Havoc Demon Hunter: Midnight Expansion Preview

The Havoc changes present on the Midnight Alpha currently lean much closer toward refinements, rather than the large scale restructuring some specializations have gone through. To accommodate the existence of Devourer as well, the Class Tree has undergone major changes, so we'll cover each individually.

The first thing you'll notice is the entire area below the 20 gate has been restructured, and Sigil of Flame (alongside supporting talents) have been removed. This includes all three capstones - both The Hunt and Collective Anguish have been moved to the Havoc tree alongside Demonic, and Sigil of Spite has been removed entirely. Instead, these have been replaced with some generic damage passives in Furious, Remorseless and Final Breath. Darkness remains in place, now sandwiched between some other strong defensive and utility options placed here:

• First In, Last Out
  Provides a small decaying shield after casting Fel Rush, giving a small amount of extra active defense.
• Demonic Resilience
  Adding an additional charge to Blur to go with changes explained in the Spec Tree section is incredibly strong, and likely places Havoc among the most durable specs going into Midnight.
• Demon Muzzle
  Now rewards you with damage reduction after a successful interrupt, as it no longer has Sigils to key into. This is more situational with the new texture of dungeons having less casters, but when it can be leveraged is even more survivability alongside the other changes.
• Wings of Wrath
  While innocuous on the surface, this makes Glide an escape and movement tool even more so than it currently is, layering on yet more instant movement tools to an already highly mobile spec.

While the removal of Fel Eruption does limit CC options (which seems like a casualty of the Developer intent to consolidate overlapping buttons), Chaos Nova has had its duration increased by 1 second, and has a follow-up Focused Ire that extends the duration on your current target. Additional niche utility has also been added to Immolation Aura with Burn It Out / Soul Cleanse that give access to self-dispel tools.

The Spec tree sees less dramatic shifts compared to the Class Tree, instead aiming to keep the core structure while fitting in some re-homed effects, with several key changes:

• Demon Blades
  This is now baseline, and your primary means of Fury generation. Demon's Bite has been removed. This makes sense, since Demon Blades has been a mainstay in every Havoc talent build since the introduction of Dragonflight talent trees.
• Essence Break
  One of the worst offenders when it came to buff overlapping gameplay, this is instead a flat amount of damage rather than a multiplier for Blade Dance / Chaos Strike. This pulls away the requirement to always link it to Metamorphosis to compound the effect.
• Desperate Instincts
  Now amplifies the damage reduction from Blur, and provides passive damage reduction while low instead of auto-casting when you hit the threshold. This changes it from a liability to a significant defensive boost.
• Netherwalk
  Instead provides a shorter immunity without the pacification effect when you cast Blur. This means Havoc has access to a damage Immunity for 2.5 seconds every minute and it has two charges!
• Removals
  Fel Barrage and Looks Can Kill have both been removed.

Compared to many other specs, it's a very small number of removals, and a much more targeted series of changes keying in on their stated goal. Essence Break was consistently the worst offender when it came to layering all damage effects inside its 4-second window, and with it instead being a flat amount of bonus damage from strikes, that will likely go away. This also means it has less hidden power, and probably falls away from being a mandatory talent to pick and optimize. Movement talents do remain including the buff window from Initiative, but as proven by recent content releases, these have been more optional, and the tree structure still allows you to build around them if they don't suit an encounter.

Looks Can Kill is removed to make room for Demonic which, at this point, is a core mechanic for Havoc that it's been built around. The Hunt has been placed dead center of the tree now, with Inner Demon being positioned against Chaotic Transformation - one that will likely key into your chosen Hero Talent - and Collective Anguish has been placed against Shattered Destiny. Finally, Glaive Tempest has been converted into a passive, which currently casts the same effect for free whenever Blade Dance hits 4 targets. This is potentially an excellent way to free up GCDs, but the target hit limitation applies friction against one of Havoc's greatest strengths: talents flexibly scaling up from single-target all the way into mass AoE. This instead creates a dead zone at 1-3 targets where it does nothing, making it far more specialized than the rest of the spec's talent options.

