Diablo 3: Season 24 Demon Hunter Gears of Dreadlands Hungering Arrow Build for Patch 2.7.1

Of all the existing builds right now, the Gears of Dreadlands Hungering Arrow Demon Hunter build might be my favorite of all time. In being super fast, tanky, high damaging and capable of multiple scenarios, it has a versatility that’s hard to beat. With the addition of Ethereals, a few things will change but mostly in damage output. I will first talk about the basic gear without Ethereals then follow up with a few alternatives for the build once Ethereals come into play.

Legendary Items

• Gears of Dreadlands (full 6 set) –
  • (2) Gain 4 seconds of Momentum when attacking with a Primary skill, at a maximum duration of 20 seconds. Your Primary skills deal 10% increased damage per second of Momentum. – When you start a rift (or before you enter an area), you will want to get your Momentum stacks up fast by firing anywhere with your Hungering Arrow.
    
  • (4) Strafing against enemies will automatically shoot your last used primary skill, and also give 60% damage reduction while strafing and for 5 seconds after. While Strafing, you gain 8% increased movement speed for each second of Momentum. – You will want to Strafe most of the time, only pausing to occasionally fire your Hungering Arrow manually in keeping up your stacks of Momentum.
    
  • (6) Your primary skills deal 15,000% increased damage. – Your Hungering Arrow is what will be doing your primary damage so we’ll be boosting that type of damage up where possible.
    
• Hunter’s Wrath (belt) – Your primary skills attack 30% faster and deal 157% increased damage. (Demon Hunter Only) [150 – 200]% – Again, we’re scaling up our Hunger Arrow damage. This piece is optional in non-Greater Rifts and can be replaced by a Goldwrap, for instance, for farming without a huge damage penalty.
• Wraps of Clarity (bracers) – Your Hatred Generators reduce your damage taken by 45% for 5 seconds. (Demon Hunter Only) [40 – 50]% – Damage reduction from Hungering Arrow. Keep this up for improving your toughness at all times.
• Bastions of Will (both ring slots) – Pretty much you will be Strafing in keeping up the resource-spending attack bonus and occasionally firing with Hungering Arrow for the generating attack as well as keeping up your Momentum stacks. So this is your best option here for rings.
  • (2) When you hit with a resource-generating attack or primary skill, deal 50% increased damage for 5 seconds.
  • (2) When you hit with a resource-spending attack, deal 50% increased damage for 5 seconds.
• Dawn (1-handed crossbow) – Reduce the cooldown of Vengeance by 62%. (Demon Hunter Only) [50 – 65]% – Vengeance helps with increasing your damage and reducing incoming damage. Getting a high amount of CDR on Dawn is imperative. You can cube this item as well.
• Fortress Ballista (1-handed crossbow) – Attacks grant you an absorb shield for 2.0% of your maximum Life. Stacks up to 10 times. (Demon Hunter Only) [2.0 – 3.0]%. – The absorption shield is very helpful in mitigating the penalties from your Squirt’s Necklace beyond just reducing damage. This is an optional weapon and I’ll provide extra options after these.
• Squirt’s Necklace (amulet) – While not taking damage, damage dealt is increased by up to 100% and damage taken is increased by up to 50%. – Will provide you with a high amount of damage output as long as you can avoid taking damage. You can use a Hellfire Amulet or Flavor of Time in this slot too but they won’t be as effective in scaling your damage.
• The Ninth Cirri Satchel (quiver/cube) – Hungering Arrow is guaranteed to pierce and also deals 515% increased damage. Hungering Arrow can only pierce up to 4 times. (Demon Hunter Only) [450 – 600]% – Pretty much a must have item that scales up your Hungering Arrow damage. It got nerfed down to 4 piercings so it will not be as good compared to season 22 and prior. But you still will want one and either have it cubed or used in the offhand slot.
• Depth Diggers (pants/cube) – Primary skills that generate resource deal 87% additional damage. [80 – 100]% – Massive boost to your Hungering Arrow damage. You will pretty much cube this option. If you lack one of these, you can substitute a Mantle of Channeling or even a Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan. If the 4th Kanai’s Cube generic slot ever comes back, then a Mantle of Channeling would be another complimentary item alongside Depth Diggers for more damage and damage reduction.
• Elusive Ring (ring/cube) – After casting Shadow Power, Smoke Screen, or Vault, take 50% reduced damage for 8 seconds. (Demon Hunter Only) [50 – 60]% – Even more damage reduction. You will be using Smoke Screen for your movement so this should be up most of the time.

There are a few optional items beyond the ones I have mentioned for specific situations:

• Yang’s Recurve – This might seem like an odd choice but what we’re looking for here is the massive resource reduction. This option is good with a Dawn in the Cube and The Ninth Cirri Satchel used in the offhand spot while farming.
• Valla’s Bequest – This is a great pushing option that takes the place of a Fortress Ballista alongside Dawn. While this weapon has bonus Strafe damage, the main property that’s important here is your piercing Strafe projectiles, which allows for more Hungering Arrow punctures.
• Ring of Royal Grandeur – If damage mitigation isn’t an issue, you can use one of these and run either Mantle of Channeling of Depth Diggers in Kanai’s Cube while wearing the other.
• Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac – Mostly, this option is used when you lack a Dawn or if your Dawn’s cooldown is bad. You want to keep up Vengeance 100% of the time as well as being able to pop off Smoke Screen when possible. Not a huge priority but more for the quality of life aspect.
• Convention of Elements – Big time damage boost. Use this for pushes.

