Basic macro that will work when master is dead?

[wowunderachiever]

I am having a hard time answering this myself from the sticky info.

I dual-box (play two characters only)

I use a macro like this on the slave:

/cast [@focustarget] [] Damage spell

--or--

/castsequence [@focustarget] [] reset=target Ability, Ability, Ability

That all works great while both chars are alive but if I have to switch to the slave nothing works

What would be a better setup?

[Peli]

I think you need to have modifiers with the @focustarget callout.

I use "[@party1, exists, harm] []" for all my macros. That way if party1 isn't targeting anything or is targeting a friendly, the spell will default to your target.

[MiRai]

If you only play 2 characters and the first one dies... What is stopping you from switching screens to the second character and playing it manually?

[Peli]

If you only play 2 characters and the first one dies... What is stopping you from switching screens to the second character and playing it manually?

I'd assume that that's what he's doing. The issue is that if he runs with focus-targeting macros, if he doesn't have conditionals within his targeting portion of the macros, it will fail to cast properly.

[MiRai]

I'd assume that that's what he's doing. The issue is that if he runs with focus-targeting macros, if he doesn't have conditionals within his targeting portion of the macros, it will fail to cast properly.
Ah, perhaps. Was assuming that the assist macro was separate and not hardcoded into everything on the action bar. Haven't boxed with macros like that for quite some time so, I don't remember. ;)

[Peli]

Ah, perhaps. Was assuming that the assist macro was separate and not hardcoded into everything on the action bar. Haven't boxed with macros like that for quite some time so, I don't remember. ;)
It's not long ago that I did that as well, so I remember having to solve this issue :)

[wowunderachiever]

If you only play 2 characters and the first one dies... What is stopping you from switching screens to the second character and playing it manually?

I do switch to the other character but all his abilities have the macro I mentioned above which means when I hit the key for that ability he does nothing.

Are you saying the way you do it is you hit one button that gets all slaves targetting the master's target and then use regular ability keybinds or macros that a single-character player would use?

[Peli]

I do switch to the other character but all his abilities have the macro I mentioned above which means when I hit the key for that ability he does nothing.

Are you saying the way you do it is you hit one button that gets all slaves targetting the master's target and then use regular ability keybinds or macros that a single-character player would use?

If you run a FTL system (like what works out of the box with ISBoxer), you don't need to include the targeting portions of the macros.

[MiRai]

Are you saying the way you do it is you hit one button that gets all slaves targetting the master's target and then use regular ability keybinds or macros that a single-character player would use?
The way I do it is use ISBoxer which let's me target the lead character regardless of who I switch to.

The way you can do it is make a separate assist macro and then press that button when you want to assist to keep your other macros free of having a hardcoded assist (so they work just fine when you play that character manually).

[wowunderachiever]

The way I do it is use ISBoxer which let's me target the lead character regardless of who I switch to.

The way you can do it is make a separate assist macro and then press that button when you want to assist to keep your other macros free of having a hardcoded assist (so they work just fine when you play that character manually).

Unfortunately great programs like ISBoxer is not an option for me because I use Macintosh - an no, I'm not going to buy Windows to run on my Mac with Bootcamp.

Other than being able to play each character manually is the setup you recommend the best overall for my situation? (in your opinion?)

[wowunderachiever]

If you run a FTL system (like what works out of the box with ISBoxer), you don't need to include the targeting portions of the macros.

I want to learn more about using FTL - is that best set up with Jamba being ISBoxer is not currently an option for me?

[Peli]

I want to learn more about using FTL - is that best set up with Jamba being ISBoxer is not currently an option for me?

What key broadcasting program do you use?

[wowunderachiever]

What key broadcasting program do you use?

MultiLaunchBox

[F9thRet]

If I may suggest, and this is how I do most of mine anyways, even with ISboxer, Keyclone etc. I have this macro on my 1 key

/follow focus
/assist focus
/stop casting

Then I use the typical /castsequence [target=focustarget] on my spam macros.

Now for when I five box, on my left hand buttons, I have like

F1 /focus ToonA
f2 would be /focus ToonB

etc. etc.

This way, say ToonA dies, I hit the Appropriate function key, and keep plowing through.

Now granted, a lot of this is very redundant, given the built in functions of many of the programs, Isboxer specifically, But it's how I started doing things way back when with hotkey.net, and well, It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Not sure if something like this will help you or not, But If so great, If not, so be it, everyone has their own comfort zone, and that is cool also.

Stephen

[johny_mnemonic]

I am using this simple macro with all my toons:

/target focustarget
/castsequence reset=combat/target name of spell,name of spell,....

this way, when my leading char dies or I want to play toons solo, it works just fine

[howster]

You could put in all your abilities directly from your spellbook. And have a designated assist key to assist your main...
This way when you target your target with your main guy, you hit that one "/assis focus" key your slave will have the same target as he's focus target.. Now you can just spam the abilities like you normally would as a solo player, and use your abilities if your main char dies.
The only backdraw with this is that you have to hit this key everytime you want to change your target.

[Ualaa]

If you use a Focus based assist system.
A basic part of that is having master switch keys.

Everyone has one key per the number of toons on the team.
In this case there are two characters, so everyone has two leader switch macros.

Both of them focus the first toon, on keybind A.
And both of them focus the second toon, on keybind B.

Both of them have:
/cast [@focustarget] Whatever
/castsequence [@focusttarget] Whatever, Whatever, Whatever

Both of them have:
/follow [target=focus]

Etc...

No matter which toon leads... that toon is everyone's focus.
Set their warcraft focus macro keybind, to whatever key your software uses to switch between their windows.
So the focus auto changes, when you switch screens.

[wowunderachiever]

I appreciate all the responses. Stephen I like your idea and will give that a try and if that doesn't work out I'm going to switch to howster's method.

[traedoril]

Dude, stay on the master and target mobs. You can still target mobs while dead. Personally I would use assist @charname this would allow you to cast when you target something. But for your setup just target mobs on the main too

[wowunderachiever]

Dude, stay on the master and target mobs. You can still target mobs while dead. Personally I would use assist @charname this would allow you to cast when you target something. But for your setup just target mobs on the main too

I blacklist my movement keys, therefor while I may be able to target from a dead character I can't move the surviving one.

[traedoril]

I blacklist my movement keys, therefor while I may be able to target from a dead character I can't move the surviving one.

I am not familiar with the multiboxing software you use but does it have the option to say press Shift + e and only send strafe to the other windows. In ISboxer I have a strafe key setup like this that I send to my slaves when I need them to move together.

[wowunderachiever]

Seems much simpler and effective to just click the other window and control the character normally when I want to. The macro ideas others gave has solved my problem.