Hatred

Hatred and Discipline are the Demon Hunter's twin-resources. The exact system has not yet been finalized or revealed, but the general theory[1] is that some skills, mostly direct attack arrow-based ones, will expend Hatred, while the traps and movement skills will expend Discipline.

Full lists of which skills fall into which resource are not yet available, and it's not known if the resources will regenerate over time like mana, or if they are built up by some action, like Fury or Spirit. Most of what we know about Hatred/Discipline was revealed in interviews timed to coincide with the reveal of the male Demon Hunter.[2]

Developer Quotes

As of April 2011, the H/D system was the only class resource not yet finalized, and thus still subject to considerable change.

Until more details are revealed, we can only speculate about the precise functions of Hatred and Discipline, as suggested by Christian Lichtner and Jason Bender during four interviews they gave in February 2011.

GamePlanetNZ interview.[3]

We’ve split their kit into the idea of discipline – prepared, deliberate, precise – a character who builds his traps ahead of time and knows every weakness of his enemy and exactly what he has to do to take it out. Then there’s hatred, this almost blind drive – they can’t stop themselves from getting involved which means they’re probably angry at themselves for having that taint and it makes it worse. So they’re obsessed in that way. Their skills match that: They have some very aggressive skills that come out of that hatred school, and they have discipline skills, that deliberate, intentional preparedness. ...the inspiration for what we’ve done since then has been based on this idea of aggression and hatred versus discipline and self-mastery. So, the skill set definitely reflects those two schools of thought and the resource system reinforces the skill set accordingly. But we’re still testing it and making sure it really plays as smoothly as we want it to.

Gamestar interview:[4]

...he still has the most duality of all our classes. Our Designers developed this cool idea of hatred and discipline as the two aspects of the demon hunter. Those aspects balance out in his abilities. He’s got abilities that are very technical and take a lot of preparation to use, like setting traps or his dead-eye shot. On the other hand, some of his abilities are just pure rage, like firing a lot of arrows or throwing lots of grenades at once.

DiabloFans interview.[5]

This character sort of has more duality and has a more unusual field in that the Demon Hunter is so personally obsessed with fighting demons that they almost can’t control themselves. But at the same time, like any good hunter or vigilante, they have to be deliberate so they don’t get themselves killed, because they are outnumbered and largely outgunned, so they have to be careful. So what we’ve done is taken a look at the Hatred side of things and said OK, what does an obsessed hunter do? Lots of damage, just out of control, burstiness that allows you to do long range burst damage and get out of trouble short range by willing yourself out of that situation with close ranged attacks. On the other side is the preparation and the knowledge that goes into hunting something without that outnumbers you a million to one. That’s the Discipline side of things, these are abilities that are a little more elaborate that you’ll generally use less often, so you really have to plan when you want to use these skills. So we can’t draw out the resource system in specific details but that is the theme you’re going to see.

Gamespot interview.[6]

So with their resources and their skill trees, we split their skills into the categories of discipline, including traps, preparation, things that take a lot of forethought, and hatred, which is the red-eyes insanity the fuels their high-powered burst attacks, alpha strikes, multishots, flame arrows, and things like that. [The demon hunter] really feels more visceral, and there’s some interesting interplay in the resource system that allows you to switch back and forth between your discipline abilities and your hatred abilities. It’s a little more complex and nuanced than some of the other classes; it’s a class about precision and playing [one skill set] off the other.

...we want the demon hunter to have some highly regenerative, more accessible hatred abilities that he always has up and can use to zip around and keep the pace [of combat] up. But then the discipline side tends to be a more precious resource that you have to manage a lot more carefully. You really pick and choose when you want to use your discipline abilities because they make a big difference in how you escape, how you set up an attack…things like that.

Some abilities use hatred; some use discipline. That’s where we’re at in development. But we want to make sure you’re bouncing back and forth between the two without having to switch a stance or anything cumbersome like that. So you’ll have abilities from both camps accessible at all times, depending on how you build your character. Some demon hunters may focus on hatred, with lots of shooting and moving around, and try to amp up that ability as much as possible, while some may focus on discipline instead. [Either way], the default path is going to be a little of both.