A Macro is a method of executing a string of commands in a press of a single button or keystroke. They can be used to help play efficiently or even for saving precious keybinding space on your action bar. Can be helpful for PvE encounters, or PvP matches.

Also they can be used for the lazy, like my friend’s Shaman who has a macro that he presses during PvP that does, “/point /laugh /spit”. Very useful indeed…

Lets get started. To open up your macro menu, simply type “/macro” and a menu will pop up. Click on “New”, give your macro a name and Icon, and press “Okay”.  Then you just type in what you want the macro to do. It can be something simple as /wave and say “Hello”, or it can be something more complex like casting Summon Water Elemental, Icy Veins, and announcing in Party Chat that you just casted them. Then just drag that button onto your cast bar and use.

You can have 18 total global macros that all your characters can share, and 18 individual macros for each character. Of course there are some guidelines you must follow in order to make your macro work. They must be commands that are in the game, and commands that your character is allowed to do. Making  a macro that does /cast Pyroblast when you are a Frost Mage won’t work. Here are a sample of some commands you can use.

Emotes:

Any of the emotes you can do in-game you can put into a macro. It can be useful for players on a Roleplaying Server, or mean players who want to throw out a /spit on any enemy they kill.

/point
/laugh
/cheer
/spit

Talking:

You are able to announce stuff to any chat channel you are in with the following commands. This could be really helpful for situations where you have to Counterspell a target, and let the other Mages in the Mage Channel that you just used your CS and that they are up next to CS the target.

/say “your message here” <— without the quotes
/yell
/party
/bg
/raid
/channel # <— you just need the # of the channel

Using Items:

Must be an item in your bag at the time, or a Trinket or Armor you have equiped that you want to activate.

/use Mana Ruby
/use Super Mana Potion
/use Icon of the Silver Crescent

Targeting:

Useful for boss encounters where you need to quickly target something and kill. Also useful for targeting Shaman’s Grounding Totem in PvP for a quick Ice Lance.

/target Grounding Totem
/target Demon Chains
/target Spitfire Totem

Casting:

You can cast any spells your character knows, and also specify the Rank of the spell that you are using too. The /stopcasting command is great for when you need to cast a spell right away. An example of a good use for it is with Ice Block. It will cancel anything you are casting at the time, and immediately cast Ice Block.

/stopcasting  <— will cancel any spell you are casting
/cast Ice Block
/cast Frostbolt  <— it will cast the highest rank for the spell
/cast Frostbolt(Rank 1)  <— will cast the specified Rank of the spell

Special Commands:

Here are a couple of commands you may not know about.

#showtooltip Frostbolt <— will show the tooltip of the specify spell
/cancelaura Dampen Magic <— for when you need to get rid of a buff

Useful Mage Macros

Here are some of the useful macros you can use for your Mage.

Quick Ice Barrier:

Casts Ice Barrier immediately, cancelling any spellcast in progress, allowing you to absorb damage now instead of later.

#showtooltip Ice Barrier
/stopcasting
/cast Ice Barrier

Remove Curse:

This macro makes it so you can easily remove curses from party members by continually clicking the macro button. The first click will target you, the second will target the closest party member to you. This continues to all party members within range.

For party:
/targetparty
/cast Remove Lesser Curse

For raid:
/targetraid
/cast Remove Lesser Curse

Conjure or Eat/Drink:

You can combine conjuring and drinking onto a single button using click-logic. In this macro, right-clicks summon water, and left-clicks to use it.

#showtooltip Conjured Glacier Water
/cast [button:2] Conjure Water
/use [button:1] Conjured Glacier Water

#showtooltip Conjured Croissant
/cast [button:2] Conjure Food
/use [button:1] Conjured Croissant

Ice Block:

Will cancel any current spellcast to Ice Block right away. Also, using this macro while in Ice Block, will cancel the Ice Block buff.

#showtooltip Ice Block
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast Ice Block

Icy Veins + Pet:

Macro that summons pet, and casts Icy Veins, and at the same time announcing that to Party Chat to let your party members know. Also good for your arena teams to let your teamates know when you are ready to burst down a target with a Shatter Combo.

#showtooltip Icy Veins
/p ——- Casting Icy Veins ——-
/stopcasting
/cast Icy Veins
/stopcasting
/cast Summon Water Elemental

Kill Macro:

This macro will activate your current damage trinket, and activate your Arcane Power, Presence of Mind, and cast a Pyroblast at your target. Fun macro to have if you have this spec.

#showtooltip Arcane Power
/stopcasting
/cast Arcane Power
/use Icon of the Silver Crescent
/stopcasting
/cast Presence of Mind
/stopcasting
/cast Pyroblast

Sheep Focus:

Using focus to keep an eye on your sheep can make you more reliable cc while also maximizing your DPS during the sheep’s lifespan. The following macro gives you a single button that automatically manages your sheep as a focus until it dies or until you manually replace it with your current target. When you click, if you’re not already watching a sheep, your current target is put in focus and Polymorphed. Any subsequent clicks will resheep your focus, leaving you free to target something else for damage. Once your sheep is killed, click again to set your current target as focus and sheep it. If you need to sheep a different target before your current sheep is down, target the new sheep, hold shift and click to make the change.

#showtooltip Polymorph
/clearfocus [modifier:shift]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]; [target=focus,dead]
/clearfocus [target=focus,help]
/stopcasting
/cast [target=focus,exists,harm] Polymorph; Polymorph

More on macros can be found at wowwiki.com

Related Posts:

• Frost Mage PvE: Brutallus
• Mage: Evocation Macro