From Ball Lightning to Multishot to Hungering Arrow. The Unhallowed Essence set offers competitive play in many forms. In this video I go over my favorites, in addition to briefly covering the Marauders set, and its future in competitive play (or significant lack thereof).
For those of you who either cannot or do not want to watch the video: here is a brief summary of what I talk about, with a little bit more information.
M6: The only build I tried was Ball Lightning, with Meticulous Bolts in Kanai's Cube, and a Bombardiers Rucksack equipped along with a Kridershot. This didn't prove to yield a notable damage increase over virtually any other build, and after a few tests I decided that this build, along with M6, shall remain in the dust.
Nat's 6: I don't like Nat's myself, but it is currently in the #1 slot for solo DH and is clearly performing well with the added Cube passives.
UH6: I primarily focused my 12+ hours of gameplay with the UH set. Specifically, Ball Lightning and Hungering Arrow. Multishot is currently #2 in solo DH play, and is going to be a very competitive build moving forward.
UH6, Ball Lightning: A solid build, with excellent damage output, especially on clumped mobs and slow moving targets. This build has in my opinion, the greatest likelihood of being considered the "best" build, with the hardest gearing available. With excellent single-target damage, and even better group damage, the only issues with this build is the survivability issues, and the fact that reflect damage packs must be skipped, as it is virtually impossible to kill them with this build. With my testing, optimal setup for this build is a cubed Kridershot, a cubed Hunter's Wrath* and a cubed Convention of the Elements. With the lightning Convention buff up, each ball was critting for 800-900 million, per tick. This is obviously an obscene amount of damage.
*Hunters Wrath is currently broken with the Kridershot. It doesn't apply the buff as it should, giving Ball Lightning 40% more damage and 30% more attack speed. With this belt in effect, the damage output of this build would skyrocket, making it even stronger.
UH6, Hungering Arrow: This is my own personal build, and with this patch I think it's finally to a competitive level. Each shot crits for about 500-700 million the first pierce, 1.2-1.4 billion after the second, less commonly, but still relatively frequently, the third pierce hits for 2.3-2.5 million, rarely, it will pierce a fourth time, this time for anywhere from 4 million+. With a power pylon, I've seen 11 billion crits per arrow. This is what I believe to be the strongest single target damage in the game. Its ability to decimate 40 billion HP in about 10 seconds is absolutely unparalleled, as far as I am aware. The biggest flaw is the lost group damage. This can be made up somewhat by Area Damage. 100% Area Damage allows some shots to replicate their obscene damage onto every mob around them. This allows our crazy crits to absolutely decimate blue packs, as around 1/5 of our shots will hit every single member of the pack. However this flaw is quite large, and leaves much to be gained by using a build with better AoE damage.
In summary, Unhallowed Essence is quite powerful, absolutely competitive with Nat's. Because we no longer have permanent lockdown from WD's or Crusader's, damage mitigation is much more important for the DH. Right now, because of this increased focus on survivability, melee classes are having a field day in groups, with monks being the primary class played in virtually all leaderboards.
My future on the PTR. As it is, I'm working on a few more "janky" builds, just for fun. Nothing I expect to make a difference in the competitive meta, just fun little things that are goofy and enjoyable to play. I'd love some feedback, and some ideas for future things to test on the PTR. I enjoy theorycrafting, and if anyone else has some ideas to improve these builds or want more information about any of them, feel free to ask for it. I have no issues going into more detail about what I've done for each build.
Hungering Arrow with Buriza is the only way the build works. In the PTR, due to the fact that Buriza's cannot role discipline as a secondary passive, I've imbued the Buriza piercing affix into Kanai's Cube, allowing me to take a solid 2-handed crossbow with 12 discipline and gain the added passive. In theory an Etrayu could be stronger, but I have yet to find an ancient one on the PTR so I cannot test my theory.
The reason I believe it is, is because blizzard pays particular attention to detail about these things. In one case, we have the Depth Diggers which specify "Primary Skills" and then in the case of this belt "Hatred Generators". Bastions of Will is worded "hatred generator" as is the Unhallowed Essence set. It is my belief that it is a bug because it seems unlikely blizzard didn't account for Kridershot and Spines of Seething Hatred when designing that skill.
We need bow or bracers to buff cluster arrow for the Marauder set again, right now we can try 6piece marauder, focus + restraint, Yang's recurve (only for the resource reduction) Cube: convention, calamity, cindercoat. OR royal grandeur (for the helmet that gives resource reduction from act 3), clamity and cindercoat for crazy spam
With the changes to reflect damage being implemented soon, I have faith that DH's can indeed play a roll in parties. Even with Kanai's cube, DH's still output one of if not the largest amount of damage in the game. Natalya's and Unhallowed Essence Multishot both are obscenely powerful with the new buffs. Both of those builds are tried and true, pushing grift 64 each. Even Lightning UH and Hungering Arrow can do some ridiculous damage output against mobs. Preliminary issues with both builds is a weakness to reflect, slow ball obviously and high proc coefficient on reflect for primary skills. With all that said, Natayla's has an absolutely ridiculous amount of damage it can output. It's obscene the crits that come spewing out of that belt, constantly. With relative ease I was able to see crits of 10 billion. Running cold. If you ran fire and bale fire caster and fully optimized it, those people are the ones who are pushing 60s solo with the build. I believe that's the highest solo, behind monk on PTR. I don't remember exactly.
