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Into the Fray - 2.4 Melee Bruiser Demon Hunter

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Skills

  • Impale Grievous Wounds
  • Vault Action Shot
  • Chakram Razor Disk
  • Shadow Power Gloom
  • Fan of Knives Assassin's Knives
  • Companion Wolf Companion
  • Ambush
  • Awareness
  • Cull the Weak
  • Numbing Traps

Items

More Details
  • Legendary Gems

    • Bane of the Trapped
    • Bane of the Stricken
    • Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard

Kanai's Cube

  • Calamity
  • Convention of Elements

Paragon Priorities

Core

Movement Speed
Primary Stat
Vitality
Maximum Resource

Offense

Critical Hit Chance
Critical Hit Damage
Cooldown Reduction
Attack Speed

Defense

Resist All
Life
Armor
Life Regeneration

Utility

Area Damage
Resource Cost Reduction
Life on Hit
Gold Find

Build Guide

Shadow set is being reworked for 2.4. We don't yet know which pieces will be added but it can be pretty safe to assume that a helm and/or shoulders will be added (perhaps bracers, belt or weap too?). Here's what we know so far about 2.4.


Shadow's set:

2 Set: While equipped with a melee weapon, all damage is increased by 1000%
4 Set: Shadow Power gains all runes and lasts forever
6 Set: Impale deals an additional 40,000% weapon damage to the first enemy it hits.


Lord Greenstone's Fan (Dagger):

Every second, gain ~250% increased damage for your next Fan of Knives, stacking up to 30 times.


Karlei's Point (Dagger):

Impale returns ~14 hatred if it hits an enemy already impaled.


Chain of Shadows (Belt):

After using Impale, Vault costs no resource for 2 seconds.


Elusive Ring (Ring):

After casting Shadow Power, Smoke Screen, or Vault, take 60% reduced damage for 8 seconds.


Sword of Ill Will (Sword):

Chakram does 1.0-1.4% more damage per point of Hatred.


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/3j9p38/hey_rdiablo_were_here_for_a_quick_qa_about_patch/cunjpbg

https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/3rug1z/patch_24_new_items_bonuses_pics/


This means that we can run an impale/fan of knives/chakram build. There's a few ways to go about this.


Skills


Impale: Our huge single-target damaging ability. It will wreck elites and blow up rift guardians. Take the extra damage on crit as your rune.


Fan of Knives: One of our AOE choices. I'm unsure of how strong this skill will be. Time will have to tell whether it can be used reliably as our main AOE damage source. Assassin's knives is a physical skill and hits enemies outside of the 20 yards so it's our natural choice.


Vault: Obvious mobility skill. Works well with new belt, allowing you to ditch tumble. Additionally, the damage from it gets buffed by the 2pc. Use action shot for physical damage.


Shadow Power: All runes will be activated by 4pc. 80% slow, huge life on hit, 35% damage reduction, and 30% move speed buff all make this an incredible ability which you don't even have to remember to activate regularly. I'm not sure if the new set allows you to completely skip having this skill or not. If it can be taken out, use marked for death instead.


Marked for Death (Grim Reaper): If Impale ends up being overwhelmingly strong and Fan of Knives and Chakram end up being weak, this will be the go to for AOE damage. One of the two skills would need to be dropped to include this.


Companion: Wolf is our obvious choice for group damage.


Chakram: Shuriken Cloud is great because you can put it up once and leave it there to do continual damage. It scales off of your 2pc and provides an additional AOE source. The awesome part of it is that you can spam it with spines of seething hatred if you need hatred back and it doesn't even stop your movement. You can switch this skill out with a generator like grenade or bolas if you don't want to use the quiver.


Shuriken cloud cannot proc F+R passive although it does proc wraps of clarity. As such, another generator will be necessary for F+R proc. Razor disk (also physical) is a strong replacement. If it turns out that we don't need shadow power on the bar to benefit from its effect, I'll swap grenade in for shadow power and put shuriken cloud back on, but until then, razor disk it is! Also, the new one-hander has a buff for Chakram (1-1.4% per hatred point) so it might work well as a main AOE.


