Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — 12.1

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In Midnight, Havoc saw some restructuring within its tree, and Season 2 has broadened some options to allow for less strict build requirements. It still has to specialize a little more than it did previously, but has some good tools available, in particular the Apex Talent - Eternal Hunt - cementing The Hunt as a powerful 1-minute cooldown.

• Raid - Fel-Scarred provides strong single-target, while having much more flexible cleave for encounters in the current season. Aldrachi Reaver is competitive however, and is an option when funnel can be utilized.
• Mythic+ - Fel-Scarred provides frequent burst AoE and is easier to pilot, making it the standard pick. However, in more high-end content, the funnel offered by Aldrachi Reaver makes it an appealing alternative.

While going into Season 2 the two trees looked to even out, the reality of The Venomous Abyss after release has shown that Aldrachi Reaver can't quite leverage its tools as well as expected. While Wounded Quarry does see unique use on specific fights, the sheer flexibility of Fel-Scarred paired with more on-demand damage makes it the go-to, with small modifications depending on the encounter. This holds true for Mythic+ as well, although Wounded Quarry may prove useful in higher keys as the season continues. Our import codes below provide quick-start builds for each of our recommended choices:

Quick Start Import Codes:

The builds listed above are recommendations based on strength and popularity, covering each area of content in endgame PvE. Each build has its own rotation to execute, with unique aspects to master, with their own tricks up their sleeve to assist your group in different encounters.

Introduced in Patch 12.0.7, the Omnium Folio is a player power system that provides a small number of performance boosting effects, unlocked through a series of quests. These bonuses aren't related to any gear pieces, and are always active on your character. Some provide additional damage, while others grant some healing and extra defensive tools.

Below, we've listed recommendations for each of the five Runes, unlocked as you complete the Folio quest chain:

• Rune 1 - Rune of Unleashed Fire
• Rune 2 - Rune of Self-Mending
• Rune 3 - Rune of Lingering
• Rune 4 - Rune of Critical Power
• Rune 5 - Rune of Overload

It's worth noting that the difference between most of these effects is very minor. The fourth stat boosting Rune is relevant, however, providing a solid amount of your chosen secondary through regular procs. Due to the uniquely powerful benefits for Havoc, Critical Strike is recommended.

The Havoc Apex Talent, Eternal Hunt, focuses on both The Hunt and Eye Beam, adding additional combo effects to each cast. All four points are extremely powerful, and each node has unique interactions for both Aldrachi Reaver and Fel-Scarred:

• Eternal Hunt first point - causes The Hunt to empower your next Eye Beam cast, increasing its damage by 100% and increasing the range of the beam.
• Eternal Hunt second and third point - reduces the cooldown of The Hunt by 15 seconds and increases the number of targets hit by the DoT effect by 2 for each point.
• Eternal Hunt fourth point - increases Blade Dance damage by 20%, and fully channelling Eye Beam causes your next Blade Dance cast to reset its own cooldown.

This turns The Hunt into a 1-minute burst cooldown, dealing high AoE damage on its own, while also causing each follow-up Demonic window to guarantee two Death Sweep casts. This significantly improves 20-second burst cycles for each tree, leaning toward Fel-Scarred's high focus on these windows. Aldrachi Reaver instead benefits greatly from the reduced cooldown, providing a reliable way to guarantee Reaver's Glaive procs.

Havoc has two distinct Hero Tree choices available that, as covered in the above sections, drastically alter your gameplay goals depending on which you pick. These two Hero Talents are Aldrachi Reaver and Fel-Scarred.

This tree grants access to Reaver's Glaive, triggered via consuming Souls, and replaces your next Throw Glaive with a significantly more powerful version. Specific mechanics are:

• After casting Reaver's Glaive a combo sequence is initiated. Your next Chaos Strike and Blade Dance will trigger a bonus effect, and after both you gain Thrill of the Fight.
• Reaver's Mark is applied via Chaos Strike from this combo. This causes all Physical damage you deal to duplicate a portion as Chaos onto the affected target through Wounded Quarry.

This makes Aldrachi Reaver a powerful funnel specialization, which is often extremely sought after. The addition of Bladecraft in Midnight causes Blade Dance casts to convert a significant amount of AoE damage directly into your marked target, allowing it to pick off priority targets.

Fel-Scarred focuses on your Metamorphosis windows - both the 2-minute cooldown and activations through Demonic. It comes with a number of buffs and effects to your core abilities, and some specific mechanics:

• After entering Metamorphosis via any means, your next cast of both Annihilation and Death Sweep will trigger Demonsurge, dealing high AoE Chaos damage.
• After casting Metamorphosis, your next Eye Beam and Immolation Aura also trigger a Demonsurge. When transformed, they also convert to Abyssal Gaze and Consuming Fire, respectively.

This means Fel-Scarred's damage is centered around its 20-second burst cycle, making use of Cycle of Hatred to lower Eye Beam's cooldown to enter Demonic. This is then amplified even more during every two minutes during Metamorphosis, dealing potent front-loaded burst through Demonsurge chains.

"War Mode" is an optional feature that enables open-world PvP encounters that confer some benefits when active:

• Grants access to PvP talents in the open world.
• 10% increase in World Quest rewards at max level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.
• Earn Conquest Points which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is an optional way to maximize your leveling speed and reward potential. However, you will open yourself up to open-world PvP, so be aware of hostile enemy players who could interfere with you; this is a risk you will have to decide on your own if you want to take.

Here, we'll only be looking at PvP talents that have use cases for aiding with leveling or open-world PvE scenarios, as their PvP benefits are discussed on our PvP page. Generally, the selections are made to optimize your ability to kill enemies faster, increasing your pace when moving through content.

• Unending Hatred is just free Fury generation as you will take damage in the open world.
• Rain from Above can be helpful to deal with dangerous enemies while staying safe, though it's not as strong as simply using your abilities.
• Blood Moon can provide a small amount of extra healing and Soul generation.

Reverse Magic, Detainment, Cover of Darkness, Cleansed by Flame and Glimpse all have minimal uses in PvE, due to it being very focused on crowd control tools or pressuring enemy players into spending more resources than they would otherwise want to.

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