The Light and How to Swing It: Basic retribution paladin macros
by Alex Ziebart 
Mar 16th 2011 at 9:00AM
Retribution is a spec that has a lot to gain from intelligent use of macros. We have so many abilities that share cooldowns that there's no reason not to consolidate them. As hybrids, we have an enormous spread of abilities that we may not use often, but when we do need to use them, we need to use them at a moment's notice. And properly.
This article will cover basic retribution macros -- mouseover macros, focus macros, modifier macros, and that sort of thing. Macros hold an incredible amount of potential for customization, so it would be next to impossible to list everything a paladin might potentially use. Once you know the basics of how these macros are built, you can do whatever you please with them. Onward!
Modifiers
If you don't use modifier macros, your retribution action bars are probably a real mess, modified UI or not. You probably have completely different hotkeys for both Crusader Strike and Divine Storm. The same likely applies to Templar's Verdict, Inquisition and Word of Glory. It doesn't have to be that way. You can very easily consolidate them into a much cleaner setup.
/cast [nomodifier] Crusader Strike; [modifier:ctrl] Divine StormIf that syntax doesn't make any sense to you, here's an explanation: If you put that macro on your 2 key, when you just hit the 2 key all by itself, you will Crusader Strike. If you hold down the Ctrl key and hit your 2 key, you will Divine Storm instead. You could extend the macro by adding Exorcism into it, but I like to keep that button seperate. Why? I don't really know! I just like it that way. Deal with it.
/cast [nomodifier] Templar's Verdict; [modifier:ctrl] Inquisition; [modifier:shift] Word of GloryNeed to refresh Inquisition? Hold down Ctrl. Need to rip off a quick heal? Hold Shift. Don't need to worry about that and just want to DPS the day away? No problem. Don't hit any modifiers.
With those two macros alone, you've reduced five (and potentially six) hotkeys down to just two. There are other possibilities for this as well. Exorcism, Judgement and Hammer of Wrath? Hand of Sacrifice, Hand of Salvation and Hand of Freedom? Blessing of Might and Blessing of Kings? Holy Wrath and Consecration?
Note: If you use Ctrl as your modifier, you may need to unbind some keybinds in the default UI. Ctrl+# is reserved for pet abilities that hunters or warlocks may need. Paladins don't need them! Unbind at will.
Target of target
As someone filling a DPS role, you're going to be targeting the bad guys a vast majority of your time in combat. That's just what you do. The problem is that retribution has a lot of buffs you cast on your friends that need to be used at a moment's notice. You don't have time to hunt and peck on your raid frames to find the person you need to cast Hand of Protection on when they pull aggro. Target of target macros will fix that.
/cast [target=targettarget] Hand of ProtectionThat macro will cast Hand of Protection on your target's target. So if you're targeting a dragon and the dragon is targeting your warlock friend, you'll cast Hand of Protection on the warlock without needing to de-target the dragon.
If you want to build something more complex, you certainly can.
/cast [modifier:ctrl,target=player] Hand of Protection; [target=targettarget] Hand of ProtectionThat macro will cast Hand of Protection on you if you're holding down Ctrl when you hit the hotkey. If you're not using any modifiers, it will cast the spell on your target's target.
Focus
Focus macros are some of the most basic macros a player will pick up, but if you're a career PvE retribution paladin, you probably never actually had a real need for one until Cataclysm. We had no interrupt, and we were never considered reliable crowd control. If you're a PvP player, you always had a use for focus macros, but PvE players probably didn't. In Cataclysm, we're called on both to interrupt and to crowd control. Not only will you be called on to do it, those jobs are extremely important. There are a number of raid encounters that ask for numerous interrupters doing their jobs flawlessly, or you've guaranteed a wipe. In Wrath of the Lich King, such encounters might require two players to interrupt in a 25-man raid. In Cataclysm, you're looking at anywhere from two to six. These focus macros are more important than they've ever been.
/cast [target=focus, exists] Rebuke; RebukeIf you've set a focus target (with /focus, which you can also macro), this macro will prioritize casting Rebuke on that target. You can DPS a different mob and still interrupt what you're supposed to be interrupting. Do note that you still need to be in range with your focus for this to work. Macros can't beak the rules of the game for you.
You can replace Rebuke with Repentance, and now you have a reliable crowd control macro, too.
