Last updated on Jun 18, 2024 at 10:00by Wordup58 comments
Welcome to our comprehensive guide on the Havoc Demon Hunter changes in World of Warcraft's latest expansion, The War Within.This page is intended to help you navigate the new changes and help you know what to expect from Havoc Demon Hunter in the War Within.
In this guide, you will find detailed breakdowns of the new Hero Talent Trees for Havoc Demon Hunter. We will explore the most significant updates to the spec, and offer insights into how these changes will impact your overall gameplay.Whether you are an experienced Havoc Demon Hunter or new to the spec, this page will be useful in knowing what to expect come launch in late August.
1.
Havoc Demon Hunter: The War Within Expansion Preview
Welcome to our War Within expansion guide for Havoc Demon Hunter.Ahead of launch, this page will contain everything you need to know about theHavoc Demon Hunter spec in the forthcoming The War Within expansion,including changes, Hero Talent Trees, and some insight into the state of the specgoing into the expansion.
This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, and will be kept upto date with developments during the War Within beta. This is not meantto bea launch guide for Havoc Demon Hunter, but instead serves as aresource for you to keep up to date with how the spec is evolving on Beta, andwhat you can expect from its playstyle and feel on launch.
2.
The War Within Changes for Havoc Demon Hunter
Coming hot off the heels of a fairly large-scale rework in Patch 10.2, Havocand Demon Hunter as a whole has seen no major changes throughout Alpha and Beta.With that said, the hero talent trees have a lot of strong hooks into the talenttree itself and make a lot of influences on your selections, but the core gameplayyou know from Dragonflight remains unchanged.
3.
Hero Talent Trees for Havoc Demon Hunter in The War Within
The flagship feature of The War Within are "Hero Talent Trees", with Havochaving the choice between either "Aldrachi Reaver" or "Fel-Scarred", both sharedwith Vengeance. These trees will grant all 11 talent pointsat once when you reach Level 80 (with a handful of choice nodes), and you canfreely swap between them just like regular talent points.
4.
Havoc Demon Hunter Hero Talents
Aldrachi ReaverFel-Scarred
3.1.
Aldrachi Reaver
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 iterationthis has mostly settled on something that Havoc has not really had to deal within the past, and that is buff maintenance. The tree relies very heavily on cyclingbetween souls mostly generated via Demonic Appetite, Aldrachi Tacticsand Wounded Quarry to activate Reaver's Glaive itself, which in turnactivates a generous damage boost window with some flexibility.
To be more specific, Reaver's Glaive gives you two buffs that eachindividually apply effects to Blade Dance and Chaos Strike, andthe order in which you consume them will dictate the strength of the empowerment. Fury of the Aldrachi impacts Blade Dance, triggering 3 additional strikeswhen consumed, or 6 if triggered second. Reaver's Mark on the other handtriggers from Chaos Strike and will increase your targets damage taken by 15% for20 seconds, or 30% if consumed second. As a general rule, Chaos Strikeis second when you want to focus on single-target, while Blade Dance isduring 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 themost recent build this was altered to last for 10 seconds, rather than onlythe next ability, which puts the strength of this tree unusually high and mayindicate more changes on the horizon. This may help to alleviate the problem ofhaving Reaver's Mark locked to only one target for extended periodsof time, but we will see how the Beta progresses.
For Utility and Defense, Aldrachi Reaver is fairly average. It obviouslysupplies a good deal more healing via the additional souls as part of the treemechanic, alongside Army Unto Oneself that grants damage reductionfollowing Felblade casts. Considering these are low-GCD frequent, thisamounts to a decent amount of additional durability. This also ties in well with Unhindered Assault that provides both a way to quickly re-engage afterleaping backward, and a guaranteed way of activating the damage reduction ifneeded. Unfortunately, it being tied to something pressed on cooldown means thatsynergy does not mean much in practice.
