Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Dragonflight 10.0.7

Last updated on Mar 20, 2023 at 14:16 by Wordup and Shadarek 50 comments
General Information

On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Havoc Demon Hunter in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.0.7. We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.

Talents can be freely changed whenever you are out of combat in Dragonflight, and no longer requires you to be in a rested XP area (such as an inn or capital city), nor do you need to use Tome of the Still Mind Icon Tome of the Still Mind / Codex of the Still Mind Icon Codex of the Still Mind. You can also save different loadouts to swap between combinations on the fly quickly.

1.

Talent Cheat Sheet for Havoc Demon Hunters

Havoc has a lot of talent options that allow you to tailor your damage profile depending on the encounter style or fight timings. That said, there are generally two builds that come out on top: one focused on single-target output and another focused on AoE/Cleave. Linked below are examples of each of these:

  • Single Target Eye Beam Focus: BEkAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAkASIlI0SSkkINRAAAAAAAQSQapQSSBRaJRSSSSiA
  • AoE Throw Glaive Focus: BEkAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIJJJJSJItkERi0aRAAAAAAAIJBRKkElQSaJBSQCB
1.1.

Single Target Talent Build

You can easily import the talent tree below into the game with the 'Copy Export String' button in the talent tree calculator:

The single-target build has a heavy focus on Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis uptime via Cycle of Hatred Icon Cycle of Hatred and Shattered Destiny Icon Shattered Destiny, allowing for more Eye Beam Icon Eye Beam and therefore Demonic Icon Demonic activations. This is paired with the left-side options that add extra Crit scaling via Know Your Enemy Icon Know Your Enemy, and leads into Essence Break Icon Essence Break for a powerful medium cooldown burst window. This also still has a healthy amount of Cleave and AoE in the mix, so it is not exclusively all-in on one damage profile which is a benefit. It does, however, take the movement-related talents surrounding Momentum Icon Momentum because of how much power they bring.

1.2.

AoE Talent Build

The AoE build, on the other hand, sacrifices the Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis uptime benefits in exchange for significantly greater Immolation Aura Icon Immolation Aura damage and adds the Throw Glaive Icon Throw Glaive talent package into the mix. It caps these out with Any Means Necessary Icon Any Means Necessary to convert these into Mastery scaling effects and provides both good sustained and burst AoE at a variety of target counts while still keeping some priority damage. It also takes the Momentum Icon Momentum package as a way to path through to Know Your Enemy Icon Know Your Enemy and Essence Break Icon Essence Break.

1.3.

Raiding

While the above builds can be slotted into most encounters depending on what is required, some more bespoke tools may be required on some bosses. You can check out specific tips and builds for each of the Vault of the Incarnates encounters below:

1.4.

Mythic+

Mythic+ can potentially require a mix of specific AoE and Single-Target talents, depending on affixes and other variables. If you want more detailed advice about the selections (especially those relating to Utility), check out the dedicated page below:

2.

Havoc Demon Hunter Talents Explained

Many Havoc talent choices add additional abilities into the rotation or alter how you would play due to shifted priorities and synergy between certain abilities. We recommend you look at our rotation page linked below for more details.

Below, we will explain each of the key talents that are present on the tree, and the reasons for taking them, but for a list of all of the abilities and effects available to Havoc, you can use our Spell summary page:

2.1.

Havoc Demon Hunter Spec Talents

To start with, we will look at the Spec tree's core talents on each row. These are overwhelmingly throughput focused, and as such, focus on building your damage delivery methods:

2.1.1.

