Fresh 70 Demon Hunter? If you’re wondering how to proceed and how to get your free set ASAP – look no further. Beating the Seasonal Journey, getting your Haedrig’s Gift, Builds, Items to look for – ITS ALL HERE in our Fresh level 70 DH Guide! (Still leveling up? Check out D3 Demon Hunter Leveling Guide.)
Curious? We’re going LOD Multishot (temporary) into
Unhallowed Essence Multishot for speedfarming.
I will also include notes on a basic Natalya build which many will want to try!
In Season 28, the Demon Hunter free set is: Gears of Dreadlands. While it’s a decent set, the S28 buffs to UE, as well as UE being a great speedfarming set are what pushes me to ignore this free set in favor for our LOD MS -> UE MS setups.
D3 Season 28 Rites of Sanctuary and YOU. How does it affect?
S28’s unique mechanic is the Altar of Rites. I made a separate Altar of Rites guide on it because it’s there’s a few choices and timings you want to know about. A basic rundown, though:
The Altar of Rites is unlocked from the get-go. For each node (“seal”) you want to unlock, you need to sacrifice a specific set of items to unlock a seal. These increase in difficulty for each step of the way, regardless of which path you choose. IE, Unlock 5 will cost the same no matter if you went down one path or the other.
In return, each specific node grants you a passive power corresponding to the seal you unlocked. It’s kind of like a passive skill tree from other games. These range from the wildly exciting “Pets can pick up and salvage white, blue, and yellow gear”, to basic stat increases like 15% dodge.
While it may seem unexciting at first, the bonuses all pile up to become wildly out of hand.
While this notably changes the leveling pattern quite a bit, we won’t be talking about it here. Instead, check out the leveling guides if you’re not 70 yet and somehow found yourself here.
For this guide we have a few couple overarching steps that dictate our plan.
– Gear up LoD Strafe Multishot build. We’ll be recycling the items for our “final” build.
– Refine build slowly into basic UE speedfarming.
– Optionally, try out the newly reworked Natalya set (See: Full Build Previews).
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Step 1) Initial Build & Getting Legacy of Dreams
Don’t get stressed out, yes, LoD builds might seem a little daunting but let me tell you that it’s a fun and exciting process. Ultimately you need two things right now: The actual LoD gem, and a basic build to get you going.
Generic Starter build (slightly related to our ‘final build’)
| Demon Hunter Fresh 70 No Set Build | |
| Skill | Rune |
| Evasive Fire | Focus |
| Multishot | Arsenal |
| Preparation | Punishment |
| Companion | Bat |
| Sentry | Spitfire Turret |
| Vault | Tumble |
| Passives | |
| Ambush | Leech |
| Ballistics | |
The above build is meant to be in the middle of two things:
- Easy to edit – that hopefully game-changing legendaries can fit in no matter what.
- Related to our ‘final build’ – it’s a rough basic version of our “goal”, so it feels more natural as you transition towards it. Have a look down there for the final build preview to see what we’re going for.
Getting Legacy of Dreams ASAP
The first three gems will always be Bane of the Powerful, Legacy of Dreams, and one random one. So thankfully, there’s no RNG there.
Get 3 rift keys → Run 3 rifts → Wear three gemstones on your gear. That’s about as simple as it gets.
Step 2) Three ways to gain power with little effort
You can go all of these things “simultaneously”, basically small tasks here and there that you should keep in mind right now that will greatly increase your power for little to no effort.
Sounds cliche but here’s the “three easy steps!”:
A) Obtain and L25 your three (LoD+2) Legendary Gems most useful to you.
B) Power up Legacy of Dreams with ANY Legendary Items in all slots.
C) Fix your gear with Basic Rerolls and normal gems, remove trash stats.
Of course, if you have a resource hungry build you can also:
- Make a Reaper’s Wraps: Speaking of no effort to big returns. Make this ASAP. Plans drop from any Torment Malthael. This build might need is early on.
- Socket Topaz on Helmet similarly helps out with your resources too, before you get your Yangs or something.
3x LGems to 25Power up LoDEZ Rerolls & Gems
What three Legendary gems? L25 them ASAP.
