Keybinds on Movement Keys

I had a warlock-induced epiphany this week.

W
ASD

4 keys I use to move around.
4 keys that could, potentially, be keybound.
4 keys I can bind using modifiers and tack on abilities I cast only when I am *not* moving.

If I'm moving around using WASD, I can't be using any spell with a cast-time, anyway. If I'm casting a spell that is cancelled by movement, I can't be moving anyway while I press the button to trigger it. So, cast-time spells can be bound to movement keys using modifiers to toggle them (ctrl, alt, shift).

Suddenly, my keyboard doesn't feel so cramped for space anymore.

Druid Spells that require you to stand still:

• Wrath
• Starfire
• Hurricane (though you can target it while moving)
  
• Cyclone
• Entangling Roots
• Soothe
• Healing Touch
• Nourish
• Regrowth
• Tranquility
  
• Revive
• Rebirth
• Warstomp (racial)

Number of these that I did not previously have keybound: 7.

So how do you keybind your movement keys without loosing your movement? By having the actions be bound by the key + ctrl, alt, or shift. For the actual binding, I used Bindpad, though you could use an actionbar mod like Bartender and bind individual action buttons.

• Ctrl W
• Alt W
• Shift W
• Ctrl A
• Alt A
• Shift A
• Ctrl S
• Alt S
• Shift S
• Ctrl D
• Alt D
• Shift D

That's 12 additional keybind spots. If you use one of your modifiers as a push-to-talk button (ie ctrl for ventrilo) that's still 9 button combinations you can bind! Be careful with this, though. If you're running around while pressing modifier keys for other abilities (like shift to swiftmend) it can interrupt your directional movement. Personally, I use quite a few shift-modifier macros, so I'm keeping those as just movement so they don't trip me up while I'm using a shift-cast spell from another key, but alt is one I never use while I'm moving just because it's uncomfortable to hold down... that makes the alt-WASD binds perfect places for me to stick some cast-time spells. I've put Wrath, Soothe, Entangling Roots, and Starfire on them.

Note 1: I don't suggest putting HT on one of these as it's usually macroed to NS anyway, thus making it sometimes insta-cast :)

Note 2: If you unbound your strafe from q and e like I did, I do suggest keeping strafe left and strafe right bound somewhere in these keys, like as Shift A and Shift D, (Edit: or just as A and D) or even on mousebuttons. Strafe does come in handy from time to time.

Note 3: If you are a feral who uses ctrl/shift/alt macros for lots of abilities, like I do, and want to use them while moving, then I really *really* suggest making sure these movement-key binds are form-dependent. Otherwise you'll find yourself suddenly casting wrath in cow form when you should be tanking or clawing. /stopmacro [form:1/3] is your friend. So is [nostance].


Thank you, Naz :) Please don't incinerate me.

Kae's 4.0 Druid Macros

In an update from my PTR post, I have found that not only have they fixed the OP kitty death pounce of ravagey doom, but also fixed lifebloom for macro useage. Both good things.


MACROS

The following macros are 4.0 updates to the macros I currently use. Healing didn't change much, in terms of spells, so most of these are feral. It is likely I'll be tweaking these macros as I grow accustomed to the new abilities and grow away from my old bind habits. It is also likely that you may find a different arrangement of abilities to be useful: feel free to hack these macros apart and replace things with your own preference. That's what macros are for :)


- NOTE 1: if you are not a primary-spec resto and secondary-spec feral, you will want to look at all instances of [spec:1] and [spec:2] in these macros to replace them with your appropriate spec.

- NOTE 2: I use an old-model G15 keyboard, which offers me at least 4 "easily reachable" extra keybind keys for pinky reach. You might be a little more pressed for keybind space if you don't have or use one of these, and have to rely more on mouse-click actions.

- NOTE 3: Bindpad has a working version here on WoWInterface.

---

Generic Macro Templates

Cut and paste in your abilities where you'd like. If in doubt, click them out of your spellbook to get the correct name.

Mouseover Heal or Cleanse:

/cast [@mouseover,help] [help] [@player] Spellname


Mouseover or Focus Harm:
(attack your mouseover, or otherwise your focus target, such as with CC)

/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead] [harm] [@focus,harm,nodead] [@focustarget,harm] [] Spellname


Mouseover or Focus Harm Toggle:
(hold shift to attack or assist your focus target, such as with CC, otherwise mouseover)

/cast [mod:shift,@focus,harm,nodead][mod:shift,@focustarget,harm,nodead][@mouseover,harm,nodead] [harm] [] Spellname


Focus-assist or Target Harm:
(set a main tank as assist, for example)

/cast [@focustarget,harm,nodead] [harm] [] Spellname


Mouseover Help or Target Harm:

/cast [harm] DPSspell; [@mouseover,help] [help] [@player] Healspell


Modifier-toggled casts:

/cast [mod:shift] Spell1; [mod:alt] Spell2; Spell3


Modifier-toggled Helpful Mouseovers:

/cast [mod:shift,@mouseover,help][mod:shift,help][mod:shift,@player] Spell1; [mod:alt][mod:alt,help][mod:alt,@player] Spell2; [@mouseover,help][help][@player] Spell3

---

Custom Macros

My Skull Bash Key (G12):
Skull bash is our new feral-form spell interrupt. While the following can be done by placing the abilities on your respective stance bars (besides the mouseover portion of Wild Growth), I prefer to just macro it in Bindpad.

#showtooltip /cast [form:3] Skull Bash(Cat Form); [form:1] Skull Bash(Bear Form) /stopmacro [spec:2] [form:1/3] /cast [@mouseover,nodead,exists] [@player] Wild Growth

• Cat: Skull Bash
• Bear: Skull Bash
• Caster [spec:1]: Wild Growth (mouseover)

My Stuns Key (G18):
This key used to be my remove curse macro; my cleanse has been consolidated and thus freed up this button. As above, the following can be done by placing the abilities on your respective stance bars (besides the targeting portion of Cyclone), I prefer to just macro it in Bindpad. You could throw warstomp in there, but I prefer having access to that straight from feral forms.

#showtooltip /cast [form:3] Maim; [form:1] Bash; [harm][@focus,harm][] Cyclone

• Cat: Maim
• Bear: Bash
  
• Caster: Cyclone on enemy target, else on enemy focus target, else normal.
  

Mushroom Toggle:
Casting mushrooms (up to 3 at a time) and detonating them requires different casts. While we won't learn this spell until level 85, it is good to plan ahead and map out where you'd like to put this ability in your binds/bars, and consolidating the two into one toggled macro is a great way to save space.

#showtooltip /cast [mod:shift] Detonate Mushroom; Wild Mushroom

• Shift: Detonate Mushrooms (boom them)
  
• Normal: Wild Mushroom (place them)
  

STAMPEDE (~):
While we won't learn Stampeding Roar until level 83, I wanted to save a spot for it. While yet again the following can be done by placing the abilities on your respective stance bars, I prefer to just macro it in Bindpad. /shrug

#showtooltip /cast [form:3] Stampeding Roar(Cat Form); [form:1]Stampeding Roar(Bear Form); Hurricane

• Cat: Stampeding Roar
• Bear: Stampeding Roar
  
• Caster: Hurricane. Because. THUNDER AND LIGHTENING, VERY VERY FRIGHTENING!
  

My feral AOE Key (q):
Swipe gets spammed a lot, as a cat. Swipe has a cooldown as a bear, but it used to get spammed a lot. We'll be getting Thrash, another bear AoE, at 81, so we have to plan for that. I like binding tons of stuff to my q and e keys :)

#showtooltip /cast [mod:shift,form:1] Thrash; [mod:alt,form:1] Mangle(Bear Form); [@mouseover,harm,nodead,form:1][form:1] Swipe(Bear Form); [stealth] Pounce; [mod:shift] Rake; [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Swipe(Cat Form) /startattack [nostealth]

• Cat:
  • Swipe
  • +shift: Rake
  • +stealth: Pounce
  • If you'd like to add [mod:alt]Mangle(Cat Form); then you'll need to kill the #showtooltip and some blank spaces to make room.
    
  
  
• Bear:
  • Swipe,
  • +shift: Thrash
  • +alt: Mangle
  
  

My feral "E" Key:
Pulverize is an important new bear tool you need to include in your rotation. It is a "CP-user" of lacerate stacks, so binding it to your lacerate key makes sense to me. As for cat form, I haven't changed any of my old binds, but will probably replace Maim with something else down the road, once I get used to my new stuns macro.

#showtooltip /cast [mod:shift,form:3] Ferocious Bite; [form:3,mod:alt]Rip; [form:3] Maim /stopmacro [form:3] /cast [nomod:alt] !Maul /cast [mod:shift] Pulverize; Lacerate

• Cat:
  • Maim (because it's where I'm used to it. If you're using a combined stuns key elsewhere, you may consider replacing this with something else).
    
  • +shift: Ferocious Bite
  • +alt: Rip (you might consider making this the default by removing the red text, if you don't want Maim here)
    
  
  
• Bear:
  • Lacerate and Maul,
  • +shift: Pulverize and Maul,
  • +alt: hold alt to not use Maul

My T Key:
An update to my "t" key. It's got a bunch of random but useful stuff in it, including my ToL shift. As a note, if you are feral, you might want to consider a cast-sequence instead for catform which is in the next macro down, as you can now use unstealthed Ravage after using feral charge.

