Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Mythic+ Tips — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

Fel-Scarred benefitted greatly from the Midnight changes, in particular with the conversion of Demonsurge to Chaos damage, allowing it to scale with Mastery. Pair this with the high burst provided each Eye Beam cast and some bonuses to Immolation Aura through new talents, and it becomes much more suited to the Mythic+ environment. It has to make very few sacrifices to its standard single-target build to transition to AoE as well, and while lacking Eternal Hunt to empower its burst further hurts, it's not quite as impacted as its competitor.

Fel-Scarred has a couple of swap options to keep in mind:

• Movement Talents - both Tactical Retreat and Inertia add significantly more complexity, but high payoff to your Eye Beam casts. These can be a little more difficult to pilot in hectic dungeon scenarios, so if you're struggling, you can switch these two points over to Furious Throws and Furious Gaze.
• Set Fire to the Pain can be switched to Improved Soul Rending if you are looking for more general sustain rather than a little bit of mitigation.
• Likewise, Darkness can optionally be switched out for Demon Muzzle for more personal survival.
• Soul Cleanse and Burn It Out are both case-by-case tools depending on the dungeon. Select the appropriate option depending on if Curses or Diseases are present in the dungeon.

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While it was previously the powerhouse in The War Within through the final tier set and Wounded Quarry, it still remains a great funnel pick in the Midnight Pre-patch. Bladecraft being added to carry forward the high payoff Blade Dance casts is excellent, and it can deal with priority targets very well. The changes to the talent tree though require a bit more sacrifice to either single-target or AoE, and the lack of the Apex Talent - Eternal Hunt - means Reaver's Glaive access is a bit lower currently. Still a strong pick though, and very capable in Mythic+ situations.

Aldrachi Reaver has a couple of swap options to keep in mind:

• Glaive Tempest can optionally be slotted in, swapping one point away from Chaotic Disposition. Unfortunately, between both Fury concerns and no Eternal Hunt to provide resets to Blade Dance though, this can be quite punishing to get value out of in the Pre-patch.
• Army Unto Oneself can be switched out for Incorruptible Spirit for some free absorb shields, which puts less pressure on timing Felblade for defense.
• Likewise, Darkness can optionally be switched out for Demon Muzzle for more personal survival.
• Soul Cleanse and Burn It Out are both case-by-case tools depending on the dungeon. Select the appropriate option depending on if Curses or Diseases are present in the dungeon.

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Havoc has a variety of tools to stop enemy casts. Due to their different uses, we've broken them down into tools for single-target situations, and those better suited to AoE.

Disrupt is Havoc's interrupt, with a 15-second cooldown. It should be used aggressively to stop dangerous enemy casts (see our Disrupt macro on the Havoc Demon Hunter macro page).

Imprison is a 45-second cooldown hard crowd-control, but breaks on damage taken. This can be used either as a stop mid-combat, or can be used to lock a target down that you would rather skip. Imprison is unique in that enemies affected by this will not aggro as you or your party run past.

Chaos Nova is Havoc's AoE stun tool, stunning nearby targets for 3 seconds. This has a with a 45-second cooldown and a 25-Fury cost. This is great for disrupting large groups of enemies and, due to its instant activation, can be a strong AoE stop when multiple targets are casting at once. With Focused Ire taken, this also extends the stun on your current target to 5 seconds, making it an even better lockdown tool.

Sigil of Misery is an AoE disorient on a 2-minute cooldown (reduced to 1.5-minutes with Improved Sigil of Misery), that disorients targets within for 15 seconds after a 2 second delay. The effect is broken on damage taken, making it more of a stopping tool, but needs to be timed well to use as an AoE stop. This can also be used to skip, as affected enemies won't aggro party members (but will aggro you), but requires the use of Shadowmeld to drop combat after getting past.

Metamorphosis may be our major cooldown, but when cast it also stuns enemies within the impact zone for 3 seconds. This should not really be something you use it for, but if it's ready you can use it as an additional way to disrupt a group at the start of a pull.

Blur is Havoc's primary active defense tool, reducing damage taken by 25% for 10 seconds, with a 1-minute cooldown. With Demonic Resilience taken, it gains an additional charge, and with Desperate Instincts the damage reduction is increased to 35%. Due to having two charges and a low cooldown, it should be used pro-actively against lethal damage or dangerous situations.

