Baseline for Demon hunters (both specs)
- Passive: Empowered Demonic Wards - you’re immune to silence and interrupt effects.
- this change will mostly effect eye beam and Fel Devastation- as it being interruptible is super annoying in pvp.
- Metamorphosis (ability) now adds “Metamorphosis” (buff) duration to an existing Metamorphosis.
- this change is just to help us not losing metamorphosis uptime
Vengeance Demon hunter
- Activating Metamorphosis trigger a small explosion for 36.036% of Attack power (Like Havoc’s Metamorphosis leap damage - same radius but around the Demon hunter).
- This is a change aimed for Venthyr Vengeance Demon hunters - as they dont have any damage from Metamorphosis to trigger Sinful Brand (right now if a Vengeance DH is in Demon form and he activates Metamorphosis he wont apply Sinful brand to nearby enemies)
- Collective anguish (legendary) - The Havoc demon hunter summoned from casting Fel Devastation will now grants you Furious gaze (eye beam buff).
- I think its something that should happen as a Havoc DH heals from the Fel Devastation
Havoc Demon hunter
New baseline ability - Fiery Brand (Havoc)
- Fiery Brand (Active) Deals a large amount of Chaos damage (133.169% of Attack power - like the Vengeance DH ability) and apply Fiery Brand (DoT).
Targets damaged by Fiery Brand also gain Mortal wound, reducing the effectiveness of healing on the target for 15 sec.
30 yards range. instant cast. cost 15 fury. 10 sec cd reduced by haste.
- This will be our “mortal strike” or “Rising sun kick” - an ability that hits for a lot of damage and is a main part of our rotation.
- Fiery Brand (DoT) - deals 15% attack power over 30 seconds, each time you cast Chaos strike - your Fiery Brand target suffers 25% of the damage done by it.
Magical debuff (dispellable).
- the Chaos strike part can be a little bit complicate so I’ll explain it
if you put Fiery Brand on an enemy and cast Chaos strike on another enemy for 2000 damage. the enemy with Fiery Brand will take 500 damage. if you cast Fiery Brand on the primary target he’ll take 2500 damage
Throw Glaive changes
- Casting Throw Glaive on a target with Fiery Brand will spread it to the Glaive’s secondary targets.
- Throw Glaive spreading Fiery Brand will make our AoE rotation more interesting and increase our damage on cleave fights.
- in addition all targets hit by Throw Glaive are Snared enemies hit by 50% for 15 sec.
- Every melee spec has a baseline Slow ability - i dont see a reason why DH should have a talent for that.
- Furious gaze - effect increase by 5% (to 20% haste) - the duration now stacks if the buff is reapplied.
- The duration refresh is mostly aimed for the eye beam → eye beam after casting Metamorphosis - as right now it makes us lose our buff.
- Vengeful retreat - cooldown reduced by 5 seconds.
- Immolation aura No longer grants fury when used. instead it grants 40 fury over 10 seconds.
- some small quality of life buffs - nothing too big here.
- Chaos nova - fury cost reduced by 10 fury
- due to the changes to the “Unbound power” talent i think making Chaos nova cost less Fury is a good baseline change - 30 fury is quite a lot.
- Darkness reworked: will reduce Physical damage taken by 20% (instead of dodge chance). cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.
- this will act as sort of a “anti magic zone” for Physical damage - i think its a good replacement for the dodge chance - which was really annoying because it was RNG based.
- Blade dance: reduce fury cost to 20 and grant’s “First blood” damage baseline.
- Blade dance isn’t an ability we would press when it costs 40 fury and i think reducing the cost to 20 fury and granting it the single target damage from “First blood” will greatly improve our rotation.
Metamorphosis changes
- Metamorphosis rank 4 (resets eye beam and blade dance cooldown when you active Metamorphosis) is now a passive called “Chaotic transformation” instead of an ability rank.
- This change is due to the changes in the 7th talent row - however, it has no effects on gameplay.
- Metamorphosis changes: now a 2 minutes cooldown with a 20 sec duration. (This change is only made because of the talent tree changes detailed below). will now increase leech by 15%
- Metamorphosis as a 4 minutes duration is really underwhelming. changing it to a 2 minutes cooldown 20 seconds duration will make it stay “in line” with other 2min cooldowns.
Defensive changes
- New passive: Demon’s leech. increase the demon hunter’s leech by 5%. gains an additional 10% in Metamorphosis.
- Leech has been a DH thing since Legion. i think this is just something we should have. it will also put our baseline Metamorphosis leech on a solid 30%
- Blur changes: now grants 35% dodge chance and 40% damage reduction for 10 sec - if you’re below 20% HP it is usable while stunned, frozen, incapacitated, feared, or asleep.
