Vengeance Demon Hunter: Midnight Expansion Preview

The notes from the developers give us an idea of the goal of the changes to Vengeance Demon Hunter. They address a long standing issue with Vengeance Demon Hunter, where a large part of our defensive toolkit relies on abilities that build up over time. Through The War Within a very large part of our defensive power came from talents like Soulcrush and Painbringer, that let us stack very large passive damage reductions. However, this value required us to spend a fair bit of time in combat to build up stacks reliably. Both of these effects are now tuned down, but you will get the maximum effect virtually the moment you enter combat.

Another issue that is being addressed is the complex way the damage reduction from Fiery Brand works, which has been around since the Legion expansion when Vengeance Demon Hunter was first introduced. Currently in The War Within it only applies damage reduction to targets affected by the DoT effect from Fiery Brand, and it only spreads somewhat randomly to one target per second through Burning Alive. This means that Fiery Brand is unreliable against multiple targets until it has had time to spread to them, which often meant you needed to overlap it with another defensive while it spread. Midnight changes this so the damage reduction applies to ourselves instantly, immediately reducing all damage from all sources by 40%, making it a lot easier to use while being more consistent and more intuitive for newer players.

They also mention an aim to simplify the offensive rotation. For years, one of the more unintuitive parts of our rotation has been deciding when to spend our resources on Spirit Bomb and when to use them on Soul Cleave. In Midnight they remove this question by completely changing Spirit Bomb from a regular spender-type ability, to a cooldown which deals more damage and has separate talent modifiers. Meanwhile Soul Cleave becomes our standard spender and deals uncapped damage instead of being target-capped at 5 enemies.

As we enter Midnight Vengeance Demon Hunter will lose access to the Fel-Scarred Hero Talent tree, and instead gain access to the new Annihilator hero talents. These talents focus on passively amplifying your kit, and building up stacks of Voidfall to unleash fel meteors on enemies for massive damage as well as other effects. Below is a list of all the new talents, followed by how it will most likely affect our gameplay.

Talent	Description/Effect
Voidfall	Fracture has a 35% chance to generate a stack of Voidfall. Once you reach 3 stacks you can use Soul Cleave to call down a meteor on your Soul Cleave target, dealing damage to all nearby enemies. Currently you cannot build more than 3 stacks, and you cannot build more stacks once you start calling down meteors.
Swift Erasure	Gain 2% Haste for each stack of Voidfall you currently have.
Meteoric Rise	Fel Devastation deals 15% increased damage and generates 3 Soul Fragments over the full channel. Cancelling the channel early might make you generate fewer Soul Fragments.
Catastrophe	Meteors called down deal 25% extra damage over 8 seconds to all targets hit.
Phase Shift	Take 2% less damage for each stack of Voidfall you currently have.
Path to Oblivion	Gain 3% movement speed for each stack of Voidfall you currently have. Choice node with State of Matter.
State of Matter	Torment now has 2 charges. Choice node with Path to Oblivion.
Mass Acceleration	Metamorphosis resets the cooldown of Spirit Bomb and gives you up to 3 stacks of Voidfall, so that you have 3 total stacks.
Doomsayer	When you are not in combat, or once within 5 seconds of entering combat, Infernal Strike calls down 3 Voidfall meteors.
Celestial Echoes	Fracture generates 5 more Fury, and deals 25% more damage.
Final Hour	Bonuses from Swift Erasure, Phase Shift, and Path to Oblivion remain for 12 seconds after consuming a stack of Voidfall to summon a meteor.
Meteoric Fall	If you have 3 stacks of Voidfall, Spirit Bomb will consume all 3 stacks to call down all the meteors at once.
Dark Matter	Your first Spirit Bomb after using Metamorphosis calls down a meteor shower, dealing damage to all enemies in that area over 6 seconds.
Otherworldly Focus	Spirit Bomb and Voidfall meteors deal 35% more damage to your targets, reduced by 5% for each additional target after the first.
World Killer	Every third Voidfall meteor is larger, has 50% larger range, and deals 100% increased damage to all targets. It also reduces the cooldown of Metamorphosis by 10 seconds.

