5 Macros that Suck
1. Heroic Strike + Devastate
Other versions: Heroic Strike + Revenge
I’ll admit that initially I used this macro. It’s easy. It’s not the proper way to use Heroic Strike though. This is about the worst way possible to generate threat in a low to moderate rage situation. It can be a bit overwhelming at first, but in the end you have to learn to use Heroic Strike whenever you’re at high rage, not whenever you devastate.
2. Heroic Strike + Shield Block
I’ve never used this macro because it simply doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Shield Block is for maximizing survivability. Heroic Strike is for maximizing threat. They’re literally on opposite ends of the spectrum. I realize that neither is on the global cooldown and that’s where this macro’s origins lie, but ultimately it’s just not practical.
3. Shield Slam + Shield Block
Other versions: Revenge + Shield Block, Devastate + Shield Block
As many of you may know, I use a Shield Block + Revenge macro so you might be wondering why I’m saying that Revenge + Shield Block sucks. The damage is in the subtle difference. Shield Block should always be first in any of these macros. If it isn’t then you run the risk whenever you use these abilities of not having enough rage to use Shield Block. I think we’ve all learned the hard way that even missing a single Shield Block on a boss can = death.
4. Retaliation, Shield Wall or Recklessness
This macro uses your 30 minute cooldown depending on which stance you’re in. As a tank, the only one of these you care about is Shield Wall. The last thing you want as you’re stance dancing to avoid a fear is to accidentally blow Recklessness especially if you were doing it because you wanted to activate Shield Wall.
5. Shield Slam + Revenge + Devastate
This macro comes in two versions. One’s a cast sequence that barely if ever works and can led to you constantly losing your sunders on your target if you aren’t careful while the other simply doesn’t work. It’ll try to Shield Slam and if that fails then it won’t do Revenge or Devastate. This Macro used to be popular because it used to work. It doesn’t anymore nor should you expect it to ever again.
What it all comes down to…
We have to be very careful with how we make our game experience convenient. Macros can be extremely powerful, but can be equally as damaging or limiting if the wrong kind are used. When it comes to the standard threat rotation of Shield Slam, Revenge, Devastate x2, you’ve really just gotta learn to do it. There’s no shortcut here. The same goes for the use of Shield Block and Heroic Strike as well. The effective usage of these 5 abilities is the bread and butter of Warrior tanking. If you’re struggling with these abilities, I urge you to not waste your time looking for the golden macro and instead practice.
September 8th, 2008 at 8:46 am
The problem with all those macros is, in my opinion, that most people try using them instead of having to learn what they do. It’s fine to use a macro that makes you click one button instead of two, but I’d say that for almost every other thing it’s more efficient doing things manually.
And while I see the problems in the beginning (there ARE loads of abilities to be used while tanking and they DO confuse/stress out the fresh made tank) it really doesn’t help to use (most) tanking macros in the long run.
I’d say that with the majority of “really clever” macros I’ve had more trouble than ease, because even with all those triggers and conditions sometimes even the simplest macro won’t work and you’ll have a really hard time getting that ability activated with the button hidden somewhere deep down somewhere in the spellbook.
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September 8th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Gah, all these macros just made me shake my head. The only macro that even makes sense is Shield Block + Revenge. The other combo you mention kind of looks like someone didn’t understand the mechanics. I have seen one button warrior macros and honestly don’t understand how that’s fun. That tanking is so engaging is one of the things I love about it. If I want to spam a button, I will just play my combat rogue.
I think I have three macros on my warrior: stance-dance berserker rage, my old Intervene macro, and a silly macro to pull with the Decapitator, /yelling ‘Axe to the face’ and then switching in King’s Defender.
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September 8th, 2008 at 9:11 am
The obvious ending to this article should have been “5 macro’s you might try”
Follow up maybe?
