Fast, mobile melee with short cooldown cycles and a 2-minute Metamorphosis.
Damage
Gear: Method.ggBuilds: Archon consensus, M+ This Week (+7–+19)Updated 10/29/2026 by Guild guides
Playing
Havoc is the most mobile melee spec in the game. The priority is short: keep Eye Beam, Blade Dance, Essence Break and Immolation Aura on cooldown, spend spare Fury on Chaos Strike, and turn into a demon with Metamorphosis every two minutes. Aldrachi Reaver adds Reaver's Glaive combos and is the raid pick; Fel-Scarred turns every Eye Beam into a Demonsurge burst and is the usual Mythic+ pick.
Difficulty
The priority is short and everything is instant, but cooldowns overlap constantly and Fel-Scarred asks you to spend every Demonsurge before refreshing it, while keeping melee uptime through Vengeful Retreat.
Resource
Fury
Hero talents in keys
Fel-Scarred
Standing this patch
BRaid
Brings to the group
InterruptDisrupt (15s)
StunChaos Nova, Imprison
Dispelnone
PurgeConsume Magic
Battle resnone
Lustnone
MobilityFel Rush, Vengeful Retreat
Pick any button below to follow it through the guide: where it sits in the opener, which rung of the priority fires it, and every mistake it is part of.
1Chaos Strike
2Annihilation
315sBlade Dance
49sDeath Sweep
530sEye Beam
640sEssence Break
730sImmolation Aura
812sFelblade
92mMetamorphosis
01m 30sThe Hunt
-Reaver's Glaive
s125sVengeful Retreat
s210sFel Rush
s31mBlur
s45mDarkness
s515sDisrupt
s645sChaos Nova
s745sImprison
s810sConsume Magic
Rotation
What do I press?
Press order
1Immolation Aura0.0s
2Eye Beam1.5s
3Death Sweep3.5s
4Annihilation5.0s
5Essence Break6.5s
6Death Sweep8.0s
7Felblade9.5s
8Blade Dance11.0s
9Chaos Strike12.5s
10Immolation Aura14.0s
11The Hunt15.5s
12Eye Beam17.0s
13Death Sweep19.0s
14Annihilation20.5s
15Metamorphosis22.0s
Immolation Aura0.0s
Fires because both charges are ready, or Metamorphosis is about to be pressed. As Fel-Scarred, Immolation Aura is a large share of AoE damage and Metamorphosis resets its charges.
0s5s10s15s20s25s
Metamorphosis
One press per global at base haste (1.5s), longer for casts. Real pulls drift with haste and procs; the order is what matters.
Cooldowns and when to use them
2 minutes. Use it once Eye Beam and Blade Dance are on cooldown and Immolation Aura charges are spent.
What top players actually cast
Below are the opening rotations from a small sample of recent top Havoc Demon Hunter rankings for Altar of Fangs. You can use this to compare to your own opener and find potential points of improvement. Note that the opener for some specs may vary based on when certain buffs proc.
Chaos StrikeSpenderInstant · -40 FuryMain Fury spender; becomes Annihilation during Metamorphosis and Fel-Scarred's Demonic windows.
AnnihilationSpenderInstant · -40 FuryChaos Strike's empowered form while you are a demon; consumes Demonsurge as Fel-Scarred.
Blade DanceSpenderInstant · 15s cd · -35 FuryAoE spin on a short cooldown; always keep 35 Fury for it when it comes back.
Death SweepSpenderInstant · 9s cd · -35 FuryBlade Dance's empowered form while you are a demon; one of your hardest-hitting buttons.
Immolation AuraBuilderInstant · 30s cd · 6s long · +20 FuryFire aura that generates Fury; never sit on full charges, and dump charges before Metamorphosis resets them.
FelbladeBuilderInstant · 12s cd · +15 FuryShort charge that generates Fury; your filler, and the usual way to trigger Inertia before Eye Beam.
Reaver's GlaiveProcInstantAldrachi Reaver: thrown after gathering souls or from The Hunt; empowers your next Chaos Strike and Blade Dance and applies Reaver's Mark.
