Cataclysm Classic Marksmanship Hunter Spell Summary

Hunter deals incredible damage as a ranged DPS, but is even better known for their wide-ranging utility that allows them to do odd-jobs better than almost anyone else in a raid. Spells like Misdirection, Frost Trap, and tracking spells such as Track Humanoids are staples of the Hunter toolkit.

All of the Hunter specializations also bring their own raid buff of some kind. Marksmanship brings Trueshot Aura, which increases the melee attack power of all raid members by 20% and ranged attack power by 10%. This aura can only be brought by Marksmanship Hunter, Paladin, Enhancement, or Blood.

Hunter will always have one of their Aspect abilities active. These are essentially different buffs where you can choose which one you want to have active. As a default, you should always be in either Aspect of the Hawk for the extra ranged attack power or Aspect of the Fox for mobility. All of the different Aspects are listed below.

• Aspect of the Hawk — increases your ranged Attack Power. This is the default choice to use when your goal is to deal damage.
• Aspect of the Cheetah — increases your movement speed by 30% (more with Pathfinding). This is a great Aspect to use whenever you are running anywhere and know you won't be hit.
• Aspect of the Pack — the same as Aspect of the Cheetah, except it affects your whole party and raid, not just you.
• Aspect of the Wild — increases your and your group's Nature Resistance. This is useful whenever you and your group are going to be taking Nature damage.
• Aspect of the Fox — allows you to cast Steady Shot and Cobra Shot while moving. Additionally, you gain 2 Focus when you take a melee hit. This is an amazing aspect to use whenever you need to move around, as you can basically do your whole rotation while moving.

These are your core damaging abilities that you will use frequently, either while leveling or at max level.

• Aimed Shot! — one of your most powerful damaging ability as a Marksmanship Hunter. After a 3 second cast, you deal a large burst of physical damage.
• Chimera Shot — another one of your most powerful damaging ability as a Marksmanship Hunter. This is an instant shot that deals a large burst of damage and refreshes the duration of your Serpent Sting.
• Auto Shot — your basic ranged attack and will be the majority of your damage. With Cataclysm, Hunters now always auto shot while moving. You never need to think about movement or timing your auto shots ever again.
• Kill Shot — only usable while the target is below 20% health, but deals a massive burst of damage. This is your single hardest hitting ability and should be used whenever possible.
• Multi-Shot — another core damage ability specifically for cleave and AoE. On multiple stacked targets, this becomes your primary way to spend Focus.
• Hunter's Mark — applies a debuff on the target that lasts 5 minutes, increasing the ranged Attack Power of anyone who attacks the target. This can only be active on one target at a time, and should always be up. Cast this before you engage a new enemy, since it will not start combat with them.
• Arcane Shot — an instant shot that deals Arcane damage. As Beast Mastery, this is one of your core abilities for how you'll spend Focus against a single target.
• Serpent Sting — a damage-over-time effect that deals Nature damage. All Hunter specs will always maintain this in their rotations.
• Steady Shot — a basic filler spell as a Hunter, which is used to regenerate fFocus. Use this whenever you're low on Focus.
• Cobra Shot — the best basic filler spell as a Hunter, which is used to regenerate Focus. Use this whenever you're low on Focus. Additionally, Cobra Shot will extend the duration of your Serpent Sting, meaning you'll never need to recast it on single target.
• Serpent Sting — a damage-over-time effect that deals Nature damage.

Hunter no longer have a minimum range on their attacks. This means that you should always use ranged attacks instead of melee attacks, regardless of the situation. However, Hunters still do have a few melee options available if you want to use them.

• Raptor Strike — your most powerful melee ability. Instantly attack with your melee weapon for a burst of damage on a 6-second cooldown.
• Wing Clip — a melee attack that slows the enemy's movement speed by 50% for 10 seconds. You should always keep this debuff up on an enemy if they are within melee range, as it is your best way to get away from them.

Traps are one of the Hunter's most iconic class features, allowing them to place traps on the ground that will do something when an enemy walks over them. You can only have one trap of each type (Fire, Frost, and Nature) out at a time. In Cataclysm, Trap Launcher was added, which allows you to throw any trap up to 40 yards away.

• Immolation Trap — a Fire trap that puts a Fire damage-over-time effect on the enemy that triggers it.
• Explosive Trap — a Fire trap that deals a burst of Fire damage to all enemies within 10 yards when triggered, and additionally puts a Fire damage-over-time effect on all of the enemies hit. This is a powerful AoE ability when dealing with lots of targets.
• Freezing Trap — a Frost trap that freezes the enemy who triggers it for 1 minute. This prevents all action while frozen, but any damage will break the freeze.
• Frost Trap — drops a patch of ice on the ground when triggered that slows all enemies inside by 50%. This can be very useful for kiting large groups of enemies.
• Snake Trap — a Nature trap that will spawn several angry, venomous snakes when triggered which will die after 15 seconds. While alive they will attack whoever triggered them.

