Marksmanship Hunter DPS Beginner's Guide - Battle for Azeroth 8.3

Last updated 2020/01/21 at 12:12 AM View Changelog

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I'm Moofz. I main Hunter and do both Mythic+ and raiding at a high level. I write the BFA Marksmanship Hunter guide and most Hunter-related content and news for Wowhead. He also has a Hunter Mythic+ website, streams raids and dungeons on Twitch, and does YouTube content. He also casted Method's Race to World First events this past year. Feel free to message him via Twitter for any Hunter questions or business inquiries.

TalentsMarksmanship Hunter Talent Guide.RotationMarksmanship Hunter Rotation Guide

Use Trueshot on cooldown.

Cast Aimed Shot if you will cap on charges.

Cast Rapid Fire on cooldown. Try to use this below 70 Focus to avoid capping Focus.

Cast Arcane Shot to dump Precise Shots

Cast Aimed Shot.

Cast Steady Shot as a filler or to generate Focus when low.

Try to avoid Focus capping. You can use Arcane Shot after Rapid Fire when above 90 Focus to avoid Focus capping.

Avoid casting Aimed Shot above 90 Focus. Due to Aimed Shots long cast, you will Focus cap after finishing its cast.

As a general rule of thumb, try to hover around 50 Focus and use Steady Shot preemptively so that you do not delay casts of Rapid Fire or risk capping on Aimed Shot charges.

Stat PriorityStats Guide

Versatility

Critical Strike

Mastery

Haste

RaidbotsEnhancementsEnchants:

Ring: Enchant Ring - Accord of Versatility

Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Force Multiplier

Enchant Weapon - Force MultiplierGems:

You should have a single Leviathan's Eye of Agility. The rest should be Versatile Dark Opal.

Consumables:

Food: Famine Evaluator And Snack Table or Abyssal-Fried Rissole

Healing Potion: Abyssal Healing Potion

Flask: Greater Flask of the Currents

Rune: Battle-Scarred Augment Rune

Potions:
- Your default for single target situations is Potion of Unbridled Fury.
- In AoE situations or if the fight will not last an entire minute, use Superior Battle Potion of Agility

AzeriteWowhead's Azerite Finder

Unerring Vision - While Trueshot is active, you gain Critical Strike rating every sec, stacking up to 10 times. Unerring Vision paired with Calling the Shots makes Trueshot a very strong cooldown. With 2 or 3 of these traits, we can reach 100% critical strike rating during Trueshot.

In The Rhythm - When Rapid Fire finishes channeling, your Haste is increased by 8 sec. With the increased frequency of Rapid Fire casts this trait has moved to the forefront as one of our best traits. In the Rhythm loses value when Calling the Shots is taken as the additional Haste is devalued due to the increased casts of Trueshot.

Focused Fire - Increases Rapid Fire damage. Each shot of Rapid Fire has a chance to refund additional Focus. This trait is decent in single target and is very strong in single target and in AoE.

Surging Shots - Increases Rapid Fire damage per shot fired. Aimed Shot has a 15% chance to reset the cooldown of Rapid Fire. This trait is decent in single target and is very strong in AoE. This trait becomes better when paired with Streamline.

Overwhelming Power - Provides a great deal of passive haste, great in both single target and AoE. The buff is slowly removed over time and every time you take damage. Luckily, it doesn't decay very often despite what the tooltip says. This is by far our best Tier 2 trait.

Heed My Call - This trait does a ton of damage in single target and has a cleave component while mobs are stacked.

Gutripper - Your damaging abilities have a chance to deal additional physical damage to the target. Gutripper occurs more often against targets below 30% health. This trait pairs well with our execute ability Careful Aim.

Duck and Cover - This is a Marksman specific Tier 3 trait. The shield that it gives us when we Feign Death can be used as an on-demand defensive. The added cooldown reduction to Feign Death is another bonus as well, especially in Mythic+.

Vampiric Speed - This trait works anytime something dies around you. That includes Mythic+ mobs, adds during a raid fight, mobs during open world questing, etc. The heal is a decent amount and procs fairly often which can be very useful.

Resounding Protection - This is essentially a mini Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus shield. Its small, but it negates the damage and is preventative rather than reactionary like most of the other traits.

EssencesRaidbotsMajor Essence

Worldvein Resonance

Condensed Life-Force

Vision of Perfection

The Crucible of Flame

Minor Essences

Essence of the Focusing Iris

Major Essence

Vision of Perfection

Condensed Life-Force

Essence of the Focusing Iris

Purification Protocol

Minor Essences

Purification Protocol

Corruption

Corruption to Watch Out For - Currently, Infinite Stars, Echoing Void and Gushing Wound are severely overpowered. Any piece with these corruptions should be used. Severe, Expedient, Strikethrough and Honed Mind are all viable options in case you aren't lucky with some of the more overpowered corruptions.

Corrupted Bow - Whispering Eldritch Bow always comes with Whispered Truths - an interesting, although ultimately underwhelming effect. In theory and sims, the bow seems comparable to some corruptions listed above. However, the effect not only reduces offensive Hunter abilities, but it also reduces defensive Hunter abilities. This means that if you Disengage, use Aspect of the Turtle or even use Counter Shot to interrupt something, the bow has a chance to reduce the cooldown on those abilities. This not only reduces its potential damage, but it encourages Hunters to not use their utility and defensive abilities which is a bit counter productive. The bow may be good for progress, but it will quickly be replaced by Dominion, Lurker Beyond Dreams when available.

Corruption Limitations - Since Hunters are extremely mobile, we have a pretty high lenience in the corruption we can take. As a general rule of thumb, I suggest staying below 80. Hunters have many tools to deal with the slow and the Thing From Beyond, including Freezing Trap, Feign Death, Disengage (with Posthaste), Concussive Shot, Bursting Shot and even Tar Trap if necessary. Using Feign Death on the Thing from Beyond will instantly make it disappear! We never want to go above 80 corruption due to the decreased healing and increased damage taken effects. This may be a viable option for farm down the road, but I highly advise against it while progressing through Ny'alotha.

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