Cataclysm Classic Marksmanship Hunter Enchants and Consumables

Like most expansions, Cataclysm requires fewer consumables and enchants than Classic or The Burning Crusade. However, each one you can take is extremely important to maximizing your damage output and survivability in any situation, but especially in Raids and dungeons. Below will be a list of the optimal consumables and enchants to help you get the most out of your Marksmanship Hunter.

Slot	Enchantment
Head	Arcanum of the Ramkahen — Revered with Ramkahen.
Shoulders	Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal — Exalted with Therazane
Back	Enchant Cloak - Greater Critical Strike
Chest	Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats
Bracers	Enchant Bracer - Agility
Gloves	Enchant Gloves - Major Agility
Belt	Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
Legs	Dragonscale Leg Armor
Feet	Enchant Boots - Assassin's Step
Melee Weapon	Enchant 2H Weapon - Mighty Agility
Ranged Weapon	Gnomish X-Ray Scope

Agile Shadowspirit Diamond is by far the best option for your Meta Gem, as it gives lots of Agility and increases the damage dealt by your critical strikes by 3%. This only requires 3 red gems to activate, so it should be trivial to activate it normally.

Matching gem sockets is usually the correct strategy as many socket bonuses are geared towards stats that you want, but this will all depend on what the socket bonus actually is. In general, if the socket bonus is a DPS stat, it is worth getting. However, keeping your Meta Gem activated is by far the most important rule when deciding what gems to use. Below is a list of the best gems to use in each color socket.

• In Red Sockets, you will use Delicate Inferno Ruby.
• In Yellow Sockets, you can use Deadly Ember Topaz. If the socket bonus is not worthwhile, just use Delicate Inferno Ruby.
• In Blue Sockets, you can use Glinting Demonseye. If the socket bonus is not worthwhile, just use Delicate Inferno Ruby.

Skewered Eel is the best choice if you need to use personal food, because of the Agility it provides. However, in raids you will usually have access to a Seafood Magnifique Feast, which provides the same 90 Agility bonus.

Flask of the Winds is the best choice by far. It is weighted to be significantly better than other elixir options. There is nothing else that comes close to 300 Agility.

Potion of the Tol'vir greatly increases your Agility for a short period. Use this both pre-pull and again when it is off cooldown for a considerable DPS increase. Once again, no other potion comes anywhere close to this effectiveness.

The major profession benefits will come in the form of profession-specific bonuses that all professions offer which will offer combat bonuses to your character. These are all *roughly* balanced, with Engineering being noticeably better than the others. The two best professions to choose for maximum benefit will be Engineering for their Synapse Springs and various other utility tinkers, along with Jewelcrafting for the enhanced gems that give additional stats. Realistically however, you can pick any other non-gathering profession as a second profession along with Engineering and the difference will be negligible.