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it (read more Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1
Table of Contents
General Information
On this page, we list your Havoc Demon Hunter core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth 8.0.1. We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a Havoc Demon Hunter.
The other pages of our Havoc Demon Hunter guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.
About Our Author
This guide has been written by Wordup, a frequent theorycrafter involved in a number of class communities. He is also an experienced player who has been in the world top 100 since the days of Sunwell, currently raiding in Echoes. You can also follow him on Twitter.
1. Single Target Rotation for Havoc Demon Hunter
Havoc's single target rotation hinges strongly on the combination of
generation (either through active tools such as 
Demon's Bite or
talents like 
Demon Blades) and your main spender,
Chaos Strike. Past this, depending on talents, other spells enter
into the rotation adding depth, making it important to manage both your resource
and your other spell cooldowns.
Use the below switches to tailor the rotation around the talents or situations you expect to be using, and it will populate the rotation priority list appropriately:
- AoE Situations
- Momentum
- Nemesis
- Dark Slash
- First Blood
- Fel Barrage
- Immolation Aura
- Demon Blades
- Felblade
- Cast
Metamorphosis if available and not active. - Cast
Eye Beam. - Cast
Chaos Strike / 
Annihilation. - Cast
Demon's Bite to generate Fury.
Note that 
Eye Beam returns to the single target rotation in Battle
for Azeroth due to the Fury efficiency, guaranteed Critical Strikes
and additional damage to your primary targets. However, if there are any
prospective situations that will increase the number of targets that can be hit
by both this and 
Fel Barrage before it comes back off cooldown, it
is always preferable to hold it to hit additional enemies.
When using 
Felblade, it can be used to quickly get back in range
after a 
Fel Rush cast if the target hitbox is too small to
efficiently move across it, so can also be treated as a movement tool if
available, but do not hold this in your rotation for extended periods as this is
a minor perk.
With regards to Fel Rush, it is a very valuable tool to generate
damage in the empty global cooldowns created by Demon Blades so long
as you can remain within auto attack range. Otherwise using this is generally
considered a slight loss, as it wastes global cooldowns that could be spent on
generating or spending Fury.
2. Opening Rotation for Havoc Demon Hunter
- Pre-cast
Immolation Aura if taken. - Use
Battle Potion of Agility just before the pull. - Cast Metamorphosis to engage.
- Cast
Nemesis if taken. - Cast
Felblade to generate burst Fury. - Cast
Fel Rush with 
Momentum taken. - Cast
Death Sweep with 
First Blood taken. - Cast Annihilation.
- Continue with Single Target Rotation.
2.1. Demonic Opener
- Pre-cast Immolation Aura if taken.
- Use Battle Potion of Agility just before the pull.
- Cast Demon's Bite to reach 30 Fury.
- Cast Eye Beam to trigger Metamorphosis.
- Cast Death Sweep with First Blood taken.
- Cast Metamorphosis.
- Cast Annihilation.
- Continue with Single Target Rotation.
Due to Demonic having different interactions with some spells, it warrants a
different opener. This utilises your 
Demonic activations with
Eye Beam as soon as possible, alongside the large burst of Fury that
comes from 
Blind Fury.
3. Important Notes for Havoc Demon Hunter
3.1. Fel Rush Usage
Be aware that using this rotationally for damage to fill your empty Globals
with Demon Blades is dependant on how effectively you can maneuver
yourself around the boss' hitbox. Its strength is that it has a reduced Global
Cooldown timer, but if any of that time is then wasted by you being out of range
of the boss and losing uptime will usually result in a net loss. Some bosses
have small enough hitboxes that they simply prevent you from using this
(though when taking 
Momentum, as explained later, this does not
matter, as you have to use it anyway) and in those cases, you should forego
casting it.
3.2. Notes on Build Synergy
Something that may be new to players in Battle for Azeroth is the lack of
very strict linear builds in the talent tree. Whilst synergies do exist between
some related talents (such as Blind Fury + Demonic, or
Trail of Ruin + 
First Blood), there is more room to mix and
match talents, so long as you are able to sustain the rotational pace and
complexity your choices add. This marks a shift from the strict talent picks
from top to bottom, and adds some flexibility.
