Macro Guide

[SmotPoker]

Just a nice macro guide that I found

I) Introduction
II) Writing a Macro – Commands
III) Writing a Macro – Conditionals
IV) A Word on Focus
V) Frequently Asked Questions, Tips and Tricks

I) Introduction

Welcome to the official macro guide! I’ve noticed a lot of confusion about the new macro system and I thought that I’d write a guide to share some of what I’ve learned and developed with my other forum denizens.

Also, I’m an attention whore. Feed me! Feeeeeeed meeeeeee…

…er, where was I? Oh, yes. The following guide should teach you how to write an effective macro under the new macro system, which is enormously cleaner than the old one and in many ways more powerful, although Blizzard has disabled some conditional functions that were indeed very useful. It’s just something that has to be dealt with, however, and this guide should teach you how to develop a new set of space-saving (and USEFUL) buttons for your interface.

II) Writing a Macro - Commands

As of WoW 2.0, nearly the entirety of the old /script commands were disabled for use in Macros and replaced with a new series of cleaner slash commands that fulfill very nearly the same purpose. A brief list and some useage/syntax help is as follows.

a) Cast and Use

/cast [conditional] First Spell; [second conditional] Second Spell; [third conditional] Third Spell; Fourth Spell /use [conditional] First Spell; [second conditional] Second Item

/cast is the heart of most macros – allowing you to, y’know, cast a spell or use an ability. As of WoW 2.01 the /use and /cast commands are functionally identical, allowing you to use either abilities, spells or items (trinkets) in the same conditional function. Moreover, through the use of Blizzard’s Conditionals (explained in the next section) you can create some very powerful and versatile functions for your own use.

Check click for the useage of pet spells or abilities, or the examples further down in the FAQ.

b) Cast Sequence

/castsequence [conditional] reset=conditions to reset] First Spell; Second Spell; Third Spell

CastSequence is an interesting command that is, unfortunately, rather buggy at the moment. Ideally, it will cast the listed spells in the listed sequence; so a command such as

/castsequence Mortal Strike; Slam; Heroic Strike

should cast Mortal Strike on the first button press, Slam on the second and Heroic Strike. Unfortunately this currently seems to fail to function properly if combined with abilities not on a cool-down (i.e. Slam, in this case) and fails to advance properly. With all that said…

Above and beyond the normal functionality of the cast conditionals, CastSequence has a few ‘unique identifiers’ that separate it from the rest of the commands in this list. The reset= function will determine when and how the macro will ‘reset’ to the start of the list; under it’s default behavior, the macro will simply cycle through the commands indefinitely. The reset function will force it to reset to the start under certain circumstances. Valid reset conditionals include any of the listed conditional events below, as well as a ‘reset=target’ (will reset when the target changes) and a ‘reset=10′, which will reset the macro when ten seconds have passed.

Which sounds great, right? Unfortunately, not so much. The reset= function is an ‘idle timeout’ reset, which is to say that if you don’t press the button for 10 seconds it will reset to the first position. It will _not_ reset if you keep hitting the button, which prevents it from being a kind of idiot-fix to stop the macro from getting stuck on a certain command it can’t execute (like, for example, Overpower when the target hasn’t dodged).

You can combine the reset= functions using the / operator, as discussed below… but for now, a brief example.

/cast [reset=10/combat/target] Curse of Agony, Corruption, Siphon Life

Will cast the three spells and cycle through them - but if you leave combat, change targets (tab-dot lawl) or don’t hit the button for 10 seconds will default back to the start of the macro, i.e. Curse of Agony.

WARNING: You can NOT add additional conditionals to a CastSequence command. The conditionals located at the start of the command effect the _entire_ line. You can’t do something like;

/castsequence [harm, nocombat] Charge; [nodead] Hamstring; [combat] Sweeping Strikes

The game will at best ignore the latter conditionals - at worst (and as it usually does for me), it will simply refuse to execute the macro at all.

c) Cast Random

/castrandom [conditionals] First Spell; Second Spell; Third Item

This function will randomly select an ability to use from a selection of valid choices. Very handy for some fun purposes (such as a macro to randomly mount you from a selection of your mounts – see the examples section) as well as to brute-force a macro through if needed, but that kind of coding is sloppy and frankly annoys me. Still, this is a very handy function for certain macros and item use.

