Vengeance Demon Hunter Raid Guide
Welcome to the Vengeance Demon Hunter raid guide for the World of Warcraft patch 11.0.5! This guide covers everything you need to know to understand your character! Are you starting out and leveling up from 70? Check out the leveling guide!
Overview
Hero Talents
- For Raiding id recommend Aldrachi Reaver as it offers more ST damage than Fel-Scarred, as well as greater overall survivability.
- Consuming 20 Soul Fragments or casting The Hunt converts your next Throw Glaive into Reaver's Glaive.
- This enhances your next Shear / Fracture and Soul Cleave. The enhanced ability you cast first deals 10% increased damage, and the second deals 20% increased damage.
- Quite simply casting Shear / Fracture > Soul Cleave is the priority of empowerments after using Reaver's Glaive.
- The second enhanced ability from using Reaver's Glaive shatters an additional Soul Fragment through Aldrachi Tactics, this allows you to get Reaver's Glaive back faster by consuming more Soul Fragment.
- Reaver's Mark is a debuff that causes the target to take 7% increased damage for 20 seconds from an enhanced Shear / Fracture from Reaver's Glaive.
- If cast after Soul Cleave, Reaver's Mark is increased to 14%.
- Reaver's Mark also stacks and can be increased from 7% to 14% by doing a second set of empowerments starting with Shear / Fracture > Soul Cleave.
- Additionally while Reaver's Mark is up, Wounded Quarry gives your melee attacks additional damage and has a chance to shatter a Soul Fragment.
- Unhindered Assault gives Vengeful Retreat a way of generating Fury as it resets the cooldown of Felblade.
- Incorruptible Spirit is extremely strong as it allows you to have incredible amounts of absorbs because you how many Soul Fragment you currently consume.
- Thrill of the Fight is a passive buff you get from consuming both enhancements from Reaver's Glaive that gives 15% increased attack speed for 20 seconds, as well as a 20% damage and healing increase for 10 seconds. The only important thing to note is that Wounded Quarry benefits a lot in Soul Fragment from Thrill of the Fight.
- Metamorphosis becomes a huge DPS cooldown with Fel-Scarred due to Demonsurge and all of the abilities that are empowered because of it.
- While Metamorphosis is active Soul Cleave and Spirit Bomb become empowered. Additionally, with Demonic Intensity, Fel Devastation, Immolation Aura and Sigil of Flame also become empowered dealing more damage.
- After casting Metamorphosis or Demonic through Fel Devastation, the first cast of each empowered ability creates an explosion of Fel energy that does damage around you to nearby enemies.
- Due to Demonic Intensity this damage is increased by 10% for each time you use an empowered ability while Metamorphosis is active.
- Casting Metamorphosis and Fel Devastation off cooldown almost becomes very important as all the empowered abilities do a lot of damage, especially Sigil of Flame in AoE.
- When you activate Metamorphosis, the cooldowns of Fel Devastation and Sigil of Flame are reset.
- Sigil of Flame applies Student of Suffering which gives you a decent chunk of Mastery and grants 5 Fury every 2 seconds for 8 seconds. Keep this buff up as much as possible as it grants a good amount of damage, especially in AoE.
- Pursuit of Angriness is a good option for Raiding as it gives you a nice bonus to movement speed, which can be useful for some mechanics and Wave of Debilitation isnt needed as much.
Talents
When to use this spec
This loadout is a very heavy damage loadout. I would not necessarily play this for hard "progress" bosses. To make your life easier, boss specific talent loadouts are available in the Raids section.
Gameplay Altering Talents
Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation and Deep Dive sections below.
Spec Tree
- Frailty
- A debuff that makes you heal for 10% of the damage done. This works exactly like Leech.
- Soulcrush
- Gives multiple applications of Frailty and makes Soul Cleave apply Frailty.
- Void Reaver
- Frailty gives 4% Damage Reduction. This combines with Soulcrush to have multiple overlaps of Void Reaver and give tons of added Damage Reduction.
- Charred Flesh
- Gives Fiery Brand a lot higher uptime, making it very strong.
- Fel Devastation
- Big damage frontal cone ability that also heals you.
- Calcified Spikes
- Demon Spikes fading grants you a small passive damage reduction that decays over time.
- Sigil of Silence
- AoE silence in an 8 yard radius.
- Spirit Bomb
- Your main Soul Fragment spender, especially in AoE. It does very high damage and can consume up to 5 Soul Fragments.
- Applies Frailty.
