Edit: 12 May 09 – I will be overhauling this post in the near future to update the macros for 3.1 and beyond. There were some significant changes to macros in 3.1 and changes to spells such as Kill Shot being placed on the GCD, meaning that some of these macros may no longer work. Use at your own risk until I test and update them all. I also have some new ones I shall be adding, so watch this space.
I have now edited these so that they work with 3.0+ Most of the original macros continued to work, but a couple like the pull shot macro needed adjusting.
Edit: 22 Jan – even more hunter macro goodness – I have lost count of how many are here, but a lot more than 13 now!
You can also check out – WOWWiki’s Hunter Macros, which have been updated for 3.1here.
In between all the WOTLK goodness, I am continuing to update this site with basic content, but don’t worry the Wrath stuff will keep a coming. This mornings article covers useful hunter macros. (Oh and there is a participation request at the bottom of the page, it would be nice to get some useful comments on this one.)
A macro is a simple little command that performs and action or multiple actions such as sending your pet to attack and casting Hunter’s Mark both with one touch of a button. They cut down on the number of buttons you have to press, and the number of spells you need on your tool bars. They can make you faster and more efficient and can result in higher dps.
Note: The coding used in macros can alter slightly in updates to the game. For instance you may see Stopcasting lines in some older macros, this has not been needed since patch 2.3, although does not break macros. Refer to patch notes and the official Macro Forums to changes in macro code. Mostly, old macros will continue to work, but occasionally they will need updating with the new code.
To create a new macro type /m and press enter in the chat window. This will pull up the Macro Window. (You can also open the Macro Window from your Options Menu – either by click on the icon or by pressing Escape.)
Press the New button
In the new little window that appears, Type in a Title for your new Macro in the Enter Macro Name box
Select an Icon for your Macro
Click OK
In the text box at the bottom of the Macro Window type the text for your Macro
Drag and drop the Macros icon onto your toolbar
Click Exit, and your’re done.
Here are some macros I use:
I am a macro thief, most of the macros I use I have found elsewhere and then perhaps edited slightly. So thank you to all the original writers out there who understand the code better than I do 🙂
1. Pet Attack
/petattack
/cast hunter’s mark
Use: I put this on a tool bar and assign a key binding (a) in my case. when I select a mob and then press (a) my pet rushes to attack it and I also cast hunter’s mark on the mob with the same key press.
EDIT: You can also add Kill Command to this Macro – meaning that your pet will start off with some high damage attacks and your Kill Command cooldown will start ticking immediately:
/petattack
/cast Kill Command
/cast hunter’s mark
2. Pet Follow
/petfollow [target=pettarget,exists]
Use: Will recall your pet to your side even if he is about to attack, or is currently attacking a target. Good if you accidently sent him to attack something, you can pull him out before he aggros it. Good to use him to pull a mob from a distance, e.g. an underwater one to the surface because you don’t want to get your mail rusty. Good too to recall him if he has run off in pursuit of a foe in a BG, but is not far enough out of range to be able to use your whistle. Also good if you need to pull him back during a boss fight, when the boss hits a damaging aoe type spell. (Before using this, I would have to toggle between defensive and passive a couple of times to recall him, this is quicker and more reliable).
Edit: If you are using a shot rotation macro which includes a pet skill such as rake in the macro (to make sure he uses it when its available), this might interrupt your ability to pull your pet back from a situation using the pet follow macro. You attempt to pull him back, but at the same time you are spamming your macro telling him to attack with his special skills – obviously he gets a bit confused.
3. Assist Pet
/Assist pet
/cast Auto Shot
Use: I put this on a toolbar and assign a key binding (b) in my case. When my pet is attacking a mob I don’t have to select the mob to start attacking it, I just press (b) and I start shooting at the same mob as my pet. Excellent time saver when switching between multiple mobs. Also excellent for ensuring that you are shooting at your pets main target when you pet is being hit by several mobs, so that you don’t accidently pull a mob off the pe
4. Assist Tank or party member
the same macro can be used to assist the main tank or a party member.
