Heroes of the Storm – Demon Hunter Guide

Welcome to the Heroes of the Storm build guide for Demon Hunter. In this guide, you will find basic information on the game and Demon Hunter, as well as tips on how to play and build her.

This guide will break down into six categories:

• Introduction – A breakdown of the kind of character you’re playing
• Starter Abilities – The abilities your character starts with at the beginning of the match.
• Heroic Abilities – Pick from one of these two ultimate-like abilities at team level 10
• Talents – The character improvements you can choose from to custom build your hero
• Talent Builds – Recommended builds that I have personally found success with
• Playstyle Tips – Extra information about the character to help you play your best

Introduction

In Heroes of the Storm, Demon Hunter is a ranged assassin with a kit that allows her to deal insane amounts of damage and get away with a sliver of health. If you build her right, even her auto attacks will do a ton of damage.

Demon Hunter really only serves one role: damage dealer. She can help CC a bit depending on how you build her, but she will primarily be focused on dealing damage. She should lane with a melee Hero or a support.

Starter Abilities

• Hatred (Trait)
• Gain attack speed temporarily while dealing damage.

• Hungering Arrow (Q)
• Cooldown: 14 seconds
• Fire an arrow which seeks out and strikes multiple targets.

• Multishot (W)
• Cooldown: 8 seconds
• Damages enemies in an area.

• Vault (E)
• Cooldown: 10 seconds
• Dash to a location.

Heroic Abilities (Choose One)

• Strafe (R)
• Cooldown: 45 seconds
• Unleashes a flurry of arrows at nearby enemies, dealing rapid damage.

• Rain of Vengeance (R)
• Cooldown: 100 seconds
• Bombards an area for heavy damage and stuns for a limited time.

Talents (Choose One from Each Tier)

Tier 1

• Path of the Assassin: Your Hero gains an extra 2 attack damage for every level gained.
• Rancor (Trait): Increases the duration of Enraged by 2 seconds.
• Punishment (Trait): Ability casts also grant a stack of Hatred.

Tier 2

• Vampiric Assault: Basic Attacks heal you for 15% of the damage done.
• Manticore: Every 3rd Basic Attack against the same target deals 50% additional damage.
• Siphoning Arrow (Q): 25% of the damage dealt is returned as health to the Demon Hunter.
• Puncturing Arrow (Q): Increases the number of bounces to 3 and range by 2.

Tier 3

• Battle Momentum: Basic Attacks reduce your Ability cooldowns by 0.5 seconds.
• Arsenal (W): Multishot also launches 3 grenades, each dealing 35 damage.
• Caltrops (E): While vaulting you drop 3 Caltrops that slow enemies by 20% for 2 seconds and deal 25 damage.
• Searing Attacks: Activate to increase Basic Attack by 50% for 5 seconds. Attacks cost 20 Mana per hit.

Tier 4

• Strafe (R): Rapidly attacks nearby enemies for 10 damage per hit, prioritizing heroes over minions. She is able to move and use her Vault ability while strafing. Lasts for 3 seconds.
• Rain of Vengeance (R): Launches 2 waves that deal 100 damage. Enemies hit are stunned for 0.5 seconds.

Tier 5

• Giant Killer: Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes deal an additional 1.5% of the target’s max Health in damage.
• Spell Shield: Periodically reduces the damage received from Hero Abilities by 50%. Stores up to 2 charges.
• Frost Shot (W): Multishot also slows by 40% for 2 seconds.
• Repeating Arrow (E): Casting Vault refreshes the cooldown of Hungering Arrow.

Tier 6

• Executioner: Basic Attacks deal 50% more damage against slowed, rooted, or stunned targets.
• Tumble (E): Vault gains an additional charge, allowing it to be cast twice in quick succession.
• Blood for Blood: Activate to steal 15% of target enemy’s max Health and slow its Movement Speed by 30% for 3 seconds.
• Stoneskin: Activate to gain 30% of your max health in Shields for 5 seconds.

Tier 7

• Fury of the Storm: Basic Attacks bounce twice to nearby enemies for 50% damage.
• Bolt of the Storm: Activate to teleport to the target location.
• Trigger Happy (R): Strafe does 25% more damage and grants 25% increased Movement Speed for its duration.
• Storm of Vengeance (R): Rain of Vengeance now strikes 4 times.

Talent Builds

Pure Damage Demon Hunter

• Any: You can either take the damage per level buff, the increase in duration of Enraged, or Punishment. All of these are viable options.
• Manticore: This makes your single target damage all the more deadly.
• Battle Momentum: Reduces cooldowns significantly since you will be auto attacking a ton.
• Either: This depends on whether you want to do more focused damage or area damage.
• Giant Killer, Frost Shot (W), or Repeating Arrow (E): Giant Killer is what you take when the enemy team has a ton of tanky heroes. Frost Shot is great for giving chase, but Repeating Arrow allows you to spam your Hungering Arrow more.
• Executioner or Blood for Blood: Take Executioner if you took Frost Shot; take Blood for Blood otherwise.
• Trigger Happy (R) or Storm of Vengeance (R): Enhance your Heroic.

This build has little-to-no survivability. You should only take this if you have a support with you and/or you are very confident in your ability to escape. The increased damage output, especially on single targets, will let you shred through enemy health in an instant.

Survival Demon Hunter

• Any: All three are viable.
• Vampiric Assault: Gives you some sustain.
• Caltrops (E): Increases your chances of escape.
• Rain of Vengeance (R): Stuns that allow you to help out in team fights and have an emergency panic button.
• Spell Shield: Allows you to have some defense in fights.
• Tumble (E) or Stoneskin: You have an increased chance to escape or a shield if you are taking a ton of damage.
• Bolt of the Storm or Storm of Vengeance (R): BotS gives you mobility and an escape; SoV increases your damage output and ability to stun.

Demon Hunter by nature is a high damage character. Building her to survive is not going to lower your damage output by a significant margin, but it will definitely allow you to survive in team fights much longer. This will probably be your go to build if you don’t want to feed, at least until you are comfortable with her.

Demon Hunter Playstyle Tips

The Demon Hunter is Now the Hunted

• You are a squishy, high damage character. You will be targeted.
• You need to be very careful of your placement in fights.
• Allow your tanks and initiators to go into team fights first.
• Pick off enemies from a distance.

Hatred is a Good Thing

• Keep your Hatred stacks up.
• Attack minions if you need to be, but keep your Hatred up.
• Try to have Enraged when attacking an enemy Hero.
• Attack the enemy Hero(es) when you have 7 stacks. This lets you start the fight with a fresh Enrage which will work well if you have Manticore.