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 (5 points) - Gives your character a chance to stun while using Concussive Shot, which can be handy in PvP, but not useful at all in PvE.
• Lethal Shots (5 points) - Increases the hunter's ranged crit rate by 5%.

Tier 2

(5 points must already be spent in the tree)

• Improved Hunter's Mark (5) - The hunter's mark ability will also help melee, but only the original amount on the ability and not the extra attack power that builds from attacks. This is handy in a group or raid, but otherwise it just helps your pet a little bit.
• Efficiency (5) - Reduces the amount of mana the hunter consumes on most abilities by 10%, which increases the longevity of the hunter's small mana pool.
• Thick Hide (3) - Adds 20% to pet's armor and 10% to hunter's. Often taken for soloing to help with pet survival.

Tier 3

(10 points required)

• Go For the Throat (2) - Gives the pet additional focus every time the hunter lands a crit. With a high enough crit rate, the pet will basically never run out of focus, meaning they can claw or gore all day long.
• Improved Arcane Shot (5) - Reduces Arcane Shot's cooldown from 6 seconds to 5 seconds. Arcane Shot can represent most of the hunter's DPS while on the run, and has some minor effects on shot rotations.
• Aimed Shot (1) - Once a very crucial part of hunter damage, Aimed Shot is now mostly used as just a powerful attack to start a fight. It also adds a reduction to healing on that target for a short time.
• Rapid Killing (2) - Reduces Rapid Fire's cooldown from 5 minutes to 3, and gives the hunter additional damage on their opener while grinding.

Tier 4

(15 points required)

• Improved Stings (5) - Increases the effectiveness of sting abilities slightly. This is used most frequently in conjunction with Viper Sting during arena battles.
• Mortal Shots (5) - Hunter crits normally do an additional 100% of their normal damage (or 200% total.) Mortal Shots raises this amount by 30%, so shots do 230% of their normal damage. This is an extremely vital DPS talent.

Tier 5

(20 points required)

• Concussive Barrage (3) - Occasionally Dazes targets with your autoshot. Not very useful.
• Scatter Shot (1) - Activated ability that immediately confuses an enemy for 4 seconds, buying the hunter time to move or lay a trap. Scatter Shot has a shorter range than most abilities, but also works in melee range.
• 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 2%.
• Ranged Weapon Specialization (5) - All ranged damage is increased by 5%.

Tier 7

(30 points required)

• Careful Aim (3) - Increases the hunter's attack power by 45% of their intellect.
• 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 attack power by 10%.

Tier 9

(40 points required)

• Silencing Shot (1) - Instant shot that silences a target for 3 seconds. Reasonably short cooldown.

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.