Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Spell List and Glossary — Season 4
On this page, we present you with all spells and procs that you need to understand as a Havoc Demon Hunter in World of Warcraft — Season 4.
Spell Summary of Havoc Demon Hunter
Havoc is among the most recently added specializations but has had three expansions to settle into a playstyle that has remained consistent. This page covers the tools available, how they work, and their applications in combat. It will also cover synergies, cooldowns, and core concepts to get to grips with.
If you already have experience with Havoc, having access to some quick Macros and Addons to ease you into learning the spec is always helpful as well, which you can find on our dedicated page here:
Havoc Demon Hunter's Main Resource
The primary resource for Havoc is Fury, which allows using your strongest baseline abilities. It is generated predominantly through the active ability Demon's Bite (or Demon Blades / Felblade if taken) and Immolation Aura. Fury is especially important because it dictates your rotation cycle, fueling powerful abilities such as Eye Beam, Chaos Strike, and Blade Dance. This makes maintaining a smooth flow of build/spend vital to success for Havoc gameplay.
Unlocking Abilities
This page explains the nuance of each ability. It assumes you are playing at max level or are interested in the details. For information on when you will gain access to each tool, check out our dedicated leveling page here:
Baseline Havoc Abilties
These are the core skills you will gain access to during the Havoc leveling process and form the core gameplay loop.
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
Demon's Bite | DBite | Your basic Fury generator, dealing light Physical damage to your target and generating 20 to 30 Fury. |
Chaos Strike | CS | Core Fury Spender, dealing moderate Chaos damage to your target with the cost of 40 Fury. Has a 20% chance to refund 20 Fury. |
Blade Dance | BD | Strikes all nearby targets for Physical damage 4 times, dealing reduced damage above 5 targets. It has a 10-second cooldown and costs 35 Fury. |
Immolation Aura | Immo | Deals instant Fire damage in an AoE around you and additional Fire damage every second for 10 seconds. Generates 20 Fury when cast, with a 30-second cooldown. |
Throw Glaive | TG | Deals light Physical damage to your target and bounces to a nearby enemy. Free to cast, with a 9-second cooldown. |
Blur | - | Reduces all incoming damage by 20% and grants an additional 50% chance to dodge melee swings and Physical hits. Has a 10-second duration and a 1-minute cooldown. |
Disrupt | Kick | Interrupts your target and, if successful, locks them out of the interrupted spell school for 3 seconds. Has a 15-second cooldown. |
Torment | Taunt | Taunts your target, forcing yourself to the top of their threat table and causing them to attack you. It has an 8-second cooldown and 30-yard range. |
Spectral Sight | - | Allows you to see through walls, highlighting enemies, treasures, and similar things in bright colors for 10 seconds. You are slowed for the duration, and any damage taken will end the effect. It has a 30-second cooldown. |
Metamorphosis | Meta | Leap up to 40 yards to your targeted area, dealing a small amount of Chaos damage, stunning any enemies for 3 seconds, and entering Metamorphosis for 20 seconds. During Metamorphosis you gain 20% Haste, and Chaos Strike and Blade Dance are empowered, changing to Annihilation and Death Sweep. 3-minute cooldown. |
Fel Eruption | FE | Deals light Chaos damage to your target and stuns them for 4 seconds. Costs 10 Fury, has a 30-second cooldown and 20-yard range. |
Fel Rush | FR | Instantly charges you forward 15 yards with a 0.5-second Global Cooldown, dealing Chaos damage to targets in your path. It has a 10-second cooldown. |
Sigil of Flame | SoF | Places a sigil on the ground that instantly generates 30 Fury and detonates after 2 seconds. When it triggers, it deals moderate Fire damage to targets within it and additional Fire damage over 8 seconds. 30-second cooldown. |
Double Jump | - | Allows you to double-tap your jump key to trigger a second jump while airborne. |
Glide | - | Allows you to triple-tap your jump key (or use it while already airborne) to initiate a glide, slowing your fall rate and propelling you slowly forward. This can be used as a situational tool to generate forward momentum. Vengeful Retreat stops this from being activated for 1 second after a cast, so you cannot link them together on even ground. |
Chaos Brand | Brand | Upon dealing damage to a target, applies a permanent 5% magic damage taken increase from all sources. This effect has a reduced 15-second duration in PvP combat. |
Demonic Wards | - | Reduces all Magic damage taken by 10% passively. |
Demonic Appetite | DA | Grants Chaos Strike a 6 RPPM (scaling with Haste) chance to spawn a Lesser Soul Fragment nearby. Consuming any Soul Fragment also grants 20 Fury. |
Talented Abilities for Havoc Demon Hunter
The abilities below are all gained from talents specifically; for more detailed information on builds that use these talents and what combinations to use, please look at our talent page.
