Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resource
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Movement Tools
    • 4.1. Movement Limitations
  • 5. Important Procs and Passives
  • 6. Offensive Cooldowns
  • 7. Additional Utility
  • 8. ChangeLog
• ×Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheet
    • 2.1. Open World, Levelling and Questing
    • 2.2. Raids
    • 2.3. Heavy AoE and Dungeons
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 99) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 100) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 102) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 104) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 106) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 108) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 110) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
    • 1.1. Early Progression
    • 1.2. Patch 7.2 Post 35 Trait Path
  • 2. Artifact Ability
  • 3. Relic Choice
    • 3.1. AoE Specific:
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Rotation
    • 1.1. Opening Rotation
  • 2. Multiple Target Rotation
  • 3. Important Notes
    • 3.1. Demonic Build Explained
    • 3.2. Tier 2 Talents Explained
      • 3.2.1. Demon Blades Explained
    • 3.3. Tier 5 Talents Explained
      • 3.3.1. Momentum
      • 3.3.2. Nemesis
      • 3.3.3. Fel Barrage explained
    • 3.4. Mobility vs. Damage
    • 3.5. Eye Beam Explained
    • 3.6. Fury of the Illidari Explained
  • 4. Cooldowns
    • 4.1. Metamorphosis
    • 4.2. Chaos Blades
  • 5. Core Concepts
    • 5.1. Movement Abilities and Talents
    • 5.2. Fury Management
      • 5.2.1. Fury Management with Demon Blades
  • 6. Tier 19 Set Bonuses
  • 7. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
    • 1.1. Breakpoints
    • 1.2. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 1.3. Statistics
    • 1.4. 7.2.5 Stat Changes
  • 2. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Demon Hunters
      • 1.1.1. Focus Interrupt Macro
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Demon Hunters
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.5. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.6. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
      • 2.1.7. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.8. Weak Auras
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Best in Slot List
    • 1.1. Trinkets
    • 1.2. Convergence of Fates & Cooldown Reduction
    • 1.3. Tier 19 & 20 Bonus Combinations
    • 1.4. Evaluating Upgrades with dynamic Item Levels
  • 2. Racial Bonuses
  • 3. Legendary Items
    • 3.1. 7.1.5 Legendaries
    • 3.2. 7.2 Legendaries
    • 3.3. 7.2.5 Legendaries
    • 3.4. Recommended Choices
  • 4. Loot Competition
  • 5. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Havoc Demon Hunters in World of Warcraft Legion 7.2.5. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.

The other pages of our Havoc Demon Hunter guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Kib, a lead theorycrafter for Havoc Demon Hunters, alongside playing in Strawberry Puppy Kisses in the world top 40. You can watch his stream on Twitch or follow him on Twitter.

1. Talent Choices

Level	Choices
99	✘ Fel Mastery	✔ Felblade	? Blind Fury
100	✘ Prepared	✔ Demon Blades	? Demonic Appetite
102	? Chaos Cleave	✔ First Blood	✘ Bloodlet
104	? Netherwalk	✔ Desperate Instincts	✔ Soul Rending
106	✔ Momentum	✘ Fel Eruption	✔ Nemesis
108	? Master of the Glaive	? Unleashed Power	? Demon Reborn
110	✔ Chaos Blades	? Fel Barrage	✔ Demonic

Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area (such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

2. Talent Cheat Sheet

Demon Hunters are presented with a huge variety in talent choices for different circumstances. Tailoring your build is key to getting the most out of your character, and reading the situation is just as important. However, even with this versatility, your builds tend to lean toward a fixed path, as an overwhelming number of talents synergise well together, as opposed to a mix and match method of selecting your choices.

2.1. Open World, Levelling and Questing

This build is very much focused upon your open world gameplay allowing for bonus resources when jumping between short encounters. It also grants additional tools for pulling extra enemies to kill quickly with burst, and more frequent sustain to keep yourself going.

• Level 99: Felblade
• Level 100: Demonic Appetite
• Level 102: First Blood
• Level 104: Soul Rending
• Level 106: Fel Eruption
• Level 108: Master of the Glaive
• Level 110: Demonic

2.2. Raids

If you are looking for the most effective group content talents, this will provide the highest output, synergising well with each other and playing into Raid encounter types much more consistently.

• Level 99: Felblade
• Level 100: Demon Blades
• Level 102: First Blood
• Level 104: Netherwalk
• Level 106: Nemesis
• Level 108: Master of the Glaive
• Level 110: Chaos Blades

2.3. Heavy AoE and Dungeons

Currently a powerful build focused around capitalizing on the Demonic window for Havoc can be extremely powerful in AoE situations. In particular in Mythic+ with many soul fragments being available, this can be incredibly powerful for consistent AoE.

