Last Updated:February 1, 2025|Changelog
Introduction
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In Season 28, Natalya's Vengeance has been completely reworked into a Spike Trap set. Before that, the set was renowned for its versatility by providing a massive generic damage multiplier that could support any skill which didn't fit any of the other Demon Hunter sets. With this rework, builds like N6M4, N6GoD4, N6 RF and N6 FoK vanished to make room for something new - and frankly, that wasn't a huge loss.
The new build combines Spike Trap as a powerful nuke ability with Caltrops for utility to enable a true trap-based playstyle. While this setup is relatively slow-paced, the build can still move around quickly because of all the extra Discipline generation from the (2) Bonus, allowing you to spam Shadow Power, Caltrops and Smoke Screen nearly all the time.
In order to deal the most damage through the (6) Bonus, you have to set up a chain reaction of up to 10x Spike Trap Custom Trigger (with Custom Engineering + Scatter from Trag'Oul Coils) and detonate them with a Hatred Generator, usually by tapping Evasive Fire Hardened. Thanks to the set's (4) Bonus you even create your own pulls for more Area Damage!
This build is an Area Damage (AD) build, since Spike Trap and all its effects can proc it. The main sections of this guide cover the easy solo push version using Dawn for permanent Vengeance uptime. The high-end push version and other setups are described in more detail in the variants below.
High skill ceiling ✔
Unique playstyle ✔
Huge area damage ✔
Satisfying big nukes ✔
❌ Many buttons
❌ Needs setup time
❌ Constant knockbacks
❌ Not beginner friendly
Core Setup
Items
- Natalya's Vengeance (2) Bonus removes all costs and cooldowns for Spike Trap, increases its damage by 100% when combined with Caltrops and refills Discipline rapidly all the time.
- Natalya's Vengeance (4) Bonus allows Caltrops to pull in enemies when hit by Spike Trap and provides 75% damage reduction.
- Natalya's Vengeance (6) Bonus provides a 10,000% damage bonus to Spike Trap and increases their damage by 25% for consecutive explosions of the same chain reaction.
- Chanon Bolter provides a 200% damage bonus to Spike Trap and taunts enemies.
- The Demon's Demise provides another 200% damage bonus of Spike Trap and triggers explosions an additional time, effectively doubling damage again.
- Trag'Oul Coils adds yet another 200% damage bonus to Spike Trap, increases the deployment speed and adds the Scatter rune for free.
- Dawn offers massive cooldown reduction for Vengeance to ensure permanent uptime.
- Aughild's Authority is a strong secondary set choice that adds extra damage and defense, which is included in most variants of the build.
- Ring of Royal Grandeur is required to combine Natalya's Vengeance with additional sets and free up more item slots.
Season 34 Sanctified Items
Originated from Season 27, Angelic Crucibles are new consumables that drop anywhere once you're Level 70. Using them on items reforges them into Sanctified Items with Primal Ancient stats, and adds one of three new unique Class Powers listed below. For full details on how they work, check out this Seasonal Guide by Chewingnom!
Let's look at our Class Powers and see how they apply to our build:
- Unfortunately, this build doesn't benefit much from the available options. The best power for us is the Sanctified Vengeance, which occasionally deals a bit of extra damage when we use Vengeance but doesn't add much value to the build.
- The Sanctified Strafe power doesn't help us, so go for the one listed above.
- The Sanctified Cluster Arrow power doesn't help us, so go for the one at the top.
Since you can only equip one of them, choosing the right item to craft it on matters! Great candidates are Weapons, Offhands, Jewelry or any item with an important multiplier. With that in mind, we recommend Sanctifying one of the following items:
- The Demon's Demise
- Convention of Elements
- Dawn
Global Stat Priorities
Stack the typical damage stats such as Critical Hit Chance, Critical Hit Damage and Fire Damage on every piece possible. In order to reach permanent Vengeance uptime, roll ~37% Cooldown Reduction with a perfect Dawn or ~47% Cooldown Reduction for setups without it to play a 48 second rotation with Convention of Elements. On Chest and Shoulders, add Spike Trap Damage and fill remaining affix slots with Average Damage (Rings) or Area Damage where possible.
