Marksmanship Hunter PvP Guide in Battle for Azeroth (BfA 8.0.1)

Table of Contents

• +1. Spec Overview / Place in the Current Meta for Marksmanship Hunters
  • 1.1. Strengths of Marksmanship Hunter
  • 1.2. Weaknesses of Marksmanship Hunter
• 2. Stat Priority for Marksmanship Hunters in PvP
• +3. Azerite Traits for Marksmanship Hunters
  • 3.1. Outer Ring
  • 3.2. Middle Ring
  • 3.3. Inner Ring
• +4. Talent Choices for Marksmanship Hunters
  • 4.1. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4.2. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 4.3. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 4.4. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 4.5. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 4.6. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 4.7. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
• 5. PvP Talents for Marksmanship Hunters
• +6. Racial Bonuses for Marksmanship Hunters
  • 6.1. Horde
  • 6.2. Alliance
• +7. Playstyle for Marksmanship Hunters
  • 7.1. Before Gates Open
  • 7.2. The Opener
  • 7.3. Offensive Rotation
    • 7.3.1. Burst Damage
    • 7.3.2. Sustained damage
  • 7.4. Pet Talents
  • 7.5. Defensive Techniques
• +8. Best Team Compositions for Marksmanship Hunters
  • 8.1. 2v2 Arena
  • 8.2. 3v3 Arena
• +9. Useful Macros for Marksmanship Hunters
  • 9.1. Counter Shot Focus Macro
  • 9.2. Concussive Shot Focus Macro
  • 9.3. Roar of Sacrifice party Macro
• 10. Changelog

Introduction

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to play a Marksmanship Hunter in a PvP environment. The guide will cover everything from talent choices, artifacts, gameplay and rotation, and useful racial bonuses. It is most applicable to Arena content, but most talents and racial bonuses will work in Rated Battlegrounds and skirmishes.

About The Author

This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved Arena Master and 2500 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.

1. Spec Overview / Place in the Current Meta for Marksmanship Hunters

Marksmanship Hunters are a strong Hunter specialization right now. They are unique because, depending on your playstyle, you can AoE a team down with spells like Multi-Shot, or you can have strong single-target damage with spells like Arcane Shot and Aimed Shot. On top of all of this damage, they also have strong crowd control abilities.

1.1. Strengths of Marksmanship Hunter

• Multiple tools versus teams with DoTs
• Decent mobility
• Strong burst damage

1.2. Weaknesses of Marksmanship Hunter

• Long burst cooldown
• Weak to teams with multiple stuns
• Need help from teammates to land crowd control

2. Stat Priority for Marksmanship Hunters in PvP

The stat priority for Marksmanship Hunter in PvP is as follows:

1. Agility;
2. Haste;
3. Mastery;
4. Critical Strike;
5. Versatility.

Agility is the best stat in all situations. Haste is the strongest secondary stat at all times due to it reducing the Global Cooldown on abilities and the cast time of your abilities. Mastery is also crucial as it increases the range and damage of all of your damaging spells.

3. Azerite Traits for Marksmanship Hunters

Azerite traits are unlocked in you helm, shoulders and chest. With each Azerite level in your neck, you get closer to unlocking the center trait in your gear. These traits vary from increasing damage of certain abilities to helping increase your survivability. Depending on what traits you use, it can completely alter your playstyle and what talents you should be using.

3.1. Outer Ring

Below are the best Outer Ring traits.

1. Steady Aim
2. Laser Matrix
3. Feeding Frenzy
4. Focused Fire

The most important trait you are going to want to get in all pieces of your gear is Steady Aim. This increases your sustained and burst damage. Laser Matrix and Feeding Frenzy also help increase your sustained damage, but are not as strong as Steady Aim. Focused Fire increases both your damage and Focus regeneration, which is great if you feel you do not have enough Focus through an arena match.

3.2. Middle Ring

Below are the best Middle Ring traits.

1. Heed My Call
2. Overwhelming Power
3. Earthlink
4. Gutripper

The Middle and Inner rings are important for additional damage and stat bonuses. All of the traits above do exactly this. These traits are best for providing small damage or stat boosts and results in increasing your overall damage output.

3.3. Inner Ring

Below are the best Inner Ring traits.

1. Duck and Cover
2. Impassive Visage
3. Azerite Fortification
4. Gemhide

All of these traits give you additional ways of surviving. These are all passive, but are crucial to have.

