i dont care what you say, advising a warrior not to use macros and to just rely on muscle memory is terrible advice. especially in pvp where split seconds make a difference.
pressing one key twice is much more efficient then pressing two different keys.
the less buttons you have to push, the more you can focus on other things. its not a difficult concept to quantify. not to mention that macros can save space on your action bar.
as it is, i NEVER have to press a stance change button, because all my abilities that require other stances are macroâd to have the stance change integrated.
you can develop muscle memory with superior keybinds and macros as well yknow.
I just bound all my stances to my mouse wheel. Roll mouse wheel forward for zerker stance, backward for defensive stance, and press the wheel button for battle stance. Had to re-bind my camera zoom to my arrow keys, but i never use those anyway.
Then find an ability that is either Berserker Stance-only or synergizes well with it:
/cast [stance:1] Berserker Stance
/cast [stance:2] Berserker Stance
/cast [stance:3] what ever you choose Iâll probably go with Berserkerâs Rage
Now then for me: NUM9 is the first macro I mention, NUM8 is the second. I have a G700s mouse and those two key inputs are bound to the G6 and G7 keys on the mouse.
So, I literally just have to rock my thumb forward (Berserkerâs Rage macro) or backwards (Charge/Intercept macro).
You really donât want to do what others are saying, with âmulti-key pressâ macros. Trust, they always âfâ you up in the worst possible ways. EDIT: Especially if you fat-finger when âstressedâ (ie a rogue jumps you or in your exampleâŚRag does something âfunkyâ).
Didnât say not to use macros, I have plenty. Said not to use these types of macros where youâre mashing for 2 seconds due to a global cooldown. I advised to develop better muscle memory because the proposed macro showed a lack of understanding of the stance GCD and how macros function.
Youâre also increasing the amount of keybinds you need, because in order to be flexible, you still need most of your abilities on an independent keybinds.
A popular one for example is:
/cast defensive stance
/equip sword
/equip shield
The problem here is, what if I want to go defensive just to reduce incoming spell damage, but I donât want to equip sword and board? There are lots of examples of this sort of challenge with warrior macros.
In this case, you are increasing the number of keybinds by one. The alternative is to just have the two separate actions on muscle memory and hit them simultaneously. Some people like the above macro, but those people are usually more PvE / tank oriented only, and nothing else. It does not lend itself well to DPS or PvP.
What if we take the OPâs request and make a macro out of that? Okay so what about those times when you use Intercept and donât want to switch back to defensive? Youâve just introduced an extra hotkey.
Thatâs why itâs better to have a strong muscle memory of your individual abilities first. The OPâs question shows a lack of desire to be quick with hotkeys, (muscle memory) since the chain action of zerker > intercept > defensive is a really common one for warriors. There are, however, lots of great examples of swap stance > intercept macros in this thread that would be appropriate for the first half of the OPâs desired action.
There are many cases when macros are really useful, but the OPâs specific request is not one of them. The fact that you are so defensive about this is showing that you have a lack of understanding as well, and the fact that you misread what I said (and seemed to be the only one who did) and went off into a rage is a whole other issue you might want to reflect on.
In Retail, dropping form incurs a GCD which prevents you from swapping to a new form immediately. This is intended to prevent exactly what you are describing.
In Classic, dropping form does not incur a GCD, as it didnât incur a GCD back when it was current. Thus your macro works in Classic, and Classic only.
The operative thing here is the GCD (or shared CD, as the case may be).
In retail (several xpacs ago) they changed it so that you can use potions in forms, and you can switch between forms automatically without having to go to normal form between.
Basically, Blizz realized that all the functionality that these macros created should have been baked into the class from the start. So no, the GCD form change was not implemented to prevent what I described.
and we are talking about classic here. what I described is perfectly ok and allowed.
Blizzard generally doesnât punish players for using available tools in a way they donât like, instead, they break the tools so they can no longer be used in that way.