Marksman Hunter: October 2009

10/28/09

The leveling guide

The leveling guide, such as it is, is done!

Now, the posts in order of appearance, rather than the reverse-chronological that the tag gives you:

Cataclysm will change so much with the switch to Focus, but until then, hopefully it's at least an okay overview of what to expect leveling as a Marksman hunter.

Level 80

Welcome to level 80!

At level 80, I put the last talent point into Combat Experience, for that little stat boost. You also get a new major glyph; I generally go with Trueshot Aura, since this is a soloing/PVP build, and the aura isn't going to be overwritten.

Skills, Level 80:

80: Aimed Shot (Rank 9), Aspect of the Dragonhawk (Rank 2), Call Stabled Pet, Freezing Arrow (Rank 1), Kill Shot (Rank 3), Mend Pet (Rank 10), Mongoose Bite (Rank 6), Multi-Shot (Rank 8), Volley (Rank 6)

You get a bunch of new ranks at 80, plus two new skills. One is Call Stable Pet. Right now it's on a 30 minute cooldown, but that's getting shortened to 5 in the 3.3 patch. It lets you swap pets without going to a stable master. I use it when I switch between my soloing and group specs, to go from my bear to my wolf, and also in Trial of the Crusader to pull out my hyena (for the hamstring) for the Faction Champions.

Your other new level 80 skill is Freezing Arrow. This lets you drop a Freezing Trap at ranged, which is good for pulling with a trap. (We were using it with some success on our Thorim-25 attempts, and with another Hunter, we duoed a couple level 70 heroics using simultaneous ranged traps.) It shares a cooldown with the other Ice traps.

At this point, if you're interested in 5-mans or raids, your spec isn't terrible, but isn't optimal; this is why I developed a raiding spec. It has evolved over time, depending on hit rating from gear and whether or not I was likely to have Replenishment.

If you want a nice pre-raiding ranged weapon, there are several options. The crossbow from Heroic Utgarde Keep is popular; Loken in the Halls of Lightning drops a nice gun; engineers can make you a nicer gun. There are other options - the Argent Tournament, Heroic Culling of Stratholme, Heroic Old Kingdom.

For other level 80 pre-raiding gear, there are shoulders and a good two-hander from the Ebon Blade, a head enchant from the Ebon Blade, a breastplate and a cloak from the Argent Crusade, good pants in both Heroic Halls of Lightning and Heroic Azjol-Nerub, a good BoE belt (Tasseled Lanterns), the amazingly long-lasting Eaglebane Bracers, good boots off Keristrazsa in Heroic Nexus, great gloves off Cyanigosa in Heroic Violet Hold, a good badge trinket (Mirror of Truth), a nice haste-proc trinket in Heroic Utgarde Pinacle, and various nice rings and necks. Assuming you don't go straight to buying stuff with Conquest Badges and pick up some tier 8.5 for the very nice 2-piece bonus.

You might want to pick up a wolf for groups if you haven't yet. No matter how much you love your soloing pet, people you PUG with who know anything about hunters will go, "Hm..." if you have something besides a wolf or maybe a cat.

Marksman 1-80: Levels 71-79

Levels 71-79

Talents in the 70s are more Marksman ones, leading up to getting Chimera Shot at 78. Improved Stings are great for it, and the bleed from Piercing Shot is a nice damage boost. (It'll keep rogues from restealthing for the duration, too.)

Skills, Levels 71-79:

71: Explosive Trap (Rank 5), Kill Shot (Rank 1), Raptor Strike (Rank 10), Steady Shot (Rank 3)
72: Immolation Trap (Rank 7)
73: Arcane Shot (Rank 10), Serpent Sting (Rank 11)
74: Aspect of the Dragonhawk (Rank 1), Mend Pet (Rank 9), Multi-Shot (Rank 7), Volley (Rank 5)
75: Aimed Shot (Rank 8), Kill Shot (Rank 2), Master's Call
76: Aspect of the Wild (Rank 4), Hunter's Mark (Rank 5)
77: Explosive Trap (Rank 6), Raptor Strike (Rank 11), Steady Shot (Rank 4)
78: Immolation Trap (Rank 8)
79: Arcane Shot (Rank 11), Serpent Sting (Rank 12)

There's a lot of new ranks through the 70s, and you also get three new skills, on top of Chimera Shot from talents.

