Help with some basic macros

[Chuyna]

Okay, I'm going to sound like an idiot here, I'm sure, and I apologize in advance. I have a mental block or something where coding things is concerned. It's weird. If I am looking for something specific, a macro that does X and someone shows me that macro that does X and explains how it works, I get it and can usually emulate it in other contexts. But if I look at a generalized beginner's guide that doesn't have a specific context, I don't get it at all.

I know. I hate asking for stuff like this because it looks like I want someone to just hand me the answers and not try to solve it myself, but seriously, I spend hours and hours looking through guides and I never can seem to make it work until I see what I'm looking for done specifically. Please believe me, I'm not trying to be lazy here.

What I have is ISBoxer and Jamba. I've been using them for about four days, enough to get a feel for it on a very basic level.

What I'm doing is a team 2 characters, and generally one of the toons also has some heals. (Specifically, I have a BM Hunter/Elemental Shaman team and a Windwalker Monk/Balance Druid team.)

Once I get the second team into level range of the first, I'm hoping to run all four of them together.

Like I said, I've been getting a feel for some very basic uses of ISBoxer. For instance, I set up the Alt-G "Interact with Target" with the Click-to-Move function turned on in ISBoxer (as described in one of the starter guides), which works great when coupled with Jamba's quest accepting features.

But it has its limitations. Frex: when I use it for combat, for instance, my melee toon will run up to the mob, but if the mob moves, my melee toon will just stand there out of range and not attack, unless I spam the Interact-with-Target shortcut again. If anyone has a suggestion for getting past this, I would appreciate it. (It would be lovely if I could get the melee toons to behave like the hunter's pet and actually stick with the mob until it's dead.)

(I know I could get around it by making the melee toon my main and driving that toon, keeping the ranged toons as slaves, but the only problem with that is that it brings my ranged toons too close in on combat. Interact-with-Target pretty much has everyone except my hunter trying to melee auto-attack)

What I'm looking for is having macros on each toon's hotbutton bar where I can press a number, and every toon will do a similar function.

So, frex, if I press 1, all the toons will trigger a cast-sequence macro for basic spells/attacks (preferably laying DoTs first) but the melee toons will get in range of the mob while the ranged toons will hang back.

If I press 2 (say I somehow pull a group) all the toons will use AOE spells (not the kind that require setting a target on the ground, of course, unless there is a way to automate setting that target around the mob(s) being attacked or around the melee toons.)

If I press 3, the toons with heals will cast a general group-heal to top everyone off (since most of the time in PvE leveling, I won't have anyone getting low enough in health to need intense healing.)

Then there are the non-attack macros. Instead of using Alt-G for "Interact with Target" with the quest NPC, I'd love to be able to put that function on the Hotkey bar. I'd also love a macro that would have all the toons grab their quest loot from a corpse instead of me having to switch toons and have each one loot individually. And another for mousing over a corpse/herb/mineral node and skinning/herbing/mining.

I know most or all of this functionality is possible, I'm just not having much luck making it happen because while I can monkey-see-monkey-do some simple coding, I can't do it unless I first see it done in the specific context I have in mind.

Would someone be willing to help me set up these functions?

[Khatovar]

my melee toon will run up to the mob, but if the mob moves, my melee toon will just stand there out of range and not attack, unless I spam the Interact-with-Target shortcut again. If anyone has a suggestion for getting past this, I would appreciate it. (It would be lovely if I could get the melee toons to behave like the hunter's pet and actually stick with the mob until it's dead.)

There is no getting around it, IWT is not like autorun. You must reissue the command every time you need to move to a target. You can add it as one of your steps, but that's a whole other can of worms.


(I know I could get around it by making the melee toon my main and driving that toon, keeping the ranged toons as slaves, but the only problem with that is that it brings my ranged toons too close in on combat. Interact-with-Target pretty much has everyone except my hunter trying to melee auto-attack)

You need to break follow (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/51270-Follow-Macro?p=390563&viewfull=1#post390563) before running the melee up to the mob and your ranged will stay ranged.


if I press 1, all the toons will trigger a cast-sequence macro for basic spells/attacks (preferably laying DoTs first) but the melee toons will get in range of the mob while the ranged toons will hang back.