What Karezza said is absolutely true. Nats is coming out to be the strongest build, and with the new bracers, we are definitely capable of survive jailer, thunderstorm and frozen. Reflect is the only issue, but as long as we have immunity amulets for it, it won't be an issue.
As a DH, we can't start getting cocky, the added survivability that the melee classes have is going to be very relevant moving forward. DH's are very vulnerable to dying, and we can't deal out any damage if we're dead. We gotta keep optimizing our skills and gearing to find the highest damage output we can, while maintaining a level of survivability.
nice video. Im hoping there will be some sort of balance between the classes as I will not be running a melee build..which to me is just really boring. But also its been stated already barbs are getting toned down and im sure monks incoming also.
As a DH, we can't start getting cocky, the added survivability that the melee classes have is going to be very relevant moving forward. DH's are very vulnerable to dying, and we can't deal out any damage if we're dead. We gotta keep optimizing our skills and gearing to find the highest damage output we can, while maintaining a level of survivability.
I've had a WoW mentality on my DH for a long time. Dead DPS = No DPS.
Current Leaderboards for PTR in case anyone is interested
Barbarian: 72
Crusader: 65
Deamon Hunter: 66
Monk: 74
Witch Doctor: 66
Wizard: 65
Monk and barb is getting nerfed so I expect solo boards will all be very close at 66/65 afterward. As people farm for that perfect roll on new items and fish for perfect rift we might see 68-70 over time on live, barring any PTR changes.
4 player leaderboard is impossible to analyze since 99% of the 4000 profiles present are monk or barbarian.
Yeah, as always : Monk and barb will be overnerfed to be capped around 66 and then, once on live, some others classes will find amazing builds which will clean 70+. It is always the same story. Look at Barb on 2.2 PTR and now at Wizard/DH on live compared to the others classes.
As has been already stated. DH have a lot of potential going into this new patch. We're gonna see different tests of builds, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a 70 broken solo with a perfect rift and perfect ancient gear. Just a matter of time to see how the meta evolves. What I'm looking at right now is Nats V Multishot V Ball Lightning as our three competitive builds.
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From Ball Lightning to Multishot to Hungering Arrow. The Unhallowed Essence set offers competitive play in many forms. In this video I go over my favorites, in addition to briefly covering the Marauders set, and its future in competitive play (or significant lack thereof).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQNm29jovgQ
For those of you who either cannot or do not want to watch the video: here is a brief summary of what I talk about, with a little bit more information.
M6: The only build I tried was Ball Lightning, with Meticulous Bolts in Kanai's Cube, and a Bombardiers Rucksack equipped along with a Kridershot. This didn't prove to yield a notable damage increase over virtually any other build, and after a few tests I decided that this build, along with M6, shall remain in the dust.
Nat's 6: I don't like Nat's myself, but it is currently in the #1 slot for solo DH and is clearly performing well with the added Cube passives.
UH6: I primarily focused my 12+ hours of gameplay with the UH set. Specifically, Ball Lightning and Hungering Arrow. Multishot is currently #2 in solo DH play, and is going to be a very competitive build moving forward.
UH6, Ball Lightning: A solid build, with excellent damage output, especially on clumped mobs and slow moving targets. This build has in my opinion, the greatest likelihood of being considered the "best" build, with the hardest gearing available. With excellent single-target damage, and even better group damage, the only issues with this build is the survivability issues, and the fact that reflect damage packs must be skipped, as it is virtually impossible to kill them with this build. With my testing, optimal setup for this build is a cubed Kridershot, a cubed Hunter's Wrath* and a cubed Convention of the Elements. With the lightning Convention buff up, each ball was critting for 800-900 million, per tick. This is obviously an obscene amount of damage.
*Hunters Wrath is currently broken with the Kridershot. It doesn't apply the buff as it should, giving Ball Lightning 40% more damage and 30% more attack speed. With this belt in effect, the damage output of this build would skyrocket, making it even stronger.
UH6, Hungering Arrow: This is my own personal build, and with this patch I think it's finally to a competitive level. Each shot crits for about 500-700 million the first pierce, 1.2-1.4 billion after the second, less commonly, but still relatively frequently, the third pierce hits for 2.3-2.5 million, rarely, it will pierce a fourth time, this time for anywhere from 4 million+. With a power pylon, I've seen 11 billion crits per arrow. This is what I believe to be the strongest single target damage in the game. Its ability to decimate 40 billion HP in about 10 seconds is absolutely unparalleled, as far as I am aware. The biggest flaw is the lost group damage. This can be made up somewhat by Area Damage. 100% Area Damage allows some shots to replicate their obscene damage onto every mob around them. This allows our crazy crits to absolutely decimate blue packs, as around 1/5 of our shots will hit every single member of the pack. However this flaw is quite large, and leaves much to be gained by using a build with better AoE damage.
