Target-and-Hold, Focusless, Leaderless system.
During my initial experiments into Dual-boxing with a Paladin/Shaman I was running a target-and-hold assist macro on all my offensive spells. This allowed the Paladin to build agro, or taunt a different target to the one my Shaman was currently killing. The code for the macro was found in these forums but for clarity, here it is:
Mage Support Fireball (Xzin):
Code:
/cast [exists,harm,nodead] fireball
/stopmacro [exists,harm,nodead]
/assist party1
/cast [exists,harm,nodead,combat] fireball; [exists,harm,nodead,nocombat] pyroblast
When running with an actual tank the utility of such macros is surprisingly powerful, but during my first forays into Quad-boxing with 4 four pure DPS (Warlocks and the Mages) there was no longer a tank and these assist macros became obsolete.
My ‘locks were in the late 50s by the time I read about the “Targetless, Focusless, Leaderless” system here and, as I was intending to start four Mages I decided to attempt to implement the system on the new group. Eight “played” hours later I finally had my newly purchased copy of Keyclone set up running the hotstrings and my first fireball macro working.
If you’ve not tried the leaderless system you really should, it is a thing of beauty. I quickly decided that making hotstrings for individual spells as documented in the thread was a little pointless and instead created generic hotstrings for each function key. I actually use a Saitek Command Unit (A bit like a Belkin n52) and programmed all the main keys to F1-F12.
My hotstrings are then generalised to the number keys, unmodified and with CTRL/ALT. Leaving the unmodified keystroke gives the benefit of keeping the SHIFT modifier open and allowing me to use it as a page state for my two hotbars. I can then have a second function for each key, while remaining completely leaderless. Obviously leaving SHIFT open in this way is not possible for five boxing.
Hotstrings are mapped as follows (only F1 to demonstrate the example):
Code:
Toon1:
F1 --> B1A1
LCTRL+1 --> B1A2
LALT+1 --> B1A3
LALT+LCTRL+1 --> B1A4
Toon2:
F1 --> B1A2
1 --> B1A1
LALT+1 --> B1A3
LALT+LCTRL+1 --> B1A4
Toon3:
F1 --> B1A3
1 --> B1A1
LCTRL+1 --> B1A2
LALT+LCTRL+1 --> B1A4
Toon4:
F1 --> B1A4
1 --> B1A1
LCTRL+1 --> B1A2
LALT+1 --> B1A3
My generic hotstring convention is simply Button1Assist1 (B1A1), or Button2Assist4 (B2A4).
Keybindings are made across two hotbars loosly named “Leader” and “Slave” with F1-F12 mapped to leader and “1” through “=” mapped to the slave bar. The mappings are the same across all sessions. I then create one further bar to hold the leaderless assist macro so all spells only need to use “/click button”. It saves typing and macro space, working this way I have yet to need the 255 chars allowed by the standard WoW macro interface.
Spells are added to the toon by dropping the basic spell into master and the macro’d slave spell into the slave bar. The basic leaderless macros look like this:
Assist macro:
Code:
/target [nomod:ctrl,nomod:alt,target=Toon1][mod:ctrl,nomod:alt,target=Toon2][mod:alt,nomod:ctrl,target=Toon3][mod:ctrl,mod:alt,target=Toon4]
Slave Spell macro:
Code:
/click assist_macro
/cast [target=targettarget, harm] Spell
/targetlasttarget
Slave Follow Macro:
Code:
/click assist_macro
/follow
/targetlasttarget
To get the actual button name for your /click statement type:
Code:
/print GetMouseFocus():GetName()
Into the chat box and press enter while hovering over the button in question, its name
will be returned.
This has been working extremely well for me, allowing any toon to be played solo as expected and being generic allows a new group to be setup in a matter of minutes.
And then I added a Tankadin back into the mix. Now all of a sudden I was not happy with the performance of my macro system. Often when one of my multi mob pulls agro’d a dps I would find it extremely difficult to grab agro back with the tank. I would target the errant monster, smack taunt and simultaneously lay into it with 3 lightning bolts. What I really wanted was my Shamans to continue killing their designated target while my tank continues his job of retaining agro on the whole pull.
I figured it had to be possible to modify the leaderless system to a target-and-hold one while retaining the benefits of keeping focus open for CC and staying entirely generic in setup. This is what I came up with:
Firstly I added a second assist macro, I called this one Harm (my target-and-hold)
Harm:
Code:
/stopmacro [exists, harm, nodead]
/assist [nomod:ctrl,nomod:alt,target=Toon1][mod:ctrl,nomod:alt,target=Toon2][mod:alt,nomod:ctrl,target=Toon3][mod:ctrl,mod:alt,target=Toon4]
And took “targetlasttarget” out of my offensive spells:
Code:
/click harm_button
/cast [exists, harm, nodead] lightning bolt
This is relying on the interesting behaviour of /stopmacro within a /click. When the harm macro is /clicked and you already have a target that fits the [harm, nodead] criteria the Harm macro is stopped. It does not however stop execution of the macro that called it and the lightning bolt is cast. If Harm is clicked and you have a no (or a friendly) target your current leaders, ie the one you are currently moused into and playing on, is aquired. Harm execution stops and we drop back to the cast macro, casting a lightning bolt at our new target.
The old Assist macro is retained for use by beneficial or “one shot” spells (to say, inturrupt the healer):
Interrupt:
Code:
/click assist_button
/cast [target=targettarget] stun
/targetlasttarget
Which rather nicely returns to our original kill target on completion.
There are two, minor, drawbacks of running the target-and-hold like this or indeed any similar system. Should you actually want to change target while the “kill target” is still alive then you need to use an extra assist or clear target key. It’s rarely needed and as such is a minor inconvenience.
The second only really applies to PvP players and that is the loss of target obfuscation. In a true targetless system you can have a different opponent targeted on each toon making it much more difficult for them to see who you are about to hit, or even who the current leader is.
I only play PvE but it’s pretty easy to swap a couple of macros around and become totally targetless for an arena or two and then swap back again for a dungeon run.
Credit for the “Targetless, Focusless, Leaderless” system goes to it’s original designer Šeceased, I hope those who read this modification of this fine system find it useful, or at least informative. Let’s call it my re-payment to a community that’s been invaluable to my adventures in multiboxing.
<EDITED to correct macro code I typed from memory and to add Follow macro for completeness>
