[Guide] Demon Hunter Grifts 40+

[jaimay]

I haven't really written a guide before so I just stole the "template" from the monk guide.
Currently using:
DB .407
Trinity 2.9.1
QuestTools 3.4.19


Introduction
As I'm only playing demon hunter and I always strive to get better gear and rank, I have no interest in botting on monk or barbarian. I've now tweaked my bot settings and build to clear greater rifts on my Natalya's DH up to 45 with 5-10 minutes remaining. When the trinity avoidance fork gets updated, I suppose my DH will be able to reach 48.
The build, gearing and bot settings will continue to be tweaked to hopefully reach higher greater rifts.

Build and gear
The build revolves around the Natalya's set with Rain of Vengeance and Strafe. My current build which clears 45 with ease is as follows:

Abilities:
Rain of Vengeance - Stampede - reason is that stampede rune gives the bot great crowd control and thus helps it surviving.
Strafe - Rocket storm - used to lower the cooldown of Rain of Vengeance
Smoke Screen - Lingering Fog - I choose this rune as my DH can keep it up 90% of the time resulting in less deaths
Evasive Fire - Focus - we use a generator to proc the Bastion of Will buff from the rings.
Preperation - Focused Mind - makes the bot able to keep high uptime on Smoke Screen
Fan of Knives - Bladed Armor - I'm still not sure which spell to put in the last spot but for now I use this to boost toughness to survive random stuff like arrows. I may change this to Companion - Wolf when I go higher but for now the bot just have problems with surviving and not damage.

Passives:
Awareness - nobrainer. Makes the bot die less.
Ambush - makes the bot able to one-shot most monsters with RoV.
Blood Vengeance - More discipline - more uptime on Smoke Screen.
Perfectionist - reduced cost on Smoke Screen - more uptime on Smoke Screen. Also boost your toughness abit.

As we don't have a reliable slow, we don't use Cull of the Weak. On lower greater rifts, you can swap Perfectionist for Steady Aim.

This is the gear you want: Diablo III Character Planner

You should aim for 54% cooldown reduction to have high uptime on Smoke Screen and to lower the cooldown of RoV.

Paragon points:
1. We want to maximize movement speed first then dexterity
2. This one is a little complicated, but we want to adjust attack speed first. With no IAS on gear, you wan't 2.20% IAS from paragon points to reach the first breakpoint which gives strafe move ticks per second resulting in less cooldown on RoV. If you use Gogok of Swiftness (+15% IAS at max stacks) you want to have 6.60% IAS from paragon points to reach the next breakpoint. TL;DR: 2.20% IAS without Gogok, and 6.60% IAS with Gogok. Rest you spend in CDR > CHD > CC.
3. All resist > Life/Armor > Life regen
4. RCR > Area dmg > Life per hit.

Comments to gearing:
Weapons:
Natalya's Slayer is mandatory for this build. You want it with high damage rain and cooldown reduction.
For offhand, if you do not have a Balefire Caster, you can use a Calamity. The offhand also needs cooldown reduction, however the damage range is irrelevant. You just want high dex, cooldown reduction and preferably reduced resource cost as the last important stat.

Amulet:
Immunity neck is really great as we're not always avoiding monster/boss spells. If you don't have a decent immunity neck, either Hellfire or Ess of Johan are great choices.

Shoulders:
The reason to use Pauldrons of the Skeletton King is that it gives you another 'cheat death' mechanic. I don't have them myself but any shoulders with dex, cooldown reduction and rain of vengeance damage works.

Rings:
Ideally you want Focus and Restraint with CC, CHD and CDR but if you have found such yet, it is most important that the rings have CDR and either CC or CHD (depending on your stats).

