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Havoc Demon Hunter Playstyle and Rotation Guide

Patch 11.1 Last Updated: 26th Mar, 2025
Faithy Author Avatar
Faithy

Playstyle & Rotation

General Rotation

Aldrachi Single Target priority list.

  1. Death Sweep during Essence Break
  2. Annihilation during Essence Break
  3. Reaver’s Glaive
  4. Sigil of Spite
  5. Felblade when buffed by Inertia.
  6. Vengeful Retreat
  7. The Hunt If you have no Reaver’s Glaive charge ready.
  8. Essence Break while in Metamorphosis
  9. Death Sweep
  10. Metamorphosis if Eye Beam is on CD
  11. Eye Beam
  12. Blade Dance
  13. Annihilation
  14. Chaos Strike with Rending Strike
  15. Felblade if under 80 fury
  16. Sigil of Flame if under 90 fury
  17. Chaos Strike
  18. Immolation Aura
  19. Throw Glaive if nothing is available

Fel-Scarred Single Target priority list.

  1. Death Sweep during Essence Break
  2. Annihilation during Essence Break
  3. Felblade when buffed by Inertia.
  4. Vengeful Retreat to sync Eye Beam cooldown.
  5. The Hunt
  6. Sigil of Doom whilst in Metamorphosis
  7. Essence Break whilst in Metamorphosis
  8. Death Sweep
  9. Metamorphosis if Eye Beam is on CD
  10. Sigil of Flame before Eye Beam
  11. Eye Beam / Abyssal Gaze
  12. Blade Dance
  13. Annihilation
  14. Felblade if under 130 fury
  15. Chaos Strike
  16. Immolation Aura
  17. Throw Glaive if nothing is available

Aldrachi AoE Mythic+ Inertia priority list.

  1. Reaver’s Glaive (In AoE Chaos Strike has higher priority than Blade Dance following a Reaver’s Glaive)
  2. Fel Rush or Felblade when buffed by Inertia
  3. Immolation Aura
  4. Vengeful Retreat
  5. The Hunt with no available charge of Reaver’s Mark or unused Inertia buff.
  6. Death Sweep
  7. Sigil of Spite
  8. Metamorphosis if Eye Beam is on CD
  9. Eye Beam
  10. Blade Dance
  11. Annihilation
  12. Chaos Strike with Rending Strike
  13. Sigil of Flame if under 90 Fury
  14. Felblade if under 80 Fury
  15. Chaos Strike
  16. Throw Glaive if nothing is available

Notes: It's important to keep your Reaver’s Mark on the target, while at the same time not wasting any uptime on the damage amp portion of Thrill of the Fight (lasts 10s).

Assuming you don’t lose a cast of Meta it’s always worth to hold your meta so that you can cast eyebeam before you press meta, since you’d then reset closer to 100% of the cooldown of Eye Beam.

Openers

Opener for Single target Aldrachi Raid build

  1. Immolation Aura (pre-pull).
  2. Sigil of flame (pre-pull).
  3. Tempered Potion + Trinket
  4. The Hunt.
  5. Reaver’s Glaive.
  6. Eye Beam.
  7. Felblade
  8. Annihilation.
  9. Essence Break
  10. Death Sweep
  11. Vengeful Retreat and Metamorphosis.
  12. Death Sweep
  13. Annihilation.
  14. Felblade
  15. Eye Beam.
  16. Sigil of Spite.

Opener for ST Fel-Scarred Inertia build

  1. Immolation Aura (pre-pull).
  2. Sigil of flame (pre-pull).
  3. The Hunt.
  4. Tempered Potion + Trinket.
  5. Eye Beam.
  6. Felblade
  7. Death Sweep
  8. Annihilation
  9. Vengeful Retreat and Metamorphosis
  10. Death Sweep.
  11. Annihilation.
  12. Sigil of Doom
  13. Felblade
  14. Abyssal Gaze
  15. Essence Break
  16. Death Sweep
  17. Annihilation until Essence Break ends.
  18. Cast Consuming Fire before Metamorphosis ends.

Opener for AoE Aldrachi Reaver Inertia Mythic+ build.

  1. Sigil of flame (pre-pull).
  2. Tempered Potion + Trinket.
  3. The Hunt.
  4. Blade Dance.
  5. Immolation Aura.
  6. Reaver’s Glaive.
  7. Immolation Aura remaining charges.
  8. Felblade.
  9. Eye Beam.
  10. Annihilation.
  11. Essence Break.
  12. Death Sweep.
  13. Vengeful Retreat and Metamorphosis.
  14. Death Sweep
  15. Annihilation
  16. Eye Beam
  17. Sigil of Spite

Opener for AoE Aldrachi Reaver Low Mover Mythic+ build.

