Community Round-Up: Hunter Macros
Over in the new forums, shibumi started a topic asking for suggestions on hunter macros. This is a subject that I get a decent amount of e-mail about; in particular, I’m often asked about the best Wind Serpent/Lightning Breath macro. But unfortunately for the hunters who write to me, I know very little about macros. I sometimes use a targeting macro to help me find certain named rare beasts, but that’s about it.
Luckily, there are a lot of good resources out there for hunter macros. I’ve run across several good articles lately that I wanted to share.
- Aspect of the Hare: Pike’s Hunter Macros
- A Girl, a Gun and a Stripey Cat: Shot Rotation Macros
- DPS: We Deliver: Pet, Growl & PVP
- WoW Wiki: Useful Macros for Hunters
I also wanted to call out the Helpful Macro section of Soilgheas Pet Guide for WotLK. This is a work in progress and aimed primarily at pets under the new Wrath of the Lich King mechanics, but the macro basics are good for the current live game as well as WotLK.
But I’m certain that I am missing a lot of good resources, and I bet that there are some really neat pet-specific macros out there are well. So comment here or swing by the forums, but either way I’d love to hear what I’m missing.
13 Comments
thoose are really cool macros!!!! lol
I try not to use a ton of macros, but the ones off of wowwiki are pretty good. Specifically, I started using the one that rotates auto shot > steady shot and pops Beastal Wrath whenever it’s up, to steady my shots and improve my dps. Seems to work pretty well too.
I got a steady, auto, kill command, LB, tranq macro I rely on.
Also a use healthstone helps to prevent bag fumbling.
I don’t really play too seriously so i’m not bond on complex macros that make my game be easier, and make myself stronger. Though, i do make macros which send pet and i say a certain thing, and i also use the /pet command (simillar to /e but it’s working for pet (addon)) to it for some annoying RP in arena which drives people crazy
I don’t use shot rotation macros - I think these are really only useful for boss fights in instances (which I don’t do). I do have one macro which I use all the time, though, and have mapped to a key. It’s this:
/target pettarget
/cast attack
/cast hunter’s mark
This makes your hunter attack whatever your pet is currently fighting. The hunter’s mark line is optional, and you may want to omit it and cast HM manually, since it triggers the global cooldown and prevents you from using any other shot for about a second.
Note also that “/cast attack” is a toggle. If you call this macro when you’re already attacking the target (easy to do, in some circumstances), you will stop attacking! In theory, you should be able to fix this by writing “/cast !attack”, but this doesn’t seem to work, so I just live with sometimes having to push the button twice. It’s still better than attacking the wrong mob when pet is tanking 2 or 3, since the one you shoot at will immediately aggro onto you.
I loathe shot macros. Loathe. Will NOT use them. (And my DPS and total damage done are both higher when I don’t–it’s nice when reality comes down on the side of your principles :) )
I use a variation of Lovemypet’s macro, above [which I am very interested in and want to go home and play with now]. This one toggles the pet’s attack instead of the player’s:
/petfollow [target=pettarget,exists]
/stopmacro [target=pettarget,exists]
/cast Hunter’s Mark
/petattack
One push casts HM on your target and sends your pet to attack it; a second push calls your pet back. Great for those AAAAH NOT THE SHEEP moments (though I noticed a while ago that pets now automatically break off attack on all newly-CCed mobs, not just trapped ones. Still, I am always fond of panic buttons).
Interesting - from a very ignorant pov, I don’t know if having a shot macro would help or not, it seems like it should, but I’ve never tried otherwise. just fire what and when I can. I find in the last few patches I don’t use hunter’s mark at all, saving the mana for arcane or a sting. steady shot mostly.
of course, this is from a guy that never groups, so solo play is probably not affected much by macros.
just curious. thanks
Hmmm. No offence to Arides, but I get the same impression from her/him that I get from reading most suggestions about hunter macros - that the game is all about group play and instances (”Great for those AAAAH NOT THE SHEEP moments”).
I hate instances, and I only rarely group (mostly to help out someone who asks me nicely). My simple macro is intended to ensure that my hunters are attacking the same target as their pets. It also saves a lot of time when you can’t see exactly what’s going on, but you know that pet hasn’t returned after the mob has died. I simply hit G (which happens to be the key I map this macro to), and I can immediately see (because of /target pettarget) what my pet is focused on. Moreover, I automatically attack it, which is usually (though not always) the best thing to do.
To Lovemypet: You can fix your macro by replacing “/cast attack” with “/startattack”, as following
#showtooltip
/target pettarget
/startattack
/cast hunter’s mark
Thank you, Dvorkin - that does indeed solve the toggle problem of my macro.
In case anyone’s wondering about the #showtooltip that Dvorkin added - this doesn’t affect what the macro does, only what you see when you mouse over the macro on your toolbar.
Once I knew the answer, I was able to find the /startattack command in Cogwheel’s guide. As far as I know, this is the only (putatively) complete guide to writing macros. You can find it at http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3881820910
Oh wow — now *that* is a macro guide. Thanks, Lovemypet!
like the cute little Draenei he’s currently playing.
That should have read “blushes” (between angle brackets)… then the rest. I guess I don’t know the markup rules here.
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