New Raider's Guide

Start here

Three rules apply in every mode:

1. Stay alive. A dead demon hunter does zero damage. Any damage you lose stepping out of fire is tiny next to dying. You have Blur and Darkness; use them.
2. Stay in melee range and keep swinging. Havoc builds Fury from auto-attacks. Every second you are not touching the boss, or dashing somewhere on purpose, is lost damage.
3. Never sit on two Immolation Aura charges. It is your Fury engine and your demon-form fuel. When it reads 2 charges, press it before anything else.

What to check in your logs

Open your character on Warcraft Logs after a raid night and look at these five things, in this order. They tell you more than the big DPS number does.

Fix these in order. Deaths first, then active time, then cooldown count, then Fury and charge waste, then demon-form time. Parse percentile climbs on its own once those are right.

Havoc 101: the five ideas behind every button

Havoc is a resource loop that spins faster in demon form. You build Fury by hitting things, spend it on two spenders, and press cooldowns that turn you into a demon and make the same two spenders hit much harder. Learn these five ideas and every priority list below will make sense.

1. Fury is your currency. Your bar fills from auto-attacks (the Demon Blades talent), Immolation Aura, Felblade and Eye Beam. Chaos Strike and Blade Dance spend it. A full bar means new Fury is thrown away, so never cap.
2. Two spenders, one single-target and one area. Chaos Strike hits one target and has no cooldown. Blade Dance hits everything around you on a short cooldown. In the recommended build, Blade Dance is also a single-target button because the First Blood talent makes it hit your main target hard.
3. Demon form is the payoff. Eye Beam puts you into a short demon form (the Demonic talent). Metamorphosis gives a long one. In demon form Chaos Strike becomes Annihilation and Blade Dance becomes Death Sweep. Same keys, bigger numbers. Most of your damage comes from spending Fury inside demon form.
4. Immolation Aura is the engine. It has two charges, deals damage around you, and generates Fury. In the Fel-Scarred build it also powers up your demon-form buttons. If it sits at 2 charges, you are losing Fury you can never get back.
5. Dashes are also damage. Vengeful Retreat and Fel Rush are movement buttons, but talents make them buff your next hits. Pressing Vengeful Retreat right before Eye Beam is free damage. Always check where you will land first.

Easy Mode: six buttons, one order Mode 1

This is the whole rotation. Read the list top to bottom every time a global cooldown ends and press the first thing that is true. It uses the Fel-Scarred raid build from the setup section. Your Chaos Strike and Blade Dance keys change into Annihilation and Death Sweep in demon form on their own; you do not need extra buttons for them.

1. Immolation Aura if it has 2 charges. Instant, and it generates Fury.
2. Eye Beam if it is off cooldown. Hold still for the channel. It puts you into demon form.
3. Metamorphosis if it is off cooldown and you have just used Eye Beam. Use the "on yourself" macro from the setup section so you do not leap away from the boss.
4. Blade Dance (or Death Sweep in demon form) if it is off cooldown and you have the Fury for it.
5. Chaos Strike (or Annihilation in demon form) if you have the Fury for it.
6. Felblade. When nothing above is true, press this. It generates Fury and dashes you to the target, so it is also how you get back into melee range.

That is it. Ignore The Hunt, Essence Break, Vengeful Retreat timing and the Fel-Scarred extra buttons for now. They are a bonus, not the foundation.

The opener

When the raid leader's pull timer hits 3 seconds, press Immolation Aura twice so both charges are spent as the boss becomes attackable. Then Eye Beam, Blade Dance, Chaos Strike until Fury is low, Metamorphosis, and fall into the list above.

When you have to move

Felblade if the target is within range; it carries you to it. Fel Rush if you need to cross a gap fast. Otherwise just walk. Never start an Eye Beam channel while standing in something that will kill you, and never dash without looking where you will land.

Demon form

You have no pet and no stances. The only "mode" is demon form, and the game swaps your buttons for you. Watch the top of your character: horns and wings mean Annihilation and Death Sweep are live, so spend Fury quickly while they are.

Intermediate Mode: three bonus buttons and a second target Mode 2

Same skeleton as Easy Mode, with The Hunt, Essence Break and a Vengeful Retreat habit slotted in. Each one is worth a few percent of your damage, and together they are the gap between a passable demon hunter and a solid one.

