Demon Hunter build for Rogues

[Jadowsofel]

Greetings all. I am Jadowsofel, kaldorei disciple of <Demon Hunter>.

This guide will lay out a basic blueprint explaining how the build works along with some conjecture filtered through personal experience. It may or may not be the first of its' kind, but I've not seen such a build elsewhere before and am posting this now only because of the many inquiries and much interest that I've encountered since I began doing dungeons & raids recently. As a new build, the possibilities are still unknown and any notion of what could be considered optimal is speculation at best. Nonetheless, I offer this guide for those drawn to creative/off-meta modes of gameplay and hope that it will serve as a semblance of proof that some degree of innovation is still possible on this old game that we all love so much. Please experiment for yourself.

Two quick points before I begin:

1) I'd like to mention & thank the user Portholes (player name Iag with a capital "i") for their post entitled "Elemental Cat Build". viewtopic.php?t=6169 This was a catalyst of sorts which kindled the mechanical, nuts-and-bolts-level inspiration for much of this build.

2) My calling this a demon hunter build merely reflects my own personal approach to the aesthetic & lore-derived interpretation for my gameplay. Essentially, this is a melee/magic, chaotic (proc-based) "shadow warrior" build.
/drink Mchealbolton/Doraexplora
As such, it can be interpreted in myriad ways depending on ones' own personal approach to aesthetics/fashion, idiosyncratic lore character background, etc. Please consider adjusting enchants and other non-essential items to best serve your own preferred manner of gameplay. However. because the demon hunter was the original creative impetus that drove my efforts, I will continue to present this as a Demon Hunter build.

OK, so...

This is an exclusive TWoW Rogue, Hunter and Warrior build that, not unlike the Elemental Cat, primarily utilizes magic-damage-on-melee-hit effects to trigger the proc from the Blade of Eternal Darkness and/or
the Ornate Bloodstone Dagger. However, UNLIKE the Elemental Cat, the dual-wielding Rogue, Hunter and Warrior classes are privy to items and benefits that the Druid is not. I discovered that the weapon effect from the Blade of Eternal Darkness can be triggered by weapon enchants such as Fiery Weapon, Icy Chill and Lifestealing as well as from Shadow Oil and Dragonbreath Chili procs. Darkmoon Card: Maelstrom and Heart of Wyrmthalak can also proc the effect. Additionally, these classes can carry a bow which offers a magic-damage-on-melee-hit effect and also have access to Mail and Plate armor items that give the passive magic-damage-on-melee-hit effect as well.
Note: The Blade of Eternal Darkness has no internal cooldown for its' weapon effect proc rate.

See below for an example of an ideal gear setup:

Armor:
Incendosaur Skin Gloves https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=60582
Incendosaur Skin Boots https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=60568
Incendosaur Skin Pauldrons https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=60572
Leggings of Fiery Temper https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=61505
Thunder Lizard's Hide https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=81308 (Horde-only)
Ring of Electrical Binding https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=61332
Blazefury Medallion https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=17111
Weapons:
Blade of Eternal Darkness https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=17780
Tempest's Rage https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=83564
Flamestring Bow https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=80825
Trinkets:
Darkmoon Card: Maelstrom https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=19289
Heart of Wyrmthalak https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=22321
or
Hand of Justice https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=11815
Consumables:
Dragonbreath Chili https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=12217
Shadow Oil https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=3824

Each item synergizes to maximize consistency rate of Blade of Eternal Darkness's (aka BoED's) weapon effect proc.
Note: When considering your offhand weapon, I suggest focusing on weapon speed (the faster the better) and one that has an innate damage proc which may have it's own chance to proc the BoED's weapon effect.

Math has never been my forte but allow me to break this down as you consider the possibilities:
Blade of Eternal Darkness has a 10% chance to proc upon successful spell hit.
*Every successful melee strike you land will give you an additional 10 simultaneous spell hits from all of the passive magic-damage-on-melee-hit items.
This equates to a 65% proc rate for Blade of Eternal Darkness per successful melee strike.
*The 3-set bonus from the Incendosaur set grants an additional 5% chance to land a magic attack upon successful melee strike which has it's own chance to proc the BoED weapon effect.
*The Tempest's Rage has a 5-10% chance to proc it's 15% haste ability. More haste = more procs.
*Fiery/Icy/Lifestealing enchants have a proc rate that scales with weapon attack speed. At 1.5 this probably results in approximately a 5% proc rate. Again, enchant procs can trigger BoED procs.
*The Darkmoon:Maelstrom card and the Heart of Wyrmthalak both have approximately a 5% proc rate and can themselves proc the BoED weapon effect.
*Shadow Oil and Dragonbreath Chili both have a 5% proc rate and can also proc the BoED.
Factoring this all together, the potential for immense burst damage becomes clear.

This brings me to my next point..

For a pure DPS(Havoc) variation, I propose (presuming that +hit is sufficient) that haste is key.
The concept is to land as many melee strikes in as quick a succession as possible so as to land as many procs as possible. This necessarily involves eschewing traditional defensive & offensive stats such as stamina, agility and strength so as to maximize melee strike output and thus proc output. The majority of your damage will come from magic damage via procs - not your melee weapons. Haste provides a static boost to your weapon attack speed and auto-attack continues concurrent to any queued special ability attack. The global cooldown or GCD timer for abilities is 1.5 seconds. This means that any haste increase will bring BoED below the GCD timer (+12% haste for Tempest's Rage) allowing for more auto-attacks to rotate on a separate, shorter timer within & during the cooldown of your primary ability attack of choice.

