Havoc Demon Hunter DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — 12.0.5

Havoc's Apex Talent, Eternal Hunt, converts The Hunt into a potent cooldown while also providing benefits to Eye Beam and Blade Dance. As both of these are core rotational buttons for each Hero Tree, all four points have significant benefits, and are taken together:

• Eternal Hunt first point - causes The Hunt to empower your next Eye Beam cast, increasing its damage by 100% and increasing the range of the beam.
• Eternal Hunt second and third point - reduces the cooldown of The Hunt by 15 seconds and increases the number of targets hit by the DoT effect by 2 for each point.
• Eternal Hunt fourth point - increases Blade Dance damage by 20%, and fully channelling Eye Beam causes your next Blade Dance cast to reset its own cooldown.

This turns The Hunt into a 1-minute burst tool, followed by a stronger Eye Beam cast, then a double Death Sweep cast in the following Demonic window. The final point applies to all Eye Beam casts, meaning that the 20-second burst cycle that both Hero Trees make use of is significantly empowered. It's crucial however that you make sure you can fully complete an Eye Beam cast when you commit to it, as losing out on the follow-up effect is a major loss.

Havoc comes with a number of unique talents that make use of its movement tools to gain additional damage. Due to that, unlike other specs being aware of how to manage movement during an encounter is a key skill for Havoc. Notable talents that make use of this type of gameplay are:

• Initiative and Tactical Retreat
• Exergy or Inertia
• Unbound Chaos

Vengeful Retreat is the main activator for both Exergy and Inertia, cast on cooldown. The best way to get back to a target following a Vengeful Retreat cast is Felblade, but it has a brief shared movement cooldown after casting. This means you have to wait to cast it, but this usually means that you will have made enough range to activate the charge effect. This is also the method for triggering Unbound Chaos, empowering the return Felblade significantly.

Inertia provides a short-duration, high-intensity burst window. This pairs well with a number of Havoc's tools, and with Cycle of Hatred it perfectly aligns Vengeful Retreat with every Eye Beam. You should be timing your Vengeful Retreat casts around these windows, making sure to have Felblade available to get back onto your target quickly. For Aldrachi Reaver, you have the advantage of Unhindered Assault that makes this consistent. Remember though, Evasive Action does not allow you to double trigger anything, even if you trigger Inertia in between. Fel-Scarred makes use of this talent extensively, using the damage amp to further lean into its high Demonsurge windows with each Demonic trigger.

Exergy causes both Vengeful Retreat and The Hunt to grant 5% increased damage, lasting for 20 seconds, and can be extended up to 30 seconds. This should be 100% uptime throughout an encounter, as the additional time buffer granted by The Hunt gives you some breathing room to drift Vengeful Retreat slightly. This is much less involved, very consistent, and is often the go-to pick for Aldrachi Reaver movement builds.

With Havoc being so reliant on its resources, it's important to identify situations where you need to aggressively spend Fury vs. what you expect to generate. In Midnight, the amount of generation available on the tree is noticeably reduced due to Felblade's reduction to 15, and most will come from slower, passive procs via Demon Blades. You'll also need to catch refunds from Chaos Strike and potentially alter your plan for spending on the fly.

Some basic rules to follow when thinking about your Fury management in practice are:

• Always have enough Fury available to cast Blade Dance / Death Sweep and Eye Beam.
• Cast Chaos Strike / Annihilation as frequently as possible, unless pooling for burst windows.
• Cast Felblade for burst generation.
• Cast Immolation Aura as a backup generation tool if you fall behind on Fury.
• Wait, allowing Demon Blades to generate Fury, or collect Demonic Appetite orbs.
• Cast Throw Glaive or Fel Rush if out of range of any targets or during empty Globals.

Due to the Midnight shift to Demon Blades being the primary generation method paired with lower overall Fury, there's often a small amount of waiting - especially if you commit to over-spending. This is normal, but with some experience you should be able to plan around - and mitigate - the worst cases. The most important thing to remember though, is you never want to be caught during a burst window without the Fury to capitalize upon it.

