NEW! The Icy Veins app is here
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Marksmanship Hunter in both single-target and multi-target situations. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft Patch 12.1.
Marksmanship Hunter Gameplay and Rotation Guide
Welcome to our Rotation page for Marksmanship Hunters. On this page, you will find everything you need to know about actually playing the spec in Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.
The rotation here, aside from the more concrete openers, is laid out in a conditional priority list. Essentially, for every single spell that you cast, you should cast the highest-priority spell you can, for which the conditions are met. After the spell is cast, you should start over from the top of the priority list, and repeat the process.
The buttons below can be used to select between curated Single-Target
and AoE/Mythic+ loadouts, with an extra Hydra Cleave loadout under
Sentinel. You can also use the switches below to add or remove
individual talents you may also be using.
Dark Ranger
Sentinel
Single-Target Opener for Marksmanship Hunter
Ensure 
Hunter's Mark is active on your primary target.
Aimed Shot around 2.5 seconds before combat begins.
Black Arrow
Explosive Shot- Explosive Shot
Volley
Trueshot, alongside your Potion, on-use Trinket, Racials, etc.- Aimed Shot
- Black Arrow
Rapid Fire- Continue with the priority list as described below.
- Aimed Shot around 2.5 seconds before combat begins.
- Explosive Shot
- Explosive Shot
- Volley
- Trueshot, alongside your Potion, on-use Trinket, Racials, etc.
- Rapid Fire
- Aimed Shot
Arcane Shot- Aimed Shot
- Continue with the priority list as described below.
Single-Target Priority List for Marksmanship Hunter
Below is the priority system that describes the optimal single-target rotation for Marksmanship Hunter.
- Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown. Thanks to
Unstable Trigger, you can cast it twice in a row and should do so. - Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown, unless
Lock and Load is already up. - Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown.
- Cast Volley on cooldown.
- Cast Trueshot on cooldown, holding the last one of the fight for 30 stacks of
Bullseye. Delay it by up to 15 seconds if Explosive Shot is about to come off cooldown, so that you can send the Explos right before entering Trueshot. Before you press
Trueshot, swap to a target that does not already have 
Sentinel's Mark - Click for Details
Feathered Frenzy makes Trueshot apply Sentinel's Mark to whatever you have targeted when you press it, as pressing Trueshot on a target that is already marked wastes it.- Cast
Moonlight Chakram with around 5 seconds left on Trueshot. - Cast Rapid Fire on cooldown.
Cast
Rapid Fire on cooldown at a target without Sentinel's Mark - Click for Details
Precise Shots gets spent twice here. The first shot 
Unload fires consumes the proc you went in with, 
No Scope reapplies it immediately thereafter, and the last shot of the channel consumes the fresh one.If there is a priority target, focus on that instead of casting Rapid Fire on different targets for Marks.
- Cast
Kill Shot to spend Precise Shots. - Cast
Multi-Shot instead of Arcane Shot to spend Precise Shots on more than one target, unless you are focusing a priority target. - Cast Arcane Shot to spend Precise Shots.
- Cast Aimed Shot on cooldown, preferring targets with Sentinel's Mark unless you are focusing a priority target.
- Cast Moonlight Chakram.
- Cast
Steady Shot. - Cast Black Arrow if you have Precise Shots, preferring targets without
Spotter's Mark unless you are focusing a priority target. - Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown. Thanks to Unstable Trigger, you can cast it twice in a row and should do so.
- Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown, unless Lock and Load is already up.
- Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown.
- Cast Volley on cooldown.
- Cast Aimed Shot during Trueshot with no Precise Shots if Black Arrow is ready, or if Aimed Shot is about to reach 2 charges.
- Cast Trueshot on cooldown, holding the last one of the fight for 30 stacks of Bullseye. Delay it by up to 15 seconds if Explosive Shot is about to come off cooldown, so that you can send the Explos right before entering Trueshot.
