MM is your other ranged ST spec
for rogue, so you definitely need
to know the ins and outs of this
spec before you start raiding,
as some boss fights will require
you to play a ranged spec
(especially if a purge is required)
- Try not to just get the spec
and rush down to the rotation,
there are important points
throughout to help you min-max
dps to get to your full potential
in Marksman.
The soul tree can be found here
61 MM/11 Ranger/4 NB
Buffs:
Predatory Instincts (from ranger)
Ranged Combat Mastery
Free Recoil
Static Shock Munitions
Silver Tip Munitions
Masteries:
Level 61 Mastery: Aggressive Defense
Level 62 Mastery: Revitalize.
Level 63 Mastery: Boundless Energy
Level 64 Mastery: Repetitive Strikes
Level 65 Mastery: Energy Manipulation
Strengths:
Great Mobility
One of the better rogue specs for easy target switching
High Utility – Purge + interrupt + Root + 2 knockbacks + Lightning Fury gives an armor debuff
Weaknesses:
Now suffers from energy drain (when parsing use the 5% energy cost reduction - Planar Conservation - Or get a guildie to bard/oracle!)
Ok, let’s go through some of the basics about this spec. MM is known for its ability to move and dps effectively. You need to keep up Barbed Shot, don’t clip it at 0 seconds because that will be wasting one of the ticks. Re-apply as soon as it falls off. Try not to clip this ability, the only time you will need to clip Barbed Shot is if you're about to go into your cooldown block and its going to fall off in the next 5 seconds. While the ability is rather shitty (including the dot), it increases the damage of your channelled abilities. So, Sentry Battery mostly as strafe is only used in certain situations, ill touch on that later.
Pre-apply Energy Manipulation (You should be used to doing this anyway)
Calculated Shot! This is a fun ability. You should only ever use this ability if you have a speed increase from either hasted shot or swift shot. Why? Because it removes the cd from this ability if you have one up. If you use this ability whilst you have up a movement speed buff from those abilities, it removes it. So! A rotation change! Fun!
Calculated Shot Maximisation:
In your standard build-up, you don't put calculated shot on cooldown. You never want it on cooldown if it forces you to press a swift shot with swift shot already active. However there are (at least) 2 ways of putting it on cooldown and avoiding that scenario, in order to maximise calculated shot usage in a fight:
1) You are about to go into your cooldown block
2) You have strafe available [note: strafe is only used for 3 ticks of damage]
This is because, after putting calculated shot on cooldown, both of these can be used to fill in that time frame until calculated shot comes back off cooldown. (without ever having to use 2 swift shots without a calculated shot between)
Bulls Eye – The only cooldown you need to maintain, use it during CD blocks.
Sentry Battery – Use during your CD block (around the end of it), your main CD block is going to last 5 seconds, due to Bulls eye having such a short duration. However! There is a cute trick on how to increase this CD block by around 2-3 seconds depending on how well you use it correctly! If you use sentry battery at the last second of the CD block, it will maintain the proc of Bulls Eye for the entire cast!
Lightning Fury – Hits for 3-5k more than a swift shot and it gives one combo point but only use when the debuff runs off, using a swift shot to get calculated shot is more effective than Lightning Fury.
Empowered Shot - Standard Builder, should always be instant due to Lock n Load
As for macros, to play Marksman correctly you should only have a finisher macro, due to the way server lag works when you macro Emp shot and Swift shot together so i advise against it, but the difference between macro'ing isnt that bad so if you wanna macro it use:
Builder -
#show Empowered Shot
suppressmacrofailures
cast Empowered Shot
cast Swift Shot
Personally i self maintain Energy Manipulation just because of the slight lag that it causes in a rotation, but you can macro it to make your life easier if you want. Just add the following above Empowered Shot.
cast @self Energy Manipulation
Finisher Macro
#show Rapid Fire Shot
suppressmacrofailures
cast Rapid Fire Shot
cast Deadeye Shot
cast Hasted Shot
As for Aoe, the only macro you need is
#show Lightning Fury
suppressmacrofailures
cast Lightning Fury
cast Chain Destruction
No Fan Out, Don't macro crossfire, both are a dps but i recommend having crossfire on your bar as its a decent utility button.
Why isnt Lightning Fury in the builder macro?
Using Lightning Fury off cd is a dps loss, whilst yes it does do more damage than swift shot it doesnt allow you to use calculated shot, therefore you should only use it for the debuff, and if another rogue is doing the debuff, you dont need to! But its a bad habit to get into just assuming other people will play their specs correctly.
Why isnt Calculated Shot in the macro?
Macro'ing Calculated Shot is generally a really bad idea, same way as macro'ing serpent strike for Assassin in, you need to self maintain this ability outside of a macro in order to get the most out of this spec, putting it on cd when you're not supposed to, is a damage loss.
Hasted shot is in the finisher macro to be used when moving, slight change in rotation if you do use it as you can then cast another Calc shot.
Ok, so I guess you want the rotation (always starting from 5 combo points, due to quick reload)
Pre apply Energy Manipulation -> Hardcast Deadeye Shot as the tank is pulling -> Barb Shot (re-apply whenever it falls off)-> Lightning Fury (use whenever the debuff runs out) -> Emp Shot (instant from now on) -> Swift -> Bulls Eye -> Rapid Fire Shot .-> Emp Shot (instant from now on) -> Deadeye Shot -> Sentry Battery -> Emp Shot -> Finisher -> Emp Shot -> Swift Shot – Calculated Shot -> Swift -> Fin – Emp -> Calculated -> Swift – Calculated -> Fin.
Because of Free Recoil, Rapid Fire Shot will only consume 2 combo points, so when its off CD the rotation will change into Fin -> Emp Shot -> Fin
That is pretty much it for MM rotation wise.
You will use Barbed Shot and Lightning Fury when you have to (when Barbed runs out and when Lightning Fury when debuff runs off, unless you have another MM doing it then let them waste their dps doing it ;D)
Other than that, this should be your normal rotation.
Your CD block rotation will be as follows: Bull's Eye -> Empowered Shot -> Rapid Fire shot -> Empowered Shot -> Deadeye Shot -> Sentry Battery
