Marksmanship Hunter DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.2)

• Casting Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire as much as possible, both on single-target and AoE.
• Spending Precise Shots stacks on Arcane Shot/ Multi-Shot, generated by Aimed Shot.
• Ensuring that every Aimed Shot is affected by at least one stack of Streamline, the stacks of which are generated by casting Rapid Fire, and spending Precise Shots on abilities like Arcane Shot, and sometimes Kill Shot.

• All the same goals as the single-target Rotation.
• Maintaining that Trick Shots is up for all of your Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire casts by casting Multi-Shot between them, or with Volley.

In the Single-Target and AoE sections, you will find a highly detailed priority list breakdown of the Rotation, as well as optimal openers.

1. Ensure Hunter's Mark is active on the target from you or another Hunter in the group!
2. Pre-cast Aimed Shot roughly 3 seconds before combat begins.
3. Cast Explosive Shot. You have to be spamming this while Aimed Shot is casting to get the detonation.
4. Cast Black Arrow.
5. Cast Aimed Shot.
6. Note that anytime Arcane Shot is mentioned in the opener, if you have a Black Arrow proc available instead, replace the Arcane with it, but do not forget Precise Shots.
7. From this point onwards, use any Black Arrow (via Deathblow) procs that you get, as you get them, throughout the entire opener, but only with Precise Shots active.
8. Use Volley at your enemy's feet.
9. Use Rapid Fire.
10. If you have another Deathblow proc and you can afford to delay Trueshot for a few more seconds, then it is fine to cast a Aimed Shot followed by a Black Arrowspend all of your procs until you run out and continuing to do so until you run out of procs.
11. Spend any remaining Precise Shots stacks on Arcane Shot.
12. Activate Trueshot along with stat-granting on-use Trinkets, Racials, etc.
13. Cast Aimed Shot.
14. Cast Black Arrow.
15. At this point, your opener branches out a lot depending on procs and Talents. Follow the standard rotation, and remember to use Black Arrow procs as you get them.

This priority list describes the optimal single-target Rotation for Marksmanship Hunter.

1. Trinkets: When using 90-second Trinkets that give stats, hold Trueshot up to 10 seconds for them. When using 2-minute stat Trinkets, use them for every 2nd Trueshot. Try to use damage-dealing Trinkets during Trueshot as they will scale with the crit chance/damage.
2. Use Explosive Shot right after Aimed Shot to detonate Precision Detonation. This only works outside of Trueshot. Do not do this if Lock and Load is already procced.
3. Use Volley whenever possible. I recommend using an @cursor placement macro for it, which you can find on the AddOns and Macros page. This does hefty damage and you should ensure that you aim it right on the target, and that you do not cast it on a target that is just about to move away.
4. Use Volley when Double Tap is not currently active. I recommend using an @cursor placement macro for it.
5. Use Multi-Shot against multiple targets when Precise Shots is active and Spotter's Mark is missing.
6. Cast Steady Shot as a follow-up to Aimed Shot outside of Trueshot while below ~75 Focus, unless you already have a Black Arrow proc prepared that you can fire immediately. The idea here is to give us a buffer window during which we can see if Black Arrow procced from the end of our Aimed Shot cast.
7. Use Black Arrow whenever you have Precise Shots.
8. Use Black Arrow whenever possible.
9. Cast/Prioritize Aimed Shot over Rapid Fire during Trueshot (but spend Precise Shots still). You should also prioritize Lock and Load Aimed Shots over Rapid Fire.
10. Use Rapid Fire if you have no Black Arrow proc.
11. Use Rapid Fire against multiple targets.
12. Use Arcane Shot to spend Precise Shots, unless Spotter's Mark is already active.
13. Activate Trueshot if you do not have a Black Arrow proc. Hold it if you already have a Double Tap buff from a Volley.
14. Use Aimed Shot whenever it is available. Always spend Precise Shots first, unless Spotter's Mark is already active.
15. Cast Explosive Shot if you have no Lock and Load.
16. Use Steady Shot as a filler and Focus generator.

1. Ensure Hunter's Mark is active on the target from you or another Hunter in the group!
2. Pre-cast Aimed Shot roughly 3 seconds before combat begins.
3. Cast Explosive Shot. You have to be spamming this while Aimed Shot is casting to get the detonation.
4. Cast Aimed Shot.
5. Note that anytime Arcane Shot is mentioned in the opener, if you have a Kill Shot proc available instead, replace the Arcane with it, but do not forget Precise Shots.
6. Use Volley at your enemy's feet.
7. Use Rapid Fire.
8. From this point onwards, use any Kill Shot (via Deathblow) procs that you get, as you get them, throughout the entire opener, but only with Precise Shots active.
9. If your Rapid Fire gave you a Deathblow proc and you can afford to delay Trueshot for a few more seconds, then it is fine to cast a Aimed Shot followed by a Kill Shotspend the proc and continuing to do so until you run out of procs.
10. Cast Arcane Shot to spend any Precise Shots you have.
11. Activate Trueshot along with stat-granting on-use Trinkets, Racials, etc.
12. Cast Aimed Shot.
13. At this point, your opener branches out a lot depending on procs and Talents. Follow the standard rotation, and remember to use Kill Shot procs as you get them, at least when specced into Headshot.

