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HAVOC DH FUNDAMENTALS COURSE

DEMON HUNTER PLAYSTYLE

Welcome to our Demon Hunter damage course for The War Within, which is custom designed to equip you with all of the essential knowledge that's needed to excel in PvP.

Now, in this introductory video, we're going to be exploring what to expect from the Havoc Demon Hunter playstyle, and we're also going to discuss your most important goals in the arena. Now, the best way I can think of describing Demon Hunter is like one of those mukbang drinks videos.

You know what I'm talking about? You know the ones that I made.

They try every single flavor of a drink brand, they rate it, and then at the end, for an added bonus, they pour every single one of those flavors into one giant glass. And, um, well, that disgusting mix in World of Warcraft is Demon Hunter, but in the best way imaginable, honestly.

As Demon Hunter really takes... takes the best parts of every single spec, and then it mixes them together. The consistent damage of a warrior, just kind of without the downside of never being able to connect to your target.

The burst capabilities of Rett, minus the chore of all that added utility. The magic damage reduction of Death Knights, but just passively woven right into your kit.

The cleave potential of Feral, just without the furry aspect. And lastly, all the best parts of Rogue, just, well, more ADHD friendly.

But jokes aside here, if you've played previous iterations of Demon Hunter and you enjoyed them, you're pretty much in luck for The War Within, as we continue to be that highly mobile and highly versatile spec you've come to know and love. And yeah, don't worry, we still top the damage meters with ease.

Now, which to be honest, is more or less the main play style of Demon Hunter. We're just simply built to do high damage.

And The War Within has only expanded on this further with the main focal point being the introduction of two new hero talent trees, Aldrachi Reaver and Fel Skard.

Aldrachi Reaver focuses on improving our direct attacks, enhancing our two main damaging abilities of Chaos Strike and Blade Dance through an empowered version of Throw Glaive, which is called Griever's Glaive. Out of the two, this is definitely the one that's more involved.

While it's easy to pick up at a basic level, it heavily incentivizes managing and overlapping key buffs to be played optimally.

Fel Skard, on the other hand, kind of leans heavily into improving your damage when in Metamorphosis, with the primary hook being Demon Surge, a passive that buffs the first cast of a few key abilities, every single time you enter Demon form. Now, overall, this play style is much easier.

And if you're familiar with how Havoc from practically any other expansion should be, then this should leave you feeling right at home. Either way, while the basic play style of Havoc is pretty straightforward, the skill ceiling is still very, very high.

And it's the small little details and the small little nuances that we're gonna be teaching you throughout this course, that's really gonna set you apart from the rest of everyone else who plays. So let's get started, shall we?

As up next, we're gonna be exploring your goals inside of Arena. So stick around.

DEMON HUNTER GOALS

Welcome to our Demon Hunter Damage Course for the War Within, which is custom designed to equip you with all of the essential knowledge that's needed to excel in PvP.

Now, in this introductory video, we're going to be exploring what to expect from the Havoc Demon Hunter playstyle, and we're also going to discuss your most important goals inside of the arena.

So to start things off, our number one goal is to create as much pressure as possible, but that doesn't necessarily mean dealing as much damage as we can. Demon Hunters have three different types of crowd control, huge burst damage, and the ability to cross the entire map in just a few globals.

But if we're not using all of these tools, we're not going to really get out any pressure. Imagine you're setting up a go, and then you see the healer trinket.

What should you do in that scenario? Well, a common mistake low-rated Demon Hunters make is simply tunneling and just doing damage.

Damage is great and all, but if you imprison the healer right as they trinket, you can force any of the damage that you're going to get out of the game. Even more cooldowns, which directly builds pressure.

The same concept applies even when initiating a go. Do you just send I-Beam randomly off cooldown?

Well, of course not. You should aim to have a stun ready to make sure your damage actually goes off.

If you're not using your utility to help build pressure, it becomes way too easy for the enemy team to kite you and shut down your damage. Our second goal is quite simple, and that is maximize our fury during meta.

All Demon Hunters play the Shattered Destiny talent, which extends our meta every time we spend fury. Now, what does that mean?

It means we need to maximize every global during meta, ensuring we spend as much fury as possible to keep it going for as long as we can. You don't want to waste time jumping between targets unless you absolutely have to.

