Macro Anatomy: Hunter love
by Sean Forsgren 
Jun 7th 2008 at 4:00PM
We recently had a request for some Hunter macro help, so I thought I would present some unique little gems for you ranged DPS types to use. First of all, let it be known that we we have talked about Hunter macros here before, more than once actually. Secondly, a good source of Hunter-specific macros would be WoWWiki's Useful Hunter Macro page. However, given those resources, you may find yourself wanting more. I turned back to the World of Warcraft forums, where I, once again, found some of Belleboom's work. The witty troll from the Earthen Ring server has written some useful macros for hunters, complete with slightly silly descriptions.
I'll start us off with this macro, which determines what type of pet you have, and uses the appropriate ability:
Dive/Dash/Growl/Wrench!: Casts Dive if you have an owl, dash if you have a cat, or growl if you have anything else... wrench optional.
- /cast [pet:owl] Dive; [pet:cat] Dash; [pet] Growl
Feed/Mend Pet: Based on combat status.
- /cast [combat] Mend Pet; [nocombat] Feed Pet
- /use [nocombat] <FoodLinkHere>
Fluffy, No!! Or, Pet Care for Hunters: This macro does the following: if your pet is dead, it revives your pet. Otherwise, it calls your pet if he's not out, or casts Mend Pet.
- /cast [target=pet,dead] Revive Pet; [nopet] Call Pet; Mend Pet
- /cast [target=pet,dead] Revive Pet; [nopet] Revive Pet
- /cast [combat] Mend Pet; [nocombat] Feed Pet
- /use [nocombat] 0 1
Finally, a macro that will help you use my favorite Hunter ability; Misdirection. I love it when this one gets used to toss aggro on clothies, makes for one of my favorite raid pranks. On to the macro.
Phunk-y Misdirection: First, casts Misdirection on your "focus" if it exists, then it will cast it on your target if it is friendly, and lastly it will cast it on your pet if he exists.
- /cast [target=focus, help] Misdirection; [help] Misdirection; [target=pet, exists] Misdirection
In the near future, I will be profiling some addons that provide similar functionality over at Addon Spotlight, however keep these macros handy until then, or if you happen to prefer macros over addons. Good luck out there, Hunters! Dismissed.
Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Features, Macro Anatomy
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Zeplar Jun 7th 2008 4:22PM
I still don't understand misdirection...
*Shoots monster* ---> He did it!
huntard4ever Jun 7th 2008 4:35PM
EXACTLY
alex Jun 8th 2008 3:46PM
it redirects threat from your next three attacks to a selected target... in most cases that would be the tank. It helps you not to build aggro and helps whoever you pick build aggro.
Michael Jun 7th 2008 5:05PM
I could really use a macro that activates Intimidation, Devilsaur Tooth, and Bestial Wrath in quick secession (for PvP). I've never used a macro before, so maybe this is a stupid request, sorry!
Koskun Jun 7th 2008 5:55PM
off the top of my head it would be:
/use 17 (whatever slot that trinket is in, or use the name)
/stopcasting
/castsequence reset=2 Bestial Wrath, Intimidation
That should use the trinket and then immediately cast Bestial Wrath, push it again it will pop off Intimidation (after GCD). If you don't touch the macro for 2 seconds it will reset back to using the trinket. Use the ? icon and it will change to the ability that is being used.
Kyudo Jun 7th 2008 5:58PM
Not sure why you'd want to cast Intimidation, since that should be saved in case you're in trouble...
But here's one that pops your trinket and BW for you:
#showtooltip Bestial Wrath
/use Devilsaur Tooth
/cast Bestial Wrath
Substitute the tooltip for whatever tooltip/icon you wish to show. The trinket must be first, because BW initiates the global cooldown.
If you want Intimidation in there... you could put it in (/cast Intimidation) right before Bestial Wrath then spam the button, or you can make it a sequence:
#showtooltip Bestial Wrath
/use Devilsaur Tooth
/castsequence Intimidation,Bestial Wrath
You'll have to press it twice, with one or so seconds in between (for the global cooldown), but there is no way to automatically string a sequence of spells to cast thanks to the global cooldown, and no way to time spell casts.
Kyudo Jun 7th 2008 5:59PM
Or yea, you could use the reset for the sequence.
But there is still no way to do it all in one button press. :P
Matt Jun 7th 2008 8:23PM
Actually, you can do bestial wrath and intimidation in one button press, since BW is instant, while intimidation is a "next hit" ability that just gets queued up (like raptor strike). So:
/cast Intimidation
/stopcasting
/cast Bestial Wrath
Will actually work (if that doesn't work, switch the order--I don't remember if that makes a difference).
But yeah, I agree that you should save intimidation for important situations. You can build in a modifier though:
/cast [mod:shift] Intimidation
/stopcasting
/cast Bestial Wrath
That way, you can hit the macro normally just to do BW, or with shift down to use everything all at once.
Kyudo Jun 7th 2008 5:51PM
That's it? Here's my favorite one that I wrote...
Bound to Q, for combat:
/cast [mod:alt,nopet]Call Pet;[mod:alt,pet] Dismiss Pet;[mod:ctrl,pet]Mend Pet;[pet, target=pettarget,combat,harm]Kill Command
/petattack [harm,nodead,nomod]
/petfollow [mod:shift]
/petpassive [mod:shift,nocombat]
If you're not familiar with macros...
