Demon Hunter specializing in Vengeance is something like a tank but it also uses the magic of Fel, Fire, and physical power to protect the allies from enemies. At the moment, only elves have acquired this demonic art so there is no option regarding your race – Blood Elves for the Horde, and Night Elves for the Alliance.
Introduction
Let’s take a closer look at the strongest and the weakest points of this class specializing in Vengeance
Advantage:
- Nice protection from physical damage
- One of the strongest tanks in terms of dps, especially in AoE
- Nice mobility
- Multiple control options efficient against a group of enemies
Disadvantages:
- Not that great about magic damage
- No opportunity to survive huge burst damage of any type
Basic information on the spec:
This spec uses two main resources – Pain (an analog to Havoc’s or Warriors’ Fury) and Soul Fragments that are used to restore Health. This tank’s main concept is a balance of incoming damage reduction and health restoring.
Glossary
Main abilities
Talents
General information. On achieving several new levels you’ll get access to new talent ‘Tiers’. Talents may have different effect on abilities: add new features, replace old ones, modify passively different effects and spells. Talents can be changed in Sanctuaries or any recreational zones. However, if you don’t have any of those places nearby you can use the Codex of the Tranquil Mind which allows you to switch channels within a minute. You can’t change talents in combat. You can’t change a talent if the talent you’ve picked in the last Tier is on Cooldown. You’ll have to wait until it’s restored first.
Tier 1. Lvl 99.
- Abyssal Strike increases the action zone of the Inferno Leap by 10m, and decreases the restoring time by 8 secs. At the moment, this is the best option in terms of both dps and survival.
- Agonizing Flames. When Immolation Aura is active, your running speed is 30% higher, and the Aura does 20% more damage. It makes an okay choice if you need extra mobility.
- Razor Spikes. Your physical attacks do 15% more damage and your enemies’ running speed goes 20% down with active Demon Spikes. The effect lasts 6 secs. The worst choice in this tie
Tier 2. Lvl 100.
- Feast of Souls provides you for 6 secs with a minor additional heal after your Soul Cleave. The weakest talent on the Tier.
- Fallout. The instant damage from your Immolation Aura may shake a small Soul Fragment out of the targets you’ve hit. The best talent as of both dps and survival on any target count.
- Burning Alive. Gets your Fiery Brand, while active, to do Fire Damage once every 2 secs and spread on to the nearest enemy. The talent could do great if you need extra decrease in the incoming damage on several targets.
Tier 3. Lvl 102.
- Flame Crush. On landing, Infernal Strike activates Sigil of Flame. The best talent on the Tier on any target count in terms of both dps and survival.
- Charred Flesh. Fiery Brand increases Fire damage your abilities deal to the target by 20%. A good dps talent for a single target but it is worse than Flame Crash, and not used on AOE.
- Felblade is an additional Pain generator. Does Fire damage. Your attacks have a chance to instantly finish the restoring of this ability. This does not really go along with the Demon Hunter gameplay as every GCD should be spent on generating Pain and Soul Fragments, or on healing with the help of Fragments or Fire damage.
Tier 4. Lvl 104.
- Soul Rending. With active Metamorphosis, the self-healing is 25% higher. Also increases self healing passively by 5%. This talent is great for dungeons since it helps you get a burst heal thanks to Metamorphosis. But the overall heal is less than that of Fracture.
- Feed the Demon – consuming Soul Fragments decreases the restoring time of Demon Spikes by 0.5 sec. This talent hasn’t proven any good in any situation.
- Fracture. Replaces Shear Deals damage and shatters 2 Lesser Soul fragments. Has 2 charges and 4.5 sec cooldown (haste amount reduces cooldown) The best choice in tier for Soul fragments.
Tier 5. Lvl 106.
- Concentrated Sigils – all Sigils use your location, and their effect is 2 seconds longer. This talent is only to be used if you’re interested in Sigil of Flame.
- Quickened Sigils – all Sigils are activated 1 sec faster, and their restoring time is 20% shorter. Nice pick for Mythic+ when you need may enemies controlled.
- Sigil of Chains – 2 seconds after casting, all the enemies hit by it get pulled together in the center. This is basically a mass-grip.
Tier 6. Lvl 108.
- Gluttony. Consuming a Soul fragment has a chance to activate Metamorphosis for 5 sec. It is a random trait that is not very useful.
