Vengeance Demon Hunter Tank Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within (11.0.5)

Below, you will find talents recommended for a variety of content. Do note that while the talents below suggest specific hero talents, the reality for Vengeance is that the base talents do not change all too much depending on your choice of Hero Talents, and if you have a preference for either Hero Talent Tree, you can switch between them without the regular talents needing a significant amount of shifts, the main one being that you make sure you have The Hunt talented with any build as Aldrachi Reaver.

2.

Best Talents for Vengeance Demon Hunter

Fel-Scarred: Delve Build Fel-Scarred: Raid Build Fel-Scarred: General Mythic+ Build Fel-Scarred: High Key Mythic+ Build Aldrachi Reaver: General Build Talents Explained

3.

Fel-Scarred: General Delve Talent Build for Vengeance Demon Hunter

Fel-Scarred Hero Talents are focused on front-loaded and bursty damage scaling well into situations with multiple targets. This, coupled with talents that offer strong mobility, makes for an excellent Delve spec. Below, you find a talent set-up that leans into this archetype without giving up other means of utility or defensive talents.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

3.

Fel-Scarred: Raid Talent Build for Vengeance Demon Hunter

The highest damage and easier talents to use in Raid, in general, is currently Fel-Scarred. The talents below will net you the highest damage against bosses while still offering good and frequent AoE burst damage, mobility, and defensive talents. If a raid fight features very high uptime of dangerous enemies you have to tank, you can switch Cycle of Binding for Burning Alive.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

3.

Fel-Scarred: General Mythic+ Talent Build for Vengeance Demon Hunter

Fel-Scarred specializes in heavy AoE damage without sacrificing too much damage in Single-target situations. Fel-Scarred centers around using Fel Devastation and Metamorphosis offensively and is heavily front-loaded offensively. This set-up shines in general Mythic+ scenarios where most groups of trash mobs die relatively quickly.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

3.

Fel-Scarred: High Key Mythic+ Talent Build for Vengeance Demon Hunter

In this slightly altered Fel-Scarred build we talent into Calcified Spikes and a talent point in Feed the Demon to grant higher uptime of Demon Spikes as well as a minor defensive layer after Demon Spikes runs out. These talents offer a very high spread of defensive tools for pushing high Mythic+ dungeons while also doing great damage.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

3.

Aldrachi Reaver: General Talent Build for Vengeance Demon Hunter

An early tuning patch in The War Within put Reaver's Glaive on the Global Cooldown which reduced the damage and efficiency of Aldrachi Reaver. Because of this, Aldrachi Reaver is worse damage than Fel-Scarred in practically all content. Defensively it can hold its own ground and potentially rival or even beat Fel-Scarred. However, it is more complicated rotationally and deviation from the rotation or downtime where you are not on top of a target will severely diminish your power.

If you are still interested despite these downsides there is a general build below that you can use, but the recommendation is to use one of the previous builds with Fel-Scarred since they are generally stronger and less punishing.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

3.

Talent Explanations for Vengeance Demon Hunters

Note that we do not explain EVERY Talent in the tree on this page. We only explain Talents that are part of our optimal builds. For full details and explanations of every Talent, please visit our Spells page via the button below.

Vengeance Demon Hunter Spell Glossary for The War Within

3.1.

Talent Rows 1-4

3.1.1.

