Vengeance Demon Hunter Tank Spec, Builds, and Talents — 12.0.5

After a series of minor buffs meant to bring it in line with other tanks Vengeance has become a tank that stands as a very solid option for Mythic+ while still remaining a very niche tank in Raid settings. With amazing mobility, very high AoE burst and fairly flexible defensive cooldowns Vengeance stands as a strong and somewhat unique tank that unfortunately falls behind other tanks in certain tuning aspects, but still being very capable of almost all content for those that enjoy the playstyle.

With incredible burst centered around Metamorphosis and an Apex that gives somewhat random activations of it Vengeance has the opportunity to deal incredible burst around our cooldown windows, especially as Annihilator which remains the play in all content due to how undertuned Aldrachi Reaver currently is. The only major drawback is that our burst is tied to random events and strong defensive cooldowns, which can make it hard to time your burst with damage bonuses on certain bosses, especially in more dangerous content.

Beyond being mostly locked into Annihilator the talent builds have very little variation, even going so far as taking pure AoE talents in ST for pathing reasons. The only variation you will see is some very minor choices in the middle of the Vengeance tree. The same goes for the rotation, since all of our spenders are AoE spells your rotation is almost identical no matter how many targets you are fighting, which does help make Vengeance a bit more approachable for newer players.

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The builds listed above are popular recommendations, covering various different loadouts suited to each style of endgame content. Each Talent Build will have it's own rotation, and can also be manipulated further for specific types of content and to better benefit your group.

Combat Information

Rotations and Mythic+

Want to dive deeper? These guides will teach you how to utilize our Talent Builds in endgame content!

RotationMythic+

The Vengeance Demon Hunter Apex Talent is the new feature introduced in the Midnight expansion, a single node where you can spend up to four of the new Specialization talent points you unlock as you level to 90. For Vengeance Demon Hunter the Apex Talents effectively have two functions, to empower our spenders in Soul Cleave and Spirit Bomb, and to make casting them have a chance to give us extra uses of Metamorphosis with slightly shorter duration. Below is a list of how each point invested work, and then some discussion how it affects our gameplay.

1. Untethered Rage — Consuming Soul Fragments with Spirit Bomb or Soul Cleave have a chance to grant Untethered Rage, giving a second charge of Metamorphosis which will last 12 seconds. The chance increases with the amount of Soul Fragments consumed.
2. Untethered Rage — Two point node. The first point allows Spirit Bomb and Soul Cleave to consume an extra Soul Fragment. Each point further increases the damage bonus from consuming Soul Fragments by 5% per Soul Fragment, for 10% total.
3. Untethered Rage — When a cast of Spirit Bomb or Soul Cleave does not grant Untethered Rage, you gain 1 stack of Seething Anger, granting 1% Agility and a higher chance of activating Untethered Rage. The stacks last for 12 seconds and do not refresh duration after getting a Untethered Rage proc.

These are all strong effects, and generally recommended in all content forms once they are available. They have relatively passive, but yet noticeable effects on gameplay, with Untethered Rage and Untethered Rage giving us more uptime on Metamorphosis which gives us higher defensive uptime and allows us to use our defensives for offensive value more frequently.

Untethered Rage is also very interesting since it increases the amount of Soul Fragments consumed by Spirit Bomb and Soul Cleave, which in turn increases the chance for Untethered Rage to activate.

For Annihilator the Apex nodes is especially interesting since activating Metamorphosis granted by Untethered Rage still activates effects like Mass Acceleration and Dark Matter. Making it an even more potent effect.

Vengeance has two distinct Hero Talent choices available that, as covered in the above sections, drastically alter your gameplay goals depending on which you pick. These two Hero Talents are Aldrachi Reaver and Annihilator.

Aldrachi Reaver focuses very heavily on the consumption of Soul Fragments to grant access to Reaver's Glaive which is the foundation of the entire Hero tree. Wounded Quarry grants a very strong funnel profile, where fighting more enemies lets you increase the damage you deal to a priority target. This can be useful in both raid in fights with many enemies as well as in Mythic+ to deal a lot of damage to dangerous enemies and bosses. The defensive profile of Aldrachi Reaver is incredibly focused on healing, making it a strong choice for self-sustain, it does lack tools to mitigate damage from large hits to compensate for this.

