Vengeance Demon Hunter Talents Guide

Patch 11.0.2 Last Updated: 9th Sep, 2024
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Meyra

Talent Builds

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This build is the highest damage build for a pure Single Target situation in Raid after Aldrachi Reaver was nerfed slightly after release.

This build elects to drop utility points that generally are not useful in raid to get as much damage as possible out of the build.

Any spare points have either been put in mobility or defensive options to make this a well rounded, but still damage focused talent set-up.

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If you prefer an Aldrachi Reaver build despite it being slightly lower performance on single target you can instead use this build.

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For Cleave situations, such as raid fights with multiple bosses, heavy add presence or frequent bursts of mob spawns, you would use the same build as linked above for Fel-Scarred, since it falls slightly behind on single target but offers significantly stronger AoE bursts.

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If you prefer Aldrachi Reaver for Cleave you can use the Single target build, since it offers all the AoE talents you would want for cleave situations.

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This is a template for Mythic+, as there are plenty of viable options you can choose to use for any specific situation that you come across. These talents are mainly a mix of high damage talents while still making sure to have access to strong passive and active defensive options.

You have access to most utility options, however these talents do not include Sigil of Chains since the power of the talent has diminished somewhat due to changes in enemy spell behavior. If you want to play Sigil of Chains your best bet is to trade Extended Spikes for it.

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This is a template for Mythic+, as there are plenty of viable options you can choose to use for any specific situation that you come across. These talents are mainly a mix of high damage talents while still making sure to have access to strong passive and active defensive options.

You have access to most utility options, however these talents do not include Sigil of Chains since the power of the talent has diminished somewhat due to changes in enemy spell behavior. If you want to play Sigil of Chains your best bet is to trade Extended Spikes for it.

Class Talents

The class tree has a few notable defensive talents in the middle section of the tree, namely Soul Rending, Infernal Armor and Demonic, all of which offer a lot of defensive power at relatively low cost. Outside of these there are two main sections that differ for Vengeance. Offensive capstone choices, and utility choices elsewhere.

For the Capstone area you get three branches ending at Collective Anguish, The Hunt and Sigil of Spite. These are all mainly offensive options that you can choose between.

The main point to consider is that Rush of Chaos and Flames of Fury are both very strong talents that you almost always want, with this in mind you can either go for Sigil of Spite and The Hunt, which also offers a few extra points to get Darkness or some other defensive or utility talents.

Alternatively you can drop The Hunt for more passive damage from Collective Anguish, this however means you can not spend extra points in the capstone area if you still want Rush of Chaos.

For Aldrachi Reaver The Hunt plays a pivotal part of the hero tree and is a very strong recommendation to take. For Fel-Scarred it is significantly less valuable and Collective Anguish is usually worth more damage if you are comfortable dropping the defensive nodes.

For the rest of the tree you have to decide between talents such as Chaos Nova and Improved Sigil of Misery, powerful tools in Mythic+ but less so in Raid, where you might want to consider movement options like Pursuit or Felfire Haste instead.

Spec Talents

The Vengeance tree has a few options where you have to consider which options are useful for the content you are doing.In the first gate you have talents such as Calcified Spikes and Ascending Flame where one offers a small defensive benefit and the other a minor offensive gain.

Sigil of Silence is a strong tool in Mythic+ but less important in Raid outside of maybe a handful of encounters every expansion where you can instead run Meteoric Strikes for some extra mobility/off the global damage.

The second gate has more options to pick from. Spirit Bomb synergizes well with both Hero Talents and is highly recommended for both, but can be dropped for a simpler build at the cost of a fair bit of damage, as well as defensive value in higher target counts.

You also have the option between defensive talents such as Extended spikes, Painbringer and offensive talents such as Chains of Anger and Soul Furnace.

Sigil of Chains is also a choice for dungeons, although the power has gone down significantly compared to Dragonflight due to changes to spellcaster behavior in dungeons.

For the final gate you have two main options, Soulcrush or Last Resort.

Soulcrush, especially with a point invested in Feed the Demon, is overall stronger with better damage, healing and mitigation in all scenarios.

However, Last Resort builds offer a very simple and consistent defensive pattern in Mythic+ and an 8-minute cheat death, so if you are not confident in the content you are doing it can be a consideration.

The last point of question is the choice node of Down in Flames and Illuminated sigils. Illuminated sigils was nerfed significantly for Mythic+ going into The War Within, however the defensive power is still significant in situations with multiple targets, as well as being the stronger offensive option. Down in Flames offers more defensive value in single target and can shine offensively in shorter raid fights.

Hero Talents

Aldrachi Reaver

Focusing on generating souls or using The Hunt to Activate Reaver’s Glaive, a more powerful Throw Glaive with further effects, is the core of Aldrachi Reaver.

Using Reaver’s Glaive empowers your next Fracture to make the target take extra damage from you and your next Soul Cleave to strike all nearby enemies a few times with a minor hit.

Whichever ability you press last after the Reaver’s Glaive gains twice the value.

As of current tuning the only time you press Soul Cleave first is in pure Single Target, and only if the target does not have two stacks of Reavers Mark.

Outside of this the spec offers mostly passive benefits such as more damage and healing after using both your empowered abilities and a few nodes for passive damage.

There exists 3 choice nodes, however as of current tuning and behavior you always want Unhindered Assault, Incorruptible Spirit and Keen engagement, as these spells offer consistently better value than their choice nodes.

Fel-Scarred

Centered around Metamorphosis and Demonic Fel-Scarred empowers your abilities whenever you enter Demon form.

If you enter through using Fel Devastation you empower your Spirit Bomb and Soul Cleave to deal 30% more damage and cause a Demonsurge explosion that deals damage to all targets close to you.

If you activate Demon form through Metamorphosis you also empower Sigil of Flame, Immolation Aura and Fel Devastation on top of Spirit Bomb and Soul Cleave.

The other nodes primarily focus on empowering yourself outside of Demon form or empowering Demonsurge’s damage.

Just as for Aldrachi Reaver the choice nodes are not very competitive and you basically always run Set Fire to the Pain and Student of Suffering, only alternating Wave of Debilitation and Pursuit of Angriness between Mythic+ and Raid respectively.