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In World Of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Marksmanship Hunter is a blast to play. A bit different from the other Hunter Specializations but extremely fun in its own right. Marksmanship Hunter has looked great for a long time, and now with the addition of the new Talent Tree System, it is looking even better.

RELATED: World Of Warcraft: Dragonflight - Playable Race Guide

With the choice to steal Talents and Abilities from other Hunter Specializations, you can truly dial in your Hunting efficiency. The best part about this is that you have the potential to top the DPS charts. This class hasn't changed too much to become unrecognizable from its presence in the last expansion, so it will be easy to pick up and play.

Why Marksmanship Hunter?

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight - Marksman Hunter Shrug

Marksmanship Hunter has a lot of lovely qualities. This may be the class for you if:

1. You love Hunter but hate having pets. The best part about Marksmanship Hunter is that you do not have to have any pets if you don't want to have them. In fact, not having pets gives you a bonus in damage output. So, if you aren't a pet-friendly player but love Hunter, Marksmanship is the Specialization for you.

2. You don't like lots of movement in your rotation. Since Marksmanship Hunter is a long-ranged class, you will not have to move much. This will also take some complication out of your finger's ability to hit keys. Along with being ranged, the casting times for Marksmanship Hunters are on the long side. So, you will be playing on the fringes of the battlefield, not moving much, and casting for longer than average to deal the most damage.

3. You love big damage numbers. Marksmanship Hunter has the potential to be one of the top DPS, and you will notice this right away with the huge damage number that pops up when you manage your rotation properly. It is so rewarding to see massive damage numbers. So, if you are competitive and need to be a top DPS, Marksmanship Hunter may be for you.

Best Races For Marksmanship Hunter

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight - Marksman Hunter Races

When picking Races, the bottom line comes down to picking the race you love most. The game is all about having fun, so if there is a race you love the most, by all means, pick that first and foremost. That being said, some races have Racial Abilities that may help any Marksmanship Hunter.

Race

Racial Name

Racial Effect

Human

Every Man For Himself

Remove all stun effects. Shares a cooldown of 90 seconds with similar effects.

Orc

Blood Fury

Increase of Melee attack power.

Void Elf

Spacial Rift

Ability to teleport through a rift in space.

Troll

Beserking

Melee, ranged, and spell haste increase by 15 percent for ten seconds.

Gnome

Escape Artist

Escape any immobilization or movement speed reduction effects.

Goblin

Rocket Jump and Rocket Barrage

This will allow Goblins to use their rocket belt to jump forward and launch belt rockets at an enemy dealing damage.

Most of the recommended Horde Races here, namely Orc and Troll, grant a bonus that will help increase damage output. While Goblin will allow you some extra movement if you need it since you will be standing still a lot of the time, so extra movement to dodge mechanics is a plus since you may be a bit behind more mobile Classes.

Two of the recommended Alliance Races focus on negating movement-impairing effects, which can be extremely useful. Whereas Void Elf gives you the active racial ability for more movement. They also have passive racial qualities of dealing extra damage and not having your casting slowed when taking damage. These are a plus all around for any Marksmanship Hunter.

Marksmanship General Talent Tree

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight - Marksman Hunter General Tree

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As you level in the Dragon Isles from 60 to 70, talents are not extremely important. Instead, perhaps view this time as a great opportunity to explore and discover aspects of your Talent Tree. Who knows, you may even find a build that is even more efficient than this one. That being said, this build focuses mostly on single-target damage but does have some abilities that deal AoE damage. There are some important talents here to be aware of:

  • Kill Shot: Deal a massive amount of damage to finish off the enemy. Only usable on enemies with less than 20 percent health. This will help you down enemies one by one faster to take on the next.
  • Improved Kill Shot: This will increase the damage to Kill Shot, ensuring the enemy's defeat.
  • Death Chakram: This will be handy when you fight one big bad guy or multiple. This is your main damaging AoE ability.

Talents to Consider

  • Camouflage: The ability to go stealth. If you don't like unnecessary fights, this may be perfect for you to skip them. If you go with the Night Elf Race, you can use the Racial Ability Shadowmeld and then activate this to exit fights easily.
  • Scare Beast: Scares a beast, causing it to run in fear. This may help in multiple target fights, however, only if they are of the beast type.
  • Entrapment: When Tar Trap activates, all enemies in the area are rooted for four seconds. This can come in handy in multiple target fights as well.

Marksmanship Hunter Specialization Tree

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight - Marksman Hunter General Tree

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The major talents here are Trueshot, Lone Wolf, and Double Tap. These all play off each other extremely well and are necessary for any single target Marksmanship Hunter build. Two of these play off of your big damaging, Aimed Shot ability; together, these three will increase your overall damage output significantly.

