Introduction
In Season 21, the Gears of Dreadlands Set was added to the game. At the same time many Generator-related items were buffed or reworked in order to make the new set playable.
However, Demon Hunter already had a Generator set — Unhallowed Essence. So for every successful GoD build there's another UE build lurking in the shadows. This is one of them, the long lost brother of GoD Hungering Arrow DH.
The build focuses on Hungering Arrow to deal damage, however, since there's no Strafe, it plays nothing like the GoD HA build. It's best to describe this build as a cross between GoD HA and UE Multishot. From the former we take all the items (minus the set), and from the latter—skills and playstyle.
The UE HA build isn't the best at anything but it has strong damage output to push high on the solo leaderboards. In particular, it has a shot at beating Multishot on the Unhallowed Essence leaderboard, where the two builds are head-to-head rivals. In Patch 2.7.5 (Season 28), the set also got a tremendous buff of around +9 GR tiers, making it a lot better than before.
Great mobility ✔
Strong season starter ✔
Rewards good gameplay ✔
Great single target damage ✔
❌ Very squishy
❌ Difficult to play
❌ Sensitive to fishing
❌ Terrible at speedfarming
Core Setup
Items
- Unhallowed Essence set provides huge damage bonuses: x1.6 through the (4) Bonus, and up to x1462 through the (6) Bonus, for a total of x2339 damage with your Hungering Arrow. The set gives you 60% damage reduction and plenty of Discipline, which lets you spam Vault.
- Bastions of Will provide 125% increased damage.
- The Ninth Cirri Satchel is the key item of the build, adding 100% pierce chance to Hungering Arrow as well as an up to 600% multiplicative damage increase.
- Hunter's Wrath is another high-value DPS item, providing a 30% Attack Speed bonus to your Primaries as well as another 200% multiplicative damage bonus.
- Dawn helps you reach permanent Vengeance uptime.
- Depth Diggers provide another 100% damage increase to Hungering Arrow.
- Wraps of Clarity reduce incoming damage by 50%.
- Convention of Elements provides up to 200% increased damage during the Cold cycle. Another option in this slot is Elusive Ring, use it if you cannot survive otherwise.
- Echoing Fury in the cube provides up to 75% increased Attack Speed. Alternatively you can cube Fortress Ballista for more defense.
Season 32 Ethereals
Ethereals are powerful rare weapons that can only be found during Season 32. They were initially the Season 24 Theme. They have incredible stats, a random Legendary power, and a free passive for your class. Read our Ethereal Mechanics Guide for full details on how they work and our Ethereal Farming Guide to learn how to acquire them. What you should prioritize on them is the following:
- The Legendary Power
This build requires Echoing Fury and Dawn to be functional. We need our Ethereal to roll one of these powers so we can cube the other. We also want a good roll on our Legendary power if it has a range. - The Ethereal Itself
There are 3 different weapons available to us, each with its own benefits:- Buriza-Do Kyanon - A powerful 2h weapon with a chance to Freeze and extra Crit against Frozen enemies. This is the best choice for the build.
- Doomslinger - A 1h crossbow that is a weaker, alternative item to use until you find the above or for speed setups in easy content thanks to the movement buff.
- Windforce - Basically an upgraded Yang's Recurve that only works for certain builds.
- The Ethereal Stat Rolls
Each Ethereal comes with its own fixed set of powerful affixes. While some have a static value, many have a wide stat range. This means the difference between good and bad rolls is significant and something you should look for. - A Useful Passive
This is just icing on the cake because a fifth passive is not going to make or break your build. You're better off hunting for the things above. Check out the Passives section down below to see which ones you're looking for.
Global Stat Priorities
The most important for almost any DH build is reaching permanent Vengeance uptime. This is achievable through the 65% Cooldown Reduction effect provided by Dawn and having 37% Cooldown Reduction on your characte. If your Dawn has less than 64-63% on the legendary affix, you should consider adding a 4th Cooldown item to make up for it, as any lower will leave you with a significant gap.
Maximum Discipline is the best damage stat you can have, which is a secondary roll on Hand Crossbows, Quivers and Cloaks. Make sure you get as much as possible, but don't worry too much about one or two missing points.
Other than that, you want to stack damage stats wherever possible, especially Critical Hit Chance & Damage, Damage Range, Cold Damage, Hungering Arrow Damage, and lastly Area Damage (typically in this priority). For your defensive stats you just need to focus on increasing the raw toughness value. Since your Recovery is mostly based on percentage of your maximum life due to Simplicity's Strength, there's no reason to prioritize mitigation over health. You should always use Flawless Royal Diamond in your Chest and Pants sockets.
Assembling the Build
Item Stat Priorities
Skills
Passives
Paragon Points
Altar of Rites
Follower
Gameplay
Hardcore
Variants
The Ninth Cirri Satchel nerf in Season 23 made this build completely horrible when it comes to farming or group play, so there are no other variants. The only use this build has is pushing Unhallowed Essence Leaderboards, where it can compete with UE Multishot DH.
If you don't like playing with Squirt's Necklace, you can also replace this amulet with The Ess of Johan.
Video Guide
Mechanics
Hungering Arrow Devouring Arrow
Unhallowed Essence
Summary
- Reach the necessary Cooldown Reduction for permanent Vengeance (37% with a perfect Dawn).
- Keep up buffs (Multishot Wind Chill, Bastions of Will) at all times.
- Keep your Discipline high as it directly scales your damage output.
- Avoid wasting your time on single enemies or elites that don't die — your strength is AoE dps.
Unhallowed Essence Demon Hunter is always lurking in the shadows, watching...
Credits
Written by Northwar
Contributions & updates by wudijo
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