Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities - Dragonflight 10.2.7 (2024)

The buttons below can be used to select between curated talent loadouts fromour talent page. You can also use the switches below to add or removeindividual talents you may also be using:

Cycle STIgnition STIgnition AoENo Movement

Talent Selections
A Fire Inside	Blind Fury	Chaotic Transformation
Demon Blades	Elysian Decree	Essence Break
Fel Barrage	Felblade	First Blood
Glaive Tempest	Initiative	Inner Demon
Inertia	Momentum	Ragefire
Tactical Retreat	Throw Glaive Talents	The Hunt
Unbound Chaos	Season 4 Set

Single TargetAoEOpener

Havoc's single-target rotation in Dragonflight hinges strongly on two core loops. The first isFury build-and-spend through tools such as Demon's Bite Demon Blades, Immolation Aura and Felblade to generate and Chaos Strike / Blade Danceto spend. Second, it needs to manage Fury around rotational burst windows that follow from mid-rangecooldowns such as Eye Beam, Essence Break and Inertia.

1. Cast Eye Beam with as little Fury as possible.
2. Cast Metamorphosis if Eye Beam and Death Sweep are on cooldown.
3. Cast Annihilation
4. Cast Sigil of Flame if under 90 Fury.
5. Cast Immolation Aura.
6. Cast Chaos Strike
7. Cast Fel Rush if nothing else is available.

Havoc's gameplay loop is heavily dictated by its gameplayloop, which shifts its priorities to activate powerful effects andfill out its gameplay core. Which you pick dictates the flow and whatyou need to think about aligning to get big payoff moments. Somekey notes, including details based on your selections in the talentswitches, are:

• Eye Beam is still always used in single-target as apowerful cooldown and is only enhanced further by Demonicproviding a powerful follow-up. The frequency depends on if youhave Cycle of Hatred or not, and if you have Blind Furytry to dump as much Fury as possible before casting it.

In AoE situations, due to such a large portion of the Havoc Demon Hunterkit already dealing AoE or cleave damage, it is very similar to its single-targetequivalent, with some slight deviations in priority:

1. Cast Eye Beam with as little Fury as possible.
2. Cast Metamorphosis if Eye Beam and Death Sweep are on cooldown.
3. Cast Sigil of Flame.
4. Cast Annihilation
5. Cast Chaos Strike
6. Cast Fel Rush if nothing else is available.

The majority of tools you make use of in single-target apply directly toAoE, with the exception of Annihilation / Chaos Strike thatfall to the bottom of the priority. Your focus depends on which key AoEtalents you have taken, and notes based on your selection in the talentswitches are:

• Immolation Aura pulls a lot more weight in AoE due tothe number of talents focused around it on the right side. The biggest ofthese is Ragefire, which converts Critical Strikes into a largeexplosion as it fades pairedwith the increased access from A Fire Inside thanks to the resets. Ifyou do not select all of these, however, it is not a key focus.
• Fel Rush is a low-priority filler that is just above Chaos Strike.However, with some movement talents, it becomes more impactful. Inertiawill most likely be paired with A Fire Inside for an "Ignition" build and shouldbe triggered aggressively due to how much Immolation Aura is being cast. Momentumis maintained as much as possible over big casts, but is not done as a priority throughoutan encounter.

The opening sequence for Havoc is quite set in stone, hinging on your managementof some key talents - most importantly Chaotic Transformation.

1. Pre-cast Immolation Aura 1-2 seconds before the pull.
2. Cast Immolation Aura if it was reset by A Fire Inside.
3. Cast Fel Rush if a A Fire Inside proc occurred to refresh Inertia.
4. Cast Eye Beam.
5. Continue with the normal priority list.

The most warping effects on the initial rotation are Chaotic Transformationand Essence Break, which provide a small window to deal huge burst ifmanaged correctly. The goal is to set yourself up in Metamorphosisvia Demonic, have Momentum and Inertia and and Initiative active, and enter an Essence Break window where you can Death Sweep, reset with Metamorphosis, and Death Sweepimmediately to squeeze them both into the short timeframe.

Movement TalentsEssence BreakThrow Glaive TalentsFel BarrageA Fire InsideCore Picks

Havoc comes with a number of unique talents that leverage its high mobilityfor additional damage. These are generally higher skill cap options, and requirecomfort to execute properly. Knowing when you need to commit your tools toamplify upcoming damage versus when you need to hold them to deal with mechanicsis a skill that comes with experience. The key talents that build it upare:

• Initiative + Tactical Retreat
• Unbound Chaos
• Momentum or Inertia

The first two are relatively intuitive in that it encourages you to cast Vengeful Retreat on cooldown for the high Fury generation, and Fel Rushto consume the buff. The final choice node however requires more explanation.To start with, below is an image that shows the optimal pathing around bossesto maintain uptime without being forced out of range as much as possible:

Momentum can be refreshed for the full duration, adding onto yourcurrent buff up to 30 seconds, acting as a maintenance buff. This is generallysomething that gets activated throughout the rotation via the base priority.It is important to make sure you have it active for high-damage events such as Eye Beam, Essence Break and Fel Barrage, but mostof the time the natural gameplay of Initiative will do this for you.Do not overcommit to maintenance over spending Fury, but do aim for as highof an uptime as possible.

