To macro or not to macro: that is the question.

The question of using a shot rotation macro is one that all hunters face and I've read up on all sides of the argument. I first learned about the macro from reading BRK and the discussion that was carried out there. Sometimes the pro-macro squad would put me off with their "L2Macro nub lolz" comments but after some discussions with intelligent hunters on my guild forums and reading some more measured commentary within the hunter community (both at BRK and Elitist Jerks) I decided to give it a go. I mean it couldn't hurt, right?

About this time we first started raiding Gruul's and since it had been touted as useful when learning a new fight (apart from allegedly making your DPS godly) I figured now was the time to try it.

This also meant trying to get a clearer understanding of the impacts of weapon speed, the global cool down, latency, clipped shots and etc. I kind of grasped the principles. As much as my inability to decipher all the formulas allowed me to - no math fu here.

I dutifully got hold of 'the' macro:

/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide() /castsequence reset=3 Steady Shot, !Auto Shot /castrandom [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command /script UIErrorsFrame:Clkear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()

added it in game and then set up a hotkey for it. Note: since the latest patch means that ! needs to be added to cast sequence macros where you want a cast to keep firing (casting, whatever I'm a hunter!) without needing to press a button the above macro is corrected to show this.

I also downloaded the recommended mod Quartz and voila I was all set to become the most awesome DPSer EVAR.

So I've used the macro for I suppose 2 or 3 months roughly. I actually used a variation of the macro which had stop-casting built in to assist with high latency. However since the changes to how client and server communicate re client actions as of the last patch it's not really relevant anymore.

So did the macro help with learning the Gruul's fight? Yes it did. Less time concentrating on getting shots off meant more time learning how to avoid cave-ins and shatters and etc. All said and done though I've reached the conclusion that ithe macro really doesn't do that much for me.

/semi tangent alert
I didn't see a massive increase in my DPS at any rate. In fact my DPS or lack thereof is often to do more with deciding not to blow all my cooldowns all the time. I figure if we're not dying because we are taking too long to kill mob X then there is no need to. When I put in a concerted effort I can top the damage meters in an instance. But I'm not there to outdamage people I'm there to do my job as part of the team.
/end semi tangent alert

When I was first reading up shot rotations and the macros and so on I didn't really know or understand much about it. I felt like I had a pretty good rotation going but was confused by what was meant by clipped shots and weapon speed and etc so assumed I must be doing some thing wrong.

Now after using the macro and getting more edumacated I'm more confident that I in fact wasn't doing something inherently wrong and now that I'm using Quartz it's easy for me to time my shots manually, something I was doing in a more instinctual and zen way pre-macro.

So last night I removed the macro from my hotkey and instead linked it to steadyshot. I set up a hotkey for Kill Command on the key next to it and farmed some ethereals to see how I did. What I found and liked was that as Kill Command is not included in the global cool down I can stab the hotkey everytime it procs and still continue casting my steadyshot without having to wait on the cast sequence.

Now maybe I'm getting this all wrong, but that's how it seemed to me. Maybe I was using the macro wrong all along :P Enlighten me!

Now this post has been brewing in my mind for the last week and in another case of happy blogging serendipity I came across a fantastic explanation of shot rotation by Drotara over at Less QQ More PewPew. It is far and away the best explanation I have come across to date - and with diagrams! I'll also note that I discovered the blog via the new Blog Azeroth site which is a great forum for people blogging about WoW.

Another reason I think I have turned off of the shot rotation macro is running more bgs and arenas. There is simply no place for this macro in a PVP situation in my opinion - you need to be able to change up gears at any moment and the macro doesn't require you to do anything but stand still and 'push butan'. That will get you killed dead before kill command can even proc in a bg and even more so in arena. So now I understand more fully what Shifttusk was talking about in his comments on BRK's blog.

The art of Warcraft: my zen gaming philosophy

I apply the same philosophy to playing WoW that I did to playing Pirates . Yes there will doubtless be many comparisons and references to that game in my blog.

The way I play WoW has changed over time, mostly due to the way my interest in pirates decreased as my interest in WoW increased. The increase in interest was motivated by by further delving into the deeper aspects of game play in WoW. Initially as should be obvious from my previous post I was playing in a fairly casual manner.

I'm a reasonably competitive player, I like to try and play my class well and to that extent I will spend time researching how I can improve. However I'll only do that to the point that I am still having fun. Spending hours poring over spreadsheets so that I can squeeze a little more DPS out of my spec+gear is not really my idea of fun. I will take the information I glean from various places on the interwebs and in game and use that sure and that's why I really appreciate all the theory-crafters out there who really get off on analysis. A big thanks to all of you out there!

So I like to believe my play-style is pretty zen - for the most part. Fun should always > theory. But an important part of that statement is that theory = a portion of fun. There is also a high percentage chance that I am talking absolute crap, but if you've read a few of my posts now you should know that I'm ramblomatic ;)

Confessions of a Huntard

I wasn't always the uber hunter that I am now *cue hysterical laughter*, no once upon a time I was one of the many many huntards that infest the worlds of Warcraft (worlds because we have both Azeroth and Outlands amirite?).

I like to believe though that while I may have displayed some huntardation there were things I got right pretty much from the start.

I was lucky enough to start playing at the same time as *cue further hysterical laughter from Morn specifically* the manbeast. But we'll call him Broichan now because that was the first toon he leveled and who Jez began her adventures in Azeroth with.

Do you still remember what it was like when the world was all new and fresh? When you'd enter a new zone and oooh and aaah at the lovely environmental graphics? Maybe you didn't ooh and aah. I did, because it was the first seamless 3D world MMO I'd ever played and it was a pretty exciting experience just inhabiting the world let alone all the cool things I could do as a hunter.

So Broichan is a drood and as anyone who has leveled a drood knows you get your first shape change ability at level 10 which is happily when a hunter can first train a pet. I think this is the reason that I never became a melee huntard. I had a nice fuzzy bear tanking the mob whilst I pew-pewed happily away. And yes I did send my lovely Azrael in to do battle as well. I had a pet and they were supposed to do the nasty up close fighting for me. I grasped that early on.

I adventured away, often with Broi until level 45 where I suddenly became bored with the game and stopped playing for about 6 months. I started playing Pirates again and Jezrael languished away. By the time I started playing again Broichan was 60 and Emelin the soul-destroying Warlock, the new toon of the manbeast, was almost there too. So I leveled my way mainly solo up to 60. My huntardiness therefore showed itself mainly with instances. I still remember the first time I was asked to lay a trap to CC a mob in LBRS. I had no idea what was being asked of me. This was back pre TBC and before we could lay multiple traps in battle so trapping was really just a tiny bit of CC to help with a multi-mob pull. Ditto on being asked to pull a mob to my assigned tank in Molten Core. You want me to what?! Ah yes I had much to learn about the ways of the hunter.

But probably my greatest transgression? I had an icy enchant on each of my Assassination Blade's .

/cringe
/cower

Whattanub.

I'm glad that through intensive therapy plus deciding to really understand what makes my class tick I learned better.