Build Guide
Patch 2.6.1 buffs the 6p of Unhollowed Essence from 40% to 100% damage per point of Discipline that you have. This buff increases the power of UE by approximately 2.5x. With the buff to UE, this build should be able to clear approximately 6 tiers higher than before this patch. This build is made possible by the Hellcat Waistguard. The belt give's 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. There are break points for grenades, which can be found here: Grenade Break Points. Adjust gear/paragon/enchantress skills to make sure your attack speed is just on the high side of a Break Point. The 21 frame Break Point means the grenades will attack at a rate of 60/21 (In this game there are 60 frames a sec for actions) or 2.86 attacks per sec.
An alternative for pushing higher tier GR's would be to use a Traveler's Pledge, Compass Rose and Convention of Elements instead of Focus, Restraint and Hellfire Amulet. The advantage of using Endless Walk & CoE over F/R & HF would be potentially more damage while staying in place, more damage reduction while moving and not having to vault to proc F/R. I have found that using F/R & HF is superior for speed runs due to more consistent damage from the always up F/R buffs and to there being very little time spent stationary in these runs, which would lower the damage output of Endless Walk.
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. This build will not be used to compete for pushing the highest GR's, but its more than capable of clearing well into the 90's with no problem. For speed farming it is superb. GR 80's are taking 3-4 min to clear. Normal rifts are fast and fun. Split farming 4man T13 bounties is very efficient. In short, outside of bleeding edge GR pushing, 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.
Love this build for how simple but powerful it is. I'm on the ps4 and just keep my grenades held down while tapping vault to do all my movement (I move almost exclusively with vault no matter what I'm doing), I end up rolling through gr65's flawless for quick gems in 6-9 minutes with decent gear (para 716). Definitely my favorite dh build.
I am considering swapping f+r for elusive and a SoJ, my concern is whether the 20% fire 30% elite and 10* disc(400% from 6p) would be better damage or if f+r math out differently in the equation for more damage, any insight?
*edit: d3planner has soj as able to roll 12 its actually 10
Some of my guildies use the Icy Veins variation w/Fortress Ballista and Dawn, but I wanted a build using Danetta's. This is the most survivable, most fun DH build I've ever had and I've played D3 since launch day. I didn't read thru all of the comments, so forgive me if this has already been posted; but could you advise on desirable secondaries for each piece of equipment? I've already upvoted your build. =)
Sweet, seems I already have pretty much the optimum setup. Currently using an ancient HF w/the Archery passive. Should I keep trying for one w/Leech? I can def see the usefulness of Leech, altho Archery gives me 5% more CHC..
I ended up going with a non-ancient HF ammy w/Leech. I'm continuing to make HFs looking for a good one w/Cull the Weak. My resists are superb, so don't really need a Mara's or anything of that nature. If I do have any kind of problem I just keep vaulting to stun. I numlocked Vengeance, Fan and Wolf so just keep left mouse button down and press 1 to vault. Couldn't be easier, so much fun and so survivable. Have done an 85 GR, which is far and away the highest I have ever accomplished, with only level 60 augments on my gear. Still looking for a perfect belt too. Wearing an ancient Hunter's Wrath, but with just 56% increased grenade damage.
I managed to find a primal ancient Elusive Ring and am using that with a 199% CoE instead of Focus/Restraint. I don't know the theorycrafting behind what makes what gear hit harder for your build, but my character sheet damage is higher along with toughness and recovery. I figured since the build uses Lightning, Fire, Cold and Physical a CoE made sense. Any advice on that would be appreciated.
As something to look forward to, the current PTR patch for 2.6.1 is buffing UE's 6p bonus to 70% from 40% per point of discipline. This would result in roughly a 4 tier increase to what the build can clear.
I like the formulas but, at least for *my* jewelry combos (Primal Elusive Ring augmented +300 dex, Ancient CoE 122 Resist All, non-ancient F/R) this is what I found:
HF/ER/CoE gives me 1.5 mil dps and 73 mil toughness
HF/F&R gives me 1.3 mil dps and 72 mil toughness..
Trav's/ER gives me 1.5 mil dps and 75.5 mil toughness
Sticking w/Trav's and swapping CoE for ER gives me 1.4 mil dps and 78 mil toughness
So while your formulas say one thing, my character sheet says another. How do I make the right choice here? Is the +199% elemental dmg I get from my CoE enough to overcome .5% more CHC, 50% more CHD, 400 more dex I get with my Primal ER? Is going by the character sheet good enough or do I stick with whatever formula says will give me the most dps? Is there a difference in toughness that's going to matter between 72 million and 78 million?
Google a video by Quin69, theres a trick to numlock to autopresses buttons.
Hello buddy Great stuff. Smiles.....
Thanks for posting this! I was having trouble with the set I was using, even with a couple of ancients, consistently getting GR 56 done. Switched to this, exactly as described, with like one ancient and poorly optimized gear? Just cleared my GR 70 for the season! It's fast, it's fun, I'm having a great time with it. It's way more survivable than I expected too.
BigJohnasty! This is probably the most fun I have had on D3 as a DH in a long time with this build. I usually always ran the Multi Shot UE build and would usually get burnt and annoyed about survivability. This is exactly as you put it in the description, and extremely easy to play. Bravo.
You mention grenade break point and attack speed, what should I be aiming for with enchantress and my stats to achieve this exact point?
I'm glad you like the build, I really have enjoyed playing it too. It was especially nice back before Shadow Impale and UE Multishot were buffed. In particular this build is especially good at doing bounties. Have fun and good luck with the rest of Season 12.
I'm probably missing something but the IAS bp picture doesn't tell us how much % ias we need to hit those bps? Also wanted to ask if we can roll off the damage range roll on the off-hand danettas to get an "extra" roll? This only assumes that the grenades damage comes solely from the main-hand.
Thought of another idea, apologies if these have all been asked; I haven't gotten around to reading all the comments. With rorg, would it be an extra source of dps to wear the Visage of gunes and equip the first rune that throws out 2 grenades with each attack on vengeance? Without any mathing/testing, I feel like that could be an huge dps increase.