Midnight OverviewDevourer Demon Hunter Overview
This is early alpha, things are incomplete and likely to change. This article is based on many hours spent testing the current design of Devourer, with the aim to educate those interested in Devourer while also providing early feedback for the spec. Keep this in mind, especially as we point out issues and flaws with the current design.
Devourer Demon Hunter at a Glance
Devourer is a range DPS specialization with a mostly 25 yard limit. This spec can use melee and ranged abilities to deal Void and Cosmic damage. The Devourer specialization will become available with the Midnight pre-patch, with no prerequisite or unlock requirements.
Devourer Article Breakdown in Video Format, with Gameplay
On the most basic level, Devourer aims to build and spend Fury in order to generate Soul Fragments. These are your two main resources.
Once enough Soul Fragments have been gathered, they can be redeemed to enter Void Metamorphosis and spent on Collapsing Star. While in Void Metamorphosis, your aim is to maintain the form, while building and spending Soul Fragments on Collapsing Stars. Void Metamorphosis consumes Fury over time, and the cost of maintaining it ramps up.
Why you should play Devourer
The spec is flashy and fun, and sports an addictive gameplay loop. It is very easy to get caught up in the combat... to the point where I often found myself grinding mobs far longer than the quest called for.
Devourer is a fresh take on mid-range gameplay. In many ways, it feels like a remix of Demon Hunter with the lessons learned from Evoker added in. The spec is flashy and fun, and sports an addictive gameplay loop where skillful resource management leads to longer Void Metamorphosis windows. When questing, it is very easy to get caught up in the combat. I often found myself completing the objective but then wondering if I could get another Collapsing Star out before my Void Metamorphosis ended, to the point where I often found myself grinding mobs far longer than the quest called for.
Demon Hunter in general has a lot of utility, and Devourer benefits from this and adds some. It has high consistent damage and strong priority cleave. The gameplay is highly mobile, with Void Ray and Collapsing Star as your only stationary casts.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Devourer Demon Hunter Hero Talents
These are the current talents for Devourer. Fel-scarred is more geared towards Melee, and has tie-ins for all of the melee abilities for Void Metamorphosis. Annihilator is more flexible and can be played from Ranged. The right column of Fel-scarred is not yet implemented.
Annihilator (Ranged) Fel-scarred (Melee)
The Ranged version of Devourer does not use Voidblade or The Hunt, this is the most functional version currently on Alpha since many Fel-scarred talents are WIP. The viability of melee Fel-scarred Devourer will depend on these unknown talents. Any hero talent is fine for solo content.
Devourer Demon Hunter Gameplay
Rotation and Priority
For the most part, Devourer uses cooldowns on cooldown while building and spending its two resources.
Void Metamorphosis - Your major cooldown (not technically a cooldown).
Collapsing Star - Your major spender in Void Metamorphosis.
Soul Immolation - Short cooldown that gives resources (or automatic with talent).
Void Ray - Fury spender outside of Void Metamorphosis. Cooldown in Void Metamorphosis.
Reap - Short cooldown that scoops up Soul Fragments.
Consume - Filler spell, builder.
You may notice some of the melee damage abilities are missing. Currently, they are not needed for damage if going for a build that focuses more on playing from Ranged. You can opt into them with talent choices, if you prefer that playstyle!
Devourer is a flashy specialization with cosmic and void themed abilities like Void Ray.
This spell unleashes a beam of concentrated void energy, dealing cosmic damage.
Here is an early example of the Single Target priority for a Non-melee Devourer. Keep in mind this is all very early and relies on some speculation. It will most certainly change!
Annihilator
Fel-scarred
Please select a Hero Talent option to generate an Opener sequence
Fel-Scarred is a more melee oriented version of Devourer. There are a lot of synergies with the melee abilities (The Hunt, Voidblade, Hungering Slash) and all of them are empowered during Void Metamorphosis.
These hero talents are not fully implemented yet, but this is my best guess at how it will play. Consider this a work in progress.
Use the ✖ markers next to pick a fight style. Other talent options will populate underneath.
Options
Eradicate
Spontaneous Immolation
Scythe's Embrace
The Hunt
Hungering Slash
Duty Eternal
Devourer's Bite
Void Metamorphosis Priority
Collapsing Star.
Devour.
Priority (Outside Void Metamorphosis)
Void Metamorphosis.
Consume.
Annihilator plays more like a ranged spec, and benefits more from talents that don't involve flying into melee. This hero talent free has all of the nodes available on Alpha.
Use the ✖ markers next to pick a fight style. Other talent options will populate underneath.
Options
Eradicate
Spontaneous Immolation
Scythe's Embrace
The Hunt
Hungering Slash
Duty Eternal
Void Metamorphosis Priority
Collapsing Star.
Devour.
Priority (Outside Void Metamorphosis)
Void Metamorphosis.
Consume.
Building and Spending Fury
Since Soul Fragments generally tie into the Void Metamorphosis gameplay loop, lets begin by discussing Fury and the the gameplay outside of Void Metamorphosis with a focus on the Ranged playstyle that Annihilator leans towards.
