Marksmanship Hunter DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities (Legion 7.3.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. What Has Changed in 7.3.2?
    • 2.1. Set Bonus Simulation
  • 3. How Does it Work?
  • 4. Viability of Spec Choices in Antorus
    • 4.1. T19 915 Gear | T20 - 930 Gear | T21 - 960 Gear
    • 4.2. Raiding — Single-Target Focus with AoE as a secondary objective.
    • 4.3. Mythic+ — AoE Focus with single-target as a secondary objective.
  • 5. Strengths
  • 6. Weaknesses
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resource
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Movement Tools
  • 5. Important Procs and Passives
  • 6. Offensive Cooldowns
  • 7. Additional Utility & Traps
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 1.1. For Raiding
    • 1.2. For Mythic+ (With )
    • 1.3. For Mythic+ (No )
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 9. Pet Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
    • 1.1. Early Progression
    • 1.2. Patch 7.2 Progression
  • 2. Artifact Ability
  • 3. Weapon Item Level Value of Relic Traits
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization
  • 2. Tier 2 — Weapon Item Level Values for Each Trait
  • 3. Tier 3 — Weapon Item Level Values for Each Trait
  • 4. ChangeLog
• ×Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Important Abilities, Procs and The General Rotation
    • 1.1. The Simple Version
    • 1.2. The "Proper" Version — Vulnerable Cycles
      • 1.2.1. Standard Rotation
    • 1.3. Set Bonuses, Rotational Pointers and More
      • 1.3.1. Vulnerable WeakAura
      • 1.3.2. Rotation Example Video
  • 2. Opener Sequence
  • 3. Multiple Target Rotation
  • 4. Short Guide to Sidewinders
    • 4.1. Trinket Usage
    • 4.2. Focus
    • 4.3. Auto-shots and Special Shots
    • 4.4. Positioning when using Sidewinders
  • 5. Talents and the Rotation
    • 5.1. Tier 1 Talents
    • 5.2. Tier 2 Talents
    • 5.3. Tier 4 Talents
    • 5.4. Tier 6 Talents
    • 5.5. Tier 7 Talents
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Boss by Boss Strategies
  • 1. Antorus, the Burning Throne
    • 1.1. Garothi Worldbreaker
      • 1.1.1. Talents
    • 1.2. Felhounds of Sargeras
      • 1.2.1. Talents
    • 1.3. Antoran High Command
      • 1.3.1. Talents
    • 1.4. Portal Keeper Hasabel
      • 1.4.1. Talents
    • 1.5. Eonar the Life-Binder
      • 1.5.1. Talents
    • 1.6. Imonar the Soulhunter
      • 1.6.1. Talents
    • 1.7. Kin'garoth
      • 1.7.1. Talents
    • 1.8. Varimathras
      • 1.8.1. Talents
    • 1.9. The Coven of Shivarra
      • 1.9.1. Talents
    • 1.10. Aggramar
      • 1.10.1. Talents
    • 1.11. Argus the Unmaker
      • 1.11.1. Talents
  • 2. Tomb of Sargeras
    • 2.1. Goroth
      • 2.1.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.2. The Demonic Inquisition
      • 2.2.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.3. Harjatan
      • 2.3.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.4. Sisters of the Moon
      • 2.4.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.5. Mistress Sassz'ine
      • 2.5.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
      • 2.5.2. Single-Target
      • 2.5.3. Cleave Focus
    • 2.6. The Desolate Host
      • 2.6.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.7. Maiden of Vigilance
      • 2.7.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.8. Fallen Avatar
      • 2.8.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.9. Kil'jaeden
      • 2.9.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
      • 2.9.2. Mythic-only Sidewinders Build
      • 2.9.3. Other Difficulties
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Choosing Gear
    • 2.2. Stat Softcaps, Distributions & Other Clarifications
    • 2.3. Statistics Explanations
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Hunters
      • 1.1.1. Aspect of the Turtle Cancelaura Macro
      • 1.1.2. Misdirection Mouseover/Focus Macro for Marksmanship/Beast Mastery
      • 1.1.3. Trap Macros for Survival
      • 1.1.4. Petattack Macros
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Marksmanship Hunters
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Hunters
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.3. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.4. GTFO
      • 2.1.5. Pawn
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Marksmanship Hunters
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Antorus Best in Slot List
  • 2. The Importance of "Simming Yourself"
  • 3. Stats
  • 4. Trinket DPS Rankings
  • 5. Set Bonuses and Their Worth
  • 6. Legion Legendaries
    • 6.1. Marksmanship Legendaries
      • 6.1.1. Marksmanship - Best in Slot
  • 7. Loot Competition
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Simulations
  • 1. Disclaimer Page
  • 2. Racial Bonus Simulation
  • 3. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we list your Marksmanship Hunter core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3.5. We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a Marksmanship Hunter.

