Marksmanship Hunter PvP Best Arena Compositions — The War Within (11.0.5) - World of Warcraft

Ability to crowd control on the "Disorient" Diminishing return
Examples: Psychic Scream, Cyclone, Blind, Blinding Light, Blinding Sleet, Intimidating Shout, Sleep Walk

Ability to stun a kill target every 30 seconds when there is a Freezing Trap on healer
Examples: Kidney Shot, Storm Bolt, Hammer of Justice

Ability to do high single-target burst damage, preferably every 30 or 60 seconds
Examples: Feral Frenzy, Symbols of Death, Avenging Wrath, Pillar of Frost

Ability to apply a short stun on healers to set up traps every 60 seconds when Intimidation is not available
Examples: Cheap Shot, Mighty Bash, Rake (with Shadowmeld), Holy Word: Chastise

Ability to peel when you are stunned, either with damage reductions or crowd control breaks
Examples: Intervene, Blessing of Protection, Blessing of Freedom, Blessing of Sanctuary, Cyclone, Ursol's Vortex, Disarm, Dismantle

Things to avoid in partners as Marksmanship

Specs that rely on "multi-dotting" (keeping damage over time effects on multiple members of the enemy team, which would be removed when you Scatter Shot or Freezing Trap the enemy)
Examples: Affliction Warlocks, Elemental Shamans, Unholy Death Knights

Specs that have their main crowd control abilities on the incapacitate diminishing returns category (this is the category of your Freezing Trap and Scatter Shot)
Examples: Polymorph, Hex, Paralysis, Repentance, Imprison

Specs that have to cleave when they are bursting
Examples: Spinning Crane Kick, Eye Beam, Immolation Aura, Frozen Orb, Fists of Fury

Healers that require you to stand still or stack in order to heal efficiently
Examples: Earthen Wall Totem, Mastery: Lightbringer

Specs that are unable to stun your kill target at least once every 30 seconds
Examples: All Mage specs, Windwalker, Death Knight

You might have noticed a running theme from the list above. All of the DPS specs that work best with Marksmanship Hunter are melee specializations.

And all of the healing specializations that work best with Marksmanship Hunters are ones that have access to the Disorient diminishing return category (Discipline Priest) and ideally, the stun diminishing return category as well (Holy Priest, Restoration Druid).

2v2 Arena (Marksman + Healer)

It is recommended that if you are just starting out or trying to push as high as possible, then you play with a healer.

3.1.

Gameplan

The gameplan will almost always be:

Freezing Trap Healer
(out of Intimidation, Holy Word: Chastise, Mighty Bash or Rake if needed)

Burst DPS
(stun them with Holy Word: Chastise, Mighty Bash, Rake or Maim if possible)

Use your disorient diminishing return out of the Freezing Trap
( Psychic Scream, Mind Control, Cyclone or Sleep Walk)

The Marksmanship Hunter PvP Rotation and Playstyle page of this guide goes into more detail about your opening damage rotation.

And between that:

Scatter Shot DPS to peel when they are dealing high damage or to set up Aimed Shot casts ( Cyclone out of the Scatter Shot if playing with a Druid)
Kite with Concussive Shot, Tar Trap, Binding Shot, Ursol's Vortex
Swap to the enemy healer if the kill target uses defensives or line of sights your casts (consider using your focus Aimed Shot macro for this to make it unpredictable, and following up with a Chimaeral Sting if it looks like the healer might die)

Here is a ranked list of Marksmanship + healer compositions for 2v2:

Disclaimer: during the first weeks of an expansion, any tier list is subject to change as the meta develops and Blizzard make balancing adjustments. This page will be regularly updated as the meta develops for The War Within Season 1.

3.2.

S tier:

Marksmanship Hunter + Discipline Priest
Marksmanship Hunter + Restoration Druid

3.3.

A tier:

Marksmanship Hunter + Preservation Evoker
Marksmanship Hunter + Holy Priest
Marksmanship Hunter + Holy Paladin

3.4.

B tier:

Marksmanship Hunter + Mistweaver Monk

3.5.

