Last updated on Jun 10, 2024 at 21:10by Azortharion131 comments
Welcome to our comprehensive guide on the Marksmanship Hunter changes in World of Warcraft's latest expansion, "The War Within."This page is designed to help you navigate the new changes, optimize your gameplay, and get the most out of your Marksmanship Hunter in PvE environments.
In this guide, you'll find detailed breakdowns of the new Hero Talent Trees for Marksmanship Hunter. We'll explore the most significant updates,and offer insights into how these changes will impact your overall playstyle.Whether you're a veteran Marksmanship Hunter or new to the class, our goal is to equip you with the knowledge and tools needed to excel in "The War Within."
1.
Marksmanship Hunter: The War Within Expansion Preview
Welcome to our War Within expansion guide for MarksmanshipHunter. Ahead of launch, this page will contain everythingyou need to know about the Marksmanship Hunter spec in theforthcoming The War Within expansion, including changes, Hero TalentTrees, and some light predictions on the state of the spec going intothe expansion.
This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, withregular changes expected as updates hit the War Within beta. This isnot meant to be a launch guide for Marksmanship Hunter, butinstead serves as a resource for you to keep up to date with how thespec is evolving on Beta, and what you can expect from its playstyleand feel on launch.
2.
The War Within Changes for Marksmanship Hunter
2.1.
Hunter Core Changes
The Hunter Class Tree has received a substantial rework, with theentirety of the Class Talent Tree as well as all Spec Trees havingbeen redesigned. Below, I have listed some of the most central changesthat will affect your gameplay, decision-making, and power in The WarWithin.
- Survival of the Fittest is now a 30% baseline damagereduction. Through other talents, it can get a 1.5-minute cooldown, 2charges, and an 8-second duration. This is a huge boost to Huntersurvivability!
- Counter Shot can now, via talents, get a 22-secondcooldown, down from 24.
- Tranquilizing Shot can now, via Talents, either remove anadditional Magic effect on cast, or have a 5-second shorter cooldownif it only removes one Enrage effect.
- Intimidation can now, via Talents, hit up to 2 additionaltargets for 50% effectiveness, and not require a pet to cast.
- Explosive Shot is now placed in the Class Tree in such away that all Hunter specs will be using it, all the time.
- Feign Death and Aspect of the Turtle can now, via aTalent, remove all Poison and Disease effects from you. This isextremely powerful in some niche scenarios.
- Bursting Shot is now available in the Class Tree.
- Intimidation and Binding Shot can now, viaTalents, have their cooldowns reduced significantly via Scrappy.
- In addition, several Talents that used to be 2-pointers are now1-pointers. This means that we can have all of the DPS-related Talentsin the Class Tree, and most of the utility without having to choose.There are other changes too, but these are the most important ones.
2.2.
Marksmanship Hunter Changes
The Marksmanship Hunter Spec Tree has also been reworkedfrom the ground up. Below, I will list all of the new talents and someinteresting interactions and outcomes from the redesigned layout ofthe Tree.
- Precise Shots is now a 1-pointer, and also reduces theFocus cost of Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot by 50%. Italso always grants 2 stacks.
- The new talent, Fan the Hammer, gives Rapid Fire 3additional shots, from 7 to 10. This translates to a roughly 43%damage increase to Rapid Fire, which will do a lot of damagein The War Within.
- Barrage is now a Marksmanship Tree Talent, but that isnot the most interesting part..
- Rapid Fire Barrage is the most interesting part. Itessentially converts Barrage into a "super- Rapid Fire" thatautomatically ricochets for 30% of normal damage. These Rapid Firescan, in turn, Trick Shots. The cooldown of Barrage isincreased to 1 minute when this is used. A very powerful burst AoEbutton.
- Lone Wolf now increases damage by 5% when you do not havea pet, down from 10%. This makes using a pet far more viable (butstill inferior) on single-target especially, enough so that we mayprefer to use a pet for its Leech or defensive at a very small DPSloss. It will still be a noticeable loss on AoE, however.
- Hydra's Bite is now a Marksmanship Tree Talent. It is aslightly nerfed version of the old Class Tree version, as the cleaving Serpent Stings will only happen if the main target of your Aimed Shot is already affected by one.
- Legacy of the Windrunners has been redesigned — TheWind Arrows fired deal far more damage, and ticks of Rapid Fire (10 per target with Fan the Hammer) now havea 5% chance to shoot additional Wind Arrows.
- Wailing Arrow has been redesigned — After 20 WindArrows (from the redesigned Legacy of the Windrunners) have beenfired, your Aimed Shot button turns into Wailing Arrowfor one cast. Wailing Arrow now deals ~56% more damage than Aimed Shot on a single-target, while its AoE damage willdepend a bit on implementation. The ability is currently pretty buggyon the Beta.
- Eagletalon's True Focus has been redesigned — TheFocus cost reduction has been increased to 50% for just one point, andit also causes Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot to fire asecond time for 30% effectiveness, ensuring that a single cast alwaysconsumes both stacks of Precise Shots.
- The new talent Small Game Hunter increases Multi-Shot damage by 100%, and Explosive Shot damageby 25%.
- The new talent Kill Zone effectively turns Volley into an 8% damage increase to targets in its effect.You can also ignore line of sight to enemies in your Volley.
- Readiness has been altered for the new Wailing Arrow. Casting Trueshot now also grants a Wailing Arrow, and Wailing Arrow resets the cooldownof Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire entirely.