#showtooltip /cast [form:1,btn:2][form:1,mod]Enrage /cast [form:1,btn:1][mod,form:1]Frenzied Regeneration /stopmacro [form:1] /cast [mod,form:3]Savage Roar;[form:3]Feral Charge(Cat Form);[mod,spec:1] !Tree of Life; [@mouseover,help][@player]Nourish

• Bear:
  • Frenzied Regeneration
  • Right click: Enrage
  • +Shift: both Enrage and Frenzied Regen, together
    
• Cat:
  • Feral Charge
  • +shift: Savage Roar
• Caster:
  • Nourish
  • +shift: [spec:1] ToL
  
  

My Catform Charge+Ravage Key (t):
The improved feral charge talent makes your next ravage usable while not stealthed, for a short period of time after charging in cat form. Note that if your ravage misses or is a failed attempt due to positioning, it still consumes the buff.

#showtooltip /cast [mod] Savage Roar /castsequence reset=8 Feral Charge(Cat Form), Ravage

• Feral Charge and then Ravage (two presses);
  
• +shift: Savage Roar

4.0 and Macros

I took some time this weekend to dive into the PTR, looking specifically at what changes I would have to make to my setup. Beyond a respec and many broken mods, the most notable thing I needed to update was my macros.

Possible Bugs:

• Lifebloom refuses to be cast via macro, insisting it isn't ready yet.
  
• Insect Swarm is not being learned properly from the trainer. Trainer insists I've already learned it, and the spellbook insists I need to speak to the trainer.
  
• ADDITION: talented imp-feral-charge may not be "working as intended." Sometimes it won't allow ravage to be used; others, you can cast 6-8 unstealthed ravages for free and rack up the CP.
  

Ability Changes

• Dire Bear Form becomes Bear Form
• Maul has a cooldown, but does not trigger the GCD still. Will require some error-cleanses to keep from spamming "that ability isn't ready yet," or else creating a new macro for it.
• Abolish Poison and Remove Curse become combined as Remove Corruption; frees up one keybind slot as well.
  
• Remove Gift of the Wild. The original Mark of the Wild becomes a full party/raid-wide buff.
  
• Mangle becomes Mangle(Cat Form) and Mangle(Bear Form). It is still feral-only; non-ferals will still use Claw in cat form.
  
• Feral Charge becomes Feral Charge(Bear Form) and Feral Charge(Cat Form). It is still a feral talent.
  
• Swipe becomes Swipe(Cat Form) and Swipe(Bear From)
• Put Soothe back on your bar; is not "Soothe Animal," just Soothe, and is now used to dispel enrages. It can only be used in caster form, so priority on casts should go to restos (and maybe moonkin, didn't test if it deshifts them) first before cats and certainly least by your bear tanks.
  
• Put Insect Swarm on your bar (though the ptr wouldn't let me learn it from the trainer)
• Put Skull Bash(Cat Form) and Skull Bash(Bear Form) on your bar, most likely as a macro.
  
• Put Pulverize on your bar (feral only)
• Ravage does not always require [stealth], if talented as a feral.

Personal Keybind Changes

The addition of several new and important abilities into the feral rotations has me combing across my keybinds to figure out how best to map them. Skull Bash, Bash, and Maim all share similar use so could probably be macroed together into a CC button, along with Feral Charge if you can reach the modifier keys easily from the keybind. Something along the lines of:

/cast [mod:shift,form:1] Skull Bash(Bear Form); [mod:alt,form:1]Bash; [mod:shift,form:3] Skull Bash(Cat Form); [mod:alt,form:3] Maim; [form:1] Feral Charge(Bear Form); [form:3] Feral Charge(Cat Form); [mod:shift] Entangling Roots; [mod:alt] Hibernate; Cyclone

...but I'm not sure I can comfortably use such a macro, personally, as it'd require me to drastically alter my current keybinds.

I'm rather happy that my main spec has rather limited changes! I am just hoping that the lifebloom-in-a-macro bug is fixed by the time the patch is released ;)

Res Speeches Revisited

I took the time to browse through a list of all the quotes out of Portal, after BBB's post today reminded me of the wonderfulness that is the Portal game. As such, I've added the following macros into my res-speech repertoire... you can find my full, comprehensive list here :)

• Not in cruelty / Not in wrath / The REAPER came today / An ANGEL visited / %T's gray path / And took the cube away
• Because %T could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; the cube had food and maybe ammo. And immortality.
• So I'm GLaD %T got burned. Think of all the things we learned for the people who are still alive.
• Aperture Science; We do what we must because we can. For the good of all of us. Except %T who is dead.
• Who's going to make the cake when %T is gone? Me?
• You euthanized yourself more quickly than any test subject on record. Congratulations, %T.
• This next boss could take a very, very long time. If you become lightheaded from thirst, feel free to pass out, like %T. An intubation associate will be dispatched to revive you with peptic salve and adrenaline.
• As part of a previously mentioned required test protocol, we can no longer lie to you. When the testing is over, %T will be...*bzzt*... missed.
• Despite the best efforts of the Enrichment Center Staff to ensure the safe performance of all authorized activities, %T has managed to die inside this room. A complimentary revival will be performed in three, two, one...
• While safety is one of many Enrichment Center goals, the Aperture Science High-Energy Zones seen in many cases as black, green, red, or blue puddles can and have caused permanent disabilities, such as vaporization. Please be careful, %T.
• As part of a required raid protocol, a previous statement suggesting that we would not heal this raid was an outright fabrication. Good job, %T. As part of a required raid protocol, we will stop enhancing the truth in three, two, o--
• %T: please be advised that a noticeable taste of blood is not part of any protocol, but an unintended side effect of the Aperture Science Resurrection Grille, which may, in semi-rare cases, emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel, and teeth.

Ahh fun times. I considered making one out of the cake recipe... but that just got a little morbid!

Maul, Melee Haste, and Maul Macro

I'm going to ramble a bit about Maul.

Maul is, currently, an "on next swing" attack that does not set off the GCD: that means it can be tied to other abilities in a macro so that it will be triggered while you're using that same GCD to do another attack, like swipe or mangle.

In low-rage situations you don't want to be using it--mangle and lacerate are better threat builders per mana cost and are instant attacks that don't rely on your swing timer--but in MOST cases, a bear tank wants to use maul on every autoattack (which has a slow 2.5 second "attack speed" anyway, impacted by haste). It's a way to use up excess rage and build extra threat.



Full Raid Buffs include a Moonkin aura or Ret Pally aura 3%, and a Imp Windfury Totem or Imp Icy Talons 20%. The formula for druid bearform melee attack speed as of 3.1.3 is

speed = 2.5 base / {[1+ raid buff .2] * [1+ raid buff .03] * [1+ (haste rating/2522)]}



Macro Rambling

To make use of Maul, I have chosen to tie it to Mangle. It's not the most eloquent of macros, and it could use some work, but what it does is fire off maul every time I attack with mangle, unless I hold down alt.

#showtooltip /cast [mod:shift,form:3] Ferocious Bite;[mod:alt,form:3]Rip;[form:3] Maim; [mod:shift] Lacerate;[nomod:alt] !Maul /script UIErrorsFrame:Hide() /cast [mod:alt] [ ] Mangle (Bear)() /script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()

Obviously, with a 6 second Mangle cooldown (4.5 second talented) and a much faster swing timer (even without haste gear or buffs), you'd want to be using maul more often than mangle, assuming you have the rage to do it. Sometimes, you'd also want to use mangle without Maul since you may not have the rage to power a maul. This is where the macro trips up, and why it has all that script stuff in it (hiding the "you can't do that yet" errors for when Mangle is on cooldown).

I'm considering tieing the maul to lacerate, too. Lacerate runs off of the standard ability GCD, which is not (to my knowledge) impacted by haste. As it's a trigger, you just have to make sure you aren't triggering it on and off with your macro, just turning it on with /cast !Maul.

/cast [mod:shift,form:3] Ferocious Bite;[mod:alt,form:3]Rip;[form:3] Maim /stopmacro [form:3] /cast !Maul /cast [mod:shift] Mangle (Bear)(); Lacerate

Of course, we'd want a way to lacerate without triggering Maul in a low-rage situation. Below is one way to enable this, by having a modifier: "if alt is held, don't cast maul!"

/cast [mod:shift,form:3] Ferocious Bite;[mod:alt,form:3]Rip;[form:3] Maim /stopmacro [form:3] /cast [nomod:alt] !Maul /cast [mod:shift] Mangle (Bear)(); Lacerate

...will have to try it out later. If someone gets a chance to test the macro for me, please let me know if there are any issues with it in a comment :)

Another consideration is to find a way to toggle Maul to Mangle at the same time, with a separate on/off switch. This will probably require use of a third modifier key, CTRL, one I don't usually use because I have it as my ventrilo push-to-talk. This macro will do is the same as above, and also cast Maul with Mangle if CTRL is held.

