Spiritual Guidance: Macros for healing priests
by Dawn Moore 
Apr 18th 2011 at 7:00PM
Some time last year on Spiritual Guidance, I wrote an article on macros for healing priests. Overall, it was a simple approach to the topic, touching on some basics like binding consolidation, communication, and a couple of utility macros. The article generated a lot of discussion, and several readers submitted some quality macros for their fellow priests.
Since a few of those macros are now outdated and I've added a few new macros to my spellbook in the interim, I thought now would be a good time to revisit the topic and look at what I've dug up in the past few months. Since these were accumulated over time, I haven't kept track of all the original authors of these macros, so if you see something in here you wrote, feel free to shake your fist at me.
Just like last year, if you have a helpful macro you'd like to share, be sure to leave it in the comments.
General use priest macros
There are are a lot of different styles of macros out there in the WoW community, but not all of them will be relevant to a healing priest. Macros that DPS and tanks might use, for example, are written to improve targeting and target swapping so that very little time (and thus, damage) is lost when performing raid duties such taunting an add, interrupting a mind-controlled ally, or just life-gripping your best friend out of an embarrassing mistake.
Since we healers spend most of our time switching targets, however, we won't have much need for macros to automate targeting for us. Most of our macros will generally be for some sort of utility or spell sequence. Here are some examples.
Shadowfiend attack macro
This macro will select the closest enemy or neutral target 40 yards in front of you and cast Shadowfiend on it. This means you won't have to take any extra time to select a target for your Shadowfiend to attack while you are busy healing your allies.#showtooltip Shadowfiend
/startattack
/cast Shadowfiend
/petaggressive
Line 4 creates an additional function to the macro but requires that you push the macro's keybinding more than once; a second press will set your Shadowfiend to aggressive stance, if he happens to be in a passive or defensive stance when you summon him. In aggressive stance, he will automatically move onto another enemy target if his target dies while he is attacking it. (Remember that your pet will typically remain in the stance that he was in when he despawns, so once your Shadowfiend is set to aggressive, you will not usually need to hit your binding more than once in the future.)
Self-dispel and self-shield macros
or/cast [target=player] Dispel Magic
A self-target macro is ideal for players who do not like to use alt (or whatever key they've selected as their self-cast modifier) to cast a spell on themselves. Both these macros will cast the written spell on your character; however, the function of these two macros is different. The first macro will cast Dispel Magic on your character without dropping your current target (this mimics the function of your self-cast modifier), while the second macro will change your current target to yourself, then cast Dispel Magic. The second macro is ideal if you need to cast more spells on yourself after you've cast the initial one, such as additional healing or dispels. The setup of the second macro is ideal for self-survival./tar player
/cast Dispel Magic
Survival cast sequence macro
Though [target=player] can be used with a castsequence macro, if you want to follow up your sequence with additional healing (perhaps a Flash Heal?) you won't necessarily have yourself targeted, which means you'll either have to target yourself or use your self-cast modifier before you can start the cast./tar player
/castsequence reset=1 Power Word: Shield, Prayer of Mending, Renew, Desperate Prayer, Fel Healthstone, 6
Anyway, I don't use this particular macro myself, but the priests in my last guild swore by it whenever they were worried about dying. You can arrange the spells into whatever priority you want, though spells with longer cooldowns should be kept at the end of the sequence so it cycles properly (an ability that is on cooldown or unavailable will screw up your sequence.) Power Word: Shield comes first in this particular example because it's very handy for priests of either spec; it's the highest HPS instant-cast a disc priest can cast, and with Body and Soul, can quickly get a holy priest out of a sticky situation.
/use and /cast are interchangeable, so items and spells can both be used in a sequence. That's why you see Fel Healthstone and 6 in this sequence. 6 corresponds to your belt slot, which if you're an engineer will activate your Nitro Boosts or Grounded Plasma Shield. If you want to incorporate another use effect from a piece of gear you have equipped, use this chart to find the corresponding slot number.