1. Immolation Aura if it has 2 charges.
2. Essence Break on cooldown. It makes your next few Chaos Strikes and Blade Dances hit harder for a few seconds. Press it, then spend Fury as fast as you can.
3. Vengeful Retreat right before Eye Beam. It buffs your damage for a short window (the Exergy talent). Point your camera so you land somewhere safe and still in range.
4. Eye Beam on cooldown.
5. The Hunt on cooldown. It charges the target, so it also works as a gap closer back onto the boss.
6. Metamorphosis after Eye Beam and Immolation Aura are both on cooldown. It resets both of them, so pressing it with either one ready wastes a reset.
7. Death Sweep, then Annihilation in demon form. Blade Dance, then Chaos Strike outside it.
8. Felblade for Fury.

The opener

Spend both Immolation Aura charges 2 to 3 seconds before the pull. Then potion and on-use trinket, Eye Beam, The Hunt, Essence Break, Annihilation, Death Sweep, Death Sweep, Vengeful Retreat into Metamorphosis, Death Sweep, Annihilation. From there, use the list.

Your second target

Havoc has no copy-spell. Your two-target tool is already on your bars: Blade Dance and Death Sweep hit everything within reach, Immolation Aura burns everything around you, and Eye Beam is a line that hits every enemy in it. The rule of thumb:

• Stand where both targets are inside Blade Dance range (a short circle around you). Ask the tank to hold the add near the boss.
• Aim Eye Beam so the line passes through both.
• Keep pressing the single-target list. Nothing else changes until there are 3 or more targets.
• If one target is about to die, put your Chaos Strikes into the one that will live.

Planning movement

Before the pull, ask the raid leader or read the boss guide for the two or three moments when everyone has to move. Walk into those moments with a Fel Rush charge and Felblade ready so you can dash out and dash straight back. Finish or cancel Eye Beam before the move, not during it. The Eye Beam cancel macro in the setup section is for exactly this.

Full Send Mode: the complete priority Mode 3

This is the Fel-Scarred single-target list as Method writes it, plus the habits that separate a 70th-percentile parse from a 95th. Nothing here is new. It is the Intermediate list with tighter timing and the two Fel-Scarred buttons added.

Single target

1. Immolation Aura if sitting on two charges.
2. Essence Break on cooldown. In 12.1 the tier set often pulls it out of sync with Eye Beam, so press it when it is ready even outside demon form.
3. Vengeful Retreat paired with Eye Beam.
4. Eye Beam.
5. Death Sweep, then Annihilation, to trigger Demonsurge. In demon form, your first Death Sweep and first Annihilation each set off an extra explosion. Get both out early in every demon form.
6. The Hunt.
7. Metamorphosis, with Eye Beam and Immolation Aura on cooldown.
8. Abyssal Gaze, then Consuming Fire. These are the Fel-Scarred versions of Eye Beam and Immolation Aura that Metamorphosis grants you. Press each once per Metamorphosis.
9. Annihilation, then Blade Dance, then Chaos Strike.
10. Felblade for Fury, then Immolation Aura at one charge, then Throw Glaive only if nothing else is available.

Demonsurge discipline

Fel-Scarred rewards a fixed order inside every demon form: Death Sweep, Annihilation, and in Metamorphosis also Abyssal Gaze and Consuming Fire, each as early as possible. Walk into Eye Beam with enough Fury for one Death Sweep and one Annihilation so neither waits on a Felblade. If Essence Break is ready too, press it first and land both Demonsurge hits inside its window.

Charge and Fury discipline

Never cap Immolation Aura charges, even if it means skipping an Inertia or Exergy window. Maxroll puts it bluntly: if you are about to hit two charges and have no dash available, spend the charge and ignore the buff. The same goes for Fury. A spender one global late is cheaper than Fury you never get to use. Felblade generates Fury and no longer resets itself, so Fury arrives slower than it used to; plan for it.

Lining up the burst window

On-use trinket, Potion of Recklessness and racial all go into the opener, then into the first Metamorphosis after they come back. Metamorphosis and the 3-minute cooldowns realign every 3 minutes, so a 6-minute fight gives you two such windows plus the opener. Ask the raid leader when Bloodlust is coming and, if it is within 20 seconds of your realignment, hold Metamorphosis for it. Do not hold Eye Beam for anything longer than about 3 or 4 seconds.

AoE (3 or more targets)

1. Immolation Aura on cooldown. With the A Fire Inside talent it is your best AoE button and feeds everything else.
2. Eye Beam on cooldown, aimed through the pack.
3. Vengeful Retreat on cooldown or into important damage moments, then The Hunt if the pack lives long enough.
4. Death Sweep and Blade Dance every time they are ready. They are your main area spenders.
5. Annihilation and Chaos Strike only to burn Fury between Blade Dances.
6. Felblade when Fury runs dry.