Resource Cost Reduction on Shoulders and a Weapon can help to smooth out the build's playstyle and increases toughness when running with Captain Crimson's Trimmings. Other than that, we prefer Vitality > Life % = All Resistance on armor pieces for more defense.
1. Do the Challenge Rift for the materials to cube Legendary Powers. You can complete this once a week for additional resources and we always update the guide for you!
2. Gather the full Natalya's Vengeance set. Each piece can be gambled from Kadala for Bloodshards. Do not salvage any duplicate pieces you find! Instead convert them to another part of the set with Recipe 4 in Kanai's Cube. If your last missing set piece is a weapon, ring or amulet - don't gamble for them! Instead gamble for a cheap and easy item, like the Pants, and once again covert it with Recipe 4. If you have extra materials you can use Recipe 3 to craft the remaining pieces, but this is expensive and not recommended for new players.
3. Gamble from Kadala in this order:
- The full Natalya's Vengeance set
- Nemesis Bracers, Trag'Oul Coils and Warzechian Armguards
- Omryn's Chain
- Convention of Elements, Natalya's Reflection, and The Compass Rose
4. Craft using Recipe 3 in Kanai's Cube in this order:
- Hand Crossbows to get Dawn, The Demon's Demise, Natalya's Slayer, Danetta's Spite and Danetta's Revenge
- Crossbows to get Chanon Bolter
- Amulets to get Squirt's Necklace, The Flavor of Time and The Traveler's Pledge
- Anything from the Gamble list in Step 3 that you haven't already acquired.
5. Do Bounties to acquire several important items for this build:
- Act 1: Ring of Royal Grandeur
- Act 2: Gloves of Worship (for your follower)
- Act 3: Avarice Band
- Act 4: Can drop any bounty item from any act
- Bounty Turn In: Recipes for Captain Crimson's Trimmings, Aughild's Authority, Guardian's Jeopardy and Cain's Destiny + Sage's Journey (for your follower)
6. Use Primordial Ashes in Kanai's Cube with the new Curiosity of Lorath Nahr recipe to obtain a free Crafted Primal Ancient. Since you can only equip one of them, choosing the right item to focus matters! Great candidates are Weapons, Offhands, Jewelry or any item with an important multiplier. With that in mind, we recommend getting one of the following items:
- The Demon's Demise
- Natalya's Slayer
- Dawn
| SLOT | ITEM | STAT PRIORITY |
| Main-Hand | Dawn Natalya's Slayer Danetta's Spite Chanon Bolter (Cubed) | 1. Damage Range 2. Socket Ramaladni's Gift 3. Cooldown Reduction 4. Area Damage 5. Dexterity |
| Off-Hand | The Demon's Demise Danetta's Revenge | 1. Damage Range 2. Socket Ramaladni's Gift 3. Area Damage 4. Resource Cost Reduction 5. Cooldown Reduction 6. Dexterity |
| Helm | Natalya's Sight Aughild's Spike (Crafted) Guardian's Gaze (Crafted) | 1. Socket Flawless Royal Topaz 2. Dexterity 3. Critical Hit Chance 4. Vitality |
| Gloves | Natalya's Touch | 1. Critical Hit Chance 2. Critical Hit Damage 3. Area Damage 4. Dexterity |
| Shoulders | Aughild's Power (Crafted) | 1. Spike Trap Damage 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Area Damage 4. Resource Cost Reduction 5. Dexterity |
| Chest | Natalya's Embrace Aughild's Rule (Crafted) | 1. Sockets Flawless Royal Diamond 2. Spike Trap Damage 3. Dexterity 4. Elite Damage Reduction 5. Vitality |
| Pants | Natalya's Leggings Captain Crimson's Thrust (Crafted) | 1. Sockets Flawless Royal Diamond 2. Dexterity 3. Vitality 4. All Resistance |
| Boots | Natalya's Bloody Footprints Captain Crimson's Waders (Crafted) | 1. Dexterity 2. All Resistance 3. Vitality 4. Armor |
| Ring 1 | Natalya's Reflection Convention of Elements | 1. Socket 2. Critical Hit Chance 3. Critical Hit Damage 4. Damage Range 5. Area Damage |
| Ring 2 | The Compass Rose Ring of Royal Grandeur (Bounties A1, Cubed) | 1. Socket 2. Critical Hit Chance 3. Critical Hit Damage 4. Damage Range 5. Area Damage |
| Bracers | Aughild's Search (Crafted) Guardian's Aversion (Crafted) Warzechian Armguards Trag'Oul Coils (Cubed) | 1. Fire Damage 2. Critical Hit Chance 3. Dexterity 4. All Resistance 5. Vitality |
| Amulet | Squirt’s Necklace The Traveler's Pledge | 1. Socket 2. Fire Damage 3. Critical Hit Chance 4. Critical Hit Damage 5. Dexterity |
| Belt | Guardian's Case (Crafted) Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle (Crafted) Omryn's Chain | 1. Dexterity 2. All Resistance 3. Life % 4. Vitality |
| Potion | Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid | For breaking walls to pull enemies and increase DPS |
- Bane of the Trapped is a strong damage option, giving up to 60% multiplicative damage increase against crowd-controlled targets.
