Shadow Impale Demon Hunter Speed Farming Variation

The Shadow Impale Demon Hunter deals with regular Rift farming decently all the way through the highest Torments, making it a viable build for the task. We have solo speed GR rankings and solo speed T16 rankings if you want to know more about which builds are best for speed farming.

Within the limited scope of regular difficulties, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.

Active Skills
Impale Ricochet Companion Wolf Companion 1 Vengeance Dark Heart 2 Smoke Screen Vanishing Powder 3 Vault Tumble 4 Shadow Power Gloom
Passive Skills
Ambush Tactical Advantage Blood Vengeance Awareness

When you are speed farming regular rifts, parts of your playstyle will adapt to the lowered challenge and focus more on speed and utility.

During standard rift runs, you will be able to cover much greater distances due to the interaction between Vault and Tactical Advantage, with the former being free to cast due to the powers of the Chain of Shadows belt. You will still be triggering Shadow Power at the start of a run and re-applying Vengeance on cooldown for its protective properties, but the remainder of your rotation will be dedicated to utility, with Smoke Screen Vanishing Powder (also triggering Tactical Advantage) and Wolf Companion for the extra damage.

Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, but others will have to change according to the task at hand. Ability to cross over great distances faster and more efficiently take precedence.

• You can run any Impale rune you like, but for standard rifts we recommend the utility of the auto-aimed bounces of Ricochet.
• Shadow Power is still an inseparable part of Shadow set builds, and the value from its permanence and application of all runes is too good to pass up (note the movement speed increase of Shadow Glide, for example).
• Vault is still a necessary addition, perhaps even more so during speed farming. Though you are free to run the crowd control of Rattling Roll, but our recommendation is to run cheaper alternative Tumble.
• Vengeance Dark Heart is an omnipresent self-buff in all versions of the build.
• During normal rift speed farm, you have considerable freedom when choosing the replacement of Fan of Knives Bladed Armor — ranging from a generator like Bolas Thunder Ball if you run Focus and Restraint, to utility skills like Smoke Screen Vanishing Powder and Preparation Focused Mind.
• Once you comfortably outscale the content, you can swap Cull the Weak out during normal Rifts for a speedfarm-appropriate passive like Blood Vengeance, for extra resource stability and synergy with Avarice Band.
• Use your fourth passive slot for the massive runspeed boost from Tactical Advantage while farming low tier content.
• Ambush still brings excellent value to speed farming, as the increase of upfront burst almost guarantees oneshots in the standard difficulties.

It is worth noting that to optimize your farming convenience in regular rifts, you should swap away from the progression-oriented Aughild's Authority set, but still keep Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube — and incorporate some farming-appropriate legendary powers instead. The default recommendation is Gloves of Worship, but there are other decent options like Leoric's Crown and Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan.

When speed farming, the timing of Convention of Elements will be misplaced, so you can either swap to the consistent protection of an Elusive Ring, or a generic damage increase from a Lightning-rolled Stone of Jordan. It is also recommended to swap away from the Endless Walk set, as it promotes a static fighting style unfit for normal rifts; use the more offensive combo of Avarice Band and a Squirt's Necklace. Avarice Band's pickup radius bonus is an incredible boon during speed farming, as it benefits not only your movement speed through a socketed Boon of the Hoarder, but also negates downtime picking up progression orbs and gold. While any well-rolled amulet can fill the slot for Torments, Squirt's Necklace will bring the most burst damage, and you can all but ignore its "increase of damage taken" with the way you overpower content in regular rifts.

During low tier GRs or normal rift speedruns in solo play, an optimized character can avoid the overkill of toughness in the bracer slot by swapping to Warzechian Armguards for the additional environment destruction-based speed boost. The usual recommendation, Nemesis Bracers, can be worn by the follower starting from Patch 2.7, but should still be taken by the character themselves in group play.

To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.

The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.

Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

Bane of the Trapped remains a universally desired damage amplification gem.

During speed farming, Pain Enhancer will be a progression-oriented overkill and should be replaced by Boon of the Hoarder. The latter is a high utility gem that feeds you practically infinite gold, gives you a massive short-term speed boost while picking it up, and synergizes excellently with the worn Avarice Band for a sizable speed boost, and the Goldwrap for near-invulnerability.

