Marksmanship Hunter PvP Stat Priority, Gear, and Trinkets (Season 4)

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

1. Agility;
2. Versatility to at least 25%;
3. Mastery/Haste/Versatility;
4. Versatility beyond 40%;
5. Mastery/Haste beyond 40%;
6. Critical Strike.

Agility is the best stat in all situations. You will want a balance of Versatility/Mastery/Haste that you are comfortable with as they all do different things in PvP.

There is a slight increasing diminishing return on secondary stats past 30%, further increased past 40%. You are unlikely to pass 40% of any stat except Versatility, and if you are at 40% Versatility, you should look to change some of it to Mastery/Haste. Mastery bonus is reduced by 10% per point when your Mastery rating is over 5400 and reduced a further 10% when the Mastery rating is over 7020.

• 1000 Versatility will increase your damage by 5.36% (and reduce damage taken by 2.68%)
• 1000 Mastery will increase your damage by 7.77% (and increase your range by 3.48%)
• 1000 Haste will increase your attack speed by 5.59%

If you do not have enough Versatility, you will take a lot of damage and likely find yourself dying more often than you otherwise would.

If you do not have enough Haste, you will not be able to use all of the global cooldowns and casts required to set up crowd control and burst targets down before the enemy is able to interrupt you/use defensives.

If you do not have enough Mastery, your burst will not be lethal when you nail the setup.

The best stat priority will vary based on the bracket you are playing, the comp you are playing, and how much you are contributing to crowd control.

Wearing the Conquest PvP gear you will have more Versatility than you need and will be able to use crafted pieces to increase your Haste or Mastery.

You should decide which of Mastery and Haste you need based on the following:

• If you are struggling to get casts off and land traps, you need more haste
• If you are landing traps and getting your casts off, but your targets aren't dying when you do, you need more Mastery

As a general recommendation, you should play with between 30-40% Versatility and between 17% and 24% Haste, with the rest of your stats going towards Mastery.

If you are using the embellished piece of gear Venom-Steeped Stompers, having your Versatility stat higher than your Mastery stat will give you more overall damage at the cost of survivability.

Conquest vendor PvP Gear will always have Versatility and then a second stat which will be either Haste, Mastery, or Critical Strike Rating.

Almost every piece of conquest gear has a Haste option, but not many pieces have a Mastery option available.

I recommend that you buy gear with Mastery where available and Haste on any piece of gear where there is not a Mastery PvP variant.

If you have too much Versatility, the easiest way to transfer it to Haste or Mastery is to craft the PvP Rings ( Ring-Bound Hourglass and Signet of Titanic Insight) and neck Torc of Passed Time.

Marksmanship Hunter Dragonflight Season 4 tier bonuses:

• (2) Set Bonus: Rapid Fire deals 20% additional damage. Trick Shots causes Rapid Fire to launch a volley for 6 seconds, dealing 100% of normal damage.
• (4) Set Bonus: Every 10 Focus you spend has a 3.0% chance to reset the cooldown of Rapid Fire and cause your next Rapid Fire to shoot 60% additional shots during its channel.

The tier set this season leans into Rapid Fire, which has synergy with the rest of the Marksmanship talent tree. Rapid Fire is your main source of burst damage, both in single target and when cleaving with Volley. Rapid Fire is also your main source of focus when you aren't using Improved Steady Shot.

The passive increase to Rapid Fire damage is enormous for your overall and burst damage, and you should prioritising getting your tier set as soon as possible.

The chance for Rapid Fire to reset its cooldown and fire twice as many times is also vital to how Marksmanship plays in Season 4. You should be tracking the proc ( Rapid Reload) and making sure that you are never interrupted on the cast when that buff is active, and ideally, that you have crowd control on the healer (and kill target) as well. A well-timed and lethal Rapid Fire is more important than pressing Rapid Fire on cooldown.

Because the Marksmanship stat priority calls for a balance of different stats, you don't lose any significant secondary stats by wearing the tier set.

I recommend that you get the 4-set bonus with Head, Shoulders, Chest, and Legs. (leaving the Gloves because they are high in Critical Strike Rating) as soon as possible.

I recommend that you craft:

Recommended Embellished PvP Gear:

• Venom-Steeped Stompers for the bonus to your preferred stat (if it's increasing your Versatility the proc is around a 10% damage increase with another piece of gear embellished with Toxified Armor Patch)
• Flame-Touched Legguards with Toxified Armor Patch to increase the bonus from the Venom Steeper Stompers (or apply Toxified Armor Patch to any piece of crafted PvP gear)

Adaptive Dracothyst Armguards and Infurious Boots of Reprieve also provide good effects for Marksmanship and more consistent stat gains, but the Venom-Steeped Stompers and Toxified Armor Patch combination is preferred because it provides more burst and overall damage.

Undulating Sporecloak can be used as a defensive embellishment for the "cheat death" effect, which may not always be useful but can sometimes save you in a stun, however, it was heavily nerfed in Season 3, and I recommend you take the offensive embellishments instead.

• Ring-Bound Hourglass (and/or Signet of Titanic Insight) with stats as Versatility and Mastery or Haste
• Torc of Passed Time with stats as Versatility and Mastery or Haste

Note: It is important to be wearing 2 PvP trinkets. This will give you an Agility and Stamina boost that will increase your damage and survivability.

• Draconic Gladiator's Medallion
• Draconic Gladiator's Insignia of Alacrity

• Draconic Gladiator's Insignia of Alacrity
• Draconic Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity

Draconic Gladiator's Medallion is a mandatory trinket to have equipped at all times for non-human players. This allows you to remove any crowd control on yourself. Humans can use this trinket to have a shorter (90-second) the cooldown on escaping stuns, for example, into Rogue Mage teams.

Draconic Gladiator's Insignia of Alacrity increases your Haste and has a chance to proc your primary stat. This is an overall strong trinket, as the stat will proc often throughout an arena match (and will generally proc very early when your cooldowns are active).

Draconic Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity grants you some Crit and a powerful Agility on-use every minute. Synchronize this with Death Chakram.

Draconic Gladiator's Emblem increases your maximum health when used. This gives you an additional defensive when you think a team is focusing you or you think they are about to stun and burst you. A good example of when you will want to use this trinket is when facing Rogue Mage teams.

Here are the best enchants and gems for a Marksmanship Hunter:

• Boots: Enchant Boots - Plainsrunner's Breeze
• Belt: Shadowed Belt Clasp
• Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Homebound Speed
• Chest: Enchant Chest - Waking Stats/ Enchant Chest - Accelerated Agility (Accelerated Agility is generally preferred in most situations but Waking Stats is a slight damage and health increase if you prefer).
• Rings: Enchant Ring - Devotion of Haste/ Enchant Ring - Devotion of Mastery
• Weapon Enchant: High Intensity Thermal Scanner

You should use one Fierce Illimited Diamond/ Skillful Illimited Diamond depending on your stat needs, and Keen Neltharite/ Zen Neltharite, also depending on whether you need more Haste or Mastery.