Diablo III- Skills Article IL: The Demon Hunter, Device Skills- Evasive Fire

Evasive Fire: Fire at your target for 125% weapon damage.  If the nearest enemy you are facing is at or near melee range, you will spend 4 Discipline and backflip 15 yards away.  Generates 4 Hatred.

Despite being in the ‘devices’ skill category, this skill really isn’t a device at all- but it is an excellent evasive technique if you’re getting crowded in combat.  What’s more, since it doesn’t cost Discipline by default, you can use it to shoot for slightly more damage than even Hungering Arrow (125% compared to 115%), and if you have no Discipline when an enemy is in your face, you’ll just skip the backflip.  While not amazingly powerful or possessed of a high-power side effect, this skill is very easily one of the more overall usable ones you have access to.

Shrapnel: Fire at your target for 125% weapon damage, and the bolt explodes on impact to deal 30% weapon damage as Fire to all enemies within 6 yards of the initial target.  If the nearest enemy you are facing is at or near melee range, you will spend 4 Discipline and backflip 15 yards away.  Generates 4 Hatred.

This further powers up the attack side of Evasive Fire, making it sometimes a better option than your Primary attack- and given that it generates 4 Hatred and only costs Discipline if you have to flip away from something, you may find yourself using this more often than the Primary skill.  Don’t get worried- there’s nothing wrong with this, and if it’s more effective it’s more effective.  Plus, you’ll be better protected since you don’t have to activate a non-attack skill to get out of the way.

Parting Gift: Fire at your target for 125% weapon damage as Poison.  If the nearest enemy you are facing is at or near melee range, you will spend 4 Discipline and backflip 15 yards away and leave behind a poison bomb that explodes after 1.2 seconds for 45% weapon damage as Poison in a 12 yard radius.  Generates 4 Hatred.

The main use of this form of the skill is to ensure that when the enemies crowd you, you punish them for it.  The delay is fairly long, so don’t use it unless you can ensure that enemies will stick around where you were standing after you leave there- Caltrops is good for this.  If you can’t manipulate the battlefield well enough to ensure the enemies are caught in it, it won’t be worth the effort though, so be careful about using this and swap it out if you don’t find the poison bomb actually triggering enough, or find that it doesn’t ever hit anything.

Covering Fire: Fire a spread of three bolts for 125% weapon damage each.  If the nearest enemy you are facing is at or near melee range, you will spend 4 Discipline and backflip 15 yards away.  Generates 4 Hatred.

If you find yourself considering using Evasive Fire as your main attack instead of whatever Primary skill (a likely thing if you prefer Grenades or Bola Shot for your Primary), then you’re going to love this- it lets you get multiple attacks per shot out of Evasive Fire, and certainly makes it competitive as a mainstream way of dealing damage.

Displace: Fire at your target for 125% weapon damage.  If the nearest enemy you are facing is at or near melee range, you will spend 4 Discipline and backflip 30 yards away.  Generates 4 Hatred.

The actual utility of this rune is pretty debatable.  While getting further away when you get away is rarely a bad thing, it seems kind of lackluster compared to the other options you have on Evasive Fire.  Some will still prefer this, likely people who use their Primary Skill most of the time and keep Evasive Fire on tap for emergency evacuation.

Surge: Fire at your target for 125% weapon damage as Electric.  If the nearest enemy you are facing is at or near melee range, you will spend 2 Discipline and backflip 15 yards away.  Generates 4 Hatred.

On the surface, this rune seems to border on uselessness.  Changing weapon damage to Electric is something that’s only occasionally useful, so the main point of Surge is cutting the Discipline cost on the backflip- but 4 Discipline is already very small, and you’re unlikely to need that reduction.  It’s a fair bet you won’t prefer this rune for Evasive Fire, regardless of what you are doing with the skill.