Your next goal should be getting at least L25 on your three most important gems. Just get repeat the cycle of Nephalem Rift for a Key -> Do a Greater Rift until you get them, and do the absolute minimum level you need to level them up. Get them and level them quickly – do not feel pressured to “maximize” your rift keys by inflating the difficulty.
Legacy of Dreams is mandatory, as mentioned in the basics segment! Level this up as much as you can.
Bane of the Powerful is a cheap investment for an amazing powerup. You can replace this later for a trapped for DPS, or something like Moratorium if you want more early game defense.
From here you have some choices
Defensive gem? (highly recommended for now) will work wonderfully right now. Moratorium is a cheap L25 investment that works well with your Leech passive. Esoteric Alteration is a more tryhard defensive gem. Don’t worry, you can use these for augments later.
Offensive gems? Zei’s is the basic choice for UE, or Trapped (which eventually replaces Powerful), or Stricken (which is not something I’d recommend right now, it’s a very late-game gem). Zei’s, Trapped, Stricken, and Powerful are the only offensive gem’s I’d recommend for UE Multishot aside from Legacy of Dreams…
Can’t ever go wrong with leveling up a Boon of the Hoarder for speedfarming.
Legendary Items in ALL SLOTS
LoD gets stronger with each legendary item you have equipped – so get to it! You should aim to get this done “passively” by natural item drops, but you can also craft items if you’re desperate.
Simply wear whatever junk you find eventually
replacing them with useful pieces as you get them!
Spending Blood Shards is “OK”, but only use Death’s Breath to fill up the slots if you’re absolutely desperate. You’ll get an item for each slot in no time (you can even craft them). Save your resources for finding SPECIFIC items that will greatly boost your power. We talk more about this in the next segment down there, if you’re curious how to get the “good” items.
Ancients DOUBLE this bonus, and they’re a welcome boost to consider.
Defense Type & Gems
Demon Hunter / Monk are DEXTERITY classes (they get free Armor from DEX). So, in the face of all this free armor, your prime defensive stats are ALL RESISTS > VIT. So try to reroll ALLRES on your gear if you need defense, and REMOVE AS MUCH ARMOR (it’s pretty useless as a rolled-in stat).
So your gemming strategy (body and legs) should be slotting your best Diamonds on body and legs, as they give ALLRES.
Basic Rerolls
Since legendaries are a little expensive to reroll EARLY ON, try to make the most by REMOVING GARBAGE STATS, and getting anything “remotely usable”.
DEX and VIT are your primary stats and are welcome on every piece, also, as mentioned above, ALL RESISTS are also very welcome.
Life per Hit is always good early on, but in this case, you’ll be using Leech so it’s not a huge deal.
Multishot% is found in Boots and Helm.
The Element% you want is Fire, found typically in Bracers and Amulet.
Remove useless stats
Life Regeneration– garbage for any build.Attack Speed– it usually an endgame tune-up stat.Excess Resource Cost Reduction– Is a crutch, and only niche builds need it.Excess Cooldown Reduction– Only useful for an endgame “need”.Unused skill%– literally USELESS.Armor– Useless for us, take ALLRES instead.
Take better stats
- DEX VIT– can’t go wrong with these. Your core stats!
- ALLRES Life% Great defensive stats.
- Sockets are essentially MANDATORY.
- Life per Hit – Great early game sustainability.
- CRIT Stats (CHC / CHD) – More for endgame, but I’d take this over garbage stats.
- Skill and Elemental% – that you use.
FOLLOWER GEAR!
Do not forget to fully equip your follower for farming. You can start by crafting Sage or Cain’s NOW and worry about the rest later. This is a “sidequest” you should forever be aware of as it’s pretty impactful…
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Step 3) Refining, Using Resources -> ‘Full Build’
So you can easily see what items you’ll need, and you can get an idea of what we’re trying to do here.
