Playstyle & Rotation
General ST Rotation:
- Cast Aimed Shot if you are about to hit 2 stacks
- Cast Steady Shot to apply or maintain Steady Focus.
- Cast Kill Shot (if the target is below 20% or if playing with the Deathblow talent)
- Cast Double Tap on cooldown(if talented)
- Cast Death Chakram (if talented, delay it for Double Tap)
- Cast Volley (if talented, delay it for Double Tap)
- Cast Steel Trap (if talented and on cooldown)
- Cast Wailing Arrow (if talented and on cooldown)
- Cast Rapid Fire (if talented and on cooldown)
- Cast Explosive Shot / Barrage (if talented)
- Cast Trueshot (if talented)
- Cast Aimed Shot
- Cast Arcane Shot
- Cast Steady Shot during downtimes (cast is a second time if Steady Focus is at 7s or less of its duration)
ST Opener:
- Pre-cast Double Tap around 5s before the start of the fight
- Pre-cast Steady Shot around 2s before the start of the fight (if playing with Steady Focus)
- Cast a second Steady Shot to trigger Steady Focus
- Cast Steel Trap
- Cast Death Chakram
- Cast Trueshot
- Use your racial / pot / trinkets
- Cast Aimed Shot
- Cast Rapid Fire
- Cast Aimed Shot
Multi Target:
The Aoe/Cleave Rotation, starting at 3+ target, is similar to the ST rotation. You want to cast every Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire under the Trick Shots effect. It will require you to cast Multi-Shot (outside of Volley windows) to activate it, which means you will no longer cast Arcane Shot. You also want to use your Precise Shots procs on Multi-Shot.
Multi Opener:
- Pre-cast Double Tap around 5s before the start of the fight
- Pre-cast Wailing Arrow around 2.5s before the start of the fight
- Cast Explosive Shot
- Cast Death Chakram
- Cast Volley
- Cast Trueshot
- Use your racial / pot / trinkets
- Cast Aimed Shot
- Cast Rapid Fire
- Cast Aimed Shot
With everything we have to cast here before pressing Trueshot, we lose a lot of active time from Steady Focus during the Trueshot window. That’s why we ignore activating it on the pull and pre-cast Wailing Arrow instead of Steady Shot.
Playstyle
Careful Aim Playstyle:
Careful Aim (while talented at rank 2) gives 50% bonus damage to your Aimed Shots on targets above 70% health. This means you want to hit targets above 70% hp as much as possible, so switching targets to keep this bonus can be the play unless you need to keep hitting that low target for strategy reasons.
You also want to spend your Double Tap charge on Aimed Shot above 70% hp, then on Rapid Fire below 70% hp.
Trueshot Management:
This is your big burst with a 2 mins cooldown. During your Trueshot windows, the cooldown of your Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire is reduced, and the cast of Aimed Shot is 50% faster. It means that you can easily hit 2 stacks on Aimed Shot, and you have to ensure that this doesn't happen.
Make sure also to have your Rapid Fire ready at the start of this window.
Make sure to have enough time on Steady Focus before pressing Trueshot, and don't refresh it until the Trueshot window is finished; focus on casting as much Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire as you can.
Also, make sure to have a Double Tap charge ready before pressing Trueshot.
Volley window (AoE/cleave):
Make sure NOT to cast any Multi-Shot while Volley is still active: it already gives the Trick Shots effect, so there is no need.
You need enough haste to be able to cast 2x Aimed Shot and a Rapid Fire during this window.
Precise Shot Procs:
Make sure to spend them on Arcane Shot in ST and on Multi-Shot in 3+ targets.
It is better not to waste a proc by pressing Multi-Shot twice, even if you technically waste one Trick Shots effect.
Hunter's survivability:
Hunters are one of the weakest classes in terms of defensive cooldown and survivability.
In Dragonflight, we have now gained Survival of the Fittest baseline. Survival of the Fittest can now be reduced to 2 mins thanks to the Lone Survivor talent, or you can have an extra 20% damage reduction with Nature's Endurance. The choice of these two talents is fight-dependent; for example, I would have picked Lone Survivor on Lords of Dread because we are taking spike damages every 2 mins. We can now have Born To Be Wild and Posthaste simultaneously, which is nice and allows you to use Survival of the Fittest and Aspect of the Turtle more often! We also have baseline avoidance with the Hunter's Avoidance talent, and we are keeping Exhilaration with additional healing on it.
On the other hand, we are losing the Marksman's Advantage and Resilience of the Hunter conduits from Shadowlands, which is consequent.
In conclusion, we now have more cooldowns reduction for spike damage but are even weaker on fights with damage taken over time.