Culling the Weak: An Overview of World of Warcraft’s Demon Hunter

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As much as I hate to admit it, I always find a reason to come back to World of Warcraft. It’s been almost a year since I’ve logged into the game but the familiar sight of my characters sitting in their garrisons doing nothing was almost enough to make me Alt+F4. Thankfully, the prospect of an upcoming expansion stopped my face from hitting the desk in regret.

The Legion pre-patch released the following day: a large update that contained all the expansion changes. As someone that didn’t participate in Legion tests or keep up to date on World of Warcraft news, it felt like I logged into an entirely different game. The amount of abilities on my bars shrunk, my talent choices were changed, and my Hunter was suddenly wielding a melee weapon.

Despite the changes every class went through, the one thing I looked forward to most was the new class, Demon Hunter. Blizzard announced that early access to the new hero class would be granted to everyone that pre-purchased Legion, and three weeks after the release of the pre-expansion patch, the Demon Hunter class was available for play.

Much like the other hero class, Death Knight, Demon Hunters have special customisation options such as horns and blindfolds. It’s a nice touch to World of Warcraft’s outdated character creation which, by today’s standards, lacks customisation. They’re even equipped with a unique weapon type: warglaives, the iconic Demon Hunter armament.

Unlike the two classes before it, Demon Hunter is restricted to just two races: Night Elf and Blood Elf. For a game that’s become increasingly accessible and open to breaking lore, the decision to stick with established lore and restrict Demon Hunters to elf races is a surprising one. Nothing prevents Blizzard from cooking up new story material to allow other races to become Demon Hunters (it’s been done in the past with Horde Paladins and Alliance Shaman in The Burning Crusade), so I applaud Blizzard for remaining faithful to the lore.

The Demon Hunter starting experience kicks off with a fully voice-acted cutscene of Illidan commanding his soldiers. The cutscene takes place during the events of The Burning Crusade and it’s shown in a first-person view with Illidan talking directly to the player. It’s a short sequence that shows just enough to create a narrative for the player to follow: you’re being sent on a suicide mission and if you fail all worlds will be destroyed.

The starting quests take place over several in-game years and three distinct areas: Mardum, a shattered world of debris and green lava; Vault of the Wardens, a prison for Demon Hunters; and finally your faction capital city, either Orgrimmar or Stormwind. The quests themselves are generic but do a decent job of carrying the story forward with a few cutscenes throw in. There’s a couple of rare mobs in the starting zones that drop better gear than quest rewards, and the mobs have some basic mechanics such as activating objects to weaken them.

As the starting experience concludes, you’re given a choice of two Demon Hunter lieutenants to follow, both with different ideals. While it doesn’t affect gameplay, it does give you a sense of presence in the world and makes you feel more involved in the story rather than being a bystander. These decisions will most likely have long-lasting effects on the story in Legion, and so far it seems they are irreversible.

I don’t usually follow World of Warcraft lore, but after playing the game for over a decade it’s hard to avoid it. The starting area is a fun experience that, assuming you’re somewhat invested in the story, hits you with a blast of nostalgia. There are many recognizable areas and models, and Illidan’s “you are prepared” quote was a brilliant touch of fanservice that pumped me up for some demon slaying.

I have high praise for the content and lore, but the class itself is a different story. Legion has drastically changed every class with ability culls and the removal of weapon drops, but as a new class that didn’t have an established playstyle to begin with I found Demon Hunter to be surprisingly dull in comparison to the other classes. The main source of my disappointment was due to the class only having two specializations: Havoc for DPS and Vengeance for tanking.

Looking at the other classes, I find it wonderful that Blizzard has been able to separate specializations into unique playstyles that suit different purposes. For example, Fire Mage is heavily crit reliant and deals big numbers; Frost has become the go-to PvP spec thanks to the control and burst it offers; and Arcane is a two-phase damage spec that revolves around burning your mana and then conserving it. Despite the Mage class having a singular role of dealing damage, it has three distinct playstyles that can be viable in both PvE and PvP to a certain extent.

With one less specialization to play it feels like Blizzard have taken the easy way out with Demon Hunters. Havoc and Vengeance have different playstyles (mainly because they serve different roles) but if the pure DPS classes received big changes, such as Hunters getting a melee spec and Rogue poisons being limited to a single spec, then why doesn’t Demon Hunter have the full three? It would’ve been unique to see two different tanking styles—something that’s not been possible since Death Knight was first released and players experimented with tanking as all three specs. In a game that’s becoming increasingly accessible, and thus less customisable, it’s sad to see a new class with less playstyles and I hope it doesn’t become a trend for future classes or, worse, to see existing classes lose specializations.

Individually, the abilities are fun to play with. Demon Hunters are very mobile thanks to the ability to double jump and glide at will during combat, and they posses a movement ability in the form of a dash as Havoc or a leap as Vengeance. The signature Demon Hunter ability, Metamorphosis, empowers your abilities and transforms your character into a tall and burly demon. Unfortunately, there’s no interesting mechanic or resource to build up for it to activate—you just hit a button. For an ability so central to Demon Hunter lore it feels like a missed opportunity to not incorporate it deeper into the class.

As I thought of some changes that I would’ve prefered to see, I remembered something a friend told me early into Legion’s reveal: Warlocks lost their Metamorphosis ability. As a core ability to the Demonology spec, the Warlock version allowed the player to shift in and out of their demon form at will and consume a Demonic Fury resource instead of being reliant on a cooldown. Immolation Aura, another ability that was previously unique to Demonology Warlock, was also tweaked and given to Demon Hunters instead. Although Warlocks didn’t have unique transformed models like the Demon Hunter version, the ability was more involved than simply pressing a button to transform and the entire spec played around it. For Demon Hunter, it’s just a button you press for bigger numbers.

As I spent more time with Demon Hunter, I found myself making more references to other classes. The leap ability Infernal Strike felt like a copy of the Warrior’s Heroic Leap; the dash ability Fel Rush is similar to the Monk’s Roll; and Vengeful Retreat feels like a Hunter’s disengage. The rotation itself (for both specs) revolves around a 1-2 button combination of resource generator and spender with a couple of extra abilities thrown in. It’s extremely basic and even after taking upcoming talents into consideration it’s hard to see Demon Hunter as anything but bland.

For a hero class Demon Hunter is underwhelming. The class’s unique abilities are cleverly introduced to the player during early quests, but they’re quickly buried under the dull playstyle and familiar abilities. Demon Hunter currently hasn’t impacted the game as much as Death Knight did with multiple tanking and DPS styles and a wealth of interesting abilities. Even Monk with its unique method of healing and evasion-oriented tanking felt like a breath of fresh air during Mists of Pandaria.

Currently, only two of the Demon Hunter’s talents are available with the rest unlocking during Legion. Despite my disappointment right now, I’ll still be sticking with the class in hopes that Demon Hunter can form an identity of its own and become the unique hero class it deserves to be, not a glorified knockoff that clones existing abilities.

I'm a gaming enthusiast and avid follower of eSports. When I'm not grinding it out in the latest MMO releases, I love to discuss and write about all things video games. I've hopped between MMOs more times than I can remember but occasionally dabble in single player games and game development.