• Level 99: Blind Fury
• Level 100: Demonic Appetite
• Level 102: Chaos Cleave
• Level 104: Soul Rending
• Level 106: Momentum
• Level 108: Demon Reborn
• Level 110: Demonic

3. Tier 1 (Level 99) Talents

✘ Fel Mastery

✔ Felblade

? Blind Fury

Tier 1 talents provide ways of augmenting your multi-target damage.

• Fel Mastery increases the damage of Fel Rush by 30%, and also grants 25 Fury when Fel Rush damages at least one target.
• Felblade grants an additional active ability that charges your target, dealing high Fire damage and generating 30 Fury. Demon's Bite casts or Demon Blades hits have a 20% chance to reset the cooldown. This has a 15 yard range and a 15-second cooldown.
• Blind Fury Increases the cast time and number of Eye Beam ticks by 50%, and causes it to generate 35 Fury every second.

The choice between Felblade and Blind Fury is dependant on encounter or content type, and whether or not you are leaning into the Demonic build, but both are strong options.

Blind Fury has strong applications for burst AoE, and syncs up very well with Demonic allowing for Fury to be generated leading into the window. When using the recommended Demonic build, this is crucial and a cornerstone of the spec.

Fel Mastery can be taken for short burst AoE increases and a small bump in reliable Fury generation, but it considered the weakest option on the tier.

4. Tier 2 (Level 100) Talents

✘ Prepared

✔ Demon Blades

? Demonic Appetite

Tier 2 talents grant additional ways to generate Fury.

• Prepared reduces the cooldown of Vengeful Retreat by 10 seconds, and if you damage at least one target also generates 100 Fury over 10 seconds.
• Demon Blades alters Demon's Bite which it replaces, adding a proc that has a 60% chance to activate from auto attacks, dealing additional Shadow damage and generating 12-20 Fury.
• Demonic Appetite grants Chaos Strike a chance to spawn a Lesser Soul Fragment, and consuming any Soul Fragment generates 30 Fury.

This tier is currently dominated by Demon Blades, and is only accentuated by certain legendaries such as Anger of the Half-Giants. This synergises the best with other powerful talents, and for raiding this will generally be a locked in choice.

Whilst Demonic Appetite is theoretically a powerful option at very high gear levels, the RNG built into the soul mechanic alongside positioning issues that can arise makes it far too much of an issue to realistically take. In situations where additional souls can be acquired such as dungeons however, this is definitely worth taking and works very well with Demonic.

Prepared is not significantly behind but is the worst choice of the three so is generally not taken.

5. Tier 3 (Level 102) Talents

? Chaos Cleave

✔ First Blood

✘ Bloodlet

Tier 3 talents add an additional rotational ability.

• Chaos Cleave causes Chaos Strike to deal an additional 10% damage to all nearby targets, including your primary target.
• First Blood reduces the cost of Blade Dance by 20 Fury and causes it to deal an additional 200% damage to the first target struck.
• Bloodlet causes Throw Glaive to deal an additional 150% of the initial damage dealt over 10 sec to all targets struck. Additional hits will add damage to the DoT.

First Blood is the ideal choice in single-target and if not taking the Demonic build, and usually is the preferred talent. Adding in a cheap but powerful Blade Dance into the rotation. This is even more powerful considering the 7.2 trait Bladedancer's Grace the Tier 20 bonuses, and the new Chaos Theory legendary cloak.

Chaos Cleave provides a simple boost: a flat 10% increase to your primary spender Chaos Strike in single target, alongside allowing it to deal a small amount of AoE damage per cast. This is used in the Demonic build for consistent AoE, and can be competitive considering Tier 19 set bonuses, but falls off immediately when Tier 20 is acquired or the legendary cloak Chaos Theory is used.

Bloodlet has uses when used in conjunction with the legendary bracers Mo'arg Bionic Stabilizers, but without these is outshined by both alternatives. This is made worse by many of the new effects in 7.2.5 focusing on Blade Dance, so this is generally not recommended.

6. Tier 4 (Level 104) Talents

? Netherwalk

✔ Desperate Instincts

✔ Soul Rending

Tier 4 talents augment your survivability tools.

• Netherwalk grants an additional ability that grants you 100% additional movement speed and immunity to damage for 5 sec, but you are pacified for the duration. This has a 2-minute cooldown.
• Desperate Instincts increases the damage reduction of Blur by 15%, raising it to 50%, and causes it to automatically trigger when you fall below 35% health for its regular effect. This cannot occur if it is already on cooldown.
• Soul Rending grants you 70% additional Leech whenever you are in a Metamorphosis state.

