Macros
(We used to go to) arena junkies and click on macros, click on your class, and try out every macro that you can. Try them one at a time, one day at a time. Again, so that you become slowly accustomed to them. It’s very important to use focus macros when possible. I like shift key as my modifier.
MACRO BASICS
1. go to arenajunkies.com and click on macros. Then find macros for your class.
2. run notepad.exe and make a new text file on your desktop so you can have all your macros in one easy-to-find place. Very useful if you erase a macro…
3. copy/paste all the macros you like into a notepad.txt file called “wow macros”, and save the file. Now you are done with arenajunkies.com
4. go to wow, and type /macro -> click “new”
5. for all macros put this at the top “#showtooltip <ability name here> for example:
#showtooltip Dispel Magic
6. choose the “?” icon, and SINCE you used “showtooltip”, wow will automatically choose the right icon for the macro
7. open your notepad file, and copy/paste the macro in. Some macros have “#showtooltip…” at the top, and some don’t — so make sure you don’t have it in there twice.
8. save your macro
9. drag the icon for your macro to your button bar.
10. fight a dummy, or set up a slow-motion duel with a friend, and test it out
11. go to http://www.wowwiki.com/Making_a_macro to learn more about macros
FOCUS MACROS
This is critical for setting up a good CC chain on focus target.
Background:
Blizzard has two targets in WoW. Imagine a gunfighter (you) holding two rifles, one in each arm. Each rifle has a gunsight. Your left arm (target1) is aimed on your “target”. You keep your left eyes on this gunsight. Your right arm is aiming at (target2) “focus” — your right eye is looking down that gunsight as well. For whatever reason, target1 is called TARGET, and target2 is called FOCUS. They should have just called them target1 target2, so that people don’t get confused. But it’s truly that simple. It’s as if you have one eye looking down the sight of each gun.
Now that you understand that there are two targets, they will now just be called “TARGET” and “FOCUS”.
Your goal in 3s, is to have all 3 players pick the focus at the start of the match. This person will be chain CC’d the entire match, and most importantly, cannot cast POLY, CLONE, FEAR, etc on anyone.
Focus Macro — making the ‘on/off switch’ for setting focus
Make a macro that reads like this:
/clearfocus [mod:shift]
/focus [nomod]
And drag it to your button bar. Test it out. Make sure clicking it sets a focus, and shift-clicking it undoes it.
I like to put “/p focus now on %T” so that ppl know for sure that I am setting a focus. I recommend adding that third line in there…
Creating Focus Macros
Now your goal is to either:
1. shift click your CC spells to hit the FOCUS
or
2. make new buttons that ONLY hit the FOCUS
— this will depend on how many open buttons you have, OR, it will depend on if you are using F1+shift or mouse-side-button+shift. I have found that those two scenarios do not work for the shift key. In that case, you must make another button for focus abilities.
Now, drag the focus nameplate RIGHT ABOVE your head, and then right click it and choose “lock frame” or “unlock frame” to allow you to move it around. The goal is that when a bastard wants to cyclone you or sheep you, you ALWAYS can counter them instantly with your new button we are about to make.
Focus Syntax
It’s VERY simple to make them. Here is an example. Just change out the work “CC” for your spell ability.
#showtooltip CC
/cast [mod:shift, target=focus] CC; CC
How this works is like this:
CAST CC on FOCUS ONLY IF SHIFT IS HELD DOWN, OTHERWISE CC TARGET.
WHAT if you like to use a separate key for the focus macros?
Then it would just look like this:
#showtooltip CC
/cast [target=focus] CC
How to test focus macros
Stand outside Org, and target a green NPC while dueling a friend. Ask friend to not attack.
1. target NPC
2. set duel friend as focus
3. unset focus
4. set focus again (now u know that key works)
5. click shift-CC-ability and make sure that friend gets CC’d
6. now just CC ability click and make sure it says “invalid target” — that means u tried to hit the NPC.
It’s that simple!
How is this used and why am I doing this?
When the match starts, the leader will call out kill target “TARGET” and the CC target “FOCUS”
1. click the CC guy in Gladius and click your focus button. If he’s not visible yet, then you have to do this when he comes out of stealth.
2. Attack your target or heal your target… when you are asked to do so, click shift-CC or just your new CC key.
Stopcasting
It is really important to put /stopcasting in all your abilities. This means to take every ability you have and make another macro for it, just to add /stopcasting. This allows you to go from a long cast into another spell without having to 1) complete first cast or 2) move.
Toggleable abilities
As of patch 2.3.2, the cast command toggles abilities on and off.
/cast will toggle spells again unless the name is prefixed with an exclamation mark, e.g. /castsequence Steady Shot, !Auto Shot
Examples of such toggleable abilities are Stealth, Shoot or Mass Dispel (the green targeting circle). If you want to spam such a macro without toggling the ability immediately off, prefix its name with an exclamation mark.
/cast !Stealth
/cast !Mass Dispel
/cast !Shoot
In order to test this, just try using a macro for massdispel and the raw ability. Notice that the “!” in front of it no longer causes the big green targeting circle to go away. You can decide if you want to remove the toggle with “!” or not.