Best Inferno Demon Hunter Build in Diablo 3 [Guide]

Inferno difficulty will be the toughest challenge in Diablo 3. It will make you want to smash your keyboard out of rage because you always die from elite monsters or far more worst, from a plain walking zombie.

The difficulty present a lot of threats especially to those class who haven't got any tanking skills like the Demon Hunter. Being a DH and diving into Inferno in Diablo 3 without any knowledge on what skills are more efficient to use, what gears are best for this class or, what stat should you increase mainly will make you die often and seriously, the smashing of the keyboard will be inevitable :D.

Now to save your precious keyboard and prevent you from occasionally dying from the difficulty, I have decided to share a guide which will cover the basics of being an Inferno Demon Hunter. We will try to determine on this page what skills are great to use in this difficulty, the stats needed and of course, the possible gears that we should pick, to survive the more than hell-ish Inferno mode.

For this class, it is a must that we prioritize DEX as this will be the main source of our damage. Don't ever trade damage to defense as it's not worth it. Don't be misguided by those people who are saying that it's great to build a Tank Demon Hunter in Inferno. DUH! Screw them! I was victimize by this people and end up dying very often in Inferno.

Instead of doing the same mistake I did, try to build your Demon Hunter based on his strengths. So what are the strengths of this class? It has high mobility unique from other class, great damage and of course, the range (Arrow skills) and the AoE (Traps) it has to hit enemies without being hit.

Most of the time, we will kill Elite mobs by kiting and not by tanking or we often know as Crowd-controlling (CC). Remember this: Demon Hunter has no skills which can tank mobs in Inferno as these mobs has ridiculously high damage and they move very fast that they can close-in to you within second. If you do stick in a spot and think that you can kill them instantly, then expect that you get pawned all the time and if only the  mobs could laugh, then they already have been ROFL.

With extensive experimentation, I have no doubt in my mind that the only way to solo or just plain survive Inferno difficulty as a Demon Hunter is to outmaneuver every enemies present in the map.

So now that we know Demon Hunter are great in terms of dealing damage from afar, they have mobility and the range, I suggest that you prioritize having the following skills:

Recommended Skill Build for Inferno Demon Hunter

Primary Skills
Evasive Fire with Covering Fire Rune- I know what you are thinking: "What a noob-ish build, this is not worth reading!" But wait, before you criticize and leave this page, let me share my insights on why I have choosen this skill. Like what you have read before, we will not be CC-ing as a Demon Hunter. Instead, we will take advantage of our speed and range through killing enemies by means of kiting. Evasive Fire keeps you out of melee range for a small discipline cost, which will keep you alive and kicking some monster's arse.  In addition to its hit and evade ability, the damage and as well as the hatred regeneration is worth it. So far, this is the most efficient skill in terms of damage per hatred gain every hit. And when this skill is paired with Covering Fire, it allows you to fire a shot in about a 45 degree area, allowing you to quickly clear waves of mobs and environmental objects.

Additional Details: Shots of Evasive Fire hit their target immediately as it has no travel time unlike any of the other ranged hatred regen skills like Entangling Shot, Bola Shot, Piercing Arrow . This allows you to easily hit fast moving mobs that sometimes dodge your attacks, like the insects in Act 2.

Secondary Skill
Impale with Overpenetration- At 250% weapon damage for 25 hatred, this is the best all around ranged DPS skill we have. It allows us to quickly damage a target and keep moving, which is key in Inferno. Unlike other secondary skills, Impale isn't attack speed dependent. If you have notice, other skills do damage if you have high attack speed. But Impale is different as it does crazy damage in one shot. While kiting elites, you normally only have time to turn and fire one shot, and this is the ideal situation for using Impale with Overpenetration. Kiting often tends to tightly group mobs in a linear fashion, allowing you to hit multiple targets in one shot. Also, while you’re kiting, Sharpshooter is charging up your Critical Strike chance, allowing you to do massive damage with even more mobility.

Action Bars

Hunting
Vault with Tumble- As a Demon Hunter, if you stand in one spot in Inferno, then you will die for sure. As I have told you before, the key to being a great Demon Hunter is to move while dealing damage. And they key to efficient movement is this skill called Vault paired with Tumble rune. This will provide extremely important kiting, getting away from unnecessary fights, positioning and escaping wicked Elites. Also, it gives you the ability to get out cornering situations. You will use this often in Inferno as a Demon Hunter and in fact, you can't live without it!

Defensive
Smoke Screen with Lingering Fog- This is your only immunity ability and has endless uses in many situations like: breaking elite Jailor’s jails, escaping snares, avoiding incoming damage (think Molten elites and enemies that get into melee range). It can also be used to escape the Butcher’s meathook! This should never happen because you’re using this build have super mobility, but if it does quickly pop Smoke Screen and you will exit the stun and escape unharmed! Also, use this versus Reflect Damage mobs to not take damage. Why take Lingering Fog? Well, the extra 1.5 seconds is a no-brainer. Choking Gas may be a good option but, as what I have said before, our main damaging skills will be Spike Trap. We only  need Smoke Screen to escape extreme situation and the additional 1.5 seconds is enough to escape from the aggro range of a mob then reposition and get back to the fight.

