Havoc Demon Hunter PvP Guide (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• 1. Spec Overview / Place in the Current Meta
• 2. Gear
• +3. Artifact Traits
  • 3.1. First Golden Trait
  • 3.2. Second Golden Trait
  • 3.3. Remaining Traits
• 4. Relics
• +5. Talent Choices
  • 5.1. Regular Talents
    • 5.1.1. Tier 1 (Level 99) Talents
    • 5.1.2. Tier 2 (Level 100) Talents
    • 5.1.3. Tier 3 (Level 102) Talents
    • 5.1.4. Tier 4 (Level 104) Talents
    • 5.1.5. Tier 5 (Level 106) Talents
    • 5.1.6. Tier 6 (Level 108) Talents
    • 5.1.7. Tier 7 (Level 110) Talents
  • 5.2. Honor Talents
    • 5.2.1. Tier 1 Talents
    • 5.2.2. Tier 2 Talents
    • 5.2.3. Tier 3 Talents
    • 5.2.4. Tier 4 Talents
    • 5.2.5. Tier 5 Talents
    • 5.2.6. Tier 6 Talents
• +6. Racial Bonuses
  • 6.1. Horde
  • 6.2. Alliance
• +7. Playstyle
  • 7.1. Before Gates Open
  • 7.2. Offensive Rotation
    • 7.2.1. The Opener
    • 7.2.2. Burst Damage
    • 7.2.3. Sustained damage
  • 7.3. Defensive Techniques
• 8. ChangeLog

Introduction

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to play a Havoc Demon Hunter in a PvP environment. The guide will cover everything from talent choices, artifacts, 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.

About The Author

This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved Arena Master and 2300 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.

1. Spec Overview / Place in the Current Meta

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.

2. Gear

With regards to gear, the biggest change in Legion is that there is no more PvP gear. Your strength in PvP will be determined based on the average item level of your gear (as displayed on your character sheet). For example, the base item level at level 110 is 800, so your stats in PvP will be adjusted accordingly. For every 10 item levels you gain, your stats are increased by 1%.

The implication is that it does not matter where your gear comes from, and all that matters is its item level. Gear from quests or PvE content is just as good as gear you get as a reward from PvP (which, in fact, will be very similar to PvE gear; there are no more PvP stats on gear).

Practically, you will simply look to collect gear with the highest item levels possible, and the stat distribution on the gear will not matter.

3. Artifact Traits

Below, we will explain what the recommended order for artifact traits is, if you wish to maximise your PvP potential. It is quite possible that your artifact path (at the time of reading this guide) differs from our suggestions. If this is the case, do not worry, and use the information below to help you understand your traits and guide your future choices.

If you have suddenly decided that you want to turn to PvP, the best thing to do in your artifact progression is continue to your closest Golden trait, and then follow the recommendations below. Picking up the most useful traits ( Critical Chaos, Contained Fury, Illidari Knowledge, and Unleashed Demons) along the way is a great way to boost your potential.

3.1. First Golden Trait

The first Golden trait you should go for is Rage of the Illidari.

1. Take Warglaives of Chaos.
2. Take Unleashed Demons. This decreases the cooldown of Metamorphosis significantly. This will allow you to use your strong burst cooldown more frequently.
3. Take Demon Speed. This buffs one of your defensives, Blur. This will help with running away from enemies if you need to escape.
4. Take Illidari Knowledge. This is strong passive defensive ability, reducing all magic damage increasing your survivability.
5. Take Rage of the Illidari. This golden trait is powerful against all teams. It is devastating when landing a stun on the enemy team and using Fury of the Illidari when they are stacked.

3.2. Second Golden Trait

The second Golden trait to take is Anguish of the Deceiver.

1. Backtrack and take Balanced Blades. This is another great trait for when the enemy team is stacked up.
2. Take Sharpened Glaives. This increases the cooldown of Throw Glaive, an ability that will be used often when an enemy is out of range.
3. Take Critical Chaos. Chaos Strike is the most used ability in your rotation, increasing its damage drastically increases your damage output.
4. Take Chaos Vision. Eye Beam is another important cooldown. Increasing the damage it deals increases overall damage.
5. Take Anguish of the Deceiver. This trait is devastating to teams that are either stacked up or to single targets. This trait increases your overall burst damage.

3.3. Remaining Traits

After this, you should head for your last Golden Trait, Inner Demons, picking up any remaining traits after that. There is no particular order you need for the rest of the traits, but we recommend picking up Contained Fury early.

4. Relics

Relics are disabled in PvP, so they are not a concern to you.

5. Talent Choices

Regular talents work in both PvP and PvE content (although they may sometimes work differently in the two environments, which is indicated by their tooltips). In other words, they are always active.

On the other hand, Honor talents are inactive outside of a PvP environment.

5.1. Regular Talents

5.1.1. Tier 1 (Level 99) Talents

If you are playing against a team with casters, Felblade is the best choice in this tier. This will allow you to get to ranged classes much easier.

