The Hunter Macro thread

[yarr]

I wanted to make a thread for discussion of various multiboxer hunter macros. I just started my team (level 9, 4 hunter + 1 priest) which will hopefully be BGing and such in the future, so i figure i'd share my initial experiences.

I figured hunter CC, aspects, and controlling a healer would get pretty complicated quick, so i wanted to simplify the hunters' dps as much as possible... ideally narrowing all their dps actions down to 1 spammable button. (including pet). I think i've found that macro here (except a level 70 version) :


#showtooltip Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/petattack
/cast [nocombat] Hunter's Mark
/castsequence reset=3 Steady Shot, Auto Shot
/cast [exists,target=pettarget] Kill Command

Now obviously I won't be using steady shot or kill command until 60+ so that leaves me with auto shot. If I want to add arcane shot and/or multi-shot to this macro, i have some concerns with how to best setup the macro so as not to block myself if i run out of mana or the cooldown isn't up for one reason or another.


/castsequence reset=6 Arcane Shot, Auto Shot, Auto Shot, Auto shot
would probably work for just arcane, as long as my weapon speed was 2.0 or higher.


/castsequence reset=10 arcane shot, auto shot, multi shot, auto shot, auto shot, arcane shot, auto shot, auto shot, auto shot
Might work for arcane + multishot. However using this many instants, i am concerned with if my hunters run out of mana. The way a castsequence works, is if a spell fails to cast for some reason (mana, cooldown, out of range, or whatnot) the macro will continue to try to cast that spell until it finally succeeds to cast. So if my hunters go out of mana, if i continue to spam this button, they will stop auto-shooting unless i use a separate macro.

It would be nice if there was a way to modify the macro to allow auto-shots to continue even if arcane's/multi's fail to cast.

I've also got another idea to throw into the "main-dps-macro", alternating concussive shots.

Concussive shot slows for 4 seconds, with a 12 sec cooldown. With 4 hunters, it should be really easy to keep a mob permanently slowed (although i dont expect many mobs to last longer than 4 seconds, alternating casts on concussives would be nice when rapidly pulling mobs, you can get a concussive on each mob you pull)

something like
toon1:
/castsequence reset=10 concussive shot, auto shot, arcane shot, auto shot, multi-shot, auto shot, auto shot, arcane shot, auto shot, auto shot
toon2:
/castsequence reset=10 arcane shot, auto shot, multi-shot, auto shot, concussive shot, auto shot, arcane shot, auto shot, auto shot, auto shot
toon3:
/castsequence reset=10 arcane shot, auto shot, multi-shot, auto shot, auto shot, arcane shot, auto shot, auto shot, concussive shot, auto shot

[Niveous]

Hi Yarr,

I just started playing yesterday and purchased Keyclone. I have 4 level 9 hunters and my dad is playing a priest as the 5th wheel to the party so to speak. I'd like to thank you for these macros because right now all I have is /assist and /follow macros and its kinda buggy...

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong yet but, sometimes I will only get like 2 attacking and the other 2 stand there, and when I hit assist again those 2 will stop attacking and the other 2 will start, etc. The follow seems to work pretty good I guess, but as soon as I get my pets maybe this will help. Do you have any other suggestions for me? I have no UI addons and just those 2 simple macros.. anything to make my life easier or utilize my skills a little better would be cool.. All I'm using is auto shot right now which is ok so far :)

Thank you so much Yarr.

-Niveous, Niveoa, Tidal, Tida [Cairne - PvE - New Realm]

[Ebola]

Ok I just finished leveling my 5 hunters to 70 "Ding" Yay fourth group to 70....

Here are my main macros that I have found to be working for me very well. Feel free to improve on them :)

These macros are all on my main. The ones on my alts have slight additions like /f focus and /a focus in them as well



This macro casts arcane, then serpent sting, then arcane, while trying to cast kill command on every keypress. It also uses /startattack to enable autoshot, and if the target gets in range, melee attacks

/castrandom [target=pet, noexists] Null; [target=pettarget, exists] Kill Command
/castsequence reset=target/combat Arcane Shot, Serpent Sting, Arcane Shot, Arcane Shot
/startattack

This macro casts concussion then aimed shot. With 5 improved concussive shots hitting the target, more often than not, the target is stunned for 3 seconds, allowing the time for the five aimed shots to fire. I have noticed that when casting aimed shot and steady shot that the camera angle changes slightly with every shot, so I added the setview into the macro to reset the camera with every keypress. I only added the setview on my alts as it is easy enough to controll the view on my main screen with my mouse.

