It looks like World of Warcraft may have hinted at a third specialization for Demon Hunters via a boss encounter in Patch 11.2’s upcoming raid. While nothing has been officially confirmed at the moment, the battle with the Demon Hunter Council in Manaforge Omega has led to speculation that this encounter could be a sign of some important future changes for this class introduced in the Legion expansion.
Blizzard recently unveiled World of Warcraft patch 11.2, Ghosts of K’aresh. This major update takes players to K’aresh, the void-torn homeland of the Ethereals and Brokers. The patch includes a ton of new content, including new zones, stories, and special activities, but the most exciting part of it is the new Manaforge Omega Season 3 raid. This raid focuses on a cosmic confrontation where players face Dimensius the All-Devouring, a void god who is believed to be responsible for K’aresh’s destruction.
While discussing the new raid during a WoWCast episode, lead encounter designer Drew De Sousa mentioned a particular boss encounter that depicts ‘a mysterious council of Demon Hunters’ who have somehow made their way to K’aresh. One of the three members of this council wears light armor and traditional warglaives, indicating a Havoc specialization. The other appears with heavy armor and Vengeance-style curved warblades. But the third Demon Hunter is different from these two, using shadow-infused weapons and wearing armor that is reminiscent of Shadowguard Ethereals. This unique design is raising speculation among many fans that this could be a hint at a possible third specialization of Demon Hunters in World of Warcraft.
Could a Third Demon Hunter Specialization Come in WoW Patch 11.2?
Most classes in World of Warcraft have three specializations that players can choose from. However, two exceptions are Druids, who have four specs, and Demon Hunters, who have only two specs: Havoc and Vengeance Tank. After the Druid’s Cat Form and Bear Form were split into separate specs, neither class received a completely new specialization for years until the Augmentation Evoker was introduced in patch 10.1.5 of Dragonflight. Interestingly, some abilities had already begun to hint at augmentation during the Battle of Sarkareth in patch 10.1. Now, something similar has been hinted at through the Demon Hunter Council encounter in patch 11.2, leading to speculation that World of Warcraft may be preparing to add another new specialization.
World of Warcraft is clearly lacking a dedicated Shadow damage-dealing melee class. Even though Death Knights, Hunters, and Rogues sometimes use Shadow damage abilities, only Affliction Warlocks and Shadow Priests are really specializations that focus solely on Shadow damage. That means there’s a lot of open space from a design standpoint for a melee-based, Void-themed specialization — which this theoretical third Demon Hunter spec could well fill.
It must be said that this potential hint could also be just a thematic element. It’s very likely that Demon Hunter Council is simply a creative and exciting raid encounter, and there are no plans to actually add any new specializations for Demon Hunter. Still, such a prominent presence of Demon Hunters in the raid has fans of the class excited — and the speculation surrounding specializations is only fueling the hype.
