Devourer Demon Hunter DPS Guide — The War Within (11.2.7)

Devourer is a new mid-range DPS specialization for Demon Hunters available in Midnight. It unleashes void empowered spells that do deal Cosmic damage while devouring the souls of it's foes.

It's gameplay mixes the build-and-spend loop with a unique twist during it's cooldown - Void Metamorphosis, which has no cooldown but is instead accessed by collecting Soul Fragments generated by your abilities. Devourer utilizes smaller cooldowns to build up to this, and rewards good planning and execution of your Void Metamorphosis windows. It primarily operates as a 25-yard caster (much like Evokers), but also mixes in some talents that encourage moving into melee range, creating a fast-paced and dynamic flow. As a Demon Hunter, it also has a suite of movement tools and brings the Chaos Brand debuff to assist your group.

Beta Disclaimer

As we're currently in the middle of the Midnight Beta test, this page was built based on current knowledge. Anything here is subject to change before release, so check back regularly after patch updates!

1.

Devourer Demon Hunter Features in Midnight

Devourer Overview Beta Changes Key Abilities

2.

Devourer Demon Hunter Overview

Devourer is new in Midnight, and features a distinct playstyle departure from its melee counterpart, Havoc. Available now on Beta and eventually with the Midnight pre-patch, below is a quick overview of key things:

• Primary Stat
  Devourer is Intellect based, sharing gear with other casters.
• Weapon Types
  Devourer uses Warglaives (which have had Intellect added when you change specializations), Fist Weapons, Axes and Swords.
• Range
  Most abilities have a max range of 25 yards. Some talent options require you to be in melee range to use.
• Resources
  Devourer uses a dual resource system. Fury powers ability casts while outside Void Metamorphosis, and drains passively while inside it. Soul Fragments grant access to Void Metamorphosis, and allows you to cast Collapsing Star.
• / Hero Talents
  Devourer's two Hero Talents are Void-Scarred and Annihilator. The first is shared with Havoc - and is a reskin of their Fel-Scarred equivalent that focuses on explosive bursts of damage during Void Metamorphosis. The second is shared with Vengeance and is all new to Midnight, which calls down void meteors to devastate foes.

2.

Devourer Demon Hunter Beta Changes

This section will be kept up to date over the course of the Beta as updates come in. It will also highlight any major shifts in recommendations throughout the guide.

Beta Update - 11th of December

• Calamitous now causes your critical strikes to deal 240% extra damage (up from 220%).
• Devourer's Bite now causes the target to take 12% increased damage (up from 8%) for 10s.
• Voidsurge has been buffed by 25%.
• Collapsing Star and Eradicate are no longer visible to other players.
• Wings of Wrath now causes Glide to be 10% faster (down from 40%).
• The Class tree now requires 3 more points spent to access the bottom gate of talents.

These updates are overall minor, and do not change the recommended builds for Devourer. Void-Scarred is playable in low keys or in dungeons with small pulls, but we still recommend Annihilator overall.

PTR3rd of December

While there were no direct changes to Devourer, its entire ability suite have had their icons updated to suite the specialization's aesthetic.

PTR18th November

• New Talent - Harness the Cosmos added as a choice node alongside Doomsayer.
• Doomsayer can now trigger within the first 10 seconds of combat, up from 5.
• Final Hour causes Voidfall passive bonuses to linger for 8 seconds, down from 12.
• Voidfall Meteor damage reduced by 50%.
• World Killer Meteors generate 1 Soul, down from 2.
• Student of Suffering grants 3 Fury every 2 seconds, down from 5.
• Eradicate now gains increased damage if it replaces Cull when used during Void Metamorphosis.
• Entropy now sets your Soul counter to 25 when an encounter begins.
• Mastery: Monster Within has had its scaling reduced.
• A large amount of Devourer's offensive abilities have had their damage reduced by 25%.

PTR11th November - Beta Release

• Due to nerfs to Voidblade (removing the Hasted cooldown, reducing Fury drain pause when in Void Metamorphosis), the recommended Annihilator single-target build is now the previous Caster Variant.
• Void Metamorphosis can no longer be cancelled. Rolling Torment has been updated to now provide Fury and a damage increase buff based on Souls present when your transformation ends.
• Umbral Blade now reduces Reap cooldown based on Haste rather than a flat amount. Still not an actively used talent currently.
• While in Void Metamorphosis, your maximum Soul count toward Collapsing Star has been increased to 40 (up from 35)
• Focused Ray has been increased to 50% (up from 20%) when Void Ray hits a single-target. Collapsing Star also deals 50% more damage to its primary target.
• A number of ability tuning adjustments and bugfixes have been applied.

