Let's Get @target Back for Reticle Spells! (11.1.7 Feedback)

Hey WoW Dev Team,

With 11.1.7 bringing in Rotation Assist and One-Button Macros, I wanted to bring up something that’s been a pain for players like me: the lack of @target for reticle spells (like Blizzard or Rain of Fire).

Right now, to cast these accurately, I have to constantly center my cursor and camera, which totally messes with my raid awareness. It’s a huge distraction, and I end up relying too much on WeakAuras just to see what’s happening around me.

The new One-Button Macro shows you guys clearly have the tech to target stuff. So, if you can automate a whole rotation, why can’t I, who plays manually, just @target a specific enemy for my ground spells?

Bringing back @target for reticle spells would be a game-changer for me. It would:

Boost my raid awareness (no more staring at my feet!).
Improve my performance (quicker, more accurate casts).
Give me back control over my spell placement.

It just feels like I’m being forced to have less awareness because I’m not using the one-button macro. Can we get this previously available feature back for players who want to play with more direct control?

Thanks for considering it!

Sincerely,

A Concerned Player

5 Likes

Rain of fire now has this (new talent option, it’s a choice node with rain of fire) but I agree for all spells in pve, just like they did for rain of fire, as an option, including, volley, all traps and binding shot, sigils baseline, death and decay, etc, and also efflorescence and healing rain for example to drop at the tank’s feet if you only have one tank in the group like in M+

As a macro possibility rather than a talent choice I am still for it

Keep in mind it’s still good to look where you are dropping these spells, if your tank is about to move then you might miss a lot of damage

1 Like

Its unlikely to change. Some talents exist to change spells to @target and while thats a thing they wont let you macro it.

Especially the DH one.

The placeable circle IS control over spell placement.

What you are asking for is essentially a 1 button rotation with aim bot. I hope you realize this.

Certain spells with the aoe circle have the placement built in via talents. Like my shaman can earthquake the target or I can place it myself.

That is fine for the aoe abilities which require the targeting circle, but @target for all spells is a bad idea.

2 Likes

Being able to cast Angelic Feather from mousing over unit frames, which you were doing to heal anyway, was awesome.

And it’s stinky to have to aim stuff like feathers, Healing Rain, Death & Decay (sorry only Ret gets to escape such annoyances), etc.

3 Likes

Many are easy to get around via cast at self macros. I use those for my dh and dk.

Actually, what I’m asking for isn’t an ‘aimbot’ for my rotation. It’s precisely what the new single-button rotation helper on the PTR already does. If you test it, you’ll see it can automatically @target spells like Blizzard for you.

This isn’t a new concept; we used to have this kind of @target functionality for ground-targeted spells, but Blizzard removed it along with other smart macros years ago. Now, with an official ‘smart’ one-button macro being supported that clearly uses @target to cast AoE effects within a rotation, it feels contradictory. I just want the option to use that @target capability manually without being forced into an assisted rotation. While @cursor and @self are available, they often make me choose between doing damage effectively and maintaining vital raid awareness, which is a frustrating tradeoff

2 Likes

If you are a caster, this tends to be a non issue. Melee almost need the macro since they have to move so much.
Casters can usually preplan their positioning and move ahead of time to get better uptime on dps.

Idk. I don’t think it’s needed honestly. If anything, do what they did with elemental and give it a talent so you can modify what the spell does.

As it currently stands on my DK when the auto-rotation tool recommends Defile ill just use it.

Not having to aim it is worth the longer GCD for me personally.

So yeah… just allow us to @target the spell. There is literally no reason not to.

2 Likes

So in other words, you know why they removed it. Any plans on addressing how you get around that it automated certain elements of the game that are meant to be manual decisions? No?

Then it is unlikely to change and thus will likely remain unavailable to players.

There is, and the OP even admits to knowing that there is a reason. Because it automated aspects of the gameplay, and looking at both what they are saying and old threads talking about this: yes, that seems to be the reason.

Both why folks want it to come back and why it is was removed.

Yes. This is the direction the game is going.

That wasnt true 10 years ago. But now it is. So lets revert the change that removed it to begin with.

Ok and? There was a “reason” Warlords of Draenor didn’t have flight in it at launch, and there’s a reason they caved.

Then enjoy your longer GCD if you want to use this.

Because it made the game better.

They realized that people were addicted to worse gameplay to the degree that WoD could’ve killed off WoW hadn’t then given “bread and circus” to folks who were addicted to making the game worse.


This isn’t the argument you think it is.

I would much rather place them myself. I don’t always want to cast them centered on my current target and prefer to have the control. That said, I wouldn’t mind the @target macro being a thing again. Other folks seem to prefer it and I may find another use for it .
My issue is that I am colorblind, and in any kind of group play there is so much crap on the ground I have trouble seeing my cursor or the reticle. I guess I need to figure out how to make my cursor more visible.

I’m somewhat in the middle ground on it.

To address some of the concerns it looks like a lot of QoL changes have happened over the last few seasons. Havoc got an auto version/Shadow Crash has a target version/etc.

This lets them choose what spells to make easier and what they leave as an expression of player ability.

I’m largely in agreeement with the changes and would like to see them implemented then in regards to anymore problematic targetted spells (without necessarily bringing back @target).

Not the same at all. Obviously OP is referring to when the target is NOT right next to you.

Plus the DH talent is locked behind a useless utility node so it’s never taken.

1 Like

Yet the reply you quoted wasn’t @ op, but someone talking about dh’s.

Don’t use it. Literally cast @ player. The talent is unnecessary for melee.

As I said above. I use it on my dk as well.
#showtooltip
/cast [@player] defile

Simply replace defile with sigil of spite/flame.

Yeah, the fact that one button rotation can cast targeted area spells on target honestly means we should be able to do that with macros. We can already do @Player but if one button can do it at targets then we should be able to macro @Target.

That macro won’t work if you want to drop SoF on the mob you’re targeting pre pull. OP is asking for macros to be allowed to do that again without spending talent points.

I agree op. @target macros would be great to have. The short time where they worked due to a bug was amazing. Keep at it and keep asking for this and hopefully it will come.

Exactly! Id use this talent if it was “free” but right now you’d lose too much in order to get it.