See below for a list of enchants/consumables/buffs that increase your haste:

Enchants:
Enchant Gloves Minor Haste https://database.turtle-wow.org/?spell=13948
Augmentations:
Arcanum of Rapidity https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=18329
Sigil of Quickness https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=61437
Buffs:
Warchief's Blessing https://www.wowhead.com/classic/spell=1 ... s-blessing
Consumables:
Danonzo's Tel'Abim Medley https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=60978#reward-of
Potion of Quickness https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=61181
Juju Flurry https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=12450

There are of course many custom TWoW armor pieces that add haste as well. Mix these in wherever possible whilst ensuring that your +hit is sufficient.

Also consider that rogues have the innate means of increasing haste via abilities such as Slice and Dice, Blade Flurry 1/1, Sword Specialization 5/5 and Adrenaline Rush 1/1.
Rogue's also have Thistle Tea for more energy. More energy = more ability attacks = more procs.

As a rogue, this build also potentially allows for tanking variation where you focus on stamina, agility and/or armor instead of haste. This is because rapid procs can generate rapid threat. Combined with the rogue's unique Agitating Poison (https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=65032) available here on TWoW and many defensive abilities such as Evasion, Ghostly Strikes, etc., it's certainly a variation to consider.
Indeed, Vengeance is one of the two talent specs of the demon hunter.

Now to my final point..

Another dimension to this build is the fact that both Shadow Oil (56%) and Dragonbreath Chili (100%) scale with spell power. This allows for the build to somewhat prioritize the inclusion of +spell power into the setup. Though the grind to exalted with Cenarion Circle is daunting to say the least, keep in mind that the nature of this build will allow for perpetual uptime for the Wrath of Cenarius item proc, further increasing the damage of the Oil & Chili. Thus, I consider this to be the other of the two BiS rings for this build.

Here's a list of some items to increase spell damage synergy:

Armor:
Wrath of Cenarius https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=21190
Consumables:
Dreamtonic https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=61423
Greater Arcane Elixir https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=13454
Flask of Supreme Spellpower https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=13512
Gilneas Hot Stew https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=84041
Gift of Arthas https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=9088

Doubtless there will be items and consumables, some finite, that I've missed but the information and lists above will at least provide a reasonably attainable basis for players to strive for that can bring this build to life.

Here I offer an approach to talents for both pure DPS (Havoc) and tanking (Vengeance). As stated several times already, I implore you to experiment and create a style that best suits your own manner of gameplay.
This is only a suggestion:

Havoc: https://talents.turtle-wow.org/rogue/0XF6-2UZ10Z1UC6
Vengeance: https://talents.turtle-wow.org/rogue/2RF60U-2UZD021UC6
or perhaps https://talents.turtle-wow.org/rogue/2I ... 21UC6-UE66

I'm happy & proud to share this guide with the server and hope that it might inspire you to try it yourself and even consider playing this build as a glaive-wielding kalorei or sin'dorei demon hunter too, or, better yet, inspire you to innovate a new build or approach to gameplay of your own.

/bow

[Trismegistos]

Thanks for the brilliant write-up. This build is something I have been eyeing a lot, and seeing this post was the final push that led me to actually buying some of the gear pieces. I got lucky with the cloak; it was available for purchase already on the second day of the project.

Something to consider would be the new Tel'Abim food that increases haste by 2%, Danonzo's Tel'Abim Medley. It possibly will not stack with dragonbreath chili, however, but I have not tested to confirm my suspicion. https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=60978

Also, while it does not mesh with the elven demon hunter fantasy, troll rogues with their attack speed buff have a great advantage. Perhaps by using the Ornate Bloodstone Dagger, the troll could drop their health to gain more attack speed when activating Berserking, switching to the blade of eternal darkness afterwards.

[Scaryna]

If you have all the items, can you please make a video of how it works? I'm very curious

[Jadowsofel]

Thanks for the brilliant write-up. This build is something I have been eyeing a lot, and seeing this post was the final push that led me to actually buying some of the gear pieces. I got lucky with the cloak; it was available for purchase already on the second day of the project.

Something to consider would be the new Tel'Abim food that increases haste by 2%, Danonzo's Tel'Abim Medley. It possibly will not stack with dragonbreath chili, however, but I have not tested to confirm my suspicion. https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=60978

Also, while it does not mesh with the elven demon hunter fantasy, troll rogues with their attack speed buff have a great advantage. Perhaps by using the Ornate Bloodstone Dagger, the troll could drop their health to gain more attack speed when activating Berserking, switching to the blade of eternal darkness afterwards.

I'm glad to hear it. And thanks for mentioning the Medley. That's good to know!

This is simply a template for others to theorycraft upon. I do invite those inclined to consider an elven demon hunter approach, but it's by no means necessary - I'd much rather people get inspired and apply this build however suites them.

[Jadowsofel]

If you have all the items, can you please make a video of how it works? I'm very curious

I actually play this build (and only have experience with it) as a hunter so the gameplay is quite different.

I created guides for the 3 classes that the build applies to (rogue, hunter & warrior) with each guide posted in the corresponding class forums.

Sorry that I can't elucidate a method for rogue gameplay beyond what I've written above but feel free to contact me in-game if you want my insight into hunter gameplay.

[Twinking]

I killed the princess more than 100 times, but the dagger still doesn't drop :-(

[Jadowsofel]

I killed the princess more than 100 times, but the dagger still doesn't drop :-(

Don't give up! That only means that you're getting closer.

[Twinking]

I killed the princess more than 100 times, but the dagger still doesn't drop :-(

Don't give up! That only means that you're getting closer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYzMYcUty6s