Marksmanship Hunter PvP Guide — The War Within (11.1.5)

Marksmanship Hunter is a consistently underrated Hunter specialization with enormous burst and crowd control potential.

The Marksmanship damage rotation seems simple at first but leaves a lot of space for skill expression and outplay potential. There is almost no "ramp" in the damage rotation, which combined with the longest range in the game makes Marksmanship Hunters lethal when switching targets, even when they do not commit long cooldowns.

Once you are comfortable setting up your burst so that it does not get interrupted, timing your crowd control windows, and maximizing your consistent damage outside of cooldowns, Marksmanship is an incredibly fun and rewarding specialization.

Marksmanship rewards opportunistic and aggressive play. You win by setups, bursts, and punishing enemies that misuse defensives or position poorly. Marksmanship is not a spec that wins by attrition or dampening, and an aggressive playstyle is how it competes with other specializations that may be more forgiving when it comes to defensive play or crowd control.

Strengths

• High sustained damage when freecasting
• High burst damage and cleave when using Volley/ Salvo
• Good mobility and kiting tools
• Mortal strike from Manhunter
• Support for team with Roar of Sacrifice and Master's Call
• Multiple control crowd options in Intimidation, Binding Shot, Freezing Trap, High Explosive Trap, Scatter Shot/ Bursting Shot, Entrapment, and Consecutive Concussion

Weaknesses

• Weak to teams with multiple stuns and other instant crowd control
• Needs help from teammates to land crowd control
• Crowd control has comparatively long cooldowns compared to other ranged specs
• Heavily relies on landing Freezing Trap at the right moment and timing Scatter Shot effectively
• Being able to do damage effectively relies on having knowledge of which targets are able to stop your casts
• Can break crowd control while bursting with Volley/ Salvo

• Aspect of the Hydra now fires at 30% original value in PvP combat (was 60%).
• Spotter's Mark increases Aimed Shots damage by 10% in PvP combat (was 20%).
• Improved Spotter's Mark now increases the damage bonus of Spotter's Mark by 10% in PvP combat (was 20%).
• Trueshot now increases critical strike damage by 10% (was 20%).
• Aimed Shot damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
• Arcane Shot damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.

The Spotter's Mark and Trueshot tuning adjustments will reduce your maximum burst potential in lucky moments, but are offset by the always active buff to Aimed Shot and the consistency you gain make those changes arguably a net buff.

Previously during Volley, with the interaction between Aspect of the Hydra and Trick Shots, your area of effect burst damage was enormous when multiple targets were stacked. This has now been reigned in with these tuning changes. Your cleave will still be significant, but shots ricocheting from off targets to main targets will not be as effective as they previously were.

Overall the changes do not make Marksman less viable in PvP. The buff to Arcane Shot is an indirect buff to Sentinel, because Dark Ranger has the higher priority Black Arrow available more often to consume Precise Shots with (via Headshot).

• Explosive Shot damage increased by 15%.
• Volley damage increased by 25%.
• Dark Ranger: Black Arrow damage increased by 50%.
• Dark Ranger: Black Arrow periodic effect duration increased to 14 seconds (was 10 seconds).
• Dark Ranger: Phantom Pain damage share increased to 24% (was 8%).
• Dark Ranger: Bleak Powder damage increased by 100%.
• Dark Ranger: Withering Fire now prioritizes enemies that do not have the Black Arrow periodic effect.
• Black Arrow damage reduced by 15%. (in PvP only)
• Undermine Class 4-set effectiveness reduced to 25% in PvP combat (was 50%).

This wave of tuning makes Dark Ranger slightly more appealing, increasing the length of the Black Arrow damage over time effect indirectly buffs the rest of the tree, by increasing the frequency of Shadow Hounds and Shadow Surge procs.

The damage of Black Arrow has also been increased, even though a new PvP reduction has been applied. The net increase to Black Arrow is around 27.5%.

However, Sentinel still does more damage and will remain the preferred choice for Beast Mastery in Arena.

The Undermine 4-set tier bonus grants an Explosive Shot with 300% extra damage whenever you get a Lock and Load proc. The bonus has been reduced by 75% in PvP, which means your Explosive Shot proc will now only hit 75% harder than a regular Explosive Shot. This is still a powerful tier bonus adding damage to your already powerful instant Aimed Shot procs.

• Tensile Bowstring reduces the cast time of Aimed Shot by 25% in PvP combat (was 50%).
• Unerring Vision increases your critical strike chance by 5% (was 10%) and critical strike damage by 10% (was 20%) in PvP combat.

The nerf to Tensile Bowstring is unfortunate but will not stop Marksmanship from being powerful in PvP.

Unerring Vision was sometimes taken in matchups where you could freecast through the duration of Trueshot, but given this nerf it will now always be preferable to play Double Tap.

• On the Marksmanship Hunter PvP Talents page, you will find an analysis of the talents available to Marksmanship Hunters, as well as an overview of the PvP talents, with advice on which ones to take and under which conditions.
• On the Marksmanship Hunter PvP Pets page, you will find an overview of the advantages of each pet type with advice on which ones to take and under which conditions.
• On the Marksmanship Hunter PvP Rotation and Playstyle page, you will learn how to use your spells, depending on the situation (dealing damage, surviving, controlling enemy players, etc.), and what is generally expected of your class and spec in PvP.
• On the Marksmanship Hunter PvP Stat Priority and Gear page, you will find the stat priority to follow in PvP, as well as advice for choosing your gear, which may vary depending on your playstyle and composition.
• On the Marksmanship Hunter PvP Best Races page, you will find lists of the Alliance and Horde races, ranked by how good they are for Marksmanship Hunters in PvP, as well as explanations regarding why and how their racials benefit you.
• On the Marksmanship Hunter PvP Useful Macros page, you will find a collection of useful PvP macros for Marksmanship Hunters.
• On the Marksmanship Hunter Arena Composition page, you will find the list of the most powerful Arena compositions featuring Marksmanship Hunters in both 2v2 and 3v3 modes.
• On the Marksmanship Hunter in Battleground Blitz page, you will find a summary of how to play Marksmanship in Battleground Blitz specifically, including the playstyle, role in specific battlegrounds, talent builds, and macros.