Spiritual Guidance: Macros for priests
by Dawn Moore 
Feb 21st 2010 at 8:00PM
There. I love a captive audience.
This week I'll be writing about macros for priests. I will touch on why and how to use them, then provide a few useful ones that readers sent in during the past week. This article will not be an introductory guide for the use of macros because... WoW.com already had one of those. Hit the jump for the link.
Old but applicable, the following 4-part introductory guide to macros was written by former staffer Sean Forsgren. It's a good read for any player who wants to get started with macros. So if you have no idea what a macro is, or you want to polish up your macro vocabulary, check these out:
- Macro Anatomy: Primer
- Macro Anatomy: Crawl phase
- Macro Anatomy: Walk phase
- Macro Anatomy: Run phase and beyond!
If you're interested, there are plenty more articles in the WoW.com archives on macros, so don't be a stranger to that search bar up above if you want to find out more.
For now, I want to touch on some reasons why priests specifically would want to use macros.
Consolidating
Priests have more healing spells available to them than any other healer. Add into that all our offensive abilities and cooldowns, and our bars can get very crowded, very quickly. Macros are a great way to consolidate the number of buttons you need, as well as clean up your UI so things are easier to see. Since not every ability is used frequently, or some abilities are on cooldown, you can bind two or more abilities to one key. Adding a target condition will let you keep offensive abilities on your bars but out of the way; ideal for burn phases. Here's an example.
When targeting a friendly target this macro will cast Renew. Holding down shift when using it will cast Guardian Spirit on the friendly target. If targeting an unfriendly target, the macro will cast Holy Fire. Holding down alt will always self cast Renew regardless of your target. The tooltip will change based on your target or modifier.#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast [help, nomodifier:alt, nomodifier:shift]Renew; [modifier:alt, target=player]Renew; [modifier:shift]Guardian Spirit;[harm, nomodifier]Holy Fire
Communicating
There are all sorts of communications a healing priest would want to use. The most commonly used macro I see for healers is a Resurrection macro which states who you are reviving. This will help to prevent overlapped casts and reduce downtime between fights. Here is a disco themed example:
That macro is a great way to annoy your guild mates. If you want something simpler try this one:/cast [target=target] Resurrection
/run SendChatMessage(GetRandomArgument("%t what you doin' on your back?! You should be dancing, yeah!","%t gimme that night fever, night fever!","%t do the hustle!"),"SAY")
A more important communication macro to use would be for external tank cooldowns. Whether it's Guardian Spirit or Pain Suppression, a priest's protective cooldowns are unique and signature abilities. Adding a communication macro to them will further their helpfulness by letting your tank and raid know the exact moment your cooldown goes off, putting their minds to ease. It's especially useful if you're in a PUG or if there is any delay in voice chat./cast [target=target] Resurrection
/run SendChatMessage("Casting Resurrection on %t ","SAY")
This macro checks to see if Pain Suppression is on cooldown or not before spamming your raid chat, then casts the spell on your target. Discipline priests can use a similar version of this macro for Power Infusion. I received many variations of this macro, some with timers and other cool extras. Thank you to Anshlun and everyone who sent in a form of this macro!#showtooltip
/script if GetSpellCooldown("Pain Suppression")==0 then SendChatMessage("Pain Suppression up!","RAID") end;
/cast [target=target] Pain Suppression
In-combat buffing
This is my favorite macro in combat. As a priest, getting Power Word: Fortitude back on a player who has been revived in battle is a priority, especially if that player is a tank. However, since I might also be juggling my GCDs on my own target, I want to be able to get back to healing as quickly as possible if I stop to buff a recently revived player.
This macro will cast Power Word: Fortitude on my selected target, then immediately re-target the player I was on previously. Simple in concept, but a great time saver in battle.#showtooltip
/cast [target=target] Power Word: Fortitude
/targetlasttarget
Maximizing
To get the most out of a spell, try attaching a buff off the GCD or trinket to it. For priests in particular, our buffs in the discipline tree offer a lot of opportunities to combine one spell with another to create a huge effect. This example is from Carolinus, with a slight alteration to show an example of using the emote function to announce action instead of a normal chat channel.
This macro in particular will save you a lot of mana, since Divine Hymn is such an expensive spell. The added crit effect from Inner Focus will also help to save your dying party members. Beyond Inner Focus, trinkets or Power Infusion can be used on any spell to save time, save mana, or increase your output./cast Inner Focus
/cast Divine Hymn
/e starts singing a Divine Hymn - perhaps not the best time, but how lovely!
