The Demon Hunter was introduced ten years ago as a playable class in World of Warcraft with the Legion expansion. Established in the lore in Warcraft III way back in 2002, the original Demon Hunter was the Night Elf Illidan Stormrage, who was actually twin brothers with Malfurion Stormrage, the first Druid. Illidan had begun his career as a Mage (basically Warcraft's version of a Wizard). While not Highborne (the ruling caste of the Night Elf society, under Queen Azshara, the most powerful mage in the world,) he consorted with their ranks thanks to his aptitude for arcane magic.
When Azshara was contacted by the Dark Titan Sargeras, the fallen god-like being who created the demonic Burning Legion in an effort to burn the universe to prevent the eldritch power of the Void from claiming it, she decided she had finally found a worthy partner to rule alongside her, and opened the way for the Legion to invade Azeroth.
While Malfurion and his and Illidan's childhood friend/the woman they were both in love with, Tyrande Whisperwind, led a resistance against the invading Legion, Illidan feigned loyalty to Azshara in order to learn all he could about the demons, ultimately learning how to use their Fel magic. Granted communion with Sargeras himself, the Dark Titan showed him such awesome terrors that the fel power burned Illidan's eyes out, but granted him a second sight.
While Illidan fought the Legion behind the scenes, his methods were extreme, and after the Legion was defeated, he was imprisoned for his demonic consorting. And that imprisonment lasted for ten thousand years. (It's notable that elves naturally over a thousand years in Azeroth, but the Night Elves in particular were blessed with immortality for those ten thousand years, so none of them aged in all of that time).
When the Legion returned (in the events of Warcraft III) Tyrande grew desperate for those with the knowledge of how to combat them, and raided the vault where Illidan was kept, releasing him. Illidan took his fight to the Legion, and consumed the poweran artifact called the Skull of Gul'dan (Gul'dan being a powerful and very dead orc warlock who died in Warcraft II). Doing so gave him the power to defeat Tichondrius, one of the most powerful Dreadlord demons, but transformed Illidan into a half-demon.
Later, Illidan left in exile to Outland (the shattered fragments of the Orc homeworld of Draenor) and gathered up loyal Night Elves and Blood Elves to train them in his ways. Playable Demon Hunters in WoW are members of this group, the Illidari.
In gameplay, Demon Hunters wear Leather (the equivalent of Light armor, if you consider "no armor" to be the equivalent of those who wear Cloth) and all dual-wield weapons. Until the current expansion, they only had two specializations (basically subclasses,) Havoc and Vengeance. Havoc was the damage-focused one while Vengeance was the tanking one. The new expansion added Devourer, which uses void magic instead of fel magic, and is more of a (very mobile) ranged spellcaster, though unlike all other spellcasters, they also dual-wield weapons.
Ok, all that background aside:
How do we make this into a Ranger subclass?
First off, we need to strip this down to its iconic essentials. That means probably making it feel more like the Havoc spec than the other two, which I consider the most "quintessential" Demon Hunter spec.
I actually think the Ranger does make decent sense as the chassis upon which the Demon Hunter is built, even if the class itself can sometimes struggle. I also wonder if the subclass is going to be flexible enough to allow for a ranged version. (In WoW, Rogues are all dual-wielding melee damage dealers, so it was honestly kind of weird when I first saw D&D Rogues using shortbows).
Naturally, as a Ranger, the Demon Hunter is going to primarily be making weapon attacks. I imagine, like the Hollow Warden, we might see some mechanics that nudge you toward playing in melee. One such thing might be Immolation Aura.
This is an ability in WoW that causes the Demon Hunter to deal pulsing fire damage to every nearby creature for a few seconds (it also generates Fury, their resource, though we're sure not to carry that over in D&D). Now, this could, for sure, just be a spell that they get, but if it's on the subclass spell list, it'd probably push them a little toward melee.
The next thing to consider is their eyes.
Like Illidan, all Demon Hunters have to, as part of their initiation, gouge their eyes out. The Fel magic they take into themselves lets them sense the world around them. In gameplay, this is really just cosmetic, but you get an ability called Spectral Sight that allows you to see invisible creatures and sense creatures and treasures through walls for a few seconds.
I think it would be cool if the subclass gave you Blindsight out to a short range at level 3 - like 10 feet, but that maybe at higher levels (14, or whatever the Ranger subclass capstone is) you'd get to make that into Truesight with perhaps a larger range for a certain amount of time some reasonable number of times per long rest.
One thing all Demon Hunters get is Metamorphosis - while they have demonic features like horns and cracked skin all the time, they can sometimes turn into hulking demons (this is your major "cooldown" ability in WoW, though Devourer does it a bit differently). Now, this could be a spell (probably at a higher level) but I could also very much see this being the main capstone feature for the subclass. The transformation might allow you to make more attacks, or add damage to the attacks you do, and/or perhaps give you some defensive benefits.
Eye Beam is one of the most iconic Havoc-specific abilities, where you shoot a beam of fel energy out in front of you. It's almost exactly a line-shaped spell. I think this could be done as a spell, or it might be a subclass feature.
Fel Rush is another ability you get early on, which shoots you forward and deals some damage to any enemies you pass through. I think this could be done either as a low-level spell (maybe 1st or 2nd level) or, if it's a subclass feature, maybe you get this at level 3 and get to use it, like, Wis mod times per long rest (or short rest, if they're feeling generous).
The only reason I'd find it unlikely a lot of these are made into spells is that it would be weird to see a Beast Master using spells like them. Might they be classified as Warlock spells that are then on the subclass-specific spell list? Perhaps.
We haven't seen a UA for this (indeed, other than the revamped/returning subclasses, I don't think we've gotten a playtest version of any of the brand new ones, unless that Oathbreaker one was sneakily the Oath of the Ebon Blade,) so we'll probably have to wait until November (or at least until we get the next season of Dungeon Masters) to really get a sense of how it will work.
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