Last Updated:October 7, 2024|Changelog
Introduction
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The support Demon Hunter (usually called the zDH because they do "zero" damage) is one of the strongest supports in the game since Season 21 and the buff to Odyssey's End. Its 150% additive damage bonus outclasses anything else in the game almost by itself on top of the other massive buffs zDH can bring. Its usually paired with a zBarb that does most of the pulling.
Due to its speed and flexibility, zDH fits into a variety of group setups very easily with just a few changes and can be tweaked to either bring a few more buffs or even some pulling ability with Leonine Bow of Hashir and Bolas. Especially for speedruns, you can massively improve performance by showing good support gameplay, even as a single supporter.
The core setup (see below) is very barebones and allows a lot of room for variations. Typical additions to the build include:
- Unhallowed Essence (2) Bonus allowing faster resource gains.
- Gears of Dreadlands (4) Bonus providing mobility, damage reduction as well as faster application of the Odyssey's End debuff.
- Embodiment of the Marauder (2) Bonus giving you all Companion runes, especially Wolf Companion and Boar Companion (typically left out in push as the Boar Companion tends to mess with Crowd Control Resistance).
- Captain Crimson's Trimmings can help with survival and Cooldown requirements.
- Asheara's Vestments (4) Bonus letting you summon all 3 of your followers, who can buff your damage dealers with Onslaught, Erosion, Piercing Shot and Night's Veil.
Overall zDH is versatile, ranges from laid-back to very demanding to play and is a great boost to the party in almost any scenario. In most cases, you can buff your teammates' damage output by 100-200% while providing them with 33-55% damage reduction and some utility like pulling and spawning Elites from Pylons at the same time. The build is tanky when you want it to be and goes well with almost any DPS build in the game!
Easy to gear ✔
Fun playstyle ✔
Extremely mobile ✔
Incredible damage buffs ✔
❌ No pulling ability
❌ Weak defensive buffs
❌ No crowd control immunity
❌ Detrimental with poor execution
Core Setup
Items
- Odyssey's End paired with Entangling Shot Chain Gang is the core of your buffs: an impressive 150% additive damage bonus.
- Oculus Ring is a staple in every support build, bringing 85% multiplicative damage bonus (not stackable) if your teammates stands on the area it creates.
- Nemesis Bracers in order to spawn extra Elites from Pylons.
- Strongarm Bracers provides 30% additive damage bonus after hitting an enemy with a knockback (Vault Rattling Roll or Bolas paired with Leonine Bow of Hashir).
- Companion Wolf Companion provides a 15% multiplicative damage bonus.
- Multishot Wind Chill adds 8% Critical Hit Chance (usually around 7-10% DPS) and pairs well with Iceblink (for a total of +18% Critical Hit Chance, the gem doesn't stack).
- Elusive Ring provides a massive 60% damage reduction to yourself.
Season 33 Shades of the Nephalem
For the duration of Season 33, you gain one extra slot in Kanai’s Cube that allows to choose any Legendary Powers for a total of 4 slots. While normally a player can equip one power each from the Weapon, Armor, and Jewelry categories, now you can add a second of one of these categories! Some builds enjoy major damage buffs while others are able to run completely different setups, for example through otherwise impossible combinations of weapon effects.
In addition, whenever you press a shrine or pylon, you spawn a Shadow Nephalem of your class to assist you for 1 minute. These use various abilities and provide helpful extra damage in the early game and for lower tier Greater Rifts. Learn more in our Season 22 overview.
In this build, most setups gain a free Buriza-Do Kyanon to more quickly apply Entangling Shot to enemies.
Global Stat Priorities
The build doesn't require much to get started. You have 3 main support stats that you want to focus on: Cooldown Reduction (CDR), Resource Cost Reduction (RCR), and Attack Speed (AS). RCR is always nice to use your Discipline consuming mobility skills but it's never critical. AS helps you do everything faster and for that reason it's your main stat in speed variations; for push variations it's not as important. Finally Cooldown Reduction is the most important stat for the variants that don't use Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, while being completely worthless for those that do.
