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.

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.

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.

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.