/Assist Edaddy (where Edaddy is the main tank)
/cast Auto Shot
Again, this will make sure you are targeting the same mob as Edaddy and not pulling another mob off him. Obviously, this is not just of benefit to hunters.
5. Assist Focus
An important variation on this macro can be used to assist your focus. You can set your focus. This is a bit like a stored target, but is not your currently target. To set focus, create another macros:
/Focus Target
Select the person or pet you want as a focus, and hit the macro. This stores this person as your focus target, when they are selected you will notice they have a shiny glow around their character picture, showing they are your focus. Your focus can also be an enemy mob (many people make their focus the mob they are chain trapping for instance).
6. Create an assist focus macro:
/Target Focus
/Assist Target
/Cast Auto Shot
This is a bit more elegant version of those macros above. It can be used on any pet or tank, rather than you having to go in and manually adjust the name. I usually have this on my tool bar as well as the standard one to assist my pet.
*Removing the auto cast line from these macros, allows you to target the target of the player you want to assist without shooting at it until you are ready. This is preferable when you are assisting a tank, who needs to build up aggro before you let fly with the arrows. Experiment and see which works before for you.
7. Misdirect
Misdirection is a hugely useful spell that hunters learn at level 70. It allows you to middirect your next three shots so that the mob thinks the damage (and therefore the threat/aggro) come from another player/pet. You use it to help a tank establish or re-establish aggro, or to help get aggro off yourself or another player and back onto your pet or tank.
This one uses the focus target above. If you have a focus target (e.g your tank), it will misdirect the shots on to him/her, if not, it will misdirect the shots onto your pet.
#showtooltip Misdirection
/focus [modifier:alt]
/cast [target=focus,help][help][target=pet,exists,nodead] Misdirection
/clearfocus [button:2]
There are several different misdirection macros out there. Some stopped working after patch 3.0.2. I experimented until I found one that worked the way I wanted it. Just don’t ask me to explain the new code – I don’t understand the [button:2] bit (ah – it’s to do with right clicking with your mouse button – that explains it – I play on a laptop with a track pad and don’t use a mouse – I know I’m a newb and am scared of going into the Occulus).
8. Pull Shot
#showtooltip Distracting Shot
/cast Distracting Shot
/target Tinuviel
Edit: The original pull shot macros no long works because of the changes to auto shot. The simple solution is to target yourself after the Distracting Shot or other shot you use to pull into the trap, this stops you continuing to shoot auto shot. You can change Distracting shot for something that does minimal threat (e.g. arcane shot (Rank 1)), however my pally tank is an threat machine, and often pulls generating threat onto multi-mobs at once, including the one to be trapped, so I need a sure-fire way to get it off him and into the trap.
Use: When trapping in an instance. Place trap, target mob, when tank pulls hit this. I then follow up by hitting the button that targets my tanks target so that I can begin laying down the dps.
Edit: If you are a Marksman Hunter with Silencing Shot (talent) you can use this variation:
#showtooltip Distracting Shot
/cast [mod:shift] Silencing Shot; Distracting Shot
/target Tinuviel
I have my macro bound to key [9] on my keyboard. I lay my trap, target the mob and when the tank pulls I hit key [9], which distracts the mob towards me and into the trap. If the mob is a caster, I hit [shift] + [9] and being silences for 3 secs he will run towards me and hopefully into the trap (as long as the run is less than 3 secs for a long distance pull).
9. DPS button
When you want to open up and let the target have it, e.g. the last 20% of a bosses health or similar.
#showtooltip Rapid Fire
/cast Rapid Fire
/cast Bestial Wrath
/use 13
/use 14
You will have to smash this button several times to get all the things to work if they are all off cooldown. If some are on cooldown, but not others, it will cast those that are available. 13 and 14 refer to your trinkets equipped on your character. It will activate any on use procs these trinkets have.
