Vengeance Demon Hunter Tank Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.2.6

Last updated on Mar 19, 2024 at 21:00 by Meyra 54 comments
General Information

On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Vengeance Demon Hunter, depending on the type of damage you will be tanking. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to maximize your survivability and DPS. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.6.

1.

Rotation for Vengeance Demon Hunters

Welcome to the rotation guide for Vengeance Demon Hunter. Below, you will find the general priority of your abilities, as well as how your talent choices will affect the Rotation. Further down, you can find out how certain key talents interact with the rest of your toolkit, as well as how you best utilize them to their full potential. In the final section, you will also find advice on how to best approach your defensive toolkit.

If you are a beginner player or just new to Vengeance and want an easier guide to get started, please visit the Easy Mode page linked below. In it, you will find a more basic version of your Rotation. Once you are more comfortable with the spec and have a rough idea of how the abilities work together, you can review this page again for a more in-depth rotation.

1.1.

Best Talent Builds for Vengeance Demon Hunter in Dragonflight

We highly recommend you go and see what talent options you have available over on our talent page. Check out the dedicated Talents page below for different talent builds:

1.2.

Talent selection

Your Rotation will vary a lot depending on the talent choices you make. To start, select your talent choices below. If a talent is not presented below, it likely does not affect your Rotation enough to be mentioned. The links below will default the talent choices to those present in our recommended talent builds.

Heretic: Raid Talents Sigilweaver: Mythic+ Talents
Active Talents Passive Talents
Fracture Icon Fracture Soulcrush Icon Soulcrush
Spirit Bomb Icon Spirit Bomb Focused Cleave Icon Focused Cleave
The Hunt Icon The Hunt Fiery Demise Icon Fiery Demise
Soul Carver Icon Soul Carver Burning Alive Icon Burning Alive
Elysian Decree Icon Elysian Decree Down in Flames Icon Down in Flames
Felblade Icon Felblade Illuminated Sigils Icon Illuminated Sigils
Fallout Icon Fallout
Charred Flesh Icon Charred Flesh
2.

Best DPS Rotations for Vengeance Demon Hunter

Vengeance Explained Single-Target Rotation AoE Rotation
3.

Single-Target Rotation Goals for Vengeance Demon Hunter

  • Generating as much Fury as possible, in as little time as possible so as to be able to press Soul Cleave Icon Soul Cleave a lot.
  • Making sure you have a balance of not sitting at maximum Fury but also not wasting charges of Fracture Icon Fracture.
  • Not letting any of your abilities with cooldowns sit available for any extended periods of time.
4.

AoE Rotation Goals for Vengeance Demon Hunter

  • Generating as many Soul Fragments as possible so to be able to spend them on as many Spirit Bomb Icon Spirit Bomb as possible.
  • Making sure you are not going above 5 Soul Fragments intentionally too often, and to make sure to use Spirit Bomb Icon Spirit Bomb when at 4+ Soul Fragments.
  • Keeping Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame and all your other abilities on cooldown.
5.

Defensive sidenote for Vengeance Demon Hunter

The rotations will mention to use defensive abilities like Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand and Fel Devastation Icon Fel Devastation on cooldown. However, you will usually come across situations when you need to save them for mechanics. In situations like that, you skip past them in the Rotation until you will need them. Just make sure to try to not waste any potential uses of the abilities.

6.

Extra use case for Infernal Strike

In addition to your rotations, you can also make use of Infernal Strike Icon Infernal Strike (which is off the global cooldown) to deal additional damage. It is recommended to always keep at least 1 charge in reserve , however, unless the fight requires no movement whatsoever, in which case you can use up both charges.

7.

Single-Target Opener for Vengeance Demon Hunter in Dragonflight

  1. Pre-place Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame 1 second before pull
  2. Use Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis and Infernal Strike Icon Infernal Strike
  3. Use Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand
  4. Use Immolation Aura Icon Immolation Aura
  5. Use Felblade Icon Felblade
  6. Use Fracture Icon Fracture
  7. Use 3x Soul Cleave Icon Soul Cleave
  8. Use any Offensive On-Use trinket
  9. Use The Hunt Icon The Hunt
  10. Proceed with your normal Rotation according to the priority list below.
8.

Single-Target Rotation for Vengeance Demon Hunter

This priority list describes the optimal single-target Rotation for Vengeance Demon Hunter.

  1. Use Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand when you are close to reaching two stacks of Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand, or need a defensive for some mechanic. .
  2. Use Fel Devastation Icon Fel Devastation , when you have Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand applied to the target and more than 2 seconds remaining on the debuff.
  3. Use Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame, ideally without overcapping Fury , unless if the target already has Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame applied to it, in which case you only use Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame if you are about to reach two charges.
  4. Use Immolation Aura Icon Immolation Aura , when you have Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand or Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame applied to the target, or when both have more than 5 seconds of cooldown remaining.
  5. Use Soul Cleave Icon Soul Cleave to spend excess Fury and Soul Fragments.
  6. Use Throw Glaive Icon Throw Glaive as a filler or when you are not in range of your enemy.
9.

AoE Opener for Vengeance Demon Hunter

  1. Pre-place Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame 1 second before pull
  2. Use Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis and Infernal Strike Icon Infernal Strike
  3. Use Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand
  4. Use Immolation Aura Icon Immolation Aura
  5. Proceed with your normal Rotation according to the priority list below.
10.

AoE Rotation for Vengeance Demon Hunter

This priority list describes the optimal AoE rotation for Vengeance Demon Hunter.

