Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Shadowlands 9.2
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Havoc Demon Hunter in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.2. 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.
Talent Choices for Havoc Demon Hunter
Level | Choices | ||
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15 |
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25 |
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30 |
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35 |
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40 |
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45 |
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50 |
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Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area
(such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Still Mind and
Codex of the Still Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change
talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.
Talent Cheat Sheet for Havoc Demon Hunters
Havoc has a lot of choices available to them that are dependent on fight types, so the ability to execute some talents can be limited. There are 3 different builds that are built around a core talent and lean toward certain Covenant choices, which are listed below:
Demonic
This build focuses heavily on using Eye Beam to
its best potential, and granting extended windows of
Metamorphosis as a result. This leans heavily into
Venthyr by combining
Agony Gaze and either
Darkglare Boon or
Collective Anguish to get
extremely high uptime on
Sinful Brand.
- Level 15:
Blind Fury
- Level 25:
Insatiable Hunger
- Level 30:
Unbound Chaos
- Level 35: Player's Choice
- Level 40:
Cycle of Hatred
- Level 45: Player's Choice
- Level 50:
Demonic
Momentum
This build requires you to play both Momentum
and
Essence Break alongside managing your Fury correctly.
While this does not have as much explosive AoE, it does
provide the best output in particular for raid content.
This is generally played with Night Fae, and uses
Burning Wound.
- Level 15:
Felblade
- Level 25:
Demon Blades
- Level 30:
Unbound Chaos
- Level 35: Player's Choice
- Level 40:
Essence Break
- Level 45: Player's Choice
- Level 50:
Momentum
First Blood
This shifts up the rotation to have more focus on
making sure you press Blade Dance /
Death Sweep
on cooldown. This makes use of the
Dancing with Fate
Conduit, and has a flexible damage profile usually
paired with Night Fae. Legendary choices
are flexible, and your pick between
Burning Wound
for single-target or
Collective Anguish for AoE
is preference.
- Level 15:
Felblade
- Level 25:
Demon Blades
- Level 30:
Unbound Chaos /
Glaive Tempest
- Level 35: Player's Choice
- Level 40:
First Blood
- Level 45: Player's Choice
- Level 50:
Demonic
Raiding
While the builds listed above will cover most bases, it may not provide the whole story on specific encounters within a raid tier for when each is appropriate. If you are looking for a boss-by-boss breakdown of choices, you can go to our dedicated raid page.
Mythic+
Mythic+ often needs a mixture of different damage types provided by DPS, depending on variables such as weekly affixes or composition. If you want specific Mythic+ advice, you can check our page here.
How To Use Havoc Demon Hunter Talents
Most of the Havoc talents require some mix-up in your rotation when selected to make ideal use of them. You can find more tailored information on how each of these affect your gameplay on our rotation page.
Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Havoc Demon Hunter
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Tier 1 talents provide both ways of augmenting your Fury generation and your damage output.
Blind Fury Increases the channel time and number of
Eye Beam ticks by 50%, and causes it to generate 40 Fury every second.
Demonic Appetite grants
Chaos Strike a chance to spawn a Lesser Soul Fragment with a 6 RPPM (scaling with Haste), and consuming any Soul Fragment generates 30 Fury.
Felblade grants an additional active ability causing you to charge at your target, dealing Fire damage and generating 40 Fury.
Demon's Bite and
Demon Blades hits have a 20% chance to reset the cooldown. This has a 15-yard range and a 15-second cooldown.
These options have different profiles for encounters and content, so your pick depends on what you are doing. Your pick tends to be decided based on what other options you pick in the tree and the Covenant you are playing.
Blind Fury has the most flexible benefits, improving
both single-target and AoE alongside having excellent synergy with
Cycle of Hatred later in the tier. This synergy even extends to the Legendary
picks of
Collective Anguish and
Darkglare Boon,
which are both strong. Venthyr locks this in thanks to
Agony Gaze, as the extra duration extends
Sinful Brand
further.
Felblade pairs extremely well with
Demon Blades
as a single-target option, adding in an active Fury generation tool
that you lose otherwise. With a
First Blood-oriented build
choice, this is an ideal pick.
Demonic Appetite is slightly behind other options, but
provides additional self-healing. The added gameplay requirement
of collecting souls is not worth the effort compared to alternatives,
but it does have some synergy with
Elysian Decree if you
are playing Kyrian.
For more information regarding how these talents affect your rotation, please refer to the Tier 1 talent section of our rotation page.
Tier 2 (Level 25) Talents for Havoc Demon Hunter
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Tier 2 talents grant additional Fury generation tools.
Insatiable Hunger increases the damage of your
Demon's Bite casts by 20%, and causes it to generate an additional 5-10 Fury.
Burning Hatred causes your
Immolation Aura to generate an additional 60 Fury over 12 seconds when cast.
