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I am feeling so lost on my Marksmanship hunter! I haven't had a chance to play him since the pre-patch class changes, and suddenly I can't play him well at all anymore.

Questing on Veph as BM has been challenging at times with the changes, and with how much more fragile pets are, but I haven't had any problems and I've been having a lot of fun honestly!

Tonight though I decided to start in on my MM hunter and it just...feels awful! Maybe it's just the playstyle I'm not used to, but I feel like paper and my pet is even worse (I know ideally they shouldn't run with a pet but I can't give mine up).

Does anyone have any tips or talent recommendations? Mostly in terms of questing. I'm just not liking the abilities very much right now, though if someone's had more success I'd love to hear what sort of rotation you've been using!

Thanks!
-signed a BM hunter out of her element

Personally I found I immensely disliked MM during beta and pre-patch. However, yesterday I got my Thas'dorah and somehow... it worked. Maining MM right now. Here is how I roll it, hopefully it can help you out:

Build:
Lvl 15 tier: Lone Wolf in party / Steady Focus + pet when solo
Lvl 30: Lock'n'Load in party / Black Arrow when solo
Lvl 45: Posthaste
Lvl 60: Patient Sniper
Lvl 75: Binding Shot
Lvl 90: A Murder of Crows
Lvl 100: Piercing Shot

A lot of builds out there are focused around Sidewinders + Patient Sniper + Lone Wolf/Steady Focus, but I found myself hating the talent with passion. It gave me a lot of down time between Sidewinders' cooldowns, despite great damage output, making the spec feel boring and clanky and altogether un-enjoyable for me.

Next thing I tried was to drop Sidewinders and Patient Sniper and instead go for Sentinel + Piercing Shot. It wasn't bad, in cases of bad RNG I could always pop a charge of Sentinel to refresh marks + it worked great in AoE to build up stacks of Vulnerable, but... in the end, it also didn't work out for me, although in this case I cannot put my finger on why, unlike Sidewinders'.

On a whim I tried out the build above and it just... fits for me.

Single target (with pet):
Opening with Piercing Shot, followed by AMoC and Windburst. Triple Arcane Shot to trigger Steady Focus. From there depending on RNG. Marked Shot whenever it procs, after it makes target Vulnerable at least one Aimed Shot, with enough Focus 2 in row, it has just enough time for both to be buffed with Deadeye, then back to Arcane Shots.
Due to Marks' pet being so... squishy, I usually hold Black Arrow until it's needed to take aggro off of my pet and continue ping-ponging the mob between Dark Minion and the pet.

AoE:
Drop Binding Shot between myself and group of mobs, use Piercing Shot on furthest target. Pop Trueshot if available and follow though routine of Multi-shot -> Marked Shot spamming. Loot

That's pretty much it. I found party gameplay with Lock'n'Load to be more enjoyable than with Black Arrow, admittedly. If the pet wasn't so squishy even in Tenacity, it would have been interesting to try out Lock'n'Load solo with pet out. But alas Black Arrow is very needed to keep the pet alive. Hope it works out for you

On all specs I also dragged out Mend Pet and stuffed it alongside damaging abilities to use it on CD more easily (or to not have an OH SHI--- moment when pet dies and I'm fumbling around in Pet Utility in panic, as Mend Pet automatically switches to Revive Pet), but that's neither here nor there

Edit: Next artifact trait for me, Mark of the Windrunner, will make Windburst apply Dead Eye as well, which will slightly change and smoothen out the rotation. Now I only need to actually get to it with the Artifact Power crumbs...

Thank you so much for the input! I'm going to give this a try. I was using the Sidewinders talent as well and maybe that's the thing that just isn't working for me, so I'm going to see how it feels with Arcane Shot again.

I also hate sidewinders with a passion. It looks stupid (why are all our abilities either boring or actually ridiculous when all the other classes got such neat anims), and the downtime is abysmal. Plus I just can't get past only having three buttons (plus barrage and who in their right mind would QUEST with barrage...) Maybe I'll give this a try (if only because I want to see the quest for Thas'dorah but have been too unhappy with being locked into Marks to do it).

Nachtwulf wrote:I also hate sidewinders with a passion. It looks stupid (why are all our abilities either boring or actually ridiculous when all the other classes got such neat anims), and the downtime is abysmal. Plus I just can't get past only having three buttons (plus barrage and who in their right mind would QUEST with barrage...) Maybe I'll give this a try (if only because I want to see the quest for Thas'dorah but have been too unhappy with being locked into Marks to do it).

I would depending on how many mobs I could get away with fighting at once. But then I've never been in my right mind, though I'd argue I am in my right mind and it's everyone else that isn't

But seriously, Marksmanship is great for raiding. Never been fond of it for questing, though, especially in it's current form. If I want cast times (referring to Aimed Shot), I can play my warlock or mage.

With more Artifact Traits and better gear, the rotation becomes smoother and more enjoyable. Now at 110 I have enough Haste to not really need Steady Focus in most situations.

And here is the thing:
Since I tend to open with Piercing Shot, the third talent in level 15 row (Careful Aim) doesn't work out for me in single target situations, as most targets tend to drop below 80% with the opener.

Later in the day will swap Steady Focus for Careful Aim and Piercing Shot for Trick Shot and see how it works out since after getting Mark of the Windrunner trait (Windburst applies Deadeye / Vulnerable) it is possible to get a very strong opener with Windburst -> 2 x Aimed Shot, which would be modified by both Careful Aim and Trick Shot. It also might prove to be a nice change to always thinking "Okay, I'd need 100 Focus in 3... 2..."