12-02-2004, 04:55 PM
Being the healer in our group, I fall into the role of managing the battle. I look for the adds, and designate what to pull, and of course keep everyone alive at the same time.
Two very useful tools in all of this have been firstly a custom UI setup, and the use of macros.
Firstly I'll post a screen shot (large for clarity, and the infernal looks cool too, sorry for those with dial up) that illistrates things nicely.
![[Image: Infernal.jpg]](http://www.relicnews.com/Dyn/Infernal.jpg)
On the left hand side you can see an array of healing spells. These are macros that are only used on party members. This allows me to monitor health on the left hand side of the screen and designate heals quickly to those in need without losing focus on the entire party. More on what each macro does in a bit.
On the bottom you can see on the standard tool bar some attack spells the number keys, and above that bar a second one that using the autocast mod, casts those heals directly on me without having to select my character. Very handy in combat. You'll also notice buffs next to those as well just off to the right.
On the right side are all my emote macros that are used to control combat and direct party members.
With all this information at hand, directing play and allocating resources, is easier than just the standard UI provided with the game.
How the macros work.
For a standard heal I use this macro,
/p Flash Heal Incoming >>> %t <<<
/cast FlashHeal (Rank 1)
What this does is it sends a party message telling the targetted party member that in a few seconds he's going to recieve a nice heal from me this allows the fighter to manage thier tactics knowing that healing is incoming. This also works for pets aswell so hunters and warlocks know if their pet is safe or not.
Each heal has a seperate macro as does the shield spell. The shield announces how much damage that the shield will absorb and how long it will last when cast.
The right side macros have some standard waves and cheers however the important ones are the oom, wait, add and spot macros.
oom is simply a /v outofmana, which announces to everyone that it's time to retreat or stop for things to recharge. The wait is similar with a /v wait command. The /v denotes a verbal emote that can be heard ingame, so the combination of hitting /v wait and then /v outofmana, tells the party to stop and wait for me to recharge.
Although handy the next 2 are the party backbone in fights.
Firstly the spot macro.
/p %t Spotted!
/v assist
/point
What this does is send a party message that the target is designated, aswell as a verbal one for those not looking at the chat, and to top it off I point in the direction of the target.
This helps to designate what to pull next or if we are looking for a specific creature for a quest kill. For a preist I can cast Mind soothe to put a graphical signpost on the target aswell, just in case.
Lastly the add macro.
/p %t incoming
/v incoming
This sends a party message that the target is coming in to attack, and a verbal message gets sent out that more creatures are incoming.
How this helps is when you're the tank, and your plugging away you sometimes don't know that behind you a respawn has just occured or an add has wandered in.
This allows everyone in the party a few seconds to prepare for more mobs and to deal with them. Usually if things are bad and we have 4 mobs on us I fear them and buy us some time to heal up, buff up and shield while dots are placed on the feared creatures, meaning when they come back we are ready, and the one that got left behind is dead by the time the others come back.
The Mods used here are CTmod, Mobhealth and selfcast.
CTmod gives you the toolbars, Mobhealth gives you a numerical value of the health of the mob you are targetting, and selfcast when set automatically casts a spell on you if no target is selected.
Good play style can be helped immeasuably by good tools, and I believe good UI management can go a long way to aiding party play go smoothly and informatively for all those in the party.
Hope this gives some ideas to others out there who haven't yet tried out some UI customisations or ventured into the macros yet.
All UI mods, and macros, can be found in the Blizzard forums, on thier UI customisations board.
Two very useful tools in all of this have been firstly a custom UI setup, and the use of macros.
Firstly I'll post a screen shot (large for clarity, and the infernal looks cool too, sorry for those with dial up) that illistrates things nicely.
On the left hand side you can see an array of healing spells. These are macros that are only used on party members. This allows me to monitor health on the left hand side of the screen and designate heals quickly to those in need without losing focus on the entire party. More on what each macro does in a bit.
On the bottom you can see on the standard tool bar some attack spells the number keys, and above that bar a second one that using the autocast mod, casts those heals directly on me without having to select my character. Very handy in combat. You'll also notice buffs next to those as well just off to the right.
On the right side are all my emote macros that are used to control combat and direct party members.
With all this information at hand, directing play and allocating resources, is easier than just the standard UI provided with the game.
How the macros work.
For a standard heal I use this macro,
/p Flash Heal Incoming >>> %t <<<
/cast FlashHeal (Rank 1)
What this does is it sends a party message telling the targetted party member that in a few seconds he's going to recieve a nice heal from me this allows the fighter to manage thier tactics knowing that healing is incoming. This also works for pets aswell so hunters and warlocks know if their pet is safe or not.
Each heal has a seperate macro as does the shield spell. The shield announces how much damage that the shield will absorb and how long it will last when cast.
The right side macros have some standard waves and cheers however the important ones are the oom, wait, add and spot macros.
oom is simply a /v outofmana, which announces to everyone that it's time to retreat or stop for things to recharge. The wait is similar with a /v wait command. The /v denotes a verbal emote that can be heard ingame, so the combination of hitting /v wait and then /v outofmana, tells the party to stop and wait for me to recharge.
Although handy the next 2 are the party backbone in fights.
Firstly the spot macro.
/p %t Spotted!
/v assist
/point
What this does is send a party message that the target is designated, aswell as a verbal one for those not looking at the chat, and to top it off I point in the direction of the target.
This helps to designate what to pull next or if we are looking for a specific creature for a quest kill. For a preist I can cast Mind soothe to put a graphical signpost on the target aswell, just in case.
Lastly the add macro.
/p %t incoming
/v incoming
This sends a party message that the target is coming in to attack, and a verbal message gets sent out that more creatures are incoming.
How this helps is when you're the tank, and your plugging away you sometimes don't know that behind you a respawn has just occured or an add has wandered in.
This allows everyone in the party a few seconds to prepare for more mobs and to deal with them. Usually if things are bad and we have 4 mobs on us I fear them and buy us some time to heal up, buff up and shield while dots are placed on the feared creatures, meaning when they come back we are ready, and the one that got left behind is dead by the time the others come back.
The Mods used here are CTmod, Mobhealth and selfcast.
CTmod gives you the toolbars, Mobhealth gives you a numerical value of the health of the mob you are targetting, and selfcast when set automatically casts a spell on you if no target is selected.
Good play style can be helped immeasuably by good tools, and I believe good UI management can go a long way to aiding party play go smoothly and informatively for all those in the party.
Hope this gives some ideas to others out there who haven't yet tried out some UI customisations or ventured into the macros yet.
All UI mods, and macros, can be found in the Blizzard forums, on thier UI customisations board.