If you are playing against a team with two melee, Fel Mastery is the best choice in this tier. This is a great passive against melee teams that will be stacked. This will increase your overall spread pressure.

5.1.2. Tier 2 (Level 100) Talents

When you are playing against a team with two melee, Demon Blades is the best choice in this tier. This is a great passive to increase your overall sustained damage.

5.1.3. Tier 3 (Level 102) Talents

Bloodlet is the best choice in this tier. This makes Throw Glaive apply a strong debuff to the enemy, which increases your overall damage output.

5.1.4. Tier 4 (Level 104) Talents

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.

5.1.5. Tier 5 (Level 106) Talents

If your team plans on swapping targets often, Momentum is the best choice in this tier. This talent will give you more consistent damage.

5.1.6. Tier 6 (Level 108) Talents

Master of the Glaive is the best choice in this tier. This talent gives you a reliable slow and works well with Bloodlet, if you have taken that talent.

5.1.7. Tier 7 (Level 110) Talents

If your team plans on swapping targets often, Fel Barrage is the best choice in this tier. This talent will give you the most spread pressure throughout a match. However, if you plan on focusing on one enemy, Chaos Blades is the best choice in this tier.

5.2. Honor Talents

5.2.1. Tier 1 Talents

Gladiator's Medallion is the best choice in this tier, which provides a standard PvP trinket effect.

5.2.2. Tier 2 Talents

If you are playing against a team with a caster on it, we recommend Reinforced Armor in this tier.

If you are playing against a team with two melee on it, we recommend Sparring. Both of these talents improve survivability, you just have to switch them based on the team you are playing against.

5.2.3. Tier 3 Talents

If you are playing with a caster, Solitude is the best choice in this tier. You will likely be far away from your team, and this increases your overall damage output.

If you are playing with or against a team that will be stacked often, Cover of Darkness is the best choice in this tier. This makes your Darkness an even stronger defensive ability for you and your teammates.

5.2.4. Tier 4 Talents

If you are playing against a team with magical crowd control that can be reversed, Reverse Magic is the best choice in this tier. Examples of abilities that can be reversed are Hammer of Justice or Polymorph.

If you are playing against a team with very little magical crowd control, Eye of Leotheras is the best choice in this tier, as it can deal a lot of damage if the enemy team is not paying attention.

5.2.5. Tier 5 Talents

Demonic Origins is the best choice in this tier. This lets you use your Metamorphosis much faster and increases your overall consistent damage.

5.2.6. Tier 6 Talents

Detainment is the best choice in this tier. This makes your Imprison a powerful crowd control ability. However, if you are playing against a melee team that will likely focus you, Rain from Above is an ability to help you avoid damage from melee.

6. Racial Bonuses

Racial bonuses can provide interesting PvP benefits. Here are the best races to choose for each faction.

6.1. Horde

Blood Elf is the best race for Havoc Demon Hunters, thanks to the extra interrupt the racial ability ( Arcane Torrent) provides you with.

6.2. Alliance

The Night Elf bonus ( Shadowmeld) is a great way to avoid incoming crowd control.

7. Playstyle

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.

7.1. 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.

7.2. Offensive Rotation

7.2.1. 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.

1. Use Throw Glaive to slow the enemy and close the gap between you and the target.
2. Use Demon's Bite to generate Fury.
3. Use Eye Beam on cooldown.
4. Use Chaos Strike to spend your Fury.
5. Use Fel Barrage if talented into it and the enemy team is stacked up.
6. Get crowd control on the enemy healer (you can use Imprison or have a teammate do this).
7. Use your burst rotation.

7.2.2. Burst Damage

When you have the enemy healer in crowd control and you are trying to kill an enemy, you use your burst damage.

1. Use Imprison if your kill target is mobile and might avoid your Metamorphosis stun.
2. Use Nemesis, if you have taken this talent, while your target is still in Imprison.
3. Use Fel Rush or Vengeful Retreat to gain the Momentum buff.
4. Use Chaos Blades, if you have taken this talent.
5. Use Metamorphosis. Ideally, you will want to stun multiple people.
6. Use Fury of the Illidari.
7. Use Chaos Nova if the enemy is getting out of range of attacks.
8. Use Blade Dance.
9. Use Annihilation.
10. Use Demon's Bite if you need to generate Fury.
11. Use Throw Glaive if the enemy team is running away.
12. Use Annihilation for any Fury you have.

7.2.3. Sustained damage

Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available.

1. Use Throw Glaive to slow the enemy and close the gap between you and the target.
2. Use Demon's Bite to generate Fury.
3. Use Eye Beam on cooldown.
4. Use Chaos Strike to spend your Fury.
5. Use Fel Barrage if talented into it and the enemy team is stacked up.
6. Use Blade Dance if the enemy team is stacked.

7.3. 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 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.

8. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 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.