Mixed Team Macros, w/o Click or comma's!

[Vociferate]

So I can heal and tank, and sort of DPS. But it's not very clean at all... In fact, it's pretty damn sad...

Anyway. I was playing with Mercurio's macros, but they are being broken very soon. And before I get used to them, I am looking for a decent way of playing a mixed team.

I am working on a team with:
Pally
Resto Sham
Ele Sham
Warlock
Boomkin

And aside from spamming Shadowbolt, Wrath, and Lightning Bolt, how can I utilize more control?

[Coltimar]

Is this team at 80? I've been working on macros without commas and, for the most part, I've gotten my warlock figured out. There are some examples of shaman castsequence on here that work pretty well, too. As for Boomkin I dunno. I've decided to ditch mine in lieu of another mage. It seems that some of the buffs that a Boomkin brought to the table to offset the pain in the butt dps mechanic are disappearing.

Just play around with some castsequence macros until you get it doing what you need it to do.

[Mercurio]

I'm not going to mess with my macros until they make the change. Since they are changing the talent trees and other things, I'm sure that optimal rotations now aren't going to be optimal rotations when the new patch hits.

When it does, we'll all have some work to try to perfect things. Then again, I'm not really going to put much effort into optimizing castsequences at that point, either. Even rudimentary sequences will be more than good enough to quest to level 85. The level 85 castsequences will be the major thing to spend time optimizing. "Good enough" will work until then.

As for which DPS will be most effective in Cata with the /click nerf and 255 character limit, it is almost comical that the ones with the shortest ability names will probably be most effective. "Wrath" is much shorter and will allow a lot longer and more complex sequences than something like "Lightning Bolt". :p

[Ualaa]

Pretty much, we have a couple of options.

Align spells with similar effects, recast delay, or cast time... so you can push a few DPS keys, and get the desired effect. This gets you the most control, and is the least likely to ever need to be fixed again in the future. It also forces more micromanagement of your team and abilities.

Another option will be to build the best castsequence you can. Even if it is not as optimal as click, encounters are balanced so the majority of the player base will eventually beat them. That means, a slightly sub-optimal DPS sequence combined with a boxer being smarter then average PUG player, will likely be good enough for most/all encounters.

Most of the software options have the equivalent of Steps. As in, you push the key once and it sends a given output. Push the key again, and it can send a different output. This is how we build round-robin effects, on the software side. The same mechanic could easily get a castsequence well beyond the number of spells you'd be able to include in a warcraft macro, if you choose to go that route. Not sure it is a good idea to use software to circumvent something Blizzard is blocking, but even if we don't go that route, we have the tools to be rather creative in how we end up DPSing.

Also we can do a hybrid approach. For example, put the "proc" type effects on "2". And have a spammable castsequence on "1". Then the DPS spam might be: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, or whatever else we want it to be. Again it will depend on the classes in your group, their spec, and how important a given proc is to hit.

[Hakflem]

I'm having a lot of success with my mixed team and the DPS macros below (inspired by Maxion's setup, so thanks to him :)). Not sure they will work in cata/4.x, but I'm not really worried.. Will probably just take some tweaking and/or an extra button to mash.

Pala tank:
/startattack
/castsequence reset=combat hand of reckoning, judgement of wisdom, Hammer of the Righteous, Holy Shield, shield of righteousness

Warlock:
#show Incinerate
/click BT4Button13
/castsequence reset=combat/target Curse of the Elements,null
/castsequence reset=combat/target Immolate,Incinerate,Incinerate,Incinerate,Incinera te,Incinerate,Incinerate,
/castsequence reset=12 ,Conflagrate,Chaos Bolt

Elemental Shaman:
#show Lightning Bolt
/click BT4Button13
/click BT4Button14
/castsequence [@focustarget,harm][@target,harm][] Lightning Bolt,
/castsequence [@focustarget,harm][@target,harm][] reset=4/target ,Flame Shock,Lava Burst,Lava burst

Disc Priest:
#showtooltip power word: shield
/click BT4Button13
/castsequence [@tank,nochanneling][] reset=15 Power Word: Shield, Renew,
/castsequence [@tank,nochanneling][] reset=15 ,Renew
/cast [@tank,combat] Pain Suppression

Mage:
#show
/stopmacro [channeling]
/click BT4Button13
/castsequence [@focustarget,exists,harm][@target,exists,harm][] reset=6/combat Arcane Blast,Arcane Blast,Arcane Blast,Arcane Missiles
/castsequence [combat] ,Mirror Image

Boomkin (from my 5x druid team):
#show Wrath
/click BT4Button13
/castsequence [target=target,harm][] reset=10/target moonfire,insect swarm,null
/castsequence [target=target,harm][] reset=15/combat/target wrath,wrath,wrath,starfire,starfire,starfire,moonf ire,insect swarm


Got a whole bunch of other macros for different stuff, but these are the ones i mash the most.
The "/click BT4Button13" line just clicks another button/macro with trinkets etc. e.g. "/use [combat] 13"

[Vociferate]

Thanks for the small tips, when I get home today I'll have to play with a few of the macros, and fine tune them.
Right now I have been using more simple macro's that seem to get the job done. But are a bit, well sloppy.

They are along the lines of Cast Sequence Macros:

Warlock
reset=15/target/combat Haunt, Curse of Elements, Corruption, Shadowbolt, Shadowbolt, Shadowbolt

Shaman
reset=15/target/combat Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Flame Shock, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt

Boomkin
reset=10/target/combat Starfall,Insect Swarm, Moonfire, Wrath, Wrath, Wrath, Starfall, Wrath, Wrath, Wrath

I tank on my Pally, and then use Click Macros w/ Innerspace to heal.