As this is a defensive tier the choice you make is mostly context specific on the encounter and what you need during it.

Soul Rending is the default choice in most situations on this tier as it adds additional free healing during your cooldown, and has good synergy with Demonic for extra uptime.

Desperate Instincts is also a solid choice augmenting Blur even further into being a very powerful damage reduction tool.

Netherwalk provides a seperate immunity tool that can be very useful if needed during an encounter, and as of 7.1.5 no longer impacts Blur making it a viable choice if needed for mechanics or high damage intensity moments in a fight.

7. Tier 5 (Level 106) Talents

✔ Momentum

✘ Fel Eruption

✔ Nemesis

Tier 5 talents give performance-enhancing tools.

• Momentum causes Fel Rush and Vengeful Retreat casts to grant 20% increased damage for 4 seconds.
• Fel Eruption deals massive damage to your target and stuns it for 2 seconds, dealing 100% additional damage to permanently stun immune targets. This costs 10 Fury, has a 20-yard range, and a 30-second cooldown.
• Nemesis increases your damage against the target by 25% for 1 minute. If the target is slain while active, you deal an additional 25% damage against creature types that match the original target (e.g Humanoid, Demon) for the remaining duration. This has a 50 yard range and a 2-minute cooldown.

Nemesis is the go to choice in single-target on the tier assuming you are able to effectively make use of the long duration damage increase window.

Momentum is still useable for AoE situations that push out Nemesis (generally at 3 consistent targets or above), and works very well when synced with Demonic on the 110 tier for those circumstances.

Fel Eruption does extremely high burst damage in a single global and could have some fringe uses due to the mini stun, but generally should be avoided.

8. Tier 6 (Level 108) Talents

? Master of the Glaive

? Unleashed Power

? Demon Reborn

Tier 6 talents provide situational tools.

• Master of the Glaive grants Throw Glaive 2 charges, and all targets hit by it are slowed by 50% for 6 seconds.
• Unleashed Power removes the Fury cost of Chaos Nova and reduces its cooldown by 33%.
• Demon Reborn causes your Eye Beam, Chaos Nova and Blur cooldowns to be reset when you invoke Metamorphosis (note this is not triggered by the talent Demonic).

All three options here are utility choices that can have some fringe benefits, but mostly will not have a significant impact.

Demon Reborn can have some uses when you require a double burst of Eye Beam in large scale AoE, or an additional use of Blur for damage reduction in high stress periods but outside of that is not worth the talent point as it is tied to your strongest damage cooldown. Unleashed Power can be taken in circumstances that require more frequent AoE stuns, alongside the added bonus of removing the Fury cost. Master of the Glaive if taking Bloodlet is required, but otherwise is only useful if ranged slows are needed.

9. Tier 7 (Level 110) Talents

✔ Chaos Blades

? Fel Barrage

✔ Demonic

Tier 7 talents augment your burst damage and cooldowns.

• Chaos Blades increases all damage dealt by 30% and changes auto attack damage school to Chaos, as well as increasing their damage by 200% for 18 seconds. This has a 2-minute cooldown.
• Fel Barrage deals high Chaos damage to your target and any nearby enemies based over 2 seconds (channelled). This has a 1 minute cooldown and a 30 yard range; and all damaging attacks have a chance reduce the cooldown by 5 seconds
• Demonic causes Eye Beam to grant 8 seconds of your Metamorphosis form when the cast ends.

Your decision on this tier depends on the encounter type. In single target and burst situations, Chaos Blades is your go-to talent, however in multiple-target burst fights Fel Barrage will outperform it.

Demonic is incredibly powerful in AoE situations and dungeons that allow you to consistently activate it. In situations where extra souls are available, due to the cooldown reduction of Feast on the Souls these windows can be even more frequent and as such this is a build defining talent if taken. Note that this also does not interact with Demon Reborn.

10. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 15 Jun. 2017: Clarified Chaos Cleave's place vs. First Blood.
• 10 Jun. 2017: Updated for Patch 7.2.5 talent changes and choices following patch changes.
• 18 May 2017: Clarified talents regarding Bloodlet in conjunction with legendary bracers in single target.
• 28 Mar. 2017: Added note for Bloodlet regarding legendary bracer change.
• 10 Jan. 2017: Updated a large number of sections to reflect the changes in builds with the Chaos Cleave reduction to 10% and Demon Blades down to 60%. Added in Demonic recommendation.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Rewrote most of the talent assessments following changes in Patch 7.1.5.
• 25 Oct. 2016: Rewrote Level 100 talent explanations, following the change to Demon Blades in Patch 7.1.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 09 Aug. 2016: Rewrote Level 100 talent assessments following Demon Blades' nerf.