Macro Guide

In this Guide:

1. What’s a macro?

2.  Making a macro.

3. Casting spells with a macro. (3.1-3.5)

4. The use of [ CONDITIONALS ] in your macros.

5.  A list of conditionals. (5.1-5.7)

6. Other useful slash commands for your macro. (6.1-6.5)

7. Help I need a macro!? What do I do?!

 

Macros are an important part of game-play in WoW. Whether it is during PvE or PvP, a solid macro can dramatically help you in getting the most out of the game.

In this “brief” guide, I’ll show you exactly what a macro is and how to create one. In addition, I will present you with several components which you can mix yourself to create a more personalized macro along with a few macros each class can have.

I would like to start by explaining what a macro is. If you already know what a macro is and how to create them, you may skip to chapter 4.

 

What’s a macro?

 

A macro is a slash command that you can use in order to tell the game  to execute an action for you. This way, you can tell the game to make your character yell something or cast a spell. The basic way a macro works is no different than when you would type a slash command in a chat box every time you want to initiate an action. A macro shortens this process by executing the slash commands as directed with a single key press.

 

An example:

If you would want to make your character dance, you can open  your chat by pressing ‘Enter’ or ‘Return’ and then type /dance.

 

 

 

 

If you hit ‘Enter’ or ‘Return’ again, you will see your character dancing.

 

 

 

 

A similar slash command can be used to tell a joke by typing /silly or if you would want to express you are sad, you could type /cry.

Making a macro

 

If you open the macro menu (By pressing ‘Esc’ and then selecting ‘Macros’ out of the ‘Game menu’ or by simply typing /macro in chat) you will see a menu pop up with two tabs.

One tab is the general macro tab, the other is your Characters specific Macro tab. The general tab is shared amongst all characters where the specific tab only consist of macros saved for that specific character.

 

 

 

In order to make a new macro you simply click on the ‘New’ button on the bottom of the macro menu and a new window appears on the right side. Here you can choose a fitting name for your macro and choose an icon.

 

• If you don’t want a name to show, you simply press spacebar once.
• If you don’t want to manually select the icon, just pick the red question mark icon. It will update the macro icon to the spell used in the macro.

 

After you have selected the name of your macro you click ‘Okay’, and the macro will be created. However, note that the macro is still empty and you need to fill the textbox with slash-commands in order to make it work.

 

For a start, you could test out your macro by typing /silly in the textbox to make your character cripple you with laughter when it launches joke after joke at you. Drag the icon from the macro menu onto your action bars and click it a couple times. You have now successfully created a macro.

Casting spells with a macro

Spamming jokes won’t win you the battle however. So in order to get that edge over your opponent you will need to fill your macro with an ability or a spell to cast.

3.1 The Cast Command

 

First, we will make your character cast a spell. In order to make it happen you will need to start by typing /cast or /use in the macro, followed by the name of the spell you would like to cast. An example would be:

/Cast Health Funnel

This allows a warlock to cast Health Funnel on his pet. You can use any spell in your spellbook for this, including the spells from your pet if you have one. The pet can cast at the same time as your character, so you can include both of them in one macro. An example would be:

/cast Shadow Bolt
/cast Shadow Bite

 

This macro will make your warlock cast shadow bolt while your pet uses it’s  shadow bite simultaneously.

As you have probably noticed by now, the tooltip of the macro doesn’t display anything else but the macro name itself.  To change this, you can add a line to your macro that will allow you see the tooltip. This line would be:

#Showtooltip

Now if you would add this line to a macro, it would look something like this:

#showtooltip
/cast Shadow Bolt

 

This makes the tooltip visible for the Shadow Bolt spell.

 

*TIP: By adding a spell name behind the #Showtooltip , you will see the tooltip (image) of that spell when you mouseover. It will also update the ‘red question mark’ icon to show that spell and the cooldown of that spell. An example:

 

#showtooltip Howl of Terror
/cast Shadow Bolt

 

This macro will display the icon of the AOE fear a warlock has and will show the cooldown when the Howl of Terror is used. When pressed or clicked, however, it will make your character cast a Shadow Bolt. This way you can track important cooldowns on macros that don’t have any Cooldowns to show. ***(It is recommended that you manually type this macro in as it tends to bug out when you simply copy/paste it into the command window)

 

Now you can experiment with making macros for your abilities.

 

3.2 The Castsequence Command

 

The next step in making spell cast macros is the castsequence macro. A castsequence macro starts with a /castsequence command, followed by any number of spell names separated with a comma. This allows you to queue up spells one after another while you press the macro multiple times. An example:

 

#showtooltip Shadow Bolt
/castsequence Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Searing Pain, Incinerate

This macro will make you cast a Shadow bolt 3 times followed by a Searing Pain and an Incinerate. After the Incinerate, the macro will return to the first casting command (Shadow bolt) and continue all over again as the casting sequence directs. Note that you need to press the macro every global cooldown (the 1.5 sec cd after using a spell) in order to keep casting.

 

Using a Castsequence macro can be very beneficial if you have a set damage rotation. Using 3 different spells over and over again, one after each other is a lot easier using this method.