Inertia brings back a similar playstyle to the oldversion of Momentum, making it a short duration high-intensity burst moment.This pairs extremely well with A Fire Inside, givingextra charges to add some flexibility to your activators. You should makesure when using this to not leave any Unbound Chaos activationson the table, and aim to overlap all of your high damage moments(such as Eye Beam and Essence Break) pro-actively toget the most value out of it.

Adds in an additional high-value damage window, but only lasts for 4seconds, so needs all of your setup to be done before casting itto get good value out of it. You always want to be in Metamorphosisform when activating this, ideally via Demonic due to thebenefits of layering this with Chaotic Transformation to gettwo Death Sweeps out during it. Starting already in Demon form,your goal with each cast should be:

• With Metamorphosis: Death Sweep into Metamorphosisinto Death Sweep, finish with Annihilation.
• Without Metamorphosis: Death Sweep into 2-3 Annihilation.

Depending on your Haste and whether you are affected by Bloodlustthis can be extremely tight to fit in, but is absolutely worth the payoff. InAoE situations, you instead only need to fit in as many Death Sweeps asthe above shows, ignoring the Annihilation recommendations.

While Throw Glaive is usually a low damage ability, there is alarge number of effects on the tree that, when combined, make it a potentFury spender. Talents that form this are:

• Champion of the Glaive
• Accelerated Blade
• Furious Throws
• Serrated Glaive
• Soulscar

When all of these are combined Throw Glaive becomes a spenderthat competes with Annihilation that also gets stronger in cleavesituations. When playing this, you should always pair it with Champion of the Glaiveto get the additional charge, which you should use to always keep itrecharging.

When using the Season 4 set, these talents become mandatory, as thefree Throw Glaive casts triggered by Blade Dance are extremelyefficient. This also means you do not need to actively cast Throw Glaiveto get the value, instead relying on the free activations.

This is an extremely potent AoE burst cooldownthat also drains Fury extremely quickly. Due to it being capped at 8seconds, it means you need to generate a total of 256 Fury throughoutto maintain it from start to finish, meaning pooling is recommended.

Before entering into it, you want to make sure you have all of yourmaintenance buffs prepared (in particular Inertia and Initiative)and avoid spending excess Fury while it is active. Active generationtools such as Felblade and Sigil of Flame take prioritywhen this is active, especially if you fall behind. This extends torefilling via Blind Fury as well if taken.

A Fire Inside adds an extra charge, the ability for Immolation Aura casts to overlap each other, anda 25% chance for it to reset when cast. This pairs especially wellwith all of the right-side talents up to Ragefire, and also Inertia.

It is crucial when playing this to make sure you never leave itat 2 charges and react to resets by pressing it repeatedly until itactively goes on cooldown - you lose nothing due to the buffs overlapping.When playing Inertia, you also ideally want to spend the Unbound Chaos triggers in between these casts in single-target,but in AoE, hitting the resets is slightly more valuable.

These are talents that are present in the majority of builds that havequite a large impact overall, but are not necessarily gameplay-altering.

First Blood increases the damage Blade Dance deals to yourprimary target by 75% and converts it to Chaos damage, allowing it to scalewith Mastery. This significantly raises the priority of Blade Dancein all situations and turns it into a high priority, use on cooldown abilityat all target counts.

Felblade provides an alternative active Fury generation toolthat is proc-related and fills in for Demon's Bite when Demon Bladesis taken, creating a steady flow of extra Fury. This is especially good as Demon Blades allows us to generate Fury off the GCD so we can more activelymanage our resource.

Demonic is a damage boost window effect. It will naturally betriggered by your Eye Beam casts rotationally, making sure to fill asmany Global Cooldowns during the 5 seconds as possible with Fury spenders. Priming Immolation Aura or Tactical Retreat if talented before youtrigger the window is excellent for setting up some background generation to fuelyour Annihilation casts. Try to minimize the number of committalgeneration tools such as Demon's Bite if possible, but in some cases,RNG forces your hand.

Know Your Enemy increases your Critical Strike damage based on yourCritical Strike chance, significantly improving its scaling and also allowingabilities that guarantee critical strikes (such as Eye Beam with Looks Can Kill) to still retain some boost from it. This also includesall item effects and trinkets, so is always taken.

Any Means Necessary converts all magic damage your abilities deal toChaos damage, causing your Mastery to increase their damage. This is extremelygood for overall scaling, and due to how easy this is to access it is takenin the majority of builds. This also includes The Hunt which, while dealingChaos damage is not affected, providing extra relevance for the Season 4 set bonus.

Shattered Destiny extends your active Metamorphosis or Demonic window based on Fury spent, having strong synergy with theadditional Haste it confers. This makes time with Metamorphosis active arace to spend and keep it active, and provides a large single-targetincrease due to how many extensions it provides. The path through Cycle of Hatredalso gives even further access to your Demon Form, so creates a veryfast-paced resource cycling playstyle.