Marauder Multishot Demon Hunter Skills and Runes

Active Skills
Evasive Fire Focus Multishot Arsenal 1 Vengeance Dark Heart 2 Vault Tumble 3 Companion Wolf Companion 4 Sentry Polar Station
Passive Skills
Ballistics Custom Engineering Cull the Weak Ambush

Sentries are a key part of the build, shooting out your equipped spenders automatically on top of mimicking your own shots. Currently active sentries also directly reflect your damage delivery, adding more damage to your skills per Sentry dropped. Your basic goal in this playstyle is to lead enemy pulls into your Sentry "nest": ideally, a semi-open location where all the turrets will be placed alongside a wall and can simultaneously fire their volleys in one direction — directly into the monster packs. While it is still important that you fire Multishot yourself in order to trigger the Sentry mimicking shots, your own damage will be negligible; your primary job is to strategically place the turrets, keep them firing, and buff them up with damage multipliers. You will need to weave Evasive Fire in between your shots to keep up the bonuses of Focus and Restraint, as well as to pop your Companion cooldown for the Wolf Companion damage bonus when you have a good pull going. Vault into an Oculus Ring proc whenever possible, or simply use it to reposition or scout ahead in a Rift level. Protect yourself with Vengeance on cooldown.

Similarly to all Marauder-based builds, this variant relies heavily on Sentry, since each turret results in more damage to your chosen Hatred spenders and another autonomous damage dealer on the battlefield. Thus, to extend their maximum number, you will have to use both Custom Engineering and Bombardier's Rucksack. You should use the cold rune Polar Station, whose chilling effect will guarantee the procs of both Cull the Weak and Bane of the Trapped. Placement-wise, build up clusters of Sentries in key open areas around the map, and draw the attention of straggler packs from all sides prior to bursting them down with heavy Multishot spam.

One of the best supported spenders in the Demon Hunter repertoire, Multishot, will serve as the main damage dealer of the build — with shared duties by the Sentries and your own shots. The massive AoE of this spender makes it deceptively easy to cover the entire battlefield, but you should still try and clump up enemies as best you can with aggroing shots and leading them in towards a choke point to attain the full benefits of Area Damage. Rune-wise, both the Fire rune Arsenal (our recommendation) and the Physical rune Full Broadside are considered equally viable options for pushing.

Vengeance is a near-irreplaceable tool in the Demon Hunter endgame, due to its base damage multiplier and additional damage reduction properties coming from the Dark Heart rune. You can consider altering this rune to Seethe when you grow confident in handling the build. Note that this Multishot variant cannot run Dawn due to item slot constraints, so perma- Vengeance is impossible and you will need to treat the skill as a strategic cooldown.

With or without Seethe on Vengeance, you will need to take a strong Hatred-generating skill in your selection. Your own survival is another powerful incentive, as the Wraps of Clarity need frequent Hatred generation in order to function. Convenient with its broad conal reach, Evasive Fire also offers the high regen option Focus, solidifying it as the preferred generator for the slot.

Ensured by the powerful combination of the 2-piece Marauder bonus (summoning all Companions by your side) and the damage reduction of Zoey's Secret, Companion is a mainstay in Marauder-based builds. For the cost of a skill slot, you gain a myriad of utility bonuses on every cooldown: such as the Bat Companion Hatred restoration (both passive and active), the Spider Companion slow (useful for Bane of the Trapped and Cull the Weak procs), the Boar Companion taunt (offering temporary reprieve from attacks and a boost of survivability), the Ferret Companion health globe grab and, perhaps most importantly, the Wolf Companion multiplicative damage increase.

Last but not least, you will do well to incorporate a mobility tool during GR progression attempts; the general recommendation for the purpose is Vault, coupled with the more manageable Discipline spending of the Tumble rune.

Custom Engineering is the dream passive of the Marauder playstyle, doubling the duration of your Sentries and increasing their maximum number and initial charges to three. While their numbers will swell even further with the Bombardier's Rucksack, the ability to skyrocket your damage at the start of every major battle is too good to pass up, especially since transitioning between Rift levels resets your Sentry count, opening up a temporary weakness window in the build.

Cull the Weak amplifies your damage against Slowed or Chilled enemies by 20%. This potent multiplicative passive gets triggered by the Sentry Polar Station chill radius and the Spider Companion slows, resulting in a consistent damage increase throughout the run.

Working in unison with your Dead Man's Legacy, the Ambush passive will deliver during the first 25% of the enemy health pool, and the quiver will pick up the carnage from 60% and below. The 40% damage increase is multiplicative in nature, emphasizing its superiority over other options.

You have multiple viable options for your last passive slot. In the general, Fire-based version of the build, we recommend Ballistics — yet another multiplicative increase to Arsenal, doubling the effectiveness of the rockets splitting from your main damage dealer. The chance for a free additional rocket is just icing on the cake. If you opt for a Physical version of the build with Full Broadside, you can either augment your toughness with Numbing Traps, or lean into glass cannon damage dealing with Steady Aim.

As a final note, a cheat death via Awareness is never a bad choice, especially if you are playing Hardcore. Replace either Ambush from the Fire version, or Numbing Traps / Steady Aim from the Physical version of the build. Steps for additional tankiness are described in the Gear page.