Devourer Demon Hunter DPS Easy Mode — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

Currently in the Midnight Pre-Patch Void-Scarred stands as the better Single-Target tree, mostly due to strong tuning on the melee abilities and Voidsurge. It features a fast paced cycling playstyle, attempting to reach your next Void Metamorphosis as fast as possible to leverage the free reset of your melee abilities. To do so, it makes use of Soul Glutton to reduce the entry cost requirement. This playstyle also features a damage profile more suitable to the raid encounters present in Manaforge Omega.

Compared to Annihilator builds, it also adds in an extra twist: it requires playing around Voidblade, Hungering Slash, and The Hunt, which cause you to dance into and out of melee. The Hero Tree leans into these further through frequent resets, giving it a fast paced playstyle that involves a lot of movement.

If you are interested in a deep dive on this or a Annihilator build, check our talent page:

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Currently in the Midnight Pre-Patch, while things are a bit closer between the two trees in Single-Target, Annihilator pulls ahead for Devourer in AoE. It cycles through Fury to cast Void Ray aggressively, while also entering into Void Metamorphosis more frequently to trigger Voidfall via Mass Acceleration. As a result it switches to Soul Glutton to reduce the entry cost of Void Metamorphosis, which is better suited to the large pulls you often see in dungeons.

Its unique mechanic is Voidfall. Much like in Single-Target, this doesn't significantly interfere with the regular rotation, and is simply consumed by casting Reap whenever you reach three stacks. There's no unique considerations to mix in there for AoE.

If you are interested in a deep dive on this or a Void-Scarred build, check our talent page:

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Here, we'll be providing some building blocks that detail key rotational concepts for Single-Target that you can put into practice. If you're instead looking for a full-fledged priority list, you can jump over to our Rotation page, which provides detailed breakdowns for each build and content type.

In Single-Target, when playing Void-Scarred, everything centers around building toward and executing your Void Metamorphosis windows effectively. These are frequent but quite short, utilizing the spec's melee abilities to trigger powerful Voidsurge procs, and then returning to range. Here's a brief breakdown of the key steps when getting started:

• Build & Spend Fury
  This is generated via Consume, or by gathering Shattered Souls.
  While outside of Void Metamorphosis, cast Void Ray whenever you reach 100 Fury.
  While inside, generate as much as you can to sustain the transformation.
• Generate & Collect Souls
  Any damage you deal has a small chance to spawn a soul around your character.
  Consume generates 1, while Void Ray spawns many via Waste Not.
  These are collected by contact, or gathered from range by casting Reap.
• Execute Void Metamorphosis
  This can and should be cast as soon as you gather 35 Souls.
  Void-Scarred only uses Collapsing Star during AoE situations.
  Use melee abilities before Void Metamorphosis to leverage the cooldown reset.
  Use Void Ray to pause your Fury drain when you are about to cancel your form.
• Use Your Melee Combo
  Your melee combo is centered around Voidblade.
  This generates a large amount of Fury, leaping to melee and jumping back out.
  Sequence: Voidblade ➜ Hungering Slash ➜ Vengeful Retreat.

When learning the flow, it's best to break it up into steps. We recommend focusing on things in this order:

Devourer Single-Target

Fury / Souls Management ➜ Void Metamorphosis Management ➜ Melee Ability Optimization

In AoE, it still follows many of the same rules learned in Single-Target, but as it plays Annihilator instead, it introduces Voidfall in place of Voidsurge. Key things that change in AoE are:

• Execute Void Metamorphosis
  This can and should be cast once you gather 35 Souls.
  Every 30 Souls gathered while active allows you to cast Collapsing Star.
  Manage your windows between pulls, aiming to cast as many stars as possible.
• Utilize Eradicate
  Eradicate replaces Reap following Void Ray casts.
  Reap is only cast in AoE with either Eradicate or Voidfall active.
  Void Ray is cast frequently, so it's almost always available.

The core AoE principles can be learned in Single-Target. We'd recommend focusing on things in this order:

Devourer AoE

Learn Single-Target ➜ Adjust to Voidfall Consumption ➜ Eradicate Management

While the prune in Midnight has hit many specializations, Devourer still has some tricks up its sleeve to deal with different situations. It's got a decent defensive suite, and an excellent mobility toolkit.

