Shadow Priest and Destro Lock - Need some help on their castsequences

Wondering if some of you who box these might post your DPS macros. I'm
struggling with my lock and priest and their DPS is pretty sub-par.

Priest

Code:

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#show Mind Flay
/stopmacro [channeling]
/cast [nostance] shadowform
/target
[target=target, harm, exists, nodead][target=party4target, harm,
exists, nodead][target=party1target, harm, exists,
nodead][target=party2target, harm, exists, nodead]
/castsequence
reset=target/combat Vampiric Embrace, Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric
Touch, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind
Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Flay, Mind
Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Fade, Vampiric Touch, Mind Flay, Mind Flay,
Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay,
Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay
/castrandom Devouring Plague, Mind Blast, Shadow Word: Death

---

The
castrandom isn't working like I hoped. I tried a castsequence but kept
getting myself hung up on "spell not ready" due to the cooldowns on the
3 castrandom abilities. I guess embedding them in the macro might be
best but even then it seems I'd have to completely forget about
Devouring Plague most of the time since it has such a long cooldown
(24s)

Warlock

Code:

---

#show Shadow Bolt
/target
[target=target, harm, exists, nodead][target=party4target, harm,
exists, nodead][target=party1target, harm, exists,
nodead][target=party2target, harm, exists, nodead]\
/stopmacro [noharm][channeling]
/petattack
/castsequence
reset=target/combat Curse of the Elements, Corruption, Immolate, Shadow
Bolt, Life Tap, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt,
Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Immolate, Corruption, Life Tap, Shadow Bolt,
Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow
Bolt, Life Tap, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Life Tap, Shadow Bolt, Shadow
Bolt
/castrandom Chaos Bolt

---

Working better than my
priest's but I don't think my chaos bolt is getting as much use as I'd
like. I also haven't worked in Incinerate which should be really
helpful. Anyone got any help?

Wow, those are some crazy macros.

I am no macro expert, but can you have a /castrandom or /castsequence following a /castsequence in the same macro?? Also, I think both SWP and VT are on global cooldowns that's probably why you get that message. I am not sure, but you may have to choose 1 of the 2....or perhaps space them out so that 1.5seconds elapses?? Also, maybe put in some time for the reset so you don't have to have the spell listed 20 times? Make a list of your spells and find out how long the cooldown time is, if it's on global cooldown and how long the dots/channelling last. From there you should be able to work out an optimum timing on the reset and spell order.

Wish I could help more, but my fights don't last long enough yet (only L42 with my SP atm) (my macro is /castsequence Vampiric Embrace, Mind Flay, Mind Flay).

Good luck!

unless I'm missing something the castrandom part shouldnt work at all because each time yer cast something from the castsequence and incurring a gcd

You should shorten yer castsequence, only thing that might make it thru an entire castsequence is a boss and I'm not even sure of that :P

What might help is if yeh change yer castsequence not to reset on target/combat but on time depending on yer longest cooldown spell

like
reset=30 Vampiric Embrace,Devouring Plague, Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric
Touch,Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay,Shadow Word: Death

(probably could use some more tweaking for timing) yeh can do something similar for the warlock

would be a good idea to put Curse of the Elements on a separate button

yeh really dont need to put fade into castsequence its only temporary aggro dump

hm,

for the priest i would try to do the /castrandom before the /castsequence like:

Code:

---

#show Mind Flay
/stopmacro [channeling]
/cast [nostance] shadowform
/target
[target=target, harm, exists, nodead][target=party4target, harm,
exists, nodead][target=party1target, harm, exists,
nodead][target=party2target, harm, exists, nodead]
/castrandom Devouring Plague, Mind Blast, Shadow Word: Death
/castsequence
reset=target/combat Vampiric Embrace, Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric
Touch, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind
Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Flay, Mind
Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Fade, Vampiric Touch, Mind Flay, Mind Flay,
Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay,
Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay

---

perhaps another ',' after 'Shadow Word: Death' is needed, not sure.
Another thing im not sure is if the way you do your targeting, works realy in combination with reset=target, because it may be that it resets its target every time.
If this is the case you can fix this with using /assist... instead of /target.