If you press 1, 1 thing should happen, not a sequence of things. You can use steps in which the first time you press 1, the first spell goes off, the second time another spell, the third press does IWT, etc., but it will require your physical input for each action.


all the toons will use AOE spells (not the kind that require setting a target on the ground, of course, unless there is a way to automate setting that target around the mob(s) being attacked or around the melee toons.)

You can not do anything that requires automation. ISBoxer has mouse passing that you can manage manually. Many people use it. For spells that don't require a ground placement, use them just like regular spells.


the toons with heals will cast a general group-heal to top everyone off (since most of the time in PvE leveling, I won't have anyone getting low enough in health to need intense healing.)

You don't even need a macro for this, just put the spell in slot 3 on your healer toon. It should "self cast" and heal the group without even needing a party member targeted.


Instead of using Alt-G for "Interact with Target" with the quest NPC, I'd love to be able to put that function on the Hotkey bar.

IWT is a function that can't be called with a macro. IWT is also not a command that you can send to any toon but yourself, putting it on a bar on your main will not make your slaves IWT when you press it. If you don't like the IWT keybind, change it to another key combination. While I don't use ISBoxer, I imagine the "Interact with Target" key is also tied to assisting and possibly toggles click to move, so you will need to find that keymap to make the changes.


I'd also love a macro that would have all the toons grab their quest loot from a corpse instead of me having to switch toons and have each one loot individually.

This is what IWT is for. It can be used for -

interacting with an NPC to get a quest/take a taxi/vend/repair/etc
interact with a mob to attack
interact with a corpse to loot
interact with an empty corpse to perform tradeskills on it if applicable {skinning/herb/mine/eng}

Just like with NPCs, select the mob on your main, have your slaves assist and then interact. You may need to spam it on quest pickups because of the "That object is busy" error, but it works well.


And another for mousing over a corpse/herb/mineral node and skinning/herbing/mining.

There are no macros for doing this, you need to use mouse passing and very few people use it for gathering because it requires specific placement and a lot of setup. I do use it for gathering (http://genus-industri.us/wp/2011/11/09/hkn-script-v2-part-5/) and even fishing (http://www.dual-boxing.com/entries/122-Khat-Fishing), but mine is configured with HotKeyNet. Someone else may have adapted it for ISBoxer.

Much of this stuff is covered in the Newbie's Guide {One (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/36955-Newb-s-Guide-to-Multiboxing-Start-here-if-you-are-brand-new-to-Multiboxing) | Two (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/46393-Khat-s-Newbie-Guide-for-Multiboxing-Vol-2)} or links within the Newbie's guides. MiRai just posted an entire video series (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/51238-MMO-Multiboxing-Gameplay-Series) on setting up ISBoxer and has tons of other videos covering just about everything there is to cover.

[Chuyna]

Hi Khat. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply!


There is no getting around it, IWT is not like autorun. You must reissue the command every time you need to move to a target. You can add it as one of your steps, but that's a whole other can of worms.

Okay, how would I do this? What would a macro doing this look like?

The problem I've been encountering (keeping in mind I've been looking at tutorials such as the ones you linked for hours and hours every day for the last week) is that I just apparently lack the ability to take the general concepts the tutorials discuss and apply them to the specific things I want to do. Like, MiRai's videos are amazing, but for instance when he's talking about setting up a mapped key, it'll say things like, "choose the option you want from [the dropdown]." (or whatever.)

But I don't know which option I want to do what I specifically want to do, so I'm sitting here nodding thinking, "yep, yep, I get the concept, but..." This is not because the tutorials are unclear, or anything; I just apparently lack the ability to make that leap without seeing it done the exact way I want to do it first.


You need to break follow (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/51270-Follow-Macro?p=390563&viewfull=1#post390563) before running the melee up to the mob and your ranged will stay ranged.

