Wiki Home

 

 

 

I'll try to have these split down into the various classes, however, some macros are useful, with a bit of adjustment, across classes - those ones will sit near the top of this page.

 

• How to Create a Macro
• General Macros
• Death Knight
• Druids
• Hunters
• Mages
• Paladins
• Priests
• Rogues
• Shaman
• Warlocks
• Warriors

 

 

 

---

 

 

Macro's are useful for all sorts of things. If there is something you find you are constantly typing in chat (anything from a simple "Gratz!" to a guild recruitment message) or you want to attach text to a spell (you've seen the locks shouting out something relevant whilst summoning their mount ...) or you want to get more complicated - macros are useful for a huge range of situations.

To create a macro, you can either click the "Macros" button from the Options menu, or you can click the small "speech bubble" to the left of your chat window.

The first thing you need to do, is decide if the macro should be available for all characters or just the one you are currently on. If in doubt, choose the "General macros" tab.

You then type in the name of the macro - try to make it fairly short, as this will usually show up on the button you place on your bars.

Once you have created a name you then need to select an icon/button for it. There is a huge selection of buttons for you to choose from, or you can use the very first button shown, which is a large "?". If the macro you are writing involves any of your spells, it will automatically change to that spells icon when you start using it.

Your next step is to actually create the macro.

In order to test the previous stages, you could create a simple text macro here.

In the box under "Enter Macro Commands", type /g hello, I'm just checking out a macro

If this is done correctly, the resultant button will type "hello, I'm just checking out a macro" in guild chat. Of course, the "/g" could be changed for any chat channel (/2 for trade, /1 for general, etc)

Once you have created your macro, you simply need to drag the newly created icon/button (next to the "Change Name/Icon" button) onto your normal bars. There is no "save" as such ... it saves as you create.

To activate the macro, you then just click the button as you would any other on your bars.

If you want a step by step explanation of what a macro does, there is a nifty website called http://www.macroexplain.com/ - simply paste the macro in the box and ask it to "explain" it.

 

top

---

 

 

 

General Macros

Not every game mod has to be written by a developer, some are simply enough that you can write them yourself, in the form of a simple macro. While you can write a macro to do just about anything, there are a few useful ones that you will want to create to save yourself valuable time. The first type of macro is the "mouseover macro", and it will be one of your most commonly used tools once prepared. It allows you to cast your spell on whoever's raid frame you're currently hovered over.

Here's an example: /cast [target=mouseover,exists,help] Cleanse; [help] Cleanse; [target=player] Cleanse

The first section is the 'mouseover' part, and it will Cleanse whichever target your mouse is currently over. Bind this macro to an easy-to-reach key, and you can Cleanse your raid in record time. The second portion simply Cleanses whoever your regular target is, but only if you don't have your mouse over someone. This means you can use it exactly like the regular form of Cleanse, saving you bar space and a hot key. Finally, the 3rd section will automatically Cleanse yourself if you have no friendly mouseover and no friendly target, which is great for when you're soloing.

You can apply the philosophy of this macro to nearly any ability, and some of my favorites are: Flash of Light, Beacon of Light, Sacred Shield, and the 4 Hands (Salvation, Protection, Freedom, Sacrifice).

 

"Use Trinket" Macros

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide();
/use 13
/use 14
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();
/script UIErrorsFrame:Show();
/cast Steady Shot

Basically create a new macro using the question mark as the icon, then the first line will automatically change the icon to whatever spell/attack you are going to use (in this case, Steady Shot).  The error frames lines hides any error messages saying the cooldown isn't up yet, and the /use lines use the trinkets - first the trinket in slot 13, then when that is still on cooldown, the next trinket.

Another option is:

What I wanted here was to be able to click my button and for ONE trinket to activate, and then be able to click again for the next one to activate, so rather than having both happen at the same time, they were spread out a bit (both these trinkets at the time had a 2 minute cooldown):

#showtooltip Barkskin
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide();
/castsequence Valor Medal of the First War, Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();
/script UIErrorsFrame:Show();
/cast Barkskin

Barkskin is a useful tanking spell which has a 1 minute cooldown.  The two trinkets I have, both have a 2 minute cooldown.  So therefore I can hit the button once to activate barkskin and the first trinket, then 1 minute later, barkskin has cooled down, and hitting the button again casts that again, together with using the second trinket.  By the time Barkskin is off cooldown again, the first trinket is again available for use.  The only/main problem with this macro is that when you change your trinkets, you need to amend the macro to fit.  And you have to make sure you type in the name of the trinkets perfectly.