Q == Send Pet to attack
Shift+Q == Bring pet back (and if out of combat, tell pet to go passive.)
Alt+Q == Summon/dismiss pet based on if they're there or not.
Cltr+Q == Mend Pet
Oh, and if you press Q while in combat and ready to use Kill Command, it casts it.
Why Q? Because who uses it to strafe instead of holding down their right mouse button? This also opens up binding Wing Clip to E (as well as many other bindings around WASD).
Actually, I back up my macro's all the time...
http://lance.slackwise.net/media/WoW/macros-cache.txt
Most are utility, and some you wouldn't understand the use if you didn't know my macro's and mods that utilize them. :P
Ed Jun 7th 2008 6:26PM
This macro: "/cast !Eagle Eye" is very useful for hunters - it allows eagle eye to be chain casted, letting you explore very large distances over the map. (And you can see Mount Hyjal if you use it in Winterspring!)
Imogen Jun 7th 2008 6:26PM
The most useful macro on my BM hunter is
/cast mend pet
/pet attack
those arent the actual commands but you get the idea.
The mend pet removes all sorts of things so it is very useful to have it ticking as the fight starts
germanboy3383 Jun 7th 2008 8:24PM
any1 know how i can make a macro for all my melee abilities such as:
Counter Attack
Mongoose bite
Raptor Strike
Wing Clip
so i spam 1 button to free some UI space.
Matt Jun 7th 2008 11:18PM
Well, you can easily do it with modifiers (so you get one action if shift is down, another if ctrl is down etc.) but it's not possible to bind them all to a "smart" button that will pick the right one based on the situation. Back in the old days, you could do that, but no more. So... you can do something like this:
/cast [mod:alt] Raptor Strike; [mod:ctrl] Mongoose Bite; [mod:shift] Counterattack; Wing Clip
This will do (e.g.) raptor strike if you're holding alt down etc.
Another, considerably less elegant, way would be this:
/castrandom Raptor Strike, Mongoose Bite, Wing Clip, etc...
That will just pick one of those at random and do it, so you might have to mash keys a bit.
Finally, it is worth noting that, since raptor strike is a "next hit" ability you can cast it "simultaneously" with another, instant skill, like this:
/cast raptor strike
/stopcasting
/cast wing clip
(e.g.)
Michael Jun 7th 2008 10:56PM
"Not sure why you'd want to cast Intimidation, since that should be saved in case you're in trouble..."
I don't approach PvP from a survival point of view, and I think that most opponents don't expect to get stunned by a pet right off the bat (especially clothies). They're gearing up to lay waste, when suddenly my pet stuns and crits at the same time. Panic! It also gives Rogues a nice shock when their back stab routine is disrupted.
Either way, I only get into trouble (aside from being outnumbered) when I run out of mana and can't kite, and Intimidation requires mana so.....
flawless Jun 8th 2008 6:07AM
I'd recommend Gazzmik Fizzwidget's Feedomatic for pet maintenance. Feedomatic changes the Happiness symbol by your pet's portrait into a button, that when clicked will feed your pet automatically from your pack. You can adjust it to ignore low level food, food that can be cooked, and even tell it to prioritize smaller stacks of food to open up more bag slots.
www.fizzwidget.com
Feldur Jun 8th 2008 1:18PM
There are so many things you can do with macros by using /script. Did you ever wonder how much network bandwidth WoW uses? Try this macro. There are two lines, each starting with /script. Results are in 1000's of bits per second.
/script i,o,l=GetNetStats()
/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(format("In: %i Kbps, Out: %i Kbps, Latency: %i ms",i*8,o*8,l))
Fel
PeeWee Jun 8th 2008 3:15PM
Interesting, a hunter macro article without
#show Steady Shot
/castrandom [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command
/castsequence reset=2 Steady Shot, !Auto Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();
huntard4ever Jun 9th 2008 3:37AM
i was bout to say that how can u hav a hunter macro page with 0 ranged shot abilities
on a side note is there any tpe of fishing macro that would let me equip/unequip pole and equip/unequip weapons and then cast fishing and right click boober after that
p.s. im a noob at macros so sry if it cant b done
Vlatch Jun 9th 2008 10:51AM
Yeah, this is the most important macro of all. Thanks for adding it to the comments.
Another great set of macros that I use allow me to cast Hunter's Mark, send my pet in for attack, cast bestial wrath if it is up, and use rapid fire if it is up.
I throw my trinkets into the macro that PeeWee posted (right after the Kill command), and I know that I'll be using all of my available cooldowns whenever they're up.
The macro is as follows:
/Cast Hunter's Mark
/pet attack
/Cast Bestial Wrath
/Cast Rapid Fire
Such a simple macro can really make a huge difference in your DPS and make it much easier to send your pet in.
vanye111 Jun 11th 2008 8:13AM
One of my macro's.
#showtooltip
/cast [button:2] Aspect of the Monkey; Aspect of the Hawk
I have one of these set up for Monkey/Hawk; Pack/Cheetah, Beast/Viper.
Normal (left) click on the button, it'll cast the second spell; right click on it, and it' casts the first one listed. allows me to condense six spells to 3 options.
I actuall do the same for my ice & fire traps, too.