Follower

You want to use the templar with this gear:

Relic - Enchanting Favor with strength, block chance, CHD
Amulet - Ess of Johan with attack speed, cooldown reduction, CC
Ring1 - Wyrdward with attack speed, cooldown reduction, strength, CC
Ring2 - Bul-Kathos's Wedding Band with attack speed, cooldown reduction, strength, CC
Shield - Freeze of Deflection with block chance, CC, strength, socket (ruby)
Weapon - Thunderfury with attack speed, CDR, strength and socket (topaz)

Skills:
Heal, Intimidate, Charge, Inspire

Trinity settings

Combat Routine alterations

I have modified the trinity variables and combat routines. The affected variables are:

SpellDelay.DemonHunter_RainOfVengeance changed to 2000 ms
SpellDelay.DemonHunter_FanOfKnives changed to 4000 ms
SpellDelay.DemonHunter_Preperation changed to 10000 ms
SpellDelay.DemonHunter_SmokeScreen changed to 2000 ms

In the combat routines I made the bot cast Smoke Screen, Fan of Knives and Preperation whenever when off cooldown.
I've attached this combat routine.

Additionally
I hope this will help you reaching higher greater rifts on your demon hunter. It may not be 50+ but surely better than nothing and surely better than high 30s.
The bot WILL die, and in some rifts more than others, but on the other hand it clears so fast that it will clear the rift with 5-10 minutes left, even if you die 5 times.

Feel free to comment or ask question or even give me advice if you feel I've overlooked something.

 

[aw123]

As we don't have a reliable slow, we don't use Cull of the Weak.

What about iceblink with EF - Focus ?

 

[jaimay]

What about iceblink with EF - Focus ?

Sure would work but I don't use iceblink in the build. My aim is to use Gogok to maximize CDR.
Give it a try with iceblink and report back.

 

[anonym23]

deleted

 

[LivingTree]

thanks for this post!

grifts 47 with 3 minutes left. 45 is a walk in the park!

keep the post updated, especially when fork is sorted out!

love detailed posts like this, efficient, respectable and straight to the point!

thanks again!

 

[cronik247]

any way to make it spam smoke screen when out of combat for the speed boost

 

[Loschi]

75% of Rain of Vengeance goes at a point where no monsters are.
Its a Trinity Problem?

 

[jaimay]

any way to make it spam smoke screen when out of combat for the speed boost

I'm not that much into programming so I haven't made this work yet. I've tried copying the conditions for Preperation (which casts preperation off cooldown) but it doesn't work. Anyone who can help out here?

75% of Rain of Vengeance goes at a point where no monsters are.
Its a Trinity Problem?

I'm not having this issue. Are you using Crashing Rain belt? If you're using the belt, the bot finds the best cluster of monsters to use RoV on. Which Trinity version are you using?

 

[Loschi]

I'm not having this issue. Are you using Crashing Rain belt? If you're using the belt, the bot finds the best cluster of monsters to use RoV on. Which Trinity version are you using?

No i dont got the belt actually.

My Problem is that when he strafe the whole time i think he use RoV when he is kiting away from the mob pack. So that the RoV goes false side. newest 2.9.1

 

[jaimay]

No i dont got the belt actually.

My Problem is that when he strafe the whole time i think he use RoV when he is kiting away from the mob pack. So that the RoV goes false side. newest 2.9.1

/// <summary>
        /// When Rain of Vengeance should be cast
        /// </summary>
        private static bool RainOfVengeanceCondition(SkillMeta meta)
        {
            meta.CastRange = 90f;            
            meta.CastFlags = CanCastFlags.NoTimer;
           [COLOR="#FF0000"] meta.TargetPositionSelector = skillMeta => TargetUtil.GetBestClusterPoint(30f, 80f);[/COLOR]

            [s]if (Legendary.CrashingRain.IsEquipped)[/s]
               [s]meta.TargetPositionSelector = skillMeta => TargetUtil.GetBestClusterPoint(30f, 80f);[/s]

            if (Settings.Combat.DemonHunter.RainOfVengeanceOffCD || Sets.NatalyasVengeance.IsEquipped)
                return true;

            if (TargetUtil.ClusterExists(45f, 1) || TargetUtil.AnyElitesInRange(90f))
                return true;
		
	    if (TargetUtil.AnyMobsInRange(45))
		return true;

            return false;
        }

Try to edit this in the DemonHunterCombat.cs

 

[Loschi]

Yes thanks i think that was the Problem. But i will look if the error come back

 

[paperc07]

I have ancient everything and he is barely doing a 37??

