Marksmanship Hunter DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.1.5)

• Casting Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire as much as possible, both on single-target and AoE.
• Managing your Focus — Never capping it but also ensuring you have enough Focus to cast Aimed Shot off cooldown.
• Spending Precise Shots stacks on Arcane Shot/ Multi-Shot, generated by Aimed Shot.
• Ensuring that every Aimed Shot is affected by at least one stack of Streamline, the stacks of which are generated by casting Rapid Fire, and spending Precise Shots on abilities like Arcane Shot, and sometimes Kill Shot.

• All the same goals as the single-target Rotation.
• Maintaining that Trick Shots is up for all of your Aimed Shot, Rapid Fire, and Black Arrow ( Dark Ranger) casts by casting Multi-Shot between them, or with Volley.

In the Single-Target and AoE sections, you will find a highly detailed priority list breakdown of the Rotation, as well as optimal openers.

1. Ensure Hunter's Mark is active on the target from you or another Hunter in the group!
2. Pre-cast Aimed Shot roughly 3 seconds before combat begins.
3. Cast Black Arrow.
4. Note that anytime Arcane Shot is mentioned in the opener, if you have a Black Arrow proc available instead, replace the Arcane with it.
5. Cast Rapid Fire.
6. Cast Rapid Fire.
7. Cast Rapid Fire.
8. From this point onwards, use any Black Arrow (via Deathblow) procs that you get, as you get them, throughout the entire opener, but only with Precise Shots active.
9. Use Volley at your enemy's feet.
10. Cast Rapid Fire to spend the Double Tap just generated by Volley.
11. Spend any remaining Precise Shots stacks on Arcane Shot.
12. Activate Trueshot along with stat-granting on-use Trinkets, Racials, etc.
13. Cast Aimed Shot.
14. At this point, your opener branches out a lot depending on procs and Talents. Follow the standard rotation, and remember to use Black Arrow procs as you get them. If you get a Lock and Load proc, use an Explosive Shot into Aimed Shot.

This priority list describes the optimal single-target Rotation for Marksmanship Hunter.

1. Trinkets: When using 90-second Trinkets that give stats, hold Trueshot up to 10 seconds for them. When using 2-minute stat Trinkets, use them for every 2nd Trueshot. Try to use damage-dealing Trinkets during Trueshot as they will scale with the crit chance/damage.
2. Use Volley whenever possible. I recommend using an @cursor placement macro for it, which you can find on the AddOns and Macros page. This does hefty damage and you should ensure that you aim it right on the target, and that you do not cast it on a target that is just about to move away. Note that this will activate Double Tap alongside Trueshot. This means that you should NEVER cast Trueshot and Volley back-to-back, in any order — you should always fit a Double Tap-spender like Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire in between them.
3. Activate Trueshot, your main cooldown. You should try to have at least one Streamline stack prepared before activating it, so that you can open it with a buffed Aimed Shot. It is also good to Rapid Fire right before entering Trueshot. Note that this will activate Double Tap alongside Volley. This means that you should NEVER cast Trueshot and Volley back-to-back, in any order — you should always fit a Double Tap-spender like Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire in between them.
4. Use Black Arrow when you have a Precise Shots stack to spend it with. when you have a Razor Fragments proc, which is triggered from getting Deathblow procs.
5. Use Arcane Shot to spend Precise Shots if ANY the following are true. If neither are true, skip this line.
   • You have no Spotter's Mark for your next Aimed Shot.
   • You have not already cast an Arcane Shot since your last Aimed Shot, and therefore do not have the Moving Target buff.
6. Use Arcane Shot to spend your Precise Shots stacks.
7. Use Rapid Fire whenever possible.
8. Cast Explosive Shot right before you intend to spend Lock and Load proc with Aimed Shot. When you spend Lock and Load with a Explosive Shot already active, the MM 4PC Set Bonus +300% buff affects both Explosive Shots for massive damage. This only works when closer than ~15 yards and is referred to as the "doubledip".
9. Cast Aimed Shot to spend your Lock and Load proc while the Explosive Shot above is active.
10. Use Aimed Shot whenever it is available. Most of the time, you will want to spend your Precise Shots stacks first, but if you have a Spotter's Mark proc , you should cast the Aimed Shot immediately, regardless of Precise Shots.
11. Use Aimed Shot whenever it is available. Make sure to spend any Precise Shots stacks first.
12. Use Explosive Shot whenever possible. With Precision Detonation picked, try to cast it right before Aimed Shot. You can also Aimed Shot into Explosive Shot and achieve an instant detonation, but this requires Aimed Shot's cast time to be no shorter than a GCD and is not as reliable.
13. Use Black Arrow whenever it is available, whether that is because the boss is below 20%, above 80%, or if you got a Deathblow proc.
14. Use Steady Shot as a filler/Focus/ Aimed Shot generator.

