Demon hunter

Demon hunters, the disciples of Illidan Stormrage, uphold a dark legacy, one that frightens their allies and enemies alike. The Illidari embrace fel and chaotic magics—energies that have long threatened the world of Azeroth—believing them necessary to challenge the Burning Legion. Wielding the powers of demons they’ve slain, they develop demonic features that incite revulsion and dread in fellow elves.

Demon hunters made a pact, long ago, to fight against the forces of chaos using their own terrible powers against it. They ritually blind themselves in exchange for spectral sight that enables them to better sense their prey. This enhanced awareness, together with their great agility and magical prowess, makes demon hunters unpredictable adversaries. They wield demonically charged warblades in battle and call upon demonic energies to augment their formidable combat skills.

Demon hunters were announced at Gamescom 2015 as the new hero class for the World of Warcraft: Legion expansion. Playable demon hunters belong to the Illidari faction. Demon hunters start at level 8 (98 before Shadowlands), experiencing a unique starting experience comparable to that for death knights, before then moving into Legion content.

Demon hunters are able to speak Demonic.

Class overview
''Demon hunters, disciples of Illidan Stormrage, uphold a dark legacy, one that frightens their allies and enemies alike. The Illidari embrace fel and chaotic magics—energies that have long threatened the world of Azeroth—believing them necessary to challenge the Burning Legion. Wielding the powers of demons they’ve slain, they develop demonic features that incite revulsion and dread in fellow elves.''

''Demon hunters ritually blind themselves in exchange for spectral sight that enables them to better sense their prey. This enhanced awareness, together with their great agility and magical prowess, makes demon hunters unpredictable adversaries. An Illidari’s quarry has much to fear.

''Forgoing heavy armor, demon hunters capitalize on speed, closing the distance quickly to sever enemies with one-handed weapons. However, Illidari must also use their agility defensively to ensure that battles end favorably.

''They can command chaotic energies to inflict havoc on enemies, or they can focus their powers to resist damage. Demon hunters fuel vengeful attacks and are a leather-wearing melee DPS and tank class, with only two specializations: Havoc (DPS), and Vengeance (tank).


 * ''Unrivaled mobility
 * ''Demon hunters can double jump, vault in and out of combat, and even unfold their monstrous wings to perform gliding descents and surprise enemies from above.


 * ''Metamorphosis
 * ''Demon hunters transform into hellish forms, enhancing their chosen role: damage-focused Illidari can teleport into combat, while those who prize defense can grant powerful supportive Auras.


 * ''Melee damage
 * ''The chaotic energy that flows within demon hunters empowers their physical and magical strikes to devastating effect.


 * ''Spectral Sight
 * The demon hunters' apparent blindness belies their true powers of perception. They rely on magically augmented sight to detect enemies, even those that hide behind obstacles.

Background
The first demon hunter, Illidan Stormrage, had his eyes burned out and tattoos marked on his body by Sargeras himself. The demon hunters' iconic warglaive weapons come from the famous Twin Blades of Azzinoth, which Illidan took from the doomguard named Azzinoth.

During the years Illidan was in Outland, many elves sought him out because they had lost everything to the Burning Legion and wanted to devote themselves to its destruction. Some blood elf demon hunters were instead sent to Illidan by Kael'thas Sunstrider. On average, only one in five elves survive the demon hunter training. Most are overwhelmed and killed by the demonic energy or go insane and commit suicide. At least one night elf demon hunter wasn't trained by Illidan in Outland, Illysanna Ravencrest, who seem to have been a demon hunter since the War of the Ancients after following in Illidan's footsteps.

Some demon hunters' souls are bound to the Twisting Nether, effectively making them demons, and killing them in the physical universe will only send them back into the Nether. Such souls are described by Illidan as "immortal demon souls". This does not seem to be the case for all demon hunters, as Illidan was intrigued when he learned about the player's.

Demon hunters can take a demon's power by taking the demon's essence from its corpse, granting the demon hunter new abilities.