 

[jaimay]

I have ancient everything and he is barely doing a 37??

Bad rift? Is he not kiting, is he not damaging? What is not working? How much CDR and how much toughness?

 

[paperc07]

Bad rift? Is he not kiting, is he not damaging? What is not working? How much CDR and how much toughness?

ill have to watch him some more but the kiting isnt that good, his dmg is great, I have 52.78 CDR, 11mil toughness, 522k recovery, with 456k health

EDIT: I also noticed I have trinity 2.10.0 should I go back down to the 2.9 and I have QT 3.4.21

 

[jaimay]

ill have to watch him some more but the kiting isnt that good, his dmg is great, I have 52.78 CDR, 11mil toughness, 522k recovery, with 456k health

EDIT: I also noticed I have trinity 2.10.0 should I go back down to the 2.9 and I have QT 3.4.21

I don't know how trinity 2.10.0 behaves, but it works pretty good for me. Your stats seem fine. Are you using the combat profile I've attached in the first post and are you sure you have the same trinity settings? Seems like you haven't adjusted the ticks per seconds.

 

[paperc07]

I don't know how trinity 2.10.0 behaves, but it works pretty good for me. Your stats seem fine. Are you using the combat profile I've attached in the first post and are you sure you have the same trinity settings? Seems like you haven't adjusted the ticks per seconds.

I took your demonhunter.cs and put it in Trinity/Combat/Abilities

It seems like his kiting/avoidance sucks

 

[randyboy]

What about the paragon points? Are they the same as the Character planner you linked in OP?

How to make the bot distance itself from enemies since you have the of Zei's stone of vengance?
The more distance the better to get the full effect of it. So 50 yards would be great

 

[jaimay]

What about the paragon points? Are they the same as the Character planner you linked in OP?

How to make the bot distance itself from enemies since you have the of Zei's stone of vengance?
The more distance the better to get the full effect of it. So 50 yards would be great

I will update the first post with the following regarding paragon points.
1. We want to maximize movement speed first then dexterity
2. This one is a little complicated, but we want to adjust attack speed first. With no IAS on gear, you wan't 2.20% IAS from paragon points to reach the first breakpoint which gives strafe move ticks per second resulting in less cooldown on RoV. If you use Gogok of Swiftness (+15% IAS at max stacks) you want to have 6.60% IAS from paragon points to reach the next breakpoint. TL;DR: 2.20% IAS without Gogok, and 6.60% IAS with Gogok. Rest you spend in CDR > CHD > CC.
3. All resist > Life/Armor > Life regen
4. RCR > Area dmg > Life per hit.

Regarding Zei's. Yes it would be optimal but I don't think the current trinity is able to handle it as it handles kiting bad comparred to the fork. I'm looking forward to test the fork.

 

[stacker88]

I will update the first post with the following regarding paragon points.
1. We want to maximize movement speed first then dexterity
2. This one is a little complicated, but we want to adjust attack speed first. With no IAS on gear, you wan't 2.20% IAS from paragon points to reach the first breakpoint which gives strafe move ticks per second resulting in less cooldown on RoV. If you use Gogok of Swiftness (+15% IAS at max stacks) you want to have 6.60% IAS from paragon points to reach the next breakpoint. TL;DR: 2.20% IAS without Gogok, and 6.60% IAS with Gogok. Rest you spend in CDR > CHD > CC.
3. All resist > Life/Armor > Life regen
4. RCR > Area dmg > Life per hit.

Regarding Zei's. Yes it would be optimal but I don't think the current trinity is able to handle it as it handles kiting bad comparred to the fork. I'm looking forward to test the fork.

If you aren't using Zei's, which two gems are you using besides Gogok?

 

[jaimay]

If you aren't using Zei's, which two gems are you using besides Gogok?

I am using Zei's as you can see in the character planner - we're just not getting full benefit from it. The other gem is Bane of the Trapped.