- 0 Ammo
- 1 Head
- 2 Neck
- 3 Shoulder
- 4 Shirt
- 5 Chest
- 6 Belt/Waist
- 7 Legs
- 8 Feet/Boots
- 9 Wrist/Bracers
- 10 Gloves
- 11 Finger 1 (top slot)
- 12 Finger 2 (bottom slot)
- 13 Trinket 1 (top slot)
- 14 Trinket 2 (bottom slot)
- 15 Back/Cloak
- 16 Main Hand
- 17 Off Hand
- 18 Ranged/Relic
- 19 Tabard
Though this is more of a PvP macro, it does have occasional use in raiding. If you ever need to use Mass Dispel multiple times, this will allow you to spam press your Mass Dispel binding without constantly resetting your casting reticle. Though this doesn't do too much for allowing you to get your next Mass Dispel out faster, it will allow you to better position your next spell since the reticle will stay in view. You can use the ! modifier before a cast command for any spell with a reticle, though you won't necessarily be spamming Lightwell, Holy Word: Sanctuary or Power Word: Barrier.#showtooltip Mass Dispel
/cast !Mass Dispel
Talent-specific macros
Greater Heal with Inner Focus macro
#showtooltip Greater Heal
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX", "0")
/cast Inner Focus
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX", "1")
/cast Greater Heal
This macro will automatically use Inner Focus with Greater Heal in a single key press, something many priests have started doing since the talent Train of Thought reduces the cooldown of Inner Focus each time Greater Heal is cast. Lines 2, 4, and 5 remove the error messages your UI and character give you when Inner Focus is on cooldown, which should alleviate any distractions when you are using Greater Heal normally. The sequence of this macro works properly because Inner Focus is off the global cooldown and thus doesn't require more than one press.
Keep in mind that this kind of automation takes a bit of control away from you as a healer. It's a great macro if you never remember to use Inner Focus or you want to forget about using it, but if you prefer to use Inner Focus selectively, this macro isn't for you. I personally don't like to use this macro because I don't like it overlapping with the mana cost reduction I get during Power Infusion, and I also like to use Inner Focus with Flash Heal, Prayer of Healing, and Binding Heal, depending on what part of the fight I'm in.
Guardian Spirit or Pain Suppression macro
If you have auto self-cast turned on and go to cast Guardian Spirit or Pain Suppression on a target who happens to die before you get the cast off, you'll automatically cast the spell on yourself. This isn't especially ideal if the attempt is still salvageable, so it's good to override your auto self-cast with these target macro.#showtooltip Guardian Spirit
/cast [target=target] Guardian Spirit
Mouseover macros
I occasionally receive questions from other priests asking about mouseover healing and macros. Unfortunately, I still can't answer those questions, since I do not use mouseover healing. I personally find the priest toolbox lends itself best to clicking targets, since its core is made up of both casted and instant-cast heals. Mouseover healing is extremely effective for players who are primarily using instant-cast spells (druid raid healers, for example), while clicking targets is preferred for casted healing, since it allows you to better utilize the time between your casts. Please do not interpret this as leading a crusade against mouseover healing; it is simply a playstyle preference.
As always, if any readers know of a thorough and (most importantly) up-to-date guide on mouseover healing and macros for priests, please let me know so I can link it in this subsection. Further, if you wish to comment on this issue, please consider that it is a lot more helpful to give actual advice on using mouseover healing than it is to simply advocate it.
This all said, there is one mouseover macro I do use, which is a Leap of Faith macro. I have two bindings for Leap of Faith; one is click target-based and ideal for life-gripping anyone on my grid who I'm planning on life-gripping either because of a strat or a debuff they might have (like Twilight Meteorite on Valiona and Theralion, or Shadow Conductor on heroic Omnotron Defense System.) For saving someone who I just happen to see standing in something bad, however, a mouseover macro is ideal.
