Logged in to your Marksmanship hunter after WoW patch 4.3 and wondering what’s changed? You don’t need to fall prey to the patch. Let us show you what’s lying in wait for your glyphs, spec, stats, enchants, reforging and rotation so you can focus on putting an arrow right through Deathwing’s tentacle.
Updated Nov 29th 2011 for Patch 4.3
Marksmanship Changes in Patch 4.3
Nothing much has changed for us in Patch 4.3, I’m afraid, at least not as far as PvE is concerned. There are no changes to our gearing or play.
Our Tier 13 Set Bonuses will change our play in practise – particularly the 2-piece which doubles focus from Steady Shot – but don’t change our priorities.
Marksmanship hunter rotation:
Hunters don’t use rotations any more, like most Cata DPS classes. Instead, they operate on a priority system:
- Before combat, apply Hunter’s Mark to the target and cast Misdirect on the tank. Seriously, people, DO NOT skip Misdirect. Dead hunters do no DPS.
- When combat starts, open with Serpent Sting, then an Aimed Shot, then two Steady Shots. All your buffs/debuffs are now up and ticking.
- As top priority cast Chimera Shot whenever it’s off cooldown and Serpent Sting if it has dropped.
- Second Priority cast Aimed Shot if you’ve got a Master Marksman proc. Cast two Steady Shots if the Improved Steady Shot buff has dropped off.
- Third Priority cast Kill Shot if you can, Arcane Shot otherwise, or Steady Shot if you’re out of Focus.
Use Rapid Fire as often as possible, and Readiness likewise.
Oh, and if you have high aggro, please, for the love of Pete, cast Feign Death.
Aimed Shot If you have enough gear that the cast time on Aimed Shot is less than 1.9 seconds, it may be worth using it instead of Arcane Shot in low-movement fights. Try it and see – if there’s no obvious DPS improvement, Arcane Shot is a better choice because of the instant cast.
Buffs: Make sure you’ve got Aspect of the Hawk up.
Multiple Target Priorities:
Much simpler. Cast Hunter’s Mark and Misdirect (REALLY don’t skip Misdirect this time). As the tank’s pulling, cast Trap Launcher and Explosive Trap when the tank has stopped moving the mobs.
Then spam Multishot like it’s going to give you crazy-high DPS – oh wait, it is! – Aimed Shot whenever you get a Master Marksman proc, and Steady Shot whenever you run out of Focus. If you have time, also use Kill Shot whenever it will kill a mob, as this will give you 50 free focus.
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Markshmanship talent spec:
Standard Marksmanship talent spec for Patch 4.3
Talents for a Marks hunter can change to a certain extent, largely dependent on Haste – read the Elitist Jerks article linked below if you want a LOT more detail. However, until you’re familiar with the class, the above spec is a good starting point, and won’t give you any particular problems.
Stats, reforging and gems as a Marksmanship Hunter:
Stats order: Agility> Hit (until hit capped at 961 or 841 if you’re Draenai) > Critical Strike Rating > Haste > Mastery.
The last 3 can be considered broadly equal, but Crit is slightly stronger in most situations. Expertise is useless for Hunters.- Reforging: Reforge to Hit until you’re hit capped*. After that, reforge any excess hit, plus Mastery and Haste, to Crit.
- Gem: Agility. Ignore socket bonuses unless they’re 20 or more, in which case use Deadly Ember Topaz (20 agi/crit) or Glinting Demonseye (20 agi/hit) to get the socket bonus.
Reforging can be a LOT more complex than this – again, see the EJ guide – but this provides a good basic approach. If you want to get more complex, a read of the Warcraft Hunters’ Union guide to Marksmanship Haste Plateaus is a good place to start.
Marksmanship Enchants
Check to see if your profession supplies more appropriate enchants before putting these on! Inscription and Engineering in particular may have better options.
| Head | Arcanum of the Ramkahen |
| Shoulders | Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal |
| Back | Enchant Cloak – Greater Critical Strike |
| Chest | Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats |
| Wrist | Enchant Bracer – Agility |
| Hands | Enchant Gloves – Greater Mastery |
| Belt | Ebonsteel Belt Buckle |
| Legs | Dragonscale Leg Armor |
| Feet | Enchant Boots – Major Agility or Enchant Boots – Assassin’s Step if you want run speed. |
| Weapon | Enchant Weapon – Mighty Agility |
| Ranged Weapon | Flintlocke’s Woodchucker |
Glyphs:
Primes: Glyph of Steady Shot — Glyph of Kill Shot — Glyph of Arcane Shot
Major:Glyph of Disengage, and two of your choice.
Minor: Glyph of Feign Death
Links:
- Warcraft Hunter’s Union MM guide much easier to read, if less complete, than Elitist Jerks.
- WoW Insider’s hunter column – very informative, if wordy.
- Elitist Jerks Marksmanship Guide – ZOMG wall of text. It’s huge, it’s scary, and even I don’t want to do this much math. But if you need to know ABSOLUTELY what to do, here it is.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Glyph of Silencing Shot not all that useful since your standard dps build does not actually spec into silencing shot.
Whoops, very true.
[Comment removed. I appreciate corrections but please a) be polite and b) quote sources or otherwise argue intelligently. We're not EJ but if you call the moderators "tards" you won't get a friendly reception.
Also, according to EJ's latest theorycrafting, this poster was dead wrong.]
http://elitistjerks.com/f74/t110880-cataclysm_beast_mastery_4_2_a/
“Mastery or Haste?
The recommendation from this guide currently is to reforge to crit when not present and doing so from the secondary stat with the largest amount of rating. If crit is present with haste or mastery, the current recommendation is to not reforge out of it (except if below hitcap as reforging will outperform gemming for hit)”
Quite often they know what they are talking about on Elitist Jerks.
@Ben Sanders – Thanks, I think that’s changed recently. I’ve updated it to suggest reforging out of both Haste and Mastery to Crit.
A quick theorycrafting note – this guide recommends Arcane Shot not Aimed Shot as a filler, because the marginal DPS improvement is offset by the problems with moving, IMO. Also, I’m recommending using Chimera Shot and Serpent Sting during Careful Aim because EJ’s math seems to show a DPS increase, albeit marginal, and it makes the rotation easier to remember.
I dropped arcane shot and started using aimed shot, my dps has been dramatically increased. This may reflect my crit rating or the increased haste while popping cooldowns but I noticed I was with much better geared people in BH 25m using aimed.
@Santiago – Interesting, thanks. I’ll add a note suggesting people try it.
Funny, I read the Pot all the time but not usually for the guides… but today I respecced my hunter to Marksman for PvP and wanted at least a quick guide to how the spec works – guess what was the first Google result I got?
Thanks for providing yet another service, I guess!
thanks for the info dude..!!!! it helped me a lot
i have just changed from SV to mm and foudn my dps jump up by 4k and im not even fully gemmed or enchated dose that mean it will jump up even more?@gortarn -
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