Devourer Demon Hunter DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Midnight Season 1

In single-target especially, management of Void Metamorphosis is crucial to gameplay. Due to that, we've separated the rotation into two sections - the first when it's inactive, and the second while it's active. The goal for Void Metamorphosis is similar for each Hero Talent Tree: both seek to extend it as long as possible to leverage Emptiness and cast Collapsing Star

• Cast Reap on cooldown whenever it is available.
• Cast Voidblade right before entering Void Metamorphosis.
• Cast Reap with 3 stacks of Voidfall.
• Cast Void Metamorphosis when available.
• Cast Void Ray with 100 or more Fury - Click for Notes

  • Aim to cast this right before Void Metamorphosis to leverage the Fury refund.
• Cast Consume.

• Cast Pierce the Veil before Collapsing Star or a Moment of Craving buffed Cull.
• Cast Voidblade before Collapsing Star.
• Cast Cull with 3 stacks of Voidfall
• Cast Collapsing Star when at 30 Souls.
• Cast Cull with 4 Soul Fragments or if it will overcap charges.
• Cast Void Ray.
• Cast Devour.

Devourer's gameplay loop is built entirely around its Fury and Soul generation loop, feeding into your Void Ray and Void Metamorphosis windows. Cycling quickly to use more of these abilities is key. Some specific notes based on the build chosen are:

• In Single-target Emptiness is taken, so extending Void Metamorphosis is the goal. Generally the limit is Four To Five Collapsing Stars per window, so aim for that.
• Since you can cast Consume / Devour while moving, you can gather up Souls nearby while doing so to build toward Void Metamorphosis and Collapsing Star. Ideally, Reap and Cull are used for this, but this can allow you to get access to these abilities when they are on cooldown.
• Reap is used frequently throughout the rotation. Look to use it whenever you're at 3 stacks of Voidfall.
• Reap is used rotationally due to the large damage it deals. Regardless of your transformation state, it's used on cooldown to deal high damage and generate Fury.
• Void Ray is used aggressively. Outside of Void Metamorphosis this should be whenever you reach 100+ Fury, and while transformed it is used on cooldown to pause Fury drain.
• For Annihilator, Voidblade is used to trigger the damage amp from Devourer's Bite. Use this ability whenever you will buff Collapsing Star and/or a Cull cast empowered by Moment of Craving.
• For Void-Scarred, the melee combo depends on your target count. Voidblade / Pierce the Veil are only used as a damage amp with Devourer's Bite - use Voidblade right before entering Void Metamorphosis, and then Pierce the Veil whenever it will buff Collapsing Star and/or a Moment of Craving buffed Cull.
  

While executing your Void Metamorphosis to extend it isn't as critical in AoE, it still requires cycling correctly to enter it more frequently, leveraging Emptiness. Due to that, we've separated the rotation into two sections - the first when it's inactive, and the second while it's active:

• Cast Hungering Slash.
• Cast Vengeful Retreat with Voidstep.
• Cast The Hunt to put it on cooldown.
• Cast Voidblade to put it on cooldown.
• Cast Reap / Eradicate with 3 stacks of Voidfall.
• Cast Void Metamorphosis with 35 Souls.
• Cast Eradicate.
• Cast Void Ray with 100 or more Fury - Click for Notes

  • Aim to cast this right before Void Metamorphosis to leverage the Fury refund.
• Cast Consume.

• Cast Reaper's Toll.
• Cast Vengeful Retreat with Voidstep.
• Cast Predator's Wake.
• Cast Pierce the Veil.
• Cast Eradicate.
• Cast Void Ray.
• Cast Collapsing Star when at 30 Souls.
• Cast Cull with 4 or more Soul Fragments for priority damage.
• Cast Devour.