C tier:

Marksmanship Hunter + Restoration Shaman

2v2 Arena (Marksman + DPS)

If you are confident as a Marksmanship Hunter and have a good partner who is willing to use voice, understands how to stay alive without a healer and is happy to occasionally face unwinnable matchups; you can also play with DPS specializations. Note this is much harder to do, but arguably can be more fun.

Here is a ranked list of Marksmanship double DPS compositions for 2v2:

4.1.

S tier:

Marksmanship Hunter + Subtlety Rogue

4.2.

A tier:

Marksmanship Hunter + Feral Druid
Marksmanship Hunter + Retribution Paladin

4.3.

B tier:

Marksmanship Hunter + Shadow Priest

3v3 Arena

There are many comps available to Marksmanship Hunter in 3v3. Usually the most powerful Marksman comp will be Marksmanship + melee + healer.

The two ranged DPS specs that sometimes perform well with Marksmanship are Shadow Priest and Devastation Evoker as they're able to support the Hunter, have high damage when left alone and bring crowd control on the disorient category ( Psychic Scream Icon Psychic Scream and Sleep Walk Icon Sleep Walk) to extend crowd control chains before or after traps.

The best healer for your comp will usually be either be Holy Priest or Discipline Priest. Restoration Druid will sometimes work if your comp has very high damage and doesn't need a healer that can apply the disorient diminishing return category (Restoration Druids struggle to cast cyclone or use stuns in 3v3 as they need to stay at a long distance to heal effectively). Restoration Druid + Marksmanship 3v3 comps tend to win by having great damage and efficiency rather than through crowd-control setups.

Preservation Evoker can be good as it is able to apply the disorient diminishing return category with Sleep Walk Icon Sleep Walk, as well as being able to do significant burst damage and apply pressure with Scouring Flame Icon Scouring Flame. This is particularly powerful in The War Within as many magic buffs have been added to the game, and magic buffs such as Power Word: Shield Icon Power Word: Shield are more powerful than they were in previous expansions.

Sometimes, other healers can be competitive with Marksmanship Hunter if their healing is highly overtuned. Currently, in Season 1 of The War Within, Holy Priest is considered to be undertuned and Discipline Priest or Holy Paladin will be the best healers for most Marksmanship Hunter comps.

5.1.

Gameplan

Your gameplan will almost always be:

Freezing Trap Healer
(out of Intimidation, Mighty Bash, Cheap Shot or Holy Word: Chastise if needed)

Stun your kill target and use burst cooldowns
(stun them with Cheap Shot, Kidney Shot, Storm Bolt, Maim or Hammer of Justice when the healer is in a Freezing Trap).

Scatter Shot The second DPS when the kill target is stunned or when you are using Freezing Trap on the healer
(so they can't use defensives on the kill target or deny your Freezing Trap)

Use your disorient diminishing return out of the Freezing Trap
( Psychic Scream, Mind Control, Cyclone or Blind)

Note that the final step is crucial to your success playing any setup Hunter comp, and this is why Holy and Discipline Priests are so good with Marksmanship. If you aren't able to achieve long crowd control chains by using a disorient category crowd control out of Freezing Trap Icon Freezing Trap, you will find it difficult to kill your target unless your comp has enough damage to kill enemies without crowd control on the healer.

The Marksmanship Hunter PvP Rotation and Playstyle page of this guide goes into more detail about your opening damage rotation.

5.2.

Troubleshooting

The most common issues that cause teams to struggle to climb with a Marksmanship Hunter's composition is that either:

Your team is not lining up their stun on kill target with your Freezing Trap
Your team is not using their disorient ( Psychic Scream on the healer immediately before or after Freezing Trap)
You are missing Freezing Traps or not landing Freezing Trap every 30 seconds because your team are not helping to set them up by using their stuns on the enemy healer.
Your team are not using cross crowd control (eg, Scatter Shot) on the second DPS when the enemy healer is in a trap, and your kill target is in a stun, and therefore, the second DPS is able to save the kill target (eg, with Intervene or Blessing of Protection).
Your team are not rotating defensive cooldowns or kiting the enemy DPS players when they have damage cooldowns or crowd control active.

It doesn't matter what comp you play; if you are not solving the above issues, your team will struggle to climb (and if you are able to solve those issues, your team will climb very quickly).

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 3v3:

5.3.