Macros, Shortcuts and Efficiency! Oh My!
Macros, Shortcuts and Efficiency! Oh My!
Copyright 2009 by Patrick Spence
Macros are great for making things more efficient for you in game. For example, they can be used to make targeting and assist macros. These speed up your response time when targeting the mob you are trying to kill in a group or raid. You can also use them to make Cure macros if you need to cure specific people regularly or on a schedule. You can also make healing macros if you want to ensure that your local glass cannon wizard gets that extra heal. The biggest reason for using macros comes down simply to making things easier and more efficient for you.
When looking at things like targeting and assist macros, there are a few things to remember when making your decision. For example, if there are multiple mobs in an encounter, and the damage being done is spread out among all of them, it takes longer to bring an individual mob down than if everyone focuses on a single one. This means that the tank is taking more damage longer. This reduces your safety in your group or raid, and makes the healers spend more mana keeping him alive. In addition, if you are not focusing on the mob the tank is, you increase your chance of getting the creatures attention, causing YOU to take damage and possibly die. This is sometimes considered unpleasant.
Healers and Warlocks and AOE agro, oh my!
One solution to focusing damage that many people end up using is simply to target the tank. While this does achieve most of the result of killing a single mob faster than while spread out, it really isn’t as good as it seems on the surface, though it does allow you to "get by” when situations are optimal. One thing to remember when you just simply target the tank is that some tanks will change targets to generate more agro control on other mobs in the encounter, and if he does this while you are targeting him, it means that while he is increasing agro on that new mob, so are you, in effect you chase his agro on each mob.
If instead of targeting the tank, you simply target the first mob he establishes control over, and all the other damage dealers do the same, you are able to take that mob down and free up the tank to switch targets if he needs to, for agro generation, to pick up additional mobs that wander in and try to eat your healer and any other reason he may have.
Another reason the tank may switch targets is to build up some agro on a mezzed mob before engaging, and if you attack it before he is able to get a good grip on the mob, it may go decide to take a bite out of that poor enchanter. While this can end up with pretty funny results, that enchanter usually doesn’t like dying to entertain his group.
Also some people get lazy while targeting the tank and just start hitting their attacks as fast as they can without looking to see what is going on, so if the tank switches to a new target by accident (misclicks, tab targeting, charmed by the mob, sadism combined with hatred for that warden no one likes, etc), those lazy people can end up sending a stream of arrows or fireball over everyone’s head to a target that should not have been engaged. If you are on the tanks first target this wont happen.
Another point to remember, if everyone is targeting a single mob in an encounter, that one will die faster. If everyone targets that mob more efficiently (i.e. faster on the targeting) then that mob will die a little bit faster. The faster you kill something, the shorter amount of time it will be beating on your tank and group and the safer you will be. In addition, if you kill faster, you can kill more, and get those kill quests done faster.
When you consider the reasons for targeting the mob, and start putting it into practice you find out rather quickly that clicking on a mob with your mouse isn’t always the best thing. Mobs are sneaky, they dodge your mouse pointer from time to time, and sometimes other ones come running into view and dive in front of your mouse pointer to take that click for the sake of mob kind. This happens more often when dealing with large amounts of mobs near (or in combat with you) or large amounts of players near like in raids. This can result in the rather upsetting circumstance of your largest attack landing on a mob that really wasn’t interested in chewing your face off, well until you introduced him to Mr. Ice Comet.
So, when working with targeting and a tank and trying to be efficient, it helps to set up both an /assist and a /target macro and put them on your hot bars. This will allow you to target your tank with a single key press (or hot bar button press), see what he is targeting and then hit one more key (or hot bar button) and target his target.
Putting it all together
Creating a macro isn’t hard at all. First open up your macro/emotes window by pressing O.
Select the "macros" tab.
You will be able to create one by clicking on the "Click to edit" link on the window.
There are a few different types of macros that you can create. You can create something to cast a spell or two, something to use an item from your inventory, or something to equip a piece (or more than one piece) of gear.
For example, if you wanted to make a macro to cast a spell, you would do the following:
- Open a new macro to edit
- Open your knowledge book
- Add a step to the macro for Spell / Ability
- Drag an icon from your knowledge book to the drop point in the new step in the macro
One special thing you can do when casting spells is use the cancel spell cast command (/cancel_spellcast). What this handy command does is immediately cancels any spell you have casting, which allows you to prioritize things. For example, if you are in a zone where you HAVE to be sure to cure something, you can set up a cure macro to stop that long casting ward and put a cure in.
