Havoc Demon Hunter Frequently Asked Questions — The War Within (11.0.5)

While both of Havoc's Hero trees are quite strong at what they do, my general recommendation would be Fel-Scarred. This brings additional burst which is always useful, but more importantly it is extremely simple to understand and execute, as it mostly just asks you to do more of what you would already be doing when playing Havoc.

At its very base, Fel Rush's damage increase in a single target is negligible, and any uptime lost by casting it and moving out of melee range will be very detrimental and, as such, is not advised. However, if using Momentum or Inertia paired with Unbound Chaos, you are required to cast these to make use of these effects.

Yes. Eye Beam is tuned around the long 40-second cooldown and deals high damage, which causes it to be worth casting above your other resource spenders at all times. There are a number of effects tied to it (especially for Fel-Scarred), so unless you really need to hold it for upcoming adds try to adhere to your cooldown cycle.

In absolutes, no. They are, however, nowhere near as punishing to play around as they were in the past, and there are significantly more supporting talents, allowing for it to be played without as much danger. The gain is not so much that it is required, and there are some builds that take less. Key talents in some builds, such as Initiative, already encourage it rotationally, so you will often get passive benefits.

Not currently. While it is a good comfort pick and triggers Momentum if taken, the extra point cost for a fairly low output effect is too much to commit. There are a lot of very high-value nodes in the tree, making it a lot harder to commit to quality-of-life talents with niche use cases.

Yes. the additional damage granted by Flames of Fury makes it a powerful AoE tool, and even in single-target, it is used as a backup Fury generator when you do not have access to Felblade. Fel-Scarred also needs to make sure to use this with Eye Beam to trigger Student of Suffering, which is always taken.

Know Your Enemy affects everything, including damage procs caused by trinkets, making it very powerful. However, much like our Mastery on its own, Any Means Necessary does not affect trinket or proc effects as it only applies to listed Demon Hunter abilities.

Yes. While Fel Barrage is capped at 8 seconds, the speed of the drain and the required Fury generation within the window means that you should make sure you already are, or very close to capped before casting it to ensure you get the full duration. This is a very big damage event, and making sure you have everything lined up before committing to it so you can focus on generation during is strongly recommended.

The answer to this question in any context will always be to simulate it. This is because what is an upgrade for you may not be an upgrade for someone else. In other words, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all answer, even when talking about 2 completely identical comparisons from you to another person. Everything in your gear has an effect on everything else.

This applies to gear, set bonuses, trinkets, and, in certain circumstances, talents.

The only exception to this rule is when a specific fight dictates a certain set of optimal talents and gear pieces that enhance their strength. If you are curious about what kind of setup to go for a specific fight, WarcraftLogs.com's rankings and statistics are a good place to see what others are doing.

We have a guide on how to sim yourself here:

For Havoc, there is no strict "amount" or breakpoint of any stat that you are required to reach. Nor are there any points at which a stat stops being desirable. In the majority of cases, the specific secondary you have is less important than the volume. This is, however, another case of a situation in which a simulation done to check your ideal gear pieces and stat values will provide you invaluable information.

Due to there only being one choice per faction as a Demon Hunter, there is no choice to be made outside of whether you are Horde or Alliance.