Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Sepulcher of the First Ones Raid Guide — Dragonflight 10.2.5
On this page, you will find tips, tricks, and strategies tailored to your Havoc Demon Hunter for each boss of the following raid: Sepulcher of the First Ones. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.5.
Introduction
On this page, you will find Havoc-Demon Hunter-specific information to deal with each boss in the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid. The tips provided on this page were given based on Shadowlands Season 4, and may be partially outdated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
This page assumes that you already understand most of the mechanics of each encounter. These can be found on the full raid guide, so what is contained here are details specifically tailored toward Havoc Demon Hunters and what you can do to deal with each fight as best as possible.
During the Dragonflight Pre-Patch, Castle Nathria, Sanctum of Domination, and Sepulcher of the First Ones will be simultaneously featured as Fated Raids. During this time encounters within each specific raid will include an additional mechanic and items will drop at increased item levels. If you would like to learn more general information about the Fated Raids system as a whole, please see our overview below. Otherwise, continue to use this page for specialization-specific tips.
Since in Season 4 Sepulcher is the most recent raid, it was done with all of our current tools so the approach to each encounter for Havoc remains largely the same.
Talent Cheatsheet
Currently there is one dominant raiding build that is rarely deviated from
outside of very specific situations. You run
Darkglare Boon as your
single target legendary due to the interactions with
Sinful Brand. In
some situations you may want
Netherwalk and can trade
Improved Fel Rush out for netherwalk at a minor DPS loss.
Covenant: Venthyr
Legendaries:
Agony Gaze with
Darkglare Boon
Soulbind: Nadjia (Link)
You can easily import the talent tree below into the game with the following string:
- BEkACnvaHJn8GSPD6tpaeczPTRCIhIQLJRSiAAAAAAAAQSQkSIJFIkWESSSSA
Vigilant Guardian
We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Vigilant Guardian.
Darkglare Boon
Unity
This fight is split into two, with the first phase having lots of adds (including the boss on Mythic), and the final phase being a pure burn on the boss.
- Havoc is a good option to carry the
Unstable Core thanks to
high instant movement. - The most important burn is when the boss hits 15%, but there is a
lot of value in using
Metamorphosis on multiple adds for
Sinful Brand applications, so its use is flexible. - Aim to use your
Unbound Chaos buffs to hit add waves
as they come in. - Save a charge of
Fel Rush or
Vengeful Retreat to
get out if targeted by
Deresolution beams. - Have
Blur ready for the tail end of
Core Overload
when raid damage gets intense. Also use
Darkness here.
For more information, please refer to our Vigilant Guardian guide.
Skolex, the Insatiable Ravener
We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Skolex, the Insatiable Ravener.
Darkglare Boon
Unity
This is a pure single-target burn with some intermittent movement.
- Have a charge of
Fel Rush ready to get back to the boss quickly
after
Ravening Burrow. - Use
Blur and
Darkness when your raid group stacks
up to trigger
Ravening Burrow. - Be active with movement to avoid
Devouring Blood pools
— reduced Haste is bad. - As a melee make sure to avoid the Tanks, as the
Wormhole Jaws
damage split is lethal if it picks you.
For more information, please refer to our Skolex, the Insatiable Ravener guide.
Artificer Xy'Mox
We advise you to use the following Legendary against Artificer Xy'mox.
Darkglare Boon
Unity
- Aim to bank a use of
Unbound Chaos for the add spawns,
and if possible also have
Eye Beam ready. - Adds can also be crowd controlled, so
Chaos Nova is
useful here to prevent
Massive Blast. - Use
Blur at higher stacks of
Genesis Supernova,
or during the tank explosion from
Glyph of Relocation. - If you are caught in a bad spot by
Genesis Rings
you can use
Door of Shadows to skip over them to safety.
Dausegne, the Fallen Oracle
We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Dausegne, the Fallen Oracle.
Darkglare Boon
Unity
Adds are important to burn down here, but this is predominantly a single-target encounter.
