Marksmanship Hunter Mythic+ Dungeon Guide

Hunters in general don’t offer much group utility. They do not provide a group buff or damage amp outside of their lust.
You will be know universally as “Huntard”

Talents

Talent Calculator

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How To Play Marksmanship Hunter

Marksmanship Hunter is a high-skill, high-reward specialization that offers some of the strongest burst damage in World of Warcraft. Its gameplay revolves around managing cooldowns efficiently, avoiding Focus waste, and responding dynamically to procs that change your priorities on the fly. In this guide, we’ll walk through the core concepts of playing a Marksmanship Hunter, from basic rotation rules to nuanced AoE handling and the all-important opener.

Priority Tips

At the heart of Marksmanship Hunter’s rotation is a shifting priority list. This isn’t a rigid list of steps, but rather a set of guidelines that help you make moment-to-moment decisions in combat. Your first and most critical task is managing your Focus. Abilities like Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire are your heavy hitters, and your ability to use them frequently hinges on not wasting Focus and not casting too many Steady Shots.

Maximizing cooldown usage is another top priority. Aimed Shot, Rapid Fire, Explosive Shot, and other core abilities are limited by their cooldowns. The more of them you can fit into a fight, the higher your damage will be. That means using them as soon as they’re available—delaying even slightly can add up over the course of a fight.

Then come the procs. Marksmanship is loaded with cooldown-resetting procs that demand instant reactions. Knowing how to adjust on the fly when, say, Rapid Fire comes off cooldown unexpectedly is a key part of mastering the spec.

Opener Tips

Your opener as a Marksmanship Hunter is the biggest burst window of a fight, and it sets the pace for everything that follows. The sequence is relatively fixed, but the presence of certain talents—especially Double Tap—can change the order of operations.

A few important rules guide how you approach the opener. On AoE pulls, Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire aren’t used immediately because they aren’t empowered by Trick Shots until you’ve used Volley or Multi-Shot. Without Trick Shots, your AoE burst is severely undercut.

Once you’ve passed the initial setup phase, things become more dynamic. You shift into a rhythm of weaving Aimed Shots and Rapid Fires between your other abilities. A common mistake is casting two or more filler spells in a row. Ideally, you should be casting Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire every other global. That’s how you keep the pressure high and your burst window strong.

General Gameplay

If there’s one rule above all else for Marksmanship Hunters, it’s this: always be casting. Gaps in your rotation, even small ones, are a massive DPS loss. There’s always something to cast—if nothing else, a Steady Shot will fill the space and generate Focus for the next big hit.

Being aware of your cooldowns is the next most important habit. If you know Aimed Shot is about to come off cooldown, you should be ready to use it instantly. Wasting even a few seconds by not noticing a cooldown is ready will reduce the number of times you get to cast it during a fight.

You also need to fully understand the mechanics that amplify your shots. Precise Shots, for example, makes your next Arcane Shot or Multi-Shot hit harder after casting Aimed Shot. So weaving these abilities together becomes second nature. The Streamline talent also shortens your Aimed Shot cast time significantly, helping you squeeze more into every fight.

Trick Shots and Tactical Swaps

AoE as a Marksmanship Hunter feels similar to single-target, with one essential twist: every single Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire must be cast with Trick Shots active. That means you’ll be casting Multi-Shot regularly to enable Trick Shots before you drop the big hitters. If you’re running Dark Ranger, the same logic applies to Black Arrow—it needs to be empowered by Trick Shots to hit multiple targets.

Despite that extra step, the rotation doesn’t change dramatically. Multi-Shot replaces Arcane Shot in your priority list, and most of the weaving and cooldown usage stays the same. You’ll still want to avoid letting Aimed Shot sit at two charges, unless you’re deliberately waiting to ensure it benefits from Trick Shots. This is one of the few exceptions where delaying Aimed Shot is not only okay but correct.

Some AoE-focused talents also subtly shift how you play. For example, Precision Detonation encourages tighter synergy between Explosive Shot and Aimed Shot, often pairing them together to maximize damage. But keep in mind that timing and GCD mechanics may not always allow this to happen perfectly. It’s more of a guideline than a hard rule.

Trueshot

Trueshot is Marksmanship’s signature cooldown and dramatically changes how the spec plays during its uptime. It drastically reduces the cooldowns on Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire, flooding your rotation with high-damage spells. Managing this burst window is both an art and a science.

The key challenge here is avoiding charge capping. During Trueshot, it’s entirely possible (and expected) that you won’t be able to spend all your Aimed Shot charges perfectly. That’s okay. What’s not okay is letting the buff end with unused charges.

In previous versions of the spec, some players skipped weaving Precise Shots during Trueshot. But thanks to Streamline—which shortens your Aimed Shot—you always want to continue weaving in those Arcane Shots or Multi-Shots. Combined with Tensile Bowstring, these empowerments make Trueshot windows even more devastating.

