Marksmanship Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, Talents, and Pet Talents — The War Within (11.1.0)
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Marksmanship Hunter in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.1.0). We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Marksmanship Hunter talents.
Best The War Within Talents for Marksmanship Hunter
Note that these builds are generic recommendations for various content. Check out the dedicated pages below for more specific recommendations for the Raid and Mythic+.
Best Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in The War Within
Dark Ranger
Single-Target — 
Sentinel
Mythic+/AoE/Delves — Sentinel
Mythic+/AoE/Delves — Dark Ranger
Raid AoE — Dark Ranger
Raid AoE — Sentinel
Best 
Dark Ranger Single-Target Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in The War Within Season 2
Dark Ranger is optimal for pure single-target scenarios, at about
~4-5% stronger than Sentinel.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Best 
Sentinel Single-Target Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in The War Within Season 2
This build is suboptimal for pure single-target compared to Dark Ranger, which is around 4-5% stronger.
Note that if you are not actually getting use out of the
Sentinel Watch Hero Talent's cooldown reduction on 
Trueshot due to encounter timings, you should swap it to 
Eyes Closed for less frequent, but more powerful burst.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Best Mythic+/AoE Talents for Sentinel Marksmanship Hunter in The War Within Season 2
This build is my recommendation for anything AoE-centric, like Mythic+, Delves, and so on.
Flexible Talents
While I strongly recommend that you run the build exactly as listed, there are a few changes you could make to suit your personal preferences, though I cannot stress enough that significant deviations are likely to cost you significant performance. A lot of work went into every talent picked, combining simulations of single-target, pure AoE, and mixed dungeon simulation scenarios with a variety of pull sizes and durations.
- Prior to getting the 4PC Tier Set Bonus, running
Quickdraw over
Precision Detonation is optimal. - I have tried to collect as many relevant "Flex" Talents in a single Talent
Build here, so that you do not have to swap very often. Still, some omissions
have been made. If you want to pick up some utility that is not in the default build, I recommend dropping Talents in this order of priority:
Bursting Shot, 
Emergency Salve.
Marksmanship Hunter Utility Talent Considerations in Mythic+
We cannot have everything we could possibly want for every single dungeon in a single build, unfortunately. Here are the recommended utility talents to swap to for different, specific Mythic+ dungeons in The War Within Season 2.
- For Cinderbrew Meadery, Darkflame Cleft,
Theater of Pain, and The MOTHERLODE!!, swap
Kodo Tranquilizer over to 
Devilsaur Tranquilizer.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Best Mythic+/AoE/Delve Talents for Dark Ranger Marksmanship Hunter in The War Within Season 2
This build is my Dark Ranger recommendation for anything AoE-centric, like Mythic+, Delves, and so on. It has superior single-target DPS to Sentinel, but significantly worse AoE.
Flexible Talents
While I strongly recommend that you run the build exactly as listed, there are a few changes you could make to suit your personal preferences, though I cannot stress enough that significant deviations are likely to cost you significant performance. A lot of work went into every talent picked, combining simulations of single-target, pure AoE, and mixed dungeon simulation scenarios with a variety of pull sizes and durations.
- I have tried to collect as many relevant "Flex" Talents in a single Talent
Build here, so that you do not have to swap very often. Still, some omissions
have been made. If you want to pick up some utility that is not in the default build, I recommend dropping Talents in this order of priority: Bursting Shot, Emergency Salve.
Marksmanship Hunter Utility Talent Considerations in Mythic+
We cannot have everything we could possibly want for every single dungeon in a single build, unfortunately. Here are the recommended utility talents to swap to for different, specific Mythic+ dungeons in The War Within Season 2.
- For Cinderbrew Meadery, Darkflame Cleft,
Theater of Pain, and The MOTHERLODE!!, swap
Kodo Tranquilizer over to Devilsaur Tranquilizer.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Best Dark Ranger Raid AoE Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in The War Within Season 2
This build grabs our AoE essential Trick Shots for the smallest possible single-target DPS loss. This build is ideal for fights that have a primary, single target, as well as add spawns that need to be burst down quickly.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Best Raid AoE Talents for Sentinel Marksmanship Hunter in The War Within Season 2
This build grabs our AoE essential Trick Shots for the smallest possible single-target DPS loss. This build is ideal for fights that have a primary, single target, as well as add spawns that need to be burst down quickly.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Mythic+
Depending on affixes and other variables, Mythic+ can require a mix of AoE and Single-Target talents. You should check out our page below if you want advice specific to Mythic+.
Rotation for Marksmanship Hunter Talents
Some talents will require you to play in a particular way to get the most out of them. You can find more information on how your rotation will look after selecting your talents on our rotation page below.
Best Pet for Marksmanship Hunter in The War Within
We have made a dedicated page for Hunter Pets information that we recommend you check out!
