Demon Hunters return for World of Warcraft: The War Within with their signature style still intact, but with some extra areas of prowess that make them appealing to play as both a Tank and DPS spec.
Havoc DH has been a powerful choice ever since it was introduced into the game at the start of the Legion expansion. That said, in Dragonflight, much of the plaudits were taken by the class’ tanking spec – Vengeance.
Now, changes to how they function have done enough to elevate both specs further still. With significant burst damage, unrivaled movement, much better self-sustain and resource generation improvements, it’s a great time to give the spec a go.
Here’s everything you need to know about doing so effectively in The War Within.
Havoc Demon Hunter Class changes in The War Within
In possible good news for those who already enjoy the way Havoc plays, the spec received very few tangible changes to its rotation with the release of this expansion. Instead, the developer took a balancing-focused approach to development, with a series of minor buffs and nerfs to the existing toolkit.
The Soul Rending passive talent saw a significant nerf, dropping the Leech buff from 10% (20% in Metamorphosis) to 6% (12% in Metamorphosis). Additionally, the consumption of a Soul Fragment saw its outgoing healing reduced from 10% to 6% of max health.
In much better news, Eye Beam got some much-needed love, bringing it back into the conversation as one of the better direct damage abilities in the game.
The developer has instituted a 100% damage buff, and the Fire Inside proc chance increased from 25% to 30%. Lastly, all ability damage saw a 13% boost to its efficacy, improving the spec across the board.
Havoc Demon Hunter talents, Hero Talents and build
The general Demon Hunter tree comes with much of the overall utility that you will use as a Havoc player. Vengeful Retreat, Imprison, Chaos Nova, Felblade and The Hunt will all feature in your gameplay in one form or another.
The rest of the tree is centered around improving the class to allow players to get the most out of the spec when in their rotation. Nodes like Unrestrained Fury increase maximum resource cap while others like Infernal Armor and Illidari Knowledge add to the defensive capabilities. Demonic is also a very important node, allowing the DH to enter Demon form for five seconds after using Eye Beam.
The Havoc-specific tree can vary depending on what you’re doing, but the build above is well suited to Mythic+ and other small-group content. The whole thing starts with Eye Beam, one of our main damage abilities that is considerably more effective thanks to recent buffs.
From there, it’s actually one of the most passive specialization trees around, allowing players to output great damage without having to consider too much in the rotation. Havoc does have some issues in both resource generation and overall ability cost, so we’ve aimed to address that as much as possible with nodes like Critical Chaos and Demon Blades. The latter also takes the ineffective Demon’s Bite out of the rotation.
We have also specced into direct buffs where possible, with First Blood, Trail of Ruin and Dancing with Fate doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Chaotic Transformation is a critical cooldown reset for Eye Beam and Blade Dance when using Metamorphosis, and this is a very important part of the tree if you’re looking to maximize damage in longer engagements.
We’re still sadly having to avoid certain abilities like Fel Barrage, because they aren’t effective enough and actually cost significant damage by interrupting the most efficient rotation for an extended period. That talent, in particular, will need substantial buffs to make it remotely viable. Essence Break is the last big ability that we do need to take as Havoc players, especially for the subsequent buffs it offers to Chaos Strike and Blade Dance.
Hero Talents
Havoc Demon Hunter is one of the few specs in the game where it’s actually optimal to switch between Hero Talent trees depending on which activity you’re doing. In Mythic+ and other complex dungeon content (as well as Delves), Fel-Scarred is the play, largely thanks to its improved AoE toolkit. Aldrachi Reaver is the more robust choice in a raid setting, focusing on single-target and survivability.
To start with Fel-Scarred, there are three choice nodes to take advantage of. The first is a dealer’s choice, with both Pursuit of Angriness and Wave of Debilitation viable options. We went with the latter thanks to the reduced casting speed for enemies and this season’s emphasis on spell-using enemies in dungeons.
After that, we built into Set Fire to the Pain, which converts 5% of incoming damage to Fire damage before reducing the overall Fire damage taken by 10%. This is a great utility to have when several sources of damage are flying in. The last node is a no-brainer, so we’ve taken Student of Suffering for the sizeable Mastery buff that it offers (12%).
The rest of the tree is directed toward Primary Stat buffs and individual boosts to staple abilities in the Havoc toolkit. Though it would be nice to have more emphasis on Eye Beam, there are several vital boons for Metamorphosis, and the overall increase to the Fury cap is so significant to have when resource generation can be a bit uneven and change so rapidly.