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September 8th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Intervene macro (for obvious reasons)
Stance Dance macro for Archie (all other bosses are much easier to do without a macro)
Spell Reflect macro for PVP
EVERYTHING ELSE IS A CRUTCH IMO.
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Tara reply on September 8, 2008 9:36 am:
Well…besides targeting and use macros…but that goes for anyone…
ie core passes, corrupt lightning totem, demon chains, naj’entus spine, etc etc…
Oh, and the Healthstone macro…clutch!
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September 8th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Until last week I used a Heroic Strike + Devastate macro whenever I was high on rage. If this is the only button you have for either then I agree, it’s a bad macro. It is useful if you have Devastate and Heroic Strike available on other buttons.
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Nariju reply on September 9, 2008 5:09 pm:
If you have them available on other buttons… why not use them?
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Arvernien reply on September 9, 2008 5:18 pm:
Laziness and it was a good way to break CC when the time was right.
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September 8th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Except for weapon swapping macros, and one that uses a different 30 minute cool-down depending on which stance I’m in, I don’t use any macros for tanking, once the pull has begun. But I generally have pretty good control, after dividing up my abilities like this:
If it’s on the global cooldown, it’s keybound.
If it’s not on the global cooldown, I click it with a mouse.
This means I have heroic strike, shield block and spell reflect on an action bar that actually hovers up much closer to my character. That way I can quickly move between clicking on a mob and activating one of these abilities. Because my attention is now divided between two fields of focus, the GC and non-GC abilities, I avoid the finger jams that might occur if I wanted to shield block and, say, bash, at the same time.
Spell reflect is an exception, actually, where it’s both part of a shield equip macro (activated by the second use) AND it’s on the action bar with other abilities clickable by mouse.
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September 8th, 2008 at 10:40 am
2 macros that are amazing and every tank should have:
/startattack
/cast devastate
/startattack
/cast shield slam
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adenosine reply on September 8, 2008 2:06 pm:
Add to shield slam using an auto-blocker and cancelling salv, and that’s all I ever used tanking.
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September 8th, 2008 at 10:57 am
“As a tank, the only one of these you care about is shield wall.” This seems basically true, but what about using retalliation as a threat move? It seems like it could be useful for multi-mob tanking especially. Anyone tried this out?
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Signu reply on September 9, 2008 10:20 am:
The problem with retaliation is that you need to be damaged by the attack to retaliate. More than likely you will be avoiding enough attacks to make it better to save CD for Shield Wall.
If a mob’s attack hit for enough to be fully blocked, it would be retaliated either.
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September 8th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Yes to what Rochelle said, those two should replace your devastate and shield slam buttons. It is entirely too easy to switch targets and lacking rage to either devastate or shield slam not be hitting anything anymore.
Auto attack should be turning itself off when you switch targets to make sure you don’t accidentally break CC when you start tab targeting.
Fear stance dancing is another place macros should be used to make it more reliable and quicker.
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September 8th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I’m happy to say all my major attacks are macroed. Shield Slam, Revenge, and Devastate also come with Shield block, if I hit my alt key, and heroic strike, if I hit my control key. If I hit alt, control, and the attack key, I’ll get Shield Block, Heroic Strike, and either Revenge, Devastate and Shield Slam. works for me. If I dont hit either alt or control, I just get the vanilla Shield Slam, REvenge or Devastate.
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Guenther reply on September 11, 2008 2:05 am:
I do the same thing. except with shift and only for heroic strike.
it’s essentially the same thing as tapping heroic strike except using the pinky finger to avoid the frantic finger dance.
A lot ofthe commenters seem to think the only macros around are castsequence macros. I hate castsequence macros as they never seem to work. I use mostly conditional macros such as:
switch to battle stance, or if in battle stance cast overpower.
switch to defensive stance. or if in defensive stance cast shield block.
switch to berserker stance, or if in berserker stance cast berserker rage.
to stance dance fear I hit my berserker stance key twice and defensive stance key twice.
