First time using Gnome Sequencer

[davidmage]

So I decided to finally try gnome sequencer. I downloaded it, and went with the standard paladin prot single target script. I removed the abilitys I wanted to trigger on my own.

It now looks like this:

PreMacro=[[
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]
]],
"/cast Avenger's Shield",
"/cast Judgment",
"/cast Hammer of the Righteous",
"/cast Consecration",
"/cast Judgment",
"/cast Hammer of the Righteous",
PostMacro=[[
]],
}

How I would want my script to work, would be like a prioritizer for the abilitys in this order:
1) Avenger's Shield
2) Judgement
3) Consecration
4) Hammer
where the Hammer is the fallback, and should only be used if all the above is on cooldown. However if it would work as simple as that, I get the feeling it would be too much logic, and blizzard would never allow automating things at a level like that.

So I'm guessing that the order of the spells above is not a prio order, but rather an iteration of the abilities in the list, where one is triggered every click? I tried it on a dummy, and it looked more like a cycle of the spells, I even saw the ability on the button change correspondingly, so naturally it often triggered hammer instead of for example avenger's shield.

I made a test for the script above. I simply made 3 of my paladins use the GS, and the other 2 would have the normal abilities. And I just went on with my normal button mashing, where 3 paladins would just use the GS every button click.
Seeing as this works as a rotation, and I'm mashing buttons very quickly, it would mean that hammer would be cast before prioritized abilitys sometimes. At other times, nothing will be cast, when the rotation has reached an ability which is on cooldown.
This was the output on my daily heroic:

Dívinus 20,8% Regular mashing
Diví 20,6% Gnome Sequencer
Ilahi 20.4% Regular mashing
Adivinar 19.8% Gnome Sequencer
Isteni 18.4% Gnome Sequencer

Looking at the output, even if the gnome sequence is not even being used as intented, the dps loss should not be huge. This is probably because my manual rotation handling cannot be done optimal across all characters.
Also in situations where I am stressed (mythics) I can pay even less focus on my rotation. Then using GS would possibly provide a better rotation, and allow full focus on handling encounter mechanics and my other abilities.

But my main question is: Can I write a GS script which could actually work like a prioritizer? Or can I write a rotation script, which would work better than the above?

[Ughmahedhurtz]

The GS documentation I've seen says it simply prevents your macros from getting stuck on an ability. Which is basically the same thing as putting your abilities on a single key in is boxer. My DPS meters show the same thing yours do: effectively no difference. For people that don't use isboxer, I'm sure it's a huge boon. For us, I dont see much benefit outside of the GS macro postings being a good resource for ability priority for use in GS or isboxer or whatever your choice of tool is.

[emitchell109]

When I did use GS on my hunters, one thing I learned from another boxer friend was to double up the buttons.

This was due to me being a SPAM button masher. This would help stop the chance that I would blast by a needed cd due to global+spamming.
ie
"/cast Kill Command",
"/cast Kill Command",
"/cast Dire Beast",
"/cast Dire Beast",

Alternatively.

If you setup your rotation via isBoxer
Based on your 4 moves listed.
1) Avenger's Shield
2) Judgement
3) Consecration
4) Hammer

if they where laid out just like on your in game wow bar.

I would have a simple priority step macro with 3 steps.

step-1-- Would send keys 1 and 2 to the game client.
step-2-- Would send keys 1 and 3
step-3-- Would send keys 2 and 4

So what that quick macro is attempting to do is at almost every press attempts to use your shield, then if shield is no available on the release it is attempting to use the other.
As you make your way thru the macro it will attempt to use each move desired in some what of a priority order. Leaving hammer as the last option if all other are on cool down. Now, this was something I just toss together right here JUST for this reply. I do not have anything really setup on my paladin currently for the new legion changes so there is a chance I am doing it wrong here. <-- Disclaimer!

I think on my prot paladins I had my Judgement/Hammer macro'd together in game.
So my number 2 key in game was setup like this.

#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=12/target Judgement, Blessed Hammer, Blessed Hammer, Blessed Hammer

IDK if any of this helped. But there.. There it is.

[Andreauk]

Why would you want to use the addon when all your paladins are the same spec? I think it's far more effective to choose what to use when for this particular team.

[Pazgaz]

The fact that you have all abilities on the same place on your bars means very little in a world of procs resetting timers like wow.
You are probably losing dps when for example Avenger's Shield timer is reset on a slave and you're not casting it since it is still on CD on your main.

[Xeneres]

This is what I use for my paladin:

PreMacro=[[
]],
"/cast Avenger's Shield",
"/castsequence reset=9/combat Consecration",
"/castsequence reset=5/combat Judgement, Hammer of Righteous, Hammer of Righteous, Hammer of Righteous",
PostMacro=[[
]],
}

I don't use any target pre macros.

