Diablo III- Skills Article LXII: The Demon Hunter, Theorycraft Two: Back! Stay back!

A pretty heavy battlefield-control Demon Hunter, this build focuses on two things- keeping enemies away, and killing anything that gets too close even faster.

Primary Skill: Entangling Shot- Chain Gang
Secondary Skill: Rapid Fire- Web Shot
Defensive Skill: Caltrops- Torturous Ground
Hunting Skill: Marked for Death- Valley of Death
Devices Skill: Spike Trap- Scatter
Archery Skill: Rain of Vengeance- Flying Strike
Passive Skills: Thrill of the Hunt, Steady Aim, Engineering

In this case, Chain Gang is your main attack- it slows things down and not only gives you time to drop traps, but lets you shoot them more and keep them in the zones of said traps longer.  Rapid Fire is for emergencies only- things that need an even harder slow, or that you have to pump oodles of damage to right now or else.  Torturous Ground and Valley of Death are there to lay out zones that things will not only be stuck in, but take more damage in.  Scatter should be used to help you set up a defensive position for yourself, so that anything coming too close while you’re distracted gets blown to bits, or close to it.  Flying Strike needs to be reserved for anything that gets close and manages to survive the Spike Trap explosions- that way you have enough time to get away and start setting up your new defensive position away from whatever got through- or just back off a short way, drop more Spike Traps and pump it full of Web Shot.

This skill setup is a good friend to any party members who like to fight with area attacks, whether that’s close-up or at a distance.  Ranged allies should be setting themselves next to you in the secure zone you set up so they can also take advantage of your battlefield control.

Valley of Death can be swapped out for Contagion if you want to be less specific about where enemies are dying, but either way you want to keep in mind Steady Aim and stay well clear of the things you’re killing.  Spike Trap-Scatter was chosen for speed of setup- if you’re not worried about that, Bandoleer can be used, or you can even drop it for an Aid Station Sentry, using your Caltrops to set up a ‘hospital zone’ where allies can fall back to patch up and then storm back into combat.  If you need more long-range damage badly, you can also use Fan of Knives with either Hail of Knives or Assassin’s Knives to get some more distance in and further slow the things trying to kill you.  If the durations of things aren’t bothering you, Engineering can be swapped for Cull the Weak to squeeze out even more damage.