/cast [mod:shift,form:3] Ferocious Bite;[mod:alt,form:3]Rip;[form:3] Maim /stopmacro [form:3] /cast [nomod:alt/ctrl]!Maul /cast [mod:shift] [mod:ctrl] Mangle (Bear)(); Lacerate

Again, the above macro is untested at the moment, and I'm thinking there must be a more elegant way to do it. I just haven't gotten a chance to test it in-game to tweak it, yet (still doing that whole moving thing!). Play with it if you'd like :)


Maul Glyph

When glyphed, it'll hit two targets. This can be a bane or a blessing, depending on whether that guy you just mauled happened to be a sheep, or if it's stealing threat off a fellow tank who is trying to keep a ton of adds off of you while you tank the big bad boss. If you have glyphed it, be sure to remember that you've got an out-of-control off-target maul that will randomly hit another mob in your melee range. Try to work with it: as many problems as the glyph can cause, it has far more benefits in the current WotLK multi-mob tanking scene, you just have to be aware of it and work with your raid to keep it from breaking CC or stealing aggro.


Cataclysm

"All “on next swing” attacks in Cataclysm are being removed. Heroic Strike and Maul will be instant swings that cost a variable amount of Rage. For example, imagine Heroic Strike costs between 10 and 30 Rage. You must have at least 10 Rage to use the attack, but it will consume all available Rage up to a maximum of 30. Any Rage consumed above the minimum will cause the ability to hit harder, and in some cases much harder. We will tune the ability so that it’s generally not a good idea to hit it when you have low Rage (unless everything else is somehow on cooldown) but becomes a more attractive button the higher your Rage."

Given this and the other planned rage changes, I'm not sure what Cataclysm will mean in terms of how often we will be hitting our maul button to tie that extra damage to our auto-attack swing. That's one of those test-realm or "wait and see" sorts of things. I think that, ultimately, they want us using it when we have rage to do so, but with rage becoming something they want us to have to watch more carefully, maul may become less of a "default this as on" and more of a "don't use it unless I say so" ability, where a macro like the one earlier in the post would have it fire off maul only with the alt key held rather than when it's not held.

/shrug. Interesting stuff. :)

Kae's Keybinds and Peripherals

I made this pretty keyboard and mouse layout with my keybinds.


Clickie to enlarge (and make the text more readable).

• The gray-hued buttons are keybinds I typically use the keyboard to access.
• The brown-hued buttons are keybinds I typically use the mouse to access.
• Unlisted abilities like tranquility, buffs, and resurrections are just clicked on action bars.
• Macros are used to enable multiple abilities on each keybind using [form:x], [spec:x], [stealth], and [mod:x] to differentiate among them. You can find links to most of my macros in the dropdown menu at the top of the page.
  
• I use Bindpad and Bartender for most of my keybind needs. I like to swap to vehicle/posses keybinds for my main 4 buttons (q, M3, e, and t) and Bartender lets me do that by applying the keybind to the action bar slot, rather than applying the bind straight to the macro as Bindpad does.
  

KEYBOARD
I use an old-school G15 keyboard from LogiTech with 18 extra keys along its sides. I use 3 of these for most of my characters, though I am branching out to the G11 key with a couple of alts (too many darn totems!). The newer G15s are backlit orange (mine is blue) and have fewer side keys, but they are in easy reach.

• I have shift-A and shift-D bound to strafe left/right to make up for rebinding q and e.
• I just am not comfortable reliably pressing z, x, c, and v while moving around in combat.
• left-CTRL is my Ventrilo push-to-talk, so I don't use it as a key modifier.
• I use the numpad for quick-swapping gear sets.
  

MOUSE
I use the WoW MMO gaming mouse from SteelSeries, which is shiny and comfortable and jam-packed with 15 buttons (counting left/right click and scroll wheel). I will probably expand to different binds on the thumb-pad as I grow more comfortable with the mouse.

• The UI for mapping the mouse's buttons is a complete pain, because it refers to the default actions each key is bound to in-game, rather than the actual keystroke. It was worth the headache to set up, though.
• The "steel" coating has started to peel off from where my palm rests, after 3 months of use. A bit of an annoyance, but it doesn't impact the mouse's operation. The LogiTech gaming mice had similar problems, but only after a year or more of heavy use.
• The spines light up and glow. You can choose the color and pulse speed and such... I chose blue to match my keyboard's back-glow, though sometimes I change it up for giggles.
  

Res Macros P2: Revenge of the Res Macros

It's been 11 months since I originally posted my funny resurrection macros list, and it has grown a bit over the year. I wanted to "revive" the topic (ha) and point out some new ones that I have added!

You can find my full list here.

As a reminder, I use Lunarsphere's random speech generator to manage my res macros. The mod will choose one from my list randomly each time I cast a res spell.

My Own:

• *pokes %t with a stick* Um, guys? I think it's still alive...
• %t died! /roll for blame!
• So, how much experience do I get for killing %t?

From the Forums/Blogosphere/Misc Quotes:

• Forgive me, %t! Your death only adds to your repair bill!
• studiesshowthatbythetimeyoufinishreadingallofthis%twillbealive!
• Ok, one more time. The bad guys are supposed to die, the good guys are supposed to live. And %t? We're the good guys.
• %t, stop worshiping the ground I walk on and get up.
• It's not that I didn't try to heal you, %t, I simply found it more mana efficient to rez you.
• DISCLAIMER: I learned how to rez from a recipe on the AH, so accept at your own risk, %t.

AVATAR:

• Alright, %T, I'm going to res you. Just relax and let your mind go blank... shouldn't be hard for you, considering you're, well, dead.
• So you just figured you'd come here to the most hostile environment known to men, with no training of any kind, and see how it went? What was going through your head, %T?
• Arise, %T, and we will see if your insanity can be cured.
• Nothing's over while I'm breathing, %t!
  
• Sooner or later, %t, you always have to wake up.
  
• Sometimes your whole life boils down to one insane move... lucky for you, %t, I can give you another chance.
• It's my job to keep you alive. I will not succeed. Not with all of you. *looks pointedly at %t*
  

Star Wars:

• Not a bad bit of resurrection, huh, %t? You know, sometimes I amaze even myself.
  
• Uh, we had a slight weapons malfunction, but uh... %t's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?
• You know, between the raid's howling and %t blasting everything in sight, it's a wonder the whole instance doesn't know we're here.
• You don't need to see %t's identification. This isn't the corpse you're looking for. You can go about your business. Move along.
• I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened... oh wait, no, that was just %t.
• Judging by your current state, I suggest a new tactic, %t: let the wookie win.
  

I'd love to hear what others have to add to the list. Remember, the above quotes are only the "new" ones I have added: you can find my full list here, where I've been updating it since its original posting last year.

Macro Changes for 3.3

@target:

Patch 3.3 is introducing another space-saving macro shortcut. In place of typing [target=mouseover,help] we can now use [@mouseover,help]. I have a lot of macros to re-write. :) They will still work with the target= syntax, of course, so no rush in changing them all (ie before raid time tonight with the patch rolling out!).

/cast [mod:shift,@mouseover,help] [mod:shift,help] [mod:shift,@player] Lifebloom; [@mouseover,help] [help] [@player] Rejuvenation

Vehicle Macro Syntax:

• [vehicleui] (if the player has a vehicle UI)
• [unithasvehicleui] (if the target of the macro has a vehicle UI)

I would imagine adding "no" before each will work as it does with other syntax (ie "novehicleui"). Not sure yet what I would personally use these for, but a few considerations regarding my usual freak-out when someone jumps in a low-health mount and suddenly appears at a sliver of health are twirling around in my head.


Other:

/SetTitle command was added. I dunno specifically what it does, but I'd imagine it has something to do with Player Titles.

Hurricane has been fixed when cast from Bear Form, Cat Form, or Dire Bear Form, allowing it to complete the channel after shifting out of form rather than stopping the hurricane. Not sure if they fixed it for treeform, too... but will test it tonight. If it is fixed, then I can swap my hurricane macro back to not having a /cancelform at the start :)

Link: How to do Top DPS

This is a video that a friend linked on our guild forums yesterday.

It is by a hunter, Kripparrian: "I go over what to and what not to do in terms of global cooldown use, and cooldown stacking in this guide. Most of the info is general and directed at anyone playing WoW, not just hunters." It's a great video on general tips/tricks on casting, latency, cooldowns, mods, keybinds, and overall playing mentality, and can easily apply in many ways to tanking and healing as well.



Healing is a bit more reactionary than dps is, since it is (in most cases) difficult to predict damage incoming on the tank (sans notable boss abilities being cast at them, like Frozen Slash or Meteor Fists), but I think that most druid healers can empathize with a more proactive casting. Boss mods will assist greatly in timing these abilities (which is why I have my DBM bars finish right next to my grid frames). We aren't able to "save" our big heals for when our trinkets happen to proc or a synergistic cooldown is available since the tank can die in that time, but the basic idea is certainly there. We still have to worry about being able to heal (or cast) on the run, watch our cooldowns, spam keys, and have easy-access keybinds (which can include Clique) to cut down time between spell casts.

Tanking is more in-line with DPS in regards to its ability to spam and stack attacks for threat generation, but they will need to also weave in shielding/mitigation cooldowns in accordance with the boss' own timed attacks, healer mana, and overall heals incoming on themselves (especially if healers die). Again, boss mods will assist greatly in timing these larger damage spikes.

