Vengeance Demon Hunter Shadowlands Leveling Guide From 8 to 60

Item level is always more important than individual stats when leveling up. Always choose the piece of gear with the highest item level.

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Your first talent row unlocks at Level 15.

Your talent set up should be as follows.

• Level 15: Abyssal Strike
• Level 25: Fallout
• Level 30: Spirit Bomb
• Level 35: Fracture
• Level 40: Sigil of Chains
• Level 45: Demonic
• Level 50: Last Resort

Starting at Level 8, you only have one main Fury generator ability: Shear and one Fury spender: Soul Cleave.

1. Demon hunters must level as Havoc until Level 10.
2. Level 10 — Shear will generate 10 Fury and spawn 1 soul.
3. Level 10 — Soul Cleave is used when over 30 Fury for a frontal 5-target cleave that will consume 2 souls for healing.
4. Level 10 — Infernal Strike is the Vengeance mobility skill. It allows the Demon Hunter to leap 30 yards and land on enemies for extra Fire damage. Infernal Strike is off of the global cooldown and should be weaved into the normal rotation.
5. Level 11 — Fel Devastation is a frontal AoE with a 1 minute cooldown. This spell should be used on cooldown after pulling 2 or more enemies. This spell will also provide a small amount of healing while channeled. Fel Devastation should be used on every cooldown to pull a small pack of enemies to maximize the damage.
6. Level 12 — Sigil of Flame is an AoE ability that triggers after 3 seconds. Sigil of Flame will explode for an initial amount of Fire damage and provide a DoT, dealing Fire damage over time.
7. Level 12 — Metamorphosis is obtained from a quest at roughly the Level 12 mark and it transforms you into a giant demon that increases your HP, armor, and causes Shear or Fracture to spawn an extra soul and grant 20 extra Fury. This is the best defensive cooldown on a 3-minute timer.
8. Level 14 — Fiery Brand is a single-target ability that lowers the damage received from the branded target and does Fire damage. Fiery Brand should be used on cooldown unless needed to survive an encounter.
9. Level 14 — Demon Spikes is used for physical mitigation and should be used on an "as needed" basis without sitting at two charges.
10. Level 14 — Immolation Aura is a Fury generator that does initial Fire damage and Fire damage over time to any enemies near the player. This is an instant cast ability that should be used directly after using Infernal Strike on the pull for snap threat and burst damage.
11. Level 19 — Throw Glaive is used to pull enemies to the player and to finish off any enemies fleeing. The damage is relatively low, but it has an increased threat modifier to help while tanking.
12. Level 21 — At Level 21, you unlock Sigil of Misery. It causes all enemies who remain inside the sigil after 3 seconds to be feared in place. Damage caused by players will break the fear. This ability is fantastic at large temporary crowd control and it will work as a pseudo interrupt to stop casters from casting spells.
13. Level 30 — Spirit Bomb is a talent that completely changes the rotation for Vengeance. All souls should be consumed with Spirit Bomb and not with Soul Cleave. When 4-5 souls are on the ground, use Spirit Bomb to spend the souls and follow up with Soul Cleave to spend any spare Fury.
14. Level 35 — Fracture is a talent that alters the rotation again. Fracture replaces Shear and it spawns two souls and generates 25 Fury with a two charge cooldown. This ability will create openings in the rotation to reliably work in other abilities, including Sigil of Flame and Throw Glaive.
15. Level 39 — brings Sigil of Silence, which is one of the best utility spells in the game. Any monster in the sigil after 3 seconds will be silenced. This allows for the player to round up caster enemies and group them together as well as interrupt their current casts.

Vengeance passives are built around mitigation, but it is very important to understand how they work. The passives are:

• Level 8 — Shattered Souls will periodically spawn a greater soul when an enemy dies that will heal you when consumed. Lesser souls are spawned from Shear and Fracture, which will heal you for 6% of the damage received in the last 5 seconds. Demon souls will increase your damage by 20% for 15 seconds.
• Level 10 — Mastery: Fel Blood increases the armor of Demon Spikes, based on a percentage of your Agility. At Level 44, Rank 2 increases your attack power as well.
• Level 10 — Thick Skin increases your Stamina by 65% and your armor by 100%.
• Level 13 — Demonic Wards reduces all damage received by 5%.
• Level 49 — Chaos Brand debuffs the target with Chaos Brand, which increases the magic damage taken by 5%. This debuff makes bringing at least one Demon Hunter to raids mandatory.
• Level 58 — Revel in Pain provides a shield when Fiery Brand expires for 15 seconds, based on the damage dealt when the target was branded.

Questing in War Mode provides 10% additional experience and three new talents to choose. There are several good choices depending on the content you are doing and whether or not you are playing solo.

• Everlasting Hunt is a passive ability that increases your movement speed by 15% for 3 seconds when dealing damage. This ability is designed to move from pack to pack quickly and more efficiently.
• Jagged Spikes reflects damage back to the attacker for 30% of the damage received when Demon Spikes is active.
• Illidan's Grasp crowd controls 1 target for 6 seconds. If the ability is activated again, throw the target at a location within 40 yards and stun everything in the target area for 3 seconds. This ability provides additional crowd control and is fun to use.
• Tormentor debuffs the target when taunted, applying the Focused Assault debuff, which increases the damage received by 3%. Your melee attacks refresh the duration of Focused Assault. Each unique target up to 5 that hits the target will stack Focused Assault by an additional 3%. This ability will provide a decent single-target damage buff in a party.
• Detainment increases the duration of Imprison by 2 seconds and makes the imprisoned target immune to damage and healing. This talent is amazing for arena and battlegrounds, but it should not be picked for leveling. Imprisoning a target while using this talent will put you into combat and prevents monster skipping in PvE content.
• Unending Hatred increases Fury generation based on magic damage received. Larger attacks will increase Fury generation. This talent is quite situational and should not be used in normal content.
• Cleansed by Flame removes all magical effects when you cast Immolation Aura. This talent is situational, but it can be very strong, depending on the situation.
• Demonic Trample transforms you into a demon and increases your movement speed by 175%. Any enemy hit with the trample will be knocked and receive Physical damage. You are immune to snares while trampling. Demonic Trample shares a cooldown with Infernal Strike. This ability is very strong in battlegrounds to remove snares and for a pseudo crow control with the knockdown.
• Sigil Mastery reduces the cooldown of sigils by 25%. This talent should not be used.

Congratulations on reaching Level 60! Now that you have hit Level 60, we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level.