Vengeance Demon Hunter Tank Spec, Builds, and Talents — 12.0.5

Below, you will find talents recommended for a variety of content. While the talents below suggest specific hero talents, the reality for Vengeance is that the base talents do not change all too much depending on your choice of Hero Talents, and if you have a preference for either Hero Talent Tree, you can switch between them without the regular talents needing a significant amount of shifts, the only major thing is to make sure you have Sigil of Spite talented with any build as Aldrachi Reaver.

The talents below only show a few variations of the overall choices, and it might happen that any specific Raid encounter or Mythic+ dungeon might encourage switching your talents around. The links below take you to our dedicated pages where you can find Mythic+ specific information.

Considering the varied Talent builds recommended for different types of content, there is also going to be some variation in your rotation. Visit the rotation page linked below to figure out more about how your rotation works.

2.

Vengeance Demon Hunter Talent Builds

Choose a Hero Tree to see builds below

Hero Talents
Aldrachi Reaver	Annihilator

Aldrachi Reaver Annihilator
Raid / Single-Target Aldrachi Reaver Annihilator
Mythic+ Weekly Keys Aldrachi Reaver Annihilator
Mythic+ High Keys Aldrachi Reaver Annihilator
Delves Build

3.

Aldrachi Reaver Annihilator Raid / Single-Target Build

With current tuning Aldrachi Reaver appears slightly behind in pure single-target damage, while also featuring a slightly more punishing rotation, it also loses slightly more damage and defensive value when you are forced out of melee range of enemies. The raid build focuses primarily on offensive value, taking defensive and mobility nodes to fill out the tree. Last Resort is opted out for Soul Carver for a small offensive gain, but if you want to have a cheat death effect, especially if you are finding content tough, you can switch Soul Carver to Last Resort.

With current tuning Annihilator offers the best single-target damage, with heavy burst damage centered around Metamorphosis and syncing up Fiery Brand with the bursts around Voidfall and potential Apex procs of Untethered Rage. It is also loses less damage by being forced out of melee range since more of your damage is centered around your cooldown windows. The raid build focuses primarily on offensive value, taking defensive and mobility nodes to fill out the tree. Last Resort is opted out for Soul Carver for a small offensive gain, but if you want to have a cheat death effect, especially if you are finding content tough, you can switch Soul Carver to Last Resort.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into the game!

3.

Aldrachi Reaver Annihilator Mythic+ Weekly Keys Build

Aldrachi Reaver has some things going for it in weekly Mythic+ dungeons. However, it is not as strong offensively as Annihilator, and targets generally do not live long enough for the funnel potential of Wounded Quarry to really begin to shine until you get into higher Mythic+ levels, and the damage intake is not high enough for the increased generation of Soul Fragments to make Aldrachi Reaver a much tankier option either. The Dungeon build still picks up a few extra defensive nodes that come at fairly low offensive costs such as Feed the Demon, Calcified Spikes, and Last Resort. These talents can be exchanged for small offensive gains if you wish.

Annihilator offers an extremely potent cooldown centered damage profile around Metamorphosis and syncing up Fiery Brand with the bursts around Voidfall and potential Apex procs of Untethered Rage, allowing you to pull aggressively around your and your groups cooldowns for very fast paced Weekly Mythic+ dungeons. It has the potential to deal more damage than Aldrachi Reaver, and while it lacks some of the healing capabilities of Aldrachi Reaver it makes up with relatively strong passive defensive nodes including World Killer which gives cooldown reduction on Metamorphosis. For these reasons it is recommended in most Mythic+ situations.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

3.

Aldrachi Reaver Annihilator Mythic+ High Keys Build

Aldrachi Reaver has some things going for it in Higher Mythic+ Key levels. While it is not as strong offensively as Annihilator, once targets start to live long enough for the funnel potential of Wounded Quarry really begins to shine as you get into higher Mythic+ levels. Defensively it scales well with increased damage intake due to the high generation of Soul Fragments which makes Aldrachi Reaver a fairly self-sufficient specialization. However, despite all of these things it still underperform Annihilator to a degree where it is not the recommended Hero Talent for higher Mythic+ keys.

This build picks up some increased utility in Sigil of Chains, due to the large amount of enemies in the current Season 1 dungeon pool that are immune to Sigil of Misery.

Annihilator offers an extremely potent cooldown centered damage profile around Metamorphosis and syncing up Fiery Brand with the bursts around Voidfall and potential Apex procs of Untethered Rage, allowing you to pull aggressively around your and your groups cooldowns. It has the potential to deal more damage than Aldrachi Reaver, and while it lacks some of the healing capabilities of Aldrachi Reaver it makes up with relatively strong passive defensive nodes including World Killer which gives cooldown reduction on Metamorphosis which combined with Untethered Rage can lead to a pretty significant amount of Metamorphosis uptime against both hard hitting Bosses and large dangerous trash pulls.

This build picks up some increased utility in Sigil of Chains, due to the large amount of enemies in the current Season 1 dungeon pool that are immune to Sigil of Misery.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

3.

Aldrachi Reaver Annihilator Delve Build

Aldrachi Reaver takes advantage of its great self-sustain to power through Midnight Delves, and can make use of smaller enemies to take out more dangerous targets through Wounded Quarry. These tools make it more than capable to manage by its own in Delves. This build has also opted into most mobility nodes.

