Playstyle & Rotation
General ST Rotation:
- Cast Steady Shot to apply or maintain Steady Focus
- Cast Kill Shot (if the target is below 20% or if you have a Deathblow proc)
- Cast Steel Trap (or Explosive Shot in AoE/Cleave situations)
- Cast Death Chakram
- Cast Volley + Salvo
- Cast Rapid Fire on cooldown
- Cast Aimed Shot if you are about to hit 2 stacks
- Cast Trueshot
- Cast Aimed Shot
- Cast Arcane Shot
- Cast Steady Shot during downtimes (cast it a second time if Steady Focus is at 7s or less of its duration)
ST Opener:
- Precast Aimed Shot around 2.5s before the start of the fight
- Cast Steel Trap
- Cast Steady Shot
- Cast a second Steady Shot to trigger Steady Focus
- Cast Death Chakram
- Cast Volley + Salvo
- Cast Trueshot
- Use your racial / pot / trinkets
- Cast Aimed Shot
- Cast Rapid Fire
- Cast Aimed Shot
- Proceed with general rotation
Note that if you get a Kill Shot proc from Deathblow, it becomes the number 1 priority.
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:
- Precast Aimed Shot around 2.5s before the start of the fight
- Cast Explosive Shot
- Cast Death Chakram
- Cast Volley + Salvo
- Cast Trueshot
- Use your racial / pot / trinkets
- Cast Aimed Shot
- Cast Rapid Fire
- Cast Aimed Shot
- Cast Multi-Shot
- Proceed with general rotation
Note that if you get a Kill Shot proc from Deathblow, it becomes the number 1 priority.
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.
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. Try 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.
If you get a Kill Shot proc from Deathblow, it is still the priority, even during 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 should be able to cast 3 times (2x Aimed Shot and a Rapid Fire) during this window while under Trueshot or Bloodlust effect; otherwise, 2 times only.
You can easily put Volley and Salvo together in a macro if it’s more comfortable for you. It can be better not to do it in some situations, but this is if you want to min-max the spec.
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. 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.