Key Havoc Tier 1 Talents: Rows 1-4

Ability Explanation
Demon Blades Icon Demon Blades Removes the need to actively generate via Demon's Bite Icon Demon's Bite, giving much more efficient generation. This is paired with Felblade Icon Felblade to still maintain an active generator tool.
First Blood Icon First Blood Taken in every build and forms the core of keeping Blade Dance Icon Blade Dance relevant in all situations as a use-on-cooldown rotational ability.
Dancing with Fate Icon Dancing with Fate Leans in further to Blade Dance Icon Blade Dance to empower the final strike, and is also always taken.
Demonic Appetite Icon Demonic Appetite Provides additional generation via Soul Fragments and a way to generate them in combat. Typically taken in single-target due to pathing.
Improved Chaos Strike Icon Improved Chaos Strike Usually only taken in single-target focused builds as it is pressed less frequently when pathing down the right side of the tree for AoE.
Critical Chaos Icon Critical Chaos Given the other talents on the Havoc tree and the general leaning to Critical Strike, this gives additional benefits to Chaos Strike Icon Chaos Strike from the stat you will likely be stacking. It is also required pathing for the majority of builds.
Burning Hatred Icon Burning Hatred Provides additional Fury from Immolation Aura Icon Immolation Aura and is taken in more AoE-oriented situations again due to pathing.
Felfire Heart Icon Felfire Heart Taken for AoE-focused builds that take later Immolation Aura Icon Immolation Aura related talents.
Netherwalk Icon Netherwalk A utility option that can be costly as the tree is tight on points, but provides a potent survival tool should an encounter demand it.

The first 4 rows have a handful of key talents, such as First Blood Icon First Blood, but mostly exist to set up the building blocks of where you will go deeper in the tree and the abilities you focus on. The way you path through here will often decide which sides of the tree you can efficiently access, so decisions here are important.

2.1.2.

Key Havoc Tier 2 Talents: Rows 5-7

Ability Explanation
Initiative Icon Initiative Provides an additional (but short) burst window at the start of an encounter and following Vengeful Retreat Icon Vengeful Retreat casts. Taken in the majority of builds, unless you are avoiding movement talents - which comes at a DPS loss.
Tactical Retreat Icon Tactical Retreat Adds further benefit to casting Vengeful Retreat Icon Vengeful Retreat by granting a surge of Fury generation while also reducing the cooldown increasing the number of Initiative triggers possible.
Unbound Chaos Icon Unbound Chaos Adds benefit to each Immolation Aura Icon Immolation Aura cast by empowering your next Fel Rush Icon Fel Rush.
Furious Throws Icon Furious Throws The key early building block to set up the Throw Glaive Icon Throw Glaive package that is completed later in the tree with Soulrend Icon Soulrend and Accelerating Blade Icon Accelerating Blade.
Blind Fury Icon Blind Fury Provides a good path through to single-target options that further improve Eye Beam Icon Eye Beam, and provides a good damage increase in all situations.
Isolated Prey Icon Isolated Prey Adds a pure single-target component to Eye Beam Icon Eye Beam and Fel Rush Icon Fel Rush and is valuable, but should only be taken if there are no adds present in an encounter to deactivate it.
Looks Can Kill Icon Looks Can Kill Guarantees your Eye Beam Icon Eye Beam to critically strike. Sometimes an optional talent because it does not path anywhere, but usually worth the point.
Furious Gaze Icon Furious Gaze Required to path through to the single-target Eye Beam Icon Eye Beam focused build, and grants a window of additional Haste following each cast.
Growing Inferno Icon Growing Inferno Causes Immolation Aura Icon Immolation Aura to ramp up damage the longer it is active, adding a large amount overall and working well with follow-up talents.
Burning Wound Icon Burning Wound Adds a significant damage increase to Immolation Aura Icon Immolation Aura that is easy to maintain but can only be applied to 3 targets. Works well in Cleave scenarios and feeds into Ragefire Icon Ragefire.

Rows 5-7 form a lot of the core rotation, rounding out which abilities are essential to focus on and how the rotation cycle works with your mid-range cooldown abilities and effects. A lot of these talents are taken in blocks and dictate which of the final rows you have access to.

2.1.3.