Note that most of the time, your best bet as Marksmanship is to not use a pet at all.
The builds listed above only feature the recommended Hero Talent Trees for Marksmanship Hunter. To learn more about Hero Talent Builds, check out our dedicated page:
PvP Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in The War Within
War Mode offers several benefits for you in the open world.
- PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
- At least 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
- 10% more experience gained while leveling.
- Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.
With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will be available for open-world PvP, and the possibility of being "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.
PvP Talents (War Mode) for Marksmanship Hunter
In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of all PvP Talents for Marksmanship Hunter
Best PvP Talents for Marksmanship Hunter
-
Ranger's Finesse will give you far more 
Exhilarations,
saving you time and deaths in rough situations.
-
Sniper Shot lets you attack mobs from farther away, saving time in
the process.
-
Hunting Pack is a valuable speed increase for leveling and open
world content.
You can consider the other options essentially down to preference.
For details on how to play in Marksmanship Hunter PvP, please visit our Marksmanship Hunter PvP page.
Changelog
- 25 Mar. 2025: Updated for the March 25th Hotfixes.
- 18 Mar. 2025: Updated the Mythic+ Talent Build. Added a note about Volley to it.
- 14 Mar. 2025: Updated defaults to assume 4PC.
- 04 Mar. 2025: Added note on M+ Talent changes with and without 4PC, and updated the default temporarily.
- 27 Feb. 2025: Updated the Sentinel Mythic+ Talent Build in light of recent simulation tool developments.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.0.
- 27 Dec. 2024: Updated to take Dark Ranger bugs and the resulting power spike into account.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
- 30 Oct. 2024: Updated for October 29 Hotfixes.
- 23 Oct. 2024: Updated to Dark Ranger default recommendation while everything is in a bugged state.
- 22 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5.
- 07 Oct. 2024: Updated the Marksmanship Dark Ranger Single-Target Build.
- 28 Sep. 2024: Updated the M+ Talent Build - one-point swap.
- 14 Sep. 2024: Added the Raid AoE build to the page. Updated the single-target builds.
- 10 Sep. 2024: Updated the single-target talents slightly (one-point change for 0.2% DPS).
- 09 Sep. 2024: Preliminary updates for The War Within Season 1.
- 22 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 25 Jul. 2024: Updated the Single-Target Talent Build.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 14 Feb. 2024: Updated the recommended default Mythic+ Talent Build.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.5
- 04 Dec. 2023: Updated Talents for Mythic+.
- 27 Nov. 2023: Updated Talents for Mythic+.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Restructured the page and updated for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 27 Jun. 2023: Additional Talent Change, and moved Steel Trap to be default for single-target.
- 26 Jun. 2023: Updated the single-target build to account for new tuning.
- 25 May 2023: Updated the recommended builds to assume the set bonus as default.
- 19 May 2023: Updated the layout of the page and added an alternative, cooldown-less build.
- 15 May 2023: Added note on Steel Trap and when you might want to use it.
- 12 May 2023: Clarified talent changes for AoE as well as single-target with the 4PC Bonus.
- 09 May 2023: Added note of how the build changes with the 4PC Set Bonus.
- 08 May 2023: Updated the recommended single-target talent build to pick Steady Focus.
- 04 May 2023: Updated the recommended AoE/M+ Talent Build. This is likely a temporary change, until the new Tier Set becomes more widespread.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 21 Mar. 2023: Updated the talents for the 10.0.7 talent reshuffle.
- 15 Feb. 2023: Updated the utility talents in the M+ Build.
- 30 Jan. 2023: Small updates to talent swaps.
- 25 Jan. 2023: Updated the Talent Builds again after the discovery of a sim bug. Added alternative to Steady Focus. Changed the "swap" talent for Wailing Arrow to Bullseye.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Updated the page for relevant changes in Patch 10.0.5.
- 21 Jan. 2023: Fixed a wrong note about which talent to swap for Ammo Talents.
- 17 Jan. 2023: Updated the recommended Single-Target Talent Build.
- 23 Dec. 2022: Updated the recommended builds to reflect that Unerring Vision is fixed and worth using again.
- 18 Dec. 2022: Updated the recommended talent builds to reflect that Unerring Vision is bugged.
- 16 Dec. 2022: Added note that you do not need to use Serpent Sting manually with Hydra's Bite.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated the recommended single-target talent build in light of recent buffs.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Hunter Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Azortharion, a Hunter Guidewriter, Theorycrafter, and top player since 2014, who is widely considered one of the best PvE Hunters in the world. He is an accomplished player with hundreds of top parses across all Hunter specs. He is the Head Admin of Trueshot Lodge, the official Hunter Class Discord. You can find him on his stream on Twitch and his channel on YouTube. He also has his own, personal Discord server where you can freely ask him any Hunter questions you may have!
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