The other pages of our Marksmanship Hunter guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author

This guide has been written by Azortharion, the main theorycrafter of the spec. He is also an accomplished player who raids in Solaris. You can also watch his stream on Twitch.

The rotation for Marksmanship Hunters is difficult to convey in the form of a priority system, though we do make an attempt at a simplified version below. Otherwise, the key to understanding Marksmanship is to understand its abilities and how they interact with each other, and in the process of guiding you through the rotation we will also explain how the abilities interact.

Ultimately, Marksmanship is about maximizing the amount of Vulnerable Aimed Shots that you get. In a flawlessly executed rotation, you will have essentially no Aimed Shots cast outside Vulnerable at all. On top of this, you must attempt to generate as much Focus as possible, but without ever wasting it by overcapping. Marksmanship is also GCD-locked, meaning that you can and should always be casting something, no matter what. When moving, this means you should be casting Arcane Shot and Marked Shot when available.

1. Important Abilities, Procs and The General Rotation

Arcane Shot is your Focus generator and filler. When you are not casting anything else, you should be spamming this ability to no end. Sometimes, it will light up which means that Marking Targets has procced. If you cast it while it is lit up, you will activate Hunter's Mark on your current target which allows you to cast Marked Shot.

Marked Shot activates Vulnerable when you cast it, increasing the damage done of Aimed Shot by 40%+ (with Artifact traits) for 7 seconds. It costs a low amount of Focus and it does moderate damage. You do not want to use this all the time, you just want to use it so that you can cast Aimed Shot during the Vulnerable debuff.

Aimed Shot is the bread and butter of your damage. It will account for over 50% of your single-target damage. The most important thing is that it should always be cast during Vulnerable. You only cast it outside Vulnerable if you are about to cap on Focus. It is better to cast Aimed Shot outside of Vulnerable than it is to cap on your Focus. With the T20 2-piece set bonus, it is very important to cast Aimed Shot in pairs of 2 as much as possible. When we use the Patient Sniper Talent for single-target, we also want to cast our Aimed Shots as late as possible in Vulnerable. See the Rotational Cycles section for the best way to play this out in practice.

Windburst is just a glorified Marked Shot. The key difference is that while Marked applies Vulnerable as soon as you hit the button, Windburst does not apply until the arrow actually lands on the target. This means that your Vulnerable windows from Windburst will effectively be much longer, allowing more casts during them. Windburst also puts Cyclonic Burst on the ground when you cast it, which deals a bit of additional damage. This means that Windburst is always better to cast than Marked Shot. It does more damage, its Vulnerable window is longer, it is simply better in every way, but it cannot be cast while moving.

Trueshot is your main cooldown. It causes Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot to always apply Hunter's Mark, so you have as much Vulnerable uptime as you could possibly want. It also increases your Haste by 40%, and your Critical Strike Damage (not chance!) by 50%. The key during Trueshot is to cast as many Vulnerable Aimed Shots as possible. Start your Trueshots with maximum Focus, and try to start them with a Windburst to have the most Vulnerable uptime possible. You activate Trueshot while Windburst is flying its way to the target, then you start unleashing Aimed Shots into the target. Make sure to not cap your Focus during it. When Trueshot is about halfway done, you refresh Vulnerable with Marked Shot. This will last you until Trueshot ends. As in the general rotation, try to keep your Aimed Shots in pairs, and towards the end of Vulnerable when possible, but getting as many Aimed Shots off as possible is by far the most important thing.

Bullseye is an Artifact trait that causes your attacks to give 1% increased Critical Strike chance when your target is below 20% health, stacking up to 30 times. Most notably, every time A Murder of Crows deals damage (every 1 second for 15 seconds after you have cast it), it will give you a stack of Bullseye, allowing you to reach 30 stacks very quickly. Bullseye has amazing synergy with Trueshot, since the latter increases Critical Strike Damage. Therefore, combining 30 stacks of Bullseye with Trueshot is essential to maximizing your damage potential.