3.3. Tier 1 Talent Notes
Your decision between Blind Fury and Felblade can be
decided both by preference and situation. 
Demonic Appetite simply
does not compare in generation or opportunities to play well around the talent
to gain value due to having no direct damage component. Felblade will excel as a
single target generator, in particular when paired with Demon Blades to
inject another active generation tool, thereby filling the gap left by
Demon's Bite. It also has a small extra bonus of being a short
distance charge, adding yet more mobility and sticking power into the
toolkit.
Blind Fury, on the other hand, enhances your Eye Beam cast damage,
alongside turning it into a generation tool that will refill your entire bar.
Making sure you are as drained as possible before this comes off cooldown is
important so as to not waste excess, so being aware of the cooldown and spending
as aggressively as possible leading up to this is key.
3.4. Tier 2 Talents Explained
Insatiable Hunger has very little impact on the rotation and is simply
the quick and easy choice, but is significantly behind alternatives both in
output and versatility.
Immolation Aura, on the other hand, has a very strong
potential to gain output in a variety of situations. It serves both as a small
damage cooldown, an AoE DoT effect, and a short term generation tool all in one
package, on a relatively short cooldown. Using this during periods where you
would ideally prefer to spend to sustain you, or just as an on cooldown
generation tool both work, and it is a very flexible tool to have available.
Demon Blades slows down your pace by removing your active
generation tool Demon's Bite, and replacing it with a 60% chance proc
from auto attacks to deal additional Shadow damage and grant 12-20 Fury. This
adds an element of reactionary play as you will no longer be Global Cooldown
locked, instead opting to wait for your Fury to passively generate from auto
attacks. This makes the playstyle more chaotic in practice compared to the
alternatives, and during high Haste periods demands some quick chains of
Chaos Strike casts to burn off Fury, whilst being patient
if procs are not happening.
3.5. Tier 5 Talent Notes
Cycle of Hatred appears to be a very niche pick, mostly operating
as a way to potentially bring 
Metamorphosis cooldown closer to
certain fight breakpoints if necessary. This will likely always remain a pick
that will require foresight to know whether or not it is beneficial, and also
by extension a fringe selection.
First Blood adding a cheap spender in Blade Dance is
great for having something that is flexible without requiring a large amount of
Fury to capitalise upon. It also serves well as a high front loaded opener of
damage during burst windows such as Momentum without committing too
much Fury and potentially draining yourself. It is extremely important to be
aware of when you are intending to initiate a burst window, however, ensuring
that you have Blade Dance ready to go immediately, rather than having to wait.
You also still need to make sure you keep the ability on cooldown as efficiently
as possible due to its high Fury efficiency, so may require some practice
predicting and juggling the cooldown.
Dark Slash currently struggles numerically, but like many
other things in the toolkit, provides a small window of additional burst damage
that can potentially be lined up with effects such as Demonic. This
will naturally line up with some effects, whilst others it may desync
occasionally; but uptime is key and keeping this on cooldown is vital. The only
real limitation is you must be casting this with a bank of Fury available
already to instantly capitalise on the Chaos Strike boost it grants.
3.6. Tier 7 Talents Explained
This tier is very much a contentious point amongst players as they all have
their uses, so here I will try to explain as succinctly as possible the
situation between Momentum and 
Nemesis.
Demonic is a little behind in Battle for Azeroth, but I will still
cover the nuances of play with it.
3.6.1. Demonic
Demonic is, like Momentum alongside it on the tier, a damage
boost window effect. It will naturally be triggered by your
Eye Beam casts rotationally, and will usually be paired with
Blind Fury, making sure that whenever you do enter into this window
you will do so with a full bar of Fury. Making sure to fill as many Global
Cooldowns during the 8 seconds as possible with Fury spenders is crucial, and
with the additional Haste, this can sometimes be a stretch to have enough
available.