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September 8th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
This discussion is a bit beyond me. It never occurred to me to code my attack rotation in a macro, either as tank or as mage, because, well, it wouldn’t work. You seem to be saying that indeed it doesn’t. Sure. are these macros a leftover from 1.x or whenever the macro API was redesigned?
Having said that, I’m using macros to fix all those actions that just have the wrong default behaviour, like Rochelle’s examples, or the Intervene macro that works while you target the mob (did they seriously expect tanks to click the party member?). Mages have a ton of spells that should behave like this:
/stopcasting
/cast something instant and important
but they don’t, so you need a macro for each of them. I’d really like some better UI options, but in the absence of these each class has to use macros to fix its broken action buttons.
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Joe reply on September 8, 2008 2:08 pm:
didnt they recently remove the effect of stopcasting? (or change something so that it is completely unnecessary?)
I am far from a macro guru, just a casual player who trys to cheat with macros.
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Arvernien reply on September 8, 2008 3:10 pm:
/stopcasting still works. It’s just not necessary in most macros because of the way macros are processed by the game. My priest has /stopcasting bound to a key to make it easy to abort a spell and cast a quick important heal. I think it’s better than moving, but some say it’s unnecessary.
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Machus reply on September 8, 2008 3:29 pm:
/stopcasting was used to shave milliseconds of lag when chain-casting the same spell. That is no longer necessary. It’s still needed to e.g. abort your cast and cast an instant Ice Block.
My point is we’re missing some UI options. Warriors need an option to “Start auto-attack when you use special attacks”. Casters need “Stop casting when you cast an instant spell”. These should be UI options rather than everyone having to make macros to make their action buttons behave in a non-noob way.
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September 8th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
aside from the intervene and stancedance macros (two every tank should have)
am I a bad tank for macro’ing bloodrage to everything? lol
heh, okay, so i have 3 macro’s most tanks dont,
1. Shield Slam
2. (bloodrage/shieldblock/devastate)
3. (bloodrage/revenge/heroicstrike)
4. (bloodrage/devastate)
5. Taunt
(the 3 macros are in parentheses)
Demo shout is bound to R, Commanding is bound to E, Thunderclap to F, and either shield bash or spell reflect (depending on the situation) is bound to Q.
Am I lazy or just creatively efficient? I feel bad because it reduces tanking a stationary bosses to a simple one handed game.
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Orenus reply on September 9, 2008 8:06 am:
The Intervene macro is now obsolete. If you have a hostile enemy targetted, you automatically Intervene to target of target.
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marklar reply on September 10, 2008 1:54 pm:
i don’t think i could play with this setup.
why do you want to cast bloodrage every cooldown? you will even cast it when you have 100 rage?
how do you keep up your normal rotation when you are low on rage and don’t want to use heroic strike?
you only have shield bash OR spell reflect available in any given fight?
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Veneretio reply on September 10, 2008 2:31 pm:
I highly recommend you have Bloodrage on its own, Joe.
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September 8th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Cast sequence macro’s can have issues when you use revenge in them. They are also far from optimal because of having to refresh TC + demo shout causing them to use a non-optimal rotation.
If you want to use shield block though the following does work, and rarely gets hung at all due to shield block keeping revenge lit up.
/cast Shield Block
/castsequence reset=6 Shield Slam, Revenge, Devastate, Devastate
As an alternative, if you don’t want to use shield block
/castsequance reset=6 Shield Slam, Devastate, Devastate, Devastate
works though threat will suffer from not having revenge in the rotation.
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marklar reply on September 10, 2008 2:03 pm:
isn’t that #5?
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Veneretio reply on September 10, 2008 2:30 pm:
Yup.
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September 8th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Can someone explain how to bind a macro or spell to a key other than the numbers 1 through 0, -, or =
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Sumendis reply on September 8, 2008 3:25 pm:
You can keybind anything that is on an “action bar” and to set the keybindings go to your wow options (hit esc) then select keybindings. Scroll around till you find the bar, the action bars are numbered, then just hit the key you want for it. If the action bar is visible on your screen it should now display the new keybinding in the corner of its icon.