- Esoteric Alteration adds tons of extra toughness to survive larg pulls. Alternatively, Zei's Stone of Vengeance offers another up to 80% damage increase against distant targets.
- Bane of the Stricken is required to kill the boss in solo pushes.
- In groups, this is replaced by Pain Enhancer for extra damage or (same as in solo speed runs) by Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard to protect the Squirt's Necklace buff.
- In Nephalem Rifts, all these damage options are replaced by Boon of the Hoarder, Wreath of Lightning and Gogok of Swiftness utility choices for more cooldown and speed.
- Spike Trap Custom Trigger is our main damage dealer. We use the Fire rune because it has high damage output when combined with Trag'Oul Coils and the Natalya's Vengeance (6) Bonus stacking effect and can be easily triggered when needed.
- Evasive Fire Hardened is our trigger for laid traps and adds a small toughness buff.
- Caltrops Bait the Trap enables the Natalya's Vengeance (2) and (4) Bonuses for double damage and pulling in enemies while buffing us with extra Critical Strike Chance.
- Vengeance Dark Heart combined with 37% Cooldown Reduction and Dawn we gain permanent 40% damage bonus, 50% damage reduction and crowd control immunity.
- Smoke Screen Healing Vapors is our main defensive skill which we can spam nearly all the time thanks to Natalya's Vengeance (2) Bonus. In speedruns, we use the Displacement rune instead.
- Shadow Power Gloom fills the last spot for extra healing and damage reduction. In speedruns, we use the Shadow Glide rune instead.
- Custom Engineering is a must-have for this build to increase the number of Spike Traps you can have out for the Natalya's Vengeance (6) Bonus consecutive explosion effect.
- Cull the Weak adds a powerful 20% multiplicative damage bonus.
- Numbing Traps is a great defensive choice, offering 25% damage reduction. In speedruns, this is replaced by Tactical Advantage.
- Ambush is an allround great damage passive to include. Alternatively, you can run with Leech or Awareness for better survival.
- In T16, speed is paramount, so we run the combo Tactical Advantage, Hot Pursuit, Blood Vengeance and Custom Engineering.
| Core | Offensive | Defensive | Utility |
| 1. Movement Speed | 1. Cooldown Reduction | 1. All Resistance | 1. Area Damage |
| 2. Dexterity | 2. Critical Hit Chance | 2. Life % | 2. Pickup Radius |
| 3. Vitality1 | 3. Critical Hit Damage | 3. Armor | 3. Resource Cost Reduction |
| 4. Attack Speed | 4. Life Regeneration | 4. Life per Hit |
1 Aim for a decent HP pool (~900,000 HP in Solo Push).
The Altar of Rites is a tree that grants tremendous powers to your entire account in exchange for sacrifices. It requires you to farm Bounties, kill the Ubers, craft the Staff of Herding, and more. Completing all 26 of these tasks, along with sacrificing 6 Primal Ancients grants you extra Damage, Defense, Quality of Life, Increased Drops and 3 Potion Super Powers. Read the full guides on Unlocking the Altar and the Altar Mechanics by Raxxanterax and Chewingnom to learn everything about this fantastic mechanic!
Note: The suggested path assumes you are playing Solo and used the Challenge Rift Cache to help you level up.
Optimal Path
Node 2: Choose Anointed to gain a full set of 70 yellows from level 18-70!
Node 6: Rush to gain double Bounties to help unlock other Nodes in the Altar.
