Class Wishlists for Midnight
Devourer DH Launch Status
Death Knight Wishlist
Demon Hunter Wishlist
Druid Wishlist
Evoker Wishlist
Hunter Wishlist
Mage Wishlist
Monk Wishlist
Paladin Wishlist
Priest Wishlist
Rogue Wishlist
Shaman Wishlist
Warlock Wishlist
Warrior Wishlist
For a brief breakdown of the changes coming to each specialization in Midnight, check out our Midnight Class Survival Guide.
Midnight Class Survival Guide
State of Devourer Demon Hunter
Hi everyone! I'm Voodoo, the new Devourer Demon Hunter writer for Wowhead! It's been a little while since the last Devourer article, so we figured it would be good to bring everyone up to speed on what's been going on with the spec before it arrives in just under a week!
The Good
Devourer is the brand new intellect based DPS spec for the Demon Hunter class coming in Midnight Pre-Patch! They are a 25 yard caster specialization, which utilizes the powers of the void to destroy its enemies. And do these void powers ever look amazing! One of the most noteworthy things about Devourer is simply its animations and sounds. While the filler Consume doesn't have the craziest animation, Collapsing Star, Void Ray, and Eradicate all feel amazing to press, with huge flashy visuals and really satisfying sounds.
Devourer Demon Hunter Ability Visuals
Gameplay wise, Devourer spends its time jumping into and out of Void Metamorphosis, its powerful form change. Being inside of Void Meta greatly improves your damage, with the hero talent trees Void-Scarred and Annihilator augmenting it in different ways. Most importantly, Void Meta provides strong on demand damage with access to Collapsing Star! The gameplay inside of Void Meta is incredibly fun and engaging, as you extend it longer and longer, casting more powerful Collapsing Stars due to Impending Apocalypse. Devourer is also a highly mobile spec. It's main filler, Consume, is fully castable while moving, it has a very powerful movement tool in Shift, and it has access to the base Demon Hunter mobility skill with Glide, Vengeful Retreat, and the option to increase your movement speed with Mastery thanks to the talent Pursuit! While mostly ranged, it also has the ability to flex into a package of melee talents (Voidblade, Hungering Slash and The Hunt), providing unique options for more on-demand damage! These melee talents are currently taken in the top builds which you can find more info about below.
Void-Scarred Builds Buffed on Midnight Beta
The Bad
The single biggest flaw Devourer has is the quality of life around Collapsing Star. It's the largest individual damage source in Devourer's kit and the main payoff to its rotation, but comes with a lengthy cast time. While not an issue in itself, if you cancel the Collapsing Star cast for any reason, you will not be able to attempt to recast it. As Devourer has a 25 yard range, the cast can also fail if the target is taken outside of your range before the cast is completed, causing you to lose a star. Targets being moved out of your range will cancel your other abilities as well (except for Void Ray, which will still channel but just not hit anything). Unlike Evoker, the other 25 yard range caster, Devourer has no version of Hover and has to preplan it's casts of Void Ray and Collapsing Star to ensure that they finish.
Rotationally, Devourer also has some drawbacks. While the gameplay inside of Void Metamorphosis is quite fast paced and engaging, the gameplay outside of it is mostly spent casting the fairly long cast filler Consume. As of the time of this article being written, Reap is just tuned so poorly that it is not worth using in Single Target unless it will proc Voidfall for Annihilator, and just isn't used at all for Void-Scarred. This leaves the rotation in a spot where you chain cast Consume for many globals on end, only broken by using Void Ray (or the long cooldown abilities of Voidblade and The Hunt for Void-Scarred). Devourer also lacks access to on-demand damage if it does not have Void Metamorphosis. Devourer's damage profile has ramp, and it requires some time at the start of encounters in order to get into your first Void Meta. Leaving Void Meta creates a flood of resources due to a reset of Void Ray and the talent Rolling Torment which help you get to your next one quicker, but ramping to the first Meta can take some time and will eat up a good portion of Bloodlust (especially if you're playing Emptiness).