- Down in Flames
- Makes Fiery Brand a 45 second cooldown instead of 1 minute and gives it an additional charge. Damage reduction uptime from Fiery Brand becomes a lot higher with this, allowing you to cycle defensives more easily.
- Darkglare Boon
- Reduces the cooldown of Fel Devastation and refunds some Fury after the cast is finished. This makes it a defensive you can frequently rely on.
- Focused Cleave
- Soul Cleave starts hitting a lot harder on one target. You do not need to min-max damage with Spirit Bomb on single target with this talent, as the damage difference between doing that and just Soul Cleave is very minor.
- Fallout
- This scales with the number of targets hit. Additonally, Fallout caps at 5 Soul Fragments.
- Soul Carver
- Does a decent chunk of damage and generates 3 Soul Fragments immediately, and generates 1 Soul Fragments every second over 3 seconds.
Class Tree
- Rush of Chaos
- Reduces the cooldown of your Metamorphosis which makes this defensive ability available more frequently.
- Demonic
- Turns Fel Devastation into a very strong Defensive cooldown as it gives you Metamorphosis.
- Soul Rending
- A 2 point node that gives 5% Leech per point and 5% additional Leech when Metamorphosis is active.
- Felblade
- This 0.5 second GCD spell generates 40 Fury and has a chance to reset its' cooldown from Shear or Fracture.
- Chaos Nova
- A very potent 1 minute cooldown AoE stun.
- Sigil of Misery
- Your AoE disorientation that CC's mobs for 15 seconds.
- Also acts as a stop, or interrupt by canceling a mob's cast.
Hero Talents
- Unhindered Assault
- Gives more Fury generation by resetting Felblade.
- Incorruptible Spirit
- Huge amount of absorbs through consuming Soul Fragments.
- Keen Engagement
- Reaver's Glaive gives 20 Fury each time it is used, which gives a nice resource gain.
When to use this spec
This talent build should be used on more "Progress" Raiding encounters that are very hard hitting and life threatening.
Talent Adjustments
Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.
Spec Tree
- Added
- Extended Spikes
- Increases the duration of Demon Spikes by 2 seconds.
- Added to give more uptime, to increase your survivability.
- Painbringer
- Consuming Soul Fragments gives damage reduction for 6 seconds.
- Added to increase survivability.
- Extended Spikes
- Removed
- Soul Furnace
- Ascending Flame
Class Tree
- Added
- Sigil of Spite
- Added to increase Soul Fragments generation, which in turn increases healing and survivability.
- Darkness
- Strong Raid utility that gives everyone within 8 yards a 15% chance to avoid damage in a Raid group.
- Demon Muzzle
- Put a debuff on targets afflicted by sigils to give you a small amount of Magic damage reduction from them.
- Sigil of Spite
- Removed
- Collective Anguish
- Erratic Felheart
Rotation
Tier Set
- 2-Set: Soul Cleave deals 15% increased damage and has 35% chance to shatter Soul Fragments from a target it hits.
- 4-Set: Consuming a Soul Fragments increases the damage and healing of your next Fel Devastation by 2%, up to 30%.
The new Set synergizes very well with Aldrachi Reaver as it allows you to get Art of the Glaive very quickly since you generate and spend more Soul Fragments. However, the Set is also very nice as Fel-Scarred as it also buffs Fel Desolation damage and healing. Moreover, you have more Fel Devastation casts, because of resets from Demonic Intensity to make use of the 4-Set.
Opener
Opener
Priority List
On Single Target, your goal is to generate as many Soul Fragments as possible so that you can cast Reaver's Glaive as often as possible. Aldrachi Reaver generates a lot more Soul Fragments than Fel-Scarred and will allow you to cast Spirit Bomb more often with 5 Soul Fragments. Remember that it is better to waste Fury than to lose potential charges of Fracture. Also always cast Fracture into Soul Cleave after casting Reaver's Glaive. You want to press spells almost off cooldown and not let anything be wasted.
- Cast The Hunt off cooldown to trigger Art of the Glaive.
- Cast Reaver's Glaive off cooldown whenever it procs or from The Hunt.
- Cast Fracture as first enhanced ability of Reaver's Glaive always.
- Cast Soul Cleave as the second enhanced ability of Reaver's Glaive always.
- Cast Fiery Brand off cooldown for DR and Fiery Demise damage.
- Cast Spirit Bomb with 4-5 souls as often as possible.
- Cast Sigil of Flame off cooldown.
- Cast Immolation Aura off cooldown.
