I see a ton of builds for Demon Hunters everywhere > But the best build Ive seen and used that does good dps and has a ton of survivability goes as follows...
Abilities with their passives:
Hungering Arrow // Spray of Teeth -- The Penetration from Hungering Arrow will allow the arrow to possibly hit another target. You may Crit on the initial target and then Crit again on the secondary target from the Penetration. Each Critical Strike activates Spray of Teeth which causes additional damage in a small radius around the target of the Critical Strike.
Spike Trap // Echoing Blast -- This is your saving grace. Spike Trap can be spammed into a spot and does substantial damage and works off your crit chance as well. Echoing Blast lets the trap activate 3 times. It has a small interrupt that may keep mobs from attacking you.
Companion // Bat Companion -- Pretty self explanatory. Once its up, its up. Its not there for the damage, but the Hatred regeneration.
Vault // Tumble -- Your Escape with a reduced cost of the next use.
Shadow Power // Gloom -- Shadow Power is a 15% Life Steal and stacks with item Life Steal and LoH. Shadow Power uses Discipline and can be recast (intelligently) as soon as it wears off. With Gloom, you take reduced damage and become quite tanky.
Preparation // Backup Plan - Refills your Discipline and has a 30% chance not to use the cool down.
Passives:
Night Stalker -- Critical Hits restore 1 discipline.
Tactical Advantage -- Gives you a run speed boost after your vault.
Perfectionist -- The standard Passive that every DH uses. Its so good that its 10% of everything.
The nuances and how its used:
The Crit chance from Hungering Arrow with Spray of Teeth refills your Discipline quickly thanks to the Night Stalker passive. The higher you raise your Crit Chance, the quicker discipline refills and the better this build becomes. The Discipline is used by Shadow Power to face tank things that would otherwise one shot you. If you are spamming Spike Traps, they will be constantly hitting the mobs. Regardless if they have you stunned, frozen, whatever. Spike Traps work with the Life steal from items and Shadow Power, so you will stay full health. At lower crit chances, you will probably run out of Discipline and thats when Preparation is used to refill it.
Mobs are still going to hit you hard in the first place, so you have to keep your EHP high enough to withstand that initial shock. I personally dont have the resists and dps/LS to stand in consecration yet (Ive seen it done by some nicely geared DH's) but I can stand up to a pack of elites with a couple lasers taking chunks out of me at MP5 or so. Best advice for this build is to pay attention to your Discipline and when your Shadow Power is going to expire. Plan ahead and get the hell out if you arent going to be able to kill the mob/s before you run completely dry.
Barbarians are evil > Dont give up the DH to play one!