You 100% do not want to 1 to 1 manually broadcast your abilities to your slaves as you will only be playing off what you see procs on your masters window. Instead you want each of them to try to fire off abilities as soon as they are able too. My toons have lots of differing haste % so it would be a huge dps loss to try to send each ability one at a time.

The above macro I have found works very well. Each time you press the button GS tries to fire off each line item until it cant then it moves onto the next one. A regular wow macro would get stuck. I just tell isboxer to broadcast my single target spam key "F" ingame and then I make a gnomesequencer macro and drag it onto my F keyind. I also followed the authors video on how to make your own macros so that they are not getting replaced whenever the addon updates which is quite frequently. In my main rotation of judgement and hammer it takes about 5-8 seconds to cycle through and even with a haste buff the macro will still reset after 5 to cast judgement again. You may have to add or remove some of the Hammer of the Righteous from the macro as you want to make sure your cooldown abilities don't take too long to fire and you also have to account for how fast it cycles when you get a time warp/bloodlust/heroism buff or drums.

You can edit or view the macros in GnomeSequencer by typing /gsse (gnome sequencer sequence editor). You can make a few variations and play around with them ingame but I don't believe they save forever. I started with the default macros and then tested and edited them to figure out what works best for me and my toons and then made my own variation of the macro.

The more lines you include the longer it will take to cycle through all of the buttons to check if a proc ability is available. I think its best to limit your macro to two or 3 lines. The defaults use way too many global cool downs to cycle back around to try to fire off avenger shield.

I wrote some more about this here:

http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/53306-DPS-rotation-for-prot-paladin?p=407040&viewfull=1#post407040

I'm going to add my other GS macros for my DKs to my guide post later.

You can also do all of this is in isboxer using multiple steps and actions. I just find its easier to see and edit it all under one GnomeSequencer macro.

[emitchell109]

The only reason I switched from GS to keeping it all isBoxer side was to have ONE less add on to keep after on updates... *patchDayProblems..

[Pazgaz]

@Xeneres:
Are you manually clicking artifact ability and SotR?

[Andreauk]

The fact that you have all abilities on the same place on your bars means very little in a world of procs resetting timers like wow.
You are probably losing dps when for example Avenger's Shield timer is reset on a slave and you're not casting it since it is still on CD on your main.

I can see all my windows at once and can see if it's glowing for proc or off cd.. and I think you lose more dps by using a macro than by not.
So for an all the same class/spec team I don't use them, and if I do it's my own made in game without the need for addons.

[davidmage]

Thanks for all the answers!

The reason I am looking into GS and just not sticking with my regular setup are 3 reasons:
1) Avenger's shield procs - I'm missing those procs on my slaves. If GS can cast them sooner it would be nice.
2) When I'm mashing, and don't have time to look at the cooldown of my spells, I'm often casting hammer rather than something else which is off cooldown. If GS can cast them sooner it would be nice.
3) If I never had to look at my spells for cooldowns I could have more focus for other things.

So if GS could perform close to as good as my normal rotation, it might outweigh the pros for keeping all the abilities manual. Having manual control have the advantage of me being able to place my consecration more wisely (which does not matter so much with my current talent). Also I can specifically choose to use one of the ranged abilities when I know I am out of range.

emitchel and Xeneres, thanks for the example GS scripts. As emi mentioned I am also a "spam button masher" because I see no other way from keeping all the characters going effectively at different GcD cycles. So Xeneres, how often do you press your GS button when using your script?

[Andreauk]

Guess it's just me then.. I like having to think about what I use when.. I'm happy to be punished if I make the wrong choices.. it would be boring otherwise.

[davidmage]

Guess it's just me then.. I like having to think about what I use when.. I'm happy to be punished if I make the wrong choices.. it would be boring otherwise.

I understand that. What's the point of having a bunch of abilities, if we are just going to script them into 1 single button?

I have already found something that I just dislike with using GS. If I keep mashing my same button, instead of the previous 4, that finger gets exhausted. Also I have found that I somehow have developed my movement style with WASD to include all fingers for the movement, and sometimes swapping out just one to press 1-5 (but not always the same finger). If I now just remove one finger totally for the GS duty, it just feels weird moving as I used to.
So to effectively use the GS script (at least for now) I have an easier time putting it on 1,2 and 3, and just use all of them...

[Andreauk]

Sometimes I use WASD but I mainly move with the mouse, (right hand) and key-press with the left. My interact with target is F2.. assist is F1 but it's also in a macro once per ability for each skill.

I have /follow bound to my mouse button on the side of my mouse for alts, rebuke on main, and the other side button on the mouse bound to target next enemy (just on the main).

