Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Easy Mode — The War Within (Season 1)

Last updated on Sep 09, 2024 at 18:00 by Wordup 58 comments
General Information

On this page, we explain how to easily play Havoc Demon Hunter in World of Warcraft — The War Within (Season 1), using the simplest rotation, talent tree, stat priority, gear setup, etc., without sacrificing performance.

1.

Foreword

This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

2.

The Basics of Havoc Demon Hunter

Havoc has a relatively simple baseline toolkit, but each ability has a lot of talent support in the tree to broaden its use. The core is quite easy to get started due to how straightforward Fury management is, but there are some aspects that add in a satisfying learning curve on top. If you are completely new to Havoc and need more information on the abilities available to you, you can check out our Spell Summary page.

Currently, Fel-Scarred is generally the strongest option in most situations while also being significantly easier to execute, so will be recommended on this page.

3.

Beginner's Guide to Havoc Demon Hunter in The War Within

Fel-Scarred
Single-Target Talents
Fel-Scarred
Mythic+ / AoE Talents
Basic Havoc Demon
Hunter Rotation
Havoc Demon Hunter
Defensive Spells
Havoc Demon Hunter
Stat Priority
4.

Beginner Single-Target Talents for Havoc Demon Hunter

Havoc has a few different single-target build options, but the most flexible option that comes with both good performance and ease of execution is currently Fel-Scarred. This focuses on greatly empowered Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis and Demonic Icon Demonic windows, providing extremely strong burst. If you are more interested in alternative or more complex builds, check our talent page:

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

Havoc Single Target - Fel-Scarred
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4.

Beginner AoE and Mythic+ Talents for Havoc Demon Hunter

In AoE, both hero talents have builds but for ease of execution Fel-Scarred is far preferred. This focuses heavily on your 2-minute Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis window and, while it adds in Inertia Icon Inertia for some movement gameplay, the payoff is high enough to make it worth it. If you are more interested in alternative or more complex builds, check our talent page:

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

Havoc AoE - Fel-Scarred
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4.

Beginner Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Concepts

The goal of Havoc combat is to generate as much Fury as possible to fuel spenders in Blade Dance Icon Blade Dance and Chaos Strike Icon Chaos Strike. It does this while also using Eye Beam Icon Eye Beam to activate Demonic Icon Demonic, and making use of the powerful 2-minute cooldown burst that comes from Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis that converts your spenders to Death Sweep Icon Death Sweep and Annihilation Icon Annihilation.

Most of your Fury generation will come from Demon Blades Icon Demon Blades, triggered via auto-attacks, and Felblade Icon Felblade that can be reset from these procs - try to avoid waste as much as possible here. This will be spent on Blade Dance Icon Blade Dance and Eye Beam Icon Eye Beam on cooldown, while any excess is used on Chaos Strike Icon Chaos Strike. Additionally, Chaos Strike Icon Chaos Strike has a 20% chance to refund 20 Fury when used, so requires you to be aware of your Fury state following these casts.

Aside from this core, there are also some additional buttons and talents that are regularly taken in the sample build that you need to keep in mind:

  • Fel-Scarred needs to consume its Demonsurge Icon Demonsurge effect whenever you enter Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis. For each Demonic Icon Demonic trigger that means at least one Death Sweep Icon Death Sweep and Annihilation Icon Annihilation, while Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis manual casts require those two alongside Abyssal Gaze Icon Abyssal Gaze, Consuming Fire Icon Consuming Fire and Sigil of Doom Icon Sigil of Doom.
  • Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame should be held to line up with each of your Eye Beam Icon Eye Beam casts to make use of Student of Suffering Icon Student of Suffering.
  • Chaotic Transformation Icon Chaotic Transformation resets the cooldown of Blade Dance Icon Blade Dance and Eye Beam Icon Eye Beam when you cast Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis, meaning they should be on cooldown already when you activate it.
  • Inertia Icon Inertia alongside the suite of movement talents are taken to provide extra multipliers onto burst windows. This means you need to consume the Unbound Chaos Icon Unbound Chaos effect with Fel Rush Icon Fel Rush to trigger this when needed.
  • Vengeful Retreat Icon Vengeful Retreat is used on cooldown both for the Fury generation provided by Tactical Retreat Icon Tactical Retreat and to reset Initiative Icon Initiative.
  • A large portion of your damage comes from Annihilation Icon Annihilation and Chaos Strike Icon Chaos Strike as Fel-Scarred due to the number of multipliers (particularly Burning Blades Icon Burning Blades), so cycling Fury effectively is important.
5.

