Marksmanship (WoW Talent Tree)  

See Hunter Talent Builds

Marksmanship represents the hunter's emphasis on ranged weaponry, which is the cornerstone of the class. Even for hunters that do not use marksmanship as their primary talent tree, it is quite likely that they spend as many as 20 points into marksmanship anyway, since the tree symbolizes the DPS power of the class even if it isn't necessarily the strongest DPS tree.

Primary uses

Marksmanship is presently regarded as the premier PvP spec, since it gives the hunter the highest personal (non-pet) DPS and two critical interruption abilities. It is also being murmured in some circles that with the way growl actually functions, that marksmanship might actually be a better spec for leveling because the pet generates a higher amount of threat, however this is mostly true at higher levels where the hunter has a noticeable amount of attack power from their equipment.

Many of the more effective marksmanship talents have very simple, brief descriptions that mask their power a bit.

Tier 1

• Improved Concussive Shot (2 points) - Increases the duration of your Concussive Shot's daze effect by 1/2 sec.'''
• Focused Aim (3 points) - Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Steady Shot by 23/46/70%, and increases your chance to hit by 1/2/3%.'''
• Lethal Shots (5 points) - Increases the hunter's ranged crit rate by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Tier 2

(5 points must already be spent in the tree)

• Improved Hunter's Mark (3) - Increases the bonus attack power granted by your Hunter's Mark ability by 10/20/30%, and reduces the mana cost of your Hunter's Mark ability by 33/66/100%.'''
• Careful Aim (3) - Increases your ranged attack power by an amount equal to 33/66/100% of your total Intellect..
• Mortal Shots (5) - Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your ranged abilities by 6/12/18/24/30%.

Tier 3

(10 points required)

• Go For the Throat (2) - Your ranged critical hits cause your pet to generate 25/50 Focus.
• Improved Arcane Shot (3) - Increases the damage done by your Arcane Shot by 5/10/15%.'''
• Aimed Shot (1) - An aimed shot that increases ranged damage by 408 and reduces healing done to that target by 50%. Lasts 10 sec.'''
• Rapid Killing (2) - Reduces the cooldown of your Rapid Fire ability by 1/2 min. In addition, after killing an opponent that yields experience or honor, your next Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot or Chimera Shot causes 10/20% additional damage. Lasts 20 sec.'''

Tier 4

(15 points required)

• Improved Stings (3) - Increases the damage done by your Serpent Sting and Wyvern Sting by 30% and the mana drained by your Viper Sting by 30%. In addition, reduces the chance your Stings will be dispelled by 30%.
• Efficiency (5) - Reduces the Mana cost of your Shots and Stings by 2/4/6/8/10%.

Tier 5

(20 points required)

• Concussive Barrage (3) - Your successful Auto Shot, Multi-Shot and Volley attacks have a 6% chance to Daze the target for 4 sec.
• Readiness (1) - When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your other Hunter abilities.
• Barrage (3) - Enchances the hunters multiple target abilities, raising damage on Multi-shot and Volley.

Tier 6

(25 points required)

• Combat Experience (2) - Increases the hunter's intellect by 4%.
• Ranged Weapon Specialization (5) - All ranged damage is increased by 5%.

Tier 7

(30 points required)

• Piercing Shots (3) - Your Steady Shot and Aimed Shot abilities ignore 2/4/6% of your target's armor.
• Trueshot Aura (1) - Working just like a paladin aura, Trueshot Aura adds a set amount of attack power to all party members.
• Improved Barrage (3) - One of the rare times a talent "improves" another talent, Improved Barrage adds 12% to the crit rate on Multi-Shot and prevents Volley from being interrupted prematurely by taking damage.

Tier 8

(35 points required)

• Master Marksman (5) - Increases your critical strike chance by 5%, and reduces the Mana cost of your Steady Shot by 25%.
• Rapid Recuperation (2) - Reduces the mana and focus cost of all shots and abilities by you and your pet by 60% while under the effect of Rapid Fire, and you gain 2% of your mana every 2 sec for 6 sec when you gain Rapid Killing

Tier 9

(40 points required)

• Silencing Shot (1) - Instant shot that silences a target for 3 seconds. Reasonably short cooldown.
• ''' Wild Quiver (3) - You have a 10% chance to shoot an additional shot when doing damage with your auto shot, dealing 50% Nature damage. Wild Quiver consumes no ammo.
• Improved Steady Shot (3) - Your Steady Shot hits have a 15% chance to increase the damage done by your next Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot or Chimera Shot by 15%, and reduce the mana cost of your next Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot or Chimera Shot by 20%.

Tier 10

(45 points required)

• Marked for Death (5) - Increases your damage done by your shots and the damage done by your pet's special abilities by 5% on marked targets, and increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Kill Shot or Chimera Shot by 10%.

Tier 11

(50 points required)

• Chimera Shot (1) - You deal 125% weapon damage, refreshing the current Sting on your target and triggering an effect:
  

Serpent Sting - Instantly deals 40% of the damage done by your Serpent Sting.