Devourer's gameplay loop in AoE is built on cycling through Fury to fuel Void Ray, while capitalizing upon short, burst-heavy Void Metamorphosis windows. The Void-Scarred playstyle is quite different from the current single-target iteration, utilizing the full suite of Melee Talents for additional cleave damage. Some specific notes based on the build are:

Devourer's gameplay loop in AoE is built on cycling through Fury to power Void Ray, while cycling through burst-heavy Void Metamorphosis windows. It still utilizes Emptiness, still trying to cast as many Collapsing Star casts as possible when playing Annihilator. Some specific notes based on the build are:

• In AoE, the choice between Soul Glutton and Emptiness depends on how the dungeon is being pulled, and how long you expect combat will last. For shorter, smaller pulls, Soul Glutton pulls ahead, with Emptiness taking the lead in larger and longer pulls. Aim to have as many casts of Collapsing Star as possible. This number will depend on your talent choice and the number will depend on how many targets you are facing.
• Since you can cast Consume / Devour while moving, gather up Souls nearby while doing so to build toward Void Metamorphosis / Collapsing Star.
• In AoE, Reap / Cull casts are replaced in favour of using Eradicate procs, regardless of your form. This triggers immediately after Void Ray, which naturally aligns with Moment of Craving. Inside of Void Metamorphosis, Cull can be used with 4 or more Soul Fragments on the ground for increased priority damage. The only exception to this is before using Void Metamorphosis, to consume Voidfall.
• Void Ray is used even more aggressively in AoE due to the Fury and Souls feedback loop. Outside of Void Metamorphosis, this should be whenever you're at 100 Fury, while inside it is used on cooldown.
• For Void-Scarred, the melee combo is quite robust. Depending on your current form, the sequence is:
  Outside: The Hunt / Voidblade ➜ Hungering Slash ➜ Vengeful Retreat
  Inside: Predator's Wake / Pierce the Veil ➜ Reaper's Toll ➜ Vengeful Retreat
  These can be cast as isolated 3-part combos, or a longer extended 6-part cycle.

Due to Devourer beginning fights with 25 Souls via Entropy, its openers are a bit basic. There's a build-up to your first major cooldown, so it has to start "dry" to reach its first Soul breakpoint:

• Pre-cast Consume 1 second before the pull.
• Cast Reap.
• Cast Reap.
• Cast Consume until 100 Fury
• Cast Void Ray.
• Cast Reap.
• Cast Repeat the above until Void Metamorphosis is available.
• Cast Reap.
• Cast Voidblade.
• Cast Void Metamorphosis.
• Cast Use any on-use trinkets or potions.
• Cast Cull.
• Cast Void Ray.
• Cast Pierce the Veil.
• Cast Collapsing Star.
• Cast Cull.
• Cast Devour.
• Pre-cast Consume 1 second before the pull.
• Cast Consume until 100 Fury.
• Cast Void Ray.
• Cast Eradicate.
• Repeat the above until Void Metamorphosis is ready.
• Cast Voidblade.
• Cast Hungering Slash.
• Cast Vengeful Retreat.
• Cast The Hunt.
• Cast Void Metamorphosis.
• Cast Void Ray.
• Cast Eradicate.
• Cast Reaper's Toll.
• Cast Vengeful Retreat.
• Cast Cull.
• Cast Pierce the Veil.
• Cast Reaper's Toll.
• Cast Vengeful Retreat.
• Cast Predator's Wake.
• Cast Reaper's Toll.
• Cast Vengeful Retreat.
• Cast Devour.
• Note - Due to the Annihilator single-target build having very few cooldowns to cycle through, it has no real opening sequence. It simply opens straight into its standard rotation.
• Pre-cast Consume 1 second before the pull.
• Cast Reap when you can proc Voidfall.
• Cast Consume until you reach 100 Fury.
• Cast Void Ray.
• Repeat the above until Void Metamorphosis is ready.
• Cast Reap
• Cast Voidblade
• Cast Void Metamorphosis
• Cast Void Ray
• Cast Collapsing Star
• Cast Cull

Your goal for is to reach your first Void Metamorphosis as quickly as possible to start Soul Fragments and Fury cycling. If you have leftover Souls from a previous pull, you can skip ahead to a Void Metamorphosis opening and follow the main priority instead. Some quick notes are:

• If you're playing an AoE variant, your first Void Ray should also be followed up with Eradicate.
• Void-Scarred especially wants to sequence its melee combo at the start of the fight, making sure everything is on cooldown before its first Void Metamorphosis.
• Watch out for your Voidfall stacks in the opener. If you reach three before your first Void Metamorphosis, make sure to Reap / Eradicate before starting your window.

