Unhallowed Essence Multishot Demon Hunter BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points
Below, we detail the items and gems that you should use for your Unhallowed Essence Multishot Demon Hunter in Diablo 3 and why. We also list your paragon points and Kanai's Cube items. Updated for Patch 2.7.8 and Season 33.
Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives
The build incorporates the complete Unhallowed Essence set bonuses, taking five of the six available UE set pieces, and then adding two pieces of the craftable Captain Crimson's Trimmings set — Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle and one more of your choosing, according to your weakest UE set roll (either Captain Crimson's Thrust or Captain Crimson's Waders). This set provides CDR as well as RCR bonuses, and then scales your damage dealt and damage reduced according to both stats, respectively — bringing a massive boon to the build. You will attain the complete set bonuses of this two-set amalgamation via Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube. The BiS roll for Fiendish Grips includes double Crit stats alongside Dexterity and Area Damage. Discipline in the secondary and Hatred Regeneration in the primary stats are the notable requirements on the Cage of the Hellborn. Area Damage and CDR rolls will be helpful on the Unsanctified Shoulders. The Accursed Visage and Hell Walkers can roll Multishot % bonus, and it is mandatory to seek the skill bonus on both.
The cubed RoRG leaves space for a potent combo in the jewelry: the Bastions of Will set, Focus and Restraint. This ring set adds an impressive 2.25independent damage multiplier as long as you alternate between a primary and spender attacks; thus, learn to weave frequent Evasive Fire shots in your Multishot spam (see this build's skills page for more information). In the stats, aim for Crit Chance, Crit Damage, and an open Socket.
The preferred option for this build is Squirt's Necklace; rewarding high-range and evasive builds that demolish their enemies from afar, this legendary piece greatly amplifies both damage dealt and damage taken. The former favorite, Hellfire Amulet of Dexterity, is still a viable choice — especially if you roll a helpful fifth passive like Steady Aim or Awareness. Another strong option is the grouping of The Ess of Johan, which greatly eases AoE. Regardless of your choice, the desired stats are Crit Chance, Crit Damage, an open Socket, and appropriate elemental damage (Fire in Greater Rifts, Cold in speedfarm).
Created as a direct answer to the excessive frailty of the Demon Hunter class, the Wraps of Clarity bracer reduces damage taken for several seconds after using a Hatred Generator. Along with the Bastions of Will set, this item fortifies the position of Evasive Fire in the build, and serves as a constant reminder to alternate your primary and secondary skill.
Tailor-made for Multishot builds, the Yang's Recurve bow features too many helpful affixes to ignore. Naturally rolling with up to 50% Resource Cost Reduction, it is already a strong contender for expensive spender builds. What seals the deal is the unique property of the bow, speeding up Multishot by 50% and turning the solid attack rate into an unyielding barrage. The other desired stats are high damage range, high Dexterity, % Damage and Discipline in the secondary stats.
No less important than its weapon counterpart, the Dead Man's Legacy is a Multishot-specific quiver that picks damage up almost where Ambush leaves off. With an optimal roll, this quiver will apply a second Multishot hit as soon as your enemy reaches below 60% health, including the rockets from Arsenal. An ideal roll would also include a high Multishot % bonus (up to 200% with the 2.6.1 rework), Area Damage and Discipline in the secondary stats.
Desired Stats, Breakpoints and Other Notes
Rolls-wise, this Multishot-centric playstyle takes good advantage of Attack Speed, Skill and Area Damage affixes. You will be trying to reach a 37% CDR breakpoint for permanent uptime of Vengeance, attainable from Paragon points, Flawless Royal Diamond and the inclusion of the Cpt. Crimson's set in the build (no CDR rolls on gear necessary).
For Defense stats, aim for a life pool between 500-600k; dropping as much as you can for offense as you grow accustomed to the build. You will mostly sustain through Life per Hit on gear, with one high roll in your setup (i.e. bracer).
All augmentations on gear should be done with your main stat, Dexterity.
Note that the stat suggestions below portray an ideally rolled item with stats listed in relative order of importance. The first four of them are main stats, and the latter two — secondary stats. If your item lacks and is unable to be rerolled into the primary stats outlined below, especially for a stat higher on the list, strongly consider its replacement. Perfecting Secondary stats is mostly a case of hyper-optimization and is not a case for discarding an item, except where noted.
Slot | Pieces | Stat Priority |
---|---|---|
Head |
|
|
Shoulders |
|
|
Torso |
|
|
Wrists |
|
|
Hands |
|
|
Waist |
|
|
Legs |
|
|
Feet |
|
|
Amulet |
|
|
Ring #1 |
|
|
Ring #2 |
|
|
Weapon |
|
|
Off-hand |
|
To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.
Altar of Rites
The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.
Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).
You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.
Paragon Points
In the Core section, max out Movement Speed to the 25% cap. Normally this is done by dumping the first 50 Core Paragon points into Movement Speed, but if your boots have an imperfect roll with Movement Speed as a stat that you cannot replace, adjust the necessary point investment accordingly by simply subtracting your roll from the 25% max. After that dump as much as you comfortably can into Dexterity, but feel free to invest into Vitality if you feel yourself lacking in toughness, or Maximum Hatred if you want to play around with a bigger resource pool.
