Shadow Impale Demon Hunter Guide

1. Do the Challenge Rift for the materials to cube Legendary Powers. You can complete this once a week for additional resources and we always update the guide for you!

2. Gather the full The Shadow's Mantle set. Each piece can be gambled from Kadala for Bloodshards. Do not salvage any duplicate pieces you find! Instead convert them to another part of the set with Recipe 4 in Kanai's Cube. If you have extra materials you can use Recipe 3 to craft the remaining pieces, but this is expensive and not recommended for new players.

3. Gamble from Kadala in this order:

1. The full The Shadow's Mantle set
2. Holy Point Shot
3. Goldwrap and Chain of Shadows
4. Warzechian Armguards and Wraps of Clarity
5. Aquila Cuirass
6. St. Archew's Gage and Stone Gauntlets
7. Elusive Ring, The Compass Rose, Convention of Elements, Focus and Restraint

4. Craft using Recipe 3 in Kanai's Cube in this order:

1. Daggers to get Karlei's Point
2. Hand-crossbows to get Dawn
3. Amulets to get Squirt's Necklace and The Traveler's Pledge
4. Create a level 1 Witch Doctor and upgrade Maces to get Echoing Fury
5. Anything from the Gamble list in Step 3 that you haven't already acquired.

5. Do Bounties to acquire several important items for this build:

• Act 1: Ring of Royal Grandeur
• Act 2: Gloves of Worship
• Act 3: Avarice Band
• Act 4: Can drop any bounty item from any act
• Bounty Turn In: Recipes for Sage's Journey, Cain's Destiny, Aughild's Authority, Captain Crimson's Trimmings and Guardian's Jeopardy

6. Use Primordial Ashes in Kanai's Cube with the new Curiosity of Lorath Nahr recipe to obtain a free Crafted Primal Ancient. Since you can only equip one of them, choosing the right item to focus matters! Great candidates are Weapons, Offhands, Jewelry or any item with an important multiplier. With that in mind, we recommend getting one of the following items:

• Karlei's Point
• Holy Point Shot
• Elusive Ring

• Bane of the Trapped provides us with a 60% separate damage multiplier for close range combat.
• Gogok of Swiftness grants 15% Cooldown Reduction & Attack Speed and 30% Dodge. Alternatively this gem can be replaced by Pain Enhancer for fishing dense rifts on the highest Tiers.
• Esoteric Alteration provides massive amounts of toughness if needed, especially for stationary setups with Endless Walk.
• Bane of the Stricken is used as RGK or for Cold solo push variants.
• Zei's Stone of Vengeance, Bane of the Powerful or Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard (to protect Squirt's Necklace buff) can be used in speedfarm and even some push variants variants.
• Boon of the Hoarder is great for extra Gold and Movement Speed in T16 Rifts.

• Impale on the skill as our main damage dealer. Karlei's Point gives a huge damage boost and infinite Hatred.
• Shadow Power for defense, utility and healing.
• Vengeance along with Dawn and the necessary Cooldown Reduction provides a permanent x1.4 damage and most of the time also x2 toughness boost (through the Dark Heart rune).
• Vault, especially when paired with Chain of Shadows (and perhaps Tactical Advantage) gives you ridiculous mobility at all times.
• The last 2 skill slots vary a lot from version to version. Popular choices are Fan of Knives Bladed Armor, Companion Wolf Companion or Boar Companion, Marked for Death Valley of Death, Bolas (in the Bastions of Will setups) and Sentry Guardian Turret.

• Cull the Weak is the strongest Demon Hunter damage passive.
• Awareness helps you out in tough times and saves you a death.
• Ambush is another generic DPS passive that works in every build.
• Steady Aim and Thrill of the Hunt are used for the mobile ranged versions of the build.
• Other options can include Numbing Traps, Tactical Advantage, Blood Vengeance for most purposes like farming or pushing. As an Rift Guardian Killer (RGK) in groups, you should also choose Single Out.

¹ Add a bit of Vitality if you feel too squishy (a total of 800,000 Life is recommended in Solo Push, 600,000 Life otherwise).
² Avoid any source of Area Damage for RGK variants as this is useless and it can lag the game.

The Altar of Rites is a tree that grants tremendous powers to your entire account in exchange for sacrifices. It requires you to farm Bounties, kill the Ubers, craft the Staff of Herding, and more. Completing all 26 of these tasks, along with sacrificing 6 Primal Ancients grants you extra Damage, Defense, Quality of Life, Increased Drops and 3 Potion Super Powers. Read the full guides on Unlocking the Altar and the Altar Mechanics by Raxxanterax and Chewingnom to learn everything about this fantastic mechanic!

