Build Guide
Theory/Background - (The Why)
This build is made possible by the newly revised Hellcat Waistguard. The belt seems to give roughly a 50% chance to bounce up to 5 times, gaining damage on each bounce. I tested and can confirm that the damage bonus of 50% on each bounce and final bonus of 800% is indeed MULTIPLICATIVE with the original grenade damage of skill. The location of where the grenades bounce is random, but the resulting damage is huge.
This build uses Danetta's instead of Fortress Ballista with offhand. As a result you will have nearly permanent vault for extreme mobility. Also Danetta's leaves clones, stuns and knocks back mobs as you vault through them. This provides a great defensive benefit. Also since vaults will now cost hatred instead of discipline it will be possible to have max discipline at all times for more damage from the UE 6p bonus. As another benefit, vault will proc Focus/Restraint because it consumes hatred and the action shot rune deals damage. Just make sure to vault enough to keep up the F/R buff.
Gearing/Game Play - (The How)
Make sure to have at least 36.7% cdr for permanent Vengeance. Tactical Advantage passive is desirable to use for speed runs. If there is a reliable source of slowing then cull the weak can be a better choice than ambush in higher GR's. A hellfire amulet is preferred but a well rolled immunity amulet (especially arcane) is a fine choice too. For speed rifting Nemesis bracers are recommended if toughness allows. For pushing GR's use Wraps of Clarity. For bounties there is no better choice than the Warzechian Armguards. As with all UE builds, more discipline means more damage, therefore strive for maximum discipline on both weapons and cloak.
It goes w/o saying that it is imperative to keep up UE's 4p bonus thereby maintaining 2.5x toughness and 60% more damage (which is multiplicative with 6p bonus).
Make sure to spam Vengeance, bladed armor and wolf when off cooldown. The constant activation of these skills can be achieved by num locking them. Beyond that, all that is required is to vault for mobility and fire grenades to attack and regenerate hatred for more vaults. Its really that simple. You do need to be aware of your position relative to mobs and place yourself at least 10 yd away from mobs every 8 sec to keep up UE 4p. I personally use vault actively to stun elites and RG's to interrupt their special attacks. This can be be extremely helpful in surviving nasty fights. Note that while vaulting you enter into a smoke screen like state that renders you invulnerable to incoming damage for the brief time you're traveling from point to point.
Summary/Wrap Up - (The Results)
The build is very simple to play and a hell of a lot of fun. It gives insane mobility, good damage and high survivability. I have tested this build in season 9 on PTR in HC. With 800 para I cleared a GR 80 in 13:39 on the first attempt. This build will not be used to compete for pushing the highest GR's, but its more than capable of clearing well into the 80's with no problem. For speed farming it is superb. GR 70's are taking 4-5 min to clear. Normal rifts (T13 Rift Clear) are fast and fun. Split farming 4man T13 bounties is very doable once geared well. In short, outside of bleeding edge GR pushing (for that try Season 9 explosive-generator-94-grenade-build), this build can and will do everything you need and want within Diablo 3.
I have thoroughly enjoyed playing and testing out this build and I hope you will find as much enjoyment with it as I have. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions. Please Upvote if you find this guide useful. Thanks.
Great explanations and walkthrough John. This build is impressive in how high it can go with nems and how consistently fast it is. It's rare to see a high level speed build that works on elites or white mobs. Great work!
The belt might have failed so far with M6 by not buffing sentries (still no official word whether this is intended or an oversight) but it certainly seems to give a new lease of life to Danettas.
For a generator build with 1H this is really not bad; taken it for a spin and is doing well on T13/GR70 solo (P1240, 13 x 72 Caldesann, lvl 80 gems)
I still prefer the MS build for GR speed but for bounties it feels less clunky than having to use Chain of Shadows + Impale for mobility. For T13 speed they feel about the same.
ApoAlaia, thanks for your comments. I am glad you find this build useful for bounties and rifting. Multishot is a fine build and has demonstrated its worth since the introduction of Yang's and Deadmans. As far as I can tell the damage output is comparable between Multishot and this build. Multishot does have better aoe and does not suffer the randomness of grenade bounces.
