Marksmanship Hunter 10.2.7 Guide
Introduction
Welcome to our guide on the Marksmanship Specialization for the Hunter Class in WoW Dragonflight patch 10.2.7! This article covers everything regarding the Marksmanship spec, such as the leveling, gearing, and min-maxing your Hunter for the most challenging PvE content in World of Warcraft - Mythic Raiding and Mythic+ Dungeons.
First, we'll check out the specialization's particularities and see why the Marksmanship Hunter is one of the best specs in Dragonflight, Season 4. Then you'll learn how to gear your MM Hunter, what stats to prioritize, and the best leveling spec, talents, and rotation that will get you to max level in no time.
Finally, we'll go deep into min-maxing your character for the end-game content and teach you what gear to use for Mythic Raiding and Mythic Plus dungeons. By the end of the guide, you will become a master of Hunter's Marksmanship specialization! Sounds good, right? Let's get started!
Table of Contents
- Marksmanship Hunters: Strengths and Weaknesses
- How to gear a Marksmanship Hunter
- How to level a Marksmanship Hunter. Marksmanship Hunter leveling tips
- Best Marksmanship Hunter talents for end-game content
- Marksmanship Hunter in Dragonflight - FAQ
Marksmanship Hunters in Dragonflight: Strengths and Weaknesses
In World of Warcraft, the Hunter class comes with three DPS specializations: Survival, Marksmanship, and Beast Mastery. The hunter's spending resource is called Focus.
The Marksmanship Hunter represents one of the best DPS specs for Mythic Dungeons and Mythic Raiding in Dragonflight Season 4. The MM spec revolves around a ranged playstyle with slower, hard-hitting shots, and it's considered one of the most bursty specs in the ongoing meta.
In terms of weapons, the Marksmanship Hunter uses bows, crossbows, and guns. As for raid gear, the Hunter shares the Protector Tier Token with Monks, Shamans, and Warriors for legacy content. In the Dragonflight's latest expansion Awakened raids, hunters share the Mystic Tier Token with Druids and Mages.
In the table below, we present the Marksmanship Hunter's strengths and weaknesses:
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| + One of the most pwoerful high burst damage in the game | - Squishy and relatively low on defensive cooldowns |
| + Powerful cooldowns that can be used to encounter the raid/dungeons mechanics easily | - Very weak outside of its cooldowns, strong dependable |
| + Doesn't rely on a pet to deal damage | - Target capped AoE & low mobility on channeling abilities |
How to gear a Marksmanship Hunter
In World of Warcraft, gearing is one of the most important aspects that enhances your character's overall performance by providing massive amounts of stats, armor, procs, and set bonuses. This guide will teach you how to properly gear up for the most challenging content in WoW Dragonflight, Mythic Raiding, and Mythic+ Dungeons.
We'll start with the basics and cover the Marksmanship Hunter's stats priority, check out the tier set bonuses, and finally, the best in slot gear you can get from mythic raids and dungeons.
Marksmanship Hunter stat priority
Regardless of the class and spec you roll into in World of Warcraft, the stats are a key component when gearing up and min-maxing your character for the end-game content. Marksmanship Hunters wear Mail gear with Agility as the main stat.
As a hunter, the Agility stat increases the attack power of your abilities, in other words - the damage you are dealing to the enemies. Also, please note that a higher and adequate item level will better impact your character's performance than a perfect stat distribution, so always keep an eye on the gear's item level!
The Marksmanship Hunter stats priority looks like this:
- 1. Agility
- 2. Critical Strike
- 3. Haste
- 4. Mastery
- 5. Versatility
So, as a Marksmanship Hunter, you will primarily value item level for Agility as the primary stat, then Critical Strike, followed by Haste, Mastery, and Versatility as secondary stats.
In other words: Agility > Critical Strike > Haste > Mastery > Versatility. And here's why:
Agility: Increases your attack power and, therefore, all the damage you are dealing to your enemies
Critical Strike: Increases the chances of dealing double damage on attacks
Haste: Increases your attack speed and your focus regen rate
Mastery: Increases the damage of your attacks
Versatility: Increases damage dealt and reduces damage taken
Marksmanship Hunter Tier Set Bonus
To start with, what is a tier set in World of Warcraft?
In WoW, a tier set is a unique class armor set with powerful 2-set and 4-set specific bonuses for each specialization of that particular class. Tier set bonuses change based on the character's active talent specialization, ensuring that the bonus is appropriate and useful to that spec.
So, to recap, tier sets are unique pieces of armor that, when equipped simultaneously, provide you with a bonus, different for each spec of the chosen class. This bonus is based on the number of pieces from the set you have equipped, with most tier sets providing bonuses when equipping 2 or 4 pieces.
How to get the Marksmanship Hunter Tier Set in Dragonflight Patch 10.2.7
There are three ways you can get tier set items in WoW in the Dragonflight expansion:
- Awakened Raids: You can get tier set items found as class tokens from specific bosses in the Dragonflight Awakened Raids.
