Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Gearing in Battle for Azeroth

1.1. How to Gear before Raids

Gearing up to prepare to ender Uldir provides a lot of different options now that Battle for Azeroth has opened up the majority of different gear paths. You will ideally want to get yourself to a healthy item level before stepping foot in Uldir, and this can be done through a variety of different ways.

Remember when gearing to sim yourself for your stat weights, but Havoc Demon Hunters will generally be after pieces with a high amount of Versatility and Haste, while trying to get as little Mastery as possible.

• World Quests provide players with a variety of rewards such as Azerite, Reputation, and even Gear. World Quest gear scales with the player and the item level caps at 330 once the player's item level is 325. This gear can roll additional sockets and even be Titanforged, so if the piece has good stats, doing the World Quest can give you a solid item before Uldir.
• Reputation gives out rewards based on your status with the faction. For most factions, Honored awards a 320 cloak, Revered a 335 item, and Exalted gives a 350 item. Champions of Azeroth awards a 355 item level Azerite item with the Furious Gaze trait. Additionally, each level gives additional item level to your Heart of Azeroth.
• Mythic+ rewards gear based upon the keystone level you complete:
  • 2-3: 345
  • 4: 350
  • 5-6: 355
  • 7: 360
  • 8-9: 365
  • 10: 370
• World Bosses spawn weekly, and killing this grants a once a week for a chance at a 355 item level piece of gear.
• Leatherworking can craft 355 item level Boots and Legs, and allow you to craft an improved 370 piece using Sanguicells from Uldir. These can be further improved after crafting this piece to 385, using significantly more Sanguicells. These can be rerolled using the scrapper to get your Sanguicells back, and should be rerolled to ideal stats if you have the Expulsom available.
• Warfronts can be repeated as many times as you want, each rewarding a random piece of 340 gear, with a weekly quest rewarding a piece of 370 gear. These can only be done when your faction has control of Arathi, which will cycle roughly every 5 days.

1.1.1. Weekly Mythic+ Chest

Along these same lines, you should be completing at least one keystone at a high item level each week to make use of the weekly chest. The highest keystone you complete (up to a maximum of 10) will determine the final reward:

1.1.2. PvP Gearing Options

While not usually recommended, the additional route of gearing via PvP is very lucrative in Battle for Azeroth. You will gain a piece of high item level gear each week based upon your current max rating, dictated by the following brackets. You will also receive End of Match rewards at random, at a slightly reduced item level:

1.2. Notable Trinkets and Weapons

Trinkets, Weapons, and Azerite Armor are the three largest DPS increases to any class in the game. Getting good pieces to fill these slots early allows you to perform incredibly well. They are also the hardest pieces to get.

1.2.1. Weapons

There are a number of strong weapons for Havoc Demon Hunters, and note that they can all be used in either hand. Ideally, you should be looking for weapons with a healthy mix of Haste and Versatility, trying to avoid Mastery:

• Sinister Wicker Talons from Waycrest Manor;
• Warglaive of the Sand Queen from Tol Dagor;
• Bloody Tideturner from Freehold.

There is also a unique proc effect Fist Weapon, Bile-Stained Crawg Tusks from The Underrot. This effect can be strong, but the loss of secondary stats and additional randomness makes it a sidegrade choice based on current simulations.

1.2.2. Trinkets

Thanks to Bloodmallet.com, a comprehensive list of available trinkets for Havoc are listed against each other below.

1.2.3. Azerite

You can check through the Havoc Azerite page to look through the values of different traits and target different items.

1.3. Recommended Uldir Gear

Due to there only being one raid available at this point in Battle for Azeroth, this list will provide the ideal items available to you within it. This does not include items that are found outside of the raid, so this may be altered based on items you have available from outside sources. Note this also does not include trinkets as they are covered in the above chart:

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Cowl of Dark Portents	Mythrax the Unraveler
Shoulder	Usurper's Bloodcaked Spaulders	Zul, Reborn
Cloak	Cloak of Rippling Whispers	Zul, Reborn
Chest	Tunic of the Sanguine Deity	G'huun
Wrists	Wristwraps of Coursing Miasma	Vectis
Gloves	Gloves of Descending Madness	Taloc
Belt	Replicated Chitin Cord	Zek'voz, Herald of N'Zoth
Legs	Pathogenic Legwraps	M.O.T.H.E.R.
Boots	Quarantine Protocol Treads	Zek'voz, Herald of N'Zoth
Ring #1	Rot-Scour Ring	M.O.T.H.E.R.
Ring #2	Band of Certain Annihilation	Mythrax the Unraveler
Weapons	Glaive of the Keepers	M.O.T.H.E.R.
Alternative	Lancet of the Deft Hand	G'huun

1.3.1. Ideal Bosses to Coin

You should ideally be spending your Seal of Wartorn Fate on a combination of M.O.T.H.E.R., Mythrax, or G'huun. You should decide based upon Azerite pieces you require, and how important a weapon upgrade is. If you are severely lacking a Shoulder Azerite piece, you can also coin Zul, Reborn to cover this gap.

2. Changelog