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September 8th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I’m confused about the “intervene macro” that some of you have mentioned. What exactly does it do ?
When I have a mob targetted and I hit my normal intervene button, the game automatically makes me intervene the mob’s target and I can just hit taunt when I’m there (for example). What extra functionality does a macro provide ?
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Rochelle reply on September 8, 2008 3:44 pm:
Intervene didn’t always behave that way. There was a time when you needed something like:
/assist
/cast intervene
/targetlasttaget
Since it was a pretty minor change, nobody made a big deal of it and the people using the macro were by and large left unaware that the macro was/is unnecesary.
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Arvernien reply on September 8, 2008 4:48 pm:
It is still worthwhile to create an intervene macro. IAt the beginning of the instance or before a particular encounter I designate the healer or the ranged dps that always pulls threat my focus. My intervene macro is simple:
/target focus
/cast intervene
I don’t have to look or find the mob that’s attacking my focus. As soon as I hear the screaming in Vent I hit my macro buttton and save someone’s butt.
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Sumendis reply on September 9, 2008 6:40 am:
Ah right thanks for clarifying. Yeah I remember that I didn’ use intervene at all at the start of TBC, mostly because my fingers were so used to do a quick zerkstance-intercept-def action, took me quite a while to get it into my brain that intervene can be used for that
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September 8th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
In a previous guild of mine someone who had a warrior as one of his many characters posted a whole bunch of /castrandom macros using various combinations of SS, Rev, and Dev. I banged my head on my desk for far too long after reading that and just hoping that no up-and-coming tanks paid attention to it. Sadly, they probably did considering that person was an officer.
I have to admit that all of my attacks are macro’d though. Admittedly, it’s just to put /startattack in front of all my abilities, but they are macro’d nonetheless. I also use a macro for Heroic Strike. Normal is HS, if I hold down Shift it’s Cleave. Purely a space-saving measure.
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Orenus reply on September 9, 2008 8:13 am:
In my early tanking days, I was PuG tanking a SLab run w/ a mage whose main was an SSC tank. He tried to convince me that the only macro I ever needed was the following:
/cast Heroic Strike
/castrandom Shield Slam, Revenge
He also informed me that Devastate was garbage and Heroic Strike should be my bread and butter ability. I really have no idea how he got as far as he did. Even as inexperienced as I was, the numbers just didn’t seem right to me.
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Hydrix reply on September 10, 2008 3:09 am:
Sounds like a dumbass if you ask me. Heroic strike should never be macroed to anyhing except /startattack. There are zero exceptions to this rule. ZERO.
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Orenus reply on September 11, 2008 9:31 am:
Oh, I fully agree with you, Hydrix. It just amazed me that a tank with more experience and more progression under his girdle than me could have such a completely wrong approach to tanking.
Of course, when he complemented my tanking, it was still a very nice ego boost at the time. “Woohoo! A raid tank says I’m a good tank!” I don’t know if I would have had the courage to try Karazhan otherwise.
September 8th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Worst warrior tanking macro:
/open internet browser
/go to tankingtips.com
/heroic strike
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Hydrix reply on September 8, 2008 8:03 pm:
-not enough rage-
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September 8th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
#show
#showtooltip
/cast Intervene
/cast [harm]Taunt
This is surprisingly useful to do a quick pick-up for a runner.
#show
#showtooltip
/startattack
/cast [stance:3]pummel;[equipped:shield]shield bash;berserker stance
OMFG! Stop that spell!
