PVE shot macro

Note, 1/18/12: If you're looking for a macro for 4.3, check here or here (the 2nd if you have 2 piece t13).

I don't use one of the standard shot macros. This is mostly because I have buttons to push, and I like to push them. I also don't have Chimera Shot yet (probably at 78), so it hasn't been reconfigured for that.

Originally, the macro looked like:

#showtooltip
/castrandom Kill Command
/castsequence Steady Shot, Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, Multi-Shot, Steady Shot, Arcane Shot, Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();

It basically cast Kill Command when it was available, and ran through the rotation I was doing manually. But after the Kill Command change, I took that line out. With the change to Aimed Shot, I also made a second shot macro. That one looks like:

#showtooltip
/castsequence Steady Shot, Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Arcane Shot, Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();

This basically replicates the order I was pushing buttons in, but compensates for that I'm easily distracted by motion on the screen. (So much so that I turned off all of Omen's and the in-game threat meter's aggro warnings - if I have to watch the whole screen, my performance suffers; it's better if I can focus on the lower... 1/3. This does unfortunately conflict with my health bar being in the top corner still, although that's generally more of a problem when I'm healing. Maybe this is why I find healing more relaxing - all I have to look at is health bars, and not actually pay attention to the fight. Even then, I still have problems with clicking between buttons.)

The standard macros I've seen are usually just Steady and Chimera; quite frankly, I'm a sucker for instant gratification. The more buttons I get to push, the better. Being a Hemo dagger rogue was never ideal for DPS, but Hemo cost less than Sinister Strike, so I got to push it more often. (The new thrill? Chain Ambushing. O. M. G.) So way, way back in Molten Core, when the whole watching the Autoshot timer theory first came in, my shot rotation called simply for hitting Arcane and Aimed every time their cooldown was up. I couldn't time them with Autoshot, largely because the only mods I was running at the time were CT Raid Assist and the SK list, and I can't distinguish Autoshot from the others. (I believe this was post un-linking the Aimed/Arcane CD, and before Aimed was reworked to reset the Autoshot timer.) I never topped the DPS charts (the mages and locks in our guild tended to trade that spot around), but I wasn't a liability.

Steady Shot messed with my habits. I like instant shots. It was a while before I settled into the alternating of Steady with my other shots that I liked to use - I have the Arena gloves, and both Barrage talents, so Multi was always part of my raiding rotation. I chewed through mana like there was no tomorrow - I raided almost exclusively in Viper (except for a few lucky occasions where I had a shadow priest), and I made heavy use of Mana Potion Injectors (and, after my rogue/potion-alchemist got the drop, Fel Mana Potions, which are amazing for a hunter). I was most certainly not as mana efficient as a BM hunter, who could, by and large, must spam a Steady Shot macro, and Serpent's Swiftness and pet DPS would carry them to great DPS numbers. (I realize BM could be more complicated, especially pet management, and non-macro BM hunters would actually have to time their shots.)

However... Even if I didn't top the DPS charts, I was often in the top 3 (competing with a warlock and an enhancement shaman, or sometimes behind a feral druid with good cat gear or one of two great BM hunters I've raided with regularly). But for overall damage done? I was basically competing with the enhancement shaman and the warlocks when they were there. On the last Gruul's Lair I went to, Duskhawk was 11% of the total damage done to him. I even managed to keep Scorpid Sting up on that fight. (Shots not in my macro I often zone out on and forget.) And I bandaged! At some point after I started running a damage meter (currently Recount), I realized that DPS and overall damage done didn't necessarily sort out the same. (I don't know why. The logic breaks down when I try to figure it out. Maybe because my shots are spikier than a BM spamming Steady, since I rely on the crit damage I'm spec'd for? No idea.)

So although I often topped out around 800 DPS (mid-700s was more common, as even with the macro I have focus problems), I also often did more overall damage than some of the people who had higher DPS. I suppose basically I felt as though raiding as a MM hunter was not a liability. Which is good, because BM just didn't appeal.

I still have the Multi-Shot version of the macro, but for the most part right now I'm using the Aimed Shot version. It's not for efficiency - soloing, I just can't burn through all my mana with Rapid Recuperation. I run around in Hawk or Beast anymore, too - I haven't needed Viper. Maybe for raiding at 80, again, if the fights are long enough, but right now, no. I just switched over to Aimed because I got tired of pulling the 2nd and 3rd mobs off my bear with Multi. :P (It's also useful in instances if CC is involved - which it hasn't been yet.)

I'm not sure yet if or how I can or should add Chimera or Serpent Sting to that cast sequence. I played with Chimera a little bit on the 3.0 test server, but not much. I don't know that I want to lock Serpent into the rotation, either, since some fights I may want to be using Scorpid or Viper instead. Automatically DOTing things that may subsequently need to be crowd controlled probably also isn't ideal.