/castrandom [target=pet, noexists] Null;[target=pettarget, exists] Kill Command

/castsequence reset=target/combat Concussive Shot, Aimed Shot

/startattack

/script SetView(5); SetView(5)



This macro is the macro I use to spam steady shot, auto shot and kill command. The setview lines are in it for the same reasons as above.

/castrandom [target=pet, noexists] Null;[target=pettarget, exists] Kill Command
/castsequence reset=2/target !Auto Shot, Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame;Clear()
/script SetView(5); SetView(5)



For multi-shot I just have a standard /a /f /cast macro as I didnt want it chained with anything else, mostly so I didnt break any cc by accident.



For intimidation I use commas to stagger the effect so as to hopefully keep my target stunned for upto 15 seconds.

Main

/petattack
/castsequence Intimidation

Alt 1

/petattack
/castsequence ,Intimidation

Alt2

/petattack
/castsequence ,,Intimidation

Alt3

/petattack
/castsequence ,,,Intimidation

Alt4

/petattack
/castsequence ,,,,Intimidation



For one button res and mend pet I use

/cast [target=pet, dead] Revive Pet; [nopet] Call Pet; Mend Pet



For feeding I put the food in bag 0 slot 4 and use

/cast Feed Pet
/use 0 4



If there are any Ive missed, I will add to them later. Hope this helps

[Zug]

The reason for 2 of your hunters attacking is probably lag or other 2 are slightly out of range when you attack.

Your macro uses just auto shot, rather than !Auto Shot. /cast !Auto Shot

That ! mark prevents you from toggling it off.

[yarr]

The reason for 2 of your hunters attacking is probably lag or other 2 are slightly out of range when you attack.

Your macro uses just auto shot, rather than !Auto Shot. /cast !Auto Shot

That ! mark prevents you from toggling it off.

thanks, zug! Very good info to know. That !auto shot will be VERY useful. Also thanks for sharing your macros Ebola, very useful macros there. Aso for your arcane/serpent macro, are you not worried about your instant casts clipping auto-shots? I have visited verious hunter forums (WoW main forums, elitist jerks forums) and the consensus seems to be that it's bad news for your instant casts to clip off auto shots. What is your opinoion on that matter, if you have one =P

thanks again to u guys for responding, i knew this thread woudl be a good idea =D

niveous: YOur problem may be that one or more of your hunters are toggling auto shot off, when the other hunter toggles it on. I know I had this exact problem before I got arcane shot, and made a castsequence macro.

You may try what zug or ebola said...

for ebola's method, use

/cast arcane shot
/startattack

not 100% sure if this will stop attack if you hit it twice, though. I will need to experiment with this.

Zug says that whenever using /cast auto shot or /castsequence auto shot, you should use !auto shot instead. THe exclamation point prevents you from toggling it off when you hit it twice. I think it's a realy nice feature!

[Niveous]

Thank you all very much, my macros are growing more impressive as time goes on. Level 15 now :)

[Ebola]

Using !autoshot or /startattack will do the same thing exept..... /startattack will also have you melee when targets are within range

/startattack will not toggle off if it is spammed

The whole clipping autoshots really has not been an issue for me as I dont do 10 mans or larger yet.... so dps comparisons with other classes is not an issue. In pvp with 5 hunters focus firing you, clipping an auto shot hasn't seemed to make a difference as the burst damage is insane from a hunter, and from five is just awsome. If I do start running 25 mans with my guild I will probably just spam the steady shot macro with arcane and multi inserted here and there.

[Zug]

I have 5 hunters level 21 right now. I made sure to turn off autoattack when enemy is in range in interface options and not use startattack. I find it annoying, since my pets are tanking, and if the hunters melee, i would have to hit my /follow macro before i could move as a group again.

Castsequences are ok, for solo..but if you are killing non-elite mobs...I find it a waste of mana. I have one button for arcane shot, another for pet attack, another to mark target, another to start auto shot. It's just a play style. When I get steady shot, I will then make a sequence for my shot cycle. For non-hunter classes (like warlocks) that like to cast 2-3 dots, sequences are great if you just want to spam one button. Just my opinion.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Pro tip:

/startattack will automatically target the nearest enemy in front of you if one is not targeted. I prevent this by adding

/stopmacro [noharm]

to the beginning of all my hunter attack routines. It isn't bad for melee range but with ranged shots, you can pull stuff down a ledge or off a bridge and end up with half an instance on you by mistake. ;)

Conversely, if you PVP all the time, maybe you WANT them to autotarget whatever's nearest. ;)

[edit] And grats on 70 again, Ebola!

