Improved Stings, a Marksmanship Hunter talent in WoW Forever

Improved Stings is a passive talent in row 2 of the Marksmanship tree. It needs 5 points in Marksmanship, so the earliest you can take it is level 15 (up to 5 levels sooner with the Legacy perk Talented). It has 3 ranks. It has changed since Classic Era. It was called Improved Serpent Sting in Classic.

Improved Stings

3 ranks

  • Requires 5 points in Marksmanship

Increases the damage of your Serpent Sting ability by 6%, reduces the cooldown of your Viper Sting ability by 2 sec, and increases the duration of your Scorpid Sting ability by 15 sec.

Every rank of Improved Stings

RankText
Rank 1Increases the damage of your Serpent Sting ability by 6%, reduces the cooldown of your Viper Sting ability by 2 sec, and increases the duration of your Scorpid Sting ability by 15 sec.
Rank 2Increases the damage of your Serpent Sting ability by 13%, reduces the cooldown of your Viper Sting ability by 4 sec, and increases the duration of your Scorpid Sting ability by 30 sec.
Rank 3Increases the damage of your Serpent Sting ability by 20%, reduces the cooldown of your Viper Sting ability by 6 sec, and increases the duration of your Scorpid Sting ability by 45 sec.

Numbers in gold changed from the rank above.

Where it sits in the Marksmanship tree

Needs
No prerequisite talent
Unlocks
No talent needs it
Same row
Row above (row 1)
Row below (row 3)

Row numbers are on the left and the number in a corner is a talent's rank count. Gold marks Improved Stings.

Compared with Classic Era

What differs from Classic Era: its name, its rank 1 text, its position and its rank count.

Name

Classic Era

Improved Serpent Sting

WoW Forever

Improved Stings

Position

Classic Era

Marksmanship, row 4, column 2

WoW Forever

Marksmanship, row 2, column 1

Ranks

Classic Era

5 ranks

WoW Forever

3 ranks

Rank 1 text

Classic Era

Increases the damage done by your Serpent Sting by 2%.

WoW Forever

Increases the damage of your Serpent Sting ability by 6%, reduces the cooldown of your Viper Sting ability by 2 sec, and increases the duration of your Scorpid Sting ability by 15 sec.

Open the Hunter talent calculator

All Marksmanship talents

  1. Hawk Eye
  2. Improved Concussive Shot
  3. Lethal Attacks
  4. Improved Stings
  5. Efficiency
  6. Careful Aim
  7. Rapid Killing
  8. Improved Arcane Shot
  9. Lone Wolf
  10. Trueshot Aura
  11. Mortal Shots
  12. Rapid Recuperation
  13. Barrage
  14. Scatter Shot
  15. Ranged Weapon Specialization
  16. Sniper Shot

The other Hunter trees: Beast Mastery and Survival. Everything that changed for the Hunter since Classic is on the changes page.

Game data from the WoW Forever beta client, build 1.60.1.70291, as published by talentsforever.com (CC BY 4.0) on 2026-10-08 and reformatted by us. Numbers can still change before launch.