FYI, a good macro for combining cooldowns into one key along with a spellcast is such:

/cast Cooldown1 /cast Cooldown2 /cast Spellname

Most cooldowns are able to be chained like this, as they do not proc the GCD by themselves. Replace Cooldown1, Cooldown2, and Spellname with chosen spells. Trinkets can be used in place of cooldowns. If you'd prefer not to write out trinket names, you can instead type /use 13 and /use 14 in place of the /cast Cooldown, where the 13 and 14 refer to the slots on your character window for your trinkets.

You can insert modifier keys to make it more variable, such as:

/cast [mod:shift] [] Cooldown1 /cast [mod:shift] Cooldown2 /cast [mod:shift] Spellname1; Spellname2

...which would cast, if shift is held, both cooldowns and spellname1, or if shift is not held, cast cooldown1 and spellname2.

One thing that he didn't cover, however, was selecting targets during trash pulls. The faster you can select the right target (being the one the tank is building threat on), the faster you can get damage pouring into the mob without pulling aggro. MT frames or, even more quickly, a focus-target assist (where the tank is your focus target) can aid in selecting the correct target; tanks that use raid-marking macros can also speed up your target selection by putting an icon on the mob.

Applause to Kripparrian on a well thought-out video tutorial!

Turkey, Chairs, and Mods

Quickie post to mention a few things:

Feasting Tables

Some mods get confused as to how to handle the feast tables for pilgrim's bounty. Make sure your mods (ie bartender) have turned on pet and/or vehicle bars (even without a pet active), and if you have issues leaving the table for lack of an exit button, use this script macro:

/script VehicleExit();

I think it has something to do with eating too much and getting stuck in the chair :)


Recipes

5 recipes for 1silver? And they count towards the "recipes known" achievement? Awesome. I ended up getting the 160-recipes achievement off of this! Unfortunately, the cook book doesn't have a nice sub-section sorting for holiday foods, so you'll have to dig through it with the search and "have mats" filters to pull the recipes out of the long list of grays, if you've leveled your cooking any.


Turkeys

Either hunt around Goldshire, or hunt around Tirisfal Glades. They're little yellow-con turkey critters that you can moonfire to one-shot at range, then loot your turkey for (for the quests). The turkey-killing-spree achievement is a bit of a headache, but as with similar achievements, here is the recommendation: tracker snacks + a low-server-pop hunting time (say, 3am or while people are at work/school, and not during lunchtime 12-2pm!). From what I hear, you need to stack your turkey-killing-buff to 40 to get the achievement. Good hunting, to you!


Other Stuff

Algalon down. :) It was frapsed (tank PoV)... so we'll see when it can be dropped on Youtube! I spent most of the fight dropping rejuv on the whole raid and keeping LB rolling/blooming on the tanks. We also did "They're Coming Out of the Walls!" and the speed kill on Yogg(+4) which was quick and a lot of fun (and a bit wipetastic on the 9-adds-kill), but an achievement very few guilds ever try to get. Overall, a good wrap-up before the holiday Thanksgiving break for Vortex!

Hurricane Shifting

I've noticed recently that if I attempt to use hurricane while shapeshifted (non-moonkin), it will de-shift me back to caster, but it will also cancel my hurricane, making me have to cast it again. Whether this bug is intentional or not, it's wasting my mana, and a bit irritating to have to re-target and cast again :)

I've been using this macro to get around it:

#showtooltip /cancelform [form:5,spec:2] [] /cast [noform:spec2] [] Hurricane; [form:1/3,spec:2] Survival Instincts

...which works well for a Resto (primary) Feral (secondary) specced druid. If you'd like a bare-bones variety without Survival Instincts, you can try out:

#showtooltip /cancelform /cast Hurricane

...though if you have a moonkin spec (where moonkin is form:5), I recommend going with:

#showtooltip /cancelform [noform:5] /cast Hurricane

Misc Questions

Miscellaneous questions that I have seen, and the answers for those that seek them :)
Three sections: Druid Resurrection, Other Druid Spells, and Raiding.


Resurrection:

• "Can druids revive themselves?"

No, druids' Revive spell is a simple out-of-combat resurrection spell. The only way a player can resurrect themselves upon death is by having a Soulstone from a warlock, being battle-ressed by a *living* druid, or by being a shaman who has their ankh available (1 hour cooldown, 40 minutes talented).

• "When do I use rebirth over revive?"

Rebirth is a "battle res" that can be cast while you are in combat, an ability unique to druids (though as mentioned above warlocks can soulstone a target prior to their death which will let them resurrect themselves, and shaman can ankh to bring themselves back to life when they die). Revive, on the other hand, is only useable out of combat. So, if you're out of combat, just use revive! Save your rebirth for when you're in combat and really need to bring someone back to life.

As for when to use Rebirth, I recommend that it be according to the following conditions:

a) that you have the time and mana to cast it without letting others who are currently preventing a wipe to die themselves (from lack of healing or tanking),

b) that the raid is not going to wipe anyway before your target is able to jump in and help (and thus they will just die again),

c) that your target will actually be of assistance in continuing the fight and they are needed for its completion, and

d) the dead person won't immediately die again due to environmental AoE or other damage.

In a raid, I highly suggest letting the raid leaders decide when to use your battle-res, as they should have a better idea of who is most needed and whether or not it should be saved for someone more critical within its 20-minute cooldown.

• "When do druids learn revive?"

Level 12 :) Rebirth is level 20.



Other Druid Spells:

• "Can you nature's swiftness a Starfire?"

No. The only spells that Nature's Swiftness will work with are Nature spells such as Healing Touch, Regrowth, Cyclone, Wrath, and Entangling Roots; Starfire is an Arcane spell, so it is unaffected by Nature's Swiftness.

• "Does nature's grace proc on heals?"

Yes, as long as the heal can crit. Nature's Grace will proc off of any casted spell crit. Nourish, HT, and regrowth will all proc Nature's Grace. The current exception is any T9 set bonuses which cause a DoT or HoT tick to crit (ie moonfire and rejuvenation ticks from T9): current (August 09) research on the PTR has shown that these tick crits from the set bonuses will not proc Nature's Grace (nor Living Seed). Lifebloom's final bloom will also not proc Nature's Grace (nor will it proc Living Seed).

• "Can you make a Force of Nature macro without clicking?"

Assuming you mean to make a macro that will summon your treants without first selecting *where* to spawn them, then no, there is no such macro. Macro conditionals cannot decide in what space of pixels an "aoe on location" type spell will occur; it is the same way with hurricane. What I prefer to do is simply keybind the spell (be it FoN or Hurricane) so that I can have my mouse already over the location I want the spell to occur when I press the button, so that I can quickly left-click and cast it.

• "Does the color of Flight Form change depending on your hair/skin color?"

Hehe, not at the moment :) It has been said that the designers intend to make new skins for the travel forms, though I assume they will be focusing on the older cheetah and seal skins; it is certainly possible that they may decide to add flight form skin colors in the future.



Raiding:

• "Is there a macro to target a mob who has a specific raid icon?"

Unfortunately, no, there is no way for a macro to select a target based on its raid icon (at least not that I'm aware of!). Such things need to be done manually, or you can assist another person who you know is really good at targeting the right mob (sometimes these players are set as a Main Assist).

• "Should you use Soothe Animal on Razorscale?"

Considering Razorscale won't engage until you talk to the dwarves to start the assault, I don't think there's any need to be casting Soothe Animal on the dragon :) She'll aggro when you talk to the NPC dwarves to start the event.

• "How do you enable hard mode Razorscale?"

Razorscale does not really have a hard-mode, except for your raid to dps the Guardian mobs down to about 20% and then stand them in front of Razorscale when she's grounded, so that she'll kill them with her flame breath attack when she stops being stunned. There's no big red button to push, certainly!

Dual-spec Macros: Resto/Balance

With the addition of the dual-spec feature, at some point came the addition of the [spec:x] modifier for macros. I only recently discovered it, and wish that I had noticed it earlier!

The following macros are tweaks I have done to macros I posted earlier, with the [spec:x] modifier added in to allow the macros to switch spells based on my spec.

• [spec:1] is my cow's primary spec, restoration.
• [spec:2] is my cow's secondary spec, balance.
• Change the numbers for your own spec, as appropriate!
  

resto-Swiftmend/balance-Nourish + Regrowth Toggle:
This is a macro I have keybound for "e" when not in moonkin form.

/stopcasting /cast [mod,spec:2] Starfire; [mod,@mouseover,help] [mod,help] [mod,@player] Swiftmend; [@mouseover,help] [help] [@player] Regrowth

• Primary Spec: if a modifier key is held, it will cast Swiftmend on friendly mouseover target, friendly target, or else on self.
• Secondary Spec: if a modifier key is held, it will cast Starfire instead.
• Otherwise, it casts Regrowth on friendly mouseover target, friendly target, or else on self.

Healing Touch / Nature's Swiftness:
This is a macro that I have keybound as "2" on both of my druids.

#show [spec:1] Nature's Swiftness /stopcasting /cast [nomod,combat,spec:1] Nature's Swiftness /cast [help,@mouseover,exists] [help] [@player] Healing Touch /script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

• Secondary spec: it will never attempt to cast Nature's Swiftness, only Healing Touch.
  