Pairing this with Immolation Aura or Demon Blades
to allow for background generation instead of committal generation tools such
as Demon's Bite can be useful to make the most out of this period, but,
in some cases, you will simply have to use active generation due to
resource exhaustion caused by RNG.
3.6.2. Momentum
This talent is a very high skill cap option and as such if you are not comfortable with Demon Hunter and raid mechanics in general, it will be very punishing. Knowing when to use your charges, and when to bank them to use both in conjunction for the buff and to avoid mechanics or stay on targets at the same time is a skill that needs to be practiced. Below is an image to show the optimal paths to use your activation skills to stay on target and minimise possible displacement that can have a large knock-on effect.
With momentum there are two different effects that are triggered by your mobility abilities:
- Fel Rush with two charges on a 10-second recharge grants 6 seconds of 15% increased damage;
Vengeful Retreat on a 20-second cooldown that generates 80 Fury over 10 seconds when it damages an enemy.
There are some fundamental rules when using Momentum to bear in
mind during combat. First, the spells that activate Momentum do benefit
from the buff they trigger (meaning a Fel Rush cast is boosted even if it is
not already active on you when it is cast). You should aim to never clip a
Momentum window, and instead aim for maximum uptime. Note that unlike in
Legion, additional casts while the buff is active will add to the duration,
instead of overwriting it, meaning that two back to back Fel Rush casts will
generate a total of 12 seconds of uptime. However, whilst this serves as a way
to minimise your waste, you should still ideally attempt to spread your windows
out to make sure you are spending as few Global Cooldowns as possible on
generation during the 6-second period it is active.
Making sure that you have a healthy Fury pool of 80-120 whenever possible
when you trigger a window will give the largest amount of room to let you fill
all of the buff period with expenditure Global Cooldowns. Any abilities or
effects that passively generate Fury that can be triggered before entering into
a Fel Rush, such as Immolation Aura or
Vengeful Retreat can ideally be cast just before triggering the
damage boost, to give extra Fury to play with.
Lastly, when using Demon Blades this can make the windows more
volatile due to the lower control over your rotation. This will however also
mean it is more likely to passively generate enough Fury throughout the buff
to sustain your rotation while it is active, so these talents often work well
together. You just need to make even more sure that you do not pull yourself too
far out of auto attack range when using movement abilities, so as not to waste
Demon Blades triggers.
3.6.3. Nemesis
If you have taken Nemesis as your 110 talent, try to sync this
up with your Metamorphosis whenever possible. Also, try to make
sure that you will have high uptime on the target you intend to cast it on to
take advantage of as much of the full minute duration as possible. Finally, be
wary of casting it on a target that may die that does not share the same
creature type as others in the encounter. This will cause you to be unable to
make use of the redundancy buff it triggers on different types that remain
alive.
If taken in AoE situations and all enemies share a creature type, then trying to apply this to a low health target just before it dies will allow you to make use of the buff to deal additional damage to all targets instead of just one. This is important to make use of if the encounter allows for it.
3.7. Fel Barrage explained
Fel Barrage operates in a simpler way in Battle for Azeroth,
serving as a 1-minute cooldown burst AoE tool that must be channeled for 3
seconds. Note that while this is channeling, you cannot cast any other abilities
during the cast or it will cancel early. This is your best tool for quick damage
in AoE situations and should be timed with the highest number of targets nearby.
It should also, if taken, be synced up with Momentum damage buffs
from Fel Rush. If there is no prospective AoE coming up in an
encounter before the cooldown would refresh, then casting this on cooldown will
still be a net gain due to its high base damage.
3.8. Mobility vs. Damage
it is important to know that Fel Rush can still be used in the
Single Target rotation when not needed for movement due to its high damage per
cast, especially if using 
Fel Mastery. Knowing when you need to move
in a fight and saving charges preemptively will net far more DPS by
virtue of sticking to your target than the additional damage from using it on
cooldown. This extends similarly to Vengeful Retreat with
Momentum, but this takes more planning as it has no charge system to
allow banking for future use.
Note as well, if you struggle to stay on a target with a small hitbox when
using either of these skills offensively, if Felblade is taken and
available, this can quickly move you back to the target efficiently whilst
generating Fury in the process to power your Momentum windows.
