Marksmanship Hunter DPS Easy Mode — Shadowlands Pre-Patch 9.0.1

This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

Marksmanship is a relatively slow ranged spec with only a few fundamental mechanics that make it work well.

For a detailed explanation of all the abilities that Marksmanship Hunter has, check out our Spell Summary page.

The talents listed below are selected either for ease of use, or for more a more simple to understand gameplay style. Whilst in a number of cases there are alternatives on the tree that will provide more if played well, they create much more room to play incorrectly and reduce your performance. Due to this, treat this as a starting point and a primer.

You can find a more detailed guide on Talent choices that are designed for optimal DPS on our Talents page below.

• Level 15: Master Marksman
• Level 25: Careful Aim
• Level 30: Natural Mending or whatever suits your needs.
• Level 35: Streamline
• Level 40: Posthaste or whatever suits your needs.
• Level 45: Lethal Shots
• Level 50: Calling the Shots

The general single-target stat priority for a Marksmanship Hunter is:

1. Versatility;
2. Critical Strike;
3. Mastery;
4. Haste.

All the stats are very close in value, and item level should be the deciding factor in most gearing decisions. Do not overthink your secondary stats too much, the different is nearly negligible.

For more information, please visit our dedicated page.

1. Cast your Trueshot ability on cooldown. It increases the casting speed and reduces the cooldowns of your other abilities, so it will speed everything up significantly.
2. Cast Rapid Fire on cooldown. Try to use it while below 75 Focus.
3. Use Arcane Shot after Aimed Shot to spend the Precise Shots stacks.
4. Cast Aimed Shot on cooldown.
5. Cast Kill Shot on cooldown when your target is below 20% health.
6. Use Arcane Shot when you are high on Focus, to avoid reaching 100 Focus.
7. Use Steady Shot to generate Focus and when there is nothing else to do.

When you get a Lock and Load proc, simply use Aimed Shot as you normally would, and remember to cast those Arcane Shots after it.

On our dedicated rotation page below, you can find a detailed rotation including cooldown usage and management.

Generally speaking, the best traits for Marksmanship Hunters are In The Rhythm, Unerring Vision, and Clockwork Heart (very rare Trait). The Middle Ring Traits are all roughly equally good.

Azerite Traits play an important role for Marksmanship Hunter. This means you need to decide which Azerite items you should choose. The traits are very close to each other in power, though, so we recommend our dedicated Azerite page below for details.

For your Major Essence, we recommend Worldvein Resonance, as it is easy to get and very powerful. For Minor Essences, we recommend Vision of Perfection (combined with Calling the Shots, this gives you a 1-minute Trueshot cooldown that lines up perfectly with Worldvein Resonance), Breath of the Dying (Uldum Accord reputation), and Conflict and Strife (rated PvP).

Please refer to our dedicated Essences page below for more information.

No, Marksmanship Hunters do not use pets in almost any situation. You may choose to use a pet if you need it for Bloodlust/Heroism or survivability. In these rare cases, we recommend using a Ferocity pet.