• Primary Spec: casts Nature's Swiftness + Healing Touch on friendly mouseover target, friendly target, or else on self.
  
• If any modifier key (alt, ctrl, or shift) is held or if you are NOT in combat, then it will not cast Nature's Swiftness.
  
• If Nature's Swiftness is on cooldown, it will still attempt to cast the Healing Touch.

Tree Form / Nourish Mouseover or Moonkin Form / assisted Starfire:
This is a macro I keybound as "t" for my caster druid.

/cast [noform:5,nomod:shift,spec:1] Tree of Life; [noform:5,nomod:shift,spec:2] Moonkin Form /stopmacro [nomod:shift,noform] /cast [spec:2,@focustarget] Starfire; [@mouseover,exists,help] [help] [@player] Nourish

• If you are not already in Tree Form or Moonkin Form, it will put you in the appropriate form.
• Secondary spec: if you are in Moonkin form, it will assist your focus target to cast Starfire.
  
• Primary spec: if you are in Tree form, it will cast Nourish on your friendly mouseover target, else on yourself.
• Shift-click to cast Nourish or Starfire (assisted from focus target) regardless of form.

Feral Charge/WG/Starfall:
This is a macro I keybound to a G15 key (G12, specifically) on both of my druids.

#showtooltip /cast [form:1] Feral Charge - Bear; [form:3] Feral Charge - Cat; /stopmacro [form:1/3] /cleartarget /cast [spec:2] Starfall;[@mouseover,exists,help] [help] [@player] Wild Growth /targetlasttarget

• Bear form: it will cast Feral charge - Bear.
• Cat form: it will cast Feral Charge - Cat.
• Primary Spec: if you are in neither cat nor bear form, it will cast Wild Growth. Contains the cleartarget for fixing the "no target"/"out of range" bug.
  
• Secondary Spec: if you are in neither form, it will cast Starfall.
  

Faerie Fires with Cooldown Monitors:
While technically keybound to "y" on both of my druids, I rarely stretch to press that key in combat, and usually just mouse-click this on my screen. It has a place on my screen because it contains so many useful cooldowns to monitor.

#showtooltip /cast [mod:shift,form:3] Tiger's Fury; [form:1/3] Faerie Fire (Feral)(); [button:2,harm,spec:2] Insect Swarm; [mod:shift,spec:1] Swiftmend; [mod:alt,spec:1] Nature's Swiftness; [mod:shift] Force of Nature; [mod:alt] Typhoon; Faerie Fire

• Standard click will cast Faerie Fire or Faerie Fire (Feral) depending on your stance.
  
• Cat form: if clicked with a modifier key, it will cast Tiger's Fury.
• Primary Spec: If shift-clicked, it will cast Swiftmend.
• Primary Spec: If alt-clicked, it will cast Nature's Swiftness.
• Secondary Spec: If right-clicked, it will cast Insect Swarm.
  
• Secondary Spec: If shift-clicked, it will cast Force of Nature.
• Secondary Spec: If alt-clicked, it will cast Typhoon.

---

A note on "Cooldown Monitor" Macros:

You can see here how I use such "cooldown monitor" macros. I have 4 of them (5 if you count a separate feral one that replaces the Fire macro when in cat/bear on my feral druid) arranged in a square very close to my center screen, and then a smaller bar that includes my quick consumables and/or trinkets as applicable.


Each of the 4 big actions will change to show a different ability when I press shift or alt (I use ctrl for ventrilo), and many are specific to a form or--now that I found out about the [spec:x] modifier--my spec! The vast majority of my abilities are keybound, however, including many of the cooldowns crammed into these monitor macros. Aside from being a few click-uses, these monitors are a great way to quickly check the cooldown on an ability without having too much screen clutter!

The timer floating above the macros is from Debuff Filter and shows my current stacks of the Illustration of the Dragon Soul trinket. The health/mana bars are IceHUD. For a full run-down of my mods, click here!

Macro: Lip Balm

Wanted to share this rather handy macro to make your daily quest, A Blade Fit for a Champion, a little less time-consuming.

/use Warts-B-Gone Lip Balm /kiss

To use: click on a lake frog to target it, check that the GCD on the lip balm is up, and press the macro. It will simultaneously apply the balm and blow a kiss at the frog. Target the next, check cooldown, and press again when ready.

Benefit: no more typing /kiss. I do not recommend adding a /target Lake Frog to the macro, as it will probably target one you've already kissed.

Resurrection Speeches

May 2010: I am still watching and updating this list :) Have added a lot in the past month!

A list of my res announcements, gathered and tweaked and used with amusement! I use LunarSphere to randomly select one from the list whenever I res someone. Instructions for setting that up can be found here.


My own:

• %T, you owe me a cookie for this.
• Fear not, %T; my res is not "bearform CPR."
• Don't ask where I'm putting this acorn, %T, but it's uncomfortable enough to wake the dead. (In honor of Maxhunter)
  
• Rise up and fight once more, %T! For honor, for glory, for a chicken sandwich!! (In honor of Darthcourt)
• %T... I know they said there was candy over there, but you can't eat it if you're dead!
• Treebot 80 in operation. Scanning puddle of goo labeled "%T." Prognosis: lifesigns negative. Commencing resurrection.
• *pokes %t with a stick* Um, guys? I think it's still alive...
• %t died! /roll for blame!
• So, how much experience do I get for killing %t?
• Oi, I thought we had a rule about "No dieing," %T!
• I think %T is taking "DIAF" a bit too literally, especially with all these fires around. Maybe we should change it to something like, Die In An Ocean. DIAO! Has a ring to it... if only the next expansion wasn't flooded with Naga. Oh well.
• Grandma always said laughter was the best medicine. /point @%T, /laugh
• %T! What have I told you about running with scissors?!
• Sorry %t, it was either keep you alive or let the cookies burn.
  

Miscellaneous Quotes:

• A wild %T appears! I choose you, Pikachu! Thundershock-res, go!
• I choose you, %T!
• A wild %T! It looks weakened. Pokéball, go!
  
• Dream as if you'll live forever, %T... and live as if you'll die today and I decide not to res you again.
• Look at my mask, %T! Isn't it pretty? It raises the dead!
• Ah ha! %T down! FLAMING HANDS OF FIREY DOOM--I mean... /revive.
• You have to remember something: we're dealing with raiders like %T. They need to be terrified of death. It's like mother's milk to them. Without it, their bones won't grow back properly when we res them.
• Rebirthing now / I wanna live my life, wanna give you everything / Breathe for the first time now / %T comes alive somehow
• Days go on forever / But I have not left your side / We can chase the dark together / If %T goes then so will I

From the Forums/Blogosphere:

• Yay! I always wanted my very own %T-zombie!
• Death-defying feats are clearly not your strong point, %T.
• Arise, %T, and fear death no longer... or at least until the next pull.
• %T, this better not be another attempt to get me to give you mouth-to-mouth.
• %T, stop hitting on the Spirit Healer and come kill something!
• Cool, I received 42 silver, 32 copper from Corpse of %T.
• Resurrecting %T. Side effects may include: nausea, explosive bowels, and a craving for brains. Resurrection is not for everyone. Please consult healer before dying.
• GAME OVER, %T. To continue press up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A, Select + Start
• %T, your subscription to Life™ has expired. Do you wish to renew?(note: alt 0153 on the numpad will create the ™ symbol)
  
• It just so happens that %T is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive.
• Death comes for you, %T! With large, pointy teeth!
• Wee-ooo! Wee-ooo! Wee-ooo! Wee-ooo! Wee-ooo! Wee-ooo... that's the best ambulance impression I can do, %T.
• Hey %T! Don't go towards the light! Well, unless it says 'Accept' ... but even then, it might be a trick!
• Applying my magical life-giving spatula to %T, the perfect tool for un-sticking a faceplant!
• The play is currently under review.... The ruling on the field has been overturned. %t will not be charged a Time Out.
• Well, %t, if you had higher faction with (Player Name), you might have gotten a heal. How do you raise it? 1g donation= 15 rep.
• Game Over, %T. Insert 50¢ to play again. (note: alt 0162 on the numpad will create the ¢ symbol. Also, I think I will avoid using this one, cuz I know what my guildies would say about inserting money...)
• Hope this works, %t. The last one I tried this on couldn't stop eating everyone's brains.
• %t Dead. Me press button. It bring back %t. We happy and hold hands :D
• Dammit, %t, get up! How do you expect me to loot the mobs you're supposed to be killing?
• Sorry for the delay %t, but I had to get your soul shard back from the warlock.
• The first time you mention "Braaaains" I'm putting you back down, %t.
• %T, before I res you there is something you should know. I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.
• Don't worry, %T, tis but a scratch!
• How are you feeling, %t? Sore? Everywhere? Need cookies?
  
• Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. %t will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.
• Forgive me, %t, your death only adds to my failure!
• Forgive me, %t! Your death only adds to your repair bill!
  
