Vengeance Demon Hunter Patch 9.1 Changes Analysis

Vengeance Demon Hunter changes for Patch 9.1 are previewed in this part of the guide. This should be viewed as a preview that can be changed any day prior to the patch release date. This page is a work-in-progress. A full list of changes to the entire Demon Hunter class can be found on our dedicated page below. For an additional list of content coming in Patch 9.1, you can also check out our Patch 9.1 Overview page.

There are no changes for the base spec at this time. Vengeance was the top or second-best tank for all of Shadowlands so no serious changes are expected.

There are no changes to talents at this time. Vengeance is in a good place so it is expected of Blizzard to leave the spec alone for at least one large patch.

The new Legendaries that are Covenant-based are, unfortunately, bad for Vengeance. The Necrolord and Venthyr Covenants' are decent Legendaries but both Covenants are still not recommended as a choice. The new Legendaries are:

• Blind Faith is the Kyrian Legendary that will spawn 2 additional Soul Fragments from Elysian Decree and gives a Blind Faith buff for 20 seconds that increases Mastery by 1% and generates 10 Fury per Soul Fragment consumed.
• Blazing Slaughter is the Night Fae Legendary that triggers Immolation Aura when hitting your target with The Hunt and increasing Agility by 3% per target hit for 12 seconds.
• Agony Gaze increases the damage of Sinful Brand by 10% and increases the duration of Sinful Brand by 0.5 seconds with each hit of Fel Devastation.
• Demonic Oath will cause Fiery Brand to apply to up to 5 enemies hit by the explosion of the demon from Fodder to the Flame and extends the buff granted from its Soul Fragment by 8 seconds.

The Kyrian Legendary seems to have been designed for Havoc without considering how useful the Legendary would be for Vengeance. Mastery is the worst stat and having additional Fury is good but, without additional soul generation, it will only be fed into further casts of Soul Cleave for additional damage. The current options are better than this Legendary.

The Night Fae Legendary provides a minimal damage increase due to the ticking damage of Immolation Aura and the Agility boost. The issue of having to hit multiple targets reliably to increase the Agility bonus is also a problem. With only a minimal dps increase, our current options are better to use.

Venthyr provides a decent damage boost overall. The issue with this Legendary is that maximizing the damage of Sinful Brand is counterintuitive to the Legendary. Metamorphosis has to be used to apply Sinful Brand to all targets which provides a large survival boost. Fel Devastation will then extend the debuff, but it hurts overall survivability because both Metamorphosis and Fel Devastation will be on cooldown.

The Necrolord option is a decent Legendary and may be a good choice if Necrolord is the Covenant of choice. The issue is that Necrolord is one of the worst Covenants for Vengeance and this Legendary does not close the gap.

Overall, the current Legendaries are a better option and should be used over these new Covenant Legendaries.

• Unnatural Malice will increase the DoT of The Hunt instead of the initial damage.

Unnatural Malice is a nerf to burst damage and a possible buff to AoE. This change appears to nerf the burst potential in PvP.

Every soulbind will also receive an additional Potency Conduit slot by default which is quite nice. Below is the list of the Kyrian traits as it is the main go-to Covenant for Vengeance Demon Hunter. The other three Covenants will be added shortly.

• Pelagos — Better Together will increase the Mastery of both the tank and another player for 1 minute. Mastery is the worst stat for Vengeance but this ability opens up a third Endurance Conduit slot.
• Pelagos — Newfound Resolve will spawn a Doubt manifestation for 10 seconds. Facing it will increase your Agility and Stamina for 15 seconds.
• Pelagos — Path of the Devoted decreases damage received after losing control of your character for 6 seconds. This ability is aimed towards reducing damage in PvP or niche PvE situations.
• Kleia — Spear of the Archon increases movement speed by 6% while out of combat. You also will gain 3% Critical Strike chance for 10 seconds after damaging an enemy above 90% health. This buff is applied after each hit if the the enemy is above 90% so this is equivalent to a flat 3% crit increase in this threshold.
• Kleia — Hope Springs Eternal will reduce damage received by 10% for 8 seconds after using Phial of Serenity and all effects are also applied to the lowest-health ally. The damage reduction can be used in a raiding situation and coupled with Ascendant Phial will provide immunity to both the tank and the lowest-HP ally. This is a niche ability because it leads to a Finesse Conduit but can be very strong in the right situations.
• Kleia — Light the Path grants 0.25% Critical Strike chance per stack of Valiant Strikes. When Valiant Strike heals an ally, you gain 5% Critical Strike chance for 12 seconds. This is purely a damage increase trait with minimal gain defensively due to Parry.
• Forgelite Prime Mikanikos — Soulglow Spectrometer increases the damage to a target by 1% after damaging the target and additional 1% after 3 seconds. This stacks to 5% over 15 seconds and a new target cannot be analyzed before the 15-second duration expires. This is a straight damage trait that would provide a consistent small single-target damage boost.
• Forgelite Prime Mikanikos — Reactive Retrofitting applies a physical or magic shield for 10 seconds equal to 8% of your Max Health. Each damage type can be triggered once per 30 seconds. This is a relatively strong defensive trait that can trigger twice on enemies that do both physical and magic damage. The only issue is that the trait forces a Finesse Conduit.
• Forgelite Prime Mikanikos — Effusive Anima Accelerator releases a blast of anima at the target location dealing damage split evenly between all targets. It also reduces the cooldown of Elysian Decree per enemy affected. This trait may be quite potent in Mythic+ due to the AoE damage and the lower cooldown with Elysian Decree.

The Kyrian soulbind changes provides decent alternatives. Pelagos provides three Endurance and three Potency Conduits and may be the go-to choice as a soulbind. Kleia provides a small damage boost with extra Critical Strike and a niche trait with Hope Springs Eternal. Mikanikos provides a small single-target damage boost and a potentially large AoE-damage boost with Effusive Anima Accelerator.

There are no changes to Demon Hunter Anima Powers in Patch 9.1 so far.