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Table of Contents
General Information
On this page, we list your Vengeance Demon Hunter core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3.5. We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a Vengeance Demon Hunter.
The other pages of our Vengeance Demon Hunter guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.
About Our Reviewer
This guide has been reviewed and approved by Greensprîng, one of the best Vengeance Demon Hunters in the world, who raids in untitled spreadsheet.
1. Single Target Rotation for Vengeance Demon Hunters
The single target rotation for Vengeance Demon Hunters is based on the following priority, and it is very straightforward, but keep in mind that this does not account for your active mitigation, which we discuss below.
The basic principle is to use up the Pain you generate through various abilities so that you do not cap and waste it, while keeping enough Pain in store to be able to use your active mitigation as needed.
- Use
Soul Carver, ideally together with 
Fiery Brand. - Use
Immolation Aura on cooldown. - Use
Shear if you need Pain. - If using
Fracture, cast it with 4 or fewer Lesser Soul
Fragments - If using
Spirit Bomb, cast it with 4 or 5 Lesser Soul
Fragments. - Use
Sigil of Flame on cooldown. - If using
Flame Crash, use 
Infernal Strike to keep up the
DoT as much as possible. - If using
Felblade, cast it on cooldown. - If using
Fel Eruption, cast it on cooldown. - Use
Soul Cleave if you need more healing than you can get with
Spirit Bomb (if using this talent).
In addition to these abilities, you should also make use of
Infernal Strike (which is off the global cooldown) to deal
additional damage. We recommend always keeping at least 1 charge in reserve,
however, unless the fight requires no movement whatsoever, in which case you
can use up both charges.
Keep in mind that 
Fiery Brand is, above all, a defensive cooldown
and it should not be used offensively unless you can afford to do so.
2. Multiple Target Rotation for Vengeance Demon Hunter
The multiple target rotation is practically identical to the single target
rotation, the only difference being that you should not use
Fel Eruption.
3. Active Mitigation and Defensive Abilities
As a Vengeance Demon Hunter, you have one active mitigation ability,
Demon Spikes, and 3 other defensive abilities, 
Soul Cleave,
Fiery Brand, and 
Empower Wards. We will look at them very
briefly here before going into more detail later on in the guide.
Demon Spikes should be used frequently to avoid big Physical
damage, even simply against
auto-attacks. Always keep at least one of its charges rolling.- Soul Cleave should be used whenever you require additional
healing.
Empower Wards should be used before you take significant
magic damage.- Fiery Brand should be placed on the target when you anticipate that
they will deal high damage to you, or when you simply want to reduce the damage
you take (whether Physical or Magic).
4. Defensive Cooldowns for Vengeance Demon Hunter
As a Vengeance Demon Hunter, you have one defensive cooldown.
Metamorphosis increases your current and maximum health by 30% and your Armor by 100%
for 15 seconds, and grants you 7 Pain per second for its entire duration. It
has a 3-minute cooldown and no cost.
Metamorphosis works both pro-actively (to increase your health in
preparation for damage) and re-actively, as an emergency cooldown to heal you
up when you drop low on health. The extra Pain that Metamorphosis generates is
also a nice bonus, which you can use on Soul Cleave for more
healing.
5. Taunting
Torment is your only taunting ability. It only works on a single
target and has an 8-second cooldown. It forces the target to attack you for 3
seconds, and also increases the threat you generate against that target for
the same duration.
6. Optional Read: Mastering Your Vengeance Demon Hunter
The above rotations and ability usage will allow you to perform very well as a Vengeance Demon Hunter. However, there are several concepts that deserve further explanation.
6.1. Pain
Vengeance Demon Hunters use a resource called Pain. It is very similar in functionality to Warriors' and Guardian Druids' Rage. For you to properly master your Demon Hunter, you must understand how Pain works.
The Pain bar has a maximum capacity of 100, and is empty by default. Pain decays at a rate of 1 per second when out of combat. In combat, Pain does not decay. Pain comes from a variety of sources, as follows.
- Taking damage generates Pain. For every 2% of your maximum health that you lose, you generate 1 Pain.
- Immolation Aura generates 20 Pain over its 6 second duration.
- Shear generates 10 Pain per cast.
Metamorphosis generates 7 Pain every second for its
15-second duration for a total of 105 Pain.- Successfully interrupting a spell with
Consume Magic generates
50 Pain.
6.2. Mastery: Fel Blood
Mastery: Fel Blood increase the Physical damage reduction provided
by Demon Spikes and also increases your attack power. The actual
increase amounts depend on how much Mastery you have.
6.3. Soul Fragments
Soul Fragments are a unique Vengeance Demon Hunter mechanic. The baseline
ability comes from the 
Shattered Souls passive.
When you kill a target, there is a chance that a Soul Fragment will be created. This is an orb that is placed on the ground at a nearby location, which persists for up to 20 seconds. If you walk over it, you will consume the Soul Fragment, and be healed for a certain amount (2125% of your attack power in health). Only you can see and interact with your Soul Fragments.
