Marksmanship Hunter DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.0.7
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Marksmanship Hunter in both single-target and multiple-target situations. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.0.7.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Marksmanship Hunter rotation.
Marksmanship Hunter Rotation for Dragonflight
Welcome to our Rotation page for Marksmanship Hunters. On this page you will find everything you need to know about actually playing the spec in Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.
Easy Mode
If the rotations below seem overwhelming to you, you might benefit from visiting our Easy Mode page which outlines a close-to-optimal rotation in simpler terms.
PvP
The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation Tips, please visit our PvP page below.
Important Abilities, Procs and The General Rotation of Marksmanship Hunter
To play Marksmanship Hunter, there are a few basic mechanics you must understand to fully unlock the potential of the spec.
Precise Shots is a buff that is activated whenever you cast
Aimed Shot. It causes your next 1-2
Arcane Shots or
Multi-Shots after casting Aimed Shot to do 75% more damage. You do not
want to waste this buff by casting Aimed Shot when you have it active. You
always want to spend the charges first, provided that
Aimed Shot is
not going to reach 2 charges.
Trick Shots is the primary AoE mechanic. When you cast
Multi-Shot on 3 targets or above, your next
Aimed Shot or
Rapid Fire will cleave up to 5 additional targets for 55% of its
original damage. You simply want this buff to be active when casting Aimed
Shot or Rapid Fire while dealing with 3 or more targets.
Dragonflight Tier Set Impact on Rotation
Our tier set has no impact on our rotation in any way. It will passively increase your damage in the background, and your priorities are the same.
Talent Switch
Use the buttons below to select your talents to see how that changes the rotation. This affects both the single-target and multi-target rotation.
Note that we have automatically checked recommended talents from our single-target and AoE builds to save you some time. Feel free to experiment with the checkboxes to see how the rotation changes with and without certain talents.
Pre-Combat Checklist for Maximum DPS
- Ensure that you have eaten appropriate Food, according to our Consumables page.
- Ensure you have your Flask buff (see our Consumables page).
- Activate your
Draconic Augment Rune.
Best Dragonflight Marksmanship Hunter Single-Target Rotation
The single target rotation for a Marksmanship Hunter is based on the following priority system.
-
Use
Steady Shot to apply and maintain the
Steady Focus buff. Refresh when it drops below 5 seconds and you would have cast one Steady Shot regardless, or apply it if it is down. Do not bother refreshing or applying during
Trueshot.
- Cast
Kill Shot when it is available.
-
Cast
Steel Trap on cooldown. Remember to throw it at your target's feet.
-
Use
Explosive Shot on cooldown.
-
Use
Death Chakram on cooldown.
- Use
Volley on cooldown. Macro
Salvo into it as well. You can find the Macro on our AddOns and Macros page.
-
Use
Trueshot, your main cooldown, as many times as possible during the fight. Save it for important add spawns and damage amplification phases.
- Use
Rapid Fire on cooldown.
- Use
Aimed Shot on cooldown at all times. You should always spend all of your
Precise Shots stacks first, provided that Aimed Shot is not about to reach 2 charges.
-
Use
Steady Shot twice to refresh
Steady Focus if it drops below ~3 seconds.
-
Use
Arcane Shot to spend your
Precise Shots stacks or when you have over 55 Focus.
-
Use
Steady Shot when you have nothing else to do, as a filler.
Best Single-Target Opener for Marksmanship Hunter
This Opener assumes that you are using the recommended Single-Target Talents for Marksmanship Hunter, which you can find on our Talents page.
-
Pre-cast
Aimed Shot when there is 2.5 seconds left on the pulltimer.
-
Throw your
Steel Trap on the enemy's feet.
-
Cast
Explosive Shot
-
Cast 2x
Steady Shots
- Use
Death Chakram.
-
Use
Volley at your enemy's feet.
- Activate
Trueshot
- Cast
Aimed Shot
- Cast
Rapid Fire
- Cast
Aimed Shot
-
Continue with your normal rotation, according to the priority list above.