At 71, you get Kill Shot. This is sort of a ranged execute, usable when the target is under 20% health, with a longer range than other shots (for picking off runners). It has a 15 second cooldown, which can be reduced with a glyph. It hits hard and crits harder. (I've seen 12-13k on the Headless Horseman's head over the past couple weeks, and with damage boosts or on vulnerable bosses, you can get crazy numbers.) I wasn't initially sold on it for leveling until it saved my behind against an elite on a group quest in the Borean Tundra that I was trying to solo.

The next new skill you get in the 70s is Aspect of the Dragonhawk. It combines Apsect of the Hawk and Aspect of the Monkey, but alas, did not get Aspect of the Monkeyhawk (or Aspect of the Flying Monkeys of Doom) as its name. However, if you want to talk about survivability against multiple pulls or adds, it really helps. (I dodged Onyxia a couple weeks ago when the tank dropped at the start of phase three during a messy run. It was awesome. I immediately Feigned.)

You also pick up Master's Call at level 75. This will make your pet break you or someone else out of a snare. Although primarily a PVP skill, there are some boss fights where this can be helpful. (Hodir comes to mind.)

At 78 you should have enough points in Marksman to pick up Chimera Shot. This is a hard hitting shot that will hit harder if you have Serpent Sting up, possibly disarm your target if you have Scorpid Sting up, or give you a shot of mana if you have Viper Sting up. It has a 10 second cooldown which can be shaved slightly with a glyph.

Chimera Shot is the shot to which I have most other stuff macroed. I don't have any On Use: trinkets, or those could be included, as well.

#showtooltip
/cast Chimera Shot
/use
/cast Silencing Shot
/cast Kill Command
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();

Ranged weapons are plentiful throughout Northrend, though they seem to favor guns. Or at least, as an engineer able to make Mammoth Cutters, I favored guns.

Marksman 1-80: Level 70

Level 70

By level 70, we've invested enough points in Marksman to pick up Silencing Shot; you get your third minor glyph, as well, so you can get the Revive Pet one.

Skills, Level 70:

70: Aimed Shot (Rank 7), Misdirection, Mongoose Bite (Rank 5)

Not a lot of new ranks at 70. Silencing Shot, from talents, is both a silence and a real interrupt now, in case the target is immune to silencing. Great for trapping caster mobs, interrupting heals, and PVP. Also a nice little damage boost that may be worth throwing into your rotation. It's not on the Global Cooldown, but it has a 20 second cooldown, so you can macro it to another shot.

You also learn Misdirection, which lets you transfer some of your threat to another target (usually a tank). It can help for keeping things on your pet, as well. There are a variety of Misdirection macros out there; I use one like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [button:1, target=focus] Misdirection; [button:2] Misdirection; [button:3, target=pet] Misdirection
/p A message to let your party know you're MD.

It can be shortened, but is basically left-click goes to focus, right-click goes where to your current target (if a player) or to what you click on next, and middle mouse goes to pet. Useful for pulling bosses.

Marksman 1-80: Levels 61-69

Levels 61-69

If you've gone with the Survival talents, you can pick up Scatter Shot at level 61. Woohoo! After that, it's back to the Marksman tree.

