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Demon Hunter is one of my favourite classes ever since it launched in Legion and peaked for me in the Horrific Visions of BfA patch 8.3. Right now however I find myself thinking that the class is rather plain and almost boring.
So what changed? Why DH felt so powerful, easy and enjoyable to play in the previous expansion, losing momentum drastically for me in Shadowlands? Did the class change, or was it my own perception of the class in the context of this rather shallow experience of a WoW expansion?
In this video I speculate on the reasons why I might be feeling that way, welcoming your opinions on the matter of Demon Hunter playstyle and performance in Shadowlands too!
📑 Table of Contents
00:00 – Intro
01:00 – DH in BfA
02:35 – DH ticks the boxes
06:00 – Shadowlands issues
07:30 – My Reason 1
09:30 – My Reason 2
11:45 – Closing thoughts
🔥 Let’s get connected! 🔥
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Well, i do enjoy my DH, its my fav tank spec for sure. It does have the least buttons to press compared to all my alts and some find that boring. It does have the highest dps vs ilvl of all my alts on burst aoe. Overall i do find it fun but i could not play it as a main because the apm is too high.
I think your overall feeling for the game builds in confirmation bias into everything you play.
Did not play Demon Hunter in BFA, learned it from scratch in Shadowlands. For me its really fun an unique. Really love to use Glide in the World, sometimes visits old areas with high mountains just to glide and enjoy the scenery 🙂 I have most classes at at 60 but always comes back to the DH. But I do mostly PvP, not dungeons/raids. Like thats its a bit less buttons and keybinds, I am to old to learn alot of keybind modifiers 🙂
DH for me has always been the perfect alt for silly fun. Glide around, pull big groups, use pew-pew lasers to destroy everything and so on. Amazing in shorter bursts, but I could see it becoming incredibly dull as you play it for a main.
One thing about Demon Hunter that I always feel would have been exciting (in the DPS spec primarily) would be the Red Mage class from Final Fantasy 14. When DH came out I was quite happy with the melee-blender. Then a lull hit in Legion and I tried out FF14 with the Red Mage just coming out and oh man was that fun. It has the similar "melee blending" elements, but at the same time it backdashes, goes into range and uses some spells. So it is basically half a melee and half a range spec. I always feel that this could've been incredibly cool for DH? Like, you rush in and you basically enter melee-mode until a specific gauge is filled up. Then you backflip out, which empowers your Eye Beam to insane range, replaces your Demon's Bite with Throw Glaive (so you constantly throw it, so to speak) and you'd cast a few things like Fel Barrage. Then you dash back into melee and continue that loop. Maybe then it would feel less frantic and "all melee all the time"?
YES SUPER SPAMMY AND BORING
I think you might find some fun in fury warrior. More depth than dh but in the same genre. With the recent buffs plays very smooth.
I feel like most of their abilities do the same thing; damage and healing and mobility – with some occasional versatility of stuns or evasion mixed in there – sure they fulfill their CLASS fantasy, of almost a 'vampiric' style class ; gameplay wise they don't really bring anything special outside of atmosphere appearance and fantasy vibes though. It feels like it's just picking whatever spell does the most damage and is up, rather than the best spell for the situation, and there's not really any buildup system to that like a combo functionality of an important rotation, with the fury mechanic basically being redundant because it's so easy to attain and nearly constantly overcaps.
Unless you're really vibing with the fantasy of a demon hunter, I too find them extremely hard to stick with for very long. I've leveled two up to 50+ and one was my main during legion (fell off in bfa because it was boring back then to me-pre visions as I quit before them and came back for shadowlands).
Take a pally for example – they too have damage and healing, and while they lack some mobility that demon hunter has (ironically on thee light side of the spectrum rather than the dark) they offer so much more party utility and burst with the holy power combo mechanic that leaves them in so much more satisfying a play state – a sustainable state at that in my opinion – than a demon hunter ever could have.
Maybe that factor was intended by blizzard, as paladins rectify demons, and they have been a posterchild class for blizzard since original world of warcraft – even into Warcraft.
Especially going into an expansion where shadow is being fought, I can see blizzard actually wanting demon hunters to be in this state so that other classes, especially paladins (who were getting a bad rap in shadowlands alpha) to take the stage and get some much needed attention — especially even since they could gain a lot of subscription followers for those to want to play paladins to follow in anduin's footsteps lore wise and abolish demons etc.
Now of course there are some heavily philisophical and controversial points thrown in there, but I agree that demon hunters are extremely repetitive and the way this expansion is currently, I agree as well that it's extremely easy to burnout due to such competitive based systems.
Keep it up Gyro – love your content.
are you still playing valheim, gyro? demon hunter is a little basic, but i feel like going from dh to enh is really extreme lol. talk about spastic . have you thought about ret? few buttons, much utility it is movement impaired though. and fury has low buttons with better movement. i myself am still maining a balance druid slinging stars all over. good times. hopefully the next patch comes out by june.
