Some ideas to make a Rapid Fire build viable

[darkdill 4]

I haven't been playing D3 for a good while, but during my last season I was doing a little experimenting in trying to make a Rapid Fire build since I came into an Ancient Wojahnni Assaulter and some Sin Seekers. Unfortunately, the effect of Sin Seekers actually caused a desynergy with Taeguk since it eliminates the channel cost of Rapid Fire, causing this build to end up dead-on-arrival at higher difficulty levels (I never really tried out LoN).

To that end, I have some ideas on how I'd make some changes so that a Rapid Fire build can be made viable in the future.

1. Add Rapid Fire to the 6pc bonus for Unhallowed Essence

Since there'd be little point in making a set just for Rapid Fire to work, we might as well use an existing set that could accommodate it. UE seems like the best choice, emphasizing that you find a good position and then unload a huge amount of fire from a distance.

2. Rework Sin Seekers to the following

Rapid Fire costs 50% less Hatred and has its damage increased by X%.

Changing Sin Seekers to reduce the Hatred cost of Rapid Fire rather than eliminating its channel cost outright allows it to work properly with Taeguk. Also, having it provide a damage bonus is always helpful.

3. Rework the effect of Wojahnni Assaulter to the following

Rapid Fire deals X% increased damage for every half second that you channel. Stacks up to 6 times. At 6 stacks, this effect is doubled. Stacks last for 3 seconds.

This helps increase your damage significantly as long as you can keep firing, but still allows you to reposition quickly with Vault if you're being charged. The extra damage once fully-stacked will let you carve through even the toughest foes.

4. Add a new belt or bracer with the following effect

For each half second you channel Rapid Fire, you take X% reduced damage. Stacks up to 6 times. Stacks last for 3 seconds.

Sitting still for more than a few seconds is probably going to get some people killed against Elites. A belt or bracer with this effect would let you tank some damage (though it won't save you from everything). Much like the previous rework for Wojahnni Assaulter, this would take 3 seconds to reach full charge, meaning you'll still want to position correctly.

All this put together would make Rapid Fire a nasty alternative to Multishot in any UE build, focusing more on single-target damage rather than multiple targets. And besides, who doesn't want their Demon Hunter to have a viable chaingun setup?

 

Now I'd like to give a theoretical build for how this could be made. Of course, it's entirely based on anecdote, so take appropriate NaCl.

Skills

https://us.diablo3.com/en/calculator/demon-hunter#YcjVOd!jYRh!cbZaZb

The skills are not set in stone, and you can always change them to adapt to your own playstyle. For instance, you could eschew Fire Support to instead go for Bombardment and go with a closer-range grenade style, or pick High Velocity if you want your shots to be able to pierce targets. Also, as with everyone, skill positions in terms of hotkeys are up to player preference.

Equipment

The Unhallowed Essence set, updated to work with Rapid Fire, would be a must. You may optionally swap out the helmet for a Visage of Gunes if you plan to use a Ring of Royal Grandeur with the set. This would let you change the Vengeance rune to Seethe rather than Dark Heart, synergizing with this build's physical damage.

The Endless Walk set will be of great use to this set, with the damage reduction helping you safely position, and giving you a great boost in damage once you've taken position and started firing.

If you aren't planning to use a Ring of Royal Grandeur to get access to Visage of Gunes, an Elusive Ring can help you out with damage reduction needs. You may wish to swap in Smoke ScreenVanishing Powder as a result instead of CaltropsBait the Trap.

For your belt and bracers, the belt slot would be taken by The Witching Hour for the vast increase in damage potential, or Hellcat Waistguard if you plan to go for a more grenade-focused build. For bracers, you can pick and choose; Lacuni Prowlers will help you get more damage output, Nemesis Bracers if you want to fight more Elites, Krelm's Buff Bracers if you're worried about Vengeance downtime or can't fit in a Dawn somehow, etc. Of course, if an appropriate Rapid Fire-centric bracer or belt is added, use that one to give yourself some much-needed DR.

