Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Season 4

Havoc's single-target rotation in Dragonflight hinges strongly on two core loops. The first is Fury build-and-spend through tools such as Demon's Bite Demon Blades, Immolation Aura and Felblade to generate and Chaos Strike / Blade Dance to spend. Second, it needs to manage Fury around rotational burst windows that follow from mid-range cooldowns such as Eye Beam, Essence Break and Inertia.

1. Warning - cannot combine both Momentum and Inertia!
2. Cast Death Sweep during the Essence Break debuff.
3. Cast Annihilation during the Essence Break debuff.
4. Cast Fel Rush with Unbound Chaos active and Immolation Aura has 2 charges.
5. Cast Fel Rush if Unbound Chaos will fade in the next 3 seconds.
6. Cast Vengeful Retreat to trigger Tactical Retreat and Initiative.
7. Cast Death Sweep during the Essence Break debuff.
8. Cast Annihilation during the Essence Break debuff.
9. Cast Immolation Aura if at 2 charges to trigger Unbound Chaos, or Essence Break Eye Beam has less than 3 seconds left on its cooldown.
10. Cast Fel Rush with Unbound Chaos active to trigger Inertia.
11. Cast Vengeful Retreat to trigger Tactical Retreat Initiative.
12. Cast The Hunt.
13. Cast Elysian Decree.
14. Cast Essence Break with Metamorphosis active.
15. Cast Death Sweep.
16. Cast Annihilation with Inner Demon active.
17. Cast Fel Barrage with 80+ Fury.
18. Cast Glaive Tempest.
19. Cast Fel Rush if Momentum has less than 5 seconds remaining.
20. Cast Eye Beam with as little Fury as possible.
21. Cast Metamorphosis if Eye Beam and Death Sweep are on cooldown.
22. Cast Blade Dance.
23. Cast Throw Glaive if at 2 charges.
24. Cast Annihilation
25. Cast Felblade if under 80 Fury.
26. Cast Sigil of Flame if under 90 Fury.
27. Cast Throw Glaive.
28. Cast Immolation Aura.
29. Cast Throw Glaive if at 2 charges.
30. Cast Chaos Strike
31. Cast Fel Rush if nothing else is available.
32. Cast Throw Glaive if nothing else is available.

Havoc's gameplay loop is heavily dictated by its gameplay loop, which shifts its priorities to activate powerful effects and fill out its gameplay core. Which you pick dictates the flow and what you need to think about aligning to get big payoff moments. Some key notes, including details based on your selections in the talent switches, are:

• Eye Beam is still always used in single-target as a powerful cooldown and is only enhanced further by Demonic providing a powerful follow-up. The frequency depends on if you have Cycle of Hatred or not, and if you have Blind Fury try to dump as much Fury as possible before casting it.
• The Season 4 playstyle using Cycle of Hatred is quite simple, everything is built around spending as much Fury as possible to cycle back to Eye Beam. Blade Dance is especially important thanks to the 2-piece triggering it twice, getting you back round to Demon form as fast as possible.
• Your Essence Break windows provide a core burst moment that you should always be planning around every 40 seconds. This should always overlap with your Metamorphosis effect alongside Initiativealongside Initiative / Inertia and fit in one Death Sweep and two Annihilation casts. Always cast it following a Vengeful Retreat, casting it mid-air as you pass over.
• While Fel Barrage is more of an AoE choice, it is still worth using in single-target if have taken it. Due to the heavy Fury drain while active, you should avoid spending on filler abilities such as Annihilation while it is active to avoid it ending early, and instead aggressively generate with Felblade, Immolation Aura, Eye Beam and Sigil of Flame.
• While playing with Momentum, treat it as more of a maintenance buff that should be kept up as much as possible. You want to make absolutely sure it overlaps Eye Beam and Essence Break, with any extra uptime as a bonus.
• Inertia plays more like old Momentum, granting extra burst windows. These should always aim to be overlapped with your key burst moments such as Eye Beam, Essence Break and The Hunt. Uptime is limited by Immolation Aura, but A Fire Inside grants more flexibility to plan around with the second charge.
• The new capstone offering A Fire Inside has extremely strong synergy with Inertia, and as such, they are recommended as a pair, forming the "Ignition" build. When playing this, you want to make sure it is always under 2 charges to get the most value, and always consume the follow-up Unbound Chaos procs to trigger Inertia and deal bonus Fel Rush damage.

