Once upon a time I used Necrosis. Then it became a huge resource suck and I had to find another way to manage all the fiddly warlock things. I finally settled on using a lot of macros. I use ALOT of macros.. and they’re [...]]]> Psynister asked about cooldowns on Soulstones on twitter.

Once upon a time I used Necrosis. Then it became a huge resource suck and I had to find another way to manage all the fiddly warlock things. I finally settled on using a lot of macros. I use ALOT of macros.. and they’re constantly changing as I improve them.. or change how I want to use them.

Here’s the stone macros I’m using currently.


For Soulstone I have a button on my UI which maps to the following macro:

Soulstone:

#showtooltip
/use [nomod,button:1] Demonic Soulstone
/cast [mod][button:2]Create Soulstone
/opt [nomod,button:1] /say I will just take %t’s soul and put it in this little shard. There.. safe and sound.

If I have no soulstone (and haven’t had one since I logged on) then the ? icon will show.
If I hold down a mod(shift, ctrl, alt) the icon changes to the “create soulstone” icon.
If I right click the icon it will attempt to create a soulstone. It will also create a soulstone if I hold down a mod and either right or left click the icon.
Without a mod, if I left-click and I have a soulstone it will put that soulstone on my current target, self if I have no target.

If you do not have the addon “MacroTalk” then remove the last line of the macro. If you -do- have “MacroTalk” installed then the last line will /say with the name of the person you’re soulstoning.

I also use the addon “OmniCC” which put the cooldown of the spell (soulstone in this case) onto the face of the button.

I haven’t done it.. but I could also add a trigger to “Power Aura” so it would make a sound and alert me when the ability “Create Soulstone” comes off cooldown.

Fire/Spellstone macro:

#showtooltip
/use [nomod,button:1]Grand Spellstone
/cast [nomod,button:2] Create Spellstone
/use [mod,button:1]Grand Firestone
/cast [mod,button:2] Create Firestone
/use [button:1] 16

With no modifier held down:
– If I have no Spellstone in my inventory the icon shows as a ?. If I have a stone the icon will show how many charges are left on the spellstone.
– Right-click to create a spellstone.
– Left-click to apply a Spellstone to my weapon.
If I hold down a modifier (shift, alt, ctrl):
– if I have no firestone the icon will change to a ? otherwise it will show how many charges are left on my firestone.
– Right-click to create a new firestone.
– Left-click to apply a Firestone to my current weapon.

Healthstones:

#showtooltip
/use [nomod] Fel Healthstone
/cast [button:2,nomod] Create Healthstone
/opt [mod:shift] /say C is for Cookies. Nom Nom Nom!
/cast [mod:shift] Ritual of Souls

If I have no healthstone (and haven’t had one since I logged on) , show a ?. (If I’ve had a healtstone before now then a “spent” healtstone will show on the UI. If I receive a different size healtstone than the one I had earlier in this session then the “spent” healthstone will continue to show. I normally just drag this odd-sized cookie to my bar so I use it in the fight)(I don’t know of a way around that)
If I have a healthstone left-click to consume it.
Right-click to create a new cookie.
Hold down shift and left or right click to call down a cookie jar.

If you don’t have the addon “MacroTalk” installed you will need to remove line 4 (/opt…).

Here’s my favorite macro http://www.macroexplain.com/m7

/target [help] targettarget /petattack [target=pettarget,noexists] target /cast [nochanneling] life tap(rank 1) /stopmacro [target=pettarget,noexists] /petfollow

The automatically generated explanation isn’t -bad-.. but it lack depth. Still the automated explaination is good when you [...]]]> There’s a new tool in town. MacroExplain will puzzle apart macros and try to tell you in english what the macro is doing.

Here’s my favorite macro http://www.macroexplain.com/m7

/target [help] targettarget
/petattack [target=pettarget,noexists] target
/cast [nochanneling] life tap(rank 1)
/stopmacro [target=pettarget,noexists]
/petfollow

The automatically generated explanation isn’t -bad-.. but it lack depth. Still the automated explaination is good when you can’t get a human one.