Training
The training begins with the person slaying a demon, eating its heart, and drinking its blood. The spirit of the ingested demon bonds with them and from this bond the demon hunter receives visions of the Burning Legion destroying countless worlds across the universe. In horror at the sight, they tear their own eyes out, and usually puts them into a coma. The fel power infusing their bodies after ingesting the demon's heart and blood causes the demon hunter to mutate, gaining demonic features such as scales, horns, or claws. As with all chaos-touched creatures, the forms that these traits will take can be quite unpredictable.

After the demon hunter awakens and their spectral sight begins to take effect, they are given tattoos which keep their inner demon from overwhelming them, but it is still always there, talking to them and trying to get them to turn to the Legion. Arcane energy counters fel energy, thus they mark their bodies with arcane runes to keep the fel forces in check. Keeping their demons at bay with those tattoos and willpower is necessary to not become demons themselves. Each ritual to become a demon hunter is different and, as such, no two sets of tattoos are the same.

Demon hunters have a constant craving for fel power and demonic flesh, and live in constant torment from the sacrifices they've made. Some succumb to the overbearing power of fel energy and lose all control of themselves. Their blood begins to burn and they unwillingly take on their demon form before lashing out at any nearby living beings. Assuming Metamorphosis form is a very dangerous feat to undertake: unleashing the demon within is risking that the demonic power will take over. Should this happen, all semblance of the elf that was will be lost and only a demonic servant of the Burning Legion will remain.

Demon hunters used to be taught about demons by Varedis Felsoul, infiltration by Alandien, and weapons by Netharel. Varedis also used to oversee training duels. Theras's role was not elaborated on.

Jace Darkweaver, a former mage, found that the fel in his body has made arcane all but impossible to use, even though he retained the knowledge of his old spells. Despite this, Illidan himself casts spells quite often during World of Warcraft: Illidan, so it may vary from individual to individual.

Warcraft III
A list of random demon hunter names that appear in Warcraft III:
 * Shadowsong, Shadowfury, Shadowstalker, Flameseeker, Darkweaver, Darkterror, Darksorrow, Sindweller, Painkiller, Hellbourne, Wrathbringer, Ragerunner, Firebrand, Bloodwrath, Terrorblade.

Races
Only two playable races can be demon hunters: night elves and blood elves.

Demon hunter characters have completely unique voice overs different from night elves and blood elves of other classes.

Appearance
Unlike most classes, demon hunter characters come with special visual customization options.


 * Horns - a number of different shapes and styles, ranging from very large to fairly small, or even no horns at all
 * Tattoos - a variety of colors and patterns; a lot of demon hunter-specific armor will expose the character's skin, allowing players to "show off" their tattoos
 * Skin variations - from "scaly and demonic" to normal
 * Eye wear - "traditional Illidan-style", veils, with or without the green eye glow

Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis forms retain the demon hunter characters hair color and tattoo shape.

Starting experience
Demon hunters will have a unique starting experience, similar in nature to the death knight starting experience. Starting at level 98, players will then be able to "immediately flow into" Legion content.

The demon hunter storyline starts years before Legion, at the events at the Black Temple. Part of an elite team of demon hunters, the player is sent on a "suicide mission" by Illidan to the Legion prison world of Mardum, the world in which Sargeras imprisoned demons prior to his descent into madness. As events play out, the player will learn what it means to be a demon hunter, and the true meaning of sacrifice.

Years later, the player is awoken in the Vault of the Wardens. Desperate for help in the fight against the Burning Legion, the wardens have "thrown the switch" to awaken the imprisoned demon hunters, in particular because of their unique abilities when it comes to fighting demons.

Specializations

 * For a full list of specialization abilities, see Demon hunter abilities

Unlike most classes, demon hunters have only 2 specializations: Havoc, a damage dealing spec; and Vengeance, a tanking spec.

Havoc


Havoc demon hunters are agile melee damage dealers, using the weapons of the enemy against them. They constantly struggle to resist the corruption of the power they wield and can channel that power to achieve feats of impossible agility, or release it explosively in a torrent of chaos.

