Overview
You play as a caster-hunter: land Silencing Shot on the enemy healer, set up with Scatter/Trap, and unload Aimed + Arcane in the opening.
Strengths
- +Silencing Shot locks out a caster for 3s — a real interrupt
- +High controllable burst via Aimed Shot
- +Strong against caster comps you can silence and trap
Weaknesses
- −Less survivable than BM; weaker sustained pressure
- −Very reliant on landing setups (Scatter → Aimed, Silence on cast)
Stat priority & caps (arena)
Stat caps (arena)
| Stat | Cap | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Resilience | 490 rating | No hard cap — ~350 is the 2v2 entry point, 490+ is competitive. Reduces crit chance, crit damage and DoT damage taken. |
| Hit Rating (vs players) | 79 rating | 5% (~79 rating) caps yellow special-attack misses against same-level players. White dual-wield misses stay high but matter less in arena. |
- Resilience: No hard cap — ~350 is the 2v2 entry point, 490+ is competitive. Reduces crit chance, crit damage and DoT damage taken.
- Hit Rating (vs players): 5% (~79 rating) caps yellow special-attack misses against same-level players. White dual-wield misses stay high but matter less in arena.
Full gear with usage %, gems and enchants is on the Marksmanship Hunter PvP BiS list.
Recommended talent build
17/44/0 · RaidThe deep Marksmanship build: Trueshot Aura for the group, Silencing Shot utility, Careful Aim scaling. You give up BM's raw output for raid attack power and an interrupt — the trade that keeps one MM hunter in every serious roster.
Beast Mastery
17While Aspect of the Hawk is active, all normal ranged attacks have a 10% chance of increasing ranged attack speed by 3% for 12 sec.
Increases the Health of your pet by 2% and your total health by 1%.
All damage caused by you is increased by 1% while your pet is active and the critical strike chance of your Kill Command ability is increased by 10%.
Increases the Dodge bonus of your Aspect of the Monkey by 2%.
Increases the armor rating of your pets by 7% and your armor contribution from items by 4%.
Revive Pet's casting time is reduced by 3 sec, mana cost is reduced by 20%, and increases the health your pet returns with by an additional 15%.
Increases the speed bonus of your Aspect of the Cheetah and Aspect of the Pack by 4%.
Increases the outdoor movement speed of your pets by 30%.
Increases the damage done by your pets by 4%.
Reduces the mana cost of your Mend Pet spell by 10% and gives the Mend Pet spell a 25% chance of cleansing 1 Curse, Disease, Magic or Poison effect from the pet each tick.
Increases the critical strike chance of your pet by 2%.
While your pet is active, you and your pet will regenerate 1% of total health every 10 sec.
Command your pet to intimidate the target on the next successful melee attack, causing a high amount of threat and stunning the target for 3 sec.
Increases the Focus regeneration of your pets by 50%.
Increases your speed while mounted by 4% and your pet's chance to hit by 2%. The mounted movement speed increase does not stack with other effects.
Gives your pet a 20% chance to gain a 30% attack speed increase for 8 sec after dealing a critical strike.
When your pet scores a critical hit, all party members have all damage increased by 1% for 10 sec.
Send your pet into a rage causing 50% additional damage for 18 sec. While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot be stopped unless killed.
Increases your chance to dodge by 1% and your pet's chance to dodge by an additional 3%.
Increases ranged combat attack speed by 4% and your pet's melee attack speed by 4%.
When your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into a rage causing 10% additional damage and reducing mana costs of all spells by 20% for 18 sec. While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed.
Marksmanship
44Gives your Concussive Shot a 4% chance to stun the target for 3 sec. (Proc chance: 4%)
Increases your critical strike chance with ranged weapons by 1%.
Causes 20% of your Hunter's Mark ability's base attack power to apply to melee attack power as well.
Reduces the Mana cost of your Shots and Stings by 2%.
Your ranged critical hits cause your pet to generate 25 Focus.
Reduces the cooldown of your Arcane Shot by 0.2 sec.
An aimed shot that increases ranged damage by 70 and reduces healing done to that target by 50%. Lasts 10 sec.
Reduces the cooldown of your Rapid Fire ability by 1 min. In addition, after killing an opponent that yields experience or honor, your next Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot or Auto Shot causes 10% additional damage. Lasts 20 sec.
Increases the damage done by your Serpent Sting and Wyvern Sting by 6% and the mana drained by your Viper Sting by 6%. In addition, reduces the chance your Stings will be dispelled by 6%.
Increases your ranged weapon critical strike damage bonus by 6%.
Your successful Auto Shot attacks have a 2% chance to Daze the target for 4 sec. (Proc chance: 2%)
A short-range shot that deals 50% weapon damage and disorients the target for 4 sec. Any damage caused will remove the effect. Turns off your attack when used.
Increases the damage done by your Multi-Shot and Volley spells by 4%.
Increases your total Agility by 1% and your total Intellect by 3%.
