Breakfast Topic: Best macros
by Jennie Lees 
Apr 18th 2006 at 6:00AM
Macros are a useful way to create custom commands, from witty sayings to more complex spell invocations. Many
of the addons available obviate the need for macros by providing a lot of automated speech and the like, but there is
still the occasional need for a quick and dirty macro.What macros do you use? Which are your favourites?
Personally, I started out experimenting with macros when I was a very young Druid, with a /say macro that would tell targets of fly-by buffings who was responsible. I came to my senses quickly -- it was a remarkably spammy macro and I cringe when I see it still in my macro list. I've also used the macro functionality to change spell icons, as some of my different characters share the same icon for separate actions, a confusing situation. However, I've never found a 'killer' macro, though I'm happy to be converted.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
PodMonkeys Apr 18th 2006 7:20AM
I've got quite a few characters, one of them lvl 53, and the only macro I've ever used is /chicken.
/chicken
/chicken
/chicken
/chicken
/chicken
/chicken
...
/cheer
:D
Carlo Zottmann Apr 18th 2006 8:49AM
That's not a macro, that's an emote, silly. :P
Shadow9600 Apr 18th 2006 9:33AM
The only ones I use are in relation to other addon's. Shaman Party Heal (which I recently replaced with Call of Elements) used
/sph -regular heal mode
/sphq -quiet mode on
CoE uses a similar system but instead of macros it uses key bindings, so my party member (or self) is F1 for fast heals and F2 for normal heals.
I also make use of Weapon Juggler to swap weapons from One-Hand + Shield to a 2-hand weapons. It's completely macro driven and well worth looking at if you find yourself swapping weapons frequently.
PodMonkeys Apr 18th 2006 10:02AM
Its an emote that I macro'd it since you have to do it so many times to do the Chicken quest. :P
jpc Apr 18th 2006 10:34AM
There's alot of macros in the wowwiki page and in the official forums there's a macro listing as well. I've been trying to get some good macros for a while now and only just yesterday becamse serious about finding them. There seems to be alot of really good ones for Druids and Warriors, but there aren't as many as you would think for Priests.
Since I don't know which ones are 'the best' as I haven't used them yet, the ones I think would be very usefull to a priest would be:
Shield to a target's level
/script r=10;l={6,12,18,24,30,36,42,48,54,60};if not UnitIsFriend("player","target")then
TargetUnit("player");end;t=UnitLevel("target");for i=r,1,-1 do if (t>=l[i]-10)then CastSpellByName("Power Word: Shield(Rank "..i..")");break;end;end;
Power Word Fortitude to a target's level:
/script r=6;l={1,12,24,36,48,60};if not UnitIsFriend("player","target")then TargetUnit("player");end;t=UnitLevel("target");for i=r,1,-1 do if (t>=l[i]-10) then CastSpellByName("Power Word: Fortitude(Rank "..i..")");break;end;end
and
Cast a healing spell on nearby friends
This will target all your nearby friendly player characters in turn and cast a heal on the first one it comes to with a health level that is below a certain percentage of maximum (in this example 70%). Repeated calls to the macro will step through all nearby friends needing heals until it targets you. The macro checks the health of up to 40 nearby friendly player characters. If a call to this macro casts no heal then neither nearby friendly player characters nor yourself have a health level below the threshold of 70% of maximum.
/script for i=1,40 do TargetNearestFriend(); if UnitHealth("target")/UnitHealthMax("target") < 0.7 then if UnitIsPlayer("target") then CastSpellByName("Lesser Healing Wave") end end end; TargetLastEnemy();
It'd be nice if there was a listing of the macro API somewhere so that I could make my own macros without having to decipher someone elses which takes time that I would rather spend playing.
~jpc
tibbsy Apr 18th 2006 10:56AM
I use a very simple system for my macros. If you're an organizational type like me, chances are you tend to place items in the same place - if you are, these macros will be great for you: the majority of them just use the UseContainerItem(x,y), where x is the bag number (from the left), and y is the slot number (from the top-left and moving across).
Some of my favourites are:
Self-Bandage Macro - targets you if you aren't targeting another friendly player (or his/her minion).
/script UseContainerItem(1,5);
/script if ( SpellIsTargeting() ) then SpellTargetUnit("player"); end
To me this works better than actually specifying that I should use a bandage because in BGs I use BG-specific bandages rather than Heavy Runecloth ones - the macro's script just says "whatever's in that slot, use it!"
Equipment Swapping:
This just uses multiple UseContainerItem(x,y) commands to swap equipment in certain slots. So when you mount up, you just press one macro and your riding gloves, riding boots, and carrot could be swapped in. And then when you dismount, a second press would swap all your combat gear in.
Self-Target Macro:
Slight variation on the self-bandage macro. Instead of using UseContainerItem(x,y), you use a scripted cast or simply /cast SpellName(Rank x). Some people like to toss in all the arrays and variable casting ranks, but I tend to keep mine simple - I don't usually have to heal a level 5 player when a Renew spell that would heal him/her fully every 3 seconds.
Out-of-Stance Attacking
I won't spill the beans on this one so that you can discover it yourself, but as a player with an Arms spec warrior I find myself in constant need of switching stances quickly to use stance-specific abilities. So what I did was write macros that would have the following logic:
if( In the right stance ) { use ability }
else { switch stance to the right stance }
Example: you're in Berserker Stance. Suddenly your priest starts taking massive hits. Instead of having to click the stance button and then Taunt, I write a macro that asks "am I in Defensive stance?" If the answer is yes, cast Taunt. Otherwise, switch to Defensive Stance. So all you have to do to cast Taunt, regardless of stance, is just keep hammering the button. Simple! This works for druids that, say, want to cast a healing spell as fast as possible, even though they're in bear form.
So there you have it - the most common macros that I use. I was also experimenting with loops but I never found a really solid application for it. I had written a macro that would run a /who search and then have me say their names (it was funny seeing 49 player names spew out all at once), but I never found a full use for it. Who knows? Macros let us be the engineers for once, and that's what makes them so much fun :)
Enjoy.
notsomuch Apr 18th 2006 12:48PM
/script UseInventoryItem(GetInventorySlotInfo("Trinket0Slot"));
/script SpellStopCasting();
/cast Arcane Power
/script SpellStopCasting();
/cast Presence of Mind
/script SpellStopCasting();
/cast Frostbolt
/script SpellStopCasting();
/cast Fire Blast
end
4k+ Instant Dmg 4tw :D
Acceptable Risk Apr 19th 2006 11:29PM
One of my favorite macros consists of just one command.
/inspect
A lot of people don't realize that you can inspect someone from a distance. With this if you can see someone, you can inspect them; you don't have to be right on top of them.