LoD MSUE MSS28 Natalya Spike Trap
Full Build Preview: LoD Multishot
YOU DO NOT NEED TO FULLY FARM OUT THIS BUILD, YOU’RE TRANSITIONING TO UE MS! This build DOES shine in flexibility, and possible mobility due to the many flex slots which is great for when you’re not sure what build to transition to. It’s also ANTI RNG, as you can just keep scaling up little by little while farming your other builds.
| S28 Fresh 70 Demon Hunter: LoD Multishot temporary build | ||||
| Head | Visage of Gunes | Skill | Rune | |
| Shoulder | Mantle of Channeling | ANY | Evasive Fire | Focus | |
| Chest | Aquila Cuirass / Cindercoat | Multishot | Arsenal | |
| Arms | St Archews Gage | Smokescreen | Many viable runes | |
| Legs | Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan | Companion | Boar / Bat | |
| Boots | Ice Climbers / Illusory | Preparation | Punishment | |
| Belt | Goldwrap | Vengeance | Seethe / Dark Heart | |
| Bracer | Wraps of Clarity | Passives | ||
| Amulet | Hellfire / Any | Ballistics | ||
| Ring | Unity | Leech | ||
| Ring | Elusive Ring | Ambush | ||
| Weapon | Yang’s Recurve | Blood Vengeance / Open | ||
| Offhand | Deadman’s Legacy | — | ||
| Kanai’s Cube | Legendary Gems | |||
| Dawn | Legacy of Dreams | |||
| ANY | Stone Gauntlets | Cindercoat | Bane of the Powerful -> Zeis, Trapped | |||
| Convention of Elements | OPEN: Moratorium -> Zeis, Trapped | |||
Cindercoat can help you as an early filler!
Full Build Preview: UE Multishot Speedfarming
Transition into this more complete UE build as soon as you can. I can’t really tell you when the best time to do this is, but once you’ve gathered enough items it should be more powerful already. RoRG via bounties is pretty important here!
| S28 Fresh 70 Demon Hunter: basic UE Multishot template | ||||
| Head | Unhallowed Essence | Skill | Rune | |
| Shoulder | Mantle of Channeling | ANY | Evasive Fire | Focus | |
| Chest | Unhallowed Essence | Multishot | Arsenal | |
| Arms | Unhallowed Essence | Smokescreen | Many viable runes | |
| Legs | Unhallowed Essence | Companion | Boar / Bat | |
| Boots | Unhallowed Essence | Preparation | Invigoration | |
| Belt | Guardians | Vengeance | Dark Heart / Seethe | |
| Bracer | Guardians | Passives | ||
| Amulet | Squirts / Hellfire | Ballistics | ||
| Ring | Convention of Elements / Unity | Leech | ||
| Ring | Elusive Ring | Ambush | ||
| Weapon | Yang’s Recurve | Blood Vengeance / Open | ||
| Offhand | Deadman’s Legacy | — | ||
| Kanai’s Cube | Legendary Gems | |||
| Dawn | Zei’s Stone of Vengeance | |||
| Wraps of Clarity | Bane of the Trapped | |||
| Ring of Royal Grandeur | OPEN: Bane of the Powerful, Moratorium | |||
Build needs Ring of Royal Grandeur to fit Guardian 3 and Unhallowed Essence 6! This is a basic but good setup which uses Guardians (feel free to use the Crimson variant later on, if you prefer) for some unreal toughness.
The Guardian set is crafted by the way.
Full Build Preview: S28 Natalya Spike Trap
Since this is a completely new build this season, I’m sure many wanna try it out!
