Demon Hunter Leveling Guide for Diablo Immortal

The variety and breadth of quests and miscellaneous objectives makes the leveling in Diablo: Immortal a relatively straightforward and pain-free task. Still, you can employ different strategies during this process; most notably, hyper-focusing on efficiency by spamming Story Quests and Dungeons when you hit level requirement story gaps, or taking your time during leveling with additional Zone Events, Lairs and Tasks — a more casual, but far less taxing approach.

Skills unlock gradually as you level your character. Skills are your primary means to defeating enemies, and their interaction with skill-enhancing or skill-altering Legendary Items are what forms the synergies that define the success of your character. The power of Skills is enhanced by Charms, and the power of Legendary Items can be increased when they are Awakened. The game limits you to the use of five Skills — a Primary Attack and four Active Abilities that have some form of limitation to their use (charges, cooldowns). Primary Attacks are not limited in their use, and charge up an Ultimate bar as they are used. When it is fully charged, you are able to use the Ultimate version of that Primary Attack.

Level 1: Demon Hunters start out with their staple Primary Attack, Crossbow Shot, as well as one of their endgame juggernauts — Multishot . They also get a decent crowd control skill in the form of Knockback Shot; its moderate damage and ability to be interwoven into Primary Attack spam makes it an acceptable inclusion for the start of the leveling process, but it will be replaced by better skills later on. For now, simply blast away with Crossbow Shot and follow up with Multishot nuke whenever it is available, adding Knockback Shots as they come up for additional damage and control over the battlefield.

• As part of the Battle Pass you can also claim The Hungerer while leveling, and it is highly recommended that you do so; this legendary crossbow will allow your Crossbow Shots to pierce through enemies, striking additional enemies and greatly multiplying your damage per shot as a result. This is a very potent, endgame-capable addition to your arsenal.

Level 3: You unlock Rain of Vengeance and immediately add it to your arsenal. This ability packs a punch and its concentrated area of effect will demolish large, single-target foes with the same effectiveness that it cleaves through clumped up packs. This ability will be greatly augmented by legendary items later on, so make sure to get used to its mechanics as early as the leveling process.

Level 8: Strafe is added to the build. This powerful channeling ability has the unfortunate downside of locking you out of Primary Attack spam, which is a cornerstone for endgame Demon Hunters. Thankfully, you are not there yet, and can get some usefulness out of the skill — timing its use when you are surrounded by multiple enemies, channeling it to depletion, and finishing off stragglers with the remainder of your arsenal.

Level 15: You finally get some mobility for your build, as Daring Swing comes into play. It goes without saying that a range-focused, squishy sharpshooter like the Demon Hunter needs an escape tool, and none of the other options in your arsenal will quite match Daring Swing. Slot it over Strafe and get used to its (sometimes frivolous) mechanics, making sure to aim away from obstacles that can interrupt the skill's movement trajectory.

Level 28: To assist you in starting, overcoming, and finishing up any combat scenario, you get Sentry — an indispensable mechanical companion that should become a staple of your leveling onwards. Since you are limited to the 4 active skill slots, replace Knockback Shot with Sentry. This autonomous source of damage is capable of drawing enemy attention and holding it with respectable DPS output, so make sure to spread your two charges strategically across the battlefield to make the most out of Sentry.

Level 50: If you level in a group, this is the level you unlock Vengeance and can consider using it over Sentry, especially if you have teammates that move faster than you (the Demon Hunter is, surprisingly, not the fastest class around). The additional damage from Sentries will mean little if you can't catch up to your teammates, while Vengeance's passive effect will provide you with a nice, constant source of extra movement speed. Its active effect will help you burst enemies down with your staple source of damage, Crossbow Shot.

Early on, you should focus on trying out the skills that get added to your arsenal, and equipping better gear as it drops (the in-game cue comes from the flashing bag, indicating an upgrade piece). Your gear can be improved at the Blacksmith at a material cost — and while it starts out small, it quickly scales to a hefty amount. Make sure you pick up all items you come across (the auto-pickup option in Settings helps), and salvage them in town.

Upgrading your equipment is a central part of power acquisition in Diablo Immortal; never hesitate to upgrade a piece, regardless of its stats, since its upgrades will carry over to its eventual replacement for free. Upgrading all Primary gear pieces to level 6 before moving forward to level 7 on any of them is advised, since you gain an additional attribute at that level.