This priority list describes the optimal single-target Rotation for Marksmanship Hunter.

1. Trinkets: When using 90-second Trinkets that give stats, hold Trueshot up to 10 seconds for them. When using 2-minute stat Trinkets, use them for every 2nd Trueshot. Try to use damage-dealing Trinkets during Trueshot as they will scale with the crit chance/damage.
2. Use Explosive Shot right after Aimed Shot to detonate Precision Detonation. This only works outside of Trueshot. Do not do this if Lock and Load is already procced.
3. Use Volley whenever possible. I recommend using an @cursor placement macro for it, which you can find on the AddOns and Macros page. This does hefty damage and you should ensure that you aim it right on the target, and that you do not cast it on a target that is just about to move away.
4. Use Volley when Double Tap is not currently active. I recommend using an @cursor placement macro for it.
5. Activate Trueshot, your main cooldown. A good rule of thumb is to use it right before you would normally use an Aimed Shot. , if you have the room to delay it for a few seconds, you should ideally not have any Deathblow procs going into it. It is best to spend those (per the normal rules) before activating Trueshot, though it is not worth losing overall Trueshot uptime to achieve this.Note that this will activate Double Tap alongside Volley. This means that you should NEVER cast Trueshot and Volley back-to-back, in any order — you should always fit a Double Tap-spender like Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire between them.
6. Use Rapid Fire when Lunar Storm is available. Note that Lunar Storm resets Rapid Fire’s cooldown when it comes off cooldown itself.
7. Use Kill Shot when you have a Deathblow proc.
8. Use Kill Shot to spend Precise Shots if Spotter's Mark is missing.
9. Use Arcane Shot to spend Precise Shots if Spotter's Mark is missing. Use Multi-Shot instead on 2 targets and above.
10. Cast/Prioritize Aimed Shot if Bulletstorm is up, and Aimed would reach 2 charges within around 3 seconds.
11. Use Rapid Fire whenever possible.
12. Use Aimed Shot whenever it is available. Make sure to spend Precise Shots first, unless you already have Spotter's Mark active.
13. Use Explosive Shot on cooldown.
14. Use Explosive Shot whenever Trueshot is down.
15. Use Steady Shot as a filler and Focus generator.

1. Ensure Hunter's Mark is active on the highest-health target from you or another Hunter in the group!
2. The Dark Ranger Opener is highly dynamic. Every Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire can give you a Black Arrow proc. No matter what the opener says, you should always spend these procs immediately if you have Precise Shots, or if Trick Shots is down. The opener as written assumes no procs.
3. Cast Black Arrow.
4. Cast Rapid Fire.
5. Cast Volley.
6. Cast Aimed Shot.
7. Cast Multi-Shot.
8. Cast Explosive Shot.
9. Activate Trueshot.
10. Cast Black Arrow.
11. Cast Aimed Shot.
12. Spam Black Arrow as if you know that you will get a proc. If you do not, cast Multi-Shot. Only do this if you are very fast at reacting to the non-proc. If in doubt, just go for the Multi-Shot and do not overthink it.
13. Cast Explosive Shot.
14. Cast Aimed Shot.
15. Proceed with the standard rotation.

This priority list describes the optimal AoE Rotation for Marksmanship Hunter.

1. Trinkets: When using 90-second Trinkets that give stats, hold Trueshot up to 10 seconds for them. When using 2-minute stat Trinkets, use them for every 2nd Trueshot. Try to use damage-dealing Trinkets during Trueshot as they will scale with the crit chance/damage.
2. Use Explosive Shot right after Aimed Shot to detonate Precision Detonation. This only works outside of Trueshot. Do not do this if Lock and Load is already procced.
3. Use Volley on cooldown. Do not cast it while the Double Tap buff is active. Do not cast it while Lock and Load is active.
4. Use Rapid Fire when Bulletstorm is not active and Trick Shots will last for the full channel.
5. Queue Steady Shot immediately after a full-cast Aimed Shot outside Trueshot if it will not Focus-cap you, giving you a moment to see if the Aimed procced a Black Arrow.
6. Use Black Arrow whenever possible.
7. Use Black Arrow whenever you have Precise Shots OR when Trick Shots is inactive.
8. Use Multi-Shot to apply Trick Shots.
9. Use Multi-Shot to apply Trick Shots when Spotter's Mark is missing.
10. Activate Trueshot on cooldown. Never cast Trueshot and Volley back-to-back; fit a Double Tap spender like Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire between them.
11. Use Volley when Double Tap is not active. Make sure you are ready to cast Aimed Shot immediately after to detonate the resulting Explosive Shot.
12. Prioritize Aimed Shot over Rapid Fire with 20 stacks of Bulletstorm, if it is on 2 charges. Ensure Trick Shots is active and Precise Shots is spent.
13. Prioritize Aimed Shot over Rapid Fire with 20 stacks of Bulletstorm, if it is on 2 charges. Ensure Trick Shots is active. Spend Precise Shots first, unless Spotter's Mark is already active.
14. Use Rapid Fire when Trick Shots will last for the full channel, Spotter's Mark is missing, and you do not have a Deathblow proc.
15. Use Rapid Fire when Trick Shots will last for the full channel, Bulletstorm is not active, and you do not have a Deathblow proc.
16. Use Explosive Shot right before you intend to Aimed Shot, provided that Lock and Load is not active.
17. Use Aimed Shot whenever Trick Shots is active. Spend Precise Shots first.
18. Use Aimed Shot whenever Trick Shots is active. Spend Precise Shots first, unless Spotter's Mark is already up.
19. Use Explosive Shot on cooldown as essentially a Steady Shot-replacing filler.
20. Use Steady Shot if it will not Focus-cap you.
21. Use Multi-Shot as a final filler.

