world of warcraft macros allows you to automate certain repetitive or complicated tasks in WoW by binding a series of text commands (those you would normally type in the command window) to a button that will execute the commands when pressed.
Covering all the options you have when creating WoW macros would take a small book, so rather than bore you with all that detail, I thought I’d use this article to go over the macros that are most useful to warriors.
First, some general characteristics of the macros themselves.
Using regular World of Warcraft commands in macros works the same as if you were typing them on the command line. For example, to set up a macro to say “Have you!” the line in the macro would simply be: /s Do it with you!
When writing commands that use the WoW user interface, such as casting a spell or moving items in your bags, the commands must be written in the LUA programming language. Don’t worry if you’re not a programmer and don’t know LUA because it’s not necessary to use this guide, I’m only mentioning this because it will help you understand macros better if you know the difference between a normal WoW command and an LUA command.
All macros are case sensitive and are divided into two parts. LUA commands must be written in lowercase, while WoW function commands generally use an uppercase letter to start each word.
For example, if something else then and not finish are each an LUA command and must always be written in lowercase. CastSpellByName “Spell” is a World of Warcraft function command that you can see because the beginning of each word is capitalized.
/script should always be placed at the beginning of a command string, unless you’re only using WoW in game slash commands. For example, the Wow function command above CastSpellByName “Spell” It would actually be written like this: /script CastSpellByName “Spell” as a macro because it’s not a standard slash command in the game and therefore needs to have /script at the beginning of the sentence.
Goal, /Sign off Y /laughter are examples of slash commands in the game and don’t need /script at the beginning of the sentence.
Putting paragraphs between hyphens will separate the two hyphens from each other and the game engine will recognize them as two separate hyphens. So if you are using the Yes command in a script the complete script up to the final The command must be in the same sentence. This means that you cannot use paragraphs to make the command more readable because the game engine will interpret the new paragraph as the beginning of the new command.
; is commonly used as a delimiter between commands and acts like a paragraph in that the sentence after the semicolon will be interpreted as a new command.
If you are using the Yes command the Yes must eventually be followed by the after command and terminated by it will end if then sort to make it valid. For example, a typical if/then/else command would look like this: Yes something is true after Do something final
Some WoW commands will have empty parentheses () at the end of the command, and even if there is nothing in the parentheses, they must be included for the command to be valid.
Essential World of Warcraft macros for warriors
Two of the most common questions I see from warriors regarding macros are “How do I change my stance” and “How do I change my weapons?” So those are the two macros I’m going to go over here. I’ll cover basic and advanced stance commands first and then change your weapons using a macro after that.
There are several commands you can use to change your stance as a warrior. I’ll first explain the simple commands, and then I’ll introduce ways to use more advanced commands for much more powerful effects.
You can change your posture by casting a “Spell” (CastSpellByName “Spell”) or by using the function command to change posture (CastShapeshiftForm()). The CastSpellByName “Spell” command will cast any spell that is written between the two quotes (where Spell is currently written). A stance is a Spell just like a charge or an attack. Basically, anything you see in your spellbook can be “cast” using the CastSpellByName”” function.
Here are some examples:
/script CastSpellByName “Battle Stance” will put you into Battle Stance
/script CastSpellByName “Defensive Stance” will put you into Defensive Stance
/script CastSpellByName “Berserker Stance” will put you into Berserker Stance
You can also use a function command to change posture. This command does the same thing as the CastSpellByName command but is a bit shorter. Because each World of Warcraft macro is limited to 255 characters, it’s important to use the shortest command possible to achieve your goal.
/script CastShapeshiftForm(1) will put you in battle position
/script CastShapeshiftForm(2) will put you in defensive position
/script CastShapeshiftForm(3) will put you in Berserker Stance