1.1. The Simple Version

1. Cast Aimed Shot when Vulnerable is up. Try to cast Aimed Shot in pairs, and towards the end of Vulnerable, usually by casting an Arcane Shot before you cast your Aimed Shots.
2. Cast A Murder of Crows (Talent) on cooldown. If the boss is about to reach 20% health, save it until then so that you can use it to stack Bullseye.
3. Cast Windburst to apply Vulnerable to your target. Treat it just like Marked Shot, except it does more damage.
4. Cast Marked Shot to apply Vulnerable to your target. Do not cast it too often, you just want it for the Vulnerable debuff!
5. Cast Arcane Shot to generate Focus, and to activate Marked Shot.

1.2. The "Proper" Version — Vulnerable Cycles

The priority list above is good for getting an idea how the abilities work together and how they should be used. The "cycles" below describes how you best carry the above into practice — specifically utilizing your Vulnerable windows, and managing your procs.

1.2.1. Standard Rotation

• When you get a Marking Targets proc: Arcane Shot until *70 Focus → Marked Shot → Cast *1x Arcane Shot → 2x Aimed Shots.
• When you have no proc or Windburst: Cast Arcane Shot until ~105 Focus, then Aimed Shot to not Focus cap. Repeat as necessary until you get a proc and hope that it does not take too long.
• With Windburst: Cast Windburst into Marked Shot (only if you had a proc sitting around) > 2x Arcane Shots > 2x Aimed Shots.

1.3. Set Bonuses, Rotational Pointers and More

• With T20-2P: Always try to cast Aimed Shot in pairs of 2 if you have this set bonus. Try to avoid casting single Aimed Shots or even 3 Aimed Shots in a row. You are usually better off spacing them out in pairs of 2.
• *With T20-4P: If you have 18%+ Haste and this set bonus, you can cast 2x Arcane Shots after Marked Shot. You can also cast Marked Shot with 45 Focus instead of 70.
• *Without T20-4P: *If you have 23%+ Haste, you can cast 2x Arcane Shots after Marked Shot. You can also cast Marked Shot with 45 Focus instead of 70.

Finally, if you have more than 110 Focus and you cast Marked Shot or Windburst, then you can and should follow it up with 3x Aimed Shots back-to-back, rather than the typical 1x Arcane > 2x Aimed rotation. This only generally happens when you have not had a proc for a while, and you end up with much higher than necessary Focus to enter a Vulnerable window, but it happens often enough that it is worth mentioning.

It is worth noting that we will get more Marked Shot procs than we should actually be using for an optimal rotation. If we cast all the Marked Shots that we are allowed, we would simply have no Focus to Aimed Shot. Therefore, treat Marked Shot and Windburst purely as abilities that keep up your Vulnerable debuff, and Focus on getting as many powerful Aimed Shots off within this window as possible by being aware of how many you can cast in a given Vulnerable window. If you start a Vulnerable with ~70 Focus, you will be able to fit in 2. If you start with 110 or more, you can fit in 3. Only with Haste buffs like Heroism / Bloodlust or Trueshot will you be able to fit in more than 2 or 3.

1.3.1. Vulnerable WeakAura

On top of all this, we strongly recommend using this WeakAura by Asakawa for tracking your Vulnerable debuff. It gives you a visual overview over how many Aimed Shots you can fit into your current Vulnerable, allowing you to plan your rotation ahead of time: https://wago.io/VulnerableTrackerV2.

1.3.2. Rotation Example Video

In this video, you can see an example of the Trick Shot-based single-target rotation (with the Tier 20 4-piece bonus and the Tier 21 2-piece bonus).

2. Opener Sequence

This section describes the recommended way to start the fight as a Marksmanship Hunter. It assumes you are using the recommended single-target talents for the spec.

1. Just before the encounter starts, use your Potion of Prolonged Power.
2. Cast Windburst from as far away as possible.
3. Cast A Murder of Crows if you have chosen this talent.
4. Activate Trueshot while Windburst is still flying.
5. Cast Aimed Shot
6. Cast Aimed Shot
7. Cast Arcane Shot
8. Cast Arcane Shot
9. Cast Aimed Shot
10. Cast Aimed Shot
11. Cast Arcane Shot until you have 90 Focus.
12. Cast Marked Shot
13. Cast Aimed Shot
14. Cast Aimed Shot
15. Cast Arcane Shot
16. Cast Arcane Shot
17. Cast Aimed Shot until Vulnerable ends. Trueshot will end around here as well.
18. Proceed with your normal rotation.

