Tastes Like Battle Chicken

This is the lunchmeat in the middle of a Noobkin to Boomkin sandwich: check out part 1 at Noobkin to Boomkin and part 3 at Noobkin to Boomkin: Stats.

Delos over at Laser Chicken reminded me of something I completely neglected to cover in the last blog: macros!

Useful Macro Number 1: Trinket Macros
Note: you can do this for any spell; I’m using wrath as an example as Delos did, but let’s say you want your trinkets to pop when you switch for eclipse; just replace “Wrath” with “Starfire.”

#showtooltip Wrath
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Wrath

(Thank you for the reminder, Delos!)  I actually learned this from Ultraking back about halfway through TK and SSC, when he started reaching out for info on increasing his dps like I have (I have used it for healing, too).  Macro your trinkets to spells you use often.  I don’t have to do this right now, because for better or for worse, both of my trinkets activate on equip, meaning there’s a chance on spellcast for them to proc. But most trinkets are on use, and I can tell you from experience, unless someone says, “blow your cooldowns,” you’re probably going to a) forget this, or b) wait too long.

Useful Macro Number 2: Rez Announcement

#showtooltip
/cast Rebirth
/raid <<<rezzing %t>>>
/s Get up, %t!

This macro does three things simultaneously and has a lot of room for personalization. (This also works with our new out-of-combat rez, just change “Rebirth” to “Revive.”) DPS or not, you will eventually be asked to battle rez someone, and it helps for everyone to know who you’re rezzing, especially when you hear something like, “Amber, get a dps up.”  This macro first rezzes the target, then announces who you’re rezzing to the raid, and then allows you to say something stupid.  Currently, my Rebirth macro says “Oooh, a piece of <target>,” and my Revive macro says, “You can’t fix stupid.”  Hehehe.

Useful Macro Number 3:  Assist Macro

/assist INSERTTARGETHERE

Simple macro that I almost never use these days, but that I’m hoping to find very useful in Ulduar.  As a moonkin your assist target will pretty much always be a tank (so replace INSERTTARGETHERE with your tank’s name).  The only time I use this macro anymore is when one of our warrior tanks is tanking Eye of Eternity Phase 2.  It’s essentially a targeting macro.  It’s extremely useful in fights with lots of single target mobs.  Rather than tabbing through looking for the next raid target, just hit this macro and you’ll automatically target the same target as the tank.  We’ve often heard “assist <name>, you <insert insult here>!” on vent.

Useful Macro Number 4: Mouseover Macro

#showtooltip
/cast [target=mouseover] Remove Curse

Oh crap, the mages are dead and everyone else is stupid.  Someone needs to decurse or the raid is going to wipe!  If you are not usually a decurser (if you are, you should seriously consider getting the Decursive mod–I used it for Kalecgos in Sunwell and it rocked), then this is a macro you should make use of.  Like any other macro, this is useful for lots of spells.  As a healer, I used this along with Grid with great success.  Basically, this casts the spell of your choice on any target you mouseover, whether on Grid, your raid UI, or just on your screen.

There are a million fun and useful ways to make use of macros; get yourself familiar with them.  It’s a skill worth learning.