Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Guide — The War Within (11.2.7)

Patch 11.2.7 is the most recent update in The War Within, but comes with no class changes for most specs, including Havoc Demon Hunter. It's instead angled more as a transition patch to bridge us to the release of Midnight. While endgame isn't changing much, there are a few features on offer with its release:

• Housing Early Access Begins!
  Midnight's premier feature releases to early access, and Havoc is perfect for speeding through old content to collect Decor. Use our Housing Guide to find out where to begin your hunt!
• Brawler's Guild Returns
  Solo PvE challenges have come back to capital cities, pitting you against a slew of tough foes for bragging rights. If you want to test your mettle, check out our Brawler's Guild Guide.
• Leveling Experience Revamps
  The low level experience has been updated, alongside some changes for returning players. If you're thinking of giving it a try, our Havoc Leveling page can help guide you through!

In addition to these new features, Legion Remix (introduced in Patch 11.2.5) remains available throughout Patch 11.2.7, and you can use our Havoc Demon Hunter page if you haven't tried it out yet - Havoc is a perfect choice since it's the expansion it all began! We also still have our Puzzling Cartel Chip recommendations up to date on our Gear page to help you finish your Season 3 gearset.

Use this final patch of The War Within to prepare, as we begin to transition into the new world of Midnight. You can check our preview of how Havoc is looking on the Beta right now - our Midnight Havoc Preview can help you prepare for what's coming as early as possible!

The current season - Season 3 - began with the release of the last major patch of The War Within: Patch 11.2. This brought with it the arrival of the final raid of the expansion - Manaforge Omega - and the start of Mythic+ Season 3. Havoc received no major changes going into this, but if you skipped past Season 2 then be sure to check the Returning Players tab to get caught up!

A variety of new gearing options were also introduced, the most important of which being the Reshii Wraps - an artifact cloak acquired from the campaign in the new zone, K'aresh. This proves a powerful damage proc and customizable secondary stats, and has some unique interactions in the open world. Details on it alongside our up to date Season 3 best-in-slot recommendations are covered on our Gear page.

Tier sets also have a unique twist in Season 3: they now come with specialized 2-piece and 4-piece bonuses that change depending on whether you are currently playing Aldrachi Reaver or Fel-Scarred. These effects have been build defining throughout the season, and were strong enough to impact loadout choices. These are all covered on our Talents page with detailed breakdowns.

If you're a returning player who missed Season 2, it's important to know that with its release Havoc received some substantial changes relative to the original War Within iteration. If you missed out on those updates as they happened, below is a brief overview to get you up to speed on the key changes you need to know:

• Ability and Talent Damage Changes - Click for Notes

  • Blade Dance damage increased by 33%.
  • Immolation Aura damage increased by 12%.
  • The Hunt damage increased by 8%.
  • Sigil of Spite damage increased by 8%.
  • Sigil of Flame damage increased by 6%.
  • Mastery: Demonic Presence Chaos damage amplification increased by 25%.
  A few key abilities were increased for Havoc, in particular Blade Dance and Immolation Aura, alongside an increase to both Mastery scaling to make up for the loss of Any Means Necessary.
• Havoc Spec Talent Tree Changes - Click for Notes

  • Any Means Necessary was entirely removed.
  • A Fire Inside now provides a way to convert Immolation Aura to Chaos damage following its removal.
  • Screaming Brutality replaced it, and causes Blade Dance casts to also trigger Throw Glaive for free when cast.
  • Cycle of Hatred now causes Eye Beam casts to reduce to cooldown of subsequent casts by 5 seconds, stacking up to 4 times. It was also reduced to a 1 point node.
  • Inertia is now a two-stage buff. Casting either The Hunt or Vengeful Retreat sets you up, and then casting either Fel Rush or Felblade triggers it, granting you 18% increased damage for 5 seconds. It no longer requires Unbound Chaos.
  • Momentum was renamed to Exergy, and was changed to grant 5% increased damage for 20 seconds whenever you cast The Hunt or Vengeful Retreat.
  • Unbound Chaos was moved below Inertia. It now triggers from The Hunt and Vengeful Retreat.
  • Mastery: Demonic Presence Chaos damage amplification was increased by 25%.
  The talent tree had significant shake-ups - the most impactful being the removal of Any Means Necessary. The execution requirements of Inertia and Exergy were softened, Cycle of Hatred was made more consistent, and Throw Glaive talents gained a capstone effect through the addition of Screaming Brutality.
• Hero Talent Changes - Click for Notes

  • Wounded Quarry was reworked: it now duplicates 20% of all Physical damage you deal to any target, converts it to Chaos, and deals that amount to your Reaver's Mark target.
  • Demonsurge damage was increased by 65%, but deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
  • Enduring Torment now increases Blade Dance and Chaos Strike damage while outside of demon form by 15% (up from 10%).
  • Flamebound now increases Immolation Aura damage by 50% (up from 25%). The radius increase now also includes Ragefire.
  • Student of Suffering Mastery was reduced by 33%, and its duration was reduced to 6 seconds (down from 8).
  • Burning Blades was changed, now accumulating 50% of the damage dealt (up from 35%).
  • Demonsurge had its Fury generation increase to Demon Blades while in Metamorphosis reduced from 5 down to 3.
  The most impactful change by far was the rework to Wounded Quarry for Aldrachi Reaver. This introduced funnel to the spec, and added a highly desirable damage profile to Havoc. Fel-Scarred was also buffed here, but the losss of Any Means Necessary had significant knock-on effects until Season 3.

The impact of these changes during Season 2 were quite drastic, with the injection of funnel to Havoc via Wounded Quarry giving it a unique selling point. This in turn made Aldrachi Reaver the dominant tree, and the addition of Screaming Brutality gave a good through-line to complete the Throw Glaive series of talents.

Fel-Scarred fared much worse though, and the impact of Any Means Necessary and tuning in general pushed it quite far down. With the addition of unique tier sets in Season 3 though, it made a return, and both trees now have a firm place depending on the situation. If you want to find out where each of them slot in, our Talents Page covers all current build details.