Moreover, if a Soul Fragment comes from a Demon target, consuming it will also increase your damage done by 20% for 15 seconds.
In addition to these Soul Fragments, there are also Lesser Soul
Fragments. These have a chance to be created when you damage targets with
Shear, or with 
Immolation Aura (provided that you have the
Fallout talent), and using the 
Fracture talent also generates
2 Lesser Soul Fragments each time it is used. They work in exactly the same
way, but they heal you for a much smaller amount.
It is worth noting that each Soul Fragment or Lesser Soul Fragment you
generate if you already have 5 active will be instantly consumed. Moreover,
Spirit Bomb will consume all Soul Fragments within 25 yards.
One final mention worth making is that your Soul Cleave ability
will instantly consume all Soul Fragments (including Lesser ones) in a 25-yard
radius. The number of Soul Fragments that your Soul Cleave will consume is
indicated on your UI (on the Soul Cleave button). This is significant because,
given the frequency with which you use Soul Cleave, walking around to
manually collect Soul Fragments is simply not necessary. Note that any Soul
Fragments consumed by Soul Cleave (as well as by your 
Soul Barrier
talent) will still heal you and also properly trigger your
Fueled by Pain and 
Painbringer Artifact traits.
6.4. Pain Management
In general, Pain management is fairly simple. You should always avoid
reaching maximum Pain (try not to exceed 80) so as not to have any additional
Pain wasted, and you should also always keep some amount of Pain in reserve to
allow the use of Demon Spikes (20 Pain) and Soul Cleave.
6.5. In-Depth Ability Usage
In this section, we will go into more detail about some of the abilities mentioned above, as well as cover a number of other useful Vengeance Demon Hunter abilities.
6.5.1. Artifact Ability for Vengeance Demon Hunter
Soul Carver is your Artifact ability. It deals Fire damage to the
target and places a 3-second Fire damage DoT on them. The initial damage
creates 2 Lesser Soul Fragments, while the DoT creates 1 Lesser Soul Fragment
every second.
Since this ability does not result in immediate healing or damage
reduction, you should just use it on cooldown to increase your Soul Fragment
generation, which will then be used for other abilities or simply to
heal yourself. Whenever possible, you should stack it with
Fiery Brand, since due to your artifact traits, this will provide a
good self heal and DPS output.
6.5.2. Throw Glaive
Throw Glaive is a ranged attack that deals a moderate
amount of damage and generates a high amount of threat on its target, and which
can bounce to up to 2 additional targets within 10 yards, damaging them as
well.
Normally, this ability is not worth using in your rotation since
Shear is a more efficient use of your global cooldowns. The only
reason to use Throw Glaive is to pick up new targets (such as adds that have
just spawned) from afar.
6.5.3. Consume Magic
Consume Magic is a simple ranged single target interrupt with a
15-second cooldown. Successfully interrupting a spell generates 50 Pain. It
should be used as often as possible to benefit from the Pain it grants.
6.5.4. Sigils
Sigils are abilities that you cast a targeted location on the ground, and which produce an effect at that location 2 seconds later.
Sigil of Flame deals Fire damage to all enemies in the Sigil, and
places a 6-second Fire damage DoT on them as well.
Sigil of Chains pulls all enemies to the center of the Sigil and
snares them, reducing their movement speed by 70% for 6 seconds. Note that
this is a talent.
Sigil of Misery causes all enemies in the Sigil to cower in fear,
being disoriented for up to 30 seconds. This acts as an interrupt against
non-boss targets, since moving around causes them to stop their cast.
Sigil of Silence silences all enemies in the Sigil for 6 seconds.
6.6. Advanced Active Mitigation Usage
6.6.1. Demon Spikes
Demon Spikes is off the global cooldown, costs 20 Pain, and
increases your parry chance and reduces your Physical damage taken for 6
seconds. It has 2 charges and a 15-second recharge time (reduced by Haste).
You will normally want to have a minimum uptime of 40% (increased by Haste) on this ability, which means you always make sure one of its charges is on cooldown. Using Demon Spikes even when you are only taking melee attacks from a boss is perfectly acceptable.
The only reason you would ever want to have 2 charges available and not use them is if you know you will need to chain 2 Demon Spikes casts for a long period of continuous damage reduction in the near future.
It is important to speak here about the effects of the 
Razor Spikes
tier 1 talent. While Demon Spikes is active, Razor Spikes causes your
Physical damage dealt to be increased by 30%, and also causes your melee
attacks to reduce the movement speed of your targets by 50% for 6 seconds.
In order to maximise damage from this talent, it is best to pool Pain before
casting Demon Spikes. Specifically, you should try to get as close to
100 Pain as possible, without capping. Once you activate Demon Spikes, you
should follow this up with spamming Fracture against a single target,
or using Soul Cleave followed by Shear x3, and then Soul
Cleave again, in AoE situations. Ideally, you should cast your non-Physical
damage abilities outside of this 6-second window. You can still use
Infernal Strike, as it is off the global cooldown.