The bulk of Path to Oblivion focuses on building and spending Voidfall stacks, which means that very heavy emphasis will be placed on using Fracture as often as possible when you are building stacks, and consuming the stacks as fast as possible once you reach 3 stacks, either by using Spirit Bomb or chaining several Soul Cleave in quick succession just as you reach 3 stacks.

Besides this, a very heavy emphasis is placed on both Metamorphosis and Fiery Brand, as the former will give you up to 3 stacks of Voidfall, which encourages you to spend Voidfall stacks just before you use Metamorphosis, and ideally do so with Spirit Bomb to maximize the value of Mass Acceleration. Fiery Brand becomes relevant if talented into Fiery Demise, as the Voidfall meteors deal fire damage, which will mean the meteors will deal even more damage if Fiery Brand is active.

With a goal of simplifying and streamlining a lot of our abilities and interactions going into the new expansion, a few things have changed with our overall gameplay, however in many ways it will also remain familiar. Below are the biggest ways our gameplay changes offensively and defensively.

The biggest difference to gameplay offensively is in the core rotation, with Spirit Bomb changing from a regular spender to a 25-second cooldown affected by Haste. This means that Soul Cleave is the main spender for all builds going forward, with Spirit Bomb being a burst damage cooldown, tied to different talents including several in the Annihilator Hero tree. Sigil of Flame loses several interactions, specifically Illuminated Sigils going away, and Ascending Flame no longer allowing it to overlap. This means that Sigil of Flame is essentially a damage button you use close to on cooldown.

There are three major changes to active defensives in Midnight. The first is that Demonic is no longer available to us, and Fel Devastation no longer makes us enter Demon Form. This means that the only way to do so is through Metamorphosis, which leads to significantly lower uptime on Metamorphosis. This is somewhat mended by the new talent Vengeful Beast, as well as the Annihilator tree having access to cooldown reduction through World Killer.

The second major change is that the damage reduction from Fiery Brand now applies to ourselves for 12 seconds, extended by Charred Flesh. This means that we instantly mitigate all damage by 40% during the duration, which is a significant upgrade against multiple enemies and Raid encounters with damage from the environment.

Lastly, with Illuminated Sigils being removed, Sigil of Flame no longer grants Parry, meaning we will take more damage from auto-attacks, which will be most noticeable against large groups of enemies in Mythic+.

On the passive side some things have changed while others are still roughly the same. Immolation Aura is still a very strong defensive passively with nodes such as Infernal Armor and Fel Flame Fortification being unchanged. Other talents, such as Soulcrush and Painbringer have had their damage reduction become flat instead of changing depending on the rotation. This will lead to less damage reduction on the higher end, but with much more available defensive value early in combat, with less need to ramp up our defensives.

Below is a list of all changes to baseline spells and passives for Vengeance Demon Hunter.

• Disrupt now interrupts spell casting for 5 seconds instead of 3 seconds.
• Felblade now generates 15 Fury instead of 40 Fury.
• Sigil of Flame is now baseline for Vengeance.
• Fracture is now baseline, removing Shear. Base cooldown increased to 5 seconds and damage by 10%.
• Mastery: Fel Blood defensive part buffed by 25%.
• Infernal Strike cooldown reduced to 15 seconds and is now affected by Haste.
• Metamorphosis is now 2 minutes base cooldown, and increases Fury generated by Fracture by 15 instead of 20.
• Sigil of Flame now generates 25 Fury instead of 30.
• Soul Cleave now costs 35 Fury instead of 30, and deals 20% increased damage per Soul Fragment consumed. Base healing is now a flat amount and not increased by the amount of Soul Fragment consumed. Soul Cleave now hits all enemies in front of you, with reduced damage past 5 targets, was capped at 5 targets hit.
• Demon Spikes now only has 1 charge baseline.
• Deflecting Spikes is now learned while leveling up.

Below is a list of all changes to talents on the Class tree for Vengeance Demon Hunter.

• Quickened Sigils, Sigil of Spite and Soul Sigils are moved from the class tree to the Vengeance spec tree.
• Will of the Illidari is now a 2 point node and increases maximum health by 3%/6%, was 5% for 1 point.
• Illidari Knowledge is now a 2 point node and reduces magic damage taken by 3%/6%, was 5% for 1 point.
• Erratic Felheart now reduces the base cooldown of Infernal Strike by 1 second per point invested, was 10% per point.
• Demon Muzzle now reduces all magic damage taken by 15% for 12 seconds after interrupting a spell with Disrupt.
• Improved Sigil of Misery now also reduces the cooldown of Sigil of Chains if it is talented.