"make everyone strafe or step forward/backward to break the follow command."

Okay, what specifically would this look like, in the context of a macro intended to assist the master toon and start attacking with a cast sequence of very basic attacks? (My toons are still low-level and most of the castsequence macros I've seen are for maximizing DPS at high levels.)


If you press 1, 1 thing should happen, not a sequence of things. You can use steps in which the first time you press 1, the first spell goes off, the second time another spell, the third press does IWT, etc., but it will require your physical input for each action.

Sorry, I didn't express myself well. I am aware that I would need to keep pressing the button to keep the sequence going and that you can't just press and have everything automated, naturally.


IWT is a function that can't be called with a macro. IWT is also not a command that you can send to any toon but yourself, putting it on a bar on your main will not make your slaves IWT when you press it. If you don't like the IWT keybind, change it to another key combination. While I don't use ISBoxer, I imagine the "Interact with Target" key is also tied to assisting and possibly toggles click to move, so you will need to find that keymap to make the changes.

Okay, this is one of my problems. It appears that I can either write these macros in WoW and just set a key in ISBoxer to trigger them, or I can write them in ISBoxer? (I may need someone who uses ISBoxer to weigh in here if you don't know.)

Again, I'm sorry. I know I sound completely clueless. It's not a concept I can get my head around easily. I've been reading everything I can find, and eventually my eyes glaze over and I'm still not any closer to having what I'm looking for.


Much of this stuff is covered in the Newbie's Guide {One (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/36955-Newb-s-Guide-to-Multiboxing-Start-here-if-you-are-brand-new-to-Multiboxing) | Two (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/46393-Khat-s-Newbie-Guide-for-Multiboxing-Vol-2)} or links within the Newbie's guides. MiRai just posted an entire video series (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/51238-MMO-Multiboxing-Gameplay-Series) on setting up ISBoxer and has tons of other videos covering just about everything there is to cover.

I have been watching these videos and reading these guides. I think maybe it's an issue of trying to assimilate too many new concepts at once?

Maybe if I break down step by step where all the confusion is creeping in, maybe clarity will follow? I'll try that here.

Issues I keep bumping up against, in no particular order of importance.

1) When making follow and assist macros, how does "jamba-follow" differ from any other sort of follow? How does Jamba's functionality on this differ from ISBoxer's basic Alt-F and Alt-A commands (I can't seem to get Alt-A to work for assisting, regardless.)

In your newbie guide, you demonstrate three versions of follow macros: following a player by name, following a focus, or using Jamba's follow. How do I choose between these? What is the method that is going to enable my toons to follow the master toon with the least hassle? What does strobing do and when do I want it on or off?

2) I keep reading about follow and assist FTL but then all the macros I see have myriad other assist options. What is the best option here, and how do I use it? When I see something like, "/follow {FTL} is that the actual command I want in my macro, or is {FTL} a placeholder for something more specific (character name, slot, whatever) that I need to customize?

3) When writing macros, is this something I want to do in game, in Jamba, or in ISBoxer? All three have the ability to create macros, and I doubt I want a hodge-podge of macros scattered all over the three options. Which should I be focusing on, and why?

4) Let's say I have the following setup:

My WW Monk is my master. My BM hunter, Balance druid, and Elemental shammy are slaves. Since I'm mostly just leveling and with four toons doing damage on PvE mobs, I shouldn't need a tank, really, but let's say my hunter pet is tanking, since it has a taunt, and the monk is going melee DPS.

