skills) | Marauder Set Dungeon
- Natalya’s Vengeance (Rain of Vengeance, difficult to setup & master) | Natalya’s SD
- The Shadow’s Mantle (Impale “melee” build) | Shadow’s Mantle Set Dungeon
- Unhallowed Essence (Multishot, Vengeance) | UE Set Dungeon
For other DH and D3 Guide, please see our Directory Guide.
Fresh 70 Demon Hunter: No free set! | Free set available!
Build | Play-style | Setting up | Gaining Power! | Bridging to the End-game
So, your Fresh 70 Demon Hunter is as good as it’s going to get right now! Good luck! Remember, “speed-farming before GR progression”!
You keep mentioning to get the dagger, yet you never really provide any info on how to use it. Mentioning it all the time and saying how easy the game is after getting the dagger is extremely annoying, because i got the dagger and i can’t figure out what to do. Guide BTW..
Each dagger modifies one skill. Either you got Impale, or Fan of Knives. Simply edit your build to include one of these.
Impale dagger – change your spender to Impale.
Fan of Knives – remove any utility skill to include FoK.
The daggers aren’t multi-item or build specific, they only need a single skill to be added to the build.
The skill of editing your build is something you’ll gain as you play more, as it’s impossible to account for every kind of item you will get. I will add this to the write0up, though as you’re absolutely correct in the sense others may be confused on how to use these daggers, as straightforward as it may be.
Hi, the 1H mace. I cannot use with the 1H bow. Any suggestions. Thanks and great guide for new players like me.
1H Mace can only be used with a non-ranged offhand.
So i have killed the Keywarden over and over and have killed Urzael over and over im not getting any credit in the season jerny at all im on the right difficulty and everything. wtf?!
keywardens should be killed on T4 and Urzael on T2
Is there something missing(/wrong) in “Items to look for” (” [/su_tabs] “)? Usually there’s Blood Shards, Death’s Breath and classic section. Cheers for the guides anyway!
thank you for bringing it to my attention. i must have accidentally deleted one tiny code. fixed it!
When will the season 11 guide be put up?
Great guides every other season 🙂
the leveling and fresh 70 at least are updated. but just in case i will refresh those pages.
try clearing your cache too. that should solve it
Nice build and a great guide. Just one question…. How would you spread the paragon points?
Thanks! Core – Move Speed, Prime Stat, Vit, Resource; Offense – CHC, CHD, CdR, Attack Speed; Defense – ResAll, Life, Armor, Regen; Utility – LoH, AD, RCR, Gold
I was lucky to find “Thunderfury…” leg sword early in season, so when I extracted its Kanai power, it became a nice step to making Impale more anti-group oriented than before 🙂 that lightning damage
Holy wow. I stalled at Expert level because I didn’t understand the 2 set bonus. I went from weakling to god in a few steps by reading this. I owe you one.
Hi, I’m getting piece 3 and 4 from “The Shadow Mantle” set. I’m using 1H sword in weapon slot 1 and slot 2 (off-hand), I can’t use anything (because all 1H). Since we need Karlei’s Point and Dawn later on. We should able to use dagger or sword/crossbow (both 1H) together. Why I can’t do it now. Did I overlook something ?
You put karlei in the slot 1 and a quiver in the slot 2, while you put the dawn in the weapon slot of the kanai’s cube.
How do you have Vault, Companion, and Preparation all at the same time? They’re all in the same skill slot.
use elective skills, you can change it in settings
Tks. I just recently returned to D3 after a couple years hiatus, and completely forgot about that. =)
You can use any skill in any ‘slot’ you want. Turn on elective skills in game options…
Meticulous Bolts is no longer in game, it has been replaced by Augustine’s Panacea. Other than that great site and great guides, I am feeling a sudden urge to remake sevral of my toons when ever I see the guides here.
Correct. It has been renamed!!! Fixing
really helpful for a just starting out player! thanks
Great guide, helped a lot.. thanks!
great guides/site
Thank you 🙂