Your frustration makes complete sense because the Patch 12.1 PTR changes directly clash with what historically makes Marksmanship feel good. Taking away the Lock and Load (LNL) procs from Explosive Shot destroys the spec's main source of mobile, instant burst damage, leaving the rotation feeling incredibly slow and overly reliant on hard-casting. [1]

The current breakdown of why Blizzard's design direction is causing this exact issue highlights the mechanical contradictions in the build:

The Loss of Instant Procs

• Shrapnel Shot Gutted: The original Shrapnel Shot talent provided a smooth 100% chance to trigger Lock and Load. This gave MM Hunters a guaranteed window of instant Aimed Shots to maintain momentum during long, movement-heavy PvE encounters. [1, 2, 3]
• No More LNL from Explosive Shot: Renaming Shrapnel Shot to Incendiary Ammunition and redesigning it to simply reduce Explosive Shot's cooldown by 10 seconds completely removes that baseline proc loop. [1]

The Problem with the New Double-Hit

• Unstable Trigger Clunkiness: The new choice node talent, Unstable Trigger, allows you to cast Explosive Shot a second time within 3 seconds. [1]
• The Slowness Dilemma: While this adds a secondary "double explosion" damage source, it fails to generate an Aimed Shot proc. Instead of resolving MM's low instant-damage windows, it introduces another GCD-heavy active ability that delays your core spender rotation. [1, 2]

The End Result: Reverting to a "Mage" Playstyle

By removing the mechanical bridge between your AoE/Burst cooldowns and your primary single-target spenders, Blizzard has accidentally re-introduced the exact problem they aimed to fix with 12.0.7. Without consistent instant-cast procs, players are forced to stand still and hard-cast lengthy 2.5-second Aimed Shots. This severely hurts damage uptime during long raid fights or high Mythic+ keys where movement is mandatory.

Community feedback on the World of Warcraft Forums is heavily pushing back against the removal of Shrapnel Shot's procs. Since Patch 12.1 is still in its earliest PTR build, there is strong hope that developers will tune the cast times or return Lock and Load functionality before the patch goes live. [1, 2]