The Warcraft Hunter

When I look at the search terms that have been used to reach my blog, I find myself surprised at the number of players who still want to use macros to control their shot rotation. Here are some of the search terms that have been used: “beastmaster shot macro’s”; “best hunter rotation beastmaster macro”; “warcraft+hunters shot rotation macro”.

Let me state this clearly near the top for all to see: Shot macros are good! Shot Rotation macros are Bad! There! I said it! And before you bounce away to another page to satisfy your desire for an easy fix to your shot rotation, let me also state that I will provide some shot rotation macros at the bottom of this post. But you’re darned well going to get some learnin’ from me first!

The intent of a Shot Macro is to make sure you pop the big “shots” whenever they are available: Kill Command, Kill Shot, or anything else big and only occasionally available. Here is my Steady Shot macro:

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:UnregisterEvent(”UI_ERROR_MESSAGE”);
/cast !Auto Shot
/cast Kill Command
/cast Kill Shot
/cast Steady Shot

I am not totally sure the !Auto Shot is required, but it works so I leave it in there. You will note that I have no “castsequence” call to control which shots are used in which order, and there is a very good reason for it. In fact, there are a few.

First, you don’t know what your cooldown is going to be for specific shots, since they can be changed by talents and glyphs. My shot rotation might not work for you if your cooldown for Arcane Shot is not the same as mine. Second, you need to take into account the possibility of missing. A Serpent Sting that misses should be cast again as soon as possible because you don’t want to go through an entire rotation without it. Lastly, there are times when you won’t be able to just stand and shoot. Boss fights that require running around will screw with rotation macros something awful.

Think “shot priority” rather than “shot rotation”, and you will maximize your DPS. This goes for Marksman and Survival as much as for Beastmaster, but BM is easier of course. For BM you simply want to lead off with a Serpent Sting (make sure the sting gets applied, or apply it again as soon as the cooldown is up), follow with Arcane Shot, then spam Steady until Arcane is up again, and then shoot Arcane. When Serpent Sting is down to about 1/4 of its time left, get ready to apply it again. Don’t wait for it to completely dispel, because you will probably have to wait for a Steady Shot to finish casting; far better to prepare for it ahead of time.

If you are fighting a boss with no adds, feel free to throw in some Multi-Shots as well, as they will do the most damage for you — just don’t use it where there are lot so mobs, or you will attract some unwanted aggro. Also, for each of the shots mentioned in this “rotation”, you should be using a Shot Macro to make sure you don’t miss opportunities for the big shots.

For those of you who really feel you MUST have a shot rotation macro, here it is:

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/castsequence reset=3 !Auto Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot
/cast [exists,target=pettarget] Kill Command
/castrandom Arcane shot, Multi Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

This macro is the best compromise between making sure you can prioritize shots and still not having to play whack-a-mole with all your buttons. You will want to make two of these macros, one with Multi Shot and one without, and use the one that is appropriate for the current situation. Also, you can replace the Showtooltip option with whichever icon you want as it has no bearing on the performance of the macro itself. Lastly, you need to make sure you handle Serpent Sting manually.

**UPDATE**

As of Patch 3.10, Kill Shot is no longer working in this macro, since it is now on the Global Cooldown. I have not seen any way around this, but in truth this is more in line with the stated goal of macros. It was never Blizzard’s intention to allow a macro that would essentially choose which shot (or spell) should be cast, and that is what this macro did. So that means Kill Shot should have its own macro with Kill Command, along with all the other shots.

Sorry

Erik Macros Basics, Hunter, Macros, Warcraft