Quote:

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What might help is if yeh change yer castsequence not to reset on target/combat but on time depending on yer longest cooldown spell

like
reset=30 Vampiric Embrace,Devouring Plague, Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric
Touch,Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay,Shadow Word: Death

---

This doesn't work, because the 30sec aren't count from your first activation of the castsequence, but is resetting every time you activate any spell in the castsequence and hence can't be used to reset exactly afeter 30sec.

For the warlock:
as above do the /castrandom Chaos Bolt before the castsequence (and perhaps its /castrandom Chaos Bolt,)

as far as your priest goes, try something like this for the primary castsequence
/castsequence reset=9 Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay

This looks good

Code:

---

  #show Mind Flay
 /stopmacro [channeling] 
/cast [nostance] shadowform

---

In this set the “exists” conditional is not required as both “harm” and “nodead” infer “exists”

Code:

---

  /target target=target, harm, exists, nodead][target=party4target, harm,  exists, nodead]
[target=party1target, harm, exists,  nodead][target=party2target, harm, exists, nodead]

---

For this I really believe you would be better off breaking it into a couple macros.
The First of course is that now that vampiric embrace is only affected by Mind Blast, a sequence could be created specifically for that.

Code:

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  /castsequence reset=target/combat  Vampiric Embrace, Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric  Touch,
Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind  Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay,
Vampiric Touch, Mind Flay, Mind  Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Fade, Vampiric Touch, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, 
Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay,  Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch,
Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay

---

This piece of code will never be reached as only one command with a global cool down can be done per macro. If how ever you moved this to the front and added a conditional, I believe it would work well for you.

Code:

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  /castrandom Devouring Plague, Mind Blast, Shadow Word: Death

---

So, overall I would suggest a change to something like this.

Code:

---

  #show Mind Flay 
/stopmacro [channeling] 
/cast [nostance] shadowform 
/target [target=target, harm, nodead][target=party4target, harm,  nodead][target=party1target, harm, nodead]
[target=party2target, harm, nodead] 
/castrandom [mod] Devouring Plague, Shadow Word: Death 
/castsequence reset=target/combat Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay

---

This will cast either Devouring Plague or Shadow Word: Death if any mod is pressed, if no mod is pressed it will move on to the cast sequence. This sequence is timed perfect as long as you have at least four point in Improved Mind Blast. A total of 9 second sequence.

As far as moving fade out, with the addition of removing all movement impairing effects I would think this would be much better being off the macro so you can cast it at more opportune times.

Whoa! As maul would say... Macros the size of texas!

Are you looking for a way to play these two classes with one button and have both of their DPS be up to par? In what situation? Is your lock the main and your priest the slave? I think you could dumb down these macros and get better results. I'm @ work now so I can't put too much thought into it, but I would suggest splitting those macros up and creating different ones for different situations.

When questing, I doubt anything is going to live past a MBLast and a SBolt / CBolt. It might live long enough for you to shadowburn / SW: death it afterwards. That was the case when I was boxing spriest / hunter... A steady shot and a mind blast usually killed the target. If not , another steady shot and a SW: pain was overkill. SW: pain , VE, VT are a waste of mana outside of an instance and I would also avoid putting anything with a cooldown in the front of a cast sequence macro. Otherwise you are going have your macros stick when changing targets. I had 3 macros for my spriest. one for questing, one for trash, and one for boss fights.

eh, I hope this made some sense. I had a point (and decent spelling) but i have had 4 calls since I started typing this. ^____^

edit: whoa spriest spells = smileys !

Context context context. Might have helped you guys.

I role PVE, mostly instances. 5 man mixed class group (Paladin, Druid, Warlock, Priest, Hunter)

I strive for single button DPS at almost any cost, hence the huge macros.

I have challenges that I want to overcome on my hunter, priest and warlock.

Each has spamable, non-cooldown spells (Shadow Bolt, Mind Flay, Steady Shot)

Each has cooldown spells that need to be inserted between the spamable ones when off cooldown (Chaos Bolt, Mind Blast, SW:D, Devouring Plague, Arcane Shot, Multi-shot)

Each has a very few spells that need to be applied maybe just once (Hunter's Mark, SW:P, Curse of Elements)

Each has a spell that needs to be applied periodically (Corruption, Vampiric Touch, Scorpid Sting)


Though crazy complicated, I strive to fit all of these abilities into a single one button, do it all, wonder-macro. Here's my thoughts based on your input. I like castrandom because it deals with abilities with cooldown, but I dislike mixing castrandom with castsequence. Here is my thought on this for the priest.