1. Ensure Hunter's Mark is active on the target from you or another Hunter in the group!
2. Pre-cast Aimed Shot roughly 3 seconds before combat begins.
3. Note that anytime Arcane Shot is mentioned in the opener, if you have a Kill Shot proc available instead, replace the Arcane with it.
4. Cast Rapid Fire.
5. Cast Rapid Fire.
6. Cast Rapid Fire.
7. From this point onwards, use any Kill Shot (via Deathblow) procs that you get, as you get them, throughout the entire opener.
8. Use Volley at your enemy's feet.
9. Cast Rapid Fire to spend the Double Tap just generated by Volley.
10. Spend any remaining Precise Shots stacks on Arcane Shot.
11. Activate Trueshot along with stat-granting on-use Trinkets, Racials, etc.
12. Cast Aimed Shot.
13. At this point, your opener branches out a lot depending on procs and Talents. Follow the standard rotation. If you get a Lock and Load proc, use an Explosive Shot into Aimed Shot.

This priority list describes the optimal single-target Rotation for Marksmanship Hunter.

1. Trinkets: When using 90-second Trinkets that give stats, hold Trueshot up to 10 seconds for them. When using 2-minute stat Trinkets, use them for every 2nd Trueshot. Try to use damage-dealing Trinkets during Trueshot as they will scale with the crit chance/damage.
2. Use Volley whenever possible. I recommend using an @cursor placement macro for it, which you can find on the AddOns and Macros page. This does hefty damage and you should ensure that you aim it right on the target, and that you do not cast it on a target that is just about to move away. Note that this will activate Double Tap alongside Trueshot. This means that you should NEVER cast Trueshot and Volley back-to-back, in any order — you should always fit a Double Tap-spender like Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire in between them.
3. Cast Rapid Fire if Lunar Storm is available to be activated.
4. Activate Trueshot, your main cooldown. You should try to have at least one Streamline stack prepared before activating Trueshot, so that you can open it with a buffed Aimed Shot. It is also good to Rapid Fire right before entering Trueshot. Note that this will activate Double Tap alongside Volley. This means that you should NEVER cast Trueshot and Volley back-to-back, in any order — you should always fit a Double Tap-spender like Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire in between them.
5. Cast Explosive Shot right before you intend to spend Lock and Load proc with Aimed Shot. When you spend Lock and Load with a Explosive Shot already active, the MM 4PC Set Bonus +300% buff affects both Explosive Shots for massive damage. This only works when closer than ~15 yards and is referred to as the "doubledip".
6. Cast Aimed Shot to spend your Lock and Load proc while the Explosive Shot above is active.
7. Use Kill Shot when you have a Precise Shots stack to spend it with.
8. Use Kill Shot when you have a Razor Fragments proc, which is triggered from getting Deathblow procs.
9. Use Arcane Shot to spend Precise Shots if ANY the following are true. If neither are true, skip this line. Swap this to Multi-Shot on just 2 targets.
   • You have no Spotter's Mark for your next Aimed Shot.
   • You have not already cast an Arcane Shot since your last Aimed Shot, and therefore do not have the Moving Target buff.
10. Use Arcane Shot to spend your Precise Shots stacks.
11. If Aimed Shot is at 2 charges, and you have Bulletstorm, you would prioritize it over Rapid Fire.
12. Use Rapid Fire whenever possible — It triggers Lunar Storm, and it is worth holding it for up to ~7 seconds (outside Trueshot) if Lunar Storm is about to become available within that timespan, in order to trigger the Storm as soon as it becomes available.
13. Use Aimed Shot whenever it is available. Most of the time, you will want to spend all of your Precise Shots stacks first, but if you already have Spotter's Mark active from a previous Arcane, then you should just Aimed right away.
14. Use Aimed Shot whenever it is available. Make sure to spend any Precise Shots stacks first.
15. Cast Explosive Shot whenever possible as a low-priority filler. Try to cast it right before or after an Aimed Shot to proc Precision Detonation.
16. Cast Explosive Shot only when there's an additional target to hit with it.
17. Use Steady Shot as a filler/Focus/ Aimed Shot generator.

1. Ensure Hunter's Mark is active on the highest-health target from you or another Hunter in the group!
2. Throughout this entire opener, you may get Black Arrow procs from Aimed Shots and Rapid Fires thanks to Deathblow. If this happens, spend the procs immediately, but Trick Shots must be active for all of these Black Arrows.
3. For AoE, it is generally not worth pre-casting anything.
4. Activate Trick Shots. If the mobs are already stacked and stationary from the very beginning, use Volley on the center of the cluster of mobs. This activates Trick Shots for 6 seconds. If the mobs are moving and/or not fully stacked (or you simply are not specced Volley), use Multi-Shot here and Volley as soon as they are stacked and stationary.
5. At this point, if the pack is rather spread out and you would rather not Black Arrow now because it would only hit a few targets, fire an Explosive Shot.
6. Cast Black Arrow.
7. Cast Rapid Fire.
8. If you got a Deathblow proc from the Rapid Fire, cast Black Arrow if Volley is active. If you do not have Volley, cast a Multi-Shot to activate Trick Shots, and then Black Arrow.
9. Activate/Refresh Trick Shots, either with Volley or Multi-Shot. If you cast Black Arrow as part of the previous step, you can skip this one as Trick Shots will already be active.
10. Activate Trueshot. Feel free to macro in your on-use Trinket to this. You can also macro in the Potion — This can bite you in certain cases, however, so I do not recommend it for min-maxed play.
11. Cast Black Arrow.
12. Cast Aimed Shot.
13. Cast Multi-Shot.
14. Proceed with the standard rotation.

