Post by Merelinaus on Apr 15, 2008 6:34:46 GMT -5
Okay...I recently took quite an interest in macros, so I went to find absolutely everything I could about them. I ended up writing a macro that is just absolutely OP for warlocks, so I'll try to replicate it. Here goes:
/castsequence [group] reset=target/combat/15 Corruption, Siphon Life, Shoot; reset=target/combat/13.5 Corruption, Curse of Agony, Siphon Life, Shoot
What it does: This macro sets up two distinct casting rotations for trash mobs. One of them operates when the condition [group] is fulfilled, meaning it is used while the warlock is in a group of some kind. That rotation goes Siphon life, Corruption, then wand pew pew. The reason I used this rotation is it is mana efficient and is sufficient DPS for most trash mobs in instances/group settings that die within 18 seconds. The shoot at the end could be replaced with Shadowbolt for added DPS with less mana efficiency, however, I would strongly recommend that you also store shadowbolt elsewhere on your hotbar (see the use section). Next, the macro also sets up a casting rotation for soloing. When not in a group, the order is Curse of Agony, Siphon Life, Corruption, shoot. Again, this is an adequate amount of DPS without going overboard on mana. Both casting rotations are set up to reset when targets are changed, combat ends, or it's time to refresh the first DoT. This is all stored on ONE BUTTON on the hotbar. After writing this macro, I seriously removed 4 icons from my hotbar and moved some very important spells to more convenient locations.
The above macro is just an example. It can be adjusted to fit your preferred rotation of DoT's. However, it is very important to note that in a cast sequence macro, each spell is only cast once for each time it's in the macro, so if you want to be able to cast shadowbolt more than once per trip through the macro, it needs to be in there more than once.
I also designed a Boss Mob (or any more-than-average difficulty mob) macro with the same idea in mind. Non-affliction locks don't really need a macro for this: Curse of Doom, then corruption, then spam shadowbolt until the enemy is dead, refreshing the DoTs if need be. However, affliction locks add a few toys to the mix, so it looks like this:
/castsequence Unstable Affliction, Curse of Doom, Siphon Life, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, Corruption, Siphon Life, Unstable Affliction, Corruption
this macro should (if my math is all correct) gurantee that the proper DoT will be active on the button when it needs refreshed. It saves the warlock time having to hunt for buttons. If the warlock is watchful of the debuffs on the mob and refreshes a DoT as soon as it falls, this gives remarkable DPS (just remember that Unstable Affliction has a 1.5 second cast when refreshing it). This does use curse of doom as the active curse. If you are a raid spec Malediction lock, I recommend storing Curse of Shadow/Elements on the hotbar in a very convenient place and leaving it out of the macro, since it only has to be refreshed every 5 minutes. The change simply requires removing curse of doom from the macro. I have not done the math to see how it works out with Curse of Agony, but Curse of Doom is better overall DPS in long boss fights where it actually has time to Detonate. The downtime between DoT refreshes can be spent shadowbolting or wand pew pewing to get mana back (assuming you have a competent paladin in the raid). Also, it should be noted, that boss fights with special timing (i.e. Curator in Karazhan) should NOT be done with this macro, due to the nature of timing Curse of Doom to detonate during an Evocate.
General use of the macros: The point of a cast sequence macro is that it stores a series to one button. For example, in the boss mob macro, the first time you click it, it will begin casting unstable affliction, the second time, Curse of Doom, third Siphon Life, and so on, until you cast the last spell in the sequence, which will automatically revert it back to the beginning of the sequence. It is basically a way to store multiple spells on one button, but it's much smarter than that, if you arrange your spells strategically in the sequence.
Locks have a TON of spells to keep track of and I'm in no way done with macros for any class I play, so if you have a macro request, let me know what you'd like it to do and I'll see what I can come up with.
/castsequence [group] reset=target/combat/15 Corruption, Siphon Life, Shoot; reset=target/combat/13.5 Corruption, Curse of Agony, Siphon Life, Shoot
What it does: This macro sets up two distinct casting rotations for trash mobs. One of them operates when the condition [group] is fulfilled, meaning it is used while the warlock is in a group of some kind. That rotation goes Siphon life, Corruption, then wand pew pew. The reason I used this rotation is it is mana efficient and is sufficient DPS for most trash mobs in instances/group settings that die within 18 seconds. The shoot at the end could be replaced with Shadowbolt for added DPS with less mana efficiency, however, I would strongly recommend that you also store shadowbolt elsewhere on your hotbar (see the use section). Next, the macro also sets up a casting rotation for soloing. When not in a group, the order is Curse of Agony, Siphon Life, Corruption, shoot. Again, this is an adequate amount of DPS without going overboard on mana. Both casting rotations are set up to reset when targets are changed, combat ends, or it's time to refresh the first DoT. This is all stored on ONE BUTTON on the hotbar. After writing this macro, I seriously removed 4 icons from my hotbar and moved some very important spells to more convenient locations.
The above macro is just an example. It can be adjusted to fit your preferred rotation of DoT's. However, it is very important to note that in a cast sequence macro, each spell is only cast once for each time it's in the macro, so if you want to be able to cast shadowbolt more than once per trip through the macro, it needs to be in there more than once.
I also designed a Boss Mob (or any more-than-average difficulty mob) macro with the same idea in mind. Non-affliction locks don't really need a macro for this: Curse of Doom, then corruption, then spam shadowbolt until the enemy is dead, refreshing the DoTs if need be. However, affliction locks add a few toys to the mix, so it looks like this:
/castsequence Unstable Affliction, Curse of Doom, Siphon Life, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, Corruption, Siphon Life, Unstable Affliction, Corruption
this macro should (if my math is all correct) gurantee that the proper DoT will be active on the button when it needs refreshed. It saves the warlock time having to hunt for buttons. If the warlock is watchful of the debuffs on the mob and refreshes a DoT as soon as it falls, this gives remarkable DPS (just remember that Unstable Affliction has a 1.5 second cast when refreshing it). This does use curse of doom as the active curse. If you are a raid spec Malediction lock, I recommend storing Curse of Shadow/Elements on the hotbar in a very convenient place and leaving it out of the macro, since it only has to be refreshed every 5 minutes. The change simply requires removing curse of doom from the macro. I have not done the math to see how it works out with Curse of Agony, but Curse of Doom is better overall DPS in long boss fights where it actually has time to Detonate. The downtime between DoT refreshes can be spent shadowbolting or wand pew pewing to get mana back (assuming you have a competent paladin in the raid). Also, it should be noted, that boss fights with special timing (i.e. Curator in Karazhan) should NOT be done with this macro, due to the nature of timing Curse of Doom to detonate during an Evocate.
General use of the macros: The point of a cast sequence macro is that it stores a series to one button. For example, in the boss mob macro, the first time you click it, it will begin casting unstable affliction, the second time, Curse of Doom, third Siphon Life, and so on, until you cast the last spell in the sequence, which will automatically revert it back to the beginning of the sequence. It is basically a way to store multiple spells on one button, but it's much smarter than that, if you arrange your spells strategically in the sequence.
Locks have a TON of spells to keep track of and I'm in no way done with macros for any class I play, so if you have a macro request, let me know what you'd like it to do and I'll see what I can come up with.