Increases the damage you deal with ranged weapons by 1%.
Increases your ranged attack power by an amount equal to 15% of your total Intellect.
Increases the attack power of party members within 45 yards by 50. Lasts until cancelled.
Increases the critical strike chance of your Multi-Shot ability by 4% and gives you a 33% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channeling Volley.
Increases your ranged attack power by 2%.
A shot that deals 50% weapon damage and Silences the target for 3 sec.
Survival
0Increases all damage caused against Beasts, Giants and Dragonkin targets by 1% and increases critical damage caused against Beasts, Giants and Dragonkin targets by an additional 1%.
Increases all damage caused against Humanoid targets by 1% and increases critical damage caused against Humanoid targets by an additional 1%.
Increases the range of your ranged weapons by 2 yards.
Increases the critical strike chance of Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite by 10%.
Gives your Immolation Trap, Frost Trap, Explosive Trap, and Snake Trap a 8% chance to entrap the target, preventing them from moving for 4 sec. (Proc chance: 8%)
Increases your Parry chance by 1%.
Gives your Wing Clip ability a 7% chance to immobilize the target for 5 sec. (Proc chance: 7%)
Increases the duration of Freezing and Frost Trap effects by 15%, the damage of Immolation and Explosive Trap effects by 15%, and the number of snakes summoned from Snake Traps by 15%.
Increases total health by 2%.
When activated, increases your Dodge and Parry chance by 25% for 10 sec.
Decreases the chance enemies will resist trap effects by 5%.
Increases hit chance by 1% and increases the chance movement impairing effects will be resisted by an additional 5%.
Reduces the chance your Feign Death ability will be resisted by 2%.
Reduces all damage taken by 2% and increases attack power by 2%.
Increases your critical strike chance with all attacks by 1%.
A strike that becomes active after parrying an opponent's attack. This attack deals 40 damage and immobilizes the target for 5 sec. Counterattack cannot be blocked, dodged, or parried.
Reduces the mana cost of all traps and melee abilities by 20% and reduces the cooldown of all traps by 2 sec.
Increases your Agility by 3%.
Gives you a 33% chance to regain 40% of the mana cost of any shot when it critically hits. (Proc chance: 33%)
A stinging shot that puts the target to sleep for 12 sec. Any damage will cancel the effect. When the target wakes up, the Sting causes 300 Nature damage over 12 sec. Only one Sting per Hunter can be active on the target at a time.
Your ranged criticals have a 33% chance to apply an Expose Weakness effect to the target. Expose Weakness increases the attack power of all attackers against that target by 25% of your Agility for 7 sec. (Proc chance: 33%)
Your successful ranged attacks have a 6% chance to increase your critical strike chance with all attacks by 2% for 8 sec. (Proc chance: 6%)
When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your other Hunter abilities.
Points are filled on each tree above — hover a talent for its tooltip; highlighted talents are the build's key picks.
Burst & interrupt
- 1Silencing Shot the healer as they cast to open a kill window.
- 2Scatter Shot the kill target → Aimed Shot → Arcane Shot burst.
- 3Freezing Trap the off-target or re-trap the healer between casts.
- 4Kite with Wing Clip / Concussive / Frost Trap; keep out of the dead zone.
- 5Deterrence + trinket + trap to reset when trained.
MM is a timing spec — your damage comes in setup windows, so save Silencing Shot for the healer's important cast and chain your CC to keep them off the field. Kite melee the same as BM, but respect that you're squishier; use range and pillars religiously.
Hunter macros
Focus macros
Focus Scatter Shot
Scatter a focus target to set up a Freezing Trap or peel without swapping.
#showtooltip Scatter Shot /cast [target=focus] Scatter Shot
Focus Silencing Shot
Silence a focus caster mid-cast while keeping your damage on your target.
#showtooltip Silencing Shot /cast [target=focus] Silencing Shot
Arena target macros
Pet on arena1
Send your pet at the first arena enemy — quick-swap your pet's target in 2s/3s.
/petattack [target=arena1]
PvP addons
Full list on the Hunter addons page.
Best race (PvP)
Hardiness stun-resist keeps you kiting, and Blood Fury + Command (pet damage) boost your burst. Best Horde PvP hunter.
Shadowmeld resets fights and drops targeting; Quickness adds dodge for the inevitable melee train.
More on the best race for Hunter page.
Best professions (PvP)
Common mistakes
- ✕Wasting Silencing Shot on cooldown instead of on a key heal.
- ✕Aimed Shot with no Scatter/Trap setup — it just gets healed.
- ✕Playing MM into a comp that trains you when BM would survive better.
Best arena comps
FAQ
MM or BM for arena?
BM is the standard for survivability and pet burst; MM is a burst/interrupt pick that shines against caster comps you can Silencing-Shot. Most Hunters play BM.
How useful is Silencing Shot?
Very — a 3-second caster lockout on a 20-second cooldown is real interrupt utility that BM lacks.