Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Mythic+ Tips — Dragonflight 10.2

This build aims to take advantage of the free Throw Glaive casts from the Tier 31 bonus, alongside heavily investing into the Inertia, A Fire Inside and Ragefire "Ignition" combo.

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The Patch 10.2 rework and release of Season 3 has overhauled Havoc's build options, and the "Ignition" package has consistently proven to be a great option for Mythic+. This aims to build out an extremely synergistic package centered around Immolation Aura alongside high-power burst options to pair with each Inertia window.

At the very bottom of the tree, you currently have 3 options for the final point depending on how you are planning out your dungeon route:

• Essence Break provides a mid-range burst cooldown that also provides strong single-target at the same time, making it a great all-rounder pick. It is also easier to plan around, and harder to waste uses, but provides less overall AoE.
• Fel Barrage instead brings an enormous burst cooldown, but is capped at 5 targets. If played around properly, this is an incredibly potent damage moment but has less strength if routes do not support it, or target counts are too high.
• Glaive Tempest finally brings a more consistent overall AoE pick that works up to 8 targets, fleshing out the rotational AoE of the build instead.

Your selection here is based on preference, depending on holes in your group. The playstyle core is built around aggressively triggering Immolation Aura via A Fire Inside to generate Ragefire buildup. Alongside that, aim to trigger Inertia to empower your chosen big AoE moment, each Eye Beam cast and The Hunt.

Due to a lot of the options in the regular Ignition build requiring the Tier 31 set to take full advantage of, this provides an alternative. Instead of taking the Throw Glaive talent options, it instead picks up more general high-value

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This plays in a similar way to the T31 Ignition build, focusing heavily on the Inertia and A Fire Inside synergy, but avoids all of the related Throw Glaive talents. It also has the same choice in the final row:

• Essence Break provides a mid-range burst cooldown that also provides strong single-target at the same time, making it a great all-rounder pick. It is also easier to plan around, and harder to waste uses, but provides less overall AoE.
• Fel Barrage instead brings an enormous burst cooldown, but is capped at 5 targets. If played around properly, this is an incredibly potent damage moment but has less strength if routes do not support it, or target counts are too high.
• Glaive Tempest finally brings a more consistent overall AoE pick that works up to 8 targets, fleshing out the rotational AoE of the build instead.

Much of the same rules apply; focus on triggering Immolation Aura aggressively and playing around A Fire Inside resets to generate Ragefire. Aim to overlap Inertia windows with your AoE of choice from the above three picks and Eye Beam.

Due to the set bonus from Amirdrassil having a very heavy focus on both Throw Glaive and The Hunt, talent builds are the primary way in which you play around these. They largely play themselves, allowing you to convert each Death Sweep / Blade Dance into free Glaive casts that also grant extra access to The Hunt.

Due to the cooldown reduction, it means you should plan around a cooldown closer to 45 seconds to a minute for each cast, and since we take Any Means Necessary these casts are an extremely strong burst moment. Finally, you should ideally never reach the point where you actively spend resources and GCDs on a manual Throw Glaive, instead focusing on casting other abilities to take advantage of the 2-piece triggers.

While soon to be retired in Season 3, for the early weeks, this is still relevant. This is largely passive, focused on fast Fury cycling to trigger the buff and ramp up the damage of each Eye Beam.

While there are talents on the tree that can be taken to focus on this more, none of those outside of the standard Ignition build are worth pathing to as it works well without them. Playing around this should be natural, and you should never be holding your Eye Beams to wait for stacks.

Entangling periodically snares all players in the group, spawning a circle around you and snaring you by 30%. If you do not snap the vine by getting out of the area within 8 seconds, you will be stunned for 3 seconds.

Havoc can very easily escape this with its movement tools in Fel Rush and Vengeful Retreat. The second also has the advantage of removing snares when cast, so even if you do not escape the circle, it will be cleared.

Incorporeal spawns up to two Incorporeal Beings roughly every 45 seconds. These begin a 5-second cast Destabilize that, if successful, reduces the damage and healing done of all players by 50% for 10 seconds and can stack.

These enemies are vulnerable to all crowd control and interrupts, therefore Havoc should always play Imprison during these weeks. The cooldown can sometimes be tight, and if so, using Disrupt to buy time beforehand is useful.