Nodes 7-14: These are the last Nodes you can gain until the Challenge Rift resets. Take at least 1 Node at the bottom of each path to unlock all 3 Potion Super Powers. Pick up the Mirror Node at the top for a colossal 41% extra XP all season. Remember to unlock Father once you clear GR70 solo and have your first Primal!
Nodes 15-26: Pick up the final Quality of Life, Damage, and Defense Nodes (in that order) to finish the Altar.
Potion Super Powers: Take Father first, then Mother, and finally Mortal.
Disclaimer: The Mortal and Mother Potions require you to salvage 2 and 3 Primals respectively. Unlock them as soon as you have those materials as they don't cost a point!
Use the Scroll Bar to see Altar Progression
Noteworthy Build Changes
Compared to the nonseason version of the build, there is no need to run with Vault after unlocking Revelation. This allows us to include Shadow Power Gloom for extra healing and damage reduction.
Patch 2.7.0 revamped the follower system giving all 3 hirelings new powers and the emanate system. The first thing you should do is read our complete follower guide and remember the key takeaways:
- The emanation system allows followers to share certain legendary and set powers with you. The most important ones are: The Flavor of Time, Nemesis Bracers, Avarice Band, Sage’s Journey and Cain’s Destiny. Click the guide above for the full list.
- Follower’s powers are based on their main stat (maxed at 25,000, but they have a 2.5x multiplier so you only need 10,000). This means we stack Intelligence on the Enchantress, Dexterity on the Scoundrel and Strength on the Templar.
- Guardian's Jeopardy (2) Bonus works for followers by improving their inherent stat multiplier from x2.5 to x3.5, making it slightly easier to hit the 25,000 main stat threshold if needed.
- Followers share 20% of their Experience, Magic and Gold Find stats with you.
- Legendary gems do not work on followers, except Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard.
- With Enforcer equipped on the player it's much easier to keep followers alive even without an immortality relic. The 90% damage reduction counts for them, too.
- Cooldown Reduction does not work for any follower skill except the Templar’s Heal.
- Followers never deal significant damage; you’re on your own to clear the content.
Select Follower
T16 Enchantress
For T16 we recommend this Enchantress setup because she is the only follower that gives Cooldown Reduction, allowing you to spam your abilities more. Since this is T16 content, she’ll stay alive with Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard and use Hand of the Prophet to gain all skills. This will give us Cooldown Reduction, Elemental Damage, Reduced Damage from Ranged Attacks, Armor, Attack Speed, and a Cheat Death.
Stat Priorities:Since we do not have the immortality focus, we need to stack survivability on our Enchantress.
Intelligence > Vitality > Life % > Armor > All Resistance > Life Per Hit > Attack Speed.
Key Items:
- The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
- Nemesis Bracers: For extra Elites, Death’s Breaths and In-geom procs.
- Avarice Band: For the insane pickup radius.
- Ring of Royal Grandeur: To complete our sets.
- Gloves of Worship: For 10 Minute Shrine Buffs.
- Sage’s Journey: For double Death’s Breaths.
- Cain’s Destiny: For 25% more Greater Rift Keystones.
Speed GR Echantress
For speed Greater Rifts we recommend this Enchantress setup because she is the only follower that gives Cooldown Reduction, allowing you to spam your abilities more. Since this is speed content, she’ll stay alive with Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard and use Hand of the Prophet to gain all skills. This will give us Cooldown Reduction, Elemental Damage, Reduced Damage from Ranged Attacks, Armor, Attack Speed, and a Cheat Death.
Stat Priorities:Since we do not have the immortality focus, we need to stack survivability on our Enchantress.
Intelligence > Vitality > Life % > Armor > All Resistance > Life Per Hit > Attack Speed.
Key Items:
- The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
- Nemesis Bracers: For more progression from Elites.
- Oculus Ring: For 85% increased damage.
- Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.
- Hellfire Ring, Leoric's Crown and Cain's Destiny: For more Experience and Attack Speed.
GR Pushing Templar
For Greater Rift pushing we recommend this Templar setup for the sustain from Heal, 10% increased damage from Onslaught, and the very powerful cheat death mechanic from Guardian. This is the only follower build that stacks Cooldown Reduction because it works with Heal.
Stat Priorities:
Since we have the immortality relic, we do not need to stack survivability on our Templar.