/equipslot [equipped:shield]16 Vanir’s Right Fist of Brutality;16 Mallet of the Tides
/equipslot [equipped:shield]18 Brutal Gladiator’s War Edge;18 Gyro-Balanced Khorium Destroyer
/equipslot [equipped:shield]17 Fury;17 Merciless Gladiator’s Shield Wall
You can’t test for a specific item, but you can test for categories like shield, thrown, gun, or bow; and act accordingly.
#show
#showtooltip
/startattack
/cast [equipped:gun]Shoot;[equipped:thrown] Throw
Since for warriors, just because you shoot something doesn’t mean you attack.
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September 8th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Long time lurker here, but I have some macro’s that I find particularly useful.
#showtooltip
/use 13
and
#showtooltip
/use 14
These are used to activate trinkets, as I swap trinkets around a bit it makes it easy to activate them.
I also use a mouseover target devastate for multimob tanking which works well, I found it on TankSpot but can’t remember where.
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Sumendis reply on September 9, 2008 6:46 am:
I was also gonna say, probably the macro I find most useful (and the one I wouldn’t wanna tank without) is a trinket-use macro like Aimli describes, that lets you see what the cooldown is left on your pocket watch, autoblocker or whatever it is, and it automatically adapts to your gear set.
That macro and a stancedance macro for zerker rage, are pretty much the only ones I use. Well ok and then the little utility macro that uses shoot/throw depending on what ranged weapon I got equipped (my macro actually includes fishing there as well, conditional on having my fishing pole equipped :P)
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Machus reply on September 9, 2008 6:03 pm:
I agree, trinkets were a right pain without these macros.
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September 8th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Apropos, how are you dealing with the first toolbar, the one that changes with your stance? Do you:
A. Make weird key bindings to fit stance-specific actions in it (I do that, it’s a mess).
B. ignore it and use some kind of macro that does different actions according to your stance?
C. Something better?
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Talldar reply on September 9, 2008 6:59 am:
Since 99% of all time I’m in def-stance I just put everything on the def-bar. Whenever I switch to berserker stance this is due to fear avoidance and I’ll really only be there for less than a second, so for me there’s pretty much only one toolbar.
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September 8th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Ok vene. I use the following macro, omitting shield block depending on whether or not I am on boss (that crushes) or trash:
/cast shield block
/castrandom shield slam, revenge
What do you think? Good or bad?
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Bran reply on September 8, 2008 9:19 pm:
I can’t imagine any situation where you would want a random ability as opposed to consciously (or unconsciously if you’re that practiced) popping the ability that the situation dictates.
Also, I’m happy to say that, noob that I am, I had none of these macros
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Hydrix reply on September 9, 2008 2:16 am:
As part of the rotation, I more or less mash that button and it typically goes off. The order doesn’t really matter when it comes to maintaining the golden order.
If I’m at the start of a trash pull, shield slam will go off since revenge won’t work. The only problem with it is that I have to push it multiple times sometimes as it will try to do the ability that is on CD or not ready… Not a huge deal, but maybe the downside.
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Psy reply on September 9, 2008 8:19 am:
Random is bad.
Talisman reply on September 9, 2008 8:32 pm:
Button mashing is fine if it’s the only button you have to mash, but personally I’d hate to have a macro to mash constantly with everything else my fingers are doing while tanking.
September 8th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
I agree, there is no macro that can perfectly execute Shield Slam, Revenge, Devastate, and Heroic Strike. (Shield Block shouldn’t be included in any macros anyway.) However, there is a macro that will work 90% of the time:
/castsequence reset=5 Shield Slam, Devastate, Devastate
/cast Heroic Strike
When it “doesn’t work”, it will still execute Devastate and Heroic Strike, only ignoring the Shield Slam even when the CD is up (but only for 3 sec max). Revenge and Shield Block are kept seperate. It only replaces my HS button on my action bar. SS and Devastate are still there.
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Talisman reply on September 9, 2008 8:35 pm:
Still don’t get why you need this then if SS and Devastate have their own places on the action bar.
What if you want to heroic strike and not devastate, like when you’re keeping your GCD free for a shield bash?