[Niveous]

Level 22 now :thumbsup: Although I swear my guys always shoot the wrong things in instances.. SIGH! :thumbdown:

[Djarid]

Your macro uses just auto shot, rather than !Auto Shot. /cast !Auto Shot

That ! mark prevents you from toggling it off.This has to be one of the best nuggets of info I have seen on these boards... and to think I nearly missed it because this is a hunter thread ;)

+rep

[Niveous]

Question - I'm having a lot of issues with my shots taking too much initial agro on the mashing of my main /attack & /follow & /petattack macro. It always shoots while my pet is running, and while in travel my shots will have caused enough agro to make the mob run directly for me instead of my 4 pets all armed with growl and bite/claw spam. I want my pets to pick up agro on inc, any suggestions?

Thanks!

[Zug]

Why not have 2 macros? One for pets to attack/recall and one for hunter shot cycle. Can you post your attack macro?

In general, there are a few fixes for initial aggro issues.

1. If BM, get pathfinding. That 30% increase to speed means you can start an attack, and the pets should reach the target much faster.

2. What pet are you using? I am using 5 boars. Charge is so full of win, I can not stress how powerful boars are in initial aggro.

3. When you hit 30 something, you can pickup dash/dive depending on the pet you have.

4. What shot are you opening up with? An arcane shot/auto shot 2 hit instant hit can be tougher for your pet to get immediate aggro.

5. Are you using Omen or another threat/aggro monitor for testing? Watch what your main's threat is and the pets. If you watch these numbers, it can be helpful in learning how hard you can push the hunter dps.

6. Once you get frost trap, just position mobs between you and the trap and have fun.

7. If all else fails, put in concussive shot in a mixed rotation. So your main opens up with concussive, then shot 2, shot 3, etc. Party 2 opens with shot1, consussive, shot3, etc. Continue this for all hunters. I would really place this in another macro though, with a reset of 15 secs. Don't forget there is no diminishing returns in PVE.

[Niveous]

Hmm.. thanks I'm not the best in understanding macros exactly so this thread has been a godsend in many ways.. I think I will try the boar pet.. I'm just opening up with auto shot and then arcane -> poison sting on inc sequence. I'm using crabs right now; I had to get rid of my cats to learn bite and claw from BFD turtles and crabs and haven't had a chance to get a different pet yet.

I think the boar thing might be what is holding me back from really feeling comfortable in instances.. another thing that kinda bugs me is if I have to pull multiple targets at once.. my pets will all run for the one I tell it to with my macro but the others will go straight for the healer. Haven't figured out a way around that yet , other than to mash it on them all until they eventually get agro; trouble ends up being they are all in melee range then. I think focus can solve this problem, but thats way over my head right now lol.. one step at a time.. level 28 now on all 4 and my dad priest is 27.

[Zug]

another thing that kinda bugs me is if I have to pull multiple targets at once.. my pets will all run for the one I tell it to with my macro but the others will go straight for the healer. Haven't figured out a way around that yet , other than to mash it on them all until they eventually get agro; trouble ends up being they are all in melee range then. I think focus can solve this problem, but thats way over my head right now lol.. one step at a time.. level 28 now on all 4 and my dad priest is 27.




Here is what I do on my 5 hunters.

Each hunter has one key mapped to hunter pet attack:



/clearfocus [target=focus, dead]
/assist party1
/tar focus
/petattack


I then have another macro to return pet:


/petfollow


This is just a personal preference to have 2 different macros. You could combine them by using a modifier (shift, alt, ctrl) for the follow.


Each of the slaves gets the following macro for attacking:



/clearfocus [target=focus, dead]
/assist party1
/tar focus
/cast !auto shot



The main char uses just



/cast !auto shot



On my main, I have set 5 keybindings for 5 raid icons. I use F1-F5, becuase I think the default bindings are garbage for boxing. I use F1 for star, F2 for diamond, etc. This way each char gets thier own icon.

F6 is skull. Skull means everyone who doesn't have a focus will be dpsing this target.

F7 on my main removes a raid icon and clears focus.

(I don't remember the code exactly for this one.) I think its



/script SetRaidIcon(9)
/clearfocus




On Party2 - Party5 F7 clears focus.



/clearfocus




On my second char I then map F2 to a macro that assists my main, then sets the focus



/clearfocus
/assist Party1
/focus


The F6 key uses the same macro.