• The play is currently under review.... The ruling on the field has been overturned. %t will not be charged a Time Out.
• studiesshowthatbythetimeyoufinishreadingallofthis%tmightpossiblyalreadybealive!
• Ok, one more time. The bad guys are supposed to die, the good guys are supposed to live. And %t? We're the good guys.
• %t, stop worshiping the ground I walk on and get up.
• It's not that I didn't try to heal you, %t, I simply found it more mana efficient to rez you.
• DISCLAIMER: I learned how to rez from a recipe on the AH, so accept at your own risk, %t.
  
• Now ressing %T... step back ,this could get ugly!
• Walk it off, %T.
• %T's death was merely a setback!
• Get up, %t. It's not healthy to be dead that long.
• Well, %t, if you had higher faction with me, you might have gotten a heal. How do you raise it? 1g donation= 15 rep.
• %T has encountered a fatal error. Rebooting...
• Giving %t a shot at another 10% durability loss, please stand by.
• Let's give %t a round of applause for that beautiful demonstration of what not to do.
• Anybody know what the respawn time on %t is?
• Sorry %t, I was too busy rolling my face across the keyboard while shouting PEW PEW!
• Sorry %t, it was either keep you alive or heat up some pizza rolls.
• Well %t, you tried your best. And apparently failed miserably. Good job.
• Giving %t another chance to noob it up.
• I used to try mouth-to-mouth, but %t always came back pretty pissed off.
• Come on, %t, you need to learn to heal yourself better, I have wanding to do.
• Grandaddy always said laughter was the best medicine. I guess it wasn't strong enough to keep %t alive.
• Don't rush me %t. You rush a miracle worker, you get rotten miracles.
• (Caster)'s corpse removal service here to serve. Looks like you have a fresh %T for me, I'll get that out of your hair in about 8.89 seconds.
• Don't rez %t yet! I'm still extracting a kidney...
• Repeat after me, %T: 'Goblin landmines are NOT frizbees.'
• %T 0, monster 1, and the crowd roars!!
• %t, spamming /beg was a nice touch, but the monster was clearly unimpressed.
• How's that ground taste, %t?
• Congratulations %t, you passed the idiot test. You are now certified!
• Casting Siphon Gold on %T. Please press accept to rez and transfer 100 gold to (Caster)'s bank.
• Today's category on Final Jeopardy: Spells that end in 'essurection'. %t, ready?
• The name of the game is 'Stay Alive'. %t fails. But since you're cute, I'll give you another chance.
• %t, you have been weighed, and you have been measured... and I have been found rezing.
• You don't deserve a cute rez macro, %t. You deserve to die. But you already did, so, um... yeah.
• %T, I gotta have more cowbell!
• What do you get when you combine %t with some mobs? I don't know, but it looks pretty messy here trying to scrap it off the floor.
• %t's soul seems to have disconnected from the body. Researchers believe this may be directly related to HP levels. Please stand at least 10 yards away from the corpse while I attempt drastic measures to reconnect %t.
• 1 mana = 1G, %t. Your total comes up to 2517g, plus 211g tax. By accepting this rez, you hereby accept the life binding contract. Make sure you also read the EULA. Have a nice day!
• Priests, get Shackle ready. I've only done this twice, and one turned all 'Army of Darkness.'
• Eww... gross, %T. My res is not an aoe spell! Would someone mind helping mop the pieces closer together so I don't bind %T's soul to just an arm or toe?
• Sorry %t, it would have interrupted my healing rotation if I had healed you.

Dragon Age

• That's what I'm here for, %T. To deliver resses with witty one-liners.
• Look, %T! Your bruises form a pretty pattern!
• Well! %T's not half as dead as they look, are they?
  

AVATAR:

• Alright, %T, I'm going to res you. Just relax and let your mind go blank... shouldn't be hard for you, considering you're, well, dead.
• So you just figured you'd come here, to the most hostile environment known to men, with no training of any kind, and see how it went? What was going through your head, %T?
• Arise, %T, and we will see if your insanity can be cured.
• Nothing's over while I'm breathing, %t!
  
• Sooner or later, though, %t, you always have to wake up.
  
• Sometimes your whole life boils down to one insane move... lucky for you, %t, I can give you another chance.
  

Star Wars:

• I find your lack of life disturbing, %T.
• Not a bad bit of resurrection, huh, %t? You know, sometimes I amaze even myself.
  
• Uh, we had a slight weapons malfunction, but uh... %t's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?
• You know, between the raid's howling and %t blasting everything in sight, it's a wonder the whole instance doesn't know we're here.
• You don't need to see %t's identification. This isn't the corpse you're looking for. You can go about your business. Move along.
• I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened... oh wait, no, that was just %t.
• Judging by your current state, I suggest a new tactic, %t: let the wookie win.

Firefly/Serenity:

• We're not gonna die. We can't die, %T. You know why? Because we are so...very...pretty.
• %T died! What can we do? We're all doomed! Who's healing this party!? ...Oh right, that would be me. Back to work.
• Here lies my beloved %t, a lot less attractive now that you're all corpsified and gross.
  

Portal:

• Please note, %T, that there is a consequence for failure. Any time your health bar reaches 0% will result in an "unsatisfactory" mark on your official testing record, followed by death.
• Greetings, %T. In dangerous raiding environments, the Enrichment Center promises to always provide useful advice. For instance, having 0% health will kill you. Try to avoid it.
• Uh oh. Somebody cut the cake. I told them to wait for you, %T, but they cut it anyway. There is still some left, though, if you hurry and click accept.
• Did you know, %T, that grief counseling and cake will be available at the end of the testing period?
• The Enrichment Center is committed to the well-being of all participants. Cake and Grief Counseling will be available at the conclusion of the test. Thank you, %T, for helping us help you help us all.
• Area and State regulations do not allow %T to remain here, alone and companionless.
• Not in cruelty / Not in wrath / The REAPER came today / An ANGEL visited / %T's gray path / And took the cube away
• Because %T could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; the cube had food and maybe ammo. And immortality.
• So I'm GLaD %T got burned. Think of all the things we learned for the people who are still alive.
• Aperture Science; We do what we must because we can. For the good of all of us. Except %T who is dead.
• Who's going to make the cake when %T is gone? Me?
• You euthanized yourself more quickly than any test subject on record. Congratulations, %T.
• This next boss could take a very, very long time. If you become lightheaded from thirst, feel free to pass out, like %T. An intubation associate will be dispatched to revive you with peptic salve and adrenaline.
• As part of a previously mentioned required test protocol, we can no longer lie to you. When the testing is over, %T will be...*bzzt*... missed.
• Despite the best efforts of the Enrichment Center Staff to ensure the safe performance of all authorized activities, %T has managed to die inside this room. A complimentary revival will be performed in three, two, one...
• While safety is one of many Enrichment Center goals, the Aperture Science High-Energy Zones seen in many cases as black, green, red, or blue puddles can and have caused permanent disabilities, such as vaporization. Please be careful, %T.
• As part of a required raid protocol, a previous statement suggesting that we would not heal this raid was an outright fabrication. Good job, %T. As part of a required raid protocol, we will stop enhancing the truth in three, two, o--
• %T: please be advised that a noticeable taste of blood is not part of any protocol, but an unintended side effect of the Aperture Science Resurrection Grille, which may, in semi-rare cases, emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel, and teeth.

Baldur's Gate (Minsc and Boo!):

• Take heart %T, for you have curried the favor of Boo, the only miniature giant space hamster in the Realm!
• This death will not dampen %T's wrath. %T will be ressed! Butts shall be liberally kicked in good measure.
• Will you accept my res, %T? We must join together once more, and our fury will be such that bards will run their quills dry! Yes, ink will be scarce where e'er we go.
• This dieing behavior must not continue, %T. Feel the burning stare of my hamster and change your ways.
• We must rest and get healthy. It would not do for us to be caught unsuspecting with %T in this kind of shape.
• Yes! Revenge! Revenge for precious %T! Tremble, ye evil raid bosses, for the mighty Boo will have your eyes!! RAAAARRRRGHH!!

Doctor Who:

• %T, there's something you better understand about me, 'cause it's important and one day your life may depend on it. I am definitely a madman with an acorn!
• The daleks would say that %T is superior to them in only one respect: %T is better at dyeing.
• Such was the way %T ended. Not with a bang, but a whimper.
• It's our strongest impulse, to cling to life with every fiber of being! %T's only doing what everyone before us has tried to do. We've simply been more... successful at it.
• The wonderful world of raiding... the prettier it looks, the more likely it is to kill you, eh %T?
• You need to get yourself a better dictionary, %T. When you do, look up "raid wipe." You'll find a little picture of me there, and the caption'll read "Over my dead body."
• Everybody knows that everybody dies, %T. But not every day. Not today... every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair and the Doctor comes to call, everybody lives.
• One lifetime's been too short for %T to do everything they'd like. How much more they'll get done in two, or three, or four resses.
• Killing you once is never enough for me, %T. How...how gratifying to do it another time over.
• And the good thing is, %T's not dead for long, I GET TO KILL %T AGAIN!

Have a funny res announcement of your own? I'd love to add to the list :)

Comic: Time-Lost Proto Drake

For those of you looking for the targeting macro for hunting this guy, try this:

/tar time /tar vyragosa /tar dirkee /stopmacro [noexists] /w YOURNAME >>%t!!<<

For the JC protodrake daily, I recommend the run-down of JC dailies as posted by Kirstimah of Rustled Leaves.

