How bad is Hunter in Mythic+?
Every class brings something to a Mythic+ group. This page measures what each of those buffs is actually worth in real high keys, then zooms in on what Hunter brings: Hunter's Mark and Bloodlust. I main Hunter.
What each buff contributed in real high keys
Every buff is measured in the top 5 runs featuring its class (by Mythic+ score), with my buff meter: debuffs on the damage that actually went into their windows, flat buffs on who was standing in the group to receive them, Power Infusion on who actually got it and for how long. Average share of total group damage. Colors are the class that brings each buff.
Hunter's Mark is measured on the damage that actually went into marked targets. Bloodlust is priced against Drums, because anyone can carry Drums; the Hunter only gets credit for the difference, and it is shared with Shaman, Mage and Evoker anyway. Keep in mind that Shaman, Mage and Evoker all bring Bloodlust on top of what their bars show here. Skyfury reads low in this sampling because top Shaman runs are caster comps; in a melee comp it is one of the biggest buffs in the game (see the per spec sims). Power Infusion is measured from who the Priests actually gave it to in their top runs, valued with the per spec PI sims. Add it all up: the other classes' buffs each contributed 2.6% of group damage on average. The Hunter's whole kit contributed 2.0%.
Hunter's Mark in the best Hunter runs in the world
The top 3 Hunter runs per spec in every Season 1 dungeon, 72 runs total, measured the same way. The full bar length is what the average raid buff from the other classes contributed (2.6%). The fill is Hunter's Mark. Click any row to open that dungeon's public Hunter rankings on Warcraft Logs. Hover for how much of the group's damage went into marked targets.
Across all 72 runs: median 0.87% of group damage, best case 1.17%, worst case 0.40%. Why so low? Only 29% of group damage went into marked targets on average, and the modifier is 3% to begin with. 3% of a third of your damage is not a raid buff, it is a rounding error.
Is this a Hunter problem or a buff problem?
Fair question: Mage is also a pure DPS class, and Arcane Intellect also has a weakness, it only reaches the Intellect users in the group. So here is the same measurement across the top 72 Mage runs.
Top Mage comps ran about 3 Intellect players including the healer, and Arcane Intellect measured a median 1.60% of group damage, best case 2.47%. One mechanical point in Hunter's favor: Hunter's Mark buffs all damage into the marked target, while Arcane Intellect is nearly worthless if the Mage is the only caster in the group. But the sheer magnitude difference makes up for the mechanics: even in its comp-dependent reality, Arcane Intellect delivers about twice what Hunter's Mark does. And the Mage brings Bloodlust on top.
The case study: bring a second Outlaw instead
A real timed Maisara Caverns +24 (anonymized log). The buff meter moves every buff's contribution to the class that brings it, so the last column is what each player actually adds to the group. The two rows to compare are in bold: the Survival Hunter and the Outlaw Rogue.
| Spec | Logged DPS | Gives the group | Real contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
 Fury Warrior | 238,910 | +33,946 | 251,043 |
 Outlaw Rogue | 283,710 | +0 | 245,928 |
 Survival Hunter | 251,064 | +12,212 | 233,022 |
 Guardian Druid | 175,788 | +24,276 | 184,135 |
 Mistweaver Monk | 67,046 | +38,750 | 102,390 |
A replacement with no group buffs keeps about 87% of its logged damage (that is the buff tax the Outlaw already pays). So the replacement breaks even at 268,821 logged DPS.
The Outlaw in this very run logged 283,710.
This is not a complaint about Rogue damage. The point is that Hunter pays for a real raid buff slot with a buff that is worth a tenth of one, so in any group comparison Hunter starts two to three percent of group damage behind before anyone presses a button. Blizzard tunes Hunter's own damage as if Hunter's Mark were a real contribution. It is not.
The proposal: replace Hunter's Mark with a crit damage buff
This page is not asking for Hunter damage buffs. It is asking for Hunter's Mark to become a real buff, and here is a concrete, costed one: your critical strikes deal 5% more damage. Nothing else in the game buffs crit damage, and it fits the class. The costing comes straight from logs: in the top 10 Hunter runs, 49% of all group damage came from critical strikes (45 to 54%, very stable). A crit damage buff is worth its percentage times that share. Here is the same ranking as above with Hunter's Mark removed and the proposal in its place:
The costing menu: 3% crit damage is worth about 1.5% of group damage, still bottom tier. 5% lands at 2.4%, right at Chaos Brand and just under the 2.6% average buff, which is exactly where a fair fix belongs. 6% would be 2.9%, Mark of the Wild tier. With Bloodlust on top, a 5% crit damage buff finally makes bringing a Hunter a real choice instead of a tax. The fallback option stays on the table: keep Hunter's Mark a debuff but let it mark every target the Hunter hits; full coverage would put the existing 3% in line with the other buffs too.
Methodology, replication, corrections
- The per-spec sims behind these buff values, plus a Raidbots replication file covering every buff on this page, are at mplus-sims.azortharion.com (its charts cover Power Infusion and Skyfury so far).
- Log measurements use the Warcraft Logs API: damage into buff windows via range filters, per-target mark tracking, measured uptimes. Every run is public: the case study links Warcraft Logs' anonymized view, and survey rows link the rankings pages they came from. No player names appear on this page.
- Survey data: the top 3 Hunter runs per spec in each Season 1 dungeon (72 runs), the same for Mage (72 runs), and each buff measured in the top 5 runs of its class by Mythic+ score; all pulled 2026-07-22.
- Think a number is wrong? DM me on Discord: azortharion, or post in my Discord server. I will publish corrections.