In general, macros can help make everything a little easier. They're a good step if you're looking to improve your game but don't necessarily want to implement something that requires a lot of extra memory. They're also a good way to share some of your personality, or better, expand upon a style of game play you're working with. The macros I used here are all target based, but there are many macros that deal with mouse-over healing. I will let commenters handle those; I myself do not use mouse-over of any kind, so I'm not going to pretend to be an expert at it.
The following is a short list of links to visit to find out more about using and making macros for your healing needs.
- The official World of Warcraft macro guide.
- WoWWiki's macro article. Check out the links to the right for guides and FAQs.
- PlusHeal's handy macros sticky. Their entire macro board is full of useful information. Thanks to Zusterke for the tip.
Want to find more great tips for carrying out your Priestly duties? Spiritual Guidance has you covered with all there is to know! Check out Holy 101 for an introduction to healing as a holy priest, or Disciplined raid healing to see new ways players are using damage mitigation. Filed under: Priest, Raiding, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Fluufykins Feb 21st 2010 8:36PM
Sweet - nice post for the priesty folks. It is, however, worth mentioning that the modifier macros (shift / ctrl / alt) are mostly for those who click their spells. they'll be worthless to the majority who hotkey things.
That wasn't to diminish the post or the author, just a heads up. If you're not a keyboard turner, these may not apply to you.
Sleutel Feb 21st 2010 8:41PM
I'm pretty sure that the modifier key macros will work even with keybinds. I seldom use modifier macros for anything important, but I do have one for my Hunter's stings, and I seem to recall that holding down the correct modifier key while hitting the key the macro is bound to works just fine. I could be crazy, though.
Sleutel Feb 21st 2010 8:44PM
Yup, I just tested it. Modifier keys work fine even if you're hitting a keybind for the macro instead of clicking it.
Zinn Feb 21st 2010 8:50PM
Perhaps a stupid question, but can't you bind such a macro to an actionbar key just like any other skill? A key you can then press, not click, if you like. That means if my macro is on key button "2" it will do different things whether I press ctrl+2, alt+2, shift+2 and so on. I don't use any modifier macros myself since I use Clique, so don't know how they work :P
Zinn Feb 21st 2010 8:51PM
Seems Sleutel was some sec ahead of me, but I got my answer!
Gamer am I Feb 21st 2010 9:06PM
I can confirm what Sleutel says. I have a macro that summons my Traveler's Tundra Mammoth when I hold alt and my normal frostsaber when I don't, and I have the particular slot on the action bar bound to a key on my keyboard so I can hit it easily, and when I hold alt and hit that key, I summon my Traveler's Tundra Mammoth.
Jake Feb 21st 2010 9:12PM
To clarify, I was referring to those of use who keybind everything. I use the standard interface, and have all my main keybinds (1 2 3 etc) also set to side buttons for ALT-1 ALT-2 etc...
(Sounds complicated but it's sweet once you never have to use the mouse again except to move and scroll the camera. Speeds you up immensely.)
But yes... if you, for example, have renew on 2 and do not have ALT-2 or CTRL-2 set to somethign else, these will work fine.
Chris Anthony Feb 21st 2010 9:12PM
I suspect - though I am not certain - that when Fluufykins refers to hotkeying, s/he is referring to using all possible permutations of hotkeys - that is, having Spell A bound to 1, Spell B bound to Shift-1, Spell C bound to Ctrl-1, and Spell D (or self-cast on any of the above) bound to Alt-1.
Personally, I have hotkeys for 1-6, Q-Y, A-H, and Z-N, plus Shift+each of those. (It seems like overkill but it lets me keybind a lot of things that most people don't bother with (mount, potions, buffs, etc.).) With that setup, [mod:shift] is useless to me, since I already have Shift+Whatever bound to something else. I use [mod:ctrl] to toggle between spells in macros, and [mod:alt] to self-cast.
Sleutel Feb 21st 2010 9:31PM
@Fluffykins/Jake (Are you the same person, or what? Did we catch a sock puppet account in action? :O):
Using a modifier macro is exactly the same thing as binding a whole separate action bar slot to a key plus a modifier: it just uses less screen real estate. The only time it would matter would be if you were running out of macro slots.
IOW, having a macro that uses Ability A with Shift, Ability B with Ctrl, Ability C with Alt, and Ability D with no modifier and dropping it into slot 2 on your action bar is exactly the same as having Ability D on slot 2, Ability A on a button that's bound to Shift+2, Ability B on a button that's bound to Ctrl+2, and Ability C on a button that's bound to Alt+2.