- Cast Infernal Strike if you are at 2 charges and do not need to save for movement.
- Cast Fel Devastation off cooldown.
- Cast Sigil of Spite if talented.
- Cast Soul Cleave as much as possible.
- Cast Felblade if you don't cap Fury.
- Cast Fracture if you don't cap Soul Fragment or Fury.
- Cast Throw Glaive as a filler or if you're far away from the target.
Opener
Priority List
On Single Target, your goal as Fel-Scarred is to cast Fel Devastation and Metamorphosis as much as possible to utilize Demonsurge damage. You want to press spells almost off cooldown and not let anything be wasted.
- Cast Fiery Brand off cooldown for DR and Fiery Demise damage.
- Cast Sigil of Flame off cooldown.
- Cast Immolation Aura off cooldown.
- Cast Fel Devastation off cooldown to enter Metamorphosis and empower abilities.
- Cast Spirit Burst for Demonsurge ramping damage.
- Cast Soul Sunder for Demonsurge ramping damage.
- Cast Metamorphosis to reset abilities through Demonic Intensity and empower them.
- Cast Sigil of Doom off cooldown.
- Cast Fel Desolation off cooldown.
- Cast Consuming Fire off cooldown.
- Cast The Hunt.
- Cast Sigil of Spite if talented.
- Cast Spirit Bomb with 5 souls during Fiery Brand.
- Cast Fracture if you don't cap Soul Fragment or Fury.
- Cast Infernal Strike if you are at 2 charges and do not need to save for movement.
- Cast Soul Cleave as much as possible.
- Cast Felblade if you don't cap Fury.
- Cast Throw Glaive as a filler or if you're far away from the target.
AoE
Opener
The Opener for Aldrachi Reaver stays the same for single target and AoE currently but the priority changes.
Priority List
When AoEing you focus on generating as many Soul Fragments as possible to use Spirit Bomb as much as possible. Do not waste Soul Fragments and try to use Spirit Bomb at 4+ Soul Fragments. Additionally, press spells off cooldown as much as possible.
- Cast The Hunt off cooldown to trigger Art of the Glaive.
- Cast Reaver's Glaive off cooldown whenever it procs or from The Hunt.
- Cast Fracture as the first enhanced ability of Reaver's Glaive always.
- Cast Soul Cleave as the second enhanced ability of Reaver's Glaive always.
- Cast Fiery Brand off cooldown for DR and Fiery Demise damage.
- Cast Spirit Bomb with 4-5 souls as often as possible.
- Cast Sigil of Flame off cooldown.
- Cast Immolation Aura off cooldown.
- Cast Infernal Strike if you are at 2 charges and do not need to save for movement.
- Cast Fel Devastation off cooldown.
- Cast Sigil of Spite if talented.
- Cast Soul Cleave as much as possible.
- Cast Felblade if you don't cap Fury.
- Cast Fracture if you don't cap Soul Fragment or Fury.
- Cast Throw Glaive as a filler or if you're far away from the target.
Opener
The Opener for Fel-Scarred largely stays the same from Single Target, except for using Sigil of Doom a bit later in the opener to make use of Student of Suffering in AoE, which gives a lot of damage. Furthermore, Sigil of Doom hits like an absolute truck in AoE, so you want to use this ability carefully, to maximize damage.
Priority List
When AoEing you focus on generating as many Soul Fragments as possible to use Spirit Bomb as much as possible. Do not waste Soul Fragments and try to use Spirit Bomb at 4+ Soul Fragments. Additionally, press spells off cooldown as much as possible.
- Cast Fiery Brand off cooldown for DR and Fiery Demise damage.
- Cast Sigil of Flame off cooldown.
- Cast Immolation Aura off cooldown.
- Cast Fel Devastation off cooldown to enter Metamorphosis and empower abilities.
- Cast Spirit Burst for Demonsurge ramping damage as often as possible.
- Cast Soul Sunder for Demonsurge ramping damage.
- Cast Metamorphosis to reset abilities through Demonic Intensity and empower them.
- Cast Sigil of Doom off cooldown. However, space out for Student of Suffering buff uptime.
- Cast Fel Desolation off cooldown.
- Cast Consuming Fire off cooldown.
- Cast The Hunt.
- Cast Sigil of Spite if talented.
- Cast Spirit Bomb with 5 souls as often as possible.
- Cast Fracture if you don't cap Soul Fragment or Fury.
- Cast Infernal Strike if you are at 2 charges and do not need to save for movement.
