LoD FoK Demon Hunter Skills and Runes

Last updated on Apr 01, 2021 at 09:00 by Deadset 3 comments

On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing LoD FoK Demon Hunter in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.7 and Season 23.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Evasive Fire Icon Evasive Fire Focus Focus Right Mouse Button Strafe Icon Strafe Drifting Shadow Drifting Shadow 1 Vengeance Icon Vengeance Dark Heart Dark Heart 2 Smoke Screen Icon Smoke Screen Special Recipe Special Recipe 3 Fan of Knives Icon Fan of Knives Pinpoint Accuracy Pinpoint Accuracy 4 Companion Icon Companion Wolf Companion Wolf Companion
Passive Skills
1.

Rotation

The signature oddity of the build is the use of Shi Mizu's Haori Shi Mizu's Haori, allowing you to always crit as long as you stay below its unique property life range. The build drops any and all forms of life sustain, strives to take an initial burst of damage to get to Shi Mizu's Haori Shi Mizu's Haori's range, and remains there as long as it can (no grabbing of health globes or using health pots). Skill-wise, the spec begins runs with an activation of Vengeance Vengeance, a major survivability and damage buff that should be kept up permanently with the assistance of Dawn Dawn. The primary dynamic of the spec is between channeling Strafe Strafe (to keep Taeguk Taeguk, Mantle of Channeling Mantle of Channeling and Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan going) and using Evasive Fire Evasive Fire (to maintain your Hatred reserves high for Aquila Cuirass Aquila Cuirass and proc the Wraps of Clarity Wraps of Clarity). Over time, the cubed Lord Greenstone's Fan Lord Greenstone's Fan will build up Fan of Knives Fan of Knives stacks, which you are to release only during the Lightning proc of your cubed Convention of Elements Convention of Elements, and only at a decent number of stacks (15-19 for the first CoE cycle, or the max 30 for the second — depending on your needs for amount of burst). To further amplify your damage, use Wolf Companion Wolf Companion damage buff directly prior the Fan of Knives Fan of Knives. Finally, use Smoke Screen Smoke Screen sparingly when expecting bursts of damage coming your way.

2.

Skills and Runes

Fan of Knives Fan of Knives is the primary damage dealer of the build, taken with the strongest rune Pinpoint Accuracy Pinpoint Accuracy — sitting at the impressive 1600% damage. The increased cooldown of the rune is of little consequence, as you will be waiting on the stacks of Lord Greenstone's Fan Lord Greenstone's Fan (building up at 1 stack per second), and synchronize with the Lightning proc of Convention of Elements Convention of Elements. You will reach 15-19 stacks for one full cycle of CoE and the full 30 stacks at two cycles. Considering its significant buildup time and burst potential, judicious use of Fan of Knives Fan of Knives is strongly advised.

With no cooldown resetting duties like in a Natalya build, Strafe Strafe is taken in the LoN FoK build strictly to enable Taeguk Taeguk use and item bonuses from Mantle of Channeling Mantle of Channeling and Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan (see this build's gear page for more information). The preferred rune is Drifting Shadow Drifting Shadow, as unimpeded movement speed is a crucial part of the agile combat style of Demon Hunters.

With the rebalancing in Patch 2.4, you have a degree of freedom when choosing your generator. The classic Evasive Fire Evasive Fire with its strongest rune for Hatred restoration, Focus Focus, is the overall preferred choice as it synergizes well with the shorter range, pack-pulling playstyle of the build. Alternating a few seconds of channeling with a generator shot is necessary to maintain the demanding Aquila Cuirass Aquila Cuirass bonus.

The very embodiment of glass cannon, the Demon Hunter usually adopts at least one protective mobility skill. The LoN FoK build is no exception, incorporating the disappearance mechanic of Smoke Screen Smoke Screen to synergize with Strafe Strafe — as it does not interrupt the channeling. To minimize your Discipline costs, take the Special Recipe Special Recipe rune — it will allow you an emergency immunity without taxing your resource pool.

Using the skill and item reworks surrounding Vengeance Vengeance to their advantage, LoN FoK Demon Hunters take the skill into the build and strive for its permanent uptime through a worn Dawn Dawn. This potent 40% damage buff will also reduce incoming damage in half from the Dark Heart Dark Heart rune, assisting the survival of this close-range DH setup.

With multiple utilities to pick from, the LoN FoK Demon Hunter chooses a DPS buff role for the Companion Companion skill through the Wolf Companion Wolf Companion rune, boosting you with a temporary multiplicative damage increase. While the Wolf Companion Wolf Companion buff sports a generous 10-second uptime, this build runs a moderate amount of Cooldown Reduction on gear — so try to pop the Companion Companion active in key moments like elite fights, or heavy trash density. As a final note, if you struggle with Discipline management for survivability, you can still use the former favorite for the slot — Preparation Preparation Focused Mind Focused Mind.

This concludes the overview of the Active Skills, now let us look through the Passives.

3.

Passives

Ambush Ambush complements the burst-oriented nature of the build, frontloading your damage potential against newly encountered enemies. The multiplicative nature of the passive sweetens the 40% damage increase offered, and leads to the unrivaled performance of LoN FoK builds against trash packs.

Cull the Weak Cull the Weak amplifies your damage against Slowed or Chilled enemies by 20%. This potent multiplicative passive gets triggered by Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped due to the gem's slowing property in melee range, where all your burst comes in anyway (diving into enemies to use Fan of Knives Fan of Knives).

Awareness Awareness will be used as a last line of defense in the protection of the Demon Hunter. It is a cheat death on a decent 60-second cooldown, coupled with a brief window of safety and life regeneration when triggered; depending on your confidence with the spec, you can proc this passive on purpose to get to Shi Mizu's Haori Shi Mizu's Haori's range faster.

Finally, Tactical Advantage Tactical Advantage will be used to bolster your maneuverability, aiding your ability to pull and funnel monsters in a chosen direction with an impressive 60% increase to your Movement Speed after using Smoke Screen Smoke Screen.

4.

Changelog

  • 01 Apr. 2021: No changes required for Season 23.
  • 18 Nov. 2020: No changes required for Season 22.
  • 30 Jun. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 20 Nov. 2019: Reviewed for Season 19.
  • 23 Aug. 2019: Reviewed for Season 18.
  • 16 May 2019: Guide was revised with additional recommendations for Season 17.
  • 17 Jan. 2019: Information was reviewed and approved for Season 16 with no changes required.
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