  1. Use Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand when you are close to reaching two stacks of Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand, or need a defensive for some mechanic. .
  2. Use Fel Devastation Icon Fel Devastation, preferably when most enemies are affected by Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand.
  3. Use Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame unless Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame is already applied to your target. Ignore this rule and use Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame if you are about to reach two charges.
  4. Use Immolation Aura Icon Immolation Aura , preferably without overcapping too many Soul Fragments from Fallout Icon Fallout.
  5. Use Throw Glaive Icon Throw Glaive as a filler or when you are not in range of any enemy.
11.

Talents that alter your rotation

11.1.

Frailty

Dragonflight introduces a reworked version of the Frailty Icon Frailty mechanic. Depending on which talents are selected on the Vengeance Tree you it will be applied to all targets hit by Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame, Spirit Bomb Icon Spirit Bomb, or Soul Cleave Icon Soul Cleave.

With all related talents selected, each stack of Frailty Icon Frailty will give you 10% leech from all damage dealt to the target, 4% increased damage to the target, and reduce all damage taken from the target by 4%. Talenting into Soulcrush Icon Soulcrush allows you to stack multiple stacks. The duration of the stacks is independent of each other.

This allows you to utilize frailty as a damage cooldown. Whenever you are planning on using any of your strong offensive damaging abilities, you can pool Fury and use it all up on Spirit Bomb Icon Spirit Bomb and/or Soul Cleave Icon Soul Cleave to stack Frailty Icon Frailty on your targets, increasing the damage they take from your massive abilities by a significant amount.

11.2.

Fiery Demise

If you talent into Fiery Demise Icon Fiery Demise your Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand will now be an offensive cooldown on top of being a defensive cooldown. Several of your spells deal fire damage, and increasing the fire damage by up to 50% is a massive bonus.

When using Fiery Demise Icon Fiery Demise, you want to make sure that all your strong fire spells during the duration of your Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand. This includes Soul Carver Icon Soul Carver if talented, and Fel Devastation Icon Fel Devastation. Since Fel Devastation Icon Fel Devastation is usually also used for its defensive value. Ideally, you finish channeling it just as the initial Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand expires.

11.3.

The Hunt

The Hunt Icon The Hunt makes a comeback in Dragonflight after being a Covenant ability in Shadowlands. On paper, it is a very simple ability, press it, and you do damage. However, due to pathing issues and inconsistencies in enemy hit-boxes, the damage over time effect will sometimes struggle to apply to all enemies. This can be managed by moving around for a bit after the initial hit of the spell. There is a grace period of roughly half a second after hitting your target when you can move through other enemies to apply the effect.

12.

Active Mitigation for Vengeance Demon Hunter

As a Vengeance Demon Hunter, you have one active mitigation ability, Demon Spikes Icon Demon Spikes.

Demon Spikes Icon Demon Spikes should be used frequently to avoid and reduce Physical damage taken, even against simple auto-attacks. Always keep at least one of its charges rolling.

13.

Defensive Cooldowns for Vengeance Demon Hunter

As a Vengeance Demon Hunter, you have two defensive cooldowns in Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis and Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand, and two talents in Demonic Icon Demonic and Illuminated Sigils Icon Illuminated Sigils, which make Fel Devastation Icon Fel Devastation and Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame into defensive cooldowns.

Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis increases your current and maximum health by 50%, and your Armor by 200% for 15 seconds. It also enhances your Shear Icon Shear and Fracture Icon Fracture to generate 1 extra soul and 20 extra Fury. It has a 2-minute cooldown and no cost.

Fiery Brand Icon 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 (regardless if it is Physical or Magical damage). With Burning Alive Icon Burning Alive you can spread Fiery Brand Icon Fiery Brand to multiple enemies for a large amount of damage and defensive value.

The talent Demonic Icon Demonic will make Fel Devastation Icon Fel Devastation grant 7 seconds of Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis when you press it, making it a very potent defensive cooldown. It has a 1-minute cooldown and a 50-fury cost.

Illuminated Sigils Icon Illuminated Sigils makes attacks from targets affected by Sigil of Flame Icon Sigil of Flame 20% more likely to be Parried. This gives you a large amount of damage reduction against most physical attacks, which is usually the main damage source in Mythic+ dungeons.

Metamorphosis Icon Metamorphosis works best proactively to increase your health and armor in preparation for incoming damage and should generally not be used reactively as an emergency cooldown if possible.

14.

Taunting

Torment Icon 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.

15.

Soul Fragments

Soul Fragments are a unique Vengeance Demon Hunter mechanic. The baseline ability comes from the Shattered Souls Icon 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 and persists for up to 20 seconds. If you walk over it, you will consume the Soul Fragment, and be healed for a certain amount (348.075%% 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 Icon Shear, or with Immolation Aura Icon Immolation Aura (provided that you have the Fallout Icon Fallout talent), and using the Fracture Icon Fracture talent also generates 2 Lesser Soul Fragments each time it is used. They work in exactly the same way, but they heal for 6% of damage taken in the last 5 seconds, or a minimum of 1% of your Maximum Health.

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 Icon Spirit Bomb will consume all Soul Fragments within 100 yards.

16.

Changelog

  • 19 Mar. 2024: Updated a line to better reflect current single target priorities
  • 31 Jan. 2024: Fixed minor errors for a couple of spells.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 19 Dec. 2023: Updated a few rotational nuances.
  • 10 Nov. 2023: Updated so AoE Rotation now shows full rotation.
  • 08 Nov. 2023: Updated Rotation Switches for the Heretic Build.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 19 Jun. 2023: Updated Tier set interaction.
  • 01 May 2023: Updated with changes to rotation in patch 10.1
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Updated with minor changes to make things a bit more clear.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 10 Nov. 2022: Updated with minor changes for Dragonflight Pre-Patch.
  • 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Pre-Patch.
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