- Cast Soul Cleave as much as possible.
- Cast Felblade if you don't cap Fury.
- Cast Throw Glaive as a filler or if you're far away from the target.
Defensive Cooldowns
- Metamorphosis
- Metamorphosis is your biggest defensive cooldown and you should learn to plan around Metamorphosis usage to have a smoother time mitigating incoming damage. With 2 points in Rush of Chaos, Metamorphosis can become a 2 minute cooldown making it usable considerably more often.
- Fiery Brand
- Fiery Brand debuffs the enemy to deal 40% reduced damage to you and is one of your most frequent defensive and offensive cooldowns. Normally, you want to use this spell on cooldown as it does very high damage, and can buff your other fire damage spells with Fiery Demise. However, hold this spell if there is a tank buster or mechanic that does a lot of damage and you need to save extra defensives to survive. With talents, it can be extended through Charred Flesh to last even longer than usual and have an additional charge as well as a shorter cooldown with Down in Flames.
- Fel Devastation
- Demonic allows for this spell to become exceptionally strong since it gives Metamorphosis which is Vengeance Demon Hunter's strongest defensive cooldown. You want to use this spell almost off cooldown and plan your other defensives around it. You should hold Fel Devastation if there is a tank buster coming.
- Sigil of Flame
- With Illuminated Sigils talented, Sigil of Flame becomes an important defensive cooldown. The 15% increased parry is very significant and is worth tracking Sigil of Flame debuff to make sure you know when it falls off.
- Darkness
- Darkness lasts 8 seconds and causes all damage you or an ally take while inside the darkness to have a 15% chance of being negated completely. This is not great versus large single hits, but is good for lots of little hits, such as melee attacks. If you're not saving it for something in particular, you should go ahead and use it almost on cooldown because of the defensive benefits.
Offensive Cooldowns
- Sigil of Spite
- Sigil of Spite deals a moderate amount of damage and generates 3 Soul Fragment, allowing you to cast Spirit Bomb more frequently. Use on cooldown with ideally at least 3 stacks of Frailty.
- The Hunt
- A huge charge from 50 yards away, does big chaos damage and roots the target in place, applying a DoT that does additional chaos damage over 6 seconds up to 5 targets that were caught in the path of the charge. For maximum damage, you want to use this on cooldown with ideally at least 3 stacks of Frailty.
- With Aldrachi Reaver this ability becomes very strong, as it procs Reaver's Glaive granting a very large damage bonus, as well as Soul Fragment generation.
- Metamorphosis
- While you are in Metamorphosis during AoE, you want to Spirit Bomb at 3+ Soul Fragments instead of 4+. This is because every Fracture cast while you are in Metamorphosis gives you 3 Soul Fragments. Therefore, this allows you to:
- Fracture.
- Spirit Bomb.
- Fracture.
- Spirit Bomb.
- This makes Fracture an incredibly high priority during Metamorphosis.
- With Fel-Scarred, Metamorphosis becomes an insane DPS cooldown as it enhances many abilities and increases the base amount of damage the enhanced abilities do by a substantial amount.
- Moreover, it gives Demonsurge damage that does large AoE damage around you, that also ramps in damage, increasing with each empowered ability cast.
- While you are in Metamorphosis during AoE, you want to Spirit Bomb at 3+ Soul Fragments instead of 4+. This is because every Fracture cast while you are in Metamorphosis gives you 3 Soul Fragments. Therefore, this allows you to:
Deep Dive
Sigils
- Sigils are Demon Hunter specific abilities that are placed on the ground and then have a delay of 2 seconds before having an effect within an 8 yard radius.
- Talenting into Quickened Sigils brings that delay down to 1 second.
- They generate 1 Soul Fragment with Soul Sigils.
- Demon Muzzle gives a small amount of Magic damage reduction.
- Chains of Anger increases the duration of your sigils by 2 seconds and their radius by 2 yards.
- Cycle of Binding grants you a 2 second cooldown reduction on all sigils when any sigil hits an enemy.
- Illuminated Sigils grants 1 extra charge to Sigil of Flame.
- Both Demon Muzzle and Cycle of Binding require you to affect a target with your Sigil. Therefore; Sigil of Silence, Sigil of Chains and Sigil of Misery used on a boss don't give you the benefits.
Cycling defensives on Vengeance Demon Hunter
- Vengeance Demon Hunter's active mitigation Demon Spikes has very low uptime, meaning that as Vengeance Demon Hunter you need to fill in the gaps with your other defensive cooldowns.
