With their signature style still intact, Demon Hunters make a comeback in World of Warcraft: The War Within. However, they now possess additional abilities that make them attractive choices for both Tank and DPS roles.
Since its introduction in the Legion expansion, Havoc DH has remained a strong and popular choice. However, during Dragonflight, most of the praise was directed towards the class’ tanking specialization, Vengeance.
The recent changes to the function of these specs have significantly improved their performance. They now have impressive burst damage, unmatched mobility, improved self-sustain, and better resource generation. It’s an opportune moment to try out this spec.
Havoc Demon Hunter Class Changes in The War Within
Despite the release of this expansion, there is good news for those who are satisfied with the way Havoc plays. The rotation for this spec remains largely unchanged, with the developer focusing on balancing rather than making significant changes. They implemented a series of minor buffs and nerfs to the existing toolkit.
The Soul Rending passive talent underwent a major nerf, resulting in a decrease of the Leech buff from 10% (20% in Metamorphosis) to 6% (12% in Metamorphosis). Moreover, the healing output of a Soul Fragment was reduced from 10% to 6% of maximum health.
In more positive developments, Eye Beam has received some much-needed attention, solidifying its position as one of the top direct damage abilities in the game.
The developer has implemented a 100% damage buff, increased the proc chance of Fire Inside from 25% to 30%, and enhanced the efficacy of all abilities by 13%, resulting in an overall improvement to the spec.
Havoc Demon Hunter Talents, Hero Talents, and Build
As a Havoc player, you will find that the overall utility of the Demon Hunter tree includes essential abilities such as Vengeful Retreat, Imprison, Chaos Nova, Felblade, and The Hunt. These skills will play a crucial role in your gameplay in various ways.
The remainder of the tree focuses on enhancing the class to optimize the spec’s performance during combat. Abilities such as Unrestrained Fury increase the maximum resource capacity, while others like Infernal Armor and Illidari Knowledge bolster defensive abilities. The Demonic node is highly significant as it grants the DH the ability to transform into a demon for five seconds after using Eye Beam.
The selection of talents in the Havoc tree can be flexible depending on your activity, but the suggested build is particularly effective for Mythic+ runs and other activities involving small groups. The build centers around Eye Beam, a key damage-dealing ability that has been significantly boosted by recent updates.
Despite being one of the most passive specialization trees, Havoc allows players to deal significant damage without having to worry about complex rotations. However, there are some concerns regarding resource generation and ability cost, which we have attempted to address with nodes such as Critical Chaos and Demon Blades. The addition of Demon Blades also eliminates the need for the ineffective Demon’s Bite in the rotation.
In addition, we have prioritized direct buffs, utilizing First Blood, Trail of Ruin, and Dancing with Fate to carry the majority of the workload. Chaotic Transformation serves as a crucial cooldown reset for Eye Beam and Blade Dance when Metamorphosis is active, making it a vital aspect of the tree for those seeking to maximize damage in extended battles.
Despite our sadness, we continue to avoid certain abilities such as Fel Barrage due to their lack of effectiveness and significant damage cost. This interrupts our most efficient rotation for a prolonged period, making it necessary for the talent to receive substantial buffs in order to be considered remotely viable. As Havoc players, we must still prioritize Essence Break as it offers important buffs for Chaos Strike and Blade Dance.
Hero Talents
The Havoc Demon Hunter is unique in that it is recommended to switch between Hero Talent trees depending on the type of activity being performed. For challenging dungeon content like Mythic+ and Delves, Fel-Scarred is the optimal choice due to its enhanced AoE abilities. However, in a raid environment where single-target damage and survivability are crucial, the Aldrachi Reaver is the preferred option.
Fel-Scarred has three choice nodes that can be utilized at the beginning. One of them is a dealer’s choice, where both Pursuit of Angriness and Wave of Debilitation are suitable options. We chose the latter due to its ability to decrease casting speed for enemies, which is particularly useful this season given the prevalence of spell-casting enemies in dungeons.
Next, we implemented Set Fire to the Pain, which first converts 5% of incoming damage to Fire damage and then reduces the overall Fire damage taken by 10%. This ability proves incredibly useful when facing multiple sources of damage. Lastly, we easily decided to choose Student of Suffering for its significant Mastery buff of 12%.
The remaining part of the tree primarily focuses on increasing Primary Stats and enhancing key abilities that are essential to the Havoc toolkit. While it would be beneficial to have more emphasis on Eye Beam, the tree offers crucial bonuses for Metamorphosis and a significant overall increase to the Fury cap. This boost is particularly valuable as resource generation can often be unpredictable and fluctuate constantly.
If you are planning to embark on the initial raid of the expansion, Aldrachi Reaver should be your go-to choice. This talent tree is centered around glaives and offers a potent conversion for the previously lackluster Throw Glaive ability. The top selection node is most effective when paired with Unhindered Assault, which permits Vengeful Retreat to reset the cooldown of Felblade.
The second choice node is effective in both scenarios, although we determined Army Unto Oneself to be the slightly superior option. This choice provides the player with a Blade Ward, reducing all damage taken by 10% for 5 seconds. Ultimately, you must weigh the benefits of resource generation against the potential for additional damage.