Mouseover life grip macro
/cast [@mouseover] Leap of Faith
Simple enough, right? If you have any questions, comments, additions or corrections, let me know in the comments.
Spiritual Guidance has the inside line on pre-raid gear, valor point and raid gear, and healing strategies for bosses such as Atramedes and Chimaeron. Newcomer to the priest class? Look into Discipline Priest 101 and Holy Priest 101.
Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Saltypoison Apr 18th 2011 7:10PM
Just a follow up questions on the mouseover heals. "...while clicking targets is preferred for casted healing, since it allows you to better utilize the time between your casts. "
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that statement. What are you doing in this time that mouse over heals don't allow you to? Your mouse only needs to be over the target as the heal begins to go off. I always saw this as efficiency of movement. Rather than move mouse, click, cast, you are just eliminating the click from the action.
Not trying to start an argument or anything, I'm honestly curious if I'm missing something here.
Dawn Moore Apr 18th 2011 7:42PM
If I'm casting a heal, I can select my next target and be ready to click on my third by the time the cast is finished. Now, with the haste levels we currently have it doesn't matter all that much anymore because you're spending so long between casts anyway that the time I save by being ready to click on my third target isn't all that much better than moving to my next mouseover target after the 2nd cast has queued, but when casts were all 1-1.1 seconds long it made a difference. In general it lets me map out where I'm going a little better too, but that's just a personal preference.
Tangent'ing off... Mouseover healing also poses a bit of an issue for movement which I don't care for. All the mouseover healers I've known were great throughput healers but were terrible at staying alive. I'm sure there are mouseover healers out there who stay alive just fine, granted, but it is something most healers should consider when going down that road. What do you gain, what do you lose? If mouseover was all pluses, no minuses, every top healer in the world would use it. They don't, and there's a reason for that.
Saltypoison Apr 18th 2011 7:51PM
Thanks for the response. On the first portion, I feel with Quartz (or whatever casting bar you use that has one) the latency portion of the bar lets me stay ahead with the mouseover heals.
However, I will concede on the second point. Iit can become a decision between healing someone and getting out of the bad quickly.
Last week on the Magmaw trash, my mouseover smite macro (target of target = harm, something along those lines) totally failed me. The DPS I was using to bounce smite off targeted Magmaw and yea.... So I know mouseover stuff isn't infallible by any means, just my preferred playing style. :)
Thanks for the clarification!
Keith Apr 18th 2011 7:53PM
I still don't understand. Your sequence: click, cast, move mouse, click, cast, move mouse, click, cast. Mine: cast, move mouse, cast, move mouse, cast.
Jehosaphat Apr 18th 2011 7:55PM
Personally, I click well before my previous cast finishes, then move my mouse on to the next priority target. With a mouseover macro, I'd always feel behind.
Smite healing would probably be slightly easier with mouseover macros, though I'd be more likely to macro Smite to target-of-target (or an intelligent variation thereof) than to change my healing style.
Another reason I prefer targeting is that I move with my mouse while doing instant casts sometimes. It's much easier when I'm already used to having a target.
Jehosaphat Apr 18th 2011 7:56PM
....aaand Dawn beat me to most of it. Ah, well, that's what I get for not refreshing first.
Jehosaphat Apr 18th 2011 8:04PM
@Keith: I think the main difference is we prefer to have a solid idea of where our next heal goes, even if the mouse slides a bit by accident. With Grid (or any raid frames), I have visual feedback of who I target, and since I'm targeting well before I cast, I have time to correct a misclick. With mouseover healing, by the time you get visual confirmation of who you're casting on, you've already started casting.
tara Apr 18th 2011 8:38PM
Have to say I completely disagree with you Dawn, I've used mouseover healing (via Vuh'do and prior to that addon grid/clique) on all four of my healers for as long as I can remember, I've never felt that it has slowed me down in the least nor does it cause me to stand in bad. I don't really get the connection you are forming between mouseover healing and being able to stay alive.
