Devourer Demon Hunter DPS Guide — 12.0.5

Midnight Season 1 has released, and with it came a lot of new content. It brought with it three new Raids, alongside heralding the start of Season 1 for both Mythic+ and PvP. With all the new things available, we've provided some dedicated hubs covering everything available!

While for many Patch 12.0.5 is a smaller update, Devourer sees significant updates that represent some major changes to its throughput. In addition to that, a variety of open world content releases worth checking out!

• The Voidforge Unlocks!
  The Voidforge is Midnight's take on Bonus Rolls and Turbo Boost, allowing you to target specific big ticket items through a new bonus roll system. You can also further empower trinkets and weapons, and we have recommendations on our Gear page.
• Void Assaults are Unleashed
  Eversong Woods and Zul'Aman are under siege from the forces of the Void. Thwarting their attacks provide a new way to acquire gear all the way up to Hero level, and you can check out more on our Void Assault hub.
• Disrupt Ritual Sites
  Sharing a similar reward structure to Void Assaults, Ritual Sites are instanced content similar to Delves. You can find out all about them on our Ritual Sites page.

Alongside these new features, Devourer continues to see updates to its toolkit as the Season progresses, covered in the sections below to keep you up to speed.

In response to the updates with the release of Patch 12.0.5, Devourer has had some additional class tuning announced for May 5th:

These represent a fairly sizeable 5% reduction in strength - particularly felt in AoE situations. While these are unlikely to push it off the high end of performance in endgame content, it will shrink the lead it currently has. It remains a very strong Mythic+ and Raid option with current encounter designs, with some weaknesses in priority and single-target throughput.

In case you missed it, you can click the dropdown below to read up on the changes made with the release of Patch 12.0.5.

Click for 12.0.5 Release Changes

With the release of Patch 12.0.5, Devourer also saw some significant changes that impacted its build choices following on from its success in Season 1:

Patch 12.0.5 Class Changes

Devourer Demon Hunter

Developers' notes: ...We’re reworking Spontaneous Immolation to no longer replace Soul Immolation and adding some hooks to make Soul Immolation more accessible and valuable, particularly in outdoor and solo content.

• Soul Immolation now heals for 24% over its duration.
• Spontaneous Immolation redesigned - now heals an additional 6% and its cooldown is reset when you kill an enemy.
• Feast of Souls is no longer capped at 20 stacks.
• Burning Blades now affects Hungering Slash instead of Reap. Additionally, increases Reap damage by 20%.
• Untethered Fury now increases Void Ray damage by 15%.
• Monster Rising additionally increases Collapsing Star damage by 15%.
• Violent Transformation additionally increases The Hunt damage by 25% and causes it to reset the cooldown of Soul Immolation.
• Student of Suffering increases Mastery by 4% and grants 2 Fury every 2 seconds for 6 seconds (down from 8% and 5 Fury).
• Blind Focus increases Cosmic damage by 2% (down from 3%).

These updates were very impactful for Devourer - in particular the removal of the Feast of Souls cap. This represents a significant buff at all target counts, and causes a talent switch to Sweet Suffering to make use of it. It also shifts over to Tempered Soul due to Soul Immolation no longer having a passive option, reintroducing it into the active rotation. Unfortunately, despite the many changes, Void-Scarred continues to struggle compared to Annihilator in endgame content.

Devourer is new in Midnight, featuring a distinct playstyle departure from its melee counterpart, Havoc. It's a caster/melee hybrid, mixing close range abilities and spells with a 25-yard range. It places its unique cooldown mechanic, Void Metamorphosis, at the core of the rotation, generating and consuming Soul Fragments to unleash Collapsing Star.

Since the spec is brand new with the release of Midnight, below we've provided some quick things to know. This will help you jump over from Havoc or Vengeance, or prime you to start a new Devourer!

• Primary Stat
  Devourer is Intellect based, sharing gear, weapons and trinkets with other casters.
• Weapon Types
  Devourer uses Warglaives , Fist Weapons, Axes and Swords. Of these, Warglaive are unique; they change primary stat to Intellect when playing Devourer.
• Range
  Most spells have a max range of 25 yards. It also has a handful of specific abilities that either move you into, or out of, melee range when used, making it somewhat of a ranged/melee hybrid.
• Resources – Fury / Souls
  Fury powers casts while outside Void Metamorphosis, draining while inside;
  Soul Fragments grant access to Void Metamorphosis, and allow you to cast Collapsing Star.
• Hero Talents
  Devourer's shares Void-Scarred with Havoc, and the newly added Annihilator with Vengeance.
  Void-Scarred focuses on explosive bursts of damage during Void Metamorphosis windows.
  Annihilator builds up Voidfall, unleashing void meteors on enemies.