- Revival Catalyst: You can craft Tier armor from non-set pieces of the same item level using the Revival Catalyst crafting system.
- Great Vault: You can obtain tier set items from all activities that typically reward Great Vault, such as raiding, Mythic+ dungeons, and PvP.
The fastest way to obtain tier set items is to take advantage of these three sources that can reward you with the Marksmanship Hunter Tier Set items. The best advice is to complete the Vault of the Awakened Raid weekly - this is probably the fastest way to get your hands on the desired tier armor. In case you don't have a team to raid with, complete some Mythic+ Dungeons or some PvP matches.
Mythic dungeons and PvP are highly beneficial because even if you can't drop the set items while participating in these activities, you increase the chances of getting your set items at the Great Vault or the Revival Catalyst console in Thaldraszus. At the revival catalyst console, you can convert the non-set pieces obtained in dungeons or PvP into tier set items.
Let's have a closer look at the Great Vault feature:
And this is what the Revival Catalyst looks like:
Back to our Marksmanship Hunter Tier Set. Now that you learned how to obtain the tier set, let's see some set bonuses and particularities, shall we?
The Marksmanship Hunter Tier set is called Stormwing Harrier's Camouflage. It comes with the following bonuses for two pieces and four pieces equipped:
- 2-Set: - Rapid Fire deals 20% extra damage. Casting Rapid Fire during Trick Shots causes it to activate a Volley on the target.
- 4-Set: - Every 10 Focus you spend has a 3% chance to reset the cooldown of Rapid Fire and cause your next Rapid Fire to fire 100% additional shots during its channel.
In the table below, we present you the sources for Marksmanship Hunter Tier Set items:
| Slot | Tier Piece | Source |
| Helm | Stormwing Harrier's Skullmask | Raszageth, Magmorax, Tindragl Sageswift |
| Shoulders | Stormwing Harrier's Pinions | Broodkeeper Diurna, Echo of Neltharion, Smolderon |
| Chest | Stormwing Harrier's Cuirass | Kurog Grimtotem, Zskarn, Nymue the Weaver of the Cycle |
| Gloves | Stormwing Harrier's Handguards | Dathea, Forgotten Experiments, Igira the Cruel |
| Legs | Stormwing Harrier's Greaves | Sennarth, Rashok, Larodar |
The remaining tier set items (Cloak, Wrists, Waist, and Boots) can be obtained by using the Revival Catalyst in Thaldraszus.
As previously stated, you unlock the tier set bonuses for your Marksmanship Hunter when you equip any two or four pieces of the Stormwing Harrier's Camouflage set. Your four pieces of tier set as a Marksmanship Hunter will be the Helm, Shoulders, Chest, and Gloves for itemization and build optimization.
Raid Best in Slot (BiS) Gear for Marksmanship Hunters
In the table below, you can find the best item to use in each slot from the raid as a Marksmanship Hunter:
Mythic+ Best in Slot (BiS) Gear for Marksmanship Hunters
In the table below, you can find the best item to use in each slot for the Mythic+ Dungeons as a Marksmanship Hunter:
Best in Slot (BiS) Trinkets for Marksmanship Hunters
The best Marksmanship Hunter trinkets for end-game content are:
This wraps up everything you should know about gearing your Marksmanship Hunter: the stats priority, how to obtain the tier set, and what items to use in the end-game activities. Moving on to the next section of our guide, we'll teach you how to level your Marksmanship Hunter in Dragonflight patch 10.2.7. Sounds good, right? Let's dive in!
How to level a Marksmanship Hunter. Marksmanship Hunters leveling tips
Before leveling your Marksmanship Hunter, you must first create and customize the character. That brings us to the first question: what race should you go for when creating the character? Let's find out, shall we?
Best Marksmanship Hunter Races
When it comes to racials, with so many options to choose from, you are probably wondering what would be the best race for your hunter. In World of Warcraft, each race has different racial abilities and spells, but no races offer an immediate advantage compared to others regarding the Marksmanship spec. I highly recommend choosing the race you like the most, aesthetically speaking.
However, in the table below, you can see the top 10 best races for Marksmanship Hunters based on performance gain:
| Race | Performance Gain |
| Troll | +1.90% |
| Gnome | +1.34% |
| Void Elf | +1.33% |
| Orc | +1.31% |
| Human | +1.29% |
| Mechagnome | +1.17% |
| Dark Iron Dwarf | +1.17% |
| Tauren | +1.01% |
| Dwarf | +0.98% |
| Goblin | +0.91% |
Now, if you want to make an idea of what race players generally choose for their Marksmanship Hunters:
- For Alliance: Night Elf, Human, Dwarf.
- For Horde: Blood Elf, Orc, Troll.
Best Marksmanship Hunter Leveling Talents and Rotation in Dragonflight 10.2.7
The best talents to use while leveling to level 60 as a MM Hunter are:
What is the best leveling pet for Marksmanship Hunters? Generally, Marksmanship Hunters do not use pets. However, you can use a pet for extra survivability or for Bloodlust/Heroism ability. In that case, the best pet for Marksmanship Hunters would be any Ferocity type of pet.
