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 speed farming 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 Rattling Roll 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 autoimed 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. You are free to run the crowd control of Rattling Roll, or alter to the 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 and the defense of Elusive Ring will both be misplaced, so you can swap to the consistent 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 Hellfire Amulet of Dexterity. 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, The Flavor of Time will bring the most value with its doubled duration of Pylons, which further smooths out farming runs.

In order to get through runs faster, equip Nemesis Bracers — they will provide you with more champions to fight, playing into the elite hunting flavor of the build.

Slot	Pieces	Stat Priority
Head	The Shadow's Mask	Dexterity Socket Critical Hit Chance Impale % Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders	The Shadow's Burden	Dexterity Area Damage % Cooldown Reduction All Resistance or Vitality Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat) Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso	The Shadow's Bane	Dexterity Vitality 3 Sockets Elite Damage Reduction Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists	Nemesis Bracers	Dexterity Critical Hit Chance Cold Damage % Life per Hit or Vitality Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat) Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Hands	The Shadow's Grasp	Dexterity (replaced by Area Damage at High Paragons) Critical Hit Chance Critical Hit Damage Attack Speed Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Waist	Chain of Shadows	Dexterity Vitality All Resistance Life % Life per Kill (Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Legs	The Shadow's Coil	Dexterity 2 Sockets Vitality All Resistance Life per Kill (Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Feet	The Shadow's Heels	Dexterity Vitality All Resistance Impale Damage % Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat) Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1	Avarice Band	Socket Critical Hit Chance Critical Hit Damage Area Damage or Attack Speed Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2	Stone of Jordan	Socket Critical Hit Chance Critical Hit Damage Area Damage or Attack Speed Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Amulet	The Flavor of Time	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Cold Damage % Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Weapon	Karlei's Point	Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift) High Weapon Damage Dexterity Damage % Increased Attack Speed Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Off-hand	Holy Point Shot	Dexterity Crit Chance Cold Damage % Impale Damage % 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.

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.

Slot	Gems
Jewelry	Bane of the Trapped Boon of the Hoarder Bane of the Powerful Wreath of Lightning (alt)
Helm	Flawless Royal Diamond
Torso and Pants	Flawless Royal Emerald
Weapon	Flawless Royal Emerald

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 resource-based damage reduction from Aquila Cuirass 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.