  • Trueshot - Reduces the cooldown of your Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire abilities by 70 percent and causes Aimed Shot to cast 50 percent faster for 15 seconds.
  • Lone Wolf - Increases damage by 10 percent when no pet is active.
  • Double Tap - Your next Aimed Shot will fire a second time instantly, dealing 100 percent damage without consuming Focus, or your next Rapid Fire will shoot 100 percent additional shots without consuming a charge.

As you level, don't hesitate to explore this tree as well. These will come in handy, but you may find something that works better for you and your play style. Ultimately, it is all about having fun, so do your best to explore and discover these talents and possibly create a whole new great build.

RELATED: World Of Warcraft: Dragonflight - Outlaw Rogue Complete Guide

Marksman Hunter Talent Tree For Dungeons And Mythic+

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight - Marksman Hunter Mythic+ Tree

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You may see that the differences in this tree come down to the abilities that do AoE damage. This is important for any DPS when running Mythic+ dungeons. Slight variations in this tree will allow for great single and multi-target fights. The best of both worlds, which is necessary to time those Mythic+ dungeons.

The most notable Talents for AoE in this build are:

  • Multi-Shot: Hits your target and all targets within 10 yards. This is key to making sure you do enough AoE damage. Remember that the damage is reduced if it is more than five targets.
  • Trick Shots: When your Multi-Shot hits three or more targets, your next Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire will ricochet and hit up to five additional targets for 55 percent of normal damage.
  • Salvo: Multi-Shot and Volley also now apply Explosive Shot up to two targets. This can only occur every 45 seconds, but every 45 seconds, you will see huge damage go out.

The Single-Target damage will occur from the following Talents:

  • Hunter's Knowledge: Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire's critical strike chance increased by five percent.
  • Streamline: Rapid Fire's damage increased by 15 percent, and the next Aimed Shot, after Rapid Fire, is cast 30 percent faster.
  • Careful Aim: Aimed Shot deals 50 percent increased damage to enemies above 70 percent health.

Marksmanship Talents For Raids

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight - Marksman Hunter Raid Tree

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You may notice some similarities between this build and the leveling build. Yes, they are similar, but while the Leveling and General Build is a suggestion, this Raid build is elite for those big single-target fights. While Raiding, Single-Target damage output is of utmost importance. The talents here will provide just that for you in your time Raiding. The most notable Talents here are:

  • Unerring Vision: When Trueshot is active, you gain a one percent critical strike chance, and a two percent increased critical damage health every second, stacking up to ten times.
  • Windrunner's Guidance: Each Wind Arrow fired has a three percent chance to grant you ten seconds of Trueshot.
  • Lock and Load: Ranged attacks have a chance to cause your next Aimed Shot to cost no Focus and be instant.

This build mainly revolves around True Shot and talents that help boost this. This will ensure the highest single-target output possible, and it is a blast to play. You will be pleased with the grace and ease that big damage numbers come rolling out of your barrel or bow.

Rotation

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight - Marksman Hunter in Combat

The Rotation for Marksmanship Hunter is rather easy but lengthy. That said, it will require you to be accurate with your timing and ability activations. Your Rotation will roughly look like this:

Sequence

Ability Name

1.

Steady Shot to apply and maintain Steady Focus buff.


Refresh when it drops below five seconds or when it drops. If Trueshot is active, don't worry about applying it.

2.

Kill Shot when it can be used.

3.

Steel Trap and Explosive Shot on Cooldown.

4.

Double Tap

5.

Rapid Fire or Aimed Shot

6.

Death Chakram on Cooldown.

7.

Volley on Cooldown.

8.

Rapid Fire on Cooldown.

9

Trueshot on Cooldown, but only use it when you need big damage for Mobs.

10.

If Bombardment is talented:


Use 4 Arcane Shots and Chimaera Shot or Multi-Shot, then Bombardment here.

11.

Aimed Shot on Cooldown always, especially to spend stacks of Precise Shots.

12.

Steady Shot two times to get Stead Focus back up.

13.

Wailing Arrow on Cooldown if talented. No need to use this during Trueshot

14.

Steady Shot if you are out of options or need something to fill in cooldown gaps.

Some Tips

If some of the above-mentioned abilities aren't talented, feel free to skip those steps. You will also want to throw your Traps in the steps there when applicable, as well as any interrupts.

Aside from the steps mentioned above, if you can line up Trueshot and Double Tap fairly close to each other, if not right next to each other in your rotation, this will come in handy. This will increase your damage output significantly, and they play off each other quite well.

If this rotation is a lot to remember or seems confusing, you may want to try some add-ons to help you in your rotation. The addon Hekili is great for this and will show you what to use next in your rotation to get the most damage.

