The Hunter Macro thread

[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 helps

Ebola, 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