The Hunter Macro thread

[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?