Annihilator is designed around building Voidfall stacks with Fracture which you then consume to rain down meteors on enemies once you reach 3 stacks. Annihilator excels in dealing strong, bursty damage around Metamorphosis thanks to the Mass Acceleration talent, especially if you buff the damage with Fiery Demise. The defensive profile has two parts, one through passive stat bonuses from talents like Swift Erasure, Phase Shift and extending them with Final Hour. The second major part of Annihilator is World Killer which reduces the cooldown of Metamorphosis by 10 seconds whenever you call down a set of three meteors which in itself enhances the loop through Mass Acceleration.

You have the option to enter into "War Mode" in your Factions Capital city. Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:

• Grants access to PvP talents in the open-world.
• 10% increase in World Quest rewards at max level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.
• Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will enable yourself for open-world PvP and the possibility, so be aware of hostile enemy players who could interfere with you, and this is a risk you will have to take.

Generally, the selections are made to optimize your ability to kill enemies faster, increasing your pace when moving through content.

1. Everlasting Hunt is a passive ability that increases your movement speed by 15% for 3 seconds when dealing damage. This ability is designed to move from pack to pack quickly and more efficiently.
2. Jagged Spikes reflects damage back to the attacker for 30% of the damage received when Demon Spikes is active.
3. Illidan's Grasp crowd controls 1 target for 6 seconds. If the ability is activated again, throw the target at a location within 40 yards and stun everything in the target area for 3 seconds. This ability provides additional crowd control and is fun to use.
4. Tormentor debuffs the target when taunted, applying the Focused Assault debuff, which increases the damage received by 3%. Your melee attacks refresh the duration of Focused Assault. Each unique target up to 5 that hits the target will stack Focused Assault by an additional 3%. This ability will provide a decent single-target damage buff in a party.
5. Detainment increases the duration of Imprison by 1 second and makes the imprisoned target immune to damage and healing. This Talent is amazing for arenas and battlegrounds, but it should not be picked for leveling. Imprisoning a target while using this Talent will put you into combat and prevent monster skipping in PvE content.
6. Unending Hatred increases Fury generation based on magic damage received. Larger attacks will increase the Fury generation. This Talent is quite situational and should not be used in normal content.
7. Cleansed by Flame removes all magical effects when you cast Immolation Aura. This Talent is situational, but it can be very strong depending on the situation.
8. Demonic Trample transforms you into a demon and increases your movement speed by 175%. Any enemy hit with the trample will be knocked and receive physical damage. You are immune to snares while trampling. Demonic Trample shares cooldown with Infernal Strike. This ability is very strong in battlegrounds to remove snares and for pseudo-crowd control with the knockdown.
9. Sigil Mastery reduces the cooldown of sigils by 25%. This Talent should not be used.
10. Reverse Magic removes all harmful magic effects on you and all allies within 10 yards and, if possible, returns them to their caster. It has a 1-minute cooldown.
11. Blood Moon empowers your Consume Magic to now affect all enemies within 8 yards of the target and grants 5% leech for 5 seconds after using it.
12. Chaotic Imprint makes your Throw Glaive deal damage from a random school of magic, leaving a mark increasing their damage taken from that school by 10% for 20 seconds.
13. Cover of Darkness increases the radius of Darkness by 4 yards and increases its duration by 2 seconds.
14. Rain from Above launches you up in the air and grants access to Fel Lance allowing you to deal damage to enemies on the ground.
15. Glimpse grants you immunity to loss of control effects while under the effect of Vengeful Retreat and reduces damage taken by 35% until you land.

Meyra

Guide Author

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This guide is written by Meyra, a Vengeance main with a love for pushing Mythic+ keys and showcasing Proof of Concept keys with 5 tanks or other non-standard group compositions. They are a distinguished member and frequent contributor to Vengeance theory in the Demon Hunter class discord, and also occasionally stream Vengeance and other tank content on Twitch.