Edit: You might want to leave Rapid Fire out of this one and save it for mana regen phases with Viper Sting. You might also want to add pet abilities in like Rabid and Call of the Wild with extra cast likes. But I tend to leave these on autocast to ensure the pet uses them as often as they are up – not as focussed DPS, but it makes sure he uses them as often as possible.
10. I win button
Beastmaster hunters with Intimidation and Bestial Wrath talent points only need apply. Variation on the above, similar results.
/Cast Bestial Wrath
/Cast intimidation
11. Shot Rotation Macros
Everything changed here with the advent of WOTLK. Previously in BC, many hunters were using shot rotation macros to weave auto shot in between steady and other shots. The two most common (at least for beast master hunters) were the 3:2 and 1:1 macros – for historical purposes only here they are:
3:2 Macro (this one goes something like… auto, steady, steady, auto, steady…. repeat)
#showtooltip Steady Shot
/Cast! Auto Shot
/Cast [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command
/Cast Steady Shot
/Script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
1:1 Macro (this one goes… auto, steady…. repeat)
#showtooltip Steady Shot
/castsequence reset=3 Steady Shot, !Auto Shot
/Cast [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command
/Script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
With WOTLK neither macros are used. Auto shot now fires automatically, and threads itself between your shots, without you having to do it.
There doesn’t seem to be a cookie cutter macro currently. A lot of people are not using a macro at all, just spamming Steady Shot, and threading stings and other things between it.
Some people are using macros like this one, which does 2 things. First it makes sure the pet uses its special skills when they are available, and second the inclusion of the !Auto Shot line, apparently improves DPS very slightly.
#showtooltip Steady Shot
/cast Steady Shot
/cast !Auto Shot
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Rabid
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Rake
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
When 3.0.8 comes out and Steady Shot is nerfed, and Arcane shot buffed, there may be a case for a macro that weaves Steady and Arcane shots. I have tested a couple out, and this one seems to work. What’s more it appears to fire Kill Shot too. I have only done a little testing on it though on mobs I am killing quickly in the field (only found it yesterday on elitist jerks forums), I need to go and use it on a target dummy, boss, or something else with a lot of health which takes a long time to kill. At the moment it will not be very mana efficient, but after 3.0.8 it may be very useful. You will still need to weave in Serpent Sting when it is about to expire, and start with a pet attack with Kill Command, and then renew Kill Command every minute (I tried putting it in the macro, but have not got it to work with that as well yet):
#showtooltip Steady Shot
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/castrandom Kill Shot, Arcane Shot
/cast Steady Shot
/Console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
If anyone has a better one, let me know.
And here is a similar shot rotation macro for Marksman Hunters:
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/cast kill shot
/cast kill command
/castsequence , steady shot
/castsequence chimera shot, arcane shot, aimed shot
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
You can delete aimed shot if you have mana problems or want to stick just to the others.
Start with a serpent sting manually, the macro should refreshi it with chimera shots, but you need to watch the debuff on the target, sometimes it might get missed and you will need to manually thread another serpent sting in.
12. Feed pet
(a) very simple
/cast feed pet
/use roast quail
/emote ’s pet wolfs down some food and licks his lips!
Use: I assign the feed pet icon to this macro. Now every time I want to feed my pet, I just click the button, and as long as I have some roast quail he will get fed. I also added the emote, so that I get an emote text saying, “Tinuviel ‘s pet wolfs down some food and licks his lips!” but you can dispense with this line if you like.Remember, if you change food, you will need to change the text ‘roast quail’ in the macro to the appropriate food.
(b) preferred feed pet macro
/cast feed pet
/use 1 1
/emote ’s pet wolfs down some food and licks his lips!
where – 1 1 – refers to 1st slot i.e. top left, in first bag from right after your backpack [which is bag 1]. Just make sure this slot has some food in it that your pet likes to eat and your’re all set.
13. Switch Aspects
Switch between your preferred DPS aspect and Aspect of the Viper for mana regen, and back again, with one button.
