Havoc Demon Hunter Guide for The War Within - Dragonflight 10.2.7 (2024)

Aldrachi ReaverFel-Scarred

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.

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.

Strengths

Weaknesses