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In World of Warcraft, as you will read in multiple wow gold guides, there are dozens of different ways to make solid profits from grinding on mobs, depending on which level you are at and which zone you are in. At the lowest levels, finding good grinding mobs is relatively easy. Anything that drops cloth is a gold mine. At higher levels it gets slightly more complex as you try to find ways to make as much gold as possible for the time you spend on the process.

The WoW Gold Guide Method

The WoW gold guide method is probably the easiest way to make easy gold and that is to simply look up where the top producing mobs are located in a WoW gold guide and then camp out in that location until you can gain some solid profit. Rare mobs, of which there are more than 150 in the game, are located in every zone and will almost always drop more profitable items. Instance mobs and bosses are usually guarantees for solid profits as well, giving you a good reason to camp out in dungeons with your guild mates.

The Trial and Error Method

The method many people use to find gold when they don’t have a WoW gold guide on hand is simply to wander the game’s many zones and look for places that are more profitable. While this may seem like a good idea (and the purists out there will argue that it is better) because you don’t run into heavily crowded farming locations, you must remember that there are multiple spots in the game that are just plain useless to the gold farmer. WoW gold guides exist for a reason – they know where those locations are and they know where to send you instead.

Building Your Warchest

When you know a gold spot is a good one, the best thing you can do, even without a WoW gold guide, is to spend as much time there as possible and get to know the drop rates, the relative frequency with which the mobs appear, and how many people you can expect to deal with. Many people will spend one hour farming a particular location that a WoW gold guide or friend recommended only to come to the conclusion it is a waste with only 50 gold gathered. However, if they had waited, they might have gotten the rare drop that is guaranteed to eventually appear and be worth 500 gold, brining that average up substantially.

Regardless of whether you have a WoW gold guide on hand or not, you can make solid decisions and boost your gold making potential simply by being observant, killing the right mobs at the right time, and keeping close track of your earnings.

I have been a big critic of gold guides for a long time. They all claim to do the same thing – help you get as much gold as possible and yet they all use the same recycled strategies. How can you make that much gold if you are using the same methods as everyone else in the market. The crowding and overlap is substantial. Remember when you could make 1,000 gold an hour in Icecrown with Titanium mining? I do. These days, you’re lucky to come away with 500 gold and the price has doubled since Wrath was released because of the 3.2 gem additions.
So, when a new gold guide comes out and claims to be better than all the other ones, I tend to roll my eyes. This time however, I took a closer look because the guide in question wasn’t showing anyone how to farm or quest their way to major gold counts. Instead, the guide claimed to be a streamlined, step by step process to making the entire gold cap – a count of over 214,700 gold – something that I’ve only seen once before in my entire time playing this game (and that was on a guild leader).
The gold guides these days may mention the gold cap, but none has been so brazen to claim it can get you there without hours and hours of your life devoted to farming (I estimate it would take over 400 hours to get there with normal farming methods). So, having a guide that is not too big, not too overwhelming with information and very brazen with its claims is interesting.

Click Here To Get Hit Gold Cap

Alright, I exaggerated a little, Shadow Priests are not forgotten, but when it comes to raiding end game content most guilds shun the idea of a shadow priest.  I myself can attest to the fact, once you hit 80 everyone asks when your going to start healing for raids.  Most people only consider shadow a viable spec for leveling, with little consideration to it being a legitimate raiding spec, so I would like to go over some of the facts that few people consider.

1. DPS- DPS is first and for most for the shadow priest spec when it comes to raiding.  Few realize it, but pound for pound, shadow as a ranged caster spec can hit just as hard, if not harder than any mage or warlock in the game.  DPS may be a dime a dozen for heroics, but when it comes to building an ICC raid, the need for high dps ranged output from a caster is normal a little more hard to find, having a geared shadow priest in the guild could add that needed spot.
2. Raid Buffs- When building a 10 man raid, you can’t always get your winning combo of a priest heals, druid heals and shammy heals.  Having a shadow priest in the raid allows you those vital buffs of Divine Spirit, Power Word: Fortitude and Shadow Protection, while still allowing an open spot for another healer.
3. Free HOTS- Here is what I consider the key to a shadow priests power, and thats Syphon Life. This not only gives your shadow priest the ability to keep themselves healed up during the raid, but also tosses out around 100 hp per second of heals to the raid.  I don’t know about you, but I love any extra healing I can get raid wise.
4. Free Mana- One of the most useful shadow talents, Vampiric Touch, causes a 15 second DoT effect on the target. On a successful Mind Blast hit, it places the Replenishment effect on up to 10 raid or party members, which restores 1% of their total mana every 5 seconds for 15 seconds.
5. Magic Dispell- A shadow priest has the ability to dispell magic, both on friendly and hostile targets, and as a veteran of TOC 10, having the ability to dispell on Lord Jaraxxus can mean the difference from a win and and wipe.
6. Abolish Disease- Once again, if you don’t have a holy or disc healer in the raid, a shadow still has the ability to throw Abolish Disease on an afflicted target.

