But for today I have a pretty nice like macro for you: Spammable Sap. This bad boy will target the nearest enemy player and sap them.

This is best used in a situation wherein you’d like to sap anyone quickly. Defending the flag room in WG for example or just anywhere you’d like to just gank the first person you can get a hold of that is running by.

Enjoy your weekend and make sure you do everything you can to get ready for 3.1 (it’s coming!).

Nothing fancy there, cast Deadly Throw if you have the combo points, otherwise cast throw.

For those of you still using Backstab (I love you by the way), here is a simple macro that will Ambush when you’re in stealth and backstab otherwise.

Have a macro request or suggestion? Leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do!

Stick to the shadows, I’ll see you next week.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had to worry about remembering to actually use a trinket. I was rolling around with the Shard of Contempt and the Dragonspine Trophy for too long. If you’re like me, you certainly won’t mine having one less thing to worry about so you’ll be happy to hear that on-use trinkets are not on the Global Cooldown (GCD) meaning that you can macro them to other abilities, like so.

or

or

And so on and so forth. I personally like to macro them to my other abilities with two minute cooldowns (Killing Spree and Blade Flurry). Also if you like you can replaced the numbers with the name of the trinket, just remember to change it anytime you get a new one (which is why the numbers are better).

Enjoy your weekend!

I received an email the other day with a question about macros that made me realize that I should take an opportunity to step back for a minute and explain some of the basics about what macros can and can’t do.

Is it not possible to macro 3 sinister strikes afetr an ambush to build the 5CP’s to use a finishing move. something like
/cast ambush
/cast sinister strike, sinister strike, sinister strike
/cast eviscerate

Short answer: no. Long answer: no, not in a single button push. The reason for this is the Global Cooldown (GCD). Most actions in game trigger the GDC which means you have to wait 1.5 seconds (baring haste) 1 second for rogues and cat druids to use another ability. That said, you could get the functionality you are seeking in a single button, you would just have to press the button 5 times, that macro would look like this:

While that would work, I don’t really recommend it as it has other problems, namely that after the eviscerate you’re back at Ambush which you will be unable to use in the middle of a battle without Vanishing.

secondly, why will backstab or dismantle not work in the following?
/cast pick pocket
/cast ambush
/cast backstab
/cast dismantle

This is the same reason as before, with the GCD. The reason pick pocket works is because it does not trigger the GDC. Since it is not a damaging ability (and has no use in PvP) Blizzard probably feels like there is nothing wrong with macroing it to our openers.

I hope that clears some things up. Have a great weekend.

Simple, no? Gouge and quick bandage (of course repacing Heavy Frostweave with whatever bandages you currently have). Great for leveling. I don’t actually use this macro but I have seen it floating around and it can definitely be useful.

I’m currently working on a Rogue leveling guide, look for that next week!

Here’s the comment everyone’s favorite crab for those of you who hate visiting the forums:

1) I think this is totally valid and we owe rogues some dps. We have been cautious because we can’t afford to give them any more PvP dps and those crafty rogues tend to use PvE dps for PvP.

2) This is not a big concern of ours. The goal is not to make every dps class equal on every single encounter. Mages, locks, ele shamans and boomkins (and possibly hunters) have great AE. Not every class needs great AE. We want rogues, DKs, ferals, warriors, enhancement shammies and everyone I have forgotten to do decent enough AE that they don’t feel dumb standing around on AE pulls. Every pull currently feels like an AE pull. It won’t always be that way.

3) I think this falls in between 1 and 2. Classes aren’t supposed to have buffs so good that you always want to bring them. We built a lot of redundancy into the system. However we are taking a hard look at cases where someone’s buff comes easier or more reliably than another class. Saying “every raid has a warrior” isn’t very compelling in our mind. Saying “their buff is a passive ability while ours is a proc that takes 5 talent points” is a bigger deal we need to fix.

Now on to business.

Everyone knows Vanish can be a little finicky at times (I personally don’t have a lot of trouble with it but every now and then it just doesn’t take). This is little macro is just a little bit of extra insurance.

A little bit of love for you Sub rogues out there. Since Preparation resets the cooldown on these abilities why not fire them off before you use it? Just don’t spam it or you’ll waste your second use.

So I have big announcement/surprise set for next week. Are you excited? I’m excited.

Before we jump into the macros I’d like to take a moment to rant about patch 3.0.8…just kidding, everyone has already done just that so I’ll go against the grain and say something positive (I’m such a rebel). No cooldown on Fan of Knives is awesome. That is all.

A little something for the combat rogues out there. A single button that will cast Adrenaline Rush or Blade Flurry depending on whether you’re pressing ctrl or alt. In addition to that, if you have no modifier, it will use castsequence to cast Blade Flurry on the first press and then Adrenaline Rush on the second press. The sequence reset whenever you change targets. I find this particularly useful on boss fights.

This one is a bit silly but it’s a quick little spammer macro to use when you’re out hunting pests for the new achievement, Pest Control. I suggest checking wowhead a list of locations.

Have a macro suggestion, request or question? Let me know.

Happy hunting and enjoy your weekend, I know I will. I plan to spend it spamming fan of knives for the annoying sound.

On to business.

This little guy (personification is fun!) will cast Blind on the target you are currently moused-over, your focus, your current target or your target’s target, in that order of precedence. If the target is your mouseover than it will focus it which will allow you to watch the debuff through addons like ClassTimer. A nifty little macro, particularly in PvP and in those weird emergency PvE situtations (you break it, you tank it).

Side Note: I’ve been very pleased with the response to Ask Zaltu and I hope to answer as many questions as possible. My plan is the run the column once a week, most likely on Tuesday or Thursday but this could (will) change depending on the number of questions I receive.

Happy Weekend.

The above macro (make sure it is all on one line) will summon a random pet from your collection. A lot more people are getting into pet collecting thanks to the achievement (myself included) and this is a nice easy macro to have. I found it originally on warcraftpets.com though I can no longer find where on that site.

The above macro is a all in one mount macro. When your flying mount is available (Outland, Northrend) it will summon it, otherwise (Old World) it will summon your land mount. There are a few problems with this one. Northrend is still considered flyable even if you don’t have Cold Weather Flying and Dalaran is always considered flyable. It’s frustrating but luckily there’s a ctrl modifier built in that will force your land mount.

Want a random mount?

You’ll have to be a little picky about which mounts you put in the list though since you will eventually run out of characters for your macro.

And now one you may not have thought of:

The above will help you keep up your attack when you change targets even if your energy is low. While not totally necessary it can gain you a few extra seconds here and there. Replace SS with your combo builder of choice.

Got a macro question? Can it be done? Will I do it for you? You bet. Drop a comment or send an email.

The Macro

OR

Both macros will reset your focus when called while holding ctrl (the former) or when right-clicked (the later) but only when your target is friendly. The macros will then cast Tricks of the Trade on your target if you have one and it is friendly, otherwise on your focus if you have one and it is friendly and finally on your target’s target if it is friendly.

The usefulness of this macro is that you can set your most often used target for TotT to your focus but still easily target a different person in a pinch. Also, you have a quick one button way to change your focus (say, if the tank changes).

Enjoy!

Side Note:
If you look in the sidebar you’ll notice a list of my recent achievements. Just a little something I coded up that queries the armory on page load. If there is interest I’ll work on turning it into a full fledged WordPress plugin that anyone can use.