Meta is our most powerful cooldown, and outside of it, we're not doing much. So the goal really translates into stay in meta as long as possible.

Our third goal is to purge off cooldown. Many Demon Hunters forget to purge, but it's something you should be doing off cooldown.

Every healer has something worth purging. Plus, each purge gives us fury.

Removing a high-value buff is way more impactful than just tossing out another Chaos Strike. With Blood Moon, each purge has a small chance to proc a Demon Soul, which gives us a 20% damage boost for 15 seconds.

It's a huge buff, and one of the biggest reasons we should always be purging. The only caveat to this, though, is if the target is about to die, then purging is definitely not a priority there.

Unless it's something like Freedom or Blessing of Protection, where removing it is the key to securing the kill and closing out the game.

DEMON HUNTER SUSTAINED PRIORITY: ALDRACHI REAVER

Welcome back! Now that you have a broader understanding of both the playstyle and goals of Havoc in the Arena, the next step is going to be learning how to deal damage effectively with the Eldrachi Hero Tree.

So for this, we're going to be starting with a clear-cut damage priority, not including any of the cooldowns, serving as the cornerstone of this course. The main difference compared to Felsguard is that at the top of our priority we have Reaver's Glaive.

Now we're going to touch more on this as we delve deeper into the hero talents, but your Throw Glaive will be transformed to this ability after either collecting 6 Soul Fragments or using the Hunt.

And when used, will deal decent damage, but more importantly, enhance your Blade Dance and Chaos Strike, depending on the order you use them. We want to prioritize Blade Dance outside of Reaver's Glaive.

This priority shifts a bit when empowered, as ideally you're going to save it for an Eye Beam. However, if that's not possible, make sure to use Chaos Strike before Blade Dance, so that Blade Dance gets the chance to use it.

This will give you a 20% damage buff. Next in priority is then Chaos Strike, to be used whenever you have enough Fury to do so.

Moving down to our generators, our highest priority is Fel Blade, as it's not only one of our most efficient generators, providing us 40 Fury, but also procs Army Unto oneself, for a substantial damage reduction, as well as also picking up souls through Warblade's Hunger.

However, while this is its standard priority, as we mentioned in our last video, we're going to be focusing on the Warblade. Remember that Fel Blade also serves as a gap closer.

Its priority may fluctuate depending on the situation. Next in priority is Consume Magic, which, while it doesn't deal damage, it still generates 20 Fury when successfully removing a buff from the target, making it a really valuable part of your rotation.

Additionally, with the PvP talent Blood Moon, Consume Magic now affects all targets within an 8-yard radius, as well as generating a lesser soul fragment, which is integral for getting our Reaver's Glaive back quicker.

This leaves Immolation Aura as our lowest priority generator, and if you're wondering why, it's because Alraci Reaver doesn't pick up any of the talents that enhance Immolation Aura. Finally, we have Throw Glaive.

Thanks to Screaming Brutality, our Blade Dance automatically throws a Glaive, so you won't need to use this ability much, if at all. However, if you're getting kited, you can use Throw Glaive as a gap closer to slow the target.

HERO TALENTS: ALDRACHI REAVER

Alrachi Reaver is arguably one of the most engaging specs for Demon Hunter. It takes the class, which is often known for being a two-button spec, into something a little bit more complex and rewarding when it's played correctly.

Reaver's Glaive can be procced in two different ways, either by using the hunt or by collecting soul fragments. Each soul fragment you collect grants a buff that lasts for 30 seconds, and once you have six stacks, you can cast Reaver's Glaive.

This spec relies heavily on cycling through these souls, mainly generated via Demonic Appetite, Alrachi Tactics, and Wounded Quarry. Anyway, back to Reaver's Glaive.

This, whenever it's available, is going to replace your Throw Glaive, but it's on an independent cooldown in and of itself, meaning you won't have to worry about having a charge of Throw Glaive available or anything like that. Then, whenever you use Reaver's Glaive, you're going to gain two buffs.

Glaive Fuse. Glaive B moderately shooters.

Glaive Fuse Whoa. Glaive B supergeh hissing infuri and rending Strike that each individually will empower your next Blade Dance or Chaos Strike, as well as their meta-empowered versions.