- Metamorphosis, Demonic, Fiery Brand and Illuminated Sigils (if talented) are the main defensives used for this.
- An example of this is to Fel Devastation when Demon Spikes is about to end and then waiting with your next Demon Spikes for when Metamorphosis has ended.
- For cycling defensives, while Demon Spikes is our most available active defensive, players should be trying to maximize the uptime of Metamorphosis > Fiery Brand > Demon Spikes in that order.
- This does mean that you end up overlapping and layering Demon Spikes with other defensives. The main goal is to make sure that you're not capping Demon Spikes charges either.
- This type of gameplay sets Vengeance Demon Hunter apart from other tanks since it needs to be done frequently in high-level content as taking damage with no defensive cooldown can spell disaster.
Frailty management
- Frailty is important to think about when managing DPS burst windows with The Hunt and Sigil of Spite.
- Your goal is to have as many stacks as possible by using Soul Cleave a lot, which through Soulcrush gives Frailty.
- Another important thing to note is that because of the talent Void Reaver, Frailty stacks are important to track because of the added damage reduction. This can be especially important for min-maxing defensive usage as with high Frailty stacks, you can forego other defensives or have fewer than normal.
- Remember that with Soulcrush, Frailty from all sources stacks and Soul Cleave applies an additional stack of Frailty to your primary target.
Understanding Mechanics
Rotational min-maxing is just one aspect of mastering a specialization, but there are numerous other key mechanics that influence your performance. Use the following guides to improve them.
Nerub-ar Palace
The following tips are mainly applicable to Heroic Bosses. Mythic tips are going to be released after our progression concludes.
← Scroll for more Bosses →
Tank mechanics
- Brutal Crush
- After being hit you receive 20 applications of Tenderized which results in a 200% healing reduction.
- Every second, you lose one application stack which fully clears your debuff after 20 seconds.
- The boss casts this mechanic roughly every 15 to 20 seconds.
- As the inactive tank, taunt when the cast succeeds.
- After being hit you receive 20 applications of Tenderized which results in a 200% healing reduction.
- After Hulking Crash the Boss transitions into the intermission.
- Ravenous Spawn appear in a cocoon on one side of the room, make sure to move there.
- These cocoons break staggered after some time spawning Ravenous Spawn pick them up and watch aggro since they are spread out.
- Disembowel is cast on the target that has aggro so watch your DPS and Healer players if they are getting attacked.
- Disembowel is a bleed which can be removed by Cauterizing Flame and Stoneform.
- These cocoons break staggered after some time spawning Ravenous Spawn pick them up and watch aggro since they are spread out.
Boss Tips and Tricks
- At the start of the fight, bring the Boss to a corner as this makes Stalkers Webbing easier to clear.
- Utilise Sigil of Chains to grip the adds in the intermission together so that they can be killed quickly.
- During Carnivorous Contest, use Infernal Strike while soaking to not get sucked into the boss.
- Do not walk under the boss. Devour kills you almost instantly.
- Be careful of webs fromStalkers Webbing as they will stun you.
Tank mechanics
- Gruesome Disgorge is both a tank mechanic and a raid mechanic.
- Gruesome Disgorge is cast at the active tank and shows a huge cone that faces and moves with you.
- As the inactive tank, taunt when the cast succeeds.
- When hit by Gruesome Disgorge you and anyone inside the cone is sent into a different phase, Baneful Shift.
- During the phase, you need to kill the Lost Watcher and Forgotten Harbingers while preventing Blood Horrors from reaching the boss
- Lost Watcher is your tank target make sure to taunt it.
- Black Bulwark needs to be interrupted.
- Spectral Slam is cast on you doing moderate damage.
- Position the Lost Watcher between or close to Forgotten Harbingers.
- Spewing Hemorrhage.
- Spewing Hemorrhage creates two beams on each side of the boss while being cast.
- Boss facing determines where the beams are.
- The active boss tank can move accordingly to adjust final beam positions during the cast.
- Your goal is to place the beams as far away as possible from the inside group with Baneful Shift.
- These Beams always turn clockwise so keep that in mind.
Boss Tips and Tricks
- Utilize Sigil of Chains for the inside phase Baneful Shift to grip the small adds spawned from Manifest Horror together.
Tank mechanics
- Captain's Flourish is the tank combo mechanic during this fight.
- Sikran starts with 2x Expose followed by 1x Phase Lunge.
- Taunting during any of these casts changes the destination target to the taunter. Watch out when to taunt here.
