Marksmanship Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, Talents, and Pet Talents — Dragonflight 10.2

This build is basically equal to Readiness for pure single-target situations in most gearsets, without requiring the T31 Tier Set to be relevant.

It takes its name from the Improved Steady Shot and Precise Shots Talents not featured in the Readiness build. It is a more traditional way to play Marksmanship, historically speaking, and which build you play is mostly down to preference.

It also does not use Steady Focus, which many prefer.

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

This build is an alternative that provides similar DPS to the ISS-PS build, but with a little more complexity. We list it as an alternative, but do not really recommend you use it unless you strongly prefer it. It requires the T31-4PC to be effective.

It takes its name from the Readiness Talent, which we use in conjunction with our Tier Set to extend Trick Shots with the extra Rapid Fires it offers.

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

This build is optimal for pure single-target situations before you have obtained the new Hunter Marksmanship 10.2 Class Set 4pc bonus.

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 AoE scenarios. This works well for AoE Fights in Raids, as well as most Mythic+.

For extremely heavy AoE scenarios and Mythic+ dungeons, swap Bulletstorm for Light Ammo. The same goes for Heavy Ammo, but almost no dungeons have small pulls enough to justify this.

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 before you have obtained the new Hunter Marksmanship 10.2 Class Set 4pc bonus. This works well for AoE Fights in Raids, as well as most Mythic+.

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

Note that we do not explain EVERY Talent in the tree on this page. We only explain Talents 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	A strong DPS button and a mandatory pick.
Posthaste	Essential as one of our strongest mobility talents.
Improved Kill Shot	A passive, powerful increase to our Kill Shot's damage.
Counter Shot	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	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	A strong defensive for both one-shots and powerful DoTs.

Tranquilizing Shot	Useful for many scenarios and leads us to better talents on the left side of the tree.
Nature's Endurance	A must-pick, as it doubles the damage reduction of Survival of the Fittest.
Born To Be Wild	A solid pick for lower Turtle and Cheetah cooldowns, making it strong for both survivability and mobility.
Improved Tranquilizing Shot	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.
Intimidation	Hugely useful for add control in Mythic+ and some Raiding scenarios, but requires a pet which makes it useless.
Binding Shot/ Scatter Shot	Both viable options in this choice node 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, since we do not have 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	Useful for skips and out-of-combat self-healing in Mythic+, but it has no use for Raiding.
Hunter's Avoidance	A much-needed boost to our survivability on unavoidable mechanics.
Pathfinding	A solid boost to movement speed, but you can drop a point here to pick up other utilities as needed.

Keen Eyesight	A potent DPS increase and is a mandatory pick.
Master Marksman	A substantial DPS increase and is a mandatory pick.
Serrated Shots	Affects Master Marksman/ Serpent Sting and is a potent DPS talent.
Arctic Bola	A decent DPS increase for 1 point.
Steel Trap	An unpopular, but potent pick for single-target.
Death Chakram	Introduces a mini-cooldown to our rotation, enhancing our burst a little and focusing on amplifying other damage.

Aimed Shot and Crack Shot	Mandatory to get started with the build. There is not much to say about them.
Rapid Fire	Another core ability of the spec.
Lone Wolf	Requires us to not use a pet in all situations for optimal DPS, but is well worth it.
Streamline	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	A huge DPS increase with the T31 Tier Set and also has some impact on the feel of the rotation.
Deathblow	Turns Kill Shot into a heavily featured button in the regular rotation. Not always used.
Focused Aim	Similar to Hunter's Knowledge, providing a little more DPS per point.
Multi-Shot	What enables our entire AoE kit and is mandatory when you need to AoE, even a little.
Razor Fragments	Makes Kill Shot a powerful cleave Talent, but is also powerful on single-target. Not always used.
Trick Shots	The second mandatory node for our AoE damage.
Volley	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.
Steady Focus	Competitive for single-target situations and requires a bit of maintenance. Luckily, it can be helped a lot with this WeakAura!
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	Used for specifically for 7+ target situations, and 4-target situations respectively. We replace Bulletstorm in these scenarios.
Trueshot	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.
Bullseye	Enables amazing execute damage, especially paired with another talent talked about below.
Bulletstorm	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	Used for single-target in conjunction with Readiness for gameplay related to our T31 Tier Set Bonus.
Legacy of the Windrunners	Perhaps the most important talent of our tree, enabling high uptimes on Trueshot when paired with Windrunner's Guidance below it.
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.
Readiness	Gives us more Rapid Fires to fuel our T31 Tier Set Bonus.
Windrunner's Guidance	Enables higher uptimes on Trueshot when paired with Legacy of the Windrunners and is a must-pick.