However, with this addon they don't always keep in mind cooldowns in the priority of their suggested rotation. For instance it may not suggest using Trueshot and Double Tap in close timing with one another, but if that sequence works for you, then knowing this will help with any troubles with the addon.

Macros

Macors will make your life so much easier in certain instances. You will be able to program your own sequence of abilities to essentially use fewer buttons to do so. For instance, a very helpful Hunter macro is:

  • /cast [@focus] Misdirection

This macros is almost necessary when using Misdirection. For this macro to work properly, you will need to focus the tank of your party or raid by right-clicking on their party frame and selecting "Select Focus." If you do this and then use this macro, Misdirection will automatically be applied to them without needing to mouse over any player, which can get messy.

Another useful macro for Marksmanship Hunters is:

  • /cast Double Tap
  • /cast Trueshot

This macro will allow you to bind Double Tap and Trueshot to a single button. Now that will be extremely efficient when those two arise in rotation together. However, bind them separately in your action bar to ensure you can use them individually when necessary.

If you need assistance in making macros, feel free to check out our dedicated Guide to Create Macros.

Stat Priority

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight - Marksman Hunter Kneeling over her Kill

The good news for Marksmanship Hunter Stat priority is that it is the same across any PVE content. The Marksmanship Hunter stat priority is as follows:

  • Mastery
  • Critical Strike
  • Versatility
  • Haste

You will want to keep your Mastery high and your Critical Strike and Versatility close behind. This should be a general rule of thumb for stats here. Don't forget about Haste completely, but it certainly isn't as important as the others.

Diminishing Returns are important to remember. Any Stat above 30 percent will take penalties on their continued effectiveness.

Enchants

The effectiveness of Enchants will differ depending on the crafting tier, but these are the Enchants you will want for your Marksmanship Hunter.

Gear Slot

Enchantment Name

Chest

Waking Stats

Necklace

Tiered Medallion Setting

Cloak

Graceful Avoidance

Legs

Fierce Armor Kit

Bracers

Devotion of Avoidance

Boots

Plainsrunner's Breeze

Weapon

High Intensity Thermal Scanner or Completely Safe Rockets

Rings

Devotion of Critical Strike and Devotion of Mastery

Phials

Phial of Tepid Versatility is the best Singe-Target Phial. This will increase your Versatility for 30 minutes. The best AoE Phial is the Phial of Glacial Fury. The Phial of Glacial Fury will give you a stack of Glacial Fury for 15 seconds after the first hit on the target. This allows any damaging abilities to have a chance to deal extra damage to the enemy. Damage is increased by 15 percent for each stack, with a max of five stacks.

Combat Potions

The Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power is the choice for any Marksmanship Hunter's Combat Potion. Increase your Primary Stat for 30 seconds with this. The cheaper version of this is called the Elemental Potion of Power.

Health Potions

The Refreshing Healing Potion will be the choice for Health Potions. This will heal you for a remarkable amount.

Food Buffs

The best food choice for Marksmanship Hunter is the Fated Fortune Cookie or Thousandblade Tongueslicer. The first will increase your primary stat, and the second will increase your Critical Strike and Mastery. If you can bring the Grand Banquet of the Kalu'ka or Hoard of Draconic Delicacies to the Raid or Mythic+, these will also suffice.

Gear

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight - Marksman Hunter Cheering

While you level from 60 to 70 in the Dragon Isles, don't worry too much about gear, it will come easily via Questing and Dungeons. Making sure you quest as much as possible will give you plenty of opportunities to gear up. However, if you fall behind in item level, you may want to spend some gold at the nearest Auction House or Craft some gear from Blacksmithing or Leatherworking Professions.

End Game Level 70 Gear

Slot

Item

Location

Neck

Ukhel Ancestry Beads

The Nokhud Offensive

Head

Amphibian's Bellowing Crown

The Halls of Infusion

Cloak

Mammoth-Trainer's Drape

Neltharus

Shoulders

Scaled Commencement Spaulders

Algeth'ar Academy

Wrist

Shikaar Ranger Bracers

The Nokhud Offensive

Chest

Fatebound Chainmail

Uldaman

Legs

Tassets of Densified Ooze

Brackenhide Hollow

Gloves

Galerattle Gauntlets

Ruby Life Pools

Belt

Swollen Bark Clasp

Brackenhide Hollow

Boots

Boots of Explosive Growth

Algeth'ar Academy

Ring

Platinum Star Band

Algeth'ar Academy

Trinket

Irideus Fragment

The Halls of Infusion\

Trinket

Bottle of Spiraling Winds

The Nokhud Offensive

Ring

Scalebane Signet

Neltharus

Main Hand and Off Hand

Titan Forged Blaster

The Halls of Infusion

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