Hi gyrotex, i know this is off topic but may i suggest the SUI addon for you. Just to add dark frames on your dominos bar, menu bar, minimap, player frame and target frame. I heavily suggest this to make your Ui look more slick. I use dominos too btw 😊
Still fine for me only thing is bad for me in rotation is Blade Dance get weaker in Bfa i very like strong Blade Dance and Defensive healing is feels very weak compare to Fury warrior Dk in Bfa DH is way beter class to main in Shadowlands most players play Vengance and ranged dps classes like Elemental shaman after buffs is realy fun strong bring good things for group
I totally agree with you. I really enjoyed playing the insanely tanky Vengeance Gluttony build, and now the spec just feels dull and boring… None of the cov abilities are really that interesting and don't even get me started on the legendary powers
I’ve done the opposite and found demon hunter are more fun now they’re a bit more squishy. I want to main it and log in less in a week but I’m my friends only healer 😅
And yes I stay to the end of the video. This type of video I use like a radio show for my commute 👍
I am somewhat new to your channel and while I cannot comment on DH enjoyment(I'm on an extended break from the game sadly) I CAN say that I always watch/listen to your entire upload as they are wonderful conversation pieces. I would go so far as to say you are currently one of my top 3 WoW content creators and while away from the game I watch A LOT of content on it. So Cheers! and thank you for all that you offer here on YouTube on a game that will always be "home" to me.
made it to the end of the videos….im new to shadowlands.. had hard time picking a main at first …i went with VDH.. being solo/casual it did best for my style that "i want to play" as everyone said to pick…wish they instead had said "blizzard experiments every patch so you have to pick a reliable class like mage/monk/pally to spend your time on leveling" ..i think the problem for Demon Hunter is that the powers themselves dont synergize well with itself its supports every other class and it does not "build up", i like "the hunt" but if i could "on command" burst someone down i would love it….i find DH is big for utilities when it comes to magic but with this New Nerf im willing to believe what people are saying may be true about DH after all .
DH seems to be about a strategic hunt/support class…as for buttons to press i feel like im doing the most (..maybe its the noob in me..) i heard the 1 button classes were warriors or mage..i have been wanting to pick another class because every other class does everything better….healing, DPS, survivability….you cant play DH if your a SOLO/Casual.. i wish it was as good as every other class to stand on its own like a Holy Pally.. people were made at "leech" what about that "bubble" when a pally hits it.. their indestructible …. just look at how much DH is represented in the World Arenas Championships…o wait…. we so squishy we belong in a marshmallow bag instead of the arena..*cries internally* im still DH tho… i have hopes for the bench pressing chest day illidan to save the day….*crosses fingers* (ill probably start an Alt tbh, any suggestions anyone for solo? BM hunter seems good)
I agree with you Gyro, DH has become so simple that is just boring. Doesn't matter to me very much now , because after the changes on game time purchase on WoW, I'll be taking a break for now. The new value in my country's currency corresponds to 2 Valheim's per month and WoW is just not worth it imo. I'll continue to watch your content and to look forward for new games though.
Because you’re boring
I play mainly as a Druid, balance and resto. I play a lot of alts but the main one is a demon hunter, mainly in vengeance but havoc too from time to time. The appeal for me is the class simplicity which is the opposite of Druid which can be a quite complex class. I like the dh a lot partly because it lets me focus on the game mechanics without being hard to play.
Havoc Dh has 3 good legendaries and they use 3 different talent builds which change how you play quite a lot. This is quite a big variety compared to most specs which have one legendary and one talent build for all content. I find momentum in m+ super fun atm.
9.1 is a long way away. So sad. I wonder if New world will release before patch. If it does ill be jumping ship to try it out.
Sounds like an issue with getting bored of WoW and not so much the class.
There's plenty of issues with the class but if you want few buttons and cool effects it's a good fit. WoW isn't a game that's fun to play casually for very long periods of time, in my opinion. It gets old fast unless you're playing in a guild and trying to compete. It's why I leave a few months into every expansion since I was young enough to spend time to play competitively.
I enjoy your posts and almost always watch them to completion. It's funny though I think I felt about BFA the way you feel about Shadowlands. I got through the war campaign on the Alliance and Horde (both of those characters were havoc DH). I came to a point were I just lost interest after I had unlocked the Allied Races. I didn't ever play the horrific visions, after watching your post I'm sorry I didn't because they sound fun. I haven't leveled either of my DHs yet and I think its because I got tired of that frenetic combat movement. Even though the DH movement is fun it gets overwhelming sometimes. Also getting through the first stage of the maw and into Oribos the DH didn't feel as powerful as it had in Legion or BFA.
Been playing DH on and off since Legion and am recently leveling another one on Alliance. While I enjoy the straightforward playstyle and the class's "modern" design, levelling one alongside a warrior alt really drives home just how basic the class really is.
The difference is really night and day. On the warrior, you get several new abilities that alter the way you play your character practically every bracket, and that's fun. On the DH it all basically boils down to X ability does more damage. Y ability generates more fury. Super basic. Super boring.
The talents DH gets is much the same story. A cookie cutter build most of the time, and a lot of stuff in there that should have been made baseline (Trail of ruin/First blood and the removed talent Bloodlet).
It all just boils down to a very basic generator/spender playstyle which is a solid foundation for a character that was not only never expanded upon, but actually cut down even more.
My main was rogue and now I tried DH and honestly I haven't played a more fun class yet and I've really played everything except DH and I'm excited, sorry about your experience, maybe it's because I haven't played it at all before but it's definitely exactly the class I was looking for 😀