Key Havoc Tier 3 Talents: Rows 8-10

Ability Explanation
Fodder to the Flame Icon Fodder to the Flame The enemy spawned (and then killed) by this will generate a Demon Soul and thus grants 20% damage for 20 seconds, making this a strong overall talent for all situations.
Glaive Tempest Icon Glaive Tempest A good ability in all situations, but a costly point to reach, so is usually only taken when points are spare (usually at the cost of Momentum Icon Momentum).
Inner Demon Icon Inner Demon Powerful damage in all situations, adding bonus damage component to each of your Eye Beam Icon Eye Beam's Demonic Icon Demonic triggers, and Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis casts.
Restless Hunter Icon Restless Hunter Increases the damage of your next Blade Dance Icon Blade Dance or Death Sweep Icon Death Sweep after leaving Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis by 50%. This also triggers if you refresh the buff by casting Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis, making it a powerful increase with when paired with Demonic Icon Demonic and the Chaotic Transformation Icon Chaotic Transformation reset effect.
Cycle of Hatred Icon Cycle of Hatred Predominantly single-target focused, significantly reducing the cooldown of Eye Beam Icon Eye Beam.
Accelerating Blade Icon Accelerating Blade Adds further damage to your Throw Glaive Icon Throw Glaive and compliments the other options on the tree for a cleave-oriented build.
Soulrend Icon Soulrend Adds a Mastery scaling component to Throw Glaive Icon Throw Glaive to round out the package of talents, and deals excellent damage in cleave scenarios.
Ragefire Icon Ragefire Deals excellent AoE damage, funneling your Critical Strikes into a large explosion at the end. Works well with the other Immolation Aura Icon Immolation Aura enhancing talents on the tree.
Any Means Necessary Icon Any Means Necessary Converts the majority of non-Chaos abilities into Chaos, allowing it to scale with 80% of your Mastery bonus. It works especially well in AoE situations, and makes Mastery one of the two dominant stats.
Know Your Enemy Icon Know Your Enemy Causes Critical Strike to scale significantly better, increasing the damage dealt when you do, and is taken in almost every build.

The final 3 rows contain some potent effects that increase Havoc's scaling potential, how the rotation fundamentally flows, and what target counts it is most effective at. You will almost always want a full 10 points spare to spend down here, as each point here is at a premium.

2.2.

Havoc Demon Hunter Class Talents

Below, we will look at the Class tree talents, dividing them up between those that are used for Throughput (and the reason why), Defense/Mobility and finally, Utility:

2.2.1.

Throughput Demon Hunter Class Talents

Ability Explanation
Felblade Icon Felblade Adds a high Fury generation tool that works well with Demon Blades Icon Demon Blades, which can trigger the reset, allowing it to fill in GCDs that were lost from Demon's Bite Icon Demon's Bite, and is always taken.
Unrestrained Fury Icon Unrestrained Fury Increases the Fury cap to 120, allowing more room to generate without overcapping and is always taken.
Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame A solid additional AoE damage cooldown that is easy to access at the start.
Bouncing Glaives Icon Bouncing Glaives Increases the target count of Throw Glaive Icon Throw Glaive which is extremely important for the Cleave build on the spec tree.
Master of the Glaive Icon Master of the Glaive Pairs well with the other Throw Glaive Icon Throw Glaive talents on the spec tree if you are taking those by adding flexibility with a second charge.
Rush of Chaos Icon Rush of Chaos Reduces Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis' cooldown to 3 minutes, making it less awkward to line up with other cooldowns and is always taken.
Demonic Icon Demonic Almost always taken over First of the Illidari Icon First of the Illidari because it drastically improves your Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis uptime alongside having better synergy with other talents on the Havoc spec tree.
Collective Anguish Icon Collective Anguish Adds a secondary damage (and healing) effect to your Eye Beam Icon Eye Beam casts for a good damage increase in all situations and is always taken.
The Hunt Icon The Hunt Deals a heavy amount of burst damage to both your target and enemies around it, alongside being a charge. It can also be converted to Chaos damage via Any Means Necessary Icon Any Means Necessary further empowering it and is always taken.

The majority of these talents are always taken as there is a limited number of points that can be spent on the tree that purely affect damage - which is the aim of the game for Havoc.

2.2.2.

