Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — 12.1.5

In Midnight, Havoc saw some restructuring within its tree, and Season 2 has broadened some options to allow for less strict build requirements. It still has to specialize a little more than it did previously, but has some good tools available, in particular the Apex Talent - Eternal Hunt - cementing The Hunt as a powerful 1-minute cooldown.

• Raid – Both trees are capable of performing in raids, but Aldrachi Reaver has the higher ceiling following repeated buffs. Fel-Scarred is still very capable on cleave encounters though, so both can be played.
• Mythic+ – Similarly, both Hero Trees are strong, with different specialties. Fel-Scarred excels at raw overall throughput, while Aldrachi Reaver exists as a priority target specialist for higher key levels.

The release of Season 2 brought with it a lot of tuning to try and bring both Hero Trees together, but Aldrachi Reaver needed follow-up buffs to hit that mark. Now by Patch 12.1.5, both are competitive, carving out specialties that allow for them to shine in different areas. Fel-Scarred is easy to execute, bringing punchy up-front burst and free cleave throughout, suiting it well to Mythic+ and raid encounters with multiple targets or damage amp windows. Aldrachi Reaver on the other hand brings potent funnel with Wounded Quarry and similarly good cleave tools for lower target counts, allowing it to stand out in the more difficult raid encounters and high-level Mythic+.

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The builds listed above are recommendations based on strength and popularity, covering each area of content in endgame PvE. Each build has its own rotation to execute, with unique aspects to master, with their own tricks up their sleeve to assist your group in different encounters.

Combat Information

Rotations and Mythic+

Want to dive deeper? These guides will teach you how to utilize our Talent Builds in endgame content!

RotationMythic+

Introduced in Patch 12.0.7, the Omnium Folio is a player power system that provides a small number of performance boosting effects, unlocked through a series of quests. These bonuses aren't related to any gear pieces, and are always active on your character. Some provide additional damage, while others grant some healing and extra defensive tools.

Below, we've listed recommendations for each of the five Runes, unlocked as you complete the Folio quest chain:

• Rune 1 – Rune of Unleashed Fire
• Rune 2 – Rune of Self-Mending
• Rune 3 – Rune of Lingering
• Rune 4 – Rune of Critical Power
• Rune 5 – Rune of Overload

It's worth noting that the difference between most of these effects is very minor. The fourth stat boosting Rune is relevant, however, providing a solid amount of your chosen secondary through regular procs. Due to the uniquely powerful benefits for Havoc, Critical Strike is recommended.

The Havoc Apex Talent, Eternal Hunt, focuses on both The Hunt and Eye Beam, adding additional combo effects to each cast. All four points are extremely powerful, and each node has unique interactions for both Aldrachi Reaver and Fel-Scarred:

• Eternal Hunt first point – causes The Hunt to empower your next Eye Beam cast, increasing its damage by 100% and increasing the range of the beam.
• Eternal Hunt second and third points – reduces the cooldown of The Hunt by 15 seconds and increases the number of targets hit by the DoT effect by 2 for each point.
• Eternal Hunt fourth point – increases Blade Dance damage by 20%, and fully channelling Eye Beam causes your next Blade Dance cast to reset its own cooldown.

This turns The Hunt into a 1-minute burst cooldown, dealing high AoE damage on its own, while also causing each follow-up Demonic window to guarantee two Death Sweep casts. This significantly improves 20-second burst cycles for each tree, leaning toward Fel-Scarred's high focus on these windows. Aldrachi Reaver instead benefits greatly from the reduced cooldown, providing a reliable way to guarantee Reaver's Glaive procs.

Havoc has two distinct Hero Tree choices available that, as covered in the above sections, drastically alter your gameplay goals depending on which you pick. These two Hero Talents are Aldrachi Reaver and Fel-Scarred.

This tree grants access to Reaver's Glaive, triggered via consuming Souls, and replaces your next Throw Glaive with a significantly more powerful version. Specific mechanics are:

• After casting Reaver's Glaive, a combo sequence is initiated. Your next Chaos Strike and Blade Dance will trigger a bonus effect, and after both you gain Thrill of the Fight.
• Reaver's Mark is applied via Chaos Strike from this combo. This causes all Physical damage you deal to duplicate a portion as Chaos onto the affected target through Wounded Quarry.

This makes Aldrachi Reaver a powerful funnel specialization, which is often extremely sought after. The addition of Bladecraft in Midnight causes Blade Dance casts to convert a significant amount of AoE damage directly into your marked target, allowing it to pick off priority targets.

Fel-Scarred focuses on your Metamorphosis windows - both the 2-minute cooldown and activations through Demonic. It comes with a number of buffs and effects to your core abilities, and some specific mechanics:

• After entering Metamorphosis via any means, your next cast of both Annihilation and Death Sweep will trigger Demonsurge, dealing high AoE Chaos damage.
• After casting Metamorphosis, your next Eye Beam and Immolation Aura also trigger a Demonsurge. When transformed, they also convert to Abyssal Gaze and Consuming Fire, respectively.

This means Fel-Scarred's damage is centered around its 20-second burst cycle, making use of Cycle of Hatred to lower Eye Beam's cooldown to enter Demonic. This is then amplified even more every two minutes during Metamorphosis, dealing potent front-loaded burst through Demonsurge chains.

"War Mode" is an optional feature that enables open-world PvP encounters that confer some benefits when active:

• Grants access to PvP talents in the open world.
• 10% increase in World Quest rewards at max level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.
• Earn Conquest Points which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is an optional way to maximize your leveling speed and reward potential. However, you will open yourself up to open-world PvP, so be aware of hostile enemy players who could interfere with you; this is a risk you will have to decide on your own if you want to take.

Here, we'll only be looking at PvP talents that have use cases for aiding with leveling or open-world PvE scenarios, as their PvP benefits are discussed on our PvP page. Generally, the selections are made to optimize your ability to kill enemies faster, increasing your pace when moving through content.

• Unending Hatred is just free Fury generation as you will take damage in the open world.
• Rain from Above can be helpful to deal with dangerous enemies while staying safe, though it's not as strong as simply using your abilities.
• Blood Moon can provide a small amount of extra healing and Soul generation.

Reverse Magic, Detainment, Cover of Darkness, Cleansed by Flame and Glimpse all have minimal uses in PvE, due to them being very focused on crowd control tools or pressuring enemy players into spending more resources than they would otherwise want to.

Wordup

Guide Author

Follow Wordup

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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