WoW Macros Explained (Retail & Forever) - Foundations for Beginners — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00By the end of this video, you'll be able
2. 0:01to write your own macros built around
3. 0:03exactly how you like to play. Like this
4. 0:05one, one button that heals whoever I'm
5. 0:07hovering, attacks if it's an enemy, and
6. 0:10hits my focus when I hold shift. I'm
7. 0:13Chris, aka Silver Kitty, a multi-bracket
8. 0:16rank one player and former Blizzard
9. 0:18software engineer. Let's start with line
10. 0:20one. So, what actually is a macro? At
11. 0:23its core, it's just an action bar button
12. 0:26that types in the chat box for you. To
13. 0:28create a macro, type {slash} macro,
14. 0:30{slash} m, or hit escape and click
15. 0:32macros. Click new, pick any icon if you
16. 0:35want, give it a name, and type whatever
17. 0:38you want. Drag it to your bar and press
18. 0:40it. My character says hello world,
19. 0:43exactly as if I had typed it in the chat
20. 0:44window.
21. 0:46If you want to force it to be a specific
22. 0:48channel, you can add that channel in
23. 0:49front. Now it'll yell it.
24. 0:52And chat isn't just for talking.
25. 0:54Blizzard built a ton of commands into
26. 0:56the game that we can use, like {slash}
27. 0:58target, {slash} cast, {slash} focus, and
28. 1:01even {slash} dance, or {slash} macro.
29. 1:03Put these commands into a macro, and
30. 1:05that's where things can get powerful.
31. 1:08Let's start with {slash} target. Type
32. 1:10{slash} target and the name of someone
33. 1:12nearby, and it targets them, just like
34. 1:14clicking on them. Next, casting a spell.
35. 1:17Type {slash} cast and the spell's name,
36. 1:19exactly as it's spelled in the
37. 1:21spellbook. The easiest way to avoid
38. 1:23typos is to open your spellbook and
39. 1:26shift-click the spell straight into the
40. 1:28macro.
41. 1:29Now put them together. {slash} target on
42. 1:31the first line, {slash} cast on the
43. 1:33second, and one press does both. It
44. 1:35targets them and casts the spell. But
45. 1:38notice when you hover over it, there's
46. 1:39no tooltip. Add show tooltip on the very
47. 1:43first line, and now hovering it shows
48. 1:45the spell's full tooltip, just like a
49. 1:47normal button. And here's a trick. If
50. 1:50you add a spell name after show tooltip,
51. 1:52the button shows that spell's icon and
52. 1:54cooldown instead of the one the macro
53. 1:57casts. Maybe you've seen this on streams
54. 1:59where someone seems to have the same
55. 2:01ability on their bars over and over.
56. 2:03They're using macros like this to keep
57. 2:05an eye on important cooldowns while they
58. 2:07press their normal spells. Here's where
59. 2:09it gets good. Say I wanted to spell my
60. 2:11party member. I could write {slash}
61. 2:14target party one, then {slash} cast
62. 2:17dispel.
63. 2:18Party one is a built-in name for
64. 2:20whoever's in the first slot of your
65. 2:22party frames.
66. 2:23But that changes my target. And I have
67. 2:25to click the enemy again afterwards.
68. 2:27Instead, put the target in square
69. 2:29brackets with an at sign.
70. 2:32{slash} cast {open bracket} {at party
71. 2:35one} {close bracket} dispel.
72. 2:37It casts on party one and my target
73. 2:39never changes.
74. 2:40Square brackets are conditionals. They
75. 2:42tell the game who to cast on and when.
76. 2:45The at sign is the who. You can use at
77. 2:48player for yourself, at focus for your
78. 2:50focus target, at party one and at party
79. 2:53two for your teammates, and more.
80. 2:55Another macro that's sometimes useful is
81. 2:57the mouseover macro. {slash} cast {open
82. 3:01bracket} {at mouseover, {comma} help,
83. 3:04{comma} no dead} {close bracket} then an
84. 3:07empty pair of brackets, then a heal.
85. 3:10Hover a party frame, press the key, and
86. 3:12it heals them. No clicking, and your
87. 3:14target doesn't change. Help means they
88. 3:16have to be friendly, no dead means they
89. 3:18have to be alive. And those empty
90. 3:20brackets at the end? That's the
91. 3:21fallback. If I'm not hovering anyone,
92. 3:24the macro falls back to my current
93. 3:25target. Without them, the button just
94. 3:28does nothing when your mouse isn't
95. 3:29hovering someone. That's the most common
96. 3:31mistake I see in people's macros.
97. 3:33The game checks the brackets left to
98. 3:35right and uses the first one that's
99. 3:37true. With empty brackets always
100. 3:40evaluating to true.
101. 3:42Now let's put two spells on one button.
102. 3:44{slash} cast {open bracket} harm {close
103. 3:47bracket} a damage spell then a semicolon
104. 3:51then a heal.
105. 3:52The semicolon means otherwise. If my
106. 3:54target is an enemy, it casts the damage
107. 3:57spell. Otherwise, it casts a heal.
108. 3:59Watch the icon. It changes depending on
109. 4:02what I'm targeting.
110. 4:03Remember, the game reads left to right
111. 4:05and uses the first one that's true.
112. 4:08Put your specific conditions first and
113. 4:10your fallback last.
