on lower levels i became pretty accustomed to using the following opener (esp. for pve grinding):
/cast [combat] Shred
/castsequence [nostealth] Prowl; Pounce
/startattack [combat][nostealth]
it first fades you into prowl, then pounces out and lets you pull off two shreds all by pressing a single key. in addition, it targets the nearest enemy at the very beginning.
in case you happen to be in combat already, it just targets nearest enemy/shreds.
with mangle though, the whole process gets a bit complicated and i can't seem to be able to make it work 100% correctly. the best i got so far is this:
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=combat Prowl, Pounce, Mangle - Cat,
Shred, Faerie Fire (Feral)(), Mangle - Cat, Ferocious Bite
/startattack [combat][nostealth]
by this i'm trying to: target the nearest enemy and switch to prowl by the first press, next pounce, mangle, shred (improved by the mangle), FFF (while there's no energy (here i usually run away a bit from the mob to evade melee contact while waiting for the energy)), Mangle and finish off with FB.
the problem i'm trying to pin down is, that in some situations this macro does cast prowl but then it gets stuck, offering me only to "unprowl" again. so in reality, i happily prowl behind my target, press again to pounce and it pops me out of stealth and does nothing. ooops.
it would seem this happens when i start up the macro while there's no enemy around. but it's not 100%. i simply can't find out the pattern, when this fails.
as a bonus, i'd love to have this macro being able to branch out at the very end: finishing it off with alt for rip, shift for maim etc... though i doubt this is really possible.
well, thanks for any insights, i guess i'm not the only lazy *** trying to squeeze as many actions as possible under one keystroke.
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Welcome to the forum, very nice first post, you're gonna like it here.
You're not the only lazy *** trying to squeeze as many actions as possible into a single keystroke, but personally I think you're taking it to the extreme. The /castsquence stuff always leaves me with macros that work fine in just the right situation, but are error prone as you're finding.
Instead of trying to code my way out of the problem, I instead handle the vast majority of my cat combat with two very simple macros/keys.
The first I call CatFront because it handles the two moves that dont' care where I am: Pounce and Mangle.
/cast [stealth] Pounce; [nostealth,nomodifier] Mangle - Cat(Rank 3)
The second I call CatBack because it handles the two moves that require me to be behind my target. This one also stealths me if I'm out of combat.
/cast [nostealth, nocombat] Prowl; [stealth] Ravage; [nostealth,combat] Shred
They're bound to 1 and 2 on my 10-key. So to Prowl, Pounce, Mangle, Shred, Shred, I just hit 2,1,1,2,2. If I'm already prowling, then my opener is 1,1,2,2.
Actual combat is as easy as "2" if I can get behind them (i.e. they are stunned or being tanked) and "1" if I can't get behind them, or if I need to apply my Mangle for the debuff. My three finishers are bound to 4 and 5 and 6 right above them. Things like Faerie Fire and Rake I have as separate keys because their use is situational. I.e. Rake I only use to keep enemies from running away since I have the Rake glyph, and I never use FFF when soloing because mobs be dead by the time open+finish even without it.
Note that there's not a single modifier key in there, so it'd be easy to fold in the finishers. (untested)
/cast [stealth] Pounce; [nostealth,nomodifier] Mangle - Cat(Rank 3); [modifier:alt] Rip /cast [nostealth, nocombat] Prowl; [stealth] Ravage; [nostealth,combat] Shred; [modifier:alt] Ferocious Bite
You're not the only lazy *** trying to squeeze as many actions as possible into a single keystroke, but personally I think you're taking it to the extreme. The /castsquence stuff always leaves me with macros that work fine in just the right situation, but are error prone as you're finding.
Instead of trying to code my way out of the problem, I instead handle the vast majority of my cat combat with two very simple macros/keys.
/cast [stealth] Pounce; [nostealth,nomodifier] Mangle - Cat(Rank 3)
/cast [nostealth, nocombat] Prowl; [stealth] Ravage; [nostealth,combat] Shred
They're bound to 1 and 2 on my 10-key. So to Prowl, Pounce, Mangle, Shred, Shred, I just hit 2,1,1,2,2. If I'm already prowling, then my opener is 1,1,2,2.
