Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Mythic+ Tips — 12.1

Fel-Scarred continues to be a solid all-rounder in Midnight Season 2, bringing with it strong, reliable burst AoE. The 20-second cadence of Demonsurge procs via Demonic maps on well to most dungeon routes, while having the added benefit of Metamorphosis to overload power into dangerous pulls. Since most of its tools flex between single-target and AoE as well, it still packs a good punch when forced into boss encounters as well.

Fel-Scarred has a couple of swap options to keep in mind:

• Movement Talents - While both Tactical Retreat and Exergy add complexity by introducing movement talents into the rotation, they provide extremely high value and smooth out Fury. If you're really struggling to make use of them, you can switch both out for Dancing with Fate.
• Glaive Tempest adds some pressure onto Fury management, but the AoE is generally worth it. It can be switched out for Dancing with Fate or Inner Demon, but comes at a hefty loss.
• Set Fire to the Pain can be switched to Improved Soul Rending if you are looking for more general sustain rather than a little bit of mitigation.
• Soul Cleanse and Burn It Out are both case-by-case tools depending on the dungeon. Select the appropriate option depending on if Curses or Diseases are present.

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In Season 2, the gap between Aldrachi Reaver and Fel-Scarred is much smaller, which makes their damage profile differences stand out more. The funnel provided by Wounded Quarry combined with Bladecraft is very high, making it a specialist in dealing with priority targets. Its overall AoE is lower, and it comes with higher execution requirements to manage Reaver's Mark, making it a less universal playstyle in general keystones. That said, in organized high end play where what you deal damage to often matters more than how much, this may end up being the pick for some compositions.

Aldrachi Reaver has a couple of swap options to keep in mind:

• Chaotic Disposition and Shattered Destiny are swaps that can be made for high value AoE picks like Trail of Ruin and Glaive Tempest, but these cut into the value of your funnel. Since that's the main benefit of Aldrachi Reaver, it's not generally recommended.
• Army Unto Oneself can be switched out for Incorruptible Spirit for some free absorb shields, which puts less pressure on timing Felblade for defense.
• Soul Cleanse and Burn It Out are both case-by-case tools depending on the dungeon. Select the appropriate option depending on if Curses or Diseases are present.

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Havoc has a variety of tools to stop enemy casts. Due to their different uses, we've broken them down into tools for single-target situations, and those better suited to AoE.

Disrupt is Havoc's interrupt, with a 15-second cooldown. It should be used aggressively to stop dangerous enemy casts (see our Disrupt macro on the Havoc Demon Hunter macro page).

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

Chaos Nova is Havoc's AoE stun tool, stunning nearby targets for 3 seconds. This has a with a 45-second cooldown and 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. With Focused Ire taken, this also extends the stun on your current target to 5 seconds, making it an even better lockdown tool.

Sigil of Misery is an AoE disorient on a 2-minute cooldown (reduced to 1.5-minutes with Improved Sigil of Misery), that disorients targets within for 15 seconds after a 2 second delay. The effect is broken on damage taken, making it more of a stopping tool, but needs to be timed well to use as an AoE stop. This can also be used to skip, as affected enemies won't aggro party members (but will aggro you), but requires the use of Shadowmeld to drop combat after getting past.

Metamorphosis may be your major cooldown, but when cast it also stuns enemies within the impact zone for 3 seconds. This should not really be something you use it for, but if it's ready you can use it as an additional way to disrupt a group at the start of a pull.

Havoc is one of the most robust melee specializations, having a mixture of both active and passive damage reduction tools. It also comes with a numebr of passive self-healing effects, giving it a great foundation for survival even at cutting edge key levels.

Blur is Havoc's primary active defense tool, reducing damage taken by 25% for 10 seconds, with a 1-minute cooldown. With Demonic Resilience taken, it gains an additional charge, and with Desperate Instincts the damage reduction is increased to 35%. Due to having two charges and a low cooldown, it should be used pro-actively against lethal damage or dangerous situations.

Deflecting Dance grants a shield during Death Sweep / Blade Dance cast, absorbing up to 15% of your maximum health. This is active for a very brief period of time, but allows you to outplay some damage events by timing your rotational casts. This is a high skill ceiling tool, but great for dealing with one shot mechanics.

Desperate Instincts also passively reduces damage taken while below 35%. This also applies to damage events that would place you below that threshold, giving you even more room to passively survive through lethal attacks.

Demon Muzzle reduces all Magic damage you take by 15% for 12 seconds, following a successful interrupt with Disrupt. This is an excellent defensive tool due to how frequently you should be interrupting in Mythic+.