Noteworthy Talents

Talent	Description/Effect
Fel Devastation	A channeling cooldown that deals heavy fire damage to all enemies in a cone in front of you, healing you a medium amount while channeling. Interacts with Demonic to grant 7 seconds of Metamorphosis when used. It costs 50 fury to use and has a 40-second cooldown. The cooldown can be reduced by the Darkglare Boon talent.
Frailty	Causes enemies hit by Sigil of Flame to get a stack of Frailty, causing you to heal for 10% of all damage you deal to them for 6 seconds. It interacts with several talents further down the talent tree, empowering Frailty and making it a core part of the Vengeance identity.
Fiery Brand	Brand your target, dealing heavy fire damage to your target, causing They do deal 40% less damage to you for 12 seconds. A strong defensive that interacts with several other strong talents further down the talent tree.
Deflecting Spikes	Causes Demon Spikes to also increase your Parry chance by 15% for the full duration. A former core component of Demon Spikes, which increases the defensive potential of the spell significantly. It's worth the point in all content where you take physical damage.
Fracture	Replaces Shear, it has two charges on a 4.5-second cooldown and generates 25 Fury and spawns 2 Lesser Soul Fragments when cast. A great ability that enables a large part of your class toolkit. It is highly recommended to path down and get Fracture in all content.
Felblade	An active ability with a 15-second cooldown that generates 40 Fury with a low chance of resetting its cooldown when you use Fracture. Felblade is on a shorter global cooldown than normal abilities and is a great tool to generate extra fury in a very short time.

3.1.2.

Niche Talents

Talent	When to Consider
Consume Magic	Purges the target, removing 1 beneficial magic effect on the target. It has a 30-yard range and a 10-second cooldown. Strong for any content that requires dispelling magic effects on targets.

3.2.

Rows 5-7

This section of the talent trees provides several core passive talents that generally support your base kit.

Talent	Description/Effect
Rush of Chaos	Reduces the cooldown of Metamorphosis by 30/60 seconds. A very strong talent that is easily reachable and very strong. It is worth taking in all content.
Chaos Nova	A 2-second AOE-stun on a 45-second cooldown. It costs 25 Fury and deals a low amount of chaos damage to every target hit. A great addition to your toolkit in Mythic+ and PvP content.
Demonic	Grants you 7 seconds of Metamorphosis when using Fel Devastation. This Talent makes Fel Devastation your strongest defensive outside of Metamorphosis. This Talent is core to the Vengeance Tooltip and something you should try to Talent in all forms of content.
Spirit Bomb	A spender that costs 40 Fury and consumes up to 5 available Soul Fragments and deals fire damage is based on the amount consumed by all enemies in range. Applies 1 stack of Frailty to each target hit. Strong in encounters with several enemies. Very strong in Mythic+ since Soul Cleave only deal damage to up to 5 enemies, and you often encounter situations with more than that in any given dungeon.
Void Reaver	Targets afflicted by Frailty now deals 4% less damage to you. Causes enemies struck by Soul Cleave to be afflicted by Frailty for 6 seconds. An extremely potent defensive talent when paired with Soulcrush further down in the tree.
Fallout	The initial damage of Immolation Aura now has a high chance of spawning a Lesser Soul Fragment for every target hit. Up to a maximum of 5 Lesser Soul Fragments. This Talent scales extremely well, the more enemies you are fighting. It has a lower value in Raid encounters with only 1 target. However, in Mythic+ and Raid encounters with multiple targets, it becomes a very potent talent, especially when paired with Spirit Bomb.

3.2.1.

Niche Talents

Talent	When to Consider
Sigil of Chains	Places a Sigil on the ground, and 2 seconds later grips all enemies in the Sigil for 6 seconds, slowing them by 70% for 6 seconds. It has a 1-minute cooldown. A strong utility cooldown for Mythic+ and certain raid encounters where displacement effects are of great worth, the talent cost is still somewhat noticeable. With the new changes to enemy spellcasters where spells like Sigil of Chains make enemies recast instead of putting them on cooldown, the value of Sigil of Chains goes down significantly in most Mythic+ dungeons.
Fiery Demise	Causes targets afflicted by Fiery Brand to take 40% increased fire damage from you. Great for overall offensive output and leads to strong talents, especially for Raid encounters with fewer enemies. Taking it will incentivize you to use Fiery Brand as an offensive cooldown, despite it being one of your few defensive cooldowns. So only take it when you are aware of the tradeoff and can make use of the damage increase.

3.3.

Rows 8-10

3.3.1.