The idea and goal of the opener is to get as many Aimed Shots into the opening Trueshot as possible and casting them in pairs to utilize the T20 2-piece bonus, if you are using it.

If you have low Haste, you may find that this particular opener sequence is not possible to follow satisfactorily. Besides getting more Haste, we recommend reducing the number of Aimed Shots by 1 in each Vulnerable. In the first Vulnerable window, leave out the last Aimed (you want the 2pc bonus up early). In the second Vulnerable window, leave out one of the first 2 Aimeds, but make sure to finish the Vulnerable with 2 Aimeds.

3. Multiple Target Rotation

The most important change whenever fighting more than one target is that you always wanna spend Marking Targets procs on Multi-Shot as soon as they become available, so you can cast Marked Shot on all the targets that your Multi-Shot hit.

Once you are doing this, you should fill in with Aimed Shot as much as possible, because you will not always have a proc available. So use Aimed Shot whenever you do not have a proc and Vulnerable is up. If you get a Lock and Load proc, spending them becomes your top priority, even over spending Marking Targets procs.

Windburst should be cast on cooldown. It has higher priority than Aimed Shot fillers, but lower priority than spending your Marking Targets procs. Remember that the Cyclonic Burst is quite valuable on multi-target.

With the AoE Legendary War Belt of the Sentinel Army, Aimed Shot takes priority over spending Marking Targets procs when you reach a certain amount of stacks from the buff. The amount of stacks depends on how many targets you are fighting:

• 2 Targets: 10 Stacks
• 3 Targets: 15 Stacks
• 4+ Targets: 20 Stacks

When nothing else is going on, spam Multi-Shot while waiting for procs.

4. Short Guide to Sidewinders

If you are using Sidewinders on any fight, you should cast it when either of the following are true:

• You have 2 charges of it.
• You have 1 charge, and you cannot cast another Aimed Shot in Vulnerable, and you have a Marking Targets proc, and you have more than ~47 Focus.

If neither of those are true, refrain from casting Sidewinders. You are never in a rush to cast it unless you reach 2 charges, or are just about to. Casting it too often will starve you of Vulnerable uptimes, and you will not get as many crucial Marked Shot casts either.

After casting Sidewinders, it is best to not cast Aimed Shot until you reach about 105 Focus, or there is 4 seconds remaining on Vulnerable, whichever comes first. This is to utilize Patient Sniper.

A typical Sidewinders cycle may look like this:

Sidewinders > Wait until 105 Focus/4 seconds on Vulnerable > Aimed Shot > Aimed Shot > Marked Shot > Aimed Shot when you have the Focus again.

Positioning is also key with Sidewinders on multi-target fights especially. You should stand as far away from the target as is possible, at least when it is surrounded by other targets that you want to hit with your Sidewinders. This widens its cone. You should also target whatever is furthest away from you when casting Sidewinders.

In this video, you can see an example of Sidewinders being used on Mythic Coven of Shivarra.

4.1. Trinket Usage

This section will address a few trinkets that have special considerations when using them.

Tarnished Sentinel Medallion should be used with Trueshot whenever possible, but you should not delay it for too long. It lasts 20 seconds, while Trueshot lasts 15 seconds, so you can use it 5 seconds before Trueshot and still get optimal damage out of it. You should not delay Trueshot to line it up with the trinket, but it is worth delaying the trinket for up to 45-60 seconds to line it up with Trueshot, though it pays off to be mindful of when the boss will die, if you know that you will lose a cast by delaying at all, then do not delay it.

Terminus Signaling Beacon should be used on as many targets as possible. You should never use it when you are in melee range, as the ship's attacks can damage itself and kill itself prematurely. You should ideally also line it up with Trueshot for the extra Critical Strike damage.

Forgefiend's Fabricator's mines should be detonated when as many targets are up as possible.

4.2. Focus

Hunters and their pets use a unique resource, called Focus. Focus works in much the same way as other class resources, like Rage and Energy, in the sense that some abilities grant Focus, while others cost Focus to be used.