Mouseovers
As a PvE retribution paladin, I don't use mouseover macros that often. However, I use them constantly when I'm playing holy, and I would probably use them a lot if I did much PvP. Even if you end up not using many of them as PvE ret, they're a good thing to learn.
/cast [target=mouseover] Cleanse; CleanseThis macro will cleanse whoever your mouse is hovering over. This works with the base UI's raid frames and works with most UI mods as well. If you don't have anybody moused-over, it will cleanse you if you have auto self-cast enabled in the base UI. You can swap Cleanse out for any number of spells -- Hand of Freedom, Word of Glory, and so on.
Everything I've listed here is only the tip of the iceberg of what you can do with macros. Once you've learned how to make them, you can customize them to your heart's content and easily do all sorts of things that you might have thought were extremely difficult to pull off in combat previously. Readers, if you have any other macros you use regularly, you should share them in the comments below!
The Light and How to Swing It teaches you the ins and outs of retribution paladins: the changes introduced by patch 4.0.6, how to gem, enchant and reforge your ret, and more. We even have something for holy and protection paladins, too.
Filed under: Paladin, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Junionn Mar 16th 2011 9:04AM
HERE HERE!!!
Great column Alex, I'm a pretty casual ret paladin and i've always been curious to add macro's to my game.
Thanks again!
Eric J Mar 16th 2011 9:08AM
My repetance mouseover macro:
#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead]Cleanse;[@focus,harm,nodead][@mouseover,harm,nodead][@target,harm,nodead] Repentance
Eric J Mar 16th 2011 9:09AM
yikes... and my spelling is off..
LouCypher Mar 16th 2011 9:09AM
1. [nomodifier] is not needed, and "modifier" can be shortened to "mod" the following macro:
/cast [mod:ctrl] Divine Storm; Crusader Strike
is functionally identical to the first, except Crusader Strike will be used even if ALT or SHIFT are pressed (and there isn't a bind overriding the combination) and you won't get the "?" icon on buttons when you don't have an action assigned to the key + modifier.
2. "target=" is the same as "@" so you can use the following:
/cast [@=targettarget] Hand of Protection
Most Paladins won't ever have a macro that approaches the character limit, but for those that do anything that reduces the amount of text required is a good thing.
LouCypher Mar 16th 2011 9:10AM
err I meant [@targettarget], without the "="
Amaxe Mar 16th 2011 10:28AM
Yes, there's no need for [nomodifier].
I tend to use dual macros working like:
/cast [modifier][button:2] SeldomUsedPower; CommonlyUsed Power
If I left click a button it will use "CommonlyUsedPower". If I right click or hold alt, shift or control while clicking I get "SeldomUsedPower"
Alex Ziebart Mar 16th 2011 10:35AM
Good tip(s), thanks!
Forreststump Mar 16th 2011 3:30PM
I should be a jerk and roll a toon for PvP named "Targettarget". Would totally botch the opposition's targettarget macros.
Nathan Cator Mar 16th 2011 9:11AM
How do you do a "set focus" macro? I've tried before but never got it to work.
vanye111 Mar 16th 2011 9:30AM
/clearfocus [exists,dead]
/focus
What this will do is
a) if you already have a focus target, but it's dead, it will clear that focus target
b) sets your current target as focus
If you have problems with macros not working, you can go to:
http://www.macroexplain.com/
and put it in, and it will explain what your macro will do, and flag any invalid conditions so you know where the problem is.
Vort Mar 16th 2011 9:14AM
I still have my trusty old "Judge target and reapply seal of righteousness" macro gathering dust somewhere. Back in the days when seals lasted 2 minutes, and judging removed the seal that macro was my trusty 2 key. How I don't miss it. In the slightest.
Reapyosoul Mar 16th 2011 2:50PM
Back in the day. 2 minute seals. Dear lord.
Not that I want to pull the whole "noob" or "I've been playing longer so I'm better" stuff that some people will undoubtedly interpret this as, but when I think back in the and seals makes me think of 30 secs and when ret pallies were "retardins"
I will admit, however, that I did rather like that seal system. Anyone else miss seal of the crusader? I do a little.
Namus Mar 17th 2011 12:03AM
I think seal of the crusader came back as inquisition, oh I remember my glorius retardin days with my 500 dps in kara hehe.
Necromann Mar 16th 2011 9:22AM
I tried consolidating Templars Verdict, inquisition, and word of glory, but I don't like it so I have to keep them at separate places. I really like crusader strike/divine storm together though so much easier than what I was doing before.