- buffing the damage reduction and nerfing the damage reduction will make blur more powerful. adding in the “usable while stunned” part will also help us as an emergency defensive.
New baseline Havoc Feature : Souls
New Baseline passive - Soul mayhem
- When Chaos strike refunds fury it also spawns a lesser soul fragment. Consuming any Soul Fragment reduces the cooldown of Eye Beam and Chaos nova by 1 sec and restores 15 fury.
This passive is a combination of a few talents and abilities from the past
- The Demonic Appetite Talent
- Eyes of Rage azerite trait (soul fragments reduce eye beam cooldown)
- Feast on the Souls Artifact trait. (soul fragments reduce eye beam and Chaos nova cooldown)
Fun fact about Demonic Appetite from the Beta
reducing eye beam cooldown was part of the Demonic Appetite Talent in Shadowlands beta build 9.0.1.33978 but was removed from it in the next build.
it seems like the spec designers knew we need something like that and decided to just ignore it.
New baseline Ability : Soul Phylactery
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Passive ability - Each soul fragment consumed will store a fragment in the Phylactery. stores up to 10 souls*.
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Active ability - Consume 5 souls from your Phylactery. healing you for (2 lesser soul fragment healing) and granting you Fel Empowerment for 20 seconds. Only usable when you have more then 5 souls stored and dont have Fel Empowerment active. off GCD.
New passive: Fel Empowerment
- Empower your next Blade dance, Chaos strike or Fiery Brand.
- Fel Empowered Chaos strike: will deal 40% more damage and generate 2 lesser soul fragments. these fragments wont get stored into your Phylactery.
- Fel Empowered Blade dance: Deals Chaos damage (instead of physical - scales with Mastery) and cause the final slash to deal 50% more damage.
Casting a Fel Empowered Blade dance with the “Trail of ruin” talent will also cause “Trail of ruin” to deal 50% more damage.
- Fel Empowered Fiery Brand: Cost 0 fury, will not go on cooldown and deal half of Fiery brand’s damage to targets near the primary target, applying Fiery brand to all enemies hit.
Explaining the Soul system
Soul fragments flying around is something Demon hunters had since Legion (vengeance, mostly) The soul system is designed to give us more self sustain and improve our playstyle.
The Fel Empowerment buff will also help alter our gameplay.
If you want to have some self healing you use Fel Empowerment on Chaos strike. If you want more damage you use it on Blade dance and if you want to spread Fiery brand to more enemies you use it on Fiery brand.
Havoc Talent Changes
Row 1 - fury generation.
- Blind Fury (Passive)
remains unchanged.
- Demonic Appetite (reworked)
Activating your Soul Phylactery will now restore 15 fury and deal (60% of attack power - like Dark Slash’s damage) Shadow damage to all nearby enemies.
- Felblade (buffed/nerfed)
Cooldown reset will now proc from auto attacks. damage type changed to Chaos (scales with Mastery) and damage done reduced by 15% .
Reasons for these changes
- Blind Fury is a good talent in some builds and i dont see a reason to change it.
- The new “Demonic Appetite” talent will give our Soul Phylactery a nice boost which is really nice. nothing really “game changing” here
- first of all having Demon’s bite reset felblade’s cooldown wasn’t really good. I think having it Proc from basic attacks is a better design which will alter our rotation passively if Felblade is taken. Scaling Felblade with Mastery will grant it the lost damage back (mastery increase Chaos damage = increase felblade damage)
Row 2 - Demon's bite empowerment (Reworked!)
This row will have talents to empower our basic fury generator and basic attacks
- Demon blades (Passive)
(replace Demon’s bite)
your auto attacks now deal additional shadow damage and generate 5 - 10 fury.
- Blades of Fire (Passive)
Passive: your auto attacks now deal additional fire damage.
Your Demon’s Bite is replaced with Fracture
Active: Fracture - like Vengeance’s Fracture but wont generate soul fragments, deal 10% less damage but will deal fire damage (instead of Physical).
- Chaos infusion (Passive)
Passive: during Metamorphosis your deal additional Chaos damage.
Metamorphosis now empowers your Demon’s bite, transforming it to Chaos claws.
Active: Chaos claws - Slash your target. Dealing (like the Fracture detailed above) Chaos damage (scales with Mastery).
Generates 35 fury. instant cast. no cooldown.Reasons for these changes
- Demon blades is a good talent. i think making the proc rate 100% but nerfing the fury generation will be the key to making this talent much better
- Blades of fire cause us to deal fire damage with auto attacks and replace Demon’s bite with Fracture. Fracture is a powerful ability and I hope people will use this talent
- Chaos infusion is more of a Burst talent or something to be combined with “The demon within” (new row 7 talent). I hope it’ll make Metamorphosis much more powerful!