Code:

---

#show Mind Flay
/stopmacro [channeling]
/cast [nostance] shadowform
/target [target=target, harm, nodead][target=party4target, harm, nodead][target=party1target, harm, nodead]
[target=party2target, harm, nodead]
/castrandom [combat] Devouring Plague, Shadow Word: Death
/castsequence reset=target/combat Vampiric Embrace, Shadow Word: pain, Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay

---

The reason make the sequence so long is so that Shadow Word Pain doesn't get re-applied and so that it's up on my targets.

I'm late for class and will have to post the warlock thoughts later.

ok, for your purposes everything looks good then. Except for one line.

Code:

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/castrandom [combat] Devouring Plague, Shadow Word: Death

---

when I put [mod] that is exactly what should have been in. [mod] means if you press a modifier that line will continue, if you do not it will bypass for the next.
However, one thing I did not think of before, that I am unsure if it will work, I will test it later.
If the /castrandom list is full of spells on cool down, is that considered as a negative conditional and thus pass on to the next line?
Like I said I will test it when I get home in about an hour and a half. But if it does that could resolve your macro and one I was working on.

Assuming it all works as intended, I'm going to give the [mod] qualifier a go.

I've stayed away from it up till now because my attention span is already spread pretty damn thin. I'm spamming '2' to keep my DPS going, spamming '5' to keep my heals landing, and I'm manually doing all my tanking on my paladin (which I'm considering re-macroing now that mana is less of a problem than it used to be).

I used to overlay these onto the same buttons but I found that there are times for tanking, times for healing, times for dps, and that situations don't always call for a combination of 2 or even all 3. Not that 3 buttons is a ton to keep up with, but I mbox on a mac, which means sub-par software tools. Clonedkeys often 'backs up' my keystrokes if I spam to quickly, so I might have a bunch of keystrokes in queue to be sent to my slaves that get delayed 5 seconds or something. It may be the limitations of the computer I'm boxing on causing this issue, but none-the-less, the simple my combat stuff is, the better it works out for my success in instances.

As for my warlock, I think moving the castrandom before the sequence will be a big help. Here's what I'm thinking.

Corruption, Immolate, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt

This should be a decent sequence, lasting about 19 seconds after corruption is applied. Both Corruption and Immolate will have time to tick completely before being re-applied, and it's repeatable. It could be improved by staggering the immolates so that they were re-applied a bit sooner but it's a minor issue I may deal with later. Don't feel like laying out the chart for exactly where it needs to be inserted. 6 repeats of this should run the full timer of COE.

Code:

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#show Shadow Bolt
/target [target=target, harm, nodead][target=party4target, harm,nodead][target=party1target, harm, nodead][target=party2target, harm, nodead]
/stopmacro [noharm][channeling]
/petattack
/castrandom [combat] Chaos Bolt
/castsequence reset=target/combat Curse of the Elements, Corruption, Immolate, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Immolate, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Immolate, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Immolate, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Immolate, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Immolate, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt
Bolt

---

Problems I see with this are that I still am not using Conflagerate which upsets me. I thought about adding it to the castrandom but I'm too lazy to crunch the numbers on if I get a real damage increase off of blowing my immolate immediately which is what will happen most any time it's up on the target. I also am unsure if Incinerate, my newest spell should be added to the mix.

Quote:

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Quote:

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What might help is if yeh change yer castsequence not to reset on target/combat but on time depending on yer longest cooldown spell

like
reset=30 Vampiric Embrace,Devouring Plague, Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric
Touch,Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay,Shadow Word: Death

---

This doesn't work, because the 30sec aren't count from your first activation of the castsequence, but is resetting every time you activate any spell in the castsequence and hence can't be used to reset exactly afeter 30sec.

