Like the Death Knight, the Demon Hunter is one of WoW's hero classes, which is a bit ironic, as both the Death Knight and Demon Hunter are probably more accurately "antihero" classes.
While Death Knights are a pretty ubiquitous fantasy trope that dates back at least to the Ringwraiths from Lord of the Rings, WoW's take on Demon Hunters is very different from what you might find in other IPs. At the most basic level, the thing that makes WoW Demon Hunters distinct is the answer to the following question: "Do you mean you're a demon who hunts or someone who hunts demons?" which these guys would answer "Yes."
So, the background is that ten thousand years ago, the Night Elf Illidan Stormrage more or less acted as a double agent, ostensibly working alongside the Highborne collaborators who had sworn themselves to the demonic Burning Legion while actually working actively to subvert the Legion's plans. Put into a position to commune with the Dark Titan himself, Sargeras flooded Illidan with fel energy, burning out his eyes while giving him nightmarish visions of the Legion's apocalyptic goals. Blinded but now imbued with second sight, Illidan used the demonic powers he had been granted to help bring the invasion to an end. However, because of his perceived betrayals and his use of forbidden Fel magic, he was imprisoned by the Night Elves' Wardens, where he remained in a dark vault for ten thousand years.
When the Scourge invaded Kalimdor during the Third War, a desperate Tyrande Whisperwind broke into the vault and released Illidan, hoping that his expertise in demonology would help them deal with the Scourge's then-masters in the Legion, the Dreadlords. Aided, ironically, by Arthas Menethil (who, as champion of the Scourge, sought to help the Lich King free the Scourge from its Legion masters,) Illidan consumed the profound fel magic of the Skull of Gul'dan, transforming him into a half-demon and giving him the power to strike down the Dreadlords' leader Tichondrius.
Having once again helped to secure victory by becoming even more monstrous, Illidan fled into exile following the Third War, but this time, he brought with him a contingent of sympathetic Night Elves, whom he began to train in his arts. Later, when the Blood Elves came to him seeking a way to sate their magic addiction, he took in a number of them as well. These Illidari now became an entire army of Demon Hunters, whom Illidan led in guerrilla attacks against the Burning Legion across many worlds.
So yeah, these aren't just simple monster hunters, but people who have transformed themselves into half-demons like Illidan. Each holds within them a demonic soul, and they also ritually gouge out their own eyes, letting the demonic power within them grant them second sight. Traditionally, they fight with warglaives, large bow-shaped double-headed swords that they dual-wield, essentially turning themselves into living buzzsaws.
Only elves have ever become Demon Hunters, and only recently were Void Elves able to join their ranks, though it's not clear if this is a physiological requirement or just a cultural history.
Like the Death Knight, the Demon Hunter uses the framework of an existing class, in this case the Ranger, while going a bit beyond a normal subclass by changing some of the existing base class features. Let's take a look:
Level 1:
Spellcasting:
You can use an Arcane Focus instead of a Druidic focus for your spellcasting.
This is 99% just flavor. Indeed, Staves count as both arcane and druidic foci, and are the only ones I believe that are automatically also a standard weapon type (the Quarterstaff.)
Level 2:
Deft Explorer:
When you pick languages for your Deft Explorer feature, you can choose Eredun and Nathrezim as options.
Another very minor thing. Both Eredun and Nathrezim are languages of different types of demon, with Eredun as the kind of "lingua franca" of the Legion, based on the language of the Man'ari Eredar (and thus probably very similar to the Draenei language) while Nathrezim is the language of the Dreadlords, whose real name is... Nathrezim. The Dreadlords are a bit unusual among demonkind, though their origins in the Shadowlands are... something I bet a lot of DMs will want to ignore given how convoluted that makes the story (mind you, the Natrhezim are at least from by far the coolest part of the Shadowlands, it's just that this plot reveal was... a wild choice).
Fighting Style:
You gain a new fighting style option: Void Warrior.
Void Warrior: You learn two cantrips from the Warlock spell list, which count as Ranger spells for you and use Wisdom as their spellcasting ability.
So, the recently-added Devourer specialization in WoW for Demon Hunters is actually a ranged spellcaster. If you want to play in this style, picking up some ranged cantrips to be your bread-and-butter action makes sense. While Eldritch Blast won't get the benefits of all those eldritch invocations, it's still a great option and works well with Hunter's Mark (more or less just like Hex). But you can also potentially pick up some spells like Booming Blade (though we don't get Bladesinger-style extra attack). I'd really only pick this if I wanted to commit to that spell-focused Devourer playstyle and go full Wisdom-focused.