Those are the basic macros I have in game, now. What could I do to tweak them?

[Vociferate]

Oh, and they are all level 60-62. =D

[Hakflem]

Thanks for the small tips, when I get home today I'll have to play with a few of the macros, and fine tune them.
Right now I have been using more simple macro's that seem to get the job done. But are a bit, well sloppy.

They are along the lines of Cast Sequence Macros:

Warlock
reset=15/target/combat Haunt, Curse of Elements, Corruption, Shadowbolt, Shadowbolt, Shadowbolt

Shaman
reset=15/target/combat Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Flame Shock, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt

Boomkin
reset=10/target/combat Starfall,Insect Swarm, Moonfire, Wrath, Wrath, Wrath, Starfall, Wrath, Wrath, Wrath

I tank on my Pally, and then use Click Macros w/ Innerspace to heal.

Those are the basic macros I have in game, now. What could I do to tweak them?

I presume you mean "Starfire" and not "Starfall", in your Boomkin macro. Since putting Starfall into a macro might not be a good idea :P

I wouldnt cast Curse of Elements every time in the warlock castsequence cycle since thats a little bit of waste of mana. Instead just put
/castsequence reset=target curse of elements, null on a seperate line. That way it will only cast that ONE time per target.

I would also put Chain Lightning on a separate button and only use it when theres a pack of mobs.

[Ualaa]

Anyone know if you can use:

/castsequence reset=target Curse of Elements,Null

On the current PTR or in Beta?
As in, the ,,,,,,,'s are probably gone, but can you still take advantage of Null type macros?

[zenga]

I think i read in another thread it was not possible from someone who tested it out.

[Ualaa]

In that case, we probably go with three or so DPS buttons.

One for effects which you only cast once, or maybe which are only worth casting on a boss. Maybe have an argument for [mod:alt] or [mod:ctrl] in there, so your Shammies can Flame Shock on this key, but your Warlock might or might not Curse of Elements on that press.

Then you have another key for the Castsequence - Looping Spam for each of your classes.

And another button for Proc type effects, which is then spammed every 'x' clicks instead of the default spam key.

Not sure if that is optimal, but it is the best solution I have so far, aside from using software to duplicate the effects of 'click and commas', which I'd prefer to avoid if Blizzard actually removes this feature from the game.

[Redbeard]

I know right now on my melee team my spam buttons have my priest doing nothing (i control his healing through vuhdo and repeater regions) but if i hold control then the priest joins in DPSing... something like that would work very well in theory, but imagine having 5 combinations of modifier keys to hold down to cast for different chars, yikes.

Ive been wondering if instead of mashing 444444444 or 555555 like im used to with my faceroll macros, if I could just setup 4 as dps key for char 1, 5 for char 2, 6 for char 3 etc and then instead of hitting 44444 im hitting 456456456456 , which would allow me to break out any of the chars for cooldown abilities or procs without affecting the others...

Not really sure yet. Waiting for 4.0 to start testing it.

[Ualaa]

Most of my teams aren't terribly mixed.

3x Shaman, 1x Warlock, 1x Paladin.
1x Boomkin, 1x Frost Mage, 1x Disc Priest, 2x Elem.Shaman

The rest are 5x the same... although I might move toons a bit. To get 1x Class A and 4x Class B; a DK on the Pally team (don't have a Pally team yet), and a Pally on the DK team.

Have:

5x Druids
5x Priests
4x Warlocks, 1x Priest
5x Hunters
5x Death Knights

These ones will be rather easy, as I will have the same key on the entire team. As in Moonfire on say 1, for every toon, and Insect Swarm on 2, etc.



You could go with a spammed castsequence, and use a specific modifier for a given toon to join in. Also going with 1 (some toons), 2 (other toons) and maybe 3 (still other toons) as their DPS keys. Then spam a combination of 1, 2 and 3. Or even could be progressive where 1 has Group A, 2 has Groups A and B, and 3 have all three groups spam their DPS.

With IS Boxer can have toggles (2 steps), which enable Mapped Keys for different groups. So I can spam "1" for all groups, never needing to touch 2 or 3. And then have a toggle modifier on another key. So when I press say Control 1, it then activates the mapped key where "1" goes to the Group B (it will still go to Group A), and Control 1 can then deactivate the Group B key. That way, it is still a single key spammed, but just control (via toggle) which groups receive the "1" spam and which do not.

Still a lot of options, not sure the best approach.

[Hakflem]

Anyone know if you can use:

/castsequence reset=target Curse of Elements,Null

On the current PTR or in Beta?
As in, the ,,,,,,,'s are probably gone, but can you still take advantage of Null type macros?

Just did some testing on PTR. Don't know if just got fixed or whatever, but this simple boomkin macro worked like a charm:

/castsequence reset=10/target moonfire,insect swarm,null
/castsequence wrath, starfire
/castsequence ,starsurge

[zenga]

mind trying out a simple /castsequence reset=x ,,,,,,spellname ?

[Vociferate]

I am playing with the modifier for specifc toons, but it's just a bit touchy. Would it be best to have a tanking macro for my pally as well? Because currently I have my pallies abilities on 1-8. And use the rotations in there, and then hope that the rest of my toons keep their DPS up while I am playing on the tank. But it is still really messy. And can anyone confirm Hakflem? I don't have the PTR.

[Hakflem]

mind trying out a simple /castsequence reset=x ,,,,,,spellname ?

/castsequence reset=5 ,,,,,wrath

This just casts wrath, ignoring the commas every time :(

[zenga]

so i guess they didn't fix it then :)