Hunter builds

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Overview

Hunters are known for their pets, their long-range, sustained DPS, and their traps.

The three trees of a Hunter are all viable for a hunter to choose for leveling, player versus player combat, or end game raids or instances. The three trees all have options to offer for utility, open DPS, and survivability.

Leveling Specs

All hunter specs are viable for leveling, although most hunters choose Beast Mastery. Considered to be the fastest leveling build, as uptime is limited only by the health of your high-armor pet. The choice of pet for your spec is also very important, as Beast Mastery talents better equip a tanking pet.

A helpful leveling macro for this build is:

#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=combat/10/modifier Serpent Sting, Arcane Shot, Concussive Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Arcane shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot 

This is a macro that can be continuously used over and over and is good as soon as you get steady shot.

Example Beast Mastery Leveling Spec

A recommendation for how the talents might be placed as you level up:

• Level 30 (21/0/0)
• Level 45 (36/0/0)
• Level 60 (51/0/0)
• Level 80 (55/16/0) [Current as of 3.2.2]

Spirit Bond will greatly reduce downtime, as well as Endurance, Thick Hide and Improved Mend Pet for pet survivability. As your pet will also do a large amount of damage and you are very vulnerable without him, you may choose to put points in Improved Revive Pet.

Pets

There are many pets with different strengths. There are 3 sorts of pets: Ferocity (aggressive), Tenacity (defensive) and Cunning (a mix, mostly used in PvP). Here are some pet talent builds that can be used in PvP.

• Ferocity: Wolf
• Tenacity: Bear
• Cunning: Bird of Prey

Beast Mastery

Beast Mastery offers decent DPS in the game for hunters in the raiding environment, but is substantially behind Marksmanship and Survival.

Example Specs

• 53/18/0

This build requires Glyph of Steady Shot. (Paledine (US) Dragonblight)

PvP Specs

• 42/13/16

A PvP spec that's focused on your pet and survival.

• 52/8/11

A PvP spec that will make sure you get high DPS and survival with your pet.

Disadvantages of Beast Mastery

A large part of the Hunter's damage is imbued in the pet, who must be alive in order to use Bestial Wrath/Beast Within. This is frequently seen as a fatal flaw to the build. This is especially the case in arenas, where your pet will often be the main target of the opponent. Seeing as it scales only very little with your armor and stamina, it makes an easy target which severely cripples a BM hunter. In raids, the hunter alone should have no trouble keeping their pet alive with Mend Pet and careful control of the pet's actions (treat your pet as a player, if you wouldn't draw aggro from the Main Tank, neither should it). Nevertheless, Beast Mastery play-style requires a significant amount of diligence in managing the pet's actions and threats on top of managing threats to the hunter.

Marksmanship

The strength of this tree lies in burst damage. Your shots are far slower than that of the BM hunter, but you hit quite a bit harder. This tree is also the land of PVP talents. Marksmanship builds tend to be roughly equivalent in overall damage output to Survival builds at lower gear levels. At higher gear levels, marksmanship pulls ahead of survival by a large margin. In terms of mana efficiency however, marksmanship falls behind survival, but in most cases, this isn't a big concern.

PvE Specs

• MM Raid (7/57/7) (Bjorik (US) Eldre'Thalas)

This Spec is a high damage Marksman PvE spec that focuses on physical damage. This spec also takes 1/3 Focused Aim, so the hit cap becomes 7% without a Draenei, as opposed to 8%. This spec is reliant on Armor Penetration, and will only overtake a Survival build at higher levels of gear where ArP becomes rather prevalent. For this same reason, Arcane Shot is dropped from the rotation, in favor of another Steady Shot, which grants more damage at these levels of Armor Pen. This spec benefits greatly from an ArP proc trinket.

The amount of Steadys also has a bearing on the Glyph choice. Glyph of Serpent Sting is only in the lineup for its increase in damage to Chimera Shot, but both Glyph of Steady Shot and Glyph of the Hawk are directly useful for the face that each rotation will have 3-4 Steadys fired.

The mechanics for this spec are something like this: Open with a Serpent Sting, tied to a Silencing Shot, followed by a Chimera Shot, and an Aimed Shot. From here, just repeat Steady Shot until Chimera and Aimed are back up again, and use Silencing whenever it is off cooldown, as it has no GCD. Once you have used enough mana that the gain from Rapid Recuperation will not be wasted, use Rapid Fire and Readiness for 30 seconds of very high damage. Used early enough, this should be up twice on a decently long fight.