The human explaination:
If I have no-one targeted and I’m not currently channeling a spell then hitting this macro will trigger Life Tap (rank 1) (triggering the Life Tap buff from the Life Tap Glyph).

If I have the tank (a friendly target) as my target and I hit this macro it will set my target to be the tank’s target (hopefully the mob we’re killing), if my pet isn’t currently attacking anything it will send my pet to attack that mob, and then cast Life Tap (rank 1) (triggering the Life Tap buff from the Life Tap Glyph).

If I have an unfriendly mob targeted, and if my pet isn’t currently attacking anything it will send my pet to attack that mob, and then cast Life Tap (rank 1) (triggering the Life Tap buff from the Life Tap Glyph).

If my pet is attacking something then hitting this macro will cast Life Tap (rank 1) (triggering the Life Tap buff from the Life Tap Glyph) and call my pet back to follow me.

ie, in a fight I target the tank and hit this macro to trigger my life tap glyph and to send my pet. I then hit the macro again to call my pet back to me.

On my hunter I have replaced “/cast [nochanneling] life tap(rank 1)” with “/cast Hunter’s Mark” to mark the target.

Pet Attack:

/target [help] targettarget /petattack [target=pettarget,noexists] target /cast [nochanneling] life tap(rank 1) /stopmacro [target=pettarget,noexists] /petfollow

If my target is friendly to me (ie, the tank) use my target’s target and .. If I’m not currently channeling another spell, Life tap (rank 1) (because I have [...]]]> Woot! So it turns out I can add life tap to my pet attack macro.

Pet Attack:

/target [help] targettarget
/petattack [target=pettarget,noexists] target
/cast [nochanneling] life tap(rank 1)
/stopmacro [target=pettarget,noexists]
/petfollow

If my target is friendly to me (ie, the tank) use my target’s target and ..
If I’m not currently channeling another spell, Life tap (rank 1) (because I have the Life Tap glyph) and …
…If I have a target and my pet currently isn’t attacking anything, send my pet to attack my target.
…If I have a target and my pet -is- attacking something, call my pet back to my side.

Paraphrased: hit once to have pet attack, hit again to call pet back to you.

[Edited to add: minor tweak made to above so that the Life Tap doesn't interrupte me if I'm doing a channeled spell]

I’ve update this on my warlock macro page.

I didn’t write it. Sometimes good information actually -does- come from the official forums.

See the official forum post for more information about “random mounts” (ie, the answer is long.. they said it well.. and i’m not going to repeat it.. except to say that the addon “livestock” looks like a [...]]]>

/run CallCompanion(“CRITTER”, random(GetNumCompanions(“CRITTER”) ) )

I didn’t write it. Sometimes good information actually -does- come from the official forums.

See the official forum post for more information about “random mounts” (ie, the answer is long.. they said it well.. and i’m not going to repeat it.. except to say that the addon “livestock” looks like a very good solution).

Here’s the macro I use for pulling something. Set this up in your macros with the “?” icon.

#showtooltip Distracting Shot /clearfocus [target=focus,dead] /clearfocus [target=focus,noexists] /focus [target=focus,noexists] /cast [target=focus] Distracting Shot /stopcasting

What it does: Show the distracting shot icon. If my focus is dead, or if my focus [...]]]> Fiancee is helping another player with his hunter. I promised to repost his pulling macro.

Here’s the macro I use for pulling something. Set this up in your macros with the “?” icon.

#showtooltip Distracting Shot
/clearfocus [target=focus,dead]
/clearfocus [target=focus,noexists]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/cast [target=focus] Distracting Shot
/stopcasting

What it does:
Show the distracting shot icon.
If my focus is dead,
or if my focus doesn’t exist,
Set me target to be my focus.
Cast distracting shot on my focus.
Then stop shotting (Ie, stop my auto-shot).

Normally you’d use this to pull something to you to put it in a freezing trap (but stop auto-shooting so you don’t break your freezing trap). This sets your target to be your focus.. so if you have the right addons (I’m thinking Quartz) setup you’ll see a timer for your trap duration.

Keep in mind that distracting shots don’t break ice traps. So if you think that the healer is getting higher than you on the trapped mob’s threat list (or if you have to feighn death) you can hit this macro again to hit your focus with another distracting shot.

