Havoc Demon Hunter Guide for The War Within

Aldrachi Reaver focuses on Havoc's direct attacks, using Reaver's Glaive (which replaces Throw Glaive) to enhance both Chaos Strike and Blade Dance. After a lot of iteration this has mostly settled on something that Havoc has not really had to deal with in the past, and that is buff maintenance. The tree relies very heavily on cycling between souls mostly generated via Demonic Appetite, Aldrachi Tactics and Wounded Quarry to activate Reaver's Glaive itself, which in turn activates a generous damage boost window with some flexibility.

To be more specific, Reaver's Glaive gives you two buffs that each individually apply effects to Blade Dance and Chaos Strike, and the order in which you consume them will dictate the strength of the empowerment. Fury of the Aldrachi impacts Blade Dance, triggering 3 additional strikes when consumed, or 6 if triggered second. Reaver's Mark on the other hand triggers from Chaos Strike and will increase your targets damage taken by 15% for 20 seconds, or 30% if consumed second. As a general rule, Chaos Strike is second when you want to focus on single-target, while Blade Dance is during AoE - which is fairly intuitive.

When these effects are consumed it also activates Thrill of the Fight, a 30% damage increase window that also buffs your attack speed. As of the most recent build this was altered to last for 10 seconds, rather than only the next ability, which puts the strength of this tree unusually high and may indicate more changes on the horizon. This may help to alleviate the problem of having Reaver's Mark locked to only one target for extended periods of time, but we will see how the Beta progresses.

For Utility and Defense, Aldrachi Reaver is fairly average. It obviously supplies a good deal more healing via the additional souls as part of the tree mechanic, alongside Army Unto Oneself that grants damage reduction following Felblade casts. Considering these are low-GCD frequent, this amounts to a decent amount of additional durability. This also ties in well with Unhindered Assault that provides both a way to quickly re-engage after leaping backward, and a guaranteed way of activating the damage reduction if needed. Unfortunately, it being tied to something pressed on cooldown means that synergy does not mean much in practice.

In terms of gameplay, this fits into a style similar to the live Dragonflight build, aiming to overlap key buffs to empower weapon attacks. Currently however, Reaver's Glaive seems to be hooked up incorrectly and does not deal the damage it should, but is at least off the GCD which makes it easy to get started. This is made easier with tools such as Sigil of Spite, and currently The Hunt also still guarantees a trigger despite the talent being removed, making it easy to get started on pull. Alongside that, Demonic Appetite not working with Throw Glaive when the talents are otherwise incentivized causes some unnecessary clashes.

Fel-Scarred leans very heavily into Metamorphosis, providing benefits to abilities cast while in demon form while also incentivizing shifting in and out as frequently as possible. Of the two trees, this is the simpler to grasp due to its singular focus, and calls back to past high-Meta builds that Havoc has played in the past with some new tools.

The primary hook is Demonsurge, which buffs the first cast of both Annihilation and Death Sweep each time you enter demon form. This will only be applied if you were not currently in demon form already, unless it is done via a hard cast of Metamorphosis which is considered as a fresh entry rather than an extension. This pairs with the capstone in Demonic Intensity to also transform and empower Sigil of Flame, Eye Beam and Immolation Aura, and each subsequent Demonsurge you trigger will be increasingly more powerful. Other effects on the tree are mostly passive, granting some extra buffs while out of demon form in Enduring Torment and Monster Rising to make it less painful to be out of this state while you build back up to it.

Defense for Fel-Scarred is relatively good, with the keystone talent also granting 5% additional max health while in demon form. Alongside that, Set Fire to the Pain provides a bit of indirect passive DR that, while it does still deal the damage to you will mostly be solved with the base Leech that Havoc has. Alternatively, some extra leech via Improved Soul Rending is nice, but nothing special. Utility-wise wise there are some cases where the extra disruption from Wave of Debilitation may be useful in Mythic+ though it is quite niche. Pursuit of Angriness on the other hand has a very amusing name but it provides even more passive mobility to a spec that already has a lot to begin with, so is unlikely to be that impactful.

The clear incentive for gameplay then is to get into Metamorphosis states as frequently as possible. This puts a huge focus on Cycle of Hatred and Fury cycling to activate these as often as possible. This is a pretty easy-to-understand playstyle and one that has worked in the past for Havoc, so it should feel right at home, especially for those that have played the spec in past expansions.