Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0.1)

Havoc's single-target rotation is closely linked to its build-and-spend loop. It uses generation tools to fuel Blade Dance, spends excess Fury on Chaos Strike, and combos cooldowns together.

1. Cast Felblade with Inertia ready - Click for Notes

   • If Felblade isn't available, use Fel Rush instead.
2. Cast The Hunt.
3. Cast The Hunt - Click for Notes

   • Make sure you've spent any active Reaver's Glaive procs before casting.
4. Cast Reaver's Glaive if you have no active Reaver's Mark - Click for Notes

   • Follow this up with Chaos Strike / Annihilation to apply it.
5. Cast Death Sweep.
6. Cast Immolation Aura if at 2 charges.
7. Cast Vengeful Retreat to trigger Initiative - Click for Notes

   • Always try to align this with Eye Beam.
8. Cast Eye Beam / Abyssal Gaze - Click for Notes

   • Make sure you've consumed any Annihilation and Death Sweep procs of Demonsurge.
9. Cast Eye Beam.
10. Cast Essence Break while in Metamorphosis - Click for Notes

    • Aim to fill these 4 seconds with Death Sweep and Annihilation casts.
11. Cast Metamorphosis with Eye Beam and Death Sweep on cooldown.
12. Cast Blade Dance.
13. Cast Reaver's Glaive - Click for Rules

    • Only cast this if Glaive Flurry and Rending Strike are not active.
14. Cast Annihilation / Chaos Strike.
15. Cast Immolation Aura / Consuming Fire.
16. Cast Immolation Aura.
17. Cast Felblade.
18. Cast Throw Glaive / Fel Rush with nothing else available.
19. Cast Fel Rush with nothing else available.

Havoc's gameplay loop is heavily influenced by your talent selections, with many effects impacting your priority. Each Hero Talent also interacts with the toolkit in different ways, with some key details depending on your selections being:

• Reaver's Glaive is a high priority press, but Thrill of the Fight uptime is now very high in Midnight. Reaver's Mark should be maintained at all times, but stacks aren't a huge concern.
• The Hunt is used to snap generate Reaver's Glaive at the start of the pull, or for priority targets.
• Every time you enter Demonic, you should be consuming both Demonsurge procs with Annihilation and Death Sweep. Following a Metamorphosis cast, this extends to consuming the effect from both Abyssal Gaze and Consuming Fire.
• New in Midnight, triggering Demonic from Metamorphosis via Abyssal Gaze will generate new Demonsurge procs. There's now no need to let the effect drop to capitalize on the effect, but make sure you've spent all charges before re-casting it.
• Your Essence Break windows should ideally always be during Metamorphosis to make use of the bonus Haste. Fill every GCD during this with Death Sweep or Annihilation.
• When playing A Fire Inside, you want to make sure it is always under 2 charges to avoid wasting uses throughout a fight.
• Use Eye Beam on cooldown to trigger Demonic. With Cycle of Hatred, this is every 20 seconds. When playing with Initiative, cast Vengeful Retreat right before each cast.
• Exergy is maintained by casting Vengeful Retreat on cooldown.
• Inertia should always be triggered right before each Eye Beam window, as the cooldown of Vengeful Retreat will naturally align. Trigger it with a follow-up Felblade (or Fel Rush if unavailable) right before beginning your Eye Beam.

FAQShould I Cast Fel Rush for Damage?

Sometimes. In Midnight, Fury is a bit more scarce, so it is an option to fill in empty GCDs. When playing with Inertia, it's also an important backup method to trigger the effect in the event you don't have Felblade ready.

FAQShould I Actively Cast Throw Glaive?

Due to the way Screaming Brutality works, you shouldn't be actively casting Throw Glaive at all when taken. When triggered via this talent, it's completely free but with all the same benefits. If, however, you're out of charges when you use Blade Dance, nothing happens, all that happened is you wasted both your Fury and a GCD. Since Fel-Scarred doesn't take any Throw Glaive related talents, it can optionally be used to fill empty rotational space if you have nothing else available and are waiting on Fury.