Anyway.. Lilac has run out of macro slots. I know, hard to imagine.. but every [...]]]> So I’ve got this macro problem.. you might call it an addiction.. but that’s only if you look at it from the outside where it looks all obsessive and weird. From the insider (my view) it looks perfectly normal.

Anyway.. Lilac has run out of macro slots. I know, hard to imagine.. but every single slot for a macro for Lilac is totally full. The part that frustrates me.. is that most of her macros follow a template.

I have all these spells.. and I want them to work the same way.. no matter which spell I hit.

Here’s her standard spell template:

1: /target [help] targettarget
2: /targetexact Astral Flare
/targetexact Demon Chains
{… and a couple more}
3: /use 13
/use 14
4: /cast [button:2, target=focus][] {Some spellname here}

What it does:
1: if you click the tank (or a big bear butt) use his target instead. Poor man’s assist macro.
2: If any of those special targets exist, make them the target for the next spell. The last target listed is the one that “wins” so if you’re at Curator and an Astral Flare is up, it targets the Flare first and Curator when the Flare is dead. This is good for DPS (like Lilac) but bad for Tanks. So add this carefully depending on your role. Since I’m using “targetexact” they only kick in if that exact mob is up. I added Moroes because after he disappears you lose targeting on him.. and I keep losing dps time clicking the spell and not having him targeted.
3: Use your trinkets. This works well as long as they don’t trigger GCD. And as long as you -want- them triggered everytime their cooldown is available. I adjust this when I use something that I want to save.. like the PVP trinket.
4: If you click the button (or use the keybinding) cast this on your target. If you right-clicked it (button:2) then cast it on your focus.

Almost all of Lilac’s spells follow this template. The only spell I can think of that’s different is my Pet macro and Curse of Doom (which also triggers Amplify Curse).

By following this template I know that all of my spells/buttons work the same way.. BUT it also means that on-the-fly or frivolous macros are out of the question.. unless I put them on the ‘General’ tab.

Ok.. so I guess this is a general *grumble*. I suppose I should look to see if there are addons for this.. hrm.

[edited to add:]
*grumble* the targeting bit turns out it needs more tweaking.

Last week Lilac ran Mana Tombs and I got my first taste of warlock CC. I dutifully made up a focus macro to get seduction to work.

[...]]]> So.. well.. I’m a programmer at heart. If it’s good as it is, it’d be even better if I could get a computer to do it.

Last week Lilac ran Mana Tombs and I got my first taste of warlock CC. I dutifully made up a focus macro to get seduction to work.

/cast [button:2, target=focus] Seduction
/cast Seduction

If I click this button with my right mouse button, cast seduction on my focus. Otherwise, cast it on my target

It was lovely. CC worked. Mana Tombs was a win. Then I went back to questing.. At this point I changed back to using my voidwalker.. and had a moment of “harumph”. It seems rather silly to have a button for “Seduction” on my button bar when I don’t have my Succubus out. Then I got to thinking (cue ominous music).

I really don’t want to have to juggle buttons on my screen. Adding/removing the Seduction button is just asking for it to -not- be there when I really need it. But… I can only ever have a single pet.. and I can tell a macro to cast a spell based on the pet I have out.. So I updated my macro to the following:

/cast [button:2, target=focus,pet:Succubus] Seduction
/cast [pet:Succubus] Seduction
/cast [pet:Voidwalker] Suffering

Same as before.. adding, if my pet is my voidy, use this button to cast Suffering instead

Nice. A while back I took Suffering off of autocast because it seemed unnecessary when in a normal fight. When I’m fighting 2+ mobs I manually hit it to keep the mobs on my Voidy. I toodled around Zangarmarsh with this macro for a while.. but then I got to thinking again. (more ominous music) Suffering is only useful when I’m in combat.. when I’m not in combat I would like a one-button easy way to tell my voidy to suck shadows. Ta da, new macro:

/cast [button:2, target=focus,pet:Succubus] Seduction
/cast [pet:Succubus] Seduction
/cast [combat,pet:Voidwalker] Suffering
/cast [nocombat,pet:Voidwalker] Consume Shadows

Same as before.. adding, if my pet is my voidy, and I’m not in combat then button causes voidy to Consume Shadows.