Everything else can be filled with defensive stats such as All Resistance, Life %, Elite Damage Reduction, Vitality, Armor (roughly in that order of priority). Make sure to remove any source of Area Damage on your gear, as this can produce a lot of lags in some scenarios.
Assembling the Build
Item Stat Priorities
Gems
Skills
Passives
Paragon Points
Altar of Rites
Followers
Gameplay
Hardcore
Variants
The standard support DH is easy to play and provides huge damage bonuses to the party. In almost any scenario, it can be added to a group and improve the performance significantly, while being safe and tanky.
Concept
We use Gears of Dreadlands (4) Bonus for mobility and to apply Entangling Shot faster. Smoke Screen Displacement is used for mobility that can be cast without interrupting Strafe.
Gameplay
This is the most relaxed support build in the game to play. Keep up your Momentum for extra movement speed by using Entangling Shot regularly. Strafe around close to your party and make sure you shoot long enough to apply the Odyssey's End debuff to all enemies. Other than that, apply Multishot Wind Chill to enemies every 3 seconds, use Wolf Companion on cooldown (or at least during a nuke phase) and when in range of your DPS players. Also, typically you will be the one to click pylons and collect progression globes from defeated elite packs.
Setups
Embodiment of the Marauder (2) Bonus can be used to provide the Boar Companion buff for more defense, but it's generally avoided as it can easily do a lot more harm than good if you taunt monsters in the wrong moment (due to the long duration Crowd Control effect it applies making enemies immune to pulling/stunning).
Concept
We use Gears of Dreadlands (4) Bonus for mobility and to apply Entangling Shot faster. We compliment it with Embodiment of the Marauder (2) Bonus to get the Boar Companion. We use Bolas + Leonine Bow of Hashir + Emimei's Duffel to pull monsters together. Finally we have Smoke Screen Displacement — a mobility skill that can be used without interrupting Strafe.
Gameplay
As support DH with Bolas, you have a lot to do, and your performance directly impacts how fast and how high you can go, more than anyone else in the party.
Generally, your gameplay looks like this: Strafe through the rift slightly ahead of the party, looking for an elite pack or big enough group of trash to fight. Once you find them, you stop Strafe, use Bolas - Entangling Shot - Multishot in that order, and then continue Strafe to apply Odyssey's End debuff. If the fight is going on for more than 3 seconds, recast Multishot. If it's still going after 6 seconds, repeat the entire sequence.
DO NOT use Bolas against the same mobs more than once.
DO NOT Strafe when Bolas is your last used Generator.
Setups
If you are feeling too squishy, switch Hunter's Wrath for Zoey's Secret, it will make your basic debuff sequence a bit longer but you will be very tanky (alternatively Wraps of Clarity in case you drop Embodiment of the Marauder).
In high Greater Rifts, you generally have a support Barbarian doing all the hard work in the party and your job will be mainly to buff your group and debuff enemies. This role is pretty easy to play and perfect for beginners that want to aim high in groups.
Concept
We use Gears of Dreadlands (4) Bonus for mobility and to apply Entangling Shot faster. The Flavor of Time is added for additional Conduit Pylon uptime. Numbing Traps, Wolf Companion and Multishot Wind Chill are other useful party buffs. Since the setup is so tanky and high GRs are quite slow paced, we can drop Smoke Screen here.
Gameplay
Generally it will be the Barb's responsibility to bring far-away enemies and take care of pulling them together with Ancient Spear Rage Flip and Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash. Nevertheless, you need to be aware of your surroundings and help make those pulls by aggroing monsters (preferably without using Strafe), bringing them close to the camp (where the rest of the team has decided to set up), scout pylon locations and click them at the right time.