Now let's check out how you should prioritize your abilities. Here is what most people consider to be the best rotations for a Marksmanship Hunter:
Marksmanship Hunter Single Target Rotation
- Marksmanship Hunters in Dragonflight bring down enemies with precise, powerful shots. Prioritize using your big cooldowns for tougher fights: unleash Trueshot on large enemy pulls and elite mobs to melt through them quickly. Additionally, Explosive Shot and Death Chakram should be used whenever they're available for extra bursts of damage.
- The heart of your rotation involves setting up powerful volleys. First, drop Volley on your target. Then, quickly follow up with Explosive Shot or Barrage & Death Chakram for maximum impact.
- To initiate combat and benefit from the Careful Aim buff, open with a well-aimed Aimed Shot. Unleash Rapid Fire whenever it's on cooldown to unleash a flurry of rapid shots.
- Spend your Precise Shots stacks strategically. Use either Arcane Shot for single-target damage or Multi-Shot if you need to deal with additional enemies around your primary target.
- If you find yourself out of spells or lacking Focus (the resource used for your abilities), fill the gaps with Steady Shot to keep a constant stream of damage flowing.
- This core rotation should help you dominate most solo encounters while leveling your Marksmanship Hunter in Dragonflight.
Marksmanship Hunter AoE Rotation
- As you approach a large group of enemies, prioritize unleashing your biggest cooldowns for challenging encounters. Use Trueshot on large enemy pulls to clear them out quickly. Don't forget to opt in Explosive Shot and Death Chakram whenever they're available for extra bursts of damage.
- Before engaging the enemies, strategically use Misdirection to divert some enemy focus to your pet. Additionally, Arcane Shot can help lure the enemies around your pet, making them easier to hit with your powerful AoE spells (of course, if you play alongside a pet, but we recommend it on the AoE strategy).
- The heart of your AoE rotation involves setting up devastating volleys. Drop Volley on a group of enemies to cleave them (damage multiple nearby targets with a single attack). Then, quickly follow up with Explosive Shot or Barrage and Death Chakram to maximize your impact on the tightly packed group.
- To maintain a constant flow of damage, similar to single-target combat, open with a well-aimed Aimed Shot to benefit from the Careful Aim buff. Use Rapid Fire whenever it's on cooldown for a rapid barrage of shots.
- Spend your Precise Shots stacks wisely. Prioritize using Multi-Shot to deal damage to all the enemies around you, maximizing your effectiveness against large groups.
- If you find run out of spells (on CD) or lacking Focus resource ability, fill the gaps with Steady Shot to keep a constant stream of damage flowing and maintain pressure on the enemy group.
- Remember to not waste your Trueshot. Be braver and make hard pulls and make sure you Misdirect your pet to always throw a Mend Pet on it.
Follow the rotations, and you'll get to max level in no time! Now that we've covered the leveling part, it's time to move on to the end-game.
In the next section of our Marksmanship Hunter Guide, we'll present the best talents to use for PvE end-game content, such as raiding and Mythic+ dungeons. In the end game, it's crucial to use the right talents and prioritize the skills you use depending on the activity. Choosing the best talents will significantly impact your performance as a DPS!
Best Marksmanship Hunter End-game Talents
From the PvE perspective, there are two main end-game activities we'll take into consideration: Mythic raiding and Mythic+ Dungeons, for single-target and multi-target encounters.
Best Talents for Mythic Raiding
Here are the best talents for mythic raiding as a Marksmanship Hunter:
Raid General build
Raid AoE build
Raid Single-Target build
Best Talents for Mythic Dungeons
In the picture below, you can see the best talents for mythic dungeons as a MM Hunter:
M+ General build
Marksmanship Hunters in Dragonflight - FAQ
1. Are Marksmanship Hunters good in Dragonflight 10.2.7?
Yes, Marksmanship Hunter represents one of the strongest specs in WoW Dragonflight in Season 4.
2. Is Marksmanship Hunter easy to play?
Yes. The Marksmanship Hunter specialization qualifies as one of the most accessible specs in WoW Dragonflight.
3. What is the stats priority for Marksmanship Hunters?
The stats priority for Hunter's Marksmanship specialization looks like this: Agility > Critical Strike > Haste > Mastery > Versatility.
4. Which hunter spec is best for leveling in 10.2.7?
Overall, the Beast Mastery Specialization is the best spec for hunter leveling.
5. What is the most popular race for Marksmanship Hunters in Dragonflight?
- Alliance's most popular Marksmanship Hunter races are Night Elf, Human, and Dwarf.
- For Horde, the most popular races for Marksmanship Hunters are Blood Elf, Orc, and Troll.
Final thoughts
This wraps up everything you should know regarding the Hunter's Marksmanship specialization in World of Warcraft Dragonflight for Season 4, patch 10.2.7. By reading this guide, you should now better understand the Marksmanship Hunters' spec and particularities and how they perform in certain circumstances and different end-game activities. It's one of the coolest specs in Dragonflight, so you should definitely try it!