A highly mobile melee DPS spec, Havoc demon hunters rush and charge across the battlefield, assailing their targets with a flurry of attacks. Their filler abilities build Fury, which can be consumed to unleash a chain of explosive attacks at just the right time; with powerful damage-enhancing cooldowns such as Metamorphosis (Havoc) and Chaos Blades, Havoc is a spec with strong burst damage capabilities. With a variety of AoE attacks, Havoc has naturally strong multi-target damage potential, but can also deal powerful single target damage with the right talent choices. Primarily melee, Havoc can also deal decent ranged damage when necessary through abilities like Throw Glaive and Eye Beam.

In PvP, Havoc demon hunters hound their prey, chasing them relentlessly and aggressively burning down priority targets, and are especially effective at cutting through to soft backline targets. They have a number of counters to caster classes, while their agility allows them to kite other melee classes, while dealing a steady stream of ranged damage. Their signature strength, their agility, is also their weakness: when stunned, rooted or heavily snared demon hunters are quickly dispatched by the groups of foes into which they all too readily throw themselves.

Vengeance


Vengeance demon hunters wield fire and pain as their weapons. Those who follow the path of vengeance have found strength in their suffering, and by harnessing that power, they are able to inflict it upon their enemies while defending themselves and their allies from harm. They directly attack the soul of their foe.

Capable tanks, Vengeance weather the wrath of their enemies by cleaving fragments from their souls, which can then be consumed by the demon hunter to restore their health. They have regular damage reduction abilities in Demon Spikes and Empower Wards, as well as a number of stronger defensive tools, but primarily rely on self-healing for survivability. They also have access to a number of sigils, used for AoE damage and crowd control, and can leap between enemies, allowing them to quickly counter any threat. They have good AoE and multi-target threat through various damaging abilities.

Abilities
Demon hunters use Fury as their primary resource. Some abilities generate Fury, while other consume it. Demon hunter attacks primarily deal Physical, Fire, or Chaos damage.

Gear
Demon hunters are able to wear cloth and leather armor only, and gain additional benefits from wearing completely leather. They can equip warglaives, fist weapons, one-handed axes, and one-handed swords.

Artifacts

 * Havoc - Twinblades of the Deceiver
 * Vengeance - Aldrachi Warblades

Background
Illidan Stormrage is the most famous demon hunter, and was the first of their kind. Even Illidan's own brother did not appreciate his sacrifice, and locked him below ground for thousands of years for trafficking with dark powers. Illidan's case was unique. Sargeras, lord of the Burning Legion, burned away Illidan's eyes with magic fire until only scorched sockets remained. Illidan's resulting sight was a maddening display of violent colors. His altered vision allowed him to easily recognize both demons and mortals with magic powers. In addition, Sargeras covered Illidan's body with black tattoos that increased his arcane power.

Later, a group of night elves, inspired by Illidan's example, made a pact to turn the Burning Legion's powers against it, fighting destruction with destruction. Obviously they could not gain their powers in the same way Illidan did, but they discovered other means. In the millennia since, other night elves, and a few creatures of other races, have made the same pact, binding demonic essence in their bodies and using it to destroy the Legion's minions.

Though many among the night elves and the Alliance fear the demon hunters and their pact with darkness, all know that demon hunters and their demonically-charged warblades have played an important part in combating what remains of the Burning Legion.

Development and abilities
Demon hunters have a variety of abilities that assist them in destroying demons, though the power coursing through their bodies also allows them to prevail over lesser foes. Demon hunters eschew heavy armor, valuing mobility and speed. As a demon hunter grows in power, they undergo a gradual evolution, becoming more and more demonic in appearance. The changes are cosmetic and can take many different forms, from burning eyes to black blood. By the time the demon hunter reaches the pinnacle of his development, he is a twisted and dark version of his former self - though the chaotic energy in his body does not affect his personality and allegiance (or so the demon hunters claim), it wreaks great changes on his physical form. The demon hunter’s gradual evolution achieves its pinnacle as they become a demonic entity. Their appearance has changed to something frightening: The exact changes vary, but can include glowing red eyes; horns; clawed feet and hands; nonfunctioning wings; cloven hooves; a spiked tail; dark skin; a deep, rumbling voice; and similar cosmetic changes. The demon hunter becomes an outsider.