Deflecting Dance grants a shield during Death Sweep / Blade Dance cast, absorbing up to 15% of your maximum health. This is active for a very brief period of time, but allows you to outplay some damage events by timing your rotational casts. This is a high skill ceiling tool, but great for dealing with one shot mechanics.

Desperate Instincts also passively reduces damage taken while below 35%. This also applies to damage events that would place you below that threshold, giving you even more room to passively survive through lethal attacks.

Demon Muzzle reduces all Magic damage you take by 15% for 12 seconds, following a successful interrupt with Disrupt. While talent points are limited in the Pre-patch, this is an excellent defensive tool due how frequently you should be interrupting in Mythic+.

Darkness grants a 15% chance (increased to 30% in dungeons) to avoid any damage event for you or party members stood within. This lasts 8 seconds, with a 5-minute cooldown. The duration can be increased to 11 seconds with Long Night, or the cooldown can be reduced to 3 minutes with Pitch Black. A helpful bonus for group survival, especially against repeat damage events (such as DoTs), to help your Healer keep up. Due to its long cooldown, you should plan ahead of time when to deploy this.

Army Unto Oneself, exclusive to Aldrachi Reaver, grants 10% damage reduction for 5 seconds following Felblade casts. This is a nice extra benefit that can also be timed to survive dangerous mechanics. In Midnight, Felblade is available less frequently, so its not quite as strong as it was previously. Remember though that you can also always force a proc if using Unhindered Assault.

Mortal Dance reduces enemy healing received by 50% for 6 seconds after being hit by your Blade Dance / Death Sweep. While niche, this can provide a lot of effective damage by cutting the amount of healing enemies take, alongside being easy to apply in AoE.

Chaos Brand is Havoc's strongest reason to be brought to raid, and in Mythic+, this is no different. Depending on the group composition, this can be extremely beneficial, as a large amount of classes in the game currently deal at least some magic damage for this to amplify. This usually ends up providing a significant amount of extra damage, on top of what you yourself do.

Consume Magic is Havoc's offensive dispel with a 10-second cooldown. This has the advantage of a 30-yard range and can be used to remove buffs from enemy targets. Its cooldown does mean you have to be picky with what to dispel though, especially if multiple enemies are buffed at once.

Vengeful Retreat, while niche, breaks snares when cast. This can be useful in certain dungeons.

Soul Cleanse / Burn It Out allow you to use Immolation Aura as a self-dispel. The former removes Curses, while the latter removes Diseases, so you should make your choice on this node based on the dungeon you're doing.

Xalatath's Bargain: Ascendant will periodically spawn a number or orbs in waves that need to be crowd-controlled in some way, before they complete a cast. Each orb successfully stopped provides the group bonus Haste, so it is a high priority to deal with.

Havoc can and should make use of Chaos Nova and Sigil of Misery to stop a wave, and also has Disrupt to catch any strays if your group is struggling to clear them all.

Xalatath's Bargain: Voidbound will periodically summon a large Void Emissary that will begin to cast Dark Prayer. This enemy must be killed before the cast completes to stop it, otherwise it provides significant damage reduction to nearby enemies. If successfully stopped, the group is granted a large amount of Versatility and cooldown reduction.

This needs to be killed off quickly, so ideally, having short, bursty cooldowns like Eye Beam or The Hunt ready to go as it spawns is ideal. This is not always possible, however, due to them being key to your AoE rotation, so just be aware of when they appear and swap accordingly.

Xalatath's Bargain: Pulsar spawns an orb that orbits each player, which needs to be soaked by a separate player before they expire. Each orb will grant the party 4% Mastery and 2% Leech, stacking, with a 30-second duration. Unsoaked orbs will increase nearby enemies' damage done, and reduce their damage taken.

Havoc has no specific utility to deal with this, instead you need to be aware of your positioning, both to make sure other players can soak up the orb circling you, and so you can catch orbs from nearby players.

Xalatath's Bargain: Devour applies a debuff to each party member, that must be either dispelled or healed off (though bear in mind this does not absorb incoming heals). Each debuff dispelled provides the group with maximum health and Critical Strike, stacking, for 30 seconds. Any debuffs not cleared will heal nearby enemies a large amount.

Both Burn It Out and Soul Cleanse can be used here to immediately remove the debuff. Additionally, Vengeful Retreat will remove the debuff, as in Midnight it now applies a small slow as well. If you don't have this available, any charges of Immolation Aura, remember to use Healthstones / Healing Potions if the healer is falling behind.