Actual combat is as easy as "2" if I can get behind them (i.e. they are stunned or being tanked) and "1" if I can't get behind them, or if I need to apply my Mangle for the debuff. My three finishers are bound to 4 and 5 and 6 right above them. Things like Faerie Fire and Rake I have as separate keys because their use is situational. I.e. Rake I only use to keep enemies from running away since I have the Rake glyph, and I never use FFF when soloing because mobs be dead by the time open+finish even without it.
Note that there's not a single modifier key in there, so it'd be easy to fold in the finishers. (untested)
Interesting macros you have there JeeBar. I never considered creating two for Back and Front. I have one question though. Why use Ravage instead of Pounce in the CatBack macro? I like to use Pounce because of the Stun affect.
I currently have only two macros I use for Cat form. One for powershifting out of snares (use it for both cat and bear forms) and the other that does a FB followed by a Tiger Fury. I think its a great finisher.
I currently have only two macros I use for Cat form. One for powershifting out of snares (use it for both cat and bear forms) and the other that does a FB followed by a Tiger Fury. I think its a great finisher.
Lastar wrote:
Interesting macros you have there JeeBar. I never considered creating two for Back and Front. I have one question though. Why use Ravage instead of Pounce in the CatBack macro? I like to use Pounce because of the Stun affect.
Agreed. I hardly ever use Ravage. Note that I have Pounce tied to my CatFront macro and I use that virtually every time I open an attack from stealth.
I have Ravage as part of CatBack because I do like to have it on my actionbar so I can decimate the occasional sitting clothy for fun without such a rarely used attack taking up a spot. And it goes logically with Shred because both require you to be behind the target.
Quote:
I currently have only two macros I use for Cat form. One for powershifting out of snares (use it for both cat and bear forms) and the other that does a FB followed by a Tiger Fury. I think its a great finisher.
For that closer you obviously mean a Tiger's Fury followed by FB and not the other way around.
(Edit: I just saw in that other thread that you did mean it like that...big FB + a TF to get your energy back. Pretty neat idea!)
I left this part out of my response to keep things simple but I actually have Tiger's Fury tied into my CatFront macro so it "procs" during combat all the time. I know it'd be better to time it for when I want to amp my damage a bit, but I always forget.
One other macro I just added that I love is having my shift-to-cat key feral charge if I'm already in cat, and my shift-to-bear key feral charge if I'm already in bear. I don't have the code handy but it's super simple. I think this is it:
/cast [noform:3] Cat Form; [form:3] Feral Charge - Cat
Edited, Nov 3rd 2008 2:50pm by JeeBar
my macros are something like this:
It's bound to "R" which cause it's something i never use in panic-mode, so the button is perfect for me:
# /cast [nostealth, nocombat] Prowl; [stealth] Pounce; [nostealth,combat] Rip
"Shift-R" for Feral-Charge
Bound on "Q":
# /cast [stealth] Ravage; Rake
Bound on "E" is Shred, "Shift-E" for Maim
and Mangle on "2"
I personally hate pressing the numbers 4 and above...
My fingers always on the movement keys A,S,D,W.
It's all the stuff i need in range without stretching your fingers to stay on your movement keys :-D
It's bound to "R" which cause it's something i never use in panic-mode, so the button is perfect for me:
# /cast [nostealth, nocombat] Prowl; [stealth] Pounce; [nostealth,combat] Rip
"Shift-R" for Feral-Charge
Bound on "Q":
# /cast [stealth] Ravage; Rake
Bound on "E" is Shred, "Shift-E" for Maim
and Mangle on "2"
I personally hate pressing the numbers 4 and above...
My fingers always on the movement keys A,S,D,W.
It's all the stuff i need in range without stretching your fingers to stay on your movement keys :-D
7 posts
hey, thanks for your posts!
i'm sorry to have slacked with my response like that, but i haven't been able to play for a couple days now so i couldn't put your ideas to test. see, it's nasty difficult to adapt to new concepts in a gameplay that you got already this deep under your skin...
i can see the advantages of your macro system, JeeBar. it's definitely more flexible. i still can't quite bend my thinking to adapt it completely though ;) - guess i just need to go and use it for a while. after all, when in free combat (no chance to prowl), we all probably use pretty much the same style - mangle from the front, shred from behind (though i got them bound on 2/alt+2, which - i admit - is not the most feasible way, esp. when considering how little time you got to shred unstunned players) + occasional rake/fff/root/charge and then one of the finishers. so i guess i will use your set-up for "freestyle combat" ;) eventually.
