Introduction
Welcome to the Method Havoc Demon Hunter guide written by Faithy. I have participated in the RWF event since the launch of Shadowlands and I'm a multi-class DPS player for the Method raid roster.
In this guide we will deep dive into Havoc Demon Hunter and I will explain the classes strengths and weaknesses and their overall playstyle and gear prioritization for The War Within Season 1!
Why should you play Havoc Demon Hunter?
Strengths:
- Powerful burst of damage with a short cooldown.
- Insanely self-sustainable healing.
- Strong, short cooldown defensives and flat Magic Damage Reduction.
- Consistent AoE damage.
- Highest movability available in the game.
- Brings a raid buff through Chaos Brand and a raid external through Darkness.
Weaknesses:
- Relies heavily on movement abilities for damage due to Exergy and similar talents.
- Lack of purely Single Target dps talent options.
- Metamorphosis doesn’t provide a massive buff in AoE situations.
What has changed
Patch 11.1 Undermine(d)
With the introduction of the newest Patch 11.1 Undermine(d), we are seeing quite some changes to Havoc Demon Hunter and a potential switch to the Aldrachi Reaver Hero Talent with strong buffs to the Hero talent. We are also seeing a lot of changes to the “Movement” playstyle revolving around your movement abilities, with changes to Momentum, Inertia and Unbound Chaos. Through this guide we will go through the newest Best in Slot items for Havoc and the new playstyle coming with the patch.
DISCLAIMER: All data is based off the PTR, so the guide could see changes as the first couple of weeks goes on.
The changes to Havoc coming in Patch 11.1 are the following:
Demon Hunter:
- Imprison now breaks based on a small damage threshold instead of any damage.
- Spectral Sight has been reworked:No longer removed upon taking an action.No longer removed when taking damage.Now removed by loss-of-control effects.Now Magic-dispelled.Movement penalty reduced to 20% (was 30%).
- Lost in Darkness has been redesigned: Spectral Sight has 5 second reduced cooldown and no longer reduces movement speed.
Hero Talent:
Fel-Scarred:
- Demonsurge now deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
Havoc:
- New Talent: Screaming Brutality: Blade Dance automatically triggers Throw Glaive on your primary target for 100% damage and each slash has a 50% chance to Throw Glaive an enemy for 35% damage.
- Any Means Necessary has been removed.
- Momentum has been renamed to Exergy and has been updated: The Hunt and Vengeful Retreat increases your damage by 5% for 20 seconds.
- Inertia has been updated: The Hunt and Vengeful Retreat causes your next Fel Rush or Felblade to empower you, increasing damage by 18% for 5 seconds.
- Unbound Chaos has been updated: The Hunt and Vengeful Retreat cause your next Fel Rush or Felblade to deal 500% increased damage.
- Cycle of Hatred has been redesigned: Eye Beam reduces the cooldown of your next Eye Beam by 2.5/5 seconds, stacking up to 10/20 seconds.
- Exergy (Momentum) and Inertia choice node has swapped locations with Unbound Chaos.
Patch 11.0.7
With the introduction of 11.0.7, Havoc is receiving a couple of minor damage buffs, but nothing significant enough to change any playstyle or talents.
The buffs to Havoc are the following:
- Felblade damage increased by 10%.
- The Hunt initial damage increased by 10%.
- Chaos Strike/Annihilation damage increased by 10%.
- Demon’s Bite/Demon Blades damage increased by 10%.
Additionally, we will be able to acquire the new ring from Siren Isle; Cyrce’s Circlet.
Patch 11.0.5
With the introduction of 11.0.5, Havoc Demon Hunter has seen very little tuning and changing and is identical to the playstyle and damage throughput from before the Patch.
The minor quality of life changes for Havoc are the following:
- General Changes: Sigil of Spite’s icon has been changed and The Hunt’s icon has been changed.
- Fel-Scarred: Focus Hatred now provides bonus damage beyond 1-target only, with the bonus reducing by 10% for each target beyond 1.