Diablo 3 news » Vash’s “Chain Lightning” Demon Hunter
Multishot is a great ability for obliterating your enemies, and it seems pretty straightforward to don the Unhallowed Essence set to make the best of it. In today's edition of Play Your Way, Vash#1796 adds a flash of lightning to this shotgun-style gameplay.
About the Build:
When the Unhallowed Essence set came together, we designed it to evoke the idea of wielding a medieval shotgun to mulch your foes with a satisfying spread. While any build using this set will evoke that feeling, there’s a certain level of twitchy, active gameplay that the shotgun theme evokes. Perhaps it’s the years of FPS gaming and the distant memories of opponents screaming “SHE FOUND THE SHOTGUN, RUN FOR IT,” that makes this play style so appealing. Or maybe it’s just the fact that melting faces with spread weapons is inherently fun.
It can't be just me, right?
I get really engaged in games that keep me active, on my feet, and constantly thinking. While there are plenty of more relaxing builds out there, it looks like Vash#1796 and I are on the same page this week. His Unhallowed Essence build naturally focuses on Multishot, as it’s designed to do, but adds a layer of complexity by incorporating Odyssey’s End and making his Entangling Shots nearly as important. Ensuring that you’re tagging all your enemies with its valuable buff can be challenging and that extra layer of gameplay makes this quite the enjoyable build.
The Skills:
Aside from your basic damage dealers, this build uses quite a few defensive and utility skills to enhance your damage and kiting ability.
Active Skills:
- Entangling Shot (Chain Gang)
- Part one of your two-part deadly combo
- The Chain Gang rune makes the application of Odyssey’s End much easier, doubling the number of targets it can potentially hit with its Slow effect
- Your bread and butter for not only gaining Hatred, but Discipline through the use of the Unhallowed Essence set
- Multishot (Fire at Will)
- Your core shotgun blast
- Reducing the Hatred cost means more blasts more often
- Lightning element fits nicely and supports an overall theme in this build
- Vault (Tumble)
- Allows you to easily position yourself to spread the Odyssey’s End debuff across more targets
- Reduced Discipline cost means keeping your Discipline as full as possible to provide maximum benefit to your Multishot and Entangling Shot abilities
- Marked for Death (Contagion)
- Additional damage increases your output across the board as well as for any party members you may have
- The chain effect of Contagion is not only super useful, but pun-tacularly thematic
- Preparation (Invigoration)
- Primarily equipped to increase your overall Discipline pool by 15, increasing total potential damage output with Unhallowed Essence
- Offers a quick way to top your Discipline off should you find yourself short from Vault usage
- Companion (Wolf Companion)
- Another additional damage increase for both yourself and party members
Passive Skills:
- Steady Aim
- Synergizes nicely with Zei’s Stone of Vengeance and the 4-piece bonus of Unhallowed Essence
- Cull the Weak
- With frequent use of Entangling Shot, you’ll always benefit from this passive
- Ambush
- Packs a huge punch at the start of every combat, especially against larger targets like Rift Guardians
- Perfectionist
- Helps round out a particularly squishy build
- Preserves some precious Discipline from using Vault, keeping your reservoir full for maximum damage potential from Unhallowed Essence
Alternative Skills:
- Smoke Screen (Any)
- Replaces Vault (Tumble)
- Trades mobility for survivability, if that’s more your style
- Shadow Power (Any)
- Replaces Vault (Tumble)
- Similarly trades mobility for survivability
- Caltrops (Any)
- Replaces Vault (Tumble)
- Offers an additional way to proc bonuses from Cull the Weak and Bane of the Trapped
- Thrill of the Hunt
- Replaces Perfectionist
- Provides additional crowd control to help keep those enemies nice and distant
- Archery
- Replaces Perfectionist
- When using Odyssey’s End, it’s hard to go wrong with 8% bonus damage
- Single Out
- Replaces Perfectionist
- Impressively raises the single-target output of this build, which can be extra valuable on Rift Guardians
- Awareness
- Replaces Perfectionist
- A great go-to for players of the Hardcore persuasion (or those who generally dislike dying)
The Items:
Beyond the set items and weapon, most of the auxiliary gear in this build remains flexible.
Ready to annhilate.
Recommended Items:
- Unhallowed Essence (6-piece bonus)
- The meat and bones of this build
- The full set impressively enhances the power of both your generators and Multishot, boosting damage through the roof and rewarding your Discipline
- Odyssey’s End
- The second crux of this build
- Enhances Entangling Shot and creates a very active give and take playstyle, encouraging constant skill swapping, positioning, and strategic play
- As an added bonus, this boost also applies to party members, offering some support to your teammates
- Dead Man’s Legacy (Season 3)
- Note: This item is a Season 3 exclusive and won’t be available to non-Seasonal characters until Season 3 ends
- Further enhances the power of Multishot, making it the king damage dealer of this build
Complementary Items:
- Bastions of Will (2-piece bonus)
- The very nature of this build plays well with this set, as you want to be regularly applying Entangling Shot between your Multishot bursts
- Depth Diggers
- If you have the wiggle room to rock a Ring of Royal Grandeur, these pants can bring up the damage output of your Entangling Shot for when you’re low on Hatred
- Stone of Jordan
- A Lightning-oriented Stone of Jordan is super complementary, especially if you’re not using Bastions of Will
Recommended Legendary Gems:
- Zei’s Stone of Vengeance
- With plenty of kiting power to keep your enemies at bay, it should be simple to keep up the bonus from this gem
- The Unhallowed Essence set rewards you for keeping enemies at bay — Zei’s Stone of Vengeance sweetens that deal
- Bane of the Trapped
- Your enemies will nearly always be slowed from Entangling Shot, allowing you to reap the benefits of this gem even if it’s not yet Rank 25
- Simplicity's Strength
- Don’t discount your Entangling Shot damage! This can be a great boost between your heavier hitting Multishots
- Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard
- Replaces Simplicity's Strength
- Should you find you’re a bit too paper thin, this gem will help keep you in the action
Recommended Stats:
- Maximum Discipline is an extraordinarily powerful secondary stat for the Unhallowed Essence set. More Discipline directly equals more power, so get to stacking this wherever you can!
- Resource Cost Reduction is particularly helpful as Multishot can get very expensive. While you’ll still be trading off between Entangling Shot and Multishot casts, it’s still nice to be able to unload your heavier hitter more frequently.
- As this is a Lightning-themed set, be sure to stack some +% Lightning damage to round out your stats.
Why We Like This Build:
The most appealing part of this build is how active it keeps you. Playing the Chain Lightning Demon Hunter requires careful consideration in your positioning, constant use of just about all your skills, and management of your resources to make sure you’re getting the most out of your various bonuses. Managing to put all that gameplay together in a way that’s thematic? GG, I’m sold.
Seriously though, if the zombie apocalypse is ever a thing, hand me a shotgun and we're good to go.
Tell Us What You Think!
How does your Demon Hunter decimate the demonic hordes? Are you a fan of the Unhallowed Essence set? Have you tried to emulate your favorite play style from a different genre of game by making a build in Diablo III? Let us know in the comments or send in your build! We’d love to check it out.
Next week, the Witch Doctor will be bringing us home for our last build in this round of Play Your Way. We’ll see you then!
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