Quick Links
- Getting Started
- Gearing Up For PvP
- PvP Talent Tree
- Rotation
- Utility Tips
PvP in World of Warcraft has always been a different beast from other pieces of content. Instead of downing static mobs with predictable movesets and challenging yourself against the game, PvP pits you against unpredictable players that have long since mastered their rotation.
Related: World Of Warcraft: Dragonflight – PvP Tier List
However, having the right class can make all the difference, and for a long time, hunters have risen above the rest. While all the specs are good, marksmanship stands out with its high damage output and simple rotation, more than making up for its unique lack of utility. Here's everything you need to learn how to play marksmanship hunter in Dragonflight PvP.
THEGAMER VIDEO OF THE DAY
Getting Started
Marksmanship hunter is often a great learning class due to how forgiving it is. Unlike feral druid or assassination rogue, there aren't any combos to memorize or a million buttons to click. Instead, if you're just beginning, you only have to worry about seven abilities.
However, just because it's easy to learn, that doesn't mean it isn't hard to master. Hunters are notorious for having a high skill ceiling, and the more time you invest into playing this class, the more you'll find yourself weaving utility spells into your rotation to make you an unstoppable force.
Race
Race
Racial Abilities
Human
Increase to secondary stats and ability to break out of stuns.
Dwarf
Enhanced critical strikes, defensive stone form.
Worgen
Moves quicker, increased critical chance.
Orc
Stuns effects don't last as long, pet damage increased.
Mag'har Orc
Reduced debuff duration, pet health increased.
Tauren
Stunning stomp, more health, enhanced critical strikes.
Being one of the core classes, you can designate any race as your hunter and perform well. However, there are a few that may perform better on their racial abilities alone.
- Human is always a good standard pick, as you receive a buff to whatever secondary stat you want, along with a loss of control ability.
- Dwarf, Worgen, and Tauren are all decent picks for increasing your critical strike, and they each provide more defensives, more mobility, or more survivability, respectively.
- Orc and Mag'har Orc are good picks if you'd like to have your hunter pet enabled, though marksmanship hunter often goes without one for increased damage.
Stat Priority
As a hunter, your primary stat will be agility. This is where all of your ranged damage will come from, and your class cannot function without it. While it's easy to get lost in the equations of secondary stats, you should always be thinking about increasing your agility first.
Once your primary stat has been squared away, good secondary stats to think about are critical strike and mastery. Crits are always handy to have on a hunter, and marksmanship mastery is extraordinarily powerful, as it increases your range and the damage of all of your abilities. Versatility is also viable, as it increases your overall damage while decreasing your damage taken.
Gearing Up For PvP
Though it may be tempting to jump into PvP as soon as you hit max level, you'll find that gear and item level makes all the difference in PvP, just as it does with any kind of endgame content. Before you can hope to begin laying your enemies to waste in battlegrounds and arenas, getting better gear should be your first priority.
World Quests are often handy in spiking your item level once you've hit max, and they should be the first place that you look. However, in Dragonflight, World Quests have been changed to only appear once every few days, so they may not be your best source for long.
You can also find good gear through dungeons, with normals giving 340, heroics offering 359, and mythics handing out 370 item level gear. However, these pieces are often more geared toward PvE content than PvP.
The best PvP-specific gear in Dragonflight is bought with honor, a currency earned through wins or losses in battlegrounds and arenas. These sets can be found in the Gladiator's Refuge in Valdrakken, where it's sold by Seltherex, the honor quartermaster. These pieces of gear may be 340 item level normally, but they scale to 411 when you enter a battleground, arena, or duel.
There are two different sets to choose from: one that offers haste and versatility, and one that offers critical strike and versatility.
You'll want to pick up the second, as haste isn't as applicable on marksmanship hunter as critical strike is.
Gems And Enchants
Once you've picked out your gear, you can enchant and socket gems that increase your agility, critical strike, and mastery further.
Name
Description
Enchants
Enchant Chest – Accelerated Agility
Boosts agility and speed.
Enchant Ring – Devotion of Critical Strike
Boosts critical strike.
Enchant Ring – Devotion of Mastery
Boosts mastery.
Enchant Weapon – Sophic Devotion
Periodically gives a temporary boost to agility.
Gems
Skillful Illimited Diamond
Boosts agility and mastery.
Sensei's Neltharite
Boosts mastery and critical strike.
Sensei's Alexstraszite
Boosts mastery and critical strike.
Related: World Of Warcraft: Dragonflight – Where To Find All Spirit Beast Hunter Pets
PvP Talent Tree
As a marksmanship hunter, your primary ability will be Aimed Shot, and as such, you'll want your talents to reflect that. You can easily set up a sniper build by concentrating your talents around this one ability, causing you to deal anywhere from 15 percent to 50 percent of your target's health with one cast.
- Ranger's Finesse works well as a PvP talent, allowing you to get your healing out much quicker.
- Survival Tactics is also needed, as it dispels and reduces damage by 90 percent for a short amount of time.
- Your third PvP talent should be Trueshot Mastery for the 20-second reduced cooldown alone.
Rotation
Marksmanship hunter's playstyle is simple and easy to understand, revolving around spending and recovering Focus, your class resource. Luckily, this is all done through attacking, so there's no need to worry about sacrificing your DPS to recover Focus.
You'll want to begin your rotation with Aimed Shot, as your talents allow it to do increased damage when the target is at full health. Spend one or both charges, then use your procs of Chimaera Shot to fully spend your Focus.
When it's depleted, using Trueshot will recover 100 percent of your Focus and boost the damage and cooldowns of Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire. Use Death Chakram to make the target take increased damage, then spend Focus with Aimed Shot and recover it back with Rapid Fire for the duration of Trueshot.
When Trueshot is over and Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire is on cooldown, use Steady Shot and Chimaera Shot to deal idle damage until those big spenders are back up. Then, repeat until the target is low, and execute them with Kill Shot when they're below 20 percent health.
Things that have long cooldowns and aren't part of your core rotation, like Wailing Arrow or Double Tap, should be used whenever they're available.
Utility Tips
Although hunters can deal an incredible amount of damage with their core rotation, you'll want to be thinking about more than just topping the damage charts. Hunters don't have much utility afforded to them relative to the other classes, but what you do have is important.
- Use Freezing Trap, Tar Trap, and Steel Trap to keep your enemies away from you. The farther away you are from them, the more likely you are to get through your complete rotation.
- Flare is a great way to unstealth any rogues or druids that you suspect may be nearby.
- You should use Camouflage whenever you win a fight to safely recover health.
- Paired with Survival Tactics, using Feign Death will allow you to tank through any heavy-hitting spells.
- Be sure to macro your Counter Shot to interrupt any spellcasters you come across, especially mages.