Havoc's gameplay doesn't change much in AoE, thanks to the large amount of passive cleave built into many of its core abilities. Its talent builds do alter slightly though, slightly altering the priority:

1. Cast Felblade with Inertia ready - Click for Notes

   • If Felblade isn't available, use Fel Rush instead.
2. Cast Reaver's Glaive if you have no active Reaver's Mark - Click for Notes

   • Follow this up with Chaos Strike / Annihilation to apply it.
3. Cast The Hunt.
4. Cast The Hunt - Click for Notes

   • Make sure you've spent any active Reaver's Glaive procs before casting.
5. Cast Chaos Strike / Annihilation if both Reaver's Glaive buffs are active.
6. Cast Death Sweep.
7. Cast Immolation Aura if at 2 charges.
8. Cast Vengeful Retreat to trigger Initiative - Click for Notes

   • Always try to align this with Eye Beam.
9. Cast Eye Beam / Abyssal Gaze - Click for Notes

   • Make sure you've consumed any Annihilation and Death Sweep procs of Demonsurge.
10. Cast Eye Beam.
11. Cast Essence Break while in Metamorphosis - Click for Notes

    • Aim to fill these 4 seconds with Death Sweep and Annihilation casts.
12. Cast Metamorphosis with Eye Beam, Immolation Aura and Death Sweep on cooldown.
13. Cast Blade Dance.
14. Cast Reaver's Glaive - Click for Rules

    • Only cast this if Glaive Flurry and Rending Strike are not active.
15. Cast Immolation Aura / Consuming Fire.
16. Cast Annihilation / Chaos Strike.
17. Cast Immolation Aura.
18. Cast Felblade.
19. Cast Fel Rush with nothing else available.

The majority of tools you make use of in single-target apply directly to AoE, with the exception of Annihilation / Chaos Strike, which are less impactful. Your focus depends on which key talents you have taken, with some key notes being:

• Reaver's Glaive is valuable high priority press due to both the high damage, and the benefit of Fury of the Aldrachi funnel into Wounded Quarry. Make sure to always consume the Blade Dance buff second to empower it through Bladecraft.
• The Hunt is used to snap generate Reaver's Glaive at the start of a pull, or at key moments.
• Fel-Scarred builds deal extremely high 2-minute burst with Metamorphosis. Make sure to plan around these moments to maximize your burst with Demonsurge empowered abilities.
• Immolation Aura is a core component of AoE. Ragefire requires you to watch its expiry time, making sure you hit targets with the explosion. With A Fire Inside, you should never be sat at 2 charges during combat. As Fel-Scarred, you need to make sure it's at 0 charges on cooldown before casting Metamorphosis to reset the cooldown.
• With Inertia, aim to to cast Vengeful Retreat and The Hunt on cooldown, overlapping the follow-up buffs with other cooldowns. Avoid overwriting an existing Inertia window if you cast these back-to-back.
• With Exergy, cast Vengeful Retreat and The Hunt on cooldown. The buff has a 30-second max duration, so it should have 100% uptime if used correctly.
• Essence Break should always be layered over your Metamorphosis effect. Make sure to cast as many Death Sweep and Annihilation casts as possible during the window.

FAQShould I Cast Fel Rush for Damage?

Sometimes. In Midnight, Fury is a bit more scarce, so it is an option to fill in empty GCDs. When playing with Inertia, it's also an important backup method to trigger the effect in the event you don't have Felblade ready. procs.

FAQShould I Actively Cast Throw Glaive?

Due to the way Screaming Brutality works, you shouldn't be actively casting Throw Glaive at all. When triggered via this talent, it's completely free but with all the same benefits. If, however, you're out of charges when you use Blade Dance, nothing happens, all that happened is you wasted both your Fury and a GCD.

The Havoc opener follows a fairly strict sequence to make sure it can capitalize upon Chaotic Transformation. The goal is to get everything set up and on cooldown, then begin Metamorphosis as soon as possible. You can pick a fight style below:

1. Cast Immolation Aura 1 second before the pull.
2. Cast The Hunt.
3. Cast Blade Dance as soon as you arrive in melee - Click for Notes