4. Talent Choices for Marksmanship Hunters

Level	Choices
15	✘ Master Marksman	✘ Serpent Sting	✔ A Murder of Crows
30	✔ Careful Aim	✘ Volley	✘ Explosive Shot
45	✘ Trailblazer	✔ Natural Mending	✔ Camouflage
60	✘ Steady Focus	✔ Streamline	✘ Hunter's Mark
75	✘ Born To Be Wild	✔ Posthaste	? Binding Shot
90	✘ Lethal Shots	✘ Barrage	✔ Double Tap
100	✘ Calling the Shots	✔ Lock and Load	✘ Piercing Shot

While the above table provides a generally accurate overview of the viability of talents, some finer points are discussed in the sections that follow, and we recommend you read those for a deeper understanding.

4.1. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

A Murder of Crows is the best choice in this tier. This ability is a very strong offensive cooldown that should be used when trying to secure a kill.

4.2. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

Careful Aim is the best choice in this tier. This talent makes it much easier to swap targets who are above 80% health. It also helps with securing kills on enemies who are low on health.

4.3. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

Natural Mending is the best choice in this tier. This talent is crucial for reducing the cooldown of Exhilaration. This will help increase your overall survivability versus teams that will be focusing you. However, if you are playing with a partner who has a Stealth ability like Rogue or Feral, Camouflage is the better choice. This will give you team a very strong opener.

4.4. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

Streamline is the best choice in this tier. This increase your sustained and burst damage.

4.5. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

Posthaste is the best choice in this tier. This gives you even more mobility. It will allow you to run away from enemies if they are focusing you. However, if you do not need the additional movement speed from Posthaste, Binding Shot is also a good choice to help you land crowd control or kite incoming damage.

4.6. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

Double Tap is the best choice in this tier. This provides strong on-demand burst damage and crucial for securing kills. You will want to use this once the enemy healer is in crowd control. Something to note is that this has the same cooldown as A Murder of Crows and you will often be pairing these two cooldowns together.

4.7. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

Lock and Load is the best choice in this tier. This gives your auto attacks a chance to make you next Aimed Shot instant and cost no Focus. As a result, this increases your overall damage output.

5. PvP Talents for Marksmanship Hunters

The first PvP talent tier will give you a choice between Gladiator's Medallion, Relentless, and Adaptation. Gladiator's Medallion is the best choice in this tier. It is great for removing crowd control on you that your healer cannot dispel. Normally, you should save your trinket for Aspect of the Turtle.

Roar of Sacrifice instructs your pet to protect a friendly target from critical strikes, making attacks against that target unable to be critical strikes, but 20% of all damage taken by that target is also taken by the pet. It lasts 12 seconds and this is a powerful defensive cooldown that is helpful for you and your teammates. With a cooldown of only 1 minute, this is an ability that your healer can call-out to use if they are stuck in crowd control. This is a mandatory PvP talent.

Scatter Shot is crucial for your crowd control. It is a targeted shot that incapacitates the target for 4 seconds. This is crucial for your crowd control if your teammates cannot help you setup your Freezing Trap. You can also use this to help one of your teammates stay alive if they are being focused. Something to note is that Scatter Shot shares a diminishing return with Freezing Trap, so it will only be a 3.5-second trap. This is a mandatory PvP talent.

Spider Sting stings the target with potent spider venom for 4 seconds, causing their next offensive spell cast to silence the target for 4 seconds. When playing against classes that cast most of their spells (Mages, Warlocks, Elemental Shamans), this talent can be helpful. You can use it to interrupt their burst damage or crowd control.

Survival Tactics causes Feign Death to remove all harmful magical effects, and reduces damage taken by 99% for 1.5 seconds. This is a mandatory talent when playing against classes with multiple DoTs (Affliction Warlock, Shadow Priest, Balance Druid). This reduces the enemies' overall damage and helps your healer with dispelling harmful effects. You can also use this to stop incoming spells that are being cast on you. You can replace Spider Sting with this PvP talent.

Dragonscale Armor reduces all magical DoT effects dealt to you by 20%. This is crucial versus teams and classes that have multiple DoTs. You can replace Spider Sting with this PvP talent.

6. Racial Bonuses for Marksmanship Hunters

Racial bonuses can provide interesting PvP benefits. Here are the best races to choose for each faction.

