Devourer Demon Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0.1)

Annihilator falls significantly behind in terms of pure Single-Target due to tuning, but still has some value in raids. Specifically, if you are not a fan of the melee playstyle or a fight restricts your movement, then Annihilator remains an alternative option.

Void-Scarred is tuned quite well compared to its competitor, benefiting from well tuned melee abilities it takes advantage of, and the recent buffs to Cull. It provides strong single-target, while bringing cleave for free. Alongside that, it utilizes constant burst windows with Void Metamorphosis, but can run into issues if an encounter makes weaving in and out of melee difficult. Despite that limitation, it is the recommended choice.

Use the Copy button below to generate an Import Code to use in-game!

In Single-Target, Annihilator builds heavily lean into a pure caster playstyle. It avoids the entire melee toolkit centered around Voidblade, instead aiming to cycle Fury and Souls as quickly as possible for Void Metamorphosis. When paired with Emptiness, this allows for longer windows that leverage Impending Apocalypse, allowing for big Collapsing Star payoffs. Some additional notes are:

As a Hero tree, Void-Scarred focuses much more on melee abilities. This is to take advantage of its Demon Form empowered equivalents to trigger the keystone effect - Voidsurge - and as such are required picks to build the tree properly. In particular, Demonic Intensity heavily encourages filling out the entire left capstone area to reach The Hunt. Some additional notes are:

• Emptiness is always taken in single-target builds on the final choice node. The ramping Haste provided is key to extending Void Metamorphosis as long as possible.
• Spontaneous Immolation is always taken over Tempered Soul, due to the GCD efficiency benefits of triggering it passively.
• Due to the buffs to Reap and Cull, the entire package of talents ( Second Helping, Umbral Blade, Soulshaper, Moment of Craving, Devourer's Edge) are taken. Soulshaper and Moment of Craving are also required pathing to Voidpurge, which allows for more frequent Void Ray casts, pausing Fury drain during Void Metamorphosis.
• Since Doomsayer only activates a single time during single-target encounters, it opts for the raw Voidfall throughput provided by Harness the Cosmos.
• Due to the Void-Scarred tree design, melee talents are required to activate it. The tree can't fully function without utilizing Voidblade, Hungering Slash and The Hunt.
• The melee options provide powerful Single-Target and cleave for Void-Scarred, therefore talents such as Devourer's Bite, and Devourer's Edge are taken to bolster them.
• Cull is a core part of the rotation, and all of the talents that buff it ( Second Helping, Umbral Blade, Soulshaper, Moment of Craving, Devourer's Edge) are now taken. This ability is used on cooldown as often as possible while inside of Void Metamorphosis.
• Without the powerful Apex talents, Void-Scarred does not currently make use of Collapsing Star in Single-Target. Instead, it opts to further empower other abilities using talents such as Voidrage, Calamitous, and Devourer's Edge. Collapsing Star is, however, still used whenever you're facing more than one target.

While the gap between the two trees is closer in AoE than in Single-target, Annihilator is still slightly behind. It can leverage its higher damage from Collapsing Star, as well as access to a frequent AoE tool with Voidfall, to remain viable, but is lacking some of the buffs to Eradicate that Void-Scarred has. As such, while it is viable, it is currently not the recommend choice, unless you prefer its playstyle.

While the gap between trees is closer in AoE, Void-Scarred remains ahead. Voidsurge provides powerful AoE burst on a short cooldown cycle, allowing for frequent Void Metamorphosis windows with high damage. Void-Scarred also benefits more from the recent buffs to Eradicate due to Burning Blades, leveraging this as a frequent high damage option. It is currently the recommended choice.

Use the Copy button below to generate an Import Code to use in-game!