I then do F3 and F6 mapping to macro on character 3, F4 and F6 on character 4, and F5 and F6 on character 5.

What does this allow me to do? From my main, I can target a mob and hit F6. This puts the skull icon on that mob, clears any focus my other chars have, and they all focus on that mob.

Lets say I have to pull 4 mobs. I will target the one I want to dps first and hit F6. All chars are now focused on that mob and have it targeted. I then target mob 2, and hit F5. Party member 5 then targets that mob, focuses it, and a raid icon of Orange circle appears. I then just target mob 2 and hit F4, target mob 3 and hit F3, etc.

So when I am ready to go I use my pet attack macro. It first assists my main, then if that char has a focus, it will then set target to the focus. I then send pet in. So on big pulls I can have each hunter "tank" an add, dps the add, and heal thier pet. If my main char's mob goes down I can target another mob, and any char who doesn't have a focus, will immediately assist the main (one key press to send all available pets on the mob, another key turns on the hunter dps).

If I need to tank a new mob (like an unexpected add), my main can just change targets, and the pet will go attack the new mob, and the other hunters aren't affected or I could target that mob and hit f5 for party member 5 to now start tanking/dpsing the add.

I hope this helps. If you want any of the macros I don't have listed let me know.

[Niveous]

Holy cow, thanks for all the info.. I'm gonna need a couple days to understand this :thumbup:

This is basically what im using...

/petattack
/startattack
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

and

/castrandom [target=pet, noexists] Null;[target=pettarget, exists] Kill Command
/castsequence reset=2/target !Auto Shot, Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame;Clear()
/script SetView(5); SetView(5)

and

/castrandom [target=pet, noexists] Null; [target=pettarget, exists] Kill Command
/castsequence reset=target/combat Arcane Shot, Serpent Sting, Arcane Shot, Arcane Shot
/startattack

All of these I got from above posters.. I can't believe you can send each pet individually and such, thats so impressive. I hope i can translate all of this 8|

[Niveous]

Hey wait, I just noticed your from Cairne - Horde. And you're Zug.. I think I remember seeing you somewhere :love: World's a small place...

Edit: I think it was in Goldshire the other day, lol. UD rogue?

[Zug]

Yeah, I had a lvl 1 alt there with Zug, and having some good times with the lowbies.

I was leveling my druids in mulgore, when lame night elves kept attacking quest givers and noobs. Pleas in /3 would cause me to stop grinding and get on rogue to take out the trash. I got distracted and the next thing I knew I was in goldshire having fun...for 2 hours.

If anyone is looking for a server to roll a MB team on, come over to Cairne. A few MB on both factions.

[accretion]

Zug,
I assume you're running 5 separate machines? I'm trying to engineer a similar system using 2 boxes (1+4) and having less luck. I may have to use separate Fkeys to set focus them rotate them manually. Any other ideas?

[Zug]

I use Keyclone on 1 machine.

Are you having a problem with the focus/mark target macro?

[accretion]

For starters, I'm using a wireless Logitech keyboard on my primary box and the default software binds F1-F6 to functions like opening Word or Excel, which is highly annoying. When I disable or try to remap them (or even turn off the software) then WoW doesn't recognize my F keys at all. So, truthfully, I haven't been able to test your macros specifically. I'll give it a shot tonight to see if I can get it to work, even if I use alternative keys.

The part that initially lost me was this:
/clearfocus [target=focus, dead]
/assist party1
/tar focus
/petattack

Wouldn't that re-focus the slaves on separate targets? Ideally, I want the pets to tank individual targets while burning down the brain's target with the other hunters.

[Zug]

--if i have a focus and that focus is dead then clearfocus
/clearfocus [target=focus, dead]

--i now assist party1, what you call the "brain". i am now targeting
--the party1's target. I do this here, becuase if I have not set a focus
--or that focus is dead, i will now be switch to main's target
/assist party1


--if i have a focus then target my focus
/tar focus


--send my pet onto my target
/petattack



All of this requires only 1 keypush. I might be able to combine some of the conditions, but it was working for what I wanted. I was only level 20ish when using these macros, and I wanted to have each hunter tank and dps their focus. This is the initial pet attack macro. If you want the slaves to dps main's target, all you have to do is have your attack macro be something as simple as:

/a Party1
/cast !shoot

Doing it my way, if i had 4 mobs to pull, my main + one other slave is dpsing the main target til it was dead. Then my main targets the next mob, and hit the hunter attack + pet attack, now I have 3 dps on 1 target, and can clean up. I wanted my serpent sting to get its fullest effect on each mob if possible. Also, so used to playing wow with 1 tank, 1 healer, 3 dps is the way to pull in an instance. If each player is a tank/healer combo, is that viable.