There will also be periods where you are flooded with Fury with good RNG streaks. This is also normal, and having some waste in this period is fine. Making sure you keep high priority abilities on cooldown is always a higher priority.

Essence Break is an additional high-value burst cooldown, but only lasts for 4 seconds. In Midnight, this is now flat damage rather than a multiplier, so it's less important to execute during Metamorphosis. This is still recommended however solely due to the bonus Haste allowing for more affected GCDs, but precise sequencing is less mandatory.

Depending on your Haste, and whether you are affected by Bloodlust, you should be able to fit in 4 casts during this window - all of which need to be as many Death Sweep / Annihilation casts as possible. With the Apex Talent, Eternal Hunt, this should reliably allow you to cast at least two Death Sweeps per use, provided you cast it after Eye Beam to trigger Demonic.

While these talents are more supplementary than central, there are a number of synergistic talents on the tree that bring Throw Glaive into the rotation as a relevant ability.

• Accelerated Blade — increases Throw Glaive damage by 60%, reducing by 30% per bounce.
• Furious Throws — adds a 25 Fury cost to Throw Glaive, but it launches a second glaive when cast.
• Serrated Glaive — causes Throw Glaive and Chaos Strike to increase the targets damage taken both abilities by 15% for 15 seconds.
• Soulscar — Throw Glaive also leaves a Chaos damage DoT on the target, dealing 80% of the damage dealt over 6 seconds.
• Screaming Brutality — each cast of Blade Dance automatically consumes one charge of Throw Glaive, casting it for free on your primary target. Each individual Blade Dance slash also has a 50% chance to throw an additional glaive at 35% effectiveness.

These are often taken as a package, and uses Screaming Brutality as the activator to access the effects during rotational gameplay. This is far more efficient than investing GCDs into manually casting it - which no build currently does - and is used in a few builds, though not all at once. This means this talent package is actually a lot more passive than it looks on the surface.

While playing Aldrachi Reaver, these are required talents as they also affect your casts of Reaver's Glaive. Bear in mind that Screaming Brutality does not cause Blade Dance to trigger it. Instead, it always needs to be manually cast to activate.

Immolation Aura has a dedicated section of supporting talents on the tree, down the right side. These are often taken as a package, especially in AoE, synergizing well with each other:

• Burning Hatred — generates an additional 24 Fury over 6 seconds when cast.
• Growing Inferno — deals 10% increased damage each time it ticks.
• Burning Wound — Demon Blades and Throw Glaive to apply a 15-second DoT, dealing Chaos damage. Targets affected take 40% increased Immolation Aura damage, with a limit of 3 wounds.
• Ragefire — 30% of damage dealt by up to 3 Critical Strikes of Immolation Aura is accumulated as Ragefire. When it expires, you detonate, dealing damage equal to the stored amount to nearby enemies.
• Flamebound ( Fel-Scarred) — increases Immolation Aura range by 2 yards, and Critical Strike damage by 50%.
• Undying Embers ( Fel-Scarred) — gives Immolation Aura a 25% chance to reignite when it expires.

This forms a strong core in AoE that pairs with the talent discussed below, A Fire Inside, and is often cast as frequently as possible when taken. Screaming Brutality also naturally applies the maximum number of Burning Wounds in AoE, but if you aren't playing it, this requires tab-targeting to apply with Demon Blades.

Ragefire is a key mechanic to be aware of, and knowing when each instance of Immolation Aura is about to expire is helpful. Making sure you don't move out of range of enemies (or use movement tools to displace yourself) just before it goes off is key to making sure you avoid it exploding into thin air.

When playing A Fire Inside, your Immolation Aura gains a second charge, and its cooldown is reduced by 6 seconds. Additionally, it allows for multiple auras to be active at once, so cast frequency is much higher. This is usually paired with other Immolation Aura talents to maximize its damage.