Demon Hunter Spells:
You will get additional spells prepared, with one at each spell level granted to all Demon Hunters and one for your specialization, which is Devourer, Havoc, or Vengeance.
All:
1st: Throw Glaive
2nd: Sigil of Flame
3rd: Metamorphosis
4th: Chaos Nova
5th: Destructive Wave
All but the last of these is a new spell. Throw Glaive is a surprisingly good ranged attack that works a bit like Chromatic Orb, bouncing to additional targets. I don't remember the details on the other spells quite as well. Sigil of Flame I believe will deal damage to a foe and other nearby foes. Metamorphosis transforms you into a demon with various benefits. Chaos Nova is (if it's like the WoW version) an AoE stun that also deals some damage, likely in an emanation. Metamorphosis in particular is really iconic to the class.
Devourer:
1st: Consume Soul
2nd: Misty Step
3rd: Soul Reap
4th: Collapsing Star
5th: Steel Wind Strike
Again, several new spells, and these I don't recall so well. Hilariously, I remember that Collapsing Star is either really good or terrible. We'll see when I get the spell in front of me.
Havoc:
1st: Fel Rush
2nd: Eye Beam
3rd: Blink
4th: Fire Shield
5th: Conjure Volley
Fel Rush is a buff that lets you move faster without provoking opportunity attacks and damage foes you pass by. Eye Beam is a spell that lets you shoot out lines of damage each turn as an action. I actually think Fel Rush will wind up being pretty good for both mobility and some AoE damage
Vengeance:
1st: Infernal Strike
2nd: Fiery Brand
3rd: Demon Spikes
4th: Banishment
5th: Sigil of Chains
Again, lots of new spells. Infernal Strike sends you flying to a targeted area and then damages foes you land nearby. Fiery Brand I believe is placed on a target and deals some fire damage and (if it's like the WoW version) reduces the damage they deal. Demon Spikes boosts your AC while also punishing foes for attacking you. Sigil of Chains will create an area that pulls foes to the center of it.
Broadly, of course, we're still half-casters who will rely more on our weapon attacks (in most cases) but there's way more area-effect spells here than Rangers tend to get, so that could be interesting. Half-casters can start leaning a bit more on their caster side especially at higher levels.
Soul Fragments:
Whenever you finish a long rest, you gain a number of soul fragments equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1). These are tiny objects that are like a crystal. They last until you finish a long rest, at which point they disintegrate. If you ever move more than 30 feet from a fragment, it teleports onto you person.
(So basically just treat it as a resource rather than something in your inventory.)
The number of Soul Fragments you gain on a long rest goes up at levels 13 and 17 by 1 (so Wisdom +1 at 13 and Wisdom +2 at 17).
Practically, this means we'll have 2 or 3 at early levels, and then possibly by 13 we might have 3-5, and then by 17 probably 6-7.
You can use Soul Fragments in the following ways:
Double Jump: You can expend a soul fragment to cast Feather Fall or Jump without expending a spell slot.
These are both useful spells, but not hugely impactful. Mainly if this means conserving spell slots, that's good.
Soul Cleave: Once on each of your turns, when you take the attack action, you can expend a fragment and replace one of your attacks with a whirlwind of soul energy. Each creature in a 10-foot emanation from you must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 1d12 + Wis psychic damage on a failed save, and you regain HP equal to your Wisdom modifier.
This is a save for none, but I also think no one has to fail a save for you to get the admittedly minor heal. Still, this is sustainable AoE damage, which is pretty good (we'll see how it's sustainable in a moment).
When an enemy dies within 30 feet of you, you can use your reaction to regain an expended Soul Fragment.
While it'll suck if we've used our reaction already, this is a reasonably generous range and also does not require us to get the killing blow. Realistically, in combat, you should probably be getting a lot of these back, and there's a kind of beneficial feedback loop here, where Soul Cleave might help you take down lots of minor foes and give you back a soul fragment.
Note that there is a "bag of rats" problem here, so DMs will probably want to define "enemies" as something other than just "that squirrel you decided you don't like."
Spectral Sight:
You have blindsight with a range of 10 feet.
