On our Spells page below, you can see a full explanation of every ability and Talent for Marksmanship Hunter. We recommend checking it out to familiarize yourself before studying the build below!

Best Dragonflight Single-Target Talent Build for Marksmanship Hunter

This talent setup is almost entirely single-target focused, with very little active cleave to speak of. We explain the details of the build further below.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!

This is our recommended build for Mythic+, and will also work well for the majority of AoE situations in the Raid. There are variations of this build for specific situations described below. You can also find specific builds for every raid boss on our Vault of the Incarnates page, and more specific Mythic+ Talent Choice notes on our Mythic+ Page.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!

The optimal build can change depending on the target count you are facing. The build above is optimal for most forms of AoE content, including most Raid Fights with AoE elements, and practically all Mythic+. For completion, here are some notes that are worth keeping in mind when building your MM Hunter for AoE.

• We choose Wailing Arrow despite it being slightly inferior for DPS. This is because the silence is hugely useful in Mythic+. If you are Raiding, or simply do not need the silence, pick Hunter's Knowledge instead.
• On 4 targets only, replace Poison Injection with Hydra's Bite, and Wailing Arrow/ Hunter's Knowledge for Heavy Ammo This applies to the Primal Council Fight in the Vault of the Incarnates.
• On 7+ targets only, do the same as above, but go for Light Ammo instead.

If you hate Steel Trap, you can drop it and a point of Serrated Shots to chase Arctic Bola/ Explosive Shot instead, for a ~2% DPS loss.

Note that we do not explain EVERY talent in the tree on this page. We only explain ones that are part of our optimal builds for single-target and AoE. For full details and explanations of every Talent, please visit our Spells page via the button below.

• Kill Shot is a strong DPS button and a mandatory pick.
• Posthaste is essential as one of our strongest mobility talents.
• Improved Kill Shot is a passive, powerful increase to our Kill Shot's damage.
• Counter Shot is our main interrupt.
• Natural Mending provides incredible CDR to Exhilaration and is a must-pick for survivability. If you are not using Exhilaration very liberally, you can get away with dropping a point here for other utility.
• Tar Trap is not great, but it leads us on a path to better talents, as we need to get to the left side of the tree later on.
• Survival of the Fittest is a strong defensive for both one-shots and powerful DoTs.

• Tranquilizing Shot is useful for many scenarios and leads us to better talents on the left side of the tree.
• Nature's Endurance is a must-pick if you can get it, as it doubles the damage reduction of Survival of the Fittest.
• Born To Be Wild is a solid pick for lower Turtle and Cheetah cooldowns, making it strong for both survivability and mobility.
• Improved Tranquilizing Shot is a bit of an incentive to Tranquilizing Shot when we can, and leads us nicely to the left side of the tree, which becomes important.
• High Explosive Trap is situationally useful to move mobs around, such as Sanguine weeks in Mythic+.
• Binding Shot/ Scatter Shot are both viable options in this choice node and are necessary to pick up other essential Talents. For most Mythic+, we recommend Binding Shot, but Scatter Shot can be used as a single-target cast stopper, similar to Intimidation.
• Rejuvenating Wind increases our maximum health and gives our Exhilaration some extra power, which can be useful or weak depending on how liberal you are with Exhilaration usage. This is mandatory for the maximum HP.
• Camouflage is useful for skips and out-of-combat self-healing in Mythic+. Still, practically useless for Raiding.
• Hunter's Avoidance is a much-needed boost to our survivability on unavoidable mechanics.
• Pathfinding is a solid boost to movement speed, but you can drop a point here to pick up other utility as needed.

• Keen Eyesight is a strong DPS increase and is a mandatory pick.
• Master Marksman is a strong DPS increase and is a mandatory pick.
• Serrated Shots is a decent DPS talent, and importantly leads us to Steel Trap for single-target, while for AoE it is just a bit of extra DPS.
• Arctic Bola is a bit of a DPS increase, and we pick it at the lack of other options.
• Serpent Sting is rarely actually used as an ability, but we need it to get to the hugely important talent below.
• Steel Trap is a strong single-target DPS option.
• Death Chakram introduces a mini-cooldown to our rotation, enhancing our burst a little and focuses on amplifying other damage, even though it does not do a ton of damage on its own.
• Poison Injection has incredible synergy with our Serpentstalker's Trickery Talent that we talk about later, and is a free, high DPS increase.
• Hydra's Bite is useful for 3-4 target situations only. It is the same DPS as Poison Injection for AoE scenarios, but has less single-target, so we skip it for Mythic+.