WARNING: Much like CastSequence, you can NOT add additional conditionals to a CastRandom command. The conditionals located at the start of the command effect the _entire_ line. You can’t do something like;

/castrandom [nostance:2] Victory Rush; [nostance:2] Execute; [stance:2] Battle Stance

The game will at best ignore the latter conditionals - at worst (and as it usually does for me), it will simply refuse to execute the macro at all.

d) Stop Macro

/stopmacro [conditionals]

As you may suspect, this command stops the macro if the conditionals are met (or if no conditionals are specified, every time – although that has very little purpose). Very handy to use in macros where you will want to issue a line of chat text (i.e. “Power World shield on %t”) if the spell actually goes off, but to avoid spamming your party if it won’t cast.

e) Targeting

/focus [conditionals]
/assist [conditionals]
/targetlasttarget [conditionals]
/clearfocus [conditionals]
/cleartarget [conditionals]

These macros allow you to assign focus to your current target, switch to your last target, clear your current focus or target or assist your current target. All fairly self-explanatory, although Focus takes some getting used to. (See the section on Focus further along in this guide).

e) Target Cycling

/targetraid [conditionals]
/targetparty [conditionals]
/targetenemy [conditionals]

All of these commands will target a nearby raid/party/enemy subject to use only if the specified conditionals are met. Think ‘tab’ and about as intelligent, but useable in a macro.

f) Equipping Items

/equip [name of item]
/equipslot [slot] [name of item]

These commands allow macros to equip items into certain slots (such as a macro to put on your sword and shield when going into Defensive stance for warriors, or to replace macros when out of combat).

*NEW* as of 2.1 You may now specify an item ID, e.g. /equip item:25640. Item ID’s may be gleaned from a variety of mods.

g) Buff/Form Cancelling

/cancelbuff [Buff Name]
/cancelform

A simple, but very useful command that allows you to cancel a specified buff – such as a mount aura, fortitude or any other buff. You have to provide the exact name – a wildcard function won’t work. Cancelform will automatically cancel any shapeshift form you are currently using.

h) Click (or; Cast, but not!)

/click [Button Name] [mouse button] [conditionals]

The /click command can be used to bypass certain restrictions on the cast function (such as its inability to cast spells out of the pet’s spellbook – you have to do something like /click PetActionButton4 to activate the first pet ability). More on this to come in the examples section.

i) Pet Controls

/petattack [conditionals]
/petpassive [conditionals]
/petaggressive [conditionals]
/petdefensive [conditionals]
/petfollow [conditionals]
/petstay [conditionals]
/petautocaston [ability slot] [conditionals]
/petautocastoff [ability slot] [conditionals]

Macro commands interfacing with your pet – all fairly self-explanatory, all relating to the basic pet commands and enabling/disabling the autocasting of their spells. Same functionality as the pet bar, in essence, but in a command-line form. See Click for an explanation of how to use pet spells, or check the examples further down.

j) Dismounting (* NEW *: 2.03)

/dismount [conditionals]

As you might expect, this conditional command will dismount you if you’re mounted. Very handy to include in action-macros (I put mine on my Charge and Intercept macros) so that you can get off your mount and start hitting things. Keep in mind that the first button-press will dismount and later button pressesh will use the actual abilities, since on the first press you will still be mounted (there is a slight delay while it evaluates/executes the dismount).

k) Identifying your Macros

#show
#showtooltip

These are not truly macro commands, but they are an integral part of creating a macro. The #show command will display the spell information for the listed spell - icon (if you have the macro set to the ‘?’ icon, instead of a custom icon), spell cooldown and range-shading (by default, the macro will display the spell information for the first listed spell in your macro). If you put in an item name (such as #show Sacred Candles - see the Priest examples section) it will display the number of items remaining in your bags on the macro button. The #showtooltip button works in much the same way, except that it displays the tooltip for your specified ability when you mouseover it rather than the default (which is simply the macro name).

