Havoc Demon Hunter PvP Guide in Battle for Azeroth (BfA 8.2.5)

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.

• Great mobility
• Strong burst and sustained damage
• Multiple utility spells

• Weak against teams with multiple stuns
• Predictable burst damage
• Very little team composition diversity

The stat priority for Havoc Demon Hunter in PvP is as follows:

1. Agility;
2. Haste;
3. Versatility;
4. Critical Strike;
5. 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 Versatility. This will reduce the damage you take while increasing your overall damage.

Essences allow players to customize their characters while adding a new ability to use. This section will cover the best overall Azerite Essences for Demon Hunters in PvP. For a general guide to all the essences, as well as how to obtain them and increase their ranks, check out our Essence Guide.

The best Major Essence is The Crucible of Flame. This gives you the Major Power, Concentrated Flame. This power will help Demon Hunters with that extra bit of damage to increase their overall sustained damage. Concentrated Flame has the potential to deal a large amount of damage with a very short cooldown.

Memory of Lucid Dreams increases your Fury regeneration rate by 100%. This will allow you to use more abilities while your burst cooldowns are active and will increase your overall damage output.

In addition to having a Major Essence, you can choose two Minor Essences to place in your neck at Heart of Azeroth Levels 55 and 65.

The best Minor Essence is Memory of Lucid Dreams. This gives your spells and abilities a chance to refund 50% of the Fury spent on them and heals you. This is great for increasing your damage, as you will frequently be refunded Fury throughout a match.

Vision of Perfection reduces the cooldown of Metamorphosis. The reason this should be taken is because most players will line up their Gladiator's Medallion with your Metamorphosis (both have 2 minute cooldowns). This trait gives you a small window to use your burst cooldowns on a player that will not have a trinket.

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.

Below are the best Outer Ring traits.

1. Furious Gaze
2. Chaotic Transformation
3. Revolving Blades
4. Thirsting Blades
5. Eyes of Rage

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. You should also get at least one Chaotic Transformation. This trait is important for the reset on some of your important abilities. Furious Gaze, Eyes of Rage, and Thirsting Blades all increase your sustained damage and are all solid traits for a damage increase.

Below are the best Middle Ring traits.

1. Azerite Globules
2. Elemental Whirl
3. Azerite Veins
4. Gutripper
5. Heed My Call

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.

Below are the best Inner Ring traits.

1. Resounding Protection
2. Burning Soul
3. Soulmonger

All of these traits give you additional ways of surviving. These are all passive, but are crucial to have.

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.

• Tidemother's Cover;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Helm;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Helm;
• Flashpowder Hood;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Cap;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Cap.

• Phantom Stalker Shoulders;
• Tentacle-Laced Spaulders;
• Mestrah's Singing Spaulders;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Spaulders;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Spaulders;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Shoulderguards;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Shoulderguards.

Chest pieces that have these traits:

• Gore-Splattered Vest;
• Spymaster's Wrap;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Tunic;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Tunic;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Vest;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Vest;

Notorious 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.

Diamond-Laced Refracting Prism is a great trinket for increasing your survivability. This trinket provides a large amount of Agility, but it will also passively give you a shield that absorbs damage every 10 seconds. This can be used instead of Notorious Gladiator's Safeguard, if you have it.

Notorious 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.

Notorious Gladiator's Maledict is a good trinket to 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.

Notorious 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.

Notorious 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.

Enchant Weapon - Naga Hide and Enchant Weapon - Force Multiplier are the best weapon enchants. Because you have abilities like Blur and Blade Dance, you will be dodging a lot of abilities. This will help increase your survivability. Force Multiplier increases your primar stat, Agility, and results in an increase to your overall damage output.

Level	Choices
99	✔ Blind Fury	✘ Demonic Appetite	✔ Felblade
100	✘ Insatiable Hunger	✔ Demon Blades	✔ Immolation Aura
102	✔ Trail of Ruin	✘ Fel Mastery	✘ Fel Barrage
104	✘ Soul Rending	✔ Desperate Instincts	✔ Netherwalk
106	✘ Cycle of Hatred	✔ First Blood	✘ Dark Slash
108	✘ Unleashed Power	✔ Master of the Glaive	✔ Fel Eruption
110	✔ Demonic	✘ Momentum	✘ Nemesis

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.