Demon Blades alters
Demon's Bite which it replaces, adding a proc that has a 60% chance to activate from auto attacks. This deals additional Shadow damage and generating 12-20 Fury.
Insatiable Hunger is the easiest pick here that slots
into any build comfortably. The extra Fury generation even while
having some RNG to it averages out as the highest on this row.
Demon Blades is theoretically the strongest, and pairs
excellently with
Felblade as a single-target choice. It
is however more sensitive to downtime and RNG, so some encounters
can push it out depending on the fight style.
Burning Hatred is purely based off the Fury generation
gains, and it averages less than the alternatives that simply
provide more gains, so is not recommended.
For more information regarding how these talents affect your rotation, please refer to the Tier 2 talent section of our rotation page.
Tier 3 (Level 30) Talents for Havoc Demon Hunter
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Tier 3 talents enhance your AoE damage tools.
Trail of Ruin causes the final hit of
Blade Dance to deal additional Chaos damage to targets hit over 4 seconds.
Unbound Chaos causes each activation of
Immolation Aura to grant
Unbound Chaos, causing your next
Fel Rush cast within 20 seconds to deal 500% additional damage.
Glaive Tempest grants an additional active ability, dealing heavy Chaos damage over 3 seconds in an 8-yard area around you when cast. Costs 30 Fury, and has a 20-second cooldown (reduced by Haste).
Unbound Chaos, provides the best single-target and burst
AoE option on this row assuming you are able to capitalize upon
each use. It also has some good uncapped burst AoE potential, but
has gameplay requirements compared to
Glaive Tempest that
prevent it from being a lock-in.
Glaive Tempest slots in as a really strong, flexible option
for both single-target and especially burst AoE on a very low
cooldown.
Trail of Ruin is the simplest choice to use but relies on you
picking
First Blood to keep
Blade Dance in the rotation.
These pair well assuming you play these together, but Trail of Ruin on its own does
not justify casting Blade Dance.
Tier 4 (Level 35) Talents for Havoc Demon Hunter
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Tier 4 talents augment your survivability tools.
Soul Rending grants you 10% Leech, and an additional 20% whenever you are in a
Metamorphosis state.
Desperate Instincts increases the damage reduction of
Blur by 10%, raising it to 30%, and causes it to automatically trigger when you fall below 35% health for its regular effect. This cannot occur if it is already on cooldown, and if it triggers this way it has a 50% reduced cooldown and duration.
Netherwalk grants an additional ability that grants you 100% additional movement speed and immunity to damage for 6 seconds, but you are pacified for the duration. This has a 3-minute cooldown.
As this is a defensive tier the choice you make is mostly context specific on what you need for the encounter, or find most comfortable to play with.
Soul Rending is the default choice in most situations on this
tier as it adds additional free healing, enhanced during your cooldown,
alongside having good synergy with
Demonic for extra uptime. This will
rarely make or break an encounter, but it will make things much smoother for
you when using it.
Desperate Instincts will rarely see use, due to the loss of
control it causes over your primary defensive in
Blur. The bonus
reduction is nice, but not having it available due to an accidental proc
is very dangerous.
Netherwalk provides a separate immunity tool that can be very
useful if needed during an encounter, and is excellent if needed for mechanics
or high damage intensity moments, and will likely continue to
see use throughout Shadowlands. Remember though that this only ignores
damage instances, and any debuffs applied will still go through the
effect and remain after it ends.
Tier 5 (Level 40) Talents for Havoc Demon Hunter
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Tier 5 talents give a variety of damage increasing effects.
Cycle of Hatred causes
Chaos Strike Fury refunds to also reduce the cooldown of
Eye Beam by 3 seconds.
First Blood reduces the cost of
Blade Dance by 20 Fury and causes it to deal an additional 200% to the first target struck.
Essence Break grants an additional active ability, dealing moderate Chaos damage to all targets in front of you and causing them to take an additional 40% damage from your
Chaos Strike and
Blade Dance for 8 seconds, with a 20-second cooldown.
All 3 options on this tier are viable depending on what other selections are made on the tree, and the type of encounter you are doing.
Cycle of Hatred is a universally good pick that has a significant
increase to your
Eye Beam casts which by extension improves the
uptime of the
Furious Gaze effect. It provides strong single-target
and burst AoE, alongside having some good synergy with
Blind Fury
earlier on the tree and the Legendary
Collective Anguish, making
it a great all-round pick. This is a mandatory option for Venthyr
builds, as the cooldown reduction brings Eye Beam cooldown low enough to
extend
Sinful Brand via
Agony Gaze.
Essence Break provides an additional multiplier that, when
used well with a
Momentum-oriented build and good Fury management,
will provide the best single-target output. It does however come with
a higher requirement to manage your resource and play around other
cooldown windows, but is recommended if you are comfortable with the
playstyle.
