Marksmanship Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, Talents, and Pet Talents — The War Within Pre-Patch
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Marksmanship Hunter in World of Warcraft — The War Within Pre-Patch. We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Marksmanship Hunter talents.
Best The War Within Talents for Marksmanship Hunter
Note that these builds are generic recommendations for various content. Check out the dedicated pages below for more specific recommendations for the Raid and Mythic+.
Best Talents for Marksmanship Hunter
Best Single-Target Talents for Marksmanship Hunter
This build is optimal for single-target scenarios. Given the huge cost of going for AoE builds as Marksmanship, you will be playing this most of the time in Raid.
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Best Mythic+ Talents for Marksmanship Hunter
This is our recommended build for Mythic+ Dungeons.
While we pick 
Light Ammo by default, if you almost never find
yourself fighting 7+ targets in a particular dungeon, then swap it for
Careful Aim.
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Best Raid AoE Talents for Marksmanship Hunter
This is our recommended build for Raid Encounters with significant AoE requirements, but is still solid for single-target.
For some fights, like Primal Council and Council of Dreams
where you primarily fight 2-4 targets, swap Careful Aim for
Heavy Ammo. Likewise, for fights that present more mass-AoE, like
Tindral, swap it to Light Ammo. Another swap you can make is
Bullseye, it mostly comes down to whether you deem 100-70% or 20-0%
DPS more important for the fight you are doing. Numerically, Bullseye beats
Careful Aim.
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Talent Build Explanations for Marksmanship Hunters
Single-Target Build
Our single-target build is fairly straightforward, as we pick essentially every single-target-related talent available to us.
AoE Build
Our AoE kit is pretty expensive, and we have to be choosy about the talents we pick here.
- We omit
Rapid Fire Barrage. While it is a very powerful button,
the 2-point investment due to the 
Barrage requirement is not
attractive. - We leave out
Wailing Arrow because 
Small Game Hunter and
Salvo are simply too enticing.
Mythic+
Depending on affixes and other variables, Mythic+ can require a mix of AoE and Single-Target talents. You should check out our page below if you want advice specific to Mythic+.
Rotation for Marksmanship Hunter Talents
Some talents will require you to play in a particular way to get the most out of them. You can find more information on how your rotation will look after selecting your talents on our rotation page below.
Best Pet for Marksmanship Hunter in The War Within
We have made a dedicated page for Hunter Pets information that we recommend you check out!
Note that most of the time, your best bet as Marksmanship is to not use a pet at all due to 
Lone Wolf, a must-pick talent.
PvP Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in The War Within
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 available for open-world PvP, and the possibility of being "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.
PvP Talents (War Mode) for Marksmanship Hunter
In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of all PvP Talents for Marksmanship Hunter
Best PvP Talents for Marksmanship Hunter
-
Ranger's Finesse will give you far more 
Exhilarations,
saving you time and deaths in rough situations.
-
Sniper Shot lets you attack mobs from farther away, saving time in
the process.
-
Hunting Pack is a valuable speed increase for leveling and open
world content.
You can consider the other options essentially down to preference.
For details on how to play in Marksmanship Hunter PvP, please visit our Marksmanship Hunter PvP page.
Changelog
- 25 Jul. 2024: Updated the Single-Target Talent Build.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 14 Feb. 2024: Updated the recommended default Mythic+ Talent Build.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.5
- 04 Dec. 2023: Updated Talents for Mythic+.
- 27 Nov. 2023: Updated Talents for Mythic+.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Restructured the page and updated for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 27 Jun. 2023: Additional Talent Change, and moved Steel Trap to be default for single-target.
- 26 Jun. 2023: Updated the single-target build to account for new tuning.
- 25 May 2023: Updated the recommended builds to assume the set bonus as default.
- 19 May 2023: Updated the layout of the page and added an alternative, cooldown-less build.
- 15 May 2023: Added note on Steel Trap and when you might want to use it.
- 12 May 2023: Clarified talent changes for AoE as well as single-target with the 4PC Bonus.
- 09 May 2023: Added note of how the build changes with the 4PC Set Bonus.
- 08 May 2023: Updated the recommended single-target talent build to pick Steady Focus.
- 04 May 2023: Updated the recommended AoE/M+ Talent Build. This is likely a temporary change, until the new Tier Set becomes more widespread.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 21 Mar. 2023: Updated the talents for the 10.0.7 talent reshuffle.
- 15 Feb. 2023: Updated the utility talents in the M+ Build.
- 30 Jan. 2023: Small updates to talent swaps.
- 25 Jan. 2023: Updated the Talent Builds again after the discovery of a sim bug. Added alternative to Steady Focus. Changed the "swap" talent for Wailing Arrow to Bullseye.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Updated the page for relevant changes in Patch 10.0.5.
- 21 Jan. 2023: Fixed a wrong note about which talent to swap for Ammo Talents.
- 17 Jan. 2023: Updated the recommended Single-Target Talent Build.
- 23 Dec. 2022: Updated the recommended builds to reflect that Unerring Vision is fixed and worth using again.
- 18 Dec. 2022: Updated the recommended talent builds to reflect that Unerring Vision is bugged.
- 16 Dec. 2022: Added note that you do not need to use Serpent Sting manually with Hydra's Bite.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated the recommended single-target talent build in light of recent buffs.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Hunter Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Azortharion, a Hunter Theorycrafter and Guidewriter since 2014 who is widely considered one of the best Hunters in the world. He is an accomplished player with hundreds of top parses for all Hunter specs throughout the game's history. He is also the Founder and Admin of Trueshot Lodge, the Hunter Class Discord. You can find him on his stream on Twitch and his channel on YouTube. He also has his own personal Discord server where you can freely ask him any Hunter questions you may have!
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