This is great - a free fighting style, and one that will help in lots of situations, including when you have party members who like to use Darkness (so, Shadow Monks, Shadow Sorcerers, and Warlocks of all stripes). Simple but great.
Level 7:
Torment:
A creature marked with Hunter's Mark has disadvantage on attack rolls against targets other than you.
It's funny: Rangers have one of the highest hit dice, but unlike Fighters and Paladins, they're not typically put in a "tanking" role. That said, if you're kind of playing against type and fighting with a ranged weapon from afar, this can also be more or less a blanket disadvantage on some major foe as long as you stay away from them.
Additionally, once per turn when you hit a creature targeted by Hunter's Mark, you can impose one of the following effects:
Aura of Pain: The target subtracts 1d4 from the next saving throw it makes before the end of your next turn.
That's not too bad, and can help set up your allies.
Chaos Strike: The target takes an extra 1d8 fire damage.
So this means that the spell is ultimately adding 1d6+1d8 to your attacks, though remember that this is once per turn.
I'm not terribly impressed with this, in part because I'm one of the people who really wish that Rangers weren't forced into using Hunter's Mark all the time. If it was meant to be a core feature of the Ranger class, it shouldn't have been a spell. Or, alternatively, it shouldn't have been a concentration spell. I really liked how the Hollow Warden kind of extricated itself from the 5.5 focus on Hunter's Mark, and it's frustrating to see this subclass, which is meant to even further distinguish itself from the general Ranger, falling back on this design choice.
Level 11:
Illidari Knowledge:
You have new uses for your soul fragments:
Disrupt: You can expend two soul fragments to cast Counterspell.
So... it doesn't technically say "without a spell slot," though I have to assume that's what is meant here. But it's also not on the Ranger spell list nor any of the subclass spell lists, so is this just to give us access to a spell we normally wouldn't have? If it also takes a spell slot, this is godawful. Counterspell is not nearly as good as it was in 5.0 (which I am happy about). Could be clutch, but probably won't come up much.
Warglaive Mastery: As a bonus action, you can expend a soul fragment to cast Throw Glaive without expending a spell slot.
Now this is great. Throw Glaive doesn't do a ton of damage (especially for a level 11 character), and we obviously cannot upcast it with this feature, but if we have a spare bonus action, this is a great way to get a bit of extra damage out there. Note that it is a ranged spell attack, so we might have disadvantage on the attack if we're already in melee.
Level 15:
Soul Shatter:
Soul Cleave damage increases by 1d12 (to 2d12+Wis). Also, if you roll initiative and don't have any soul fragments, you regain one.
Setting aside the light scaling, we have a really frustrating reappearance of the "refill but only on an empty tank" feature that I thought had been consigned to the ash heap of class design history. This should just be "regain an expended soul fragment when you roll initiative."
Level 18:
Improve Spectral Sight:
This replaces Rangers' Feral Senses.
You have Truesight with a range of 30 feet.
While Truesight isn't strictly better than Blindisght (you can still lose it if blinded,) this feels like a very reasonable progression for the Demon Hunters' ability to see beyond the veil that would be a bit overpowered at low levels. Hold on... is Blindsight actually better than Truesight? I guess Truesight lets you see through physical transformations as well like polymorph, so neither is really strictly better. And Demon Hunters are always looking out for demons disguised as humanoid people.
Note that Feral Senses would give us Blindsight to 30 feet, and while we do have 10 feet of Blindsight, there's technically a scenario where we could be blinded and then have an enemy 15-30 feet away from us that is now harming us in a way that a normal Ranger wouldn't be.
Overall Thoughts:
I think that this design is far more conservative than the Death Knight, and that's a shame because while the Death Knight benefits a lot from being on the overall chassis of the Paladin, the Ranger is not as inherently powerful a class (arguably the weakest of the inherent spellcasting classes). I do think that the Ranger makes the best sense to build the Demon Hunter on, but I'd have liked a more radical reimagining of what the class could look like.
Furthermore, after the Hollow Warden introduced new "tech" to break the Ranger from its 5.5-imposed reliance on Hunter's Mark, the Demon Hunter doubles down on it in a really annoying way.
All this being said, I do think that the new spells here might be the saving grace - I don't know that these spells are necessarily that powerful, but they do a lot of things Rangers can't typically do, so I'll want to see one of these in play before I resign myself to underwhelmed disappointment.
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