It's crucial when playing this to make sure you never leave it at 2 charges, making sure that you plan around when it's about to cap and use it again beforehand. Remember - nothing is lost due to the buffs overlapping. As Fel-Scarred, Demonic Intensity will refund two charges when cast, giving you a full refill to double up on Consuming Fire. This means before Metamorphosis, you want to be drained to zero charges to get the most out of it.

Havoc's major cooldown is Metamorphosis, a 2-minute cooldown. When cast, it deals light Chaos damage, stuns targets at your location after casting, and enters into your Demon Form for 20 seconds. While transformed, it confers the following benefits:

• Haste is increased by 20%
• Chaos Strike swaps to Annihilation, dealing significantly more damage
• Blade Dance swaps to Death Sweep, dealing significantly more damage
• Chaotic Transformation — resets the cooldown of Blade Dance and Eye Beam
• Fel-Scarred - Demonic Intensity resets the cooldown of Immolation Aura

While this is active, Havoc deals significantly more damage, and is generates additional resources to fuel these stronger casts. Aim to enter with as much Fury as you can, and leave with as little as possible, planning your casts so it's always on cooldown. While playing with Chaotic Transformation, you should make absolutely sure that both Blade Dance and Eye Beam are on cooldown before pressing it. You can also use the leap from casting it to cancel the Vengeful Retreat animation in your opener, allowing you to stick to a target.

While playing Fel-Scarred, Fury generation is also dramatically increased. This means you should spend much more aggressively, aiming to ramp up the Burning Blades DoT with Annihilation.

While Eye Beam has a shorter, 30-second cooldown, it's still a powerful ability that's a core part of Havoc's damage profile, dealing heavy Chaos damage during its channel. It has a variety of talents to enhance it, making it a priority cast both in single-target and especially AoE situations. Some details are:

• Demonic — grants 5 seconds of Metamorphosis
• Collective Anguish — summons an allied demon hunter to cast Fel Devastation
• Blind Fury — generates a large amount of Fury while channeling
• Isolated Prey — deals 30% increased damage if it only hits a single target
• Furious Gaze — grants 10% Haste for 10 seconds after completing the channel
• Eternal Hunt — increases damage by 100% after casting The Hunt
• Fel-Scarred — Student of Suffering grants 18% Mastery and generates Fury after casting.

You should aim to cast this as frequently as possible, both for the damage it provides and, in particular, the Demonic triggers. The only situation worth holding for is in single-target, but you expect adds to spawn before its cooldown completes again. Also, make sure to have it on cooldown before casting Metamorphosis, as its cooldown is reset by Chaotic Transformation.

Cycle of Hatred increases your access to Eye Beam, ramping up during an encounter. Each time you cast Eye Beam while in combat, it gains a stack, up to 4. Each stack reduces the cooldown of Eye Beam by 2.5 seconds, and is a cornerstone of the Havoc rotation for both Hero Trees. This means, after your opener, it should be down to 22.5 seconds, and shortly after to 20, at which point it will align naturally with other burst windows such as Tactical Retreat.

While playing Fel-Scarred, as this ramps up, it becomes very common to extend Metamorphosis casts past the cooldown. Make sure when this happens that you have no leftover Demonsurge procs from Annihilation or Death Sweep, as re-casting it will refresh new triggers you can consume for extra pulses.

This effect persists through death, but after 1 minute spent out of combat you revert back to 1 stack.

The Hunt at a baseline level is a less high-impact cooldown, serving as a 1.5-minute cooldown burst tool with a huge 50 yard range. This deals heavy Chaos damage, applying a DoT to both your target and up to 5 other enemies you pass through. Your hitbox also remains active briefly after arrival, allowing you to spread the DoT effect more consistently.

This is significantly improved by the Apex Talent - Eternal Hunt - which both reduces the cooldown to 1 minute, and increases the DoT application count to 9. Alongside that, it provides a follow-up damage buff to Eye Beam, effectively turning it into a 1-minute combo enabler that provides significant burst for each Hero tree.

When playing Aldrachi Reaver, it also grants a charge of Reaver's Glaive and shatters an additional Soul. This means it's used to quickly set up your Hero Talent on pull to apply Reaver's Mark to a priority target.