Storming will cause in-combat enemies to spawn tornadoes that will rotate outward from their hitbox. If hit, these despawn, deal light damage, and knock you into the air.

All of Havoc's movement tools, such as Fel Rush, work to regain control, but the best tool is simply using Glide to reset your momentum and move back toward your target.

Bursting causes each non-boss enemy to apply a stack of Burst to all players, dealing heavy Shadow damage over 4 seconds, and can stack. If this happens, it will refresh to the full duration.

The best way to counteract this is to stagger your damage carefully with your group; however, if a large number are set off at once, then using Darkness is a very powerful tool to help your Healer keep up.

Sanguine causes all non-boss enemies to leave behind a pool of Ichor, dealing 15% of players health in Shadow damage per second while inside. This also heals enemies by 5% while inside, and pools last for 12 seconds. Pools no longer stack if they are connected in Season 3.

Managing this is largely on the group and the tank moving enemies out of the area, while you aim to avoid them. Some will always slip through, however, so switching to Mortal Dance if you find it to be an issue is a good idea.

Spiteful causes all non-boss enemies to spawn a Spiteful Shade, which fixates on a random player in the group. These slowly lose health, and deal heavy melee damage if they get close.

Due to how dangerous these are, having some form of control or escape when each group of enemies die is advised. Chaos Nova can be helpful to lock down a large group of them, and Blur is also an effective way of tanking them briefly while you look for a way to safety.

Due to Havoc having a high number of cooldown options available, a brief explanation of how to approach using them in Mythic+ that goes above their ideal performance use case are as follows:

Thanks to Patch 10.2 reducing the cooldown of Metamorphosis to 2 minutes, it means we are now on a similar cycle to other specs. Making sure that you get as many uses out of this as possible is key, and leveraging the Eye Beam reset from Chaotic Transformation provides an extreme amount of burst damage.

Depending on your group composition and routing, alongside which other talents you have selected, knowing where you plan to use this will dictate your spikes throughout a dungeon. You want to make sure you spend as little time waiting with this ready, but also look for opportunities to layer it over the biggest and most dangerous pulls in a dungeon.

This should be cast aggressively and on cooldown as much as possible. It is especially important to have it on cooldown before each Metamorphosis cast to take advantage of the reset. If you are not already in your Demon form as well, you should aim to pair it with Essence Break if you are playing with it. If a group is about to die, consider holding it so you can start strong.

When taking Essence Break, your only important goal is to make sure to get a Death Sweep cast out in AoE after hitting as many enemies as possible. The remainder of the buff does not matter much (unless using the Chaotic Transformation to get two casts) outside of single-target, where you should aim to fill with Annihilation.

Fel Barrage is much more valuable in Patch 10.2, taking full advantage of the huge burst of 5-target damage when cast. It does, however, require you to be much more mindful of your Fury gain/expenditure while active, requiring a full 256 to last for 8 seconds. What this means in gameplay is that, especially during AoE, any filler Annihilation / Chaos Strike casts you may usually do should probably be cut, and instead, use your active generation tools in Felblade and Sigil of Flame.

Because of how much damage this deals, you really want to plan your uses around the dungeon, and make sure you have a plan to maintain Fury after casting it. This is less important in single-target, so make sure you are aiming each window at larger pulls.

While our rotation page covers the moment-to-moment requirements of executing Havoc from a performance perspective, there are some extra tips to keep in mind when managing your resources in a Mythic+ environment:

Due to the Ignition build heavily centering around Immolation Aura, knowing how to manage this is important. A few key rules to bear in mind are:

• You should never be sat at two charges, so A Fire Inside resets require a quick reaction.
• Watch out for each expiration, and position accordingly so you do not waste Ragefire explosions.
• Try to consume each Unbound Chaos to trigger Inertia each cycle, but not at the cost of extra casts of Immolation Aura.

The biggest part of this is reacting to the resets, and making sure you land your Ragefire bursts. Be careful when using movement tools such as Fel Rush and Vengeful Retreat, as these will pull you out of range and waste the detonation.

Inertia is new in Patch 10.2, and is an additional controlled burst window. Havoc has access to this quite frequently thanks to A Fire Inside, but due to the short duration, the main goal is to overlap it with high power cooldowns such as Eye Beam, Fel Barrage and Glaive Tempest depending on loadout.

