Gimped DPS after 2.3.3 macro changes?Follow

I ran Kara last night for the first time since the macro changes and was still using the good old stand-by steady/auto rotation.

I do things a bit differently, but it has always worked very well--what I would do is spam the macro, and as steady shot would be casting, I'd start spamming either arcane or multi. This used to make the special fire just after the steady and just before the auto, so it went something like:

auto > steady> arcane> auto> steady> multi> auto> steady> auto> steady> arcane> auto> steady> multi.

I was comparing myself to a frost mage who I normally hang very close with and found that, with no gear changes, he was now 4% above me on the damage meters. A few weeks ago, I was beating him by about 1%. Now, I know that everyone has an off week, and I have a fever, but that shouldn't account for that large a slip in performance.

Can anyone vouch for the old macros now clipping auto shots? Is that what's going on, and if so is there a new macro that will help to mitigate the loss in damage output?

Thanks in advance for the help--sorry if this has been asked before but I couldn't find it!

Edited, Jan 30th 2008 10:10am by ZulFrieze

I weave in arcanes and multis when the situation calls for it. Apparently if your timers show you clipping auto-shots they are not always right. I do have 188 steady shots to 183 autos over the course of a Kael fight so something is happening. following the theorycrafting on EJ forums it is a mystery on what is going on. All I know is that I seem to be doing better on the damagemeters pretty consistently since this latest patch.

These are quotes from the EJ forums:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beast Mastery Steady Shot Shot Rotation (Higher Mana Usage, Higher DPS)

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/cast !Auto Shot
/cast [target=pettarget, exists] Kill command
/cast Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Beast Mastery Steady Shot Shot Rotation (Lower Mana Usage, Lower DPS)

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/cast [exists,target=pettarget] Kill Command
/castsequence reset=target/2 !Auto Shot, Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I weave in multis and arcanes when mana permits but even with a ferociously high output SP in my party will need to fel mana pot during the long nuke fights.

I don't care about gold in raids, so the second macro is not an option. Never used it. High Mana Use, High DPS FOR THE WIN.

Here is YOUR macro the standard one, no changes....
#showtooltip Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/castsequence reset=3 Steady Shot, Auto Shot
/petattack
/cast [exists,target=pettarget] Kill Command


Here is what it should look like

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/castsequence reset=3 (put actual Ranged attack speed here) Steady Shot,(!)Auto Shot
/petattack
/cast [exists,target=pettarget] Kill Command

No HUGE differences but it makes a difference in your actual DPS, and since the changes in 2.3.3 have made it so that your Auto shots take priority over any special shots, and it has a "hidden" 0.5s cast time so any shots being qued in that 0.5s cast time of auto-shot will be delayed by Auto shot and push back your rotation, causing you to lose DPS in the long run.

If you're BM then don't worry about throwing in any other shot besides Steady and Auto, with a sting when necessary and you should be fine, if you're a different spec you should honestly be using a different macro or combination of macros/ rotations to make better use of your timing.

Edited, Jan 30th 2008 3:53pm by Katchii

Don't forget the ! before Autoshot. Part of the new patch/macro changes.

you need a LOT of haste to get it down to wolfslayer level.
I dont know exactly how much, but its a lot.
And that cuts into your other stats.

After reset=x seconds the macro will reset to the first item in the cast sequence.

Yes. Confirmed. There seems to be an urban legend running around on this forum that the reset timer in a castsequence has something to do with the ranged weapon speed. It does not. This myth has been dispelled a few times previously, but it keeps popping up again.

For redundancies sake: A Hunter's ranged weapon speed has nothing at all to do with the reset timer in a macro.

I'm not exactly clear on what you're describing.

To discuss it in an example, let's assume that you're clearing some trash, and your Tank will be taking aggro from 2 mobs at once. You're using this macro:

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

You're happily firing away at the first mob, and it dies. You click your raid frame to take the Tanks next target immediately, and continue firing. Your macro did not have 3 seconds with which to reset, so it's going to fire either SS or Auto, depending on which shot was fired last.

You've achieved the exact same shot rotation as you would have had for a single mob which had twice the Health.

Now you change your macro. You set the reset timer to equal your Auto Shot speed. Same situation, 2 mobs on the tank. First mob dies, you again swap targets quickly using the raid frame. Again, your next shot will be the one next in the rotation. No change.

Now lets say that you're a little slow to swap targets, say 2.2 seconds while your macro is set to 1.9 seconds. So the macro resets and you fire a Steady first, while your last shot could have been either Steady or Auto. You've reset, and have 50% chance to have made a change in your shot rotation.

But my Steady and Auto are pretty much on par for damage. Steady does a little bit more on average, at the cost of some mana, but even over the course of an entire raid this isn't going to make a significant difference in my total damage output.

So what is the significance of setting the reset timer to the Auto Shot speed?