Below is a list of all changes to talents on the Spec tree for Vengeance Demon Hunter.

• Calcified Spikes now reduces damage taken by 5% when Demon Spikes is active, was 12% for 12 seconds, diminishing by 1% per second.
• Fel Devastation deals 15% more damage and heals for 600% more.
• Stoke the Flames now increases Fel Devastation damage by 30%, was 35%.
• Fiery Brand now applies the 40% damage reduction to yourself, extended by Charred Flesh.
• Ascending Flame now increases all sigil of flame damage, but does not allow for multiple applications to overlap.
• Spirit Bomb now has a hasted 25-second cooldown, deals increased damage depending on the amount of Soul Fragments consumed.
• Perfectly Balanced Glaive now also reduces the base cooldown of Fracture by 1 second.
• Frailty now causes Sigil of Flame, Spirit Bomb and Soul Cleave to all targets hit for 8 seconds.
• Void Reaver now only causes Frailty to cause enemies to deal 4% less damage to you, was 3%.
• Volatile Flameblood now generates 1-5 Fury when Immolation Aura critically strikes, it also increases the critical strike chance of Immolation Aura by 10%. Used to be 5-10 Fury when it critically strikes.
• Ruinous Bulwark now converts 50% of Fel Devastation healing to an absorb shield, was 100%.
• Painbringer now reduces damage by 3%/6% for 8 seconds after consuming a Soul Fragment, no longer allows for overlapping applications.
• Sigil of Chains now replaces Sigil of Misery when talented, base cooldown increased to 90 seconds, was 60 seconds.
• Cycle of Binding now reduces the cooldown of all sigils by 15%, was 5 seconds when you used Sigil of Flame.
• Revel in Pain now grants a shield for 2% of all Fire damage dealt, increased to 4% while Fiery Brand is active.
• Soul Barrier is now passive, granting a shield when you use Spirit Bomb, the size increases based on the amount of Soul Fragments consumed.
• Feed the Demon now reduces the cooldown of Demon Spikes by 1 second for every 20 Fury you spend, was 0.35 seconds per Soul Fragment consumed.

Below is a list of all new talents on the Class tree for Vengeance Demon Hunter.

• Focused Ire increases the stun duration of Chaos Nova on your main target by 2 seconds.
• Demonic Resilience grants a second charge of Demon Spikes.
• Burn It Out causes Immolation Aura to dispel 1 Disease effect. Choice node with Soul Cleanse.
• Soul Cleanse causes Immolation Aura to dispel 1 Curse effect. Choice node with Burn It Out.
• Remorseless causes abilities that spend Fury to deal 3% more damage.
• Furious causes abilities that generate Fury to deal 3% more damage.
• First In, Last Out gives an absorb shield for 6% of your maximum health that quickly drains when you use Infernal Strike.
• Soul Splitter gives a 2%/4% chance to generate an additional Soul Fragment whenever you generate them normally.
• Felbound increases movement speed by 3%.
• Final Breath increases the damage of the last tick of Fel Devastation by 300% when fully channeled.
• Wings of Wrath increases your Glide speed by 40%.

Below is a list of all new talents on the Spec tree for Vengeance Demon Hunter.

• Tempered Steel increases all physical damage dealt by 12%.
• Felfire Fist causes your Infernal Strike to generate a Sigil of Flame where you land if used out of combat or in the first 5 seconds of combat.
• Vengeful Beast increases the duration of Metamorphosis by 5 seconds and increases the damage of Fracture, Soul Cleave, and Spirit Bomb by 20% during Metamorphosis.

Below is a list of all the removed talents on the Spec tree for Vengeance Demon Hunter.

• Chaos Fragments
• Flames of Fury
• Precise Sigils
• Rush of Chaos
• Demonic
• Collective Anguish
• The Hunt

Below is a list of all the removed talents on the Class tree for Vengeance Demon Hunter.

• Bulk Extraction
• Extended Spikes
• Illuminated Sigils
• Meteoric Strikes
• Shear Fury
• Soul Furnace