At the mid to high level of gameplay, there is a pretty narrow combination of talent/covenant/gear. This applies to every spec in the game. At the high level of play (Mythic raids, 20+ M+), there is almost no variability for any spec. Of the hundreds of combinations, the deviation is very low per spec. That’s assumed and I think most people are okay with this. For Havoc, this means you’re Venthyr, Blind Fury, Unbound Chaos, COH, Demonic. Most players use this for all mid to high level content – not because they want to, because they’re expected to and really have to in order to be viable. The difference in effectiveness between this build and ANY other combination is way more significant that it’s ever been for DH.
There are a few key frustrations that many people have with DH in 9.2:
-
Damage inputs: Too much of our ability contribution % is based on a single Covenant DoT. It feels bad that our entire toolset of class damage abilities is next to irrelevant and are only used to support a covenant DoT.
-
Babysitting Playstyle: As Havoc, there are 2 buttons that are way too important and are required to be used so often in succession – and both of them are used NOT because they’re important on their own merits, but instead purely to support Sinful Brand. It is not engaging, exciting, or satisfying. There is no spec that needs to spam 2 buttons so often as a part of a regular rotation without seeing a massive drop of in damage input.
-
AOE: There are a couple of scenarios where DH AOE can do well via Metamorphosis-applied Sinful Brand, but the requirements are strict: Adds must not die quickly, there must be a lot of them, and this must be spaced 3-4 minutes apart. If these requirements aren’t met, DH really has no AOE viability. Our two prime class fantasy abilities (Eye Beam and Blade Dance) are irrelevant on their own merits. It’s sort of amazing that Eye Beam, a channeled ability preventing movement is so impotent as a damage input. This has to break some core design principle.