Rift Marksman Strategy Guide

Marksman Soul's Skills, Specs, Macros and Builds in Rift

The marksman is the primary ranged DPS soul in Rift. Unlike its Ranger counterpart, this soul does not rely on a Pet for its damage or buffs. It plays very well with that soul, but doesn't require Ranger influence in order to deliver on the damage. Still, pairing these two souls is natural. I believe a 50-point Marksman build with a 16-point Ranger build to be the best. I'll elaborate on this later, but for now the only reason you need to see my logic is Shadow Fire. It gives you an extra powerful attack that boosts all ranged damage and provides two combo points. What more could you ask for? It fills out the Marksman soul nicely. You CAN live without Silver Tip Munitions. However, this build would not be best for PVE dungeons or raids. Silver-tip munitions win in the long haul.

Master Archer
At 15 points into the tree, Marksmen can take points in the Master Archer talent. This gives a hefty damage bonus when your Marksman is standing still. You'll want all five points in this, as each point after the first will give you 2% damage boost instead of one in the long run.

Marksmen get a lot of abilities that help their battlefield mobility. This is very welcome, as they frequently move positions. Your goal to take advantage of Master Archer should be to relocate to a new spot to fire and do so quickly. Thankfully you have some great abilities to fire on the go, such as Strafe and Crossfire.

Marksman Skills and Special Abilities

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Swift Shot Swift Shot - Points Required: 0
Ability Info: This attack will come last in your macro, but will be used heavily when you're gunning on the run. It's especially helpful in PVP. After all, if you are standing still you will get a damage bonus as a high level marksman. Still, very helpful for relocating along with On The Double. The effect vanishes if you use a finisher, but if the movement speed is important for your situation you can use the next ability to get an even faster run speed. It is augmented by the 5-point Improved Swift Shot talent.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Hasted Shot Hasted Shot - Points Required: 2
Ability Info: This instant ranged finisher does moderate damage but gives a 30% movement speed boost for 15 seconds at 5 combo points. It's the go-to for PVP maps like Whitefall Steppes, and may also see use for grinding kills when you are moving from one target to the next.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Empowered Shot Empowered Shot - Points Required: 4
Ability Info: This powerful shot requires you to be standing still. It doesn't do as much damage as the Ranger soul's Shadow fire, so if you are putting points in that tree as well, you will place this shot second in your rotation. I had a 51-point marksman build that used this alone, but switched to a 16-point ranger to give me the extra powerful opener that is shadow fire. I lost silver-tip munitions but didn't look back.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Deadeye Shot Deadeye Shot - Points Required: 8
Ability Info: This is your main finisher as a Marksman, and it delivers great damage. You'll need to be standing still, but that means you get the bonus from Master Archer if you're 20 points into the tree.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Fan Out Fan Out - Points Required: 10
Ability Info: This is a shot that deals damage to enemies in a cone area, but doesn't give you combo points. It's very respectable for on the run shooting and suffices as a marksman AOE along with a couple of other abilities.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Rapid Fire Shot Rapid Fire Shot - Points Required: 12
Ability Info: I love this finisher for a mage/rogue killer in Warfronts. It works well against anything without heavy armor. It will deliver as many shots as you have combo points, dealing nice damage with each blast. I love using this along with Bull's Eye to finish off a mage. The cooldown is annoying, but this would be overpowered without it as the skill has no casting time. You can fire it on the run to great effect.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Electrified Munitions Electrified Munitions - Points Required: 14
Ability Info: Marksmen get their first weapon buff 14 points in, and it's a good one. It adds Air damage to all kinds of ranged attacks -- damage that is ramped up with more points spent in the marksman soul. I use this one along with Vampiric munitions in PVP and love the damage combined with healing.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Barbed Shot Barbed Shot - Points Required: 16
Ability Info: Barbed shot is a great instant attack to use on enemies that are on the run, such as enemy flag carriers and, well, anyone in PVP. You won't get a lot of utility out of this skill in PVE, as most enemies don't move around enough to justify the shot.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Vampiric Munitions Vampiric Munitions - Points Required: 18
Ability Info: This gives all ranged weapon attacks a chance to curse the enemy for 15 seconds. The curse reduces healing taken by the enemy, and siphons the rest to the rogue. It's excellent in PVP and any boss fights that involve healers, if you bother to whip it out.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Lightning Fury Lightning Fury - Points Required: 20
Ability Info: This instant attack deals damage to enemies near to one another, seemingly not as broad an area as Fan Out. It reduces armor of all enemies affected, so causes them to take a bit more damage. It's a great ability to use before Fan Out so I put it into an AOE macro of sorts.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Deaden Deaden - Points Required: 24
Ability Info: Keep this hotkeyed no matter what your role as a Marksman. Any target that is casting can be silenced, protecting yourself and your teammages. It's also nice to use against healers so they can't save themselves. In order for the 5-second mute to be applied, you must mute the enemy. Timing is crucial.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Crossfire Crossfire - Points Required: 26
Ability Info: This ability acts like a channeled Fan Out, only dealing more damage and of the air element. That means it's a nice spell against plate and chainmail. I put this in a macro in this order: lightning fury, crossfire, fan out. When the need to fire against large groups arises, I can fire off the instant, then the more powerful crossfire. Fan Out allows some sustained damage while Lightning Fury cools down once more. You'll find a syntax for this in the macros section of the page.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Rending Munitions Rending Munitions - Points Required: 28
Ability Info: This allows your weapon attacks to ignore 25% of an enemy's armor. Obviously, it is more effective the more heavily armored your opponent. It's a good default to run with Electrified Munitions. I sub this for Vampiric Munitions frequently in PVP. However, if there are a lot of warriors in a particular battle this buff can be invaluable.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Quick Reload Quick Reload - Points Required: 32
Ability Info: Instantly resets all your marksman cooldowns. Use it after you've exhausted Crossfire, Bullseye, Strafe, etc. for maximum impact.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Controlled Fire Controlled Fire - Points Required: 38
Ability Info: With Electrified Munitions and Master Archer, it's the third bonus you get for putting points into Marksman and it's a good one. It reduces energy costs for all ranged weapon attacks by 10% and increases the damage bonus from attack power of all ranged weapon abilities by 10%. That means your attack power has a greater impact on a skill's damage. This bonus is increased by 5% for each additional point you spend in Marksman above 38. For the mathematically challenged, that would be 13 x 5 + 10 = 75% for a 51-point build. I recommend a 50 Marksman/16 Ranger build.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Retreat Retreat - Points Required: 40
Ability Info: Launches the caster backward. I've used it as an escape tool, doing a fast 180 degree turn to launch me the direction I'd like to run. It's great for giving you some extra distance. Used in conjunction with Repelling Shot, it can buy you some extra time against a melee attacker. Especially if they've exhausted any charges/teleports!

