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With the War Within expansion coming up in World of Warcraft, many classes have been given some updates to their abilities, talent trees, and synergies to catch up with the new PvE sandbox. For players who wish to learn how to play Havoc Demon Hunter, this is the best place to start once The War Within launches.
Havoc Demon Hunter General Gameplay
Havoc DH gameplay in The War Within revolves around a mixture of build-and-spend resource management systems paired with some OGCDs that need to be weaved in efficiently within the rotation. This loop causes an ebb and flow of burst damage windows and key presses in between, filling global cooldowns efficiently creating a fast-paced melee with an engaging damage loop that is mostly GCD-locked regardless of build. It is a highly versatile class, with relatively strong survival tools and various damage profiles available, whether for burst, cleave, or AoE, making it a great all-rounder DPS.
As a DPS class, its kit has a lot of powerful gameplay elements. Havoc has a variety of different damage profiles, which are covered across builds. It has a strong burst both in single target and AoEm with the latter being highly potent. It also has strong passive and active defense, making it very durable. Not to mention solid self-sustain to pair with the above and access to a number of CC options. Not only that but they’re flexible, instant mobility allows for great positioning control; and their good group utilityprovides the valuable Chaos Brand debuff on boss targets.
However, the class’ AoE is tied to cooldowns, requiring planning around key windows. Some RNG is built into the resource system, which can be challenging for players who prefer a deterministic rotation. It has a high skill ceiling due to its fast-paced nature and movement skill requirements.
Havoc Warrior Talents Build
When selecting your Havoc Demon Hunter talents, this is the best for the endgame. Starting with the base Demon Hunter tree, take the following talents:
- Blazing Path
- Unrestrained Fury
- Shattered Restoration
- Bouncing Glaives
- Charred Warblades
- Chaos Nova
- Improved Disrupt
- Consume Magic
- Champion of the Glaive
- Felblade
- Aura of Pain
- Pursuit
- 2 points of Soul Rending
- 2 points of Infernal Armor
- Felfire Haste
- Illidari Knowledge
- Demonic
- Will of the Illidari
- Infernal Struggle
- Darkness
- Quickened Sigils
- 2 points of Erratic Felheart
- 2 points of Rush of Chaos
- 2 points of Flames of Fury
- Collective Anguish
- The Hunt
As for the Havoc tree, spec into these talents:
- Critical Chaos
- Demon Blades
- Burning Hatred
- First Blood
- Demon Hide
- Netherwalk
- Deflecting Gaze
- Initiative
- Scars of Suffering
- Chaotic Transformation
- Trail of Ruin
- Tactical Retreat
- 2 points of Blind Fury
- 2 points of Dancing with Fate
- Growing Inferno
- Unbound Chaos
- Burning Wound
- Inertia
- Glaive Tempest
- Ragefire
- 2 points of Know Your Enemy
- 2 points of Chaotic Disposition
- A Fire Inside
- Essence Break
- Any Means Necessary
Basic Damage Rotation
When executing this simple rotation, remember that you are using your auto attacks and certain skills to generate Fury, which you use to spend on skills that do higher damage.
- Cast Felblade to start gaining Fury
- Cast Immolation Aura for more Fury
- Auto attack a few times
- Cast Eye Beam
- Cast Bladestorm
- Cast Chaos Strike if you still have Fury left
Single Target DPS Rotation
Once you have a deeper understanding of the class’ mechanics and buttons, it’s time to start optimizing your DPS rotation.
- Cast ch with Unbound Chaos active.
- Cast Immolation Aura to trigger Unbound Chaos
- Cast Eye Beam.
- Cast Fel Rush with Unbound Chaos to activate Inertia.
- Cast Vengeful Retreat to trigger Tactical Retreat.
- Cast The Hunt.
- Cast Death Sweep.
- Cast Eye Beam.
- Cast Metamorphosis if both Death Sweep and Eye Beam are on cooldown.
- Use Blade Dance.
- Cast Annihilation.
- Cast Felblade if your Fury is under 80.
- Cast Sigil of Flame if your Fury is under 90.
- Cast Immolation Aura.
- Cast Throw Glaive once you have 2 charges.
- Cast Chaos Strike as your main filler
- Cast Fel Rush if nothing else is available.
AoE DPS Rotation
The Demon Hunter toolkit has a lot of cleave adjacent skills, so the rotation is only slightly different from the single target variant. You should see the same results when hitting AoEs on enemy groups.
- Cast Fel Rush while Unbound Chaos is active to trigger the Inertia buff.
- Cast Immolation Aura.
- Cast Vengeful Retreat to trigger Initiative.
- Cast The Hunt.
- Cast Immolation Aura.
- Cast Death Sweep.
- Cast Eye Beam.
- Cast Metamorphosis should Eye Beam and Death Sweep be on cooldown.
- Cast Blade Dance.
- Cast Sigil of Flame.
- Cast Annihilation
- Cast Felblade e if under 80 Fury.
- Cast Throw Glaive if at 2 charges.
- Cast Chaos Strike is your main filler.
- Cast Fel Rush if nothing else is available.
Havoc Demon Hunter Tips and Tricks
- One common mistake made by many Demon Hunter players is not filling the GCD timer with OGCDs as much as possible. Regardless of how your build your Demon Hunter, much of the class’ power lies in the constant application of OGCDs in between the GCD timer. Casting one GCD skill to the next without weaving cooldowns will drop your DPS metrics down, so always be sure to cast with no wasted time.
- Fury generation can vary wildly as many of the Havoc skills have random refund chances in them. Like all resource-generating classes, reaching the cap of your own class resource is not advised as it is always better to spend your Fury on skills for more damage than save all the Fury for a burst window. Regarding Fury consumption, it is better to use it now than lose it by dying for not meeting DPS checks.
- Always use your Eye Beam skill whenever it is available. Not only is it a great single-target spell, but it also has a built-in cleave feature, which makes it also ideal for clearing groups of adds. However, be mindful of where you stand, as Eye Beam has a brief channel duration, which may catch players off-guard during a boss mechanic.
