Unhallowed Essence Multishot Demon Hunter Skills and Runes

Active Skills
Evasive Fire Focus Multishot Arsenal 1 Preparation Invigoration 2 Vengeance Seethe 3 Vault Tumble 4 Companion Wolf Companion
Passive Skills
Ambush Thrill of the Hunt Cull the Weak Ballistics

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

The main damage dealer in the build is Multishot, taken with the highest burst damage potential rune, 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: 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 rune to 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 for a defensive Awareness).

While the build invests heavily into resource cost reduction, you can easily dump your Hatred pool with 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. This primary fires in a convenient cone shape reminiscent of Multishot, and sports one of the strongest generation runes — Focus. Remember that alternating your spender with regular Evasive Fires is critical not only for Hatred upkeep, but also the Focus and 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 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, the Multishot DH incorporates the skill into the build and strives for its permanent uptime through a cubed Dawn. This potent 40% damage buff will also increase Hatred regeneration to 10 per second from the Seethe rune. Depending on your Cube choices (discussed further), Vengeance can also reduce incoming damage in half from the Dark Heart rune, gained for free from a cubed Visage of Gunes.

With multiple utilities to pick from, the Multishot Demon Hunter chooses a DPS buff role for the Companion skill through the Wolf Companion rune, boosting you with a temporary multiplicative damage increase. While the 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 active in key moments like elite fights, or heavy trash density.

The final ingredient is an aggressive movement tool, the Demon Hunter staple 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 if you run Visage of Gunes (or when speedrunning with Multishot Wind Chill), or Trail of Cinders if you opt for Cindercoat. Either way, 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.

Reworked in Patch 2.4, Thrill of the Hunt is an excellent inclusion to the build that slows all enemies hit by Multishot by a whopping 80%. Safety concerns aside, it doubles as an effortless proc for Bane of the Trapped and Cull the Weak, freeing you from 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, the 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 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 when Greater Rifting, or switching to Multishot Wind Chill during speedfarm.

Bolstering the power of Arsenal, the Multishot Demon Hunter picks up 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.