My Keybinds

Edit 5/6/10: I have a fresh (and graphical) layout of my keybinds posted here, but this post still serves well with recommendations on things you need to consider when setting up your own keybinds.

My keybinds and macros are built for cross-spec support. With both a feral druid and a resto druid as well as relatively frequent respecs to turkey, I need my keybinds to be as flexible as they can without hindering me in any of the specs, while maintaining a minimal number of buttons showing on my screen.

The mods:

For my bindings, I use a manual keybinds on my action bars (Bartender and LunarSphere) combined with Bindpad.

• Bindpad assigns the keybind to the actual macro or action, though it cannot bind mouse buttons. No stance support.
  
• LunarSphere assigns the keybind to a specific macro or action as well, and CAN bind mouse buttons. Stance support.
  
• Bartender assigns the keybind to the specific action button, can bind mouse buttons, and can completely hide a bar of keybound macros from being seen or clicked on your screen. Stance support.
  

I like to use bindpad because I can then move my actions around on my bars without having to redo the keybindings, and they're all easily visible in one panel together, rather than having to show a bartender bar I had hidden, or individually mouse-over LunarSphere submenu buttons that have 3 keybinds per button per stance. LS and Bartender just take over where Bindpad leaves off.


The binds:

I keep my left hand resting over the WASD keys, pinky on the shift key, and thumb on the spacebar. Pinky can reach shift, ctrl, and 3 extra buttons my G15 keyboard has to the side, and my thumb can reach the alt key. My A and D keys have been bound to strafe when I hold the Shift key. My right hand is on my 5-button mouse (Logitech), and mouse-look is frequently used, as with using my scroll wheel to zoom my camera. This setup thus has 15 easily reachable keys plus all 3 modifier keys, and 5 total mouse-buttons. I have trouble with my long fingers hitting the x, c, and v keys so I don't count them :)

Generic/caster, Bear, Cat, Tree, Moonkin

• ~ is Hurricane, Survival Instincts, Survival Instincts
• 1 is Bearform, Feral Charge - Bear
• 2 is NS + HT macro
  
• 3 is Catform, Prowl
  
• 4 is Travel Form
  
• 5 is Innervate (self), Berserk, Rip
  
• q is Regrowth/Swiftmend, Swipe/Bash, Swipe/Rake, Starfire/Moonfire
• e is Lifebloom/Rejuv, Maul/Mangle/Lacerate, FB/Maim/Rip, Wrath/Insect Swarm
• t is variable on spec
• y is Faerie Fire macro
• f is Focus Target macro
• g is Trinket + Lifebloom, + Mangle Bear, + Mangle Cat, + Starfire
• M3 is Cyclone/Moonfire rank 1, Growl/Challenging/Demo Roar, Shred/Mangle/Ravage/FerociousBite
  
• M4 auto-run
• M5 is Raid Icon/Regrowth/dismount macro
  

My "t" key is a matter of contention among my various specs, mostly because moonkin and treeform both share the stance # of 5, and my feral druid's stance:5 is actually Swift Flight Form. So,

• Resto "t" is Treeform, Nourish
• Moonkin "t" is Moonkin form, Typhoon
• Feral "t" is Enrage/FrenziedRegen/Challenging Roar, Dash/Savage Roar
  

I also have a G15 keyboard. I love this thing. The thing about these keys is that, when resting your hand over the WASD keys, the vast majority of the extra keys this keyboard provides are out of your reach (at least for my fingers, and my fingers are pretty long!). The only ones I can easily reach without stretching too far are the G12, G15, and G18 keys: the three keys closest to the capslock, shift, and ctrl buttons. I use these for:

• G12 is Wild Growth, Feral Charge - Bear, Feral Charge - Cat, Starfall
• G15 is Abolish Poison
• G18 is Remove Curse

WoW, by default, does not recognize these extra keys as actual bindable keys. In order to bind these in-game, I had to tell the keyboard through its own macroing software that the keys were actually ctrl-shift-4, ctrl-shift-:, and ctrl-shift-" respectively, keystrokes I was unlikely to type out accidentally. The game itself was then able to recognize the keystroke combinations as bindable combinations, allowing these extra keys to be bound.

In addition, I have bound my Itemrack sets to my NumPad. These keys are recognized separately from the number keys along the top of the keyboard, so you can use them for less important keybinds. For example, NumPad1 is my healing kit, and NumPad6 is my tanking kit.

I have tried the Ideazon FANG gamepad, but it was really uncomfortable. The key spacing did not fit my hand, and I felt awkward with it, not knowing which of the tiny buttons I was pressing and my fingers kept slipping off the big bulky arrow keys. I gave it an honest try with both WoW and AoC, but gave up on it and went back to my G15 keyboard. My experience with the FANG has turned me off from trying the Belkin Nostromo, since the Belkin looks like it relies too much on the user reaching DOWN from the WASD keys rather than UP to the number keys. I really recommend that before you buy any peripheral game hardware, that you check first to see if your hand can comfortably fit it.

The other stuff:

For the unlisted abilities, I still click for them, but I keep them clustered in a square next to the middle of my screen, along with some of the major cooldowns that are keybound. Some few others are kept down at the bottom of my screen on Lunarsphere's buttons.

Bartender click-uses:

• Barkskin, Tranquility, Nature's Grasp, Survival Instincts, Survival Instincts
• Potion Macro
• Starfire/Wrath/Moonfire/Insect Swarm when not in turkey form, or I don't feel like rearranging my macros (again, the stance:5 confusion)
• Entangling Roots, Hibernate, Soothe Animal
• Misc quest items
  

LunarSphere click-uses:

• Revive/Rebirth
• MotW, GotW, Thorns
• Innervate that is not self-cast
  
• Bandages
• Warstomp
• Mounts, professions, misc potions and items, minipets

The alts:

Memorization of keybinds is not something to be tampered with lightly. If I've gotta tank something and I'm feeling squishy, that "1" key for bear form better be something tank-useful on my alts, too!

You'd be surprised how easily you can adapt a cross-spec druid keybind system to any other class... you just may end up feeling a bit limited when the alt's class doesn't include as many different options. The most important part of keybinding an alt is that you get the reactionary things bound in places you can easily find them.

The categories you want to consider are:

• "Shields up, Captain!" aggro response (bubbles, evasion, defensive stance, ice block)
  
• Stealth (including fade and vanish)
  
• Emergency heals/potions
• Racial abilities
  
• Interrupts, stuns, and knockbacks
  
• Cleanses
• Buffs
• Sprint/speed increases (Aspect of the Run-Fast, Ghost Wolf)
  
• Crowd Control
• Charges/Death Grips
• AoE vs Single-Target vs DoTs
• Ranged vs Melee
  

Just as with keeping these actions similar across your shapeshifts, you'll want to keep them similar across your alts. Sometimes it might not always work out, but try to stick as close to the categorical ability layout of your main character as possible.

Even if you keybind a lot of abilities, you probably shouldn't hide them all until you feel fully comfortable with your alt. Even at 80, I kept all bars showing on my rogue's screen until I settled on her spec and got used to where things were (and what I had available)... though now, it's as clean as my druid's screen, something that fills me with a warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment whenever I think about it :)

Feral Macros

UPDATE 4/20/09 - Mangle ability name changed.
UPDATE 6/11/09 - [spec] and [btn] modifiers, and reworked the keybind commentary.
UPDATE 3/17/10 - A few changes/updates.
UPDATE 10/26/10 - patch 4.0 updates


These macros are intended for Feral DPS and Tanking. They have been made specifically for keybinding purposes and to combine multiple abilities into one key. You can, of course, replace shift or alt with the ctrl key if you find it more comfortable. I included notes on my keybinds for each, as suggestions.

For more macros that are useful cross-class, see the Generic Macros post. An introduction to building macros is available here.


Table of Contents:

• Cat Form + Prowl
  
• Bear Form + Feral Charge
• Feral Charge
  
• Travel Forms
• My Feral "e" key: Ferocious Bite, Maim, Lacerate, Maul, and Mangle-Bear
• My Feral "q" key: Swipe, Bash, Pounce, and Rake
• Bear Taunts/Roars toggle
• Cat Shred/Mangle/Ravage toggle with Tiger's Fury
• Faerie Fires for multiple forms
  
• Savage Roar/Charge + Ravage
• Enrage/Frenzied Regeneration/Dash/Savage Roar
• Trinket + Mangle
• Defensive Abilities + Tranquility
  

Catform / Prowl:
I bound this to my 3 key.

/stopcasting /cancelform [flying] /cast [noform:3] [combat] !Cat Form; Prowl

• If not in cat form, will turn you to cat form.
  
• Cat form: will use Prowl (or cancel Prowl if already prowling).
• If in combat, it will recast Cat Form (useful for escaping snares).
• If flying, it will cancel your form (such as flight form) to shift you into cat, so mind your height!

An alternative that does Dash in combat is below:

/stopcasting /cancelform [flying] /cast [noform:3] Cat Form; [nocombat] Prowl; Dash

Bearform / Feral Charge - Bear:
I bound this to my 1 key.