Hunting 
Preparation with Battle Scars- Well, for me Preparation is quite useful as it will let us gain back the loss Discipline in an instant. Take note that we burn a lot of Discipline from either killing or escaping an enemy in Inferno mode. With the Battle Scars rune, it allows us to heal for 60% of our life when we used Preparation. For starters and don't know the life in Inferno difficulty, this won't be necessary as they will surely up their damage instead of this. However, I say to you now that Inferno is all about survivability first. Remember that you can't DPS when you are dead. So basically, the 60% heal is a must for me as it is a key for endurance in kiting. If you can kite an enemy for 45 seconds, then this skill can assure you that you can heal and get back in a fight.

Devices
Spike Trap with Scatter- Well, we don't have to discuss anything about this. As I have said before, this will be your main skill in dealing damage to the enemies in Inferno. Three 275% damage is no joke and it could clear average mobs within an instance especially when your gears are excellent. Why Scatter? Well, just think of this: with this rune, you can drop your traps from where your pointing your mouse, allowing you the ability to control where to place them. In short, you are more efficient using Spike Trap with the Scatter rune.

Passives
Sharpshooter- 3% Critical chance increase every second until you crit and then you keep that crit rating for 1 second. This skill will be a huge DPS increase for you when used with this build, especially for those who haven't got the gears with high critical chance bonuses yet. While kiting around, this charges up your crit so you can chain your abilities, like timing an Impale to Hit right as an Elite walks over a Spike Trap.

Tactical Advantage- Basically, this passive is for more mobility which results to more efficiency in kiting and killing mobs and as well as bosses in Inferno. Do remember that this skill gives you 60% more movement speed once its triggered and, it can be activated by using Evasive Fire, Vault and even Smoke Screen. This will give you greater ability to re-position or escape in any situation in the said difficulty.

Steady Aim- This will give you 20% more damage when there is no enemy within 20 yards. Why did I take this passive skill? It's because it has a great synergy with Evasive Fire. Take note that Evasive Fire is 15 yards, so obviously, this passive will take effect almost every time I am in Inferno.

Now that we know the main stat and our skill build for a Demon Hunter in Inferno difficulty, let's then proceed to the stats on gears we should need to make this build work perfectly.

Recommended Stats on Gears for Inferno Demon Hunter

Weapon- I recommend that you purchase at the Auction House a level 60 2-hand magic grade weapon with at least 800 DPS. Why 2 hand? Why only magic grade? It's true that 1-hand weapons is excellent in terms of DPS and attack speed but, you should have a full set of gears first, which has tons of bonus attack, speed crits and dex to truly say see the potential of a 1-hand weapon. To have these gears means that you have tons of golds in your stash. In the issue of magic grade only, I can say that for starters, you should not hold on to any rare weapons because of the gold problem again. It's more advisable to go with blue color weapon as they will be more cost-effective in the end. Remember that Inferno is all about incremental upgrades and it's better to have all pieces of your gears upgraded to high level than to just waste all the upgrade to just one piece.

Now that we cleas that up, let's proceed to the stats needed on your weapon. Aside from high DPS, look for cheap weapons in the AH that has high critical chance and damage. If you do have extra cash, try to get attack speed, life on hit or even dex as well on your main weapon.

The Rest of Your Gears
In most cases, people will go for Attack speed, Dex, Crit Chance and Damage on the rest of their gears which is quite expensive.  For me, I would rather go with Max Discipline, Crit + Crit Damage, Dex, All Resist, Vit as gears with atleast three of this stats is more cheaper to buy in AH. However, being cheap doesn't mean that they are also cheap in terms of getting you through all the ACTS of Inferno. They are much cost-effective to use in Inferno and as a matter of fact, these stats along with the movement speed stat are my most preferred ones which works perfect in my skill build.

I still don't get it? Why the need of Max Discipline on gears?
My friend, Inferno will be an all out war! The moment you strp on Act 1 Inferno, you will be dealing with super mobs which has high attack power, faster movemet and can deal 1 hit KO. Do take note that some of our mobility skills or just plain escape skills do consume Discipline. The basic principle is: The more discipline we have, the more times we can cast those skills that requires discipline, to survive Inferno.

For starters who don't have the gold to buy luxury items, I would suggest that you have these specific stats on your specific magic grade or above gears (if possible):

Helm/Rings/Bracers

• 2-3 Critical Hit Chance
• 60-70 Dexterity
• Any % of Critical Damage
• Any Amounf of Vitality

Belt

• 120 Dexterity
• 60 Vitality

Shoulders

• 100 Dexterity
• 60 Vitality

Quiver
Take the most cost-effective piece which has high critical hit chance and max discipline. You can also add a Hatred regen option but not at the cost of Discipline.

Gloves

• 6-7% Critical Hit Chance
• 70-80 Dexterity
• Any % of Critical Damage

Amulet

• 100 Dexterity
• 30% Critical Damage

Chests

• At least +7 Max Discipline
• Any amount of Dexterity
• Any amount of Vitality

Pants

• Any amount of Dexterity
• Any amount of Vitality
• Any amount of All Resist

Bonus Tip: For your chest and pants, try to look for pieces which has sockets, preferably, I would suggest getting pieces with:

• 60 Vitality + 3 Sockets
• 40 Vitality + 30 Dexterity + 2 Sockets
• 80 Dexterity +3 Sockets

Boots

• More than 10% additional movement speed
• 120 Dexterity
• 60 Vitality

So there you have it. For comments and suggestions regarding this Inferno Demon Hunter build, feel free to share your thoughts on the comment box below.