Now let's say I want a general fight to look something like this (could probably use some tweaking, this is mostly for example):

a) My hunter, druid and shammy stop following.
b) My monk selects and runs up to the mob and I press 1 the first time. This results in:
--monk casts Jab
--hunter pet rushes in and attacks
--All three toons lay DoTs (Hunter = Serpent Sting, Druid = Moonfire/Starfire, Shammy = Flame Shock) [possibly not necessary step on trash mobs, but maybe a good habit to have in case I encounter something tougher)
c) I press 1 again. This results in:
--All toons that have them available cast instant damage spells. (Monk = Tiger Palm, Hunter = Arcane Shot, Pet=Kill Command) and the toons that don't have instant cast damage spells begin casting spells with cast times (Druid = Starsurge, Shammy = Lava Burst [Lightning Bolt if not level 34]
d) If the mob isn't already dead (with four toons all equipped with heirlooms, the mobs should pretty much fall down dead the moment they see us coming), I'm probably doing something wrong, but let's say we go onto a third round of attacks. I press 1 again and:
--monk uses Blackout Kick, if she has enough Chi, or Jab if not
--hunter casts Steady Shot
--druid casts Wrath (if Solar) or Sarfire (if Lunar)
--shammy casts Lightning Bolt

Now, I have a macro for something like this with my hunter, but I don't understand it well enough to dissect it and apply it to the other toons. Let's analyze it:


/castsequence reset=target Serpent Sting,null
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,Concussive Shot
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,kill command
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,arcane shot
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,steady shot
/startattack
/targetenemy [noharm] [dead]

First line: Okay, I set what is happening here. This only casts the first time I press the hotkey, and then until the mob dies, it moves on to the rest of the macro. So I would create a similar line for Moonfire, Sunfire, and Flame Shock, on my druid and shammy, yes?

But I probably want my first line to actually break follow and send the hunter pet into attack, so this would move down to the second line, and everything else would be bumped down a line? And then, of course, there's selecting the proper way to assist my master toon (/assist playername? @party1target? How should I code this?)

And what about other things like "/stopmacro [channeling]" and
/stopmacro [@target,noexists] [noharm] [dead] [channeling]
/script UIErrorsFrame:UnregisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0

what is all this stuff? Some macro examples I'm looking at have it, others don't. What does it do? Do I need it?

Second line: Not sure I really need a stun/slow/snare, so I could probably remove this, but for the sake of my education, what does the "reset = 0.3 0,0,0," portion do? How do castsequence macros using this reset differ from cast sequence macros using reset=combat or reset = ##, something that looks like this:


/castsequence reset=combat steady shot, steady shot, steady shot, steady shot, steady shot, arcane shot

Third and Fourth Line: Arcane shot. Great, I can emulate this line for all my instant casts and the spells that require some channeling time. But, again, I'm assuming with each spell that has a different cast time (2.7 secs for Starfire vs. 2 secs for Wrath, for example) I would need to alter the reset portion somehow?

Last Lines: Whoops, totally lost me. Why is that stuff at the end of that macro and at the beginning of other macros I see?

Assuming I get this down, then I would want to create another Macro that I would switch to in the event that I draw a crowd and need AOEs. I just installed SmartBuff but I haven't played with it, so I don't know if/how I would work in buffing functionality, or trinkets, or any of that.

Sorry, I know this is insanely long, but maybe this makes it a little clearer just where I'm running into confusion and will help you point me in the right direction to do what I need to do?

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

[Khatovar]

IWT In ISBoxer -
http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/45676-ISBoxer-Interact-With-Target-101
http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/44204-Help-with-ISBoxer-IWT-etc



it'll say things like, "choose the option you want from [the dropdown]." (or whatever.) But I don't know which option I want to do what I specifically want to do

Check the ISBoxer Wiki (http://isboxer.com/wiki/Main_Page)




"make everyone strafe or step forward/backward to break the follow command."

Okay, what specifically would this look like, in the context of a macro intended to assist the master toon and start attacking with a cast sequence of very basic attacks? (My toons are still low-level and most of the castsequence macros I've seen are for maximizing DPS at high levels.)

90% of what you are looking to do is NOT done with macros. Things like this are done in ISBoxer, there are no ingame macro commands for movement so it can't written into the game macro.


http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/37658-My-4x-Frost-DK-Paladin-Setup-Based-on-DK-Manifesto
http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/47938-The-MoP-Macro-Library?p=367931#post367931
http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/47938-The-MoP-Macro-Library?p=367932#post367932


It appears that I can either write these macros in WoW and just set a key in ISBoxer to trigger them, or I can write them in ISBoxer?

