Demon Hunter Guide
Welcome to our World of Warcraft The War Within Demon Hunter Guide. Here you will find a quick overview of the specializations Demon Hunter can pick and choose from, with links and in-depth information available to each specs Talents, Builds, Rotation, Gear and much more.
Unleash your inner demon to tear your enemies asunder in a deadly dance of fel destruction.
Tear the souls from your enemies and become a walking inferno to stand as a bulwark for your allies.
The War Within Demon Hunter Specializations
Havoc Demon Hunter
Havoc Demon Hunters embrace their inner demon to leave chaotic devastation in their wake. They cut through their foes with their signature warglaives, and unleash their demonic form to turn fel power against their foes. Its primary resource, Fury, is generated through auto-attacks and Felblade, and used to fuel powerful strikes in Chaos Strike and Blade Dance. It also weaves in Eye Beam and Metamorphosis to transform into a powerful demon form throughout combat.
Havoc is a very fast paced playstyle that revolves around a build-and-spend loop of Fury management. In between this, it uses low and mid range cooldowns such as Eye Beam and Immolation Aura, and can enter into an extended Demonic form using Metamorphosis, empowering its Fury spending abilities. It comes with strong single-target damage and very powerful burst cooldowns that also extend into AoE situations. It also does a large amount of passive cleave, allowing it to deal with priority targets without sacrificing damage to nearby enemies. Alongside that, it has unmatched mobility through tools such as Fel Rush, and a suite of control utility to assist in Mythic+. Finally, it also provides the Chaos Brand debuff to the group, making it a staple in all content.
How Popular is Havoc Demon Hunter?
Raid Popularity
In raids Havoc is currently very desirable, being a great way to provide the Chaos Brand debuff for their group. It also has a very versatile damage profile within Nerub-ar Palace, being able to deal heavy burst damage to bosses at key moments, while also having enough AoE to deal with occasional add spawns. While it can be difficult to pilot on some encounters due to the high movement requirements, it certainly has the capability to excel within the current raid. While melee specializations are often fighting for a spot, there is always a reason to play at least one Demon Hunter, and Havoc is a great choice to cover this.
Mythic+ Popularity
In Mythic+, Havoc has extremely high burst AoE every two minutes, so if the group can play around this timer its potential is very high. It does, however, require some good planning to make sure that it can align both Metamorphosis and Eye Beam for every key pull needed within a dungeon, so bear that in mind. Alongside that, it has a strong control toolkit with Fel Eruption and Chaos Nova, while also bringing Darkness as an additional group support tool. Lastly, it pairs very well with other magic oriented DPS specializations, thanks to providing Chaos Brand.
Vengeance Demon Hunter
Vengeance Demon Hunters are a walking inferno that bathe their foes in flame, and shear the souls from their enemies to feed their demonic hunger. They also carve forbidden sigils into the battlefield to scatter foes. Its primary resource, Fury, is generated through Fracture and Immolation Aura, and spent on a variety of offensive abilities such as Soul Cleave and Spirit Bomb. Demon Spikes is their primary mitigation tool, and they generate Soul Fragments, which can be consumed to heal themselves, as a secondary resource through various effects and offensive abilities .
Vengeance is a tank that mixes a high focus on juggling several different priorities while also focusing on tanking, making it a very involved tank compared to other tank specializations. In The War Within, there is a much higher emphasis on Soul Fragments than Fury, making it the core focus of the gameplay loop with Fury generation and management taking more of a back seat. Defensively, the “Active Mitigation” for Vengeance in Demon Spikes lacks full uptime, varying between 50% and 80% depending on talent choices. It aims to cover this downside by weaving in other defensive cooldowns such as Metamorphosis and Fiery Brand to bridge these gaps. Vengeance requires a good amount of planning when facing tougher challenges due to this, but has a lenient onboarding phase thanks to numerous passive medium-power defensive tools. Frailty, Painbringer, and Fel Flame Fortification, among others, give a robust backbone while getting to grips with the more complex aspects. Another cherry on top is the incredible mobility available to Vengeance, having Double Jump, Glide, and both Infernal Strike and Vengeful Retreat for instant active movement. These, paired with several movement speed boosting talents, make Vengeance easily one of the most mobile specializations in the game.
How Popular is Vengeance Demon Hunter?
Raid Popularity
In raid Vengeance suffers from having a toolkit that makes it a Jack of all trades, but master of none. Defensively, Vengeance very rarely struggles on any encounters, outside of particularly lethal mechanics , and only if undergeared. Offensively, Vengeance has often been a solid specialization in Single Target, with access to some of the best burst damage options in AoE situations. Vengeance also brings both Chaos Brand and Darkness as raid utility, but unfortunately these are also brought by Havoc Demon Hunters which are a fairly popular specialization with many Guilds having at least one. When it comes to raiding, Vengeance can be summed up as rarely bad, but also rarely exceptional. Despite all its available tools, they still struggle to find much popularity in the current raid tier.
Mythic+ Popularity
When it comes to Mythic+, Vengeance remains very popular due to the several strong utility talents that are available to them. The suite of control tools in Sigil of Silence, Chaos Nova and Sigil of Misery puts a lot of power in the tanks hands to keep pulls stable. Offensively, Vengeance also offers a toolkit tailor-made for Mythic+, with all its spenders and most of its cooldowns dealing significant amounts of AoE damage, making Vengeance a very strong offensive choice for Mythic+.
Defensively, Vengeance has two solid Hero Talent Trees. Fel-Scarred focuses on higher Metamorphosis uptime and the Student of Suffering effect from Sigil of Flame, alongside additional passive benefits in Enduring Torment and Monster Rising. Conversely, Aldrachi Reaver provides a significant amount of additional healing to sustain through dangerous pulls, using Wounded Quarry to generate additional Soul Fragments. To cap things off, Vengeance has extremely good mobility to reposition while fighting dangerous packs, and brings Chaos Brand and Darkness to assist its group.
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.
- 10 Alts-Worth of Profession Materials Gathered Into One Warbank
- Season of Discovery Hotfixes: December 4th
- Tier 2 and Tier 1 Set Bonuses Now Fully Switchable in Season of Discovery
- Defying the Mythic+ Odds With Brewmaster: Double Chesting All +10s
- War Within Season 1 Mythic+ DPS Log Rankings, Week 11
- Everything You Need to Know About the Siren Isle Update
- Unlock WoW In-Game Rewards by Purchasing Select Razer Products: Here’s What You Need to Know!
- Classic Timewalking Returns: Reputation Buff, Gear Rewards, and Vendor Highlights