A Marksmanship Hunter's Focus has a maximum capacity of 130, and regenerates at an innate rate of 10 Focus per second. This rate is increased by Haste. In addition to this, certain abilities such as Arcane Shot (Marksmanship-only) also grant Focus.

Most of the abilities in the hunter rotation cost Focus to use, and some talents decrease the Focus costs, or offer other ways to gain additional Focus.

Hunter pet Focus works similarly, and is of no concern to you as you cannot do anything to modify it, nor will you be casting pet abilities manually.

As a general rule, you should always have enough Focus to cast your abilities as soon as they come off cooldown, but also to never have 130 Focus (as any extra Focus you generate would then go to waste).

4.3. Auto-shots and Special Shots

Hunters do the majority of their damage through the use of shots. The rest of the damage is made up of pet damage and DoT damage.

Autoshot is the default Hunter attack, which works similarly to melee classes' auto attacks or "white swings". It is affected by your Ranged Attack Speed, and it continues to work while moving.

The other hunter shots are of all varieties: instant cast or with a cast time, costing Focus or granting Focus, and some are utility shots which cost no Focus and deal no damage.

One of the most important aspects of doing competitive Hunter DPS is to make sure your shots are always used without delay.

4.4. Positioning when using Sidewinders

Note that Sidewinders is no longer the recommended talent for most situations, but this section is still relevant to those using it anyway.

Understanding and applying the positionally based mechanics of Marksmanship is essential to taking your play to the next level, both from a perspective of wanting to hit as many targets as possible, and to avoid hitting targets that you do not want to include in a dungeon pull.

The most basic and important thing to know is that Sidewinders' cone width is significantly higher overall the further you are from your current target, and that on fights like Dragons of Nightmare and Il'gynoth where there will occasionally be a lot of targets spread over a wide area, picking the furthest away and most central target is going to be key to marking as many targets as possible. You always want to be aware of your current target, and you always want to be aware of what your next target should be in case your current one dies.

On the flip side of this, if you do not wish to pull or damage additional mobs in a dungeon (such as when you are trying to avoid Bolstering a high-health mob by killing a bunch of small ones, like the Grimewalker + Shroud Hounds in the Maw of Souls), you should be close and constantly be thinking about your position.

It is important to have a good UI that makes you aware of the health of targets around you, and whether they are marked by Hunter's Mark and Vulnerable or not. There are many addons that can do this, I personally use ElvUI for my nameplates and most other elements of my UI, but KuiNamePlates and TidyPlates are good alternatives for people that do not use ElvUI.

5. Talents and the Rotation

5.1. Tier 1 Talents

If you have taken Lone Wolf, then this requires no management whatsoever, and you will simply enjoy the increased damage that you do.

If you take Steady Focus, you should always try to use Arcane Shot twice in a row to keep up the buff you gain from Steady Focus. Sidewinders applies the buff with only one cast.

Careful Aim changes nothing in your rotation or playstyle.

5.2. Tier 2 Talents

If you have chosen Lock and Load, nothing changes in your rotation, though you should try and spend the procs while Vulnerable is active, and as quickly as possible.

Black Arrow should simply be used on cooldown.

True Aim changes nothing in your rotation, though it is an incentive to not change targets very often. Keep in mind that you can safely use Multi- and Marked Shot on adds without switching the buff to another target.

5.3. Tier 4 Talents

Explosive Shot should be used on cooldown. When you first press this ability, it will fire a rocket from your character in a straight line in front of you. When you press the button again, the rocket explodes and deals high AoE damage based on distance to the target. The easiest way to maximize this ability is to stand right on top of the target you want to hit, and rapidly tap it twice. If this is not possible, you should do your best to explode the rocket when it is as close to the targets as possible.

Sentinel should be used on cooldown when there are multiple targets active, and when you do not already have Hunter's Mark on them.

Patient Sniper causes Vulnerable to be more powerful towards the end of its duration. In essence, this means that if know that you will only get 2 Aimed Shots off within a specific Vulnerable window, you should cast those two towards the end of the debuff, rather than casting them as soon as possible. The last second of Vulnerable is where Aimed Shot is most powerful.