Andrew Mar 16th 2011 9:23AM
While this extends beyond macros as well, I've found my mouseover macros work the best by keybinding their spot on my action bar to a modifier+scrollwheel up or down. Just remember to use a different modifier in your macro if you need one than the one for the keybind.
souvlaki Mar 16th 2011 9:23AM
Suggestions for cleaner macros and using less chars (these macros are simple, but when you are in a more complex macro, knowing these alternatives are a godsend):
nomodifier=nomod
modifier=mod
target=@something (target=player becomes @player. target=focus becomes @focus, etc)
The CS/DS macro can be stripped down to this macro in which DS works with any modifier (not only control):
/cast [nomod] Crusader Strike; Divine Storm
The cleanse and Rebuke macros can also be stipped down to:
/cast [@mouseover][] Cleanse
/cast [@focus, exists][] Rebuke
Using the [], it tells the macro that if @mouseover is not available, it will cast it as default (i.e the player or the current selected target). For instance, being a lock, i have this macro for fear:
/cast [@mouseover,harm,exists][@focus,harm,exists][] Fear
This casts fear to the mouseover, if there is no enemy mouesover to the focus, and if there is no enemy focus, the targeted player.
Fraeda Mar 16th 2011 1:51PM
And by [] you mean LEFT SQUARE BRACKET then RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET. Sorry, but on my screen it looks like a box, which is what some fonts do if there is some weird double-byte character it can't handle...
Cuts Mar 16th 2011 10:02AM
Can anyone share a macro that does this:
Set focus on my target ( I imagine this can be a separate macro, such as the one listed above 'vanye111')
Use rebuke on my focus if focus exists, if not, use rebuke on my target. (note that if focus does not exists and I use rebuke on the target, this can't add this target to focus).
I play a Holy Paladin at arenas and it's my job to interrupt heals, so yeah... this is freaking important.
Mike Mar 16th 2011 10:35AM
If you play arena's, you probably have Gladius, which is set up out of the box so that rightclicking an enemy bar in the gladius window sets it as focus. That might already solve your focus problem.
And then it's just a plain old focus rebuke macro as listed above.
Pinochet Mar 16th 2011 3:27PM
FAIR WARNING: I am not at my computer, and am reconstructing all of this from memory, so not all of this may work as advertised, but I'm highly confident that I am remembering all this correctly.
The rebuke behavior you want is this:
#showtooltip
/use [@focus,harm,nodead][]Rebuke
This rebukes your opponent if you have a living,hostile focus, else rebukes whatever you have targeted.
For the focus behavior, I really don't know what you mean. You say you want a macro that "Set focus on my target" and then you say "if focus does not exists and I use rebuke on the target, this can't add this target to focus", which seems to be two exactly opposite statements. Either you want the macro to automatically add your first target as the focus or you don't. I'm thinking you really mean the latter, but I'll answer both because I'm bored.
Anyway, if you want the macro to set your Rebuke target as the focus, and remember it for the rest of the fight without ever setting another target as a focus, use:
/focus [noexists]
otherwise you may want to use a modifier key, like so:
/focus [mod:ctrl]
...which will set whoever you're rebuking as your focus whenever you hold down ctrl, but leave your old focus (including no focus) when you don't hold ctrl. The downside to this is that it can't be used if you have a keybind for ctrl+(key).
More likely, you just want a separate keybind for setting and clearing a focus, so you can focus whoever you want whenever you want. I'd probably use this:
/clearfocus[noexists][dead][mod:alt]
/focus[@mouseover,nomod:alt][nomod:alt]
This should clear your focus if he is dead or no longer exists, or if you hold alt, and focus your mouseover if you have one or your target if you have no mouseover--unless you're holding alt, in which case it clears your focus regardless. Remove the [@mouseover,nomod:alt] term if you don't want to use mouseovers, but you really should try it this way since this is super useful, letting you swap focus without targeting anything. You can use mouseover over the character himself, or his nameplate.
One quick disclaimer: I pretty much just PvE, and I'm not sure how this stuff works with an arena opponent that isn't visible to your client. If the focus macro clears your focus incorrectly when you hit the focus macro while your opponent is stealth/shadowmeld/invisible, you may want to remove [noexists] leaving just [dead]. Though I can't imagine why you'd be hitting your focus macro when you don't want to clear your focus or set a new one in the first place, so you probably want to leave [noexists].