Macro cooldown/priority question
John Gordon
you have a priority list:
Do ability X if it's off cooldown,
Otherwise do ability Y if it's off cooldown,
Otherwise do ability Z.
Can this be put in a simple macro, like so:
/cast abilityX
/cast abilityY
/cast abilityZ
Will this work? Will the macro automatically skip to the next available
spell, or will it stop at abilityX with a "that's not ready yet" error?
(I know this would be simple to test, but I'm at work.)
--
John Gordon A is for Amy, who fell down the stairs
gor...@panix.com B is for Basil, assaulted by bears
-- Edward Gorey, "The Gashlycrumb Tinies"
Steve Kaye
> It seems most classes don't really have a "rotation" anymore; instead
> you have a priority list:
>
> Do ability X if it's off cooldown,
> Otherwise do ability Y if it's off cooldown,
> Otherwise do ability Z.
>
> Can this be put in a simple macro, like so:
>
> /cast abilityX
> /cast abilityY
> /cast abilityZ
>
> Will this work? Will the macro automatically skip to the next available
> spell, or will it stop at abilityX with a "that's not ready yet" error?
>
> (I know this would be simple to test, but I'm at work.)
I think that it would work for any class that had rotations based on
cooldowns.
It won't work for any class who's rotation depends on a DoT/debuff
running rather than a cooldown. So it won't work for these
classes/specs that I know of: DK, Affliction Warlock, Shadow Priest,
Balance or Feral Druid - probably others that I've missed too.
steve.kaye
--
Jengu - 80 Undead Death Knight Clokk - 74 Tauren Druid
Jelan - 80 Troll Priest Miho - 72 Blood Elf Rogue
Kibbs - 80 Blood Elf Paladin Jaille - 70 Blood Elf Warlock
ThomasH
> John Gordon wrote:
>> It seems most classes don't really have a "rotation" anymore; instead
>> you have a priority list:
>>
>> Do ability X if it's off cooldown, Otherwise do ability Y if it's
>> off cooldown,
>> Otherwise do ability Z.
>>
>> Can this be put in a simple macro, like so:
>>
>> /cast abilityX
>> /cast abilityY
>> /cast abilityZ
>>
>> Will this work? Will the macro automatically skip to the next available
>> spell, or will it stop at abilityX with a "that's not ready yet" error?
>>
>> (I know this would be simple to test, but I'm at work.)
>
> I think that it would work for any class that had rotations based on
> cooldowns.
>
> It won't work for any class who's rotation depends on a DoT/debuff
> running rather than a cooldown. So it won't work for these
> classes/specs that I know of: DK, Affliction Warlock, Shadow Priest,
> Balance or Feral Druid - probably others that I've missed too.
You can't put more than one /cast in a macro that's on the global
cooldown, so it doesnt work for any class. Also, the macro wouldn't skip
the ability that's on CD.
Some people use a /castrandom macro for this kind of goal, but as the
name says, it's random. You're better off looking at your CD spells and
punching them when needed.
--
Greets, Thomas.
Bulgaroth (Hunter), Latigo (DK), Darkhulk (Druid), and Smallwall
(Paladin) on Argent Dawn EU.
Brent Stroh
>Some people use a /castrandom macro for this kind of goal, but as the
>name says, it's random. You're better off looking at your CD spells and
>punching them when needed.
From what I understand, /castrandom no longer randomly picks an ability off
cooldown - it randomly picks an ability and won't change until it casts,
regardless of cooldown state. So the game will no longer play cooldown
whackamole for you. :)
--
Mertuka - Rogue (80) : Mallan - Priest (48) : Medanu - Druid (47)
Ralinth - Warlock (80) : Magorg - Hunter (47) : Ralethian - Paladin (48)
Rakhalga - DK (80) : Meedak - Mage (50) : Rahuraluna - Shaman (13)
Relikag - Warrior (10)
ThomasH
>> Some people use a /castrandom macro for this kind of goal, but as the
>> name says, it's random. You're better off looking at your CD spells and
>> punching them when needed.
>
> From what I understand, /castrandom no longer randomly picks an ability off
> cooldown - it randomly picks an ability and won't change until it casts,
> regardless of cooldown state. So the game will no longer play cooldown
> whackamole for you. :)
Hehe yeah, true... I tried using such macro's while levelling my hunter
to 80, but decided to just whack the few attacks i had myself... Much
more effective, I must say :-)
PV
>Can this be put in a simple macro, like so:
>
> /cast abilityX
> /cast abilityY
> /cast abilityZ
>
>Will this work? Will the macro automatically skip to the next available
>spell, or will it stop at abilityX with a "that's not ready yet" error?
For cooldowns, that works, or at least it worked. They made changes
recently to /castrandom and /castsequence to avoid the "lazy player macro"
problem, and I don't know if they did the same thing with individual
/casts. For ones that don't invoke the GCD, it seems to work OK.
Where this scheme wouldn't work is DoTs that run longer than the cooldown
period. If I used this to automate my rotation, I would keep casting the
same spell forever. My affliction 'rotation' keeps 5 fingers busy. *
--
* PV Something like badgers, something like lizards, and something
like corkscrews.
PV
>You can't put more than one /cast in a macro that's on the global
>cooldown, so it doesnt work for any class. Also, the macro wouldn't skip
>the ability that's on CD.
Whoops, you're absolutely right. Multiple /cast lines only work if all of
them are valid at all times, such as a non-gcd invoking spell affecting the
next cast. I got stuck on this with some of my druid macros, where if I
blew the opener and didn't get in the attack that required rear facing, I
couldn't use the rest of the cast sequence.
>Some people use a /castrandom macro for this kind of goal, but as the
>name says, it's random. You're better off looking at your CD spells and
>punching them when needed.
Castrandom used to pick from only the spells that could be cast, but they
fixed that. It now picks from ALL of the spells, and if it can't be cast,
the macro fails. *
Matt
> From what I understand, /castrandom no longer randomly picks an ability off
> cooldown - it randomly picks an ability and won't change until it casts,
> regardless of cooldown state. So the game will no longer play cooldown
> whackamole for you. :)
/castrandom still picks the ability at random, but only if previous
use was successful.
Let's say you have skills 1, 2, 3 and 4 in castrandom macro.
In old /castrandom, skill used was picked at random at all times - so
if skill 1 and 2 were on cooldown but skill 3 and 4 not and you
pressed the macro key quickly, eventually it would choose 3 or 4 and
cast them.
New /castrandom if it picks e.g. skill 2 which is on cooldown will
continue to pick it until cooldown ends and skill 2 is successfully
cast.
--
Regards
Matt