In AoE situations, due to such a large portion of the Havoc Demon Hunter kit already dealing AoE or cleave damage, it is very similar to its single-target equivalent, with some slight deviations in priority:

1. Warning - cannot combine both Momentum and Inertia!
2. Cast Death Sweep during the Essence Break debuff.
3. Cast Immolation Aura regardless of charge count.
4. Cast Fel Rush with Unbound Chaos active to trigger Inertia.
5. Cast Immolation Aura if at 2 charges.
6. Cast Vengeful Retreat to trigger Initiative.
7. Cast The Hunt.
8. Cast Fel Rush with Unbound Chaos active.
9. Cast Immolation Aura.
10. Cast Elysian Decree.
11. Cast Fel Rush if Momentum has less than 2 seconds remaining.
12. Cast Essence Break with Metamorphosis active.
13. Cast Death Sweep.
14. Cast Eye Beam with as little Fury as possible.
15. Cast Annihilation with Inner Demon active.
16. Cast Glaive Tempest.
17. Cast Fel Barrage with 80+ Fury.
18. Cast Metamorphosis if Eye Beam and Death Sweep are on cooldown.
19. Cast Fel Rush with Unbound Chaos active.
20. Cast Blade Dance.
21. Cast Sigil of Flame.
22. Cast Throw Glaive.
23. Cast Death Sweep / Blade Dance.
24. Cast Annihilation
25. Cast Felblade if under 80 Fury.
26. Cast Throw Glaive if at 2 charges.
27. Cast Chaos Strike
28. Cast Fel Rush if nothing else is available.
29. Cast Throw Glaive if nothing else is available.

The majority of tools you make use of in single-target apply directly to AoE, with the exception of Annihilation / Chaos Strike that fall to the bottom of the priority. Your focus depends on which key AoE talents you have taken, and notes based on your selection in the talent switches are:

• Immolation Aura pulls a lot more weight in AoE due to the number of talents focused around it on the right side. The biggest of these is Ragefire, which converts Critical Strikes into a large explosion as it fades paired with the increased access from A Fire Inside thanks to the resets. If you do not select all of these, however, it is not a key focus.
• Unlike in single-target Fel Barrage is a much bigger deal in AoE and something you need to plan around. This requires a total of 256 Fury to maintain the 8-second duration, so some pooling is ideal. While it is active, avoid spending any excess Fury on Annihilation, and generate if necessary to keep it active.
• While Essence Break is a key component of single-target, this is only really used to enable one Death Sweep and the remaining time is not as important. Make sure to plan your Death Sweep cooldown around this to make sure you at least get some value.
• While the Cycle of Hatred build is behind in AoE, if played its main goal is getting back to Eye Beam as fast as possible, meaning Chaos Strike and Annihilation are used more frequently despite being single-target.
• Fel Rush is a low-priority filler that is just above Chaos Strike. However, with some movement talents, it becomes more impactful. Inertia will most likely be paired with A Fire Inside for an "Ignition" build and should be triggered aggressively due to how much Immolation Aura is being cast. Momentum is maintained as much as possible over big casts, but is not done as a priority throughout an encounter.

The opening sequence for Havoc is quite set in stone, hinging on your management of some key talents - most importantly Chaotic Transformation.

1. Warning - cannot combine both Momentum and Inertia!
2. Pre-cast Immolation Aura 1-2 seconds before the pull.
3. Cast Elysian Decree.
4. Cast Fel Rush consume Unbound Chaos and trigger Inertia and trigger Momentum.
5. Cast Felblade Fel Rush to engage the boss.
6. Cast The Hunt.
7. Cast Immolation Aura if it was reset by A Fire Inside.
8. Cast Fel Rush if a A Fire Inside proc occurred to refresh Inertia.
9. Cast Glaive Tempest.
10. Cast Eye Beam.
11. Cast The Hunt.
12. Cast Annihilation to trigger Inner Demon.
13. Cast Vengeful Retreat to trigger Initiative.
14. Cast Essence Break.
15. Cast Death Sweep.
16. Cast Metamorphosis to reset Eye Beam / Death Sweep cooldowns.
17. Cast Death Sweep.
18. Cast Annihilation until Essence Break expires.
19. Cast Annihilation to trigger Inner Demon.
20. Cast Eye Beam.
21. Continue with the normal priority list.

The most warping effects on the initial rotation are Chaotic Transformation and Essence Break, which provide a small window to deal huge burst if managed correctly. The goal is to set yourself up in Metamorphosis via Demonic, have Momentum and Inertia and and Initiative active, and enter an Essence Break window where you can Death Sweep, reset with Metamorphosis, and Death Sweep immediately to squeeze them both into the short timeframe.

Builds that take Inner Demon also need to make sure to fit in an extra Annihilation before beginning this sequence. This is due to the activation of Metamorphosis overwriting the effect and wasting a valuable proc.

Havoc comes with a number of unique talents that leverage its high mobility for additional damage. These are generally higher skill cap options, and require comfort to execute properly. Knowing when you need to commit your tools to amplify upcoming damage versus when you need to hold them to deal with mechanics is a skill that comes with experience. The key talents that build it up are:

• Initiative + Tactical Retreat
• Unbound Chaos
• Momentum or Inertia

The first two are relatively intuitive in that it encourages you to cast Vengeful Retreat on cooldown for the high Fury generation, and Fel Rush to consume the buff. The final choice node however requires more explanation. To start with, below is an image that shows the optimal pathing around bosses to maintain uptime without being forced out of range as much as possible:

Momentum can be refreshed for the full duration, adding onto your current buff up to 30 seconds, acting as a maintenance buff. This is generally something that gets activated throughout the rotation via the base priority. It is important to make sure you have it active for high-damage events such as Eye Beam, Essence Break and Fel Barrage, but most of the time the natural gameplay of Initiative will do this for you. Do not overcommit to maintenance over spending Fury, but do aim for as high of an uptime as possible.