The demon hunter can drain a demon’s energy to fuel their own powers. They mainly use arcane and fire energy. Shadow energy is rare. No other energies have been confirmed. The demon hunter can channel the chaos energy within them into a melee weapon to increase its powers. In time the demon hunter becomes more proficient in channeling demonic energy into their weapons, and highly skilled demon hunters are adept at this technique. Demon hunters have shown the ability to cover their bodies in a shell of flame. At the pinnacle of evolution, Demon hunters can unleash the demon in them and turn themselves (temporarily) into something more. This is called Metamorphosis.

Demon hunters hone their speed and maneuverability to overcome their foes.

Relations
Night elf society shuns demon hunters. Most night elves don't understand the noble sacrifice that demon hunters make; therefore, they make another sacrifice: to be outcasts from their society. Other cultures share the night elves' distrust of demon hunters, and the shadowy individuals are not welcome in cities throughout the Alliance or Horde-controlled lands. Citizens and soldiers may allow a demon hunter to stay at an inn or take a brief rest at a tavern, but they watch them warily and breathe sighs of relief when they leave. These people do not see the demon hunters for the heroes and martyrs they are; they see them as dangerous individuals who consort with dark powers, almost as bad as warlocks. Such ignorance embitters many demon hunters, and most are solitary souls. Some are fortunate enough to find the company of a few individuals who appreciate them, or at least show them little ill will.

Race and initiation
The tradition of the demon hunter arises from night elf history, and almost all demon hunters are night elves. A few blood elves make the pledge as well, seeking revenge for the destruction of their home. Other races can become demon hunters, but such individuals are unheard of. Any member of another race who is willing to make the sacrifices necessary to join the fight against the demonic invaders must find a night elf or blood elf demon hunter to assist him in the initiation ceremonies.

Humans can also be demon hunters. Some of these demon hunters can be found guarding Mount Hyjal with the help of fellow night elf demon hunters. Demon hunters in other races are rare, but some exist.

To become a demon hunter, a hero must find a demon hunter who is willing to lead them through a series of complex rituals. These rituals involve capturing a demon and sacrificing it in order to bind a portion of its spirit inside the hero. As part of the ceremony to become a demon hunter, the initiate burns out his or her eyes with a magic blade to entrap a demonic essence within their body. Most demon hunters then bind their mutilated eyes with strips of cloth. In return for this sacrifice, the demon hunter gains the ability to see the world without vision — creatures are visible as dimly glowing forms against a gray and murky background. Demonic energy blazes like burning pitch in the night; the demon hunter sees and recognizes it easily.

Equipment
Though equipment obviously varies from demon hunter to demon hunter, one universal element of the order seems to be the blindfold. Used to conceal the remains of the demon hunters' mutilated eye sockets, the demon hunter blindfold is usually some dark but mundane-looking fabric. Blindfolds are occasionally neglected, perhaps to make the demon hunter appear more frightening and intimidating. A second common occurrence among demon hunters is the tendency for the males among their numbers to be stripped to the waist, which is just one display of the demon hunters' emphasis on the importance of agility and general rejection of heavier armor. Those female demon hunters that have surfaced have been similarly garbed, wearing only the bare minimum of clothing on their upper bodies, sometimes even nothing at all. Demon hunters further tend to wear what appears to be cloth or leather, rarely (if ever) donning plate and mail, favoring greater speed and agility on the battlefield.

Weaponry
To contrast their stark lack of armor and clothing in general, demon hunters seem to typically carry large, curved warglaives, in the style of Illidan Stormrage's own Twin Blades of Azzinoth. Though the exact reason for this tendency isn't well explained, there are several possible reasons. One is that this kind of weapon has simply become a tradition over the years, later demon hunters mimicking the first of their kind. Another is that this style of curved warblades is common among the kind of demons that demon hunters have to kill as part of their basic initiation process. A third explanation is that the dual-bladed nature of their large, curved weapons allows them to deal the most damage with the least amount of effort, allowing them to focus on their agility and speed. A final explanation is that this kind of weapon is somehow easier to magically charge or channel through, though there is nothing that directly suggests this.

