Havoc Demon Hunter in Shadowlands
Welcome to the Overgear guide on the Demon Hunter’s “Havoc” spec! This guide will show you all the intricacies of the spec in various aspects of the game and teach you how to survive even the toughest Shadowlands challenges. You’ll learn which talents to use, how to equip your character, and which covenant to choose. In each section you will find answers to these and many other questions.
Demon hunter with a “Havoc” specialization – master of melee battle and Chaos magic. This guide will teach you all the basics and subtleties of this specialization, will show which builds to use, what covenant to choose, and which gear will allow you to get to the top of the DPS meters.
Demon hunter hasn’t seen a lot of changes in Shadowlands. The gameplay basis is still earning and spending our main resource – Fury. Main ability to generate Fury is Demon’s bite, you spend them on abilities that provide the most damage – Eye Beam и Chaos Strike etc.
Pros:
- One of the easiest classes, perfect for beginners.
- Very durable.
- Good damage on 2-5 targets.
- High mobility.
- Great utility: Chaos Brand is irreplaceable in a raid.
- Lots of stuns and control abilities, which is useful in m+
Cons:
- Not very high damage to solo target.
- Metamorphosis cooldown is 4 minutes, which is sometimes not coincident with other classes cooldowns. So you have to hold it for the important moment of a boss fight. That makes you lose one Metamorphosis usage, which affects all incoming Demon Hunter damage.
- Ability to deal solo and AoE damage is limited by cooldowns and targets cap.
- DH is a melee class.
About the author
Nourdeen, a raider of the guild Walkthrough, is the author of the guide. Check out my Twitch. There, you can watch the gameplay of various classes in completely different types of content.
Main abilities
Talents
General information. On reaching several levels, you will open new Talent tiers. In each tier, you can choose one Talent at a time. Talents can affect your abilities in different ways: add new ones, replace old ones, passively modify various effects and spells. You can change Talents while you’re in Sanctums or in rest areas, but if there are no such places nearby, you can use Tome of the Tranquil Mind, which allows you to change Talents within a minute. Note that Talents can’t be changed in combat. Also, if a Talent selected in a certain tier is on CD, you’ll have to wait for it to recharge in order to change it.
Unlike other addons, in Shadowlands, Demon Hunter talents are very competitive and have good synergy with each other, there is a variety of builds for different situations.
Tier 1 Lvl 15 – DPS talents
- Слепая ярость – increases Пронзающий взгляд damage and generates Fury. Good synergy with Демонизм and Цикл ненависти
- Демонический аппетит – you no longer can reduce Пронзающий взгляд cooldown in Shadowlands with this talent, but it still is a great option to self-heal. Good synergy with Kyrian ability.
- Клинок скверны – Good talent with Демонические клинки
Tier 2 Lvl 25 – DPS talents
- Неутолимый голод – increases Fury generation from Укус демона
- Пылающая ненависть – Обжигающий жар now generates 80 Fury instead of 20.
- Демонические клинки – Replaces Укус демона with passive ability. With Клинок скверны you will gain the highest DPS to solo target.
Tier 3 Lvl 30 – DPS talents
- Остатки разрушений – useful only with Первая кровь. упрощает ротацию, подходит новичкам, но чуть-чуть проигрывает конкуренту. Your rotation will be simpler, good for new players, but a bit worse than other talents.
- Необузданный хаос – Very bad talent after rework.
- Буря клинков – Ability from Legion. Easy to use, deals decent damage in both AoE and ST.
Tier 4 Lvl 35 – Mobility and utility talents
- Раздирание души – Even after nerfs it’s still a good choice if you don’t need immune.
- Инстинкт самосохранения – Useful only in cases when you need improved Затуманивание
- Путь пустоты – After cooldown was nerfed to 3 minutes, it’s still very strong talent. But you can’t use most of your abilities, and this talent will not purge debuffs.
Tier 5 Lvl 40 – DPS talents
- Цикл ненависти – Talent with strong potential and synergy with other talents, passive effects and legendary item.
- Первая кровь – Talent focused to single target damage.
- Разрыв сущности – Not recommended to use.
Tier 6 lvl 45 – Control Tier
- Освобожденная сила – Makes your stun cost zero and reduces cooldown. Use in cases when you need to stun more often, or you don’t need additional stun from Извержение скверны.
