- Author: Nevermore
- Date: July 16, 2022
- Expansion: WotLK Classic
When it comes to our talents and builds we will talk about two separate types of talents, our talents and our pet’s talents. There is only one standard build for Marksmanship Hunter that is perfectly optimized to deal as much damage as possible, however, there are also variations that allow you to alter either your gameplay or your stats by just a bit.
Notable Talents
- Improved Tracking is a must have talent as you will deal up to 5% increased damage against targets that place themselves in the mentioned list, extremely powerful as you can track almost any kind of creature.
- Wild Quiver is a must have talent that offers you a small chance, however, extremely powerful, of delivering an additional shot that deals 80% of your normal damage as Nature damage.
- Readiness is one of the trademarks of Marksmanship, allowing you to pull of tricks such as double Misdirection and much more.
- Trueshot Aura is an astonishing talent that can improve your damage and that of your allies, however, it can not stack with Unleashed Rage or Abomination’s Might.
- Chimera Shot is our final talent in the Marksmanship tree, allowing us to utilize our sting abilities in order to proc different beneficial effects or to instantly damage the target.
Talent Builds
The standard build offers us an overall strong build, allowing us to easily cap our Hit Rating when, gain a second shot on our auto-shots, and provide both utility and high damage. The build itself does not require any changes, however, you might consider alternating Improved Barrage for Trap Mastery if you know that you need to use your traps more, or decide to spec into Explosive Trap.
The second Build works the same as the first one with the exception of removing points from Focused Aim in favor of Improved Hunter’s Mark. This build is optimal only in the case of your BiS gear providing you with a lot of Hit Rating. We must also note the fact that this build lacks the reduced pushback penalty gained from Focused Aim, so depending on the encounter that you are facing, it might prove as a fatal flaw. This build is usually good for Ulduar as the gear itself provides huge amounts of Hit Rating.
Glyphs
Recommended Glyphs:
- Dungeons: Glyph of Steady Shot/Glyph of Kill Shot /Glyph of Explosive Trap
- Raids(Fights with target Swap): Glyph of Steady Shot/Glyph of Kill Shot/Glyph of Serpent Sting
- Raids (Single-Target Focus Fights): Glyph of Steady Shot/Glyph of Kill Shot/Glyph of Chimera Shot
Major Glyphs
- Glyph of Steady Shot (Mandatory, increases the damage done by Steady Shot by 10% if the target is afflicted by Serpent Sting)
- Glyph of Serpent Sting (Very good choice as it enhances the duration of Serpent Sting by 6 seconds)
- Glyph of Kill Shot (Very good choice as it lowers the cooldown of Kill Shot by 6 seconds, enhancing your execution phase)
- Glyph of Chimera Shot (Very good choice as it lowers the cooldown of Chimera Shot by 1 second, allowing you to proc Serpent Sting’s instant damage more frequently)
- Glyph of the Hawk (Good choice as it enhances your Aspect of the Hawk by 6%)
- Glyph of Explosive Trap (Astounding choice if you can utilize Explosive Trap on bosses, very situational)
Minor Glyphs
- Glyph of Revive Pet (Reduces pushback while casting Revive Pet by 100%)
- Glyph of Mend Pet (Your Mend Pet spell now increases your pet’s Happiness slightly, fluffy cuddles)
- Glyph of Feign Death (Reduces the cooldown of Feign Death by 5 seconds, allows you to troll your allies more frequently)
About the Author
Cool guide. But not having points in Rapid Recuperation is kind of strange. And in that case, only 1 point in Improved Barrage is more common practice from my experience, as MS and AS arent biggest dmg outputs (usually 3rd-4th). Then the extra 2 points go to Rapid Recuperation. In case mana isnt rly an issue, then extra range from Hawk Eye talent can be surprisingly helpful.
TLDR, with conc aura in raid and ChimShot+SS being top of Hunters dps, putting 3 in Improved Barrage isnt worth it in my experience.
