Larssen_PM
Why Macros?
What are macros and why are they important? Macros are simple text commands that you bind to a button to make it perform two or more actions with one click. I once read a book on how to use macros, then pointedly avoided them for several years. They just seemed complex and unnecessary – the sort of thing arena pros might need, but never a casual player like me.
Things changed when WotLK added the Glyph of Revenge, and I was excited by the idea of finally getting to use Heroic Strike. This was a button that other tanks swore by – to the point of one blogger describing warrior tanking by saying “Taunt the mob, put a rock on your Heroic Strike button, and go watch a movie.” Ironically, I hated Heroic Strike and never used it at all. It was slow, wasted a lot of rage, and generated less threat than an active rotation of better abilities. Its main attraction seemed to be that it was an easy way for lazy tanks to hold aggro by spamming one button, or to add a marginal amount of DPS while tanking.
The Glyph of Revenge made Heroic Strike cost no rage if you used it immediately following Revenge, one of the best buttons a Prot warrior had in WotLK. You had a limited window of time to use the Heroic Strike before it became quite expensive rather than being free. Even better, a second glyph made the Heroic Strike actually give you extra rage if it was a critical hit. The question then became, how do you make sure to follow up every Revenge with a quick Heroic Strike without missing a free proc? The answer to this came in the form of my first macro, which looked like this:
#showtooltip Revenge
/cast Revenge
/cast Heroic Strike
It wasn’t fancy, but it did exactly what I needed it to do. I never missed a Heroic Strike, and my threat and damage increased as the computer sandwiched free procs between global cooldowns faster and more precisely than any human being ever could. This led me to try a macro to ensure I never missed an instant Slam proc while DPSing, and that in turn led me to embrace macros for a variety of situations.
I recommend that macros be used sparingly, and only for situations where several abilities must be used in sequence quickly and without error. I’ve heard of some of the top guilds using macros to bind their entire rotations to two or three keys that they can spam endlessly, and while that might yield better DPS in some situations, it seems like a bad idea for anything other than long Patchwerk-style fights. Situations where macros shine are those where you have to pop several cooldowns in quick succession during a burn phase, or to automate repetitive tasks that have dire consequences if mistakes are made, such as renewing crowd control.
Here are two examples of situations where macros are indispensable:
This macro is designed for mages, but can be made to work for any class by replacing “Polymorph” with the crowd control spell of your choice. It allows a mage to set a target as focus, polymorph it, then renew the polymorph with one click thereafter without switching targets.
#showtooltip Polymorph
/clearfocus [target=focus,dead] [target=focus,noexists] [modifier:alt]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/cast [target=focus] Polymorph
This macro is used for the Cho’gall fight, to instantly target the nearest player who has been mind controlled, interrupt them, and then target the boss again. Substitute the name of your interrupt for “Avenger’s Shield” below, and the macro will work for any class.
/cleartarget
/targetenemyplayer
/cast Avenger’s Shield
/targetlasttarget
As you can see, macros are very handy for specific fights, and the best macros are often situational. If you're curious about macros, but don’t know where to start, there are some excellent online guides, including the Classes section of this forum. Give macros a try, but don’t expect them to do everything for you. Use them wisely and they will serve you well.
by Larssen_PM on 2011-08-05 09:46:10
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