Vengeance Demon Hunter Tank Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 4. Contents
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. Active Mitigation and Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resource
  • 3. Basic Abilities
    • 3.1. Movement
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. Active Mitigation
  • 6. Cooldowns
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 99) Talents
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 100) Talents
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 102) Talents
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 104) Talents
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 106) Talents
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 108) Talents
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 110) Talents
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
  • 2. Relic Choice
    • 2.1. Survivability
    • 2.2. DPS
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Rotation
  • 2. Multiple Target Rotation
  • 3. Active Mitigation
  • 4. Defensive Cooldowns
  • 5. Taunting
  • 6. Optional Read: Mastering Your Vengeance Demon Hunter
    • 6.1. Pain
    • 6.2. Mastery: Fel Blood
    • 6.3. Soul Fragments
    • 6.4. Pain Management
    • 6.5. In-Depth Ability Usage
      • 6.5.1. Artifact Ability
      • 6.5.2. Throw Glaive
      • 6.5.3. Consume Magic
      • 6.5.4. Sigils
    • 6.6. Advanced Active Mitigation Usage
      • 6.6.1. Demon Spikes
      • 6.6.2. Soul Cleave
      • 6.6.3. Empower Wards
      • 6.6.4. Fiery Brand
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
    • 1.1. Survivability
    • 1.2. Damage Output
    • 1.3. Dungeons
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Preface
  • 2. Gems
  • 3. Enchants
  • 4. Consumables
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Demon Hunters
      • 1.1.1. Focus Interrupt Macro
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Vengeance Demon Hunters
      • 1.2.1. Blessing of Protection Cancelaura Macro
      • 1.2.2. Mouseover Taunt 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. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.6. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.7. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Vengeance Demon Hunters
      • 2.2.1. Omen Threat Meter
• ×Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Best in Slot List
  • 2. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 3. Legendary Items
  • 4. Loot Competition
  • 5. ChangeLog

General Information

This page is a gear reference for Vengeance Demon Hunters. It lists your best items and Legendaries, gives you gearing advice, and shows you how you will be competing for loot with other classes.

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 Munkky, a respected Vengeance Demon Hunter theorycrafter.

1. Best in Slot List

For the moment, we are not providing a best in slot list for Vengeance Demon Hunters, and instead recommend that you select the best pieces of gear you can depending on your stat priority of choice. That said, we will discuss trinkets below, since evaluating these is more difficult.

To begin with, we should mention Infernal Contract, which can be used in specific scenarios where you need to absorb a large hit. You should be prepared to cancel the effect early (as soon as you have stopped being in danger) and to then use cooldowns or have the other tank hold onto the boss while your damage taken increase runs its course.

For the other trinkets, we list them below, in order, with additional notes where relevant.

1. Excellent
   1. Archimonde's Hatred Reborn
   2. Darkmoon Deck: Immortality (for all fights except Krosus and Star Augur Etraeus)
   3. Bloodthirsty Instinct (mostly for Mythic+)
   4. Writhing Heart of Darkness (only if you have a very high item level version, and it is better on single target)
   5. Infernal Contract (if you have an extra cooldown available to counteract the negative effect of the trinket)
   6. Shivermaw's Jawbone (in dungeons or for heavy AoE damage)
   7. Goblet of Nightmarish Ichor (for the Krosus and Star Augur Etraeus encounters)
   8. Majordomo's Dinner Bell (if gearing for Versatility for burst damage survival)
2. Very Good
   1. Grotesque Statuette (only if it is a high item level, only against a single target, and only when you can get it to stack)
   2. Goblet of Nightmarish Ichor (if your strategy allows for high uptime)
   3. Unbridled Fury (only if it is a high item level and you want an extra cooldown)
   4. Unstable Arcanocrystal
   5. Stat sticks
   6. Coagulated Nightwell Residue
   7. Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 601 (for sustained multiple target tanking)
   8. Valor Medal of the First War (for an extra physical damage cooldown)
   9. Impenetrable Nerubian Husk (only if solo tanking or doing dungeons)
3. Good
   1. Chrono Shard
   2. Raven Eidolon
   3. Infernal Alchemist Stone
   4. Memento of Angerboda
   5. Phantasmal Echo
   6. Horn of Valor
4. Decent
   1. Nature's Call
   2. Parjesh's Medallion
   3. Talisman of the Cragshaper
   4. Ravaged Seed Pod
   5. Inescapable Dread

2. Tier 20 Set Bonuses

The 2-piece Tier 20 Set Bonus is a must-have for all content. It provides an almost permanent 5% damage done reduction to your enemies, which does not stack.

The 4-piece Set Bonus cause you to gain 2,000 Versatility for 8 seconds when you use Soul Cleave, which stacks twice. The exact value of this bonus remains to be seen.