- Spirit Bomb consumes all the Soul Fragments within the 25-m range applying Frailty to all the enemies near you for 20 secs. It also does Fire damage to them, depending on the amount of spent Soul Fragments. You restore your Health as in 10% of all the incoming damage from Frailty affected enemies. This is the best talent in terms of both survival and dps. However, with the target count below 3, Soul Cleave gives better burst heal.
- Fel Devastation is a supported spell that does some nice damage on the cone, and heals you, too. Pick it if you need dps once a min and a burst heal. In any other case, Spirit Bomb would be a better choice.
Tier 7. Lvl 110.
- Last Resort is a Cheat Death. A fatal attack would not kill you but will restore 30% of your max HP, and Metamorphosis kicks in for free. After that, a debuff informing you that over the next 8 min the Last Resort is not working, is cast. Death cancels this effect. If Last Resort kicks in during active Metamorphosis, its effect is simply prolonged. This is a universal talent perfect for trying out new raids. Helps you save your Resurrection or con some mechanics. This is also a great choice for whenever you are unacquainted with the encounter and simply have no clue what might kill you.
- Void Reaver. Enemies struck by Soul Cleave, deal 6% less damage to you for 12 sec. It is a good m+ talent if you are sure in your healers and yourself.
- Soul Barrier allows you to wear damage-consuming shield for 12 secs. Demands 10 Pain. It also gobbles all Soul Fragments within the 25-m range. With each Soul Fragment, the shield gets stronger. It is amazing in cases where you get a lot of magic damage as the talent’s CD is only 30 secs.
* In this Tier, the choice is completely up to you. Just go from whatever your encounter demands.
So we have next build:
Azerite traits
In BFA typical sets were removed and Azerite armor took their place. Now every chest/helmet/shoulders have a few rings for traits.
- Infernal Armor. Immolation Aura increases your armor and causes melee attackers to take fire damage. DH has a problem with tanking face to face so any additional armor is good. Besides the attackers receive additional damage with this trait. Preferably to have it 2-3 of it .
- Rigid Carapace. Demon Spikes increases your armor every 1 sec for 10 sec. The same mechanic as Infernal Armor, but the more armor the easier to tank packs and less time to spend to kite them. So this trait grants us more damage, less need to move and other bonus from a pack being in one spot.
- Revel in Pain. Fiery Brand now lasts 10 sec. When Fiery Brand expires on your primary target you gain a shield that absorbs damage for 15 sec based on your damage dealt while Fiery Brand was active. A very good trait on a single target that can grant a shield almost every minute.
- Hour of Reaping. Lesser soul fragments restore additional health, and every 40 Spul fragments you consume cause your next Soul Cleave to grant you a Soul Barrier. Just a good talent that increases self heal and sometimes grants you a shield. It is recommend to have a few of it in mythic+.
Essences
MAJOR
- Azeroth’s Undying Gift (Source: Eternal Palace drop) for Raid
- Anima of Life and Death (Source: Mythic+ dungeons) or Sphere of Suppression for mythic+ or AoE tanking
- The Crucible of Flame (Source: Heart of Azeroth level) dps choice
MINOR
- Nullification Dynamo (Source: Mechagon Reputation) or Conflict and Strife (Source: Rated PvP) for raids
- Nullification Dynamo (Source: Mechagon Reputation) / Azeroth’s Undying Gift (Source: Eternal Palace drop) / Aegis of the Deep for mythic+ or AoE tanking
Gameplay
Let’s view 2 key points: using your abilities for dps and using defensive cooldowns.
Remember one rule that will make you survive a lot: Start the fight with already activated Demon Spikes. Metamorphosis is better not used off a pool. It’s a quite powerful CD which is better saved for the worst of times. If you can rely only on yourself then start the fight with Demon Spikes half a second before pull.
Now let’s see priorities for dps:
- Soul Carver per CD, so that the souls do not overcap.
- Fracture, if you need Pain and Soul fragments.
- If you’ve got Spirit Bomb, use it on 4-5 Fragments
- Sigil of Flame per CD.
- If you’ve got Flame Crush, use Infernal Strike to support the dot’s max uptime off the Sigil of Flame.
- Soul Cleave, if you need more heal than Spirit Bomb gives you.
As for dps, it would be great if you could sync up Soul Carver with Fiery Brand but keep in mind that the Brand is first of all a defensive CD for you, so using it for dps is quite the risk.
Infernal Strike is great for dps, like it was said before, particularly if you have Flame Crush. But never forget that you may need to change your location sharply at any moment. That’s why for this ability it is recommended to keep one charge to spare, just in case. If you are absolutely sure that you’re not going to need to relocate, then use 2 charges to maximize dps.