#showtooltip Aspect of the Dragonhawk
/castsequence Aspect of the Dragonhawk, Aspect of the Viper
Use: I have similar buttons for aspect of the cheetah/pack and Beast/wild just to cut down on the number of buttons on my toolbar.
14. Switch Tracking
Switch between different things you are tracking with one button.
/castsequence Find Herbs, Find Fish, Track Beasts
Use: You could put anything you could track on here – I use these three as these are the ones I tend to switch between when out farming.
15. Free your healer
Uses Master’s Call to attempt to free the target from movement impairing effects.
#showtooltip Master’s Call
/target Anelf
/cast Master’s Call
/targetlasttarget
Use: I use this on Anelf in instances, such as Culling of Strat when Meathook puts him in chains. I think it works – the cat certainly runs to Anelf and back to the target, and it sometimes sets the cooldown going on Master’s Call, just not sure how well Master’s Call works.
16. Hunting for elusive prey?
Target rares macro:
/tar Dirkee
/tar Vyra
/tar Time
/stopmacro [noexists]
/tell Tinuviel > %t <
I found this on a Wowhead forum when searching for info about the rare spawn (Time Lost Drake). There are three rare spawns in the area, so it attempts to target each of them. If it targets one, or if you target something else while spamming it, it sends you a whisper telling you what you have targeted.
IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH ANY OF MY MACROS, CAN SUGGEST MORE EFFICIENT WAYS OF WRITING THEM, OR SUGGEST OTHER USEFUL ONES, PLEASE ADD A COMMENT BELOW. THANK YOU – HAPPY MACROING!
17. Mounting
I use the Addon Coconuts usually for random mounts. But I have become a mount collectors and have a couple of really cool mounts like my kodo, mammoth and albino drake and some mounts I don’t like like my elekks and mecanostriders (just bought to get the drake). I have therefore started using the following macro to limit my random mount to one of my 5-6 favorites:
/run if IsMounted()then return end local t if((GetRealZoneText()==”Dalaran”) and(GetSubZoneText()~=”Krasus’ Landing”) or(GetZoneText()==”Wintergrasp”)or not IsFlyableArea())then t={2,16,20}else t={1}end CallCompanion(“MOUNT”,t[random(#t)])
/dismount
(Need to work out how to put a modifier in for the dismount – I accidently clicked it earlier while very high up on my drake, and dismounted to fall to my squishy doom.)
The numbers refer to the positions of your favourite mounts in your mount tab of your character screen – first set are land mounts, second are flying mounts e.g. my Armored Brown Bear is mount no 2. while my Albino Drake is mount no. 1.
18. Spammable melee button
I just save 2 spaces on my action bars with this one – combining wingclip, raptor strike and mongoose into 1 button. Spam away in melee or disengage and get back to range asap:
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=target/3 Wing Clip, Raptor Strike, Wing Clip
/castrandom [target=target, exists] Mongoose Bite
19. All in one pet button
My bar mod has been causing problems – so I have gone back to the standard action bars until the 2 main bar mods iron out their problems. But the standard bars have too few buttons, so I have been trying to condense some of mine – here in another space saver I found:
#showtooltip
/castsequence [nopet] reset=20 Call pet, Revive pet
/cast [modifier:shift] Dismiss Pet; [target=pet, dead] Revive Pet; [pet=nodead] Mend Pet
If you pet is present pushing him with mend it: shift pushing it will dismiss him. If he is dismissed, pushing it will recall him. If he is dead, pushing it willrevivehim.
Want to know more? Check out the following links (I put these in the original article – some but not all may be updated for 3.0+):
World of Warcraft Macro Guide: Part One
Cogwheels Complete Macro Guide
WOW Wiki Useful Macros for Hunters
Arena Junkies Hunter Specific Macros
*Note: some of these sites may contain some outdated macros.
Now it’s your turn:
Do you have a useful macro to share, or an improvement on one of mine? Post it in a comment to this post and I will publish it on the site.
