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How To Properly Configure Your Macros: A Priest POV, Part 2

In Part 1 of this guide I briefly introduced you to the Priest class and their abilities and why the Priest class is one of most complex classes in terms of managing1 ones abilities in an effective manner.

What is it that we want to achieve then?

As you can see in the Priest Abilities Spreadsheet from the previous part, we have a fair amount of different type of abilities. We have abilities that we only use on ourselves, abilities that provide an area of effect (AoE) and ones that are cast on friendly targets and/or on hostile targets. These may either be instant casts, have a cast time or have a channeled cast time. Some have a short cast time, some have longer cast times. The primary difference is: harmful and helpful (a few work both ways, namely Dispel Magic, Mass Dispel, Holy Nova and Penance) and importance/usefulness.

Breaking it down
  • We want one set of abilities for when we’re out of form.
    • One for when we have a friendly target.
    • One for when we have a hostile target.
    • One for when we have no target.
  • We want one set of abilities for when we’re in form.
    • One for when we have a friendly target.
    • One for when we have a hostile target.
    • One for when we have no target.

Essentially, we want six sets of abilities. Several of these sets of abilities will have certain spells placed in the same space for ease of transition between the six “stances” so we’re able to use the same key binding/macro as association is the key.

Pairing of the abilities

Here comes the tricky part and the most vital one. Pairing things together. Here’s a not too crude summary of how one can pair the Priest’s abilities. This is what I will be using on my Priest, making minor adjustments along the way as I create the actual macros to see what suits best with modifiers (alt, shift and ctrl) added to the mix.

Creating the macros

Before putting my macros into action, I make sure they are correctly written over at Fitzcairn’s Macro Explain-o-matic. It’s quite handy for foolproofing.2 If you would like an explanation of what the following macros actually do, I suggest you head over there.

A thing worth noting is that I use alt for myself, self-healing and self-aid as you will notice.

Mana Management

Discipline/Holy

#showtooltip
/cast [nomod,harm]Shadowfiend;Inner Focus
/cast [mod:alt]Inner Focus

Shadow

#showtooltip
/cast [nomod,harm]Shadowfiend;Dispersion
/cast [mod:alt]Dispersion

I’ve found no way to combine these two macros yet to save space. Grr! Any ideas?

Area of Effect
#showtooltip
/cast [nomod,harm]Mind Sear;[nomod][mod:alt,target=player]Prayer of Healing
/cast [mod:shift]Holy Nova
Flash Heal & Smite
#showtooltip
/cast [nomod,harm]Smite;[nomod][mod:alt,target=player]Flash Heal
Greater Heal & Holy Fire
#showtooltip
/cast [nomod,harm]Holy Fire;[nomod][mod:alt,target=player]Greater Heal
Renew & Shadow Word: Pain
#showtooltip
/cast [nomod,harm]Shadow Word: Pain;[nomod][mod:alt,target=player]Renew
Prayer of Mending & Devouring Plague
#showtooltip
/cast [nomod,harm]Devouring Plague;[nomod][mod:alt,target=player]Prayer of Mending
Binding Heal & Mind Blast
#showtooltip
/cast [nomod,harm]Mind Blast;[nomod]Binding Heal

These have been paired based on a targets reaction towards you, friendly or hostile. One might want to pair spells differently, for example Mind Blast and Mind Flay as such:

#showtooltip
/cast [nomod]Mind Flay;[mod:alt]Mind Blast

… or for Smite and Holy Fire like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [nomod]Smite;[mod:alt]Holy Fire

… or for Flash Heal and Greater Heal as this:

#showtooltip
/cast [nomod][mod:alt,target=player]Flash Heal;[mod:shift][mod:shift,mod:alt,target=player]Greater Heal

I personally normally only pair harmful abilities this way as I reserve the alt modifier for myself and therefore using this technique messes that up. I could, however, combine Binding Heal with another spell this way as I cannot cast Binding Heal on myself.

Making sense of it all a.k.a. putting the pieces together

Bar behaviour Shadow spec

Shadowform & out of Shadowform – No target:
Shadowform: No target

Shadowform & out of Shadowform – Friendly target and/or modifier alt:
Shadowform: Friendly target and/or modifier alt

Shadowform & out of Shadowform – Hostile target:
Shadowform: Hostile target

Holding down the modifier alt will cast the equivalent to a friendly target spell on myself, e.g. alt + E = Prayer of Mending on self, alt + 4 = Renew and alt + X = Dispersion.

Bar behaviour Discipline spec

Discipline – No target:
Discipline: No target

Discipline – Friendly target and/or modifier alt:
Discipline: Friendly target and/or modifier alt

Discipline – Hostile target:
Discipline: Hostile target

Additionally, shift + G will cast Holy Nova regardless of target/no target in all six scenarios above. Also, shift + 3 will cast Shadow Word: Death regardless of spec as long as I have a hostile target.

In conclusion

As with all things (including the Bible) take this with a grain of salt. It’s really not the only way to mush things up when creating macros. It’s really just something I decided to post and share with others as I was creating my Priest’s macros. But, it does give you a pretty good idea how to set up your macros in an effective manner.

  1. By this I’m refering to macros, key bindings and action bar behaviour. [ ↩ ]
  2. Of course, dummy test as well! [ ↩ ]

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