Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Guide — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Havoc Demon Hunter Overview

Havoc in Battle for Azeroth has gone through somewhat of a maturing process, trying to focus more on the talent tree and allowing for more diverse options in gameplay approaches, alongside tightening up some of the more loose aspects of the original implementation. It still remains a predominantly builder spender style rotation and is largely Global Cooldown locked. The core hook is making the most of your Fury pool and reacting to unpredictable gains, ensuring you use high burst cooldowns and windows to push yourself even further. On top of that, it comes with a variety of mobility and defense tools, creating a versatile toolkit with some unique abilities that can be used in a variety of ways.

2. Patch 8.1 Changes for Havoc Demon Hunters

Havoc remains the same as the launch version of the specialization, with no significant changes coming with the new patch. Some small changes have been added however, that will have a slight change to some mechanics:

• Chaos Brand now triggers from all damage dealt.
• Unbound Chaos has been replaced with Chaotic Transformation.
• Vengeful Retreat has been removed from the Global Cooldown.

3. Patch 8.0.1 Changes for Havoc Demon Hunters

The core of Havoc remains intact, however some small adjustments to the way some baseline abilities work have been implemented.

3.1. Existing Ability Changes

• The Fury cap has been raised from 100 to 120.
• Chaos Strike now has a fixed 40% change to refund 20 Fury, instead of being fueled by Critical Strikes.
• Eye Beam has been reduced to a 30 Fury cost baseline, its cooldown has dropped to 30 seconds, and deals 50% additional damage to your current target.
• Chaos Nova now only stuns for 2 seconds, but has a 30% chance to spawn a Soul Fragment per stunned target baseline.
• The Havoc interrupt has been renamed to Disrupt, which has a 15-second cooldown, 3-second lockout, but reduced to a 10-yard range. It also only generates 30 Fury now on a successful interrupt.

3.2. New Spell and Mechanic Additions

• Consume Magic is an offensive dispel that removes 1 beneficial Magic effect from your target with a 20-yard range and 10-second cooldown. Successfully removing an effect also generates 20 Fury.
• Torment is a 3-second duration taunt with a 30-yard range and 8-second cooldown.
• Demonic Wards reduces all Magic damage taken passively by 10% at all times.
• Chaos Brand causes enemies hit by your Chaos damage to take an additional 5% Magic damage from all sources with an unlimited duration.

4. Havoc Demon Hunter's Strengths

• Powerful burst single target damage
• Extremely powerful cooldowns for high damage requirement moments
• Flexible mobility allowing for great positioning control in encounters
• Can switch targets without any downsides, and can pool resources for instant burst
• Powerful, versatile cooldowns for different situations
• Strong group utility, especially via Chaos Brand

5. Havoc Demon Hunter's Weaknesses

• AoE is tied to cooldowns, which hurts sustained damage
• Some RNG is built into the resource system, which can on rare occasions lead to starvation at bad moments
• Outside of cooldown windows, damage can be lackluster
• Some talents have problems with certain encounter types, which can hinder options.

6. Viability of Havoc Demon Hunter in the Current Patch

With Havoc already being a strong contender for melee spots, because nothing is changing it is expected that it will remain a high tier pick for the forseeable future. The large number of tools available alongside the versatility of the toolkit means that Havoc will have a strong place both in Mythic+ and in the upcoming Battle of Dazar'alor raid.

7. Changelog