Marksmanship Hunter 8.2

A Marksmanship Hunter is an amazing shooter that relies completely onto their range weapon mastery.

Introduction

Let’s take a closer look at the weakest and the strongest aspects of this specialization:

Advantages:

• High single target damage
• Very high burst potential and AOE
• High mobility
• The abilities’ active range is longer than the standard 40 m (increases by Mastery).

Disadvantages:

• Lack of cleave on 2 targets, cleave is limited by Aimed shot and Rapid fire on 5 targets.

Basic information on the spec:

Like any other Hunter spec, Marksmanship uses Focus as their key resource. In the base configuration, this specialization has a pet, but in 100% passive ability Lone Wolf is used which brings us to the model of dealing damage solely by you.

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Glossary

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Main abilities

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Talents

General information. On achieving several new levels you’ll get access to new talent ‘Tiers’. Talents may have different effect on abilities: add new features, replace old ones, modify passively different effects and spells. Talents can be changed in Sanctuaries or any recreational zones. However, if you don’t have any of those places nearby you can use the Codex of the Tranquil Mind which allows you to switch channels within a minute. You can’t change talents in combat. You can’t change a talent if the talent you’ve picked in the last Tier is on Cooldown. You’ll have to wait until it’s restored first.

Tier 1. Lvl 15

• Master marksman – Aimed shot  has 100% chance to reduce the focus of the next Arcane shot or Volley  by 100%
• Serpent sting – A shot that poisons your target causing Nature damage instantly and additionally over 12 sec
• A murder of crows. Summons a flock of crows to attack your target dealing damage over 15 seconds. If  the target dies while under attack, cooldown of the ability is reset

*Master marksman Is the default talent for the spec.

Tier 2. Lvl 30

• Careful aim – Aimed shot deals 50% bonus damage to targets who are above 80% health or below 20% health.
• Volley. Auto-shooting that has 25% chance to Inflict physical damage to all targets within 8 yards
• Explosive shot. Fires an explosive shot at your target. After 3 sec, the shot will explode, dealing Fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards.

*Careful aim. is practically used in all situations.  Explosive shot  could be used in Mythic+ where targets die quickly.

Tier 3. Lvl 45

• Trailblazer. Your movement speed is increased by 30% anytime you have not attacked anyone for 30 seconds.
• Natural mending. For every 20 spent Focus reduces the remaining time on Exhilaration  by  1 second
• Camouflage. You and your pet  gain stealth for 1 min with 1 min cd

*Talents of this tier are designed for survivability of your character, choose what you like the most. It is more profitable to use  Natural mending in raid for minor heal increase. In mythic mode it would be more reasonable to take Camouflage allowing you to pass by packs in stealth.

Tier 4. Lvl 60

• Steady focus – Using steady shot reduces the cast time of it by 20%, stacking up to 2 times. Using the other shot removes this effect.
• Streamline – Rapid fire now lasts 20% longer.
• Hunter’s mark – You apply hunter’s mark on a target, increasing all damage you deal to the marked target by 5%. If the target dies while affected by Hunter’s mark, you instantly gain 20% focus. The target can always be seen and tracked by the hunter. Only one Hunter’s mark can be applied at a time.

*Currently mostly Hunter’s mark is used in the game. The target with the highest HP is marked during AOE. Streamline also could increase AOE potential but Mark is still better.

Tier 5. Lvl 75

• Born to be wild. Reduces the cooldowns of your aspects for 20%
• Posthaste. Disengage frees you from all movement impairing effects and increases your movement speed by 50% for 4 sec
• Binding shot. You fire an arrow tethering all enemies within 5 yards,  the arrow explosion roots the enemy for 5 sec.

*This tier is about your personal preference. Posthaste would be better for raids increasing your mobility. Binding shot would be better for 5 ppl dungeon to help tanks survive on big paks. Born to be wild could be used in raids where Aspect of the turtle would be needed once in 3 minutes which is a  rare situation.

Tier 6. Lvl 90

• Lethal shots. Arcane shot and Multi-shot  have 20% chance to reduce the cooldown of Rapid fire by 5.0 sec.
• Barrage  You inflict physical damage to all targets in front of you for 3 seconds.Usable while moving
• Double tap. The next Aimed shot will fire a second time instantly at 100% power without consuming Focus or your next Rapid fire will shoot 100% additional during its channel.

