Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Easy Mode — Dragonflight 10.2.6
On this page, we explain how to easily play Havoc Demon Hunter in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.6, using the simplest rotation, talent tree, stat priority, gear setup, etc., without sacrificing performance.
Foreword
This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.
The Basics of Havoc Demon Hunter
Havoc comes with a fairly slim baseline toolkit, but each ability is very focused on what it is good at. The talent tree does a lot of heavy lifting to round out your rotation, and certain choices increases the complexity and may be overwhelming to new players. Here, we aim to provide a build that is more plug-and-play with less emphasis on execution, allowing you to learn the basic gameplay loop and key moments in the rotation more comfortably.
If you are completely new to Havoc and need more information on the abilities available to you, you can check out our Spell Summary page.
The most important mechanic to bear in mind, as elaborated upon in the more advanced section, is your Fury. Managing this is very simple; with 40 Fury, you can cast Chaos Strike, which has a baseline 20% chance to refund 20. This is the crux of Havoc gameplay, and reacting to and planning around that refund is the first step to grasping Havoc.
Alongside this, the long duration cooldown Metamorphosis improves your Fury spenders Chaos Strike and Blade Dance, turning them into Annihilation and Death Sweep, and increases your Haste by 20%. You should try to line this up with any other cooldowns and enter into it with a bank of Fury for a large burst of damage. Once you have Demonic, you will enter Metamorphosis on every cast of Eye Beam as well, significantly increasing the time spent affected by this.
We also introduce the Essence Break window with our build due to how important it eventually becomes for Havoc. This is used alongside Eye Beam (with Demonic) and a Death Sweep cast for a huge amount of upfront burst both in single-target and AoE. This only becomes more important with more advanced talent selections, so learning it early is a good idea!
Beginner Talent Choices for Havoc Demon Hunters
The talents listed below are selected either for ease of use or a more easy-to-understand gameplay style. While in many cases, there are alternatives on the tree that will provide more if played well, they create much more room to play incorrectly and will heavily impact performance if you do so. Due to this, treat this as a starting point.
You can easily import the talent tree below into the game with the 'Copy Export String' button below:
This build avoids some of the most complex aspects of the tree, but there are certain effects that are just too strong to completely remove. Alongside that, some talents related to Throw Glaive are very important to make use of the Season 3 set bonus. This build should provide a solid starting point for both single-target and AoE without compromising too much while learning the spec. If you want to look into more advanced builds with no compromises for each situation, you can look at our full talents page below for a more in-depth analysis of each specific choice.
Stat Choices for Havoc Demon Hunters
The current Havoc stat priority is as follows when using this build.
- Agility;
- Critical Strike;
- Mastery;
- Haste;
- Versatility.
Stat priorities will change based on other talents taken in different builds, but for this and, in general, with most options, this should serve you well. For finer details regarding each stat and the reason behind why they are picked can be found on our full stat page linked below.
Beginner Rotation for Havoc Demon Hunters
- Cast The Hunt on cooldown.
- Cast Immolation Aura whenever at 2 charges.
- Cast Glaive Tempest on cooldown.
- Cast Eye Beam on cooldown.
- Cast Essence Break following an Eye Beam cast.
- Cast Blade Dance / Death Sweep on cooldown.
- Cast Metamorphosis, making sure Blade Dance and Eye Beam are on cooldown.
- Cast Immolation Aura.
- Cast Felblade to generate Fury.
- Cast Sigil of Flame to generate Fury, or on cooldown in AoE.
- Cast Chaos Strike / Annihilation with 40+ Fury.
- Cast Throw Glaive when nothing else is available.
Make sure to keep your cooldown-locked abilities recharging as much as possible - those being Glaive Tempest, Immolation Aura, Eye Beam, Essence Break and Blade Dance/ Death Sweep, ideally syncing the last three for a large burst of damage. Outside of this, avoid overcapping Fury by casting Chaos Strike/ Annihilation in any empty GCDs, and use Felblade to actively generate it when low. Try to be as low Fury as possible before each Eye Beam cast as well, due to the Blind Fury generation.
Remember this rotation is a simplified explanation for the talent build selected. You can check out our more detailed and optimized version of the priority for more bespoke talent builds on our dedicated rotation page.
Changelog
- 21 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5, no changes necessary.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7, no changes necessary.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5, no changes necessary.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1, added section highlighting Essence Break's importance.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 31 Dec. 2022: Raised Mastery in Stat Priority.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Pre-Patch.
More Demon Hunter Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Wordup, a frequent theorycrafter involved in a number of class communities. He is also an experienced player who has been in the world top 100 since the days of Sunwell, currently raiding in Echoes. You can also follow him on Twitter.
- How to Easily Get Multi-Player Required Achievements Solo
- AI Bot Warfare: (Mildly) Sabotage Bots by Talking to Them
- The Most Popular Specializations in Mythic+ in Dragonflight Season 3 Week 22
- Great Vault Requirements in Dragonflight Season 4
- Rare Mounts Available for Purchase in MoP Remix
- Clever Workaround for Death Knight Runeforging in MoP Remix
- Hunter Tier Sets and Bonuses in Dragonflight Season 4
- WoW Remix: MoP Overview Video