- Have charges of
Fel Rush ready to adjust around each
Disintegration Halo spawn to not take lethal damage. - Have some shorter cooldowns such as
Eye Beam ready to burst down
the
Siphoned Barrier shield. - Use
Darkness during the
Inevitable Dominion channel
when the raid is stacked. - When the boss is beginning to create the
Disintegration Halos,
you can see which order they will spawn in by carefully watching the
Dominated Reservoirs (the pillars) in the four points of the room.
Pre-position and plan out your route to avoid dying to multiple stacks of the
debuff.
Door of Shadows can be used to skip over multiple Halos
if they overlap, and in emergencies
Netherwalk can prevent you
taking lethal damage if you have to move through more than one at once.
For more information, please refer to our Dausegne, the Fallen Oracle guide.
Prototype Pantheon
Due to Prototype Pantheon being a constant 2 or 4 target cleave fight, the recommended build changes heavily to be similar to a Mythic+ setup. The talent hash for the recommended build is this: BEkACnvaHJn8GSPD6tpaeczPThkkkkICSLJRkIAAAAAAAAkEEpESIIJpFBSAA
We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Prototype Pantheon.
Darkglare Boon
Fel Bombardment
Unity
The fight is split between periods of 2 bosses active and a
final burn with all 4 active.
Darkglare Boon is ideal
here to help maintain
Sinful Brand on all enemies consistently
for that final phase, however
Fel Bombardment can see great value due
to the constant multi-target scenario and the build supporting
Throw Glaive.
- Plan your cooldowns around the final phase, aiming to have
Metamorphosis
ready when the transition begins to apply
Sinful Brand to all
4 targets. - Always save a charge of
Fel Rush to make sure you can get
into the
Bastion's Ward circles if you are targeted by
Runecarver's Deathtouch - In Mythic, this also applies to
Night Hunters. - Save
Blur for
Hand of Destruction during the
second phase, especially if you are hit by
Sinful Projection. - Be aware that on Heroic and Mythic difficulties, the four bosses do not share health and must be defeated at roughly the same time.
- Make sure to focus target either Prototype of War or Prototype of Renewal
and interrupt
Gloom Bolt /
Anima Bolt respectively with
Disrupt as often as possible.
For more information, please refer to our Prototype Pantheon guide.
Lihuvim, Principal Architect
We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Lihuvim, Principal Architect.
Darkglare Boon
Unity
- Aim to have
Eye Beam ready for the add spawns. - Save a charge for
Fel Rush to counteract the knockback
from
Cosmic Shift If you have the push effect.
Sinful Brand can be used on the intermission Protoform
Schematics, but it will usually fall off on the boss during the
intermission so you will lose boss damage doing this.- Use
Blur during the intermission if the raid is unstable
from the ticking
Protoform Radiance damage. - Use
Vengeful Retreat if you are targeted by a Mote
from a dying Degeneration Automa to drop it in a safe place. - Watch out for the Tank positioning as the
Resonance circles
from the combo are lethal.
For more information, please refer to our Lihuvim, Principal Architect guide.
Halondrus the Reclaimer
We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Halondrus the Reclaimer.
Darkglare Boon
Unity
- If playing
Chaos Theory you pair it with
Demon Blades
and
First Blood, aggressively using
Eye Beam and
Chaos Strike to trigger
Cycle of Hatred using the extra
Fury generation from auto-attacks.
Glide can instantly counter the
Shatter knockbacks
during the intermission to stick to the boss.- Be careful of
Planetcracker Beams when using
Fel Rush
in the main phase. - Use
Blur whenever you soak an Ephemeral Mote, or
during
Earthbreaker Missiles casts. - If you absolutely need to pass through
Planetcracker Beam you
should use
Netherwalk to do it safely.
For more information, please refer to our Halondrus the Reclaimer guide.
Anduin Wrynn
We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Anduin Wrynn.
Darkglare Boon
Unity
Blur is best saved for situations where
Befouled Barrier or
Hopebreaker overlaps with
you having the
Domination Word: Pain debuff.
Darkness should be used in situations
where
Hopebreaker overlaps with
Befouled Barrier
and the raid is unstable.- Try to take your time during
Blasphemy instead of
using
Fel Rush to avoid crashing into players of the
opposite colour. - Intermission 1 begins at roughly 3:10, and intermission
2 at around 8 minutes. This means the 4-piece bonus should
allow you to use
Metamorphosis on pull and have it
ready for this burn.