my original aim was slightly different though. as stated in the subject, it's about an opening no-brainer (which usually assumes PvE, or a rather careless PvP ;). i put that macro together by repeated observations of how monotonous my actions can get when grinding. target mob > prowl > destroy mob in the most efficient manner. when killing off mobs in a certain area, there is usually very little need for variation and this one key macro is a swell breeze. just drop it in your temp area on the action bar and see for yourself ;).
as for FFF, you said you didn't use it on [weaker] mobs - what do you do when after the first opening moves your energy drops nigh zero?
i even got FFF bound to the most basic attack of mine mapped on the 1 key: targetenemy+FFF+startattack. in a heat, i just press 1 and get (a somewhat random) target, with FFF applied, with attack turned on + as a neat bonus, nicely highlighted by the FFF animation above its head ;) - all by a single keypress. considering the small CD on FFF and its zero cost, i find it quite useful.
i'm sorry to have slacked with my response like that, but i haven't been able to play for a couple days now so i couldn't put your ideas to test. see, it's nasty difficult to adapt to new concepts in a gameplay that you got already this deep under your skin...
i can see the advantages of your macro system, JeeBar. it's definitely more flexible. i still can't quite bend my thinking to adapt it completely though ;) - guess i just need to go and use it for a while. after all, when in free combat (no chance to prowl), we all probably use pretty much the same style - mangle from the front, shred from behind (though i got them bound on 2/alt+2, which - i admit - is not the most feasible way, esp. when considering how little time you got to shred unstunned players) + occasional rake/fff/root/charge and then one of the finishers. so i guess i will use your set-up for "freestyle combat" ;) eventually.
my original aim was slightly different though. as stated in the subject, it's about an opening no-brainer (which usually assumes PvE, or a rather careless PvP ;). i put that macro together by repeated observations of how monotonous my actions can get when grinding. target mob > prowl > destroy mob in the most efficient manner. when killing off mobs in a certain area, there is usually very little need for variation and this one key macro is a swell breeze. just drop it in your temp area on the action bar and see for yourself ;).
as for FFF, you said you didn't use it on [weaker] mobs - what do you do when after the first opening moves your energy drops nigh zero?
i even got FFF bound to the most basic attack of mine mapped on the 1 key: targetenemy+FFF+startattack. in a heat, i just press 1 and get (a somewhat random) target, with FFF applied, with attack turned on + as a neat bonus, nicely highlighted by the FFF animation above its head ;) - all by a single keypress. considering the small CD on FFF and its zero cost, i find it quite useful.
rizlaq wrote:
my original aim was slightly different though. as stated in the subject, it's about an opening no-brainer (which usually assumes PvE, or a rather careless PvP ;). i put that macro together by repeated observations of how monotonous my actions can get when grinding. target mob > prowl > destroy mob in the most efficient manner. when killing off mobs in a certain area, there is usually very little need for variation and this one key macro is a swell breeze. just drop it in your temp area on the action bar and see for yourself ;).
In your original post you mentioned being a lazyass...it should first be noted that I hold laziness in very high esteem, as I equate it with efficiency. My wife's not quite sold yet, but my team at works likes it when their boss tells them to be lazy.
That said, I guess you outlazy me because "1,1,2,1" (pounce,mangle,shred,mangle) is enough of a 'no brainer opener' for me.
(FYI you don't even need to target mobs when you're grinding...if you don't have any mob targeted an attack will default to whoever's closest. There, I just saved you a step...three cheers for laziness!)
rizlaq wrote:
as for FFF, you said you didn't use it on [weaker] mobs - what do you do when after the first opening moves your energy drops nigh zero? considering the small CD on FFF and its zero cost, i find it quite useful.
You're right that it's logically optimal to use it when you're out of energy anyway, but how do you find it 'useful' in grinding? I'd use it when grinding even if it just cut kill time a second or two, but with or without the free FFF, I find that Pounce, Mangle, Shred, Finish has me right clicking the sparkly corpse in a few seconds flat.
Scholar
22 posts
Jeebar I have to say that your keybinding combination of catfront and catback has done a world of good for me since I recently switched to feral. I was never really comfortable keybinding all my attacks in catform, but this makes it so much easier since everything i essentially need is in 3 or 4 keys. It's made a world of difference in pvp, though I haven't tried it in pve.
