Unhallowed Essence Multishot Demon Hunter Skills and Runes

Last updated on Jan 08, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 110 comments

On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing Unhallowed Essence Multishot Demon Hunter in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.7.7 and Season 30.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Evasive Fire Icon Evasive Fire Focus Focus Right Mouse Button Multishot Icon Multishot Arsenal Arsenal 1 Preparation Icon Preparation Invigoration Invigoration 2 Vengeance Icon Vengeance Seethe Seethe 3 Vault Icon Vault Tumble Tumble 4 Companion Icon Companion Wolf Companion Wolf Companion
Passive Skills
1.

Rotation

The major dynamic of the build comes from building up Hatred through Evasive Fire Evasive Fire Focus Focus and dumping it through Multishot Multishot. That same rhythm upkeeps the bonuses from your jewelry set, Focus Focus and Restraint Restraint. Preparation Preparation is a source of Discipline, but the build spends little of it and primarily adopts this skill for the Unhallowed Essence set benefits from Invigoration Invigoration. With the assistance of Dawn Dawn, Vengeance Vengeance should be kept up at all times for the formidable damage increase and resource regeneration it provides. On a moderate cooldown, Companion Companion is also taken for the Wolf Companion Wolf Companion damage bonuses. Finally, Vault Vault is an inexpensive safety tool, which you should use as often as you need.

2.

Skills and Runes

The main damage dealer in the build is Multishot Multishot, taken with the highest burst damage potential rune, Arsenal Arsenal, when Greater Rifting. The unrivaled performance of this rune in small-to-mid scale fights dictates some of the passive and gear choices, but this conformity does not change the core strengths of Multishot Multishot: long range, manageable Hatred price, and a signature screen-wide AoE. Note that for extreme high end pushing, where massive trash pulls becomes the primary source of Rift progression (almost entirely replacing elite kills, which happen as collateral damage), you will gain advantage by swapping the Multishot Multishot rune to Full Broadside Full Broadside. Logically, this would dictate that you swap into Physical % damage on gear, and it also frees up a passive slot (enabling you to drop Ballistics Ballistics for a defensive Awareness Awareness).

While the build invests heavily into resource cost reduction, you can easily dump your Hatred pool with Yang's Recurve Yang's Recurve attack speed bonus — so the inclusion of a Hatred generator is inevitable. The spec falls back on another Demon Hunter staple: Evasive Fire Evasive Fire. This primary fires in a convenient cone shape reminiscent of Multishot Multishot, and sports one of the strongest generation runes — Focus Focus. Remember that alternating your spender with regular Evasive Fire Evasive Fires is critical not only for Hatred upkeep, but also the Focus Focus and Restraint Restraint set bonuses (see this build's gear page for more information).

The defensive Demon Hunter resource, Discipline, remains mostly untouched — the result of low costs utility skills and the 2-piece bonus of Unhallowed Essence working together. This is quite fortunate for the build, as the set translates every bit of additional Discipline into a source of damage and you can take full advantage of Preparation Preparation Invigoration Invigoration. The skill extends your Discipline pool with an additional 20, and can still serve as an emergency 30 Discipline refill.

Taking full advantage of the skill and item reworks surrounding Vengeance Vengeance, the Multishot DH incorporates the skill into the build and strives for its permanent uptime through a cubed Dawn Dawn. This potent 40% damage buff will also increase Hatred regeneration to 10 per second from the Seethe Seethe rune. Depending on your Cube choices (discussed further), Vengeance Vengeance can also reduce incoming damage in half from the Dark Heart Dark Heart rune, gained for free from a cubed Visage of Gunes Visage of Gunes.

With multiple utilities to pick from, the Multishot Demon Hunter chooses a DPS buff role for the Companion Companion skill through the Wolf Companion Wolf Companion rune, boosting you with a temporary multiplicative damage increase. While the Wolf Companion Wolf Companion buff sports a generous 10-second uptime, this build runs a moderate amount of Cooldown Reduction on gear — so try to pop the Companion Companion active in key moments like elite fights, or heavy trash density.

The final ingredient is an aggressive movement tool, the Demon Hunter staple Vault Vault. Easy on the Discipline consumption, this skill can take you great distances before you feel any toll on your reserve. You will adjust the rune according to your Cube armor slot choice — Tumble Tumble if you run Visage of Gunes Visage of Gunes (or when speedrunning with Multishot Multishot Wind Chill Wind Chill), or Trail of Cinders Trail of Cinders if you opt for Cindercoat Cindercoat. Either way, Vault Vault enables you to dive in and out of combat, picking the best spot to plant yourself and decimate your enemies from during the appropriate proc of Convention of Elements Convention of Elements.

3.

Passives

Reworked in Patch 2.4, Thrill of the Hunt Thrill of the Hunt is an excellent inclusion to the build that slows all enemies hit by Multishot Multishot by a whopping 80%. Safety concerns aside, it doubles as an effortless proc for Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped and Cull the Weak Cull the Weak, freeing you from Caltrops Caltrops dropping duties, or from hoping on a Slow proc from your secondary stats on gear.

Working in unison with your Dead Man's Legacy Dead Man's Legacy, the Ambush Ambush passive will deliver during the first 25% of the enemy health pool, and the quiver will pick up the carnage from 60% and below. The 40% damage increase is multiplicative in nature, emphasising its superiority over other options.

Cull the Weak Cull the Weak is a Demon Hunter mainstay, bringing a multiplicative 20% damage increase against Slowed or Chilled enemies. The benefits from this passive further encourage you to include the reworked Thrill of the Hunt Thrill of the Hunt when Greater Rifting, or switching to Multishot Multishot Wind Chill Wind Chill during speedfarm.

Bolstering the power of Arsenal Arsenal, the Multishot Demon Hunter picks up Ballistics Ballistics in Greater Rifts — yet another multiplicative increase to your damage, doubling the effectiveness of the rockets splitting from your spender. The chance for a free additional rocket is just icing on the cake.

4.

Changelog

  • 08 Jan. 2024: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 30.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 29.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 28.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 27.
  • 13 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 09 Dec. 2021: Reviewed for Season 25.
  • 21 Jul. 2021: No changes required for Season 24.
  • 01 Apr. 2021: No changes required for Season 23.
  • 18 Nov. 2020: No changes required for Season 22.
  • 30 Jun. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 21 Nov. 2019: Reviewed for Season 19.
  • 23 Aug. 2019: Reviewed for Season 18.
  • 16 May 2019: Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
  • 17 Jan. 2019: Information was reviewed and approved for Season 16 with no changes required.
  • 23 Feb. 2018: Added note for the Physical variant of this build.
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