A lover of video games, spreadsheets, and totally not a Russian troll, Northwar is chiefly known for his memes and carefree attitude. He has, nonetheless, managed to slither his way to the top spots of Diablo III Leaderboards on more than one occasion. If you haven't seen him around already, it's probably because he's right behind you! ᕕ| ◉ ͜ʟ ◉ |ง 
Introduction
The Legacy of Dreams Rapid Fire Demon Hunter first became a real build in Season 17, when two of its key items, Wojahnni Assaulter and Sin Seekers, received tremendous buffs. With none of the Demon Hunter's sets working particularly well (if at all) with Rapid Fire, the Legacy of Nightmares set was a natural choice for this build. A Natalya's Vengeance version of this build also exists, but it really shines only at extremely high Paragon (8,000+).
The build was so powerful that it immediately claimed the top spot on solo Demon Hunter leaderboards, destroying the fragile balance we had after Season 12 and Season 16 patches. Instead of 4 different builds (Impale, UE MS, N6M4, and M6 CA) performing within 3 tiers of each other, we suddenly had only one undisputed top dog. And let me tell you, that wasn't a pretty dog. Not by a long shot.
The main problem with Rapid Fire DH comes from Wojahnni Assaulter, which rewards you for channeling Rapid Fire for long periods of time. Sin Seekers further exacerbate this issue by removing Rapid Fire's channeling cost, letting you channel it indefinitely.
On top of that Rapid Fire snapshots your Attack Speed when you start channeling it, giving you extra incentive to never let go of the button. All these factors combined, resulted in a build designed entirely around standing still and holding down one button. Needless to say, such a build doesn't produce very exciting gameplay. Most of the time you just hold Rapid Fire and stare at your buffs and cooldowns, because you need neither move nor aim. At the same time this build outperformed all other DH builds by such a large margin, that you were forced to play it to compete. Finally, after 4 seasons of Rapid Fire tyranny, Gears of Dreadlands was introduced in Season 21, giving us a superior solo push build in GoD HA Demon Hunter.
Embodiment of the Marauder is the DH set designed about Sentries. LoD Rapid Fire however, goes a step further than that. It is the ultimate Sentry build: you become the Sentry.
Very Tanky ✔
A Lot of Explosions ✔
Extremely High Recovery ✔
Scales Well with Density ✔
❌ Extremely Boring
❌ Very Slow and Clunky
❌ Long and Boring Boss Fights
❌ Did I mention it's boring?
Core Setup
Items
- Wojahnni Assaulter is our strongest multiplier, giving 3,000% additive Rapid Fire damage. Unfortunately it also makes all other sources of additive damage (Rapid Fire rolls on gear, Strongarm Bracers, Taeguk, etc.) completely irrelevant.
- Sin Seekers increase Rapid Fire damage by 300% and remove its channeling cost.
- Hellcat Waistguard is an effective x2.5-5 multiplier (see Mechanics) which works with all Grenade skills including Rapid Fire Bombardment.
- Dawn lets us achieve easy 100% Vengeance uptime.
- Visage of Gunes gives permanent 50% damage reduction by adding Dark Heart rune to Vengeance.
- Stone Gauntlets roughly triple our toughness with no downside due to permanent Vengeance.
- Mantle of Channeling is a no-brainer in any channeling build giving 25% damage and damage reduction for free.
- Convention of Elements is another separate damage multiplier, giving you triple damage during your Fire cycle.
- Pain Enhancer is a staple in this build as we will snapshot the high attack speed in large monster density to keep channeling with increased DPS for a long duration.
Season 26 Echoing Nightmares
Echoing Nightmares are a new rewarding endgame activity set within the memories of fallen Nephalem. You must first acquire a Petrified Scream from a Greater Rift Guardian, and then cube it to enter. Once inside you'll be challenged with an endless wave of enemies until you are either overwhelmed or killed. Your goal here is to reach Wave 125 for the highest possible Whisper of Atonement with extra XP rewards added for going higher. Read our complete Season 26 Echoing Nightmare Guide for full information on how it works, and check out our brand new Echoing Nightmare Build Tier List and our META post for the best strategies!
View all variants
This build is terrible for this game mode. Typically we utilize a Greater Rift pushing build with a few tweaks.
Changes
- Swap Bane of the Stricken for Zei's Stone of Vengeance since we are fighting hordes of enemies.
