Frostnova macro's

[amalgam]

It doesn't do it normally; only when present in a macro that fails to cast for whatever reason.

At least, that's what WoWWiki says. Lemme find the page.

EDIT: OK, apparently I took one bit of info and applied it elsewhere. The event I described is only listed as occurring if you have mutliple "/cast" commands in one macro.

In general, you cannot cast more than one spell with a single click of a macro. Most spells and some items trigger the global cooldown (GCD) which keeps you from taking too many actions at once. Even if a spell fails to cast, if it would trigger the GCD, it prevents subsequent /casts in the macro from running. This was not the case prior to patch 2.0 which is why you may still come across macros like the following:

/cast Overpower
/cast Execute
/cast Mortal Strike
/cast Sunder Armor

Macros like this do not work anymore.

From WoWWiki.

Also, I removed the quotes from this thread. Forgot I used that button to reply.

[Vyndree]

This is true when you're trying to do 2 casts in the same macro. It also fails for some (but not all) trinkets for some weird reason.

i.e. (and I apologize for the crazyness of this macro, but this is honestly my button spam macro)

/target [target=focustarget,harm,nodead][target=party1target,harm,nodead]
/castsequence [combat] Vengeance of the Illidari, Ancient Draenei Arcane Relic
/castsequence [nocombat,harm] reset=5/combat Totem of Wrath,Lightning Bolt,null; Lightning Bolt

The code above works perfectly for me. The code below does not:

/target [target=focustarget,harm,nodead][target=party1target,harm,nodead]
/use [combat] Vengeance of the Illidari
/use [combat] Ancient Draenei Arcane Relic
/castsequence [nocombat,harm] reset=5/combat Totem of Wrath,Lightning Bolt,null; Lightning Bolt

The 2nd macro will "stick" when Ancient Draenei Arcane Relic is on cooldown (I've deduced that it's due to a "fake" GCD), and refuse to work until it comes off of cooldown.



However, the macro you showed me has one spell and one spell only in it: Frost Nova. Therefore, it will not trigger the GCD.

Another example test you can try at home: make a macro that just says /cast Frost Nova. Button mash the macro. No GCD when Frost Nova is on cooldown. (again, I used "Holy Shield" since I don't have any mages)

[amalgam]

Yes, I edited my post with the link to the page on WoWWiki I misread.

Also, curious question, but what's the "null;" for in your castseq there?

[Vyndree]

Yes, I edited my post with the link to the page on WoWWiki I misread.

Also, curious question, but what's the "null;" for in your castseq there?

Every now and then I will still be considered "out of combat" until my lightning bolt lands. I don't have an addon to increase the length of my macros, and I'm nearing 255 characters, so it's just a placeholder for a non-spell so that it waits until the lightning bolt lands and puts the character in combat, which then puts me in the second condition of my cast line (which is just "Lightning Bolt").

If that "null" weren't there, and I were spamming the button, this is what would happen if the enemy target was far away.

• Cast ToW
  Cast Lightning Bolt
  Lightning bolt is mid-flight
  Cast ToW
  Lightning bolt lands, shaman enters combat
  (Commence lightning bolt spam)

With the "null", this is what happens:

• Cast ToW
  Cast Lightning Bolt
  Lightning bolt is mid-flight
  Macro doesn't know how to cast the spell called "null", nothing happens
  Lightning bolt lands, shaman enters combat
  (Commence lightning bolt spam)

[amalgam]

Ahh, so it's to compensate for a problem with Blizzard's servers. I thought it was a special Unicode/ASCII character that carried over from WoW or the .wtf file.

[Vyndree]

Ahh, so it's to compensate for a problem with Blizzard's servers. I thought it was a special Unicode/ASCII character that carried over from WoW or the .wtf file.

It's not really lag, it's just that spells won't put you into combat until they actually land. This isn't a problem for things like shocks/chain lightning that have little to no flight time, but when you're at max range firing off a lightning bolt, it will take some time for hte lightning bolt to reach it's target (especially if it's running away from you), and I didn't want to waste mana on an extra ToW just because I was too over-eager with the button mashing.