Marksmanship Hunter Guide for The War Within - Dragonflight 10.2.7 (2024)

Last updated on Jun 10, 2024 at 21:10by Azortharion131 comments

Welcome to our War Within expansion guide for MarksmanshipHunter. Ahead of launch, this page will contain everythingyou need to know about the Marksmanship Hunter spec in theforthcoming The War Within expansion, including changes, Hero TalentTrees, and some light predictions on the state of the spec going intothe expansion.

This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, withregular changes expected as updates hit the War Within beta. This isnot meant to be a launch guide for Marksmanship Hunter, butinstead serves as a resource for you to keep up to date with how thespec is evolving on Beta, and what you can expect from its playstyleand feel on launch.

The Hunter Class Tree has received a substantial rework, with theentirety of the Class Talent Tree as well as all Spec Trees havingbeen redesigned. Below, I have listed some of the most central changesthat will affect your gameplay, decision-making, and power in The WarWithin.

• Survival of the Fittest is now a 30% baseline damage reduction. Through other talents, it can get a 1.5-minute cooldown, 2 charges, and an 8-second duration. This is a huge boost to Hunter survivability!
• Counter Shot can now, via talents, get a 22-second cooldown, down from 24.
• Tranquilizing Shot can now, via Talents, either remove an additional Magic effect on cast, or have a 5s shorter cooldown if it only removes one Enrage effect.
• Intimidation can now, via Talents, hit up to 2 additionaltargets for 50% effectiveness, and automatically summon a pet when cast.
• Explosive Shot is now placed in the Class Tree in such a way that all Hunter specs will be using it, all the time.
• Feign Death and Aspect of the Turtle can now, via a Talent, remove all Poison and Disease effects from you. This is extremely powerful in some niche scenarios.
• Bursting Shot is now available in the Class Tree.
• Intimidation and Binding Shot can now, via Talents, have their cooldowns reduced significantly via Scrappy.
• Steel Trap and Death Chakram have been removed.
• The new talent, Implosive Trap (choice node with High Explosive Trap) is an AoE knock-up trap that can be used as an AoE stop.
• In additional, several Talents that used to be 2-pointers are now 1-pointers. This means that we can have all of the DPS-related Talents in the Class Tree, and most of the utility without having to choose. There are other changes too, but these are the most important ones.

The Marksmanship Hunter Spec Tree has also been reworkedfrom the ground up. Below, I will list all of the new talents and someinteresting interactions and outcomes from the redesigned layout ofthe Tree.

• Precise Shots is now a 1-pointer, and also reduces theFocus cost of Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot by 50%. Italso always grants 2 stacks.
• The new talent, Fan the Hammer, gives Rapid Fire 3additional shots, from 7 to 10. This translates to a roughly 43%damage increase to Rapid Fire, which will do a lot of damagein The War Within.
• Barrage is now a Marksmanship Tree Talent, but that isnot the most interesting part..
• Rapid Fire Barrage is the most interesting part. Itessentially converts Barrage into a "super- Rapid Fire" thatautomatically ricochets for 30% of normal damage. These Rapid Firescan, in turn, Trick Shots. The cooldown of Barrage isincreased to 1 minute when this is used. A very powerful burst AoEbutton.
• Lone Wolf now increases damage by 5% when you do not havea pet, down from 10%. This makes using a pet far more viable (butstill inferior) on single-target especially, enough so that we mayprefer to use a pet for its Leech or defensive at a very small DPSloss. It will still be a noticeable loss on AoE, however.
• Hydra's Bite is now a Marksmanship Tree Talent. It is aslightly nerfed version of the old Class Tree version, as the cleaving Serpent Stings will only happen if the main target of your Aimed Shot is already affected by one.
• Legacy of the Windrunners has been redesigned — TheWind Arrows fired deal far more damage, and ticks of Rapid Fire (10 per target with Fan the Hammer) now havea 5% chance to shoot additional Wind Arrows.
• Wailing Arrow has been redesigned — After 20 WindArrows (from the redesigned Legacy of the Windrunners) have beenfired, your Aimed Shot button turns into Wailing Arrowfor one cast. Wailing Arrow now deals ~56% more damage than Aimed Shot on a single-target, while its AoE damage willdepend a bit on implementation. The ability is currently pretty buggyon the Beta.
• Eagletalon's True Focus has been redesigned — TheFocus cost reduction has been increased to 50% for just one point, andit also causes Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot to fire asecond time for 30% effectiveness, ensuring that a single cast alwaysconsumes both stacks of Precise Shots.
• The new talent Small Game Hunter increases Multi-Shot damage by 75%, and Explosive Shot damageby 25%.
• The new talent Kill Zone effectively turns Volley into an 8% damage increase to targets in its effect.You can also ignore line of sight to enemies in your Volley.
• Readiness has been altered for the new Wailing Arrow. Casting Trueshot now also grants a Wailing Arrow, and Wailing Arrow resets the cooldownof Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire entirely.
• In addition to these changes, all Talents in the Tree have been reorganized, which has significant downstream effects on the builds we are able to create.

Aside from the changes to Marksmanship Hunter's corefeatures, The War Within also has major implications for all specsthanks to the Hero Talent Tree system, new tier sets, and the naturalreduction in secondary stats when entering a new expansion.

Marksmanship Hunter gets to choose between theSentinel and Dark Ranger Hero Talent Trees. In sectionsbelow, we will talk more deeply about the implications of these HeroTalent Trees for the spec, and some thoughts on what looks strong andweak ahead of launch.

Below are the Tier Set Bonuses for Marksmanship Hunter inThe War Within. After the wording of the bonus, you will find a briefnote/commentary that is italicized.

• Hunter Marksmanship 11.0 Class Set 2pc — Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot damage increased by 20%.This pairs fairly well with the new Precise Shots, Eagletalon's True Focus, and in the case of Multi-Shot, Small Game Hunter.
• Hunter Marksmanship 11.0 Class Set 4pc — Consuming Precise Shots increases the damage of your next Aimed Shot by 10%, stacking up to 2 times. Thanks to Eagletalon's True Focus, a single Arcane Shot or Multi-Shot weaved between Aimed Shots during Trueshot will maximize benefit of this set bonus.

Both set bonuses are completely passive and are not expected tohave any gameplay impact.

How Good is the Marksmanship Hunter Tier Bonus in The WarWithin?

The 2-piece bonus is numerically very modest. On single-target,expect values of ~2-3%. In AoE scenarios, however, it can be upwardsof 4-5%.

The 4-piece bonus is not straightforward to quantify. Onsingle-target, expect around 3-4%, while on AoE, you can typicallyexpect much less, about 1-2%.

The total expected value of the Tier Set is around 5-7%. Overall,this is fairly weak. Aimed Shot simply does not do a lot ofdamage in AoE scenarios, where Rapid Fire and Multi-Shot tend to dominate. In single-target, Arcane Shot and Aimed Shot are both lackluster.

Some builds, especially single-target ones with Readiness, basically never haveto cast Arcane Shot, reducing the value of both set bonuses tonear-zero.