Before you press
Trueshot, swap to a target that does not already have Spotter's Mark - Click for DetailsFeathered Frenzy makes
Trueshot apply Spotter's Mark to whatever you have targeted when you press it, as pressing Trueshot on a target that is already marked wastes it.In an opener, you
Trueshot on one target, Rapid Fire on a second, and a Multi-Shot on a third clipping the end of that Rapid Fire channel. One Aimed Shot then consumes all three Marks at once. Spending Precise Shots applies a Mark around 40% of the time, and around 90% of the time inside Trueshot.This is somewhat difficult to perform and it breaks the flow of the rotation. Without some practice to perform it smoothly and consistently, the swapping will cost you more damage than the extra Marks are worth.
- Cast Rapid Fire on cooldown.
Cast
Rapid Fire on cooldown at a target without Spotter's Mark. - Click for DetailsKeep it on your priority target when there is one.
- Cast
Wailing Arrow on cooldown. - Cast Multi-Shot instead of Arcane Shot to spend Precise Shots on more than one target, unless you are focusing a priority target.
- Cast Arcane Shot to spend Precise Shots, preferring targets without Spotter's Mark unless you are focusing a priority target.
- Cast Aimed Shot on cooldown, preferring targets with Spotter's Mark unless you are focusing a priority target.
- Cast Black Arrow.
- Cast Steady Shot.
AoE Opener for Marksmanship Hunter
Ensure Hunter's Mark is active on your primary target.
- Aimed Shot around 2.5 seconds before combat begins.
- Explosive Shot
- Explosive Shot on a second target
- Explosive Shot
- Volley
- Black Arrow
- Trueshot, alongside your Potion, on-use Trinket, Racials, etc.
- Rapid Fire
- Aimed Shot
- Black Arrow
- Continue with the priority list as described below.
- Aimed Shot around 2.5 seconds before combat begins.
- Explosive Shot
- Explosive Shot on a second target
- Explosive Shot
- Volley
- Trueshot, alongside your Potion, on-use Trinket, Racials, etc.
- Multi-Shot
- Rapid Fire
- Multi-Shot, clipping the end of the Rapid Fire channel
- Aimed Shot
- Multi-Shot
- Continue with the priority list as described below.
Without 
Trick Shots, the single-target and AoE opener are the same, so please refer to the single-target section for more information!
AoE Priority List for Marksmanship Hunter
Below is the priority system that describes the optimal AoE rotation for Marksmanship Hunter.
Without Trick Shots, the single-target and AoE rotation are the same, so please refer to the single-target section for more information!
Hydra Cleave is the raid cleave build: it grabs efficient AoE talents and performs a single-target rotation, spending 
Precise Shots on Multi-Shot from 2 targets up.
- Cast Explosive Shot. With Unstable Trigger, you can cast two in a row. Spread them across two targets unless there is a priority target up.
- Cast Explosive Shot, unless Lock and Load is already up.
- Cast Explosive Shot.
- Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown. Thanks to Unstable Trigger, you can cast it twice in a row and should do so.
- Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown, unless Lock and Load is already up.
- Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown.
- Cast Volley on cooldown.
- Cast Trueshot on cooldown, holding the last one of the fight for 30 stacks of Bullseye. Delay it by up to 15 seconds if Explosive Shot is about to come off cooldown, so that you can send the Explos right before entering Trueshot.
Before you press
Trueshot, swap to a target that does not already have Sentinel's Mark - Click for Details Feathered Frenzy makes Trueshot apply Sentinel's Mark to whatever you have targeted when you press it, as pressing Trueshot on a target that is already marked wastes it.In an opener, you
Trueshot on one target, Rapid Fire on a second, and a Multi-Shot on a third clipping the end of that Rapid Fire channel. One Aimed Shot then consumes all three Marks at once, which is three 
Lunar Storms from a single cast. Spending Precise Shots applies a Mark around 40% of the time, and around 90% of the time inside Trueshot.This is somewhat difficult to perform and it breaks the flow of the rotation. Without some practice to perform it smoothly and consistently, the swapping will cost you more damage than the extra Marks are worth.
- Cast Moonlight Chakram if Trueshot is about to expire.
