Diablo III- Skills Article LIII: The Demon Hunter, Archery Skills- Multishot

Multishot (40 Hatred): Launch a cone of arrows that deals 165% weapon damage to each enemy in the area.

Multishot is one of the two Archery skills that is really only of use against multiple enemies.  That’s not to say that it doesn’t mean anything against a single foe, but since the damage, unlike Rapid Fire, is not based on how many arrows of the set hit the target, its damage per target is always the same.  That means that this skill should be avoided during boss fights.  On the battlefield and in dungeons, though, it is immensely useful, as its cone is huge and the damage is very good.  It shouldn’t be hard, thanks to the mobility and battlefield manipulation of the Demon Hunter class, to set up a good angle to fire Multishot from, and while it’s a bit hard on the Hatred pool, it’s often worthwhile anyways.

Fire at Will (20 Hatred): Launch a cone of arrows that deals 165% weapon damage as Lightning damage to each enemy in the area.

This is the most thoroughly usable rune available for Multishot.  Cutting the Hatred cost in half and converting the damage to Lightning, which is not one of the more resisted types, is an amazing deal on a rune, and perfectly fits the Demon Hunter maxim of ‘And then I do it even harder’.  The only real contest for overall utility on Multishot is between this and Full Broadside- while this will generate more total damage, Full Broadside racks up damage faster, which is more important in certain situations.

Burst Fire (40 Hatred): Launch a cone of arrows that deals 165% weapon damage to each enemy in the area, and a wave of energy that damages nearby enemies for 65% weapon damage as Arcane.

Less of a general utility rune than Fire at Will, Burst Fire is for those Demon Hunters who always find themselves in the thick of things and want to be able to take out a swath of enemies while still inflicting some hurt on anything that’s closed with them.  Really, Strafe is a better option for such Demon Hunters in most situations, but a few will find using Burst Fire preferable as a matter of their personal playstyle.  Not recommended, though.

Suppression Fire (40 Hatred): Launch a cone of arrows that deals 165% weapon damage to each enemy in the area and generates 1 Discipline for each enemy hit.

There had to be a Discipline-generation rune in there somewhere, and this is it.  As with Multishot itself, this is really only useful against enemy masses, so while it can be nice if you need Discipline badly, you should replace it with something else for boss fights.  Used right, this can refill your Discipline pool pretty far and pretty frequently, but generally you shouldn’t be in need of lots of Discipline as often as you need area damage, so this is not a preferable rune.

Full Broadside (40 Hatred): Launch a cone of arrows that deals 214% weapon damage to each enemy in the area.

Full Broadside is in direct contest with Fire at Will.  If you’re more concerned about having enough Hatred to keep firing again and again, then there’s no question that you should go with Fire at Will.  If you can stay out of enemy grips as long as you need to and don’t feel you need to be much faster, Fire at Will gives you 116% more weapon damage at the same Hatred cost for two shots instead of one.  On the other hand, if you find yourself needing to make sure that things are dead -now- instead of thoroughly dead in a few moments, Full Broadside will pump out higher burst damage- over 600% in three shots, to the almost-500% of Fire at Will.  Essentially, this one comes down to personal preference.

Arsenal (40 Hatred): Launch a cone of arrows that deals 165% weapon damage to each enemy in the area, and a set of 3 homing rockets that each deal 60% weapon damage as Fire damage.

While Arsenal -is- a homing rocket skill, it simply doesn’t compare to Rocket Storm for total number of rockets launched per Hatred spent, and is just generally less overall useful, between its higher rate of Hatred use and the base skills utility only as an anti-mass measure.  It’s unquestionable that a few people will find it more useful, but in the majority of situations and for the majority of people, this rune will be overshadowed entirely by Rocket Storm.