Chakram Demon Hunter Skills and Runes

Active Skills
Chakram Razor Disk Multishot Wind Chill 1 Companion Wolf Companion 2 Vault Tumble 3 Preparation Invigoration 4 Vengeance Dark Heart
Passive Skills
Blood Vengeance Steady Aim Cull the Weak Ambush

Similarly to a primary attack build, this Demon Hunter variant spends most of its combat rotation holding down a resource-generating attack — in this case, Chakram, transformed from a spender via the worn Spines of Seething Hatred. In order to keep up the other half of the Focus and Restraint set bonus, you will also be using Multishot at least once every 5 seconds. The remainder of your skillset will augment your utility or damage, with substantial safety and buffs coming from Vengeance (aiming for 100% uptime and using it on cooldown) and Wolf Companion (popped during major fights for a temporary damage increase). Preparation will remain quietly in the background as an emergency Discipline refill, while Vault will serve to get you in and out of trouble whenever necessary.

The primary damage dealer of the build is Chakram, swapped from a rather inexpensive Hatred spender into a full-on generator via the Spines of Seething Hatred. In turn, this enables the Unhallowed Essence 2- and 6-piece bonuses to apply to it, as well as maximizing the Hatred-dependent bonuses of Sword of Ill Will and triggering the generator half of the Bastions of Will set bonus (see this build's gear page for more information). Rune-wise, you will be using the physical Razor Disk rune due to its combination of good range and superior AoE coverage compared to the other options.

Unlike its more popular pure Multishot sibling, the Chakram Demon Hunter incorporates the use of Multishot solely as a damage buff. Since Chakram is turned into a generator, Multishot will fulfill the role of a resource-spending attack for the purposes of Focus and Restraint, and will also provide a valuable Crit Chance increase and Chill effect on affected enemies.

Working with mostly low-cost utility skills, this Demon Hunter build is very light on Discipline usage — falling right in line with the mechanics of the Unhallowed Essence set, which equates your current Discipline pool into additional damage. To further those bonuses, you will be taking Preparation Invigoration to extend your Discipline pool with another 20, and it will still provide an instant refill on a decent cooldown whenever necessary.

Companion is a very adaptable skill in the Demon Hunter arsenal, but in terms of Greater Rift progression it is very hard to argue with the multiplicative damage bonuses coming from the Wolf Companion rune. Try to conserve this cooldown when you have made a good pull or initiated an important fight (i.e. a good cluster of elites), in order to maximize its modest uptime.

Vault is an indispensable tool in the Demon Hunter skillset, providing with an inexpensive and long distance movement tool to a class that thrives in picking out enemies from advantageous positions. You will further emphasize on its value-per-Discipline angle by taking the rune Tumble, which makes every other vault in quick succession cost 50% less.

Last but not least, Vengeance is a Demon Hunter endgame staple that makes its way into yet another build — providing 50% Damage Reduction from the Dark Heart rune on top of an already impressive baseline 40% damage buff and immunity to Crowd Control while active. This skill will be made permanent with the help of an equipped Dawn and a modest investment into Cooldown Reduction, discussed in the gearing section.

A duo of permanent damage boosting passives — Cull the Weak and Steady Aim — make up the first half of your passive selection. Cull the Weak is a Demon Hunter mainstay, bringing a multiplicative 20% damage increase against Slowed or Chilled enemies. The benefits from this passive will be constantly available as long as you execute your rotation properly and cover the battlefield in Multishot Wind Chills. Steady Aim improves your DPS with a 20% multiplicative increase as long as you maintain the trivial requirement of 10 yards between yourself and the enemy.

In terms of conditional damage boosting, Ambush provides a 40% damage increase for the first quarter of the enemies' lives — a bonus that that is multiplicative in nature, and one that provides excellent value on Rift Guardians while you are waiting for Bane of the Stricken to build up.

Usually associated with speed farming, the Blood Vengeance passive is part of the Greater Rift selection for Chakram Demon Hunters, as it increases the base value of your Hatred reserve — which feeds right into the Sword of Ill Will bonuses. Its resource restoration properties when picking up health globes are just icing on top.