Spike Traps Demon Hunter Nephalem Rift Speed Farming Variation
Nephalem Rift Speed Farming
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 |
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Passive Skills |
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
Adapting Gear
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 |
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Head |
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Shoulders |
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Torso |
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Wrists |
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Hands |
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Waist |
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Legs |
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Feet |
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Amulet |
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Ring #1 |
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Ring #2 |
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Weapon |
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Off-hand |
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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.
Season 28: Altar of Rites
Season 28 comes with the theme of the Altar of Rites — a powerful new account-wide and Season-specific progression system that brings tremendous offensive and defensive buffs to every seasonal character. 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.
Adapting Gems
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 |
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Jewelry |
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Helm |
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Torso and Pants |
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Weapon |
For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.
Adapting Kanai's Cube
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.
Follower
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.
Legendary Potion
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.
Changelog
- 24 Feb. 2023: Variation added, as well as Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
More Demon Hunter Guides
Builds from Other Classes
This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.
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