Marksmanship Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, Talents, and Pet Talents — Midnight Season 1

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 Midnight

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

2.1.

Best Sentinel Single-Target Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in Midnight Season 1

This build is our best Sentinel single-target build, used for bosses that are overwhelmingly pure single-target with no stacked adds or AoE opportunities.

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

2.2.

Best Sentinel Raid AoE Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in Midnight Season 1

This build is our best Sentinel Raid AoE build, optimized to grab as much burst AoE as possible for only a modest single-target DPS loss.

For Vaelgor and Ezzorak, I prefer Shrapnel Shot over Windrunner Quiver. On any fight where you do not feel you are getting much use out of 30-second Volleys, just use Windrunner Quiver for some extra single-target.

For Lightblinded Vanguard, I recommend Bullet Hell over Windrunner Quiver for more pure AoE.

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

2.3.

Best Sentinel Mythic+ Talent Build for Marksmanship Hunter in Midnight Season 1

This is the optimal Sentinel build for all things Mythic+, and other AoE-focused content. It is based on extensive simulation and analysis of Mythic+ performance across a wide variety of scenarios, and has an optimal blend of both single-target and AoE. There are builds that do more AoE, but they all lose more single-target than they gain in terms of AoE, and vice versa.

2.4.

Marksmanship Hunter Utility Talent Considerations

• Your "flexible" Talent points are, in my recommended order of "most disposable":
  • Kodo Tranquilizer
  • Emergency Salve is only useful in certain dungeons, and is worthless in others.

2.5.

Why No Trick Shots?

There is currently an interaction where using Arcane Shot with Aspect of the Hydra can cause you to get multiple Sentinel's Mark, which are then consumed by Aimed Shot to cause additional Lunar Storms to spawn. This interaction makes Hydra better than Trick Shots on up to 7-target AoE, while having upwards of 30% more priority-target damage, and extremely strong 2-target damage.

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

2.6.

Best Sentinel Delve Talent Build for Marksmanship Hunter in Midnight Season 1

This is the optimal Sentinel build for all things Delves. It is overwhelmingly similar to our Mythic+ build.

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

2.7.

Best Dark Ranger Single-Target Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in Midnight Season 1

This build is our best Dark Ranger single-target build, used for most raid encounters.

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

2.8.

Best Dark Ranger Mythic+ Talent Build for Marksmanship Hunter in Midnight Season 1

This is the optimal Dark Ranger build for all things Mythic+, and other AoE-focused content. It is based on extensive simulation and analysis of Mythic+ performance across a wide variety of scenarios, and has an optimal blend of both single-target and AoE. There are builds that do more AoE, but they all lose more single-target than they gain in terms of AoE, and vice versa.

2.9.

Marksmanship Hunter Utility Talent Considerations

• Your "flexible" Talent points are, in my recommended order of "most disposable":
  • Kodo Tranquilizer
  • Emergency Salve is only useful in certain dungeons, and is worthless in others.

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

2.10.

Best Dark Ranger Delve Talent Build for Marksmanship Hunter in Midnight Season 1

This is the optimal Dark Ranger build for all things Delves. It is overwhelmingly similar to our Mythic+ build.

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

Midnight introduces new Apex Talents, unlocked between Level 80 and 90. Marksmanship gets:

1. Take Aim
2. Take Aim
3. Take Aim

They cause Rapid Fire to reduce Aimed Shot's cooldown by 5 sec over its channel, and they also cause Aimed Shot to always Crit, but its actual damage is increased by your crit chance as well. This reduces the value of Crit as a stat for us somewhat, though it is still a very good stat.

Available at level 71 Hero talents are mutually exclusive trees you can choose to slightly alter gameplay and visuals. Marksmanship Hunter can choose between Sentinel and Dark Ranger.

Sentinel is our simplest Hero Talent, adding almost nothing in terms of gameplay intrigue or complexity, replacing Spotter's Mark with the Sentinel's Mark, which is simply more powerful in every way. In addition, when you activate Trueshot, the Trueshot button itself will turn into Moonlight Chakram, a filler ability that does heavy damage on use. We try to use this as a filler, since we only get one use of it during Trueshot.

Defensively, Sentinel gives us Don't Look Back, which procs nearly constantly and offers a great deal of passive tankiness.

Numbers-wise, Sentinel is optimal for all scenarios at the moment.

Dark Ranger replaces your talented Kill Shot ability with Black Arrow, which deals heavy damage. In addition to being freely usable (with a 10-second cooldown) on targets above 80% or below 20% HP, you will regularly get procs from it from Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire that allow it to be used on any target at any time. These procs are essential, and top priority, making Dark Ranger very reactive in terms of gameplay. When you pop Trueshot, the button will turn into Wailing Arrow, a very powerful ability that also gives us a free Black Arrow proc on use. We try to use this as a filler, as we only get one use regardless.

Defensively, Dark Ranger offers Smoke Screen, which is simply amazing, as it gives us extremely easy access to our Survival of the Fittest nearly all the time.

Numbers-wise, Dark Ranger is behind Sentinel in terms of overall performance in all scenarios.

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. Survival Tactics lets you use Feign Death defensively in tough 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.

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.