Marksmanship Hunter DPS Guide — 12.0.5

Midnight Season 1 has released, and with it came a lot of new content. It brought with it three new Raids, alongside heralding the start of Season 1 for both Mythic+ and PvP. With all the new things available, we've provided some dedicated hubs covering everything available!

Marksmanship got a moderate rework in Patch 12.0.5. The core changes of note are:

• Explosive Shot is back, as well as its talents Precision Detonation which buffs Aimed Shot shortly after using it, and Shrapnel Shot, which causes it to grant Lock and Load. The Volley-version of Shrapnel Shot is gone.
• Precise Shots no longer reduces the cooldown of its affected abilities, its damage bonus is reduced, though it now affects Black Arrow/ Kill Shot.
• Windrunner Quiver is redesigned and now gives Precise Shots spenders a 30% chance to grant another charge of Precise Shots, allowing for lucky streaks of continuous Precise Shots spenders.
• Bullet Hell is gone. This was a widely used Mythic+ Talent, and we are now locked in to 45-second Volleys.
• In the Rhythm is gone. It will not be missed as it was basically useless.
• Lethality is gone, reducing the value of Crit for Marksmanship by ~10%.
• Target Acquisition is gone, leading to slightly longer Aimed Shot cooldowns on average.

In addition to this, a variety of open world content releases worth checking out!

• The Voidforge Unlocks!
  The Voidforge is Midnight's take on Bonus Rolls and Turbo Boost, allowing you to target specific big ticket items through a new bonus roll system. You can also further empower trinkets and weapons, and we have recommendations on our Gear page.
• Void Assaults are Unleashed
  Eversong Woods and Zul'Aman are under siege from the forces of the Void. Thwarting their attacks provide a new way to acquire gear all the way up to Hero level, and you can check out more on our Void Assault hub.
• Disrupt Ritual Sites
  Sharing a similar reward structure to Void Assaults, Ritual Sites are instanced content similar to Delves. You can find out all about them on our Ritual Sites page.

Click for Previous Season 1 Hotfixes

There has been no class-tuning for Marksmanship Hunter yet, but Blizzard has stated that class tuning sweeps are coming starting on March 24th, and sometime in early April. No major changes for us are expected, including the fact that we are using Aspect of the Hydra in all content, though it is certainly possible, and the guide will be updated the moment tuning happens. I recommend bookmarking the page and checking back regularly in the first few weeks of the Season as theorycrafters work out every little intricacy.

Midnight Class Tuning

When it comes to tuning adjustments, our next planned pass is expected to arrive with the Midnight Season 1 launch on March 17. Our next pass will follow immediately afterwards utilizing data gathered during the week Heroic difficulties are available; these changes will go live with the launch of Mythic raid difficulty and Mythic+ on March 24.

Beyond these dates, we will look to perform more tuning passes based on data gathered during the starting weeks of Mythic difficulty for Season 1 and the March on Quel’Danas available the week of March 31.For these two passes we err on the side of caution with the amount of tuning we do until their respective Mythic end-bosses die to avoid being overly disruptive to progression. After these key dates we will have several check-in passes planned roughly a month apart. Once players obtain higher item level and better optimized gear sets, the throughput of several specs will shift up or down relative to others and we feel it’s important to be diligent in looking at the current state of class balance as time goes on.

The Midnight Expansion brings huge changes for all Hunter specs, primarily focused on streamlining and simplifying aspects of the kit.

• No more Deathblow procs from Auto-Shots.
• Rapid Fire is now guaranteed to grant Deathblow.
• After you activate Trueshot, the Trueshot button itself turns into Wailing Arrow, a powerful cast that activates Deathblow and also kicks/silences all targets hit for 1 sec.

• Spotter's Mark is replaced by Sentinel's Mark and is much stronger.
• Don't Look Back is now a flat 10% absorb shield that you get whenever you get a Sentinel's Mark proc.
• Maximum Focus increased to 125.
• Like Dark Ranger, after activating Trueshot, the Trueshot button becomes Moonlight Chakram which sends a glowy chakram that deals heavy AoE damage as it bounces between enemies. Choice nodes can cause this Chakram to give us Lock and Load and trigger Sentinel's Mark.

• Streamline is gone and as a result, Aimed Shot's cast time is much longer at a baseline of 2.5 sec. During Trueshot, this is reduced to 1.5 sec. Its damage has been buffed to compensate, but overall, expect a slower-playing, more sniper-focused and deliberate Marksmanship "feel" in Midnight.
• All of the Explosive Shot-related Talents are gone. We do keep Shrapnel Shot, which now triggers off Volley.
• Headshot no longer causes Kill Shot/ Black Arrow to benefit from Precise Shots. Instead, it causes these abilities to stack a debuff on the target, increasing the damage they receive from this ability by 2%, stacking up to 10 times.
• Other removed talents include Razor Fragments, Moving Target, and of course, Improved Streamline.

Midnight introduces new Apex Talents, unlocked between Level 80 and 90. Marksmanship receives:

1. Take Aim
2. Take Aim
3. Take Aim

They cause Rapid Fire to reduce Aimed Shot's cooldown by 5 sec over its channel, and they also cause Aimed Shot to always Crit, but its actual damage is increased by your crit chance as well. This reduces the value of Crit as a stat for us somewhat, though it is still a very good stat.

• Hunters have +2% higher max HP than previous.
• Exhilaration's cooldown is now a 1-minute flat, instead of variable (and often lower).
• Aspect of the Turtle's cooldown is now 2:00 with talents, down from 2:30.
• Aspect of the Turtle can now be a 50% damage reduction with talents, up from 30%.
• Roar of Sacrifice is now an external defensive that can be used on yourself or any friendly target to reduce their damage taken by 15% for 10 sec, but 50% of their damage taken will be taken by your pet. For Marksmanship, the pet part just disappears if you have no pet.
• Fortitude of the Bear is now 3% passive damage reduction, instead of being an active defensive cooldown.

• Hunter's Mark is now a universal 3% damage increase against a single-target. This essentially guarantees Hunter a raid spot in every raid. It is also a boost to the group in Mythic+, though it is much less potent there.
• Counter Shot now spell-locks the target for 5 seconds, up from 3.
• Freezing Trap can now slow the target by 70% for 4 sec after the trap breaks.
• Intimidation is now our sole stun/stop. A choice node either reduces its cooldown to 40 sec, or makes it a 1-second AoE stun. Implosive Trap, High Explosive Trap, and Bursting Shot are all gone.
• The slows from Wing Clip and Concussive Shot are 25% and 10% stronger, respectively.
• Horsehair Tether is now a Class Tree node and not attached to the Pack Leader Hero Talent. It is a choice node with Tar-Coated Bindings, which extends Binding Shot's stun by 1 sec.
• Ghillie Suit is gone.
• Scatter Shot is gone.
• Scrappy is gone.
• Binding Shackles is gone.

• Aspect of the Cheetah's initial "super" speed burst is now twice as long with talents.
• Kill Shot is gone and is a Marksmanship-tree exclusive.
• Successfully kicking with Counter Shot/ Muzzle now grants 30 Focus, up from 10, but soothing/purging with Tranquilizing Shot no longer grants Focus.

Overall, we are gaining defensiveness and mobility, while in the utility department, we are losing some things (like the ability to move mobs) but gaining others (stronger Mark, streamlined AoE stun, stronger kick and more Focus return on kicking). I think the changes are broadly positive!