Even with 2/2 Rapid Recuperation, this spec is still rather more mana inefficient than a Survival build, and the benefit of both Replenishment and Judgment of Wisdom will be very clearly felt.

• MM Raid (7/53/11) (Xholjin (US) Wyrmrest Accord)

This Spec is a PvP viable high damage Marksman PvE spec. This spec takes 1/1 Scatter Shot, for increased survivability. this is not a recomended spec and it will be hard to equal damage on other Marksman hunters. For this spec to be on the same ground you will need to have very good gear, gem and enchant to be hit capped, and is posted as a viable spec for those who dont take dual spec and wish to raid and do some pvp as well.

The mechanics for this spec are the same as the spec above.

PvP specs

• MM PvP (0/51/20) (fyrye (US) Shadowmoon)

This spec is primarily a utility role, and requires you to have ~5% hit rating, while adding nice burst DPS. Its main focus, is to survive to get back to range against almost any class, and keep them there. Allowing you to scatter shot melee classes that get close to lay down a Frost Trap, which will in-turn grant you 3 Arcane Shots, and root them for 4 seconds. Starting off against melee classes with a Scorpid+Chimera combo to disarm them of their ability to damage you and DKs to heal themselves, switching it back up with Serpent Sting after. I also took into consideration the Disarm Mechanics that most PvP builds overlook, seeing as Mages, Priests, Rogues, and Warriors, are all capable of disarming you of your ranged weapon and added Deflection to reduce the effect by 50% with out the use of an enchant. For the most part this build will burn through any caster class, save Disco Priests, with Serpent, Aimed, Arcane, Chimera+Silence, Readiness, Chimera+Silence, Aimed, Arcane, Kill Shot. Provided you are able to deal 3k Aimed Crits, and 5k Chimera Crits, and 2.5k Chimera-Serpent crits, the overall damage if you crit every shot would be approx 31k in about 12 seconds, as Silence Shot does not suffer a GCD, and not counting Auto/Wild Quiver hits. Keep in mind you have readiness at your disposal, that means, 2x FD, Disengage, Silence, Deterrence, Traps, Scatter Shot, and Rapid Fire (which I barely use in a PvP situation other than BGs and 5v5). No mana saving here, as in PvP you either kill or die first.

Survival

PvE

Of the three Talent trees available to Hunters, Survival currently remains the tree with the highest sustained dps output in a PvE context. Patch notes can be found at Patch_3.1.0 for specific details on changes

Making your Survival Build

First and foremost there is no such thing as the SV hunter build. Although you might have read or heard the first sentence before let's take a few lines to look into why there is no such thing as the ideal SV hunter build because this might help you in creating your own talent build.

First of all it depends on what you want to do with your SV hunter, if you have a desire to mainly PvP this has different implications for your build than if you prefer to PvE. And even if you prefer to PvP there are significant differences between Battlegrounds and Arenas. On the other hand, being a good Raider requires a different build than instancing HC's or soloing your way through Icecrown. This being said, the following deals with PvE often from a raider's perspective.

Another important reason why there is no such thing as the ideal SV Hunter Build is because it depends on the gear you have managed to acquire or rather on the stats you have. For example if you have 750 Agility vs. having 1700 Agility, a 1% increase of your Agility from Hunting Party will have strongly differing effects. If your Agility is low you might very well be better off spending your talent point elsewhere.

The same goes for being Hit capped. Being hit capped is very important if you like raiding and reasonably important if you spend lots of time in Heroic Dungeons. Hunters are hit capped at a hit rating of 263 or a hit percentage of 8%. Being hit capped basically means that your attacks won't miss in boss encounters, which is important as 8% miss chance translates into 8% dps loss. The talent Focused Aim give you a 1/2/3% increase in your hit percentage (Which now applies to your pet as well), you should strive to get your full 263 hit rating (8%) from your gear, gems, enchants and food because this leaves you free to spend talent points elsewhere than in Focused Aim.

You can go even further in making decisions on your build: in raid encounters, for example, you may consider Pet Survivability or the amount of movement that a boss encounter requires and favor different builds on the outcome of such considerations.

