How does the class perform on ST damage?

Classes Demon Hunter
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So i know pretty much how broken DH is in dishing crazy AOE damage and especially on teeming and reaping affixes (Mainly Eye Beam and Barrage), and how crazy the numbers pump up in cleave fights, however, i want to know the capabilities of the class in ST fights.

Let’s assume you have full ST traits and a full ST build, will you be able to outdmg strong ST classes like assass rogues or destro locks ? Or will DH always fall behind in that scenario ?

Do note that i’m asking this in regards to heroic raid difficulties and above (especially in fights like Grong), and in high m+ keys with Tyrannical. I want to know if DH can still be as powerful in ST as it is in AOE.

I’ll be very grateful if you can tell me your experiences and the different setups you’ve tested, and also if you found a setup that does well on both AOE and ST without the need to switch stuff much. Thank you :slight_smile:

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I will speak only from my experience, so keep that in mind.

As you pointed out, DH is insanely good at AoE fights, especially at AoE burst. But at single target I feel somewhere in the middle. We have good sustained damage but we have nothing that hits like a truck except eye beam.
We have no execute skill, no strong DoT. So we generaly fall behind in single target. But we are definitely not the worst.

As for traits: thirsting blades is definitely the best trait for pure ST. But keep in mind that your main power lies in AoE. So stacking it might not be the best idea. I would reccomend taking traits that benefit your AoE and also single target. For example treacherous covernant. Or furious gaze…

To finaly answer your question

I think it is possible if you pick pure ST talents. But on the other hand it would deny your AoE potential which is where the DH shines. You cannot have both.

It would take you great effort to outDPS good rogue at ST. But if you can swallow that you will be not far behind him and you will beat him in AoE. I think that you will be satisfied.

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Ah i see. Thank you so much for the informative reply :slight_smile: What traits do you recommend going with in order to keep my AOE high and still do nice ST dps ? Sites like bloodmallet lately havent been very accurate and i feel people could find even better combinations.

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Hello assassin rogue here. Know that if you take a rogue and a demon hunter that are both optimized for st dps, you will be neck and neck with the rogue ( I will say equal ) but you will always beat the rogue in aoe situations.

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DH is average on ST DPS, which you can see from the logs of BoD mythic ( we’re the 6th class DPS wise due to fights generally being ST ).

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No, he won’t. Outlaw is better than Havoc.

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He said “Hello assasination rogue here” did you miss it?

I wouldn’t care that much not being top on st fights if you can speed up whole group in your m+ run using your overwhelming AoE capabilities. So 2k dps less st, but speeding up m+ run roughly by 5 minutes is the thing.

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The traits I would recommend for this scenario:

treacherous covenant - currently the best siming trait for both ST and AoE.
The reason behind it lies with passive agility bonus, which is (and should be) available at the majority of time. You gain pasive agility which increases your attacks both at ST and AoE => agility is your best stat. The more you got through anything (food, flask, rune, traits). the better.
I would stack this traits as much as you are able.

Furious gaze - Why? Because it increases your haste after channeling, haste can be used to cast blade dance/death sweep more often. While also reducing your global CD to cast demon’s bite and chaos strike/annihilation more often. From my experience each furious gaze gives you around 15% haste after you let it proc. It is up to you how many of them you will stack, but at least one of these is nice to have.

Chaotic transformation My favourite trait. It completely changes your opening rotation. It gives you 2 eyebeams at your opener. More deathsweeps/blade dances. Eye beam is your best ST and AoE skill. So the more you have available the more bursty you are. It is must have trait for m+ where you can zerg the reaping pretty much easily with this trait. This trait is not good for stacking, because the effect aside from added demon’s bite damage cannot stack.

Then you can add one thirsting blade to boost you ST (the more you pick the more ST you get, but keep in mind that this trait is strictly for ST scenarios. One is however not bad to have at your disposal.)

For boosting your AoE you can add revolving blades (these are however not good for ST (same as thirsting blades are not good for AoE)

That would be your first two rings.