In order to enhance our raiding abilities, we opted for Keen Engagement, which bestows an additional 20 Fury every time we use Reaver’s Glaive. Considering the frequency at which we use this skill, the resource advantage offered by this node may be more advantageous than the damage increase provided by the alternative option, Preemptive Strike.
Stat Priority
For those who have difficulty keeping up with WoW’s continuously evolving landscape, there is good news – the stat priority for Havoc Demon Hunter remains relatively consistent. The only difference occurs when transitioning between long single-target battles and AoE, as the priority between Haste and Versatility may slightly vary.
Generally, it is recommended to aim for the following in most situations:
- Agility
- Critical Strike
- Mastery
- Haste
- Versatility
If maximizing AoE cleave is your main goal, then opting for Versatility may be slightly more advantageous than Haste. However, both stats hold similar importance. Critical Strike should be your primary focus, followed by Agility. This is mainly due to the powerful effect of Know Your Enemy, which boosts Critical Strike damage by 40% of your Critical Strike chance.
Just like our previous talent tree, Any Means Necessary, Mastery is the next priority after Critical Strike. This ability transforms any type of Elemental damage into Shadow damage and then boosts it by 11.2%. This is a great way to ensure our class remains unified and efficiently maximizes its overall damage output.
Having haste is beneficial for reducing cooldowns, especially for abilities with longer cooldowns. However, the spec may face challenges when lacking sufficient resources to progress efficiently. In comparison, versatility is the least advantageous for Demon Hunter players, as it provides the least practical benefits.
Rotation
The Havoc Demon Hunter’s primary focus is on keeping a steady supply of Fury, ensuring there is enough available when your main damage abilities are ready to be used. However, these abilities often come at a high cost, meaning that there may be moments where you need to deviate from the rotation in order to generate more Fury.
When it comes to single-target engagements in raids and dungeons, Chaos Strike, Blade Dance, and Eye Beam will be the main abilities to focus on. However, there are also other abilities that should be taken into consideration if you want to maximize the potential of this specialization. If possible, aim to use the following abilities:
- Use The Hunt as an opening engagement after the Tank initiates
- Fel Rush
- Immolation Aura
- Eye Beam
- Chaos Strike/Annihilation
- Death Sweep/Blade Dance
- Metamorphosis
- Repeat above where possible
- Abyssal Gaze
- Glaive Tempest
This feature enables you to utilize the complimentary Metamorphosis form after casting Eye Beam. As a result, the class is able to use the stronger versions of each ability twice – once for the initial five seconds before the complete Metamorphosis cast, and then again after. Additionally, the Havoc class is able to cast Eye Beam twice by taking advantage of the Chaotic Transformation talent’s cooldown reset.
When using Aldrachi Reaver, there may be slight differences due to the addition of Reaver’s Glaive. However, it is important to consistently use Eye Beam before fully activating Metamorphosis in order to maximize the effectiveness of the enhanced abilities within the rotation.
Havoc Demon Hunter Tier Set Breakdown
Despite the availability of superior tier sets for other specs in The War Within, there are still some appealing aspects to the Screaming Torchfiend set. The Havoc 2 and 4-set bonuses are as follows:
- The 2-set bonus allows for Throw Glaive to be automatically cast when Blade Dance or Death Sweep is used and Throw Glaive is off cooldown. Additionally, there is a 50% chance for each slash to trigger a free Throw Glaive at 35% damage.
- The 4-Set bonus for Casting Throw Glaive grants a reduction of 2 seconds to the remaining cooldown of The Hunt, as well as a 6-second increase to the duration of The Hunt’s DoT. However, the free 35% damage proc from the 2-Piece Set does not have an effect on the cooldown of The Hunt.
As a result, players will be more inclined to focus on enhancing Glaive Throw and selecting talent nodes that increase its damage and chance to trigger, which is especially advantageous for Aldrachi Reaver. These bonuses will encourage players to adopt a specific playstyle, which may not appeal to everyone, but committing to this approach can result in significant damage output.
Gems and Enchants
The current patch offers a beautiful array of gems and Enchants to enhance your Demon Hunter build. Our complete list of suggestions for each gear slot is outlined below:
| Slot | Best Enchant |
| Weapon | Enchant Weapon – Authority of the Depths (Single-target)/Enchant Weapon – Authority of Radiant Power (AoE) |
| Cloak | Enchant Cloak – Chant of Winged Grace |
| Chest | Enchant Chest – Crystalline Radiance |
| Bracers | Enchant Bracer – Chant of Armored Avoidance |
| Legs | Stormbound Armor Kit |
| Boots | Enchant Boots – Defender’s March |
| Ring – Regular | Enchant Ring – Radiant Critical Strike |
| Ring – Cursed | Enchant Ring – Cursed Critical Strike |
When selecting your primary gem slots, it is recommended to choose Culminating Blasphemite. This gem grants a Critical Effect bonus that increases depending on the number of different Algari gem colors, in addition to a significant increase in our main stat, Agility.
This is our comprehensive guide to mastering Holy Paladin gameplay in WoW: The War Within Patch 11.0.2. To stay updated on the spec’s performance, take a look at our DPS tier list. For those contemplating a role switch, we also offer a detailed analysis of Tank and Healer specs.
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