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If you’re heading into the first raid of the expansion, then look no further than Aldrachi Reaver. This glaive-focused tree features a powerful conversion for the otherwise unimpressive Throw Glaive. The first choice node is best used for Unhindered Assault, which allows Vengeful Retreat to reset the cooldown of Felblade.
The second choice node actually works well in both cases, though we found Army Unto Oneself to be the marginally better choice, surrounding the player with a Blade Ward and reducing all incoming damage by 10% for 5 seconds. Lastly, you’ll have to decide between the practicalities of resource generation versus extra damage.
For raiding, we went with Keen Engagement, which grants 20 extra Fury when using Reaver’s Glaive. You’ll be using the latter regularly, and the resource contingency offered by this node is arguably more helpful than the damage boost provided by the other potential option, Preemptive Strike.
Stat priority
Happily, for those who struggle to keep track of WoW’s ever more complex landscape, the stat priority is relatively unchanging for Havoc Demon Hunter. The only variation comes when changing between lengthy single-target fights and AoE, where Haste and Versatility take a marginally different order of precedence.
For most situations, you’ll want to be going for the below:
- Agility
- Critical Strike
- Mastery
- Haste
- Versatility
If you really want to lean into AoE cleave as much as possible, then Versatility can prove slightly more effective than Haste, but they are of relatively equal precedence. Critical Strike is the big stand to go for, outside of Agility. This is largely thanks to the strength of Know Your Enemy, which grants Critical Strike damage equivalent to 40% of your Critical Strike chance.
As we built into Any Means Necessary in our earlier talent tree, Mastery follows behind Critical Strike in relatively short order. That node converts all other forms of Elemental damage into Shadow damage before buffing that by 11.2%. This is an excellent way of keeping class cohesiveness and streamlining its overall output.
Haste is nice to have for cooldown reduction, particularly with several significant cooldowns, and the spec sometimes finds itself without enough resources to proceed efficiently. Versatility is the weakest overall, with the least applicable tangible benefits for Demon Hunter players.
Rotation
The Havoc Demon Hunter rotation is almost entirely centered around maintaining Fury, so there are enough resources available when your primary damage abilities’ cooldowns end. Most come with a significant cost, so you may sometimes need to break rotation to generate more Fury.
Chaos Strike (for single-target), Blade Dance and Eye Beam will be the central focus but there are plenty of other abilities to take into account if you’re really looking to get the most out of the spec. Heading into a single-target engagement in raids and dungeons, you’ll want to go for the following where possible:
- 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
The above allows you to take advantage of the Metamorphosis form provided for free once Eye Beam has been cast. In turn, this lets the class have two runs at the more powerful versions of each ability, once for the initial five seconds before the full Metamorphosis cast. It also allows Havoc to cast Eye Beam twice, thanks to the cooldown reset offered by the Chaotic Transformation talent.
If you are running Aldrachi Reaver, there will be some variation chiefly attributed to the inclusion of Reaver’s Glaive. That said, you should always follow the same pattern of casting Eye Beam before your full Metamorphosis, to get the most out of the improved abilities playing a role in the rotation.
Havoc Demon Hunter tier set breakdown
There are far better tier sets on offer to other specs in The War Within, but there are some things to like about the Screaming Torchfiend set. The 2 and 4-set bonuses for Havoc are as follows:
- 2-Set – Casting Blade Dance or Death Sweep automatically casts Throw Glaive if off cooldown, and has a 50% chance per slash to proc an additional free Throw Glaive at 35% damage.
- 4-Set – Casting Throw Glaive reduces the remaining cooldown of The Hunt by 2 seconds, and the duration of the DoT of The Hunt is increased by 6 seconds. The free 35% damage proc Throw Glaive from the 2-Piece does not reduce the cooldown of The Hunt.
This will lead people to build much more towards Glaive Throw and talent nodes that buff its damage and proc chance, which obviously suits Aldrachi Reaver more. The bonuses here will lead people down specific playstyle routes, which won’t be for everyone, but if you go all in on the idea, then there is significant output.
Gems and Enchants
There is a nice landscape of gems and Enchants to further your Demon Hunter build in the current patch. Our full set of recommendations for each gear slot is as follows:
| 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 |
For your primary gem slots, you’ll want to go for Culminating Blasphemite, which provides a percentage Critical Effect bonus based on the number of unique Algari gem colors, plus a major boost to our primary stat Agility.
That’s our complete guide to playing Havoc Demon Hunter in WoW: The War Within Patch 11.0.2. Check out our DPS tier list to see how the spec is performing right now. If you’re considering changing roles, we also have a full breakdown of Tank and Healer specs.