During DPS windows, make sure you apply all your buffs/debuffs properly (Multishot every 3 seconds, spread out Guardian Turret and spam Entangling Shot or Strafe). Try to help out the group in other ways, e.g. breaking walls with Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid, taking Wormholes that might spawn in dangerous places, etc. Especially on large pulls, make sure you re-apply Entangling Shot often and early enough (either don't let it time out by continuously attacking while circling around the pull or come back early enough to stack it on all enemies again after going very far).
Setups
If you prefer even more toughness, you can choose Esoteric Alteration instead of Gogok of Swiftness.
For the absolute high-end 4man push, the zDH can be adjusted a bit to provide a good mix of utility and buffs in addition to a small pulling capacity through aggroing monsters.
Concept
High tier pushing will typically involve a support Barbarian making pulls for the group. Compared to most other support setups, we omit Gears of Dreadlands and instead move around (and apply Entangling Shot) manually in order to gain an extra skill slot. Since we lose Strafe for mobility, Illusory Boots will let you move through the monsters freely. Aquila Cuirass is added for some extra toughness. The Unhallowed Essence (2) Bonus helps to refill your Discipline.
Gameplay
Generally it will be the Barb's responsibility to bring far-away enemies and take care of pulling them together with Ancient Spear Rage Flip and Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash. Nevertheless, you need to be aware of your surroundings and help make those pulls by aggroing monsters (with Vault Action Shot), bringing them close to the camp (where the rest of the team has decided to set up), scout pylon locations and click them at the right time. This is where the UE variant has an advantage over GoD: You are able to aggro monsters from 1-2 screens away and kite them to the party very easily without applying slow automatically through Entangling Shot.
In DPS-phases, make sure you apply all your buffs/debuffs properly (Multishot every 3 seconds, spread out Guardian Turret and spam Entangling Shot) and try to help out the group in other ways e.g. by breaking walls with Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid, taking Wormholes that might spawn in dangerous places, etc. Especially on large pulls, make sure you re-apply Entangling Shot often and early enough (either don't let it time out by continuously attacking while circling around the pull or come back early enough to stack it on all enemies again after going very far).
Setups
If your group has Iceblink on someone else, get Esoteric Alteration. If you don't need Nemesis Bracers because someone else is using them, you can use Wraps of Clarity for more toughness.
When you feel tanky enough, Elusive Ring can be dropped for Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, which allows you to spam more Sentry.
If someone else in the party uses Nemesis Bracers and you want to go for the ultimate damage boost available to the Demon Hunter, you can drop them for Strongarm Bracers and switch to Vault Rattling Roll. Be warned that this setup is incredibly difficult to play for a very small DPS gain if executed perfectly and a massive DPS loss if done poorly. The reasons for that are that you will have to keep up Elusive Ring by running away from enemies and that you need perfect timing to apply Strongarm Bracers right after the Barbarian's Ground Stomp due to the Crowd-Control rules. Make sure you know what you are doing when you play this setup!
Concept
This variant is almost identical to the UE zDH except it loses the Unhallowed Essence set and Hunter's Wrath to include Asheara's Vestments. The followers summoned by this set don't give any buffs and don't emanate any legendary powers to your party members, but they can still debuff the monsters. This way you can give your DPS 30% additive damage from Onslaught, Erosion and Piercing Shot and cap out their Critical Hit Chance with Night's Veil. This setup also replaces Gogok of Swiftness for Enforcer, which applies the 90% damage reduction bonus to your followers. This allows you to use the 50% CDR relics on them for more debuffs.
Gameplay
Asheara's Vestments has a duration of 30 seconds and an internal cooldown of 60 seconds. In the rift you constantly have to attack so you don't have a lot of control over when it procs. Try to keep track of the ICD and stay in the middle of the pull when it's about to proc. The followers are summoned on top of you and when they are trapped in monsters, they have no choice but to use their skills right in the middle.
During the Rift Guardian fight you can choose to stop attacking for a few seconds and thus sync the Asheara's Vestments proc with your RGK's Convention of Elements. You want to start attacking 2-3 seconds before the damage cycle so that the followers have time to spawn and use all their skills.