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September 8th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I use:
/castsequence reset=60 Bloodrage, Commanding Shout
/castrandom Shield Slam, Revenge, Devastate
/cast !Heroic Strike
Whenever things get tense and I’m required to do something other than stare at my cooldowns, spamming this (while I do what I need to do) does decent threat, albeit not the ultimate efficiency.
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Signu reply on September 9, 2008 10:28 am:
Thou shalt not Bloodrage in combat.
lrn2commandment
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Zelgius reply on September 9, 2008 5:03 pm:
While I understand the reasoning behind it, I don’t really need bloodrage to keep the pulls going. The Z key is my best friend
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Tankzor reply on September 11, 2008 3:33 am:
Even if Im in combat with VR or Gruul ?
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Veneretio reply on September 12, 2008 6:31 am:
Bosses are a different story. You’ll definitely be wanting to use Bloodrage during them as frequently as possible and you’ll certainly not want to sit down as even the most minor of bosses can decimate an overgeared tank once that tank takes an intentional crit.
Zelgius reply on September 12, 2008 10:44 am:
True in most cases. I do need to Z on mother shaz and gorefiend still quite frequently though.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:07 am
With WotLK looming closer the use of /shield block + /revenge is going to go away due to the change of shield block.
I always found my stance dance macro to be one of my favs, that and the intervene macro that has been posted. I also like to use one for intimidating shout, to stop attacking my target so I can bandage if no dot’s are on the target or give my healer the little extra time needed,
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September 9th, 2008 at 12:57 am
Macro 2, Shield Block + Heroic Strike, can be very effective in combination with certain keybindings.
I bind Shield Block + Heroic Strike to Scroll-Wheel Up, and the Shield Block to Scroll-Wheel Down. In any boss fight where you are maximising surviveability, just scroll the mouse wheel down. It’s as close to analogue as you’ll ever get on a keyboard/mouse, and saves your poor fingers from repetitive strain injury. If you have excess rage to burn (RoS P3 is the perfect example), scroll the mouse wheel up. You still continue the Shield Block spammage, but throw in Heroic Strikes on every possible opportunity.
In addition to this, you can easily switch the Scroll-Wheel Up macro for non-macroed abilities, such as Heroic Strike, and Cleave. Cleave is perfect for MH trash, while a simple Heroic Strike binding is ideal for piling out the threat. Teron Gorefiend, while your DPS are insistant on chasing your ass, for example.
Bind Shift+Scroll Wheel to the now-unbound Zoom-In/Out commands, and you are sorted. This allows you to concentrate on your standard rotation with your left hand, full control over the situation and positioning with your right hand (stick Spell Reflect on the Middle Mouse button is another tip), while I click the less-common abilities, such as Intervene, Last Stand, Shield Wall, Ironshield Potion etc.
It takes a little getting used to, but binding abilities (and the macro you don’t believe is worthwhile) onto the scroll wheel really simplifies things. Try it, before WOTLK renders it not quite as effective!
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September 9th, 2008 at 3:54 am
With regards to point 1:
Vene always emphasizes the importance of only using heroic strike when you have the rage to do so. I recommend an addon like Endeavour’s rage bar:
http://www.curse.com/downloads/details/12492/
Move that sucker around right on top of you if you have to and it’s a lot easier than having to look to the top right of your screen for your rage.
Of course if you had a unit frames addon I suppose you can move your portrait/health/rage bar anywhere you want, but oh well. It’s a suggestion.
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September 9th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Great post Vene and awesome discussion…really like coming here to see what the “think-tank” is pondering.
I have found sneaking in a little utility into my Shield Slam and Devastate to be essential
/startattack (added for sure when I found myself not attacking a couple times after switching mobs back in the day) - My standard button
/Shield Block (when I realized I was getting crushed more than I need to I added another line for boss fights)
/target Attumen (that’s right lol…I got so sick of the Druid healer getting eaten when Attumen popped and I couldn’t pick him up fast enough)
That’s right…I have 3 situational buttons for SS/Dev that I swap in as needed.