Strength > Cooldown Reduction > Toughness.
Key Items:
- The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
- Gloves of Worship: For 10 Minute Shrine Buffs.
- Nemesis Bracers: For more progression from Elites.
- Oculus Ring: For 85% increased damage.
- Unity: For 50% damage reduction if you're also wearing one.
- Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.
- Leoric's Crown and Captain Crimson's Trimmings: For more Cooldown Reduction on Heal.
Basics:
- Activate Vengeance Dark Heart immediately and refresh it once every 20 seconds.
- Use Smoke Screen frequently to move around and reduce incoming damage. With the Discipline generation from Natalya's Vengeance (2) Bonus you can spam this nearly all the time.
Pulling Enemies:
- In order to pull in enemies and create large pixelstacks with Natalya's Vengeance (4) Bonus, you need to time Spike Trap's detonation with Caltrops. Enemies can ONLY be pulled into Caltrops that haven't sprung yet, which has ~0.5sec delay if you place them with nearby enemies.
- When you find a pack of enemies, start laying Spike Traps below them, then tap Evasive Fire and Caltrops together at the same time so pull them in. Repeat this process until you have all nearby monsters stacked up. Try to put Caltrops exactly on top of each other so that you keep pulling monsters into the same spot.
- Avoid setting up too many Spike Traps at once at this step because the later explosions in the chain reaction cannot pull enemies in after Caltrops has sprung. 1-2 uses is the optimal number to move enemies around quickly.
- Pay attention to monsters that can't be pulled, such as Golgors, Armaddons or Juggernaut elites. If possible, stack other enemies on top of them so that you can defeat them with the extra Area Damage.
Dealing Damage:
- Once you have prepared the pull, lay your Spike Traps around the area underneath enemies. Avoid using this skill more or less than exactly 5 times in a row to create a perfect chain reaction, then detonate them by tapping your generator once.
- If more enemies remain outside of the Caltrops area, repeat the above step with smaller chain reactions to pull them in. When playing with Convention of Elements, the best time to do this is during the Cold cycle to nuke during Fire right after.
- Once all nearby enemies are stacked up in the Caltrops and starting spamming 5x Spike Trap + 1 tap of Evasive Fire repeatedly to deal damage. If an Oculus Ring appears, move there for the damage buff.
- Kite leftover enemies along with you if they are too healthy and make a new pull in a fresh location.
This build isn't very tanky but has great mobility and lots of tools to play around dangerous enemies. Make sure to use Awareness at all times!
Check out our dedicated Hardcore Survival Guide to learn more about how to succeed in this game mode!
Variants
Concept
This build isn't great for T16 and if you have other setups such as GoD DH or Multishot available, you should go with those instead.
In Torment 16 we want to go fast, so this setup differs from the GR versions. We include Danetta's Hatred, turning our Vault Action Shot into a spender that can detonate Spike Trap while we move. For this, we need to switch its rune to Echoing Blast. Omryn's Chain creates Caltrops automatically to make enemies fly to us whenever we detonate traps.
Gameplay
Keep up your buffs Shadow Power, Preparation Focused Mind and Vengeance as much as possible. Vault around to hunt elites and valuable monster packs. Whenever you engage in combat, drop a few Spike Traps around the area and detonate them with Vault.
Whenever you have enough leftover Discipline, spam Smoke Screen Displacement for extra speed.
Setups
If you need more damage, replace Wreath of Lightning with Zei's Stone of Vengeance.
If you don't feel tanky enough, replace Hot Pursuit with Awareness and Warzechian Armguards with Trag'Oul Coils to free up the armor cube slot for Goldwrap.
In groups, replace Warzechian Armguards with Nemesis Bracers to spawn elites from shrines and pylons.
Concept
This setup is similar to the solo push version described in the main sections of the guide, but aims to complete GRs in faster runs lasting around 3 minutes. Reduce the set-up time in favor of more damage output and don't worry about Convention of Elements rotations. In addition, Bane of the Stricken isn't necessary so that gem gets replaced by Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard to protect the buff from Squirt's Necklace.
To increase run speed, we use Shadow Power Shadow Glide and drop Numbing Traps for Tactical Advantage.