Cooldowns
Eye BeamCooldown2s cast · 30s cd · -30 Fury2-second frontal channel on a 30-second cooldown (about 20 with Cycle of Hatred); as Fel-Scarred it also puts you into Demonic and grants Demonsurge.
Essence BreakCooldownInstant · 40s cdMakes Chaos Strike and Blade Dance (and their demon forms) hit much harder for 4 seconds; fill the window with Death Sweep and Annihilation.
MetamorphosisCooldownInstant · 2m cd · 20s long2-minute demon form that upgrades Chaos Strike and Blade Dance; cast it once Eye Beam and Blade Dance are both on cooldown.
The HuntCooldown1s cast · 1m 30s cdCharge with a big hit and a damage-over-time effect; as Aldrachi Reaver it guarantees a Reaver's Glaive.
Survival
BlurDefensiveInstant · 1m cd · 10s long25% damage reduction for 10 seconds on a 1-minute cooldown; with Netherwalk it also gives a brief immunity.
Utility
Vengeful RetreatMovementInstant · 25s cdBackwards vault that triggers Initiative and Exergy; use it about one global before Eye Beam and get straight back into melee.
Fel RushMovementInstant · 10s cdForward dash; mostly for movement, or to trigger Inertia when Felblade is not ready.
DarknessUtilityInstant · 5m cd · 8s longGroup cooldown: allies in the area have a chance to avoid each attack for 8 seconds (much higher outside raids).
DisruptInterruptInstant · 15s cdMelee-range interrupt on a 15-second cooldown.
Chaos NovaUtilityInstant · 45s cd · 3s long · -25 Fury3-second stun on everything around you.
ImprisonUtilityInstant · 45s cdIncapacitates a demon, beast or humanoid for up to a minute.
Consume MagicUtilityInstant · 10s cdStrips one magic buff from an enemy.
Builds / Talents
Raid and Mythic+ talents
Aldrachi ReaverRaidThe raid pick: far better single target, and Reaver's Glaive funnels secondary-target damage into your priority target through Wounded Quarry. Top-rated key pushers in organized groups also run it as a priority-damage specialist.
Fel-ScarredMythic+The general Mythic+ recommendation: much more AoE through Immolation Aura and the Demonsurge explosions after every Eye Beam and Metamorphosis, at the cost of single target.
46 of the top 50 Mythic+ players run Aldrachi Reaver (4074–4340 rating). Murlok.io
Mythic+
60,152 logs · 2026-11-05T12:00:00Z
Consensus loadoutRecommended
Popularity 72.2% heatmap match · 72.2% heatmap match
Recommended loadout is the closest match to Archon’s aggregate popularity across top parses — not a single one-off key.
Sample size: 60152 top parses. Only talents in the recommended loadout are drawn.
Class
Specialization
Hero
Only talents in this loadout are drawn (Fel-Scarred). Hover a node for its Wowhead tooltip.
Across 60,152 logs. A talent has to show up in at least 40% of them before it is part of the build.
Gear
What do I wear and enchant?
Stats for Mythic+
1Agility
›
2Crit
›
3Mastery
›
4Haste
›
5Vers
Left to right — highest priority first. Sim your character when secondaries are close.
Based on data in the last 2 weeks, the stat priority for Havoc Demon Hunter looks to be Agility > Crit > Mastery > Haste > Vers. However, there may be bias based on what gear is available to players.
What the top Mythic+ players actually have
Mastery79% +1149
Critical Strike34% +1107
Haste15% +676
Versatility2% +130
Average secondary stats of the top 50 Mythic+ players (4074–4340 rating), from Murlok.io, updated 8 hours ago.
4×piece set16×slots
Best in slot from Method.gg. Every slot is on the figure. Point at a piece to light it.
Wear 4 tier pieces. The 4-piece bonus is what this spec is tuned around.
Best-to-good single-target order from Liquid Armory (Oct 12, 2026). Filled marks = higher on the list. Your own gear can change the order — sim before you buy.
Eyes of the Eagle
Forest Hunter's Armor Kit
Rite of the Hash'ey
Flawless Masterful Garnet
Indecipherable Eversong Diamond