#showtooltip Feral Charge - Bear /stopcasting /cancelform [flying] /cast [noform:1] Bear Form; Feral Charge(Bear Form)

• If not in bearform, will turn you to bear form.
  
• Bear form: will use Feral Charge.
• If flying, it will cancel your form (such as flight form) to shift you into bear, so mind your height! This is useful for "bear bombing" from the air.
  

Feral Charge:
I bound this to my G12 key on my G15 keyboard.

#showtooltip /cast [form:1] Feral Charge(Bear Form); [form:3] Feral Charge(Cat Form) /stopmacro [form:1/3] /cast [@mouseover,help] [help] [@player] Wild Growth

• Bear form: it will cast Feral charge - Bear.
• Cat form: it will cast Feral Charge - Cat.
• If you are in neither form, it will cast Wild Growth. Replace this spell with another of your caster preference, if you desire; I keep it as wild growth so that I don't have to remap my keybinds when I respec.
  

Travel Forms:
I bound this to my 4 key.

/dismount /castrandom [swimming] Aquatic Form; [flyable,nocombat] Swift Flight Form; [combat] [ ] !Travel Form

• If you are swimming, it will cast Aquatic Form.
  
• If the area allows flying and you are not in combat, it will cast Swift Flight Form.
  
• If you are in combat or the area does not allow flying, it will cast Travel Form.
  

The cheetah portion is NOT sticky, so if you are in Travel Form already in a non-swimming, not-flyable area, it will recast travel form; this is useful for quickly escaping snares or roots in battlegrounds.


Cat FB, Rip, and Maim, and Bear Lacerate, Maul, and Mangle toggle:
I bound this to my "e" key in feral forms.

#showtooltip /cast [form:3,mod:alt]Rip;[mod:shift,form:3] Ferocious Bite;[form:3] Maim /stopmacro [form:3] /cast [nomod:alt] !Maul /cast [mod:shift] Pulverize; Lacerate

Cat form:

• Standard click for Maim.
  
• Shift-click for Ferocious Bite.
  
• Alt-click for Rip.
  

Bear form:

• Standard click will queue up a Maul on your next attack, and cast Lacerate.
  
• Shift-click for Pulverize.
• Alt-click to use Lacerate only, such as if you need to avoid breaking CC with a two-target Maul or if your rage is low.

Swipes, Cat Rake, and Bear Bash toggle:
I bound this to my "q" key in feral forms.

#showtooltip /cast [mod:shift,form:1] Thrash; [mod:alt,form:1] Mangle(Bear Form); [@mouseover,harm,nodead,form:1] [form:1] Swipe(Bear Form); [stealth] Pounce; [mod:shift] Rake; [@mouseover,harm,nodead] [] Swipe(Cat Form) /startattack [nostealth]

Cat form:

• If in stealth, it will cast Pounce.
  
• Standard click for Swipe, with mouseover targeting.
• Shift-click for Rake.

Bear form:

• Standard click for Swipe, with mouseover targeting.
• Shift-click for Thrash.
• Alt-click for Mangle.

Bear Taunts/Roars toggle:
I bound this to my middle mouse button in bear form.

#show Growl /stopcasting /cast [mod:shift] Demoralizing Roar; [mod:alt] Challenging Roar; [harm] [@targettarget,harm] Growl /startattack

• Standard click will Growl either your current enemy target, or on your friendly target's own target, if that is an enemy.
  
• If shift is held, it will cast Demoralizing Roar.
  
• If alt is held, it will cast Challenging Roar.
  
• In all cases, it will start up your auto-attack.

Cat Shred, Ravage, Mangle toggle with Tiger's Fury (plus Cyclone and Moonfire):
I bound this to my middle mouse button in all forms but bear.

#showtooltip /cast [mod:alt] Tiger's Fury /cast [mod:shift,form:3] [mod:alt]Shred; [stealth] Ravage;[form:3] Mangle(Cat Form);[mod:shift] Moonfire; [harm,nodead][@focus,harm,nodead] [] Cyclone /startattack [nostealth,harm]

Cat form:

• If in stealth, it will cast Ravage.
  
• Otherwise, on a normal click, it will cast Mangle. If you do not know Mangle(Cat Form), replace it with Claw.
  
• If shift-clicked, it will cast Shred.
  
• If alt-clicked, it will cast Tiger's Fury in combination with any of the above (stealthed will be Tiger's Fury + Ravage, nostealth would be Tiger's Fury + Shred).

Caster form:

• If shift-clicked, it will cast Moonfire: a great way to kill totems or other small things.
• Normally clicked, it will cast Cyclone first on your enemy focus target, else on your target.

Faerie Fires, with Tiger's Fury toggle:
While technically keybound to "y" on both of my druids, I rarely stretch to press that key in combat, so I have it bound to an extra mouse button as well. It has a place on my screen because it contains so many useful cooldowns that I want to monitor.

Pure Feral:

#showtooltip /cast [mod:shift,form:3] Tiger's Fury; [mod,form:1] Skull Bash(Bear Form); [mod:alt,form:3] Skull Bash(Cat Form); [form:1/3] Faerie Fire (Feral)(); Faerie Fire

• Standard click will cast Faerie Fire or Faerie Fire (Feral) depending on your stance.
  
• Cat form: if shift-clicked, it will cast Tiger's Fury.
• Cat form: if alt-clicked, it will cast Skull Bash - Cat.
• Bear form: if clicked with any modifier key, it will cast Skull Bash - Bear.

Resto primary/Feral secondary Spec Variant for cooldown monitoring:

#showtooltip /cast [mod:shift,form:3] Dash; [form:1/3,mod:alt] Skull Bash;[@mouseover,harm,nodead,form:1/3][form:1/3]Faerie Fire (Feral)(); [mod:shift,spec:1] Swiftmend; [mod:alt,spec:1] Nature's Swiftness;[@mouseover,harm][] Faerie Fire

• Standard click will cast Faerie Fire or Faerie Fire (Feral) depending on your stance.
  
• Cat form: if shift-clicked, it will cast Tiger's Fury.
• Primary Spec: If shift-clicked, it will cast Swiftmend.
• Primary Spec: If alt-clicked, it will cast Nature's Swiftness.

Kitty Charge + Ravage:
I bound this to my "t" key in cat form.

#showtooltip /cast [mod] Savage Roar /stopmacro [spec:1] /castsequence reset=8 Feral Charge(Cat Form), Ravage, Mangle(Cat Form)

Cat Form:

• Standard click to cast Feral Charge, and then Ravage, and then Mangle if you're still spamming. It will reset to Feral Charge by the time your cooldown is up. Useful for talented Feral Charge.
  
• Shift-click to cast Savage Roar.

Bear Enrage/Frenzied Regeneration/Challenging Roar and Cat Dash/Savage Roar:
I bound this to my "t" key in feral forms, and use it as a cooldown monitor visible on my screen.

#showtooltip /cast [mod:shift,form:3] Savage Roar; [form:3] Dash; [btn:2][mod:shift] Enrage; [mod:alt] Challenging Roar /stopmacro [noform:1] /cast [btn:1] [mod:shift] Frenzied Regeneration /stopmacro [btn:2] /s You no take cookie!

Announces in /say if you have cast Frenzied Regen. Replace the red text with your own Frenzied Regen announcement, or remove it if you prefer.

Bear form:

• Right-click to cast Frenzied Regeneration.
  
• Left-click to cast Enrage.
  
• Shift-click to cast Enrage + Frenzied Regeneration.
• Alt-click to cast Challenging Roar.
  

Cat Form:

• Standard click to cast Dash.
• Shift-click to cast Savage Roar.
  

Trinket + Mangles:
I bound this to my "g" key in feral forms, and keep it visible on my screen to watch the cooldowns.

#showtooltip [mod:shift] 13; 14 /use 13 /use 14 /cast [form:1] Mangle(Bear Form); [form:3] Mangle(Cat Form); [@mouseover,help] [help] [@player] Rejuvenation

• Standard click to use both of your trinkets and cast a form-appropriate Mangle.
  
• If you are in any other form, it will cast rejuvenation via mouseover with your trinket instead of mangle. This is useful when using healing trinkets.
  
• If necessary, replace Mangle(Bear Form) with Maul, and Mangle(Cat Form) with Claw.

Defensive Abilities + Tranquility:
Keybound to H as well as a mouse button, and I also keep the macro visible prominently on my screen to watch the cooldowns and click things as needed.

#showtooltip /cast [form:1/3,mod:shift] Survival Instincts; [mod:alt] Nature's Grasp; [btn:2] Hurricane; [mod:shift] Tranquility /cast Barkskin /stopmacro [nomod:shift] [form:1/3] /s Pretty lights! Gather close for healing!

• In all cases (including a normal click), it casts Barkskin.
  
• If Shift-clicked while in cat or bear form, it casts Survival Instincts.
  
• If Shift-clicked and you are not in cat or bear form, it casts Tranquility and announces to everyone that they need to be near you to get the heals. Replace the red text for your on Tranquility announcement, or remove it as desired.
  
• If Alt-clicked in any form, it casts Nature's Grasp.
  
• If the macro is right-clicked, it will cast Hurricane.

~~If you need help or would like to see one of these macros more customized for your spec, feel free to ask in the comments! ~~