Devourer's major cooldown is Void Metamorphosis. Unlike many other specs, this does not have a fixed cooldown or duration, and is instead only usable after collecting 50 Souls (reduced to 35 when playing Soul Glutton). After use, it remains active until your Fury is drained to zero, and while transformed you gain the following benefits:

• The benefits of Mastery: Monster Within are substantially increased.
• Consume becomes Devour, dealing significantly more damage and having a shorter cast time.
• Reap becomes Cull, dealing significantly more damage.
• Void Ray damage is significantly increased, and no longer costs Fury, instead having a Hasted cooldown. Also pauses Fury drain while channeling.
• You gain access to Collapsing Star after collecting 30 Souls.
• Your Fury bar is fully refilled.
• With Emptiness — You gain 0.25% Haste per Soul consumed.
• As Annihilator — You gain 3 stacks of Voidfall and refresh the cooldown of Reap.
• As Void-Scarred — The cooldowns of Voidblade and The Hunt are reset upon entry.
• As Void-Scarred — Voidblade, The Hunt and Hungering Slash are upgraded to Pierce the Veil, Predator's Wake and Reaper's Toll, respectively.

While in Void Metamorphosis, your Fury will drain at an increasingly rapid pace, ramping up the difficulty of maintaining the form as time passes. Thankfully, a handful of abilities will pause this drain briefly after use: Void Ray and Collapsing Star, alongside Voidblade and The Hunt when paired with the Voidrush talent.

Due to these factors, it's very important to plan around your Void Metamorphosis windows, ideally having some Souls already generated on the ground to leverage after entry. While transformed, any Souls gathered after 40 disappear, so avoid holding onto Collapsing Star casts for too long.

While in your Void Metamorphosis form, all of your abilities deal significantly more damage, but most importantly, you can cast your strongest spell - Collapsing Star. This can only be cast under the following conditions:

• Void Metamorphosis is currently active
• You have gathered a total of 30 Soul Fragments
• On entry once via the Midnight Apex Talent

When cast, this deals massive Cosmic damage to your target and nearby enemies (reduced after 8 targets), and resets your Soul counter displayed on the resource bar. Through the Impending Apocalypse talent, each subsequent Star cast in each Void Metamorphosis will become 30% stronger; meaning that the longer you can sustain your transformation the more powerful each cast becomes.

This forms the backbone of the cooldown, dealing extremely high damage in single-target and especially in AoE, acting as the payoff moment for managing your cooldown correctly. The number of casts is roughly dictated by your Fury and Soul generation, and casting four or more is generally a good number to aim for during extended windows.

Rolling Torment serves as a redundancy tool for excess Souls gathered while transformed. This rewards you with 5 Fury and 0.5% increased damage for 12 seconds per Soul present when your transformation expired. This means it's less punishing to gather Souls without reaching a Collapsing Star cast while in Void Metamorphosis, and also gives some nice resource kickback. This is especially helpful in reaching your first Void Ray after you leave, allowing you to restart your cycle faster.

Despite this, you still want some Souls left on the ground when your form expires. The main benefit is getting back into Void Metamorphosis faster, this talent simply means it's not quite as much of a disaster if you just missed out on a final Collapsing Star cast.

New in Midnight, Apex Talents are a group of 4 talents at the base of your talent tree, which unlock as you level from 80 to 90. Unique for these talents, they are sequential with different effects depending on how many points you've invested. To access the next level of talents, you must put points in the previous one! For Devourer, The Apex talent focuses solely on Collapsing Star, greatly increasing its damage!

Midnight is the first of the Apex Talents, causing your Collapsing Star to always critically strike. This greatly increases the damage of the ability, and has synergy with the already powerful talent Calamitous, further increasing the damage of your Collapsing Star.

Midnight is your second and third level in the Apex Talent, with each level causing your Cosmic damage to increase by 3%/6%, and your Collapsing Star to gain critical strike damage equal to 50%/100% of your critical strike chance. This effect is an additive increase to your Collapsing Star damage. For example, if you have 20% critical strike chance on your character sheet, your Collapsing Star will critically strike for 220% damage, or 260% damage if you are playing Calamitous. This is very valuable, but has little influence on the overall value of Critical Strike.