Inertia brings back a similar playstyle to the old version of Momentum, making it a short duration high-intensity burst moment. This pairs extremely well with A Fire Inside, giving extra charges to add some flexibility to your activators. You should make sure when using this to not leave any Unbound Chaos activations on the table, and aim to overlap all of your high damage moments (such as Eye Beam and Essence Break) pro-actively to get the most value out of it.

Adds in an additional high-value damage window, but only lasts for 4 seconds, so needs all of your setup to be done before casting it to get good value out of it. You always want to be in Metamorphosis form when activating this, ideally via Demonic due to the benefits of layering this with Chaotic Transformation to get two Death Sweeps out during it. Starting already in Demon form, your goal with each cast should be:

• With Metamorphosis: Death Sweep into Metamorphosis into Death Sweep, finish with Annihilation.
• Without Metamorphosis: Death Sweep into 2-3 Annihilation.

Depending on your Haste and whether you are affected by Bloodlust this can be extremely tight to fit in, but is absolutely worth the payoff. In AoE situations, you instead only need to fit in as many Death Sweeps as the above shows, ignoring the Annihilation recommendations.

While Throw Glaive is usually a low damage ability, there is a large number of effects on the tree that, when combined, make it a potent Fury spender. Talents that form this are:

• Champion of the Glaive
• Accelerated Blade
• Furious Throws
• Serrated Glaive
• Soulscar

When all of these are combined Throw Glaive becomes a spender that competes with Annihilation that also gets stronger in cleave situations. When playing this, you should always pair it with Champion of the Glaive to get the additional charge, which you should use to always keep it recharging.

When using the Season 4 set, these talents become mandatory, as the free Throw Glaive casts triggered by Blade Dance are extremely efficient. This also means you do not need to actively cast Throw Glaive to get the value, instead relying on the free activations.

This is an extremely potent AoE burst cooldown that also drains Fury extremely quickly. Due to it being capped at 8 seconds, it means you need to generate a total of 256 Fury throughout to maintain it from start to finish, meaning pooling is recommended.

Before entering into it, you want to make sure you have all of your maintenance buffs prepared (in particular Inertia and Initiative) and avoid spending excess Fury while it is active. Active generation tools such as Felblade and Sigil of Flame take priority when this is active, especially if you fall behind. This extends to refilling via Blind Fury as well if taken.

A Fire Inside adds an extra charge, the ability for Immolation Aura casts to overlap each other, and a 25% chance for it to reset when cast. This pairs especially well with all of the right-side talents up to Ragefire, and also Inertia.

It is crucial when playing this to make sure you never leave it at 2 charges and react to resets by pressing it repeatedly until it actively goes on cooldown - you lose nothing due to the buffs overlapping. When playing Inertia, you also ideally want to spend the Unbound Chaos triggers in between these casts in single-target, but in AoE, hitting the resets is slightly more valuable.

These are talents that are present in the majority of builds that have quite a large impact overall, but are not necessarily gameplay-altering.

First Blood increases the damage Blade Dance deals to your primary target by 75% and converts it to Chaos damage, allowing it to scale with Mastery. This significantly raises the priority of Blade Dance in all situations and turns it into a high priority, use on cooldown ability at all target counts.

Felblade provides an alternative active Fury generation tool that is proc-related and fills in for Demon's Bite when Demon Blades is taken, creating a steady flow of extra Fury. This is especially good as Demon Blades allows us to generate Fury off the GCD so we can more actively manage our resource.

Demonic is a damage boost window effect. It will naturally be triggered by your Eye Beam casts rotationally, making sure to fill as many Global Cooldowns during the 5 seconds as possible with Fury spenders. Priming Immolation Aura or Tactical Retreat if talented before you trigger the window is excellent for setting up some background generation to fuel your Annihilation casts. Try to minimize the number of committal generation tools such as Demon's Bite if possible, but in some cases, RNG forces your hand.

Know Your Enemy increases your Critical Strike damage based on your Critical Strike chance, significantly improving its scaling and also allowing abilities that guarantee critical strikes (such as Eye Beam with Looks Can Kill) to still retain some boost from it. This also includes all item effects and trinkets, so is always taken.

Any Means Necessary converts all magic damage your abilities deal to Chaos damage, causing your Mastery to increase their damage. This is extremely good for overall scaling, and due to how easy this is to access it is taken in the majority of builds. This also includes The Hunt which, while dealing Chaos damage is not affected, providing extra relevance for the Season 4 set bonus.

Shattered Destiny extends your active Metamorphosis or Demonic window based on Fury spent, having strong synergy with the additional Haste it confers. This makes time with Metamorphosis active a race to spend and keep it active, and provides a large single-target increase due to how many extensions it provides. The path through Cycle of Hatred also gives even further access to your Demon Form, so creates a very fast-paced resource cycling playstyle.