Gameplay
Keep up the buffs from Vengeance and Shadow Power while searching valuable monster packs and elites. When you find some, place a few Spike Traps around the area, then tap Caltrops + Evasive Fire simultaneously to pull them in.
Once you have set up a pull, place Caltrops in the center and spread 5x Spike Trap around the area, then detonate them with 1 tap of Evasive Fire for maximum damage output. Repeat this until all enemies are dealt with and move on. Activate Smoke Screen whenever necessary to reduce incoming damage.
Setups
At higher Paragon (2,500 or more), Guardian's Jeopardy should be replaced by Captain Crimson's Trimmings for more damage, cooldown and resources.
If you have too much trouble keeping up the Squirt's Necklace buff or staying alive, replace Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard for Bane of the Powerful and Numbing Traps or Ambush for Awareness.
Select Build Version
Concept
This setup combines high damage and toughness to reach the highest GR tiers. We want to stack up large packs of enemies with the pulling effect from Caltrops and nuke them down with Area Damage.
Gameplay
This is described in more detail in the Gameplay section above. Keep up the buffs from Vengeance and Shadow Power while searching valuable monster packs. When you find a good spot, place Spike Trap underneath enemies, then tap Caltrops + Evasive Fire once together to pull them in. Repeat this process until you have all nearby enemies stacked up.
Once you have all enemies inside your Caltrops area, set up chain reactions of 10 Spike Traps stacked on top of each other. Once the density thins out, kite leftover enemies with you and prepare the next pull. Whenever Oculus Rings appear, reposition into them for more damage and use Smoke Screen frequently to stay alive.
Setups
At higher Paragon (2,500+), Captain Crimson's Trimmings should be included instead of Guardian's Jeopardy.
If you want to include Awareness or Leech in the setup, drop Ambush for it.
If you feel daring, you can replace Esoteric Alteration with Gogok of Swiftness for more damage and to free up some CDR rolls for other damage stats.
Concept
This is a more high-end version of the build that replaces Dawn with Natalya's Slayer to free up the ring slot for Convention of Elements. With at least 47% Cooldown Reduction you can activate Vengeance once every 48sec exactly on the Fire CoE cycle to get it for 2 out of 3 rotations. This version does significantly more damage but suffers from low toughness when Vengeance is down.
Gameplay
This is described in more detail in the Gameplay section above. When you find a good spot, place Spike Trap underneath enemies, then tap Caltrops + Evasive Fire together to pull them in. Repeat this process until you have all nearby enemies stacked up.
Once you have all enemies inside your Caltrops area, set up chain reactions of 10 Spike Traps stacked on top of each other. Optimally, prepare the pull and 10 traps right before the Fire Convention of Elements cycle and activate Vengeance in the same moment if it's ready. This way you can detonate them immediately when the cycle changes and repeat the process two more times for maximum damage output.
Once the density thins out, kite leftover enemies with you and prepare the next pull. Whenever Oculus Rings appear, reposition into them for more damage and use Smoke Screen frequently to stay alive.
Setups
If you want to include Awareness or Leech in the setup, drop Ambush for it.
If you feel daring, you can replace Esoteric Alteration with Gogok of Swiftness for more damage and to free up some CDR rolls for other damage stats.
Concept
This is the setup is similar to the one described in main sections of the guide but more optimized for group play in high GRs. Most of the hard work is done by your Supports and instead you simply focus on dealing the most damage. With party buffs, the setup is significantly tankier.
Instead of pulling enemies around yourself, coordinate with your team to deal heavy bursts during the Fire Convention of Elements cycle. In order to play this setup with Vengeance on a 48sec cycle, you need to have at least 47% Cooldown Reduction.
Gameplay
Keep up Shadow Power whenever enemies are present. Wait for your supports to prepare a pull, then start cycling 5x Spike Trap + 1 tap of Evasive Fire to deal damage. While doing so, make sure to protect yourself with Smoke Screen as much as possible.
Optimally, prepare the pull and 10 Spike Traps right before the Fire Convention of Elements cycle. This way you can detonate them immediately when the cycle changes and repeat the process two more times for the highest damage output. Every 48 seconds, activate Vengeance at the start of the Fire Convention of Elements cycle to have it up for 2 out of 3 rotations.
Once the density thins out, move on to find new enemies and prepare the next pull with your team. Whenever Oculus Rings appear, reposition into them for more damage and use Smoke Screen frequently to stay alive.
