The Mailbag: UI and Macros

Mike writes:

Hey Josh my name is mike, im a regular on your blog and I'd just like to say your posts help me a ton. I was actually curious if you ever wrote a blog about your macros or what UI you use. I currently am having trouble breaking over 3100 dps in raids and I've seen ret pallies do as much as 5k easy. If you could email me or post your macros I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank for taking the time to hear me out!

Here's the last post I did on my UI.
It's from BC, but I still use most if not all of the mods listed, and my UI looks pretty much the same.

As for macro's, I don't use anything out of the ordinary. I have /startattack macro'ed to my strikes, for example:

#showtooltip Crusader Strike
/startattack
/cast Crusader Strike

... I have mouseover functionality macro'ed to my defensive spells, for example:

#showtooltip Hand of Freedom
/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Hand of Freedom; Hand of Freedom

... and I have a self-Flash macro to bash when Art of War is up:

#showtooltip Flash of Light
/target Cathmor
/cast Flash of Light
/targetlasttarget

All the macro's I use on Cathmor fit into one of those frameworks. Crusader Strike, Divine Storm, Cleanse, Divine Intervention, Lay on Hands, Hand of Protection... just about everything.

Lastly, I use Clique to throw heals on others when needed. I have Flash of Light bound to Shift + Left Click, and Holy Light bound to Shift + Right Click. If the healers are being dodgy and the tank's going down, I use my Sacred Shield mouseover macro on 'im and throw a few Shift + Left Clicks the tank's way, hoping for some crits and a Sheath of Light HoT.

Hope that answers your question, Mike!

The Mailbag: Targeting and Rotations

Kevin writes:

Ok. I’m a later 40s something guy been playing about 9 months but mostly soloing. I have a problem. My hand to eye can’t compete with the younger crowd.

I’m playing (Azulmoon on Doomhammer) ret pali and have some pretty decent built gear. My hit is a bit low but for the instances I’m doing it’s not an issue yet. I’m still under 1000DPS. I need help. My son (playing since the original release) played him never playing a pali before and against the dummy burned 1300DPS so it’s capable…

Two problems –

1) Targeting. When we burn someone down it’s quick enough I’m having trouble swapping to the new attack fast enough losing valuable time. I used to click target but T is working a bit better it’s just slow. I’m always hitting a target in the melee different than the tank. I just seem to not be able to get to it quick enough in a melee, I guess I get to excited watching timers, watching the actual battle, etc. All of the sudden I realize I’m not hitting anyone. REALLY frustruating (and embarrassing).

2) I tend to get excited and just start hitting keys… Timers throw me, especially global timer which causes me to miss my judgments then it seems like hitting consecrations and other spells with cool downs causes me to miss things.

Can you point me to a reference for a macro or several to help me out? I’m not stupid (at least I hope I’m not), just slow.

Targeting - make an assist macro for one of the other DPS or the tank, slam that button every time you need a new target. It'll save you the time of needing to have the reflexes to click or tab to the correct one. It's a simple macro to make, just open up the macro interface, create a new macro, and for the only line in the macro type the following:

/assist [name]

Replace [name] with your groupmate of choice.

If you're having trouble with keeping your rotation going with Crusader Strike, Divine Storm, Judgement, Consecration, *and* any undead-related ability in there, start small and work your way up. Just use Judgement > Crusader Strike > Divine Storm and get your targeting down. Once you're comfortable, work Consecration in. Then work the undead-specific stuff in.

As for any other issues, I hit a lot of major topics in my FAQ - if you need any other questions answered above and beyond the above and the FAQ, hit me again!

Good luck, and Light be with you.