Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Easy Mode — 12.1

In The Venomous Abyss, both of Havoc's Hero Trees have their strengths, but Aldrachi Reaver comes out ahead thanks to Season 2 changes. Its main mechanic is Reaver's Glaive, generated through collecting Souls, which empower your Chaos Strike and Blade Dance. This also causes you to funnel bonus damage to the target of your Reaver's Mark through Wounded Quarry, dealing bonus damage when extra enemies are nearby.

It has a 20-second burst cycle, using Eye Beam and Cycle of Hatred. Every minute, The Hunt guarantees a proc of Reaver's Glaive, alongside an extended cooldown period every 2-minutes during Metamorphosis.

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

In AoE and dungeon content, Fel-Scarred provides frequent and effective burst tools, making it the go to choice. The benefits of having most of its single-target toolkit are invaluable, while having burst with each of your Eye Beam casts every 20 seconds through Demonsurge.

The playstyle is fairly straightforward, rewarding good use of your Eye Beam on cooldown while efficiently using Fury. AoE also has a stronger focus on Immolation Aura to deal pulsing damage around you.

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

Anywhere that Chaos Strike is mentioned, this also applies to Annihilation during Metamorphosis. The same is also true for Blade Dance and Death Sweep. Havoc has no buffs to apply to your party, or setup required before entering combat. It's always prepared!

The Havoc single-target rotation is dictated by the building and spending of Fury to fuel its abilities. Managing this is the most important skill to learn. Here's a brief breakdown of the key steps when getting started:

• Generate & Spend Fury
  Your auto-attacks passively generate this every hit with Demon Blades.
  Felblade and Immolation Aura also generate Fury when cast.
  Always cast Blade Dance on cooldown, otherwise spend on Chaos Strike.
• Execute Your Combo
  Eye Beam should be cast every 20 seconds, after Cycle of Hatred is stacked up.
  Follow this up with two Death Sweep casts using the Eternal Hunt reset.
  With the Tier Set, Essence Break is cast on cooldown.
• Use Big Cooldowns
  Metamorphosis is cast every 2 minutes. Make sure Blade Dance and Eye Beam are on cooldown before casting it. The Hunt is cast every minute, also on cooldown.
• Manage Reaver's Glaive
  Reaver's Glaive is generated through The Hunt, or every 6 Souls consumed.
  Grants Glaive Flurry and Rending Strike, buffing your next Chaos Strike and Blade Dance.
  Cast whenever available, but make sure to spend both buffs before casting it again.

When first starting out, it's best to break up the steps to adjust to the gameplay flow. We recommend focusing on getting each of these things down in the following order.

Havoc Single-Target

Fury Management ➜ Reaver's Glaive Usage ➜ Combos & Cooldowns

Havoc plays similarly in AoE, but Fel-Scarred adds in more frequent Immolation Aura casts with A Fire Inside. Below is a rundown of how it changes:

• Blade Dance as a Priority
  Always have Blade Dance on cooldown, and especially Death Sweep. Keep a reserve of Fury to avoid waste.
• Manage Demonsurge & Demonic
  In AoE, Fel-Scarred deals high burst every Eye Beam, so cast every 20 seconds.
  Follow up with at least two Death Sweeps and one Annihilation.
  After Metamorphosis, always consume the Demonsurges from Abyssal Gaze & Consuming Fire.
• Keep Immolation Aura on Cooldown
  You never want to be at 2 charges of Immolation Aura with A Fire Inside.
  Spend all charges before using Metamorphosis, as it refunds them.

When it comes to AoE, a lot of the core principles can be learned by practicing Single-Target. We'd recommend focusing on things in the following order:

Havoc AoE

Learn Single-Target ➜ Demonsurge Usage ➜ Immolation Aura Priorities

All builds spend 4 points in the Apex Talent, Eternal Hunt, which turns The Hunt into a strong cooldown. Aim to use this every minute, following it up with an empowered Eye Beam, then back-to-back Death Sweep casts to use the reset.