Class Tree Active Abilities
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
Vengeful Retreat | VR | Removes all snares when cast, vaults you back 15 yards, and deals a small amount of Physical damage around you. Has a 25-second cooldown. |
Sigil of Misery | SoM | Places a sigil on the ground that detonates after 2 seconds, disorienting any enemies hit for 20 seconds when it goes off. Any damage taken will end the effect, and has a 2-minute cooldown. |
Imprison | - | Incapacitates the targeted demon, beast, or humanoid for 1 minute. Limited to 1 imprisonment, and any damage taken cancels the effect. 45-second cooldown. |
Chaos Nova | Nova | Deals light Chaos damage to nearby enemies in an AoE around you and stuns them for 2 seconds. It costs 25 Fury and has a 45-second cooldown. |
Consume Magic | - | Removes 1 beneficial magic effect from your target. It has a 30-yard range and 10-second cooldown. |
Felblade | FB | Deals moderate Fire damage to your target and generates 40 Fury. If you are out of melee range, this will charge you up to 15 yards toward them. It has a 15-second cooldown, and Demon's Bite casts / Demon Blades hits have a chance to reset the cooldown. It also has a 0.5-second GCD. |
Darkness | - | Creates a pool of darkness at your feet for 8 seconds, causing any damage dealt to you or an ally stood within to have a 15% chance to miss. 8-yard radius and 5-minute cooldown. Chance to avoid damage increased by 100% when not in a raid group. |
The Hunt | Hunt | Charges up to 50 yards to your target, dealing heavy Chaos damage to your primary target and applying a heavy Chaos damage DoT to your target and up to 5 enemies in your path. Also places a separate 20-second debuff on your primary target, causing you to heal for 10% of all damage you deal to them. 1.5-minute cooldown. |
Elysian Decree | ED | Place a sigil on the ground within 30 yards that activates after 2 seconds. Upon detonation, deals heavy Chaos damage and shatters 3 Lesser Soul Fragments from enemies affected. Has a 1-minute cooldown. |
Class Tree Passive Abilities
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
Blazing Path | - | Grants Fel Rush an additional charge. |
Vengeful Bonds | - | Causes Vengeful Retreat to also reduce the movement speed of all enemies hit by 70% for 3 seconds. |
Unrestrained Fury | - | Increases your maximum Fury by 20. |
Shattered Restoration | - | Increases the healing of Shattered Souls by 5/10%. |
Improved Sigil of Misery | - | Reduces the cooldown of Sigil of Misery by 30 seconds. |
Bouncing Glaives | - | Causes Throw Glaive to ricochet to an additional target. |
Charred Warblades | - | You heal for 3% of all Fire damage you deal. This also applies to Chaos damage. |
Improved Disrupt | - | Increases the range of Disrupt to 15 yards. |
Aldrachi Design | - | Increases your parry chance by 3%. |
Chaos Fragments | - | Each enemy stunned by Chaos Nova has a 30% chance to generate a lesser Soul Fragment. |
Master of the Glaive | MotG | Grants Throw Glaive a second charge and cause targets hit by the ability to be slowed by 50% for 6 seconds. |
Champion of the Glaive | CotG | Grants Throw Glaive a second charge increases its range by 10 yards. |
Disrupting Fury | - | Successfully interrupting a target with Disrupt now generates 30 Fury. |
Swallowed Anger | - | Successfully removing a beneficial Magic effect from a target with Consume Magic generates 20 Fury. |
Aura of Pain | - | Increases the Critical Strike chance of Immolation Aura by 6%. |
Live by the Glaive | LbtG | When you parry an attack or have one of your own parried, restore 4% of your maximum health and generate 10 Fury. This effect has a 5-second internal cooldown. |
Pursuit | - | Causes your Mastery also to increase your Movement speed based on rating. |
Soul Rending | SR | Grants 5/10% Leech, increased to 10/20% while in Metamorphosis. |
Infernal Armor | - | Immolation Aura also increases your Armour by 10/20%, and causes melee attackers to take light Fire damage when striking you. |
Lost in Darkness | - | Spectral Sight lasts an additional 6 seconds and is no longer canceled when taking damage. |
Illidari Knowledge | - | Reduces Magic damage taken by an additional 5%. |
Felfire Haste | - | Casting Fel Rush also increases your movement speed by 10% for 8 seconds. |
Demonic | - | Casting Eye Beam grants 6 seconds of the Metamorphosis effect. |
Will of the Illidari | - | Increases your maximum health by 5%. |
Precise Sigils | - | All of your Sigil casts are now cast at your target's location. |
Internal Struggle | - | Increases your Mastery by 3.6%. |
Soul Sigils | - | Afflicting an enemy with any sigil generates 1 Lesser Soul Fragment |
