Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Stat Priority — Dragonflight 10.2
On this page, you will find out the optimal stat priority for your Havoc Demon Hunter. We first present the stat priority, before delving into more complex explanations. Our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.
The Basics of Stats for Havoc Demon Hunters
Havoc Demon Hunter has different stat priorities depending on whether you are focused on single-target or AoE scenarios. We recommend the AoE priority for open-world gameplay and dungeons as it can fit into more encounter types.
Stat Priorities
Single Target Havoc Demon Hunter Secondary Stat Priority
- Agility;
- Critical Strike;
- Mastery;
- Haste;
- Versatility.
Due to the strength of Know Your Enemy, and the variety of Critical
Strike scaling affects the tree; Critical Strike is always the dominant
secondary to aim for.
Mastery is close behind, especially if you take Any Means Necessary
and is a good pairing with the above.
After that, Haste provides additional resources and cooldown reduction,
making it more realistic to cycle through Fury with talents such as Cycle of Hatred
or
A Fire Inside, alongside being a good multiplier for trinket proc
rates. It is the third stat to consider.
Versatility simply has lower bonuses per point than other options, so is avoided whenever possible unless you specifically need the additional defensive benefits.
Multi Target Havoc Demon Hunter Secondary Stat Priority
- Agility;
- Critical Strike;
- Mastery;
- Versatility;
- Haste.
Once again, Know Your Enemy keeps Critical Strike as the focus,
but in most AoE builds,
Any Means Necessary is taken, which makes
Mastery is the second-best stat to focus on due to the Chaos damage conversion
for most of the kit.
Unlike single-target, Haste falls off significantly due to the lack
of cooldown reduction on some key abilities such as Essence Break,
Eye Beam. Alongside this, there is also no strong hook elsewhere in
the kit compared to the above options with additional scaling multipliers.
Versatility falls behind the above two stats but still outperforms Haste due to its lack of strong interaction with AoE build's toolkit.
Note that secondary stat diminishing returns kick in after reaching roughly 5100 rating, meaning that stacking all of one stat can mean that it falls in value due to the penalty above this threshold. This means you should always simulate your character with specific gear upgrades to see if you neglect a stat too much.
Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
The gems, enchants, and consumables you will use are directly derived from your stat priority. You can find our advice on this topic on our dedicated page.
Getting a Better Understanding
Agility is your primary statistic. You should look for it in all of your upgrades. It provides you with Attack Power, which determines the damage your abilities do.
Critical Strike increases the chance for your attacks and abilities to
critically strike, dealing double damage, and has several supporting talents
that grant it additional scaling. In particular, Critical Chaos,
Ragefire and
Know Your Enemy amplify their value beyond
the raw effect, keeping it relevant.
Mastery increases all Chaos damage you deal through
Mastery: Demonic Presence, and also increases your passive movement
speed. The value per point is already quite high, and the variety of
talents on the tree improve its value even further when taken, making it
a good all-round pick. In particular,
First Blood converts
Blade Dance/
Death Sweep to Chaos for your primary target,
Any Means Necessary does the same for your remaining abilities
such as
Immolation Aura and
The Hunt, and
Soulrend covers
Throw Glaive.
Haste increases your auto attack speed, reduces the Global Cooldown
recovery time down to a minimum of 0.750 seconds, and reduces the base
cooldown of Blade Dance/
Death Sweep,
Immolation Aura,
Glaive Tempest and
Throw Glaive.
The value of Haste rises due to some talent interactions, such as
Cycle of Hatred and
Shattered Destiny, increasing the uptime
of
Metamorphosis giving a Haste feedback loop, contributing
greatly to Single Target DPS. It also leads to higher Fury Generation
through
Demon Blades via auto-attacks, but in AoE situations, many
of the key burst tools such as
Eye Beam and
Essence Break
have no scaling with this, reducing its value.
Versatility provides a flat boost to damage dealt and reduction to damage taken, with no other interactions.
Changelog
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7, no changes necessary.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5, moved up Haste in single-target.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1, no significant changes needed.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 31 Dec. 2022: Raised the priority of Mastery in single target.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight 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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