Annihilator leans heavily into AoE tools in AoE, foregoing all melee talent options to focus on it. The shorter, more frequent pulls in dungeons lead to Soul Glutton being the superior option to Emptiness on the final choice node, giving you more flexible access to Void Metamorphosis windows, and by extension more Voidfall triggers. Some additional notes are:

Much of the Void-Scarred toolkit is well suited to AoE scenarios due to many melee talents scaling into AoE, alongside Voidsurge triggers. Due to the shorter, more frequent pulls in AoE, Soul Glutton has even more value, suiting it well to having short, bursty cooldown windows available for each pull. The recent buffs to Eradicate also give some strong damage both outside and inside of Void Metamorphosis. Some additional notes are:

• Due to frequent combat drops giving opportunities to reset Doomsayer's availability, it's preferred in most AoE content to set up at the start of pulls quickly.
• Annihilator finishes the entire right side capstone area to reach Eradicate. This helps convert Reap into an AoE tool after channelling Void Ray, allowing you to apply the damage increases from Moment of Craving and Soulshaper for extra value.
• Devourer's Edge is taken over Demonic Instinct due to the buffs it provides to Eradicate. Taking this node also allows pathing to the powerful Calamitous, increasing the damage of all of our critical strikes.
• Void-Scarred also finishes the entire right side capstone area to reach Eradicate. This helps convert Reap into an Ao tool after channelling Void Ray, allowing you to amplify the damage increases from Moment of Craving and Soulshaper further. Eradicate's damage benefits also apply to Burning Blades as well, making it an excellent pickup.
• The Hunt is dropped in AoE in favour of more buffs to Eradicate, as well as grabbing the powerful Calamitous talent. While this seems counter-intuitive, the damage you gain is significant, and the talents leading into The Hunt are fairly weak in AoE. Additionally, while you lose one Voidsurge trigger per Void Metamorphosis window, you will be in Void Metamorphosis for less time, allowing you to cycle these three Voidsurges more efficiently.

In Delves, Annihilator is well suited to the frequent stop-and-start pull playstyle, allowing you to alter your pace based on your Void Metamorphosis state. Doomsayer also allows it to set up quickly between each area, while also taking advantage of Devourer's great defense toolkit. Unfortunately, it's just a little less versatile than its competitor, so is more of an alternative.

In Delves, Void-Scarred is perfectly suited to the pull cadence, and allows you to adjust how much you grab at once depending on your Void Metamorphosis state. Its high movement, frequent bursts of damage, and strong single-target built into its standard build makes it an ideal pick. Pair that with the strong defense toolkit of Devourer, and it becomes the recommended choice.

Use the Copy button below to generate an Import Code to use in-game!

Annihilator focuses on its keystone effect, Voidfall. A variety of Devourer abilities (most importantly Consume and Void Ray) grant a stack, and upon reaching three, your next Reap cast will consume them. Each stack consumed calls down a powerful Void Meteor, dealing heavy Cosmic damage to targets and generating 2 Soul Fragments. The playstyle is relatively simple, only requiring you to slot in additional Reap casts to consume stacks as they cap out.

For the offensive choice node, Harness the Cosmos provides a more general throughput increase to Voidfall, while Doomsayer is tailored to Mythic+ and situations where you can consistently leave combat to refresh the effect.

For defense and mobility, Phase Shift grants 2% damage reduction per stack of Voidfall present, with Final Hour allowing it to persist after you consume them. Path to Oblivion adds 3% movement speed on top of that, though adding a third charge to Shift with State of Matter is generally preferrable.

Void-Scarred provides a variety of benefits during your Void Metamorphosis effect. Most importantly, Voidblade, Hungering Slash, and The Hunt are upgraded into more powerful versions while active. Additionally, the first cast of each of these trigger a Voidsurge for extra AoE Cosmic damage. This slots in over the regular Devourer playstyle, but heavily encourages using a hybrid melee approach, leaping in and out of range to activate these effects.

For the three choice nodes on the tree, there are the following options:

• Wave of Debilitation vs. Pursuit of Angriness - both are niche effects, with Pursuit of Angriness generally being better for the small amount of extra mobility vs. the extra CC utility of Wave of Debilitation.
• Set Fire to the Pain vs. Improved Soul Rending - this is a choice between passive damage reduction or self sustain. Generally speaking, staggering some damage with Set Fire to the Pain so you can leech it back up is the preferred choice, but it's quite minor.
• Student of Suffering vs. Flamebound - due to the current tuning state of melee abilities, the benefits of Flamebound focusing on Hungering Slash is pretty weak. Student of Suffering on the other hand significantly improves Fury generation while also buffing extra Mastery, making it the preferred choice.