I use the Stance Dance I found here
Weapons swaps are very cool
Love the cookie eating macro!
I also use /rw Raid warnings for when I pop Last Stand or Shield Wall
I am really interested in Intervene…can you guys confirm that it works while targeting the mob as well as targeting the player. Noticed the one fella who uses Focus to intervene a squishy and another that said it works with your current target.
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Arvernien reply on September 9, 2008 9:50 am:
My macro that uses focus, my target automatically switches to the attacking mob. I’m not positive but I understand that if you target a mob and hit Intervene your target does not change.
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September 9th, 2008 at 9:03 am
I was having some of those macros, except the rev+sb one. Mine was SB+Rev. It had the same result, rage starved for the 2nd ability.
Now the only macro I use are for stance dancing, like for berzerker rage, taunt, mocking blow, our 30min abilities, etc, just to be in the right stance yo use it. Otherwise the macro I use is for shield slam, to activate trinket and bloodrage (I use it whenever its up anyway).
I also have a SB+SS macro, but I use it only when I wear 2pcs of T5, for the bonus.
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September 10th, 2008 at 7:29 am
The only problem that I have with most of the macros that you listed is that they are so darned situational that they end up only creating an extra button. To be effective you need both of the abilities in the macro out plus the macro, OR just have both of the abilities and learn to press them both at the same time!
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September 11th, 2008 at 1:34 am
I must admit that I used a
/cast Devastate
/cast Heroic strike
/start attack
Lazy opener tanking macro. I needed it when I began. I was struggling. Now this macro is more of a hinderance than an aid. I’ve finally understood Heroic Strike and understand where it needs to be placed in the sequence. Using this macro has caused more harm than good to my tps output. Today, after reading your macro article, it’s being thrown in the bin.
Learning so much here and at times being too lazy for my own good. Thanks for the kick in the ass Vene! It gets binned tonight!
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September 11th, 2008 at 3:18 am
The only macro that I would personally disagree with being on this list is the shield block + heroic strike one. SITUATIONALLY, it can be an amazing tool. Of course there are times when I wouldn’t want the abilities bound together, and have them both on my bars so that I can monitor them seperately. For example, in the first 1/2s of both BT and Hyjal, I actually want to occasionally eat a crushing blow or two. Some of the bosses simply don’t hit me hard enough or often enough to warrant the usual 100% shield block uuptime. On the other side of the same coin, some of the bosses I need to make sure to not take a crushing blow. For example, on Teron I’m geared to the point that I’m wearing a full threat suit for him, but not so much so that I want to take his crushing blows. He can still hit me hard enough to burst me down if I don’t pay attention. It goes without saying I would never use this macro on Illidan because of the danger of taking shears.
On the other hand, there are times when having this macro on my bars where HS would ordinarily be only helps me, rather than hinders me. I’m working on Brutallus at the moment. On this fight, at my current gear level, I simply have more rage than I can use. The situation with Sathrovarr on the Kalecgos fight is similar, though not quite as severe. I never quite find myself low on rage, but I’m also never wasting rage. On both of these fights, I’m safely able to maintain a 100% heroic strike uptime, while also maintaining shield block for extra mitigation. On Brut, it’s honestly absolutely essential that I maintain shield block constantly, despite his lack of crushing blows, simply because I need every ounce of damage I can get to be taken away. As a result of my being a raid leader in addition to a main tank, this fight can get very hectic for me at times. With trying to maintain my own rotations, monitor meteor slashes and tank swaps, my trinket/seed/cooldown rotations, making sure people are handling their burns properly…well, I have my hands full. Not having to watch shield block and make sure I hit that button every 5 seconds is a fairly minor luxury, but it’s a welcome one during situations like this.