Annihilator utilizes the very strong burst damage profile around Metamorphosis and Mass Acceleration to allow you to quickly take care of large groups of enemies in Midnight Delves before they pose a serious danger. While it does fall slightly behind on self-sustain it provides good damage to let you quickly finish Delves without spending all too much time doing so. This build has also opted into most mobility nodes.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

The Vengeance Demon Hunter Apex Talent is the new feature introduced in the Midnight expansion, a single node where you can spend up to four of the new Specialization talent points you unlock as you level to 90. For Vengeance Demon Hunter the Apex Talents effectively have two functions, to empower our spenders in Soul Cleave and Spirit Bomb, and to make casting them have a chance to give us extra uses of Metamorphosis with slightly shorter duration. Below is a list of how each point invested work, and then some discussion how it affects our gameplay.

1. Untethered Rage — Consuming Soul Fragments with Spirit Bomb or Soul Cleave have a chance to grant Untethered Rage, giving a second charge of Metamorphosis which will last 12 seconds. The chance increases with the amount of Soul Fragments consumed.
2. Untethered Rage — Two point node. The first point allows Spirit Bomb and Soul Cleave to consume an extra Soul Fragment. Each point further increases the damage bonus from consuming Soul Fragments by 5% per Soul Fragment, for 10% total.
3. Untethered Rage — When a cast of Spirit Bomb or Soul Cleave does not grant Untethered Rage, you gain 1 stack of Seething Anger, granting 1% Agility and a higher chance of activating Untethered Rage. The stacks last for 12 seconds and do not refresh duration after getting a Untethered Rage proc.

These are all strong effects, and generally recommended in all content forms once they are available. They have relatively passive, but yet noticeable effects on gameplay, with Untethered Rage and Untethered Rage giving us more uptime on Metamorphosis which gives us higher defensive uptime and allows us to use our defensives for offensive value more frequently.

Untethered Rage is also very interesting since it increases the amount of Soul Fragments consumed by Spirit Bomb and Soul Cleave, which in turn increases the chance for Untethered Rage to activate.

For Annihilator the Apex nodes is especially interesting since activating Metamorphosis granted by Untethered Rage still activates effects like Mass Acceleration and Dark Matter. Making it an even more potent effect.

Vengeance has two distinct Hero Talent choices available that, as covered in the above sections, drastically alter your gameplay goals depending on which you pick. These two Hero Talents are Aldrachi Reaver and Annihilator.

Aldrachi Reaver focuses very heavily on the consumption of Soul Fragments to grant access to Reaver's Glaive which is the foundation of the entire Hero tree. Wounded Quarry grants a very strong funnel profile, where fighting more enemies lets you increase the damage you deal to a priority target. This can be useful in both raid in fights with many enemies as well as in Mythic+ to deal a lot of damage to dangerous enemies and bosses. The defensive profile of Aldrachi Reaver is incredibly focused on healing, making it a strong choice for self-sustain, it does lack tools to mitigate damage from large hits to compensate for this.

Annihilator is designed around building Voidfall stacks with Fracture which you then consume to rain down meteors on enemies once you reach 3 stacks. Annihilator excels in dealing strong, bursty damage around Metamorphosis thanks to the Mass Acceleration talent, especially if you buff the damage with Fiery Demise. The defensive profile has two parts, one through passive stat bonuses from talents like Swift Erasure, Phase Shift and extending them with Final Hour. The second major part of Annihilator is World Killer which reduces the cooldown of Metamorphosis by 10 seconds whenever you call down a set of three meteors which in itself enhances the loop through Mass Acceleration.

You have the option to enter into "War Mode" in your Factions Capital city. Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:

• Grants access to PvP talents in the open-world.
• 10% increase in World Quest rewards at max level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.
• Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will enable yourself for open-world PvP and the possibility, so be aware of hostile enemy players who could interfere with you, and this is a risk you will have to take.

Generally, the selections are made to optimize your ability to kill enemies faster, increasing your pace when moving through content.

1. 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.
2. Jagged Spikes reflects damage back to the attacker for 30% of the damage received when Demon Spikes is active.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Detainment increases the duration of Imprison by 1 second and makes the imprisoned target immune to damage and healing. This Talent is amazing for arenas and battlegrounds, but it should not be picked for leveling. Imprisoning a target while using this Talent will put you into combat and prevent monster skipping in PvE content.
6. Unending Hatred increases Fury generation based on magic damage received. Larger attacks will increase the Fury generation. This Talent is quite situational and should not be used in normal content.
7. 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.
8. 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 cooldown with Infernal Strike. This ability is very strong in battlegrounds to remove snares and for pseudo-crowd control with the knockdown.
9. Sigil Mastery reduces the cooldown of sigils by 25%. This Talent should not be used.
10. Reverse Magic removes all harmful magic effects on you and all allies within 10 yards and, if possible, returns them to their caster. It has a 1-minute cooldown.
11. Blood Moon empowers your Consume Magic to now affect all enemies within 8 yards of the target and grants 5% leech for 5 seconds after using it.
12. Chaotic Imprint makes your Throw Glaive deal damage from a random school of magic, leaving a mark increasing their damage taken from that school by 10% for 20 seconds.
13. Cover of Darkness increases the radius of Darkness by 4 yards and increases its duration by 2 seconds.
14. Rain from Above launches you up in the air and grants access to Fel Lance allowing you to deal damage to enemies on the ground.
15. Glimpse grants you immunity to loss of control effects while under the effect of Vengeful Retreat and reduces damage taken by 35% until you land.