What's in a Macro?

I can not say that I’m a macro king. I can’t even say that I’m really GOOD at macros. I can only say that I know how to make one if I give it enough thought. Now I’ve made probably four successful macros in the past and they’ve been either for my Paladins or my Shamans. I’ve never ventured into the realm of macros for a Druid.

At this point my focus has been Bosque as I’m sure you can tell by the quickness in which he’s gaining levels, he’s currently sitting at 46, cusping 47 tonight most likely.

However I find that there are some macros for both my Paladin and my Shaman that have been useful in the past. The thing with a macro is that it’s very situational specific, at least for totems. If you wanted you could easily run around with six macros on your key functions and STILL find yourself in a situation that isn’t covered by those. I can tell you that there are at least two macros you should consider making when running a Paladin or a Shaman. You should have a macro for grinding; it’s a must, as well as a macro for when you are in a group/instance.

You can name your macros anything you want but I always went with something that was simplistic but reminded me which button to push: Solo or Group. You can pick any icon you want to serve for this macro but I’m going to remind you to use an icon that you won’t find on your spell bar regularly. Nothing worse than confusing buttons because they look the same.

So I’m going to assume that you know how to get to the Marco building section of the game. For a Paladin, grinding is almost like washing a set of clothes; wash, rinse, repeat.

/castsequence reset=5

This is the beginning modifier that you will have in just about all of your macros. Cast Sequence tells the server in which order you want your spells to be done. Reset is just what it says. It’s a reset button. Trick of it is the number after it. Reset=5 signifies that after five seconds of non use it begins the set of spells again. So you kill a mob, take some time to get another one, the button will start the spells from the beginning again the next time you use it.

Remember that a macro is really just a ‘lazy’ button or ‘easy’ button, depending on who you ask. It’s not going to play the game for you; it’s only going to help you from having to search your entire spell bar for the specific spells you know you use regularly.

So here’s a simple Paladin Macro for you to try out.

Macro name: Solo
Macro Instructions: /castsequence reset=5 Seal of the Crusader, Judgment, Seal of Righteousness, Consecration




So what I’ve put together is the bread and butter button of any paladin that’s running around grinding. Seal of the Crusader will come on, judgment will cast it on the mob in question, seal of righteousness will give MORE holy damage and then consecration will make the very ground below you holy. So you’re giving holy damage with your melee strikes and just by standing there and making sure that you’re optimizing that with Crusader as it strengthens the holy damage done. After five seconds of fighting, or after you’ve done the entire spell sequence, the set of spells on this macro will be ready to be used again.

Here’s a thing you have to remember about a macro, you’re still dealing with GCD. I put five seconds in because GCD is generally three seconds long. I made sure to stay within spells that all have the same amount of cool down. After sixty you’re going to get some nice spells and even in the Protection tree there’s the Avenger’s Shield that’s very good, thing is that some of those spells are on longer cool down. Avenger’s Shield is a GREAT way to get mobs but it’s on a thirty second cool down. It wouldn’t make sense to have that be your opening spell on this macro because then you’re telling the macro to open with that spell each time, even though it’s on CD for 30 seconds. So you want to try and keep your spells the same.

For Shamans the use of a macro is important because we are so dependent on Totems. Having a macro for totem drops is almost a must. Anyone who doesn’t have an add-on can attest that totems will take up most of your bar space. With a macro it can take some of those totems out of the equation straight away.

Here’s an example:

/castsequence rest=5 Stoneskin Totem, Mana Totem, Magma Totem

This is one that I used a lot when I was a lowbie. It puts out three of your main stay totems without having to search for them on your cast bar. Some of you may notice the lack of Windfury but honestly, I had it on my weapon all the time. This is a case where I had two macros built. One of them was for soloing and one of them for when I was in a group and Windfury was a request all the time. So that one would look like this:

/castsequence reset=5 Stoneskin Totem, Windfury Totem, Mana Totem

I tried not to use fire totems when I was in group. It brought on too much agro overall and would cause a wipe if not watched carefully. This isn’t an exhaustive resource; it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Still, with these starter pieces in your hands, you should have some idea of what you want to do and how you want to do it. I’ll be playing with a Balance Druid Macro soon and I’ll post it for you guys.