* Double tap. would be the most effective choice in this tier. Usually it is used with Rapid fire but if you have Careful aim  talent it could be combined with Aimed shot at 100%-80% and 20%-0% enemy health windows.

Tier 7. Lvl 100

• Calling the shots. Casting  Arcane shot and Multi-shot reduces the cooldown of Trueshot by 2.5 sec.
• Lock and load. Your ranged auto attacks have a 5% chance to trigger Lock and load, causing your next Aimed shot to cost no Focus and be instant.
• Piercing shot. A powerful shot which deals physical damage to the target and all enemies between you and the target, ignoring the armor.

After Trueshot rework Calling the shots became the best in this tier and it also has a strong synergy with Azerite trait Unerring Vision  which is also one of the best traits currently. Without tra

The standard build looks like this:

1. Master marksman
2. Trueshot
3. Natural mending
4. Hunter’s mark
5. Posthaste
6. Double tap
7. Calling the shots especially with Unerring Vision traits

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Azerite traits

BfA introduced a new trait system. Now helmet, shoulders and chest are special items with traits  improved by azerite.

MM has some top traits you need to obtain:

In the rhythm. A very good trait granting a lot of haste for 8 seconds after each use of Rapid fire.

Unerring Vision. The second best trait which stacks crit during Trueshot.

Focused fire. Increases Rapid fire damage and focus regeneration with this ability. Maximum increase is granted with the first such trait.

Surging shots. With this trait  Rapid fire damage is increased and  Aimed shot has 15% to reset the cooldown OF Rapid fire. It is also enough to have only one of such trait.

Apart from major traits there are also minor traits which increase stats a little bit or some damage. You can use chart on herodamage.com if you don’t know what would be the best option  or go on raidbots.com to see the best stats for your character.

Stats for AzeritePowerWeights:

( AzeritePowerWeights:2:"herodamage.com - Stacks_1T_T24":3:254: 575=10, 36=9.47, 370=8.60, 562=8.14, 212=7.88, 162=7.75, 82=6.71, 522=6.68, 526=6.66, 193=6.65, 478=6.49, 479=6.43, 157=6.36, 494=6.24, 488=6.24, 504=5.90, 196=5.85, 483=5.85, 501=5.83, 194=5.63, 192=5.60, 485=5.46, 195=5.42, 482=5.22, 495=5.17, 489=5.17, 523=5.14, 505=4.96, 481=4.53, 521=4.43, 486=4.43, 492=4.43, 561=4.36, 480=4.36, 498=4.04, 156=3.96, 30=3.92, 368=3.87, 500=3.57, 576=3.44, 31=3.02, 487=2.79, 493=2.79, 22=2.78, 499=2.51, 21=2.38, 459=2.35, 560=2.04, 18=1.97, 541=1.95, 461=1.94, 462=1.92, 491=1.82, 497=1.82, 490=1.56, 496=1.56, 369=0.01: )

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Essences

Rotation

First of all keep in mind:

Precise shot – is a buff which activates after Aimed shot. It makes the next 1-2 Arcane shot deal 75% additional damage. It is preferably to activate it all the time, the only exception would be the rotation with  Trueshot  where you use only 1  Arcane shot  after Aimed shot.

Now let’s see the priority of rotation on a single target:

1. Use Double tap every cd. During windows of Careful aim spend the buff on Aimed shot, in other cases on Rapid fire
2. Use Aimed shot every cd only with Precise shots
3. Use Rapid fire every cd but not overcapping focus
4. Use Arcane shot  to stack Precise shots  or to spend overcapped focus
5. Use  Steady shot as focus regenerator when there is nothing to use

Your priority is to avoid the cap of focus, not to hold Aimed shot at 2 stacks, to maximize focus regeneration from Rapid fire using it every cd and to spend all the procs of Precise shot.

Trueshot – Is a bursting ability and it should be used when it is needed the most. It would be optimal to use  it during Careful aim windows between  100%-80% and 20%-0% target’s health. In other situations you should use Trueshot when Aimed shot and Rapid fire are on cooldown.