I might go back to hunter team when I have time. I spent about 1.5 days played working on macros and testing my theorycraft. There were also some hours wasted at crossroads doing stupid formations, and a hellavulotta /train emotes =).

For anyone thinking of leveling hunters for PVE, I wish you well. I saw some vids of some hunters doing DM and those 4 troll hunters in AV. Five hunters actually have a lot of talents and abilities that most boxers may overlook.

1. All 5 can FD in case of bad pull.

2. Hunter's pets can do some ok tanking at low levels. On bosses that don't aoe, that boss would have to kill all 5 pets before they would begin on hunter. For aoe bosses, you can spec your pet to take reduced aoe damage.If you were BM, I was tryign to theorycraft, if you loaded up on stam and armor for a pet, when first pet dies, that hunter casts 4 sec rez pet, heal, and retank

3. What is one of the things about elem sham that makes them seem a bit OP? I think its stackable Totem of Wrath. Hunter have several talents like that. Ferocious Inspiration = 3% dmg increase to all party members for 10 secs. I have a hunter, but I honestly don't know if this stacks with other hunters. I wanted to see if it would. The way BM hunter's pets are, if pet has 20% crit and attacks at < 2.0 attack speed Frenzy, that would mean 15% dmg increase to hunters and pets. I might be wrong with this talent.

Expose weakness in survival tree is another of these I wanted to test to see if it stacks (ranged crits increas AP of all attacks of your target 25% of your agi for 7 secs.)

4. Crowd control. Each hunter could freezing trap 2 mobs on each pull (3 if spec'd readiness), plus 2 wyverns if spec'd readiness). That's 25 mobs you could cc (12 secs for wyvern and 26 secs for freezing). Overkill? Maybe...but man...if you want to be the king of micro...the gauntlet is thrown in that scenario.

Things I don't like:

1. If you die, no rez. I didn't have FD yet, so didn't really get to theorycraft yet. If a hunter got aggro, or killing a mob that doesn't use normal aggro mechanics, would have to work out some way to FD just on that char without blowing it on other hunters. Has to be non-awkward to use.

2. Having an aoe healer like a priest could be nice, but I don't think a priest can keep up a pet on higher levels. From my research, pets can't increase their defense rating. Have a priest use healers rather than hunters, I'm sure that might help in some borderline instances.

[accretion]

Ahhh, I follow your logic now. And I've had a chance to test this as well and all I can say is.....Oh My.

A truly outstanding macro system! I can walk up to a camp of mobs, hit F6-F9 (locks unique focus for each hunter on 2nd box), then my 'Pet Attack' button and then watch the carnage unfold. I have a separate 'Hunter Attack' key to focus my fire, and I proceed to mow down each mob in sequence, using the Priest "brain" to target and toss an occasional heal. For instances, I've added an Intimidation modifier to hold aggro better. My priest has no problem whatsoever keeping the pets up at this level and aggro is not an issue either.

I'll keep refining, but thanks for the initial theorycrafting -- huge help!

[Maz]

Can you Auto Shot your focus?

I use focus for DPS (or have done up until now). I switch toons by having five macros of the form:

/focus <toon name>
/follow focus
and my shot macro on each toon is:

#showtooltip Auto Shot
/cast [target=focustarget,harm,nodead]!Auto Shot
The lead character behaves as I expect but the followers only fire a single shot. The macro button is still flashing so it looks like Auto Shot is active but they don't shoot. I have to hit the button to get another shot out of them.

[Darcla]

what does adding the ! infront of AutoShoot do?

[Maz]

Always turns it on rather than toggling it on and off.

[Occam's Razor]

Here are my main macros that I have found to be working for me very well. Feel free to improve on them :)

These macros are all on my main. The ones on my alts have slight additions like /f focus and /a focus in them as well

If there are any Ive missed, I will add to them later. Hope this helpsEbola, would you please post the macros for your alts?
I'm having a hard time figuring out where the /f and /a goes in the alt macros.
Thanks :)



I hope this helps. If you want any of the macros I don't have listed let me know.I'd love to see them!
I'm going to be experimenting with your and Ebola's method, and I'd like to get as much info from the both of you as possible :)