Diablo III- Skills Article LVIII: The Demon Hunter, Passive Skills (3 of 5)

Brooding: As long as you have taken no damage in the last 3 seconds, you regain 1% of your Life per second.

This skill is a little weird.  Since Demon Hunters don’t really have a way to drain their own Life off to power effects, it initially seems useless.  However, a ‘balanced’ Demon Hunter can get a lot out of this by diving into combat, using more powerful short-ranged skills, and then Vaulting or Evasive Firing out of close range to pepper their enemies with attacks from afar.  It’s possible that control-focused Demon Hunters can use it to shorten the time between battles, if they tend to take a lot of damage, but with all the tools a Demon Hunter has available to avoid taking damage in the first place, this skill seems a bit out of place.  If you need it, you probably need it really badly- but most Demon Hunters not only won’t but shouldn’t ever need it.  Demon Hunter is a ranged class, despite their melee tricks, and should always be played as such.  Perhaps a teasing, ‘come get me oops no I’m over there now’ ranged class, but a ranged class nonetheless.

Hot Pursuit: As long as your Hatred pool is full, your speed is increased by 15%

This skill is also weird.  It takes a special kind of Demon Hunter to function well with a regularly-full Hatred pool- otherwise, this skill is useless in combat.  Demon Hunters who rely heavily on Discipline skills, stick a Rain of Vengeance skill or subskill in slot 4, and lean on their Primary Skill a lot can get a lot of effectiveness out of this, though.  The movement boost is far from negligible and to one of those rare Demon Hunters with frequently unused Hatred, can be an invaluable saving grace when something ambushes them, charges, or teleports into melee range.  It’s also nice to have this skill outside of combat no matter your class- it lets you ensure you get there first to set up any traps or devices, and makes certain you won’t fall behind that Barbarian charging around like a lunatic.

Archery: Your Bow attacks deal +15% damage, your two-handed Crossbow attacks deal +50% critical hit damage, and your Hand Crossbow attacks have a +10% critical hit chance.

Critical hit fishers and raw-damage Demon Hunters will flat out love this skill.  It fits the Demon Hunter maxim- ‘and now I do it even harder’ better than anything else in your toolbox.  That said, it’s not that no other type of Demon Hunter wants the skill- even if you don’t lean heavily on critical hits or focus on controlling the flow of battle, the improvement to overall damage is going to be nice.  But many specialized builds will want other things more than they want this.  If you’re having trouble deciding between any of a list of passive skills, though, and this skill is on that list, pick this skill.  It’s hard to go wrong with it.