Gear


Shadow's Mantle: 6 pieces will need to be used. Currently we have feet, legs, chest and gloves. If I had to guess, I would assume they're adding shoulders and helm. These six pieces are non-negotiable. If a belt, bracers, or weapon are added, there could be amazing synergy with RoRG and Marauder's Set since turrets can shoot chakrams and impale. If that is the case, I might redesign the build to reflect those new options. Until then, there are no other options.


Belt: If you have the legacy fan of knives (40-50% fan of knives damage), it is definitely a strong addition. Otherwise, Chain of Shadows is a necessity. If you have both, cube Chain of Shadows. If legacy fan of knives only scales additively with the new dagger, feel free to drop it completely, freeing up a belt and, subsequently, cube spot.


Bracers: Wraps of clarity are the only strong choice as of now for the damage reduction you'll need due to the up close nature of the build.


Amulet: Not super important. Use whichever resist amulet you find the most useful or go with another passive from hellfire amulet. Perfectionist and Tactical Advantage are alright options to put in.


Rings: Focus and Restraint are best in slot still. Impale and chakram will keep the passive up. Cube the new Elusive Ring for the 60% damage reduction it gives.


Weapon: Two new daggers and one unconfirmed one-hander are all coming out to support melee DH. Karlei's Point is extremely important to be using in any higher level grifts as it will keep your hatred up while you spam Impale on elites and RGs. Lord of Greenstone's Dagger seems like it could give some real power to Fan of Knives so it seems like a good cube choice. I don't know if dual weilding will be an option (currently isn't) but I would use both if I could. The Chakram one-hander seems like it could be a good substitute for Greenstone's if Chakram becomes the better AOE skill.


Offhand: It's been stated that you will be able to use melee weapons with quivers. However, I'm unsure about dual wielding or using a one-hand crossbow and melee weapon, so I'm just going to address the options of quivers and shields. If you're going more offensive, spines of seething hatred is fantastic for its synergy with chakrams. Holy point shot is a good damage substitute if you would rather use a normal generator and you're going with a fire build. Finally, stormshield is a good defensive option.


Cube: Calamity is a good choice for weapon but so are the other new weapons. Armor slot should probably go to the new belt if legacy fan of knives scales multiplicatively with Greenstone's. If not, Hunter's Wrath is an option for keeping hatred up. Ring should be Elusive Ring for damage reduction but if you find you don't need it, you can swap for Convention of Elements.


Gems: Emeralds should likely be in all of your slots but you can experiment with diamonds too. Head can either go for CDR or % life. CDR helps get your wolf back faster as well as fan of knives but since you get a buff for every second you don't fan of knives, the CDR isn't that important. Legendary gems should be bane of the trapped obviously, and I've chosen wildebeast's gizzard for tankiness but esoteric alteration is also an option. Bane of the stricken will get stacks quickly because of shuriken cloud so it's a great choice.


Gameplay


Between the shadow set damage reduction, wraps of clarity, and wildebeast's gizzard you have a fair amount of tankiness. Additionally, with all of your life on hit, shuriken cloud will be healing you for a lot. Because of this, being in the middle of groups is probably the safest place to be so that you can stay topped off.


Use your wolf whenever possible. Spam FoK on cooldown but remember that the longer you wait to use it, the more damage it accumulates. Use impale to wipe out big targets and to pick off stragglers in between fan of knives procs. Spam shuriken cloud to regenerate hatred so you can impale more often. Make sure to use both impale and shuriken cloud every five seconds so you can get the damage boost from f+r and the damage reduction from wraps of clarity. Take advantage of the new bracers by vaulting out of a group on FoK cooldown to kill minions that are lagging behind or chasing your squishies.


EDIT: Shuriken cloud doesn't proc F+R so use razor disk or a different generator to keep F+R up. If there's still room on your bar (perhaps you're running with another DH and can sub out wolf) then you can just put shuriken cloud back on and just leave it up as an AOE damage buff.


Although your AOE isn't fantastic (as far as I know, maybe it is really good), your single-target damage is ridiculous. Position yourself well and blow up RG's and elites with impale. Don't worry about the cooldown on your fan of knives as is it will get stronger and stronger the more you wait. It might even be best to only use it when you're in a really big group.