So as you can see a shadow priest has alot more to offer a raid than just high dps, and I really do believe people should see it as more than just a leveling spec. One thing to consider when gearing a shadow priest is that they are not geared the same as a priest but as a mage or lock would be. Gear should focus on spell power, critical strike rating and reaching hit cap.

Have you hugged a healer lately?  Its not an easy task we take on, bearing half the burden of a group on our backs, making sure everyone stays alive and happy, being the thing that makes or breaks a raid.  Being blamed for wipes and seeing the tank thanked for success.

A pattern is becoming more and more clear the more raids and instances I heal, that that is powering through as fast as possible. Often times the tank just goes, pull after pull, not stopping, not slowing down, often grabbing more than should be possible.  Sure they may have a Gearscore of 5.5k…but that doesn’t always mean the heals are any easier.  Running out of mana is still a real concern for healers and having a tank that doesn’t appreciate our sitting down to drink before a boss can be tough. I suggest being mindfull of who your healer is.  If you have a pally healer remember, they do not have AOE heals, they rely on fast flash heals on single targets, so if your group gets into a situation where the group is taking large damage, it can put a major stress mr pally power single target healing groups. Druids and Shammys may have it easy with chain heals and healing wind and such for group heals, don’t have as big of single target spot heals, so watch out for taking bit hits.

Its not that I’m blaming tanks or making excuses for poor heals, fact is I have played both.  I just want people to have a little insight into how much work and stress healing can be, and to have a little consideration.  So please tanks, hug your healer and thank them for the work they do to keep you alive.  DPS…well..you keep doing what ever it is DPS does but always remember, without your healer your group goes no where.

World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.3.2

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

Dungeons & Raids

• Icecrown Citadel
  • Frostwing Halls, the final stronghold of the Scourge and their Lich King, has been added.
• Halls of Stone
  • Brann Bronzebeard has been getting into shape and now feels comfortable walking faster when escorted.
• The Forge of Souls
  • The Devourer of Souls will now cast Mirrored Souls less often.
  • The Spell Reflect ability has been altered on several creatures. It now has a cast time, only has 2 charges, and has a 75% chance of reflecting spells.
• The Nexus
  • Anomalus will now use the Create Rift ability only once, down from 3 times.
• The Old Kingdom
  • Elder Nadox now only gets one Ahn’Kahar Guardian during the encounter.
  • Jadoga Shadowseeker now only ascends once during the encounter.
  • Several enemies between the Befouled Terrace and The Desecrated Altar have been removed or had their pathing altered.
• Pit of Saron
  • Players can now zone back into the instance if they are dead while encounters with Krick and Ick or Forgemaster Garfrost are in progress.
• Utgarde Pinnacle
  • Skadi the Ruthless can now be removed from his drake with 3 harpoon strikes, down from 5.
  • Svala Sorrowgrave now casts Ritual of the Sword 1 time during the encounter, down from 3.
• Vault of Archavon
  • Toravon, the latest boss to join the Vault’s giants and masters of the elements, is now accepting challengers in 10- and 25-player formats.
• The Violet Hold
  • The time between a boss being defeated and a new portal opening has been decreased.

PvP

• All healing abilities (including items such as potions) will be decreased in effectiveness by 10% when in Battlegrounds, Arenas, or Wintergrasp.
• Arenas
  • Season 8 has officially begun featuring all-new rewards!

Druids

• Talents
  • Balance
    • Earth and Moon: This talent now increases the druid’s spell damage by 2/4/6%, up from 1/2/3%.

Shamans

• Talents
  • Elemental Combat
    • Shamanism: This talent now provides 4/8/12/16/20% extra spell damage to Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning, up from 3/6/9/12/15%, and 5/10/15/20/25% to Lava Burst, up from 4/8/12/16/20%.

