Marksmanship Hunter DPS Easy Mode — The War Within (11.2)

This build is suboptimal for pure single-target compared to Dark Ranger, which is around 9% stronger.

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

This build is a solid Mythic+ build for beginners. It does similar AoE to Dark Ranger, and has an arguably more fun Explosive Shot-based playstyle, but the single-target suffers greatly.

We cannot have everything we could possibly want for every single dungeon in a single build, unfortunately. Here are the recommended utility talents to swap to for different, specific Mythic+ dungeons in The War Within Season 3.

• For Halls of Atonement and Tazavesh: So'Leah's Gambit, swap Kodo Tranquilizer over to Devilsaur Tranquilizer.

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

Here is a super-simplified version of how to play Marksmanship Hunter on single-target. Treat this not as a "rotation" but a priority list, where you always press the highest-priority spell available.

1. Cast Volley on cooldown if talented into it.
2. Cast Rapid Fire on cooldown.
3. Cast Arcane Shot after Aimed Shot, or whenever it glows (due to Precise Shots).
4. Cast Trueshot right before you intend to Aimed Shot.
5. Cast Aimed Shot on cooldown. Only cast it if Arcane Shot is not glowing.
6. Cast Explosive Shot when you cannot Aimed Shot to give yourself a Lock and Load proc.
7. Use Steady Shot as a filler when you can do none of the above.

Here is a super-simplified version of how to play Marksmanship Hunter on AoE. Treat this not as a "rotation" but a priority list, where you always press the highest-priority spell available.

1. Cast Volley on cooldown if talented into it.
2. Cast Multi-Shot right after Rapid Fire and Aimed Shot, every single time.
3. It is absolutely essential that you have Trick Shots active for every Rapid Fire and Aimed Shot that you cast. To activate this, simply cast Multi-Shot on 3 targets or more. In practice, you just weave Multi-Shot between Aimeds and Rapids by always casting a Multi after them.
4. Cast Rapid Fire on cooldown.
5. Cast Trueshot right before you intend to Aimed Shot.
6. Cast Aimed Shot on cooldown. Only cast it if Multi-Shot is not glowing.
7. Cast Explosive Shot when you cannot Aimed Shot to give yourself a Lock and Load proc.
8. Use Steady Shot as a filler when you can do none of the above.

Exhilaration is your primary self-heal and it has a rather short cooldown thanks to the Natural Mending Talent. Use this when you drop below 50% HP to help out your Healer!

Aspect of the Turtle is your immunity. It can be used to completely negate the damage and effects of most spells targeted on you. Use it if you are assigned to, or in a pinch if you worry that an upcoming mechanic will kill you!

Survival of the Fittest is our most powerful defensive besides Turtle, a 30% damage reduction with 2 charges on a 1.5-minute cooldown each. Use it to reduce damage taken from hard-hitting mechanics. Optimal use of this ability entails using it proactively, before heavy incoming damage.

Feign Death is a very unique Hunter ability. It can be used to drop aggro and combat, and it can also be used to stop casts on you — mobs will usually stop casting mid-cast if you appear to be dead! It will also dispel all Poison and Disease effects from you when specced into Emergency Salve.

This is just some of the key utility of Marksmanship Hunter. We highly recommend checking out the fully detailed Spell Glossary page below to see everything explained in detail.

The game offers the option of an in-game "Combat Assistant", which has two modes; A Rotation Helper that will suggest spells to cast next, and a "One-Button Mode", that automatically performs this rotation for you if you simply press one button repeatedly.

These tools can be worthwhile for beginners, as they provide a reasonable "minimum" level of performance. For Marksmanship Hunter, using just the Rotation Helper is a ~2-7% DPS loss compared to playing perfectly (which almost nobody does), the lower bound being AoE, and the higher one being single-target. Using the one-button mode adds another ~9% to this DPS loss.

Obviously, peak performance cannot be obtained using these tools, but it is something worth considering if you are happy to take the DPS losses above for the sake of ease of play. Do not let anyone in-game or on a forum or Discord tell you that there is something inherently wrong with using these tools! Blizzard created them for a reason, and the game is about having fun, whatever that means for you.