Havoc Demon Hunter PvP Guide in Battle for Azeroth (BfA 8.1)
This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to play in a PvP environment. The guide will cover everything from talent choices, PvP talents, gameplay and rotation, and useful racial bonuses. It is most applicable to Arena content, but most talents and racial bonuses will work in Rated Battlegrounds and skirmishes.
1. Spec Overview / Place in the Current Meta for Havoc Demon Hunters
Havoc Demon Hunters are the most feared class in the game. They not only have
strong crowd control in the form of stuns and kicks, but they also have the
strongest offensive cooldown in the game, Metamorphosis; on a
relatively short cooldown, you can easily swap to an enemy without a trinket
and kill them in a stun.
1.1. Strengths of Havoc Demon Hunter
- Great mobility
- Strong burst and sustained damage
- Multiple utility spells
1.2. Weaknesses of Havoc Demon Hunter
- Weak against teams with multiple stuns
- Predictable burst damage
- Very little team composition diversity
2. Stat Priority for Havoc Demon Hunters in PvP
The stat priority for Havoc Demon Hunter in PvP is as follows:
- Agility;
- Haste;
- Critical Strike;
- Versatility;
- Mastery.
Agility is the best stat in all situations. Haste is the strongest secondary stat at all times due decreasing the global cooldown on your abilities. You should also try to focus on getting Critical Strike. This increases the chance your abilities will deal more damage.
3. Azerite Traits for Havoc Demon Hunters
Azerite traits are unlocked in you helm, shoulders and chest. With each Azerite level in your neck, you get closer to unlocking the center trait in your gear. These traits vary from increasing damage of certain abilities to helping increase your survivability. Depending on what traits you use, it can completely alter your playstyle and what talents you should be using.
3.1. Outer Rings
Below are the best Outer Ring traits.
The most important trait you are going to want to get in all pieces of your
gear is Revolving Blades. This gives you additional cleave damage
when you use
Blade Dance. Blade Dance will now make up a large majority
of your damage and becomes even more crucial to your rotation.Other traits like
Dagger in the Back and
Laser Matrix also increase your
overall sustained damage as well.
Furious Gaze increases your
sustained and burst damage.
3.2. Middle Ring
Below are the best Middle Ring traits.
The Middle and Inner Rings are important for additional defensives and
damage. Havoc Demon Hunters are very weak when they are put into stuns. The
Trait Azerite Veins helps with your survivability. However, you
will want to focus on increasing your damage with traits like
Azerite Globules and
Elemental Whirl.
3.3. Inner Ring
Below are the best Inner Ring traits.
All of these traits give you additional ways of surviving. These are all passive, but are crucial to have.
4. Gear Recommendations
4.1. General Guidelines
In general, Havoc Demon Hunters want to get trinkets that line up well with
Metamorphosis. These trinkets can have a passive or on-use effect.
The stat you want to be increasing is Versatility or Agility. The reason you want to
increase both of these stats is because they both increases both your overall
damage output.
To be successful in 3v3 arena, you need to have at least 2 pieces of gear
with either Furious Gaze or
Revolving Blades traits.
You will also want either
Azerite Veins or
Azerite Globules in the Inner Ring.
Below, we list the items that have these traits.
4.1.1. Helms
Tidemother's Cover;
Sinister Gladiator's Leather Hood;
Sinister Gladiator's Leather Hood;
Sinister Gladiator's Leather Helm;
Sinister Gladiator's Leather Helm;
Cowl of Dark Portents.
4.1.2. Shoulders
Sinister Gladiator's Leather Spaulders;
Sinister Gladiator's Leather Spaulders;
Sinister Gladiator's Leather Shoulderguards;
Sinister Gladiator's Leather Shoulderguards;
Deathshambler's Shoulderpads;
Tunic of the Sanguine Deity;
Gonk Outrunner Shoulderguards.