Skills, Levels 61-69

61: Scatter Shot, Explosive Trap (Rank 4)
62: Steady Shot (Rank 2)
63: Raptor Strike (Rank 9)
65: Immolation Trap (Rank 6)
66: Kill Command
67: Multi-Shot (Rank 6), Serpent Sting (Rank 10), Volley (Rank 4)
68: Aspect of the Hawk (Rank 8), Aspect of the Wild (Rank 3), Mend Pet (Rank 8), Snake Trap
69: Arcane Shot (Rank 9)

Scatter Shot used to be the 21-point Marksman Talent (similarly to how Readiness used to be the 31-point Survival Talent). It's a Disorient, and breaks to damage, so it can be used as a precursor to a Freezing Trap, as a brief stun substitute, or a spell interrupt. It's good for PVP, soloing, and for 5-mans where crowd control actually matters.

Skills are no longer just on even levels after level 60, so you'll want to hit up the trainer more often.

At level 66 you can learn Kill Command. This has been redesigned over time, and now buffs your pet's next three special attacks. Not as a big deal for Marksman as for Beast Mastery, but still a nice little buff. It's on a 1-minute cooldown and off the Global Cooldown, so you can macro it to something and mostly forget about it.

The last new skill you'll pick up in the 60s is Snake Trap. It doesn't share a cooldown with any other traps, so you can drop it in addition to the others. It'll release a bunch of little snakes which will run off (well, slither off) to attack and poison things in their vicinity. The snakes aren't always smart, and will run off to attack adds (and occasionall rats) in the area, as well. I love them; they make me giggle.

You're probably in Outland by now; you can get a decent gun in Nagrand from the Nesingwary quests, and if you go through Shadowmoon's chains, there's a nice bow.

Marksman 1-80: Level 60

Level 60

Level 60 lets you finish off the Survival talents requisite to getting Scatter Shot at 61. You can learn to ride flying mounts now at 60, at either of the starting towns in Hellfire Peninsula. If you've spurned both the Beast Mastery and Survival talents so far, level 60 is the earliest you can pick up Chimera Shot.

Skills, Level 60:

60: Aimed Shot (Rank 6), Arcane Shot (Rank 8), Aspect of the Hawk (Rank 7), Deterrence, Freezing Trap (Rank 3), Mend Pet (Rank 7), Multi-Shot (Rank 5), Serpent Sting (Rank 9), Tranquilizing Shot

There are a lot of new ranks at level 60; there are only two new skills if you're waiting on Chimera Shot.

The first is Deterrence. Once upon a time, Deterrence was a Survival talent. Now it's a poor man's Evasion, buffing your Parry and give you spell deflection for 5 seconds. It's one of those things that may buy you some time to survive.

The other skill you get is Tranquilizing Shot. Once upon a time, this skill was learned from a book which dropped off Lucifron, the first boss in Molten Core. It was necessary at the time because it would remove Magmadar's Frenzy. Now it's been transformed to our Dispel, and it can remove certain enrages (Gluth's, possibly warriors' and rogues'). Very useful in PVP and for some boss fights.

Marksman 1-80: Levels 51-59

Levels 51-59

There are two ways to go with talents at this point - you can hop over to Survival to head towards Scatter Shot, or you can continue in the Marksman tree to get to Chimera faster. I've mapped out Scatter Shot first. This will also get you increased range and increased damage from having tracking on.

Skills, 51-59:

52: Aimed Shot (Rank 5), Arcane Shot (Rank 7), Mend Pet (Rank 6)
54: Explosive Trap (Rank 3), Multi-Shot (Rank 4)
56: Aspect of the Wild (Rank 2), Immolation Trap (Rank 5), Raptor Strike (Rank 8)
58: Aspect of the Hawk (Rank 6), Hunter's Mark (Rank 4), Mongoose Bite (Rank 4), Serpent Sting (Rank 8), Volley (Rank 3)

In terms of skills, the 50s are even more boring than the 40s. New ranks, but nothing new. I usually do the Jintha'alor quests in the Hinterlands around level 50-52 (trinket), then head up to the Plaguelands. If you go through all Blightcaller's quests up through killing the Scarlet Oracle, you can get yourself a pretty nice bow.

And then go to Outlands and replace it in Hellfire Peninsula, but still.