- Мастер боевого клинка – You can use it as a filler if you play with Демонические клинки
- Извержение скверны – Low damage, useful in situations when you need additional stun.
Tier 7 Lvl 50 – DPS Talents
- Демонизм – Strong talent, good synergy with Слепая ярость and Цикл ненависти, which gains “mini-burst”.
- Импульс – Has huge potential, strong in both AoE and single target, but you have to be skillful to perform its best.
- Обстрел скверны – This talent is worse than two others in all situations.
Here are your common builds:
Full ST
- Клинок скверны
- Демонические клинки
- Буря клинков
- Путь пустоты / Раздирание души
- Первая кровь
- Мастер боевого клинка
- Импульс
AoE/M+
- Слепая ярость
- Неутолимый голод
- Буря клинков
- Путь пустоты / Раздирание души
- Цикл ненависти
- Освобожденная сила / Извержение скверны
- Демонизм
Disclaimer: Импульс will give you up to 10% additional DPS, BUT only if you use it perfectly. If you not sure about your abilities, your result with Демонизм will be better.
Covenants
Each covenant grants its followers a signature and a class ability.
There are 4 covenants total: Venthyr, Kyrian, Night Fae, and Necrolord.
You can change them once a week. Note that the covenant’s power depends not only on signature abilities, but also on available soulbinds.
Single-target: Venthyr = Night Fae >= Kyrian > Necrolord
Mythic+ / АоЕ: Kyrian > Night Fae = Venthyr > Necrolord
The Venthyr
Signature — Door of Shadows. Slow long-range teleport. Not a big gamechanger for a mage, but has its uses, making this class even more mobile.
Class – Клеймо греха. This ability got lots of nerfs, but still can provide decent damage. When you use Метаморфозы ability strikes all enemies, no target-cap, but have 4-minute cooldown, which is too long for AoE scenario.
How to use: nothing special, just use it every cooldown. Клеймо греха scale with haste ratio, so use it with Пронзающий взгляд buff.
Kyrian
Signature — Summon Steward — Call a steward to bring you a potion that restores health and removes most debuffs and bleed effects. Very useful.
Class – Элизийский декрет. Good AoE damage, got synergy with Демонический аппетит. Unfortunately, due to its strength on beta it got nerfed and now this ability deals reduced damage if you use it at 5 or more targets.
How to use: Use it by its cooldown. If you play with Демонический аппетит try not to reach Fury overcap. Импульс increases the damage of this ability, so try to use it with buff.
The Night Fae
Soulshape – turn into a Vulpin, teleporting 15 yards forward and increasing your movement speed by 50%. You may reactivate Soulshape every few sec to teleport again. Lasts 12 sec, or indefinitely while in a rest area. Additional sprint and blink for the mobile class.
Class – Охота. Strong damage ability, because it applies strong DoT to enemies between you and target. But it has few problems, like with Клинок скверны – if your target is in motion, you can miss your DoT. Ability hitbox is small. But overall it’s a strong ability.
How to use: Use it by its cooldown. DoT damage is scaling with haste, so try to use it with Пронзающий взгляд buff. If you want to deal AoE damage, check your position to catch as many enemies as possible.
Necrolord
Signature — Fleshcraft — without soulbind bonuses it’s just a strong shield. With them — quite useful, since it gets stronger when cast near a corpse.
Class – Подпитка для пламени. Summon and kill a demon, which will provide buff. Even though it’s easy to kill a demon, you have to use 1-2 GCD, which is better to use when fighting normal enemies. The worst Covenant.
How to use: Use it before you start hitting priority targets. Kill a demon, get a buff, and go to a battle.
Conduits
There are three types of conduits:
- Potency Conduit — improves your character’s efficiency in their main role. There are 4 in total plus 1 for each covenant.
- Endurance Conduit — improves survivability. There are 4 in total.
- Finesse Conduit — enhances utility abilities, 4 in total.
Potency:
Непреклонный натиск – Good solo damage increase.
Танец с судьбой – Fine damage increase, especially with Первая кровь.
Нарастающий жар преисподней – Strong increase of AoE damage.
Повышенная бдительность – Venthyr Conduit, reduces CD of Клеймо греха. Almost useless.
Неестественная злоба – Night Fae Conduit. Increases solo damage. If you don’t have any other Conduits, it could be a good choice.