The biggest advantage that I see this build having is stellar mobility. Also it feels noticeably tankier, thereby allowing more aggressive game play. Multshot is generally built fairly glassy to achieve its damage and thereby has problems on higher GRs with survival. This build has built in life recovery from simplicity's strength and ability to lay down some timely stuns. This is especially important if you play HC like me. Having that extra factor of safety can make all the difference.
Multishot will remain good. The Hellcat will add even more good options for DH's. Overall I am excited to put this spec to good use in season 9. It will be a good time to play DH.
It is definitely good to have some variety
I cannot comment on HC because I haven't played a single minute of it (shame on me) but I remember playing another HC favourite build a few patches back: Nat6 with Danettas (RoV with Crashing Rain being the main source of damage).
Sadly that build did not have the DPS for current standards and fell into disuse. Happy to see a chance for Danettas to make a comeback.
It is definitely tankier than MS, and just as well because you need to vault through mobs a lot which makes things like fire chains a bit of a concern. Said that is refreshing to play builds that actually require you to pay attention to what you are doing from time to time!
Personally I will be taking your build up when 2.4.3 goes live and who knows, maybe I will be even playing HC with it; one day I need to get around to completing those achievements!
Either way, the tl;dr is: this build is a feasible alternative to MS, thank you for sharing.
So recently getting back into D3 and relearning all there is so excuse the possible noobish question, But looking over the build you mention Hellcat having a Orange Text (and show it with one in the video) but after picking up a decent number of the Hellcat belts im noticing they dont have any, is this due to an update or luck or something else cause i feel that it is a big part of the build
At the moment is only available on the PTR, it will be available on the live servers once patch 2.4.3 is released. We do not know the exact date for the patch to go live but the educated guess is that shortly after the Christmas holidays.
can't wait to play this looks like mad fun
same ive been playing archon wiz and monk speedbuilds forever now time to get back to dh since there will be a viable build now that isn't just UE multishot spam lol
Question about a speedfarm version of this build. If toughness wasn't too much of an issue for t10 speedruns, would dropping Dark Heart for Personal Mortar be good?
It may be a bug or intended, but atm personal mortar does not seem to benefit from the Hellcat Waistguard. If it did, personal mortar would be a fantastic option to use for low level speed runs. As it stands now though, unless they change it, personal mortar will not add much damage.
Some of the other ways one can dial in less toughness in favor of more damage would be to replace the numbing traps passive with cull the weak or archery and or replacing diamonds with emeralds in pants and cloak. Early in season 9 when lightly geared its probably not best option. Later once well geared, these are opened up as viable possiblities.
I just want to give a shout out to Luffysenpai88 (TQDrago) for his UE generator build that is great at pushing GR's here: http://www.diablofans.com/builds/84886-2-4-3-explosive-generator-90-grenade-build. Here is a video of him clearing a GR 94 with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Yt4rDga8Y. Note he had 2400 para and 3.4 mil damage and it was done in softcore, but an amazing clear none the less.
Comparing his build with mine, it deals more damage but has less mobility and safety. My build is better when mobility is needed over damage. Once the damage cap is reached, it will be necessary to migrate to his build if you want a higher GR clear.
Is there something special about Hellcat Waistguard over Witching Hour? Both have Attack Speed, but WH has Crit Damage too.
I just added a video of a T13 Rift.
Can you please add the gear + skills of the enchantress? Thanks
Templar is often used for healing/resource regen, but with this build you really don't need either. Therefore enchantress becomes an option to use and is good because she adds defense, dmg with a little crowd control too.
Gear consists of a Smoking Thurible (can not die), Thunderfurry, Ess of johan, Occulus ring, Wyrdward ring. Skills are Charm, Powered Armor, Erosion and Mass Control. Note there are break points for grenades that u can find here Grenade Break Points. if u need more attack speed to reach the next break point and the 3% ias will get you there, then use Focused Mind instead of Mass Control. Hope this helps.
Nice guide! Ty