Marksmanship Hunter DPS Spell List and Glossary — The War Within Pre-Patch

This will cover synergies, cooldowns, and core concepts of the spec to get it working. If you already have experience and are very comfortable with Marksmanship, it is okay to skip past this, otherwise this is a great point to get a base understanding before moving onto later sections of the guide that covers nuances of gameplay.

Note that this page merely lists the Talents and explains them. For information on the best talents to use for your Marksmanship Hunter in The War Within, check out our Talents page below.

Hunters and their pets use a unique resource, called Focus. Focus works in much the same way as other class resources, like Rage and Energy, in the sense that some abilities grant Focus, while others cost Focus to be used.

A Marksmanship Hunter's Focus has a maximum capacity of 100, and regenerates at a slow rate that varies by spec. In addition to this passive flow of incoming Focus, certain talents and abilities will amplify your Focus regeneration, or simply generate more of it.

Hunter pet Focus works similarly, and is of no concern to you as you cannot do anything to modify it, nor will you be casting pet abilities manually.

As a general rule, you should always have enough Focus to cast your abilities as soon as they come off cooldown, but also to never have 100 Focus (as any extra Focus you generate would then go to waste).

Note that this page simply lists all the different abilities, assuming you are at max level. If you are leveling, check out our dedicated Hunter Leveling page, which has detailed information on when you unlock all of these abilities.