   • This triggers Screaming Brutality and applies Burning Wound.
4. Cast Immolation Aura twice.
5. Cast Felblade to trigger Inertia.
6. Cast Eye Beam.
7. Cast Annihilation to consume Demonsurge.
8. Cast Essence Break.
9. Cast Death Sweep to consume Demonsurge.
10. Cast Vengeful Retreat and immediately use Metamorphosis.
11. Cast Death Sweep.
12. Cast Fel Rush to trigger Inertia.
13. Cast Consuming Fire.
14. Cast Annihilation.
15. Cast Abyssal Gaze.
16. Cast Essence Break.
17. Cast Death Sweep.
18. Cast Annihilation until Essence Break expires.
19. Continue with normal ability priority.
20. Cast Immolation Aura 1 second before the pull.
21. Cast The Hunt.
22. Cast Felblade to trigger Inertia.
23. Cast Reaver's Glaive.
24. Cast Eye Beam.
25. Cast Annihilation to apply Reaver's Mark to your priority target.
26. Cast Essence Break.
27. Cast Death Sweep.
28. Cast Vengeful Retreat and immediately use Metamorphosis.
29. Cast Death Sweep.
30. Cast Fel Rush to trigger Inertia.
31. Cast Eye Beam.
32. Cast Essence Break.
33. Cast Annihilation.
34. Cast Death Sweep.
35. Cast Annihilation until Essence Break ends.
36. Continue with normal ability priority.

The most warping effect on the initial rotation is Chaotic Transformation, which causes your Blade Dance and Eye Beam cooldowns to reset. This means that you need to use these cooldowns first, before entering into your first Metamorphosis.

• As Aldrachi Reaver, your opening cast of The Hunt triggers Reaver's Glaive, allowing you to set up Reaver's Mark and Thrill of the Fight before Metamorphosis. It will also provide your opening Inertia trigger, letting you set up immediately for on-pull damage.
• Before the full AoE burst combo begins, set up Reaver's Mark on your priority target using a Chaos Strike. This also lines up a Fury of the Aldrachi follow-up.
• Essence Break can be a bit awkward in the opener during single-target. Since you need to get everything set up before-hand and want to fill every GCD with Death Sweep and Annihilation, this should be used after all other setup is completed.
• In AoE, performing a double Death Sweep in Essence Break still has its advantages due to triggering on all enemies. Therefore, you want to use the Chaotic Transformation to fit two in.
• Fel-Scarred delays its first Essence Break significantly, making sure it gets all of its Demonsurge procs out of the way, so it can focus on filling it with Annihilation and Death Sweep in single-target.
• Fel-Scarred still makes use of double Death Sweep during Essence Break in AoE situations, since it triggers the effect on all enemies hit. It uses Chaotic Transformation to squeeze a second cast in before it expires.
• Due to Abyssal Gaze now providing extra Demonsurge procs when cast, make sure to spend the Annihilation and Death Sweep trigger from Metamorphosis before casting Abyssal Gaze.
• In AoE situations, you need to make sure that you spend all Immolation Aura charges Immolation Aura is on cooldown before casting Metamorphosis, as it fully refunds the cooldown.

Havoc's major cooldown is Metamorphosis, a 2-minute cooldown. When cast, it deals light Chaos damage, stuns targets at your location after casting, and enters into your Demon Form for 20 seconds. While transformed, it confers the following benefits:

• Haste is increased by 20%;
• Chaos Strike swaps to Annihilation, dealing significantly more damage;
• Blade Dance swaps to Death Sweep, dealing significantly more damage.
• Chaotic Transformation — resets the cooldown of Blade Dance and Eye Beam.
• Fel-Scarred - Demonic Intensity resets the cooldown of Immolation Aura.

While this is active, Havoc deals significantly more damage, and is generates additional resources to fuel these stronger casts. Aim to enter with as much Fury as you can, and leave with as little as possible, planning your casts so it's always on cooldown. While playing with Chaotic Transformation, you should make absolutely sure that both Blade Dance and Eye Beam are on cooldown before pressing it. You can also use the leap from casting it to cancel the Vengeful Retreat animation in your opener, allowing you to stick to a target.

While playing Fel-Scarred, Fury generation is also dramatically increased. This means you should spend much more aggressively, aiming to ramp up the Burning Blades DoT with Annihilation.

While Eye Beam has a shorter, 30-second cooldown, it's still a powerful ability that's a core part of Havoc's damage profile, dealing heavy Chaos damage during its channel. It has a variety of talents to enhance it, making it a priority cast both in single-target and especially AoE situations. Some details are:

• Demonic — grants 5 seconds of Metamorphosis
• Collective Anguish — summons an allied demon hunter to cast Fel Devastation
• Blind Fury — generates a large amount of Fury while channeling
• Isolated Prey — deals 30% increased damage if it only hits a single target
• Furious Gaze — grants 10% Haste for 10 seconds after completing the channel
• Fel-Scarred — Student of Suffering grants 18% Mastery and generates Fury after casting.