With ISBoxer, you can write the macros wholly within ISBoxer. The issue is macros are not the extent of what multiboxing entails. Macros are only what can be done in the default game interface and that is only half of what needs to happen to multibox.

Think of it this way - there are Macros and there are Actions.

Macros are what you find all over WoWPedia. They're what everyone has in their macro panels - castsequences and the like. ISBoxer has the ability to configure this within its' own interface. Most other programs do not.

Actions are things like Interact with Target, movement, mouse usage, alternating key actions/"steps" {1st press sends FTL-Assist, second sends 1, third sends E...}. This can only be managed and configured in a multiboxing program.

You need both to multibox.


http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/47046-Guide-Using-ISBoxer-Based-Macros-conserving-key-combinations-and-resolving-conflicts



1) When making follow and assist macros, how does "jamba-follow" differ from any other sort of follow? How does Jamba's functionality on this differ from ISBoxer's basic Alt-F and Alt-A commands (I can't seem to get Alt-A to work for assisting, regardless.)

Jamba works by allowing your master toon and slave toons to "speak" to each other and issue certain commands. When you use Jamba's Follow, Jamba is able to issue the command from the master to Jamba and Jamba tells the slaves to follow. Jamba's follow can also be variable based on your FTL settings.

Normal follow can NOT be issued to other toons. To use normal follow, you need the slaves to receive a keypress that either initiates a macro or keybinding within their own configuration to follow someone - IE, each slave needs a /follow party 1 {or FTL-variable} macro and a key passed to them to trigger the macro. Jamba's Follow does not require the additional macros or key passing.

I don't know how ISBoxer's follow is set up. I do know there is Jamba integration but I don't know the default settings or any of that.



In your newbie guide, you demonstrate three versions of follow macros: following a player by name, following a focus, or using Jamba's follow. How do I choose between these? What is the method that is going to enable my toons to follow the master toon with the least hassle? What does strobing do and when do I want it on or off?

The choice is personal opinion. As far as I'm concerned, I use Jamba's follow because I need Focus clear for crowd control and some other stuff. I am also no fond of target by name because if you happen to be around someone with a similar name, it can cause issues. Jamba's follow is also variable with FTL which most people like for the times they need to swap to a different leader.


2) I keep reading about follow and assist FTL but then all the macros I see have myriad other assist options. What is the best option here, and how do I use it? When I see something like, "/follow {FTL} is that the actual command I want in my macro, or is {FTL} a placeholder for something more specific (character name, slot, whatever) that I need to customize?

FTL is managed in ISBoxer, you won't be writing a macro for it.

FTL stands for Focusless Targetless Leaderless. (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/24467-What-is-FTL) It is designed so that you can use any toon in your team as the main and all the other toons will automatically update to the new leader. This is why there are tons of assist options - the assist/follow order changes based on who is the master character at the time.


3) When writing macros, is this something I want to do in game, in Jamba, or in ISBoxer? All three have the ability to create macros, and I doubt I want a hodge-podge of macros scattered all over the three options. Which should I be focusing on, and why?

I don't know many people who use Jamba's macros. They are not written the same way as a standard macro, they are designed to be used with variables so that the same macro can be used across several different teams instead of being specific to a single character.

You will either want to write them in ISBoxer or in the game. I can't speak to the usefulness of having them in ISBoxer since I've never used the feature.



Now, I have a macro for something like this with my hunter, but I don't understand it well enough to dissect it and apply it to the other toons. Let's analyze it:

First stop if you don't understand macros is Wowpedia's Understanding Macros (http://wowpedia.org/Making_a_macro). They also have a section on Helpful General Macros (http://wowpedia.org/Useful_macros) and a section on macros by class {either using the icons in the upper right box or here (http://wowpedia.org/Category:Macros) under U. You can check how a macro is supposed to work via Fitzcairn's Explain-o-matic (http://www.macroexplain.com/).