Remember to react if
Kill Shot becomes available due to
Deathblow procs!
Best AoE Rotation for Marksmanship Hunter
The AoE rotation is almost entirely similar to the single-target rotation. The
main difference is that you want to activate Trick Shots for every
Aimed Shot and
Rapid Fire that you do, including during
Trueshot.
The AoE rotation for a Marksmanship Hunter is based on the following priority system.
-
Use
Steady Shot to apply and maintain the
Steady Focus buff. Refresh when it drops below 8 seconds and you would have cast one Steady Shot regardless, or apply it if it is down. Do not bother refreshing or applying during
Trueshot.
-
Cast
Kill Shot when available to spend
Pouch of Razor Fragments procs.
-
Use
Explosive Shot on cooldown.
-
Use
Death Chakram on cooldown.
- Use
Volley on cooldown. Macro
Salvo into it as well. You can find the Macro on our AddOns and Macros page.
-
Use
Rapid Fire on cooldown. Make sure that
Trick Shots is active before casting it.
-
Use
Trueshot, your main cooldown, as many times as possible during the fight. Save it for important add spawns and damage amplification phases.
-
Use
Aimed Shot on cooldown at all times. You should always spend all of your
Precise Shots stacks first. The only exception is if
Trueshot is active, where you ignore
Precise Shots. You should cycle it between multiple targets to spread the
Serpent Sting DoT. Make sure that
Trick Shots is active before casting it.
-
Cast
Multi-Shot to apply
Trick Shots if it is down. You should also cast it to spend your
Precise Shots stacks and you should also cast it if you have 10 stacks of Bulletstorm.
-
Cast
Steel Trap on cooldown. Remember to throw it at your target's feet.
-
Use
Steady Shot when you have nothing else to do, as a filler.
Best Dragonflight AoE Opener for Marksmanship Hunter
This Opener assumes that you are using the recommended Mythic+/AoE Talents for Marksmanship Hunter, which you can find on our Talents page.
-
Pre-cast
Steady Shot when there is 1.75 seconds left on the pulltimer.
-
Cast a second
Steady Shot to activate
Steady Focus.
-
Throw your
Steel Trap on the enemy's feet.
- Cast
Explosive Shot.
- Use
Death Chakram.
-
Use
Volley at your enemy's feet.
- Activate
Trueshot
- Cast
Aimed Shot
- Cast
Rapid Fire
- Cast
Aimed Shot
-
Continue with your normal rotation, according to the priority list above.
Remember to react if
Kill Shot becomes available due to
Deathblow procs!
Marksmanship Hunter Tips and Tricks for Mythic+
For information about Mythic+ as a Marksmanship Hunter, please refer to our Mythic+ page.
Best WeakAuras for Marksmanship Hunters in Dragonflight
WeakAuras can have a tremendously positive effect on your performance. Since this is a broad topic, we made a page dedicated to it.
Rotation Help for Marksmanship Hunter
Thanks for reading my Rotation Guide for Marksmanship Hunter. If you have any questions about it that you would like to ask me directly, feel free to drop into my Discord Server and drop me (Azortharion) a ping at any time.
Changelog
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 26 Jan. 2023: Added Salvo to the rotation and referenced the macro for it.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Updated the page for relevant changes in Patch 10.0.5.
- 21 Jan. 2023: Small opener fix concerning Explosive Shot.
- 12 Dec. 2022: Rotational fix concerning Bulletstorm in AoE.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated the recommended opener, and Double Tap usage on Rapid Fire.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Azortharion, a Hunter Theorycrafter and Guidewriter since 2014, and considered one of the best Hunters in the world. He is an accomplished player with dozen of top parses for all specs throughout the game's history. He is also the Admin of Trueshot Lodge, the Hunter Class Discord, and you can watch his stream on Twitch. He even has his own personal Discord channel where you can get notifications about when the guides get updated and have direct communications with him.
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