*NEW* As of 2.1 You can also now add conditionals to #show and #showtooltip, causing the look and appearance of your macros to update dynamically! For example;

#show [modifier:shift] Super Mana Potion; [modifier:ctrl] Dark Rune; [modifier:alt] Master Healthstone; Super Healing Potion

Will display Super Mana Potion count if SHIFT is held down, Dark Rune count if CTRL is held down, Master Healthstone availability if ALT is held down and Super Healing Potions if no modifier is pressed.

*NEW* as of 2.1 You may additionally specify a slot number for #show and #showtooltip, and the macro will update to display whatever item is in that equipment slot. For example, #show 13 will display one of your trinket slots and the item currently equipped there.

III) Writing a Macro – Conditionals

The heart and soul of the new macro system are the conditional command functions – the ability to set the parameters in which commands will activate, and to disable them in other situations. All of the previous commands will function with any of the following conditionals (save some special cases, such as the reset=X conditional for CastSequence).

If the conditional listed is true, then the command will activate. For example; /cast [harm] Shadow Word: Pain Will cast Shadow Word: Pain on your target IF the target is hostile; otherwise, it will cast nothing.

You can then add additional possibilities; for example,

/cast [harm] Shadow Word: Pain; [help] Power Word: Shield

Will cast SW:P on an enemy and PW:S on a friendly target.

You can also inverse conditionals – putting a ‘no’ prefix in front of one will cause the ability to function of the condition is NOT true. For example;

/cast [harm] Shadow Word: Pain; [noharm] Power Word: Shield

Will cast SW:P if the target is hostile, and if the target is NOT hostile PW:S. While noharm/help are functionally identical, this will not be the case with many of the later conditionals.

You can add more complex conditionals as well, using the , (comma) operator as an AND condition.

/cast [harm] Shadow Word: Pain; [noharm, nodead] Power Word: Shield; [help, dead, nocombat] Resurrection

Now the macro will only attempt to PW:S a living target; if you are out of combat, your target is friendly and dead, the macro will now cast.

You may also use the / (forward slash) operator as an OR condition.

/cast [equipped:Staff/Mace] Mind Blast; [equipped:Off Hand] Renew

will cast Mind Blast if you have a Staff or Mace equipped, or Renew if you are using an offhand.

Of course, to bring back our earlier macro, namely;

/cast [harm] Shadow Word: Pain; [noharm, nodead] Power Word: Shield; [help, dead, nocombat] Resurrection

You’ll note that it’s rather ugly. Because macros evaluate the commands in order (first conditional, if not true the second conditional, if not true then third conditional) you can make good use of logic. If your first conditional [harm] is false then it is implied that the target is [noharm] (or [help]), and all further macro commands should be able to omit that. (Or, to put it another way – since the command terminates on the first TRUE condition, all conditions can assume that every previous conditional triggered as FALSE).

/cast [harm] Shadow Word: Pain; [nodead] Power Word: Shield; [nocombat] Resurrection

Much cleaner now!

You can also modify spells to be cast depending upon what Stance you’re in. (This includes Druid Forms, Rogue Stealth, Priest Shadowform and Warrior Stances) using the stance: modifier. For example;

/cast [stance:1] Charge; [stance:3] Intercept

This macro will cast Charge if in Battle Stance and Intercept if in Berserker Stance. You can also use a macro to ensure that you don’t hit the same button again.

/cast [nostance:1] Stealth

Will place you in Stealth only if you’re not already in Stealth (this prevents accidentally double-tapping the Stealth button and canceling it). You can find the full list of stances further down in this section.