Viper Sting - Instantly restores mana to you equal to 60% of the total amount drained by your Viper Sting.

Scorpid Sting - Attempts to Disarm the target for 10 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once per 1 minute.

Typical Points Spent

The points spent into marksmanship depend on if the player has a bent on PvP or PvE. There are a few different acceptable ways to spend talent points, but one possibility for PvP is:

• 5/5 Lethal Shots
• 5/5 Efficiency
• 2/2 Go For the Throat
• 1/1 Aimed Shot
• 2/5 Improved Arcane Shot
• 5/5 Mortal Shots
• 5/5 Improved Stings
• Scatter Shot
• 3/3 Barrage
• 5/5 Ranged Weapon Specialization
• Trueshot Aura
• 3/3 Improved Barrage
• 5/5 Master Marksman
• Silencing Shot
• 3/3 Humanoid Slaying
• 3/3 Hawk Eye
• 2/2 Savage Strikes
• 3/3 Entrapment
• 5/5 Survivalist
• Deterrence

There are many other ways the hunter might set up their points, dropping Go For the Throat or Improved Stings for other early talents in marksmanship or in Careful Aim, choosing some of the other second tier survival talents, or redirecting some survival points into the first two rows of beast mastery. This is but one example.

If a player wants to participate in PvP, but is more of a PvE player, and decides to make a PvE marksmanship build as a compromise, a more well-rounded build might look like this:

• 5/5 Improved Aspect of the Hawk (not shown)
• 2/2 Focused Fire (not shown)
• 5/5 Lethal Shots
• 5/5 Efficiency
• 3/5 Improved Hunter's Mark
• 2/2 Go For the Throat
• Aimed Shot
• 5/5 Mortal Shots
• Scatter Shot
• 3/3 Barrage
• 5/5 Ranged Weapon Specialization
• 3/3 Improved Barrage
• 1/3 Careful Aim (or 3 here and 1 in Improved Barrage)
• Trueshot Aura
• 5/5 Master Marksman
• Silencing Shot
• 3/3 Monster Slaying
• 3/3 Humanoid Slaying
• 3/3 Hawk Eye
• 1/3 Deflection
• 2/2 Clever Traps
• Deterrence

See Hunter Talent Builds for other common and not-so-common specs.

Common Questions

How do I play a Marksman?
All hunters play more or less the same during a group or raid, with the exception of the shot rotations used by Beast Mastery. Marksmen have an increased emphasis on their own personal damage, and will often be placed in a physical DPS group to maximize Trueshot Aura. The most noticeable aspect of marksmanship as a playstyle is the increased dependence on mana. Using a 1:1.5 rotation, but only having Efficiency for mana conservation, the marksmanship hunter will look for intellect and mana regen on their gear to an extent, and probably carry more mana potions and mana oils. During PvP, the emphasis is on controlling the field, and a marksman will likely be using Viper Sting to drain the opposition's mana, as well as Scatter Shot and Silencing Shot to help control casters while frost trapping approaching melee as best as they are able to.

How can you say Beast Mastery is better for PvE than Marksmanship?
Beast Mastery does a lot more damage with their pet. Marksmanship does a little more damage with their hunter. The end result is that the total damage is more from the beast master. The difference in hunter DPS is smaller than it was perhaps designed to be due to the mechanics of steady shot, which forces hunters into cycling their abilities into certain shot rotations, and the narrow spectrum of ranged weapon speeds found in Burning Crusade. If Blizzard were to create a decent weapon with a speed faster than 2.6 to counteract the side benefits of Serpent's Swiftness, this very well might not be the case.

Why isn't in the sample builds? How come you used instead?
There is a decent amount of flexibility in each build. Also, there are certain talents that are good for PvP, good for PvE, or good for both. These builds take more of a central point of view, but including Improved Concussive Shot in your PvP build or Surefooted in your PvE build, for example, are legitimate choices. There isn't one pure cookie cutter spec.

What gear do I look for as a marksman?
All hunters generally look for the same gear, with slightly different attributes they emphasize a little more. Marksmanship hunters are perhaps the only hunters that actively want intellect on their equipment, since if they have Careful Aim, the attack power benefit is almost half of what it is for agility, and it supports their ailing mana pool. They will want sources of attack power, to be sure, but because their attack power will already be high, a decent emphasis on crit rate is also important.

Why do marksmanship hunters have stronger growls?
This has to do with the way growl works. Contrary to what Blizzard has said about the mechanics of growl, growl creates a certain amount of threat and gets a bonus based on the attack power of the hunter and the pet once they pass a certain point.[1] Because a marksmanship hunter has naturally higher attack power, they have a greater amount of bonus, plus their pets have even more attack power because of Trueshot Aura.

This should come as a relief to marksmanship hunters, since they do more damage with their bow or gun. The spec this really hurts is survival, since they do not receive much benefit from the attack power bonus, crit very frequently, and do not have enhanced pets like beast mastery.

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