PvP Marksmanship Hunter Talents, Builds & Glyphs

Nevermore

In this section of the guide, we will showcase some of the possible builds for Marksmanship Hunter in PvP. Keep in mind that the builds can be modified somewhat depending on the outcomes that you wish to achieve. We recommend that you try all of the suggested builds below, and try creating your own variants depending on your play style as well!

Talent Builds

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This build offers you great benefits for PvP, including strong offensive options, increased resistance to crowd control, and even more crowd control of your own! You will benefit greatly from offensive talents such as Aimed Shot, Master Marksman, Trueshot Aura, Marked for Death, crowd control abilities such as Scatter Shot, Silencing Shot, and defensive talents such as Surefooted, Survival Instincts, and Survival Tactics.

standard build 1 — *Click here to see this build in the Talent Calculator*

This is the first variation of the standard build, offering you the same benefits with the exception of having one less point in Focused Aim, one more point in Entrapment, and exchanging the points spent in Survival Tactics for two points in Lock and Load.

build 2 1 — *Click here to see this build in the Talent Calculator*

This is another variation of the standard build, offering you similar bonuses with small changes. The first of the changes is that we do not spend any points on Improved Barrage, instead taking points in Improved Steady Shot. By choosing this build, you will focus more on a build that constantly uses Steady Shot. The other change is that we spend full points on Entrapment instead of Survival Tactics.

build 3 — Click here to see this build in the Talent Calculator

This is the last variation of the Standard build, using talents such as Improved Aspect of the Hawk and Focused Fire from the Beast Mastery specialization while having little to no changes to the rest of the talents. The talents we sacrifice in favor of the BM talents are Scatter Shot, Surefooted, and Survival Instincts. This build is for people that prefer damage over survivability!

build 5 — *Click here to see this build in the Talent Calculator*

Pet Talent Builds

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Spiders and Ravagers fit into the “Cunning” archetype, being slightly squishier pets than any other available companion. However, they do provide high damage and crowd control! A ravager can stun its target while a spider can immobilize its target.

The first build that we will showcase emphasizes increased pet damage while also granting you a bit of utility.

This build focuses more on survivability and utility than damage.

Crabs and Turtles are much more resilient pets than ravagers or spiders! Crabs can pin their targets in place, immobilizing them while turtles have access to a very strong defensive ability that reduces all incoming damage by up to 50%.

This build more on damage than increased survivability.

This build focuses more on utility tools and increased survivability.

Notable Talents

Focused Aim is a talent that reduces the pushback suffered while casting Steady Shot by up to 70% while also increasing your Hit chance by up to 3%. This talent is extremely strong for min-maxing your talents, however, it is up to you to decide whether you want to put 2 or 3 points into it — this it comes down to personal preference.
Careful Aim is a very strong talent that turns 100% of your intellect into ranged attack power. You should always have maximum points in this talent as almost every single piece of equipment that we will use has intellect on it. Free attack power!
Go for the Throat is a talent that grants your pet 25 focus whenever you land a ranged critical strike. This talent is a must-have since we want our pet to be able to spam its abilities.
Aimed Shot is one of the core talents of the builds, granting us the ability to instantly damage our opponents while also reducing any healing they receive by up to 50%. This talent is absolutely mandatory as it will be one of your main abilities.
Readiness is a talent that allows you to reset the cooldown of all your abilities when used with the exception of readiness itself and Beastial Wrath. This ability has a multitude of uses, however, the best way to use it is for bursting down your target!
Trueshot Aura is another one of our core talents, increasing the attack power of all party and raid members by up to 10%. This talent is a must-have especially since it can also be combined with a glyph to empower Aimed Shot.
Combat Experience is a simple talent that grants you increased intellect and agility by up to 4%. This talent is pretty much a no-brainer and should always be taken!
Piercing Shots is one of the fun quirks of Marksmanship Hunter, further enhancing the importance of Critical Strike Chance in our builds. It allows you to place a bleed dot on your target up to 30% of the damage done by either Aimed Shot, Chimera Shot or Steady Shot whenever you land a critical strike with either of them.
Improved Barrage increases the critical strike chance of your Aimed Shot and Multi-Shot by up to 12% while also reducing the pushback suffered while casting Volley by up to 100%
Wild Quiver is a talent that grants you a 12% chance to deal 80% of your auto-attack damage as nature damage without consuming any ammunition whenever you deal damage with your auto-shot. This talent is a must-have as it will not only provide you with free damage without any prerequisite but it will also turn your attacks into hybrid damage!
Master Marksman increases your overall critical strike chance by 5% while also reducing the mana cost of Steady Shot, Aimed Shot, and Chimera Shot by up to 25%
Silencing Shot is a phenomenal talent that grants you the ability to silence a target from a great range by up to 3 seconds. The best part is that this ability is that it is not affected by Global Cooldown, allowing you to use it at the same time as any other ability.
Marked for Death is a talent that emphasizes your mastery over ranged combat as a Marksmanship Hunter. It allows you to increase all the damage done by your shots and your pet’s special abilities against targets afflicted by Hunter’s Mark by up to 5%. It will also increase the critical strike damage bonus of your Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot, Kill Shot, Steady Shot, and Chimera Shot by up to 10%.
Chimera Shot is the epitome of Marksmanship, allowing you to deal high physical damage to your target while also empowering whichever sting ability you have placed on your target while also refreshing its duration.
Hawk Eye further enhances your range capabilities by increasing your range by up to 6 yards. This talent is mandatory, especially against spell casters!
Improved Tracking is a talent that further emphasizes the idea of tracking as a Hunter, increasing all the damage done to tracked targets by up to 5%. This talent is mandatory for standard builds.
Scatter Shot is a talent that grants you access to one more crowd control ability, allowing you to defend yourself from pesky melee fighters or offensively disorient your target.
Surefooted is a pretty neat talent that reduces the duration of all movement speed reduction abilities by up to 30% This is especially useful against classes such as Paladins or Death Knights.
Survival Instincts is a defensive talent that reduces all damage taken by up to 4% while also increasing the critical strike chance of Arcane Shot and Steady Shot by up to 4%.