114. 4:12You can also make one button do
115. 4:13something different when you hold a key.
116. 4:16/cast open bracket mod:shift close
117. 4:18bracket one spell semicolon another
118. 4:22spell. Hold shift and press it and you
119. 4:24get the first spell. Press it normally,
120. 4:26you get the second. Combine it with an
121. 4:28at sign and it gets really powerful.
122. 4:31/cast open bracket mod:shift, @focus
123. 4:34close bracket hex semicolon hex.
124. 4:38Holding shift hexes my focus target and
125. 4:41pressing it normally hexes my current
126. 4:43target without ever switching targets.
127. 4:45You can use shift, control, or alt and
128. 4:48even combined conditions like a mount
129. 4:50macro that uses your sprint while in
130. 4:52combat and your mount out of combat.
131. 4:56Now a few tricks the top players use
132. 4:57every day.
133. 4:59Skill shots. Put @cursor in brackets and
134. 5:02the spell lands right where your mouse
135. 5:04is the moment you press it. No green
136. 5:06circle, no extra click. These save
137. 5:08valuable time that can be the difference
138. 5:10between winning and losing, but you
139. 5:12might want to hold off until you're
140. 5:13familiar with the skill shots ranges and
141. 5:16sizes. When you're ready, these are some
142. 5:18of the best macros to have. /stopcasting
143. 5:22If you're casting and need to interrupt
144. 5:24someone, your interrupt has to wait
145. 5:25until your cast finishes. Put
146. 5:28/stopcasting on the line before it and
147. 5:30it cancels your cast and interrupts
148. 5:32instantly. You can also put it before
149. 5:34major defensives so you never die
150. 5:36mid-cast without being able to use them.
151. 5:39And /cancelaura removes a buff from
152. 5:41yourself. This is how mages cancel their
153. 5:44ice block early and stay aggressive when
154. 5:46they no longer need its benefit or just
155. 5:48want to use it to break a CC.
156. 5:50It's also great to have one playing
157. 5:51against mages. If a paladin gives you
158. 5:54blessing of protection, a mage can spell
159. 5:56steal it, so you cancel it after getting
160. 5:58its initial benefit with a cancel aura
161. 6:00macro.
162. 6:02A few quick extras. Trinkets, {slash}
163. 6:05use 13 uses your top trinket and {slash}
164. 6:08use 14 your bottom one. Those numbers
165. 6:10are equipment slots, so the macros keep
166. 6:13working when you swap trinkets.
167. 6:15Trinkets don't trigger the global
168. 6:16cooldown, so put one on the line above a
169. 6:19big cooldown and one press uses both.
170. 6:21You can also {slash} use items by name,
171. 6:24like for a health stone or potions.
172. 6:28A useful one for classic versions of the
173. 6:30game is {slash} start attack, which
174. 6:32starts your auto attack. {slash} pet
175. 6:35attack sends your pet to attack and
176. 6:37{slash} pet follow commands it to follow
177. 6:39you. And {slash} cast sequence with a
178. 6:42list of spells separated by commas
179. 6:45creates a macro where each press casts
180. 6:47the next spell in the list. Add reset
181. 6:50equals target, combat, or a number of
182. 6:53seconds to start it over. Just know that
183. 6:55if a spell in the sequence is on
184. 6:57cooldown, it gets stuck there until it's
185. 6:59ready. One more targeting tip. In arenas
186. 7:02and dungeons, party one and party two
187. 7:04are whoever's in those slots on your
188. 7:06party frames. This order changes every
189. 7:09round or with every new group, so the
190. 7:11button you use to help your healer or
191. 7:13tank might be different every time. So,
192. 7:16you aren't really able to build muscle
193. 7:17memory tied to roles. WoW has no {at}
194. 7:20healer or {at} tank, so I built it into
195. 7:23my add-on, SK Tools. Write {at} healer,
196. 7:26{at} tank, or {at} DPS one, or {at} DPS
197. 7:29two into your macro, and it swaps in the
198. 7:32right player for you every time. Before
199. 7:34you go build your own, four quick fixes
200. 7:36if a macro isn't working. One, spell
201. 7:39names must match exactly. Shift-click
202. 7:42from your spell book to prevent typos.
203. 7:44Two, the game reads left to right. If a
204. 7:46spell with no condition comes first,
205. 7:49nothing after it ever runs.
206. 7:51Three, macros are limited to 255
207. 7:54characters. Remove extra spaces if you
208. 7:56run out. Use the modern at instead of
209. 7:59target equals, and use {slash} use
210. 8:02instead of cast if you need more space.
211. 8:04And four, for WoW forever and other
212. 8:07versions with spell ranks, {slash} cast
213. 8:09frostbolt cast your highest rank. Add
214. 8:12the rank in parentheses, like frostbolt
215. 8:14parentheses rank one, to cast a lower
216. 8:16one. That's everything you need to read,
217. 8:18fix, and write your own macros. Every
218. 8:21macro from this video is in the
219. 8:22description, ready to copy. If there's
220. 8:25one you can't figure out, tell me what
221. 8:27you want it to do in the comments, and
222. 8:28I'll help you build it. And if you
223. 8:30enjoyed this, please consider
224. 8:31subscribing, as I'll be creating more
225. 8:34in-depth videos for my Foundations for
226. 8:36Beginners series.