Havoc Demon Hunter Playstyle and Rotation Guide

General Rotation

Fel-Scarred Single Target priority list

1. Death Sweep during Essence Break
2. Annihilation during Essence Break
3. Fel Rush when Unbound Chaos active
4. Immolation Aura / Consuming Fire before Eye Beam is off cooldown
5. Vengeful Retreat
6. The Hunt
7. Sigil of Doom
8. Essence Break whilst in Metamorphosis
9. Death Sweep
10. Metamorphosis if Eye Beam is on CD
11. Eye Beam / Consuming Fire
12. Blade Dance
13. Annihilation
14. Felblade if under 80 fury
15. Sigil of Flame if under 90 fury
16. Chaos Strike
17. Throw Glaive

Aldrachi no mover priority list

1. Reaver’s Glaive
2. Fel Rush when Unbound Chaos active.
3. Immolation Aura
4. Vengeful Retreat
5. The Hunt
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. Felblade if under 80 fury
14. Sigil of Flame if under 90 fury
15. Chaos Strike
16. Throw Glaive

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 Fel-Scarred Inertia build

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

Opener for Single target raid low mover Aldrachi build

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

Opener for AoE Fel-Scarred Mythic+ build

1. Immonlation Aura on pull
2. The Hunt
3. Sigil of Flame
4. Fel Rush
5. Immolation Aura
6. Fel Rush
7. Tempered Potion + Trinket.
8. Eye Beam
9. Annihilation
10. Essence Break
11. Death Sweep
12. Vengeful Retreat and Metamorphosis.
13. Death Sweep
14. Annihilation
15. Sigil of Doom
16. Consuming Fire
17. Fel Rush
18. Abyssal Gaze
19. Glaive Tempest if talented.
20. Continue with normal priority.

Opener for AoE Aldrachi Reaver Mythic+ build

1. Immonlation Aura pre-pull
2. Sigil of Flame pre-pull
3. The Hunt on pull
4. Reaver’s Glaive
5. Felblade
6. Tempered Potion + Trinket.
7. Fel Rush
8. Eye Beam
9. Essence Break
10. Annihilation
11. Death Sweep
12. Vengeful Retreat and Metamorphosis.
13. Death Sweep
14. Sigil of Spite
15. Eye Beam
16. Continue with normal Priority.

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.

Momentum uptime

Momentum has become a buff which is possible to keep up for the entire duration of a fight meaning it can have a 100% uptime. It’s very important to keep track of the buff due to its short Cooldown and make sure to use your Momentum activating abilities on CD. However Fel Rush is slightly different due to its low CD and double charges the most important thing is that you never have 2 charges of it.

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.