Improved Steady Shot is a talent that can be considered optional since its activation has a specific condition: you have to be able to consistently spam Steady Shot in order to trigger it. It grants you a 12% chance to increase the damage of your next Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot, or Chimera Shot by up to 15% while also reducing their mana cost by up to 20%.
Improved Aspect of the Hawk is an optional talent that grants you a 10% chance to increase your attack speed by up to 15% for 12 seconds whenever you damage a target with your auto-attacks while using Aspect of the Hawk or Aspect of the Dragonhawk.
Endurance Training is an optional talent that increases your pet’s health by up 10% while also increasing your overall health by up to 5%. This talent is great if you are struggling with low survivability.
Focused Fire increases all the damage done by you by up to 2% while your pet is alive, while also increasing its critical strike chance with special abilities by up to 20% while Kill Command is active. This is a great talent if combined with Improved Tracking.

Glyphs

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Major Glyphs

Glyph of Trueshot Aura is a great tool that increases the overall critical strike chance of Aimed Shot by 10% while Trueshot Aura is active. This glyph can be considered mandatory when you think about how much we will spam Aimed Shot!

Glyph of Aimed Shot reduces the cooldown of Aimed Shot by up to 2 seconds. This glyph is amazing in combination with the Glyph of Trueshot Aura. Considering how much we depend on the high damage and healing reduction of Aimed Shot, you should definitely take this glyph.

Glyph of Chimera Shot reduces the cooldown of Chimera Shot by 1 second. You may find this glyph quite useful when considering how strong Chimera Shot is!

Glyph of Serpent Sting increases the duration of Serpent Sting by up to 6 seconds. This glyph is amazing for keeping targets in combat!

Glyph of Disengage reduces the cooldown of Disengage by up to 5 seconds. This glyph is extremely potent in combination with Survival Tactics!

Glyph of Hunter’s Mark further increases the ranged damage bonus against a marked target by up to 20%. This glyph is a great choice when taking into consideration that you will want to always place Hunter’s Mark on your target.

Minor Glyphs

Glyph of Scare Beast reduces the pushback suffered while casting Scare Beast by up to 75%. This glyph is mandatory, especially against druids and other hunters.

Glyph of Mend Pet allows you to increase your pet’s happiness whenever you cast Mend Pet. Keep in mind that your pet’s happiness influences its damage.

Glyph of Feign Death reduces the cooldown of Feign Death by up to 5 seconds. You will always want to use this glyph!

Author

Nevermore

Hey there folks, I am Nevermore and have been deeply passionate about WoW for more than a decade. Whether we talk about the hidden mysteries of Azeroth or the otherworldly Outland, my journey brought me here to share the things that I have experienced with you all.