* UPDATED * You can also modify the target of your casted spells using the
[target=] modifier in your cast macro. For example;

/cast [target=self] Heavy Runecloth Bandage

Will cast Heavy Runecloth Bandage on yourself, regardless of who you have targeted. Any valid unit identifier such as self, target, pet, targettarget (will cast on your target’s target) or focus (see the next section for more information on your focus target) may be used. As of 2.03, you can also specify unit names (i.e. target=Bilbo will cast the spell on Bilbo). See full list of target= options below, as well as some nifty tricks (such as the ability to append ‘target’ to any unit id).

Conditional List:

* Target: Changes the target of the macro. Not a true/false condition but a modifier. (See above).
* Harm: TRUE if target is hostile.
* Help: TRUE if target is friendly.
* Exists: TRUE if your target exists (i.e. you have a target).
* Dead: TRUE if your target is currently dead.
* Party: TRUE if the target is a member of your party.
* Raid: TRUE if the target is a member of your raid.
* Group: TRUE if you are currently in the specified kind of party (either Group or Raid). Can leave off the modifier to determine if you’re in a group at all.
* Stance:# TRUE if in the listed stance (can omit the # and will evaluate TRUE if you are in any stance).
* Stealth: TRUE if you are currently stealthed. (Unsure if this includes Invisibility, but it likely does.)
* Modifier:shift/alt/ctrl TRUE if the listed key is held down as you hit the macro button. Helpful for including ‘override’ switches in macros.
* Equipped: TRUE if the item is equipped.
* Pet: TRUE if the listed pet name (i.e. RockyBalboa) is out, or if that pet type is out (i.e. Cat). Can drop the modifier and it will evaluate TRUE if any pet is out at all.
* Mounted: TRUE if you are currently mounted.
* Flying: TRUE if you are currently flying.
* Swimming: TRUE if you are currently swimming.
* Flyable: TRUE if you are in a location where you can use a flying mount.
* Indoors: TRUE if you are currently indoors.
* Outdoors: TRUE if you are currently outdoors.
* Button:# TRUE if the listed button number was used to activate the macro. Using a keybinding to press the button will be treated the same as a left-button click, i.e. 1. See below for the full list of button modifiers. Can be used in order to perform a different action if the button is left-clicked or right-clicked, for example.
* Actionbar:# TRUE if the listed actionbar is your current main actionbar (i.e. Actionbar:3 will be TRUE if you have the third action bar selected as your primary).

Full Stance List:
Warriors:

Class: Warrior Priest Druid Rogue

—————————————————————

Stance:1 Battle Shadowform Bear Stealth

—————————————————————

Stance:2 Defensive Aquatic

—————————————————————

Stance:3 Berserker Cat

—————————————————————

Stance:4 Travel

—————————————————————

Stance:5 Moonkin/Tree

—————————————————————

(This nicely formatted list was taken directly from Neuro’s macro guide – see acknowledgements section).

Button List:

1. Left Mouse Button
2. Right Mouse Button
3. Middle Mouse Button
4. Fourth Mouse Button (side-buttons available on many advanced mice)
5. Fifth Mouse Button
6. Sixth Mouse Button

Repeat ad nauseum.

Target List:

* Player: Will target the current player (i.e. you).
* Pet: Will target your current pet.
* Focus: Will target your current Focus.
* Target: Will target your current… target. This isn’t as useless as it sounds, as I’ll explain below.
* Mouseover: The unit that you most recently moved your mouse over.

As I mentioned, the ‘target’ function isn’t as useless as it sounds. You can append it to any other valid unit id to obtain that unit’s target; for example, [target=pettarget] would cast it on whatever your pet is currently targetting. targettarget is your target’s current target, and targettargettarget is their current target. Mouseovertarget will let you cast a spell on the target of whoever you most recently had your mouse on… the possibilities are quite nifty, although the longer a chain of targets you have the more lag it can create, since it has to process jumping from target to target. Still, the issue is fairly minor and it’s neat to play with.

IV) A Word On Focus

One of the newer (and often confusing features that debuted with the new macro system is the Focus command. In essence, Focus is like a second target - you can view its health and mana (with MOST non-default unit frames – I believe under the default unit frames it just gives the Focus target a glow around it). You can cast spells on your focus target without losing your current target, and even modify your focus on the fly in macros!