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.

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.

Trail of Ruin is the best choice in this tier. This is a strong passive talent that increases your overall damage output.

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.

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.

Fel Eruption is the best choice in this tier. This gives you a stun on a very short cooldown with a 20 yard range. This can be used to stop an incoming cast or to help land a Mana Rift on the enemy healer.

Note that, if you are playing against a team with multiple roots, slows or stuns to stop you from using Mana Rift, Master of the Glaive is the better choice in this tier. The slow your Throw Glaive applies with this talent will help you connect to a ranged target or kite away from incoming damage.

Demonic is the best choice in this tier. This gives you reliable burst every 30 seconds, but you will have less consistent damage.

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.

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.

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. It is important to note that this ability can also be used to reverse the absorb debuff created by Notorious Gladiator's Maledict.

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 if your overall strategy is to run the enemy healer out of Mana and win in dampening.

Detainment increases the duration of your Imprison by 2 seconds and that target is immune to damage and healing while it is active. This is great for crowd control and for landing a Mana Rift on the enemy healer. You can replace Cover of Darkness for this talent.

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

The Blood Elf racial bonus ( Arcane Torrent) has multiple effects. The primary use for this ability is that it removes 1 beneficial effect from all enemies in range. This is great for removing abilities such as Blessing of Protection from Paladins or Soul of the Forest from Restoration Druids. It can also be used versus players using the The Crucible of Flame Major Essence to remove the stacks it creates. The other effect is that it restores resources based on what specialization you are.

The Night Elf racial bonus ( Shadowmeld) is always a strong choice. This racial has a high skill cap, but using it to avoid crowd control can be very powerful. For example, if a Mage is casting Polymorph on you, use Shadowmeld to avoid it. If you use Shadowmeld at the same time that a Priest uses their Psychic Scream, you will not be feared.

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.

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.

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. Make sure you are connecting to your target to take advantage of the Demon Blades talent.
3. Use Fel Rush to gain Momentum, if you are using this talent.
4. Use Felblade to generate Fury.
5. Use Eye Beam on cooldown.
6. Use Chaos Strike to spend your Fury.
7. Use Fel Barrage if talented into it and the enemy team is stacked.
8. Get crowd control on the enemy healer (you can use Imprison or have a teammate do this).
9. Use your burst rotation.

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

1. Use Fel Rush to gain the Momentum buff.
2. Use Metamorphosis.
3. Use Concentrated Flame at 2 stacks.
4. Use Chaos Nova to stun your kill target.
5. Use Death Sweep.
6. Use Annihilation.
7. Use Memory of Lucid Dreams if you are low on Fury and using this Major Essence.
8. Use Eye Beam.
9. Use Throw Glaive if the enemy team is running away.
10. Use Felblade to generate Fury.
11. Use Annihilation for any Fury you have.

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. Make sure you are connecting to your target to take advantage of Demon Blades.
3. Use Eye Beam on cooldown to enter Demon Form.
   • Most of your burst is a result of entering Demon Form. While it is active, make sure to use Annihilation to spend Fury and Death Sweep.
4. Use Memory of Lucid Dreams if you are low on Fury and using this Major Essence.
5. Use Felblade to generate Fury.
6. Use Chaos Strike to spend your Fury.
7. Use Blade Dance if the enemy team is stacked.

Blur is your main defensive cooldown. This increases your dodge chance and reduces the overall damage done to you. On a 1-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.

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.

In 2v2 Arena, your primary strategy is to use Mana Rift on the enemy healer as often as you can to make them run out of Mana. There are not many healers that can avoid the Mana Rift and with this strategy you will always have a win condition. Once the healer is out of Mana, you should use your burst rotation to secure a kill. You should talent into Fel Eruption on Tier 6; your setup can be to use Fel Eruption on the enemy healer, then use Mana Rift while they are stunned.

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

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)

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.

• #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.

• #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.

• #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.