Momentum, on the other hand, is mostly activated by your regular rotation. In any downtime where you are forced into single-target Chaos Strike casts, consider filling in an extra Fel Rush to build up more duration.

With the Tier 31 set and Throw Glaive supporting talents, this provides a large amount of damage, but the set will trigger them automatically. This means you should make sure to not cast it unless you are about to cap charges and do not expect to be casting Death Sweep / Blade Dance soon after.

If playing the Throw Glaive talent options without Tier 31, this is a Fury spender that is slightly less valuable than Death Sweep, but above Annihilation and you should make sure one charge is always cooling down.

In Mythic+, due to the staggered nature of pulls and add spawns, be aware that you will have a much higher uptime of the effect. As such, leverage the extra reset from Vengeful Retreat after you have exhausted sources, or instead, use it solely for the additional Fury if you need to refill.

Fel Eruption is a 4-second stun on a 30-second cooldown, at the cost of 10 Fury. This is a great single-target stop for priority targets, and now that in Patch 10.2 it is baseline provides a great extra tool for dangerous casts.

Imprison is a 45-second cooldown hard crowd-control that breaks on damage. This can be used either as a stop, or can be used to lock a target down that you would rather skip, as enemies affected by this will not aggro as you run past.

Disrupt is Havoc's interrupt tool on a 15-second cooldown. It has the added advantage of an 18-yard range, and should be used aggressively on dangerous casts (see our Disrupt macro on the Havoc Demon Hunter macro page).

Chaos Nova is an AoE stun tool available to Havoc that stuns all nearby targets for 2 seconds on a 45-second cooldown with a 25-Fury cost. This is great for disrupting large groups of enemies and, due to its instant activation, can be a strong AoE stop when multiple targets are casting at once.

Sigil of Misery is an AoE disorient on a 2-second delay (1 with Quickened Sigils) from the cast, so it can be difficult to reactively utilize misery to stop casts. It can, however, be used pre-emptively if you know a target timer to stop dangerous effects. This also shares diminishing returns with very few other abilities, making it extra valuable despite its long cooldown.

Metamorphosis may be our major cooldown, but on cast, it also stuns enemies within the impact area for 3 seconds. This should not really be something you use it for, but it can be used to great effect if you are also planning to use cooldowns during a pull.

Blur is Havoc's primary active defense tool, reducing damage taken by 20% and granting 50% Dodge change for 10 seconds, on a 1-minute cooldown. Due to its low cooldown, this should be used aggressively in any dangerous situation, and is also great to buy some time if you get threat.

Deflecting Dance is new in Patch 10.2, granting an absorb shield during Death Sweep / Blade Dance for 15% of your maximum health. This is active for a very brief period of time, but allows you to outplay some damage moments by timing these casts during your rotation, providing a lot of survival.

Netherwalk grants full immunity to damage and 100% movement speed for 6 seconds, but you are unable to attack, on a 3-minute cooldown. This is the most potent defensive tool Havoc has access to and can get you out of some of the worst situations, but you are not immune to debuff applications during this, so be careful. Make sure to also plan around its very long cooldown for the most dangerous moments.

Darkness grants a 15% chance (increased to 30% in dungeons in Patch 10.2) to avoid any damage event for players stood within. This lasts 8 seconds on a 5-minute cooldown. The duration can be increased to 11 seconds with Long Night, or the cooldown can be reduced to 3 minutes with Pitch Black. This is strong for group survival, especially on repeat damage events such as DoTs to help your Healer keep up and should be planned around during high-intensity moments.

Mortal Dance reduces enemy healing received by 50% for 6 seconds if they are hit with Blade Dance / Death Sweep. While niche, in any dungeon or during Sanguine weeks this can provide a lot of effective damage by cutting the amount of healing enemies take, alongside being both easy to apply and AoE.

Chaos Brand is Havoc's strongest reason to be brought to raid, and in Mythic+, it also provides a lot depending on the group composition. In any situation where your fellow damage dealers are providing a large amount of Magic damage (which includes the majority of specs), this is a lot of extra damage on top of what Havoc already brings.

Vengeful Retreat, while very niche, also breaks snares when cast, which can be useful to counter some mechanics.

Consume Magic is Havoc's offensive dispel with a 10-second cooldown. This has the advantage of a 30-yard range and can be used to remove buffs from enemy targets.