2.

Devourer Demon Hunter Key Abilities

Devourer replaces most of the baseline Demon Hunter abilities with Void themed alternatives, better suiting its caster hybrid playstyle. If you're new to the Beta and looking to jump in, this is a list of some of the key abilities to keep in mind.

1.1.

Offensive Abilities

Ability	Description/Effect
Consume	This is your primary filler, dealing Cosmic damage to your target with a base cast time of 2 seconds. Each cast generates Fury and one Soul Fragment with via Predator's Thirst, and can be cast while moving. When you transform into Void Metamorphosis, this is replaced by Devour.
Void Ray	Deals heavy Cosmic damage to targets in front of you over its 3-second channel. While outside of Void Metamorphosis, this costs 100 Fury with no cooldown, but when inside it has no cost with a 14-second cooldown, briefly pausing Fury drain. This is your main spender.
Void Metamorphosis	Your main cooldown, unlike most classes this has no fixed cooldown. Instead, this can be cast after gathering 50 Souls (modified by talents). When activated, you deal significantly more damage, gain access to Collapsing Star, some abilities are improved and your Fury begins to drain rapidly. When you run out, you're forced out of the form.
Collapsing Star	Can only be accessed during Void Metamorphosis. Every 30 Souls you gather while transformed (or via other means with talents), you can cast one Star to deal massive Cosmic damage to your target and nearby enemies, pausing your Fury drain briefly. Each cast during your transformation becomes stronger via Impending Apocalypse.
Reap	Deals instant Cosmic damage to your target with an 8-second cooldown. When cast, this draws in up to 4 Souls (generating Fury in the process), so can be used to collect any that are too far away to manually pick up. This is currently tuned to be quite weak, but some talents add it into the rotation. When you transform into Void Metamorphosis, this is replaced by Cull.
Voidblade	Charges to your target, dealing Cosmic damage with a 30-second cooldown. This has a lot of supporting talents to make it a more prominent part of some builds, but at a baseline level it's an instant damage and movement tool. Central to the melee hybrid builds.
Soul Immolation	Deals Fire damage to yourself, generating 3 Souls and 30 Fury over 5 seconds. Has a 1-minute cooldown, but follow-up talents to alter your access to it. This serves as a small on-demand resource generation bump.

1.1.

Mobility, Utility & Defense

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.
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.
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.
Disrupt	Devourer's interrupt ability, with a 15-second cooldown and 5-second lockout.
Void Nova	Deals light Cosmic damage and stuns nearby enemies for 2 seconds, with a 45-second cooldown.

Devourer comes with a relatively small core of main spells, with some extra options in the talent tree to add extras in or alter the way cooldowns function. The spec has a smooth pick-up-and-play feel, but has a surprising amount of depth in both planning and managing your cooldown windows. To break down the basics of the spec, there's a few things to keep in mind:

• Build and Spend Resources - Devourer builds Fury and Soul Fragments using Consume, and collects them either by running over them, or casting Reap. Fury is used to fuel Void Ray, while Soul Fragments grant access to your Void Metamorphosis.
• Maximize Void Metamorphosis - Void Metamorphosis is your most powerful cooldown, causing all of your abilities to do more damage. Most importantly, it grants access to Collapsing Star, provided you gather enough Souls before it runs out. While in this form, Fury drains rapidly, so the more you can generate (and more Soul Fragments you can consume); the longer you can stay inside and cast Collapsing Stars!
• Utilize your Hero Tree - Each of Devourer's Hero Trees add in an additional mechanic on top of your regular gameplay. Annihilator has a powerful proc - Voidfall - requiring you to cast Reap after reaching 3 stacks to rain meteors from the sky. Void-Scarred on the other hand releases Voidsurges from certain abilities while in Void Metamorphosis.

These three aspects form the main thrust of the Devourer rotation, with a rhythmic pace shift between your time inside and outside of Void Metamorphosis. The flow can change when selecting certain talents, but these rules always remain central to navigating combat. There's a lot of extra depth that can be found in preparing for, and optimizing your Void Metamorphosis windows, but the base spec is very intuitive to get started with. Devourer, much like its two sister specs, also has an extremely strong movement toolkit with Shift and Vengeful Retreat, while also being able to cast Consume on the move. This gives it great control over positioning compared to many other ranged specializations.

If you're thinking about giving Devourer a try during the Midnight Beta test but aren't quite sure where to start, we recommend starting with our Quick Start page. This covers all the basic steps if you just want to jump in and get started.