- Cast Multi-Shot to spend Precise Shots, or to activate
Trick Shots if it is down. Use the Mouseover Multi-Shot macro on the Macros page for it. Always prefer to use it on targets that do not already have Sentinel's Mark. Cast
Rapid Fire on cooldown with Trick Shots up at a target without Sentinel's Mark, and mouseover-clip the end of the channel with Multi-Shot on a target with no Sentinel's Mark. - Click for DetailsThat clipping
Multi-Shot spends a Precise Shots proc, generating a Sentinel's Mark proc chance on the Multi's primary target. We recommend using the mouseover macro from our Macros page to do so easily. If your Rapid Fire procced Mark on your current target at the beginning of its cast, you will want to mouseover-clip the Multi-Shot to a target without Mark. If Rapid Fire did not proc a Mark, you do not need to mouseover the Multi-Shot.- Cast Rapid Fire on cooldown with Trick Shots up.
- Cast Aimed Shot on cooldown with Trick Shots up, preferring targets with Sentinel's Mark unless you are focusing a priority target. The Trick Shots bounces only consume Sentinel's Mark if your primary target is marked as well.
- Cast Moonlight Chakram.
- Cast Steady Shot.
- Cast Explosive Shot. With Unstable Trigger, you can cast two in a row. Spread them across two targets unless there is a priority target up.
- Cast Explosive Shot, unless Lock and Load is already up.
- Cast Explosive Shot.
- Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown. Thanks to Unstable Trigger, you can cast it twice in a row and should do so.
- Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown, unless Lock and Load is already up.
- Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown.
- Cast Volley on cooldown.
- Cast Aimed Shot with Trick Shots up if it is about to reach 2 charges.
- Cast Black Arrow if you have Precise Shots, preferring targets without Spotter's Mark unless you are focusing a priority target.
- Cast Multi-Shot to activate Trick Shots if it is down.
- Cast Trueshot on cooldown, holding the last one of the fight for 30 stacks of Bullseye. Delay it by up to 15 seconds if Explosive Shot is about to come off cooldown, so that you can send the Explos right before entering Trueshot.
Before you press
Trueshot, swap to a target that does not already have Spotter's Mark - Click for DetailsFeathered Frenzy makes
Trueshot apply Spotter's Mark to whatever you have targeted when you press it, as pressing Trueshot on a target that is already marked wastes it.In an opener, you
Trueshot on one target, Rapid Fire on a second, and a Multi-Shot on a third clipping the end of that Rapid Fire channel. One Aimed Shot then consumes all three Marks at once. Spending Precise Shots applies a Mark around 40% of the time, and around 90% of the time inside Trueshot.This is somewhat difficult to perform and it breaks the flow of the rotation. Without some practice to perform it smoothly and consistently, the swapping will cost you more damage than the extra Marks are worth.
- Cast Rapid Fire with Trick Shots up.
- Cast Rapid Fire with Trick Shots up if
Bulletstorm is about to expire. - Cast Wailing Arrow if Black Arrow is not ready.
- Cast Multi-Shot to spend Precise Shots. Use the Mouseover Multi-Shot macro on the Macros page for it. Always prefer to use it on targets that do not already have Spotter's Mark.
- Cast Aimed Shot on cooldown with Trick Shots up, preferring targets with Spotter's Mark unless you are focusing a priority target. The Trick Shots bounces only consume Spotter's Mark if your primary target is marked as well.
- Cast Black Arrow.
- Cast Steady Shot.
Midnight Season 2 Tier Set
The Midnight Season 2 Tier Set has subtle impact on our rotation. It will
extend the duration (and therefore the damage) of your Explosive Shot,
and cause those ticks to reduce the cooldown of Aimed Shot and
Rapid Fire by 0.5s per tick. On two or more targets, we prefer to
cast our two Explosive Shots (two because of
Unstable Trigger) on two different targets, because we want to
maximize this CDR effect. The damage is the same as
if we cast both on 1 target, but because the CDR scales with the
number of ticks, it is better to spread them out.