As far as it being "slower", I don't have to let my mouse hover over the intended target for an inordinate amount of time, by the time the cast has started I've moved on to a different target. As for accidently hovering your mouse over the "wrong" target, perhaps the issue there isn't mouseover healing but using raid frames that are stupidly small.
In raid situations I can always tell the people who are "clickers" because they are the people unless they have spiderman reflexes are usually the ones whose targets die the most.
Prissa Apr 19th 2011 12:50AM
@ tara
"I don't really get the connection you are forming between mouseover healing and being able to stay alive. "
The connection is that if you're not moving with your mouse, you're a keyboard turner. They are you're two options. I'm a healbot (and therefore mouseover) healer, and on fights like heroic maloriak where you're -constantly- moving out of bad, it's easier to see how your mouseover heals can suffer when you're moving your toon with your mouse, or vice versa.
I try to position myself very carefully so my usual keyboard movements are enough to get out of puddles, but if rng hates me, I have to admit that I'm hoping the other healers can cover for me.
Dawn Moore Apr 19th 2011 1:15AM
This is why I will never write more than one macro article per year. Everyone wants to argue about how their way of doing things is the absolute superior way of doing things instead of actually offering up useful macros to other people. There is no such thing as an absolute best way to play that works for everyone. It all comes down to what works for you, and anyone who tries to tell someone his way is better always comes off as an ass. These types of arguments bring out the worst in people ._______.
Jemmy Apr 19th 2011 1:26AM
I use the keyboard to move with my left hand and mouseover heal using grid + clique and a multi button gaming mouse. Clique can be set up to use macros as well, for things like Holyword:Chastise and it's various incarnations. I don't have any trouble moving as required, but then it's what I'm used to after 6 years.
In 5mans I would click the target and heal, but once I started raid healing that method didn't suit my needs. I like to have the boss targetted in some fights, so I can see things that need dispelling (plus my dispel mouseover works on the boss as well) or see who the target for a specific ability is. I like that heads up that X ability has been cast at Y person, because if the ability has a cast time I can get a shield onto that player pre emptively rather than waiting for a raid warning or a debuff to show up. My focus target may be different from the boss, or a different boss for multi boss fights, so mouse over healing gives me flexibility with my target.
The biggest problem I have it using the push to talk button and moving. That's more of a hassle for me as a raid leader.
bldavis59 Apr 19th 2011 5:10AM
@keith for me, i click, move mouse while hitting the hotkey to cast, click mid cast, move mouse and hit hotkey
i dont think i could ever use mouse-over macros simply due to the fact i have my target selected well before my previous cast is finished
oh and i use my mouse to move, and with my raid frames where they are....i would be oom in 3 secs if i wasnt careful, but with click casting, i can heal and move at the same time
Gawwad Apr 19th 2011 5:28AM
I have all my macros set up like this:
#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover, help] Greater Heal; [help][] Greater Heal
For me it's the best of both worlds. I can heal on mouse over and if needed, pick a target, mouse over empty space or hold down right mouse button (moving) and heal that target.
Also without a target, I can just hold the right mouse button and it heals my self.