Hunter are able to use their tracking abilities, such as Track Humanoids or Track Beasts, to track specific types of enemies. You can only have one tracking ability active at any time and, while active, you will be able to see all enemies of the type you are tracking on your minimap.

• Track Humanoids — tracks nearby Humanoids on your mini-map, which includes both friendly and enemy players.
• Track Beasts — tracks nearby Beasts on your minimap.
• Track Undead — tracks nearby Undead on your minimap. This does not include Undead players.
• Track Hidden — tracks nearby hidden targets on your minimap. This includes players who are stealthed.
• Track Elementals — tracks nearby Elementals on your minimap.
• Track Demons — tracks nearby Demons on your minimap.
• Track Giants — tracks nearby Giants on your minimap.
• Track Dragonkin — tracks nearby Dragonkin on your minimap.

While pets have their own abilities, you also have several abilities related to healing, feeding, and interacting with your pet in general. All of your abilities related to your pet are listed below.

• Tame Beast — allows you to tame a Beast, making it your pet.
• Call Pet — call your pet to your side if your pet is alive and currently dismissed. In Cataclysm, Hunters now have multiple versions of call pet that allow you to choose from up to 5 pets to call.
• Revive Pet — revives your pet if it is dead.
• Feed Pet — this should be used on food in your inventory to feed your pet, increasing its happiness. Different pets will eat different types of food. Use Beast Lore to learn what your pet's diet is.
• Dismiss Pet — dismisses your pet from your side until you use Call Pet to bring it back. This is very useful whenever you want to make sure your pet does not accidentally pull extra enemies, such as when you jump down from a ledge.
• Mend Pet — heals your pet over 10 seconds when used, and is no longer a channeled ability.
• Beast Lore — tells you information about the type of pet you have, including its category, diet, and lore.

These are the few cooldowns that Hunter have. Cooldowns are powerful abilities that do something special, but have a longer cooldown period before you can use them again. These can be incredibly important abilities, but due to their long cooldown periods, require careful consideration and planning for where you should make the best use of them.

• Readiness — a late tier Marksmanship talent. This is a 3-minute cooldown that will reset the cooldown of every other Hunter ability when used.
• Rapid Fire — a Hunter's most important cooldown. It increases your ranged attack speed by 40% for 15 seconds.
• Call of the Wild — a cooldown that Ferocity pets can talent into. It gives both you and your pet 10% more AP for 20 seconds.

Hunter have several important utility spells in their arsenal that enable them to do things that other classes cannot.

• Misdirection — requires that you target a friendly player or your pet to use. It places a 30 second buff on you, and will last for 4 seconds once you attack something. For those 4 seconds, all threat you generate is given to your initial friendly target instead.
• Deterrence — makes you untargetable and unable to be hit with direct spells or attacks for 5 seconds. Do not think that this is an immunity; it tends to have weird interactions with some abilities. This additionally reduces all damage taken by 30% while active.
• Concussive Shot — this could be considered a core rotational ability due to how much you will use it. It is an instant shot that slows the enemy target by 50% for 4 seconds. This is very useful when kiting in PvE and PvP.
• Distracting Shot — an instant shot that taunts the target to attack you. If you need to get an enemy's attention, this is how you do it.
• Scare Beast — similar to Warlock's Fear, but only usable against beasts. This is also usable against Druid in their beast forms.
• Eagle Eye — allows you to see very far away. This is useful for scouting out in the world.
• Disengage — this was changed in Wrath, and is now an amazing mobility spell. This works like the retail version, propelling you backwards a short distance through the air when used.
• Feign Death — causes you to play dead, which drops your combat along with all threat against any target that was attacking you. This is also very useful in PvP, as it causes enemy players to lose you as their target when you use this ability.
• Flare — throws a flare at a location, revealing hidden targets in that area and makes them unable to hide again while the flare is active. This is very useful for fighting against a Rogue and Druid when you do not want them to stealth.
• Tranquilizing Shot — an instant shot that removes an enrage effect and a magic effect from the enemy.
• Master's Call — a spell that you command your pet to case. It will cause your pet to remove all roots and snares from itself and your target, also granting both targets root/snare immunity for 4 seconds.
• Scatter Shot — an instant shot that disorients the target for 4 seconds.
• Silencing Shot is an instant interrupt that Marksmanship Hunters get access to through talents.
• Camouflage — become pseudo-invisible, where you're stealthed while standing still, but can still be seem by players while moving. You cannot be hit by attacks outside of melee range while active though. This breaks once you deal or take damage in combat.