Marksmanship Hunter DPS Guide — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

The Midnight Expansion brings huge changes for all Hunter specs, primarily focused on streamlining and simplifying aspects of the kit.

Note that the Apex Talents, and the last few Hero Talents Points are not available until the full launch of Midnight.

• No more Deathblow procs from Auto-Shots.
• Rapid Fire is now guaranteed to grant Deathblow.
• After you activate Trueshot, the Trueshot button itself turns into Wailing Arrow, a powerful instant cast that activates Deathblow and also kicks/silences all targets hit for 1 sec.

• Spotter's Mark is replaced by Sentinel's Mark and is much stronger.
• Don't Look Back is now a flat 10% absorb shield that you get whenever you get a Sentinel's Mark proc.
• Maximum Focus increased to 125.
• Like Dark Ranger, after activating Trueshot, the Trueshot button becomes Moonlight Chakram which sends a glowy chakram that deals heavy AoE damage as it bounces between enemies. Choice nodes can cause this Chakram to give us Lock and Load and trigger Sentinel's Mark.

• Streamline is gone and as a result, Aimed Shot's cast time is much longer at a baseline of 2.5 sec. During Trueshot, this is reduced to 1.5 sec. Its damage has been buffed to compensate, but overall, expect a slower-playing, more sniper-focused and deliberate Marksmanship "feel" in Midnight.
• All of the Explosive Shot-related Talents are gone. We do keep Shrapnel Shot, which now triggers off Volley.
• Headshot no longer causes Kill Shot/ Black Arrow to benefit from Precise Shots. Instead, it causes these abilities to stack a debuff on the target, increasing the damage they receive from this ability by 2%, stacking up to 10 times.
• Other removed talents include Razor Fragments, Moving Target, and of course, Improved Streamline.

• Hunters have +2% higher max HP than previous.
• Exhilaration's cooldown is now a 1-minute flat, instead of variable (and often lower).
• Aspect of the Turtle's cooldown is now 2:00 with talents, down from 2:30.
• Aspect of the Turtle can now be a 50% damage reduction with talents, up from 30%.
• Roar of Sacrifice is now an external defensive that can be used on yourself or any friendly target to reduce their damage taken by 15% for 10 sec, but 50% of their damage taken will be taken by your pet. For Marksmanship, the pet part just disappears if you have no pet.
• Fortitude of the Bear is now 3% passive damage reduction, instead of being an active defensive cooldown.

• Hunter's Mark is now a universal 3% damage increase against a single-target. This essentially guarantees Hunter a raid spot in every raid. It is also a boost to the group in Mythic+, though it is much less potent there.
• Counter Shot now spell-locks the target for 5 seconds, up from 3.
• Freezing Trap can now slow the target by 70% for 4 sec after the trap breaks.
• Intimidation is now our sole stun/stop. A choice node either reduces its cooldown to 40 sec, or makes it a 1-second AoE stun. Implosive Trap, High Explosive Trap, and Bursting Shot are all gone.
• The slows from Wing Clip and Concussive Shot are 25% and 10% stronger, respectively.
• Horsehair Tether is now a Class Tree node and not attached to the Pack Leader Hero Talent. It is a choice node with Tar-Coated Bindings, which extends Binding Shot's stun by 1 sec.
• Ghillie Suit is gone.
• Scatter Shot is gone.
• Scrappy is gone.
• Binding Shackles is gone.

• Aspect of the Cheetah's initial "super" speed burst is now twice as long with talents.
• Kill Shot is gone and is a Marksmanship-tree exclusive.
• Successfully kicking with Counter Shot/ Muzzle now grants 30 Focus, up from 10, but soothing/purging with Tranquilizing Shot no longer grants Focus.

Overall, we are gaining defensiveness and mobility, while in the utility department, we are losing some things (like the ability to move mobs) but gaining others (stronger Mark, streamlined AoE stun, stronger kick and more Focus return on kicking). I think the changes are broadly positive!