Quickened Sigils | - | All sigils activate 1 second faster. |
Erratic Felheart | - | Reduces the cooldown of Fel Rush by 10/20%. |
Long Night | - | Increase the duration of Darkness by 3 seconds. |
Pitch Black | - | Reduces the cooldown of Darkness by 2 minutes. |
Rush of Chaos | - | Reduces the cooldown of Metamorphosis by 30/60 seconds. |
Demon Muzzle | - | Afflicting an enemy with any sigil causes them to deal 8% reduced magic damage to you for 8 seconds. |
Flames of Fury | - | Increases the damage of Sigil of Flame by 35/70% and causes it to generate 1/2 additional Fury per target hit. |
Collective Anguish | CA | When you cast Eye Beam, an allied Demon Hunter appears to cast Fel Devastation. This deals full damage and heals you over its duration. |
Spec Tree Active Abilities
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
Eye Beam | Beam | Deals heavy Chaos damage to all enemies 20 yards in front of you in a line, dealing reduced damage above 5 targets. Costs 30 Fury, has a 2-second channel and a 40-second channel. |
Netherwalk | NW | Increases your movement speed by 100%, and gives you reduces all damage you take by 100% for 6 seconds but are unable to attack. 3-minute cooldown. |
Glaive Tempest | GT | Drops stationary spinning glaives at your feet, dealing heavy Chaos damage to any enemies within over 3 seconds, dealing reduced damage above 8 targets. Costs 30 Fury with a 20-second cooldown, reduced by Haste. |
Essence Break | Essb | Slashes all enemies in a cone in front of you for heavy Chaos damage, and increases the damage Chaos Strike and Blade Dance deals to affected enemies by 80% for 4 seconds. Has a 40-second cooldown. |
Fel Barrage | Fbarr | Rapidly drains Fury to deal heavy Chaos damage to all enemies within 12 yards, dealing reduced damage above 5 targets. Lasts a maximum of 8 seconds or until all Fury is drained with a 1.5-minute cooldown. |
Spec Tree Passive Abilities
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
Critical Chaos | - | The chance that Chaos Strike refunds Fury is increased by 30% of your Critical Strike Chance. |
Insatiable Hunger | IH | Demon's Bite deals 50% additional damage and generates 5-10 additional Fury. |
Demon Blades | Dblades | Causes your auto attacks to deal additional Shadow damage and generate 7-12 Fury each swing. Replaces Demon's Bite when taken. |
Burning Hatred | BH | Immolation Aura generates an additional 40 Fury over 10 seconds after activation. |
Improved Fel Rush | - | Increases the damage dealt by Fel Rush by 20%. |
Dash of Chaos | DoC | After casting Fel Rush, you can re-activate it within 2 seconds to dash back to your initial location. This counts as a regular Fel Rush cast. |
Improved Chaos Strike | - | Chaos Strike deals 10% increased damage. |
First Blood | FB | Converts the school of Blade Dance and Death Sweep to Chaos, and increases damage dealt to your primary target by 75%. |
Accelerating Blade | AB | Throw Glaive deals 60% additional damage to your target, reduced by 30% with each bounce. |
Demon Hide | - | Increases your Magical damage dealt by 3%, and reduces Physical damage taken by 5%. |
Desperate Instincts | DI | Blur reduces damage taken by an additional 10%. Also, whenever you drop below 35% health, Blur is automatically triggered at half duration, with a 50% reduced cooldown. This will only trigger if Blur is currently off cooldown. |
Deflecting Dance | - | While casting Blade Dance, you absorb damage up damage up to 15% of your maximum health. |
Mortal Dance | - | Enemies hit by Blade Dance receive 50% less healing for 6 seconds. |
Initiative | - | Damaging an enemy before they damage you increases your Critical Strike Chance by 12% for 5 seconds. Casting Vengeful Retreat resets this effect, allowing you to trigger it again on any enemies it has previously triggered from. |
Scars of Suffering | - | Increases Versatility by 4% and reduces threat generated by 8%. |
Chaotic Transformation | CTr | When you cast Metamorphosis the cooldowns of Blade Dance and Eye Beam are reset. |
Furious Throws | FT | Throw Glaive now costs 25 Fury and throws a second glaive at your target. |
Trail of Ruin | ToR | The final slash of Blade Dance applies a DoT, dealing a moderate amount of Chaos damage over 4 seconds |
Tactical Retreat | - | The cooldown of Vengeful Retreat is reduced by 5 seconds, and causes it to generate 80 Fury over 10 seconds when cast. |
Blind Fury | BF | Your Eye Beam damage and duration is increased by 10/20%, and also generates 20/40 Fury per second spent channeling. |
Looks Can Kill | LCK | Eye Beam will now always critically strike. |
Dancing with Fate | DWF | The final strike caused by Blade Dance deals 25/50% additional damage. |