Повторный указ – Kyrian Conduit, good AoE damage increase.
The best synergy of potency conduits – Непреклонный натиск + Нарастающий жар преисподней.
Endurance:
Защитник скверны – Reduces cooldown of an ability with low CD. Good choice.
Вязкие чернила – Good conduit.
Расколотое исцеление – Fine increase of HPS with Демонический аппетит.
Вязкие чернила is your choice in most cases.
Finesse:
Скорость огня Скверны – Fine bonus after your dash. The only one finesse conduit that is helpful in PvE.
Soulbinds
Each covenant has 3 soulbinds to choose from with unique abilities and effects. Often you have to choose between the soulbind ability that deals damage and a conduit.
Best Soulbinds for PvE with the maximum level of Renown:
Venthyr – Nadjia the Mistblade/Theotar the Mad Duke
Night Fae – Niya
Kyrian – Pelagos
Necrolord – Bonesmith Heirmir
Legendaries
There are 16 legendary items available for Havoc Demon Hunter. Let’s take a closer look at the most useful ones:
Всеобщая тоска – The most versatile Legendary, useful in all types of battles.
Теория хаоса – Best Legendary for single target.
Обстрел скверной – Strong Legendary when you have to cleave. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to use it at the moment due to bugs.
Legendary rating:
Single target:
Теория хаоса > Обстрел скверной = Всеобщая тоска
АоЕ/М+:
Всеобщая тоска > Обстрел скверной > Теория хаоса
It is worth noting that the choice of Legendaries can be influenced by your choice of covenant and talent set, as well as the overall gearscore of your character. We recommend using raidbots.com
Dealing damage
Base priority for single target if you choose Демонизм:
- Метаморфоза
- Covenant ability
- Буря клинков
- Смертоносный взмах if you choose Первая кровь talent
- Пронзающий взгляд
- Танец клинков
- Обжигающий жар
- Аннигиляция
- Удар хаоса
- Укус демона
Regular opener:
- Cast Обжигающий жар one second before engage
- Рывок скверны to the target
- Укус демона
- Пронзающий взгляд
- Смертоносный взмах if you have Первая кровь
- Метаморфоза
- Смертоносный взмах if you have Первая кровь
- Аннигиляция and Укус демона until you have 2 seconds before haste buff from Пронзающий взгляд
- Пронзающий взгляд
If you play via Импульс, your objective is to play according to the following priorities:
- Maximize buff uptime (It has to be 60% or higher)
- Don’t use Fury generators with buff, don’t spend Fury without buff. Monitor Fury level and wait CDs.
- Don’t fall from a cliff.
Race choice
There are only two available races for Demon Hunter – Horde blood elves and Alliance night elves.
Stats
As a basis, you can take the following priority by characteristics:
Agility> Haste> Versatility> Crit> Mastery
It’s always worth using the raidbots.com tool to prioritize your character.
Gems
Композиция самоцветов стремительности (Haste)
Enchants
Weapon: Небесное наставление + Греховное Откровение в СТ / Сумрачная сила х2 на АоЕ
Boots:Вечная ловкость
Chest: Чары для нагрудника – Вечная схватка / Чары для нагрудника – вечные характеристики
Cloak: Чары для плаща – выносливость души / Чары для плаща – повышенное самоисцеление
Rings: Чары для кольца – догмат универсальности или на любой другой стат, в зависимости от веса.
Consumables
Oils: Shadowcore Oil
Pots: Eternal Cauldron / Spectral Flask of Power
Potions: Potion of Spectral Intellect / Potion of Phantom Fire / АоЕ: Potion of Empowered Exorcisms
Healing: Spiritual Healing Potion
Food: Feast of Gluttonous Hedonism (+20 agility) / Spinefin Souffle and Fries (+30 crit) / Steak a la Mode (+30 versatility)
Armor kits: Heavy Desolate Armor Kit
BiS Gear & Trinkets
Head – Зловещая маска садиста – Sire Denathrius
Neck – Шипастый ошейник Гайязель – BoE
Shoulders – Горжет коварного напарника – Stone legion generals
Cloak – Гордый плащ каменного генерала – Stone legion generals
Chest – Лакированный миазмами жакет – Hungering destroyer
Запястья – Точно настроенный хронометр – Artificer Xy’mox
Кисти рук – Захваты темнокрылой убийцы – Sun King’s Salvation
Пояс – Куртка безшабашного бойца – Sludgefist
Ноги – Набедренники из нестабильной темной кожи – Hungering destroyer
Ступни – Зачарованные тяжелые башмаки – Council of Blood
Кольцо 1 – Ценное кольцо Ритуалиста – Lady Inerva Darkvein
Кольцо 2 – Царственная печатка сира Денатрия Sire Denathrius
Macros
- Macro to save space on the panel. Uses Demon’s Bite, if the Felblade talent is not taken and vice versa.