The new extra feature for Midnight are Apex Talents, with Havoc's focusing on The Hunt and Eye Beam. Up to 4 points can be spent here, providing additional combo follow-ups to each cast, but without adding too much additional gameplay friction. Currently, these are arranged in a 1 ➜ 2 ➜ 1 point investment:

1. Eternal Hunt (1 pt)
   Gives The Hunt a combo follow-up after casting, both doubling the damage and increasing the range of your next Eye Beam.
2. Eternal Hunt (2 pts)
   Each point reduces the cooldown of The Hunt by 15 seconds, increases its damage by 15%, and increases the number of targets hit by the DoT effect by 2. This makes it a more meaningful AoE cooldown, and allows it to slot more smoothly into most cooldown cycles.
3. Eternal Hunt (1 pt)
   Increases the damage of Blade Dance by 20%, and each time you finish channeling Eye Beam, your next Blade Dance cast will reset its own cooldown. This adds an additional layer of combo follow-up to your Eye Beam casts, and slots in pretty well.

Both the first and final point are reincarnations of previous set bonuses (with the first being Amirdrassil, and the second being Nerub'ar) that worked well. While The Hunt is both cool and very thematic, it's always been positioned as a fairly awkward cooldown to use. With this, The Hunt now has a more standard cooldown, adds significant punch to the cast (with an even higher target cap) while also adding a bit of combo gameplay into it. It even goes some way toward filling the hole left behind by the removal of Sigil of Spite for Aldrachi Reaver as well.

I think on the whole, this is a fairly interesting choice to design the Apex around, picking a fire-and-forget ability that (while iconic) has lacked meaningful purpose in the rotation. Adding in a firm follow-up to Eye Beam as well with the final point that adds to the Demonic sequence is even better. Considering the the design is quite involved relative to many other Apex choices, it's clearly been carefully designed to cater to both Aldrachi Reaver and Fel-Scarred in equal measure, but for different reasons. In practice, it slots into both trees seamlessly, fitting well with the rotational goals many may recognize from Havoc on live servers.

Currently, Havoc has limited changes for both of its Hero trees in both Fel-Scarred and Aldrachi Reaver. Neither tree has its 3 new talent nodes implemented yet, though there are implications on how they function based on both the Class and Spec tree changes.

Aldrachi Reaver's new talents may look familiar, especially if you're currently playing it on live servers. It's not very surprising that these were chosen to be brought forward either, after all they carved out an extremely unique niche for the spec through the powerful funnel granted by Wounded Quarry. The new nodes are as follows:

• Broken Spirit
  Adds extra soul generation to The Hunt (though it still retains the Reaver's Glaive trigger when used), and adds a 20% chance to shatter soul fragments from Chaos Strike. This is a unique, separate chance alongside Demonic Appetite
• Keen Edge
  Increases Reaver's Glaive and all Physical ability damage. This leans heavily into Wounded Quarry's effect, and the final new node:
• Bladecraft
  This is the current Season 3 4-piece from live servers, doubling the glaives triggered by Fury of the Aldrachi and allowing Reaver's Mark to stack to 3.

I think this being brought forward places Havoc on very solid ground for the future. This was an extremely strong effect that very clearly gave it an edge in certain encounters, and especially in Mythic+. While the loss of Sigil of Spite, Sigil of Flame and Soul Sigils does sting for soul generation, the Apex talent is doing a decent amount to cover for that. When you combine the increased access to The Hunt (via Eternal Hunt) with Broken Spirit, it's likely that the rate of Reaver's Glaive triggers will be quite similar.

Fel-Scarred's new talents on the other hand are new offerings, instead moving away from the current Tier Set design. It's still got a heavy focus on Immolation Aura, but leans further into the frequent Metamorphosis activations:

• Blind Focus
  Increases Fire damage by 3%, doubling when transformed. A fairly minor bonus, but gains most of its benefit via Demonsurge, which only trigger while in Metamorphosis.
• Undying Embers
  Gives Immolation Aura a 25% chance to re-ignite after fading. This has strong synergy with the supporting talent suites on the spec tree, especially with A Fire Inside and Ragefire.
• Volatile Instinct
  Whenever you enter Metamorphosis, trigger Demonsurge. This especially synergizes with Cycle of Hatred and Demonic, adding more up-front damage to your transformations.

While the new talents definitely lean into what Fel-Scarred is built around with its 20-second cycle, there were some aspects that hurt it. Losing Sigil of Flame (and by extension Sigil of Doom), the number of burst Demonsurge triggers went down. Thankfully, this was replaced by far more triggers during your 20-second windows via Volatile Instinct, so it's mostly a wash.

The final Apex Talent, Eternal Hunt, also works really well here. Guaranteeing a back-to-back Death Sweep every Demonic window further cements the flow, and feels great to play. The bonuses to The Hunt are a little more muted though, lacking any strong equivalent hook like Aldrachi Reaver, making it a heavier investment to pick up all 4 points.