Midnight is your final Apex Talent, and is the most rotationally impactful. With this talent, when you enter Void Metamorphosis, you will spawn 5 Soul Fragments, and gain immediate access to Collapsing Star. This is quite powerful, as it gives you 8 Soul Fragments towards your next star (5 from the talent itself, plus 3 from Star Fragments), as well as ramp the damage of all your future Collapsing Stars due to Impending Apocalypse.

While the hero talents for Devourer don't have specific interactions with the Apex Talent, there are small synergies. For Annihilator, the free Collapsing Star allows you to proc Dark Matter immediately for front-loaded damage. For Void-Scarred, Student of Suffering is sed for the mastery buff, empowering your Collapsing Star further.

Devourer is a Dual Resource specialization, needing to balance both its Fury and Soul Fragments as fuel for its abilities. Depending on whether you are currently in Void Metamorphosis or not, they each serve a dual function.

Fury is your primary resource while outside of Void Metamorphosis, and is spent to cast Void Ray. This has a cap of 120 as Annihilator140 as Void-Scarred, and you should always avoid wasting any by overcapping. This is generated by casting Consume, Voidblade / Hungering Slash, while Soul Immolation is active, or by collecting Soul Fragments. Void Ray also generates 10 after its channel completes via Voidglare Boon.

While inside Void Metamorphosis, your abilities no longer cost Fury, and instead it passively drains while transformed. When you completely run out, this effect ends, so generation is still crucial to maintaining the benefits of your cooldown.

Souls grant 4 Fury when collected, and also fill up your secondary resource bar. When you reach 50 (or 35 when playing Soul Glutton), you gain access to your Void Metamorphosis form. While transformed, every 30 Souls generated will also allow you to cast Collapsing Star once. Souls are generated from a variety of abilities and talents, listed below:

• Consume spawns 1 Soul via Predator's Thirst
• Shattered Souls grants all ability damage a chance to spawn a Soul
• Entropy will passively spawn 1 Soul every 8 seconds
• Soul Immolation spawns 3 Souls over its duration
• Void Ray spawns a large number of Souls via Waste Not
• Collapsing Star spawns 3 Souls via Star Fragments

You can only have a maximum of 10 Souls on the ground at a time. Any after this are automatically collected when a new one is spawned. Additionally, any Souls collected after the limit of 50 while outside of Void Metamorphosis, or 35 while transformed, will be wasted. That means you want to try to avoid collecting any until you've either activated your window, or cast Collapsing Star when it becomes available.

Since both resources fluctuate in how important they are based on your Void Metamorphosis state, it can take a little bit of getting used to. A few quick tips when getting started are:

• Don't Waste Fury or Souls - be aware of both caps, and always aim to stay below those limits. There's a small buffer for both, so make use of it.
• Check Before you Reap - bear in mind that Reap will collect Souls and generate 4 Fury for each, so consider holding off if it will significantly overcap your resources.
• Leverage the Refill - when entering Void Metamorphosis your Fury bar is fully refilled, so try to siphon it off with Void Ray before entry.
• Use Spenders Aggressively - generation of both resources can be very fast, so try to use Void Ray and Collapsing Star as soon as they activate.

Void Ray is Devourer's primary spender outside of Void Metamorphosis, and a key cooldown while inside it. This is the specialization equivalent to Havoc's Eye Beam and Vengeance's Fel Devastation, boasting a 25-yard range. It can be channelled for up to 3 seconds (reduced by Haste), and deals heavy Cosmic damage over the duration while rooting you in place.

Uniquely, it has a dual function depending on your current Void Metamorphosis state. While outside of this form, it has no cooldown, but costs 100 Fury to cast. While inside, it has a Hasted cooldown of 16 seconds (reduced to 14 by Voidpurge), and pauses your Fury drain both while channelling and briefly after ending. Due to being a central part of Devourer, it has a number of talents that augment it:

• Waste Not — significantly increases the rate of Souls it generates, turning it into one of your most reliable source of Souls.
• Full Channel Rewards — four talent options add payoff to completing a channel. Voidglare Boon grants 10 Fury, Eradicate and Moment of Craving empower your follow-up Reap cast, and Final Breath increases the damage of the final tick by 300%.
• Damage Amplifiers — Focused Ray increases Void Ray damage by 50% when it strikes a single target, while Demonic Instinct increases all damage it deals by 10% per point.