The rotation is fundamentally about generating Black Arrow procs by using Aimed Shots and Rapid Fire. We always run Headshot, which causes Precise Shots to buff our Black Arrow damage. In a perfect world, we always spend Precise Shots on Black Arrow, but this is not always possible as we are proc-limited. If we cannot Black Arrow, we Multi-Shot instead to ensure Trick Shots coverage.

With No Scope, Rapid Fire becomes another source of Precise Shots. A big part of why we care about Precise Shots is Spotter's Mark, a 30% RNG proc when we spend Precise Shots. If we already have Spotter's Mark, we can ignore this Rapid Fire-granted Precise Shots and just go straight to an Aimed Shot.

We like to follow up full-length Aimed Shots with Steady Shot. This is because Black Arrow procs occur at the end of the Aimed Shot cast, but we cannot afford to sit and wait after every Aimed to see if Black Arrow procced. So we cast Steady Shot to give us a buffer window during which we can see if Black Arrow procced from the end of our Aimed Shot cast.

1. Ensure Hunter's Mark is active on the highest-health target from you or another Hunter in the group!
2. Cast Multi-Shot.
3. Cast Rapid Fire.
4. Cast Multi-Shot.
5. Cast Multi-Shot.
6. Cast Volley.
7. Cast Explosive Shot.
8. Activate Trueshot.
9. Cast Aimed Shot.
10. Cast Multi-Shot.
11. Cast Volley.
12. Cast Volley.
13. Cast Aimed Shot.
14. Cast Multi-Shot.
15. Proceed with the standard rotation.

This priority list describes the optimal AoE Rotation for Marksmanship Hunter.

1. Trinkets: When using 90-second Trinkets that give stats, hold Trueshot up to 10 seconds for them. When using 2-minute stat Trinkets, use them for every 2nd Trueshot. Try to use damage-dealing Trinkets during Trueshot as they will scale with the crit chance/damage.
2. Use Explosive Shot right after Aimed Shot to detonate Precision Detonation. This only works outside of Trueshot. Do not do this if Lock and Load is already procced.
3. Use Volley on cooldown. Do not cast it while the Double Tap buff is active. Do not cast it while Lock and Load is active.
4. Use Rapid Fire when Lunar Storm is available or Bulletstorm is down, and Trick Shots will last for the full channel.
5. Use Multi-Shot to apply Trick Shots.
6. Use Multi-Shot to apply Trick Shots when Spotter's Mark is missing.
7. Activate Trueshot on cooldown. Never cast Trueshot and Volley back-to-back; fit a Double Tap spender like Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire between them.
8. Use Volley when Double Tap is not active. Make sure you are ready to cast Aimed Shot immediately after to detonate the resulting Explosive Shot.
9. Prioritize Aimed Shot over Rapid Fire with 20 stacks of Bulletstorm, if it is on 2 charges. Ensure Trick Shots is active and Precise Shots is spent.
10. Prioritize Aimed Shot over Rapid Fire with 20 stacks of Bulletstorm, if it is on 2 charges. Ensure Trick Shots is active. Spend Precise Shots first, unless Spotter's Mark is already active.
11. Use Rapid Fire when Trick Shots will last for the full channel and Spotter's Mark is missing.
12. Use Rapid Fire when Trick Shots will last for the full channel and Bulletstorm is not active.
13. Use Explosive Shot right before you intend to Aimed Shot, provided that Lock and Load is not active.
14. Use Aimed Shot whenever Trick Shots is active. Spend Precise Shots first.
15. Use Aimed Shot whenever Trick Shots is active. Spend Precise Shots first, unless Spotter's Mark is already up.
16. Use Explosive Shot on cooldown as essentially a Steady Shot-replacing filler.
17. Use Steady Shot if it will not Focus-cap you.
18. Use Multi-Shot as a final filler.

With No Scope, Rapid Fire becomes another source of Precise Shots. A big part of why we care about Precise Shots is Spotter's Mark, a 30% RNG proc when we spend Precise Shots. If we already have Spotter's Mark, we can ignore this Rapid Fire-granted Precise Shots and just go straight to an Aimed Shot.