Auto shoot not triggering

Classes Hunter
1

TLDR: I open up combat with an ability (cobra shot) and start attacking but auto shoot doesn’t trigger unless I manually hit the button. Once I tab to a new target it will turn off again.

Hey, every so often i play this hunter. I like to keep her in currentish gear. I jumped on her this weekend to head to Nazjatar and realized there was an issue about 3 mobs in. My auto shoot doesn’t trigger. I’ll open up combat with an ability and I can fire off all my abilities just fine but I won’t be shooting anything in between using abilities unless I specifically hit the auto shoot button.

If I switch targets (tab targeting) it will turn off again.

Is this something new? I swear it wasn’t like this at the beginning of 8.1.5 when I last played her. Is this an option in the interface settings? I do use mouseover macros for the majority of my abilities, but I use the same one across all my characters and this is the first time this has happened.

I used to be able to open with cobra shot and it would trigger auto shoot no problem. I could also tab through targets and attack no problem.

Ideas?

2

Are you using macro’s with a “stop attack” command built in?

It should activate your auto attacks automatically unless you have such a command tied to your abilities.

1 Like
3

#showtooltip Cobra Shot
/cast [target=mouseover][target=target,exists] Cobra Shot

That’s my macro. Something very similar. I’m at work and can’t look up exactly what it is but you get the idea.

I do have some macros that cancel spells on other characters, but not my hunter.

Once I initiate the auto shoot it works fine with that mob. But then starts to act up again once I switch targets.

(That macro works on all my other characters, and they all initate their auto attacks as soon as I use an ability. )

4

Well then, I would recommend for you to do the same things that you’re already doing but not using any macros, only the basic abilities found in your spellbook.

Just to see if the problem persists.

If it does, check all your key bindings. There’s a way to keybind so that you cancel your Auto Attacks. Perhaps you have that tied to a key, but you’ve forgotten?

5

Auto shoot? Auto-attack is a toggle on/toggle off setting. it makes a difference on its setting when I either left click or right click. Kinda like growl can be toggled on or off, or used upon click.

6

If your mouse is accidentally over an invalid target cobra shot won’t attack even if you have a valid enemy targetted and I wonder if that is also impacting your autoattack. This is a better version since it will cast cobra shot on your regular target if your mouse is over an invalid target.

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Cobra Shot

Its also possible that something has screwed with your console variables and this variable got changed from its default value of 0 (continue auto attacking on target change) to 1 (stop auto attacking on target change).
/console stopAutoAttackOnTargetChange 0

You only need to enter it once and it will be saved between gaming sessions

Other than using /stopattack in a macro, there isn’t any other way to turn on or off your autoattack.

2 Likes
7

So I tested it out with no macro; just the spells from the spell book, and everything was fine. So I jumped over to my DK to test it out there, and sure enough I had the same problem. So it’s obviously an issue with my macro.

It’s weird that it works with some spells but not others. My stuns, and slows work fine and have been using the macro on those kinds of spells for years without issue. Even when I put the macro on my hunters bars for my slow and stun it works fine. Same with my DK.

So I’m not sure why it’s affecting regular attacking spells. I guess I never noticed it before since I mainly use the macro on casters and it works just fine because you don’t need your auto attack.

My complete macro is;

#showtooltip Cobra Shot
/cast [target=mouseover,exists][target=target,exists] Cobra Shot

It works on my casters just fine. No issues, and never has been one. I’ve been using this macro since… BC? Wrath maybe? A long time now, and I’ve never had an issue. I use it on my melee classes for stuns and slows as well. It basically just attacks a target if my mouse is over them, if it’s not, then it attacks my primary target. This macro works for both damage and heals. If I have a target for damage, I can mouse over my tank and throw out a heal using this macro. Likewise if I have someone targeted for damage, I can mouse over another mob and slow/stun them without having to select them as my target and then back to the main one. (Slows, stuns, misdirect, silence Ect…)

This was the first time I tried linking it to all my hunters abilites, and for some reason it doesn’t like being tied to damaging abilities. Not sure why it turns off auto attacks.