Demon hunters also possess a plethora of magical abilities, most notably the ability to metamorphose. Many abilities also tend to vary from demon hunter to demon hunter, possibly derived from the type of demon that they originally partially absorbed.



Demon hunter warblades description: These blades appear as a strange cross between a small buckler and a sharp-looking, curved, two-bladed short sword. The demon hunters of the night elves wear these blades while they hunt the minions of the Scourge, the Burning Legion or other dark adversaries worthy of such weaponry. While many of the demon hunters rely on non-magic weapons, eventually most have either one of these double blades or a matching pair.

The use of such weapons tells a lot about the individual wielding them. The inwardly-curving nature of the blades means that the demon hunter must get extremely close to their opponent, literally within what would normally be punching range, in order to get maximum use of the blades. The warblades would be swung in wide arcs at extreme speed, viciously lacerating the foe. More often than not, the warblades will have intricate serrations on the outer edge of the blade near the central buckle, adding yet another facet to the brutal nature of the weapons.

Notes and trivia

 * Demon hunters as a playable class were considered as early as The Burning Crusade, but the developers weren't ready to add any new classes to the game at that point. They were considered again for Wrath of the Lich King, but it was decided that they wouldn't make sense with the theme of the expansion. It was not until Legion that an expansion arrived with a story and theme which fit the class. Still, even before Legion several demon hunters NPCs and mobs already existed, with different gear and customizations than those playable now. Examples of such old-school demon hunters are Loramus Thalipedes, Altruis the Sufferer, Leotheras the Blind, Alandien and the Demon Hunter Initiates of Karabor. Note that some of them have been updated since, but pictures of their older appearances are still archived on their respective pages.
 * There is a 3D model called "demonhunter" in the game files, which was previously used both for certain demons such as Atiesh and transformed demon hunters.
 * The addition of Telarius Voidstrider as early as Cataclysm could've been an early hint at the coming of playable demon hunters, but Writings of the Dark Herald shows that the story for them might have originally been intended to be different.
 * While death knights have a unique effect to their normal voiceover audio, demon hunters' audio is entirely unique, with new dialogue to fit their status.
 * Playable female blood elf demon hunters are voiced by Karen Strassman.
 * Playable female night elf demon hunters are voiced by Arianna Ratner.
 * Female demon hunter NPCs are voiced by Kathleen Fisher.
 * In previous lore, they were described as dark, shadowy warriors who were shunned by the greater night elf society. Though the mightiest warriors within the night elves' society, they were always maligned and misunderstood for making their selfless pact with darkness. This is no longer true as the novel Illidan revealed that they were created by Illidan on Outland, long after the War of the Ancients. There is only one confirmed instance of a demon hunter that was not directly formed by Illidan, Illysanna Ravencrest, who followed into his footsteps.
 * Loramus Thalipedes is Illidari, but pre-dates the others by being a demon hunter on Azeroth since Classic. Telarius Voidstrider and Feronas Sindweller's backstories are unknown but they may be among the demon hunters sent by Illidan to Azeroth, given that Feronas knew everything about Illidan and came to continue his master's work in Felwood and that Telarius was slain by Maiev Shadowsong years before the Cataclysm and was carrying a book detailing how to become a demon hunter.
 * Zandalari demoniacs enslave demons inside their bodies, similar to demon hunters.
 * Until the release of patch 8.0.1, demon hunters could not be boosted with the Character Boost service.
 * Master Cheng is a pandaren monk dreaming of being a demon hunter instead.
 * Sylvia Hartshorn and Temple Priestesses comment on demon hunter players.
 * Demon hunters do not start with a Garrison automatically unlocked. They must start the Warlords of Draenor: The Dark Portal quest at The Dark Portal in The Blasted Lands from Archmage Khadgar to unlock or obtain the Azeroth's Last Stand quest.
 * Hearthstone depicts several demon hunters from races not seen in WoW: HS Karnuk, Demon Hunter, HS Redeemed Pariah, HS Renowned Performer, HS Shalja, Demon Hunter, HS Sightless Watcher, HS Sklibb, Demon Hunter, HS Soulshard Lapidary, HS Stiltstepper, HS Wrathscale Naga and HS Zai, the Incredible.