/castsequence reset=target Serpent Sting,null
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,Concussive Shot
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,kill command
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,arcane shot
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,steady shot
/startattack
/targetenemy [noharm] [dead]


First line: Okay, I set what is happening here. This only casts the first time I press the hotkey, and then until the mob dies, it moves on to the rest of the macro. So I would create a similar line for Moonfire, Sunfire, and Flame Shock, on my druid and shammy, yes?

Not really. {Last I knew} Moonfire and Sunfire are only supposed to be cast in the appropriate "Phase" of a druid's solar/lunar power. You can't currently have both up. Flame Shock needs to be reapplied when it drops off the target. If you want effective DPS, you would have to time the abilities out like this

http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/49155-5-druid-experience?p=378834&viewfull=1#post378834
http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/46286-shaman-enhanced?p=353548&viewfull=1#post353548

But when it comes down to it, if you aren't doing anything difficult and you're just running quests, you don't need anything complicated. It's a waste of time in most cases to use much more than your biggest nuke or a couple fast casts "out in the world" since everything will be dead before your dots can tick more than twice. I don't even take my guys off follow most of the time when I'm running dailies or world quests.


continued below because of text-cap

[Khatovar]

But I probably want my first line to actually break follow and send the hunter pet into attack, so this would move down to the second line, and everything else would be bumped down a line? And then, of course, there's selecting the proper way to assist my master toon (/assist playername? @party1target? How should I code this?)

First off, don't put follow breaks in your DPS key. It will only come back to bite you later. Learn to micromanage and use additional keys for things like follow, break follow, buffing, etc. DPS keys should ONLY be for DPSing and IWT during combat {for melee toons only}. Most people use the arrow keys for slave movement and breaking follow. Start with that.

Second, you can't macro movement. This means there is no "moving down." You can tack /petattack in there if you like, but it will still go off at the same time as your first spell and it's likely your first spell will land before your pet even reaches the target. If you want the pet to get there first, you're going to need your petattack on a separate key and you'll have to wait for the pet to engage before your team engages.

Third, assist is managed in ISBoxer, you don't write an assist command anywhere in the macros. It should already be built in to the ISBoxer keymap. Adding additional assists to the ingame macros can lead to conflicts.



And what about other things like "/stopmacro [channeling]" and
/stopmacro [@target,noexists] [noharm] [dead] [channeling]
/script UIErrorsFrame:UnregisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0

what is all this stuff? Some macro examples I'm looking at have it, others don't. What does it do? Do I need it?

http://wowpedia.org/Macro_conditionals
http://wowpedia.org/Macro_API



Second line: Not sure I really need a stun/slow/snare, so I could probably remove this, but for the sake of my education, what does the "reset = 0.3 0,0,0," portion do? How do castsequence macros using this reset differ from cast sequence macros using reset=combat or reset = ##, something that looks like this:


/castsequence reset=combat steady shot, steady shot, steady shot, steady shot, steady shot, arcane shot


http://wowpedia.org/Castsequence

This is a reset=#. In this case, reset is using an idle timer of a third of a second {0.3}, so the macro won't reset until there is at least 1/3rd of a second between button presses OR it reaches the end of the line in the macro. The 0's are not part of the reset, they are equipment slots (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/48486-Anyone-else-have-their-fallthrough-macro-fail?p=372885&viewfull=1#post372885) used to put in a delay so the macro has a chance to try the spell on the next line in the macro.



Third and Fourth Line: Arcane shot. Great, I can emulate this line for all my instant casts and the spells that require some channeling time. But, again, I'm assuming with each spell that has a different cast time (2.7 secs for Starfire vs. 2 secs for Wrath, for example) I would need to alter the reset portion somehow?

Cast time is irrelevant. When building macros the game simply says

Button Press
What should I cast?
Am I already casting something?
Is there a conditional to consider? {nochanneling, dead, harm...}

If the answer is no to all of that, it casts the spell. If the answer is yes, it throws an error and doesn't cast the spell until you press the button again and the above comes up all clear. The Reset doesn't care anything at all about cast times, it only cares about the conditional it is assigned. In the case of reset=#, reset only cares when the last time you pushed the button was.

