Cast Sequence, Macros, and You

Disclaimer: I only kinda know what I am doing. I am sure there are individuals out there that can out reason me. Again this is what I am currently using and my thinking. I tend to change up my macros, so feel free too.

First, if you didn’t know, to get to your macros type “/m”. Also some other suggestions are here, I have tried all the macros. I find that macros are defined by your play style. So these may not be perfect for you, but may get you started.

Farming: Instant DoTs, fear, Life Tap, Drain Life/Soul = dead elemental

I cannot think of a time I feel compelled to Shadow Bolt a mob. Sometimes even if my instant Shadow Bolt is triggered I will ignore it, the mana may not be worth it.

I start out with an Unstable Affliction, which has a cast time, and then start using my farming macro on the mob. This adds an additional DoT to ensure death.

As I cast the instant DoTs I am running already to the next mob to fill it up with instant DoTs. By the third mob the first is dead or near death. I instant Howl of Terror and reapply one DoT or a Drain Soul to finish it off and get a soulshard.

My farming macro looks like this:

Warlock1 (W1)

#showtooltip

/castsequence [nomodifier:alt] reset=10/combat/target  Curse of Agony,  Siphon Life, Corruption, drain life

/castsequence  [modifier:alt] reset=15/combat/target  Immolate, Incinerate, Shadow bolt, Shadowburn, Soul Fire

(Note: modifier Alt is not normally used in farming, but wanted to give you my complete macro.)

I order my instant DoTs in order of duration. So they will end at about the same time.

This macro sits right next to my instant Howl of Terror key.

Trash mobs: My above farming macro is a staple of my arsenal. The curse gets swapped out constantly or possibly removed altogether and I occasionally use these:

WarlockCurse1

#showtooltip

/cast [nomodifier] Curse of Agony

/cast [modifier:alt] Curse of Exhaustion

/cast [modifier:ctrl] Curse of Weakness

/cast [modifier:shift] Curse of Recklessness

WarlockCurse2

#showtooltip

/cast [nomodifier] Curse of Tongues

/cast [modifier:alt] Curse of Doom

/cast [modifier:ctrl] Curse of Shadow

/cast [modifier:shift] Curse of the Elements

Tip: these macros cannot go on your 1 thru 0. Don’t forget! Why? Your Minion is controlled using Ctrl+# and to change bars is Shift+#.

If I am the one to pull because we have a tankidin and rogue needs to sap, I will use CoEx, CoW, or CoS. (In my current world Hunters do not exist. *thinking* Nope never finished an Outland instance with a Hunter in group.)

Boss: Count to 5 (or 10), apply cast time DoT, instant DoTs, weave in Dark Pact and Life Tap, Destruction spells, repeat till dead.

Make sure you use your special cool downs, trinkets and Amplify Curse. For boss fights where we are learning and my tank is too, I save my specials for the second application of DoTs. Which. Still. Doesn’t. stop. Me. From. Pulling. Agro.

/shrug

My second cast sequence macro:

Warlock2 (W2)

#showtooltip

/castsequence [nomodifier:alt] reset=20/combat/target attack, Unstable Affliction, Siphon Life, Corruption, Curse of Agony, Dark Pact , Drain Life, Life Tap

/cast [modifier:alt] Shadow bolt

I start with UA so that it gives the tank additional time to build agro. Don’t ever start off a fight with a Shadow Bolt. Yea it is nice to see one crit but not in the fist 20 seconds in a boss fight. Avoid it.

I will admit the above macro is not “ideal” in having all the DoTs ending at similar times but they include my adjustments for common errors I was making.

Notice how Corruption and CoA are last to be cast, which is not optimizing duration. This is on purpose. I have been under utilizing Seed of Corruption. So I will actually cast SoC at the time of adds and stop using macro before casting corruption. If I am using another curse (like Doom) I can still use the macro until that point again.

Remember don’t use Immolate till later, the initial threat generated is higher then the other DoTs. Again your tank will not thank you for pulling agro in the first 10 seconds of the fight.

So what does this all mean? Less jumping and more Alt-ing. (FYI… it is bad to Alt+Tab in the middle of a fight. =P You are suddenly not helping… and checking your email.)

My typical cast sequence (with variations to keep it interesting):

Unstable Affliction, Siphon Life, Corruption, Curse of Agony, Immolate, Incinerate, Shadow bolt, Shadow bolt...rinse repeat

Or

Unstable Affliction, Curse of Agony,  Siphon Life, Corruption, Immolate, Incinerate, Shadow bolt, Shadow bolt...rinse repeat

I can do both with the two macros.

Got all that? As always I am making this much more complicated than it has to be.

Apply DoTs, Spam Shadow Bolt, and repeat DoTs when they start to expire.

I cast my instant Shadow Bolts when they come up. And use Shadowburn depending on shards and closeness to boss death (or mine).

During the casting I weave in a Dark Pact and/or Life Tap when appropriate. Using my aptly named macro:

WarlockMana (WMana)

#showtooltip

/cast [nomodifier] Dark Pact

/cast [modifier:alt] Life Tap

There are so many variations in fights, to put together one macro to do every spell will reduce your ability to adjust to the scenario presented.

Also I am not on a PvP server. But a good tip I received from Keystone was to separate your schools of magic when making macros. If you get kicked by a rogue or one type of magic is silenced some other way, you can still keep casting. I have run into PvE fights where this has come in very handy. Like using fire spells on fire elementals is just a waste of mana.

My bar is full of macros. Because damn we have a lot of spells. I save 2 slots to swap out for special uses particularly CC, but with well constructed macros you will not have to switch from your different bars too often.

Crowd control!! Sounds like another post to me.