• Aimed Shot, Crack Shot, and Precise Shots are mandatory to get started with the build. There is not much to say about them.
• Improved Steady Shot is not as necessary as it may seem, and you can omit it for a point of Hunter's Knowledge if you prefer. Still, we do recommend it as a default.
• Rapid Fire is another core ability that will also generate Focus for us in the absence of Improved Steady Shot.
• Lone Wolf requires us to not use a pet in all situations for optimal DPS.
• Streamline is a solid, passive DPS increase and leads us to multiple important talents.
• Hunter's Knowledge has strong per-point DPS value for all situations.

• Surging Shots is a huge DPS increase and also has some impact on the feel of the rotation.
• Deathblow turns Kill Shot into a heavily featured button in the regular rotation, and is a large DPS increase.
• Target Practice is mandatory and a large DPS increase.
• Focused Aim is similar to Hunter's Knowledge, providing a little more DPS per point.
• Multi-Shot is what enables our entire AoE kit and is mandatory when you need to AoE, even a little.
• Pouch of Razor Fragments makes Kill Shot a powerful cleave ability, but is also powerful enough on single-target.
• Steady Focus is a strong maintenance buff with a high passive DPS increase. We steer clear of it for Mythic+ as it is a hassle to maintain, however.
• Deadeye competes with Steady Focus and is a simpler option with no maintenance, but the damage loss is too great to go for it.
• Trick Shots is the second mandatory node for our AoE damage.
• Volley is a strong button in all situations, but especially on large amounts of AoE targets. It is worth using and pressing even in single-target situations and provides our single-target build with some on-demand AoE as well.
• Tactical Reload will give us more of our heavy-hitters, particularly in AoE situations.
• Serpentstalker's Trickery pairs with Poison Injection for a substantial DPS increase. Aimed Shot can be cycled between multiple targets to essentially multidot Serpent Sting this way.

• Light Ammo/ Heavy Ammo are used for specifically for 7+ target situations, and 4-target situations respectively. We replace Bullseye/ Wailing Arrow in these scenarios.
• Trueshot is our main cooldown and mandatory, enabling our extremely powerful burst damage.
• Lock and Load introduces a bit of powerful RNG to our rotation, but is a solid DPS increase.
a
• Bullseye enables amazing execute damage, especially paired with another talent talked about below
• Bulletstorm is an immensely powerful AoE talent and is chosen for all such situations.
• Eagletalon's True Focus enhances our Trueshot and improves our burst damage even further.
• Wailing Arrow is excellent utility for Mythic+, and a decent DPS pick, although technically inferior to Bullseye for pure DPS.
• Salvo can be macro'd to Volley for a massive, passive damage boost. The macro can be found in the Macros section of this guide.
• Unerring Vision enhances our burst by boosting our main cooldown. A must-pick in all situations.

Mythic+ can potentially require a mix of certain AoE and Single-Target talents, depending on affixes and other variables. If you want advice that is specific to Mythic+, you should check out our page below.

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.

Firstly, it is important to note that all pets do the same damage. They only differ in their utility and occasionally defensive capabilities.

Marksmanship does not use a pet unless it is absolutely required in order to have Bloodlust (in our case, Primal Rage) available within the group.

Given this, when we do use a pet, it will always be a Ferocity one, as they provide Primal Rage. Since all pets do identical damage, you can use whichever Ferocity pet you want. In certain edge cases, a Mortal Wounds Pet can provide an effective DPS increase by reducing enemy healing done to itself.

You can see a list of all pet families and their special abilities on the Spells Summary page of this guide.

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 make yourself available for open world PvP, and the possibility to be "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.

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

1. Ranger's Finesse will give you far more Exhilarations, saving you time and deaths in rough situations.
2. Sniper Shot lets you attack mobs from farther away, saving time in the process.
3. Hunting Pack is a valuable speed increase for leveling and open world content.

You can consider the other options to be essentially down to preference.

For details on how to play Marksmanship Hunter in PvP, please visit our Marksmanship Hunter PvP page.

Pets do not have talent trees. Instead, different types of pet belong to one of three difference specs: Ferocity, Tenacity, and Cunning.

Each specialisation grants your pet a few specific abilities. Currently, there is no DPS difference between the different pet specs. The only differences are in utility.