Row 3 - AOE row
- Trail of Ruin (buffed)
will also reduce the cost of your next blade dance by 4 fury for each enemy struck. in addition casting a fel empowered Blade Dance will also empower your Trail of ruin: Causing it to deal 50% more damage.
- Bloodlet (Passive) (returning talent)
your Throw Glaive now hits an additional target and cause all targets hit to bleed for 150% of the damage done over 10sec. if the effect is reapplied, any remaining damage will be added to the new bloodlet. (ignite mechanic).
- Glaive Tempest (nerfed)
damage reduced by 10%.
Glaive Tempest can also be Empowered using “Fel empowerment”Fel empowered Glaive Tempest: cause your Glaive Tempest to circle around you (instead of staying in one spot).Reasons for these changes
- With the addition of “Glaive Tempest” Trail of Ruin became almost useless. i think the nerf to Glaive Tempest, The addition of the “Revolving Blades” Azerite Trait and the bonus damage from Fel empowering your blade dance might fix it.
- Bloodlet has been a highly requested returning talent. as with all of the other changes “Throw Glaive” becomes a rotational ability to Slow (pvp) or Spread Fiery Brand (pve) Bloodlet will make Throw Glaive useful in “Patchwerk” fights or dealing pressure in pvp.
- Glaive Tempest is a really powerful talent in both pvp (Burst damage) and pve (AoE damage and also single target). nerfing it by 10% is a change that wont ruin this talent but will make it “in line” with the other talents in this row.
Fel empowered Glaive Tempest is more of a utility ability rather then a big damage boost, its something i heard a lot of players asking for and i hope this will satisfy them
Row 4 - Defensive row
- Soul Rending
(Replaces Demon’s leech)
increase the Demon’s hunter leech by 10%. Metamorphosis increase leech by an additional 15% (40% Metamorphosis leech).
- Desperate Instincts reworked
increase Blur’s damage reduction by 10% and cause you to heal for 2% of your max health every second Blur is active.
- Netherwalk (reworked)
Slip into the nether for 6 seconds. While in the nether you’re invisible to enemies, immune to all damage and harmful effects and your movement speed is increased by 100%. attacking an enemy will pull you out of the Nether, ending the effect early and causing you to take 15% more damage for 10 seconds.
3 minutes cooldown. off GCD. instant cast.Reasons for these changes
- increasing our Metamorphosis leech by a small amount isn’t too bad. this talent gives us 5% more “normal” leech and 5% more Metamorphosis leech. (10% additional leech) which is in line with other class’s leech talents.
- with the changes to Blur, turning it into a more powerful defensive with a Healing effect
- Netherwalk has been a really bad immunity ability compared to other abilities classes had. I think making it a Unique ability - causing us to “Slip into the Nether”. I hope it will make Netherwalk a much better ability.
Row 5 - Damage abilities - reworked
- Chaos Blades (returning talent)
increase your damage done by 25% for 20 seconds. your attack speed is increased by 50% during this time.
No fury cost - 2 minutes cooldown.
- Momentum (reworked a bit)
casting fel rush and Vengeful retreat increase your damage by 15% for 6 seconds.
consuming both of your fel rush charges within 3 seconds will increase fel rush’s cooldown recovery rate by 50% for ten seconds. This effect can only occur once every 20 seconds.
- Demonic (buffed)
Eye beam now also applies Anguish each time it deals damage. causing the target to take 1% more damage from the demon hunter per application of Anguish. Anguish lasts for 6 seconds.Reasons for these changes
- Chaos blades is a talent meant to give Demon hunters a new offensive cooldown. I think it will have a good synergy with “Demon’s Blades” and overall a powerful offensive cooldown.
- Momentum is a really good situational talent . The Fel Rush cooldown change is a replacement for Vengeful retreats Fury generation part which (I think) will fit more into this playstyle, allowing you to have more uptime on Momentum.
- Demonic is a really good talent overall. with the addition of Anguish you get 10% (15% with Blind fury from row 1) additional damage every 30sec - I think Anguish can make this talent much better for burst damage.
Row 6 - Crowed control
- Unleashed Power (reworked)
enemies stunned by your Chaos nova take 10% more damage from all sources.
- Master of the Glaive (reworked)
Throw Glaive has 2 charges. If the primary target is snared - root it for 6 seconds, This effect can only occur once every 20 seconds.
- Fel Eruption
(remains unchanged)Reasons for these changes
- With “Soul mayhem” being added baseline i dont see a reason why we need a reduced cooldown on Chaos Nova. The damage increase part of Chaos Nova will make it an even more powerful stun then what it is.
- With Slow being added as a baseline for Throw Glaive i think adding a Root effect every 20 seconds can be a good replacement.
- Fel Eruption is still a really good talent - even thought a lot of people want to see it as a “baseline” part of Demon Hunters, I think it can remain here for now.
