No matter if you’re new to the game or have been playing for some time, a Hunter talent build can help boost your damage output in both PvP and group content.
The hunter talent tree is broken up into three schools: Beast Mastery, Marksmanship and Survival. Each one focuses on improving one aspect of a hunter’s gameplay.
Marksmanship
Marksmanship is an ideal Hunter talent to have on your side for many reasons. It provides powerful single target damage, exceptional AoE DPS, and powerful closing power at the end of boss fights.
Additionally, it requires less mana pool micromanagement than Survival, making it simpler to get started and learn the rotations quickly.
Trueshot is one of the most essential marksmanship talents, enabling your Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire to recharge faster. Paired with Deep Talents like Windrunner’s Guidance and Unerring Vision, this will transform you into a DPS machine every two minutes!
Survival
Survival is an ideal Hunter talent build for both dungeons and raids. Its main advantage over other classes lies in its trap system, giving the class multiple ways to control and deal damage to their enemies.
Raptor Strike and Kill Command receive an additional boost, further increasing their potency.
Trap Mastery is an essential talent for this spec, as it increases the damage and duration of some traps. This trait is especially crucial when using Frost Trap or Snake Trap which can lock and load multiple mobs simultaneously in a raid or dungeon setting.
Wilderness Medicine
People who enjoy nature and have an appreciation of our natural resources will be ideal candidates for this profession. In order to provide care to patients in remote locations, one must possess cognitive knowledge, receive didactic training, and gain practical experience working in clinical settings.
Wilderness medicine is an interdisciplinary field that encompasses prevention and treatment of illness and injury, education and training, emergency medical services, search and rescue operations, as well as backcountry first aid. Traumatic injuries are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in wilderness settings, posing a major challenge to medical providers.
Counter Shot
For Hunters seeking an all-inclusive talent build that provides interrupts, mobility and mitigation in all game modes, Counter Shot is one of your best bets. Not only that but it also has plenty of utility in single target fights – something vital for hunters.
The two major talents here are Trueshot and Lone Wolf, both of which complement your powerful Aimed Shot ability. When combined, these abilities will significantly boost your damage output and make them essential components of any single target Marksmanship Hunter talent build.
Natural Mending
Natural Mending is an invaluable talent to have as a Hunter, as it reduces the cooldown of your primary burst heal, Exhilaration. That means you’ll always have access to instant healing when needed!
Combining Rapid Fire with other talents like Streamline can create an effective AOE build that deals heavy damage against high health enemies.
Tar Trap
Tar Trap is an invaluable ability for Hunters, as it hurls a tar trap at your target location that creates a pool of tar around itself for 30 seconds when enemies approach. All enemies within 10 yards of the trap take 50% reduced movement speed for 30 seconds.
Your Aimed Shot can now be cast 30% faster, providing a potent damage over time effect. It makes an ideal choice for Mythic+ content and boss encounters.
Misdirection
Misdirection (MD) is a Hunter talent that has been around for some time but not widely known within the game. Despite this, it can be an invaluable asset that can drastically alter your playstyle.
Hunters can use Misdirection for several purposes. The primary advantage is that it increases your pet’s threat level.
Another way to use it is as a threat passing tool during long fights. Doing this ensures your tank has greater threat than other players in a raid, allowing them to do more damage before the rest of the group needs to slow down in order to protect them from excessive damage.