1. Ensure Hunter's Mark is active on the highest-health target from you or another Hunter in the group!
2. Pre-cast Steady Shot roughly 2 seconds before combat begins. Alternatively, in Mythic+, you can skip right to Explosive Shot as the pull begins. It will explode after 3 seconds, giving the mobs time to gather up by the time it explodes.
3. Drop Volley on the center of the cluster of mobs. This activates Trick Shots for 6 seconds. This also activates Double Tap.
4. Cast Rapid Fire. This will benefit from Volley's Trick Shots. We do this before Trueshot to spend Double Tap, as we never ever want to cast Trueshot/ Volley back-to-back, in any order, so as to not waste Double Tap.
5. Cast Rapid Fire. This will benefit from Volley's Trick Shots.
6. Use Explosive Shot.
7. Activate Trueshot. This also activates Double Tap.
8. Cast Aimed Shot. This will benefit from Volley's Trick Shots.
9. Cast Multi-Shot.
10. Activate Trick Shots by casting Multi-Shot.
11. Cast Rapid Fire. This will benefit from Multi-Shot's Trick Shots.
12. Cast Multi-Shot to reapply Trick Shots.
13. Activate Trueshot. This also activates Double Tap.
14. Cast Aimed Shot.
15. Cast Multi-Shot to re-apply Trick Shots.
16. Continue your rotation, according to the priority list below. If you get a Lock and Load proc, use an Explosive Shot into Aimed Shot.

This priority list describes the optimal AoE Rotation for Marksmanship Hunter.

1. Trinkets: When using 90-second Trinkets that give stats, hold Trueshot up to 10 seconds for them. When using 2-minute stat Trinkets, use them for every 2nd Trueshot. Try to use damage-dealing Trinkets during Trueshot as they will scale with the crit chance/damage.
2. Use Volley whenever available. I recommend using an @cursor placement macro for it, which you can find on the AddOns and Macros page. This does hefty damage and you should ensure that you aim it right in the middle of the clump of targets, and that you do not cast it on a pack that is just about to move away. Note that this will activate Double Tap alongside Trueshot. This means that you should NEVER cast Trueshot and Volley back-to-back, in any order — you should always fit a Double Tap-spender like Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire in between them.
3. Activate Trueshot, your main cooldown. You should try to have at least one Streamline stack and a Trick Shots prepared before activating it, so that you can open it with a buffed Aimed Shot. Note that this will activate Double Tap alongside Volley. This means that you should NEVER cast Trueshot and Volley back-to-back, in any order — you should always fit a Double Tap-spender like Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire in between them.
4. Use Multi-Shot to apply Trick Shots if it is down, and in order to spend your Precise Shots stacks.
5. Use Rapid Fire whenever possible. It triggers Lunar Storm, and it is worth holding it for up to ~7 seconds (outside Trueshot) if Lunar Storm is about to become available within that timespan, in order to trigger the Storm as soon as it becomes available. Remember to activate Trick Shots with Multi-Shot before casting this in any case. Note that if Aimed Shot is close to two charges, and you are already at 20 stacks of Bulletstorm, you would prioritize the Aimed Shot in such cases.
6. Cast Explosive Shot right before you intend to spend Lock and Load proc with Aimed Shot. When you spend Lock and Load with a Explosive Shot already active, the MM 4PC Set Bonus +300% buff affects both Explosive Shots for massive damage. This only works when closer than ~15 yards and is referred to as the "doubledip".
7. Cast Explosive Shot right before you plan to Aimed Shot. It can also be used immediately after an Aimed Shot for the same effect, but this requires Aimed's cast time to have been less than a GCD and is not perfectly reliable.
8. Use Aimed Shot whenever it is available. Most of the time, you will want to spend your Precise Shots stacks first, but if you have a Spotter's Mark proc , you should cast the Aimed Shot immediately, regardless of Precise Shots.
9. Use Aimed Shot whenever it is available. Make sure to spend any Precise Shots stacks first.
10. Use Explosive Shot as a low priority-filler. Try to cast them either right before an Aimed Shot, or right after an Aimed, provided that the Aimed took at least a full-length GCD to cast.
11. Use Kill Shot if you get a Deathblow proc.
12. If you are about to Focus cap, use Multi-Shot.
13. Use Steady Shot as a filler/Focus/ Aimed Shot generator.