In summary, Unhallowed Essence is quite powerful, absolutely competitive with Nat's. Because we no longer have permanent lockdown from WD's or Crusader's, damage mitigation is much more important for the DH. Right now, because of this increased focus on survivability, melee classes are having a field day in groups, with monks being the primary class played in virtually all leaderboards.
My future on the PTR. As it is, I'm working on a few more "janky" builds, just for fun. Nothing I expect to make a difference in the competitive meta, just fun little things that are goofy and enjoyable to play. I'd love some feedback, and some ideas for future things to test on the PTR. I enjoy theorycrafting, and if anyone else has some ideas to improve these builds or want more information about any of them, feel free to ask for it. I have no issues going into more detail about what I've done for each build.
Thanks for the video!
I hope too, that UE set will be stronger in 2.3.
But right now, in your video (9:52), i see that it's really weak, competing to Natalya.
Natalya would ruin this boss way faster.
Did you try hungering arrow with buritza? It should guarantee the first 2 pierces.
Hungering Arrow with Buriza is the only way the build works. In the PTR, due to the fact that Buriza's cannot role discipline as a secondary passive, I've imbued the Buriza piercing affix into Kanai's Cube, allowing me to take a solid 2-handed crossbow with 12 discipline and gain the added passive. In theory an Etrayu could be stronger, but I have yet to find an ancient one on the PTR so I cannot test my theory.
The reason I believe it is, is because blizzard pays particular attention to detail about these things. In one case, we have the Depth Diggers which specify "Primary Skills" and then in the case of this belt "Hatred Generators". Bastions of Will is worded "hatred generator" as is the Unhallowed Essence set. It is my belief that it is a bug because it seems unlikely blizzard didn't account for Kridershot and Spines of Seething Hatred when designing that skill.
We need bow or bracers to buff cluster arrow for the Marauder set again, right now we can try 6piece marauder, focus + restraint, Yang's recurve (only for the resource reduction) Cube: convention, calamity, cindercoat. OR royal grandeur (for the helmet that gives resource reduction from act 3), clamity and cindercoat for crazy spam
With the changes to reflect damage being implemented soon, I have faith that DH's can indeed play a roll in parties. Even with Kanai's cube, DH's still output one of if not the largest amount of damage in the game. Natalya's and Unhallowed Essence Multishot both are obscenely powerful with the new buffs. Both of those builds are tried and true, pushing grift 64 each. Even Lightning UH and Hungering Arrow can do some ridiculous damage output against mobs. Preliminary issues with both builds is a weakness to reflect, slow ball obviously and high proc coefficient on reflect for primary skills. With all that said, Natayla's has an absolutely ridiculous amount of damage it can output. It's obscene the crits that come spewing out of that belt, constantly. With relative ease I was able to see crits of 10 billion. Running cold. If you ran fire and bale fire caster and fully optimized it, those people are the ones who are pushing 60s solo with the build. I believe that's the highest solo, behind monk on PTR. I don't remember exactly.
What Karezza said is absolutely true. Nats is coming out to be the strongest build, and with the new bracers, we are definitely capable of survive jailer, thunderstorm and frozen. Reflect is the only issue, but as long as we have immunity amulets for it, it won't be an issue.
As a DH, we can't start getting cocky, the added survivability that the melee classes have is going to be very relevant moving forward. DH's are very vulnerable to dying, and we can't deal out any damage if we're dead. We gotta keep optimizing our skills and gearing to find the highest damage output we can, while maintaining a level of survivability.
nice video. Im hoping there will be some sort of balance between the classes as I will not be running a melee build..which to me is just really boring. But also its been stated already barbs are getting toned down and im sure monks incoming also.
I've had a WoW mentality on my DH for a long time. Dead DPS = No DPS.
Current Leaderboards for PTR in case anyone is interested
Barbarian: 72
Crusader: 65
Deamon Hunter: 66
Monk: 74
Witch Doctor: 66
Wizard: 65
Monk and barb is getting nerfed so I expect solo boards will all be very close at 66/65 afterward. As people farm for that perfect roll on new items and fish for perfect rift we might see 68-70 over time on live, barring any PTR changes.
4 player leaderboard is impossible to analyze since 99% of the 4000 profiles present are monk or barbarian.
Yeah, as always : Monk and barb will be overnerfed to be capped around 66 and then, once on live, some others classes will find amazing builds which will clean 70+. It is always the same story. Look at Barb on 2.2 PTR and now at Wizard/DH on live compared to the others classes.
Yeah Shinna I saw that, unfortunately.
As has been already stated. DH have a lot of potential going into this new patch. We're gonna see different tests of builds, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a 70 broken solo with a perfect rift and perfect ancient gear. Just a matter of time to see how the meta evolves. What I'm looking at right now is Nats V Multishot V Ball Lightning as our three competitive builds.