You should aim to cast this as frequently as possible, both for the damage it provides and, in particular, the Demonic triggers. The only situation worth holding for is in single-target, but you expect adds to spawn before its cooldown completes again. Also, make sure to have it on cooldown before casting Metamorphosis, as its cooldown is reset by Chaotic Transformation.

Cycle of Hatred increases your access to Eye Beam, ramping up during an encounter. Each time you cast Eye Beam while in combat, it gains a stack, up to 4. Each stack reduces the cooldown of Eye Beam by 2.5 seconds, and is a cornerstone of the Havoc rotation for both Hero Trees. This means, after your opener, it should be down to 22.5 seconds, and shortly after to 20, at which point it will align naturally with other burst windows such as Tactical Retreat.

While playing Fel-Scarred, as this ramps up, it becomes very common to extend Metamorphosis casts past the cooldown. Make sure when this happens that you have no leftover Demonsurge procs from Annihilation or Death Sweep, as re-casting it will refresh new triggers you can consume for extra pulses.

This effect persists through death, but after 1 minute spent out of combat you revert back to 1 stack.

Despite being a 1.5-minute cooldown, The Hunt is a less high-impact effect, and is simply used a large source of direct damage. This has a huge range of 50 yards, dealing heavy Chaos damage on arrival, applying a DoT to both your target and up to 5 other enemies you pass through.

This is cast on cooldown as a burst tool, aiming to overlap it with AoE if possible. There is a small grace period after arriving, where your hitbox still actively applies the debuff if you haven't already hit 5 targets yet. This will, in future, be a core cooldown utilized by both Hero Trees due to the new Apex Talent - Eternal Hunt, but this cannot be accessed during the Pre-patch.

When playing Aldrachi Reaver, it also grants a charge of Reaver's Glaive and shatters an additional Soul. This means it's used to quickly set up your Hero Talent on pull to apply Reaver's Mark to a priority target.

Havoc comes with a number of unique talents that make use of its movement tools to gain additional damage. Due to that, unlike other specs being aware of how to manage movement during an encounter is a key skill for Havoc. Notable talents that make use of this type of gameplay are:

• Initiative and Tactical Retreat
• Exergy or Inertia
• Unbound Chaos

Vengeful Retreat is the main activator for both Exergy and Inertia, cast on cooldown. The best way to get back to a target following a Vengeful Retreat cast is Felblade, but it has a brief shared movement cooldown after casting. This means you have to wait to cast it, but this usually means that you will have made enough range to activate the charge effect. This is also the method for triggering Unbound Chaos, empowering the return Felblade significantly.

Inertia provides a short-duration, high-intensity burst window. This pairs well with a number of Havoc's tools, and with Cycle of Hatred it perfectly aligns Vengeful Retreat with every Eye Beam. You should be timing your Vengeful Retreat casts around these windows, making sure to have Felblade available to get back onto your target quickly. For Aldrachi Reaver, you have the advantage of Unhindered Assault that makes this consistent. Remember though, Evasive Action does not allow you to double trigger anything, even if you trigger Inertia in between. Fel-Scarred makes use of this talent extensively, using the damage amp to further lean into its high Demonsurge windows with each Demonic trigger.

Exergy causes both Vengeful Retreat and The Hunt to grant 5% increased damage, lasting for 20 seconds, and can be extended up to 30 seconds. This should be 100% uptime throughout an encounter, as the additional time buffer granted by The Hunt gives you some breathing room to drift Vengeful Retreat slightly. This is much less involved, very consistent, and is often the go-to pick for Aldrachi Reaver movement builds.

With Havoc being so reliant on its resources, it's important to identify situations where you need to aggressively spend Fury vs. what you expect to generate. In Midnight, the amount of generation available on the tree is noticeably reduced due to Felblade's reduction to 15, and most will come from slower, passive procs via Demon Blades. You'll also need to catch refunds from Chaos Strike and potentially alter your plan for spending on the fly.

Some basic rules to follow when thinking about your Fury management in practice are:

• Always have enough Fury available to cast Blade Dance / Death Sweep and Eye Beam.
• Cast Chaos Strike / Annihilation as frequently as possible, unless pooling for burst windows.
• Cast Felblade.
• Cast Immolation Aura as a backup generation tool if you fall behind on Fury.
• Wait, allowing Demon Blades to generate Fury, or collect Demonic Appetite orbs.
• Cast Throw Glaive or Fel Rush if out of range of any targets or during empty Globals.