Your next Blade Dance, after using Reaver's Glaive, will do three extra ticks of damage on all targets. And your next Chaos Strike will apply a debuff called Reaver's Mark to the chosen target that will increase the rest of your damage to them for 20 seconds. these two buffs will dictate what empowerment we gain.

If you use Chaos Strike first, following your Reaver's Glaive, your next Blade Dance will instead of doing three extra ticks of damage, now do six. Whereas alternatively, if you use Blade Dance first, the damage increase applied by your next Chaos Strike will instead be double the amount, so a 12% increase up from 6%.

Now obviously, the intent for this is to provide you with a choice between doing additional AoE damage or single target damage, every time you're going to want to press Chaos Strike first after your Reaver's Glaive.

While the two stacks of Reaver's Mark is useful for overall damage, this spec is really about stacking as many modifiers as you can to set up massive one-shot death sweeps.

The other part to consider about Reaver's Glaive is the end cap of Thrill of the Fight, which provides us with a large boost to both damage and attack speed whenever we use Reaver's Glaive.

Now because of this, coupled with the buffs to our next Chaos Strike and Blade Dance, we're ideally going to be wanting to stack as many of these modifiers for our burst windows. This can mean potentially delaying either your Reaver's Glaive or Essence Break and I-Beam to combine together to get the most out of it.

This is especially important for when looking to use either Sigil of Spite or Sigil of Flame, which is why we didn't include the latter in our sustain priority.

Currently, both of these modifiers are going to be used to stack as many of our burst windows, and they're going to be used to stack as many of our burst windows.

So, if you're going to use either of these mods in your sub-model, remember that these are bugged with Thrill of the Fight, causing them to double dip from the damage increase.

This means that if you save them for when Thrill of the Fight is active, both Sigils will deal 40% increased damage, allowing for some ridiculous burst potential. So, moving on, another key thing to note is that this build also alters how we use the hunt, as it's the only guaranteed way to trigger Reaver's Glaive.

Ideally, we're going to want to use the hunt very early into the game to activate our first Reaver's Glaive, which we can then pair with our initial use of Meta to apply immediate pressure right from the start and get the ball rolling. Now let's dive into our choice notes.

Unhindered Assault versus Evasive Action might seem like a no-brainer here, but it's not so clear-cut anymore. Vengeful Retreat resets the cooldown of Fel Blade from Unhindered Assault is just too good to pass up.

This means we can proc Inertia whenever we want, and with Unbound Chaos working on Fel Blade, it's a big part of our burst damage.

Now on the other hand, Evasive Action can be useful in situations that get Subtlety Rogues or comps where you really need to outplay to survive, but honestly, even then, it's really just not worth it. Next up, we have Incorruptible Spirit versus Army Unto Oneself.

Army Unto Oneself is just too good to pass up here too. While Incorruptible Spirit does provide a lot of damage, it's also a good option to pass up here.

So, if you're looking for a small absorb, the real value is in the damage reduction provided by Fel Blade, which we're using regularly. This gives us high uptime on a 10% passive damage reduction, making it far more reliable and consistent than the small absorb.

Our final choice note is Preemptive Strike versus Keen Engagement. Both options are relatively unimpactful, but Keen Engagement gives you a little extra fury when throwing Reaver's Glaive, while Preemptive Strike adds more damage to throw Glaive.

Generally, Keen Engagement does tend to have more value in fighting comps that kite you, as you'll likely have lower uptime on your target. The additional fury helps you to continue doing damage.

Alright, I think that wraps just about everything up here. Now, who's ready to see how we use both of these talent trees to deliver the maximum burst damage possible?

Well, stay tuned, because up next, we dive into Burst Sequences. Burst Sequences

DEMON HUNTER BURST: ALDRACHI

In this video we are going to be taking a look at how to execute the highest burst damage possible when using Aldrachi Reaver. This sequence is going to take advantage of all of our burst cooldowns including Metamorphosis, Eye Beam, Essence Break, Sigil of Spite, and the Hunt.

Now before you burst you're going to want a little bit of Fury. Pre-using Immolation is usually going to be enough here.

First you'll use Hunt to proc Reaver's Glaive. Next hit Reaver's Glaive to empower both Blade Dance and Chaos Strike.