6.1. Horde

The passive Orc racial bonus ( Hardiness) is great if you find yourself being stunned a lot and having a hard time against melee classes.

6.2. Alliance

The Human racial bonus ( Every Man for Himself) is a great way to get out of stuns.

If you do not want to play Human and want additional burst, Dark Iron Dwarf is also a strong choice. With the racial bonus ( Fireblood you can use it defensively to removed debuffs and use the stat increase to help with your burst damage.

7. Playstyle for Marksmanship Hunters

The main role for a Marksmanship Hunter is simple: use your mobility to land Freezing Traps on the enemy healer and use your strong single-target cooldowns to burst your enemies down. You should not try to burst an enemy down unless the healer is on crowd control. You have multiple cooldowns that have a short cooldown and you should take advantage of this. You also want to make sure you are using your Aimed Shot charges as often as you can.

7.1. Before Gates Open

If you are playing against a team with stealth, make sure to use Flare to try to reveal them. If you are playing with someone that has a stealth, make sure to use Camouflage.

7.2. The Opener

The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns. If the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble. Marksmanship Hunters have Freezing Trap, Scatter Shot, and Spider Sting, which can help to this end.

This is the rotation you should use on your target at the beginning of the game.

1. Use Concussive Shot to slow your target.
2. Cast Aimed Shot.
3. Use Arcane Shot as a filler if you cannot cast Aimed Shot and use it when you have the Precise Shots buff.
4. Cast Aimed Shot.
5. Use Aimed Shots when Lock and Load procs.
6. The Precise Shots buff:
   • You can 2 stacks after landing a Aimed Shot.
   • Use Arcane Shot for strong single target damage.
7. Cast Steady Shot to generate focus.
8. Use your burst rotation.
9. After your burst, perform your sustained damage rotation until your burst cooldowns are available.

7.3. Offensive Rotation

7.3.1. Burst Damage

When you have the enemy healer in crowd control and you are trying to kill an enemy, you use your burst damage. You can use your own crowd control, such as Scatter Shot and Freezing Trap.

1. Use Aimed Shot.
2. Use Trueshot
3. Use A Murder of Crows.
4. Use Arcane Shot with the Precise Shots buff.
5. Cast Aimed Shot.
6. Use Arcane Shot.
7. Use Double Tap.
8. Use Rapid Fire.
9. Use any Aimed Shots when Lock and Load procs.
10. Use Arcane Shot when you have Precise Shots stacks or as a filler.
11. Cast Aimed Shot.

7.3.2. Sustained damage

Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available.

1. Use Aimed Shot as often as you can.
   • You never want to be capped on stacks of Aimed Shot. You should always have a charge regenerating.
   • It is also important to never Aimed Shot two times in a row. This will result in you losing your Precise Shots stacks.
2. Use Arcane Shot after you use Aimed Shot. You should also use it as a filler when you have high Focus./li>
3. Use Rapid Fire for strong single target damage.
   • This is often paired with Double Tap, so make sure you have Rapid Fire available when you are using Double Tap.
4. Use Steady Shot to generate Focus.
5. Use Aimed Shot when you get Lock and Load procs.
6. Use A Murder of Crows for pressure.

7.4. Pet Talents

Pets do not have talent trees, and instead have their own types of specialization (Cunning, Ferocity, or Tenacity).

Each specialization gives your pet a few abilities. Cunning provides the ability Master's Call and the Mortal Wounds debuff, so we consider it to be the best specialization.

7.5. Defensive Techniques

Aspect of the Turtle is our main defensive cooldown. Use this when the enemy team is focusing you down and your healer can not heal you through the damage or is stuck in crowd control. Although you can not attack with this cooldown active, you still have the ability to trap. Using this to ignore incoming attacks and using Freezing Trap on an enemy healer could be crucial.

Exhilaration is a very strong instant heal. Try to stagger Aspect of the Turtle and Exhilaration and you will be very hard to kill.

Roar of Sacrifice is a great utility ability for you or your teammates. This makes the teammate you use this on immune to being Critical Strikes by spells and transfers 20% of the damage they are taking to your pet. Use this when the enemy team is using their cooldowns on a teammate or yourself and not many defensive cooldowns are available.