Setups
At lower Paragon (2,500 or less), Captain Crimson's Trimmings should be replaced by Guardian's Jeopardy.
If you want to include Awareness in the setup, drop Numbing Traps for it.
A more high-end version of the build replaces Natalya's Slayer with Dawn and drops Endless Walk for Natalya's Reflection + Squirt's Necklace. Like this you don't have to worry about standing still for extra damage and have permanent Vengeance uptime, but now have to protect the Squirt's Necklace buff with the shield from Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard. This setup is recommended if you are at the point where you speed run high tier GRs in only a few minutes. However, if you can't keep up the amulet's buff most of the time, you should stick the the regular setup.
If you're playing in a team as the only damage dealer or for some other reason have to kill the boss, include Bane of the Stricken instead of Pain Enhancer.
Video Guide
Mechanics
- Natalya's Vengeance (2) Bonus removes all costs and cooldowns for Spike Trap, increases its damage by 100% when combined with Caltrops and refills Discipline rapidly all the time.
- The 100% damage bonus can be triggered by other Demon Hunter's Caltrops.
- The Discipline recovery happens unconditionally at the time of each detonation.
- Natalya's Vengeance (4) Bonus allows Caltrops to pull in enemies when hit by Spike Trap and provides 75% damage reduction. Holding down Spike Traps continuously resets and increases the timer of the damage reduction buff up to a maximum of 10 seconds.
- The pulling effect only works on unsprung Caltrops, so they have to be placed at the same time as you trigger your Spike Traps if there are enemies in the area.
- Too long chain reactions detonate with too much delay which prevents the later Spike Trap explosions from pulling in enemies. The optimal way to pull enemies together is detonating small chains with 2-4 Spike Traps while setting up new Caltrops.
- The pulling effect pixelstacks enemies (ignores their collision boxes) and has around 50-60 yards range (roughly the distance from the center to the edge of the screen to the left or right).
- This pulling effect does not work for the Lightning Rod rune.
- Natalya's Vengeance (6) Bonus provides a 10,000% damage bonus to Spike Trap and increases their damage by 25% for consecutive explosions of the same chain reaction.
- The consecutive bonus is multiplicative with all other bonuses but additive with itself.
- This bonus can stack up to 9 x 25% = 225% bonus for the final tick of the chain reaction, raising the average damage of all Spike Traps in a full chain reaction by 112.5%.
- This stacking damage effect does not work for the Lightning Rod rune.
- The Taunt effect focuses enemies attention towards the center of the Spike Trap that taunted them.
- Taunt is a crowd control effect that raises monsters' crowd control resistance. This directly interferes with other, more desirable effects such as the knockbacks from Natalya's Vengeance (4) Bonus or Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash from a Support Barbarian in groups, so they might not always work as expected.
- After getting hit by Spike Trap, this weapon produces a secondary explosion emanating from the enemy hit. The timer is indicated by a small icon above an enemy's head.
- This explosion deals the same damage as the original hit that triggered it.
- Multiple explosions can stack up and occur over time if the enemy is hit frequently.
- Lightning Rod only produces one extra explosion per trap even if all 3 ticks hit an enemy, making the item significantly weaker for this rune.
- While it's a proc, this effect can trigger Area Damage.
- The "deployed twice as fast" line doubles the effective attacks per second for laying Spike Traps.
- Scatter's 1160% weapon damage is overwritten by the selected rune.
- A full chain reaction of 10x Spike Trap takes ~65 frames (~1.1 seconds) to complete.
Summary
- Keep up your buffs from Vengeance as much as possible.
- Stack up nearby enemies by placing 1-2x Spike Trap Custom Trigger below them, then tapping Caltrops and Evasive Fire together at the same time.
- With a fully prepared pull, set up 10x Spike Trap Custom Trigger, detonate them and repeat to deal damage.
- Use Smoke Screen frequently to move around and survive.
- Kite leftover enemies to the next pull or move on without them if they're too slow.
I hope you enjoyed this guide! Although the Spike Trap has a setup time, it offers a unique and powerful playstyle that has been missing from the game for years. With this build it's all about the right timing to create fantastic damage bursts.
Good luck!
Credits
Written & Updated by wudijo.
Review and contributions by Northwar.