Optimal Path

Notable Build Changes

Compared to the nonseason version of the build, you can run with Smoke Screen instead of Vault after you unlock Revelation. This also removes the need for Chain of Shadows in some setups so we run with Captain Crimson's Trimmings.

Patch 2.7.0 revamped the follower system giving all 3 hirelings new powers and the emanate system. The first thing you should do is read our complete follower guide and remember the key takeaways:

1. The emanation system allows followers to share certain legendary and set powers with you. The most important ones are: The Flavor of Time, Nemesis Bracers, Avarice Band, Sage’s Journey and Cain’s Destiny. Click the guide above for the full list.
2. Follower’s powers are based on their main stat (maxed at 25,000, but they have a 2.5x multiplier so you only need 10,000). This means we stack Intelligence on the Enchantress, Dexterity on the Scoundrel and Strength on the Templar.
3. Guardian's Jeopardy (2) Bonus works for followers by improving their inherent stat multiplier from x2.5 to x3.5, making it slightly easier to hit the 25,000 main stat threshold if needed.
4. Followers share 20% of their Experience, Magic and Gold Find stats with you.
5. Legendary gems do not work on followers, except Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard.
6. Enforcer can be equipped on the player to keep followers alive even without an immortality relic. The 90% damage reduction counts for them, too.
7. Cooldown Reduction does not work for any follower skill except the Templar’s Heal.
8. Followers never deal significant damage; you’re on your own to clear the content.

Select Follower

The build is overall fairly easy to play once you understand the core concept. Most of the damage dealt is done to the first enemy hit of each knife. This puts a large focus on your and your target's positioning, you generally want to single out valuable targets and elites while ignoring small trash.

Whenever you enter a game or start a Greater Rift, make sure to activate Shadow Power once to receive the effects. Then, after you took some damage, activate Bottomless Potion of Mutilation and press Shadow Power again to snapshot the effect. The same applies after a death or in case you press the skill without the potion up for whatever reason. Keep your Vengeance up at all times (cast once every 20 seconds). If you are using Chain of Shadows, make sure to throw knives after every 4-5 uses of Vault to not run out of Discipline.

General Advice
Cold Rune - Impale Overpenetration: Focus more on gathering large packs of monsters to profit from the AoE part of The Shadow's Mantle (6) Bonus.
Fire Rune - Impale Chemical Burn: Focus more on hunting yellow elites to profit from your double damage to single targets.

Stationary Playstyle
For stationary setups with Endless Walk, find a valuable target (typically a yellow elite) and position yourself to hit it first with all three of your knives. If you spawn an Oculus Ring, run into it and repeat. Sometimes you may not be able to hit your main target this way, so try to stutter-step into the right place if you can or just prioritize other valuable targets nearby while waiting for the next Oculus Ring.

Mobile Playstyle
For mobile setups with Bastions of Will you can more freely move around the battlefield and gather large packs of monsters without having to worry about losing much damage. You don't have to fight only elite enemies and can use any spawned Oculus Ring more deliberately to just nuke down whatever is in your path. In situations with very few enemies around, stutter-step and dodge as much as possible to keep up Squirt's Necklace.

The build is overall quite tanky and a popular choice among Hardcore players. Additionally, you have permanent immunity to Crowd Control effects and high mobility to get out of dangerous situations with ease when you have to. Don't forget to replace Ambush with Awareness, if it isn't already included in the build.

Check out our dedicated Hardcore Survival Guide to learn more about how to succeed in this game mode!

• Hatred will only return starting on the second hit.
• Impale Ricochet can give you Hatred back on the first attack (due to bounces).

• With The Shadow's Mantle, the first enemy hit will take massive damage and other targets of Impale Ricochet or Overpenetration take 1/3 of that amount.
• Chemical Burn doubles your damage done against single-targets because the 2sec burn DoT applies the set's extra damage, too.
• Grievous Wounds adds extra Critical Hit Damage but is about 30-40% worse than Chemical Burn in any realistic scenario.
• The extra knives from Holy Point Shot spread out in a cone-shape, so standing close to the target is necessary to hit with all of them at once.

• Provides a buff for 2 seconds to vault freely after using Impale.
• Make sure to use Impale often enough while moving, so that you don't run out of Discipline.

• Use once to get the buff, it will stay on permanently thanks to The Shadow's Mantle (4) Bonus.
• Activating it again will only apply the Slow from Night Bane.
• Life per Kill from Bottomless Potion of Mutilation can be snapshot during its effect, as long as you don't use Shadow Power again without it. This will increase your healing overall and is very useful, especially for pushing.
• The snapshot has to be done again on death or when the skill is used without the potion up.