Chest pieces that have these traits:
Vestments of Indomitable Will;
Sinister Gladiator's Leather Jerkin;
Sinister Gladiator's Leather Jerkin;
Sinister Gladiator's Leather Chestguard;
Sinister Gladiator's Leather Chestguard;
7th Legionnaire's Vest;
Spymaster's Wrap;
Cephalohide Jacket.
4.2. Recommended Items
Sinister Gladiator's Maledict is absolutely the best trinket you can
have. The on-use damage and healing absorption is capable of forcing defensives
by itself. This can be used by itself or while you are using your burst rotation
to force multiple cooldowns out of enemy teams.
Sinister Gladiator's Safeguard is a mandatory trinket if you think the
enemy team can swap to you and kill you. This provides an additional defensive
for when you drop to low health. If you do not think a team will swap to you and
kill you, you can use replace this one with any of the trinkets below.
Sinister Gladiator's Badge is strong for the Versatility and the on-use
Agility effect. This works great when you are about to use
Eye Beam or
Metamorphosis.
Darkmoon Deck: Fathoms is not an item you get from PvP. Instead,
you will have to look at the auction house or find an someone with the
Inscription profession. This trinket also gives a passive effect. You cannot
control the proc, but the damage this trinket can do is substantial. You will
quickly notice a large increase to your overall damage.
Sinister Gladiator's Insignia has a good amount of Versatility on it and
has a passive effect. This effect increases your Agility. This increases your
sustained damage.
Sinister Gladiator's Medallion is good because of the on-use Versatility
effect. This increases your overall damage and lines up well with your burst
cooldowns.
4.3. Weapon Enchant
Enchant Weapon - Quick Navigation and
Enchant Weapon - Versatile Navigation are the best weapon enchants. You will
be duel wielding weapons and having one of each of these enchants on your
weapons. These enchants give you a strong Haste and Versatility buff
that can be crucial in multiple ways. The Versatility proc increases your
overall damage output and is great if you can line it up with your burst. It is
also good for when you get put in a stun and a team swaps to you. The damage
reduction might be enough to keep you alive.
5. Regular Talents for Havoc Demon Hunters
Level | Choices | ||
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99 |
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100 |
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102 |
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104 |
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106 |
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108 |
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110 |
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While the above table provides a generally accurate overview of the viability of talents, some finer points are discussed in the sections that follow, and we recommend you read those for a deeper understanding.
5.1. Tier 1 (Level 99) Talents
Felblade is the best choice in this tier. This will allow you to
get to your target much easier. However, if you are using the level 110 talent,
Demonic, you should use
Blind Fury. Both of these talents
are large increases to your sustained and burst damage.
5.2. Tier 2 (Level 100) Talents
Demon Blades is the best choice in this tier. This is a great
passive to help you generate Fury and increase your overall sustained
damage. If you would like to have more control over your Fury generation and
you are playing against a team with 2 melee on it,
Immolation Aura is
great for additional cleave damage.
5.3. Tier 3 (Level 102) Talents
Trail of Ruin is the best choice in this tier. This is a strong
passive talent that increases your overall damage output.
5.4. Tier 4 (Level 104) Talents
If you are playing against a team with multiple stuns and strong burst,
Desperate Instincts is the best choice in this tier. This makes your
Blur stronger and will be used automatically when you drop below 35%
health.
In any other situation, Netherwalk is the best choice in this tier.
This is a strong cooldown that will be used when you are taking unavoidable
damage that will kill you.
5.5. Tier 5 (Level 106) Talents
First Blood is the best choice in this tier. This reduces the
Fury cost of your important spell,
Blade Dance and increases its
damage. This talent works great with the
Trail of Ruin.
5.6. Tier 6 (Level 108) Talents
Master of the Glaive is the best choice in this tier. This talent
gives you a reliable slow that you can use offensively to slow enemies kiting
your damage or defensively so you or a teammate can kite incoming damage.
