I'm currently level 57 Demon Hunter and my layout is

Shadow Power(Gloom: reduce incoming damage), Vault(Trail of Cinders: leaving fire trail), Multishot(Full Broadside: increased multishot damage) and Rain of Vengeance(Beastly Bombs)

Left mouse button is Hungering Arrow with Spray of Teeth rune and right mouse button is Elemental Arrow with Frost Arrow rune.

Both of my hand crossbows, pants and amulet are socketed with flawless square emerald.

As you can see, I heavily focused on dex and just go full out offense all the time.

That strategy has been working well... until I went to hell.

Act 1 was hard but it was manageable but all hell broke loose(see what I did there?) when I went to act 2. Pretty much all the monsters one hit me. I really cannot afford to get hit because I will die without even having time to activate Shadow Power button or drink potions.

After dying and getting frustrated for like the whole Saturday, I concluded that there has to be something wrong with my character build, equipments or something.

So... any help, suggestions or changes that I can make to make my Demon Hunter more manageable in hell?

"Go to Auction House" does not count... mostly because I don't have money... I spent them all repairing my stuff -_-;;

Sounds like you need vitality. Rack up them vits, son.

Get resists and lots of it.

Just like Diablo 2, you should have 75% damage mitigation in each resist (Around 1000-1200 for Inferno, 400 for Hell).

Focus on items with Dex and Resists to all elements, Vitality/15% atk speed on rings and 12% movement speed on boots.

EDIT: Here is a setup for you, replace Nether Tenticals with Frost Arrow until you hit lvl 59. http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#adjXRV!TeY!YZYZcc

my demon hunter is 30so this is second hand knowledge from my lvl 60 party, the demon hunter in that group has been soloing some of inferno but his skil setup is much more defensive, things like caltrops runed for damage and spiked bombs(not sure which rune) he uses vault to get away in a pinch and he has the passive which gives a speed boost, at one point he was unsing marked for death and in my own experience having contagion on it really helps with dps when it spreads targets.

basically you might want to add some defensive abilities to your repertoire, like webshot rune for rapid fire and combine this with the passive which gives slowed enemies more damage to make up for less damaging moves

@Vision: How do you get the resistance up? I was surprised when gems don't do that anymore. Is it purely base on equipments?

@nohthink said:

@Vision: How do you get the resistance up? I was surprised when gems don't do that anymore. Is it purely base on equipments?

I think so.

10 Int = 1 resist as well.

Check your passives, there might be a skill there.

@nohthink: Unless you have a skill like Prismatic Armor (40% Increase), it's all in the gear.

It seems like your issue is the lack of a reliable snare. There's nothing wrong with a glass-cannon build as long as you're good enough to not get hit. Actually since everything is a OHKO in Inferno anyways you might as well start getting used to dodging EVERYthing.

Here's what I used until 59: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#bQcXVT!YeT!aabZaZ

And then after 59: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#aRYXVd!Yce!YcZZaY

Just kite, keep as much distance as you can, and don't be afraid to run. If you're up against a particularly shitty Champion/Unique pack feel free to skip it. Something like Fast + Jailer + Invincible Minions simply isn't worth the trouble. A cheap trick is to take off all your gear then chain die while leading the Champion/Unique pack to an isolated corner to make it easier to run by them.

Here's a question.  Is resist to all elements just fire, ice, lightning, and arcane, or physical as well?

Physical is a part of it.

@Turambar: There is one for Physical. And resist all is with physical included. Armor also protects you from fire, ice etc.

it's really essential to use Smoke Screen at higher difficulties, i'd find a way to put it on your bar.