 

3.3 The Reset Command

 

The castsequence macro remembers what spell was used last and will resume with the next spell when you resume pressing. This can be avoided by inserting a ‘Reset’ command into your macro after the /castsequence command. The reset command is as follows:

Reset=10

or

Reset=Target

or

Reset=10/target/combat/shift/alt/ctrl

 

The conditional on when to reset the macro is stated behind the equation. When it says Reset=Target it means that when you switch target, the macro will reset. The number 10 in this macro stands for the seconds that the game needs to reset the macro after the last time you pressed the macro. So if you set the reset to reset=1, then you would need to click or press the macro every 1 second in order for it to continue without resetting. The Reset=combat/alt combination would reset the sequence when you either drop out of combat or if you press the macro while holding alt. An example of this reset command into our previous macro would be:

 

#showtooltip Shadow Bolt
/castsequence reset=3/combat/alt Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Searing Pain, Incinerate

or

#showtooltip Shadow Bolt
/castsequence reset=target Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Searing Pain, Incinerate

After 3 full seconds of inactivity or dropping out of combat or pressing alt while you press the above macro will reset it and you will start with the first shadow bolt again.

 

3.4 The Stopcasting Command

If you add /stopcasting in your macro before the /cast command, you will stop casting your current spell and start casting the spell in your macro. An example:

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast Cone of Cold

If you are casting a long Frost Bolt but need to suddenly use Cone of Cold, this is the macro to use.

 

3.5 Adding the !before a spell.

 

The ‘!’ can be placed before a spell wich requires you to aim the green circle at your mousecursor in order to cast. An example would be Mass Dispel as shown below:

/cast !Mass Dispel

This way you don’t lose the green circle if you spam the macro.

 

The use of [ CONDITIONALS ] in your macros

 

We reached the point where making macros gets a bit more complex. I’m talking about using set conditionals in your macros. A conditional can be used to assign the macro to cast a spell onto your focus target if you have one. If you don’t have a focus selected the macro would cast the spell at your target instead. This is done by using the [ ] in your macro. An example to clarify:

 

#showtooltip Death Coil
/cast [@focus,exists] Death Coil; Death Coil

 

The [@focus] conditional is instructing your character to cast the spell at your focus. The comma between square brackets ‘ []‘ separates different conditionals. In this example the conditionals are @focus and exists. So if your focus target doesn’t exist, the macro will look at the spell to cast next. As you can see above, the ‘; Death Coil’ at the end of the macro is the spell that you will cast at your normal target if you don’t have a focus target to cast death coil at.

 

Another example:

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus,exists] Death Coil
/cast Shadow Bolt

 

 

If you have a focus target you will death coil it. If you don’t have a Focus Target, you will cast a shadow bolt at your current target.

 

The ‘@’ replaces the ‘target=’

The game will go trough these conditionals one by one and will then apply the given parameters. An example to clarify

The macro will try to cast Death Coil at your focus target if your focus is an enemy. If you don’t have a focus target, then the macro will try to cast Death Coil at your mouseover target, if you are pointing your mouse over an enemy.

A list of conditionals.

5.1 Using modifiers

 

1. /cast [nomod] Shadow Bolt
2. /cast [mod:Shift] Shadow Bolt
3. /cast [mod:alt] Shadow Bolt
4. /cast [mod:ctrl] Shadow Bolt

 

1)  If you don’t hold in ctrl alt or shift you will cast Shadow Bolt.

2)  If you press shift while pressing the macro you will cast Shadow Bolt

3)  If you press alt while pressing the macro you will cast Shadow Bolt.

4) If you press shift while pressing the macro you will cast Shadow Bolt.

5.2 Casting at a certain target

 

/cast [@Mouseover] Fear

Will cast Fear at the target you are pointing at/hovering over with your mouse (=your mouseover)

 

/cast [@arena1] Spell lock

Will cast spell lock at arena target 1

/cast [@arena2] Spell lock

Will cast spell lock at arena target 2 ( change the number 1-5 at “arena#” to target other enemies)

 

/cast [@focus] Spell lock

Will cast spell lock at your focus target

 

/cast [@party1] Renew

Will cast Renew at your party member N°1

/cast [@party2] Renew

Will cast Renew at your party member N°2 ( change the number 1-4 at “party#” to target the rest of your team)

 

/cast [@player] Renew

Will cast Renew at yourself. (you only have 4 partymembers)

/cast [@Hydraa] Renew

Will cast Renew at the character with the name Hydraa

(this works with pets as well when they have a set name like warlock pets, hunter pets and frost mages pets, as well with temporary pets such as the priest shadowfiend pet)

 

5.3 Exists conditional

 

/cast [@focus,exists] Silence

Will cast Silence at your focus if you have one up

 

5.4 Modifier conditional

 

/cast [@focus,nomod] Silence

Will cast Silence at your focus if you don’t press a modifier

/cast [@focus, mod:ctrl] Silence

Will cast Silence at your focus if you press ctrl together with the macro.

 

5.5 Nochanneling conditional

 

/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay

Will cast Mind Flay without interrupting it before the entire cast has passed. This is used to prevent clipping.