Marksman 1-80: Level 50

Level 50

The talent point for level 50 isn't flashy, but it's really handy - you can finish off Improved Revive Pet for 4 second pet resuscitation. You do pick up your second minor glyph slot, and the Feign Death is probably a good second one. If we had gone purely with Marksman talents instead of getting faster pet revives, level 50 is the earliest you can get Silencing Shot.

Skills, Level 50:

Serpent Sting (Rank 7), Steady Shot (Rank 1), Track Dragonkin, Volley (Rank 2)

Level 50 gets you a bread-and-butter hunter shot, Steady Shot. The cast time is 2 seconds, but when all your other shots are on cooldown, this gives you something to do on top of Auto Shot. At higher levels (the upper 70s to level cap), this shot is part of why you want to aim for the soft haste cap; getting your Steady Shot cast to 1.5 seconds lets you use it every Global Cooldown possible between your longer cooldown shots.

You also get Dragon tracking, which will be useful if you quest in zones with them, or if you want to farm for whelpling pets.

Marksman 1-80: Levels 41-49

Levels 41-49

Talents in the 40s give you some options. Improved Barrage is good to get for the removal of pushback on your Volley, and then you can get either Improved Aspect of the Hawk or Endurance Training over in the Beast Mastery Tree in order to pick up a reduced cast time on Revive Pet.

Skills, 41-49:

42: Multi-Shot (Rank 3), Serpent Sting (Rank 6)
44: Aimed Shot (Rank 4), Arcane Shot (Rank 6), Explosive Trap (Rank 2), Mend Pet (Rank 5), Mongoose Bite (Rank 3)
46: Aspect of the Wild (Rank 1), Immolation Trap (Rank 4), Scare Beast (Rank 3)
48: Aspect of the Hawk (Rank 5), Raptor Strike (Rank 7)

The 40s, like questing in the 40s can be, aren't terribly interesting. (Welcome to Tanaris. It's a big, monotonous desert. I almost always quest it out entirely, but the scenery... eh. The other option is Feralas, with the harpies. I prefer the desert.) Lots of new skill ranks; one new skill. The new skill? Aspect of the Wild, an aspect that lets you increase nature resist for you and your party/raid. Very useful for certain bosses, but not for general play.

Marksman 1-80: Level 40

Level 40

Level 40 used to be when you get your mount; now you're just going to pick up Trueshot Aura and your epic mount if you can afford it. You also learn to wear mail armor.

Skills, Level 40:

40: Aspect of the Pack, Freezing Trap (Rank 2), Hunter's Mark (Rank 3), Raptor Strike (Rank 6), Track Giants, Trueshot Aura, Volley (Rank 1)

Aspect of the Pack seems dinky when you're getting your epic mount, until you realize you can use it when you're indoors. This is the "running back from the graveyard through a dungeon" Aspect, and as long as there's nothing to daze you, your party will appreciate it. Just remember to turn it back off when you get back to where you need to be.

Level 40 also gets you Giant Tracking, useful for several quests looking for wandering giants. A lot of giants in Azeroth are still roaming elites, too, so this can also be used for avoiding getting smooshed.

Trueshot Aura, your talent point, is a 10% AP boost. It is no longer a 30 minute buff, but it does still turn off when you die. It will get temperarily overwritten by Enhancement Shamans' and some Death Knights' 10% AP buff procs, making the glyph for it less useful in raids, but it's still a good buff to have overall.

Volley is your last new level 40 skill, and it is great. Even if you're leveling with a tank pet, you're probably going to be pulling aggro off it by now, but if you're careful about it, you can start doing some AoE fighting. Combine it with an Explosive Trap for extra oomph. When I was leveling my baby hunter, this is the skill I was impatient to pick up.