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Eradicate Eradicate - Points Required: 44
Ability Info: This can blow away a pair of buffs from an enemy. I use it heavily in both PVE and PVP. It's a beautiful perk to investing the extra points in this build, and is a more useful spell than Silver Tip Munitions in my opinion. Although, the 51-point spell is very very useful against bosses.

Rift Rogue Skills - Marksman Silver Tip Munitions Silver Tip Munitions - Points Required: 51
Ability Info: In a stacking effect, your attacks will apply a debuff that makes your attacks deal 2% extra damage to the enemy up to ten times. A 20% increase in damage is hefty, but is somewhat situational. Electrified and Armor piercing would be better for a fast battle. For Raid bosses and dungeon elites, this is a great skill that will produce lasting results. Since most will pair Marksman with Ranger, the question is, would you prefer this over having the 16-point range ability Shadow Fire which gives an instant +13% debuff to the enemy resulting in faster damage?

Marksman Soul Talents - Where to Spend Your Points

0-Point Soul Talents

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Single Minded Focus Single Minded Focus
Soul Talent Description:: Boosts damage of single-target attacks by 1-5%. This is an OK talent that will impact most of your Marksman abilities.

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Keen Eye Keen Eye
Soul Talent Description:: This adds one meter to your maximum range per point, up to 5. This allows you to outdistance most other classes in range and attack approaching enemies sooner. It's a great talent that any ranged rogue will want.

5-Point Soul Talents

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Increased Firepower Increased Firepower
Soul Talent Description:: This talent can give you a buff up to 25% attack power for ten seconds after scoring a critical hit. That's a huge buff and synergizes well with everything the Marksman does. You should crit often enough in high level gear that you have this buff all the time.

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Repelling Shot Repelling Shot
Soul Talent Description:: Knocks back an enemy, interrupting any casting and more importantly getting them out of your face for a moment. If you take this, you might want the improvement available at 20 points.