Here are all of the active Hunter Abilites in The War Within. Note that some of the cooldowns and Resource costs listed are presuming certain Talent picks that we expect all Hunters to have chosen. Thus, our description can differ slightly from the tooltip.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Aimed Shot	AiS	A powerful shot that deals heavy Physical damage. It has a 2.5-second cast time and costs 35 Focus.
Arcane Shot	AS	An instant shot that deals low Arcane damage. Costs 40 Focus. Never used above the first few levels.
Barrage	-	A 3-second channel that deals heavy Physical damage to all enemies in a cone in front of you. Costs 60 Focus and has a 20-second cooldown. Activates Beast Cleave for 6 seconds.
Chimaera Shot	CS	An Arcane Shot replacement talent that deals hefty damage on 2 targets, but is inferior on single-target.
Explosive Shot	ES	Starts a 3-second timer on the target. When it expires, it deals heavy Fire damage to the target, and all nearby enemies. Costs 20 Focus. 30-second cooldown.
Hunter's Mark	HM	Increases all damage done to the target by 5% while it is above 80% health. Lets you track and see a target through stealth, if applied before stealth.
Kill Shot	KS	Deals heavy Physical damage for 10 Focus on a 10-second cooldown. It is only usable on targets below 20% health by default.
Multi-Shot	MS	Deals moderate Physical damage to your target, and all enemies within 8 yards. Reduced damage beyond 5 targets. Costs 30 Focus.
Rapid Fire	RF	A 2-second channel that fires 7 shots for heavy damage. It can be used while moving. Each shot generates 1 Focus. A core ability and one of the most powerful buttons Marksmanship has. 20-second cooldown.
Rapid Fire Barrage	RFB	A replacement talent for Barrage. It fires 5 Rapid Fires over 2 sec, but has its cooldown increased to 1 minute.
Salvo	-	An off-GCD button that causes your next Multi-Shot or Volley to apply Explosive Shot on up to 2 targets hit. Can be macro'd with other abilities or used separately.
Steady Shot	SS	1.65-second cast that deals low Physical damage. Our filler and occasional Focus generator.
Trueshot	TS	Your 2-minute primary cooldown. Reduces the cooldown of Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire by 70% and halves Aimed Shot's cast time for 15 sec. One of the strongest burst cooldowns in the game.
Volley	-	Targets a location on the ground that deals heavy damage to all enemies over 6 seconds, and also activates Trick Shots for 6 seconds. 45-second cooldown. Enables excellent short-term burst, especially on AoE.
Wailing Arrow	WA	A talented ability that will occasionally replace your regular Aimed Shot button with Wailing Arrows that deals significantly increased Shadow damage for only 15 Focus.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Aspect of the Turtle	Turtle	Deflects most attacks for 8 seconds, and reduces damage taken by 30%. 2.5-minute cooldown.
Exhilaration	Exhil	Heals you for 30%, plus an additional 16% over 8 seconds, and your pet for 100% of its maximum health. Variable cooldown, usually around a minute.
Mend Pet		Heals your pet for 50% of its total health over 10 seconds. If your pet is dead, it turns into Revive Pet.
Revive Pet		Revives your pet with full health. 3-second cast, 35 Focus.
Survival of the Fittest	SoTF	Reduces your damage taken by 30% for 8 seconds, with a 1.5-minute cooldown. It has 2 charges.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Binding Shot	Binding	Places an arrow on the ground. Enemies that pass by the arrow and then move 5 yards away from it are stunned for 3 seconds.
Bursting Shot	-	Knocks back all enemies immediately in front of you and snares them by 50% for 6 seconds. Costs 10 Focus, 30-second cooldown. Mutually exclusive with Scatter Shot.
Camouflage	Camo	Gives you stealth for 1 minute, and heals you for 2% of your maximum health every second. 1-minute cooldown that begins when the effect ends. Mutually exclusive with Scatter Shot.
Counter Shot	Kick	Interrupts your target's spell cast, and prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 3 seconds, on a 22-second cooldown.
Eagle Eye	Kick	Lets you see the world from another, targeted location for 1 min. Can only be used outdoors.
Eyes of the Beast	EotB	Lets you control and see through your pet's eyes for 1 minute. Very niche, but has occasionally been used to do special aggro tricks in Mythic+.
Feign Death	FD	Pretends to be dead for 6 minutes, dropping all enemy aggro and threat, removing all Poison and Disease effects from you, and prevents you from body-pulling nearby enemies. 30-second cooldown.
Flare		Reveals all stealthed enemies caught in the ground-target location. 20-second cooldown.
Freezing Trap	Trap	Places a trap on the ground. The first enemy that triggers it will be frozen for 30 seconds. Damage breaks the effect. 30-second cooldown.
High Explosive Trap	HET	Places a trap on the ground. The first enemy that triggers will activate an AoE knockback effect that also deals low Fire damage to all enemies affected. Mutually exclusive with Implosive Trap. 40-second cooldown.
Implosive Trap		Places a trap on the ground. The first enemy that triggers will activate an AoE knockup effect that also deals low Fire damage to all nearby enemies. Mutually exclusive with High Explosive Trap. 1-minute cooldown.
Intimidation	Pet Stun	Stuns a target for 5 seconds. 1-minute cooldown that can be reduced via Talents.
Misdirection	MD	Redirects all your threat (not your pet's) to the target for 8 seconds. After casting it, you have 30 seconds to start attacking something, which triggers the 8-second effect, meaning you can pre-cast it. 30-second cooldown.
Scare Beast	-	Fears a Beast enemy for 20-seconds. Breaks on damage. 1.5-second cast time, costs 25 Focus.
Scatter Shot	Scatter	Removes all harmful DoTs from the target and disorients them for 4 seconds. Breaks from damage and turns off your attack when used. 20-yard range, 30-second cooldown. Mutually exclusive with Bursting Shot.
Tar Trap	-	Places a trap on the ground. When an enemy triggers it, it spawns an 8-yard radius circle of tar on the ground that slows all enemies caught by 50%, which lasts 30 seconds. 30-second cooldown.
Tranquilizing Shot	Tranq	Removes 1 Enrage and 1 Magic effect from your target on a 10-second cooldown.
Wing Clip		Slows your target's movement speed by 50% for 15 sec.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Aspect of the Cheetah	Cheetah	Increases your movement speed by 90% for 3 seconds, and 30% for 9 seconds. 3-minute cooldown.
Disengage		Leaps you backwards. 20-second cooldown.

For more information on how to use these abilities together in your rotation, please read our rotation page.