WotLK Classic Marksmanship Hunter Stat Priority

The stat priority for Marksmanship Hunter is as follows:

1. Hit to cap;
2. Agility;
3. Armor Penetration;
4. Critical Strike;
5. Attack Power;
6. Haste.

In a raid environment, you will need 9% Hit to cap, or 8% as Alliance with a Draenei in your group. Both numerically and for your quality of life, capping Hit should always be your top priority. Missing abilities can be bad at critical times, is the worst outcome numerically compared to other stats, and just feels terrible.

Agility is the primary stat for Hunter, and is one of your most valuable stats. Each point of Agility gives 1 Attack Power (AP), some dodge, 0.55 crit rating, and some Armor. The AP and crit is of course the most valuable, making Agility point for point one of the best stats for every Hunter spec. It is also important to note that Agility scales extremely well due to tons of raid buffs and talents giving you a percent increase to your primary stats.

Armor Penetration (ArP) increases the Physical damage you deal to targets by negating a percent of the target's Armor. For any classes that deal most Physical damage, this is going to be a valuable stat. Because of how Armor calculates Physical damage reduction, ArP specifically becomes extraordinarily valuable during the later patches of Wrath where it is possible to reach 100% ArP, meaning you ignore all of the target's Armor. However, it is possible to reach the ArP "soft-cap" much earlier, where you only achieve 100% ArP during high ArP procs such as from Grim Toll.

For Marksmanship specifically, the vast majority of your damage is Physical. Even without the ArP cap, it is still an extremely effective stat, and is your most important secondary. It is also worth noting that at ~435 ArP, you will stop using Arcane Shot because it does not deal Physical damage and will not scale as well as your other shots. ArP as a stat is also what makes Marksmanship one of the highest damaging specs later on in the expansion, and specifically is what allows it to out-scale Survival.

While crits deal more damage on their own, Hunter have the added benefit that Go for the Throat causes your crits to generate Focus for your pet. Marksmanship Hunter also have the added bonus of Piercing Shots, which gives an extra boost to your shots that crit. Mortal Shots also gives your crits even more of an added damage bonus. After ArP, crit is your most valuable secondary stat.

Whenever we are comparing AP to other stats, it will always be at a 2:1 ratio since items and gems are generally budgeted at that ratio. For Marksmanship Hunter, AP does not scale as well as Agility and your other secondary stats. This is not to say it is a weak stat, but you will scale better with the other stats above.

Haste increases the frequency with which you attack by increasing your auto-shot speed and reducing your global cooldown. Pets and your normal ability cooldowns do not benefit from your Haste, which makes this the least valuable stat for Hunters.