Ultimately, while there are several more common builds for survival hunters, the decision is left to you to determine what works best for you. Many hunters will use a specific build because of its personal use, or what it could bring to the raid - for example, more points in Hunting Party so that your healers can regenerate a bit more mana. Play around with your specs, and see what works best while keeping in mind that your job is to help kill bosses faster. Never be afraid to ask another hunter what his spec and shot rotation are, if you're not good at figuring things out. Most of us - your fellow hunters - are willing to advise you on how to spec properly based on your goals. We may even take you to the training dummies to see what you're doing and offer help that way.

Suggested talents

1. Explosive Shot - This is the 51-point talent for the Survival tree. Lock and Load, T.N.T. and other talents help boost the potency of this particular shot, making it the bread & butter shot for most Survival hunters.

2. Improved Tracking - This is commonly agreed to be the best point to start your SV hunter talent build, it is strongly suggested to spend your first 5 points here. It yields a simple 5% overall damage increase, just don't forget to turn your tracking on!

3. Survival Instincts (hunter talent) is another clear choice. While the damage reduction is a nice bonus for soloing as well as helping reduce the burden on healers in groups, the real prize here is the 4% critical strike increase for your Steady Shot & Explosive Shot.

4. Trap Mastery - You need to spend another 3 points to get to the next tier on the talent tree, but this probably is your best bet due to a direct damage boost and extended trap durations. That being said there are situations in raids where a little extra range could be very useful, but we'll discuss the situational merits of Hawk Eye later on.

5. Survivalist - More hit points for soloing and group work is always nice, but the real DPS aspect of this talent comes into play when combined with Hunter vs. Wild. Talent points are well spent here.

6. T.N.T.- The damage increase to your Explosive Shot can make this 3 talent points well spent. However, if you find yourself in need of reaching the Hit cap, sacrificing the needed points to here may be an option cost of reduced damage for Explosive Shot

7. Lock and Load - While it may seem impractical considering the discrepancy between the proc chance of traps compared with actual damage, this talent does serve its purpose. That extra arrow/bullet and lack of a cooldown could mean the difference between winning and wiping.

8. Hunter vs. Wild - Attack power increases with stamina. Hard to pass this one up.

9. Killer Instinct - Another clear choice, gives you 3% extra critical chance.

10. Lightning Reflexes - Gaining 15% extra agility is not to be missed.

11. Expose Weakness - If you have a solid critical chance, you should only need to spend 2 out of 3 talent points to keep this up most of the time.

12. Master Tactician - Increases your crit % significantly, especially over extended fights. Spending 5 talent points here is a pretty safe bet.

13. Sniper Training - 15% crit increase on your Kill Shot ability, plus a nice damage boost for the core Survival shots while standing still.

14. Black Arrow - Gives a 6% damage boost and a Shadow DoT while active and can proc Lock and Load. Pretty much mandatory in a raiding situation.

If you followed these suggestions you now have 43 or 44 talent points spent in the SV tree (holding off on Explosive Shot for the moment), depending on what you did with T.N.T. and assuming you put 2 in Expose Weakness.

MM Talents you want

Before we continue with the more debatable talent points, we will first jump to the Marksmen tree to pick up some useful talents there.

1. Lethal Shots - Very safe place to drop another 5 talent points to gain 5% crit chance

2. Mortal Shots - Significant damage increase to your critical shots, also makes Aimed Shot an option for later on. Another good choice to drop 5 points.

3. Careful Aim - causes one Intellect to give you one AP, remember to take this into account when deciding between pieces of gear (same goes for Stamina in a lesser extent from Hunter vs. Wild. Safe choice for another 3 talent points.

4. Focused Aim - If you cannot make the hit cap by any other means but do want to perform well in raids, this talent is a must have. Use as many as you need to make the hit cap for raiding purposes. Once again the hit cap is 8% or 263 hit rating. This talent stacks with your pet's hit rating.

5. Go for the Throat - Critical Strikes cause your pet to generate more focus depending on points spent, which means a dps increase. One point spent should be sufficient, but play around with it and see which works better.

Situational/Debatable SV Talent Points

We now jump back to the survival tree, starting at the top to discuss the merits of some more debatable or situational talent points.

1. Hawk Eye - This talent no longer gives you the buff from Sniper Training and therefore its value has decreased a lot. This being said there are situations that would favor that little bit of extra range. In a PvP environment or on a PvP server being able to hit them before they can hit you can make a large difference. In a soloing environment getting that mob down before he gets to you can be very useful (you should not have this issue if you picked the right pet and pet talent points). In a raiding environment it can be useful if you have to spend much of the fight on significant distance of the boss or if the boss does a lot of moving around (Heigan the Unclean, for example). Also if you are kiting this should make your job a bit easier, since retaking aggro for the mob that got away or the one that slipped through will be significantly easier.

