More Fun With Macros!

Greetings, my comrades!

Many of you in game have asked me about my stupendous macros!  I'm sure you've only noticed me using them because of the battle cries that are heard at various points of a fight.  This is because, through a macro, I have attached random phrases to certain abilities.

Macros are not only fun, they can be great space savers!  For many of us, it seems there just isn't enough room on our action bars for all our desired abilities.  To help remedy this, I will show you a simple and very useful macro that will turn one button into a switch for 2 abilities!



Now, before I go on, know that I am not particularly skilled in programming or writing scripts.  None of the macros I use are ones I created!  If you are brand new to macros, I highly suggest you go here first to learn the very basics about macro writing.  At the end of this post, I will post links to other macro sites that are far more detailed.

But for now, here are a couple of macros I use that may be useful to you.  Let's start with the space saver, which I call the Modifier Macro.  It usually follows this format:


#Showtooltip [modifier:shift] Ability B; Ability A
/cast [modifier:shift] Ability B; Ability A


Here, you would substitute Abilities A and B with actual spells.  For the sake of writing macros, even Non-magical abilities, like melee special moves, are considered spells.  What this macro does is allow you to cast Ability A, and, if you hit the shift key, Ability B.  The #Showtooltip line simply shows the tooltip for whatever spell you have saved in the macro when you mouseover it.  Conveniently, the tooltip changes to match the ability designated with the shift key.  

So, for example, one of my personal macros of this kind looks like this:

#showtooltip [modifier:shift] Rupture; Slice and Dice
/cast [modifier:shift] Rupture; Slice and Dice

So in this case, if I just click the button, I Slice and Dice, but if I hold shift and then click the button, I Rupture. 


When subbing in your abilities, you can either type in the name of the spell, or shift click it from your spellbook.  Keep in mind, shift clicking it from your spellbook usually incudes the rank as well.  You can delete the rank of the spell, for without the rank, the macro will default to your highest ranked spell.

Another Macro I use is also a space saver, and is called the Random Mount macro.  This is great for those who have multiple ground and flying mounts, but don't like only picking one or two to mount on our action bars.  The macro makes 1 button that will summon multiple, random mounts, and is written like this:

/castrandom [nomounted,nomodifier,flyable] Flying Mount 1,Flying Mount 2,Flying Mount 3; [nomounted, modifier:shift] Ground Mount 1,Ground Mount 2,Ground Mount 3
/dismount [mounted]


Here, you'll substitute in the names of your mounts.  You can add as many as you like, but again, keep in mind the 255 character limit in your macro window.  You'll also notice the [modifier:shift] command in there.  What this does is, if you're in a zone that allows flying mounts, hit the button and it summons a flying mount.  Hold shift and hit the button, and it summons a ground mount.  In zones that don't allow flying, simply hitting the button does nothing, but shift clicking it will still summon a ground mount.  And of course, the last command means that, when you're mounted, clicking the button will dismount you.


And finally, this last macro I use a lot is simply for flavor to the game, and serves no other purpose than to do just that.  Anyone who's run a dungeon with me will note that I yell a lot at the enemies, and what I say depends on the situation and which abilities I trigger.  This macro generates random tells, either in /say or /yell, and goes as follows:


/run SendChatMessage(({"Arm Yourselves!","Prepare for battle!","May the clash of our weapons signal victory","Sound the horns!"})[math.random(4)],"YELL") 


This macro, when the button is pressed, will randomly /yell any of these 4 phrases.  You can change these phrases to whatever you like, just make sure each phrase is in quotes, and is separated by a comma.  If you don't want to /yell, you can replace the "YELL" with "SAY."  Also, you can add phrases too!  Just keep in mind the 255 character limit when writing macros, which means you can't have more than 255 letters or spaces.  Also, make sure that if you end up with say, 6 phrases, you replace the (4) with (6).  The number in parenthesis is how many phrases you've included, so count them up.  You can also input a number that is actually higher than the number of phrases.  Doing this gives you a chance that you won't say anything at all.  For example, if you have 4 phrases, but input 8 into the parenthesis, you give yourself a 50% chance of not saying anything.  This can be useful if you want to attach the macro to a spell or ability, but don't want to overuse your battle cries. 


Attaching this macro to abilities is pretty simple.  Abilities can be written into a macro as follows:


#showtooltip
/cast [ability]


Simply attach the random phrase generator macro at the end of this macro, and you will randomly say or shout phrases when casting that spell!  It's lots of fun!  Again, when attaching the random phrase macro to spells and abilities, keep an eye on your 255 character limit!


Well, I'm sure you're all good and confused now, but I hope you find this useful, and, if nothing else, fun to play with!

If you want to get even more crazy, wowwiki and the various class forums are great resources for varied and useful macros, (as well as a bunch of junk ones, so try not to "over-macro" yourself!)


Have fun, comrades!  


-If you have some fun and/or useful macros that you'd like to share with the Guild, email them to me at: OgamiGoro@yahoo.com 


For the Horde!!