Your toons are just going to keep running their personal sequences with no regard for what any other toon's sequence is doing. You don't need to and shouldn't attempt to "time out" the macros among your team to make the cast times match. It is futile because of latency, haste etc, and the attempt will only ruin your DPS/"rotation." Build everyone proper macros for their class/spec and don't worry about timing it perfectly, it simply won't ever happen - even on teams where everyone is the exact same class and spec.




Last Lines: Whoops, totally lost me. Why is that stuff at the end of that macro and at the beginning of other macros I see?

/startattack just turns on autoattack
/target [noharm][dead] says "target an enemy if my current target can't be harmed or is dead"

[luxlunae]

I wanted to add that driving from your melee is the way to go. You're overthinking the "keeping ranged at range" issue. Make sure that you bind your arrow keys to only move slave characters, but unless you are in dungeons (and usually even if you are in dungeons), there is no harm in the hunter staying on follow and sticking with your melee. Using IWT to send your melee toon off to attack things with your pet can be fun, but if it is annoying you (and it sounds like it is) just lead from melee. Even in dungeons, unless it is a boss fight, stuff that cleaves is much rarer than it used to be so sticking together in a group is probably the way to go.

[Chuyna]

IWT In ISBoxer -
http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/45676-ISBoxer-Interact-With-Target-101
http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/44204-Help-with-ISBoxer-IWT-etc

Thank you again, Khat, for taking the time to reply. That second one, in particular (I had already watched the video) has a link to a post with exactly the sort of detailed instruction I need to begin to figure out how to make this work (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/34145-Melee?p=312469&viewfull=1#post312469).

A setup such as Ualaa is walking through in that post is something I understand and would actually work for me, so I'm trying to emulate it. It would be easy enough to use this method to have my hunter, druid and shammy step back and my monk melee using IWT.

I think I've been able to translate the instructions from the older version of ISBoxer clearly being used at the time of the post to what I'm working with. The only hang-up is with the second section, editing the DPS keys, because I don't have any DPS keys.

I can see these would now be under what is called "Combat" in the KeyMaps, but Combat is empty for me, so I'm looking for instructions on how to set up the DPS1, DPS2, etc keys Ualaa is referring to. Haven't found it yet, but still looking.

Even just following that detailed walk-through has given me a much better feel for what I'm working with and is allowing me to do some limited extrapolation into other contexts. My brain apparently just needs to see it spelled out in tiny baby-steps like that before I can begin to comprehend it.



http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/49155-5-druid-experience?p=378834&viewfull=1#post378834
http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/46286-shaman-enhanced?p=353548&viewfull=1#post353548

But when it comes down to it, if you aren't doing anything difficult and you're just running quests, you don't need anything complicated. It's a waste of time in most cases to use much more than your biggest nuke or a couple fast casts "out in the world" since everything will be dead before your dots can tick more than twice. I don't even take my guys off follow most of the time when I'm running dailies or world quests.

Yeah, I will definitely be tweaking my plan for how I work with it.


First off, don't put follow breaks in your DPS key. It will only come back to bite you later. Learn to micromanage and use additional keys for things like follow, break follow, buffing, etc. DPS keys should ONLY be for DPSing and IWT during combat {for melee toons only}. Most people use the arrow keys for slave movement and breaking follow. Start with that.

Yeah, like I said, that step-by-step process Ualaa outlined is exactly the sort of thing I need. Once I figure out what s/he's referring to in the second section, I think I'll be good to go for my first try at running something like this.


http://wowpedia.org/Castsequence

This is a reset=#. In this case, reset is using an idle timer of a third of a second {0.3}, so the macro won't reset until there is at least 1/3rd of a second between button presses OR it reaches the end of the line in the macro. The 0's are not part of the reset, they are equipment slots (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/48486-Anyone-else-have-their-fallthrough-macro-fail?p=372885&viewfull=1#post372885) used to put in a delay so the macro has a chance to try the spell on the next line in the macro.