For Ethereals, there are a few choices depending on what you need. My choice is Doomslinger because it’s a 1-hander that allows for either a Dawn, Fortress Ballista, Vella’s Bequest or The Ninth Cirri Satchel to be used in the offhand slot, giving you more overall flexibility. Also, I tend to use Archery with two 1-handed crossbows to get the additional Hatred per second since you will be Hatred starved in trying to keep up Strafe. If you do end up with this, then you can swap around any of the four legendary powers above being used here and mix and match.

Buriza-Do Kyanon, Ballista is another interesting option because of the supplemental Cold damage, the high freezing capability and extra armor. However, your offhand would only be The Ninth Cirri Satchel. But I imagine this will be the highest damage you can achieve. Also, I would choose a different passive than Archery to find ways to generate Hatred.

Lastly, the Windforce, Hydra Bow is still an option but not a great one compared to the other two. Again, you will only be able to use The Ninth Cirri Satchel as an offhand, leaving you with Dawn for the Cube and another power. The extra movement and Knockback aren’t special for a build like this and the Strength bonus only helps improve your armor. Lastly, the bonus damage for Archery will only apply to Strafe not Hungering Arrow which is why I think this is one of the worst choices.

Legendary Gems

• Simplicity’s Strength – You are boosting your generator/primary damage. You absolutely need this. Also, it will heal you constantly.
• Taeguk – Because you are channeling Strafe constantly, this becomes another major boost to damage and armor.
• Bane of the Trapped – More bonus damage and some slowness applied from the secondary property
• Bane of the Stricken – Single target damage. Might be the thing to eventually switch since it takes more effort to kill the Guardians these days.
• Gogok of Swiftness – More of a farming build gem. Used exclusively for additional cooldown for Vengeance and Smoke Screen.

Active Skills

• Hungering Arrow: Devouring Arrow – This is your primary source of damage. Get at least 10-15 seconds before entering a new area then start Strafing. Periodically, stop to re-cast in empty areas or when you see your stacks dropping. This will do Cold damage so roll your bracers and amulet if possible with cold% damage.
• Strafe – Drifting Shadow – You are only using this to fire your Hungering Arrow once you get your 4 piece bonus. Also,  Drifting Shadow helps with speed.
• Fan of Knives: Bladed Armor – Helps improve your armor. Keep this up as much as possible.
• Smoke Screen: Displacement – Your movement skill. Good for burst of speed in getting through areas. Also, with an Elusive Ring, it will function to provide more damage reduction. Again, keep this up as much as possible.
• Preparation: Invigoration – To help fuel your discipline once Smoke Screen comes up.
• Vengeance: Dark Heart – Provides some increased damage but more importantly damage reduction. Keep this up 100% of the time with the help of Dawn.

Passive Skills

• Ambush – More damage
• Archery – Used when you dual wield crossbows for bonus critical hit and Hatred refueling.
• Blood Vengeance – Helps fuel your Discipline and Hatred. Probably should be lower on the list or used in conjunction with an Ethereal as a 5th passive. But I find this useful in group play to keep up
• Awareness – Cheat Death. I’ve found the DH to be exceptional tanky with this build but this is good for sketchy moments or if you choose to not use a cheat death on your follower.
• Numbing Traps – I’ve seen this used to help mitigate damage. Your Bane of the Trapped and Fan of Knives are what will help proc this ability
• Cull of the Weak – More damage against slow or chilled enemies. Again Bane of the Trapped and Fan of Knives will help proc this ability.

Followers

I don’t really see a bad follower in this situation. All are pretty useful. My follower of choice has been the Templar though. I find myself resource starved from time-to-time so the Templar’s Inspire helps. Also, their occasional CC can help with Numbing Traps or Cull of the Weak.

The Enchantress could be useful for some CDR, cheat death and armor. But I find myself more in need of resources than CDR with this build where the Templar acts as a spare battery for me.

Final Thoughts

This is my 2nd character I plan to make for season 24. I found this build to be the best all-around build around. It does not have the same sketchiness in using a Squirt’s Necklace as a Monk Patterns of Justice build does and is pretty tanky in situations like exploders or high damage enemies.

The only problem I’ve seen is that more powerful Greater Rift guardians can shut this build down because of how the number of piercings from The Ninth Cirri Satchel got reduced down to 4. So as a pusher, it won’t be as strong. But I’ve found with basic gear, you can easily hit GR70 without much worry. I think the Ethereal ought to boost the damage up a bit more but won’t dramatically make or break this build. It’s still fairly static with a few variations that can exist without the Ethereal. But it all depends on your purpose in the end.

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