First Blood is a more flexible option, allowing you to
improve your priority target damage and can pair well with other more freeform
options in the tree to give room to cast
Blade Dance on cooldown such as
Demon Blades. It allows for you to avoid other
Momentum-oriented
talents as well if need be, but does require you to pair it with the
Dancing with Fate Conduit.
For more information regarding how these talents affect your rotation, please refer to the Tier 5 talent section of our rotation page.
Tier 6 (Level 45) Talents for Havoc Demon Hunter
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Tier 6 talents provide situational tools.
Unleashed Power removes the Fury cost of
Chaos Nova and reduces its cooldown by 33%.
Master of the Glaive grants
Throw Glaive 2 charges, and all targets hit when cast are slowed by 50% for 6 seconds.
Fel Eruption grants an additional active ability, dealing light Chaos damage to your target and stunning them for 4 seconds, with a 20-yard range, 30-second cooldown and costing 10 Fury.
All three options here are utility choices that can have benefits depending on the content you are currently doing and the tools most desirable.
Unleashed Power can be taken in circumstances that require more
frequent AoE stuns, alongside the added bonus of removing the Fury cost.
Master of the Glaive allows for additional damage when out of range and
giving access to a slow if needed.
Fel Eruption grants you a point
and click instant single-target stun which can be very useful for locking down a
priority target, alongside dealing some free damage as well.
Tier 7 (Level 50) Talents for Havoc Demon Hunter
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Tier 7 talents grant additional burst windows to your rotation.
Demonic causes
Eye Beam to grant 6 seconds of your
Metamorphosis form when the cast ends.
Momentum causes
Fel Rush to increase your damage by 15% for 6 seconds when cast.
Vengeful Retreat also generates 80 Fury over 10 seconds if it hits at least one target, and has a 5-second reduced cooldown.
Fel Barrage grants an additional active ability, dealing massive Chaos damage to targets within 8 yards. This has a 3-second channel, and a 1-minute cooldown.
Demonic enhances your
Eye Beam casts by granting a short
burst of Metamorphosis, giving a 6-second window of high damage casts and
additional Haste. This synergizes well with the
Furious Gaze windows
generated by each cast, and works well with
Cycle of Hatred and
Blind Fury elsewhere on the tree to fuel the windows. This is
consistently the ideal pick for most situations.
Momentum grants a very flexible series of small
burst windows after using movement tools that can either be combined, pooled
together for extended windows, or spread out to cover each period of resource
dumping. It has great AoE uses, but it is the most demanding of the 3,
requiring you to be much more aware of positioning and resource management.
This is a situation where if you are okay with the playstyle, then it
is absolutely the best option for single-target encounters. If, however
you cannot make use of the windows or navigate a boss arena, the downside
is very harsh.
Fel Barrage provides an additional high burst tool that functions
extremely well in AoE situations, and while it comes with an opportunity cost
due to being a channel, it can be leveraged for a lot of on-demand damage.
This lacks flexibility and cannot compete with the other options that slot
into the rotation much easier.
For more information regarding how these talents affect your rotation, please refer to the Tier 7 talent section of our rotation page.
PvP Talents (War Mode)
"War Mode" is an optional feature that enables open world PvP encounters that confers 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 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 take.
If you are interested in doing PvP as a Havoc Demon Hunter or just want to know the basics of Havoc PvP gameplay and decision making, check out our dedicated PvP guide.
Havoc Demon Hunter War Mode Talents
In this section we will rank the PvP talents for leveling and playing in open world PvE scenarios. Note that in the Shadowlands update, the PvP crowd control reduction talents have been removed, and will be replaced by trinkets available at level 60.
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.
Demonic Origins allows for more liberal usage of
Metamorphosis and lower wasted duration.
Unending Hatred is just free additional Fury generation as you will frequently be taking damage in the open world.
Isolated Prey provides a solid increase for single enemies to help with tougher elites.
Chaotic Imprint will buff the damage dealt by
Chaos Strike and
Eye Beam, and since
Throw Glaive is often used to pull targets is easy to get active.
Alternatively you can take Blood Moon for a small bit of extra
self-healing, or
Rain from Above as an emergency disengage tool.
Reverse Magic,
Detainment,
Cover of Darkness,
Cleansed by Flame,
Mortal Dance, and
Glimpse all have very limited uses in
PvE, due to it being very focused upon crowd control tools, or pressuring
enemy players into spending more resources than they would otherwise want
to.
Changelog
- 19 Feb. 2022: Updated for Patch 9.2.
- 05 Nov. 2021: Updated to recommend First Blood with Dancing With Fate Conduit.
- 01 Nov. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.5 - differentiated Momentum and Demonic builds.
- 28 Jun. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Page updated for Patch 9.0.5 to account for new builds and Unbound Chaos buff.
- 24 Nov. 2020: Page updated for Shadowlands launch.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Demon Hunter Guides
Guides from Other Classes
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.
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