If you trust your ability to focus down and chain elites in regular rifts, you can safely swap Gogok of Swiftness out for Bane of the Powerful for the consistent, easily sustained damage increase. If you overpower content so much that even Bane of the Powerful is unnecessary, you can consider using Wreath of Lightning for the extra speed.

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

In a highly optimized normal rifting setup, you can consider swapping the weapon Cube slot out from Dawn to the farming powerhouse In-geom.

The damage intake-based damage reduction from Stone Gauntlets will be redundant in regular rifts, where you can get all the protection you will ever need via Goldwrap.

If you opt to include an additional legendary power in place of one of the Shadow set pieces during speedfarm, you will need to cube Ring of Royal Grandeur to maintain the 6-piece Shadow bonus.

The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.

This Season revives the Pandemonium Kill Streak buff from Season 19. Each stack grants a bonus to movement speed and damage, capping at +50% movement speed and +100% damage at 1000 kills. Hitting specific kill thresholds unleashes powerful effects. Read more in our dedicated Season of the Eternal Conflict Mechanics Guide!

While speedfarming sees limited use from this theme, Greater Rift pushing benefits significantly. Effects like Geysers (150), Meteors (400), and Angels (500) can clear elites and Rift Guardians instantly. Players may reset streaks after 150 kills to repeatedly trigger Geysers or push for 500+ kills near boss fights, often using Nemesis Bracers to spawn extra enemies.

Because the most potent effects (Geysers, Meteors, Angels) can obliterate Rift Guardians instantly up to GR150, players can retool builds for efficiency and comfort. Here’s how:

Since you can rely on killstreak procs to clear the Rift Guardian, Bane of the Stricken can be safely omitted in favor of:

• Another generic damage-scaling legendary gem ( Bane of the Trapped for builds with any form of crowd control and/or melee range, Zei's Stone of Vengeance for far ranged builds, Taeguk for channeling builds, Simplicity's Strength for primary attack-focused builds, Enforcer for pet-oriented builds, etc.)
• A survivability-oriented legendary gem ( Esoteric Alteration, Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard), or additional utility ( Gogok of Swiftness for CDR-reliant builds, Pain Enhancer for attack speed-heavy builds, or Wreath of Lightning for extra movement speed).

Adjust your equipment to items that favor durability, health sustain, and ease of movement. Consider adjusting non-essential skills for the build to ones that pull, reposition, or otherwise displace enemies to facilitate large pulls of enemy packs. In more concrete terms, this means:

• For general Demon Hunter survivability, staple cross-class options like Unity (combined with the same ring on the follower plus a follower immortality token), and the Endless Walk set ( The Traveler's Pledge and The Compass Rose) offer a valuable balance between extra toughness and damage. Elusive Ring is also a strong class-specific contender, granting up to 60% damage reduction after using a mobility skill — something Demon Hunters do constantly.
• For additional defense, cross-class standouts like Unity (used with follower and immortality relic for them), and the Endless Walk set ( The Traveler's Pledge and The Compass Rose) are top picks, balancing damage reduction during movement with stationary damage scaling.
• Situational items that can bolster your defenses include Wraps of Clarity (providing a significant damage reduction after casting a primary, resource-generating skill), Aquila Cuirass (perfect for builds with minimal resource spending like LoD Rapid Fire), or Stone Gauntlets (their downside mitigated by wearing Ice Climbers, or Altar of Rites CC-immunity node), and even niche inclusions like Zoey's Secret (pet-based mitigation).
• Utility items like Nemesis Bracers are essential as more elites mean more killstreak maintenance and faster progression. When soloing, they should be equipped by your follower; in groups, at least one party member should commit to wearing them. Edge cases will see the inclusion of Warzechian Armguards or Krelm's Buff Belt (more speed for easier scouting and pulls), Strongarm Bracers (extra damage vs. displaced enemies), and even Lacuni Prowlers for straight attack speed. To facilitate large pulls, consider using a Follower equipped with The Ess of Johan, a proc-based analogue to an enemy-pulling skill (albeit outside your control).
• From a skill and passive perspective, always slot at least one movement tool: Vault Tumble or Smoke Screen Displacement are popular options, and Shadow set-based builds get Shadow Power Shadow Glide for free. Passive-wise, prioritize Ambush — against low total HP trash enemies, the extra damage to healthy targets can result in some quick killstreak stacks right at the start of a fight. A cheat death coming from Awareness can also be very handy for killstreak upkeep during risky, daring pulls.