In the Offense section, max out Cooldown Reduction, Attack Speed, Crit Damage and Crit Chance in that order. In Defense, prioritize All Resistance, then Life %, then Armor, and finish off with Life Regeneration. In Utility, build up Area Damage and Resource Cost Reduction first, then finish off with Life on Hit and Globe Radius.
Slot | Paragon Points |
---|---|
Core |
|
Offense |
|
Defense |
|
Utility |
|
Gems
Bane of the Trapped is a potent source of additional damage, as it is its own multiplier in your total damage calculation. The gem will be procced by Zei's Stone of Vengeance, Thrill of the Hunt, crowd control secondary stats on your gear (Slow %, Freeze %), or Wind Chill in speedfarming.
Zei's Stone of Vengeance is another independent multiplier, whose range-dependent amplification can be easily maxed out by the long reach of Multishot. The level 25 property will add some minor control and safety to the build, as well as another proc for Bane of the Trapped.
Bane of the Powerful's duration scales very well with levels, and having a low uptime on a decently leveled gem is a telling sign that the rift is unfavorable anyway (winding layout, lacking density, insufficient elites). The gem's default 20% damage increase has been reworked into multiplicative, and the level 25 bonus now increases AND reduces elite damage by 15%, making it a well-rounded choice for many builds. For extremely high end pushing, swap this gem out for Bane of the Stricken to assist you in taking down the Rift Guardian.
When it comes to gear gems, you will start out progression by slotting the highest available level of Emeralds in the chest and pants sockets. Ideally, these will all be Flawless Royal Emeralds as soon as possible. As you grow in Paragon (bulking up Dexterity in the Core section) and aim for higher tier and more dangerous GRs, you will transition those gems into the defensive Flawless Royal Diamond. There is no specific breakpoint where you do that; the rule of thumb is to make the change as soon as you feel the lack of toughness impede your progress. Since you are chasing a specific CDR breakpoint, slot a Flawless Royal Diamond in your helm. In your weapon, use a Flawless Royal Emerald for the Crit Damage boost.
Slot | Gems |
---|---|
Jewelry |
|
Helm | |
Torso and Pants | |
Weapon |
For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.
Kanai's Cube
The previously affix-less Dawn turns into one of the most attractive Demon Hunter crossbows to consume in the cube. With Vengeance reworked into a universally desired buff, reducing its cooldown up to 65% and achieving permanent uptime through gear is an opportunity you cannot pass lightly.
Working alongside Dawn, the new helm Visage of Gunes allows you to store a convenient damage reduction bonus from Dark Heart in the Cube and work on your resource management through Seethe on the skill bar. The old favorite for the slot, Cindercoat, remains a strong alternative with its 30% cost reduction to Fire skills; it will result in a longer Multishot Arsenal resource dump (preferred for pushing GR limits with the Fire spec), but takes you to the glass cannon extremities.
In the Unhallowed Essence / Captain Crimson mixture, you will need a Ring of Royal Grandeur: a cache legendary ring from Act I bounties, to tie the two sets together. The ability to run with one full 6-piece set bonus and an additional 3-piece bonus, dodging the undesirable guaranteed stats on the Grandeur by cubing its power, is a tremendous boost to the build.
With the 4th open slot in Kanai's Cube during Season 33,you can re-introduce the damage multiplication bonuses from the cyclical elemental buff of Convention of Elements.
The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.
Follower
The recommended follower for this build during solo GR progression is the Scoundrel due to his powerful crit buff, allowing you brief windows of extra damage that are well suited to the strengths of this build.
For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.
Legendary Potion
The preferred potion for this build is Bottomless Potion of the Leech due to its Life per Hit bonuses, which synergize perfectly for the high attack speed and sustain-through-attacks playstyle of the build.
Changelog
- 22 Oct. 2024: Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
- 09 Jul. 2024: Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
- 10 Apr. 2024: Added Season 31 advice for the unbound Kanai's Cube slots.
- 08 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
- 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
- 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
- 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
- 13 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 09 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
- 21 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
- 01 Apr. 2021: Added follower recommendation.
- 18 Nov. 2020: Added S22 Cube recommendation.
- 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. Expanded the stat priorities, paragon points, gems sections. Added a potion section.
- 28 Aug. 2019: Minor correction to recommended gear.
- 23 Aug. 2019: Now using Captain Crimson and Squirt's Necklace.
- 16 May 2019: Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
- 17 Jan. 2019: Added suggestions for the baseline Ring of Royal Grandeur for Seasonal characters.
More Demon Hunter Guides
Builds from Other Classes
Farming Guides
This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.
- Diablo 3 Season 33, Shades of the Nephalem, Official Preview
- Diablo III Patch 2.7.8 Preview: What to Expect in Season 33?
- Diablo III 2.7.8 PTR Delayed
- Season 32 Launches Today! Here Is Everything You Need to Know!
- Diablo 3 Season 32 Starts on July 12th
- Diablo Immortal x WoW Crossover Event: Frostmourne in Sanctuary!
- Blizzard at Gamescom 2024
- Icy Veins Seeking Writers for Zenless Zone Zero: Apply Today!