Warlocks

• Talents
  • Affliction
    • Shadow Embrace: This effect can now stack up to 3 times, up from 2. However, the periodic healing reduction effect has been reduced from 3/6/9/12/15% to 2/4/6/8/10% per application.
  • Demonology
    • Demonic Pact: The damage bonus granted the warlock by this talent has been increased from 1/2/3/4/5% to 2/4/6/8/10%. The buff granted to a raid or party by this talent remains unchanged.
  • Destruction
    • Conflagrate: The damage-over-time effect of Conflagrate has been increased to 40% of the spell’s total damage, up from 20%.
    • Empowered Imp: The pet bonus damage provided by this talent has been increased to 10/20/30%, up from 5/10/15%.
    • Improved Shadow Bolt: Damage done by Shadow Bolt increased by 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.

Warriors

• Talents
  • Protection
    • Concussion Blow: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 50%, but its threat generation will remain approximately the same.
    • Devastate: This ability now deals 120% of weapon damage, up from 100% of weapon damage.
    • Shield Slam: The damage scaling from block value for this ability now diminishes faster and diminishes starting at a lower block value. The difference should be negligible for players in high-end tanking armor. In addition, the threat caused by Shield Slam has been increased by 30%.
    • Warbringer: This talent no longer allows Charge and Intercept to break roots or snares. Intervene remains unaffected.

User Interface

• The party leader is now referred to as Guide in chat when a group is formed via the Dungeon Finder.
• Fixed a bug where players with Raid Assist capabilities were unable to perform a Ready Check.
• Fixed a bug where the first couple of tutorials were not displaying upon logging into the game.

Items

• New strength-based melee DPS rings are now available from representatives of the Ashen Verdict.
• Tier-9 Sets: The Aspirant vendors at the Argent Tournament grounds have worked out a deal with merchants in Dalaran so that all item level 232 set pieces will now be available on armor vendors in the city. Set pieces which require trophies will still be available for purchase only from vendors at the Argent Tournament grounds.
• Tier-10 Balance Druid 4-Piece Bonus: Fixed a bug to allow for this bonus to properly trigger.
• Tier-10 Elemental Shaman 4-Piece Set Bonus: Redesigned. Successful Lava Burst casts now increase the duration of Flame Shock on the target by 6 seconds.
• Tier-10 Tank Sets: The gloves and chest pieces for warrior, death knight, and paladin tanks have had their stats adjusted slightly to provide additional armor value.
• Tier-10 Warlock 4-Piece Bonus: This bonus should now correctly be applied to the warlock’s pet.

Technical Support

• The cvar ‘processAffinityMask’ controls which CPU cores are available for the World of Warcraft client to use. Previously the game client was limited to 2 cores as a default which players could override in the configuration file. In the past this provided a performance boost on some CPUs and operating systems. We have identified several systems that are experiencing severe performance issues with this restriction and have removed it. Players who would like to restore the old behavior can do so by updating the Config.WTF file by adding: SET processAffinityMask “3″.

A public service announcement brought to you by The Daily Blink

This is  a  post by Nightfreeze on macros from NoStockUI.com

Beginners’ Macro resources

WowWiki’s Intro to Macros
WowWiki: Howto Make a Macro
WowWiki’s useful macros for every class
EpicAdvice.com macros wiki
Spellbinder addon
GCD (Global Cooldown) explained
LUA scripting language
Macro Explain

How to build a macro

This is a brief guide that demonstrates how to make the most commonly used action-bar macros by building one up from basic to full-featured, with explanations at each step, using programming conventions designed to conserve as much of the 255 macro character limit as possible.
But first, what exactly are macros? Macros are small, simple programs* written in Blizzard’s chosen scripting language, LUA, that solve several problems:

1. Every class in WoW has many more abilities than fit on the main action bar. Macros let you consolidate these abilities into single action bar buttons, and access those abilities using modifer keys (Shift, Alt, Ctrl). Using macros you can consolidate up to 24 abilities on the easy-to-reach 1-6 keys.
2. Macros let you combine multiple abilities so that one button push activates both, saving time. Note that this only works when no more than one of those abilities has a cast time, or is instant-cast but on the GCD (Global Cooldown).
3. Macros let you do other things, like calculate your tank’s avoidance in current gear, or find the Time-Lost Protodrake as you fly through Storm Peaks. (These are relatively complex and beyond the scope of this intro, though I’ve included both examples at the end for the curious.)

