Shadow Impale Demon Hunter Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Jan 08, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 72 comments
1.

Speed Farming

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
Left Mouse Button Impale Icon Impale Ricochet Ricochet Right Mouse Button Companion Icon Companion Wolf Companion Wolf Companion 1 Vengeance Icon Vengeance Dark Heart Dark Heart 2 Smoke Screen Icon Smoke Screen Vanishing Powder Vanishing Powder 3 Vault Icon Vault Tumble Tumble 4 Shadow Power Icon Shadow Power Gloom Gloom
Passive Skills
2.

Adapting Rotation

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

3.

Adapting Skills

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 Impale rune you like, but for standard rifts we recommend the utility of the auto-aimed bounces of Ricochet Ricochet.
  • Shadow Power 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 Shadow Glide, for example).
  • Vault 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 Rattling Roll, but our recommendation is to run cheaper alternative Tumble Tumble.
  • Vengeance Vengeance Dark Heart 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 Fan of Knives Bladed Armor Bladed Armor — ranging from a generator like Bolas Bolas Thunder Ball Thunder Ball if you run Focus Focus and Restraint Restraint, to utility skills like Smoke Screen Smoke Screen Vanishing Powder Vanishing Powder and Preparation Preparation Focused Mind Focused Mind.
  • Once you comfortably outscale the content, you can swap Cull the Weak Cull the Weak out during normal Rifts for a speedfarm-appropriate passive like Blood Vengeance Blood Vengeance, for extra resource stability and synergy with Avarice Band Avarice Band.
  • Use your fourth passive slot for the massive runspeed boost from Tactical Advantage Tactical Advantage while farming low tier content.
  • Ambush Ambush still brings excellent value to speed farming, as the increase of upfront burst almost guarantees oneshots in the standard difficulties.
4.

Adapting Gear

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 Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube — and incorporate some farming-appropriate legendary powers instead. The default recommendation is Gloves of Worship Gloves of Worship, but there are other decent options like Leoric's Crown Leoric's Crown and Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan.

When speed farming, the timing of Convention of Elements Convention of Elements will be misplaced, so you can either swap to the consistent protection of an Elusive Ring Elusive Ring, or a generic damage increase from a Lightning-rolled Stone of Jordan 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 Avarice Band and a Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace. Avarice Band 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 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 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 Warzechian Armguards for the additional environment destruction-based speed boost. The usual recommendation, Nemesis Bracers 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.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Dexterity
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Impale %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Dexterity
  2. Area Damage %
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. All Resistance or Vitality
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Dexterity
  2. Vitality
  3. 3 Sockets
  4. Elite Damage Reduction
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Dexterity
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Lightning Damage %
  4. Life per Hit or Vitality
  5. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Hands
  1. Dexterity (replaced by Area Damage at High Paragons)
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Attack Speed
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Dexterity
  2. Vitality
  3. All Resistance
  4. Life %
  5. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Dexterity
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. All Resistance
  5. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Dexterity
  2. Vitality
  3. All Resistance
  4. Impale Damage %
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage or Attack Speed
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage or Attack Speed
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Lightning Damage %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  2. High Weapon Damage
  3. Dexterity
  4. Damage %
  5. Increased Attack Speed
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Off-hand
  1. Dexterity
  2. Crit Chance
  3. Lightning Damage %
  4. Impale Damage %
  5. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)

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.

4.1.

Altar of Rites

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).

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.

5.

Adapting Gems

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

During speed farming, Pain Enhancer Pain Enhancer will be a progression-oriented overkill and should be replaced by Boon of the Hoarder 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 Avarice Band for a sizable speed boost, and the Goldwrap 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 Gogok of Swiftness out for Bane of the Powerful Bane of the Powerful for the consistent, easily sustained damage increase. If you overpower content so much that even Bane of the Powerful Bane of the Powerful is unnecessary, you can consider using Wreath of Lightning Wreath of Lightning for the extra speed.

5.1.

Season 30 Soul Shards

In Season 30, your helm and weapon sockets will be taken over by the supremely powerful Soul Shards. For this variant, we recommend the following:

  • HelmShard of Hatred with "Your movement speed is increased by 50%" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Dexterity or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction on its Rank 2 roll.
  • WeaponStain of Sin with "You gain an additional Rift Progress Orb when you kill an elite pack" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Lightning Skills % Increase or Weapon Damage Increase on its Rank 2 roll.
Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

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

6.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

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

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

7.

Changelog

  • 08 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
  • 13 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 09 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 21 Jul. 2021: No changes required for Season 24.
  • 01 Apr. 2021: Added follower recommendation.
  • 18 Nov. 2020: Added S22 Cube recommendation.
  • 06 Jul. 2020: Reverted guide recommendation back to the lightning version of the build; included additional clarifications for variant playstyles of the build.
  • 30 Jun. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 21 Nov. 2019: Overhauled the page for Season 19.
  • 23 Aug. 2019: Reviewed for Season 18.
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