Chaos Nova,
Throw Glaive (with
Master of the Glaive
and
Fel Eruption can be helpful to keep Anduin's Doubt
from reaching the centre if sent downstairs during
Kingsmourne Hungers
casts.
Disrupt should be used aggressively on
Grim Reflection's
Psychic Terror casts.- In the final phase you can use
Netherwalk
to immune the final damage event from
Hopelessness
if you cannot clear in time.
For more information, please refer to our Anduin Wrynn guide.
Lords of Dread
We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Lords of Dread.
Darkglare Boon
Unity
Lords of Dread has a near constant 2 target uptime with some high burst windows roughly every 2 minutes.
- While the first
Unto Darkness damage phase happens
at 1 minute, it is better to
Metamorphosis on the pull
to get
Sinful Brand rolling. If it falls off, there will
be an opportunity to reapply it before the second window. - If
Sinful Brand falls off following the
Infiltration of Dread
intermission you should aim to get cycle it again on both
targets as soon as possible.
Blur and
Darkness should always be
saved for each
Unto Darkness phase, as the raid takes
huge damage during this channel.- Save a charge of
Fel Rush or
Vengeful Retreat
for
Fearful Trepidation in case you need to move far
out to the ranged to clear pools. - Be very careful when using
Fel Rush to consume
Unbound Chaos, making sure to avoid
Cloud of Carrion
pools and staying behind the bosses so you do not get cleaved. - On Mythic, if you stand directly under Mal'Ganis
you can avoid the pools spawned by
Aura of Carrion, but
make sure you are underneath otherwise you will get hit.
For more information, please refer to our Lords of Dread guide.
Rygelon
We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Rygelon.
Darkglare Boon
Unity
- Collapsing Quasars have huge hitboxes, making it
very easy to aim your
Eye Beam to hit multiple
targets. - Save a charge of
Fel Rush or
Vengeful Retreat
to get into your assigned
Collapsing Quasar Field if
targeted by
Dark Eclipse. Likewise, this is useful in
the intermission to keep up with the boss after soaking
Unstable Cores.
Blur should be used in every intermission during
the Unstable Core soaks.- While
Netherwalk does immune the up-front damage
from soaking
Cosmic Ejection, on Mythic you will still
have the debuff applied so Havoc is not generally a good pick
to do this. - In Mythic having charges of
Fel Rush is also
very useful to get back to the boss as
Massive Bang
pulls the raid to the centre, so you can get to your circle.
For more information, please refer to our Rygelon guide.
The Jailer
We advise you to use the following Legendaries against The Jailer.
Darkglare Boon
Unity
There is a lot going on in this encounter but most of it is mechanical — the thing that matters is how much boss damage you can do over a long period of time. There are some brief add damage windows but are usually very short-lived.
- You can use
Glide to cancel the knock-up from
Rune of Damnation
after you are bounced out of the hole to get back to the boss
quicker. - Due to the mind control in Phase 2, consider switching
your Nadjia Soulbind to avoid
Nimble Steps as
the root can be pretty annoying for your raid. - Try to line up
Eye Beam whenever possible on
Rune of Compulsion
spawns to help break allies out quicker. Either use
Chaos Nova
on allies immediately or do not use it, as the stun will linger
after the mind control breaks. - In Phase 3
Metamorphosis can be saved to hit the
Torment add spawns, but these are usually burned down very
quickly so value might be low.
Eye Beam is also useful
here.
Blur has a lot of situations to be used throughout
the fight and should be used liberally, especially when soaking
Martyrdom in Phase 1, and when
Chains of Anguish are
being snapped in Phase 3.- There are a lot of movement mechanics so planning your
Fel Rush and
Vengeful Retreat economy to deal with
some mechanics is important.
Darkness is useful for the raid soak during
Martyrdom in Phase 1, and the chain snaps in Phase 3.
In Mythic, it is also excellent for
Meteor Cleave.
For more information, please refer to our The Jailer guide.
Changelog
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Pre-Patch.
More Demon Hunter Guides
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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 follow him on Twitter.
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