Spike Traps Demon Hunter Nephalem Rift Speed Farming Variation

The Spike Traps Demon Hunter can deal reasonably well with Nephalem Rift Speed Farming, mostly thanks to overwhelming damage potential offered by Spike Traps that allow you to include Danetta's Hatred set in the build, and the freedom to spread various utility legendaries for mobility. 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
Preparation Focused Mind Spike Trap Echoing Blast 1 Shadow Power Shadow Glide 2 Smoke Screen Displacement 3 Vault Action Shot 4 Vengeance Seethe
Passive Skills
Blood Vengeance Tactical Advantage Custom Engineering Hot Pursuit

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

The T16 key farming build differs a great deal from the careful and deliberate main Trapper build, meant for Greater Rift solo progression. The major shift in gameplay comes from the inclusion of Vault, turned into a viable detonator of Spike Traps from the use of the rune Action Shot (which makes it into an attack), and the 2-piece Danetta's Hatred crossbows ( Danetta's Revenge and Danetta's Spite), which swap Vault from spending Discipline into spending Hatred. Instead of placing Caltrops manually, you will spawn them automatically from Vaulting by wearing Omryn's Chain. In essence, find valuable packs (density and/or Elites), drop Spike Traps underneath them, and detonate them with Vault. Keep up valuable buffs like Vengeance, Shadow Power, and Smoke Screen going as often as you can afford. To ease the strain on your massive Discipline spending, pop Preparation Focused Mind on cooldown.

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.

• Your main damage dealer remains Spike Trap, which shreds through low difficulty content thanks to its monstrous damage multipliers. You will maintain the rune Echoing Blast for its superior damage.
• The Hatred spender that will pop traps will double as a mobility tool — a pretty cool, if not the most efficient, trick for T16 key runs. Strafe will be replaced by Vault in key runs, and the combination of Danetta's set and the rune Action Shot will turn it into a viable detonator for Spike Trap. For added utility, Vault will also auto-place Caltrops as you wear Omryn's Chain in this setup.
• The trio of Vengeance, Shadow Power and Smoke Screen will stay from Greater Rift solo progression, but their focus will shift from survivability to mobility. Instead of Dark Heart, use Seethe for the massive Hatred regeneration; instead of Gloom, use Shadow Glide for extra movement speed. Keep Displacement as-is, and pop it as often as your Discipline would allow.
• Natalya's 2-piece set bonus will not restore enough Discipline to maintain the constant churn of this resource in the lightning-fast T16 runs. To remedy the situation, include Preparation Focused Mind and pop it on a regular basis.
• From the GR progression build, only Custom Engineering — a passive tailored to Trapper builds — has a place to stay in T16 runs. The remainder of your passive selection should be dedicated to movespeed augmentation from the likes of Hot Pursuit and Tactical Advantage, as well as the excellent speedrun-reliant resource tool of Blood Vengeance.

The overall gearing philosophy will remain intact from the GR progression setup. This is still a Natalya set build — and you will run the usual 5-piece split, along with the craftable Aughild's set for some extra bonuses. Utility legendaries will force the Cpt. Crimson set out however, and you will have to move Aughild pieces around to accomodate some speedrun-oriented inclusions. Take Omryn's Chain, for example — this legendary belt automates Caltrops as you Vault around. Warzechian Armguards also make a strong case for the bracer slot, as you cause massive environmental destruction constantly as you move, proccing the legendary effect with near-permanent uptime. Another crucial piece of the gearing puzzle is the inclusion of Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac over GR-oriented choices like Convention of Elements; ORotZ will provide the cooldown resets for Vengeance that you will sorely lack once you take Danetta's crossbows and lose Dawn.

Slot	Pieces	Stat Priority
Head	Aughild's Spike	Dexterity Critical Hit Chance Socket Vitality Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders	Aughild's Power	Dexterity (replaced by Resource Cost Reduction at high Paragons) Spike Trap Damage % Cooldown Reduction Area Damage Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat) Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso	Natalya's Embrace	Dexterity 3 Sockets Spike Trap Damage % Vitality or Elite Damage Reduction Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists	Warzechian Armguards	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	Natalya's Touch	Dexterity Critical Hit Chance Critical Hit Damage Area Damage Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Waist	Omryn's Chain	Dexterity Vitality All Resistance Life % Life per Kill (Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Legs	Natalya's Leggings	Dexterity 2 Sockets Vitality All Resistance Life per Kill (Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Feet	Natalya's Bloody Footprints	Dexterity Vitality All Resistance Armor Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat) Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet	Squirt's Necklace	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Cold Damage % Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1	Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac	Socket Critical Hit Chance Cooldown Reduction Attack Speed
Ring #2	Natalya's Reflection	Socket Critical Hit Chance Critical Hit Damage Average Damage Increase or Area Damage Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Weapon	Danetta's Spite	Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift) High Weapon Damage Dexterity Cooldown Reduction Resource Cost Reduction
Off-hand	Danetta's Revenge	Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift) High Weapon Damage Dexterity Cooldown Reduction Resource Cost Reduction

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.

Most of your legendary gem selection from GR progression will be DPS overkill in T16 Nephalem Rift speed farming. Zei's Stone of Vengeance is one you can keep around, since its a non-conditional and immediate damage boost — it can still be useful in early character progression. Once you grow comfortable with the damage you deal, you can completely transfer over to a utility setup with Wreath of Lightning (movement speed boost, plus extra Warzechian Armguards procs) and Gogok of Swiftness (helpful extra CDR). Last but not least, Boon of the Hoarder is indisputably the best T16 legendary gem. Paired with a worn or cubed Goldwrap, and an Avarice Band worn by your follower in solo play (or yourself in groups), this legendary gem increases your movement speed and provides near-infinite Toughness through its interaction with the aforementioned items.

Slot	Gems
Jewelry	Boon of the Hoarder Gogok of Swiftness Zei's Stone of Vengeance (early progression) Wreath of Lightning (late progression)
Helm	Flawless Royal Diamond (Cooldown Reduction)
Torso and Pants	Flawless Royal Emerald (Damage)
Weapon	Flawless Royal Emerald

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

Due to their foundational bonuses for the basic functionality of the build, your Kanai's Cube legendary power selection has to stay the same as the solo GR progression setup. Both Chanon Bolter and Trag'Oul Coils provide too significant multipliers to ignore, and the Ring of Royal Grandeur allows you to mix the Natalya and Aughild sets, plus a slew of synergistic legendaries.

The recommended follower for this build during T16 speed farming is the Enchantress, due to her cooldown reduction bonus (cutting down Vengeance downtime) and elemental damage increase. Note that this requires that you run Hand of the Prophet and optimize her survivability, as per our guide.

For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.

You have two valuable legendary potions in the build; either slot Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid to break up Waller affixes, which potentially ruin both your damage output and escape options, or a Bottomless Potion of the Leech for the extra life sustain through the temporary Life per Hit bonus.