A Guide to Mages comment thread

[savaughn]

I don't mean to jump on you, oldmandennis, but I really want to make a strong statement about the proliferation of these useless macros.  They are much less helpful than most mages think.
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I have to disagree with you here. Yes, a polly macro will not flawlessly identify a target, especially when dealing with non-elite mobs which will be named identically and you should use additional information to inform your party what you will be pollying if at all possible.

However.

This information is OFTEN quite helpful. In fact, IMHO, ALL crowd control abilities should be macro'ed. If you're going to fear something, let me know what. I can't see what you're doing behind me and I'm probably not going to look to notice. If we pick up an add, there are 5 people who could move to intercept that add. If a mage is going to polly it - I want to hear that over the chat channel. There are often enough differences that with pulls of 3 or less I can figure out which of the targets the mage is going to polly. And if I can't the worst case scenario is that I can't figure it out and un-sheep the polly - which would have happened if it WASN'T called out.

Unlike sap, polly goes of in the middle of combat. Polly picks up adds, polly pulls mobs off the priest, etc. Sure before the pull there's lots of times to explain who's CC'ing what. But during combat, that's when these macro's really shine. When I'm tanking I want to hear that a polly is incoming so I know if I need to run over and taunt the add or not, for example.

That said, please do not macro anything that goes off more than once every thirty seconds. If your a priest, don't macro your heals. I'll know if you sent the heal or not when I wake up on the floor. The only reason I need to know a heal is incoming is to know not to pop a potion and I'd rather macro the potion which will be used once in all of combat than see heal macros spammed every two seconds.

Anyone who macros sinister strike needs to be seriously smacked. :P