- Use Awareness if you don't have it already.
Gameplay
- Reach Wave 100 and click Speed Pylon to boost your mobility and dodge Green Meteors.
- When you are more than 40% overwhelmed click Power Pylon.
- When you are more than 60% overwhelmed click Channeling Pylon and Conduit Pylon.
- After all Pylons expire, run away from monsters and dodge everything to squeeze out an extra 3-5 tiers.
Get in the middle of the arena and start channeling Rapid Fire in all directions. As long as you're safe, don't let go of the button!
Global Stat Priorities
The most important for almost any DH build is reaching permanent Vengeance uptime. This is achievable through the 65% Cooldown Reduction effect provided by Dawn and having 37% Cooldown Reduction on your character. What you will always use is the Flawless Royal Diamond in your Helmet, 10% from Paragon Points and 8% on your Shoulders. The last two rolls will typically be on your Gloves and Quiver. If your Dawn has less than 64-63% on the legendary affix, you should consider adding a 4th Cooldown roll to make up for it, as any lower will leave you with a significant gap.
Attack Speed is largely irrelevant due to the massive boost from Pain Enhancer, only the multiplicative 7% roll on Dawn is important, but even there it's not absolutely necessary.
Aside from that, you want to stack damage stats wherever possible: Critical Hit Chance, Critical Hit Damage, Fire Damage and Area Damage. For your defensive stats you just need to focus on increasing the raw toughness value.
Your recovery is based on a percentage of your HP, hence there is no reason to prioritize mitigation over HP pool. Physical Resistance is also extremely useful, as you will stand directly inside your enemies and most of the incoming damage will be of that type. You should always use Flawless Royal Diamond in your Chest and Pants sockets.
Variants
Concept
This variant of the build gets outrageous amounts of toughness from Elusive Ring, Unity and Shadow Power Gloom. Because of that all the rest of our items, skills and passives are aimed at maximizing damage. Cindercoat, Blackthorne's Jousting Mail and Magefist for Fire damage. Wolf Companion, Ambush and Bait the Trap for damage increase and extra Critical Hit Chance.
Gameplay
The gameplay for this build is exactly as described above. In general you will be absolutely untouchable, there's only two things you should worry about: Oppressors and Waller Elites. Oppressors just deal ridiculous damage with their fire breath, Molten explosions and stacked Arcane Lasers don't come anywhere close. If you have many Oppressors around, try to stand next to them to make them use melee attack instead of fire breath.
Waller can also be very dangerous. Most of the time walls do literally nothing because you have Illusory Boots. But sometimes the wall spawns directly on top of you and then it instantly stops your Side Cannons before they can hit any mobs. This completely turns off your healing and from there you have 1-3 seconds until you are dead. You need to notice that there's a wall on top of you and quickly move a step to the side or use the Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid.
For the last few percent of progress, make sure to gather a large pull, so that you have good Rapid Fire snapshot and don't let go of the button until the Rift Guardian is dead. Be careful to not hover any UI elements if the boss is moving a lot!
Be careful when playing with Aquila: while Sin Seekers remove the channeling cost, Rapid Fire still has an initial cost, so you will lose the buff if you restart the channel too often!
Setups
Instead of The Ess of Johan you can also run with Squirt's Necklace, which can prove useful at the Rift Guardian or with a Shield Pylon[/d3planner-item]. If you are more experienced with the build or have higher Paragon (2,500+), you can also drop Unity to cube the second amulet instead.
At even higher paragon (3,000+), you can drop both Unity and Elusive Ring to use Legacy of Nightmares set and get in Bane of the Trapped.
Other toughness options for this setup are changing Wolf Companion to Boar Companion, Caltrops to Preparation Focused Mind to get 100% uptime on Gloom, or Ambush to Awareness.
Video Guide
Mechanics
Summary
- Put together the core items and level up the Legacy of Dreams gem.
- Reach the necessary Cooldown Reduction for permanent Vengeance (37% with a perfect Dawn).
- Apply Pain Enhancer to everything.
- Recast Rapid Fire to snapshot the Attack Speed and hold on for dear life.
- Activate your defensive and utility skills when necessary.
I played this build in one season, and honestly, that was one season too many. Now it's useless, but it could always make a comeback. You never know...
Credits
Written by Northwar.
Updated by wudijo.
Changelog
Updated for Season 26 / Patch 2.7.3. 