Class and Spec Mechanics Explained
In order to better explain the specific usage and benefits of the Marksmanship Hunter kit, we have compiled a more detailed explanation on individual parts of our rotation, from important rotational mechanics that you need to pay attention to, to cooldowns and how to use them, so you can reach your full potential when playing Marksmanship Hunter.
Precise Shots
Precise Shots is a buff that you get after casting
Aimed Shot, and, via the 
No Scope talent, Rapid Fire as
well.
It makes Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot deal 50% more
damage
and cost 60% less Focus.
Aside from wanting the damage and resource boosts, spending
Precise Shots fuels our 
Spotter's Mark, which
massively buffs Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire depending on talents,
and even more so with Sentinel
which has an empowered 
Sentinel's Mark.
Because Precise Shots does not stack (or, more precisely, you cannot
generate it twice without wasting some of it), we always want to spend
our Precise Shots Spenders (henceforth called PS Spenders) before our
next Aimed Shot. The easiest way to do this is simply to follow up
every Aimed Shot with a PS Spender.
Rapid Fire is the exception. With 
Unload and
No Scope, a Rapid Fire started with Precise Shots still
up automatically spends it twice: the first shot Unload fires consumes
it, No Scope reapplies it straight after that happens, and the last
shot of the channel consumes the fresh one. You do not need a PS Spender
between an Aimed Shot and a Rapid Fire.
On AoE, this has the added convenience of activating Trick Shots
right after spending it with those Aimeds and Rapids. By simply following up
every single Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire with a
Multi-Shot
on AoE, we knock off two birds with one stone: Precise Shots is spent,
and Trick Shots is activated.
"Take Aim" Apex Talents
Take Aim makes Rapid Fire shave 5 seconds off
Aimed Shot's cooldown over its channel time. With
Aspect of the Hydra and a second target in range, that doubles to 10
seconds. 
Take Aim adds a second effect on top. Your
Spotter's Mark now also increases the damage of your next
Rapid Fire against the target by 20%, not just your next
Aimed Shot. Neither one asks anything new of you. Both are "baked in"
to the listed rotation above.
Important Cooldowns for Marksmanship Hunter
Trueshot
Volley
Trueshot
Trueshot is our main cooldown. It has either a 90-second or 2-minute
cooldown, depending on whether you choose 
Calling the Shots or
Unerring Vision. It lasts 17 seconds. While active, it increases your
critical strike chance by 10% and your critical strike damage by 20%, doubled if
you took Unerring Vision, and it speeds up how fast your primary
Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire cooldowns recover, while also
quickening the cast time of the former.
It also massively increases the chance of generating Spotter's Mark
procs when we consume Precise Shots, and even activates
Spotter's Mark for free when you press it.
Trueshot simply makes us better at everything, and because the thing
we do best is "lots of damage with Aimed Shot/ Rapid Fire", a
very good rule of
thumb is to always try to cast Trueshot right before a
Rapid Fire. This ensures that we are spending as much time as possible
in Trueshot casting our most powerful ability.
On 5+ minute fights, you get to use two Potions, and they should not necessarily be the same one.
Potion of Recklessness is your go-to/standard Potion. However, once 
Bullseye is
stacking up in the execute phase of a fight, you already have a large amount of Critical
Strike, so a second Potion of Recklessness is worth much less, and
Liquid Luster is used instead. It ramps its Versatility effect over its duration, so to
reach peak Versatility at the right time, pop it around 10 seconds before your
execute- Trueshot.
Hero Talent Impacts of Trueshot
For both Sentinel and Dark Ranger, Trueshot's
button will turn into a different button once pressed; 
Moonlight Chakram
or 
Wailing Arrow for Sentinel and Dark Ranger respectively. In addition,
for Dark Ranger, activating Trueshot also gives you a free
Black Arrow proc.
Moonlight Chakram is a filler that gives us a 
Lock and Load proc and does a ton of damage.
Notably, its bouncing effect is much slower to do damage on single-target than on AoE. So, on single-target we
prefer to cast it with no less than 5 seconds left on Trueshot. On AoE, we just send it right before
Trueshot expires.
