Vengeance Demon Hunter Tank Gear and Best in Slot — Dragonflight 10.1

Vengeance Demon Hunter does not have a strict "Best" item for most gear slots. This is linked to how gear scales with Item Level and how it impacts your power. With increased Item Level, your items will get more Armor, Agility, Stamina and Secondary Stats in total. This, coupled with the fact that Agility scales significantly faster and better than Secondary Stats, means that besides Jewelry slots item level is almost guaranteed to have stronger defensive benefits.

To get the best gear to deal damage, you want to simulate your character. This is because what gear is best for damage will vary as you get more gear. Since you can not guarantee you get the best gear in theory early or sometimes even at all during a full patch, this will be the best way to know the best gear from what you already have.

The Valor Upgrade system is gone in Season 2 and is replaced by a new system that allows for item upgrades to be obtained from a wider variety of content.

Dragonflight Season 2 introduces two new currencies: Flightstones and Shadowflame Crests are both obtainable from practically all forms of content in the game. They can be used to upgrade gear up to Item Level 441, which is entry-level Mythic Raid Item Level. They can also upgrade Crafted Gear up to iLvl 447, which is late-Mythic Item Level.

For more information on the new Gear Upgrades system, check out our dedicated page for it below.

As with Valor, the cost to upgrade scales differs per slot but now also increases quickly as item levels go up.

There are a few items which will serve as significant upgrades for Vengeance, the main ones being the Bile-Stained Crawg Tusks and any of the Trinkets outlined in the section below. These are your best bet for an early upgrade. Beyond these, you will want to focus upgrades on tier set items, as they are something you will be wearing the entire patch.

Bile-Stained Crawg Tusks is a fist weapon that drops in the Underrot dungeon that has a special bonus effect which is significantly stronger than the secondary stats, you give up for it. Upgrading one of these as soon as you get it will be the largest upgrade you can get short term and long term, since a iLvl 441 of these will outperform most other weapons in your Main Hand Slot and will be stronger than anything except at higher iLvl Bile-Stained Crawg Tusks in your Off Hand Slot.

Patch 10.0.7 introduces the Onyx Annulet, a ring slot item that you fill with unique sockets called Primordial Stones, which offer new unique effects at the cost of the Secondary Stats usually present on Rings. For more information regarding the Onyx Annulet, the Primordial Gemstones, and how to obtain them; check out our dedicated guide for it below. To find out which gems are the best for Vengeance Demon Hunter and if it is worth running for you, visit the Enchants Page linked below.

The Onyx Annulet still performs very well in situations with only one, or at least very few, enemies. In Season 2, the raid will feature mostly single-target fights with very few or rare add spawns in some encounters; this means that Annulet will be one of your best rings for raid content through the entire season. It performs worse in large packs of enemies, something featured heavily in Mythic+, where you also suffer more from the defensive loss of the secondary budget of a normal ring. Therefore it is not recommended for Mythic+ content.

If your main interest in World of Warcraft is raiding, then it is most likely worth your time to invest a few hours into the Onyx Annulet, as it will last you through the entire patch. If you only raid sporadically and your main interest is any other content, then it is probably not worth spending a few hours for a ring you will soon replace.

Since Vengeance is a tank specialization, you will have to consider your trinket choice based on the content you are doing. If you want a trinket that increases your damage or something to help you defensively, it will change what you are looking for. Below are some recommendations from The Aberrus Raid and Mythic+, as well as what the use cases for the different trinkets are.

1. Dragonfire Bomb Dispenser, is a trinket that drops from The Vigilant Steward, Zkarn. A trinket on a 10-second cooldown that accumulates a charge every 30 seconds or every 60 critical strikes you deal. It will apply a debuff to your target dealing Fire damage after 7 seconds. If the target were to die during these 7 seconds, it would instead deal Fire damage to all nearby targets.
2. Igneous Flowstone is a trinket that drops from Magmorax that switches between two modes every 30 seconds. In Low Tide, you get a large Critical Strike buff for 12 seconds; in High Tide, your next ranged spell deals massive Volcanic damage to your target and all nearby enemies. The downside is that this trinket only drops for Ranged classes, which means that you need someone else to trade it to you or your raid to hand it to you, making it relatively difficult to get one.
3. Beacon to the Beyond is a trinket from Sarkareth. A 2 minute 30-seconds cooldown, this trinket will do a 2-second casting animation, after which a meteor lands on your target, dealing massive split damage to all nearby targets.
4. Ward of Faceless Ire is a trinket that drops from the Echo of Neltharion. A 2-minute cooldown trinket that puts a massive shield on your target, which deals moderate damage to whichever enemy breaks it. A very strong trinket for Mythic+, especially for its ability to be used as an external defensive on other players.