Then use Eye Beam into Chaos Strike and after that use Essence Break into Death Sweep. Follow that up with Vengeful Retreat then use Blade to jump back to your target.

Use Meta to go into Demon Form and then Death Sweep into an Annihilation. Wrap it up with a few more moves and then you're ready to go.

Wrap up with another Eye Beam and Chaos Strike then use Death Sweep off cooldown. Now you might be wondering where Sigil of Spite fits in.

If you don't have a lot of souls and want to proc another Reaver's Glaive, use it before the last Eye Beam.

DEMON HUNTER BURST: ALDRACHI MINI

Our next sequence will again be for Aldrachi Reaver. This time though we're going to show you how to do what's known as the mini burst, which is available every 40 seconds.

Now in order to do this we're going to need I-Beam and Essence Break. This is also the perfect time to use your Sigil of Spite if available.

You want to make sure you have a Reaver's Glaive proc before you start your burst. If you have Sigil of Spite and need it to get a Reaver's Glaive, this is the moment you would use it.

First throw your Glaive, and then use Vengeful Retreat for the Fury and Reset on initiative. Next use Fel Blade and once you land you're going to want to use I-Beam.

Then follow up with Essence Break into Annihilation and finish with Death Sweep. Make sure you're in meta before using your Empowered Blade Dance and Chaos Strike.

We want to use Death Sweep second so that it gets the 20% damage buff instead of the 10%.

DEMON HUNTER OPENER

So let's move past all the theory and get to the practical. In this next part of our Havoc Damage course, we're going to guide you through the best strategies for how to approach openers.

The first thing the Demon Hunter does is use Spectral Sight. Whenever you're facing a stealth class, it's important to use Spectral Sight right out of the gates.

This not only makes it easier for your team to get a clean opener, but it also makes it harder for the enemy team to get their own opener. The Demon Hunter isn't able to get to the Feral, but the Hunter comes out of camouflage.

The Demon Hunter starts dealing damage to the Hunter, but notices their healer is stunned, so they quickly position themselves on top of their healer to use Reverse Magic. Notice how they used Vengeful Retreat to get to their healer?

If the enemy team anticipates that you're going to try to reverse their crowd control, they'll almost always try to cross-cc you. By using Vengeful Retreat, you get Glimpse, which prevents any cross-cc.

Since the Hunter opts to scatter the healer, they use Blur, which is a skill that the enemy team uses to stun the Feral immediately in response to Incarnation. A common mistake many Demon Hunters make is waiting until they take damage to Blur.

However, if you Blur when the enemy team pops their cooldowns, you make it much harder for them to build any pressure. You definitely don't want to Blur too late, as there's a small chance you could still get stunned through it and end up dying.

Blur should be used proactively to mitigate incoming damage rather than reactively. With the enemy team's go now over, you can use the Feral and begin bursting.

It's crucial to stun your kill target first, because their immediate reaction will likely be either to cc or try to run away from your I-Beam. The Demon Hunter then uses the Hunt on the Hunter to try to bait out cooldowns.

While the Hunt doesn't necessarily hit as hard as it used to, its primary purpose now is to proc Reaver's Glaive. After using the Hunt, the Demon Hunter immediately swaps back to the Feral and begins their burst combo.

The Demon Hunter then uses the Hunt on the Hunter to try to bait out cooldowns. Utilizing Meta, Essence Break, and I-Beam.

What's important to notice here is that the Demon Hunter doesn't use Chaos Nova immediately. Instead, they save it for when the Hunter's pets are out from Call of the Wild.

This allows the Demon Hunter to restun the Feral off DR while also peeling the damage. The Demon Hunter then uses Imprison right after the Druid's Root Beam.

While Imprison on its own isn't the strongest CC, it becomes incredibly powerful when it's used. It's incredibly powerful when chained off other crowd control as it's instant and unbreakable.

With their main burst cooldowns now used up, the Demon Hunter shifts focus to maximizing damage during the remaining meta window, continuing to pressure the enemy while leveraging their remaining abilities for sustained damage.

