After playing Marksmanship Hunter for a while, the spec feels frustrating—both in Raid and M+, whether running standard MM or Dark Ranger.
The Cleave Problem
MM is currently the only spec in the game that struggles to cleave on just two targets.
- Multishot technically works, but on two targets it often deals less damage than simply casting Arcane Shot with Precise Shots.
- To trigger Trick Shots, you need three targets. Even then, the positioning is clunky, since all three targets have to be lined up for Multishot to hit.
This shows up constantly in actual content:
- Dungeons: Priory first boss, Demolition Duo in Floodgate, and the two big adds before the final boss in the same dungeon. The same problem existed in Season 1 on Master Machinist in Stonevault. In higher keys, pulling extra mobs just to enable cleave can be dangerous, so groups often avoid it.
- Raid (Manaforge): You’ll often only have two targets close together while the third is too far away, making Trick Shots unreliable. This happens on bosses like Soulhunters, Soulbinger, and Forgeweaver—leaving MM awkwardly stuck on two targets with no smooth way to cleave.
The end result is being forced into awkward talent choices:
- Hydra’s Bite can help for consistent two-target cleave, but its range is limited compared to specs like Frost Mage, and taking it removes Trick Shots entirely.
- You end up locked into either single-target, two-target cleave, or three-target cleave—but never flexible enough to handle all scenarios smoothly.
- Meanwhile, other specs cleave naturally and effortlessly: Fury Warriors just press Whirlwind, BM Hunters get Beast Cleave from Multishot without extra setup, and specs like DH, Demo Warlock, and Druids all bring built-in cleave without needing extra targets or positioning.
The Dark Ranger Issue
Dark Ranger, in my opinion, has one of the most frustrating talent + tier set designs in the game, because it layers RNG on top of RNG.
The entire playstyle revolves around Black Arrow (BA):
- Usable on targets above 80% or below 20% HP, with a 10s cooldown.
- Deathblow: 15% chance from Aimed Shot, 25% from Rapid Fire, to make BA usable on any target.
- Hero Talent (Withering Fire): During Trueshot, you fire a free BA plus two more.
- Tier Set: Whenever Deathblow procs, you have a 50% chance to add another BA to your next Withering Fire during Trueshot.
Where this falls apart:
- Outside of Trueshot, you might barely get any Deathblow procs, meaning you walk into cooldowns with nothing stored.
- Other times, you’ll get 4–5 extra Black Arrows banked, but then inside Trueshot you get no Deathblow procs, making those banked arrows useless.
- Even when you do get a proc or two, the payoff feels mediocre rather than impactful.
The end result is wild performance swings:
- In the same dungeon, I might end up at 6.8m overall one run, and 8.2m overall the next—just depending on procs.
- On pure single-target raid fights (like the first boss), one attempt might end at 3.7m, while the next is 4.7m with better RNG.
- Another example is the First pull in Floodgate, both with lust and PI. First pull DR: Attempt 1 35m, 2nd attempt 25m. Sentinel Attempt 1 34m, 2nd attempt 35m.
Instead of feeling rewarding, Dark Ranger often feels like pressing Trueshot is a gamble—you’re hoping for big numbers, but if RNG doesn’t go your way, you’re left underwhelmed.
Bleak Powder
On top of everything else, the Bleak Powder interaction adds another layer of frustration:
- BA explosions land in an 8-yard cone behind the target, which often misses most of the pack unless you reposition perfectly.
- In practice, this feels very limiting. For example, in Ara-Kara miniboss pulls, adds often spawn directly in front of the miniboss. This means your Bleak Powder explosion frequently whiffs entirely, unless you awkwardly reposition yourself just to make the cone connect.
- While positioning can mitigate some of this, it ends up being yet another hoop to jump through—on top of MM’s existing setup demands. Instead of feeling rewarding, it just makes the spec clunkier to play.
Potential Solutions
A few adjustments could go a long way toward making MM/Dark Ranger feel smoother without breaking balance:
- Trick Shots: Allow it to activate on two targets, or let Multishot grant Trick Shots regardless of target count (similar to BM’s Beast Cleave).
- Black Arrow procs: Either increase proc rates during Trueshot, or make them guaranteed after each use of Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire (with damage tuned down for balance). This would smooth out the extreme RNG swings.
- Deathblow redesign: This talent has historically been weak (from Shadowlands through DF), and DR forces you into it for the build to function. Relying this heavily on RNG makes the entire Hero Talent + tier set clunky. A better design could be: grant the Deathblow effect after 2–3 casts of Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire, ensuring consistency while still rewarding active gameplay.
These kinds of changes wouldn’t necessarily make MM overpowered—but they’d reduce the constant frustration of playing around positioning, strict target counts, and RNG on top of RNG.