Rotation Priority

Single Target

Cast Volley on cooldown, preferably using a @cursor macro to quickly place it on your target. Avoid using it when your target is about to move.
Cast Rapid Fire in order to activate Lunar Storm, if it is available.
Use Trueshot as soon as it’s ready, preferably with a Streamline stack to follow up with a faster Aimed Shot.
Use Kill Shot when you have a Precise Shots stack.
Spend Precise Shots stacks with Arcane Shot, which generates Streamline to reduce Aimed Shot’s cast time and Focus cost. You should skip this line if you either have a Spotter’s Mark proc, or you already have Moving Target from having spent Precise Shots previously.
Cast Rapid Fire on cooldown. It activates Lunar Storm. Delay it for up to 7 seconds if Lunar Storm is coming off cooldown soon, in order to activate the Lunar Storm the moment it becomes available.
Cast Explosive Shot as a high priority when you have a Lock and Load, right before you intend to cast an Aimed Shot to spend it. The 4PC has an interaction where spending Lock and Load while you already have an Explosive Shot active on a target, causes both Explosive Shots to get the 300% damage bonus from the 4PC. This interaction works more reliably the closer you are to the target. This humorous WeakAura helps you know when you nailed it.
Use Aimed Shot as often as you can. Most of the time we want to clear our Precise Shots stacks first, but if you have both a Spotter’s Mark proc and Moving Target up, just cast Aimed Shot regardless.
Use Steady Shot as a Focus- and Aimed Shot cooldown-generator when no other abilities are available.

AOE

Cast Volley whenever available, preferably using an @cursor macro to quickly place it on your target. Avoid using it when your target is about to move.
Activate Trueshot. Before you do, make sure Trick Shots is active (from Multi-Shot or Volley); and if you plan to start it with Aimed Shot, have at least one stack of Streamline ready.
Use Multi-Shot to apply Trick Shots if it has fallen off. Spend Precise Shots stacks this way unless you already have both Spotter’s Mark and Moving Target active—in that case just cast Aimed Shot (with Trick Shots up).
Cast Rapid Fire on cooldown to generate procs and activate Lunar Storm. Delay it up to 7 s if Lunar Storm is about to come off cooldown so you can trigger Lunar Storm immediately. Make sure Trick Shots will last through the 2 sec channel.
Cast Explosive Shot as a high priority when you have a Lock and Load, right before you intend to cast an Aimed Shot to spend it. The 4PC has an interaction where spending Lock and Load while you already have an Explosive Shot active on a target, causes both Explosive Shots to get the 300% damage bonus from the 4PC. This interaction works more reliably the closer you are to the target. This humorous WeakAura helps you know when you nailed it.
Use Explosive Shot immediately before your planned Aimed Shot.
Use Aimed Shot as often as possible. Normally clear Precise Shots stacks first, but if you simultaneously have a Spotter’s Mark proc and Moving Target up, just fire Aimed Shot (as long as Trick Shots is active).
Use Explosive Shot as a low‑priority filler even without a Lock and Load proc.
If you exceed 60 Focus with nothing higher on the list available, dump Focus with Multi-Shot.
Cast Steady Shot as a filler and Focus generator whenever nothing higher in the priority list is ready.

Tier Set

Tireless Collector’s Bounties

2-Set: Hunter Marksmanship 11.1 Class Set 2pc – Your spells and abilities have a chance to hit a Jackpot! that increases your auto shot damage by 200% and reduces the time between auto shots by 0.5 sec for 10 sec. Casting Trueshot always hits a Jackpot!
4-Set: Hunter Marksmanship 11.1 Class Set 4pc – Consuming Lock and Load also fires an Explosive Shot at 300% effectiveness.

General Tips

Manage Focus

Avoid wasting Focus by casting more Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot, and minimizing inefficient use of Steady Shots.

Use Cooldowns

Keep key abilities like Aimed Shot, Rapid Fire, and Explosive Shot on cooldown to maximize damage output.

Manage Procs

React quickly to procs that reset cooldowns, adjusting your rotation dynamically to capitalize on them.

Stat Priority

Haste: Increases attack speed and spell casting speed. This also applies to pets.
Critical Strike: Chance for extra effectiveness on attacks and heals (double damage/healing).
Mastery: Increases the effectiveness of Mastery: Sniper Training.
Versatility: Increases damage and healing, and reduces damage taken.

1. Agility- As with all specs, main stat will be top priority.

2. Critical Strike – Most important stat, greatly increases damage through double-effect attacks and should be prioritized on gear. Synergizes well with Penetrating Shots & Deathblow.

3. Mastery – Mastery: Sniper Training, providing a solid damage increase as well as ranged increase.. but still behind Critical Strike in priority.

4. Versatility – Boosts damage and healing while also reducing damage taken, making it slightly more valuable than Haste.

5. Haste – Improves your auto attack speed, focus regen, as well as reduces cast time & cooldowns of abilities like Aimed Shot. But offers less overall value than other stats.