A small apology guys, this is a bit of a rehash of macros that I included in an earlier post back in January HOWEVER it was tagged on the end of a general post about doing Cataclysm Dungeons and the tools you need.  So I decided to pop it up as a separate article that can be easily updated and stuck under the resources bit.

Also, sorry my posting schedule has been slow this week but work has been manic; will endeavour to overcome this ;)

Macro Basics

Please watch this Runz approved Government information film to learn some basics about macros.  After the jump we'll look at the mage specific macros I use.

Click on the title or the Read More button to join me after the jump.

Useful Macros

OK this is not a definitive list of macros available for mages, these are just some of the ones I use to make my life easier.  A lot of these I actually used initially for PvP and then realised that they also helped quite a bit in making my PvE game a little more fluid.

It is worth noting for those that are new to macros that when you incorporate a #show line in your macro you should use the red question mark icon for it; it will then automatically show the icon associated with the spell you're telling it to #show (make sense? I hope so)

Instant Counterspell - immediately stops whatever you're casting then casts Counterspell.

#show Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast Counterspell

Instant Spellsteal - immediately stops whatever you're casting and casts Spellsteal.

#show Spellsteal
/stopcasting
/cast Spellsteal

Instant Blink - guess, what it does... yep that's right, immediately stops casting whatever it is you're casting and then casts Blink.

#show Blink
/stopcasting
/cast Blink

Speedy Iceblock - Allows you to quickly cast Ice Block then just press again to cancel it (saves having to right click on the Ice Block buff.  Be very careful about spamming it though.

#show Ice Block
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast Ice Block

If you wanna get really advanced, you could try using the cancelaura Ice Block line into Blink for a spammable evasion after you've Ice Blocked.

One Button Attack - OK this is a bit more complicated; this pops my Synapse Springs and Icy Veins whenever they are available to save me having to keep them on my hotbar and pressing them every minute or so.  Feel free to swap them out for any trinkets or anything you might want there instead.  It also tells my water elemental (Mr Sploshy) to attack my target.  As I have Mr Sploshy on passive, it just saves me clicking on the pet attack button all the time.  It's important to use petattack and not /cast Waterbolt - this is because this is my spam button and I don't want to be resetting Waterbolt everytime I press it which seems to have been a bit of a problem before I canged it.  Oh and it also disables the SFX for when your Synapse Springs/Icy Veins/Trinket is on CD, but turns them back on again afterwards.

#show Frostbolt
/run sfx=GetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX");
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/use 10
/cast Icy Veins
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX",sfx);
/petattack
/cast Frostbolt

For anyone not sure, the /use 10 line is the line to activate my Synapse Springs on my gloves.  To replace with trickets its /use 13 and /use 14 for trinkets 1 & 2.

Of course if you're not frost you can modify it easily, just take out the /petattack line and replace Frostbolt with Fireball or Arcane Blast.

Nuke Button - I press this when I wanna go full nuke.  Note that I haven't added Time Warp yet because I prefer having Time Warp separate and ready to go when the tank calls for it.  Again feel free to replace lines as you feel necessary for the likes of Arcane Power.

#show Mirror Image
/use 10
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Mirror Image
/cast Icy Veins
/cast Beserking
 

The All Singing - All Dancing Polymorph Macro - OK this macro will sheep your target and set it as your focus, you can then move onto your DPS target.  However, when it's time to reapply the sheep you can still stay targeted on your DPS target, just press the macro button and it'll automatically reapply the sheep to your focus so you never again have to try tabbing or mouse clicking trying to get back to your DPS target.  But Wait, There's More!  This will randomly cast one of your available Polymorph spells (in this example it's Sheep, Turtle or Pig cos those are the three I have) every time you click you'll polymorph the mob into a different critter... just for shits and giggles.  It's fun AND practical.  It'll also emote that you have sheeped the mob; I use emote rather than say, yell or a raid warning because they can becomes really irritating after just one dungeon run - emote is just a little less intrusive but still displays the info people need to know.

#show Polymorph
/clearfocus [modifier:shift][target=focus,dead][target=focus,noexists]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/castrandom [target=focus, exists, harm] Polymorph, Polymorph(Turtle), Polymorph(Pig)
/em has polymorphs %t.  You break it, you tank it!

NB. I removed the emote, it got annoying especially in arena when I tend to button spam.

Finally, don't be afraid to experiment with your macros.  The first time you see them they can look scary, I was terrified of using macros cos I just didn't know what I was doing with them.  Don't be, there is a wealth of macro information out there to look at and test.  Try mixxing some different macros together to really create something that is useful to you personally, that's how I ending up creating the One Button Attack macro and believe me it has really made my life in both PvP and PvE easier.