Edited, Nov 7th 2008 9:15am by bulbonius
Edited, Nov 7th 2008 9:15am by bulbonius
7 posts
JeeBar :))) i thank you for the compliment ("you just been outlazied", i'm gonna remember that one).
but perhaps it's just because your focus is still on a somewhat different approach.
"1,1,2,1" (pounce,mangle,shred,mangle) may be nuff of a no brainer even for me, but it's this sequence that i find myself repeating way too often: prowl + target + ['your' sequence] + (the now disputed) FFF + FB, rinse and repeat 40 times (say when dropping a quest item).
never mind though, to each what his laziness dictates ;), i just wondered was the glitch was with that macro of mine. still feels like i've been missing on some fundamental rule regarding macro construction...
i'm also interested in what you said about faerie fire. it may well be, that my use of it is kind of an atavism i brought from the lower levels, where the spell meant a more significant armour debuff than it does now (considering the massive dps increase with mangle).
as for targetting, i liked the idea of targetting with fff by a single keypress. even if it was really effective on just the few occasions when its anti-invisibility feature comes to play... plus this way you can target+start attacking the mob/player from far away.
Edited, Nov 7th 2008 1:27pm by rizlaq
but perhaps it's just because your focus is still on a somewhat different approach.
"1,1,2,1" (pounce,mangle,shred,mangle) may be nuff of a no brainer even for me, but it's this sequence that i find myself repeating way too often: prowl + target + ['your' sequence] + (the now disputed) FFF + FB, rinse and repeat 40 times (say when dropping a quest item).
never mind though, to each what his laziness dictates ;), i just wondered was the glitch was with that macro of mine. still feels like i've been missing on some fundamental rule regarding macro construction...
i'm also interested in what you said about faerie fire. it may well be, that my use of it is kind of an atavism i brought from the lower levels, where the spell meant a more significant armour debuff than it does now (considering the massive dps increase with mangle).
as for targetting, i liked the idea of targetting with fff by a single keypress. even if it was really effective on just the few occasions when its anti-invisibility feature comes to play... plus this way you can target+start attacking the mob/player from far away.
Edited, Nov 7th 2008 1:27pm by rizlaq
damn edit came out as new post : (
Edited, Nov 7th 2008 8:25am by JeeBar
Edited, Nov 7th 2008 8:25am by JeeBar
rizlaq wrote:
"1,1,2,1" (pounce,mangle,shred,mangle) may be nuff of a no brainer even for me, but it's this sequence that i find myself repeating way too often: prowl + target + ['your' sequence] + (the now disputed) FFF + FB, rinse and repeat 40 times (say when dropping a quest item).
We're in the realm of diminishing returns, I realize that, but just to finish the thought, note that when I'm not in combat the 2 key/macro also activates Prowl. I do this all on my 10-key, and have the 3, 4 and 5 keys bound to my finishers. Finally, targeting is via the 0 key below 1/2.
So prowl,target,pounce,mangle,shred,mangle,FB = 2,0,1,1,2,1,5. And I could bind the finisher in there as alt-1. You'd be amazed how quickly your brain "automates" the sequence for you.
That said, to each his own, sorry I didn't/can't help with the castsequence problem you're having.
Seacrest out. : )
7 posts
so i finally got to test the two macros. it seemed *** over elbow at first, then i switched prowl to be part of the catFront macro and i can say i'm getting used to it (& making use of its flexibility). it simply felt unwieldy to me, being forced to press two keys for each pounce, considering that in my case prowl results in pounce 90+% of the time.
i'm beginning to think, that the whole issue wasn't even that much about macros, but a general approach. i'm starting to feel that this way, i think more during the combat and improvise better in unexpected situations.
maybe the bottom line of this thread will be, that the best cat opener macro is zero macro ;). no-brainer, heck, why did i want it in the first place? this is more fun :))
no brainers are good for panic mode. perhaps this is the first step to become a good pvper - opening combat out of panic mode :).
i'm beginning to think, that the whole issue wasn't even that much about macros, but a general approach. i'm starting to feel that this way, i think more during the combat and improvise better in unexpected situations.
maybe the bottom line of this thread will be, that the best cat opener macro is zero macro ;). no-brainer, heck, why did i want it in the first place? this is more fun :))
no brainers are good for panic mode. perhaps this is the first step to become a good pvper - opening combat out of panic mode :).
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