Defense/Mobility Demon Hunter Talents

Ability Explanation
Blazing Path Icon Blazing Path Adds an additional charge to Fel Rush Icon Fel Rush, effectively making it a mandatory pick not only for the pathing but for the sheer amount of flexible movement it provides. Is locked in if taking Momentum Icon Momentum.
Pursuit Icon Pursuit Causes Mastery rating to increase your movement speed, providing free additional, passive movement at all times.
Charred Warblades Icon Charred Warblades Additional passive healing for a single point that is generally worth grabbing on top of Havoc's other good self-healing options.
Soul Rending Icon Soul Rending Passive Leech that is enhanced during Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis, providing a large amount of sustain and is always taken.
First of the Illidari Icon First of the Illidari Strong passive magic damage reduction that is also required pathing to get to throughput talents, so it is always taken.
Will of the Illidari Icon Will of the Illidari Flat additional max Health that is a strong boost to passive survival. Can be awkward to access on the tree, but is recommended in all situations when possible.

Havoc has some good options for both Mobility and Defense on top of its baseline toolkit within the tree, and as these are usually recommended to grab alongside the throughput talents in most of your builds.

2.2.3.

Utility Demon Hunter Talents

Ability Explanation
Imprison Icon Imprison Mostly required pathing and while niche has some applications in certain dungeons as enemies will not engage in combat while under the effect.
Improved Disrupt Icon Improved Disrupt Additional range on your interrupt is a nice quality of life boost.
Consume Magic Icon Consume Magic Should the content you are doing require a dispel, this is a good pickup both being at range and having the option to take Swallowed Anger Icon Swallowed Anger to generate some Fury to compensate for the GCD.
Precise Sigils Icon Precise Sigils A quality of life talent that allows you to fire Sigils at your target instead of aiming them, alongside a duration increase to the effects. This can be useful if you need help to use them efficiently.
Chaos Nova Icon Chaos Nova AoE stun that is taken in any situation where they are needed (for example Mythic+).
Unleashed Power Icon Unleashed Power In most situations where you need the AoE stun, some cooldown and cost reduction to go alongside it is a nice pickup.
Sigil of Misery Icon Sigil of Misery Provides an AoE stop for enemy crowd control and is usually a good pickup but can be awkward to path to.
Misery in Defeat Icon Misery in Defeat Allows you to convert Sigil of Misery Icon Sigil of Misery into a damage cooldown so long as the enemies being targeted can be affected by the fear.
Darkness Icon Darkness Powerful point-blank raid cooldown that is almost always taken.
Pitch Black Icon Pitch Black Reduces the cooldown of Darkness Icon Darkness to 3 minutes and is often the go-to enhancement pick for the ability.

Many of the above tools are niche enough that they are selected based on the content you are doing if they are deemed necessary. The tree is flexible, has enough extra points to access most of these without much issue, and can tailor your build based on your group composition or needs.

3.

PvP Talents (War Mode)

"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 recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at the maximum level. 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.

If you are interested in doing PvP as a Havoc Demon Hunter or want to know the basics of Havoc PvP gameplay and decision-making, check out our dedicated PvP guide.

3.1.

Havoc Demon Hunter War Mode Talents

In this section, we will rank the PvP talents for leveling and playing in open-world PvE scenarios.

3.1.1.

Havoc Demon Hunter PvP Talents

Generally, the selections are made to optimize your ability to kill enemies faster, increasing your pace when moving through content.

  1. Chaotic Imprint Icon Chaotic Imprint will always buff Chaos damage dealt, such as Chaos Strike Icon Chaos Strike and Eye Beam Icon Eye Beam. Also great to pair with talents such as Soulrend Icon Soulrend due to the conversion to magic damage, causing Throw Glaive Icon Throw Glaive to deal significantly more damage.
  2. Unending Hatred Icon Unending Hatred is just free additional Fury generation as you will frequently be taking damage in the open world.
  3. Sigil Mastery Icon Sigil Mastery reduces the cooldown of sigils, such as Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame and Elysian Decree Icon Elysian Decree, which can be a small DPS gain if these talents are taken.

Alternatively you can take Blood Moon Icon Blood Moon for a small bit of extra self-healing, or Rain from Above Icon Rain from Above as an emergency disengage tool.

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

4.

Changelog

  • 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed and updated for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2022: Reviewed and updated for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Pre-Patch.
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