Marksman 1-80: Levels 31-39

Levels 31-39

Talents in the 30s are pretty flexible; I generally go with Focused Aim, Careful Aim, and Barrage. You won't have Steady Shot for a while yet, but the extra 3% to hit will help if you want to kill stuff higher level than you. As a Marksman hunter (at least till Cataclysm, when we get to learn to operate with Focus), Intellect is your friend, and more AP from it is good. Not everyone is a Barrage fan, but the damage boost on Aimed Shot is worth it.

Skills, Levels 31-39:

32: Flare, Raptor Strike (Rank 5), Track Demons
34: Explosive Trap (Rank 1), Serpent Sting (Rank 5)
36: Aimed Shot (Rank 3), Arcane Shot (Rank 5), Immolation Trap (Rank 3), Mend Pet (Rank 4), Viper Sting
38: Aspect of the Hawk (Rank 4)

New skills in the 30s aren't as flashy as some, but there some useful ones.

At level 32, you get Flare. It's been tweaked over time, in terms of both duration and cooldown, but right now it's a 20 second cooldown and a 20 second effect. It puts a flare on the ground that makes an area that will reveal stealth. Depending how a rogue or druid is specialized, it can be very useful in PVP. It's also useful for the stealthed cats and wolves you'll start running into in this level range. Oh, and those stupid stealthed infiltrators in Dustwallow... grr...

Anywho, you also pick up Track Demons at 32. Like most of the other tracking skills, the utility depends on if you're somewhere with demons. (If you run Dire Maul at level later, you can use it to keep an eye out for the patrolling Eye of Kilroggs that will summon a couple of mean Voidwalkers.)

Level 34 gets you Explosive Trap. This is an area-of-effect fire trap that will pulse for periodic damage. Now that traps are on separate cooldowns by fire/frost/nature, they're more useful, and more fun; you can drop a Frost Trap and an Explosive Trap together and have slowing plus fire.

I use a couple macros for traps to keep my bars less crowded; they're basically along the lines of:

#showtooltip
/cast [button:1] Explosive Trap; [button:2] Immolation Trap

I have a separate one for the ice traps.

At level 36 you'll pick up Viper Sting. This is a bit more useful than it used to be, and the mana gain from it can be beneficial. Combined with Chimera Shot at later levels, it's sometimes better to use than switching into Aspect of the Viper.

Marksman 1-80: Level 30

Level 30

Level 30 isn't as exciting as it used to be; still, you can pick up Readiness with your talent point, and a second Major glyph slot is available. I'd go with whichever of Mending or Serpent Sting you didn't take at level 15.

Skills, Level 30:

30: Feign Death, Mongoose Bite (Rank 2), Multi-Shot (Rank 2), Scare Beast (Rank 2)

In addition to the new skill ranks, your talent point here is probably Readiness. Readiness resets many of your hunter abilities that have cooldowns - shots, traps, Rapid Fire, Feign Death, and so forth. It's useful at the higher ends for resetting Rapid Fire for a little DPS boost, and it's useful all the time for resetting traps and Feign.

Speaking of Feign Death, you pick it up at level 30. Feign Death is what will let you sometimes get away with running through things you can't kill, or survive when the rest of your party wipes. It lets your hunter play dead. (Unfortunately, your pet will not play dead with you, so if you're trying to survive something with an area damage effect of some sort, tell your pet to go play with it while it's not by you, or otherwise send your pet somewhere else. You can always revive your pet, but you have to run back from the graveyard.)

Note that Feigning will shunt the aggro onto the next person on the aggro table, which may be your healer. Sometimes it's better for you to have the aggro if the healer can keep you up long enough to kill it. This is where knowing how to kite is more important than having Feign.

Feigning can also be resisted. Bosses in particular like to resist (or don't care if they think you're dead, they'll still hit you... one or the other). Some bosses won't reset while you're Feigning, so if you're in that situation, just stand up and die, or you'll make your party angry. (Attumen in Karazhan almost always resisted me. My best night: Feigning successfully on every Hydross attempt (about a dozen) for the three hours it took us to kill him the first time. Deaths for the night: 0 is awesome.