During leveling, you will occasionally hit experience walls (accompanied by the message "You must reach level X before continuing.") as you do the Main Story. To quickly get over the Experience hurdle, your most efficient route is to complete Battle Pass activities — namely, repeatedly grinding out Dungeons, with Bestiary turn-ins and Tasks mixed in. To mitigate the amount of time spent grinding, as well as to (likely) enjoy the game more, you can purposefully seek out Hidden Lairs and complete Tasks as they open up during the storyline completion. While this will slow down your questing, it will pay off later down the line as it diminishes some of the grind walls.

Pay extra heed to the Battle Pass tracker, as it unlocks consumable bonuses along the way, as well as a Legendary Item early on in the leveling process. Legendary items are potential gamechangers for every character, so you ensure you pick the one that will benefit you the most.

Legendary items are exceedingly rare gear pieces that provide unique bonuses — enhancing or altering an ability's powers altogether. When you come across one, especially for a slot where you still have Rare or lower tier items equipped, replace it immediately. Legendaries innately roll superior stats to lower tier items. Feel free to experiment with your newfound Legendary and the skill it enhances; once you no longer need it, extract its power at the Essence Transfer NPC in Westmarch. This allows you to overwrite subsequent Legendary items (likely with better stats) in the same slot with the extracted power, retaining the legendary bonus. Extract as many Legendary powers as you can, so you can easily adapt from one build to another whenever you need. Of course, feel free to salvage duplicate Legendary items that you have already extracted.

Some of the best Legendary items to stumble upon while leveling as a Demon Hunter are: Flamespite, Breath of Winter, The Hungerer, Heart of Vengeance, Coff's Unrelenting Fury, Vision of the Lost, Cowl of Focused Hatred, Skystriker's Pauldrons, Hailstone Shoulders. The best Legendary item to choose from the Battle Pass legendaries is The Hungerer, since its projectile piercing effect will greatly multiply the overall damage of your Primary Attack, defining your entire endgame rotation around its constant spam.

Similarly to all Diablo games, gems will make a huge difference to your character in Diablo Immortal — so make a point to hunt down Normal Gems in Hidden Lairs, and Legendary Gems in Elder Rifts (they get a chance to drop if you use a Crest consumable). Additionally, you should follow the quest line to unlock the Helliquary activity as soon as it becomes available at level 41. This is done in order to receive the Scoria currency while doing Bounties.

When you turn in Bestiary pages, you will receive a class-specific consumable. For Demon Hunters, this item is the Tracking Kit, which increases movement speed for yourself and your nearby allies by 10% for 20 minutes. Be generous with its use, especially in party content; Demon Hunters don't have a stack of buffs to offer to teammates like some other classes do, so any assistance to the group is appreciated.

Improving your attributes in Diablo Immortal generally revolves around increasing the total amount of Combat Rating, or CR. Every primary attribute point (Strength, Fortitude, Vitality, Willpower, and Intelligence) grants you 1 point of CR.

The priority attribute for Demon Hunters is Strength, which gives +0.3 Damage per point; given otherwise identical options, use the one with higher Strength to increase your DPS. Second in the priority order is Fortitude, which adds to your Armor Penetration — indirectly increasing damage dealt by also improving your crit chance. This attribute suffers from diminishing returns due to crit caps, but is still quite valuable. Third in the priority order is Vitality, which simply increases your Life total; the longer you can stave off death, the better.

Stat priority order and stat benefits for Demon Hunters are as follows:

• 1. Strength — Grants +0.3 Damage to Demon Hunters, and +1 to your total CR.
• 2. Fortitude — Grants +0.1 Armor Penetration, which affects your crit chance. It also grants +0.1 Armor; Armor increases your Block chance, and blocking attacks mitigates 20% of the damage dealt. More mitigation is never amiss, and even more so when dealing with riskier content like the Helliquary. It also adds +1 to your total CR.
• 3. Vitality — Grants +3 Life; the more you can add to your total health pool, the better. Notoriously frail classes like the Demon Hunter benefit nicely from stacking at least somewhat into Vitality. This attribute also adds +1 to your total CR.
• 4. Willpower — Grants +0.1 Potency and 0.1 Resistance. Potency increases the duration of harmful effects that you inflict on your foes. Resistance lowers the duration of harmful effects inflicted by your enemies on you. This attribute also adds +1 to your total CR.
• 5. Intelligence — Grants +1 CR. This attribute does nothing else for Demon Hunters, and should be avoided as much as possible.

