Skip to content

Spec guide

Marksmanship Hunter — guide and builds

WoW Forever Marksmanship plays the lone archer: Lone Wolf grants 20% damage without a pet, and Sniper Shot caps the tree with a big shot.

Class: HunterData 1.60.1.70009By ForeverGuide team · updated Sep 26, 2026

Overview

WoW Forever Marksmanship is built for a lone archer or gunner. Lone Wolf raises all your damage by 20% while you have no active pet: in dungeons and raids, you therefore play without a pet. Sniper Shot, the new final talent, caps the tree with a powerful shot.

Several talents open up unusual gear choices. Careful Aim gives you attack power equal to 100% of your Intellect. Rapid Recuperation lets you regenerate mana while casting when Serpent Sting ticks and when you consume Rapid Killing. Improved Stings strengthens all your stings.

It is the most demanding Hunter spec, without being hard in a group. Its tree is awkward for leveling, where a pet still beats Lone Wolf. At level 20 in the beta, it sits in S tier among DPS with the other two Hunter specs.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

  • Burst
    Long shots, Sniper Shot first among them.
  • At range
    You keep your distance very well.

Weaknesses

  • No group utility
    A weakened Trueshot Aura and no pet: you need very high damage.
  • Dead zone
    It hurts this spec more than the others.
  • Long shots in PvP
    Hard to land against a player.
Read the details

Your long shots, Sniper Shot first among them, give big bursts, and you keep your distance very well.

On the other hand, you bring almost nothing to the group: Trueshot Aura now only grants ranged attack power, and you have no pet. You therefore need very high damage to be sought after. The 8-yard dead zone hurts you more than the other specs, and your long shots are hard to land in PvP.

Key spells

Key talents

Rotation and priorities

Single target:

  1. Priority 1: Hunter's Mark
    Mark your target before you engage.
    When: If you have time
  2. Priority 2: Serpent Sting
    Keep it on the target and refresh it.
  3. Priority 3: Arcane Shot
    Use it as soon as it comes back.
    When: On cooldown
  4. Priority 4: Aimed Shot
    Multi-Shot instead on several targets.
    When: On cooldown

Multiple targets: Multi-Shot instead of Aimed Shot, since they share their cooldown.

Keep Freezing Trap and Frost Trap to control an extra mob, and Feign Death to wipe your threat.

Stats

  1. 1Agility
  2. then 2Attack power
  3. then 3Intellect
3 Intellect
with Careful Aim

Order to be confirmed: the exact priority is not settled yet.

No list is established. Aim for Agility and attack power, and Intellect once you have Careful Aim. The order is still to be confirmed.

Leveling

While leveling, keep a pet: it is worth more than Lone Wolf until your tree is complete. At level 20, take the Beast Mastery points first: Deadly Aspects 5/5, Focused Fire 2/2, then Lethal Attacks 4/5. With 5 Legacy points, finish Lethal Attacks and put 4 points into Careful Aim.

Wailing Caverns has good pieces at this level.

Changes compared to Classic

Builds

The 3 guide builds open in the calculator below, with the point order. You can then change points there.

  • Level 20 (beta)

    Level 207/4/011 points, levels 10 to 20

    Beast Mastery points first, since a pet beats Lone Wolf while leveling: Deadly Aspects 5/5, Focused Fire 2/2, then Lethal Attacks 4/5.

    In the calculator

    Calculator page
  • Level 20 with Legacy (+5 points)

    Level 257/9/016 points, levels 10 to 25

    The level 20 build, plus Lethal Attacks 5/5 and Careful Aim 4/5. How many Legacy points the beta grants is still to be confirmed; the simulator opens this build at level 25 to count its 16 points.

    Calculator page
  • Popular level 60 build

    Level 605/41/551 points, levels 10 to 60

    5/41/5: Sniper Shot, Lone Wolf, Trueshot Aura, Mortal Shots and Barrage in Marksmanship, Deadly Aspects in Beast Mastery, Improved Tracking in Survival. One of the most popular level 60 builds before launch, not yet testable in game. Automatic point order.

    Calculator page

Calculator

“Level 20 (beta)” build · level 20 view

Calculator page

Talents

Split: Beast Mastery 7, Marksmanship 4, Survival 0

Points left:0

Level needed:20

Point 11/51, Lethal Attacks 4/5, Marksmanship

Beast Mastery

next row at 10
7 points of 51

Marksmanship

next row at 5
4 points of 51

Survival

next row at 5
0 points of 51
  • Available
  • In progress
  • Maxed
  • Locked
  • New
  • Planned · 1st point
  • Taken · 1st point lv. 17

Spellbook

The Hunter spellbook, open on the Marksmanship tab. It follows the calculator: its level, never above the max level, and the talents of the build. Switch tabs, pages or views as in the game.

Level shown: 2063 spells known

Marksmanship

  • A talent spell joins the book when its talent gets a point.
  • Tooltip numbers are the beta client’s at level 60, with no gear.

More on the Hunter