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Sharpshooter Sharpshooter
Soul Talent Description:: Increases your hit chance with ranged weapons by 1%. Less missing, more hitting equals an effective increase in DPS and more reliability. You want this talent, especially if you are going after higher level prey.

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Improved Swift Shot Improved Swift Shot
Soul Talent Description:: This can make your swift shot give an extra 2% run speed when you fire. It's a good boost, meaning you'll be one of the fastest runners at any given time on the battlefield.

10-Point Soul Talents

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Penetrating Shots Penetrating Shots
Soul Talent Description:: With this talent, your attacks will ignore up to 25% of an enemy's armor. It affects melee attacks as well, meaning you could use the marksman soul as a means to getting some armor penetration for a melee fighter. With Single-minded focus and Increased Fire Power it could lead to some interesting DPS.

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - On The Double On The Double
Soul Talent Description:: Lets you run at 70% increased speed for 5 seconds, plenty of time to get away or relocate for more action. Get the upgrade for this in the next tier for unrestricted movement.

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Hasty Departure Hasty Departure
Soul Talent Description:: This talent makes getting attacked give you up to 4% run speed, stacking up to 5 times for 20% more run speed from 5 hits. It's good only for PVP in my opinion, but grinders would probably like it as well.

15-Point Soul Talents

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Master Archer Master Archer
Soul Talent Description:: Gives a bonus to damage up to 5% when standing still. It is increased by 1% for every point spent in Marksman above 20. This is one reason you have all these movement speed buffs as a marksman -- so you can run to the next location and stand still some more for extra damage. It gives up to 50% bonus damage with a 51-point build.

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Improved Repelling Shot Improved Repelling Shot
Soul Talent Description:: Knock back up to two extra enemies with your repelling shot. This lets you interrupt a couple of casters and get some melee off you for a moment.

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Getaway Getaway
Soul Talent Description:: Makes On The Double remove any movement impairing effects and grants immunity to them for five seconds. For a single point, it really increases the usefulness of the On The Double skill and will be loved by PVE and PVP players alike.

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Static Shot Static Shot
Soul Talent Description:: A shot that roots an enemy in place for 5 seconds. Any damage can break the effect. It's useful for freezing an approaching attacker, to follow up with a powerful cast-time shot.

20-Point Soul Talents

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Killer Instinct Killer Instinct
Soul Talent Description:: This powerful talent gives up to 15% increased crit chance to deadeye shot and empowered shot, heftily boosting your Marksman's dps. You can't skip this one if you're heavily invested in this tree.

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Bull's Eye Bull's Eye
Soul Talent Description:: Guarantees the next shot will be a critical hit. This 2-minute cooldown ability is very handy to have around. I love using it with a number of abilities. Strafe, Crossfire, Deadeye Shot and Rapid Fire Shot all benefit from this. It's a great way to bring an opponent's hit points down fast, granting you some guaranteed burst damage when you need it.

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Sniper Training Sniper Training
Soul Talent Description:: This ability boosts the damage of all attacks that have a casting time, such as Deadeye Shot and Empowered Shot. The 21% damage boost is sick and gives you an even better reason to stand around and cast aimed shots.

25-Point Soul Talents

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Collateral Damage Collateral Damage
Soul Talent Description:: Boosts the damage of AOE weapon attacks, like Fan Out, Lightning Fury, and Crossfire by up to 30%. A sick increase for only two points.

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Rapid Extrication Rapid Extrication
Soul Talent Description:: This gem reduces the cooldowns of all marksman abilities by 30%! That will have a huge impact on your DPS in long fights and gets you ready to burst again in record time.

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Close Quarters Combat Close Quarters Combat
Soul Talent Description:: This lets you use your ranged attacks at melee range. This is a very very important talent to take, and for only one point it's a steal! This removes a lot of frustration from PVP and PVE combat without making Repelling Shot and Retreat useless.

30-Point Soul Talents

Rift Marksman Soul Tree - Strafe Strafe
Soul Talent Description:: Strafe is a channeled attack that can be used on the run. It deals big damage with five shots that each grant a combo point. Strafe followed by a Bull's Eye enhanced Rapid Fire Shot delivers some guaranteed big damage in a pinch. You can do this while you relocate, although standing still will still give Strafe extra damage!

Rift Game Strategy Guide