Noteworthy Talents

Talent	Description/Effect
The Hunt	An ability that will charge an enemy, causing Nature damage, rooting them in place, and dealing additional nature damage over 6 seconds to up to 5 targets in the path of the charge. It will also mark your main target for 30 seconds, healing you for 25% of all damage you deal to them. It is a strong offensive and defensive cooldown and worth talenting in most content.
Collective Anguish	Your Fel Devastation summon an allied Havoc Demon Hunter dealing chaos damage to all targets in front of you. A strong talent that increases your AoE damage by a significant amount if you choose to take it.
Vulnerability	Increases damage done to targets affected by Frailty by 2% per talent point and a stack of frailty. A strong talent which gains significant value with the Talent following it, Soulcrush. This allows you to use Spirit Bomb and Soul Cleave as a form of offensive cooldown, stacking Frailty for a significant damage increase to large cooldowns. A must-pick in almost all content.
Feed the Demon	Reduces the cooldown on Demon Spikes by 0.25 seconds per talent point every time you consume a Soul Fragment. A strong defensive talent. Especially in Mythic+, where you gain more overall value due to Fallout.
Soulcrush	Allows Frailty to overlap on targets, stacking all the effects of Frailty. Each stack has an independent duration of 6 seconds. It also causes Soul Cleave to apply a second stack lasting 8 seconds to your primary target. This Talent provides massive value from every single node affecting Frailty. Overall, this is one of the strongest Talent on the Vengeance tree and should be taken in all content if possible.
Soul Carver	A 1-minute cooldown that deals a large amount of fire damage and leaves a 3-second damage over time effect dealing additional damage. It spawns 3 Lesser Soul Fragments on initial damage and another Soul Fragment every second for 3 seconds. A strong talent both offensively and defensively, and worth taking if you can spare the talent point.
Sigil of Spite	You place a sigil dealing massive Chaos damage to all enemies hit after 2 seconds. Dealing damage with Sigil of Spite will summon 3 Lesser Soul Fragments. A strong, active ability that deals a lot of AoE damage.
Darkglare Boon	Reduces cooldown of Fel Devastation after it is cast by 15-30% and refunds 15-30 fury. A large increase to your overall damage output, especially in combination with talents such as Collective Anguish and Stoke the Flames. In combination with Demonic It also adds significant defensive value. A highly recommended Talent in all content.
Illuminated Sigils	Grants a second charge of Sigil of Flame and reduces its cooldown by 5 seconds, as well as giving you 12% increased chance to parry attacks from targets afflicted by your Sigil of Flame. A very potent offensive and defensive Talent for Mythic+, and generally worth taking over Down in Flames for dungeon content.
Down in Flames	Grants a second charge of Fiery Brand and reduces the cooldown of Fiery Brand by 12 seconds. This lets you use a second charge and lower the cooldown to maintain defensive uptime while also utilizing Fiery Demise and Burning Alive for increasing total damage output.

3.3.2.

Niche Talents

Talent	When to Consider
Last Resort	A cheat death ability that will heal you if you sustain lethal damage, granting you 15 seconds of Metamorphosis. It has an 8-minute cooldown after saving you. Overall, it is decent in challenging content; the long cooldown means that you can only rely on it to save you once in most Raid encounters and usually only a handful of times over a full Mythic+ dungeon. However if there are some extremely hard parts of a fight Last Resort can be utilized as an additional, strong defensive cooldown.
Darkness	A 5-minute defensive cooldown that affects you and all allies inside the effect. It spawns a could of darkness for 8 seconds that causes all damage you or an ally inside the darkness to have a 15% chance to be negated, the chance doubling outside of Raid content. It works best against frequent and periodic hits since it is random if the damage will be negated or not.
Pitch Black	Reduces the cooldown of Darkness by 120 seconds. This Talent gains value in raid situations where it lets you use Darkness on at least one more dangerous mechanic. It is generally more useful than Long Night, however hard to motivate spending points on it unless it adds Darkness casts to vital parts of the specific encounter.

The talents above only show a few variations of talent choices, and it might happen that any specific Raid encounter or Mythic+ dungeon might encourage switching your talents about. The links below take you to our dedicated pages where you can find

Considering the varied Talent builds recommended for different types of content, there is also going to be some variation in your rotation. Visit the rotation page linked below to figure out more about how your rotation works.

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.