---

actually it does work its there to reset for the next combat as in done killing stuff move to next area that way yeh always now what yeh start off with.
but since I didnt look at the cooldowns at the time figured 30 is good amount of time yeh could get away with it being lower like 10.

with my group targeting structure, my macros need to reset on aquiring a new target. The combat qualifier could likely be removed, but it helps for things iike duals when I am testing out my dps macros.

reset counters don't help me for my dps guys. I could maybe use them on my healer, but thats a whole nother post.

Just wanted to update on my macros and what they gave me in damage tonight. Castrandom before a castsequence won't work. GCD fucks the duck.

Ran Mana Tombs for those who care

Priest numbers are going to be shit. As you can see below, my rewrite of my macro produced me being an idiot and inserting shadow pain instead of shadow death into the later parts of my castsequence. Here are the numbers anyways.

Overall Party Damage - 12.3%
breakdown:
spell name - count - percent
Mind Blast - 47 - 45.6%
Shadow word pain - 144 (lol) - 28.4%
Mind Flay - 51 - 15%
Vampiric Touch - 59 - 11%

macro

Code:

---

#show Mind Flay
/stopmacro [channeling]
/cast [nostance] shadowform
/target [target=target, harm, nodead][target=party4target, harm, nodead][target=party1target, harm, nodead][target=party2target, harm, nodead]
/castsequence reset=target/combat Vampiric Embrace, Shadow Word: pain, Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay

---

I promise better numbers later this week when I can run again without a fucked up macro.

Warlock

Overall - 14.4%
breakdown
spellname - count - percent
Shadow Bolt - 45 - 37.9%
Immolate - 47 - 23.6%
Corruption - 127 (??) - 21%
Chaos Bolt - 7 - 6.2% (way too low, needs fixing)

Macro
(again, I fixed this on the fly, so it's totally not perfect.

Code:

---

#show Shadow Bolt
/target [target=target, harm, nodead][target=party4target, harm,nodead][target=party1target, harm, nodead][target=party2target, harm, nodead]
/stopmacro [noharm][channeling]
/petattack
/castsequence reset=target/combat Curse of the Elements, Corruption, Immolate, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Chaos Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Immolate, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Chaos Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Immolate, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Chaos Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Immolate, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Chaos Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Immolate, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Chaos Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Immolate, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt

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Quick Note on hunter effectivness

My hunters breakdown

Overall - 35.8% of party damage
breakdown
spellname - count - percent
Autoshot - 354 - 52.5%
Steady Shot - 218 - 42.3%
Arcane Shot - 21 - 4.4% (too low, need to work it into cast sequence better, current macroing broken)

Macro

Code:

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/target [target=target, harm, exists, nodead][target=party1target, harm, exists, nodead]
/stopmacro [noharm]
/startattack
/petattack
/castsequence Hunter's Mark, Scorpid Sting, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Scorpid Sting, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Scorpid Sting, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Scorpid Sting, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Scorpid Sting, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot,
/castrandom Rapid Fire, Beastial Wrath
/castrandom Arcane Shot, Multi Shot

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these last 2 lines of castrandom do not work and need to be reworked

And overall stats.

One quick question?
- Do you use those macros only for bosses and other macros for trash (f.e. the daily isle runs)?

because I tend to simpley open up on trash with instant, direct damage spells or faster casts, becasue any dots would never realy tick that long.

I shame myself to say no.

Currently, at lvl 66, I'm not totally wasting dots on elites in dungeons. There is waste but it's not on a level I'm uncomfortable with. I keep myself currently at 2 levels of DPS macros though I am considering a 3rd.

1 (lowest) - burst/instant, non-dot based DPS (mind flay, mind blast, shadow bolt, etc)
2 (middle) - considering this for instance trash. WOuld be a compromise between the 2, removing some of the dot stuff and focusing more on quicker damage, but still maintaining some high efficiency, etc.
3 (highest) - Macro's listed above.

For anyone tracking this, I'm doing a rewrite tonight fixing the known issues and doing probably 2-3 instance runs. I'll try to collect data.

I don't think you can have a castrandom in the same macro as a castsequence, unless you include modifiers... because they might both try to fire off a spell at the same time.

I know you can have multiple castsequences in the same macro, provided your pauses are set up appropriately, so you never have more then one spell firing off at once... A priest could:

/castsequence [target=party1target] reset=target Shadow Word: Pain,,,,
/castsequence [target=TankName] reset=target ,Renew,,,,Renew