- Managing Captain's Flourish:
- The active tank takes two hits of Expose increasing his physical damage taken.
- The Inactive tank taunts during Phase Lunge increasing his damage taken by the next Phase Lunge.
- After this combo, the tanks swap roles meaning the tank who took Phase Lunge now takes the next two Expose.
- While the previous Expose tank now takes Phase Lunge.
- Rotate Fel Devastation and Fiery Brand for every Tank combo and make sure you taunt correctly, otherwise you or the other tank can die very easily.
Boss Tips and Tricks
- Move the boss to be in a line with the Phase Blades images. This makes it easier for Decimate targets to hit them.
Tank mechanic
- Savage Assault is the only tank mechanic on this fight.
- As the inactive tank, taunt when the cast succeeds.
- The mechanic does a high amount of damage and applies a dot based on 60% of unmitigated damage done to you, meaning you need mitigate the damage as much as possible.
- The damage is split into magic and physical damage.
- Both instances are calculated separately when it comes to the dot application. If you only have a physical absorb, you receive the full magic dot + the unmitigated physical one.
Boss Tips and Tricks
- Utilize Sigil of Chains for the Infested Spawn adds after they bit the initial target.
- It's important to wait with Sigil of Chains otherwise they are not gripable.
- Futhermore, Chaos Nova the adds when they spawn.
- Use Infernal Strike to counter Web Reave.
Tank mechanics
- Volatile Concoction is the very short duration tank mechanic.
- It's very important that the inactive tank taunts when the cast succeeds.
- When you have Volatile Concoction on you it's very important to stay at the highest HP possible.
- The debuff is a big magic dot and only 8 seconds long.
- After the debuff runs out, you explode on the whole raid and the damage is reduced based on your current health percent when the debuffs drops. Staying healthy and as close as possible to 100% is your goal.
- Volatile Concoction also applies a +damage taken debuff to you preventing you from tacking 2 back to back so make sure to taunt of your partner tank.
- Experimental Dosage spawns different add types throughout the fight. Your main concern is the Colossal Spider.
- Whenever they spawn be ready to taunt or attack them to pick up the aggro.
- They cast Vicious Bite at the target with aggro, this does magic damage to you.
- At 25% HP they enrage and start stacking up a damage done increase.
- Whenever you have Volatile Concoction be extra careful of your HP.
Boss Tips and Tricks
- During this fight make sure to position the boss next to the eggs you want to break next.
- Here you want to make sure that the boss model is not covering the eggs. If it is covering the eggs, it is substantially harder for other players to break them.
- Fiery Brand and high Frailty from Soulcrush are amazing tools to deal with Volatile Concoction effectively.
- Utilize Sigil of Chains for the Voracious Worm adds.
- You can grip every 2nd set of Worms.
Tank mechanics
- Void Shredders
- This ability consists of 4 hits each dealing damage and applying one stack of Chasmal Gash to the active tank.
- As the inactive tank, you can taunt at any point during the cast or after it is over as it does not change targets.
- This mechanic is just a regular tank swap mechanic and there is nothing more to it.
- Sometimes it can be paired with a good amount of raid damage which can be dangerous.
Boss Tips and Tricks
- Use Infernal Strike to position correctly and avoid the pull from Nether Rift.
Tank mechanics
- This council boss consists of two bosses: Anub'arash and Skeinspinner Takazj.
- Both tanks want to preemptively decide on one boss to start on so make sure that is clear.
- Anub'arash casts Piercing Strike.
- Skeinspinner Takazj casts Poison Bolt and Void Bolt[/wow-spell which are both magic casts that leave a dispellable dot behind.
- [wow-spell id=438218]Piercing Strike deals a decent amount of physical damage to the active tank and leaves an increased damage taken debuff.
- As the inactive tank, taunt after the cast succeeded.
- Skeinspinner Takazj casts either of her "Bolt" spells whenever she is not casting any encounter-related mechanic.
- Both bolts are quite harmless on low stacks but become dangerous fast when reaching higher stacks.
- Poison Bolt is a poison only dispel mechanic.
- Make sure to get dispelled by your fellow Paladins, Evokers, Monks, and Druids.
- In Phase 2 Poison Bolt changes to Void Bolt and becomes a magic dispel that can be dispelled by any healer.
- The goal is to keep the bosses stacked as much as possible while swapping tanking roles after each Piercing Strike.