Wailing Arrow is a little more complicated. Because both
Trueshot and Wailing Arrow give you a Black Arrow
proc, and because we do not want to overwrite these procs, we want to cast
both when we do not already have a proc coming up. In practice, this means we
will usually use Wailing Arrow as soon as we run out of other ways of
generating it in a guaranteed way (such as Rapid Fire).
Volley
Volley is a talented 45-second cooldown mostly
associated with AoE. It is actually a fairly simple button, but there are common
misconceptions about its use and value.
Essentially, because of the nature of the Precise Shots mechanic we
explained in the previous section, even though Volley gives us
Trick Shots, it is actually relatively uncommon for us to make any use
of this "free" Trick Shots whatsoever. Because we tend to run talents
where Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire both give Precise Shots,
we have to use a PS Spender in-between all such casts. Because of this,
even if Trick Shots was permanently active, we would actually play more
or less the same; the need to spend Precise Shots is so pressing, and
all of the Trick Shots that Multi-Shot also gives
are sort of a
happy accident.
Changelog
- 31 Aug. 2026: Clarified mouseover Multi-Shotting and clipping.
- 24 Aug. 2026: Moved Rapid Fire above the Precise Shots spenders in the Sentinel single-target priority list. Same fundamental rotation, but easier to parse/read.
- 24 Aug. 2026: Moonlight Chakram now goes out with around 5 seconds of Trueshot left on single target, so that all 7 bounces land inside the Trueshot.
- 24 Aug. 2026: Added Liquid Luster as the second Potion of the fight, popped around 10 seconds before Trueshot in the execute phase.
- 22 Aug. 2026: Arcane Shot no longer has a separate rule during Trueshot.
- 22 Aug. 2026: Updated the Rapid Fire advice for the recent hotfix. Only Sentinel still clips the channel, and only on AoE.
- 18 Aug. 2026: Linked the Target Swap Multi-Shot macro from the Multi-Shot priority entries.
- 18 Aug. 2026: Added target selection by Sentinel's Mark and Spotter's Mark to the Rapid Fire, Aimed Shot and Precise Shots spender priorities.
- 18 Aug. 2026: Added swapping to a target without a Mark before pressing Trueshot.
- 18 Aug. 2026: Added holding Trueshot for up to 15 seconds to line it up with Explosive Shot.
- 16 Aug. 2026: Removed spreading Explosive Shot across two targets from the AoE priorities and opener if a priority target is up. It was found to not speed up M+ keys due to its prio damage loss, though it is a small AoE/2T DPS gain.
- 16 Aug. 2026: Added clipping the end of Rapid Fire with Multi-Shot to the Sentinel AoE opener.
- 15 Aug. 2026: Added clipping the end of Rapid Fire to the single-target priorities, and clarified that both shots benefit from Precise Shots.
- 13 Aug. 2026: Added clipping the end of Rapid Fire to the AoE priorities.
- 12 Aug. 2026: Clarified that Rapid Fire needs Trick Shots up in the AoE priority.
- 11 Aug. 2026: Clarified Explosive Shot targeting in the AoE priority.
- 10 Aug. 2026: Updated for Patch 12.1.
- 16 Jul. 2026: Corrected Volley's cooldown and clarified Double Tap usage.
- 15 Jun. 2026: Reviewed for Patch 12.0.7.
- 29 May 2026: Added note of high-prio Aimed at 2 charges for DR ST.
- 27 Apr. 2026: Rotation updates and simplifications. Opener updates.
- 20 Apr. 2026: Updated for Patch 12.0.5.
- 09 Apr. 2026: Dark Ranger Opener fix.
- 17 Mar. 2026: Fixed error causing Volley not to appear in the opener under some conditions. Small updates to Sentinel AoE Rotation.
- 16 Mar. 2026: Updated for Midnight Season 1.
- 03 Mar. 2026: Opener clarifications for Moonlight Chakram.
