Former 0.1% VDH Tank here, multiple CE for reference.
The current state of the Vengeance Demon Hunter cannot be overstated—it feels like a glass cannon. Here are some critical suggestions for improving the class:
- Frailty Duration: Sigil of Flame should afflict enemies with Frailty for 10 seconds (up from 6 seconds). Since the Sigil’s periodic damage lasts 10 seconds while Frailty only lasts 6 seconds, having two different timers feels inconsistent. Synchronizing these durations would streamline gameplay and reduce unnecessary complexity with game mechanics.
- Painbringer: Although this talent appears strong on paper, in practice it offers little to no more damage reduction than Calcified Spikes. Painbringer requires 2 points and is placed near the bottom of the talent tree, while Calcified Spikes is easier to access near the top. This disparity is largely due to tuning issues, as we’re generating fewer souls than in Dragonflight seasons 3 and 4. Extending Painbringer’s duration to 10 seconds (up from 6 seconds) AND allowing additional souls to stack painbringer up to 10 (instead of overlapping) would help stabilize the tank and reduce its fragility. You still will not be so tanky that you dont need other defensives and it will provide a clearer understanding of defensive mechanics, with key abilities lasting the same amount of time rather than varying intervals.
- Demon Muzzle: For how deep this talent is positioned in the tree, its utility feels extremely niche. In some dungeons, it offers less “healing” (mitigation) than a simple health potion. A talent this far down the tree should have a broader impact. I believe it would be more appropriate for Demon Muzzle to provide a 4% to 8% damage reduction from all sources while an enemy is affected by one of your sigils, similar to Demonic Wards, rather than limiting it to just magical damage. This would make it a more valuable and versatile choice for different content.
- Infernal Armor – Redesigned: Increase base armor by 20%, and melee attackers suffer fire damage equal to double the current amount, generating high threat. This redesign would significantly improve snap aggro. Currently, for 2 talent points, Infernal Armor only contributes around 0.5% overall damage, making it a poor investment. Either increasing its damage or changing it to a 1-point talent node would make it a much more appealing and efficient option for players.
- Darkness: There is no justification for Darkness to remain a 5-minute cooldown, especially when comparing it to defensive abilities of other classes, such as Mass Barrier for Mages, which has a 3-minute cooldown. Darkness should be reduced to a 3-minute cooldown, with additional options like Cover for Darkness (increases Darkness duration by 2 seconds and expands its radius by 4 yards) and Darkest Hour (automatically activates Darkness when dropping below 35% health, once every 2 minutes) as talent choices. The current talents, Long Night and Pitch Black, feel inadequate and are an insult to Demon Hunters, offering minimal utility for such a critical defensive ability.
Optional suggestions:
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Deflecting Spikes – Baseline: Vengeance shouldn’t require a talent to grant 15% parry. Tanks like Warriors and Guardians don’t need talents for core defensive abilities like Shield Block or Ironfur. Without Deflecting Spikes, we gain armor, which is useful but insufficient. Reintroducing Defensive Spikes as a node here to increase parry by 10% for the first 4 seconds after activating Demon Spikes would make the class feel more durable.
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Extended Spikes – Baseline: Shield Block, though lasting 6 seconds, is a baseline ability for warriors, allowing them to maintain 100% uptime. In contrast, even with Extended Spikes, we only get about 50% uptime on Demon Spikes and have to compensate with abilities like Fel Devastation, Fiery Brand, and Metamorphosis. Making Extended Spikes baseline would provide more consistent defensive coverage.
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Feed the Demon: The class needs a more streamlined way to talent into Feed the Demon without sacrificing crucial utility or damage options. When talenting into Extended Spikes, only 1 point is needed in Feed the Demon to gain maximum benefit. However, without Extended Spikes, 2 points are required, which complicates talent allocation. While the design may seem reasonable, it falls short in the War Within expansion, where Hero talents heavily dictate talent choices. I recommend reducing Feed the Demon to 1 point for full benefit, and addressing talent point bloat to allow for more flexibility in talent distribution.
This is all for now. I could spend days talking about fixes for this class but I feel it would fall upon deaf ears.
but idk some of these comes across as makign the spec braindead instead of interactive. vdh is a leech tank hence why its a “glasscannon” i think it should lean more heavily on that since theres already alot of mitigation type tanks and only one leech tank (bdk).