You should not put an emphasis on Special Attributes when considering between gear pieces. This is due to the overpowering importance of Primary Attributes and your CR total. That being said, the better Special Attributes are the two Crit Stats (Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage), Cooldown Reduction, Beneficiary Effect Duration, and Movement Speed. You can also consider Increased Damage to Players for PvP gear.

As per tradition for Diablo games, socketed gear allows you to insert beneficial gems according to your needs. In Diablo Immortal, gems are divided between Normal Gems (socketable in Secondary Gear) and Legendary Gems (socketable in Primary Gear).

Normal Gems can only be socketed in Secondary Gear. Normal gems are divided into Red, Blue and Yellow sockets, and their priority is listed below. Priority-wise, gems are decent power increases to your character, but should never come at the cost of Primary Attributes and your CR score. Go for Red and Blue gems over Yellow if possible, as they provide a stronger bonus overall.

• Red Sockets: Prioritize Tourmaline as it provides a straight Damage increase. Ruby is also decent for the Life increase, but only if you lack Tourmalines.
• Blue Sockets: Prioritize Sapphire, which increases your Armor Penetration, and your Critical Hit Chance stat as a result. Note that Crit Chance provided from Sapphires has diminishing returns, capping out at 33%; when benefits from ArPen get too insignificant, swap to Aquamarine. Aquamarine provides Armor, which is a decent source of damage mitigation.
• Yellow Sockets: Prioritize Citrine for the Potency gains, increasing the duration of harmful effects you inflict on enemies; however small its benefits, they trump the Resistance effects provided from Topaz.

Legendary Gems can only be socketed in Primary Gear. They provide unique and very powerful bonuses on top of a robust stack of stat increases. Legendary Gems are found in Elder Rifts enhanced by the Crest consumables, as well as through crafting at the Jeweler in Westmarch. You acquire Legendary Crests from the Battle Pass, and you should use them ASAP to get some Legendary Gems that greatly empower your build while leveling.

Early on in Demon Hunter character progression, you should use common, 1- and 2-Star Legendary Gems like:

• Fervent Fang — Can be obtained from the Battle Pass, saving you some Crests. Provides a stacking damage increase against a target with successive attacks; great for single target damage.
• Everlasting Torment — For the mere cost of a critical hit, this gem inflicts a considerable DoT and an Attack Speed increase to boot. Even at a low quality, this gem starts off with incredible stats and fits nicely from the get-go.
• Power & Command— Due to how Demon Hunter builds play out — constantly interweaving Primary Attacks in between their cooldown usage — you will always have some part of the alternating bonuses of this gem going.
• Ca'arsen's Invigoration — This gem increases the attack speed and damage dealt by your Primary Attacks, which fits into the Primary-spamming nature of Demon Hunter builds quite nicely.
• Lightning Core — Despite its low proc chance, this damage-dealing gem can wipe out entire packs when activated, or focus down a larger foe, making it a decent addition to you legendary gem lineup.
• Berserker's Eye — This gem increases damage dealt at the cost of an increase in damage taken. Demon Hunters fight at range and strive to avoid damage altogether, making the gem a nice fit for the class overall.

In summation, efficient leveling is equated to a well-rounded build and knowing which tasks to prioritize at any given time — usually dictated by the storyline quests and the current state of your Battle Pass tracker.

Your best source of damage during leveling comes from interweaving Crossbow Shot and Multishot into an unyielding barrage, and popping the hard-hitting Rain of Vengeance on a concentrated clump of enemies to maximize its effect. Place Sentry strategically around the battlefield, so they draw enemy ire away from you whilst contributing significant DPS of their own. Dodge and vault around the battlefield with Daring Swing, carefully avoiding obstacles that can trip up its use.

Swap into improved gear on the fly as upgrades come left and right during leveling; the helpful green arrows that indicate increased stats are your best friends. Ensure that your worn pieces are always upgraded at the Blacksmith to the highest level you can afford at the time. Currency spent on upgrading is never wasted.

Don't neglect transferring the essence of Legendaries that you don't need anymore, and only salvage duplicate Legendaries, once you have that particular power extracted.

At level cap, take a good look at your available legendary items, give the Demon Hunter Overview guide a thorough read, and make a choice which of our endgame guides you will strive to complete first:

• Demon Hunter Crossbow Shot Bounties Build
• Demon Hunter Spinning Chakram Dungeon Build
• Demon Hunter Rain of vengeance Challenge Rift Build
• Demon Hunter Knockback Shot Boss Killer Build for Raids
• Demon Hunter Multishot PvP Build