Fury is the primary resource of Devourer. Outside of Void Metamorphosis, Fury is spent on Void Ray in order to quickly generate Soul Fragments. You begin combat without Fury, so your first goal is to build it. Many spells generate fury (depending on talents), but the most notable examples are Consume and Soul Immolation. Claiming lingering Soul Fragments also grants Fury.
In most cases your goal will be to build Fury quickly to spend on Void Ray. The current best way to do this is to put up Soul Immolation on the pull (or before outside of a raid). Both Reap charges should be used instantly for the 20 Fury via Scythe's Embrace.
This combo alone is enough to reach 100 Fury, even without a Consume cast (but you will want to pre-cast before entering combat if you are able). Spend this fury on Void Ray immediately, and follow up with an Eradicate (empowered Reap). Once you are this far, it is fairly easy to maintain enough Fury to alternate between Void Ray and your Fury builders until enough Soul Fragments have been collected to enter Void Metamorphosis. On the pull, this will come very soon since you start with 25 out of 50 Soul Fragments.
The main abilities you use while building up Soul Fragments for Void Metamorphosis are:
Consume - Filler spell, and most reliable way to generate Fury and Soul Fragments.
This spell has a long cast time, but can be cast while moving.
Inside of Void Metamorphosis, this spell transforms into Devour.
Soul Immolation - A short cooldown that generates resources.
This spell has a talent choice node for either a reduced cooldown with an addition charge, or to be a passive proc.
Currently, entering raid combat removes all Fury but Soul Fragments on the group from this spell remain. This will likely be fixed.
Reap - This spell scoops up Soul Fragments and flings a projectile at the target.
Many talents interact with Reap, and change how you want to use it. We will explore this later, but Scythe's Embrace is the most notable example since it generates Fury.
Inside of Void Metamorphosis, this spell transforms into Cull.
Void Ray - This is your Fury spender. It deals heavy damage in a line and rapidly rips Soul Fragments from the target. Rapidly spends Fury.
With Eradicate, channeling this spell transforms Reap into an extremely heavy hitting frontal cleave. With Moment of Craving, your Reap is always reset by this beam.
Inside of Void Metamorphosis, this no longer spends Fury but instead it slows the drain. The trade-off is an added cooldown.
AoE Changes
In AoE, priorities shift a bit and talent choices become a bit murky. The Eradicate talent heavily incentivizes staying out of Void Metamorphosis, since Void Ray does not have a cooldown in your regular form. Due to the damage of Void Ray and Eradicate in AoE, it seems best to limit your time in this form. You can choose to cancel Void Metamorphosis after Collapsing Star, or avoid it entirely.
There are many talents that could incentivize staying in Void Metamorphosis, especially for Fel-Scarred once more talents are added. Currently, it is hard to say for certain if Void Metamorphosis will be worth staying in for AoE for all builds. Eradicate and the added cooldown on Void Ray causes a bit of a conflict since a lot of what you do in Void Metamorphosis, aside from Collapsing Star, is more geared towards Single Target.
This strangeness is one of my biggest points of feedback, currently.
Voidblade and The Hunt are more geared towards the Fel-Scarred Melee gameplay, where you use these abilities to rush into melee and chain into a Hungering Slash and Vengeful Retreat. The AoE potential in a a more melee oriented build is very real since Voidblade and The Hunt reset with Void Metamorphosis and transform into Pierce the Veil, and Predator's Wake. Hungering Slash also transforms into Reaper's Toll. These spells give Fel-scarred Devourers heavy hitting AoE abilities during Void Metamorphosis.
Many of the Fel-Scarred talents are not yet implemented. It is a bit hard to see the full picture until they are added. For this reason, we are mainly focusing on Annihilator in this writeup.
Metamorphosis and Soul Fragments
Soul Fragments are little spheres that float on the ground around you. Walk over them or use Reap to vacuum them up. This resource serves many purposes, but should be thought of as the entrance fee for Void Metamorphosis and ammunition for Collapsing Star. In addition to this, claiming Soul Fragments also grants Fury and amps you damage with buffs and talent interactions.
Once required Soul Fragments have been collected, use Void Metamorphosis to transform and gain access to a free Collapsing Star via Midnight. The goal afterwards is to refill your Soul Fragments for more Collapsing Star casts while maintaining Fury and taking advantage of free Void Ray casts on cooldown. Fill extra time with Devour (Consume).
Inside of Void Metamorphosis, Cull and Eradicate (Reap) are used more strategically by experienced Devourers. The idea is you want to hold off on pulling in Soul Fragments unless you are running low on Fury or need to spend a Eradicate proc before a Void Ray. After your first Collapsing Star, it should also be used to grab the last couple Soul Fragments needed right before you Collapsing Star. This helps you maintain the form longer, while also topping off your stacking Feast of Souls buff right before the big hit.
Aside from constant uptime and using cooldowns well, knowing when to Cull / Eradicate is the biggest point of skill expression for this spec and makes a huge difference in your ability to get a healthy number of Collapsing Star casts into each Void Metamorphosis.
Collapsing Star is the main benefit of Void Metamorphosis and is your highest priority spell, if available.