The third ring really depands… For example good AoE trait is Azerite globules. Good ST is guntripper.
The main thought there should be balance => get few AoE and few ST traits

The survivalbility ring is based on your preferences and what you find the best. It mostly doesn’t change your DPS in any way. Basicaly you just pick what suits you.

That is for traits. Now to talents:
Demonic build is currently the best for both scenarios. You need to pick blind fury for your first talent and demonic as your last for it to work. Then I reccomend picking imolation aura (good for fury generation and AoE). Definitely take first blood - other talents are trash at this tier.
But the main decision lies between fel barrage and trail of ruin (ToR).
ToR is good for both ST and AoE. However in certain scenarios the fel barrage might be better as it adds a ton of AoE burst which is often needed (especially at m+ in certain affixes. But if you are starting with DH - ToR is the safest pick - it is also better for what you want (have good ST while also keeping good AoE)

If you have other questions regarding to your gear or what talent, trait to pick - you can always head to raidbots - which is the site that sims your gear and finds you the best combination. But keep in mind, that it represents ideal situation at ideal conditions => it is good to give you a direction but always use rather your brain when you are deciding which way you will take. :wink:

I can also reccomend you a good DH channel where you can find a lots of guides for havoc, regularly updated with patch notes: TaylorMade_TV

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Survivability ring can give you more uptime ( you can soak more) which is more dps throughout the fight :slight_smile:

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He also said ‘‘neck and neck with rogue’’ and that’s false.

I don’t see why anyone would play Assa in PvE anyway.

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I play Assa and i could keep 50k+ aoe dps in kings rest in 2nd boss chamber for almost the whole fight. (I mean trash blobs + golems) I have strictly AoE build for doing M+, our ST is cool also. I don’t understand how someone can’t understand why rogue is good.

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I never said that. I just said Outlaw’s better.

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Outlaw needs energy for every of his burst AoE hit, so even with Blade Flurry on low cd with 2 charges you need lots of energy to do this job. DH is simply using 1 spell which is also regenerating their energy instead of draining and are topping meters in 2.5seconds. I wouldn’t say Outlaw is better, but has little bit more aoe sustain than Havoc.

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I’m pretty sure Blade Dance costs Fury. Even with Revo, you can only get it to 0.

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I meant your iconic spell which is Eye Beam, but yes, Blade Dance costs 15fury. Don’t you think your AoE is almost free? :stuck_out_tongue:

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Just when i thought that your first reply was informative enough :hugs:
That’s good data ill probably keep this post bookmarked to check it out :slight_smile: However could you shed some light on how my rotation should be ? Let’s say in an ST scenario i have both chaos strike and blade dance available, which ability should i give prio to ? and in AOE, should i blade dance and eye beam on CD and otherwise i just chaos strike spam ?

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Just look at raid logs?

https://www.wow-dps.com/dazaralor/grong/

That’s from so a pure ST fight. We’re sat mid table, if we spec fully ST. Demon hunters aren’t God like AoE either. We’re God like burst damage, out AoE is actually mega poor. Take out eye beam and we are really poor dps.

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Look at the channel I posted. Here is a video that explains opening rotation if you have chaotic transformation and if you don’t.

The basic priority is using eye beam on cooldown, but also in that way, that you dont overcap fury. Fury management is important, because with every lost fury, you lose DPS. So using Eye beam aat 30 to 50 is optimal (the closer to 30, the better).
Blade dance is also skill you want to use ať CD. It has better ST damage than chaos strike if you take first blood.
It is not bad to use blade dance just before eye beam, because the extra haste will renew your blade dance cooldown faster. Try to use immo aura as much as you can, but again do not overcap fury. It is a bad idea to use immo aura just before eye beam for instance.
If you use chaotic transformation, it is important to play methamorphosis when your eye beam and blade dance are at CD.

I am not good at explainimg this through wall of text. Again, look at the channel I posted in my recent answer. There is a video few weeks old, which explains your exact opener and the reasoning behind it. + basic rotation and skill priority. Here is the exact video link in case you wouldn’t be able to find it.


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I’ll check them out. Again thank you tons for all the help you’ve provided!

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