Darkness grants a 15% chance (increased to 30% in dungeons) to avoid any damage event for you or party members stood within. This lasts 8 seconds, with 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. A helpful bonus for group survival, especially against repeat damage events (such as DoTs), to help your Healer keep up. Due to its long cooldown, you should plan ahead of time when to deploy this.

Army Unto Oneself, exclusive to Aldrachi Reaver, grants 10% damage reduction for 5 seconds following Felblade casts. This is a nice extra benefit that can also be timed to survive dangerous mechanics. In Midnight, Felblade is available less frequently, so it's not quite as strong as it was previously. Remember though that you can also always force a proc if using Unhindered Assault.

Soul Rending provides a lot of self-healing, granting 10% Leech at all times, increased to 20% during Metamorphosis. This already provides a lot of sustain, but the extra stability it gives during cooldowns means Havoc can often be much more aggressive in big pulls due to its self-sufficient nature. Fel-Scarred can also increase this by 2% and 4%, respectively, when playing Improved Soul Rending.

Shattered Souls combined with Demonic Appetite causes a steady stream of Soul Fragments to spawn during combat, healing you for a small amount. Greater Soul Fragments spawned when enemies are killed heal for significantly more, giving Havoc great self-sufficiency during keystones. Aldrachi Reaver also spawns significantly more souls, giving it extra passive sustain, which can be augmented by Incorruptible Spirit to provide Absorb shields as well.

Never Say Die, added in Patch 12.1, has some minor defensive benefits as well, increasing Leech by 5% when below 50% health. Ideally you don't spend too long below this threshold as it reduces your damage, but it helps get you out of bad situations.

Mortal Dance reduces enemy healing received by 50% for 6 seconds after being hit by your Blade Dance / Death Sweep. While niche, this can provide a lot of effective damage by cutting the amount of healing enemies take, alongside being easy to apply in AoE.

Chaos Brand is Havoc's strongest reason to be brought to raid, and in Mythic+, this is no different. Depending on the group composition, this can be extremely beneficial, as a large amount of classes in the game currently deal at least some magic damage for this to amplify. This usually ends up providing a significant amount of extra damage, on top of what you yourself do.

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. Its cooldown does mean you have to be picky with what to dispel though, especially if multiple enemies are buffed at once.

Vengeful Retreat, while niche, breaks snares when cast. This can be useful in certain dungeons.

Soul Cleanse / Burn It Out allow you to use Immolation Aura as a self-dispel. The former removes Curses, while the latter removes Diseases, so you should make your choice on this node based on the dungeon you're doing.

Xalatath's Bargain: Ascendant will periodically spawn a number of orbs in waves that need to be crowd-controlled in some way, before they complete a cast. Each orb successfully stopped provides the group bonus Haste, so it is a high priority to deal with.

Havoc can and should make use of Chaos Nova and Sigil of Misery to stop a wave, and also has Disrupt to catch any strays if your group is struggling to clear them all.

Xalatath's Bargain: Voidbound will periodically summon a large Void Emissary that will begin to cast Dark Prayer. This enemy must be killed before the cast completes to stop it, otherwise it provides significant damage reduction to nearby enemies. If successfully stopped, the group is granted a large amount of Versatility and cooldown reduction.

This needs to be killed off quickly, so ideally, having short, bursty cooldowns like Eye Beam or The Hunt ready to go as it spawns is ideal. This is not always possible, however, due to them being key to your AoE rotation, so just be aware of when they appear and swap accordingly.

Xalatath's Bargain: Pulsar spawns an orb that orbits each player, which needs to be soaked by a separate player before they expire. Each orb will grant the party 4% Mastery and 2% Leech, stacking, with a 30-second duration. Unsoaked orbs will increase nearby enemies' damage done, and reduce their damage taken.

Havoc has no specific utility to deal with this, instead you need to be aware of your positioning, both to make sure other players can soak up the orb circling you, and so you can catch orbs from nearby players.

Xalatath's Bargain: Devour applies a debuff to each party member, that must be either dispelled or healed off (though bear in mind this does not absorb incoming heals). Each debuff dispelled provides the group with maximum health and Critical Strike, stacking, for 30 seconds. Any debuffs not cleared will heal nearby enemies a large amount.

Both Burn It Out and Soul Cleanse can be used here to immediately remove the debuff. Additionally, Vengeful Retreat will remove the debuff, as in Midnight it now applies a small slow as well. If you don't have this available, or any charges of Immolation Aura, use Healthstones / Healing Potions if the healer is falling behind.