| S28 Fresh 70 Demon Hunter: Natalya Spike Trap template | ||||
| Head | Natalya | Skill | Rune | |
| Shoulder | Homing Pads | ANY | Evasive Fire | Focus | |
| Chest | Natalya | Multishot | Arsenal | |
| Arms | Natalya | Smokescreen | Many viable runes | |
| Legs | Natalya | Companion | Boar / Bat | |
| Boots | Natalya | Preparation | Invigoration | |
| Belt | Guardians | Vengeance | Dark Heart / Seethe | |
| Bracer | Guardians | Passives | ||
| Amulet | Squirt’s Necklace | Custom Engineering | ||
| Ring | Elusive Ring | Ambush | ||
| Ring | Unity / CoE | Leech | ||
| Weapon | Demon’s Demise | Awareness | ||
| Offhand | Dawn | — | ||
| Kanai’s Cube | Legendary Gems | |||
| Channon Bolter | Bane of the Powerful | |||
| Visage of Gunes / Aquila Cuirass | Bane of the Trapped*** | |||
| Ring of Royal Grandeur | Defensive gem? Open. | |||
This isn’t optimized by any means, but these are definitely the items you want. I chose guardians as a safer splash, since it gives a lot of toughness. For bane of the trapped, you’re gonna need some way to reliably trigger it. There’s many possible evolutions, but they might be a bit of a hassle for a speedier build…
Get CORE ITEMS asap. The heart of your build
Items are obviously very important for you build!
Here’s a couple of the best way on how to get your best ones.
The absolute core of your build are these: Yangs Recurve (2H Bow) – use Death’s Breath, Deadmans Legacy (Quiver) – use Blood Shards. Other than that, your “pseudo core” items are: Dawn (1H crossbow).
Spending Blood Shards and Death’s Breath
Blood ShardsDeaths BreathRings, amulets
Here’s advice on how to spend your blood shards with Kadala, roughly in order of importance:
Deadmans Legacy – Quiver: a large increase in power, but gives almost no utility…
Wraps of Clarity / Nemesis – Bracer: A universal defensive boost, as well as a very important farmy item are in the bracer pile.
EVERYTHING ELSE IS FILLER,
and pretty much only used for the LoD version
Goldwrap – Belt: A defensive boost for neph grinding. Use with Boon of the Hoarder!
Visage of Gunes – Head: You might not end up using this or even cubing this since Dark Heart is the default rune you want to use, but it’s worth mentioning.
Cindercoat – Chest: a great early game filler. IDK if I would waste shards for this though.
If you’re still using the LoD build,
you can get filler items easily from this method.
Here’s advice on how to get your weapons from Deaths Breath rare item upgrades(Kanai’s Cube Recipe: 25x Deaths Breath convert a rare into random legendary of same type), roughly in order of importance:
2H Bow for Yang’s Recurve. This is a build in a box. Massive RCR, and a huge boost to Multishot power is just… It’s got a reputation for being one of the most powerful singular items and it’s well deserved. Get it first and fast.
1H Crossbow for Dawn. Still pretty good for 100% Vengeance uptime.
Quiver for Deadmans Legacy if you just cant get it from shards.
Nothing else is really WORTH spending DB’s for, and would rather spend to try and get jewelry you might not have yet.
Rings and Amulets are tough to get from either BS or DB’s (due to the large amount of possible outcomes), but if you’re done getting your core items from these currencies – and you haven’t got your core accessories, it’s a viable way to spend them. Typically you’ll just find these as you grind – then use currency if you’re desperate. Anyway, if I had to rank the importance of your rings and ammys…
Elusive Ring is a godlike defensive buff for DH’s which is almost thoughtless to add in any DH build.
Unity is a decent defensive option, but you need the follower immortality relic, and another Unity for the follower!
There’s not much else… Convention of Elements if you’re lacking DPS… Zodiac is fluff for this build…
As an aside – Ring of Royal Grandeur and Avarice Band are BOUNTY ONLY rings (respectively ACT I and III), which DO NOT APPEAR FROM any other source. They, like any other bounty item, DO NOT DROP from monsters, gambling, upgrades or any other source outside of their respective BOUNTY CACHE.
As a reminder, the Guardian set is CRAFTED, and is used in your transition to UE build.
Follower Gear odds and ends
More of a reminder than anything, once you start farming you will be running into those little bonuses for your follower farming build. Keep an eye out!
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Summary & Outro
Welp, that’s about it. I’m liking these seasonal bonuses that remove the augmentation grind – makes the game a lot more humane. From here, you can easily do the Seasonal Journey if that’s your thing, or transition into literally any other build you like – the it’s exactly what the S28 fresh 70 LoD builds for each class are made for.
GL out there and check out our D3 Guide Directory if you need anything else!