5.7. Tier 7 (Level 110) Talents
If your overall goal is to have strong consistent damage, Momentum
is the best choice in this tier. This gives you a good damage boost and reduces
the cooldown of
Vengeful Retreat.
If your team's overall goal is to burst an enemy down quickly,
Demonic is the best choice in this tier. This gives you reliable
burst every 30 seconds, but you will have less consistent damage.
6. PvP Talents for Havoc Demon Hunters
The first PvP talent tier is will give you a choice between
Gladiator's Medallion,
Relentless, and
Adaptation.
Gladiator's Medallion is the best choice in this tier. It is great for
removing crowd control on you that your healer cannot dispel.
You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of them has their uses, but some are better for certain strategies than others. The top three choices are the most useful, but can be replaced with other PvP talents depending on your team's goal.
Demonic Origins reduces the cooldown of
Metamorphosis by 2 minutes, but causes it to now last 15 seconds.
Metamorphosis is your primary burst spell and this talent is crucial for your
overall damage output.
Mana Rift places a mana rift on the ground. After 2.5 seconds, it
will deal 8% of the target's health in damage, and remove 8% of their Mana.
This PvP talent should be
chosen against healers that have very little mobility (Discipline Priest,
Restoration Shaman, Holy Priest).
Unending Hatred makes it so that taking magical damage causes you
to gain Fury, with larger attacks granting more Fury. When playing against a
team with casters on it or playing against a Death Knight, this talent helps
you with your consistent damage. If you are the primary target, you will very
rarely run out of Fury.
Solitude increases your Fury generation and attack speed by 10%
when there are no allies within 15 yards. If you are playing with a ranged DPS,
this is an important talent to have.
Reverse Magic removes all harmful magical effects from yourself
and all nearby allies within 10 yards, and sends them back to their original
caster if possible. If you are playing with against a team with multiple
magical crowd control abilities (
Polymorph,
Hammer of Justice), you should be using this talent. You can replace
Solitude with this talent.
Cover of Darkness increases the chance for you and allies to avoid
damage while within your
Darkness effect by 50%. It is a very
important talent to have against teams with two melee on it. You can replace
Unending Hatred with this talent.
7. Racial Bonuses for Havoc Demon Hunters
Racial bonuses can provide interesting PvP benefits. Here are the best races to choose for each faction.
7.1. Horde
Blood Elf is the best race for Havoc Demon Hunters, thanks to the extra
buff removal from the racial ability, Arcane Torrent.
7.2. Alliance
The Night Elf bonus ( Shadowmeld) is a great way to avoid incoming
crowd control.
8. Playstyle for Havoc Demon Hunters
The Havoc Demon Hunter has only one role when in an Arena match: do damage. Players should focus on maximizing their damage as much as they can. With strong mobility, you should be able to stay on a target for most of the game. Use your strong consistent damage to force cooldowns and then punish the enemy team by using your offensive abilities.
8.1. Before Gates Open
Have a plan for who you will be mainly using your crowd control on.
Although Havoc Demon Hunters do lack crowd control, they still have
Imprison and
Chaos Nova.
If the enemy team has a class that can stealth, use Spectral Sight
to see them in stealth and disrupt their opener.
8.2. Offensive Rotation
8.2.1. The Opener
The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns.
If the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble. In the opener, Arms Warriors should focus on sticking to an enemy and dealing large amounts of damage to the target.
This is the rotation you should use on your target at the beginning of the game.
- Use
Throw Glaive to slow the enemy and close the gap between you and the target.
- Make sure you are connecting to your target to take advantage of the
Demon Blades talent.
- Use
Fel Rush to gain
Momentum.
- Use
Felblade to generate Fury.
- Use
Eye Beam on cooldown.
- Use
Chaos Strike to spend your Fury.
- Use
Fel Barrage if talented into it and the enemy team is stacked.
- Get crowd control on the enemy healer (you can use
Imprison or have a teammate do this).
- Use your burst rotation.