Season 2 of Midnight introduces the Abyssal Doomhound's Pursuit, available from different endgame content. This provides the following bonuses:

• Demon Hunter Havoc 12.1 Class Set 2pc — Blade Dance, Chaos Strike and Essence Break deal 12% increased damage.
• Demon Hunter Havoc 12.1 Class Set 4pc — Essence Break now applies and benefits from the effects of Cycle of Hatred, deals 35% increased initial strike damage, and has a 2 second increased duration.

Both of these bonuses make Essence Break a mandatory talent, which is used on cooldown to trigger bonus damage. While there are some optimizations covered on our main Rotation page, the basic principle is covered by taking the talent and using it when available.

Havoc has access to a few different active and passive defensive tools, giving it solid survivability and self-sustain during combat. Havoc is generally considered quite durable, and is great in solo or group content.

Blur - provides 25% damage reduction for 10 seconds, with a 1-minute cooldown, and has two charges with Demonic Resilience. This is Havoc's most consistent defense tool, and due to both its low cooldown and extra charge, should be used liberally to counter-act incoming damage.

Desperate Instincts - further increases the damage reduction of Blur to 35%. Additionally, reduces all damage taken while below 35% health by 10% at all times, giving some extra durability.

Deflecting Dance - grants an absorb shield equal to 15% of your maximum health during the Blade Dance animation. This is an extra way to mitigate damage when timed well, allowing you to survive lethal mechanics, but can be difficult to get the timing down since the ability is often cast on cooldown.

Darkness - provides you and nearby allies a 15% chance (increased to 30% outside of a raid group) 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.

Metamorphosis - during the cast animation, you are briefly immune to all damage and effects for 1 second which can, on rare occasions, be used to avoid dangerous mechanics.

Self-Healing - while not active defensive tools, Havoc comes with built-in Leech through Soul Rending. This gives a flat 10% at all times, plus an additional 10% during Metamorphosis. Alongside that, Demonic Appetite and enemy deaths often trigger Soul Fragments which provide healing in combat.

Aldrachi Reaver - has access to Army Unto Oneself, which causes Felblade to reduce damage taken by 10% for 5 seconds when cast. This has sporadic uptime and can't really be planned around due to Felblade being needed for Fury generation, but adds some extra defense.

The Havoc stat priority is fairly straightforward and is as follows. For more information on what's presented on this page, check out our main Stat Priority page.

1. Agility
2. Critical Strike
3. Mastery
4. Haste
5. Versatility

Stat priorities may shift based on other talents taken or in different encounter types, but this should cover most scenarios.

When it comes to gearing in Midnight Season 2, you want to prioritize your Tier Set as quickly as possible, and crafting a weapon is a quick way to gain a lot of power right out of the gate. Due to how many different options are available when it comes to gearing a character, it's best to jump over to our main Gearing page for a more comprehensive breakdown on things to chase.

Added in The War Within, the Rotation Assist tool curated by Blizzard has two modes: the first highlights action bar buttons with a recommended priority, while the second provides a single keybind that automatically presses the top priority ability on that same list, but with a 25% GCD penalty between casts.

Uniquely for Havoc, it's significantly impacted by the restrictions on what the tools will not recommend, and this still hasn't changed in Midnight. In addition to on-use trinkets, racials, and major cooldowns, any of Havoc's abilities that displace your character will never be recommended in the priority. This includes:

• Cooldowns - Metamorphosis, The Hunt.
• Movement/Displacement - Felblade, Fel Rush, Vengeful Retreat.

All of these will need to be used manually if you have talents related to them taken. This also extends to defensive and crowd control abilities as well.

Due to the exclusion of Felblade, Havoc has a harder time keeping up with resource requirements, and the flow is often disrupted. While it can be used, you'll still need to be manually inserting these casts to really make any good use out of it in combat.

While in many cases the tool is quite good for picking up a brand new spec, unfortunately in Havoc's case it is heavily impacted, and doesn't really perform the actions it needs to. We'd recommend staying well away from using Aldrachi Reaver with it, and sticking to Fel-Scarred builds. We've provided some alternative build codes below if you're interested in using it: