Marksmanship Hunter Patch 9.2 Changes Analysis and Tier Set Thoughts

This page will go over how the changes in Patch 9.2, Eternity's End, will affect Marksmanship Hunters, specifically how the changes might impact its playstyle, best Legendary choices, Covenants, and the like. If you are simply interested in what the current changes are for Hunters in Patch 9.2 in general, you can instead read our full list of changes to the entire Hunter class on our dedicated page below. For an additional list of content coming with Patch 9.2, you can also check out our Patch 9.2 Overview page.

At the moment, Marksmanship Hunters have not yet received any changes to the specialization's core kit. However, some of the further adjustments and additional content that will be arriving will likely change how you as a Marksmanship Hunter may approach your gameplay.

As with the specialization itself, there have been no direct Talent changes made in PvE or PvP for Marksmanship Hunters, though with a new raid and a new season for both Mythic+ and PvP will come new options for finding gear and trying out different talent combinations.

Within the new Sepulcher of the First Ones raid that will be coming in Patch 9.2, every class will once again earn pieces of a gear set that is uniquely class-themed with its own two- and four-piece bonuses for every specialization. For Marksmanship Hunters, these set bonuses currently are:

• Marksmanship Hunter 2-Piece — Trick Shots now also increases the damage of the affected shot by 30%.
• Marksmanship Hunter 4-Piece — Spending 40 Focus grants you the Trick Shots buff.

As Patch 9.2 is still being developed, this tier set bonus can be changed! Marksmanship's bonuses are also currently bugged and are pending a fix that will make them properly testable.

These set bonuses fix a lot of weak spots and holes in Marksmanship's kit, namely the lack of any 2-target cleave. While at first glance, these bonuses may appear to be multi-target oriented, a closer read of the 4pc bonus implies that simply executing your single-target rotation and spending Focus will allow you to benefit from the 2pc bonus, with a significant amount of your Aimed Shots and Rapid Fires now dealing 30% more damage without you having to change your rotation.

Still, the true power of these set bonuses will be in Mythic+ and AoE scenarios where Trick Shots is up for every Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire.

Numbers-wise, this is a strong single-target, and an extremely strong AoE DPS increase, on top of enabling 2-target cleave. In Mythic+, Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire can easily contribute over 50% of your overall damage.

While there have been no changes to Covenant abilities or Soulbinds for Marksmanship Hunters at this time, it is worth noting that as of Patch 9.1.5 players may freely switch between Covenants provided that they have reached Renown level 80 with any Covenant. This has opened up a lot of flexibility for Marksmanship Hunters, allowing them to effectively choose the Covenant whose bonuses are most useful at a given time, though the choice for maximizing damage will still largely come to either Kyrian or Night Fae.

In addition, Conduits will be unlocking their final few ranks, though this will not alter gameplay in any substantial way.

Remember that in Patch 9.1, every class received a Legendary Power that was unique to each Covenant. For Hunters, these Powers were:

• Kyrian — Pact of the Soulstalkers — When your Resonating Arrow deals damage to a target, you and your party gain 10% increased Critical Strike chance for 10 sec.
• Necrolord — Bag of Munitions — Up to 2 targets hit by your Death Chakram are also hit by Explosive Shot.
• Night Fae — Fragments of the Elder Antlers — When Wild Spirits hits fewer than 5 targets, there is a 100% chance to cause Wild Spirits damage a second time.
• Venthyr — Pouch of Razor Fragments — Bonus Kill Shots from Flayed Shot cause 6 targets within 12 yds to bleed for 60% of the damage dealt by Kill Shot over 6 sec.

In Patch 9.2, you ability to eventually use a second Legendary Power, provided it is your Covenant-specific effect. This means that a Night Fae Marksmanship Hunter could make use of both Fragments of the Elder Antlers and Serpentstalker's Trickery! In addition, this ability will be tied to a new Legendary Power that automatically switches to match your current Covenant, further encouraging the flexibility of freely changing Covenants that was introduced in Patch 9.1.5.

Marksmanship does not have any especially strong Legendary combinations. Its primary single-target ( Serpentstalker's Trickery) and AoE ( Surging Shots) Legendary Powers do not have any special interaction with either of the Covenant Legendary Powers.