Here is my full Marksman Hunter pvp guide for Cataclysm, one of the last good World of Warcraft expansions.
In this guide you will find:
– best rotation?
– what gear to use?
– spell penetration cap?
– what gems to use?
– what enchants to use?
– what talent spec to use and what glyphs?
– what pet to use as a marksman hunter?
Marksman rotation guide
Start with serpent sting, then a “Chimera shot”, after that, use 2 x steady shots so you can regain focus and also to trigger “Improved steady shot”, meaning 15% more attack speed for 8 seconds.
Once you have your full focus bar back, start to nuke with arcane shots, making sure you will have enough focus for “Chimera Shot” when it’s ready to use.
What gear to use as a marksman hunter for PVP?
First, you will need to get 4 pieces of Bloodthirsty (blue ones) gear so you can benefit from the set bonuses (+400 resilience, +70 agility for 2, focus regen +5% and 180 agility for 4 pieces).
Try to get the Tol Barad trinket, it has 1605 agility for 20 seconds (on use) and passive mastery that you can convert into crit.
For hit rating: the belt and the bracers.
For crit: boots and cloak.
For necklace: the mastery one, reforged into crit.
Rings: crit and hit.
The stats pririty for marksman hunters in pvp is: agility, crit, mastery, and haste finally.
Haste is scaling very bad and we already have aspect of the fox + marksman spec has many attack speed increasing tools.
Finally, for weapons, it is your choice to pick a 2h weapon or 2x 1h weapons.
2h weapons have better stats, 1h weapons combo will allow you to deterrence even if you are disarmed while having a 2h weapon is not possible.
Pick what you like and what you think is useful for you, I mainly use 2 x 1h.
Spell penetration hunters cap Cataclysm
The spell penetration cap for hunters in Cataclysm is 220 – 240.
Use 50 spell penetration gems in the blue slots (hands, belt and legs gear), you have 3, and 70 spell penetration on the cloak.
If you are an engineer and you still want to use parachute as an enchant, it is your choice, depending what you like to do more, battlegrounds or arena.
For battlegrounds, the parachute is very useful and fun to have.
What gems to use hunter marksman for pvp?
Use +40 agility in all red sockets, and in yellow either 40 crit or 20 agility/20 crit.
What enchants to use?
For helm, use: 60 agility, 35 haste from the “Ramkahen” faction. There are no pvp enchants like there was in “Wrath of the Lich King”.
For shoulders, use 50 agility and 25 mastery, epic enchant from the “Therazane” faction, you will need to get exalted with this faction.
On cloak, either +70 spell penetration or the parachute for engineers.
Chest: 20 stats or 15 stats if you don’t have much gold, 40 resilience is another option.
Bracers: 65 crit.
Gloves: 60 mastery.
Legs: Dragonscale Leg Armor (190 Attack Power and 50 Critical Strike Rating) made by the LW profession.
Boots: minor speed and 30 stamina.
Weapons: Pyrium Weapon Chain for 2h weapon and always Pyrium Weapon Chain on the off hand weapon.
If you use 2 x 1handed weapons, use Hurricane on the main weapon or the old + 65 attack power in case you are low on gold.
Hurricane (460 haste for 12 seconds) enchant can proc from “Rapid fire”, mend pet.
Gnomish X-Ray Scope for the ranged weapon enchant, it can proc 800 range attack power and currently is very cheap on action house because is a thing engineers will craft often in order to level their engineering skill.
Best talents and glyphs to use as a Hunter Marksma, for pvp, in Cataclysm?
This is currently the best pvp marksman spec.
Glyphs:
Prime: “steady shot glyph” (10% more dmg from steady shot), “arcane shot glyph” (12% more dmg from arcane shot), “chimera shot glyph” (reduces the cooldown for “chimera shot” with 1 second).
Major: “master’s call glyph” (increase the mc duration with 4 seconds), “disengage glyph” (5 sec less on disengage cd), “raptor strike glyph” (you will take 20% reduced dmg for 5 seconds after you use “raptor strike”).
Minor: “fd”, “scare beast” (very useful vs ferals), and “mending glyph”.
Best pet for marksman hunter
The best pet for a marksman hunter in PVP, even for the survival spec, is the monkey, a new pet added in Cataclysm.
They can be found in lots of places, for example in Deadmines, or in Stranglethorn Valley, Jaguero Isle (down south).
The monkey pet has a 4 second blind that acts like a stun, meaning that even if you do damage, the target won’t be able to do anything, as he is being stunned.
This ability has a 1 min cooldown.
Also, the monkey (cunning pet) has “roar of recovery” (restores 30 focus over 9 sec) and “roar of sacrifice” (immune to crit for 12 seconds).
This was my Marksman Hunter pvp guide for Cataclysm.
Practice in battlegrounds this spec, it will get better and better.
I had very good memories from WoW Cataclysm, I remember that the game was so balanced that a duel could last forever, if both players knew how to play well.
Some people said that Ghostcrawler, the PVP and class designer was not doing a good job, but the end of the expansion, the balance was great.