8.2.2. Burst Damage
When you have the enemy healer in crowd control and you are trying to kill an enemy, you use your burst damage.
- Use
Fel Rush to gain the
Momentum buff.
- Use
Metamorphosis.
- Use
Chaos Nova to stun your kill target.
- Use
Death Sweep.
- Use
Annihilation.
- Use
Eye Beam.
- Use
Throw Glaive if the enemy team is running away.
- Use
Felblade to generate Fury.
- Use
Annihilation for any Fury you have.
8.2.3. Sustained damage
Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available.
- Use
Throw Glaive to slow the enemy and close the gap between you and the target.
- Make sure you are connecting to your target to take advantage of
Demon Blades.
- Use
Eye Beam on cooldown.
- Use
Felblade to generate Fury.
- Use
Chaos Strike to spend your Fury.
- Use
Fel Barrage if talented into it and the enemy team is stacked up.
- Use
Blade Dance if the enemy team is stacked.
8.3. Defensive Techniques
Blur is your main defensive cooldown. This increases your dodge
chance and reduces the overall damage done to you. One a 2-minute cooldown,
this is very powerful and should be used when your healer is struggling to keep
you alive.
Darkness is a great defensive for not only yourself, but also for
your teammates. If the enemy team is using their offensive cooldowns on a
teammate that has no defensive abilities left, using
Darkness where
they are could keep them alive. This is even stronger if you have taken the
Cover of Darkness PvP talent.
Vengeful Retreat should be used to gain the
Momentum buff
for damage, but there will be times where you will need to run away from the
enemy team. This lets you get distance and you can still use
Throw Glaive so you do not waste the
Momentum buff.
Netherwalk is another crucial defensive cooldown. As a Demon
Hunter, you will likely be far from your teammates, and Netherwalk gives you
the ability to push in and if you get in trouble, you can retreat away with
full immunity to damage and a 100% movement speed increase.
Rain from Above can be used offensively to score a kill if you have
no cooldowns; but it can also be used defensively. Use this when melee on the
enemy team is focusing you and you need to avoid it.
9. Best Team Compositions for Havoc Demon Hunters
Now that you have the correct talents and understand your damage
rotation, it is time to step into the Arena with your team. With spells
like Metamorphosis and great mobility, Havoc Demon Hunters
have a very aggressive playstyle, but should also kite burst damage
from enemy teams.
9.1. 2v2 Arena
In 2v2 Arena, you have a few options. If you are playing against a healer
that will struggle to get away from you (Discipline Priest or Restoration
Shaman), you can play Solitude and
Chaos Blades. With this strategy you are trying to do so much
single-target damage to a target that the enemy healer will not be able to heal
through it. If you are playing against a team that will often be stacked or if
you want more consistent damage, just use the normal talents with
Momentum and
Fel Barrage.
Here is a list of the best team compositions for 2v2:
- Havoc Demon Hunter + Discipline Priest
- Havoc Demon Hunter + Restoration Druid
- Havoc Demon Hunter + Mistweaver Monk
- Havoc Demon Hunter + Restoration Shaman
9.2. 3v3 Arena
Your role in 3v3 is similar to 2v2 Arena. You will likely be playing
the normal talents with Momentum and
Fel Barrage to maximize
your overall damage output. When your team has damage, you
will want to use
Chaos Nova and use your burst rotation.
If they are in range, use
Imprison on the enemy healer.
Use
Throw Glaive to slow enemies and run away from important
damage cooldowns.
Here is a list of the best team compositions for 3v3:
- Havoc Demon Hunter + Arms Warrior + Holy Paladin/Restoration Druid
- Havoc Demon Hunter + Windwalker Monk + Discipline Priest/Restoration Druid
- Havoc Demon Hunter + Affliction/Destruction Warlock + Restoration Shaman/Restoration Druid
- Hero Cleave (Havoc Demon Hunter + Frost Death Knight + Holy Paladin/Restoration Druid)
10. Useful Macros for Havoc Demon Hunters
Macros are crucial to be successful in PvP. They allow players to use abilities on enemies without having to target them. This helps increase overall damage/healing and general awareness in the Arena. Here are a few macros that all Havoc Demon Hunters can benefit from.