- 26 Feb. 2026: Updated for Midnight 12.0.1.
- 10 Feb. 2026: Updated for Midnight Pre-Patch.
- 30 Nov. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.7.
- 05 Oct. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.5.
- 28 Aug. 2025: Single-Target rotation update surrounding ES usage.
- 27 Aug. 2025: Minor rotational clarifications and edits on AoE.
- 25 Aug. 2025: Updated Explosive Shot usage on single-target to be more accomodating of Improved Streamline setups.
- 25 Aug. 2025: Added information about rotational bugs.
- 20 Aug. 2025: Added note on swapping Focused Aim to Improved Streamline for movement concerns.
- 19 Aug. 2025: Removed filler-Multi Shot from Dark Ranger AoE.
- 18 Aug. 2025: Minor Dark Ranger Single-Target Opener update (make it more explicit to spend PS stacks before entering Trueshot).
- 17 Aug. 2025: Minor Dark Ranger Single-Target Rotation clarifications/simplifications. Minor Sentinel AoE clarification.
- 15 Aug. 2025: Updated AoE Rotation(s).
- 13 Aug. 2025: Small Dark Ranger Single-Target opener change.
- 12 Aug. 2025: Updated Single-Target Rotations.
- 11 Aug. 2025: Substantial Rotational Updates for Dark Ranger on Single-Target, worth quite a bit of extra DPS.
- 08 Aug. 2025: Update default Dark Ranger Single-Target talent picks.
- 07 Aug. 2025: Further opener update iteration.
- 06 Aug. 2025: Substantial AoE Rotation updates, particularly Sentinel AoE Opener.
- 04 Aug. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.2.
- 15 Jun. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.7.
- 15 May 2025: Updated the Dark Ranger AoE Opener.
- 07 May 2025: Updated the wording of the 4PC Doubledip in the rotation to make it clearer what it does and how it works.
- 21 Apr. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.1.5.
- 04 Apr. 2025: Very small rotation updates and clarifications.
- 25 Mar. 2025: Added a fall-back line to Explosive Shot regardless of other statuses, as a low priority.
- 18 Mar. 2025: Updated rotational details regarding 4PC and Precision Detonation. Updated wording to be clearer in places.
- 14 Mar. 2025: Updated defaults to assume 4PC.
- 04 Mar. 2025: Rotation improvements. Removed Kill Shot from AoE Priority, and Single-Target priority unless certain talents are chosen.
- 27 Feb. 2025: Significant rotational updates relating to Arcane Shot, Aimed Shot, and Explosive Shot usage.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.0.
- 13 Jan. 2025: Further separated Dark Ranger and Sentinel Single-Target Rotation differences.
- 08 Jan. 2025: Small opener addition.
- 27 Dec. 2024: Small Dark Ranger Opener and Rotation updates.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
- 31 Oct. 2024: Rotation overhaul, particularly for Dark Ranger.
- 30 Oct. 2024: Updated for October 29 Hotfixes.
- 26 Oct. 2024: Significant single-target rotation update.
- 22 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5.
- 10 Oct. 2024: Updated Mad Queen's Mandate usage.
- 02 Oct. 2024: Added more specific Trinket usage information.
- 24 Sep. 2024: Added Lunar Storm Rapid Fire-holding to AoE Rotation.
- 17 Sep. 2024: Added opener note about on-use Trinkets.
- 15 Sep. 2024: Added note about on-use trinkets.
- 14 Sep. 2024: Simplified the single-target rotation, specifically Aimed Shot usage.
- 13 Sep. 2024: Added note about Wailing Arrow resetting the cooldown of Rapid Fire, updated opener.
- 10 Sep. 2024: Clarified that Multi-Shot takes over from Arcane Shot at just 2 targets. Simplified the Steady Focus Rotation.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Updated the Opener with Wailing Arrow specced.
- 03 Sep. 2024: Preliminary updates for The War Within Season 1.
- 22 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 31 Jul. 2024: Simplified Steady Focus optimization. This affects the single-target opener, rotation, and AoE rotation.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