Two targets is still the single-target list from Intermediate with good positioning, not an AoE build. Blade Dance already hits both. Only swap to the Mythic+ talents (Glaive Tempest) when packs of 3 or more are the normal case.

Fight-specific habits

Before a progression night, open the boss guide and write down three things: when adds spawn (plan Eye Beam and Immolation Aura), when the raid has to move (hold a Fel Rush charge and finish Eye Beam first), and when Bloodlust is called (hold or drift Metamorphosis). Those three notes are worth more than any sim.

Talents, consumables and setup

Import one of these talent strings and the guide above matches your bars. Open the talent window, click Import, paste, and save as a loadout. Both are from Method's talents page, updated 16 Oct 2026 for patch 12.1.5.

Method also lists a pure single-target Fel-Scarred build, but says it is only meant for bosses with no adds at all, such as Sszorak. The raid cleave build above adds Immolation Aura talents and Ragefire for add phases and loses very little on a single boss, so start with it. The Mythic+ build adds Glaive Tempest, which only does anything at 3 or more targets.

Stat priority

Agility first, then Critical Strike, then Mastery, then Haste, then Versatility. Method notes that Fel-Scarred leans a little more toward Mastery and Aldrachi Reaver toward Critical Strike. Maxroll adds that Haste sims poorly on paper but makes multi-target fights smoother. Once you are comfortable, run a Raidbots Top Gear sim with your own gear. Until then, take the higher item level piece.

Consumables checklist

Bring these to every raid. Half of them are provided by the raid, but a new raider should carry their own.

• Flask: Flask of the Magisters or Flask of the Shattered Sun (Method rates them about equal; depends on your gear)
• Food: Royal Roast, or eat the raid feast (Hearty Harandar Celebration)
• Combat potion: Potion of Recklessness, one per pull
• Health potion: Concentrated Silvermoon Health Potion
• Weapon oil: Thalassian Phoenix Oil, one on each weapon
• Augment rune: Void-Touched Augment Rune
• Healthstone: take one from the warlock's Soulwell before every pull
• Enchants: Empowered Rune of Avoidance (head), Amirdrassil's Grace (shoulders), Mark of the Worldsoul (chest), Forest Hunter's Armor Kit (legs), Lynx's Dexterity (boots), Eyes of the Eagle (rings), Rite of the Hash'ey (both weapons)

Addons that matter

BigWigs for boss timers, Method Raid Tools for raid notes, and a Fury bar you can read at a glance (the base Cooldown Manager works; Method suggests EllesmereUI if you want a full interface). Nothing else is required to start.

Macros

Put these on your bars. The first casts Metamorphosis on your own position so you do not leap off the boss. The second interrupts whatever you have set as focus. The third stops a single tap of Blur from spending both charges if you are talented into two.

#showtooltip
/cast [@player] Metamorphosis

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus] Disrupt

#showtooltip Blur
/stopcasting
/castsequence reset=2 Blur, null

Your utility kit

Damage is only half the job. Raid leaders remember the demon hunter who interrupts, uses defensives, and drops Darkness at the right moment, not the one who parses 5% higher. Cooldowns below are the base values. Talents shorten some of them, so trust your tooltip over this table.

You have no battle resurrection, no Bloodlust and no ally dispel. Make up for it by being the first kick and the most reliable Darkness in the raid.

Two habits to build now:

1. Set a focus target. Before the pull, target the add you are assigned to interrupt and press your focus keybind. The Disrupt macro then works without ever leaving the boss.
2. Look before every dash. Fel Rush, Vengeful Retreat and The Hunt all move you. A dash into a frontal or off a ledge is the most common demon hunter death there is.

Reading your logs and what to practice next

After each raid night, open your character on Warcraft Logs and spend five minutes on one boss. Pick the longest single-target fight. Check the five items from the logs section, then do the one drill below that matches your mode.

Three things to compare against a top log of the same boss (Warcraft Logs, Rankings tab, filter to Havoc):

1. Count their Annihilations and Death Sweeps and yours. If theirs is 50% higher on a fight of the same length, you are entering demon form late or wasting it.
2. Count their Eye Beam casts and yours. The gap is almost always a few seconds of delay on each one, which adds up to a whole cast or two.
3. Look at their Deaths and yours. If they have zero and you do not, that is the whole gap.

The Venomous Abyss is the current Midnight Season 2 raid, with eight bosses from Nek'zali the Soulcoiler through Ula'tek. Read the Icy Veins page for each boss before the night you first see it, and write down the three notes from Full Send Mode: when adds come, when you move, when Lust is called.