Finally, while I personally think that the suit of melee talents (Voidblade, Hungering Slash, The Hunt) provide a fun little gameplay loop, I recognize that the forced movement they provide might not be for everyone. These talents form a small combo where Void Blade/The Hunt dash you into melee, Hungering Slash is used, and then Vengeful Retreat will take you back out. While this is rotationally less movement than talents such as Exergy or Inertia on Havoc, it still does feature rotational movement, which is not everyone's favourite thing. Unfortunately, the Void-Scarred tree requires these melee talents to function, so in any situation where this tree is the better choice, someone who dislikes the melee talents would either be forced to use them, or have to play a 'worse' tree.
Top 5 Midnight Wishlist
With everyone brought up to speed on where Devourer currently sits, here are the 5 things I most want to see in Midnight!
Wishlist
1.
Consumes Resources On Cast Completion
2.
Buff
3.
More Balanced Secondary Stats
4.
Shorter Ramp At Start Of Combat
5.
Another Short Cooldown Button
Consumes Resources On Cast Completion
If you've played Devourer for any amount of time on the Midnight Beta, you've probably run into a situation where you have built up to a , but are forced to cancel it mid-cast. You go to try and cast it again, only to realize you can't. Collapsing star becomes available once you have collected 30 Soul Fragments inside of Void Metamorphosis, consuming these souls to cast a high damage exploding star with a flashy animation. This spell is designed to be a high point of Devourer's rotation, but because Collapsing Star removes your Soul Fragment stacks on cast start, any interruption to this ability means you are unable to recast it. While losing out on the damage is one thing, it also shortens your Void Metamorphosis window overall, as both the talent Star Fragments and the 4pc Set (Demon Hunter Devourer 12.0 Class Set 4pc) reward you with resources which allow for longer windows. By moving the Soul Fragments to be consumed on cast end, it would allow the spell to be cancelled and then recast again when it is safe to do so. This is my number one ask for the spec before the expansion launches, and many in the community agree.
More Balanced Secondary Stats
Devourer features two incredibly different hero talent choices; the caster focused Annihilator tree, which focuses around calling down large void meteors (Voidfall) that deal damage and generate resources; and the melee focused Void-Scarred tree which utilizes the melee talents such as Voidblade, Hungering Slash and The Hunt to trigger powerful Voidsurges.Currently, both trees are quite strong, and it's possible both will be played in the first tier of Midnight. The problem is that both trees want incredibly different stats, Annihilator the majority haste and Void-Scarred majority mastery. Haste is powerful for Annihilator as it allows for longer Void Metamorphosis windows, which mean more haste overall through Emptiness, and thus more opportunities to proc Voidfall. Void-Scarred revolves more around shorter Void Metamorphosis windows, devaluing the extension that Haste provides. On the other hand, Mastery amplifies all cosmic damage, but more than doubles in value during Void Metamorphosis. While this stat is still decently strong for Annihilator, more of Void-Scarred's damage is concentrated into shorter, more frequent Void Metamorphosis windows, turning these windows into huge damage spikes. Due to this, Void-Scarred wants Mastery to the point where no other stat really matters, and Annihilator wants large amounts of Haste, with some Mastery on the side. This leads to a situation where both Hero Trees want inversed stats, causing gearing issues in a world where both are played. This problem is increased further by the first apex talent, Midnight, which devalues critical strike to the point where neither build really wants it. By better balancing the value of each secondary amongst the hero talent trees, it would get much easier to play both and fully experience what Devourer has to offer.
Another Short Cooldown Button
While Devourer's rotation inside of Void Metamorphosis is incredibly dynamic and engaging, the rotation outside of it can quickly come down to spamming Consume until you reach 100 fury and are then able to use Void Ray. A short cooldown button would help to bridge these gaps, breaking up the Consume spam and shortening the time spent before the first Void Meta. While a Reap buff could help bridge the gap, this problem also extends into AoE, where Devourer's has no sources of AoE outside of long cooldowns such as Void Ray, the melee talents, and being inside of Void Metamorphosis. A short CD button used in both AoE and ST, similar in idea to Havoc's Blade Dance, would help break up some of the repetitive moments in the rotation and provide another tool for AoE combat.
Devourer Demon Hunter Overview