Rather start by putting points into improved AS since it hits harder than aimed with low armor pen amounts – once u reach 435 arp and get out of that 1/2 into RR should atleast be considered indeed especially since improved SS can easily overlap itself, improved barrage is an extremely overrated talent
The talents chosen seem to be more endgame-focused, where you stop needing RR
The glyph of serpent sting is uncontested though
With both Improved Hunter’s Mark and Glyph of Hunter’s Mark, your Hunter’s Mark grants 750 bonus RAP, up from 500. (This is Ranged Attack power for the entire raid, so any other Hunters also benefit). Even if you’re the only Hunter, I feel like 250 bonus RAP for all of your attacks represents better DPS than a Steady Shot build, and is also less mana intensive.
Here’s the build I’d use:
https://www.warcrafttavern.com/wotlk/tools/talent-calculator/hunter?g=afn-102&t=B22222A11111B1116666655544488999abbdddhiiikknnnpqqqoootttttxuuyyywwwEEEEEI
EDIT: You should be using Glyph of the Hawk instead of Glyph of Serpent Sting with this build. Chimera shot should be used in place of Serpent Sting whenever off CD, which saves a CD and deals additional damage.
With Rapid Killing, Rapid Recuperation, and Readiness, you shouldn’t have to worry about mana much, but if you find yourself struggling in early phases, you can throw 2-3 points from Improved Arcane Shot into Efficiency.
1.) Hunter’s Mark
2.) Serpent Sting
3.) Kill Shot in Execute range
4.) Aimed Shot
5.) Arcane Shot (At end of Aimed Shot cast)
6.) Steady Shot
7.) Chimera Shot (At end of Steady Shot cast)
8.) Steady Shot
9.) Kill Shot in Execute range or Arcane Shot (At end of Steady Shot cast)
Repeat steps 3 through 9 until at about half mana, then Rapid Fire and.or Readiness/Rapid Fire whenever off CD while you’re at half mana or less.
Keep an eye on your auto-attack timer when casting or moving to take your Dps to the next level. The benefit of this build is that you can also deal lots of damage from just auto-attacking to regen mana.
You should _never_ take away serpent sting glyph, your biggest shot relies on it as the chimera serpent portion of the shot increases due to it It’s your #1 Glyph you should always have, no if ands or buts-
Aimed shot doesnt have a cast time and certainly doesn’t get prio’d over chimera shot (exception being Waaaay late in the expansion when you have ilvl 284 gear and such) – steady shot is your filler short and should certainly not be above chimera, this means you would never use it at all while it being your highest hitting ability for 98% of the expansion
Everything except for steps 1 and 2 you just typed is wrong.
Terrible build, way too much mana regen esp for phase 1 short fights, improved steady shot 3/3 when we are still using arcane shot instead of improved tracking (which when maxed is a flat 5% damage increase) is not a thing.
HM is worth for MM this is about where it stops, and thats just for the starting phases as it gives u base stats – it won’t scale when getting more gear but right now is worth it even just for yourself. 2/2 Go for the throat is not a thing, your pet will be focus capped with just 1/2
You need to get points into focused fire, like improved tracking its one of the biggest dps talents you have, suggestion is dropping or atleast lowering improved SS – RR and if your gear is over 5% out of FA
Rapid Killing is not needed for short single target fights, but will likely make a comeback in ulduar.
For turret spec which you suggest going a variation of 7/57/7 is best- depending on your gear and fight, but this can all be simmed I suggest this at the moment.
https://www.warcrafttavern.com/wotlk/tools/talent-calculator/hunter?g=lfh-102&t=B22222A11111B666665554448999adddhiiikknnnqoootttttxwwwEEEEEIA44C0000077B11qqp
Drop steady for kill shot on longer fights where you can make extra use out of it – or take them both and cut chimera if you like the flow of a rotation rather than priority system.
glyph of HM isn’t worth it – only the talents are, (unless you’re running a TON of a hunters)
that’s the turret spec however, trapweaving specs have proven to be a dps increase of about 400 in P1, so what you should really be going for is 7/54/10 with trap mastery, and getting explosive trap glyph.
https://www.warcrafttavern.com/wotlk/tools/talent-calculator/hunter?g=lfo-102&t=B22222A11111B666665554448999adddhiiikknnnqoootttttxwwwEEEEEIA44C0000077BqqC666
Is the spec that yields the best DPS on a single target 3 minute fight – this ofc assumes you can drop a point out of TSA (meaning you have a blood DK tank or atleast an enhancement shaman in your group) – otherwise take out a different low statgain talent like improved barrage probably