Vengeance Demon Hunter Tank Rotation & Cooldowns

Tank Rotation & Cooldowns

This rotation offers a general priority list for Vengeance Demon Hunter abilities, along with key cooldowns at the bottom. It's based on a standard build and is here to help while we work on a smarter, build-aware system. If you are very new to the game or this class, we added info on the new assisted rotation features at the bottom of this guide. Updated for the latest patch in World of Warcraft: The War Within (11.2).

Single Target

Pre-place Sigil Of Flame 1 second before pull.

Use when Thrill Of The Fight has 4 seconds left or is inactive.
Use as the first ability in the combo, buffed by Art Of The Glaive.
Use if target lacks 2 stacks of Reavers Mark or they are expiring.
Use on cooldown to activate Art Of The Glaive.
Use on cooldown.
Use when close to 2 stacks or for defensive needs.
Use on cooldown.
Use when Thrill Of The Fight is active and Fiery Brand is applied.
Use without overcapping Fury unless target already has it applied.
Use on cooldown.
Use if at or near 2 charges.
Use to spend Fury and Soul Fragments.
Use when Fury will not cap.
Use when at 4 or fewer Soul Fragments and Fury will not cap.
Use as filler or when out of range.

Start with Sigil Of Flame, then prioritize Reavers Glaive and Fracture for Art Of The Glaive buffs. Use Soul Cleave to manage Reavers Mark stacks and The Hunt on cooldown. Maintain Fury and Soul Fragment management with Fracture, Soul Cleave, and Felblade.

AoE

Pre-place Sigil Of Flame 1 second before pull.

Use when Thrill Of The Fight has 4 seconds left or is inactive.
Use buffed by Art Of The Glaive.
Use as the second ability in the combo.
Use on cooldown, passing through as many targets as possible.
Use when close to 2 stacks or for defensive needs.
Use on a target affected by Fiery Brand.
Use on cooldown.
Use unless target already has it applied or near 2 charges.
Use when most enemies are affected by Fiery Brand.
Use on cooldown without overcapping Soul Fragments.
Use with 4+ Soul Fragments and 6+ enemies.
Use to spend Fury and Soul Fragments.
Use if at or near 2 charges.
Use when Fury will not cap.
Use when at 4 or fewer Soul Fragments.
Use as filler or when out of range.

Start with Sigil Of Flame, then prioritize Reavers Glaive and Fracture for Art Of The Glaive buffs. Use The Hunt to hit multiple targets and Spirit Bomb for high target counts. Maintain Fury and Soul Fragment management with Fracture, Soul Cleave, and Felblade.

Cooldowns

Use proactively for health and armor boosts.
Use for defensive needs or to amplify fire damage.
Use for both defensive and offensive value.
Use on cooldown for burst damage and Art Of The Glaive activation.
Use on cooldown for crowd control and damage.

Use Metamorphosis proactively for survivability, Fiery Brand for defense or fire damage boosts, and Fel Devastation for dual utility. Activate The Hunt and Sigil Of Spite on cooldown for damage and utility.

New to Class? Try Assisted Rotation

Patch 11.1.7 introduced new features that make it eaiser to pick and play new characters. These new settings can be enabled from settings » gameplay enhancements:

Single-Button Assistant
Assisted Highlight
Cooldown Manager

If you are new to World of Warcraft or a certain class, enabling Assisted Highlight and Cooldown Manager can help you learn which abilities to prioritize and use.

While the Single-Button Assistant can be a much easier and more accessible way to play the game, it does come with a slight performance hit due to a small GCD penalty, as you will have to wait 25% longer in between spells and abilities.

To see which specs are best with the Single-Button Assistant feature, you can check out our DPS Rankings which uses SimC to sim every class using this feature.