As suggested above, I tried using just the spells from the spell book, and the game worked fine. I then put the macro on my bars for my stun and slow, and it still worked as intended. But as soon as I added the macro for one of my main damaging abilities it bugged out.

8

Unless your casters are holding a wand (a wand is a ranged weapon with an auto attack) or in melee combat with a melee weapon they don’t get an auto attack.

For hunters, auto shot and auto attack are the same thing and if you’re using Details as a damage meter it will say “Autoshot” and not “autoattack”. If you’re attack is working properly (and it is automatic) it will register in the combat log, and in details, and other things (like wild call) will proc.

Your macro is a good macro (old style “target=xyz” can be replaced by “@xyz” and save text). There are slight nuances between the version you have and what I posted, but ultimately what you have shouldn’t affect the autoattack/autoshot if other things are working correctly. Basically, I was reaching … ya know…

In the spirit of reaching… and fixing your auto attack issue, my thoughts are this:
Find yourself a target dummy. In Boralas, take a left at the Flight master and go down the stairs and then through the archway to target dummies.
Attack those target dummies

  1. Pay attention to your Barbed Shot CD. If the auto attacks are happening but aren’t visible, which is possible (I can barely tell when my auto attacks are happening and I have a new PC with the graphics turned up to 11) you will see the Barbed Shot CD reset every so often. This only happens when then your auto attack is happening, and crits, and you get lucky (20% on crit proc chance)

  2. Addons… yeah. they can mess with stuff when they glitch out. Type in /reload
    or Disable addons and see if things change, but who knows…

  3. Check your dps meter (an addon!). With the Details damage meter addon you can click on your damage in its little window and have it popup a larger breakdown window where it shows how much damage is from “autoshot” and “cobra shot” and “pet” and etc… Obviously if autoshot is there, your autoshot is working, even if you can’t see it working.
    NOTE: If you’re hardcore, you can always go through the combat log chat window and look for autoshot.

  4. if autoattack is truly not showing in your dps meter, add /startattack (**which shouldn’t be necessary at all) to your macro, like this.

#showtooltip Cobra Shot
/cast [target=mouseover][target=target,exists] Cobra Shot
/startattack

The nuances between the the original macro and the one I posted
This is all academic stuff and if you don’t care you can stop reading here.

Still reading? OK good.
[target=target,exists] and [] are exactly the same thing, except the second version saves 18 characters and when you are limited to 250 characters that can become important. The [] basically means “cast this spell normally”, which means you must have a valid, existing and alive and enemy target for the Cobra Shot to be cast. It also eliminates the need to have “#showtooltip Cobrashot”. You can just use “#showtooltip”.

[target=mouseover] and [@mouseover] are the same thing except one saves 6 characters.

It’s important to understand that mouseover doesn’t differentiate between living and dead nor does it differentiate between friend or foe.
In this situation
/cast [first options][or if first options are false, use these second options] SpellToCast
if the “first options” evaluates to true, the spell will be targeted according to those options, EVEN if it evaluates to a target that is invalid for the spell. When that happens the spell fizzles and isn’t cast at all. It absolutely doesn’t “fail over” to the second options.

harm implies “existing enemy”
help implies “existing friendly”
neither help/harm or just ‘exists’ by itself implies “unit is alive” (you can target dead units). dead/alive can be tested for with these options “dead” or “nodead”
This version of your macro guarantees that you will attack a valid unit with cobra shot, either the one your mouse is over (if its a living enemy) or the one you have targetted (if you have targetted a living enemy unit), it just does it with much less text and again, 250 characters can be used up really fast…

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Cobra Shot

Stuff related to macros (but has nothing to do with your problem)
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Macro_commands
https://wow.gamepedia.com/MACRO_cast
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Macro_conditionals