Rating
+1

RocketStorm Demon Hunter (2.6.1 Embodiment of the Marauder Build)

Seasonal
Hybrid
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Skills

  • Evasive Fire Hardened
  • Cluster Arrow Maelstrom
  • Companion Wolf Companion
  • Sentry Spitfire Turret
  • Shadow Power Night Bane
  • Vengeance Dark Heart
  • Ballistics
  • Custom Engineering
  • Leech
  • Ambush

Items

More Details
  • Legendary Gems

    • Gogok of Swiftness
    • Bane of the Stricken
    • Esoteric Alteration

Kanai's Cube

  • Manticore
  • The Cloak of the Garwulf
  • Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac

Full 6 piece Embodiment of the Marauder set, Diamond or Topaz in the Helm depending on how much cooldown/resource reduction affixes possible or not, Emeralds in the Torso and Legs for full offense and Amethysts or Diamonds in the Legs for more defense.

A Hellfire Amulet is a solid choice for better offensive or defensive passives, whereas the Ess of Johan helps grouping enemies and allowing Slowing on them, even proccing on pet attacks, and of course Traveler's Pledge for offensive/defensive damage boost and reduction. Elusive Ring works for further defensive ability while the Convection of Elements boosts all outgoing damage on proper element rotations.

Legendary Gems are Bane of the Stricken for damage bonus on enemies due to the sheer number of projectiles that will be put out with all attacks, Gogok for increased DPS speed and Dodge chance plus additional cooldown for Vengeance. Esoteric Alteration is one viable defensive option for increased elemental resilience, other possible substitutes being swapping Stricken for Enforcer if the player wants to focus more on pet damage from Companions, Bane of the Trapped for use with the Ess of Johan Slowing enemies, use of Shadow Power with the Night Bane rune, or a Hellfire Amulet with the Thrill of the Hunt passive, and Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard for healing and health shielding.


Zoey's Secret works as the best defensive option from all the pets summoned by the 2 piece set bonus, whereas for offensive options Hunter's Wrath works to make Elusive Fire attack much faster and with greater damage, Witching Hour being an overall increase to critical damage and attack speed, though not as great an increase at the offset of affecting all the Demon Hunter's attacks. Krelm's Buff Belt is the last option for additional 25% movement speed when not attacking, and adds Vitality if using Krelm's Buff Bracers as well.


Nemesis Bracers for speed running Rifts/GRs, though Wraps of Clarity greatly improve survivability for GR pushing, or Krelm's Buff Bracers for Stun and Knockback immunity and a Vitality bonus if using Krelm's Buff Belt.

Paragon Priorities

Core

Maximum Resource
Primary Stat
Vitality
Movement Speed

Offense

Cooldown Reduction
Attack Speed
Critical Hit Chance
Critical Hit Damage

Defense

Life Regeneration
Resist All
Armor
Life

Utility

Resource Cost Reduction
Life on Hit
Area Damage
Gold Find

Paragon of 1000 and above is required to push the build past T11/GR 50, primary focus on Maximum Hatred for rapid use of Cluster Arrow, Dexterity for damage and Armor and then Vitality for health capacity and Movement Speed to round things out.


Offensive Paragon should begin with Cooldown Reduction and Attack Speed, then Crit Chance and Damage.

Defensive Paragon should focus on Life Regeneration and Resist All, then Armor and Life to round out all defensive stats for a high baseline.

Utility focuses on Resource Cost Reduction to get the most use out of Cluster Arrow, Life on Hit to supplement Shadow Power and Leech, and then Area Damage to round out damage capability. Gold Find isn't applicable.

Build Guide

This build has been tested in the 2.6.1 patch and during Season 12.

As the name implies, this build focuses on high output damage via rocket associated skills and highlighting all the high notes of the Marauder's damage boosts, namely the 400% damage boost to Sentries and their ability to copy certain skills for free, with each active Sentry granting 3000% damage to all of said skills, the Companion pets and Vengeance, thus the more active Sentries at once the better. The build still has some powerful defensive options to balance out all that offense, so the Demon Hunter's survivability should roughly match their sheer destructive power.


The Companion pets work for faster damage and aggro drawing, as well as bolstering defensive power if using Zoey's Secret as a Belt choice, whereas the bulk of the build's damage output comes from Cluster Arrow with the Maelstrom rune, especially paired with Vengeance using the Dark Heart rune. The rocket damage focus of the build requires these skills in particular as they are the only means of having Cold and Lightning elemental rockets respectively, whereas the Sentries with the Spitfire rune grant Fire element rockets and the Ballistics passive grants a 20% chance to fire Physical element rockets on any attack, even those by Sentries and pets, and doubles the damage of them and all other rocket attacks to make up the bulk of the build's damage capability.

The defensive skills round out depending on things like playstyle and equipment. Shadow Power works for granting Life on Hit, and pairs with the Leech passive, and if say using a Hellfire Amulet with the Cull the Weak passive, makes the Night Bane run for Slowing enemies a good choice, though Shadow Glide for movement speed and Gloom for damage reduction work with others, the effect of Elusive Ring either granting or adding further damage reduction for 8 seconds upon every use of the skill. Elusive Fire works both as a high damage Hatred generator and another defensive boost with the Hardened rune granting 25% additional Armor for 3 seconds every time it fires.

For passives, Ballistics is obviously required for the build, and Ambush makes all attacks all the more effective with another 40% damage boost to enemies above 75% health. Leech supports Shadow Power for Life on Hit, and Custom Engineering adds another Sentry charge to a total of 3, all with double the duration. Awareness is of course the best defensive passive to consider adding, though I'd recommend using a Hellfire Amulet with it in that case, as all the passives stated are central to maximizing damage and maintaining health for the Demon Hunter.

The Cubed items all facilitate faster, more frequent attacks, using Manticore in for the highest damage boost from it and reducing the Hatred cost by half for Cluster Arrow, Cloak of the Garwulf adding another two wolves to be summoned with all the other Companions and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac shaving one second off any cooldown when spending Hatred, allowing more frequent use of Sentries, Companions and Vengeance.


For equipment, sheer attack speed is key so hand-crossbow options are prioritized. Dawn for greater use of Vengeance greatly helps the build, and Fortress Ballista adds anywhere from 20% to 30% health shielding refreshable on attack. Calamity is a much stronger offensive option, granting free Marked for Death effects on enemies hit for them to take 15% additional damage from all sources, but it is a much, much rarer drop than the others. Using the Manticore itself and Dawn in the Cube would allow the use of Bombadier's Rucksack, adding another two Sentries on the field for a total of 5, but doesn't grant additional charges, so is only viable if the Demon Hunter has a huge amount of cooldown reduction on all armor and weapons. Yang's Recurve is a final option, merely for the special secondary affix that grants 40-50% resource cost reduction, halving the cost of Cluster Arrow again, but this has the least synergy with the build overall.