 

Calling a Random Vanity Pet

Not tested yet!

/run c=GetNumCompanions("CRITTER");n=math.random(c);CallCompanion("CRITTER",n);

 

Out of Mana Macro

Especially useful for healers, where lives depend on mana, but obviously able to be used by anyone:

/y I need Mana!!!
/p {SKULL}{CROSS}{SKULL} I NEED MANA! {SKULL}{CROSS}{SKULL}
/rw MANA!!!!
/oom

Obviously you can amend it - the first line "yells" out that you need mana, the next line states it in party chat, complete with "kill order" marks, the next is to put up a raid warning (which of course will only happen if you are in a raid, and are able to make raid warnings!), and the final line creates the e-mote that gets your character to shout out loud.

 

top

 

---

 

 

 

 

Death Knights

Suggested by Panoramicks, this is a "one button does all" type of macro which could be adjusted for many uses:

/castsequence reset=11/target/combat Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Heart Strike, Heart Strike, Death Coil, Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Heart Strike, Heart Strike, Heart Strike, Heart Strike, Death Coil

 

top

 

 

---

 

 

 

Druids

#showtooltip Nature's Swiftness
/cast Nature's Swiftness
/stopcasting
/cast [modifier:alt, button:2, target=player] Healing Touch; [button:2, help] Healing Touch; [modifier:alt, target=player] Regrowth; [help] Regrowth;

This will cast Nature's swiftness and then cast Healing touch and regrowth at the sametime, making them both instant cast heals. Essentially giving you a massive instant heal.

 

 

top

 

 

---

 

Hunters

Macros to be added here

 

 

top

 

---

 

 

Mages

Macros to be added here

 

 

top

 

 

---

 

 

Paladins

Not every game mod has to be written by a developer, some are simply enough that you can write them yourself, in the form of a simple macro. While you can write a macro to do just about anything, there are a few useful ones that you will want to create to save yourself valuable time. The first type of macro is the "mouseover macro", and it will be one of your most commonly used tools once prepared. It allows you to cast your spell on whoever's raid frame you're currently hovered over.

Here's an example: /cast [target=mouseover,exists,help] Cleanse; [help] Cleanse; [target=player] Cleanse

The first section is the 'mouseover' part, and it will Cleanse whichever target your mouse is currently over. Bind this macro to an easy-to-reach key, and you can Cleanse your raid in record time. The second portion simply Cleanses whoever your regular target is, but only if you don't have your mouse over someone. This means you can use it exactly like the regular form of Cleanse, saving you bar space and a hot key. Finally, the 3rd section will automatically Cleanse yourself if you have no friendly mouseover and no friendly target, which is great for when you're soloing.

You can apply the philosophy of this macro to nearly any ability, and some of my favorites are: Flash of Light, Beacon of Light, Sacred Shield, and the 4 Hands (Salvation, Protection, Freedom, Sacrifice).

Another option is to create a key binding for your Focus Target (Options > Key Bindings > Focus Target). I have attached mine to SHIFT-A (simply because that combination didn't appear to be taken by anything else, and also because it was easy to "reach", although being left handed may have something to do with that too).

Basically whenever I get into a new group I focus on the Tank .. select the tank and then press SHIFT-A - this gives him his own little moveable character portrait (you can move it by right clicking and choosing to unlock it, then dragging it to where you want it).

This isn't quite as useful in a 5 man team, but in 10 or more it makes it easier to find the tank if you have to target him. But the primary reason for it, is to enable the macros below to work. It means that, as long as you have a focus target, then even if the tank is not your current target (ie, his character portrait isn't selected on your screen) the macros will still cause the spells to work on them. You do have to watch the focus though - if you enter vehicular combat, you need to renew it once you dismount (Occulus being a prime example).

/tar focus
/cast Beacon of Light
/cast Divine Favor

Another favourite is:

/assist focus
/cast Judgement of Light
/cast Avenging Wrath

This selects the target of the tank and then casts those spells.

Macros submitted by Reapz:

You can get by just fine without them, but these are helpful in many situations.

Cleanse on mouseover

Auto-attack / CS if possible

Start autoattack with DS

Hammer of Wrath on mouseover

Salv on mouseover (yes I like mouseover macros okay?)

You can modify the Salv macro to other things like HoP, HoSac, HoF ect.

 

Macros from the Wowinsider Blog:

etribution 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 Storm

If 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.

