7.2.5 PVE Marksmanship Hunter Guide

[Eleyon]

CONTENT

I. General Information

II. Talents

III. Artifact

IV. Stat Piorities

V. Gear choice , Gemming and Enchants

VI. Rotation

VII. Macros


I.General Information

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% the talent Lone Wolf is used which brings us to the model of dealing damage solely by you.
We will bring that up later for discussion .

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

Advantages:
-High damage in any combat mode;
-The capacity to finetune the spec for a particular combat type due to the talents;
-The abilities’ active range is longer than the standard 40 m (increases by Mastery).

Disadvantages:
-Damage dealing is critically dependent on the movements during the combat;
-Quite a large range of DPS due to random mechanics;
-Extremely low survivability.

II.Talents

Talents:



Tier 1:
Lone Wolf- Best damage output from any other choice of talents in this tier . You wont be able to use a pet but your damage will receive a big boost comparing to other talents of this tier .
Steady Focus- Mainly for people who have trouble maintaining their focus uptime and are always low on focus . Still , the damage increase from Lone Wolf outperforms this talent by a mile .
Careful Aim-Mostly usable in doing world content . For mythic dungeons and raiding , Lone Wolf is by far the best talent choice . Careful Aim will provide with a strong burst if that is what you are looking for .

Tier 2:
Lock and Load- Good for fights where a lot of movement is required or in mythic dungeons . But with the release of the patch 7.2.5 Soul of the Huntmaster becomes an absolute best in slot legendary which will allow you to use both Lock and Load and True Aim talents . If you are using a diferent gear setup for mythic dungeons , this talent is reccomended over True Aim.
Black Arrow-Mostly a PvP talent , not usable in any PVE environment due to the other 2 talents of this tier being much better overall.
True Aim-By far the best single target talent choice for raiding . You can also use if on mythic dungeons if you decide to use the new talent ring legendary .

Tier 3:
Posthaste-This is a movement speed increase tier , which means you can go with whichever talent you prefer on this tier . I would reccomend using Posthaste in mythic dungeons and raids , as it provides more utility over Trailblazer , since you will be in combat most of the time .
Farstrider-Mostly used in PvP fights . But like mentioned above , you can choose this talent over any of the 3 if you feel more comfortable with it . It wont affect your peformance damage wise .
Trailblazer-Good for open world questing or farming , allows you to move faster out of combat . You can use this talent in mythic dungeons aswell if you need to keep up with your group movement wise .

Tier 4:
Explosive Shot-Mostly usable in world content in cases where you gather a big group of mobs . It does massive impact damage . Not reccomended to use in dungeons or raiding .
Sentinel-Mainly a PvP talent . Not reccomended to use in any PVE situations , as it WILL pull random mobs that you may not want to pull .
Patient Sniper-The best talent choice for this tier for mythic dungeons and raids . Especially with the patch 7.2.5 changes in Vulnerable .

Tier 5:
Binding Shot-Best talent for mythic dungeons . Allows you to control more than 1 add if needed . You can also use it in world content and raid bosses that require you to have mob control aswell.
Wyvern Sting-Best use of this talent is in PvP . You dont want it in any PVE scenarios .
Camouflage- Usable mostly in PvP , and specific dungeons depending if your group wants to skip a pack of mobs . Not reccomended to use in any other situations .

Tier 6:
A Murder of Crows-Best single target DPS talent in this tier . It does a huge ammount of damage .
Barrage-Good usage in fights with a lot of adds , and in mythic dungeons .
Volley-Good for specific raid bosses that also spawn adds . I would personally reccomend Volley over Barrage in mythic dungeons aswell , because it does significantly more damage than Barrage for Marksmanship Hunters .

Tier 7:
Sidewinders-Some players might find this talent good to use but it will still get outscaled damage wise by Trick Shot . May find a use for it in PvP especially Battlegrounds .
Piercing Shot-Provides a huge ammount of damage in single target and AoE situations , but still underperforming compared to Trick Shot . It also changes your rotation a lot as it requires 100 focus at least to do a big amount of damage .
Trick Shot-Absolutely the best talent choice for this tier . It outscales both the other talents in damage , may it be single target or AoE damage .