10.1. Imprison 123 Macro
- #showtooltip Imprison
- /cast [target=arena1] Imprison
Using this macro will use Imprison on arena enemy 1.
This makes it easier to crowd control an enemy while staying focused on
your target. If you want macros for the second and third enemies,
simply change the arena1 to arena2 or arena3.
10.2. Imprison Focus Macro
- #showtooltip Imprison
- /cast [target=focus] Imprison
If you find that you do not have much room on your action bars, you
can use a focus macro. This is much simpler to use than the arena123
macro. Put an enemy on focus and this macro will use Imprison
on that player while you are still focused on your target.
10.3. Disrupt Focus Macro
- #showtooltip Disrupt
- /cast [target=focus] Disrupt
This macro will use Disrupt on whichever enemy you have
on focus. Because you will be primarily using
Disrupt on the
enemy healer, you should only need this focus macro.
11. Changelog
- 31 Jan. 2019: Updated Azerite Trait and Recommended Gear sections.
- 13 Dec. 2018: Updated Azerite traits section.
- 12 Dec. 2018: Updated guide for Patch 8.1.
- Updated tier 2 regular talent.
- Updated PvP talents.
- 31 Oct. 2018: Added Gear Recommendation section.
- 08 Oct. 2018: Added talent table.
- 02 Oct. 2018: Removed PvP Gear and War Mode sections.
- 25 Sep. 2018: Removed Artifact Traits section.
- Removed Relics section.
- Added Stat Priority section.
- Added Azerite Traits section.
- 20 Sep. 2018: Updated burst rotation.
- 27 Aug. 2018: Updated Air Drops section.
- 23 Aug. 2018: Updated guide for Patch 8.0.1.
- Updated Introduction and spec overview.
- Added Stat priority.
- Updated tiers 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 regular talents sections.
- Added PvP (War Mode) talents and gear sections for the new BfA system.
- Updated Racial Bonuses section.
- Updated Burst Damage and Sustained Damage sections.
- Updated Macros section.
- Removed Gear section.
- Updated Artifact Traits and Relics sections.
- 06 May 2018: Added an Arena Compositions section.
- 25 Mar. 2018: Made several updates to the guide and its structure.
- Added sections for Macros, Strengths, and Weaknesses.
- Moved Gear, Artifact Traits, and Relics sections to the end, since they are not that important.
- Updated recommended Tier 4 regular talent and Tier 2 and 4 honor talents.
- 21 Jan. 2018: No major changes needed for Patch 7.3.5.
- 08 Dec. 2017: No major changes needed for Patch 7.3.2. Updated "About the Author".
- 17 Sep. 2017: Changed recommended Tier 2 regular talent and updated sustained and burst rotations.
- 10 Sep. 2017: Removed Artifact Trait descriptions and changed recommended Tier 5 regular talents.
- 12 Jul. 2017: No changes need for Patch 7.2.5
- 24 Apr. 2017: Changed recommended Tier 2, 3, 4, and 5 regular talents and Tier 6 honor talents, and added additional defensive abilities.
- 05 Apr. 2017: Guide was created.
Other PvP Guides
Havoc Demon Hunter PvE Guides
This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved Arena Master and 2500 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.

- Wintergrasp 8.1.5 PTR Testing: February 19th
- Rextroy's 40 Vs 40 Events
- Patch 8.1 Hotfixes: February 14th
- Patch 8.1.5: Kul Tiran Human Intro Cutscene
- Patch 8.1.5: Zandalari Troll Intro Cutscene
- PvP Hotfixes: Feb 13th - Massive Mana Regen Nerf
- Crucible of Storms Raid Testing: Feb 21st-25th
- Patch 8.1.5 Build 29352: Highlights


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