You can use Ctrl, Alt or Shift as modifier keys. I personally go with Ctrl (or Shift) because I have extremely large hands. To hit Alt, I would need to move my entire hand over and out of the way, and that's not going to help my combat performance at all. An example of a modifier macro where I include Shift would be:

/cast [nomodifier] Templar's Verdict; [modifier:ctrl] Inquisition; [modifier:shift] Word of Glory

Need 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 Protection

That 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 Protection

That 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; Rebuke

If 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; Cleanse

This 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.

 

 

 

top

 

 

---

 

 

Priests

top

 

 

---

 

 

Rogues

Macros to be added here

 

 

top

 

 

---

 

 

Shaman

Resto Macros

#showtooltip Earth Shield
/use 13
/cast [target=focus,help] [target=target,help] [target=player] Earth Shield

This Macro will cast my earth shield on my focus target if I have one set (that's the main use of this macro), on my target if no focus is set and target is friendly or on myself if I have no friendly target and no friendly focus (this is mostly for pvp). /cast Blood Fury helps super charging the Earth Shield if you're an orc (which you really should be). /use 13 activates the upper Trinket, this makes sense if your trinket has an on-use ability to boost spellpower, again, to super charge the Earth Shield. /use 14 would activate the trinket slot at the bottom right of your character frame. #showtooltip is just a cosmetic addition, it will show the tooltip of Earth shield on mouse over and the Earth shield icon if the question mark was selected as corresponding icon.

/use 13
/cast [target=mouseover] Earth Shield

That's the macro in my Clique configuration, it let's me cast earth shield on a fellow raider if I mouse over his grid frame.

/stopcasting
/cast Tidal Force
/use 13
/cast Nature's Swiftness
/cast [target=mouseover] Healing Wave

That's the famous oh-cr***-macro. /stopcasting will cancel the heal I'm actually casting so the macro fires off instantly. /cast Blood Fury and /use 13 help to boost the instant heal as well as /cast Tidal Force. The addition of [target=mouseover] is necessary so this macro will work if added to your Clique configuration. I have the exact same macro again with the last line changed to /cast [target=mouseover] Chain Heal. Every shaman should have Healing Wave and Chain heal ready to fire of instantly (insta-healing tank vs insta-healing ice blocked melees). The macro works like a charm, only important thing you should know: If you hit it while running you have to click it twice to fire off.

General Macros

#showtooltip Bloodlust
/stopmacro [nocombat]
/cast Bloodlust

This macro might have no use for anyone but me. But I once clicked on Bloodlust when I shouldn't and got the Sated debuff onto the whole raid before a pull. This macro will start Bloodlust only when in combat.

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast Wind Shock

Sometimes even a resto shaman can help interrupt a bad spell, even if it's not really fun without any hit rating. This macro will cancel your heal if you decide to Wind Shock and fire off instantly.

#showtooltip
/cast [target=mouseover] Hex

This macro is set on my mouse wheel click. If I mouse over an enemy I can quickly Hex him, very handy, especially for something like KT mind control.

Alternatively (suggested by Thadis):

/cast [target=mouseover, harm][target=focus, harm][target=target, harm] Hex

It prioritises the mouseover, then focus, then target.  As a dps spec my focus frame is generally free to use on cc targets and when things get messy finding them gets ... well, messy.
Just makes life easier, also nice for pvp.  The harm is incase your mouseover or focus is a friendly target and your trying to hex your current target, it'll throw up an error 'you cant hex that target' without it.

/targetenemy
/cast Purge

Thorim Arena is a good place for this macro. If you don't have to heal for a second, spam this macro and you will purge all sorts of heals/shields from those annoying dwarves. /targetenemy is basically the same thing as TAB-targeting.

#showtooltip
/cast [btn:2] Totemic Call
/castsequence reset=combat/60 Wrath of Air Totem, Healing Stream Totem, Stoneskin Totem, Searing Totem

This macro is automatically generated by the lovely Addon Totem Timers. It will cast a sequence of Totems with just one button. And even better: It will change the sequence if you change it on the fly with your Totem Timers Addon. It will jump back to the start of the sequence after 60 seconds or when you leave combat.

 

 

top

 

 

---

 

Warlocks

Crowd Control Macro

#Showtooltip Seduction
/clearfocus [modifier:alt]
/focus [target=focus.noexists]; [target=focus,dead]
/clearfocus [target=focus,help]
/petstay
/petfollow
/stopcasting
/cast [pet:succubus,target=focus,exists,harm] Seduction; Seduction

 

 

top

 

 

---

 

 

Warriors

Macros to be added here

 

 

 

top