Havoc Demon Hunter PvP Rotation and Playstyle — The War Within (11.0.5)

The Havoc Demon Hunter has only one role when in an Arena match: do damage. Players should focus on maximizing their damage as much as they can. With strong mobility, you should be able to stay on a target for most of the game. Use your strong, consistent damage to force cooldowns and then punish the enemy team by using your offensive abilities.

Have a plan for who you will be mainly using your crowd control on. Havoc Demon Hunters have powerful crowd control with Imprison, Sigil of Misery, Fel Eruption, and Chaos Nova.

If the enemy team has a class that can stealth, use Spectral Sight to see them in stealth and disrupt their opener.

The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns. If the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble. In the opener, Havoc Demon Hunters should focus on sticking to an enemy and dealing large amounts of damage to the target.

This is the rotation you should use on your target at the beginning of the game.

1. Use Throw Glaive as often as you can for multiple reasons:
   • To slow the enemy and close the gap between you two if you are playing Master of the Glaive.
   • To apply Soulscar to the target. This is a powerful bleed that will do a large amount of damage throughout an arena match.
   • Increases the damage enemies take from Throw Glaive. This is from the talent Serrated Glaive.
   • Applies Burning Wound to the target. This deals damage over time and increases the damage taken from Immolation Aura.
2. Make sure you are connecting to your target to generate additional Fury from autoattacks, this is done by Demon Blades talent.
3. Use Felblade to generate Fury. This can also be used as a gap closer if an enemy is trying to run away from you.
4. Use Immolation Aura for several reasons:
   • Immolation Aura generates 60 Fury over 10 seconds.
   • From the talent Infernal Armor, Immolation Aura increases your armor and causes melee attackers to suffer chaos damage.
   • If it hits one target, Isolated Prey will cause it to critically strike.
   • If you use Immolation Aura after using Throw Glaive, the targets hit by Throw Glaive take increases damage from Immolation Aura.
5. Use Eye Beam when you have enough Fury.
6. Use Blade Dance to spend your Fury. Blade Dance is another strong spell with many uses for it:
   • This applies Mortal Dance to your target, reducing the amount of healing they receive.
   • Because the cooldown gets reset after using Metamorphosis, this is due to the talent Chaotic Transformation, you want to use Blade Dance before doing your burst rotation.
   • Blade Dance reduces the cooldown of Eye Beam, so always try to use Blade Dance after using Eye Beam.
7. Use Sigil of Flame off cooldown, ideally on a target that is slowed or stunned. This is because the damage activates after 1 second.
8. Use Chaos Strike if you are about to cap your Fury and do not have any other spells to use it on.
9. Use your burst rotation.

When you have the enemy healer in crowd control, and you are trying to kill an enemy, you use your burst damage.

1. Use Blade Dance.
2. Use Eye Beam.
3. Use The Hunt. This is a flexible spell in your rotation. It does a decent about of damage, but is not crucial during burst windows. Use it to get to an enemy easier if they are kiting away if you have to.
4. Use Chaos Nova to stun your kill target.
5. Use Metamorphosis. With the Chaotic Transformation talent, Blade Dance/ Death Sweep and Eye Beam cooldowns get reset.
6. Use Essence Break. Essence Break deals AoE damage in front of you and increases the damage of Chaos Strike and Blade Dance to the target by 80% for 4 seconds.
7. Use Death Sweep.
8. Use Annihilation.
9. Use Annihilation.
10. Use Annihilation.
11. Use Eye Beam. In addition to the damage it does, this will also extend the duration of Metamorphosis from the Demonic talent.
12. Use Throw Glaive.
13. Use Felblade to generate Fury.
14. Use Sigil of Flame to generate Fury.
15. Use Immolation Aura.
16. Use Reaver's Glaive if you are playing Aldrachi Reaver Hero Talent tree.

Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available.

• Use Throw Glaive as often as you can for multiple reasons:
  • To slow the enemy and close the gap between you two if you are playing Master of the Glaive.
  • To apply Soulscar to the target. This is a powerful bleed that will do a large amount of damage throughout an arena match.
  • Increases the damage enemies take from Throw Glaive. This is from the talent Serrated Glaive.
  • Applies Burning Wound to the target. This deals damage over time and increases the damage taken from Immolation Aura.
• Generate Fury using:
  • Melee attacks on your target, Demon Blades will give you Fury.
  • Felblade. This will generate Fury and also charge you to the target. Note that
  • Sigil of Flame generates Fury after dealing damage.
  • Immolation Aura generates 60 Fury over 10 seconds after being used.
• Spend your Fury on:
  1. Eye Beam should be the first ability you spend Fury on. This will put you into Metamorphosis from the Demonic talent, where you will deal even more damage with your other abilities.
  2. Use Essence Break before Blade Dance or Chaos Strike to ensure to maximize your damage output.
  3. Use Blade Dance/ Death Sweep. This will apply Mortal Dance to the target and reduce the cooldown of your Eye Beam.
  4. Chaos Strike/ Annihilation if the other abilities are on cooldown, and you are about to cap your Fury.
• Use Consume Magic to dispel a Magic effect on the enemy target. With the PvP talent, Blood Moon, Consume Magic will affect all enemies within 8 yards of your target and generate a Less Soul Fragment.
• Use The Hunt. This is a flexible spell that can be used during your burst rotation or if you are having trouble connecting to your target.

Blur is your main defensive cooldown. This increases your dodge chance and reduces the overall damage done to you. On a 1-minute cooldown, this is very powerful and should be used when your healer is struggling to keep you alive or is in crowd control.

Darkness is a great defensive for not only yourself but also for your teammates. If the enemy team is using their offensive cooldowns on a teammate that has no defensive abilities left, using Darkness where they are could keep them alive.

Vengeful Retreat can be used in times when you will need to run away from the enemy team. This lets you get distance, and you can still use Throw Glaive.

It is advised to use Macros to use abilities on enemies or allies without having to target them. For this reason, we have a page dedicated to them.