 

/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Blast

Will cast Mind Blast. When you use Mind Flay and spam this macro, the Mind Blast will only be casted after the full Mind Flay has been casted without prematurely interrupting or clipping.

 

5.6 Harmful / Helpfulconditional

/cast [@focus,harm] Silence

Will cast a Silence at your foucs target if it’s harmful

/cast [@focus,noharm] Renew

Just like on an enemy player, It will cast a Renew if it’s friendly or not harmful. You can either use ‘Help’ or ‘Noharm’.

 

5.7 Combination of Conditionals

 

 

This macro is a Warlock Pet All-in-One macro.

• If you have a felhunter out, it will use Spell lock on your target or if you press Shift simultaneously, it will cast spell lock at your focus.

• If you have a voidwalker out, it will use Sacrifice or Consume Shadows when you press and hold Shift.

• If you have succubus out it will cast Seduction at your target,  or if you press and hold shift, it will cast Seduction on your focus. If you  press and hold alt, it will cast Whiplash.

• If you have an imp out, you will cast Flee. If you press and hold alt, you will Singe Magic yourself.

 

 

Another example:

 

#showtooltip
/castsequence [@focus, exists, harm] reset=target !heroic leap, pummel; !heroic leap

 

This macro will attempt to Heroic Leap (you still need to aim it) and pummel your Focus Target, if you have one that is hostile to you. The macro will reset when you switch target. If you don’t have a focus up, it will cast Heroic Leap to the location you selected.

#showtooltip
/cast [modifier, help] [modifier, @targettarget, help] Renew; [help] [@targettarget] [nochanneling:Penance] Penance

 

This macro will cast a helpful spell on either your target if it’s friendly, or your target’s target . When you hold any modifier key, it will cast Renew. Otherwise, it will cast Penance with out it”slipping”.

Other useful slash commands for your macro

 

6.1 Equipping items

 

You can equip an item using the following command: /equip. For example:

 

/equip Vicious Gladiator's Spellblade

or

/equipslot 14 Darkmoon Card: Volcano

 

The /equipslot 14 command is the destination of where the item should go. In this case the /equipslot 14 will redirect the trinket to be equipped in the lower trinket slot.

 

The list of your equipmentslots is stated below:

0 = ammo

1 = head

2 = neck

3 = shoulder

4 = shirt

5 = chest

6 = belt

7 = legs

8 = feet

9 = wrist

10 = gloves

11 = finger 1

12 = finger 2

13 = trinket 1

14 = trinket 2

15 = back

16 = main hand

17 = off hand

18 = ranged

19 = tabard

 

6.2 Targetting Players

 

The following commands will allow you to target specified players:

 

/target Hydraa

Will target Hydraa

/targetenemy

Will target your nearest enemy (default: Tab)

/targetfriend

Will target your nearest enemy (default: Ctrl + Tab)

/targetenemyplayer

Will target your nearest enemy player (and not the clutter of totems and snakes and stuff you encounter in PvP.)

/targetenemyplayer 1

Will target your nearest enemy player but in the reverse order of the /targetenemyplayer

/targetfriendplayer

Will target your nearest Friendly player

/targetfriendplayer 1

Will target your nearest friendly player but in the reverse order of the /targetfriendplayer

/targetparty

Will cycle trough your party members

/targetparty 1

Will cycle trough your party members but in the reverse order

/targetraid

Will cycle trough your raid members

/targetraid 1

Will cycle trough your raid members but in the reverse order

 

/assist

Will target the harmfull target of your target and start attacking it.

 

6.3 Controlling your Pet

 

/petattack

Will make your pet attack the target

/petfollow

Will make your pet follow you

/petstay

Will make your pet stay at your location. It won’t follow if you move

/petmoveto

Will allow you to target an area where the pet will move to

 

/petpassive

Will put the pet on passive stance so it won’t attack attackers.

/petdefensive

Will put the pet in defensive stance so it will engage attackers.

/petaggressive

Will put the pet in aggressive stance so it will attack any enemy in sight

 

/petautocaston Shadow Bite

Will enable the autocast function for Shadow Bite

/petautocastoff Shadow Bite

Will disable the autocast function for Shadow Bite

/petautocasttoggle Shadow Bite

Will toggle wether or not the Shadow Bite ability will be on auto cast or not.

 

6.4 Autoattacking

 

/startattack

Will make your character start Auto-attacking

/stopattack

Will make your character stop Auto-attacking

 

6.5 Removing Buffs

 

/cancelaura Power Word: Shield

Will remove the Power Word: Shield Buff

/cancelform

Will cancel any form you are in and put you back in caster form

/dismount

Will force you to dismount your mount

Help I need a macro!? What do I do?!

There are plenty of macros out there, ready to be found on many different sites:

• http://www.arenajunkies.com/
• http://www.wowwiki.com/Useful_macros
• Google

 

For Class specific macros look into the class guides on http://hydramist.tv/guides/. There is almost always a macro section included.

 

If you have trouble with a macro or have a macro related Question, feel free to either PM me on the forums, contact me on skype, or simply make a thread on the forums. I’ll make sure to help you out.

 

Hydramist forums name: Arbito

Skype name: Warbito