Okay, excellent. Thank you. In your option, which is better, doing it that way, or doing it with a comma-separated list?


Your toons are just going to keep running their personal sequences with no regard for what any other toon's sequence is doing. You don't need to and shouldn't attempt to "time out" the macros among your team to make the cast times match. It is futile because of latency, haste etc, and the attempt will only ruin your DPS/"rotation." Build everyone proper macros for their class/spec and don't worry about timing it perfectly, it simply won't ever happen - even on teams where everyone is the exact same class and spec.

Okay, awesome, good to know.

Thank you again for your time. I know it's a pain to read long messages and write long replies, and I appreciate the help very much.

[Chuyna]

I wanted to add that driving from your melee is the way to go. You're overthinking the "keeping ranged at range" issue. Make sure that you bind your arrow keys to only move slave characters, but unless you are in dungeons (and usually even if you are in dungeons), there is no harm in the hunter staying on follow and sticking with your melee. Using IWT to send your melee toon off to attack things with your pet can be fun, but if it is annoying you (and it sounds like it is) just lead from melee. Even in dungeons, unless it is a boss fight, stuff that cleaves is much rarer than it used to be so sticking together in a group is probably the way to go.

Thank you, I will remember that as I figure out how to build up this team.

[Khatovar]

Okay, excellent. Thank you. In your option, which is better, doing it that way, or doing it with a comma-separated list?

The reset conditions I use will normally vary depending on the needs I have for the spell or spells in the sequence. For things like DoTs and debuffs, I use a reset=target so that the macro goes back to the beginning whenever I start to attack a new mob and reapply the DoT's/etc.

Most of my "standard sequence" macros use reset=combat because many spells and abilities have a cooldown to them which will lock up castsequences and prevent them from casting anything until the spell's cooldown resets. I don't want to be in a position where I can't kill or pick up agro on a mob because all my early spells are still on cooldown, therefore I don't want my macros to reset until they reach the end of the sequence and/or cooldowns run down. Not having the macro reset until I leave combat is a solid way to ensure that my macros don't lock up at an inopportune time.

I also use modifiers for resets for certain things. Mostly for "nulled" sequences like I use for my DK (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/47866-Mosg2-manifesto-help-with-DK-Macros?p=367316&viewfull=1#post367316). In her case, she wants to put her diseases up on a target only once, and because she can spread those diseases to any other mobs, she doesn't need to reapply them to every new target {thus the use of null}. But, sometimes diseases don't get spread or mobs come in late and I need to reapply diseases, so I can use a modifier like alt to force the macro to reset so she can reapply the debuffs again without having to leave combat first.

I'm not sure what you mean by "a comma-separated list." If you mean the original macro that used the 0,0,0,Spell set up, that's not really the same as reset conditions. The 0,0,0, part is just a means for allowing macros to "fall-thru" to the next line in the macro. Every time the macro reaches a 0, it has nothing to do in that line so the game has the opportunity to move to the next line down and trigger the spell there. I don't use this setup, so I can't speak to how useful it is compared to a priority cast setup/step.

If you mean a cast sequence like /castsequence spell, spell, different spell, big spell, another spell... and trying to time out spells that way - castsequences and reset conditionals are two different things. Resets are only for determining when a castsequence should start over. A reset conditional will not allow you to say "after I've activated this macro for X seconds, move to this macro or this line in the macro."

When it comes down to it, there are few, if any, classes left in WoW that use a hard-set "rotation" anymore. It is all priorities where you have spells that you should cast every time you can and some spells you only want to cast if X, Y and/or Z aren't available. This has, IMO, made things a lot easier because you don't need to sit there with a calculator, a slide-rule and a spreadsheet to figure out how many Lightning Bolts you should fit in before you can Lava Burst again. You can just make a few simple macros (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/47938-The-MoP-Macro-Library) and call them in steps (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/47938-The-MoP-Macro-Library?p=367932&viewfull=1#post367932) or via a priority cast system (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/47938-The-MoP-Macro-Library?p=367931&viewfull=1#post367931).