8. Best Team Compositions for Marksmanship Hunters

Now that you have the correct talents and understand your damage rotation, it is time to step into the arena with your team. Marksmanship Hunters have a very strong burst cooldown in the form of Trueshot. This cooldown paired with multiple crowd control abilities make this spec a threat versus any team.

8.1. 2v2 Arena

In 2v2 Arena, you do not have many options. Trueshot has a 3-minute cooldown and it is crucial to use it at the correct time. Before you use your burst rotation, try to make the enemy healer use their trinket. If you are playing with a Holy Paladin or Restoration Druid, they should use their stun to start the crowd control. Follow that up with a Freezing Trap and Scatter Shot. At the same time you should be doing your sustained damage rotation. When the enemy healer is starting to fall behind in healing or uses their trinket, you should use your burst rotation. With this strategy you are trying to do so much single-target damage to a target that the enemy healer will not be able to heal through it.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 2v2:

• Marksmanship Hunter + Discipline Priest
• Marksmanship Hunter + Restoration Druid
• Marksmanship Hunter + Holy Paladin
• Marksmanship Hunter + Holy Priest

8.2. 3v3 Arena

Your role in 3v3 is similar to 2v2 Arena. You will be focusing on maximizing your single target damage while still crowd controlling the enemy healer with Scatter Shot and Freezing Trap. When you start the crowd control chain, your teammate should stun the kill target and then use your burst rotation. You do not always have to stun the kill target. If your team only has one reliable stun like Hammer of Justice or Mighty Bash, it is best to use it on the enemy healer.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 3v3:

• Jungle (Marksmanship Hunter + Feral Druid + Holy Paladin/Discipline Priest)
• Cupid (Marksmanship Hunter + Retribution Paladin + Restoration Druid/ Discipline Priest)
• Marksmanship Hunter + Arms Warrior + Restoration Shaman/Holy Paladin

9. Useful Macros for Marksmanship Hunters

Macros are crucial to be successful in PvP. They allow players to use abilities on enemies without having to target them. This helps increase overall damage/healing and general awareness in the arena. Here are a few macros that all Marksmanship Hunters can benefit from.

9.1. Counter Shot Focus Macro

• #showtooltip Counter Shot
• /cast [target=focus] Counter Shot

This macro will use Counter Shot on whichever enemy you have on focus. Because you will be primarily using Counter Shot on the enemy healer, you should only need this focus macro.

9.2. Concussive Shot Focus Macro

• #showtooltip Concussive Shot
• /cast [target=focus] Concussive Shot

This macro will use Concussive Shot on whichever enemy you have on focus. This is crucial for when you need to slow the enemy healer to land a Freezing Trap.

9.3. Roar of Sacrifice party Macro

• #showtooltip Roar of Sacrifice
• /cast [target=party1] Roar of Sacrifice

Using this macro will use Roar of Sacrifice on party player 1. This makes it easier to use this defensive on a teammate while damaging the rest of your team. If you want a macro to use Roar of Sacrifice the second party member, change the party1 to party2.

10. Changelog

• 08 Oct. 2018: Added talent table, and removed PvP Gear and War Mode sections.
• 30 Sep. 2018: Updated guide for patch 8.0.1.
  • Updated Introduction and spec overview.
  • Added Stat priority.
  • Added Azerite Traits section.
  • Updated tier all regular talents.
  • Added PvP (War Mode) talents and gear sections for the new BfA system.
  • Updated Racial Bonuses section.
  • Updated Burst Damage and Sustained Damage sections.
  • Updated Macros section.
  • Removed Gear section.
  • Removed Artifact Traits section.
  • Removed Relics section.
• 21 May 2018: Added an Arena Compositions section.
• 10 Apr. 2018: Made several updates to the guide and its structure.
  • Added sections for Macros, Strengths, and Weaknesses.
  • Moved Gear, Artifact Traits, and Relics sections to the end, since they are not that important.
• 13 Feb. 2018: No major changes needed for patch 7.3.5.
• 24 Dec. 2017: No major changes needed for patch 7.3.2.
• 23 Sep. 2017: Several changes made for Patch 7.3
  • Removed Artifact Trait descriptions.
  • Changed recommended tier 1, 2 and 7 regular talents.
  • Changed recommended tier 7 honor talents.
  • Updated sustained and burst damage rotations.
• 17 Jul. 2017: Changed recommended tier 6 honor talent.
• 26 Apr. 2017: Marksmanship Hunter PvP guide created.

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