- In addition to these changes, all Talents in the Tree have been reorganized, which has significant downstream effects on the builds we are able to create.
2.3.
Systems Changes
Aside from the changes to Marksmanship Hunter's corefeatures, The War Within also has major implications for all specsthanks to the Hero Talent Tree system, new tier sets, and the naturalreduction in secondary stats when entering a new expansion.
Marksmanship Hunter gets to choose between theSentinel and Dark Ranger Hero Talent Trees. In sectionsbelow, we will talk more deeply about the implications of these HeroTalent Trees for the spec, and some thoughts on what looks strong andweak ahead of launch.
3.
Marksmanship Hunter Hero Talents in The War Within
SentinelDark Ranger
Sentinel Hero Talents for MarksmanshipHunter in The War Within
The Sentinel Hero Tree Talents are primarily based on the passiveinteractions of the core Sentinel mechanic, with the restof your kit. Extremely powerful effects like Symphonic Arsenaland Lunar Storm also add heavy passive damage.
Gameplay-wise, expect an almost entirely passive kit that regularlygives you tiny slivers of Focus via Invigorating Pulse, andpotential cooldown reduction on Trueshot via the Sentinel Watch choice node. Combining this choice node with Calling the Shots can enable Trueshot cooldowns ofclose to 1 minute!
Power-wise, expect a powerful all-rounder that "just works" for alltypes of content with no management required. Not only does theSentinel kit do serious damage on the Beta right now, but it alsoamplifies all of your other damage passively via Lunar Storm.
Defensively, Sentinel is pretty good. Don't Look Back hasextremely high uptime and will replenish itself constantly, especiallyon AoE, and in high Mythic+ you can expect to have the 10% absorbshield fully stacked for most one-shot mechanics.
Dark Ranger Hero Talents for Marksmanship Hunter in TheWar Within
The Dark Ranger Hero Tree Talents are primarily based on its coreability, Black Arrow, and its resets of Aimed Shot, afree Kill Shot when you press Black Arrow, passive damageincreases to our main abilities, and a Dark Hound pet thatoccasionally charges in to do Shadow damage.
Gameplay-wise, expect a mostly passive kit that occasionally givesyou cooldown resets of Aimed Shot and Kill Shot. Youwill be pressing Black Arrow on cooldown, followed by Kill Shot, and then just passively enjoy the extra Aimed Shots that you get.
Power-wise, Dark Ranger does not look very exciting on its surface.Extra Aimed Shot are not as exciting or high-value as you might expectwith Aimed Shot's low base damage. A lot of the nodes here are verysingle-target oriented as well, with the free Kill Shot from Death Shade being single-target, at least without Razor Fragments, as well as the Dark Hounds from Shadow Hounds, and of course, Black Arrow itself.
Defensively, however, Dark Ranger is by far the strongest choicefor Marksmanship Hunter thanks to Smoke Screen— A free, full-power Survival of the Fittestattached to your low-cooldown Exhilaration is simply insane. Survival of the Fittest activating Exhilarationat 50%, as well as a full-power Rejuvenating Wind, is alsoquite strong, and pairs well with its reduced cooldown in the WarWithin.
4.
Marksmanship Hunter Tier Set in The War Within
Below are the Tier Set Bonuses for Marksmanship Hunter inThe War Within. After the wording of the bonus, you will find a briefnote/commentary that is italicized.
- Hunter Marksmanship 11.0 Class Set 2pc — Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot damage increased by 20%.This pairs fairly well with the new Precise Shots, Eagletalon's True Focus, and in the case of Multi-Shot, Small Game Hunter.
- Hunter Marksmanship 11.0 Class Set 4pc — Consuming Precise Shots increases the damage of your next Aimed Shot by 10%, stacking up to 2 times. Thanks to Eagletalon's True Focus, a single Arcane Shot or Multi-Shot weaved between Aimed Shots during Trueshot will maximize benefit of this set bonus.
Both set bonuses are completely passive and are not expected tohave any gameplay impact.
How Good is the Marksmanship Hunter Tier Bonus in The WarWithin?
The 2-piece bonus is numerically very modest. On single-target,expect values of ~2-3%. In AoE scenarios, however, it can be upwardsof 4-5%.
The 4-piece bonus is not straightforward to quantify. Onsingle-target, expect around 3-4%, while on AoE, you can typicallyexpect much less, about 1-2%.
The total expected value of the Tier Set is around 5-7%. Overall,this is fairly weak. Aimed Shot simply does not do a lot ofdamage in AoE scenarios, where Rapid Fire and Multi-Shot tend to dominate. In single-target, Arcane Shot and Aimed Shot are both lackluster.
Some builds, especially single-target ones with Readiness, basically never haveto cast Arcane Shot, reducing the value of both set bonuses tonear-zero.
5.
Marksmanship Hunter Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
- Significantly more durable thanks to 1-minute, 2-charge Survival of the Fittest.
- Very high AoE damage, beyond just burst.
- Less of a punishment for having a pet out.
- Short Trueshot cooldowns are more easily achieved.
Weaknesses
- Expensive, hard-to-reach AoE talents make it impossible to make a satisfying AoE build.
- Having to Multi-Shot every other global in Trueshot feels unsatisfying.
6.
Changelog
- 18 Jun. 2024: Page added.
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