/cast [talent:1/3] Felblade; Demon’s Bite
- Macro for Metamorphosis by the player’s location (In this case, you can move a little while being invulnerable) and the same macro at the cursor, which saves time.
/cast [@player] Metamorphosis
/cast [@Cursor] Metamorphosis
Stun / dispel / kick macros at your focus
/cast [@focus] Disrupt
/cast [@mouseover] Disrupt
/cast [@mouseover] Fel eruption
/cast [@focus] Fel eruption
/cast [@mouseover] Consume magic
/cast [@focus] Consume magic
- Macro to attach the target under the mouse cursor and put a purple mark on it.
/focus mouseover
/run SetRaidTarget(“mouseover”,3)
- Cancelaura macro for preventing pull through walls.
/cancelaura Immolation aura
- For almost every offensive and utility ability, I have written a macro with the startattack and cancelaura netherwalk commands, for example:
/cast Chaos Strike
/cancelaura Путь пустоты
/startattack
- Interruption Пронзающий взгляд before you get haste buff will lead to major DPS losses, so if you like to spam your skills, my advice is to make such a command with Chaos Strike and Blade Dance: /stopmacro [channeling:Eye Beam]
Addons:
Addons are also something that everyone sets for themselves personally. I myself am not a supporter of interfaces resembling a spacecraft control panel. The basic rule is not to clutter your screen with unnecessary information.
I can recommend the following:
Bartender4 – panel addon with great customization
Chatter – chat customization addon
Deja Character stats – even more info on your character
Sexy map – makes your minimap sexy!
Shadowed unit frames – ElvUI alternative, unit frames only
WeakAuras – possibly the most important in modern WoW. You can tune almost anything with it, and at wago.io you can find hundreds of useful auras and import them within a few clicks. You also can find a special aura pack for your spec, here’s a link on WW auras.
BigWigs/Deadly Boss Mods – timing and warning addons for the raid and m+ bosses, pick one of them. It’s also very useful for PvE in general. If you want instance warnings for your BigWigs addon – get a LittleWigs addon.
ElvUI – a global “all-in-one” addon, makes your interface very neat. Replaces dozens of addons at once. You can also find a lot of profiles for it on wago.io.
Details! Damage Meter – the most modern and popular DPS meter atm.
Plater Nameplates – addon comes from Details author, it changes enemies nameplates. It is fully customizable with a lot of features and profile import from wago.io – what else do you want?
Pawn – helps you on improving your gear. Requires Simcraft string for usage.
SimulationCraft – Makes your character simulation easier by creating an in-game Simcraft string for import to Raidbots or SimCraft.
Exorsus Raid Tools – raiding addon with tons of useful features.
Move Anything – this addon resizes and moves any part of the user interface.
World Quest List – Organizes your world quests to the left of your map and sorts them by zones.
PRO tips:
- With Метаморфозы, you can avoid almost any mechanic in a game,prevent the debuff or even death.
- Try to immediately identify the moments where and in what situation you will need to use defensive abilities and be ready to quickly react correctly to what is happening.
- If you run out of Рывок скверны charges, but you need to quickly cover the distance – use Коварное отступление. To do this, you need to quickly turn the character with his back in the direction of movement and use the ability. Using this ability, you can also climb into places inaccessible to other classes in combination with Планирование and Двойной прыжок.
- It is necessary to maximize mobility of the most mobile class in the game via Планирование.
- If you use it just before landing after a jump, the character will be pushed forward a little. When used correctly, it gives a good and free boost to movement speed.
- If you need to reach long distance before Планирование, use Коварное отступление backwards before. This will allow to start flying from the higher point and you will fly faster.
This guide ends here. We hope that we have answered all of your questions and the only thing left for you is to try all of this by yourself. Thank you for reading this! Wish you the best of luck in Azeroth, Champion!