III.Artifact



Best Traits:

With the recent nerfs to Vulnerable , you will want relics that increase it's effectivenes . If you are a raider in Tomb of Sargeras you will want Unerring Arrows and Marked for Death to be empowered:

Felsoul Vortex - Best Storm Relic

Man'ari Blood Pact - Best Blood Relic

Moontalon's Feather - Best Life Relic

These are the best in slot relics you want if you are a top tier raider . In case you are unable to farm these relics , you can select a various number of other relics , depending of your playstyle. That meaning you can go for Trueshot Cooldown reduction relics , or Aimed Shot critical damage increase relics . It is up to you to find the best possible for your playstyle .

IV.Stat Piorities

The stat priorities even for this patch remain unchanged. Mastery is your best stat overall. You can play either with the 9% haste cap of the 13% haste cap .
I would personally recommend playing with 13% haste , as you will be able to fit 3 Aimed Shots in one Vulnerable window with ease .
After you get 13% Haste , you will want to go for Mastery>Crit>Versatility .
Crit is a good stat for Marksmanship aswell , so dont try to get as much mastery as you can and leave crit behind . You will want a fair balance between both of them , with mastery taking the upper hand .
Versatility is your worst stat . Try to avoid it as much as you can.

V.Gear choice,Gemming and Enchants

Gems:

Depending if u have 13% haste or not:
Masterful Shadowruby - 150 Mastery
Quick Dawnlight - 150 Haste

Enchants:

Cloak - Enchant Cloak-Binding of Agility

Rings: +200 Enchant Ring-Binding of Mastery / Enchant Ring-Binding of Haste - depending on your haste .

Neck: Enchant Neck - Mark of the Trained Soldier

Legendaries:



Still the best legendary item even in this patch , provides a huge increase in DPS due to its effect.



Second best in slot legendary item . Grants you the Lock and Load talent , which along with the True Aim talent , is a big damage increase .



Situational , depending on the fight , and also considering the new talent ring legendary came out , it will get replaced by it on most cases.



Usable mostly in mythic dungeons .



Good legendary for mythic progress , on lower gear it provides with better survivability . Also mostly used in higher mythic + keys .

Trinkets:




Very good trinket , it has a combination on all 4 stats on it . On high item level , it beats most of other trinkets in the game . Considered also on lower item levels.



Still a very good trinket overall , it reduces the cooldown on your main bursting ability , which provides a big damage increase .



Absolutely the Best In Slot trinket for Marksmanship . It drops in Tomb of Sargeras , Boss Sisters of the Moon . It provides a very huge ammount of damage and it has a good amount of mastery in it .

You want to use the Windstalker Armor 4 set bonus . Best in slot gear from Tier 20 would be Helmet/Shoulder/Cloak/Chest . You can use a different combination of it depending of your playstyle.


VI. Rotation

MM hunter is all about calculating your vulnerable windows. Your main debuff on the target is Vulnerable . It is a 7 second debuff applied on a target that increases your aimed shot damage on the target starting from 30% baseline up to 100%.

Single target rotation:

Cast Windburst
Followed by your burst spell Trueshot along with your racial , and on use trinkets (if you have any)
You cast 3xAimed Shot
Apply A Murder of Crows
After that 2xArcane Shot
Followed by 1xMarked Shot which will apply Vulnerable on your target.
And 2x Aimed Shot
Windburst on cooldown , always above 90 focus , so you are able to cast 2 Aimed Shots after .
A Murder of Crows also on cooldown.

This is your starter rotation with Bloodlust or without it . After Bloodlust ends , you want to keep throwing 2x Arcane shot into 1 Marked Shot considering you have a Hunter's Mark proc on your Marked shot , then followed by 2x Aimed Shots .

Note-Always try to keep Vulnerable up on the target as much as you can , and use your aimed shots wisely with it . If you have no Vulnerable on target , build up your focus until you get a Hunter's Mark proc.


7.Useful Macros:

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

Spoiler:

Quote:

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

2.Aspect of the Turtle and Feign Death with stopcasting:

Spoiler:

Quote:

/stopcasting /cast Feign Death

And

Quote:

/stopcasting /cast Aspect of the Turtle

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

Spoiler:

Quote:

/cancelaura Aspect of the Turtle

4.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:

Spoiler:

Quote:

/cast [@player] Freezing Trap

OR

Quote:

/cast [@cursor] Freezing Trap

I hope you have found this guide to be useful , I tried to provide with all the information that I have regarding the spec , and tried to make it as easily understandable as I could . Thank you for reading through this post and I hope it helped you in any way .

Eleyon-Felsong