Marksmanship Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, Talents, and Pet Talents — 12.1

Marksmanship plays Sentinel in all content, with no exceptions. Dark Ranger is a bit tankier, but Sentinel does more damage and is far easier to play. We provide Dark Ranger builds below for those who prefer the playstyle or thematic fantasy.

• Single-Target: Sentinel is played in all situations, even if though is slightly less tanky than Dark Ranger. It simply performs better on every metric, and is also easier to play.
• AoE: Just like in single-target, Sentinel is the go-to choice everywhere. It has the best DPS on every target count, while being easier to play. While is has slightly worse survivability than Dark Ranger, that does not come into play until pushing the absolute top keys, and even then you are typically able to rely on your teammates to help you survive, so you can unload Sentinel's superior DPS.

Tenacious and Cunning are our version of having a pet. You pick between 5% extra health with 3% damage reduction, or 8% Movement Speed with Master's Call, which is a freedom effect you can use on yourself or on anyone else. Neither of them do anything for your damage.

Our builds run Tenacious by default. In Patch 12.1, it is a DPS loss to take Tenacious or Cunning, anywhere from 0.7% to 1.6% depending on the exact scenario. If you are doing anything considered "competitive" content, which in our opinion is anything that you find to be challenging, the loss is worth taking. That said, if you just want to deal the max damage possible, here are the talents you would swap to for each build:

• Sentinel Single Target - Swap to Deathblow to gain around 0.7% DPS.
• Sentinel Raid Cleave - Swap to Accuracy By Volume to gain around 1.3% DPS.
• Sentinel Mythic+ and Delves - Swap to Kill Shot to gain around 1.4% DPS.
• Dark Ranger Single Target - Swap to Unmatched Precision to gain around 1.1% DPS.
• Dark Ranger Mythic+ and Delves - Swap to Bulletstorm to gain around 1.6% DPS.

Quick Start Import Codes:

The builds listed above are popular recommendations, covering various different loadouts suited to each style of endgame content. Each Talent Build will have its own rotation, and can also be manipulated further for specific types of content and to better benefit your group.

The Omnium Folio is the "borrowed power" system introduced in Midnight's Patch 12.0.7, and offers some moderately strong customization options after a short questline. Some of these bonuses affect your damage output, but there are also defensive and mobility options to choose from.

Your Folio progress carries over into Season 2. Take these bonuses:

• Rune of Unleashed Fire
• Rune of Self-Mending
• Rune of Lingering
• Rune of Critical Power. This one is the most flexible and may change as your gear's stat demands do, just like your Flask or Weapon Enchant. Crit is a safe "never bad" pick, but if you have lots (1300+) of it, you may consider Mastery instead (or sim it).
• Rune of Overload

Midnight introduces new Apex Talents, unlocked between Level 80 and 90. Marksmanship gets:

1. Take Aim
2. Take Aim
3. Take Aim

Take Aim increases Rapid Fire damage by 25%, and each shot it fires reduces the cooldown of Aimed Shot by 0.5 seconds, which comes to 5 seconds over a full channel. Take Aim increases the critical damage of your abilities by 5% and the damage of your ranged abilities by 3%, rising to 10% and 6% at its second point. Take Aim makes Spotter's Mark also increase the damage of your next Rapid Fire against the target by 20%.

Available at level 71, Hero talents are mutually exclusive trees you can choose to slightly alter gameplay and visuals. Marksmanship Hunter can choose between Sentinel and Dark Ranger.

Dark Ranger replaces your talented Kill Shot ability with Black Arrow, which deals heavy damage. In addition to being freely usable (with a 10-second cooldown) on targets above 80% or below 20% HP, you will regularly get Deathblow procs that let you use it on any target at any time. Rapid Fire gives a guaranteed proc, and Aimed Shot has a 20% chance to make your next Aimed Shot grant one. When you pop Trueshot, the button will turn into Wailing Arrow, a very powerful ability that also gives us a free Black Arrow proc on use. We try to use this as a filler, as we only get one use regardless.

Defensively, Dark Ranger offers Smoke Screen, which is simply amazing, as it gives us extremely easy access to our Survival of the Fittest nearly all the time.

Sentinel is our simplest Hero Talent, adding almost nothing in terms of gameplay intrigue or complexity, replacing Spotter's Mark with Sentinel's Mark, which is simply more powerful in every way. In addition, when you activate Trueshot, the Trueshot button itself will turn into Moonlight Chakram, a filler ability that does heavy damage on use. We try to use this as a filler, since we only get one use of it during Trueshot.

Defensively, Sentinel gives us Don't Look Back, which procs nearly constantly and offers a great deal of passive tankiness.

These picks are for open world PvE content with War Mode enabled, not for actual PvP.

War Mode offers several benefits for you in the open world.

• PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
• At least 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.
• Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will be flagged for open-world PvP, and the possibility of being "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.

• Aspect of the Fox lets you cast Aimed Shot while moving during Aspect of the Cheetah, and it extends the slower second half of that sprint by 4 seconds.
• Hunting Pack is a valuable speed increase for leveling and open world content.
• Sniper's Advantage increases the range of all your shots by 30% during Trueshot and Volley, which can be useful for big elites especially.

In The Same Category

Marksmanship Hunter RotationMarksmanship Hunter GuideBeast Mastery Hunter GuideBeast Mastery Hunter TalentsSurvival Hunter GuideSurvival Hunter Gear