Alright folks, straight into it this week. Diablo’s new season always means starting over from nothing, right? Always that first scramble back in.
First thing I did after the season launched? Yeah, reinstalled the darn game. Takes forever, but you gotta do it. Patch downloaded, game finally fires up. Log in, stare at that character creation screen. Demon Hunter caught my eye this time. Always liked the idea of shooting stuff from far away.
Fishing Around for Ideas
Clicked on a bunch of forum tabs on my other monitor, started skimming for ‘Season 30 Demon Hunter’. So many posts popping up, everyone shouting about the ‘best’ build. Kinda overwhelming, honestly.
Saw a few names thrown around: Marauder Sentries, Grenade spam, Unhallowed Essence Multishot. Then this ‘Hungering Arrow’ thing kept appearing. Seemed like the flavor of the month, people were calling it stupid fast and tanky? Decided to give that a closer look.
Gearing Up the Messy Way
Okay, fresh level 1 Demon Hunter. Ran through the first few campaign chapters just to get some movement speed unlocked and grab those basic skills. Blood Shards felt like candy drops early on.
My plan?
- Step 1: Gamble shards on whatever piece gave me the highest chance at the ‘Gears of the Dreadlands’ set (that’s the Hungering Arrow one). Pants first, bam! Got ’em quick.
- Step 2: Push through some low-level Nephalem Rifts while leveling. Monsters go squish, felt okay.
- Step 3: Hit level 70. Now the real grind starts. Kept gambling shards, ran a few Greater Rifts on Torment IV difficulty. Died. A lot. Obviously missing key pieces.
Spent hours doing this loop: Rift -> Blood Shards -> Gamble -> Cry slightly -> Repeat. Finally snagged the full 6-piece set bonus. Huge difference! Suddenly, things weren’t killing me instantly.
Key Find!
The big “aha!” moment happened when I killed a random elite pack. This special belt popped out – The Ninth Cirri Satchel. It makes Hungering Arrow hit like a charging rhino. Suddenly, my damage didn’t feel like wet noodles anymore.
After that, stuff started rolling in:
- Found this helmet, The Helm of Rydraelm. Makes Smoke Screen give Vengeance cooldown? Awesome!
- Snagged a Dawn crossbow from a Greater Rift guardian. Means Vengeance is almost always up. More rockets! More lasers!
- Still hunting for a good Convention of Elements ring though. Always the last piece…
Adjusting the Playstyle
First time playing this build, it felt weird. Gotta keep moving constantly to stay alive and keep the damage buffs rolling.
- Hold down Hungering Arrow constantly.
- Tap Strafe almost non-stop to zoom around.
- Watch out for any nasty ground effects that ruin your day.
- Smoke Bomb goes ‘puff’ whenever anything scary gets near.
- Pop Vengeance whenever it lights up.
Died a bunch figuring out the rhythm. Felt squirrely at first, like trying to wrestle a cat covered in grease. But once it clicked? Man, you just zip through packs of demons. Stuff just melts.
Where It Landed
After plugging away for a few nights? Got myself comfortably clearing T16 rifts without sweating too much. Higher Greater Rifts require more dodging and careful timing, still learning that.
Is it “top”? Maybe? Felt incredibly fast for farming regular rifts and bounties, zoom zoom. Maybe not the absolute pinnacle for pushing insane tiers yet, for me anyway. But it’s fun! Tore through stuff like paper on the regular Torment levels.
Overall? Messy start, lots of deaths, plenty of frustration chasing specific drops… then bang, it comes together and feels really good. Satisfying payoff after all that clicking. Still needs work, but definitely hanging onto this Hunter for now.