In terms of gameplay, this fits into a style similar to the live Dragonflightbuild, aiming to overlap key buffs to empower weapon attacks. Currently however, Reaver's Glaive seems to be hooked up incorrectly and does not deal thedamage it should, but is at least off the GCD which makes it easyto get started. This is made easier with tools such as Sigil of Spite,and currently The Hunt also still guarantees a trigger despitethe talent being removed, making it easy to get started on pull. Alongside that, Demonic Appetite not working with Throw Glaive when the talentsare otherwise incentivized causes some unnecessary clashes.
3.1.
Fel-Scarred
Fel-Scarred leans very heavily into Metamorphosis, providingbenefits to abilities cast while in demon form while also incentivizing shiftingin and out as frequently as possible. Of the two trees, this is the simpler tograsp due to its singular focus, and calls back to past high-Meta builds thatHavoc 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. Thiswill only be applied if you were not currently in demon form already,unless it is done via a hard cast of Metamorphosis which isconsidered as a fresh entry rather than an extension. This pairs with the capstonein Demonic Intensity to also transform and empower Sigil of Flame, Eye Beam and Immolation Aura, and each subsequent Demonsurge youtrigger will be increasingly more powerful. Other effects on the tree are mostlypassive, granting some extra buffs while out of demon form in Enduring Torment and Monster Rising to make it less painfulto be out of this state while you build back up to it.
Defense for Fel-Scarred is relatively good, with the keystone talent alsogranting 5% additional max health while in demon form. Alongside that, Set Fire to the Pain provides a bit of indirect passive DR that, while itdoes still deal the damage to you will mostly be solved with the base Leech thatHavoc has. Alternatively, some extra leech via Improved Soul Rending isnice, but nothing special. Utility-wise wise there are some cases where the extradisruption from Wave of Debilitation may be useful in Mythic+ thoughit is quite niche. Pursuit of Angriness on the other hand has a veryamusing name but it provides even more passive mobility to a spec that already hasa lot to begin with, so is unlikely to be that impactful.
The clear incentive for gameplay then is to get into Metamorphosisstates as frequently as possible. This puts a huge focus on Cycle of Hatredand Fury cycling to activate these as often as possible. This is a prettyeasy-to-understand playstyle and one that has worked in the past for Havoc, so itshould feel right at home, especially for those that have played the spec in pastexpansions.
4.
Havoc Demon Hunter Tier Set in The War Within
Below are the Season 1 Tier Set Bonuses for Havoc Demon Hunter inThe War Within. Bear in mind that these are the first passes of bonuses and maychange going forward.
- Demon Hunter Havoc Season 1 2pc — Blade Dance deals 20%increased damage.
- Demon Hunter Havoc Season 1 4pc — Chaos Strike deals 20%increased damage, and has a 25% chance to reset the cooldown on Blade Dance.
4.1.
Havoc Demon Hunter War Within Set Bonus Impact
Both of the set bonuses for Havoc are relatively simple, both empowering thetwo core abilities that make up the majority of the damage toolkit. It is, however,very weighted toward single-target, which may be slightly underwhelming comparedto more flexible bonuses. The 4-piece, at the very least, adds a simple butrewarding extra gameplay hook of Blade Dance resets to react to, whichare fun to play around without getting too much in the way of adjusting tothe new Hero Talent gameplay loops.
5.
Havoc Demon Hunter Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
- Flexible cooldown profiles between both Hero Talent trees allowing you to excel in different situations.
- Increased burst capabilities when played correctly, especially during Metamorphosis with Fel-Scarred.
- Still provides a very high amount of self-sustain and durability throughout the kit and with new Hero Talent additions.
- Extremely strong mobility alongside some unique tools to assist the group.
Weaknesses
- Both Hero Talents require some extra setup, with Aldrachi Reaver adding even more steps into openers.
- Aldrachi Reaver's main damage amplifier is target locked, meaning enemy deaths or target switching is more difficult.
- Fel-Scarred is extremely reliant on uptime to cycle through demon form as quickly as possible.
- Movement talents are may still turn people off, and are still likely to be a strong pick for at least one of the new trees.
6.
Changelog
- 17 Jun. 2024: Page added.
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