Infernals, Macros, and UI Management. (large pic)

[Dyntheos]

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.



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.

[Artega]

I was under the impression that mob health is occluded for a reason - am I wrong?

[LochnarITB]

Very nice. My guess would be that you are very much in demand for parties. (Hehe - I guess that could be taken differently - maybe I should say WoW groups since I have no idea of your real life social skills. ;) )

If anyone cares to share any such setups they use to assist them in their play of other character types (mage being my preference), I would love to see them. I am enjoying playing the mage type but, being very new to this whole idea of MMORPGs and grouping, I welcome any suggestions to help make me the go-to guy when one is in need of a little squishy guy carrying a big stick and tossing destruction around.

[Tal]

If anyone cares to share any such setups they use to assist them in their play of other character types (mage being my preference), I would love to see them.&nbsp; I am enjoying playing the mage type but, being very new to this whole idea of MMORPGs and grouping, I welcome any suggestions to help make me the go-to guy when one is in need of a little squishy guy carrying a big stick and tossing destruction around.
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Absolute best thing to do is tell the Tank which target you are sheeping if we get an add. As a tank I always will soak up any adds that come along. If the mage is in mid-process of sheeping I will frequently break the polymorph just as you complete casting. :blush: This can be done with macros where by selecting the target and then pushing the macro button it will inform the party that you sheeping "X" target. Damned if I know how to make it though. :P Its also okay for you to let the tank get pounded on a bit while you type out "Sheeping add" or you can even wait until you see the tank stop attacking that target and move back to the previous target to sheep. :)

Also don't pull. Evah. I mean it. Especially with a fireball. ;)

[Dyntheos]

/p Sheeping >>> %t <<<
/cast Sheep (Rank 1)


This will tell the party you are sheeping the target in party chat when you start casting the spell.

[LochnarITB]

I am now the prowd owner of a Sheepinator macro:

/p Sheeping >>> %t <<<
/cast Polymorph(Rank 1)

I had to change it to Polymorph and remove the space and then all is good. Baahhh!

[WarLocke]

I've been looking into UI customizations, but I'm leery of using a huge utility like Cosmos because the only thing I really want is additional hotbars (along the sides or above the one on the bottom, doesn't matter much); I don't see myself needing a bunch of fancy features.

I don't know of any small single-feature standalone mods though, so I suppose I'll have to figure out XML to do what I want the way I want it. <_<

Also, in regards to macros, I've been trying to come up with one that will:

- Cast spell X on me
- Retarget the mob I'm fighting
- Toggle back into 'attack' mode

I can get a macro to do the first two, but I can't figure out how to do the third, and without that it's no more convenient than having to hit alt+#.

[Bolty]

I think it's very obvious that a detailed macro guide would get a lot of play as a tactics guide for those new to the game, if you're willing to spend a few hours writing one up. Not just the technicals of macro writing, but suggestions of useful macros for the types of characters (healer, tank, nuker, etc).

UI is really half the game here. High level Warlocks have access to over 40 different spells/skills. FORTY. If you spend a full second looking for a button, you lose.

-Bolty

[Dyntheos]

Check out link in the UI forums at Blizzard.

You'll find Telo's mods are standalone and provide just the hotbars.

[WarLocke]

Check out link in the UI forums at Blizzard.

You'll find Telo's mods are standalone and provide just the hotbars.
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Hey thanks, some of those look useful, so I'll try them out. :ph34r:

[WarLocke]

Stumbled across this while trying to come up with a working self-cast macro, and it works really well for characters who need to cast spells on themselves during fights (Priests, Druids, others I would guess). Make your macro as normal (naming, choosing symbol) and in the text field, enter:

/script CastSpellByName('<spellname>(Rank <x>)')
/script SpellTargetUnit("player")

Substitute tha name and rank of the spell you want in there at the appropriate places.

What this macro does:

- If you have an enemy/mob targeted, you'll cast the spell on yourself without detargetting the mob and without toggling out of 'attack' mode, so you'll go right back to whacking afterwards.

- If you have nothing targetted, you cast on yourself.

- If you have another player targetted, you'll cast it on them.

So, for example, a Druid's Rejuvenation macro would look like this:

/script CastSpellByName('Rejuvenation(Rank 1)')
/script SpellTargetUnit("player")

This would allow you to refresh your HOT in combat without having to fumble with Alt-keys or retargetting.

I just realised that I didn't check to see how it would act with an NPC targetted, but still, I think it's a very handy macro. :ph34r:

[Magicbag]

I know this will sound silly, but do I need to install some sort of UI mod in order to use macros? or can it be done with the interface that comes with WoW? If so, anyone willing to give some tips to a n00b?
-MB

[Tal]

I know this will sound silly, but do I need to install some sort of UI mod in order to use macros? or can it be done with the interface that comes with WoW?&nbsp; If so, anyone willing to give some tips to a n00b?
-MB
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Macros can be created in game by either clicking on the Menu button and then the macros button or by typing /macros in the interface.