DEMON HUNTER WIN CONDITION

Alright, so far in this course we have outlined our goals in Arena, we've covered a straightforward damage priority, and even shown you how to best sequence your burst. Now, it's finally the time to bring it all together and demonstrate precisely how you should use all of this knowledge to win you games.

Winning solo shuffle games typically falls under one of three conditions. Condition number one, building pressure early by using metamorphosis, then leveraging that pressure with well-timed stuns and detainments combined with your partner's crowd control to quickly overwhelm your opponent.

Condition number two, using the burst damage of essence break and I-beam to finish off an already low target during a setup, usually again in conjunction with a stun, detainment, or your partner's crowd control to prevent it. Condition number three, reaching the two minute soft enrage.

This is why it's crucial to get metamorphosis on cooldown as soon as possible. Dampening in solo shuffle ramps up exponentially, making your sustained damage increasingly impactful as the game goes on.

Now, in most cases, once you get your second use of metamorphosis back, the game's as good as over.

To see how we work to these win conditions, we're going to be working with a team of players who are going to be walking you through a round of solo shuffle from more or less start to finish, showing you exactly what built up to the win.

Starting off exactly the same way as in our opener video, Brunhitti puts his fury generators on cooldown and aims to connect to his target ASAP. The moment he does, without any hesitation, going straight into his burst sequence, starting with an I-beam, into Fel Eruption, into Essence Break.

Condition number four, using the burst damage of essence break. Forcing the bark skin out of the druid instantly.

This is where you would usually want to use Detainment onto the healer for some micro CC, but instead, Brunhitti's teammate does the job for him. Meaning Brunhitti can use his hunt, follow it up with meta, and begin cleaving both stacked up targets, forcing both and in the process.

Taking advantage of the opponent's stacking up in order to land a chaos nova, and simultaneously coming very close to a kill. Without any further ways to prevent the incoming cyclone though, Brunhitti is forced to sit, losing out on most of his pressure.

Nonetheless though, he's able to quickly regain momentum using the last few seconds of his meta onto the druid, getting a lot of damage. And that's where Brunhitti's team is at right now.

The druid gets a quick counter-attack from no one, bringing him 50%, making it the perfect time to build on this momentum by using his Detainment onto the enemy healer. Coupled with a stun onto his target.

At this point with meta over, although we came very close to scoring a kill, we can rule out Condition 1. Meaning that we're going to now be mainly playing around our essence break and IgB.

While at this point we can still get some kills on our main champ, since we'll have a few more levels in the beginning of the game. As you can see, the balance is quite smooth, especially with the physical unit and King of the Fiend. похожing into an on-screen projectile method.

In the meantime, since we're using Ki and Ruids, I'm still going to be playing around the Aja, so to deal with Ki, In between, Brunhitti works on whittling the enemy Balanced Druid down with his Sustain damage using his Interrupt and Glimpse to prevent the Balanced Druid landing a Cyclone onto him.

This is very, very important. Remember, we want to maintain what pressure we have and succumbing to a full Cyclone will very quickly enable our opponents to recover.

Assuming that the Death Knight is low and without blooms, Brunhitti swaps over, using Detainment onto the Restoration Druid and then even Fel Eruption and Sigil of Fear to prevent the Balanced Druid peeling, which he combines with his next I-Beam and Essence Break Burst window, forcing Ironbark in the process.

Now though, with his consistent pressure mounting and dampening starting to take a toll, the Death Knight hasn't been topped since our last swap. So rather than wasting the rest of his burst into Ironbark, Brunhitti instead uses it onto the Death Knight, narrowly missing out on a kill.

And after falling victim to a Cyclone, while it doesn't look like we're going to be winning with Condition 2, take a look at Brunhitti's bars. We're almost at Condition 3.

So coming out of the Cyclone, Brunhitti's Bar is now in the middle of the field, and he's going to get back onto the Druid, as this is going to prevent him from being able to freely cast, throwing out his Blur just to be safe while also giving him the potential to Dodge Bash if it happened.

With meta so close though, Brunhitti can't afford to let his partner die, preventing the opponent set up with a double Chaos Nova into Darkness just to be safe. But unfortunately for his opponents, they've hit that soft Enrage.

Meta's back, and without any hesitation Brunhilde pops it and there's no recovering from here, as he secures the victory with a detainment onto the nearby enemy healer for good measure.