Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Sepulcher of the First Ones Raid Guide — Shadowlands 9.2.5

On this page, you will find Havoc-Demon Hunter-specific information to deal with each boss in the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid.

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 Shadowlands Season 4, Castle Nathria, Sanctum of Domination, and Sepulcher of the First Ones will each spend time being featured as a Fated Raid. During these times encounters within the 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.

Currently there is one dominant build is rarely deviated from outside of very specific situations. Legendary decision comes down to preference in single-target with Darkglare Boon and Collective Anguish, with Collective Anguish being the go to if there is any cleave or AoE involved.

Covenant: Venthyr

Legendaries: Agony Gaze with either Darkglare Boon or Collective Anguish

Soulbind: Nadjia (Link)

• Level 15: Blind Fury
• Level 25: Insatiable Hunger
• Level 30: Unbound Chaos
• Level 40: Cycle of Hatred
• Level 50: Demonic

We advise you to use the following talents against Vigilant Guardian.

• Level 15: Blind Fury
• Level 25: Insatiable Hunger
• Level 30: Unbound Chaos
• Level 35: Soul Rending or Netherwalk
• Level 40: Cycle of Hatred
• Level 45: No specific recommendation
• Level 50: Demonic

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Vigilant Guardian.

1. Collective Anguish
2. 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. As such Collective Anguish is the pick for the free cleave.

• 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.

We advise you to use the following talents against Skolex, the Insatiable Ravener.

• Level 15: Blind Fury
• Level 25: Insatiable Hunger
• Level 30: Unbound Chaos
• Level 35: Soul Rending or Netherwalk
• Level 40: Cycle of Hatred
• Level 45: No specific recommendation
• Level 50: Demonic

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Skolex, the Insatiable Ravener.

1. Collective Anguish
2. Darkglare Boon
3. Unity

This is a pure single-target burn with some intermittent movement, so your choice between Darkglare Boon and Collective Anguish comes down to how comfortable you are with being locked in place frequently.

• 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.

We advise you to use the following talents against Artificer Xy'mox.

• Level 15: Blind Fury
• Level 25: Insatiable Hunger
• Level 30: Unbound Chaos
• Level 35: Soul Rending or Netherwalk
• Level 40: Cycle of Hatred
• Level 45: No specific recommendation
• Level 50: Demonic

We advise you to use the following Legendary against Artificer Xy'mox.

1. Collective Anguish
2. Unity

This is mostly a single-target fight with small add waves at 75% and 50%, so Collective Anguish works out best here.

• 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.

We advise you to use the following talents against Dausegne, the Fallen Oracle.

• Level 15: Blind Fury
• Level 25: Insatiable Hunger
• Level 30: Unbound Chaos
• Level 35: Soul Rending or Netherwalk
• Level 40: Cycle of Hatred
• Level 45: No specific recommendation
• Level 50: Demonic

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Dausegne, the Fallen Oracle.

1. Collective Anguish
2. Unity

Adds are important to burn down here, but this is predominantly a single-target encounter. The cleave portions makes Collective Anguish preferable.

• 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.

We advise you to use the following talents against Prototype Pantheon.

• Level 15: Blind Fury
• Level 25: Insatiable Hunger
• Level 30: Unbound Chaos
• Level 35: Soul Rending or Netherwalk
• Level 40: Cycle of Hatred
• Level 45: No specific recommendation
• Level 50: Demonic

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Prototype Pantheon.

1. Collective Anguish
2. Unity

The fight is split between periods of 2 bosses active and a final burn with all 4 active. Collective Anguish is ideal here to maintain Sinful Brand on all enemies consistently for that final phase.

• 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.

We advise you to use the following talents against Lihuvim, Principal Architect.

• Level 15: Blind Fury
• Level 25: Insatiable Hunger
• Level 30: Unbound Chaos
• Level 35: Soul Rending or Netherwalk
• Level 40: Cycle of Hatred
• Level 45: No specific recommendation
• Level 50: Demonic

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Lihuvim, Principal Architect.

1. Collective Anguish
2. Unity

The majority of the important damage here is pure single-target on the boss, but there are high priority intermission adds followed by large add waves, so Collective Anguish is the pick here.

• 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.

We advise you to use the following talents against Halondrus the Reclaimer.

• Level 15: Blind Fury
• Level 25: Insatiable Hunger (or Demon Blades, situationally)
• Level 30: Unbound Chaos
• Level 35: Soul Rending or Netherwalk
• Level 40: Cycle of Hatred (or First Blood, situationally)
• Level 45: No specific recommendation
• Level 50: Demonic

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Halondrus the Reclaimer.

1. Collective Anguish
2. Chaos Theory
3. Unity

Halondrus has a unique situation where auto-attacks do not have the usual miss penalty, that does open up an alternative build with Chaos Theory, alternative you can take Collective Anguish if you want to stick to a regular build.

• 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.

We advise you to use the following talents against Anduin Wrynn.

• Level 15: Blind Fury
• Level 25: Insatiable Hunger
• Level 30: Unbound Chaos
• Level 35: Soul Rending or Netherwalk
• Level 40: Cycle of Hatred
• Level 45: No specific recommendation
• Level 50: Demonic

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Anduin Wrynn.

1. Collective Anguish
2. Unity

Anduin has a lot of moving parts, but the majority of important damage is done during the intermission with a large amount of cleave throughout, so Collective Anguish wins by a large margin here.

• 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.

We advise you to use the following talents against Lords of Dread.

• Level 15: Blind Fury
• Level 25: Insatiable Hunger
• Level 30: Unbound Chaos
• Level 35: Soul Rending or Netherwalk
• Level 40: Cycle of Hatred
• Level 45: No specific recommendation
• Level 50: Demonic

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Lords of Dread.

1. Collective Anguish
2. Unity

Lords of Dread has a near constant 2 target uptime with some high burst windows roughly every 2 minutes, making Collective Anguish the ideal pick here to maintain Sinful Brand on both bosses throughout.

• 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.

We advise you to use the following talents against Rygelon.

• Level 15: Blind Fury
• Level 25: Insatiable Hunger
• Level 30: Unbound Chaos
• Level 35: Soul Rending or Netherwalk
• Level 40: Cycle of Hatred
• Level 45: No specific recommendation
• Level 50: Demonic

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Rygelon.

1. Collective Anguish
2. Unity

Mostly single-target oriented fight with some add spawns that have extremely low health, so there are lots of opportunities to get extra value from Collective Anguish.

• 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.

We advise you to use the following talents against The Jailer.

• Level 15: Blind Fury
• Level 25: Insatiable Hunger
• Level 30: Unbound Chaos
• Level 35: Soul Rending or Netherwalk
• Level 40: Cycle of Hatred
• Level 45: No specific recommendation
• Level 50: Demonic

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against The Jailer.

1. Collective Anguish
2. 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.