Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Guide — The War Within (11.0.5)

Havoc Demon Hunters revolve around a build-and-spend resource in Fury that needs to be managed around short burst cooldowns. This creates a fast-paced cycling rotation that tends to be GCD-locked regardless of what build you play. It also has a number of buff windows that need to be overlapped to get the most out of each of them. It comes with extremely strong mobility and as a Demon Hunter, it brings the Chaos Brand debuff to increase your group's magic damage.

Strengths

• Powerful single target with burst options, making it a flexible choice for Raids.
• Good on-demand burst AoE for Mythic+ situations, and can frontload damage at key moments to burn down priority targets.
• Strong passive and active defense, making it very durable.
• Solid self-sustain to pair with the above.
• Access to a number of CC options.
• Flexible, instant mobility allowing for great positioning control.
• Good group utility and provides Chaos Brand.

Weaknesses

• Requires good planning around buff management windows, and needs uptime to cycle through cooldowns efficiently.
• AoE is tied to cooldowns, requiring planning around key windows.
• Some RNG is built into the resource system.
• Best performance is very fast paced and requires heavy movement talents.
• Movement related talent options can be dangerous in some encounters.

If you plan on playing a Havoc Demon Hunter but have not leveled one yet, you can take a look at our leveling guide for tips:

When you make it to max level, it can sometimes take effort to transition quickly to making use of the full suite of tools and abilities without having the help of some add-ons. We recommend getting used to some of these as you begin your journey rather than all at the end, making the process smoother and making you comfortable with your UI. You can check out our Add-ons page for some recommendations:

Havoc comes with a tight core ability package that gives it an easy pick-up-and-play aspect that is simple to understand. This core is greatly expanded through the talent tree, and build diversity adds a surprising amount of depth. Havoc's main goal is to generate Fury via effects such as Demon Blades and Felblade, and spend it on Chaos Strike and Blade Dance as much as possible. It also has access to Metamorphosis, transforming you into your Demon form to empower these abilities and gain additional Haste.

Alongside that, it also uses mid-range cooldowns such as Eye Beam to deal high damage and trigger short burst windows, such as the Demonic effect to activate Metamorphosis more frequently. It aims to weave these windows in between its regular Fury management to deal large bursts of damage at key moments, so it rewards both GCD management and cooldown planning while staying active on targets.

Havoc also comes with extremely potent mobility tools in Fel Rush and Vengeful Retreat, allowing you to reposition yourself around the battlefield quickly to stick to your target or avoid dangerous mechanics. Some builds also make use of these for damage, giving it a unique feel when navigating different encounters. There are, however, more traditional static builds that make the spec more approachable and flexible if this sounds overwhelming.

For more context on the details of each ability, if you are new to the spec, we recommend looking through the Spell Summary first, as well as the Easy Mode page linked below.

While we always recommend simming yourself for ideal results, we do provide a dedicated Havoc gearing page that lists the Best in Slot items to look out for in the current season of The War Within.

Once you have started to gear, you should ideally have the appropriate consumables, gems, enchants, and more to go alongside your new items. We have a dedicated page for exactly this, as shown below, and the stats page, where you can find more information on our stat priority and any necessary changes you may need to make with consumables.

Like all specs, Havoc looks very different when you move from the open world and leveling into the realm of endgame and progression. Therefore, we maintain a Mythic+, Raiding, and PvP guide for each respective content focus.

If you are looking for an answer to a specific question, often these are common queries many players have. We keep pages that cover the most frequently asked questions and also mistakes players tend to run into.