4. Cooldowns
4.1. Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a powerful 30-second duration buff on a
4-minute cooldown, with a flat 25% increase to Haste allowing for more ability
uses while active. Pooling 100 Fury or above before entering
Metamorphosis is extremely beneficial to allow for a surge of
Annihilation casts, and draining excess Fury in the last 5 seconds
of the buff will lead to the most efficient conversion of resource into damage
during this period.
4.2. Eye Beam
Using Eye Beam is either used on cooldown in single target
situations assuming you can safely channel for the full duration, or at pressure
points in a fight where a large stack of enemies will be available for burst
AoE. If there are no situations within the cooldown timer that you would be able
to take advantage of additional enemy spawns to maximise the target count, then
using it on cooldown in general circumstances is preferable.
5. Core Concepts for Havoc Demon Hunters
5.1. Movement Abilities and Talents
One of the unique features of Havoc is that it can leverage its movement
tools in Fel Rush and Vengeful Retreat to increase your
damage output and Fury generation with certain talents. Managing this is
important if these have been selected, and knowing whether it is safe to use
them based on encounter types is especially important.
You can maneuver with Vengeful Retreat in one of two different
ways. The first of these is a wall that you can consistently leap back into so
that the displacement effect is muted and you remain in melee range of
your target. Alternatively, the more consistent option is rotating your
character before casting 90 degrees, so that you will move across the back of the
target's hitbox, and remain in range upon landing against any reasonably sized
target. Do note that at all times, this spell will vault you backwards, so you need to
be aware of that when casting.
Fel Rush in much the same way requires a similar awareness of your
environment to capitalise upon. Instead of focusing on moving backward, however,
you need to face the direction you want to rush and then turn back to your
target when you arrive.
Also, note that both of these spells incur a 1-second movement cooldown to prevent you using them to cancel each other's displacement effect out with animation canceling, and as such you need to treat each cast individually and prepare for the movement to minimize the downsides.
5.2. Fury Management
With Havoc being so reliant on its resource, you need to be very aware of situations that encourage spending vs. the requirement to build. Depending on talents outlined above, that may be more or less active, and so you need to be planning around those.
The general rule is you never want to go into the range of wasting Fury due to
going over the cap with a generator cast. This means the spend breakpoint is 90
Fury without talents, due to Demon's Bite having a potential maximum
of 30 per cast. With Demon Blades this is more flexible, but given
how fast multiple procs can happen, it is preferable to be spending more
aggressively when not pooling for burst windows.
Also be aware to adjust your rotation based on refunds from your
Chaos Strike casts that refund 20 Fury due to the unexpected
additional resources in your pool. In the same vein, successful interrupts
through 
Disrupt and dispels using 
Consume Magic that
grant 30 and 20 Fury respectively can also provide extra resources that you may
need to spend aggressively to make use of.
5.2.1. Fury Management with Demon Blades
When using Demon Blades, your Fury management is altered to
account for the more sporadic nature of the generation. In single target, more
appropriate rotational rules to adjust the original priority look like this
(keep in mind these are un-ordered notes and simply small things that can help
to improve your gameplay):
- Cast Chaos Strike/ Annihilation as frequently as possible unless pooling for burst windows.
- Cast Felblade as frequently as possible, as long as you are below 80 Fury, as your active generation tool.
- Drain all Fury leading up to your Eye Beam cooldown if using
Blind Fury, giving it room to refill your resource bar. - Wait and allow
Demon Blades to generate Fury again to continue the cycle. - Cast
Throw Glaive and Fel Rush if out of range of any targets, or in empty Globals.
It is optimal to always attempt to initiate a Momentum window
before you begin dumping your Fury into Chaos Strike in this way, but as
it is now very predictable how much Fury intake you have, you can generally
anticipate one to two Global Cooldowns before you predict this to happen and
look to initiate the window.
6. Changelog
- 12 Sep. 2018: Updated opener to indicate pre-casting Immolation Aura.
- 12 Aug. 2018: Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch.
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