Step 1: Open the in-game Macro editor

1. Hit the Game Menu button, or press Escape to open the Game Menu.
2. Select Macro from the menu, and the Macro editor window will open.
3. Create a macro by selecting ‘New’ in the bottom right of the macro editor.
4. Select an icon for it. Always select the red ?. Reason for that explained below.
5. Name it anything you want, as long as it is not the same name as an ability. For example, don’t name your macro Shadowbolt, name it Shdwblt, or Shadow_bolt, or Macro_Shadowbolt, or something like that.
6. Click OK, now enter the code in the editor box. Copy and paste from one of the macros below just to see how it works.
7. When you’ve finished entering the code in the editor, save it by simply clicking the ‘New’ button again, or click on any other macro icons you may have. There is no ‘Save’ Button.
8. Drag the macro onto an action bar slot, and either click it, or use the Game Menu -> Keybindings control panel to bind a key to that action bar button (or the excellent Spellbinder addon to bypass the action bar entirely and bind that macro directly to any key, even one not on the actionbar). Test it out.

Step 2: The basic (useless) template

The most basic macro template is this:

#showtooltip
/use Shadowbolt

#showtooltip makes the red ? icon turn into the Shadowbolt icon. The red ? is just a placeholder, and will display the icon of whatever #showtooltip instructs it to.

Use ‘/use’ instead of ‘/cast’ to save a character, which can add up on long macros that approach the 255 character limit.

This macro looks and works exactly the same as the Shadowbolt spell in your spellbook does. Drag it to your action bar, click it, and it fires a shadowbolt (if you’re a warlock).

Since it has no other functionality beyond the Shadowbolt spell in your spellbook, there is no point to making a macro this simple, it is only for demonstration purposes.

Step 3: The basic (useful) template

Now for a more useful template, that extends the basic one to include 4 levels of modifiers. This is what most action-bar ability macros share:

#showtooltip
/use [mod:ctrl] ability 4;[mod:alt] ability 3;[mod:shift] ability 2;[nomod] ability 1

or without the [nomod] at the end, which is equally correct and saves a few characters (max is 255 characters for any macro):

#showtooltip
/use [mod:ctrl] ability 4;[mod:alt] ability 3;[mod:shift] ability 2;ability 1

(there are some cases where inserting [nomod] is required, one of which is covered below. But most of the time it makes no difference, and you can leave it out to save character space)

Hold Ctrl and press this macro, and two things will happen: #showtooltipo will convert the red ? into the ability 4 icon for as long as Ctrl is held, and ability 4 will trigger.

Same with Alt and Shift. With no modifier key held, the icon for ability 1 will display on the macro, and ability 1 will trigger.

If you have mispelled an ability, or do not have it in your spellbook, the red ? will display instead of the ability’s icon, alerting you to an error in your macro.

You can make 6 macros with this basic template, and replace your spells on your 1-6 action bar, and it will allow you to access 24 abilities instead of 6 from that action bar, without using WoW’s more clunky action bar paging function.

You can further create additional macros with this template, and use the Spellbinder addon addon to bind them to any keys on your keyboard, for example those near and around your WASD or ESDF movement keys, for quick access to even more than 24 abilities.

Here is an example of a real macro, using warlock abilities. The concepts demonstrated are universally applicable to all classes:

#showtooltip
/use [mod:ctrl] Bronze Drake;[mod:alt] Ritual of Summoning;[mod:shift] Summon Felguard;[nomod] Shadowbolt

Or without [nomod]:

#showtooltip
/use [mod:ctrl] Bronze Drake;[mod:alt] Ritual of Summoning;[mod:shift] Summon Felguard;Shadowbolt

Ctrl + macro : displays Bronze Drake icon, and mounts you on your bronze drake
Alt + macro : displays Ritual icon, and casts Ritual
Shift + macro: displays Felguard icon, and summons Felguard
No modifiers + macro: : displays Shadowbolt icon, and casts Shadowbolt

Generally it’s best to put the lesser-used and/or the non-combat abilities with the modifier that is hardest to reach. For me, the hardest to reach modifier is Ctrl, so I put my least critical abilities, like my mount, there.

Alt is the next hardest to reach, so it gets the next least-critical abilities. Nomod is obviously easy to reach, so it gets the most critical abilities.

Any left over critical abilities I couldn’t fit into the nomod position on all my macros go with Shift, the next easiest-to-reach modifier.