Nice-y Nice! Ran around some more.. totally full of myself. Happy with macroing.. Then I mounted on my fel pony.

Suddenly I have a button that doesn’t do anything. When I’m on my fel pony I have no pet… So I updated the macro again to make it so that if no other command has precedence, do a dismount. Now the button does something.. the only drawback is that /dismount has no icon.. so I’ve got this ugly questionmark on my screen.. not loving that.

/cast [button:2, target=focus,pet:Succubus] Seduction
/cast [pet:Succubus] Seduction
/cast [combat,pet:Voidwalker] Suffering
/cast [nocombat,pet:Voidwalker] Consume Shadows
/dismount

Same as before.. adding, dismount to the end.

Played around with it some more and got the following:

/cast [button:2, target=focus,pet:Succubus] Seduction
/cast [pet:Succubus] Seduction
/cast [combat,pet:Voidwalker] Suffering
/cast [nocombat,pet:Voidwalker] Consume Shadows
/cast [mounted] Summon Dreadsteed

Same as before.. but made it show the “mount” button when I’m on a steed.

I have a feeling this still needs to be updated.. My imp isn’t accounted for.. and really doesn’t have any fire-when ready abilities. Hrm.. I -could- get too smart for my own good and put “Curse of Doom” on the button when the imp is out.. normally when I fight a boss I’m using the Imp.. and that’s nearly the only time I use curse of Doom. HRM.

Also my fel puppy have a lot of abilities.. and I have a feeling I’m going to want to bind them to buttons.. but I haven’t played with the puppy out much.. so I don’t know exactly how I’m going to need to change the macro.

For now.. it makes me happy.
[Edited to add: Happy is such a relative state. I played with it some more to add the Felhound and then to condense it a little.]

/cast [pet:Voidwalker,combat]Suffering; [pet:Voidwalker,nocombat]Consume Shadows; [pet:Succubus,button:2,target=focus][pet:succubus]Seduction; [pet:Felhunter]Devour Magic, [pet:felhunter,button:2]Spell Lock
/cast [mounted]Summon Dreadsteed

This version is two lines. It’s 240 characters long.
To translate:
If my pet is a voidwalker, and I’m in combat, cast Suffering.
If my pet is a voidwalker, and I’m not in combat, cast Consume Shadow.
If my pet is a succubus and I use the right-mouse button, cast Seduction on my focus.
If my pet is a succubus and I use the left-mouse button, cast Seduction.
If my pet is my Felhunter, cast Devour magic (on felhunter’s target if he has one, on my target if he has no target).
If my pet is my Felhunter and I use the right-mouse button, cast Spell Lock (on felhunter’s target if he has one, on my target if he has not target).
If I’m mounted, cast Summon Dreadsteed(which should dismount me).

/target [help] targettarget /cast Hunter’s Mark /petattack [target=pettarget,noexists] target /cast [pet:Boar] [...]]]> I tweaked my Hunter’s attack macro based on the buggy piggies. This macro lets me take “Charge” off auto-cast but still uses it at the beginning of the fight. It should also prevent my piggie from breaking my (and other people’s) traps. New macro:

/target [help] targettarget
/cast Hunter’s Mark
/petattack [target=pettarget,noexists] target
/cast [pet:Boar] Charge
/stopmacro [target=pettarget,noexists]
/petfollow

If my target is friendly to me, use his target instead (nice for when there’s a big bear butt in the way).
Put Hunter’s Mark on my target
If my pet doesn’t currently have a target, sent my pet against my current target.
If my pet is a boar, cast Charge (which I’ve taken off of autocast so it won’t break my traps).
Stop the macro if my pet doesn’t have a target.
(If my pet does have a target) Call my pet back to me and tell him to follow me.

If my piggy is close enough to charge.. I’m not sure I could call him back to me faster than he can charge his target and get aggro. But other than that.. happy macro.

Hit once to send pet(and tell piggy to charge). Hit again to call pet back.