While Trueshot is active you should  maximize Aimed shot usage, spending all Master marksman stacks and using Rapid fire effectively to generate focus and activate In the rhythm trait. So the priority would look like this:

1. Use Arcane shot while you have Master marksman active (right after Aimed shot)
2. Use Aimed shot
3. Use Rapid fire  when you lack focus
4. If there is nothing else to use, activate Arcane shot  for Precise shots
5. Use Steady shot

On 2 targets the rotation would be the same as for single target.

On 3 targets and more your rotation would be the same but keep in mind your passive ability Trick shots. After using Multi shot which hits 3 or more targets your next Aimed shot or Rapid fire cleave 5 more addition targets by 50% additional damage. You should have this buff every time you want to use one of these abilities. Besides Precise shots procs you should use on Multi shots not Arcane shot. This is the only difference in rotation between AOE and single target.

1. Precast Double tap  shot 10 seconds before the pull
2. Use Hunter’s mark on the target
3. Prepot 2-3 seconds before the fight
4. precast Aimed shot  2 seconds before the fight
5. Rapid fire
6. Trueshot
7. Aimed shot
8. Arcane shot (to spend Master marksman proc)
9. Aimed shot  
10. Arcane shot (to spend Master marksman proc)
11. Aimed shot
12. Rapid fire
13. keep up the rotation with Trueshot described previously

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Stats

The basic priority rating for the characteristics is as follows:

Versatility>Mastery>Crit>Haste>Agility

Keep in mind: Haste depends a lot on the amount of In the rhythm traits you have and drops down rapidly each time you gain one.

Check your character’s stats on raidbots.com in Stat weights tab. You can also use Pawn addon to import the information from the site into the game.

Based on the aforementioned characteristics and results of your character’s own simulation results, you can draw conclusions on Gems, Chants and Raid Chemicals.

1. Gems.
   Leviathan’s Eye of Agility
   Versatile Dark Opal 50 vers

2. Enhancements
   Rings: Accord of Versatility
   Weapon: Enchant Weapon – Force Multiplier

3. Food
   Raid feast for 131 agility or Bil’Tong for Vers
4. Flasks and pots
   Greater Flask of the Currents 360 agility for 1 hour
   Potion of Unbridled Fury for single target
   Superior Battle Potion of Agility for AoE

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Macros

Kick with a modifier, with the Shift key held, the ability is applied on a remembered target, without – on the current one.

/stopcasting
/cast [mod:shift,@focus][]Counter Shot

Aspect of the Turtle and Feign Death with stopcasting:

/stopcasting
/cast Feign Death

и

/stopcasting
/cast Aspect of the Turtle

Cancel Aspect of the Turtle – you can’t always be in it because you can’t attack while it’s active.

/cancelaura Aspect of the Turtle

Trap macros. There are two convenient options: you can set your macros to place a trap under your character or at your cursor’s position. Here are the respective examples:

/cast [@player] Freezing Trap

or

/cast [@cursor] Freezing Trap

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What’s next?

1. Leveling. If your character has been inactive since the previous expansions, the best  option to level up it is by Timewalking dungeons. You will gain a lot of experience, but there is one big disadvantage of leveling this way. Timewalks are available only for one week during a month, but Overgear is always here.
2. Equipment. At high level, the most important thing for you will become your gear. WoW is a multiplayer game, that’s why we recommend for you to play it with your friends, or to find a new friends for mythic+ runs. If you have any trouble with it – Overgear may help you to find not just friends for a run, but a complete well geared and experienced group that also will be glad to trade all the loot you need.
3. Raids. Raids are the top-tier PvE content in the game. That’s why the equipment’s base ilvl is higher than anywhere else. These dungeons require knowing all the tactics and have a good gear to kill the bosses. The possibilities of Overgear might let you skip those criteria.

Azerite. It is also not the best idea to forget about the Heart of Azeroth and not to feed it with more Azerite. Ignoring this won’t make your character stronger. The easiest way to do it – just complete all the world quests with Azerite rewards everyday. You can get extra azerite from Island Expeditions. Companions can be found at Overgear.