Step 4: Multi-line macros

You can also make macros that cast multiple abilities with a single button push, as long as no more than one has a cast time, or is instant-cast but on the GCD (Global Cooldown).

For example, here’s an emergency Warlock macro for when the demon is killed. Warlock minions take up to 10 seconds to resummon, which can sometimes mean the difference b/t life and death (especially in PvP).

However, there is a talent in the Demonology tree called Fel Domination that reduces summoning cast time. When combined with another Demonology Talent, Master Summoner, the Warlock can ‘FelDom’ summon a demon in .5s.

This is a nice oh-shit button for Warlocks, however the lock has to hit 2 buttons to do this, and if they aren’t quick about it, the time it takes to do that can be costly. This macro combines Fel Domination and Summon Felguard into a single macro:

#showtooltip
/use Fel Domination
/use Summon Felguard

Instead of having to hit the Fel Domination button, and then the Summon Felguard button, the warlock can just hit this single macro to accomplish both abilities.

To add to this example, if you’re an Orc warlock, you can add the Orc racial ability Blood Fury to give your newly summoned Felguard a little more oomph for a few seconds:

#showtooltip
/use Blood Fury
/use Fel Domination
/use Summon Felguard

This works b/c both Blood Fury and Fel Domination are instant-cast and off the GCD, meaning they can be instantly cast one right after the other.

Summon Felguard has a cast time, meaning it has to be the last line in the macro, since anything that comes after cast-time spells or GCD instant spells are ignored by the macro.

Another simple, but extremely useful for dps, example of this is the Assist Macro. It enables a dps to quickly target and focus-fire the tank’s target:

/target TankName
/assist

Line 1 targets the tank (you have to edit this macro with the tank’s name for every run). Line 2 target’s the tank’s current target. Keep using it throughout the fight to make sure you stay on the tank’s target.

The only exception is if the tank has raid-marked the mobs in a kill order. In that case, follow the kill order, not the tank’s target (sometimes the tank has to briefly target another mob besides the Skull to hold aggro on the adds).

Step 5: Combine modifier and multi-line macros

Now, lets combine modifier macros and multiline macros into a single macro. Doing this can cause problems if you don’t construct it correctly. For example, there are several problems with the basic combined macro below, what do you think they may be?

#showtooltip
/use Fel Domination
/use [mod:ctrl] Bronze Drake;[mod:alt] Ritual of Summoning;[mod:shift] Ritual of Souls;Summon Felguard

The problem is that when you use this macro, you cast Fel Domination even when you’re holding Ctrl, Alt, or Shift. You don’t want to blow the crucial cooldown on Fel Domination when you just want to mount your drake, or summon a party, or create healthstones, only when you summon your Felguard. To fix this, you also have to add a modifier to the Fel Domination line:

#showtooltip
/use [nomod] Fel Domination
/use [mod:ctrl] Bronze Drake;[mod:alt] Ritual of Summoning;[mod:shift] Ritual of Souls;Summon Felguard

and/or

#showtooltip
/use [nomod] Fel Domination
/use [mod:ctrl] Bronze Drake;[mod:alt] Ritual of Summoning;[mod:shift] Ritual of Souls;[nomod] Summon Felguard

Both of these work correctly. The key is adding [nomod] in front of Fel Domination. Whether Summon Felguard also has [nomod] does not matter in this case. There are some rare edge cases where it does matter, but that’s beyond the scope of this intro.

However, there is another problem with this macro, albeit only an aesthetic one. The problem is that #showtooltip will now show the icon for Fel Domination instead of Summon Felguard when nomod is used. When there are multiple lines in a macro like this, #showtooltip always displays the icon of the first line. This can be fixed by copying the main line of the macro to the #showtooltip line:

#showtooltip [mod:ctrl] Bronze Drake;[mod:alt] Ritual of Summoning;[mod:shift] Ritual of Souls;[nomod] Summon Felguard
/use [nomod] Fel Domination
/use [mod:ctrl] Bronze Drake;[mod:alt] Ritual of Summoning;[mod:shift] Ritual of Souls;[nomod] Summon Felguard

Finally, there is one last problem. This macro will always use Fel Domination to summon a Felguard, even when you don’t need it to. In fact you want to save FelDom only for emergencies. So you can modify this macro to provide two Summon Felguard options, one with FelDom and one without:

#showtooltip
/use [mod:shift] Fel Domination
/use [mod:ctrl] Bronze Drake;[mod:alt] Ritual of Summoning;[mod:shift] Summon Felguard;[nomod] Summon Felguard

