Vengeance Mitigations

Classes Demon Hunter
1

Hi there,

Just started playing Vengeance. Tanked before on Paladin and Warrior, and quite used to having a consistent mitigation that I had to keep up as much as possible, like Shield of the Righteous on Pally and Shield Block on Warrior.

Can someone please explain to me how mitigations work on DH? I understand we have the Spikes, but they have just 8sec duration and recharge for twice as long.

Thanks :pray:t2:

2 Likes
2

You should be using Meta and Fel Devastation on cool down (try to not overlap them unless necessary) and using Demon Spikes when you can’t do either of those.

You can use Fiery Brand + Immolation Aura before using Fel Dev so Immo Aura has a chance to start spreading Fiery Brand, or you can use demon spikes until it spreads too.

Turning into a demon as Vengeance gives you a lot of armor and HP so you should avoid using Demon Spikes when in Meta form. The cooldown on Fel Devastation is so low when fully channeled that you should be able to juggle Demon Spikes and Fel Dev pretty well with some practice.

With the season 3 & 4 tier set Sigil of Flame also becomes mitigation so you should get a Weakaura to track the tier set buff and space out using your charges of Sigil of Flame so you can maintain the buff at high uptime.

Don’t forget, you can always Infernal Strike away if you need a defensive that is coming off cooldown soon or just to put some space between you and a mob so the healer can get ya topped up.

Also I try to save some Fury and Souls from the previous pull so I can enter the next pull with some immediate mitigation via a Spirit Bomb and/or a Fel Dev. You don’t always have to spend down your resources at the end of a pull. This tip helped improve my VDH gameplay BIG TIME.

VDH is a juggling act compared to most other tanks but it is fun so GL! Welcome aboard.

2 Likes
3

Thank you, that clears it up :slight_smile:

1 Like
4

VDH has several forms of active and rolling mitigation:

  • Demon Spikes
  • Frailty via Void Reaver and Soulcrush (4% DR per stack)
  • Painbringer, if running it (1-2% DR per soul fragment consumed)
  • Sigil of Flame via Illuminated Sigils talent (15% parry) and Demon Muzzle (8% Magic DR, works w/ other sigils but mostly from this)
  • Immolation Aura via Infernal Armor and Fel Flame Fortification (minor, but something)
  • Calcified Spikes (iirc averages to around 4-6% DR)

Properly managing these is what will largely keep you up outside of CD windows. You should be going Fiery Brand → Immo Aura → Fel Dev as much as possible for damage unless you need FB or FD for surviving a mechanic.

5

Thank you, appreciate the breakdown :pray:

6

Frailty is pretty clutch honestly. especially since it can stack when you spec into it. soul cleave and spirit bomb will do all the work on keeping it up.