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.
Thank for the compliments, I'm very happy that you are enjoying the build. Using the Endless Walk Set (Traveler's Pledge/Compass Rose) along with either COE or Elusive Ring is another option. Comparing its use to F/R + HF amulet, I would say its a tankier option. However on average less damage, because this build requires the player to keep mobile. This mobility will lend itself to the dmg reduction, not the dmg bonus phase of the Endless Walk Set. Both options are neither good nor bad, just ways to dial in a different balance between Offense and Defense. My Suggestion would be to test out both and see which feels the best to you. Its probably better to use the Tumble rune for vault when not using F/R.
So you proc F/R from Vault?
You are a Genius man!!!
I was sad because the multishot build is bad in Great Rift and i love to play with her.
And the other builds that i have found seems prety boring to play, but this build is so fun too!
Thank you +1, and sorry for my bad english XD
Love the build! I have a question regarding endless walk however. This is a high mobility build yes, but the majority of your movement is through the use of vault. Does endless walk tilt towards DR when using vault, or only while running? I would test this myself but I am currently at work.
I chose to start with a WD this season and now you are making me regret that choice! This looks super fun and effective!
Spoke with you in game yesterday, RIP DH.
I do believe the damage bonus of F/R are multiplicative though where as the 400% would be additive, but with the Fire% as well as having another ring option, I would be interested to see the math for it.
I finally made this build last night, still missing a couple pieces but decided to try it out in T8 as it was and it felt like I was on normal. Can't wait to try it out and hopefully finish it tonight!
I haven't play DH for a while (like not since the first season), and your build made me want to try it.
I really enjoy it and it's clearly part of my top 3 builds, all classes considered! Really fun and dynamic!
Thank you!
There is a misunderstanding of how the 6p UE bonus works. The bonus damage that is given by additional points of discipline is additive with the discipline bonus damage you already have. So for instance if you had 86 discipline, then added 10 more for a total of 96, the increase in damage would be calculated as follows: (1+0.4*96)/(1+0.4*86), or 39.4/35.4 = 1.113 or 11.3% increase in damage. Now compare that to the damage bonus of Focus and Restraint, 1.5*1.5 = 2.25 or 125% increase in damage. F/R is clearly more damage.
As stated in an above comment, SOJ can be used in conjunction with the Endless Walk set as and option, just as a COE, elusive or unity ring can. Each of these bring strengths and weaknesses to the table. I personally feel that F/R with a well rolled HF amulet or Elemental immunity amulet functions best with a highly mobile build like this, but try those alternatives to determine which feels better for you.
Not a bad build considering you're in their face so no dmg bonus from UE 4 pc and the hellcat looks good.
He does go over the concept of vaulting at least 10 yrds away at least every 8 seconds to keep the 4 piece buff active. Its a great build IMO, and after having tried it briefly last night, I can't wait to finish getting the pieces I need and upgrades with proper stats and start to push some GRs and really test it out!
Thank you BigJohnasty for this absolutely brilliant build. After recently acquiring several of the necessary pieces of the build, I have recently converted from gearing a traditional UE DH to this build. It has allowed me to break out of the lower torments into the seasonal mid game. I recommend it highly for any players finding themselves in the same situation.
I am sure if you posted your character profile, BigJohn could offer some tips on how you could improve your gear to make this build work better for you!
Well, I finally got a chance to give this build a real shot last night, and I have to say I am thoroughly enjoying it! I managed to push to GR 67 solo, and missed the timer by 10 seconds :/ (The rift was horrible, I can totally do it next time) I am still missing the Hunters Wrath belt which is a significant loss in DPS. I went with aquila curass in the cube for extra survival in the meantime. I only have one ancient weapon so far, and the stat rolls on the ancient I do have are not great.
I did get a chance to test Endless walk however, at least in the sense of whether it would work more on the DPS side or DR side, and it turns out, vaulting approx once per second or so will keep the buff at 100% DPS all the time. The only reason I never tried it out to compare the damage, is because I did not have a decent compass rose or viable second ring to really make it a fair comparison to F/R. I think that it is certainly worth looking into though and I will definitely give it a shot when I get some better Dex gear. (Been playing a WD all season so quality Dex gear is in short supply)
I also played around with the Vengence rune that uses grenades instead of rockets, (which also changes it to fire damage) and ran Visage of gunes in the cube (because I still don't have Hunters Wrath). I was hoping that the grenades from Vengence would have the same chance to bounce and increase damage as well, however, from what I can tell, these grandes do not bounce.
I think T67 for a first push with half ass and partial gear is nothing to scoff over though, I am quite happy with these results and can't wait to see where I can take this with a real set up!