Marksmanship Hunter PVE Guide – Cataclysm

Welcome to the PVE Marksmanship Hunter Guide for World of Warcraft Cataclysm!

This guide will teach you how to play a Marksmanship Hunter in a raid. It covers talents, glyphs, gems, enchantments, rotation, and gameplay tips.

This talent build offers AoE options alongside the standard Marksmanship talents.

Prime Glyphs

• Glyph of Arcane Shot
• Glyph of Rapid Fire
• Glyph of Steady Shot

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Disengage
• Glyph of Mending
• Glyph of Trap Launcher

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Feign Death
• Glyph of Lesser Proportion
• Glyph of Revive Pet

Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.

• Meta – Agile Shadowspirit Diamond
• Red/Prismatic – Delicate Queen’s Garnet, Delicate Inferno Ruby, or Delicate Chimera’s Eye (Jewelcrafting)
• Yellow
  • If Socket Bonus is not at least +10 Agility – Delicate Queen’s Garnet or Delicate Inferno Ruby
  • Otherwise, Deadly Lava Coral or Deadly Ember Topaz
• Blue
  • If Socket Bonus is not at least +10 Agility, Delicate Queen’s Garnet or Delicate Inferno Ruby
  • Otherwise, Glinting Shadow Spinel or Glinting Demonseye

• Head – Arcanum of the Ramkahen
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal or Swiftsteel Inscription (Inscription)
• Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Major Agility or Enchant Cloak – Greater Critical Strike or Swordguard Embroidery (Tailoring)
• Chest – Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats
• Bracers – Enchant Bracer – Agility or Draconic Embossment – Agility (Leatherworking) with Socket Bracer (Blacksmithing)
• Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Major Agility with Synapse Springs (Engineering) or Socket Gloves (Blacksmithing)
• Waist – Ebonsteel Belt Buckle or Grounded Plasma Shield (Engineering)
• Legs – Dragonscale Leg Armor or Dragonbone Leg Reinforcements (Leatherworking)
• Boots – Enchant Boots – Assassin’s Step
• Rings – Enchant Ring – Agility (Enchanting)
• Weapon – Enchant 2H Weapon – Mighty Agility
• Ranged – Flintlocke’s Woodchucker

• Agility
• Hit Rating (to 8% hit cap)
• Critical Strike
• Haste
• Mastery

Have Aspect of the Hawk up while DPSing, unless your raid requires Nature Resistance, in which case you can use Aspect of the Wild. Aspect of the Fox can be useful when you have to move a lot.

Single Target Rotation

• Use Hunter’s Mark
• Use and maintain Serpent Sting (refreshed by Chimera Shot, so generally only once is required)
• Use Steady Shot twice if there is less than 4 seconds on Improved Steady Shot
• Use Chimera Shot on cooldown
• Used Aimed Shot! when instant cast (when you have 5 charges of Master Marskman)
• Use Steady Shot to generate focus
• Use Aimed Shot! while not instant cast or use Arcane Shot, to dump focus

Multi Target Rotation

Use this rotation vs 4 or more enemies.

• Use Steady Shot twice to maintain Improved Steady Shot
• Use Multi-Shot as often as you can
• Use Aimed Shot! when instant cast
• Use Kill Shot
• Use Steady Shot if you do not have the focus for Multi-Shot

Cooldowns

• Use Rapid Fire with Call of the Wild, but not with Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp or Bestial Wrath
• Use Readiness right after Rapid Fire, to reset Readiness‘s cooldown