Introduction to the Marksmanship Hunter

 A Marksman has embraced the class fantasy of the ranger, drawing inspiration from the likes of the Windrunner sisters, Sylvanas, Alleria and Vereesa. Marks Hunters fire a flurry of shots on the move, then stop to take Careful Aim for precise heavy hitting shots. Players can customize their Marksman Hunters to fulfill several variations of the fantasy: they’re the only Hunter spec that can function with or without a pet; and they have several choices which can convert the spec to either a carefully planned out long-range sniper play-style, or a quick moving spray-and-pray play-style.

Below you will find a beginners guide to the Marksmanship Hunter, you can click on highlighted abilities, for a more in depth description of them.


Strengths and Weaknesses of the Marksmanship Hunter

Strengths

  • High burst-damage.
  • Very strongly tied to ability cooldowns which can make it inflexible in very short-term burst situations.

Weaknesses

  • Has weaknesses in 2 target cleave scenarios and mass AoE (6+ targets), as Aimed Shot is restricted to 3-6 targets.

Talents

LevelChoices
15Master Marksman Master Marksman ✅Serpent Sting Serpent StingA Murder of Crows A Murder of Crows
30Careful Aim Careful Aim ✅Volley VolleyExplosive Shot Explosive Shot
45Trailblazer TrailblazerNatural Mending Natural Mending ✅Camouflage Camouflage
60Steady Focus Steady FocusStreamline StreamlineHunter's Mark Hunter’s Mark ✅
75Born To Be Wild Born To Be WildPosthaste Posthaste ✅Binding Shot Binding Shot
90Lethal Shots Lethal Shots ✅Barrage BarrageDouble Tap Double Tap
100Calling the Shots Calling the Shots ✅Lock and Load Lock and LoadPiercing Shot Piercing Shot

Rotation of the Marksmanship Hunter

The basic rotation of the Marksmanship Hunter is as follows:

  • Make sure to apply Hunter's Mark Icon Hunter’s Mark before the pull, if you are using this talent
  • Start casting Aimed Shot Icon Aimed Shot roughly 2 seconds before the fight begins

Cooldowns

Trueshot IconTrueshot is your primary and only offensive cooldown. It reduces the cooldown of Aimed Shot IconAimed Shot and Rapid Fire by 60%, and reduces the cast time of Aimed Shot IconAimed Shot by 50%


Stat Priority

The stat priority for the Marksmanship Hunter is

  1. Mastery
  2. Haste
  3. Versatility
  4. Critical Strike