In Kanai's Cube, you will want Dawn in the weapon slot. With enough CDR this will let you constantly keep up Vengeance for its damage and defensive boosts, as well as immunity to knockbacks and stuns. For the armor slot, the late-game choice will be Mantle of Channeling, providing another chunk of damage boosting and damage reduction. Finally, in the jewelry slot, Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac will be the ideal choice to let you cycle your cooldowns very rapidly as long as you keep shooting enemies with Rapid Fire.

For standard gems, either take a Topaz or Diamond in your helm to either reduce your resource costs, or reduce your cooldowns if you can manage your costs effectively. The rest should be obvious: Emeralds and/or Diamonds in your torso and legs, and the obvious Emerald in your weapon for CHD.

For legendary gems, I would recommend Bane of the Stricken, Taeguk, and Zei's Stone of Vengeance. Bane of the Trapped is actually not advised because you'll always want to be keeping your enemies at arm's length to maintain the UE 4pc bonus, which makes its slowing aura a waste. The build also lacks innate crowd control options that would trigger Bane of the Trapped unless you use Rapid FireFrost Shots, but even that is not completely ideal. If you're finding that you are dying too easily to elemental damage, you can substitute Zei's Stone of Vengeance with Esoteric Alteration.

I would not recommend Convention of Elements in this build, as it is more of a DPS build than a burst build. This Rapid Fire setup would be most ideal in group GR progression, having an ally that can handle trash while your Rapid Fire carves through Elites, Champions, and Rift Guardians. Due to its lack of long-distance mobility, it also would not be recommended for speedruns or bounty hunting.

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So what do you guys think? Should Blizzard try to accommodate this in a future season, or is it just a dream?

Edited April 20, 2019 by darkdill

[Knutsanity 15]

I like it, the UE part and the taeguk part. But they buffed it enough in the recent patch that it is now up there with most LoN builds. The buffs might be too nice for UE as well, they seem more powerful alone than the multishot. So that probably makes your dream less likely, rapid fire already became a solid option, don't think they would be as pressured now to also make it a top build option. Or possibly too powerful, the most powerful. But I mean the gameplay with LoN would be similar, the options for gear are less limited and maybe you should give it a real go with LoN. I do think this with LoN looks like a potential high quality T16 money/gem helmet build with the money gear. 

Actually if they had done the UE idea you proposed, and rebuffed the Rapid fire gear accordingly with that, that would've probably been an even better idea than what they did. UE could use another option. But then again LoN was in need of more options too, it had some real good ones for other classes. My brain struggled to comprehend that the usual LoN Mantle of channelling partner, taeguk, was not good for the build, so I vote for that at least. Thinking about it now, that's the same issue my LoN Gargantuant Fire bats plan I had, though I'm not sure the gargs would've benefited either way. Maybe the fix should be for the spending part of the Taeguk parameters, not the gear. 

Edited June 1, 2019 by Knutsanity

[Knutsanity 15]

There are some real easy and tanky builds capable of around GR 100, similar channelling ones with similar easy dmg reduction options to flow with it, mostly LoN. Which I suppose is fine, I like them, I play on HC so I love them really. But I don't think they want to make it so any of the very easy and simple gameplay builds can reach the leaderboard because of both over powered offence and toughness, combined with ridiculously easy gameplay of all things.  The LoN version of this looks capable of GR 95-100 decently quickly, offensively with incredible defence. Just vault every 6 seconds or so, don't even need the primary skill with wraps of clarity. Can use Nemesis. Aquilla Cuirass, the LoN dmg reduction, MoC, be in vengeance 100& of the time, Esoteric, you are at well over 3 billion toughness, with fairly good offence and nemesis too boot... But you do have to use the hellcat and grenade rune of rapid fire, because that dmg bonus is unreal, witching hour couldn't compare. Did you check out the LoN build on here for rapid fire? Seems very similar to my LoN channelling twister or meteor wizards I like to use. Almost as good offensively and a little better toughness. 

Adding to that easy gameplay with a quite complicated star pact version for the wizard kind of rewards much tougher gameplay like it should. But I mean they turned vry/chantando's into a powerhouse so that's kind of silly and easy to play too. Maybe you can dream, but to me, to easy and safe to play, and would be too powerful offensively to go with that to be considered fair and a good thing.