2. Scatter Shot - Scatter Shot isn't as useful as some other talents in a raiding environment, as most mobs and ALL bosses are immune. Scatter Shot is generally more useful as a boost in a BM leveling spec, or as part of your MM PvP spec. However, some raiding occasions might arise where Scatter Shot is actually useful and efficient, but these are few and far between.

3. Resourcefulness - Reduce the CD and mana cost of your Traps and Black Arrow, there seems to be a lot of debate if this is your best choice in a raid context. That being said this will increase the up-time of your Black Arrow and with that the 6% damage buff included, next to this Black Arrow is the source of Lock and Load procs which are a nice thing to have. Probably worth having in a raid context especially if you don't require the points elsewhere. As for a soloing PvE view, well its main point is to increase damage done, if you would like some extra damage vs. other utilities this is an option.

4. Wyvern Sting - In a soloing PvE context this one definitely has its merits since it allows you to temporarily and effectively take a mob out of combat from range for a longer duration and more accurately than Freezing Arrow. It is also very useful if you make your home in a PvP realm since it gives you another option if the opposing player avoids or breaks your trap. From a raiding perspective its utility is lessened, even though it is a valid option for crowd control and non-boss kiting situations. The main reason however to take this is that it give you access to Noxious Stings which will give you a 1/2/3% damage boost if your Serpent Sting is active on the target which does stack with the damage boost from Black Arrow.

5. Noxious Stings - Gives you a 1/2/3% damage boost while your Serpent Sting is active on the target.

6. Thrill of the Hunt - This refunds 40% of your mana spend on shots that crit - as a SV hunter, you crit a lot. If you have mana issues this is a very valid choice. That being said most people that solo have the time to take a drink and in 25man raids that are well organized mana issues should be sparse except for long fights or if a lot of raid members have a tendency to die. However, in Dungeons or 10man raids you will encounter a lot more OOM situations, so if you spend a lot of time there it might be a wise choice. An important aspect however is that it gives you access to Hunting Party, which is usually a requirement of a proper end-game raiding hunter.

7. Hunting Party - gives a 1/2/3% increase in your Agility and occasionally puts the Replenishment buff on your party/raid members. The buff might be helpful while instancing although it doesn't stack with the same buff from Ret Paladins and Shadow priest so communicate with these raid members about what would be optimum.

8. Point of No Escape - Has no value in a raid context since it doesn't work on Bosses. If you often use your traps and like engaging large groups of mobs this will work nicely with Trap Mastery.

Situational/Debatable BM/MM Talent Points for a SV Build

If you followed the suggestions made throughout this article (the SV part) you now have spend at least 51 talent points in the SV tree and at least 14 points in the MM tree. It means you also have weighed some of the pros and cons of some SV talent points for your own special needs. At this point you will then have a maximum of 6 talent points left. Following we will discuss some of your option in the BM/MM trees to spend these talent points, don't forget to include the talents dealt with in the Situational/Debatable SV Talent Points part in your decision-making process for these last few points.

BM Talents:

Improved Aspect of the Hawk- Increases ranged attack speed, which leads to a dps boost. There is some debate as to how significant this damage boost is compared to others that can be gained through talent points. If you have a low haste rating it probably is a valid choice (Soft haste cap used to be 528 I believe, not sure what it is now, fact check anybody please). Anyhow leaving extreme fine-tuning for what it is for a moment, this is probably a reasonably good choice although spending 5 points here probably is a bit to much, a few should suffice. (You might consider using the Glyph of the Hawk to get more out of this talent.)

Endurance Training - A health boost for you and your pet, doesnt have much merit in an instancing context, however in a soloing PvE or a PvP context it can be a big "staying alive" bonus.

Focused Fire - Overall damage boost of 1% if your pet is active, it is somewhat unlikely that you'll get this far in to the BM talent tree especially if your game is raiding. Still it is a valid damage boost if you can live with the tradeoffs. Keep in mind though that many reports are coming in that pet survivability is a complete nightmare in Ulduar ergo if you go there you might want to minimize the dps coming from your pet and maximize your own. If your game is soloing there are some viable builds that will get you here, nothing wrong with it if you are looking for another damage boost. If you prefer to improve your survival chances a bit more you might want to go for:

Thick Hide - has its validity in PvE soloing or PvP situations. It simply increases the amount of damage you can take.