I view this macro much like I view my different gear sets. There are times when it should be used, and there are times when it should not. Part of being a good tank is knowing when to use the tools available to you, and I view this is one of those tools. When the situation allows it, hitting one button is more efficient than hitting two.
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September 12th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
I don’t know, but i’ve never had a macro using heroic strike. I use it manually when my rage meter is seemingly stuck at 100. No need to constantly have a macro when you’ll only use it to be efficient with your rage.. I use the mouse and keyboard to click on HS and press “2″ for the devastate or other buttons for SS, etc…. Our guild is FINALLY trying SSC tonight so i’ll get to dust off the warrior and try it out.
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September 17th, 2008 at 9:28 am
You pretty much summed up exactly how I feel about these macros. Personally, I use no macro with a Heroic Strike. It’s not hard to press two keys at once (HS & whatever).
In lower rage situations, as I often find myself in Heroic dungeons, I throttle Heroic Strike to just Shield Slam. When a special ability hits me or I allow myself to be hit hard intentionally, I throw in Heroic Strike on both Devastates. I prefer using it with Revenge or Shield Slam for high burst threat early on, though.
I also like throwing out a Heroic Strike when using Thunder Clap & Demoralizing Shout to help compensate for the lower TPS of those abilities.
It takes some judgement, but when in doubt - go without (Heroic Strike, that is).
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September 17th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Playing on PTR and Beta made me work some changes on where things were in my bars, since now we’ll need to put charge as the second option on intervene and intercept ;D, find a place to put shockwave and heroic throw, reading this post and learning something about macros i ended up scripting some [mod:shift] and [mod:ctrl] to the bar :
Shouts
/cast [mod:shift] Battle Shout
/cast [mod:ctrl] Commanding Shout
/cast Demoralizing Shout
Heroic/Cleave
/cast [mod:shift] Cleave
/cast Heroic Strike
Couldnt find a right way to fit the charge/intervene/intercept yet =P
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September 22nd, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Just an update. Finally dropped my Devastate, Heroic strike macro and started doing it properly. SS, Dev, Dev, Revenge and placing in the heroic strike when it was required. It was challenging and a break a way from my lazy macro button and I really struggled to get it right.
But now, wow! Once I have rage I can unload it quicker and create more controlled threat rather than a random heroic strike going off somewhere and rage being non-existant. Was a lazy foolish tank for keeping it up for so long but times are a changing!
Oh, and gotta love using Corens Coin and the Autoblocker together for trash. Wonder how long they gonna let us use those on the same cooldown =)
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September 27th, 2008 at 10:31 am
i use shield block + revenge
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October 18th, 2008 at 11:46 am
I myself is using the macro’s
/devastate
/heroic strike
/Revenge
/heroic strike
/Shieldslam
/heroic strike
I simply keep them in a seperate bar similar to the normal tanking bar, where only devastate, revenge and shieldslam is without any macros. Then whenever in a highrage situation I switch the bar to the second actionbar, which has the macros implanted. and fast switchback if rage should get low. Works pretty perfect for me. obviously works with /cleave aswell. If you are good at switching the actionsbars at correct situations I think you will benefit from it.
Keeping heroic strike up manually takes alot of effort, well not a lot, but more than needed, saying it was to be a bossfight.
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December 5th, 2008 at 8:53 am
with free heroic strikes and rage not a problem I will keep my
/autoattack+devastate+HS macro and love it…. Glyph of revenge is awesome.
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Crio reply on December 5, 2008 9:55 am:
At the time this was posted there were no such thing as glyphs. See thread below
http://www.tankingtips.com/2008/10/17/level-70-glyphs-making-bad-macros-good/
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admin reply on December 5, 2008 10:35 am:
Indeed, on the agenda for this weekend is re-categorizing a lot of these out-dated posts, updating the calculators/ratings and writing another post… maybe even finding time for WoW too lewl.
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