With proper play, it is fairly easy to maintain this form for upwards of 90 seconds. The amount of Collapsing Star casts will vary depending on target counts, stats, and buffs (On the Alpha, my current best record is 7 Collapsing Star casts in one Void Metamorphosis with starting gear and no external buffs). Soul Immolation is not amplified in Void Metamorphosis, making it situational at best while you are in the form. This feels like a bit of an oversight, since it will heavily skew us to the passive talent (Spontaneous Immolation).
Movement and Mobility
Devourer has all the utility and mobility you are used to with Demon Hunter, and is very slick with its movement. Ranged focused Devourers will zip around the battlefield with Shift charges and are hyper-mobile since most of their abilities can be used on the move. The gameplay for Melee Devourer has the stunts baked in with quick dashes into melee (Voidblade and The Hunt), Hungering Slash combos, and Vengeful Retreat backflips.
Shift functions like a faster Fel Rush (Dash, not a Blink!), but moves you to your cursor. It doesn't deal damage or put you on the GCD but it will change your characters facing (meaning that shifting away from targets will turn you around). Shift can have up to 3 charges and has a very short cooldown. Vengeful Retreat is the same as you are used to, but it also has a cooldown reset and damage tie-in for the melee talents. Most of your abilities as Devourer are instant cast or can be cast on the move (Consume).
One point of frustration I currently have with playing Melee Devourer is that Vengeful Retreat has a habit of taking you slightly out of range. Nothing is more annoying than zipping in, doing a quick combo, back-flipping out and then having your cast cancel due to being out of range. I have seen this feedback everywhere, so hopefully it is addressed.
Glide can be used to great effect with the new Wings of Wrath talent, and Pursuit gives additional movement speed from Mastery: Monster Within.
Speed comparison for Mount, Glide, and Wings of Wrath.
Defensives
Devourer is a spec that relies more on passive healing and avoidance than active mitigation. The spec feels pretty squishy overall, but has tools that can help with this. Much of the self-healing comes in the form of Leech (Soul Rending) and the passive heal that consuming Soul Fragments provides. Cosmic damage does not include Fire, so most of your spells do not work with Charred Warblades.
Devourer's has active mitigation (Blur) is on the low end, since it only reduces damage by 25%. This spell has a minute cooldown and can have 2 charges with talents. Many of the talents provide health bonuses (Will of the Illidari) or damage taken reductions (Illidari Knowledge, Phase Shift, Demon Muzzle, and Set Fire to the Pain for example). With Soul Cleanse or Burn It Out you can also remove a Disease or Curse from yourself every 30 seconds.
Blur can feel a bit lacking, but other tools can help you survive. Sunder, for example, is a cooldown that deals up to 25% of your health in damage to the target and heals you for half of what you are missing. This spell is high risk, high reward. Using it while on the brink of death is very satisfying, but this requires good timing. Sunder competes with damage nodes so it comes at a steep price.
Utility
Most of the utility of Devourer is class wide. Demon Hunter has one of the best group defensives in all of Midnight with Darkness. This spell can have its cooldown lowered to 3 minutes and provides a 30% chance at 100% damage avoidance for up to 5 players, so long as you stand within it. This is fantastic when solo, but the true value lies in group play. For Mythic+, it allows you to partially remove certain mechanics (assuming that it works properly). In Raid it is a 15% chance to proc, but still very powerful.
All Demon Hunters apply the Chaos Brand debuff to targets they damage, and most specs (even Melee) deal Magic damage in some form or another. Demon Hunter also has access to an AoE stun with Void Nova, crowd control and skips with Sigil of Misery and Imprison, and a magic dispel with Consume Magic.
The Demon Hunter interrupt is Disrupt. This spell has a 15 second cooldown, which is lower than most ranged. Devourer specifically gets a huge range increase for this spell with the Guile and Improved Disrupt talents, bringing it to 35 yards!
Another important note for Devourer is that Void Metamorphosis lasts longer in AoE. If you are playing for priority damage, this "funnel" in the form of increased Soul Fragment and Fury generation. Based on target dummy tests, it seems to be around 15% increased damage on your primary target with 5 targets. The value here heavily depends on talents, but the potential is there!
Conclusion
I expect a Demon Hunter will be locked in for most groups pushing the highest content due to the strong interrupt, abundant stops, defensive power of Darkness, and damage gain of Chaos Brand. It will be interesting to see which flavor of Demon Hunter will be preferred, but that's more of a tuning question.
Of all the specs I have tested on the Midnight Alpha, Devourer is by far my current favorite. The look and feel of the spec are exceptional, and the things this spec can do when it comes to utility and movement are shocking (given the overall pruning most specs have had). There are some early Alpha flaws, but this can be said of any spec. It is sure to be a fan favorite once more players will get their chance at it. One concern I have is that the spec seems to be flagged as a Ranged spec, which could pose problems for Fel-scarred Melee builds.
I still have so much to say about Devourer, but that will have to wait for next time. For now, I hope you enjoyed this early look. What about Devourer are you most excited for in Midnight? Are you planning to play it once you have access? Leave a comment below, and hopefully we get more talents soon!