Row 7 - completely reworked!
- Demon’s hatred (Passive)
Metamorphosis now empowers you with Chaos energy, increasing your critical strike chance by 20% but reduce haste and leech by 5%. in addition gain Demon’s Fury.
Passive: Demon’s fury - your critical strikes deals 10% more damage.
- improved Metamorphosis (Passive)
increase the Metamorphosis’s duration by 5 seconds.
Casting Chaos strikes or fiery brand during Metamorphosis will cause your Fiery Brands to erupt, dealing (16.38% of Attack power - Half of Fel Eruption damage) Chaos damage to them and increase Fiery Brand duration by 5 seconds.
- The Demon within
Replace Metamorphosis.
Passive: You let the Demon within control you, increasing your haste by 15% and greatly empowering your Chaos Strike and Blade Dance abilities.
Active: Fel barrage - Shot a bolt of fel at targets with Fiery Brand - inflicting (half of the current fel barrage damage) Chaos damage to your fiery brand’s target.
1.5 minutes cooldown.Why did i Rework this entire row
I've always felt like this row was weird. I think altering our main damage ability will make talents have a much bigger impact on our playstyle and put the choice into the player's hand.
Reasons for these changes
- causing Metamorphosis to grant 20% haste and critical strike chance for 20 seconds will improve our burst damage. This version will also benefits much more from critical strike, making each one of them deal much more damage.
- This talent will greatly improve Fiery brand’s damage, causing it to deal a lot more damage while in Metamorphosis.
- While you dont get Leech and get less Haste from this talent, You’ll end up with more consistent damage. This version of Metamorphosis will just grant you a haste buff and an active AoE ability - Fel Barrage - which is also really powerful.
Note that taking The Demon within will also alter some talents and abilities.
The Demon within ability interactions
- Demonic: will empower your Furious gaze, causing it to grant 30% haste (up from 20%)
- Chaotic transformation: now triggers when using Fel barrage.
- Sinful brand: Fel barrage will apply Sinful brand to all targets hit.
PVP talents
- Brand of Chaos (Replace “Mortal Rush” in the talent tree)
your Fel Empowered Fiery Brand will no longer deals damage around the target, instead it will reduce healing received by an additional 25% and deal 20% more damage.
in Addition your Fiery brand is no longer dispellable.
- Cover of Darkness (reworked)
Increases the Physical damage reduction effect of your Darkness by 60%.
- Mana break (Reworked)
Deals up to 5% of the target’s maximum health in Chaos damage, and cause them to destroy 2% of their max mana each time they dispel a debuff. lasts for 10 seconds.
Cost 25 fury - 1 minute cooldown - melee range - instant. dispellable.
- Demonic Origins (Reworked)
Your eye beam Slows all enemies hit by 85% and no longer deals less damage to secondary targets.Reasons for these changes
- This is basically Warrior’s “sharpen blades” for Demon hunters.
- just changed Cover of Darkness to grant Physical damage reduction instead of Dodge chance.
- Mana break has been a Healer punishing ability since BFA. I think making it punish healers for dispelling can be a good change in 3v3 comps with a warlock/Shadow priest - making DH have some synergy with these classes.
- This is basically Monk’s “Turbo Fists” for Demon hunters.
Legendries and Conduits changes
Legendries Changes
- Burning Wound (Reworked)
Fiery Brand also increase target’s damage taken from your Immolation Aura by 50% and increase the damage overtime of Fiery Brand by 100%.
- This change will make Burning Wound easier to use and much better in my opinion - making it a passive proc that is easily spreadable to nearby enemies will make this legendary much more viable.
- I would like to have some sort of an explanation from blizzard about the “Fel Flame Fortification” (You take 15% reduced magic damage while Immolation Aura is active) legendary. Why is it stated as a “Vengeance Demon hunter” legendary?
Conduits Changes
Tooltip Changes
Dancing with Fate
The final slash of Blade Dance and Death sweep deals an additional 10.0% damage.Relentless Onslaught
Chaos Strike and Annihilation has a 5.0% chance to trigger a second Chaos Strike.
- These are just tooltip changes - No balance changes here.
Balance changes
- Demon Muzzle (Vengeance Endurance Conduit - reworked)
Your Fiery Brand reduce damage taken by an additional5%.
Conduit ranks
5.0%, 5.5%, 6.0%, 6.5%, 7.0%, 7.5%, 8.0%, 8.5%, 9.0%, 9.5%, 10.0%, 10.5%, 11.0%, 11.5%, 12.0%.
- This conduit was REALLY bad and i dont think anyone took it. changing it to a Fiery Brand conduit will make it shine in Fiery Brand builds.
So i hope i covered everything for both VDH and HDH.
what are your thoughts about this?
Edit: Fixed some grammar mistakes and code issues.
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