5.4. Tier 6 Talents

A Murder of Crows should be used as many times as possible during the fight. The cooldown of this ability will reset if its target dies before the debuff expires (15 seconds). You should try and take advantage of this effect as much as possible (but without delaying A Murder of Crows needlessly much). Remember that it is not worth it to benefit from this effect by casting A Murder of Crows on targets that will die within just ~5-7 seconds. Since A Murder of Crows stacks Bullseye, if the boss is about to hit 20% health, you should save Crows for that moment so you can cast it and build Bullseye stacks very quickly.

Barrage should simply be used on cooldown, but only if there is more than 1 target up, and it should be saved for heavy multi-target situations in the fight.

It is interesting to note that you can change where Barrage is directed by turning your character while channeling the spell. This allows you to hit more targets than those you were initially facing.

Volley should simply be enabled before you start the fight and largely forgotten about. When dealing with multiple targets, you should try and be auto-attacking the one closest to the middle to get the most benefit out of Volley's AoE damage. Volley should be activated at all times, even on single target.

5.5. Tier 7 Talents

If you have chosen Sidewinders, this will replace Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot completely. It introduces downtime to the rotation that you would otherwise have spent casting Arcane- or Multi-Shot. You should generally not cast Sidewinders unless Marking Targets is up so that it may activate Hunter's Mark, or it reaches 2 charges (meaning you would waste charges by keeping it off cooldown).

Sidewinders also activates Vulnerable directly. If you are not using Patient Sniper, this is just a nice bonus. For Patient Sniper users, it changes the rotation fundamentally. Your goal is always to maximize the benefit you get out of casting as many Aimed Shots during it as possible. So after casting Sidewinders, your next goal is generally to get as many Aimed Shots into that Vulnerable window as possible (almost always 2), before you Marked Shot to refresh or "extend" the Vulnerable debuff. This will cause a lot of downtime, because you will be waiting for Focus to generate to allow you to cast Aimed Shot altogether, but it is the best way to play the spec.

If you have chosen Piercing Shot, you should use this ability on cooldown when Vulnerable is up. It deals more damage based on how much Focus you have when you use it. 100 Focus means it will spend 100 Focus, and deal 100% of its maximum damage. Using it at 50 Focus means it will spend 50 Focus, and deal 50% of its maximum damage and so on. In multi-target situations, you should try to aim at the target that is furthest away from you, so that Piercing Shot hits all targets in its path similarly to Glaive Toss and Powershot in Warlords of Draenor. You should also try and use it with at least 100 Focus whenever possible.

Trick Shot changes nothing in your rotation.

6. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 28 Jan. 2018: Added opener note with low Haste.
• 17 Jan. 2018: Rewrote page.
• 12 Jan. 2018: Added video for Mythic Coven of Shivarra using Sidewinders.
• 24 Dec. 2017: Updated the formatting of the opener. Expanded on the Sidewinders section.
• 22 Dec. 2017: Made a few tweaks to the opening rotation section.
• 15 Dec. 2017: Re-organized the rotation and fixed some inconsistency issues.
• 12 Dec. 2017: Updated the rotational video example. The new video is using the Tier 21 2-piece bonus, making it more relevant for how to play in Antorus.
• 05 Dec. 2017: Added rotational note about T21 2-piece.
• 27 Nov. 2017: Updated the set bonus section to briefly talk about Antorus set bonuses. Spoiler warning; they are quite boring.
• 28 Oct. 2017: Significantly restructured and simplified many parts of the rotation page.
• 22 Oct. 2017: Added note about stacking Trueshot with 30 stacks of Bullseye. Revised "minimum" desirable T20 2-piece efficiency. Added note about Crows stacking Bullseye.
• 15 Oct. 2017: Updated and simplified the multi-target rotation, by mostly combining the 2 and 3 target rotations.
• 19 Sep. 2017: Added Sidewinders rotation example (Kil'jaeden Mythic kill video).
• 18 Sep. 2017: Added some small rotational tidbits to clear up some frequently asked questions.
• 28 Aug. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.3.
• 26 Aug. 2017: Retired the memebuild rotation section, and replaced it with a short guide to using Sidewinders. I do not go into extensive detail, as it is only used for one fight (Mythic Kil'jaeden).
• 18 Aug. 2017: Updated the single-target rotation example video.
• 27 Jul. 2017: New video example rotation for the memebuild, this time on Mythic Gul'dan.
• 20 Jul. 2017: Updated and expanded on the multi-target rotation, how to handle Aimed Shots and Lock and Load procs and how to play around the Legendary belt.
• 16 Jul. 2017: Shortened the Marksmanship rotation a fair bit and reformatted it slightly. Rewrote the opener and made it a lot more formulaic, and it should also work fine both with and without Heroism / Bloodlust.
• 04 Jul. 2017: Reworded part of the rotation to clarify Multi-Shot usage on 2/3 targets.
• 30 Jun. 2017: Updated the single-target rotation example video with a kill of Mythic Goroth. Updated RPPM on Marking Targets procs - it was reduced or "fixed" to be 6.5 rather than 7.25. Added section about trinket usage.
• 28 Jun. 2017: Updated the rotation and simplified it in many places, removed mentions of stuff that is now irrelevant and reordered some priorities to be easier to interpret and use in practice. Removed mentions of talents that are almost never used such as Barrage and Sidewinders from the main rotations to remove clutter. Added back Arcane Shot in the rotation after I accidentally removed it.
• 25 Jun. 2017: Changed the order of the openers and updated the Trick Shot one to maximize T20 2-piece benefit.
• 17 Jun. 2017: Fixed yet another inconsistent potion mention in the opener. Updated and reworded the opener slightly. Updated meme build opener to cast Explosive Shot earlier, but it is more complex.
• 15 Jun. 2017: Updated the memebuild opener slightly to cast Arcane while Windburst is flying. Extended the Prolonged Power potion recommendation to also be in the opener.
• 13 Jun. 2017: Updated Vulnerable references to mention that it is a 30% damage increase, down from 100% as of Patch 7.2.5.
• 20 Apr. 2017: Added tidbit about getting the most out of Trueshot for single-target/memebuild.
• 17 Apr. 2017: Checked today and deemed updated.
• 02 Apr. 2017: Clarified just how awful Zevrim's is for single-target.
• 27 Mar. 2017: Added paragraphs about how certain Legendaries affect the rotation.
• 16 Feb. 2017: Improved text in some parts.
• 08 Feb. 2017: Updated meme build opener and added a tidbit about the opener for the Trick Shot one.
• 07 Feb. 2017: Updated meme build video. Opener update.
• 04 Feb. 2017: Swapped Marked Shot and Windburst priorities.
• 28 Jan. 2017: Removed non-Trick-Shot related talents from the Trick Shot rotation.
• 26 Jan. 2017: Added set bonus talk.
• 24 Jan. 2017: Introduced the "meme build" rotation.
• 20 Jan. 2017: Added some small rotational tidbits, added really nice Vulnerable WeakAura.
• 14 Jan. 2017: Updated multi-target rotation.
• 11 Jan. 2017: Settled for 2 Aimed Shots during standard Vulnerable windows. Change opener.
• 10 Jan. 2017: Updated to reflect changes made from PTR to patch release.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated for Patch 7.1.5
• 10 Dec. 2016: Added rotational example video.
• 08 Dec. 2016: Expanded on the "advanced" stuff and new opener.
• 27 Nov. 2016: Rotational updates.
• 02 Nov. 2016: Slight opener change.
• 25 Oct. 2016: Updated the Vulnerable paragraph following the changes in Patch 7.1.
• 08 Oct. 2016: Updated the opener.
• 06 Oct. 2016: Added rotational tidbits and fixed some ordering in the simplified rotation.
• 05 Oct. 2016: Changed Windburst's priority to be higher than Aim-Vuln.
• 03 Oct. 2016: Updated the opener.
• 02 Oct. 2016: Added Murder of Crows at the top of the rotation priority.
• 12 Sep. 2016: Even more rotational clarifications.
• 11 Sep. 2016: Rotational clarifications and new additions.
• 10 Sep. 2016: Vastly simplified Windburst usage since thinking about it too hard is not really going to be noticeably beneficial.
• 04 Sep. 2016: Clarified Volley explanations to make it more explicit that it is to be used at all times, even on a single target.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 11 Aug. 2016: Improved opening rotation.
• 23 Jul. 2016: Removed talents from rotation to simplify it a bit and avoid confusion.
• 21 Jul. 2016: Added paragraph explaining the cyclical nature of Patient Sniper + Sidewinders usage.
• 20 Jul. 2016: More rotation tweaks.
• 20 Jul. 2016: Added simplified rotation and tweaked rotation a bit.
• 19 Jul. 2016: Added opener.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.