The use of /assist macros

[Kryses_TNR]

Hello Multi-boxers! :D

I've finally broken into the wide world of multi-boxing and I've been 3 boxing a few balance druids, it's been loads of fun, and I'm beginning to understand the concepts of macros and assists and all of that, but I have a quick question. I've perused the guides and stickies, etc. etc. They've all been fantastically helpful in helping me get my feet on the ground, but I have a minor question which I'm having difficulty figuring out.

Like I said, I'm running 3 balance druids. It's useful for me to be able to have the two "offboxes" as I like to call them be able to rejuv me when I push rejuv.(Calling Donrafael and Donalejandro slaves just doesn't feel right. :( ) But anyway. I have Rejuvenation hotkeyed to "/assist focus (then on the next line) /cast rejuvenation". The problem, however, is that sometimes they just cast it on themselves. Am I doing something wrong? I use /assist for everything. Wrath, Moonfire, Starfire, roots, rejuv, regrowth, and the damaging spells are working perfectly. Wrath and Moonfire get casted just fine. I just have a problem with healing spells.

I know being new doesn't absolve me of the responsibility of looking up new data for myself, but like I said, I've put in the effort so far (now level 20 :D ) I just can't seem to figure out why they cast spells on themselves.

Looking for answers,

The Dons of Azjol

[Saithe]

It could be that they are still targeting an enemy, and then casting on themselves. I assume you're using the Focus, clicking on who needs healing, and then pressing the heal button? Depending on how long you take to press the Heal button after you select a new target, it may not have updated for your slaves yet. So your slaves think your focus is still attacking something, and since you can't heal enemies, they heal themselves.
Or at least that's my theory on your problem. To fix it, just wait an extra second or so after you select who you want to heal before pressing the Heal button/macro.

[Hachoo]

I would honestly avoid using /assist as much as possible and use [target=] instead

ie on clones:

/cast [target=focustarget,help] Rejuvenation; [target=focus,help] Rejuvenation; [target=target,help] Rejuvenation; [target=player] Rejuvenation

I haven't tried it but I think that can even be shortened to:

/cast [target=focustarget,help][target=focus,help][target=target,help][target=player] Rejuvenation

This will first cast on your focus' target if its friendly, then on your focus if its friendly, then on your own target if its friendly, and finally on yourself.

If you do:
/assist focus
/cast Rejuventation

it will cast rejuvenation on your focuses target, which is probably a mob most of the time - if its a mob that might explain why its casting it on yourself instead.

The best thing about not using /assist is it doesn't keep a sticky target on your clones, if someone is looking at them it will look like they have no target (which is especially good in pvp).

[Kryses_TNR]

I think I understand.

I was under the assumption that when I hit /target focus /follow, my "offboxes" would follow Donluciano and keep him targeted and somehow target the mob without untargeting Luciano. When I hit /assist focus, they target the mob, and if I hit /assist focus /rejuvenation at that time, since a mob is targeted and I have auto self cast, they cast it on themselves.

I have to target myself for /assist to work. I get it now.

And about the [target=] macros. That looked greek to me. I don't understand a word of it. In my opinion, it's like eating apple pie to eating pumpkin pie. They both taste good, and they both have their differences and similarities. In this analogy we'll call apple pie the /assist way of macros, and pumpkin pie the [target=]. I happen to like apple more. :P

Thanks for the help.

[Solon]

All that "greek" is the key to making multiboxing easier and more flexible. I like to say that you will "grow into it". Essentially it's a logic path, it says: is my focus's target someone I want to cast heal on? No, then is my focus someone I want to heal? No, then is my target someone I want to heal? No, then I want to heal myself. If at anytime it doesn't get the No answer it casts heal (renew, rejuv, whatever) on that identifier. It's less like pumpkin pie than warm apple pie with a little ice cream and some caramel syrup. 8)

[Hachoo]

[target=] is just a way to force a target whether you already have a target or not.

ie: if you use [target=focustarget] then that cast will cast on your focustarget no matter what, even if you already have a different target. the ,help just means only cast on that target if they are friendly, ,harm would mean if they are enemies.

[Kryses_TNR]

All that "greek" is the key to making multiboxing easier and more flexible. I like to say that you will "grow into it". Essentially it's a logic path, it says: is my focus's target someone I want to cast heal on? No, then is my focus someone I want to heal? No, then is my target someone I want to heal? No, then I want to heal myself. If at anytime it doesn't get the No answer it casts heal (renew, rejuv, whatever) on that identifier. It's less like pumpkin pie than warm apple pie with a little ice cream and some caramel syrup. 8)

Are you serious? What he put equals out to that in one button push?

If thats true, I may have to try it. But, what if I want my "offboxes" to heal themselves instead of me? Would it magically jump to themselves because I want them to?