6.6.2. Soul Cleave
Soul Cleave has a variable Pain cost, from 25-50 (depending on how
much Pain you have when using it). It damages the enemies located in front
of you, heals you, and consumes all Soul Fragments in a
25-yard radius around you. The damage and healing (but not the healing from
consumed Soul Fragments) increase with any additional Pain past 30 that you
use Soul Cleave with.
Because Soul Fragments take some time to build up, the first Soul Cleave cast (after a break) will provide more healing than subsequent casts (which will have few or no Soul Fragments to consume), so this is important to keep in mind when relying on Soul Cleave for healing.
For maximising damage, using Soul Cleave with 60 Pain is recommended.
6.6.3. Empower Wards
Empower Wards is a very straightforward ability that reduces your
magic damage taken by 30% for 6 seconds, on a 20-second cooldown. Simply use
this ability any time it will reduce significant magic damage. Save it for
when you know large magic damage is coming.
When you unlock the 
Siphon Power Artifact trait, it is viable
to soak as much magic damage as possible in order to increase your Agility by
up to 15% for up to 16 seconds. In this case, the ability can be used as
either a defensive or an offensive cooldown.
6.6.4. Fiery Brand
Fiery Brand is a defensive ability, in fact more of a cooldown,
since it has an uptime of 8 seconds per minute, at most (10 seconds per minute
with the Demonic Flames Artifact trait).
Fiery Brand deals damage to the target, and debuffs them for 8 seconds,
causing them to deal 40% less damage to you. If you are using the
Burning Alive talent, then Fiery Brand also deals damage to its
target every 2 seconds over its duration, and with each tick it spreads to
a nearby enemy.
Without Burning Alive, Fiery Brand should practically always be saved for damage reduction against the primary target. That said, you should still look to maximise uptime, so do not hold on to it for too long. So, use it whenever the damage you are taking is not too low.
With Burning Alive, you should use the ability pretty much on cooldown, against multiple targets. This will not only result in high damage, but it will also apply the damage reduction to multiple enemies, reducing the overall damage you take. The only exception to this is if you are fighting multiple targets of which one deals particularly high damage at specific times, in which case you should still save Fiery Brand for then.
It is worth mentioning the Fiery Demise Artifact trait here.
It increases the amount of damage the enemy takes from your Fire damage
abilities while Fiery Brand is active. This only affects your actual
class abilities, and not other damage sources such as trinkets. In order to
maximise the effects of this trait, you should cast as many Fire damage
abilities as you can in the window when Fiery Brand is active (such as
Infernal Strike, Sigil of Flame, Immolation Aura,
etc.).
A simple version of the "rotation" you would use is as follows.
- Try to get as much Pain as possible, and about 4-5 Soul Fragments.
- Cast Spirit Bomb, then cast Fiery Brand.
- Cast Soul Carver.
- Cast Spirit Bomb.
- Cast Immolation Aura.
- If you have fewer than 4 Soul Fragments, cast Spirit Bomb.
Otherwise, cast Fracture to get Soul Fragments.
- Cast Sigil of Flame / Infernal Strike to maintain the
DoT.
- If you running out of Pain, use Shear.
If you are not using Spirit Bomb, then perform the following
rotation.
- Cast Sigil of Flame, then cast Fiery Brand as the Sigil is
about to activate.
- Cast Soul Carver.
- Cast Immolation Aura.
- Cast Infernal Strike to maintain the DoT.
- Cast
Fel Devastation, if you are using this talent. - Cast Fel Eruption, if you are using this talent.
Do not worry too much about over-capping Pain in this short period of time.
7. ChangeLog
- 29 Aug. 2017: Made wide-ranging updates to the rotation and various other small tweaks.
- 13 Jun. 2017: Updated the rotations.
- 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
- 09 Jan. 2017: Added a mention of the Razor Spikes talent and how it affects Demon Spikes, as well as of the Fiery Demise Artifact trait and how it affects Fiery Brand usage.
- 06 Nov. 2016: Added a mention of the Defensive Spikes Artifact trait in the Demon Spikes section.
- 25 Oct. 2016: Updated the range within which Soul Cleave consumes Soul Fragments to 20 yards, following patch 7.1 changes.
- 17 Oct. 2016: Removed a mention about Soul Cleave's main healing coming from Soul Fragments.
- 05 Sep. 2016: Fixed an error where we were omitting to mention that Fel Devastation heals even without the Charred Warblades trait.
- 04 Sep. 2016: Made various tweaks and changes to the guide to improve clarity.
- 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
- 14 Aug. 2016: Removed Darkness from the guide since this ability is no longer available to Vengeance Demon Hunters.
- 11 Aug. 2016: Added a mention that damage taken generates Pain, and added Sigil of Flame to the single target rotation.
- 06 Aug. 2016: Updated the Pain cost of Demon Spikes.
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