Due to the Midnight shift to Demon Blades being the primary generation method paired with lower overall Fury, there's often a small amount of waiting - especially if you commit to over-spending. This is normal, but with some experience you should be able to plan around - and mitigate - the worst cases. The most important thing to remember though, is you never want to be caught during a burst window without the Fury to capitalize upon it.

There will also be periods where you are flooded with Fury with good RNG streaks. This is also normal, and having some waste in this period is fine. Making sure you keep high priority abilities on cooldown is always a higher priority.

Essence Break is an additional high-value burst cooldown, but only lasts for 4 seconds. In Midnight, this is now flat damage rather than a multiplier, so it's less important to execute during Metamorphosis. It's still ideal to do so however solely due to the extra GCDs provided by the Haste, but sequencing is less important than before.

Depending on your Haste, and whether you are affected by Bloodlust, you should be able to fit in 4 casts during this window - all of which need to be as many Death Sweep / Annihilation casts as possible.

While these talents are more supplementary than central, there are a number of synergistic talents on the tree that bring Throw Glaive into the rotation as a relevant ability.

• Accelerated Blade — increases Throw Glaive damage by 60%, reducing by 30% per bounce.
• Furious Throws — adds a 25 Fury cost to Throw Glaive, but it launches a second glaive when cast.
• Serrated Glaive — causes Throw Glaive and Chaos Strike to increase the targets damage taken both abilities by 15% for 15 seconds.
• Soulscar — Throw Glaive also leaves a Chaos damage DoT on the target, dealing 80% of the damage dealt over 6 seconds.
• Screaming Brutality — each cast of Blade Dance automatically consumes one charge of Throw Glaive, casting it for free on your primary target. Each individual Blade Dance slash also has a 50% chance to throw an additional glaive at 35% effectiveness.

These are often taken as a package, and uses Screaming Brutality as the activator to access the effects during rotational gameplay. This is far more efficient than investing GCDs into manually casting it - which no build currently does - and is used in a few builds, though not all at once. This means this talent package is actually a lot more passive than it looks on the surface.

While playing Aldrachi Reaver, these are required talents as they also affect your casts of Reaver's Glaive. Bear in mind that Screaming Brutality does not cause Blade Dance to trigger it. Instead, it always needs to be manually cast to activate.

Immolation Aura has a dedicated section of supporting talents on the tree, down the right side. These are often taken as a package, especially in AoE, synergizing well with each other:

• Burning Hatred — generates an additional 24 Fury over 6 seconds when cast.
• Growing Inferno — deals 10% increased damage each time it ticks.
• Burning Wound — Demon Blades and Throw Glaive to apply a 15-second DoT, dealing Chaos damage. Targets affected take 40% increased Immolation Aura damage, with a limit of 3 wounds.
• Ragefire — 30% of damage dealt by up to 3 Critical Strikes of Immolation Aura is accumulated as Ragefire. When it expires, you detonate, dealing damage equal to the stored amount to nearby enemies.
• Flamebound — increases Immolation Aura range by 2 yards, and Critical Strike damage by 50%.
• Undying Embers — gives Immolation Aura a 25% chance to reignite when it expires.

This forms a strong core in AoE that pairs with the talent discussed below, A Fire Inside, and is often cast as frequently as possible when taken. Screaming Brutality also naturally applies the maximum number of Burning Wounds in AoE, but if you aren't playing it, this requires tab-targeting to apply with Demon Blades.

Ragefire is a key mechanic to be aware of, and knowing when each instance of Immolation Aura is about to expire is helpful. Making sure you don't move out of range of enemies (or use movement tools to displace yourself) just before it goes off is key to making sure you avoid it exploding into thin air.

When playing A Fire Inside, your Immolation Aura gains a second charge, and its cooldown is reduced by 6 seconds. Additionally, it allows for multiple auras to be active at once, so cast frequency is much higher. This is usually paired with other Immolation Aura talents to maximize its damage.

It's crucial when playing this to make sure you never leave it at 2 charges, making sure that you plan around when it's about to cap and use it again beforehand. Remember - nothing is lost due to the buffs overlapping. As Fel-Scarred, Demonic Intensity will refund two charges when cast, giving you a full refill to double up on Consuming Fire. This means before Metamorphosis, you want to be drained to zero charges to get the most out of it.