  1. Immolation Aura (pre-pull).
  2. Sigil of flame (pre-pull).
  3. Tempered Potion + trinket
  4. The Hunt.
  5. Reaver’s Glaive.
  6. Felblade
  7. Eye Beam.
  8. Annihilation.
  9. Essence Break
  10. Death Sweep
  11. Vengeful Retreat and Metamorphosis.
  12. Death Sweep
  13. Annihilation.
  14. Eye Beam.
  15. Sigil of Spite

Baseline Havoc Demon Hunter Abilities

Damaging Abilities

  1. Demon’s Bite: Deals physical damage to the target and generates Fury.
  2. Chaos Strike: Deals Chaos damage to the target, costs Fury and slashes twice. Has a chance to refund half of its cost.
  3. Blade Dance: Deals AoE physical damage with 4 strikes around you.
  4. Immolation Aura: Applies a buff dealing Fire damage to all enemies around you every second, additionally it generates fury on cast. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
  5. Sigil of Flame: Places a sigil at your cursor which deals Fire damage after 2 seconds, and applies a debuff to all enemies within it. Generates 30 Fury on cast.
  6. Throw Glaive: Throws a glaive dealing physical damage with a 30 yard range. Bounces to the nearest enemy within 10 yards of your target.

Damage Cooldowns

  1. Metamorphosis: Jumps to your cursor and deals a small amount of Chaos damage and stuns enemies hit by it, transforming you into a demon. Whilst being in demon form, your abilities, Chaos Strike and Blade Dance transforms into an empowered version Annihilation and Death Sweep, additionally you grant 20% haste for its duration.

Defensive Cooldowns

  1. Blur: Reduces incoming damage by 20%, and grants you a 50% increased change to dodge melee hits and physical abilities.

Utility Abilities

  1. Fel Rush: Dashes instantly in the direction you are moving, dealing a small amount of AoE Chaos damage in its path. Damage is reduced beyond 5 targets.
  2. Disrupt: Interrupts your target, and applies a 3 second lockout to the school of magic interrupted.
  3. Fel Eruption: Stuns your target for 4 seconds, dealing a small amount of Chaos damage.
  4. Torment: Taunts your target, instantly granting you agro forcing them to attack you.
  5. Spectral Sight: Allows you to see enemies, treasures and other similar objectives through walls, whilst active your movement speed is reduced.

Passive Abilities

  1. Double Jump: Allows you to jump twice before landing.
  2. Glide: Tapping your jump button whilst in the air pulls out your wings, letting you glide slowly forward.
  3. Chaos Brand: Applies a permanent 3% magic damage taken increase to enemies which all benefits from. Reduced to 15 seconds when applied on players.
  4. Demonic Wards: Reduces all magic damage taken by 10%.
  5. Shattered Souls: Provides a chance for enemies you are involved in killing to drop a Soul Fragment. Walking into proximity of a Soul Fragment consumes it and heals you for 20% of your maximum HP. If the soul is dropped from a Demon it grants you Demon Soul, giving you a 20% damage increase for 15 seconds.
  6. Demonic Appetite: Casting Chaos Strike or Annihilation has a chance to spawn a Lesser Soul Fragment. Consuming a Soul Fragment generates you 20 Fury and heal you for 6% maximum HP.

Playstyle

Essence Break and the 40 second burst

Essence Break is a very powerful talent opening up for a very powerful Burst window for Havoc in both AoE and single target situations. When paired with Metamorphosis which is most commonly gained through Demonic + Eye Beam it makes Blade Dance an incredibly hard hitting ability in the 4 second debuff window and it's important to buff the damage of this short window as much as possible. This is made possible with Initiative which should always be activated right before the cast of Essence Break granting you an additional 25% crit in the burst window.

If you play with Chaotic Transformation it makes it possible to be able to cast 2 Blade Dances in Essence Break which is a very strong burst every 3 minutes when Metamorphosis lines up with Essence Break. So always pair up Meta with Essence Break if talented into Chaotic Transformation.

How to minmax Felrush + Vengeful without downtime

When Casting Felrush and Vengeful Retreat it’s important that you take into account where the cast will end up leaving you. You always want to cast the ability with the thought in mind you want to be in melee range of the Boss’s hitbox to not lose any uptime. It’s also important you don’t make the faulty move of putting yourself in front of the target due to its potential frontal abilities and the fact it can block your attacks.

I would recommend following the green lines in the picture below for the most optimal usage of your movement abilities.

havoc dh movement

Exergy (Momentum) uptime

Exergy is a buff with a very high uptime throughout an encounter being activated by both The Hunt and Vengeful Retreat which is often a core part of the rotation of Havoc. It’s very important to keep track of the buff, especially making sure you have it up during your Cooldowns.

Defensive usage

Havoc Demon Hunter is an immensely tanky Class with its crazy high amounts of self healing through various talents, making it a viable target to receive hits that aren't fatal if need be. Netherwalk is also a crucial ability in the Havoc kit depending on the situation, if there’s ever a need for an immunity, which is a common trope in especially a raiding environment.

Blur is a crazy short Cooldown Defensive so make sure to make good use of it, press it often however always make sure to have it available for the most important situations which would normally prove fatal.

Interface & Macros