World of Warcraft
The first place you should start is with understanding macros.
Assisting
When it comes to WoW, there are several things you will want to set up. The first is an assist method.
Manual Assist - This is a button that you press before you start attacking, but after your main has a target to tell your slaves to pick up the target.
- On your slave make a macro that says simply /assist toon/party#/focus using either the name of your main toon, the party number of your master {if your main is always the party leader, this will be party1} or your focus target {see below}.
- Place that macro on a keybind. I use [
- Target a mob on your main and then press [ Your slave will now pick up the same target.
- Place Lightning Bolt on the same keybind that the master uses {1}.
Built-in Assist - Rather than assisting prior to combat or having to use a keybind to assist, you can macro it directly to your spells.
- On your slave, make a macro for Lightning Bolt, adding /assist toon/party#/focus to the top of the macro.
-
Code:
/assist Kina
/cast Lightning Bolt
- Place that macro on the same keybind your master uses {1}. Your slave will now target and cast in the same keybind.
Focus Assist - Rather than acquiring a target, your slave simply casts on what their focus casts on without actually targeting anything. This, like manual assist, requires initial setup, but does not require constant interaction with another button.
- On your slave, create a macro to set your focus. /focus toon/party#/target {if you use target, you'll need your slave to target someone first, which you can do manually or you can do /target toon /focus target which is rather roundabout}.
- Place that macro on a keybind. I use Home. As long as you don't do anything to clear your focus {logging out, setting a new focus, changing the main toon in the party, UI reload} you will only need to use this key once per gaming session.
- On your slave create a macro for Lightning Bolt adding a targeting conditional to the line
-
Code:
/cast [@focustarget] Lightning Bolt
- Place that macro on the same keybind your master uses {1}. Your slave will now cast on whatever your master has targeted without actually having a target of their own.
You will usually only use one method for assisting, however, it's a good idea to always have a manual assist to deal with things that don't include combat, such as using Quest NPCs, looting mobs and targeting for non-combat quests {such as quests where you need to target a mob and use an item on it}.
Follow
Next you will want a follow key. This can also be done a few ways. If you use a focus method, you can simply create a macro that says
If you don't use a focus method, you can simply use a name.
Finally, you can let Jamba deal with it
Code:
/jamba-follow master slave
or
/jamba-follow strobeonme slave
Also, you will need a means to terminate follow, because if you have casters, you probably don't want to have them all up in the mob's face when you're fighting. There is no macro command to terminate follow. To stop your slaves following, you will need to set up a key to break movement. This can be one of your arrow keys or you can choose an alternate method in your ingame keybindings. I personally set up an alternate keybind by setting End as a "formation key". To do this, I set End to be move left on one slave, move right on another, move forward on a third and move back on a fourth. Use what works best for you.
Castsequences
Castsequences are a means of stringing together a repeatable sequence of spells so that you don't have to have a ton different keybinds for every single spell or ability that you need to use to play. This way you can do several different things at once by using one key, irregardless of cast times and cooldowns.
Let's take an Elemental Shaman and a Paladin Tank. Your Shaman will want to cast Lightning Bolt and Flame Shock. Your Paladin will want to use Crusader Strike and Judgement. Lightning Bolt has a cast time, but nothing else does. Flame Shock has a cooldown and a duration that you don't want to overwrite. Crusader Strike has a different cooldown and Judgement has a totally different cooldown. There's no need for four different buttons and trying to remember what has what cooldown and trying to guess when to press what. We can simply build a castsequence for each.
So for your main, you make a standard sequence
Code:
/castsequence reset=combat Crusader Strike, Judgement, Crusader Strike
/startattack
This sequence says that your paladin should cast Crusader Strike, then Judgement, then Crusader Strike again. At that point it will start over.
And for your slave, you make another sequence, making sure to include a means of assisting if you use a built-in assist method
Code:
/castsequence [@party1target] reset=3 Flame Shock, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt
This sequence says your Shaman should cast {at party1's target, which should be your paladin's target} Flame Shock and 4 Lightning Bolts before starting over again with Flame Shock.
Now, a few things about Castsequences.
First, this is not you press the button once and it goes through the whole list, that's not how macros work in WoW. The first time you press it, it will do the first spell, second press, second spell and so on through the list.
It will not progress through the sequence until it is able to. You can press the button 5 times a second, that doesn't mean it'll skip things in the list. If you're spamming the key while you are in the process of casting the first Lightning Bolt, it won't move forward until the cast or applicable cooldown or global cooldown is up. This is vital because it means that if a spell in your sequence is on cooldown, it can't get to the other spells beyond it. For example, if you get through the paladin sequence back to Judgement and Judgement still has several seconds to go until it's off cooldown, then your paladin will sit there doing nothing but autoattack until Judgement is ready, no matter how many times you push the button. Therefore you will want to make sure you have enough other spells in there to make sure that doesn't happen.
Finally, you will want to make sure that you have an appropriate reset condition in there. Without a reset condition, your macro will only reset when it gets to the end and is forced to reset. This can cause problems if you enter combat later and your macro is still sitting somewhere in the middle. This can impact your DPS and cause premature lockups in the sequence.
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