1. Treemouth's Festering Splinter is a trinket from The Brackenhide Hollow. On a 1-minute 30-second cooldown, it provides a large shield that absorbs 50% of all damage taken over the next 15 seconds. A very strong defensive trinket.
2. Talisman of the Cragshaper is a trinket from Neltharion's Lair. A 1-minute cooldown trinket providing a sizeable shield that absorbs 50% of all damage taken, similarly to Treemouth's Festering Splinter. It offers a shorter cooldown meaning it is, on paper, able to mitigate more damage than Splinter. However, Talisman has a Versatility budget smaller than the agility budget of Splinter, which means that you deal less damage and take more damage overall wearing it, so if you can not make proper use of the shorter trinket, it will lose a lot of its value compared to Splinter. A strong defensive option regardless.
3. Harlan's Loaded Dice drops from the Freehold dungeon. It is a stat stick trinket offering random buffs providing Mastery, Haste, and Critical Strike at high uptime.

Cataclysm Timewalking is back as of May 23rd, 2023, and introduces new Trinkets and other items from dungeons like the Stonecore, Lost City of the Tol'vir, Throne of the Tides, End Time, Blackrock Caverns, and the Firelands Raid. The Firelands Trinkets can be upgraded to Item Level 437. They will only be available this week until Cataclysm Timewalking hopefully comes around again later.

As it stands now, there are two trinkets to look out for from Firelands. Especially since these items can get a socket, making them even more powerful. There are no dungeon trinkets that seem strong enough to justify the lower item level, and all other Firelands trinkets underperform easier to obtain options from Dragonflight content.

Rank the Trinkets in a format that you like. If they all suck, make sure to mention that as well.

1. The Hungerer is a trinket that drops from Majordomo Staghelm, a trinket with a stat proc every minute that is higher budget than other options making it slightly better than other options at item level 441, and if you are lucky to get a socket, it will be one of if not the strongest trinket this season.
2. Matrix Restabilizer is a trinket that drops from Ragnaros, a trinket with a stat proc slightly more often than every two minutes that gives the stat you have the most of except Versatility. This will usually give haste and last longer than The Hungerer but at lower frequency. It is very strong, and again, if you are lucky to get a socket, it will be one of, if not the strongest trinket this season.

In Season 2 of Dragonflight, you will be able to use Spark of Shadowflame to craft gear up to Item Level 447. With this comes special Embellished gear , which has special effects. Below is a list of some recommendations.

• Elemental Lariat is a Neck item that offers a random proc-chance based on the type of gems socketed in it. Air gems give a Haste proc, Fire gems a Critical Strike proc, Earth gems a Mastery proc, and Frost gems a Versatility proc. It is not significantly stronger than other embellishments offensively, however the stat proc also gives defensive value, which as a tank is a nice bonus. Strongly recommended to use with Air Gems.
• Flaring Cowl is a Head slot that deals pulsing Fire damage to enemies near you. It scales with targets up to 5 and deals respectable damage, especially in AoE. A good craft for both Raid and Mythic+. It does not scale with our talents Burning Blood and Fiery Demise. However, it can proc the Rings from Vault of the Incarnates, which you can read more about below.
• Fang Adornments is an embellishment applied to a crafted Weapon. It will cause your attacks to deal extra damage to your main target. This embellishment deals equivalent damage to Flaring Cowl and is a decent option, especially if you already have a good Head slot item.

With Aberrus, tier sets make a return. For Vengeance, these are Demon Hunter Vengeance 10.1 Class Set 2pc and Demon Hunter Vengeance 10.1 Class Set 4pc. Both set bonuses are very strong, especially Demon Hunter Vengeance 10.1 Class Set 4pc, and you will likely want to wear 4 tier set pieces of any iLvl just to activate both bonuses.