Active mitigation and defensive abilities:
Vengeance Demon Hunter possesses 3 active mitigation abilities:
- Demon Spikes smoothen the incoming damage physical damage. It is used rather often, even against just enemy’s powerful auto-attacks. One charge better be kept, just in case.
- Soul Cleave allows you to restore the lost health. It is utilized if you need to restore middle or high amounts of HP..
- Fiery Brand decreases all the damage your target does to you by 40%. Use it on a powerful target you expect to do massive damage. It’s better used in advance than on the go, but stuff happens.
Demon Hunter has one powerful defensive CD:
- Metamorphosis increases your max HP, your armor, allows you to increase Pain generation and create Soul Fragments per each GCD. This is a very multi-functional CD providing you with HP to survive anything, with armor protecting you from physical damage and a chance to heal significantly and quickly. Use for your encounter’s most important moments. If you’re having second thoughts on whether you’re going to survive something or not, just push it. Better safe than sorry.
Stats
Before you start fitting your equipment, remember one more rule that is somewhat like that of the relics: the garment ilvl! Never put on anything 15 ilvl lower even if it has better stats. This also means that agility is your best stat. That’s why it won’t be mentioned in the priority rankings below. It is on the first position by default.
Now let’s check out some schemes.
Surviving in raids:
Haste (below 20%) >= Mastery > Versatility > Haste (above 20%) > Crit
Surviving in 5ppl:
Mastery > Versatility > Haste > Crit
DPS:
Crit >= Versatility > Mastery >= Haste
For tanks, you can use Simcraft in terms of dps. That is why using raidbots and Pawn is beneficial for optimizing your character.
Haste reduses your auto attacks interval, GCD, and CD of you Demon Spikes, Immolation Aura, Throw Glavie and Fracture. What 20% of Haste gives to you:
Mastery increases Attack Power and Demon Spikes efficiency. Attack power bonus also influences on your surviveability, because of trait Charred Warblades.
Versatility is a simple stat that gives you pure DPS increase and reduces incoming damage.
Crit mainly is a DPS stat. Yes, Crit increases Parry raiting but it diminishes with it amount. Also your critical strikes of fire spells gives you more heal, but it’s not worth.
Based on the aforementioned characteristics and results of your character’s own simulation results, you can draw conclusions on Gems, Chants and Raid Chemicals.
- Gems
Leviathan’s Eye of Agility
Quick Sand Spinel 50 haste
Versatile Dark Opal 50 vers
- Enchantments
Rings: Accord of Haste / Accord of Versatility
Weapons: Force Multiplier + Weapon – Versatile Navigation
- Food
Baked Port Tato Haste
Bil’Tong Vers
- Flasks and pots
Greater Flask of the Currents 360 agility for 1 h
Superior Battle Potion of Agility – Most versatile for all situations, good for survive ability
Potion of Empowered Proximity – Consistent 4+ target AoE situations, good for survive ability
For surviveability:
Superior Battle Potion of Stamina helps to go through large hit, especialy against magical damage
Superior Steelskin Potion same, but works against physical damage
Macros
Consume Magic with a modifier, with the Shift key held, the ability is applied on a remembered target, without – on the current one.
/cast [mod:shift,@focus][] Consume Magic
A Paladin BoP cancelling macros could come in handy:
/cancelaura Blessing of Protection
Throw Glaive to the cursor position could prove useful:
/cast [target=mouseover] Throw Glaive
What’s next?
- Leveling. If your character has been inactive since the previous expansions, the best option to level up it is by Timewalking dungeons. You will gain a lot of experience, but there is one big disadvantage of leveling this way. Timewalks are available only for one week during a month, but Overgear is always here.
- Equipment. At high level, the most important thing for you will become your gear. WoW is a multiplayer game, that’s why we recommend for you to play it with your friends, or to find a new friends for mythic+ runs. If you have any trouble with it – Overgear may help you to find not just friends for a run, but a complete well geared and experienced group that also will be glad to trade all the loot you need.
- Raids. Raids are the top-tier PvE content in the game. That’s why the equipment’s base ilvl is higher than anywhere else. These dungeons require knowing all the tactics and have a good gear to kill the bosses. The possibilities of Overgear might let you skip those criteria.
- Azerite. It is also not the best idea to forget about the Heart of Azeroth and not to feed it with more Azerite. Ignoring this won’t make your character stronger. The easiest way to do it – just complete all the world quests with Azerite rewards everyday. You can get extra azerite from Island Expeditions. Companions can be found at Overgear.