And, if you regularly group with a warlock, and want to get that little edge on keeping her alive when groups of mobs decide she is tasty you can set up something like this:
If you want to be on top of things without changing targets you can even put that poor warlocks name in the "target" section of the spell in the macro and it will cast on them without you even switching from the tank that you are supposed to be healing.
You can easily expand this concept to other critical things that you may need to do, such as Evac, Wards, Heals, Swashy fluster emote, and so on.
Two important macros.
Two macros I strongly recommend to everyone, and actually are the entire point of this article are the /target and /assist macros. You have to remember the real definition of these commands, because a large percentage of the community uses the phrase "assist the tank" when in reality they are talking about "target the tank". To be precise, when you target someone and use an attack, it goes and attacks whatever THEY have targeted. When you use the /assist command YOU target what they have targeted.
When you are targeting a creature and use a beneficial command like heal or cure, it will affect whatever the creature is looking at. This passing thru is called (surprise!) Pass-thru targeting. The big difference is that if you use the /assist command, you are able to keep working on killing that mob when the person you had targeted originally died.
When you make a target macro, just make a new macro with a command step and put the text: /target (tankname)
Into the step, replacing (tankname) with whatever the name is of the person you decide you are going to be looking at, i.e. the tank, main assist in a raid, etc. This is especially handy to ensure that if you are the healer you can target the tank fast in combat in case you were off healing that agro-pulling ranger (that you want to let die anyway). It is also helpful if you are a dpser who is about to use the /assist command, because you can double check really fast who your tank is targeting before you start nuking.
When you make an assist macro, just make a new macro with a command step and put the text: /assist (tankname)
Into the step, replacing (tankname) with whatever the name is of the person you decide you want to assist, i.e. the tank, main assist in a raid, etc.
More uses for macros
Another useful thing you can automate with a macro is a Heroic Opportunity. A fighter, for example, can macro a heroic opportunity and give himself a little more dps and automatic firing off of an attack and a taunt. Another useful variant of this is for a scout to put their heroic opportunity starter into a macro with a few of their combat arts. Since scout HO’s give more options, this allows for more opportunities to use a Heroic Opportunity in combat without having to expend any effort on starting them up.
If you are a pet class and have a specific buff you want cast every time you pull up a certain pet, you can easily macro this together. Some healers like to macro their "revive token" spell into a spell that they always cast during groups (like a buff on the tank) to ensure that they always give their group that get out of death free card.
You can also equip gear from a macro. Simply drag an item from your inventory into a new macro window, and you can then use that macro to equip that item. Just remember, that while you CAN put more than one piece of gear for equipping into a macro, if you are in combat, there is a delay after each item, and some items cannot be changed in combat, so if you need a complete gear swap out you will need to wait until fighting is over to use it.
You can also put items into a macro to use, such as a totem, etc. The process is the same as putting gear into the macro to make an equip macro.
Some things a macro cannot do.
A macro, most importantly, cannot THINK for you. In the end, you have to be the one to decide what you are going to do, and while it may seem that you can just hammer away at macros and not worry about what you are doing, you will find that the game is far more enjoyable, and far more playable and you will be more successful if you participate in the game and play and think about what you are doing.
You also can’t automate a loop. There is no way to automatically restart a macro over and over. The developers of the game do not want this functionality in the game for a reason, and trying to find some way to replicate this function will not work out well for you since it violates the EULA of the game.
You can’t execute more than two combat arts or spells that have any cast time. This means that you could put all your spells into a macro and hit the macro, but only the first and the last usable ones will fire when you do so. The exception to this is special zero cast spells like the heroic opportunity starter. This particular spell lets you cast a heroic opportunity, use a starter combat art and a finisher to automate things a bit. This is great for healers because it’s a little bit of extra free dps when they are soloing, and great for tanks to add a bit more agro.
When does this all come into play?
When you sit down and look at your game and start to decide that some function is repetitive, like casting two certain spells together all the time or heroic opportunity starters or using /assist, those are key things to look at and think about making a macro for.
When you want a bit more accuracy or speed consider if a macro will help. Want to be sure you target that special named mob in the encounter (like Gnorbl), check into a macro.
This is by no means an advanced guide on macro creating, but it should get you started on the how and the why and the when, and with a little playing around and experimenting you should be well on your way to making things in the game easier and safer for you and your friends.