New in Midnight is the Apex Talent system, a sequential group of talents which unlock as you level from 80 to 90. These are grouped together in 4, with different effects at each level. Unlike other talents, they are all in one node, with each point invested enhancing the effect. The Devourer Demon Hunter Apex is Midnight, providing significant benefits to Collapsing Star:

1. Midnight — Your Collapsing Star will now always Critically Strike.
2. Midnight — Has two points, increasing all Cosmic damage dealt by 3%, and increases the Critical Strike damage of Collapsing Star by 50% of your Critical Strike chance per point. This bonus is additive with Calamitous.
3. Midnight — Upon entering Void Metamorphosis, instantly spawn 5 Soul Fragments and immediately gain access to one cast of Collapsing Star.

While not every build takes the Apex Talents, for those that do, it significantly increases the power of Collapsing Star, turning it into one of our strongest damage sources. The final point in particular also increases the access to up-front casts, making each Void Metamorphosis cast more impactful.

With Devourer being an all new specialization, there's no changes to really compare it to with the release of Midnight. Instead, here we'll be taking a quick look at the most important abilities within its toolkit at a glance. It replaces almost all of the baseline Demon Hunter abilities with Void themed alternatives, better suiting its caster hybrid playstyle, but with similar functionality:

While Demon Hunter has a relatively skinny damage toolkit, they all have their place within the rotation. Knowing where each slots in is therefore very important to get the most out of the spec.

Ability	Description/Effect
Consume	This is your primary filler, dealing Cosmic damage to your target with a base cast time of 2 seconds. Each cast generates Fury and two Soul Fragments via Predator's Thirst, and can be cast while moving. When you transform into Void Metamorphosis, this is replaced by Devour.
Void Ray	Deals heavy Cosmic damage to targets in front of you over its 3-second channel. While outside of Void Metamorphosis, this costs 100 Fury with no cooldown, but when inside it has no cost with a 14-second cooldown, briefly pausing Fury drain. This is your main spender.
Void Metamorphosis	Your main cooldown. Unlike most classes, this ability has no fixed cooldown. Instead, this can be cast after gathering 50 Souls (modified by talents). When activated, you deal significantly more damage, gain access to Collapsing Star, some abilities are improved, and your Fury begins to drain rapidly. When you run out of power, you're forced out of the form.
Collapsing Star	Can only be accessed during Void Metamorphosis. Every 30 Souls you gather while transformed (or via other means with talents), you can cast one Star to deal massive Cosmic damage to your target and nearby enemies, pausing your Fury drain briefly. Each cast during your transformation becomes stronger via Impending Apocalypse.
Reap	Deals instant Cosmic damage to your target with an 8-second cooldown. When cast, this pulls in up to 4 Souls (generating Fury in the process), so it can be used to collect any Souls that are too far away to manually pick up. When you transform into Void Metamorphosis, this is replaced by Cull.
Voidblade	Charges to your target, dealing Cosmic damage with a 30-second cooldown. This has a lot of supporting talents to make it a more prominent part of some builds, and is central to melee hybrid builds.
Soul Immolation	Generates 3 Souls, 30 Fury, and heals you over 5 seconds. Has a 1-minute cooldown, but follow-up talents alter your access to it. This serves as a small on-demand resource generation bump.

In addition to its offensive tools, it also comes with a variety of survival and utility tools that other Demon Hunter have, but with some unique twists.

Ability	Description/Effect
Shift	Devourer's answer to Havoc's Fel Rush, this moves you to your cursor within 30 yards near-instantly. Has a 20-second cooldown and 1 charge baseline, with talents to increase this limit. An exceptionally strong movement tool, but bear in mind it's not a teleport – you still pass through any environmental effects along the path.
Blur	Devourer's defensive tool, providing 25% damage reduction for 10 seconds with a 1-minute cooldown. Can also gain a second charge on the Class Tree when using the Demonic Resilience talent.
Soul Immolation	An additional defensive tool for Devourer, healing you for 24% of your max HP over 5s, with a 1 minute cooldown. Can be furhter augmented to gain an additional charge or to heal for more HP via talents in the Devourer tree.
Vengeful Retreat	Causes you to leap backward, with a 25-second cooldown. Some talents within the Devourer tree can augment this to become part of your offensive rotation, but its baseline effect is simply a movement tool.
Disrupt	Devourer's interrupt, with a 15-second cooldown, 5-second lockout, and 30-yd range. This gives it an advantage over most other interrupts, especially from other casters.
Void Nova	Stuns your target and nearby enemies for 3 seconds, dealing light Cosmic damage. Has no cost, a 30 yard range, and a 45-second cooldown, making it a flexible stopping tool.