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Marksmanship Hunter Artifact Weapon: Thas'dorah – Legion 7.3.5
By Deliriad
Last Updated:
2018/06/28
Changelog
Patch: 10.2.6
Table of Contents
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This section of the Marksmanship Hunter guide explains the best possible choices for the Netherlight Crucible, important traits and relic bonuses, and how to progress through your artifact weapon Thas'dorah. This guide is written by
Delirium
from
the Thrill of the Wild
and
the Hunting Party Podcast
. Updated for the latest patch.
Artifacts in Battle for Azeroth
As of June 26th, completing the quest
The Power in Our Hands
will further empower your Artifact Weapon, enabling all traits and at least
Concordance of the Legionfall
level 75, further increasing in power over time until the Battle for Azeroth pre-expansion patch.
Therefore, only the Netherlight Crucible recommendations are relevant on this guide page leading up to BFA, as you already receive all Artifact Traits by default. This makes content easier to complete, especially some
content going away
such as
Ahead of the Curve
and
Mage Tower Challenges
.
In the
BFA pre-patch
, your Artifact Traits will be removed, and relics will simply increase the item level of your artifact weapon. However, many artifact traits are returning as talents or azerite powers in Battle for Azeroth and we have a compiled a
full list you can read here
.
Moving forward in Battle for Azeroth, you will still be able to acquire the Artifact Weapon which will mainly interest transmog collectors for the appearances. Learn how to unlock all appearances in BFA with our
Artifact Appearance Guide
.
Artifact Weapon:
Thas'dorah
Active Ability
Equipping Thas'dorah grants you the ability
Windburst
, which focuses the wind through your bow to deal a massive amount of damage, creating a wind path that increases the movement speed from your allies inside of it.
Netherlight Crucible
The
Netherlight Crucible
is a new system added in Patch 7.3. The Crucible allows you further empower your Marksman Hunter Artifact Weapon, by specializing and increasing the power from your relics. With it, each relic receives a small talent tree that you can select new traits from, depending how many traits your weapon have. Do not worry, however, because with the changes to
Artifact Knowledge
, unlocking the full power of the Crucible won't take long. Learn everything about this new system in our
Netherlight Crucible Guide
. With the opening of
Antorus, the Burning Throne
, it is now possible to obtain
Insignia of the Grand Army
, which increases the potency of your Tier 2 Crucible traits by 50%. It might be a really strong legendary if you are lucky with Netherlight Crucible rolls!
Notes before using this guide:
You can use the item level equivalencies to compare multiple paths within one relic, or to compare the value of two different relics. To do so, just add up the item level equivalencies in a particular path, and compare it to the item level equivalencies in another path. For different relics, just include the "+ ilvl" shown on the relic with the equivalencies shown on the tables from the best path in each relic.
The item level equivalencies shown here refer to weapon item levels, not the item level shown on the relic. Remember that while the relics go up in multiples of five item levels, your weapon only increases correspondingly by 1 or 2 item levels.
The relative weapon item level value of each relic trait will change depending on what item level your weapon is. This is because weapon damage scales exponentially with item level increases, while the values of these relic traits do not. Because of this, the values listed below are accurate for a Marksman Hunter wearing heroic Tomb of Sargeras raid gear, but are not as accurate for a Marksman Hunter in mythic raid gear, or normal or lower raid gear.
For a MM Hunter in Mythic Tomb of Sargeras gear, the values of the best traits are at best equivalent to about +3 weapon item levels, rather than the +5 that they would provide for Normal raiders. This means you'll be less likely to want to choose a lower ilvl relic with better traits the higher your weapon's ilvl is (though that may still happen).
Despite all of this, the relative value of the relic traits should still apply.
The only reliable way to know what relic will be best for you, is to simulate yourself using a service like
raidbots
.
If you're simming yourself, remember that it's easier to change enchantments and gems than it is to change the second tier of the crucible traits. You may get an odd result such as saying that the
Light Speed
is your best trait. This is probably due to a quark of the simulation, or a particularly strange level of Haste you have on your gear. In a case like this, you'll likely want to go with one of the recommended relic traits from here, so you won't be stuck with a bad relic trait after you get other gear upgrades.
The values of each relic trait in this guide are based on priority target damage. There may be some relic traits that will preform better in mass AoE fights, but in most cases, the type of damage those traits do won't be as beneficial to your raid team (even if it makes your personal DPS look good on a few particular fights).
Tier 2 Traits
Trait
Similar increase to
Torment the Weak
+4 ilevel
Secure in the Light
+3.8 ilevel
Infusion of Light
+3.75 ilevel
Shadowbind
+3.75 ilevel
Shocklight
+3.65 ilevel
Chaotic Darkness
+3.35 ilevel
Master of Shadows
+3.1 ilevel
Murderous Intent
+3 ilevel
Light Speed
+3 ilevel
Dark Sorrows
+1.75 ilevel
Refractive Shell
+0 ilevel
Light's Embrace
+0 ilevel
Tier 3 Traits
Trait
Similar increase to
Marked for Death
+3 ilevel
Unerring Arrows
+3 ilevel
Quick Shot
+2.5 ilevel
Deadly Aim
+2.5 ilevel
Windrunner's Guidance
+1 ilevel
Precision
+1 ilevel
Called Shot
+.5 ilevel
Gust of Wind
+.5 ilevel
Other Traits
+0 ilevel
Artifact Bonuses:
Bullseye
- When you damage a target below 20% health, you gain 3% critical strike for 6 seconds, stacking up to 30 times.
