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

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 / Codex of the Still Mind. You can also save different loadouts to swap between combinations on the fly quickly.

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

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 uptime via Cycle of Hatred and Shattered Destiny, allowing for more Eye Beam and therefore Demonic activations. This is paired with the left-side options that add extra Crit scaling via Know Your Enemy, and leads into 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 because of how much power they bring.

The AoE build, on the other hand, sacrifices the Metamorphosis uptime benefits in exchange for significantly greater Immolation Aura damage and adds the Throw Glaive talent package into the mix. It caps these out with 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 package as a way to path through to Know Your Enemy and Essence Break.

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:

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:

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:

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:

Ability	Explanation
Demon Blades	Removes the need to actively generate via Demon's Bite, giving much more efficient generation. This is paired with Felblade to still maintain an active generator tool.
First Blood	Taken in every build and forms the core of keeping Blade Dance relevant in all situations as a use-on-cooldown rotational ability.
Dancing with Fate	Leans in further to Blade Dance to empower the final strike, and is also always taken.
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	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	Given the other talents on the Havoc tree and the general leaning to Critical Strike, this gives additional benefits to Chaos Strike from the stat you will likely be stacking. It is also required pathing for the majority of builds.
Burning Hatred	Provides additional Fury from Immolation Aura and is taken in more AoE-oriented situations again due to pathing.
Felfire Heart	Taken for AoE-focused builds that take later Immolation Aura related talents.
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, 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.

Ability	Explanation
Initiative	Provides an additional (but short) burst window at the start of an encounter and following Vengeful Retreat casts. Taken in the majority of builds, unless you are avoiding movement talents - which comes at a DPS loss.
Tactical Retreat	Adds further benefit to casting Vengeful Retreat by granting a surge of Fury generation while also reducing the cooldown increasing the number of Initiative triggers possible.
Unbound Chaos	Adds benefit to each Immolation Aura cast by empowering your next Fel Rush.
Furious Throws	The key early building block to set up the Throw Glaive package that is completed later in the tree with Soulrend and Accelerating Blade.
Blind Fury	Provides a good path through to single-target options that further improve Eye Beam, and provides a good damage increase in all situations.
Isolated Prey	Adds a pure single-target component to Eye Beam and 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	Guarantees your Eye Beam to critically strike. Sometimes an optional talent because it does not path anywhere, but usually worth the point.
Furious Gaze	Required to path through to the single-target Eye Beam focused build, and grants a window of additional Haste following each cast.
Growing Inferno	Causes 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	Adds a significant damage increase to Immolation Aura that is easy to maintain but can only be applied to 3 targets. Works well in Cleave scenarios and feeds into 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.

Ability	Explanation
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	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).
Inner Demon	Powerful damage in all situations, adding bonus damage component to each of your Eye Beam's Demonic triggers, and Metamorphosis casts.
Restless Hunter	Increases the damage of your next Blade Dance or Death Sweep after leaving Metamorphosis by 50%. This also triggers if you refresh the buff by casting Metamorphosis, making it a powerful increase with when paired with Demonic and the Chaotic Transformation reset effect.
Cycle of Hatred	Predominantly single-target focused, significantly reducing the cooldown of Eye Beam.
Accelerating Blade	Adds further damage to your Throw Glaive and compliments the other options on the tree for a cleave-oriented build.
Soulrend	Adds a Mastery scaling component to Throw Glaive to round out the package of talents, and deals excellent damage in cleave scenarios.
Ragefire	Deals excellent AoE damage, funneling your Critical Strikes into a large explosion at the end. Works well with the other Immolation Aura enhancing talents on the tree.
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	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.

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:

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

Ability	Explanation
Blazing Path	Adds an additional charge to 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.
Pursuit	Causes Mastery rating to increase your movement speed, providing free additional, passive movement at all times.
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	Passive Leech that is enhanced during Metamorphosis, providing a large amount of sustain and is always taken.
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	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.

Ability	Explanation
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	Additional range on your interrupt is a nice quality of life boost.
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 to generate some Fury to compensate for the GCD.
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	AoE stun that is taken in any situation where they are needed (for example Mythic+).
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	Provides an AoE stop for enemy crowd control and is usually a good pickup but can be awkward to path to.
Misery in Defeat	Allows you to convert Sigil of Misery into a damage cooldown so long as the enemies being targeted can be affected by the fear.
Darkness	Powerful point-blank raid cooldown that is almost always taken.
Pitch Black	Reduces the cooldown of 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.

"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.

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

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

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

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 and 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.