Growing Inferno | GI | Every time Immolation Aura deals damage it deals 5/10% increased damage until it expires. |
Unbound Chaos | UBC | When you cast Immolation Aura, your next Fel Rush cast within 12 seconds deals 250% increased damage. |
Isolated Prey | IP | Whenever you strike only a single target with the following
abilities, they gain additional effects:
|
Furious Gaze | FG | Fully channeling Eye Beam also grants 10% Haste for 10 seconds. |
Serrated Glaive | - | Hitting an enemy with Chaos Strike or Throw Glaive increases their damage taken by your Throw Glaive and Chaos Strike / Annihilation by 15% for 15 seconds. |
Burning Wound | BW | Hitting an enemy with any of Demon's Bite, Demon Blades or Throw Glaive applies a DoT dealing moderate Chaos damage over 15 seconds. Enemies take 40% additional damage from your Immolation Aura when affected by this, but can only be applied to a maximum of 3 targets at a time. |
Momentum | - | Casting Fel Rush, The Hunt, and Vengeful Retreat increases your damage done by 6% for 6 seconds. This is extended up to 30 seconds with each additional cast. |
Inertia | - | Consuming the Unbound Chaos effect with Fel Rush increases your damage done by 18% for 5 seconds. |
Chaos Theory | CT | Casting Blade Dance causes your next Chaos Strike cast within 8 seconds to have a 14-30% increased chance to critically strike, and always trigger the 20 Fury refund. |
Inner Demon | ID | Entering the Metamorphosis effect via any means causes your next Chaos Strike to deal heavy Chaos damage to all nearby enemies. |
Restless Hunter | - | Leaving your Metamorphosis effect (including when overwriting the effect via Metamorphosis) grants a charge of Fel Rush and increases the damage of your next Blade Dance cast by 50%. |
Relentless Onslaught | RO | Chaos Strike has a 10% chance to trigger and additional Chaos Strike. |
Soulscar | - | Throw Glaive also applies a Chaos DoT effect for 6 seconds, dealing 100% of the damage dealt by the glaive. Mastery improves this, but it cannot critically strike. |
Ragefire | RF | When Immolation Aura critically strikes, 30% of the damage is stored up to a cap of 3 critical strikes per tick. When Immolation Aura expires, and you explode, dealing all the stored Ragefire damage to all nearby enemies. |
Know Your Enemy | KYE | Your Critical Strike Damage is increased by 40/80% of your Critical Strike Chance. Heavily increases the scaling potential of Critical Strike. |
Cycle of Hatred | CoH | Casting Blade Dance, Chaos Strike, or Glaive Tempest reduces the cooldown of Eye Beam by 0.5/1 second. With Furious Throws talented, Throw Glaive also triggers this. |
Chaotic Disposition | - | Whenever you deal Chaos damage, there is a 7.77% chance to duplicate up to 17% of the damage dealt to the target. This can repeat up to 3/7 times. |
A Fire Inside | AFI | Grants Immolation Aura a secondary charge, with a 25% chance to refund a charge whenever cast. Also allows multiple Immolation Aura buffs to overlap and be active at the same time. |
Shattered Destiny | SD | The duration of your Metamorphosis effect is extended by 0.1 seconds per 12 Fury spent while it is active. |
Any Means Necessary | AMN | Mastery: Demonic Presence now also causes any Arcane, Fire, Frost, Nature, or Shadow damage you deal to be converted to Chaos instead, granting 80% of your Mastery benefit to them. |
Further Reading
Since Havoc has a lot of synergistic effects within the tree, knowing how to manage your rotation in regular gameplay is essential. It can be overwhelming to be presented with the complete toolkit. Trying to work out each interaction and priority can be difficult. Now you are equipped with the knowledge of what each thing does; you can put it into practice using the details provided on the rotation page:
Changelog
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
- 21 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Updated to account for spell school changes in Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2 rework.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7, no changes necessary.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5, no changes necessary.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1 talent changes.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed and cleaned up for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Fixed Formatting and Hotfixes.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Pre-Patch.
More Demon Hunter Guides
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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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