Current Hunter Macros

So, 4.0 broke a bunch of my macros. It wasn't so much a change in the macro syntax as that abilities changed in function, so I've had to adapt or do without.

The biggest loss was my left click/right click trap macros - Trap Launcher uses a version of the spells with a different spell ID, so if I hit Trap Launcher, my traps grey out on the bar if I'm using a macro to stack them onto one button.

This is what I'm left with:

The Shot Rotation /castsequence

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

What changed: It's still not optimal, but this will keep your Improved Steady Shot buff up and get you back to your Chimera Shot cooldown with enough focus to use it, while not completely ignoring Arcane Shot. If you've got Rapid Fire up, you can probably squeeze in an additional Arcane or Steady depending on your haste and focus. Aimed Shot is now mostly used when Master Marksman procs (a depressing development, since it is our level 10 specialization shot, but our signature shot is Chimera).

With the changes to Kill Command and Silencing Shot, you no longer want to bind them to things. Kill Command you use but rarely, if ever, as Marksman, and Silencing no longer does damage, so you want to save the cooldown for when you actually need to silence. (Woohoo, Lessrabi!)

In other news, I still can't do the priority manually and not stand in fire at the same time. /shame

Misdirect

#showtooltip
/cast [button:1, target=focus] Misdirection; [button:2] Misdirection; [button:3, target=pet] Misdirection

What changed: Nothing. Still works great. Add in the glyph of Misdirection, and you are good to go for soloing - or for picking up mobs in a hurry if the tank dies. (Oh, that Pit of Saron PUG... Luckily, I was leveling my turtle, and he was 79.)

Taunt the Deformed Fanatic for Kiting

#showtooltip Distracting Shot
/tar Deformed
/cast Distracting Shot

What changed: The mob will be different, but if you need this at some point, it still works.

Fire Traps/Frost Traps

They were:

#showtooltip
/cast [button:1] Explosive Trap; [button:2] Immolation Trap
#showtooltip
/cast [button:1] Freezing Trap; [button:2] Frost Trap; [button:3] Freezing Arrow

But Trap Launcher has broken them. (Freezing Arrow is also gone, and Freezing Trap was renamed.) I'm going to try playing with them again and see if I can work in a fix - I really miss them.

Feed Pet (put the food in the appropriate slot)

#showtooltip
/cast Feed Pet
/use 3 1

What changed: Nothing! You're still good to go.

Mend/Revive

#showtooltip
/cast [button:1] Mend Pet; [button:2] Revive Pet

What changed: Nothing! You're still good to go.

Mount Macro: My mount macro is currently broken (pre-Azerothian flying) for all my characters except my baby hunter (ahem... Duskmoon; I have a new baby hunter) - I don't know why. Once flying goes it, it probably won't matter, since I can just drop my Nether Ray straight on my bar, but I'll hit up WoWwiki at some point and see if I can find a new one.

Random Pet (from WoWwiki)

/run DismissCompanion("CRITTER"); CallCompanion("CRITTER", random(GetNumCompanions("CRITTER")));

What changed: Still works!

With the changes to spells, the addition of the aspect bar, and the removal of such things and Scorpid Sting and Freezing Arrow, we have more room on our bars now, and less need for space-saving macros. I think my priest (and her focus healing, left/right click macros) is now the only one really short on macro space.

One day I will learn, and put my hunter macros in my general macros page, so that I can stop having to copy them over between each other.

Drafts

I write a lot of stuff that I never finish, or that I never come back to before it becomes outdated or irrelevant. So here's a sample of stuff I've thought about putting here, or started, and didn't actually ever get to press:

• An abbreviations guide: All those dungeons and such that you see fly by in Trade chat and don't know what they mean for three or four months - LBRS, Strat, ICC, and so forth. With "how do I get there?" and "when can I run that?"
• "Casualcore Raiding": About a casual guild doing progression raiding. I may come back to this when our raiding starts up again.
• How do I get back to Pit of Saron from the graveyard?: With screen shots.
• How do I find x, y, and/or z in Cataclysm?: Derailed by buying a house.

There's other stuff - a Cataclysm hunter leveling guide, stuff like that. Once we get moved and all that, I'll see what questions I see recurring in Trade and General chats and maybe put some of that together. (Face it: I'm a librarian. I compulsively answer questions.)

(Holy crap I don't have a miscellaneous tag?! I do now!)

New Familiar Friends

If you're not familiar with the Plaguelands, this is probably spoilery. Beware.

Tuesday night I headed into the Eastern Plaguelands because I had a headache and didn't want to run any more PUGs for Goblin reputation. I figured I would get my Mr. Grubbs, and it would be relatively mindless during the officer meeting. While I was there, I ended up getting one of the gorgeous new plaguehound dogs (green), and named him (her?) Zuul. (There is no Dana...) I'll probably finish off the zone this weekend.

Getting Mr. Grubbs requires starting Fiona's caravan quests. The caravan is a fantastic device for plot movement for the zone, both because it physically moves you from tower to tower around the zone, and because the interplay between the two paladins riding with the caravan gets you invested in the zone.

I had Loremaster for the "old world" finished before Wrath launched (~2400 quests complete when 3.0 went in), but quests have all changed, and existing story lines which I had completed popped up again. This was awesome, because the Plaguelands have always had my favorite quest chain - the Battle of Darrowshire. (My favorite zone overall is Duskwood, because Stitches is awesome, but the Plaguelands, Eastern and Western, are a close second.)

With the changes in Anderhol, Chromie is now found at one of the Argent Crusade's towers, and the quest line has been shrunk down a little - no more chasing down Joseph Redpath's wedding band or venturing into the Anderhol town hall for the Annals of Darrowshire. It's about the right size for the 40-somethings who will be inhabiting the Plaguelands as they level. You're still getting the lore, gathering relics of the heroes and villains, and later in the zone, still freeing the souls of the Darrowshire residents from their ghoulish forms. Pamela still makes you tea.

Joseph still comes home to Pamela, and it still makes me cry.

There's an added bonus to doing the chain if you're doing Fiona's caravan quests, as well. Recruiting people into her caravan allows you to carry a buff zone-wide, and if you fill the caravan, you have eight buff options. Fiona's lucky charm lets you find Mr. Grubbs, but once you're done with that, fighting the Battle for Darrowshire means Pamela Redpath can be your constant companion throughout the zone. (A little creepy when you go to fight Baroness Anastari and she's just standing there, watching... But overall pretty awesome.)

One notable absence in the zone is Nathanos Blightcaller - because he's now a hunter trainer in the Undercity. I miss him in the Plaguelands, but having an undead hunter, that's so awesome. She can be trained by the Forsaken hunter! I was also encouraged by the presence of Argent Apothecary Judkins, because the whole New Plague thing Sylvanas has going just creeps me out. The idea that you can play a Forsaken (or rather, former Forsaken, now independent undead allied with the forces of Light) not bent on killing off the entire rest of the world and that it's basically canon that Forsaken like that exist is comforting for me.

Biggest downside of the zone? Those towers blind me every time I go up to the top to get whatever quest is up one.