This is a situationally very powerful ability, as in fights with add waves, you can “cherry pick” low health targets to stack up a high Crit buff, and then unload that on your priority target.
Call of the Hunter
- When you
, you have a chance of proc'ing an additional attack which hits all
Vulnerable
targets.
Called Shot
- Increases damage done by
Sidewinders
or Multi-shot.
Increased to 4 ranks after empowering your artifact weapon.
Critical Focus
-
Arcane Shot
critical strikes (and normal sidewinder casts) generate 5 additional focus.
Deadly Aim
- Increases the critical strike damage dealt by
Aimed Shot
.
Increased to 4 ranks after empowering your artifact weapon.
Gust of Wind
- Reduces the cooldown of
Bursting Shot
.
Increased to 4 ranks after empowering your artifact weapon.
Healing Shell
-
Aspect of the Turtle
heals you over its duration.
Increased to 4 ranks after empowering your artifact weapon.
Legacy of the Windrunners
-
Aimed Shot
has a chance to proc an additional 6
Wind Arrows
that also hit your target.
Mark of the Windrunner
-
Windburst
also applies
Vulnerability
or Deadeye to the target.
Marked for Death
-
increases your
Aimed Shot
critical strike chance against the target for 10 seconds.
Increased to 4 ranks after empowering your artifact weapon.
Precision
- Increases the critical strike chance of
.
Increased to 4 ranks after empowering your artifact weapon.
Quick Shot
- Reduces the cooldown of
.
Increased to 4 ranks after empowering your artifact weapon.
Wind Arrows
- Increases the damage of
Aimed Shot
.
Windburst
- A powerful shot leaving a trail of wind in its trail increasing the movement speed of allies in its path. This ability is available when you first equip your
Bow
.
Windrunner's Guidance
- Increases the damage of
.
Increased to 4 ranks after empowering your artifact weapon.
Artifact Traits from Patch 7.2
After completing your 35th trait, you'll be able to open 4 new traits on the Marksman Hunter Artifact, and upgrade all of the 3 level traits to a 4th level.
Acuity of the Unseen Path
- Increases damage and stamina by 10% each. This trait is just a flat damage increase.
Unerring Arrows
- This changes the
debuff to increase Aimed Shot damage by 3% per rank. This is a decent single target increase.
Feet of Wind
- Marksmanship Hunters already have a much more reliable way to break snares from
Posthaste
, and the dodge chance isn't reliable enough to let you ignore mechanics. However, there are several raid-wide mechanics that can be dodged, so this may be a useful addition to
Aspect of the Cheetah
in emergency situations.
Cyclonic Burst
- With Windburst fairly high on our priority list, any extra damage from Cyclonic Burst only makes it more valuable.
Concordance of the Legionfall
- A significant Agility buff that should occur on average every 44 seconds. At rank 1, this provides 4000 agility for 10 seconds, and gains an additional 300 agility per rank.
Recommended Build Paths
Because Blizzard has greatly increased the Artifact Knowledge level, there is no excuse for showing up to raid without having completed all of your Artifact Traits up until Concordance of the Legionfall. As such, the Marksman Hunter Artifact path you take to complete the weapon is not in the slightest bit important. This is especially true for anyone wanting to play a MM Hunter, because we Hunters pay our dues, and never show up to raid unprepared.
For those slackers who just refused to do their fair share of preparation, the below is considered to be the most optimal path to unlock your weapon traits, based on the quickest way to do the most damage possible.
From there, you'll go through Windrunner's Guidance to get your second golden trait, Legacy of the Windrunners, as your 20th point, and then go through Precision to get Call of the Hunter on your 24th point, rounding out the last of your golden traits.
From there, you can finish Quickshot and Critical Focus, before putting the last of your Artifact Power into the last two defensive abilities, Healing Shell and Survival of the Fittest.
7.2 Artifact Trait Paths
After completing your 35th trait, you can do a quest which will open up 4 new traits, and the ability to upgrade all of the 3 level traits to a 4th level. Begin by upgrading
Unerring Arrows
to 4/4 as soon as possible, as this is by far our largest DPS gain. Next, seek out your highest DPS traits from the old path, and upgrade them to 4/4. This will vary some depending on the type of rotation you use, and whether you want to focus on AoE or Single Target damage. I recommend focusing on traits that affect Aimed Shot first (
Deadly Aim
and
Marked for Death
), as those buffs will multiply with
Unerring Arrows
, and will help your priority target damage the most; however, you should think about the type of damage your raid team most needs, and how quickly you'll be able to unlock the more AoE focus traits (like Marked Shot buffs).
Next, finish off your DPS traits. Go through
Feet of Wind
to get
Cyclonic Burst
, and go up to 4/4 in
Quick Shot
,
Precision
,
Windrunner's Guidance
and finally
Called Shot
.
After that, work your way through your last Defensive and Utility traits until you can unlock
Concordance of the Legionfall
, and prepare for the unobtainable grind of leveling up Concordance.
Share your comments about this guide in our Hunter forum!
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