Say for instance I'm being arcane explosioned. All my offboxes are taking damage. I want everyone to cast rejuv on themselves. How would that macro work?

You have my attention now, lol.

[Solon]

Hachoo's=

/cast [target=focustarget,help][target=focus,help][target=target,help][target=player] Rejuvenation
if that is indeed the correct syntax, and you are using focus on your leader, then it will try your focus's target first, if friendly it will heal, if not it will cast on your leader. It can be reworked other ways, but for my groups I usually have a seperate "everyone heal themself" button IIRC:

/cast [target=player] rejuvenation

this gives me a stress relief button when my right hand forgets what my left is doing, much less both feet and my.... something else? :huh: Spend some time with all the macro stuff you can find, it opens a whole new world (of warcraft).

[Hachoo]

Right, or you could just do:

#showtooltip
/cast [target=player,mod:alt] Rejuvenation
/stopmacro [mod:alt]
/cast [target=focustarget,help][target=focus,help][target=target,help][target=player] Rejuvenation

That would basically make them cast rejuv on themselves if you hold alt and push the key, otherwise it would do the other logic path as earlier described.

[Solon]

Brilliant! You have now saved me one more macro space. Thanks, now if only I could give you a cookie.

[Kryses_TNR]

So if I replace all instances of the word Rejuvenation with Regrowth, according to my understanding, the same effect would happen. Right?

[Kryses_TNR]

/cast [target=focustarget,harm] Wrath

Would that work instead of

"/assist focus

/cast wrath"?

[Hachoo]

Yes to both, assuming your focus is your main.

Also at least for damage spells you should add [] at the end if you want your character to work while soloing or if you want to switch mains between your clones. Ie:

/cast [target=focustarget,harm][] Wrath

The [] at the end makes it so it will still cast on your regular target if you don't have a focus or a focustarget. :)

[Kryses_TNR]

Ok, another question, and I guess i'll use my same thread.

Is there a way to have roots on the same button as all the clones, and yet not have them overwrite their own roots?

I saw a guy put a macro for sheeps involving ,,polymorph, or something to where it would check to see if their poly was still up. if so, they wouldn't recast it.

Is that possible with roots?

[Hachoo]

I'm pretty sure the polymorph macro did not check to see if the sheep was still up as this is not possible using the WoW macro system.

So no, you'd have to just recast it periodically if need be. Or if you see it break recast.

[AtroxCasus]

With regard to your root question, the polymorph macro you are talking about sets up the macro so that with one key, all the mages in the group could potentially cast polymorph. The concept being target mob 1, keypress poly macro, Mage 1 sheeps; target mob2, keypress poly macro, Mage 2 sheeps; etc...

You could use that macro (which I think is in the wiki) to root as well, substituting spell names. Only drawback to the method is that if you don't change targets with your main or focus, then each mage will successively sheep the same target.

I have 2 mages in my 4box group, and they use this system to take turns casting Frost Nova. The commas just set it up so that each knows when it's their turn. (Same macro, commas in different places). Hope that helps you. I'm kinda new myself and terminology is kiling me.

[Jheusse]

I like the macro setup with the cascading failovers and the alt mod, but I'd like to stick a mouseover component in there too, probably first on the list before focustarget.


#showtooltip
/cast [target=player,mod:alt] Healing Wave
/stopmacro [mod:alt]
/cast [target=mouseover,help][target=focustarget,help][target=focus,help][target=target,help][target=player] Healing Wave

Is that the correct syntax?

I'm looking at doing it with healing wave, I'm guessing I couldn't add a second modifier to do lesser healing wave, or set it for lesser and have the second modifier upgrade to normal healing wave, it would go over 255 characters I suppose.

[Hachoo]

That would be the correct syntax, yes (no space after the mouseover before the comma though). To shorten it up a bit you could change the part that says [target=target,help] to just [help] since target already = target by default. You could also remove the [target=player] at the end right before "Healing Wave" since you're already going to use alt to cast it on yourself anyway.

If you make those 2 changes so it looks like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [target=player,mod:alt] Healing Wave
/stopmacro [mod:alt]
/cast [target=mouseover,help][target=focustarget,help][target=focus,help][help] Healing Wave

You may have enough room left for another spell (if you use another mod like ctrl make sure to put it before the big healing wave line).

[Jheusse]

I just realized that mouseover might not work quite right, as the mouse location in the main window will work but the other toons won't be working from the same mouse loc, they'll be interpreting the location of the "local mouse" I assume. or am I all wet?

[species6729]

#showtooltip
/cast [target=player,mod:alt] Healing Wave
/stopmacro [mod:alt]
/cast [target=mouseover,help][target=focustarget,help][target=focus,help][help] Healing Wave

will this not work the same as the above marco

#showtooltip
/cast [target=player,mod:alt] Healing Wave
/cast [target=mouseover,help][target=focustarget,help][target=focus,help][help] Healing Wave