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.
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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.
(5 points must already be spent in the tree)
(10 points required)
(15 points required)
(20 points required)
(25 points required)
(30 points required)
(35 points required)
(40 points required)
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:
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:
See Hunter Talent Builds for other common and not-so-common specs.
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 benefit 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.