Marksmanship Hunter DPS Mythic+ Guide — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.2.5

Mythic+ Dungeons, especially high ones, are arguably the highest level of competitive PvE content that WoW has to offer aside from Mythic raiding.

In Mythic Dungeons as a Hunter, you will be responsible for a large part of the group's total damage output, while in a Mythic Raiding group, you may only be responsible for maybe 7% of it. The skill and execution from the individual players in the group is much more important.

Aside from just doing damage, in Mythic+ you will be responsible for many things to make the group's run faster and easier. Interrupting, offensively dispelling enemy targets, soaking mechanics, using your traps and stuns are all much more common in Mythic+ than your usual Mythic raid.

In this guide, we will talk about getting the most out of your Hunter in Mythic+ dungeons, including the best way to set up your character, how your rotation may change, and tips and tricks for using your abilities in the most optimal way.

The new Beguiling Affix adds unique mobs to mob packs throughout dungeons. These mobs, called "Emissaries", impose special limitations on the packs you are fighting.

• Enchanted Emissary — Causes mobs nearby to reflect up to 200% of damage done to them. When you attack this Emissary, it is knocked back, making it easier to separate from the rest of the pack. It has too much health to be killed, but it has an Energy bar that will deplete over 30 seconds, after which the Emissary will despawn.
• Void-Touched Emissary — This mob detects Stealth and Invisibility effects, and casts Queen's Decree: Hide which deals damage to everyone within Line of Sight, in a 60-yard radius. It also applies a debuff that increases everyone's Shadow damage taken by 50%. These mobs have a modest amount of health, and when they reach 1 health they will teleport out of the dungeon.
• Emissary of the Tides — This causes all nearby mobs to be immune to all Crowd Control effects. This includes interrupts, snares, slows, and roots, as well as everything else. These mobs have a modest amount of health, and when they reach 1 health they will teleport out of the dungeon.

The layout of Emissaries in dungeons changes every week.

For Mythic+ Dungeons as a Marksmanship Hunter, your focus will be on a mix of single-target and AoE damage. A big strength of Marksmanship is that it can deal very high single-target damage while simultaneously doing high AoE.

These are our recommended talents for Marksmanship Hunter in Mythic+.

Level	Choices
15	✓ Master Marksman	✗ Serpent Sting	✗ A Murder of Crows
30	✓ Careful Aim	✗ Volley	✗ Explosive Shot
45	? Trailblazer	? Natural Mending	? Camouflage
60	✗ Steady Focus	? Streamline	✓ Hunter's Mark
75	? Born To Be Wild	? Posthaste	? Binding Shot
90	✗ Lethal Shots	? Barrage	✓ Double Tap
100	✓ Calling the Shots	✗ Lock and Load	✗ Piercing Shot

✔ Master Marksman

✘ Serpent Sting

✘ A Murder of Crows

Master Marksman is the best choice of talent in this tier. The other two options have a slightly higher single-target potential, but Master Marksman is good for both single-target and multi-target.

✔ Careful Aim

✘ Volley

✘ Explosive Shot

Careful Aim is usually the best choice from a pure DPS perspective.

? Trailblazer

? Natural Mending

? Camouflage

Generally speaking, we recommend using Natural Mending. It will allow you to use your Exhilaration self-heal much more often, which can save your life if you have made a mistake, or a very powerful spell has hit you.

✘ Steady Focus

? Streamline

✔ Hunter's Mark

Hunter's Mark should be the standard choice, providing superior single-target and very competitive multi-target damage.

Streamline needs a very trash-heavy, Fortified dungeon such as Freehold to beat out Hunter's Mark. Generally, it is not recommended.

? Born To Be Wild

? Posthaste

? Binding Shot

This tier is mostly a question about mobility, survivability, or utility.

Generally, we recommend using Posthaste for the helpful movement speed boost, but if you are doing a very high-level Mythic+ Dungeon, then you might find Born To Be Wild more valuable, as it is more likely to save your life than Posthaste.

Binding Shot is much more situational, and there would need to be specific requirements in the dungeon for you to use it. Remember that it is a root and not a stun, so its primary benefit is to help keep mobs stacked.

✘ Lethal Shots

? Barrage

✔ Double Tap

Double Tap is the best choice, providing superior single-target and multi-target as well as excellent burst DPS potential.

✔ Calling the Shots

✘ Lock and Load

✘ Piercing Shot

Calling the Shots should be the default choice for all Mythic+ situations.

For the most part, your rotation will remain the same as normal in Mythic+ dungeons. Because of the nature of dungeons, however, with mobs dying constantly and there sometimes being downtime in between packs, we recommend taking the following extra considerations.

Trueshot is best used on cooldown, and the goal is to end the dungeon with as many uses of Trueshot as possible, but without wasting its duration. It may be worth saving it for particularly difficult packs as well. Try to use it right before combat.

Double Tap should essentially always be spent on Rapid Fire in Mythic+. You can precast it alongside Trueshot and then start big packs with a Multi-Shot and Rapid Fire combination for extremely heavy burst.

Bursting Shot is a useful AoE interrupt that works in melee range. It can be used to interrupt abilities that cannot be interrupted normally, and you can aid in getting caster mobs to join the main pack using this ability.

Freezing Trap plays the same role as Bursting Shot for the most part, allowing you to interrupt dangerous casts that cannot be interrupted normally. It can also allow you to remove dangerous caster mobs from the equation. If there are caster mobs out of position hitting your group, those are ideal targets to be trapped until they can be pulled into the remaining group.

Counter Shot is your main interrupt and will be used often in any Mythic+. As you get to know the dungeons, you should know which spells are worth spending your valuable, long-cooldown interrupt on, and which ones you can safely leave to those with shorter cooldowns. Chances are that you will have one of the only ranged interrupts in your group. Using this on caster mobs that are out of position in order to force them to run for the tank is extremely valuable.

Feign Death is an extremely powerful spell in Mythic+. It can be used to effectively nullify a lot of targeted effects that mobs and bosses channel on you. It can also be used to nullify targeted spells where you can see that it will land on you before the cast finishes. Using Feign Death can cause the boss to pick another target, or completely stop casting the ability.

The best Marksmanship Hunter traits for Mythic+ are usually ones that proc stats with a long duration, and ideally ones that are not reliant on mobs being alive for a long time.

• Unerring Vision enhances your main cooldown and is generally a very strong multi-target trait. It is the best trait for Mythic+ in general and having more than one is great. If you have this Trait, you might even consider using Calling the Shots to capitalize on it even further.
• Focused Fire is another extremely strong AoE trait.

• Dagger in the Back is a powerful pure single-target trait, but it loses value on multi-target scenarios. It also does less damage if you are attacking from the front. Finally, because its damage comes in the form of a stacking DoT, it is very undesirable when fighting big packs where mobs can often die before the DoT gets to do any damage, thereby wasting it.
• Azerite Globules is a Tier 2 trait with the same problem as Dagger in the Back. It applies a stacking debuff to a target, and it only does damage when that debuff hits 3 stacks. Because mobs die constantly in Mythic+ packs, you will waste a lot of Azerite Globules procs as mobs die with only a few stacks of the debuff.

To summarize Marksmanship Hunter Azerite Traits for Mythic+, try and stick to the following guidelines:

• Avoid traits and effects that stack debuffs on targets.
• Avoid purely single-target traits. Generally speaking, you want traits that give you more stats, as those will help both single-target and AoE damage.

Finally, and perhaps above all, sim yourself.

When choosing your trinkets, we recommend simulating yourself on Raidbots using the "Dungeon Slice" Simulation Option. This is designed to emulate Mythic+ and will tell you the best setup to use.