6 posts tagged “macros”

Bug Fixes

·         Using a castsequence macro on a target moving out of range will no longer cause it to stop working.

Thank goodness! I thought I was loosing my mind. Macros fixed FTW!

Talking about macros… I changed them again. I realized while farming trees (which are 71-72 elites) they are mini boss fights. So that gives me the opportunity to practice my Dot/Fear. I changed the cast order of DoTs. I shall repost once I have it to my liking.

This is the most exciting thing for me right now. I am by no means good at it or perfect. I am constantly looking for ideas to make myself better. I cannot reinforce how important it is for you to have some type of cooldown timer for mobs.

Warlocks have Seduce, Banish, Fear, and to a lesser extent Enslave demon. (I am still reeling that I couldn’t enslave a boss demon. Pfft.)

Locks can control 3 mods at one time. Crowd control (CC) is a skill that is desired by groups everywhere.

You must practice in a group. Yes, the tank can take all three mobs. No one is chagrining the tank their brawniness, but why? Think if it as a reduction in repair bills. CC one and help dps the other two.

Seduction:

Make the humanoid mob to be seduced your focus. Cast Curse of Shadow to reduce early breaks and resistance to re-seduce. Then cast your seduce macro.

My Macro:

SeduceFocus

#showtooltip Seduction

/clearfocus [modifier:shift]

/clearfocus [target=focus,dead]

/clearfocus [target=focus,noexists]

/focus [target=focus,noexists]

/focus [target=focus, noexists]

/cast [target=focus] Seduction

This lets me assign my focus to my target to be seduced, plus later lets me reassign my focus to another target to seduce. Typically moving from my initial seduced mob that is being picked up by the tank and take over to the Rogue’s broken sap.

Our group is learning to move fluidly through mobs. On the occasions that things go “wrong” we can easily modify. I can seduce as long as Demora has mana. So I keep tabs on her mana use. This will determine how long she can keep the last mob seduced.

Banish:

Banish is only for demons. This is pretty much an unbreakable CC. I use the above macro modified for Banish if no other CC is needed. If focus is Seduce I use the Banish right out of my spellbook on my cast bar.

If the last mob is the banished one, call out the time till the banish breaks. Also, banished mobs for warriors create rage and agro when the mob cannot hit back. Which is nice since the demon most likely will be going for yours truly.

Fear:

I have talked about Fear. I only use in very rare occasions (read above the easily modify bit). I lead off with an instant Howl of Terror (HoT). Any mobs near the healer area get the first HoT. Then pick a mob and use the below macro.

WarlockFear

#showtooltip

/castsequence [nomodifier] reset=20 Curse of Shadow(Rank 1), Fear, Curse of Shadow(Rank 1), Curse of Recklessness(Rank 1)

/cast [modifier:alt] Curse of Recklessness(Rank 1)

Since you are not trying to deal damage, you conserve mana by using Rank 1.

Enslave Demon:

It does exactly what it says… enslaves a demon. For a nice long 5 minutes. I pull it directly from spellbook to cast bar. You should be an expert in directing demons by now.

One last note to help our CC brethren, remember warlocks, our friendly mages polymorph is an arcane spell. So hit that sheep with your Curse of Shadow to reduce breaks and resistance to re-sheep. CoS doesn’t break sheep. So slap mob when you get done with your own CC duties or before if you are able.

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.

My lovely Warlock sister-in-law told me that she needed help in the Hinterlands to save Sharpbeak. She was having problems with Priestess Hexx. Now she is on a different server so I could not just run in and help her kill the mobs. And well … I was confused why she was having problems. Hexx is a level 51 elite and my sister is… well… level 60! My answer… “did you try fear?” *smack down Hexx* So this is for Arayana.

Disclaimer: I claim no knowledge of the following topic. I am still learning it myself and have no qualms about being corrected. I will use “fear” while talking about the group and “Fear” when talking about the spell.

Early on I had loads of people say “fearing will get us killed” so I never used it. I mean NEVER. I was really missing out on a whole aspect of playing a Warlock. I didn’t know any better. I was misinformed and ignorant about fear. Asking a Warlock to never use fear is like asking a Rogue never to sap. You have to trust that they know how to play.  I dabbled in fear but was never committed, but then I received Death Coil. I was told by another Warlock to “Live by Death Coil, Die by Death Coil”.

Lets see … Death Coil is a 3 second fear, range attack, deals damage, and gives you health. Well if Death Coil is so good then what about the others? Chain fearing or fear juggling, what is that? And why is everyone talking about Curse of Recklessness(Rank 1)?

Warlocks have 3 primary fear spells … Fear, Death Coil, and Howl of Terror (HoT). (I know Death Coil is actually a Horror effect. Baby steps.) Then with Curse of Exhaustion, which I use while kiting, we sure can have a lot of fun.

First, in your interface menu there is a see targets target and see buffs. Make sure this is on. This lets you see if the fire bolt of the Ogre mage is going to hit you or your minion.

Second, understand your spells. Curse of Recklessness says “cursed enemies will not flee and will ignore Fear and Horror effects” thus ignoring your Fear and walk back to you. CoR should be used if the mob is running toward another mob you wish not to aggro. You use Rank 1 to conserve mana. We all know two curses from the same Warlock cannot be on the Ogre at one time. Once the Ogre has changed direction replace CoR with Curse of Shadow, this negates the CoR effect letting Fear run its course.

Death Coil has a 2 min cool down and HoT has a 40 sec cool down, but keep in mind both are instant casts for Affliction locks. Your Fear has a 1.5 sec cast time but no cool down. Death Coil and Fear are ranged and only works on one mob. HoT is an area effect and only works on those mobs that are up close and personal. I know too much information, go read the spells yourself.

Next, set up your chain fearing and fear juggling macro. The same one can be used for Banish but you can only have one focus so decide on priorities. Our priority right now is Fear. Note: I muck with my macros all the time, so they change.

#showtooltip

/clearfocus [target=focus,dead]

/clearfocus [modifier:alt]

/stopmacro [noharm]

/focus [target=focus,noexists]

/cast [target=focus] Fear

I also use,

#showtooltip

/cast [nomodifier]  Fear

/castsequence reset=15 [modifier:alt] Curse of Recklessness(Rank 1), Curse of Shadow

I realize I need to update this to add CoS before applying the Fear. CoS reduces the chance that the Ogre will break out of your Fear, allowing it to run its full course.

/cast Curse of Shadow

/stopcasting

I will not add it to the above until I try it out.

Next, PRACTICE.

Then, PRACTICE more.

And lastly, PRACTICE.

Additional information and the PvP aspect of fear can be found here and worth a read. Yes your fear can break early and lots of mobs can be immune to fear *grumbles* but you don’t know until you try.

If you practice it will help your confidence to know when a good time to use fear.  I practice by playing the “No Touching” game. Curse of Exhaustion, minion, DoT, DoT. Eek no touchy! Howl of Terror, DoT, Fear, SB, Drain Soul(Rank 1). DEAD Ogre. Repeat.

As a warlock if you cannot control 3 elementals the same level at one time you need practice. Banish, Fear and kill. I know I practice. Once you get done with 3, you should practice with 5 or 6. Use farming runs as your practice and you get multiple things accomplished at once. =D

If you live for fear, they’ll die in fear.

We are a multi-computer multi-wow-account household. This becomes an issue when we switch back a forth between computers. I should have added this with the Macro Tips, the macros made on one computer do NOT magically manifest on another computer. Macros are computer specific. So don’t get confused and frustrated when they look like they disappear. 

Found this tidbit on Wowwiki:

“Until Blizzard decides to store macros on the server, you must copy your World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\Youraccountname folder between computers. This will also preserve all of your settings for any addons you have installed, though the addons will also have to be installed on each computer. “

Addons too!!

“If you would rather have your macros and nothing else, you need to copy World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\Youraccountname\macros-cache.txt for your general macros, and World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\Youraccountname\Yourrealmname\Yourcharactername\macros-cache.txt for character-specific macros.”

I copy over the entile folder. I have found only problem. The screen for the one computer is different size then the other, the placement of addons to the right are off. I like having my KLH Treatmeter and Cooldowns on the right side. I think this is because the placement code fixes there location by distance from the left side of the screen. It would be helpful if it was done by percent of screen or can choose the right side. But I think I would still have moving issues. So it is not a big deal. Everything is working smoothly so far.

In honor of my sister-in-law coming into town, I will talk about macros.  My internet search really started when I wanted to understand macros in Warcraft. My spells look something like… Curse, DoT, DoT, Howl of Terror, DoT, Fear, Curse, DoT, go get a soda, DoT, Fear, get snack, Curse, etc. And if my Soul Stone is at the 10 minute or less I would see how many mobs I could juggle. This made me aware that I was limiting myself. I was using my first two bars and typing shift+1 and shift+2 constantly. I wanted to avoid going to shift+3. My search started with wowwiki.com. It was a jumping off point but there are some things that no one informs a beginner macro writer.

1)  Your macros are dynamic. That is right, they change. I am learning change in macros is good. Each Mob is more prone to different curses and spells. Think about it… Why would you ever have Immolate and Incinerate in your cast sequence while killing fire elementals? That is just crazy talk. But for spiders Immolate and Incinerate just burns those critters alive until they are feet in the air dead. Good times.

For Warlocks it is our curses that get changed out all the time. As an affliction lock my default is Curse of Exhaustion. A quick write up on Curse use can be found here under Curses. So it is not unheard of for me to change out my curse a few times a night.

2)  I recommend separating your spell schools. Warlocks are all fire and shadow. So shadow in my macros have no modifier and fire is on my modifier:alt. This bright idea came from Keystone’s blog Massive Multiplayer PK. If you have a school of magic silenced, you can immediately swap to a different one. So far this is working for me.

3)  Be careful about using Ctrl as your macro modifier. Ctrl+# are used for pet (minion) abilities. I use alt, this allows me to use my thumb and only lose jump using the spacebar while using the modifier.

4)  See the above statement “used for pet abilities” this lets us steal macros from our friendly Hunters. Those pansy pet feeding nature loving communities have a whole slew of macros for pet use. (Don’t they realize that pets are meant to be sacrificed? Feed pet sounds like maintenance to me.) Get use to the term “Huntard”. The term sounds like an affectionate way to hunters address themselves. Feel free to call your hunter by this term. Note to my slower readers… that was sarcasm. Sheesh. 

5)  Patches over the last year have invalidated a swath of fun macro features. Don’t get too excited if you find some posting that doesn’t work. But /castsequence was added and should be considered a lock talent. Own it and love it.

Question: I still don’t know how to key bind macros to letters or the Function keys. Yes, I have tried the keybinding in the menu and I am just not seeing it.