The above macro displays the icon for Fel Domination when Shift is held. If you prefer it to display the icon for Summon Felguard when shift is held, copy the main line of the macro to the #showtooltip line:

#showtooltip [mod:ctrl] Bronze Drake;[mod:alt] Ritual of Summoning;[mod:shift] Summon Felguard;[nomod] Summon Felguard
/use [mod:shift] Fel Domination
/use [mod:ctrl] Bronze Drake;[mod:alt] Ritual of Summoning;[mod:shift] Summon Felguard;[nomod] Summon Felguard

Using this macro with nomod will summon a Felguard normally, using it while holding Shift will insta-summon the minion w/ Fel Domination.

Step 6: Target modifier macros

You can also create macros that cast a spell on a specific target. We’ll use a Pally healing spell to demonstrate.

This casts Flash of Light on the current target:

#showtooltip
/use Flash of Light

This casts Flash of Light on yourself (if you’re a pally), even if you have another player currently targeted:

#showtooltip
/use [target=player] Flash of Light

This casts Flash of Light on your focus, even if you have someone else targetted:

#showtooltip
/use [target=focus] Flash of Light

This casts Flash of Light on whoever your game cursor is hovering over (the mouseover target), even if you have someone else targeted:

#showtooltip
/use [target=mouseover] Flash of Light

You can combine all into a single macro with modifiers:

#showtooltip
/use [mod:ctrl,target=player] Flash of Light;[mod:alt,target=focus] Flash of Light;[mod:shift,target=mouseover] Flash of Light;[nomod] Flash of Light

Step 7: Other examples

1. For DK tanks, our highest single-target threat ability is Rune Strike. However, Rune Strike does not work like most other strikes. It only becomes available to be cast after the DK has dodged or parried an attack, and clicking the Rune Strike button does not cause it to hit right away, but on your next melee strike.

Macro-deficient DK’s just put this ability on a action bar somewhere and try to keep an eye on it and hit every time it procs. But macros make using this ability every time it procs much easier. Just macro Rune Strike into every combat ability macro. Since you’re spamming these constantly throughout the fight, you’ll always activate Rune Strike whenever it procs:

#showtooltip [mod:ctrl] ability 4;[mod:alt] ability 3;[mod:shift] ability 2;[nomod] Obliterate
/use [nomod] !Rune Strike
/use [mod:ctrl] ability 4;[mod:alt] ability 3;[mod:shift] ability 2;[nomod] Obliterate

#showtooltip [mod:ctrl] ability 4;[mod:alt] ability 3;[mod:shift] ability 2;[nomod] Death Strike
/use [nomod] !Rune Strike
/use [mod:ctrl] ability 4;[mod:alt] ability 3;[mod:shift] ability 2;[nomod] Death Strike

#showtooltip [mod:ctrl] ability 4;[mod:alt] ability 3;[mod:shift] ability 2;[nomod] Blood Strike
/use [nomod] !Rune Strike
/use [mod:ctrl] ability 4;[mod:alt] ability 3;[mod:shift] ability 2;[nomod] Blood Strike

#showtooltip [mod:ctrl] ability 4;[mod:alt] ability 3;[mod:shift] ability 2;[nomod] Heart Strike
/use [nomod] !Rune Strike
/use [mod:ctrl] ability 4;[mod:alt] ability 3;[mod:shift] ability 2;[nomod] Heart Strike

#showtooltip [mod:ctrl] ability 4;[mod:alt] ability 3;[mod:shift] ability 2;[nomod] Scourge Strike
/use [nomod] !Rune Strike
/use [mod:ctrl] ability 4;[mod:alt] ability 3;[mod:shift] ability 2;[nomod] Scourge Strike

Why is the ! used? When Rune Strike procs, if you hit the Rune Strike button to cast it, it does not instantly cast but waits till your next melee strike to cast. However, if you accidentally hit the Rune Strike button again b/f your next melee strike, it will deactivate Rune Strike and you may miss the proc. Adding the !Rune Strike instructs the game to ignore the button press if Rune Strike is already activated and just waiting on the next melee hit, so it won’t be accidentally deactivated.

Having said that, this may have been changed by a recent patch, and the ! is no longer needed for these kind of abilities. However I haven’t tested that myself yet, don’t know for sure, and still use !Rune Strike.