Ability	Description/Effect
Blur	Devourer's defensive tool, providing 25% damage reduction for 10 seconds on a 1-minute cooldown. Can be augmented with a second charge via the Demonic Resilience talent.
Darkness	Causes you and any ally stood within the 8-yard pool created to have a 15% chance (increased to 30% in a party) to avoid any instance of damage. Lasts 8 seconds, has a long 5-minute cooldown (reduced by talents), but is a good defensive and utility cooldown combined into one.
First In, Last Out	Provides a very brief 6% HP shield after casting Shift. Can be useful in a pinch when facing down lethal damage.
Soul Rending	While not an active tool, Devourer has a good amount of built-in Leech that becomes even stronger during Void Metamorphosis.
Demon Muzzle	Provides 15% Magic damage reduction for 12 seconds after interrupting an enemy.

Ability	Description/Effect
Shift	Devourer's answer to Havoc's Fel Rush, this moves you to your cursor within 30 yards near-instantly. Has a 20-second cooldown and 1 charge baseline, with talents to increase this limit. An exceptionally strong movement tool, but bear in mind it's not a teleport - you still pass through any environmental effects along the path.
Vengeful Retreat	Causes you to leap backward, with a 25-second cooldown. Some talents within the Devourer tree can augment this to become part of your offensive rotation, but its baseline effect is simply a movement tool.
Glide	Double-jumping will propel you forward faster than standard movement speed, meaning you always have a tool available. With the new Wings of Wrath, this is also slightly faster.
Pursuit	While not an active tool, any Mastery rating you have will also increase your movement speed.

Ability	Description/Effect
Disrupt	Devourer's interrupt ability, with a 15-second cooldown and 5-second lockout. Uniquely compared to other Demon Hunter interrupts, it also has a 30-yard range.
Void Nova	Deals light Cosmic damage and stuns nearby enemies for 2 seconds, with a 45-second cooldown. Very flexible AoE stopping tool.
Sigil of Misery	Incapacitates enemies in the target area for 15 seconds after a brief delay, with a 2-minute cooldown. While not as flexible as your AoE stun, still an extra useful stop.
Consume Magic	Dispels one magic effect from your target, with a 10-second cooldown. Like all Demon Hunter specializations, it has access to an offensive dispel.
Imprison	Incapacitates the targeted demon, beast, or humanoid for 1 minute. While this has a limit of one, it serves as hard-CC on enemies that also won't draw aggro from nearby players while it's under this effect.

Since we're only in the Midnight Pre-patch, stats are a little in flux due to just how much is present on Season 3 gear being used from The War Within. It's possible that recommendations may change here as we move into Midnight's full release, so bear that in mind.

The current Devourer stat priority is as follows:

1. Intellect;
2. Haste;
3. Mastery;
4. Critical Strike;
5. Versatility;

Primary stats are back to being extremely valuable, so picking items based on item-level is generally a safe bet to increase your Intellect.

Currently, Haste is extremely valuable, making it far smoother to navigate longer Void Metamorphosis. Due to recent nerfs to it's scaling, Mastery is no longer on par with Haste. While it is still quite strong and provides a large multiplier when transformed, Haste has now overtaken it.

While Critical Strike has some extra scaling with Calamitous, it's still far outclassed by the above two options. Versatility remains weakest, though it does provide additional defense.

Added in The War Within, the Rotation Assist tool curated by Blizzard has two modes: the first highlights action bar buttons with a recommended priority, while the second provides a single keybind that automatically presses the top priority ability on that same list, but with a 25% GCD penalty between casts.

Like many classes, it doesn't use major cooldowns or abilities that displace your character, which in the case of Devourer is quite a big problem. Since the spec relies heavily on making use of Void Metamorphosis, which the one-button tool doesn't use, the rotation assist is at a massive disadvantage. In addition to that, it also won't use any racial abilities, trinkets, defensives or crowd control, nor any ability that displace your character. This includes:

• Cooldowns - Void Metamorphosis, Collapsing Star, The Hunt.
• Movement/Displacement - Voidblade, Vengeful Retreat, Shift.

All of these will need to be used manually if you have taken talents that augment them. This also extends to defensive and crowd control abilities as well.

Hero Talent	Single-Target	AoE
Annihilator Assist	-53%	-44%
Annihilator One-Button	-60%	-62%
Void-Scarred Assist	-58%	-47%
Void-Scarred One-Button	-62%	-67%

Due to these significant limitations, it's very hard to recommend this tool. While this hopefully improves in the future, until it supports the effects Devourer is built around, it should be avoided.

If you must use the rotation tool, we recommend playing the following Annihilator build, as it is least impacted by the drawbacks of the tool: