Helpful Macros

These are a few of the macros I've been using as a tank, but many can be modified for healers/dps/whatever for utility.

Mouseover Macros - I told you I'd help you with these, Rudy. =)
Mouseover macros allow you to cast a spell on a mouseover target without ever having to switch you actual/focus target. This can be handy as a tank for providing an external cd to another tank, cleansing a raid member, using my secondary taunt without having to stop attacking my target, etc.

There are a few ways to write these macros, but I like the format I'm using because if I have no mouseover target, the spell is cast on me (if possible). The general syntax is as follows:

#showtooltip
/cast [target=mouseover,help] Hand of Freedom; [help] Hand of Freedom; Hand of Freedom

In this case my mouseover target, if a friendly player, will receive my Hand of Freedom. If there is no mouseover target, or if it is unfriendly, I will Freedom myself. Keep in mind you can substitute whatever spell name you'd like for "Hand of Freedom," just make sure it's not a spell that would be devastating for you to cast on yourself (Think of a tank BoP'ing himself unintentionally, lol.) There is another format for spells like that, however:

#showtooltip
/cast [target=mouseover] Hand of Protection

In this format, my spell will only be cast on a mouseover target. If I have no mouseover target, or it is unfriendly, the spell will not be cast. This is helpful for things like Hand of Salvation and Hand of Protection, where casting either one on myself may cause a dps'er or 5 to get gibbed.


Cancelaura macros
Cancelaura macros can be used to quickly remove a buff from yourself, and there can be a few purposes for this. The only cancelaura macro I have currently is this one:

#showtooltip Divine Shield
/cancelaura Divine Shield
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
/cast Divine Shield

This macro will first attempt to remove my Divine Shield or a Blessing of Protection. These are typically cast on tanks only to remove very serious debuffs, or in extreme circumstances as an emergency taunt for the tank second on threat. The next part of the macro will cast Divine Shield, the famous pally bubble. So, as a tank, I'll use this macro to clear debuffs, but I'll mash it until my bubble is removed. This way there is minimal time between my tanking target ignoring me and my taunt to grab him back. This style macro can be used by a mage, for example, with Iceblock. The mage will be able to go immune for a few seconds, but quickly clear the Iceblock buff when danger has subsided. I'm not sure if it's just me, but lately right-clicking buffs to clear them has resulted in lua errors requiring me to reload, so cancelaura macros have been more useful than ever.

DPS Cooldowns
There is a macro style to trigger your dps cooldowns simultaneously, generally when bloodlust is up, and any internal cd's on weapons/enchants proc. I use mine at the beginning of every boss pull to give myself a more generous threat lead on all the meter whores out there - See: Alki. =)

#showtooltip
/use 10
/cast avenging wrath

This macro triggers the Hyperspeed Accelerators on my gloves and pops Avenging Wrath at the same time, effectively increasing both my haste and damage per attack. And as all dps should know by now, using cooldowns simultaneously generally results in the highest damage output (barring the rare circumstance where you would exceed haste cap, which is not possible early in an expansion.)

Startattack Macros
Adding a simple line to your macros is a great way to increase your dps/tps depending on role. Skÿÿ taught me this trick at the beginning of WotLK when I was a complete noob, and I've used it on all my toons since.

#Showtooltip Consecration
/startattack
/cast Consecration

If you are not currently attacking a target, the first line of this macro will begin your swing timer for melee autoattacks on a nearby target. If you are already attacking something, it will have no effect. The second line simply casts whatever attack/spell you input. The advantage here is that your attacks begin as soon as you release your key. For example as a rogue, if you press your hotkey for Mutilate when you only have 20 energy, you will not cast Mutilate due to the lack of energy, nor will your white attacks start. That is unless, of course, you are pro as shit and have yourself a macro for Mutilate like the one I've listed above. The same goes for any melee class, accounting for rage/energy/focus/mana deficits, and of course your gcd. DPS HARDER!!!!!!!!!!


Anyway, this encompasses most of the useful macros I have set up. Hopefully they will help somebody. If not, pretend they did so I may stroke my ePeen later. Thanks to Skÿÿ for the protip back in the day. I added the #Showtooltip line to all my macros to preserve the original icons for abilities. Feel free to disseminate the above information in anyway desired, with credit. I did write this guide all by myself!

Bibeau wrote:

DPS Cooldowns
There is a macro style to trigger your dps cooldowns simultaneously, generally when bloodlust is up, and any internal cd's on weapons/enchants proc. I use mine at the beginning of every boss pull to give myself a more generous threat lead on all the meter whores out there - See: Alki. =)

#showtooltip
/use 10
/cast avenging wrath

This macro triggers the Hyperspeed Accelerators on my gloves and pops Avenging Wrath at the same time, effectively increasing both my haste and damage per attack. And as all dps should know by now, using cooldowns simultaneously generally results in the highest damage output (barring the rare circumstance where you would exceed haste cap, which is not possible early in an expansion.)

To add to this great post a bit: the 10 in /use 10 refers to an equipment slot. The two trinket slots, from top to bottom, are 13 and 14. For example, in a tank macro:

#showtooltip Last Stand
/use 13
/cast Last Stand

Also, a good way to make most efficient use of keyboard space is to macro spells to modifiers. I find one modifier per key to be most efficient as it gets rather confusing when I have 3 different abilities on the same key. I use alt as my modifier because it's most natural for me to reach with my thumb as my middle and fore fingers press keys, but your mileage may vary.

The easiest keys to press are the ones right around our left hand and also our mouse buttons. These are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, maybe 6, and R, T, F, G, Z, X, C. Possibilities include rebinding strafe to A and D to free up Q and E. If you have any abilities bound to keys that are harder to reach, it's an unnecessary performance loss. Modifiers can usually allow you to not do that by doubling the number of easy keys you have.

The command for modifiers is [mod:alt], [mod:ctrl], or [mod:shift]. It's usually a good idea to modify abilities with the same general purpose, or in the same general role (utility, CC, etc) on the same button, because that just makes it more efficient for your brain to categorize and keep track of. For example, one of my utility macros:

#showtooltip
/cast Faerie Fire (Feral)
/cast [mod:alt] Cyclone

This casts FF when I press 5 and cyclone when I press alt+5. What the #showtooltip part does is show the tooltip of the active spell. So, if I hold alt it turns into Cyclone's tooltip, but whenever I'm not holding alt down the tooltip is for FF. This is very useful for modifier macros to be able to check the cooldown of the modified spell. On the other hand, if you want to have the tooltip always show one spell even though you have a modifier to cast another one, you can specify that spell in the #showtooltip field:

#showtooltip Cyclone
/cast Faerie Fire (Feral)
/cast [mod:alt] Cyclone

This tooltip will always show Cyclone regardless of whether or not you're holding a modifier down.