2. One final example of multi-line macro, is my DK Blood tank oh-shit button. When I take big damage spikes, this macro buffs my self-healing with Vampiric Blood and then uses a Runic Healing Potion. I follow up with a Rune Tap and Death Strike. This can usually get me from 20% hp to 80% in a few GCDs, and is one of the few tanking abilities in the game able to mitigate spike dmg after it happens:

#showtooltip
/use [mod:ctrl] whatever;[mod:alt] whatever;[mod:shift] whatever;[nomod] Vampiric Blood
/use [nomod] Runic Healing Potion

Step 8: Advanced Macros & Scripts

Here are several examples of more advanced macros. These are actually scripts, rather than macros, and are more complex than the prior examples. If you’re interested in learning more, I suggest starting at WoWwiki’s macro page. EpicAdvice.com also has a good thread on macro resources.

1. Trying for Ruby + Emerald Void in Occulus and need a macro that helps your group time your timestops? Hit this one a the start of the fight:

/in 12 /rw Timestop #1 NAME1
/in 27 /rw Timestop #2 NAME2
/in 42 /rw Timestop #3 NAME3
/in 57 /rw Timestop #4 NAME4
/in 72 /rw Timestop #5 NAME5
/in 87 /rw Timestop #6 NAME1
/in 102 /rw Timestop #7 NAME2
/in 117 /rw Timestop #8 NAME3

2. Are you a tank and need to know what your total avoidance is? These macros will query your stats and tell you:

DK: /run ChatFrame1:AddMessage(format("Avoidance with Stoneskin Gargoyle: %.2f%%", GetDodgeChance() + GetParryChance() + 6 + 1/(0.0625 + 0.956/(floor(GetCombatRatingBonus(CR_DEFENSE_SKILL))*0.04))))

Druid: /run ChatFrame1:AddMessage(format("Total avoidance: %.2f%%", GetDodgeChance() + 5 + 1/(0.0625 + 0.956/(GetCombatRating(CR_DEFENSE_SKILL)/4.91850*0.04))))

Pally: /run ChatFrame1:AddMessage(format("Total avoidance: %.2f%%", GetDodgeChance() + GetParryChance() + 5 + 1/(0.0625 + 0.956/(GetCombatRating(CR_DEFENSE_SKILL)/4.91850*0.04))))

War: /run ChatFrame1:AddMessage(format("Total avoidance: %.2f%%", GetDodgeChance() + GetParryChance() + 5 + 1/(0.0625 + 0.956/(GetCombatRating(CR_DEFENSE_SKILL)/4.91850*0.04))))

Find the TLPD:

/tar Dirkee
/tar Vyra
/tar Time
/stopmacro [noexists]
/w Your Name %t Is watching you!
/run RaidNotice_AddMessage(RaidBossEmoteFrame,"THERE IT IS! KILL IT!", ChatTypeInfo["RAID_WARNING"])
/script PlaySoundFile("Sound\\interface\\RaidWarning.wav")

Many more at WoWwiki’s Macro pages.

Summary

Create multilevel ability macros with modifiers:

#showtooltip /use [mod:ctrl] ability 4;[mod:alt] ability 3;[mod:shift] ability 2;[nomod] ability 1

Cast more than one ability at a time with multi-line, multilevel macros, as long as no more than one has a cast time, or is instant-cast but on the GCD. The cast-time or GCD ability must be on the last line of the macro, since everything after that ability is ignored:

#showtooltip
/use [mod:shift] non-GCD ability 1;[nomod] non-GCD ability 2
/use [mod:shift] non-GCD ability 3;[nomod] non-GCD ability 4
/use [mod:ctrl] GCD ability 4;[mod:alt] GCD ability 3;[mod:shift] GCD ability 2;[nomod] GCD ability 1

Copy the last line after #showtooltip to display the icons for the main abilities used in the addon:

#showtooltip [mod:ctrl] GCD ability 4;[mod:alt] GCD ability 3;[mod:shift] GCD ability 2;[nomod] GCD ability 1
/use [mod:shift] non-GCD ability 1;[nomod] non-GCD ability 2
/use [mod:shift] non-GCD ability 3;[nomod] non-GCD ability 4
/use [mod:ctrl] GCD ability 4;[mod:alt] GCD ability 3;[mod:shift] GCD ability 2;[nomod] GCD ability 1

*Macros are technically not programs at all, since they cannot run on their own, can only be run inside Warcraft. Which is why they’re called macros instead of programs.