Due to its raw damage alongside the effects tied to it, it is ideal to cast Void Ray as much as possible, ideally as soon as it becomes available. This means avoiding Fury waste is especially important while outside of Void Metamorphosis, as this directly leads to less Void Ray casts.

Uniquely, Devourer comes with a number of talent options that encourage you to jump into melee range briefly for a few globals, before then quickly leaping back out. Void-Scarred especially emphasizes this playstyle, with its core talents being:

• Voidblade — 30-second cooldown ability that leaps to your target, dealing heavy Cosmic damage and generating Fury. Comes with a number of talents to empower it such as Duty Eternal, Devourer's Bite, Singular Strikes and Soulforged Blades.
• The Hunt — 90-second cooldown that charges to your target, dealing Cosmic damage and applying a DoT both to that target and up to 5 enemies in your path. Your hitbox remains active for a few seconds after this, allowing you to apply the dot to any targets you missed.
• Hungering Slash — The core of the "melee combo". After using Voidblade or The Hunt, they are replaced on your action bar with this ability, causing you to slash in an arc around you. This shatters 2 Souls, generates 10 Fury, and can be further augmented by Soulforged Blades, Singular Strikes and Demonic Instinct. Additionally, when used, it triggers Voidstep, granting a free cast of Vengeful Retreat that will deal Cosmic damage to nearby enemies when cast. This allows you to leap in, do the combo, and then quickly return to range.
• Voidrush — Adds extra value to Voidblade during Void Metamorphosis. This causes both it and The Hunt to briefly pause Fury drain when cast, and also reduces Voidblade's cooldown by 10 seconds after each Collapsing Star cast. This makes them extremely good for extending your transformations even further!

All of these talents combined create a strong incentive to mix in some quick melee combos for a big payoff, especially for Void-Scarred. While Annihilator makes limited use of these due to its more caster-centric playstyle, they are still strong independent talents.

Reap is positioned as a central part of the Devourer rotation. It has a base 8-second cooldown, instantly dealing Cosmic damage to your target, and consuming up to 4 Soul Fragments. A variety of effects and talents also modify it in different ways:

• Void Metamorphosis — Transforms Reap into Cull while active, significantly increasing its damage. Its cooldown is also reduced by 1 second each time you cast Devour (the replacement for Consume).
• Scythe's Embrace — Causes Reap to also generate 10 Fury.
• Second Helping — Grants Reap a second charge.
• Umbral Blade — Causes Reap's cooldown to be affected by Haste.
• Soulshaper & Moment of Craving — Soulshaper increases its damage dealt by 8% per Soul consumed, and Moment of Craving allows your next Reap cast following a fully channelled Void Ray to consume up to 10 Souls. These effects serve as a large increase to Reap casts, and massively increase its damage.
• Eradicate — Upgrades Reap to Eradicate after fully channelling Void Ray. This causes it to deal damage in a 25-yard cone in front of you, gaining all of the bonuses a standard Reap cast would. This is a very powerful AoE tool.

With current tuning, Reap is very powerful, and should be used as much as possible. Moment of Craving further empowers Reap, resetting its cooldown and increasing the souls it can collect to 10, increasing its damage from Soulshaper. Due to this, Reap and Cull should be used aggressively to get the most value out of them in a fight, never letting them sit at maximum charges for long.

While Soul Immolation is positioned on the Devourer tree as a core part of the rotation, currently it's in an unusual spot. This comes with a base 1-minute cooldown, though can be reduced to 30-seconds with 2 charges using Tempered Soul. When activated, this deals Fire damage to yourself, while generating 30 Fury and shattering 3 Souls over 5 seconds.

Its follow-up node provides a choice: Spontaneous Immolation vs. Tempered Soul. This allows for you to choose between either active casts (with more flexibility in when you use it), or a 5% chance to passively trigger from any damaging spell - saving GCDs. Generally, Spontaneous Immolation wins out here, as the 5% chance averages out to roughly the same number of uses over the course of an encounter, while having stronger Haste scaling. There's no major advantage with the way Devourer currently plays to having direct control over when these happen, so while Tempered Soul can be played if you'd prefer more predictability, it's not currently recommended.