While I was leveling my Paladins to 100 I used macros of my own, but soon discovered once I did the artifact quest in bad gear it was far better to have 1 ability per action bar space.. I don't use Gnome nor do I use any of the macro stuff in isboxer.. so for now I play as close to solo as possible.

I'm finding it a lot more rewarding having to use my brain and not bash a button that does all my thinking for me :)

[emitchell109]

I'm finding it a lot more rewarding having to use my brain and not bash a button that does all my thinking for me :)

This is why I like building efficient macros.. Vs just spamming a sequence. Takes a lil time sitting in front of dummies practicing the buttons. My buddies would always get so mad bc my DK team that was lower than them in ilvl was not only tying them in dps but also beating them at times. "This was in WoD" have not leveled the dks yet in Legion.

That is where i gain my reward feels!

You keep talkin about hunters making me wanna level mine on up...!!! GRRR

[Andreauk]

My days with Hunters are over.. I just have the Pally team now.

[Xeneres]

For fatigue you can create duplicate keys. I use F R and V and 2-3 for my most used abilities. F is very easy for me to spam and I can do it for several hours before I get fatigued.

We also don't need to mash that key that much since the GCD is still 1 to 1.5 seconds.

[davidmage]

My days with Hunters are over.. I just have the Pally team now.

For this expansion a team of 5 hunters will need a pretty decent level of gear to blast through mythics. And that would work on mythics where bosses can be bursted down quickly, and don't have unavoidable AoE which enters the fight quickly.
For example Helya with all the different phases etc would be the Ragemaw of WoD. However there are a couple dungeons I know would work all the way with a nice burst. Thicket for example.
However there are a few downsides. One major thing is that we do not have the guildress anymore. So fighting through trash and having to run in all the time is just troublesome.
A team of 5 paladins you can gear in heroics/mythics. A team of hunters you will not do that as easily.

[Andreauk]

Yes I don't have time for multiple teams (very tempted by making a DK team though).

I have zero interest in doing Mythic+ I just want to grab the best gear I can and go back to my old school farming.

I'm going to get the Argent Tourney done x5 to get the missing mounts I need - I do love mount farming/mog farming.

Still need to do the legendary quest in ICC! Least this way I can do it without asking in trade for help.

[davidmage]

For fatigue you can create duplicate keys. I use F R and V and 2-3 for my most used abilities. F is very easy for me to spam and I can do it for several hours before I get fatigued.

We also don't need to mash that key that much since the GCD is still 1 to 1.5 seconds.

Yes I would have to create duplicate keys. Currently I use:
F: follow master (very necessary to spam at times to keep my party controlled, since I auto assist on all abilitys.)
C: Manual IWT ( ctrl + c forced loot)
E: LoTP on self for whole team
Q: First interrupt
R: I'm not used to having this as a quick/spam button, but it may work if I start using it. Will try it tonight if I get any gaming time this evening.

[Lyonheart]

My Keymaps for common things
Tilt Mouse Wheel left and right are my strafe left and right..works great.. you have to try it if you dont do this now.
F: Follow
Q: GTAE
E: Interrupt on Round Robin
R: misc Round Robin
T: Other GTAE
G: Activate Special

[Xixillia]

Tilt Mouse Wheel left and right are my strafe left and right..works great.. you have to try it if you dont do this now.


I second this.
I still use numbers for rotation, but have keybinds that are shared across all characters. i.e

ALT + A is a survival CD (ALT - ARMOR)
CTRL + A - is a survival CD (CTRL - ARMOR)
CTRL + T - is a threat CD (CTRL - THREAT) (RR around group, or all at once - depending (death grip or feign)
T is a threat CD (THREAT) (RR taunt or MD)
CTRL + S is an interrupt (CTRL-SILENCE)
CTRL + ALT - S (SILENCE)
ALT + S (Silence)
G is IWT
/ is follow, because it's a button I pretty much never use - and it's bound to the third mouse button on my mouse.
Q is a boss CD button (Q for kill it QUICK)
E is for aoE
* is assist
` is my autorun button with modifiers being mount keybinds. (SHIFT + ~ = ground mount, CTRL + ~ = flying mount, CTRL+ALT + ~ = multiperson mount IWT keymap)
+ is jamba invite

[davidmage]

Damn thats a bunch of keys.

I'm feeling kind of noob here. The keys I use are:

F: follow master (very necessary to spam at times to keep my party controlled, since I auto assist on all abilitys.)
C: Manual IWT ( ctrl + c forced loot)
E: LoTP on self for whole team
Q: First interrupt
(some button on mouse): toggle full broadcast
1-5 frequent
6-8 sometimes press key, sometime mouseclick

All the rest I simply click on the screen. To develop as a multiboxer I need to develop my general keyboard skills it seems. And then I've played single character for like 10 years :P