Aruku Apr 19th 2011 5:51AM
I understand that some people prefer healing with targeting the player rather than mouseover, but I actually found mouseover helped my healing much more, especially the faster heals were getting cast; since I lost time in the targeting of the player, then pressing the button to cast the spell. I find that most of the time, I don't have the opportunity to map out heals 3 heals in advanced, especially with cast times on all of them. Either by the time I get to person 3, they're dead, or have already been healed. (That is generally, there are times when I get to person 4 on the mentally tallied list with success also)
Anyways, I noticed the mouseover macros presented at least in this page, are of the mouseover only variety. The link to matticus shows another variety, which allows you to heal on mouseover, as well as by targeting, so you have the flexibility to do either or in the same button press. (example)
#showtooltip Cure Disease
/cast [target=mouseover, exists] Cure Disease; Cure Disease;
In addition, I have made my own modification to the basic mouseover/targeting heal macro, which allows you to double it up with an offensive spell. I particularly find this useful, as I have a limited number of keys which are within easy reach of my fingers and this increases the spells I can cast easily by nearly double. This could be useful for people who like mousovers in general, and are looking for ways to save keybinding space: (example)
#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,noharm,exists] Heal;[@mouseover,harm,exists] Smite;[noharm]Heal;[harm]Smite;
The macro above also works if you target as well, and is what the second repetitions of the spells at the end are for enabling. What I usually find myself doing is mousing over someone to initiate a heal cast (with boss targeted, so I can watch for any abilities/casts he does), and moving my mouse away from the grid layout to cast a quick smite on the boss, allowing me to trigger archangel for mana gains, before going back to healing.
Mainly offering these up as examples for people interested in mouseover-type macros, since you did suggest posting advice for it if we had any. Hope it helps anyone interested!
(Also, these macros I haven't had to update in a while, so there may be new changes which would allow for some shortening of the script. However, they all currently work fine, so I don't change them. And as with most macros like this, just replace the example spell names with the spells you would like. :3)
Keith Apr 19th 2011 10:11AM
I still don't get it. I think your efficiency is a mirage - you're doing stuff between casts, but it doesn't get those casts off any sooner, and you're committing earlier to your next target. And you may think people who say their method is better come off as asses, Dawn, but your disclaimer notwithstanding, you plainly claim your way is better in the article - "clicking targets is preferred for casted healing".
Puntable Apr 19th 2011 12:23PM
As a Disc Priest, I normally always have a mob targeted. You just HAVE to throw in the Smites every spare cooldown, you know? This also lets you be aware of what spells the boss is casting. My healing macros follow a priority.
1. Mouseover 2. Target (if friendly) 3. Target of Target (if friendly) 4. Self
Aris Apr 19th 2011 1:09PM
I think the mouseover vs. target select debate comes down to whether you're a keyboard mover or mouse. I know plenty of people on both sides of that debate and have never really understood why there's so much hate for people that prefer to use the keyboard for their movements. Probably in world first type of situations those few milliseconds here and there make a difference, but I think for most players it really just doesn't matter.
I would think that most people that heal with mouseovers are keyboard movers/turners and those that click cast are mouse movers.
blandar6 Apr 19th 2011 3:19PM
"I would think that most people that heal with mouseovers are keyboard movers/turners and those that click cast are mouse movers."
I am not sure where this train of thought comes from. Having used mouseover macros in combination with mouse turning for a few years now, I have had no trouble at all running out of fire, etc. The strafe keys work wonderfully. Try it long enough and it becomes second nature.
The argument for mouseover macros saving time is valid. Dawn seems to be under the misconception that click-casting is superior because it allows you to preemptively select your next target before your current cast is complete, something that is no less possible, indeed even faster, through mouseover macros. After all, you are removing an entire step from the process.
Michael May 30th 2011 2:46AM
I think what was missing in these explanations of mouse click healing is that the heal spell is actually bound to the mouse button. So Left Click and it casts Flash Heal on whoever I'm clicking on. You don't click to select the person, then cast the heal. Your click on the person actually casts the heal when you click on them.
I'm pretty sure this is what people mean when they talk about click healing.
bblanar Apr 18th 2011 7:23PM
Yah, I agree Salty. Something handicapping your speed to help you think more clearly about the next cast? Drive 30 mph at all times to be safe?
#showtooltip Greater Heal
/cast [target=mouseover,help,exists] [target=target,help,nodead] [target=targettarget,help,nodead] [target=player] Greater Heal
You're welcome. For disc, you can keep smiting and keep mobs selected and pop off heals on grid. Or you can deselect the target, select who you want to heal, then cast hea, oh wait they died. Use mouseovers.