Boss Tips and Tricks
- Right after Call of the Swarm use Chaos Nova on one Shattershell Scarab. Stand right under it to bait the Fixate onto you.
Stat Priority
Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance raiding as a Vengeance Demon Hunter. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.
Survivability
Damage
Higher Item level items are better in most scenarios. For an accurate representation of what item to equip you should use Simcraft! A static "Stat Priority" is just a starting point and can easily shift depending on your individual gear.
Reasons for Stats
Haste is always the most sought after Stat as it gives a high amount of damage, as well as cdr on Soul Fragment generating abilities and Demon Spikes, which gives a lot of survivability. In Raiding, you can't often get as much defensive value out of Critical Strike as you can with Versatility, especially because a lot of bosses have tank busters or abilities that cannot be parried. Therefore, Versatility is slightly better than Critical Strike for survivability in Raiding as well as more consistent which is something you value a lot in "Progress Raiding".
Moreover, currently, if you play Aldrachi Reaver Versatility scales exponentially with Incorruptible Spirit, allowing for some insane absorbs currently and creating an even bigger disparity between Versatility and Critical Strike.
- All secondary stats are affected by diminishing returns. Click here to learn more!
Tertiary Stats
- Avoidance - Slightly reduces damage taken from area of effect attacks. This can be certain tank abilities a boss does, as well as trash. Starts diminishing returns heavily at 20% (2000), but it has no cap.
- Leech - Causes a player to instantly return health from both outgoing damage and outgoing heals. Health returned is equal to your amount of Leech. For Example; 1 % of Leech gives health equal to 1% of damage and healing done.
- Speed - Increases movement speed.
In conclusion, Avoidance is what you should go for as a Vengeance Demon Hunter in raiding to min-max survivability as it gives you the greatest benefit in Raid over the other two tertiary stats. Leech is better on fights with lots of adds that are difficult to tank and live a long time.
Gear
Slot | Item | Location |
---|---|---|
Head | Beyond's Dark Visage | The Bloodbound Horror |
Neck | Locket of Broken Memories | Rasha'nan |
Shoulder | War-Mantle of the Hypogeal Nemesis | Tier / Catalyst |
Cloak | Wings of Shattered Sorrow | Rasha'nan |
Chest | Chestguard of the Hypogeal Nemesis | Tier / Catalyst |
Wrist | Rune-Branded Armbands | Crafting |
Gloves | Claws of the Hypogeal Nemesis | Tier / Catalyst |
Belt | Adrenal Surge Clasp | Crafting |
Legs | Pantaloons of the Hypogeal Nemesis | Tier / Catalyst |
Boots | Chitin-Spiked Jackboots | Sikran, Captain of the Sureki |
Ring 1 | Seal of the Poisoned Pact | Queen Ansurek |
Ring 2 | Stitchflesh's Misplaced Signet | The Necrotic Wake |
Trinket 1 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
Trinket 2 | Bottled Flayedwing Toxin | The Necrotic Wake |
Weapon 1 | Void Reaper's Warp Blade | Nexus-Princess Ky'veza |
Weapon 2 | Venom-Etched Claw | Ulgrax the Devourer |
Below you are presented with a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.
Slot | Item | Location |
---|---|---|
Head | Hood of the Hidden Path | Mists of Tirna Scithe |
Neck | Elder's Hemolymphal Periapt | City of Threads |
Shoulder | Epaulets of the Clipped Wings | The Dawnbreaker |
Cloak | Swarmcaller's Shroud | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
Chest | Rainshadow Hauberk | Mists of Tirna Scithe |
Wrist | Risen Monstrosity Cuffs | The Necrotic Wake |
Gloves | Wharf Warden's Gloves | Siege of Boralus |
Belt | Sapgorger Belt | Mists of Tirna Scithe |
Legs | Seawalker's Pantaloons | Siege of Boralus |
Boots | Viscera-Stitched Footpads | The Necrotic Wake |
Ring 1 | Stitchflesh's Misplaced Signet | The Necrotic Wake |
Ring 2 | Experiment 08752's Band | City of Threads |
Trinket 1 | Bottled Flayedwing Toxin | The Necrotic Wake |
Trinket 2 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
Weapon 1 | Eirich's Fist of Deception | The Stonevault |
Weapon 2 | Eirich's Fist of Deception | The Stonevault |
Trinkets
Below you can find active and passive alternatives to our recommended trinkets. Do note that some trinkets are better than others depending on the raid boss.
Active Trinket alternatives
- Foul Behemoth's Chelicera
- Strong trinket for both defensive and offensive value.
- Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg
- A trinket that grants mainstat while standing still and highest secondary when moving.
- 2minute on use with which you can walk around without losing the mainstat.
- Swarmlord's Authority
- Haste statstick, that gives a good all-around absorb on use every 1min.
- Due to having only haste as a stat, only recommended if the absorb is needed.
Passive Trinket alternatives
- Void Reaper's Contract
- Decent passive damage trinket that also does execute damage as well.
- Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj
- RNG stat proc trinket.
- Dead-Eye Spyglass
- Great passive crit stat stick, important to hit the marked target.
- Ceaseless Swarmgland
- Another passive trinket that does damage and provides little damage reduction.
Embellishments
- Adrenal Surge Clasp
- Provides good passive Agility for the loss of some mastery.
- Writhing Armor Banding
- Empowering your Adrenal Surge Clasp.
- On Wrists, Boots, Waist, or Cloak depending on your available gear.
Remaining Sparks
- Crafted items are 636 item level and regular items are 639 on max item level, therefore, it's a small loss to equip crafted items outside of your 2x embellishments unless you don't have access to other high item level gear on that slot.
Simcraft
To find the best combination of gear available to you or identify the best possible upgrades, visit our Simcraft guide to learn how to utilize Simcraft easily and effectively.
Consumables
- Phials
- Flask of Tempered Swiftness -- overall best option for both DPS and Survivability
- Food
- Feast of the Divine Day
- Combat Potion
- Tempered Potion
- Potion Bomb of Power -- group potion, this is a DPS loss for you.
- Health Potion
- Algari Healing Potion
- Weapon Stone/Oil
- Ironclaw Whetstone -- Default.
- Oil of Deep Toxins -- Damage
- Algari Mana Oil -- Crit + Haste
- Augment Rune
- Crystallized Augment Rune
- Sockets
- Quick Sapphire
- Culminating Blasphemite -- Unique, use one of each gem colour to enhance your Blasphemite.
- Quick Onyx
- Quick Ruby
- Versatile Emerald
Enchantments
Head | Nerubian Gemweaver |
Neck | Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
Cloak | Enchant Cloak - Chant of Winged Grace |
Chest | Enchant Chest - Crystalline Radiance |
Wrist | Enchant Bracer - Chant of Armored Avoidance Nerubian Gemweaver |
Belt | Nerubian Gemweaver |
Legs | Defender's Armor Kit |
Boots | Enchant Boots - Scout's March |
Ring 1 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Haste Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
Ring 2 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Haste Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
Weapon 1 | Enchant Weapon - Authority of the Depths |
Weapon 2 | Enchant Weapon - Authority of the Depths |
You buy Nerubian Gemweaver from the Great Vault Vendor to add sockets to your Helm, Wrists and Belt.
Races
In this section of the Vengeance Demon Hunter Raid Guide, we showcase and explain how impactful certain racials can be in World of Warcraft.
- Arcane Torrent -- Blood Elf
- Strong racial to dispel or purge enemies, the value is very limited but sometimes can come in handy.
- Shadowmeld -- Night Elf
- Also one of the most potent racials in Mythic+ historically.
- Use-cases:
- Run past basically any mob and then cast Shadowmeld to make them reset. Even works on mobs that have stealth detection if you get enough distance before you Shadowmeld.
Recommendation
I personally recommend Night Elf because of its use cases in Mythic+ which get more value out of as a player even as a Raider. The difference between both races in raiding is not very big at all, so you might as well play Night Elf for its bonuses in Mythic+.
Macros
Discover recommended macros for Vengeance Demon Hunter for Raids and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.
Taunt Macros
Taunt at Mouseover --- Mouseover macro for Torment (Taunt) that allows you to get aggro easily from targets that just come into view or spawn without having to change target. If you have nothing over mouseover it taunts your primary target.
#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][]Torment
Boss 1 Taunt --- Casts Torment on Boss1
/cast [@boss1] Torment
Boss 2 Taunt --- Casts Torment on Boss2
/cast [@boss2] Torment
Cursor Macros
Focus Macros
Utility Macros
Player Macros
Addons
Below, you see a screenshot of the author's User Interface for their Vengeance Demon Hunter, outlining which addons are used and how they are utilized in Raids to make your life easier.
Addons
Weakauras
Changes this Patch
Patch 11.0.2
Patch 11.0.1
FAQ
Q: How to get better at tanking?
Credits
Written By: Nicememes
Reviewed By: Xerwo