The Tier 19 Set Bonuses are not generally going to be worth keeping long into Tomb of Sargeras.

3. Legendary Items

Legendary items have a high item level of 970, which makes them extremely strong. They are so strong, in fact, that a legendary item is always going to be worth equipping over any other item you might have in that slot.

However, there is a limitation on the number of legendary items you can have equipped at any one time (by default 1, but by now most players should be able to equip 2). Since some legendary items are better than others, if you have more items than the limit, you will have to choose which ones to equip.

Below, we will do our best to guide you through this process, as well as provide any other relevant information.

Oblivion's Embrace is a decent all-around legendary, primarily for the extra charge of Demon Spikes, which works very well with Demonic Infusion. This will be one of the best legendaries for raiding, especially on fights where you want more Demon Spikes uptime. The extra Empower Wards is very niche and only provides one extra per fight, which is meant as an aid.

Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus seems to be one of the strongest legendaries for survivability. Since the effect is triggered even out of combat, you can go into the fight with the shield it provides active, and close to the 30-second mark (for the next shield application), which provides you with a large damage absorption shield at the start of the fight.

Spirit of the Darkness Flame is quite good in AoE situations. It can provide a decently-sized heal with full stacks, especially if it is a critical strike. In single target situations, it is not a very good choice, where Cinidaria, the Symbiote overtakes it. This legendary works very well in combination with Kirel Narak, Flame Crash, and Abyssal Strike, allowing you to get maximum uses out of it. In general, this should be used for the heal rather than the damage it provides.

Cloak of Fel Flames is best used or Magic damage fights. You can save Immolation Aura as a magic damage cooldown, however it is probably best to just use it on cooldown for maximum DPS and Pain generation. All in all, you should probably switch this around so you only use it for Magic damage fights, but you could also use it all the time since most fights have some Magic damage component.

Archimonde's Hatred Reborn is probably the strongest legendary item for DPS gain. It snapshots your Metamorphosis stats, so it will most likely be best used at the end of a Fueled by Pain proc in order to maximise the shield and damage. The cooldown also lines up fairly well with Fueled by Pain's 1 RPPM. This does not proc Charred Warblades, as it is not a Demon Hunter spell, however Fiery Demise does buff it. This also procs Leech effects, such as Soul Rending.

Runemaster's Pauldrons causes Metamorphosis to reset the remaining cooldown on all your Sigils and Empower Wards, and grants you 1 charge of Demon Spikes. While this legendary seems appealing, the fact is that you will probably not need to use either Demon Spikes or Empower Wards during Metamorphosis, and they would probably have recharged on their own in that time anyway. All in all, it is one of the worst legendaries.

Soul of the Slayer provides the Fallout talent, which essentially means you get to take Burning Alive. This will only be used in high Mythic+ where you want both talents. Overall, this is a fairly weak legendary and there are better options.

Cinidaria, the Symbiote does essentially nothing for your survivability but it is still reasonably good for DPS.

Sephuz's Secret is a good choice for situations where you can regularly interrupt mobs, particularly in dungeons.

Fragment of the Betrayer's Prison provides a significant benefit, especially once you have the 4-piece Tier 19 Set Bonus.

The Defiler's Lost Vambraces is one of the strongest choices in dungeons. It reduces the remaining cooldown of one of your sigils, at random, so you can game it by making sure that only the sigil you want is on cooldown.

Kirel Narak is also strong for dungeon content. You should pair this with the Burning Alive talent, turning it into an excellent legendary for Mythic+ progression content. You can also use it without Burning Alive, just for the damage increase. If used together with the legendary hands Spirit of the Darkness Flame), you can use Fiery Brand multiple times in a pull for a massive heal and damage increase.

4. Loot Competition

Regarding the loot you will get from raid or dungeon bosses, you will compete with other classes in the following cases:

Item Type	Competing Classes
Tier Tokens	Havoc Demon Hunters, Paladins, Priests, and Warlocks
Leather Armor	Havoc Demon Hunters, Druids, Monks, and Rogues
Amulets Cloaks Rings	Everyone
Trinkets	Blood Death Knights, Guardian Druids, Protection Paladins, and Protection Warriors

5. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 13 Jun. 2017: Updated the legendary ranking and added Tier 20 Set Bonus recommendations.
• 27 Mar. 2017: Updated trinket rankings.
• 18 Jan. 2017: Improved the trinket recommendations and tier set discussion.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated the BiS list and the legendary item discussion.
• 06 Nov. 2016: Revamped the trinket recommendations.
• 28 Sep. 2016: Added BiS recommendations for Emerald Nightmare.
• 06 Sep. 2016: Added pre-raid BiS recommendations.
• 04 Sep. 2016: Tweaked the legendary item rankings.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.