Marksmanship Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, Talents, and Pet Talents — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

Note that these builds are generic recommendations for various content. Check out the dedicated pages below for more specific recommendations for the Raid and Mythic+.

2.

Best Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in The War Within

Single-Target — Sentinel Mythic+/AoE/Delves — Sentinel Single-Target — Dark Ranger Mythic+/AoE/Delves — Dark Ranger

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Best Sentinel Single-Target Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in Midnight Pre-Patch

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

3.

Best Sentinel Mythic+/AoE Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in Midnight Pre-Patch

This is our recommended build for all things Mythic+.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

3.

Best Dark Ranger Single-Target Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in Midnight Pre-Patch

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

3.

Best Dark Ranger Mythic+/AoE/Delve Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in Midnight Pre-Patch

Vastly inferior to Sentinel.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

On this page, we generally offer three types of builds; Single-Target, Mythic+, and Raid AoE. Here is a brief explanation of what each build is optimized for and how they should be used.

Single-Target builds are straightforward — They do as much damage to single target as possible. Cleave and AoE are totally ignored here. Many raid fights are either wholly or predominantly single-target. In many cases, even if a fight has AoE moments like add spawns, if those add spawns are not especially important or dangerous, playing a single-target build can be optimal, even on such fights.

Mythic+ builds are optimized for completing Mythic+ dungeons as quickly as possible. To obtain them, thousands of builds are simulated across both single-target and AoE, and math is used to analyze this simulation data and arrive at the build that performs the best across both single-target and AoE, without disproportionately preferring AoE as many other methodologies tend to. Open-World and Delve Builds are often variants of this, as these disciplines also contain a healthy mixture of single-target and AoE, both of which ought to be optimized.

Raid AoE builds try to maximize single-target first, while also doing respectable AoE. While many raid encounters do have AoE in the form of add spawns and so on, the value of this AoE is often finite. Meaning, as long as they die within a certain, reasonable timeframe, extra damage done beyond this critical point is often worthless, and should not come at the cost of increased single-target damage, which tends to have infinite value, in that a faster-dying boss is nearly always easier. These builds pick up the bare minimum in terms of AoE proficiency, to not be completely useless for these add spawns, but are predominantly single-target optimized. If Mythic+ is weighed 50/50 on single-target and AoE, Raid AoE builds are weighed 75% in single-target's favour.

Your best Hero Talent depends on the content you are doing.

For Raiding, it is a fairly close choice between Sentinel and Dark Ranger. Sentinel is a lot more straightforward to play for most people, however, and it is also the better choice for Mythic+, and its defensive benefits are mostly passive in nature, so we recommend it for most players. It is worth trying out both if you are unsure, however.

For Mythic+, we prefer Sentinel for its vastly superior AoE damage.

Depending on affixes and other variables, Mythic+ can require a mix of AoE and Single-Target talents. You should check out our page below if you want advice specific to Mythic+.

Some talents will require you to play in a particular way to get the most out of them. You can find more information on how your rotation will look after selecting your talents on our rotation page below.

We have made a dedicated page for Hunter Pets information that we recommend you check out!

Note that most of the time, your best bet as Marksmanship is to not use a pet at all.

War Mode offers several benefits for you in the open world.

• PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
• At least 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.
• Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will be available for open-world PvP, and the possibility of being "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.

In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of all PvP Talents for Marksmanship Hunter

1. Ranger's Finesse will give you far more Exhilarations, saving you time and deaths in rough situations.
2. Sniper Shot lets you attack mobs from farther away, saving time in the process.
3. Hunting Pack is a valuable speed increase for leveling and open world content.

You can consider the other options essentially down to preference.

For details on how to play in Marksmanship Hunter PvP, please visit our Marksmanship Hunter PvP page.