Improved Revive Pet - If you have trouble keeping your pet alive a point here maybe very nice to have. No matter what build you have a chunk of your dps is in your pet, if it's down then so is your dps. If pet survivability is a real issue, having a point here may significantly increase your pet uptime for an acceptable cost.

MM Talents:

Improved Concussive Shot - Has some utility in a soloing PvE context especially on a PvP Server. Probably has more use in a PvP environment. You might find this a useful talent for you specifically, although chances are that for a PvE SV Hunter, these points might be better spent elsewhere.

Improved Hunter's Mark - You are soloing in a PvE context, your attack power is absolute crap, maybe because your still lvl 20 or something in that case this is a valid choice. The only other reason to have this is that you have a Hybrid Raid Support build, like the one way below in this article, or if your a MM hunter and want to help out some more.

Aimed Shot - Lots of debate on this being a good choice or not. Aimed Shot used to be the Hunter's coup-de-grace on most mobs, however this was after a significant cast time. Now, it is an instant cast and the debuff functions much the same way as a Warrior's Mortal Strike, but the damage has been lessened to the point of being virtually no different than a non-crit Steady Shot. If you are in a situation where a healing debuff is necessary this shot is a good choice, but it is advised that you look into the areas you'll be raiding before you choose this shot.

Rapid Killing - Decreases the cooldown of Rapid Fire by a minute per rank, up to two. Also increase the damage done by Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot, and Chimera Shot when used after you kill a mob which would generally grant you XP or Honor. Kind of useless in a full SV spec, but still comes in handy from time to time.

Efficiency - Reduces the mana cost of all your shots and stings, a valid choice if you have mana issues.

Improved Stings - Increases the effectiveness of your stings, thereby increasing your DPS, ever so slightly.

Talent Points that are of extremely little use in a PvE Context with a SV Build

Savage Strikes - This is essentially a PvP skill designed for close quarters, obviously. If you are in fighting a boss in a raid and you are in melee range, chances are extremely high that you will be cleaved to death. Avoid.

Surefooted - Useful in PvP for breaking Entangling Roots, etc. Wasted point in PvE.

Deflection - Increases parry chance. Mostly useful for PvP.

Counterattack - Allows you to immediately root a target for five seconds, allowing you to Disengage or just get away from your target. Limited use in raids since you have a tank, whose job is to keep things from attacking you.

Improved Arcane Shot - Arcane Shot usually takes a back seat to Explosive Shot in an endgame raiding context at Level 80 in terms of overall damage potential, so this is entirely dependent on your usage of Arcane Shot.

Glyphs

Minor:

Glyph of Feign Death - One of the best choices for a minor Glyph, Feign Death is a very useful ability for a hunter in a PvE environment, can't really go wrong with this choice.

Glyph of Revive Pet - Very useful if you solo a lot. Probably your second best choice.

Glyph of the Pack - Has some minor utility in a Raiding context. Running back after a wipe or helping everybody clear that annoying jump to get to Thaddius.

Glyph of Scare Beast - Has some utility if you like this ability and solo a lot.

Major:

There is a lot of discussion on what Major Glyphs are optimal, It really depends on what kind of build you decided on, what you want to achieve and what you think will make you enjoy playing more.

Glyph of Explosive Shot - Increases crit chance of Explosive Shot by 4%. A must-have.

Glyph of Kill Shot - If you raid, you will encounter many longer fights which means you will often find yourself shooting at a target with less then 20% health for an extended period of time, this Glyph will be very beneficial in that case.

Some Glyphs that are discussed a lot in a PvE/Raiding context are: Glyph of Serpent Sting , Glyph of Steady Shot , Glyph of the Hawk and if you use Aimed Shot; Glyph of Aimed Shot

Survival plays on the Hunter's main stats: Agility, Attack Power and Crit Chance. The first thing Survival Hunters should know is that Explosive Shot is designed to be used instead of Arcane Shot since they both share a cooldown.

Example Specs

• Examples linking to WoWHead's old talent calculator have been removed and will need to be recreated using working links.