AoE Rotation for Havoc Demon Hunter

In AoE, Havoc is much more involved as talent builds require you to manage more short cooldowns to deal its damage. It places more of a focus on talents triggered via movement tools, and leans much more into Immolation Aura Icon Immolation Aura for AoE.

Some key things to bear in mind with our AoE build is as follows:

  • Fel-Scarred puts more emphasis on your Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis and Demonic Icon Demonic windows, empowering abilities further to trigger Demonsurge Icon Demonsurge. Make sure you trigger this from each of your 5 abilities each time you enter into demon form: Annihilation Icon Annihilation, Death Sweep Icon Death Sweep, Abyssal Gaze Icon Abyssal Gaze, Sigil of Doom Icon Sigil of Doom and Consuming Fire Icon Consuming Fire.
  • Immolation Aura Icon Immolation Aura is much more important, and has two charges thanks to A Fire Inside Icon A Fire Inside. As it expires, it will trigger Ragefire Icon Ragefire so aim to hit nearby targets with this.
  • Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame should be held to line up with each of your Eye Beam Icon Eye Beam casts to make use of Student of Suffering Icon Student of Suffering.
  • Glaive Tempest Icon Glaive Tempest is used on cooldown as a Fury spender.
  • Initiative Icon Initiative encourages the use of Vengeful Retreat Icon Vengeful Retreat on cooldown, which requires you to manage your positioning due to the backflip.
  • Unbound Chaos Icon Unbound Chaos / Inertia Icon Inertia are particularly strong in AoE, and requires you to use Fel Rush Icon Fel Rush rotationally to activate the effects.
5.

Defensive Spells for Havoc Demon Hunter

Blur Icon Blur provides a 20% damage reduction and 50% increase to Dodge chance for 10 seconds, on a 1-minute cooldown. This is Havoc's consistent defense tool and, due to the low cooldown, can be used liberally to reduce the incoming damage from dangerous attacks.

Netherwalk Icon Netherwalk grants complete damage immunity for 6 seconds, alongside 100% increased movement speed on a 3-minute cooldown. This should be used to avoid lethal mechanics, but you cannot attack while this is active. Also, bear in mind that while you are immune to damage, you are not immune to debuffs being applied while this is active.

Aldrachi Reaver has access to Army Unto Oneself Icon Army Unto Oneself, which causes Felblade Icon Felblade to reduce damage taken by 10% for 5 seconds after casting. This has a fairly high uptime as you should be casting this frequently, and can even be timed for dangerous moments during encounters.

During the Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis cast animation, you are briefly immune for 1 second which can, on rare occasions, be used to avoid dangerous mechanics.

Darkness Icon Darkness provides you and nearby allies a 15% chance (increased to 30%) to avoid damage taken from attacks for 8 seconds. This can be extremely powerful, but is best used for frequent instances of damage rather than gambling on avoiding lethal ones.

While not an active defensive tool, Havoc comes with a lot of built-in Leech thanks to Soul Rending Icon Soul Rending giving 10% plus an additional 10% during Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis. Alongside this, Demonic Appetite Icon Demonic Appetite and enemy deaths often trigger Soul Fragments which provide additional healing in combat.

6.

Havoc Demon Hunter Stat Priorities

The Havoc stat priority is fairly straightforward and is as follows:

  1. Agility = Critical Strike;
  2. Mastery;
  3. Haste;
  4. Versatility.

Stat priorities will change based on other talents taken in different encounter types but, in general, this should serve you well. For finer details regarding each stat and the reason behind why they are picked can be found on our full stat page linked below.

7.

Changelog

  • 09 Sep. 2024: Updated to reflect new Fel-Scarred recommendations.
  • 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
  • 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
  • 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
  • 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4.
  • 21 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5, no changes necessary.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7, no changes necessary.
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5, no changes necessary.
  • 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1, added section highlighting Essence Break's importance.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 31 Dec. 2022: Raised Mastery in Stat Priority.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Pre-Patch.
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