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Marksmanship Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, Talents, and Glyphs (WoW 4.3.4)

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Utolsó módosítás programmer, ekkor: 2014.06.26.

In this article, we present you with various talent trees for Marksmanship Hunters (WoW 4.3) that you can use in specific situations. We also explain in detail what the talents do, how they work together, and how you can customise your talent tree in order to adapt it to a particular boss. The other articles of our Marksmanship Hunter guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the left.

1. Common Talent Builds↑top

Your Marksmanship Hunter builds will mostly revolve around your choice between: Rapid Killing Icon Rapid Killing, Silencing Shot Icon Silencing Shot, and Trueshot Aura Icon Trueshot Aura. The talents Bombardment Icon Bombardment and Marked for Death Icon Marked for Death are also considered optional, but in order to progress down the tree, you will often find yourself taking them anyway.

This build grants great AoE damage capabilities as well as a point in Rapid Killing Icon Rapid Killing, for encounters where the chances of getting killing blows are high.

Marksmanship Hunter Build - Silencing Shot and Bombardment

This talent build also has the AoE talents of the above build. Instead of the point in Rapid Killing Icon Rapid Killing, this build takes Silencing Shot Icon Silencing Shot, for encounters where you want to be able to interrupt and silence targets.

2. Customising Your Build↑top

First, we will present and explain the relevant talents for a Marksmanship Hunter before listing the various mandatory and optional glyphs.

2.1. Talents

In terms of maximising DPS, the Marksmanship talent specialisation does not provide much room for choice. Every Marksmanship Hunter build should follow the 7/31/3 talent point distribution. Within the Marksmanship tree, 26 of the 31 points are used in fixed talents, while the other 5 are optional and left up to the player's preference or encounter requirements.

In the following image, the fixed talents have been hightlighted in green, while the optional talents have been hightlighted in red:

2.1.1. Fixed Talents

This section will cover each of the fixed talents in the build, with a brief explanation as to why they should be taken. Fixed talents are those which are considered mandatory and provide you with a direct DPS increase.

2/2 Go for the Throat: a straightforward increase to the damage your pet deals, by granting it more of its resource.
3/3 Efficiency: another straightforward increase to your damage dealt, by reducing the cost of your shots.
2/2 Sic 'Em!: grants your pet focus-free attacks, increasing its damage output.
3/3 Improved Steady Shot: a key self-buff which increases your ranged attack speed by 15% and provides a great damage increase.
2/2 Careful Aim: greatly increases your critical strike chance with some of your essential abilities on targets above 90% health.
3/3 Piercing Shots: a passively applied bleed on the target, based on your critical strikes, and a very straightforward damage increase.
2/2 Termination: provides you with extra focus regeneration when the target is below 25%, allowing for more shots.
2/2 Rapid Recuperation: provides you with extra focus regeneration during Rapid Fire, allowing you to fire off more shots. Also provides you with 50 focus when dealing a killing blow, if you have taken the Rapid Killing talent.
3/3 Master Marksman: gives your Steady Shot a 60% chance to make your most powerful shot cost no focus and become instant cast; an unquestionable DPS increase.
1/1 Readiness: an extremely powerful ability, which resets the cooldown of all hunter abilities.
2/2 Posthaste: reduces the cooldown of your only DPS cooldown by 2 minutes, and provides a small movement speed boost after using Disengage.
1/1 Chimera Shot: the signature shot of Marksmanship Hunters, and a key element in the rotation; deals a high amount of damage and heals the hunter for a small amount.
3/3 Pathing: provides 3% ranged haste which translates into a direct DPS increase.
3/3 One with Nature: increases your attack power while in Aspect of the Hawk by 30% and provides some extra focus regeneration while in Aspect of the Fox.
2/3 Bestial Discipline: increases your pet's focus regeneration, but more importantly allows you to unlock the next talent tier.
2/3 Frenzy: provides a large attack speed increase to your pet.

2.1.2. Optional Talents

This section will cover each of the optional talents and provide a brief explanation of whey and when they should be taken. Note that you must take at least some of these talents in order to progress down the talent tree.

1/2 Rapid Killing: provides 50 focus (thanks to Rapid Recuperation) as well as 10% damage increase to your next Aimed Shot! or Steady Shot following a killing blow. This talent is useless in fights where there are no other targets aside from the boss, and its efficiency is highly diminished in 25-man raid content due to the increased competition for killing blows. Highly situational talent.
1/1 Silencing Shot: provides you with an interrupt and silence effect (the silence does not work on raid bosses), but no actual DPS increase. May be useful if your raid is lacking interrupters, but is otherwise of no worth.
2/2 Bombardment: allows Marksmanship Hunters to do competitive AoE damage by reducing the focus cost of Multi-Shot following Multi-Shot critical strikes. Is of no value when the fight does not require the use of AoE.
1/1 Trueshot Aura: provides the 10% increased attack power raid buff. This is also provided by Blessing of Might, Unleashed Rage and Abomination's Might, so if these buffs are present in your raid, this can be skipped.
2/2 Marked for Death: allows instant application of a 15 second Hunter's Mark when using Arcane Shot or Chimera Shot and is useful when quickly switching to adds, by saving a global cooldown, but is otherwise of no value.
2/2 Resistance is Futile: provides a small chance for a focus-free Kill Command, triggered by boss movement. Highly situational and not recommended.

2.2. Glyphs

Glyph choice as a Marksmanship Hunter is rather difficult, in terms of Prime Glyphs, while Major and Minor Glyphs will not provide you with DPS increases and are therefore of less consequence.

2.2.1. Prime Glyphs

The following Prime Glyph is mandatory: Glyph of Steady Shot. It provides a clear damage increase to one of your most used abilities.

The second Prime Glyph should be chosen between Glyph of Arcane Shot and Glyph of Aimed Shot, depending on which ability you choose to spend your excess focus on.

For the third and final Prime Glyph, you should choose one of the following:

Glyph of Rapid Fire: provides an additional 10% increased attack speed while under the effects of Rapid Fire.
Glyph of Chimera Shot: reduces the cooldown of your Chimera Shot by 1 second, which can prove to be a DPS increase in certain situations.
Glyph of Kill Shot: allows you to use Kill Shot twice as often during most boss fights.

Which of these glyphs you should choose depends on your playstyle, the encounter you are attempting as well as your current gear level. For example, Glyph of Kill Shot would be useful on an encounter where burst damage when the boss is under 20% health is required. Glyph of Rapid Fire gains a lot of value if the fight length is such that you are able to use the cooldown multiple times. We will touch more upon this in the Abilities and Cooldowns article of this Marksmanship Hunter guide.

2.2.2. Major Glyphs

For your Major Glyphs, we recommend you use any of the following:

If you have taken Silencing Shot Icon Silencing Shot, the respective glyph will provide a minor focus gain. None of the other glyphs provide DPS increases, though Glyph of Raptor Strike provides you with excellent damage reduction, something that Hunters otherwise sorely lack.

2.2.3. Minor Glyphs

We recommend that you use the following Minor Glyphs:

Glyph of Aspect of the Pack can be useful to extend the range of your Aspect and help your raid run in quicker after wipes. In encounters, it seldom has any practical use due to the movement speed debuff that Aspect of the Pack Icon Aspect of the Pack causes when taking damage.

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