So unless you actually need to keep an active eye on all of those cooldowns at once, there's no reason other than personal preference to have them all located in different spots on your UI. No need at all to make it a "clicker" versus a "keybinder" thing. (And FWIW, I keybind.)
Spazmoose Feb 21st 2010 10:03PM
While what everyone here is saying is technically correct, I suspect that each of you has changed up your keybinds in some way (just a guess). The reason I say this is that if you use the default interface, Shift-1 will take you to action bar 1, Shift-2 will take you to action bar 2, etc.
So, macros that make use of modifier keys will not necessarily work by default. However, to get the functionality that you want, it is relatively easy to remove the Shift + NumKey functionality.
Neyssa Feb 22nd 2010 3:10AM
I use mouse and keybinding buttons, as well as modifiers. I am no priest but I like to column :) So for example, all my life-saving cooldowns are on mouse button 5 (yeah I have a nice mouse :), with no modifier its bear-heal, with shift dodge trinket, with alt barkskin, with control last stand. It is great. I have all of them on buttons, and keybind on Bartender. Also, for healer I use healbot, and the mousebuttons with shift+alt modifier are enough for all my healing spells.
Wyred Feb 22nd 2010 4:48AM
To clarify on using modifiers. Basically, pressing shift-r or whatever, will work with the macro modifier *as long as you don't have it keybound*. If you have shift-r keybound, the macro you have on the r key with a modifier will only work when you click it. Essentially, keybinds take precedence over modifiers.
Sleutel Feb 21st 2010 8:38PM
For my Disc Priest (currently in his early 50s), I use a bunch of macros in the following format:
#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/castsequence [@mouseover,help,exists][help][@targettarget, help, exists][@player] reset=target/5 Greater Heal
It attempts to cast the given spell (in this case, Greater Heal) on, in order of preference: my mouseover target, my friendly target, my unfriendly target's friendly target, and myself. You can include or remove the "/stopcasting" for spells with higher or lower priority. If I'm casting GH, I probably need it RIGHT NOW, so it's one macro that includes the line.
Mostly, I use these macros keybound, and then mouseover on Grid to select who to heal or bubble.
Chris Anthony Feb 21st 2010 9:07PM
You, er, can also remove the /castsequence and reset portions. ;) If you only have one spell in the sequence, they do nothing. Also, "help" implies "exists"; you might want to include "nodead" in the first two, though. This should have the same effect:
#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][help,nodead][@targettarget, help][@player] Greater Heal
That is, cast GH on your mouseover target if that target is friendly and not dead; otherwise, your current target, if that target is friendly and not dead; otherwise your unfriendly target's target, if that target is friendly; otherwise the player.
Sleutel Feb 21st 2010 9:09PM
@Chris Anthony:
Yeah, I'm sure they could be cut down some. I modified them from older macros I found somewhere or 'nother, and I figured, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. :D They work as-is, and they don't break the character limit, so I never bothered to trim them down.
Chris Anthony Feb 21st 2010 9:15PM
Understood. :) I'm an efficiency fiend because my macros tend to run quite long, so I'm always on the lookout for ways to slim down. Here's an example (uncontrived; I raid with this macro):
#showtooltip [mod:ctrl]Power Infusion;Pain Suppression
/cast [mod:alt,mod:ctrl,@player][mod:ctrl,@mouseover,help][mod:ctrl]Power Infusion;[mod:alt,@player][@mouseover,help][ ]Pain Suppression
agnoster Feb 22nd 2010 6:35AM
@Chris:
You should be able to trim the bit after #showtooltip, it should show the correct icon and tooltip based on the modifier logic in the rest of the macro, so that should save you a couple characters (and a headache if you change the macro modifier logic but not the tooltip line).
I wish you could nest conditions, so that we could write your macro as something like this:
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:alt,@player][@mouseover,help][]{[mod:ctrl]Power Infusion;Pain Suppression}
Alas, I don't think there's a way to do that, so we gotta write it out long-hand, which is error-prone and annoying, particularly for complicated macros.
Chris Anthony Feb 22nd 2010 7:46AM
@agnoster, that's certainly generally true. I recall there being a couple funny edge cases where #showtooltip doesn't do what you expect it to unless you include the spell names, but now I can't remember what they are, and honestly it's probably safe to remove the spell names altogether. :)
Prudelas Feb 21st 2010 9:04PM
i came up with an Inner Focus/Divine Hymn macro myself but it seems to just skip to DH and not activate IF.
Chris Anthony Feb 21st 2010 9:07PM
What's the macro? Maybe we can help you out.