Setups
If your group has Iceblink on someone else, get Esoteric Alteration. If you don't need Nemesis Bracers because someone else is using them, you can use Wraps of Clarity for more toughness.
If someone else in the party uses Nemesis Bracers and you want to go for the ultimate damage boost available to the Demon Hunter, you can drop them for Strongarm Bracers and switch to Vault Rattling Roll. Be warned that this setup is incredibly difficult to play for a very small DPS gain if executed perfectly and a massive DPS loss if done poorly. The reasons for that are that you will have to keep up Elusive Ring by running away from enemies and that you need perfect timing to apply Strongarm Bracers right after the Barbarian's Ground Stomp due to the Crowd-Control rules. Make sure you know what you are doing when you play this setup!
Concept
This is a special version that pixelstacks enemies with the help of Natalya's Vengeance (4) Bonus. This build is especially useful if no Support Barbarian who can stack enemies with Rage Flip and Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash is present, for example in 2man or 3man GR pushing.
In order to make the setup work, several toughness pieces and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac are replaced by 3 pieces of Natalya's Vengeance and we need to include both Caltrops + Spike Trap.
Gameplay
Similar to the GoD zDH, use your Entangling Shot and start spinning with Strafe.
When you need to pull enemies, hold down Strafe and tap Spike Trap in a ~1-2sec rhythm. Due to your continuous channeling the traps detonate immediately and pull affected enemies towards your Caltrops.
Be aware that this effect only works if Caltrops has not been sprung yet. In most scenarios this happens immediately because of nearby monsters, so there is only a ~0.5sec window where fresh Caltrops are inactive and able to pull enemies. Because of the high Discipline generation granted by the Natalya set, you can simply hold down Caltrops to lay them continuously as you go, otherwise time it together with your Spike Traps.
While you're not going to build any Momentum for more Movement Speed from the Gears of Dreadlands like this, you still fire Entangling Shot for the Odyssey's End debuff and to keep up your Hatred. Whenever you need to skip large areas, simply fire a few Entangling Shots to build Momentum, then Strafe away.
When a pull is prepared, apply Multishot Wind Chill every few seconds to keep up the Critical Strike debuff and activate Wolf Companion on cooldown.
Setups
If another support in the team already brings Iceblink, you can replace that gem with Gogok of Swiftness for CDR or Simplicity's Strength for more healing.
If another support in the team already brings Nemesis Bracers, you can replace them with Strongarm Bracers.
Concept
For Echoing Nightmares we are using an exact copy of the High GR build. For more information check out our full Echoing Nightmare Guide and take a look at our Echoing Nightmare Build Tier List and META post for the best builds and strategies!
Gameplay
Click Speed Pylon as soon as the challenge starts and all the other Pylons at around wave 90. At wave 122 you can stop attacking and run to the corner to let the timer run out.
The main debuff to apply is Odyssey's End with Entangling Shot. Since you can't pull any monsters, all you have to do is spin, cast Companion on cooldown and follow the DPS in case they have to move around the area. In later waves, add Multishot and Marked for Death for extra buffs.
Video Guide
Mechanics
Embodiment of the Marauder (2) Bonus
Odyssey's End
Calamity
In-Depth GoD (4) Bonus vs. UE (2) Bonus Setup Comparison
Summary
- Stay with (or slightly ahead) of your party, prepare the pulls for them.
- Keep up all buffs and debuffs on all enemies at all times.
- Don't spam knockback skills (Bolas or Vault Rattling Roll) too much.
- The overall damage multiplier to DPS players in your party will be around x2 to x3 depending on their levels of additive damage bonuses (from their gear or other party buffs).
I hope you enjoyed this guide! Playing as a support can be extremely fun with this setup, especially in the XP Speedfarming META. The zDH is almost always an excellent addition to any party.
Credits
Guide & updates by wudijo
Contributions by Chewingnom & Northwar