* NEW * As of 2.03, you can now evaluate conditionals based on your focus target (i.e. if your focus is nodead, do this). Previously this was impossible.

Focus comes with its own set of commands (see: II e – Targetting) which can use conditional events in order to determine when to activate. This is very handy – consider the following macro.

i>/focus [target=focus,noexists/dead/modifier:shift] /cast [target=focus] Polymorph

This will set your current target as the focus if you either have no focus target or if your focus target has died, or if you’re holding the shift key down (as an override in case your target is still kicking but you’ve decided that polymorphing, say, that Paladin over there would be more useful than polymorphing that Druid over and over) and then cast Polymorph on your focus target.

This macro is really very handy – it will let you target another player and nuke away, refreshing Polymorph with a simple keypress, and also allow you to set a new Polymorph target whenever you choose with the same key. See the examples section for more macros that work with the new focus window.

V) Frequently Asked Questions, Tips and Tricks

Q: Why is there so little here?
A: Little? There’s plenty here! There’s this short segment about why there isn’t anything in here, really, for one.

Q: Haha. You’re a few brain cells short of being a half-wit. Okay, seriously. Why?
A: Because I tried to answer most questions in other parts of the FAQ. If I didn’t put something in, there’s probably a logical reason you just haven’t thought of.

Q: Oh?
A: Yes. I probably forgot. I’ll add to this section as people ask me questions and I realize I never answered them.

Q: What can macros do, exactly?
A: Lots and lots of things. They can determine which spell to cast for you, make your life easier, and even have some neat functions that are fun (like randomly selecting your mount). You can free up space on your hotbar and make some things a snap with macros.

Q: Okay. So what CAN’T they do?

A: Well… there are some conditionals that are… well, missing. You can’t determine if an ability is ‘ready’ (i.e. not on cooldown, or you have enough mana/rage/energy to cast it) with a macro. This prevents you from using a macro that would, say, Frost Nova if ready, Ice Block if Frost Nova was not ready, or Cold Snap if neither of the two were ready (as your handy ‘catch all’ against melee). You can’t check very much information about the target past if they’re alive and either friendly or hostile - it can’t check the number of combo points, which prevents a Sinister Strike until 5 CP then Eviscerate macro. The macros can’t check the target’s HP, which prevents both a Mortal Strike or Execute if below 20% macro for Warriors, and a Flash Heal if below 40% health, Greater Heal if above 40% health macro for priests. You can’t even really look for debuffs, which prevents you from using Power Word: Shield if there is no Weakened Soul debuff, else casting Flash Heal.

You can’t do a lot of things under the new system that you used to be able to do… but the things that you can do, you can do in a much cleaner fashion than you could before. *shrug* It’s a trade-off, but I’m hoping that they add some more functionality to the macro system eventually. Large portions of it are quite intended, though - they didn’t want you to be able to just hit one button and take all calculation out of combat.

Tips and Tricks

Did You Know…?
…that you can force a macro to use the same icon as the first listed ability? If you select the “?” as the macro’s icon when creating it, the macro will take on the ability icon of whatever ability or spell you list first. For example;
/cast [stance:1] Charge; [stance:3] Intercept
Will cast Charge if in Stance 1, Intercept if in Stance 3 but will _always_ display the cooldown and the icon of Charge because it’s the first ability.

*NEW* with 2.1
…that if you use #show or #showtooltip your macros will now update their appearance dynamically? For example;

#showtooltip
/cast [nocombat] Charge; [combat] Intercept

[joho]

Please use some colors x)
Otherwise awesome, tho I pref. WoW Forums/WoWwiki.

[lolroflcopter]

this seems legit ... Did you really write theis?

[SmotPoker]

this seems legit ... Did you really write theis?

no i didnt i found it on a website a while ago and i would give the person who wrote it some credit but the website i found it on didnt know who wrote it

[Purple Sprite]

Ah, nice guide brah.

[smpsnfn10]

Thanks,that helped a bunch....

[Narudan]

Nice guide, where is it from?