A build for every spec Updated for 3.1 -- from Artanis's Hunter Guide

3.1 Raid:

• Raid Support (40/31/0)(Ganwolfclaw (EU) Sporeggar)

Some hunters out there that are not into PvP might be wondering what the dualspec has to offer them. They may find this a usefull suggestion. This specc is probably only worth going for in 25 man raids or maybe when your off to raid a capital or WG. Also before taking this build these rules of thumb are suggested; the lowest dps gear rating in your raid is somewhere around 1900 on WoW-heroes, you are the lowest dps hunter or can get the most dps out of this build, whichever leads to the smallest decrease in overall dps. The major drawback of this build is that it will pretty much cut your dps in half, if however you followed the rules of thumb above it will be like you brought between 1,5/2 extra dps'ers to the raid overall. Make sure that the other hunters understand that your Hunter's Mark goes on the big boss and they should stick theirs elsewhere, don't forget to smack yours on the add that needs to be burned down quick too. This build loses pretty much all its value if there is a MM hunter in your raid and quit some value if their is a BM hunter in your raid. It is however a big bonus to the SV hunters in your raid.

• Survival (3/14/54) (Ganwolfclaw (EU) Sporeggar)

Highend ubergeared raiders will consider this Raid build to be crap. And if you are a Highend ubergeared raider this build would be crap for you. However, this build is intended for the more causual or noob raider. It will not give you the highest possible dps. However it is a more forgiving build overall to play (easier)and has a bit more utility then the highend builds I have seen so far, it allows you to have a little less experience and be a bit less quick but still perform pretty well. It does work with the assumption that you don't have a very high Agility stat yet. If you can't make the hitcap without Focused Aim, I suggest you make a sacrifice in either Trap Mastery , Thrill of the Hunt, Resourcefulness or Noxious Stings

• Survival (1/16/54) (Vulkar (US) Shandris)

This build is for those that are hit-capped already without using Focused Aim and for high end raiding. This build takes those 3 points and puts them into talents to boost your dps. The one point in Improved Aspect of the Hawk helps out by boosting your haste for 12 seconds when it procs. The reason you want Trap Mastery is simply because it increases the periodic damage of Black Arrow by 30%. Before patch 3.1 you wouldn't have wanted the 3 points in Hunting Party, but now having 3 points in it increases your agility by an extra 3%. Sniper Training is very useful for those fights that don't require much movement. You want that 1 point in Go for the Throat because it will increase your pet dps, which in turn increases yours. However, do NOT waste a second point in this talent because once you're over 30% crit chance it becomes meaningless to have that second point. The glyphs I recommend for this spec is Glyph of Explosive Shot, Glyph of Improved Aspect of the Hawk (now Glyph of the Hawk), and Glyph of Steady Shot. If you have any questions about this spec or the rotations, send me a tell in game.

• Fishing (27/21/23) (Joe (US) Failridge)

This build is for those who want to be an extreme angler. Make sure you stack defense, haste and resistances. Keep up Seal of Justice at all times in combination with you Aspect of the Pack. If the fish get rowdy you should have the defensive capabilities to deal with them, with the proper talents and gear. Enchant everything with + fishing and everything else with + spell damage. Make sure to pick up 5/5 Benediction, because casting your line is instant cast.

Good Luck and Happy Fishing in raids!

Other Survival Builds

• [http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#cxZ0eV0oZx0ciocIhxhA0su: Survival Build for soloing and raiding.

This is a build you can see get better as you level. At 80 this really shines because everything comes together and works well. Faster shots from Improved Aspect of the Hawk gives more chance for Master Tactician to proc. Faster shots + More crits= Higher DPS. This will also tie in with other abilities like Explosive shot (If all three explosions crit, you will gain 120% mana cost of the shot!) and if you're in a raid against trash using Volley, with Master Tactician, you will crit A LOT. If you're against certain raid bosses (Heigan, Sarth) you might not be stood around for very long which might lose the benefit from Sniper Training, but in most fights you will be, and soloing you will most likely be stood there getting your shots out hoping you've killed the mob before it gets to you. Feel free to tinker and fiddle with this spec, as some of you may see no use for scatter shot or aimed shot so you might want to spend those points elsewhere.

External links

World of Warcraft Community Site Talent Calculator

World of Warcraft Europe Talent Calculator

Wowhead Database ▸ Classes ▸ Hunter (Talents tab)

Guides

Icy Veins Beast Mastery, Marksmanship, and Survival Hunter Raiding Guides (Mists of Pandaria)