Macro tip #7: “Win” buttons

This tip is from the Instance 137, at time index 1:53:39.

There’s an item you can loot in Alterac Valley – a Broken I.W.I.N. Button. It’s a gentle swipe at all those players who think that a bit of macro code will help them dominate PvP. It can’t, of course, but knowing how “win” buttons work can help a little, both in PvP and PvE.

The idea is simple: you press one button, and activate as many of your special abilities or enhancing items as you can at the same time, to get the most combined power into your next attack. Normally, macros can only do one thing at a time. This is thanks to the global cooldown, which prevents macros becoming over-powered and limits ‘botting’ (automated playing). This delay is usually 1.5 seconds, although there are exceptions, and your haste rating can affect this.

For this reason, previous macro segments have focused on letting you choose what ability to use next, but that’s it. However, there are some items and abilities that don’t activate the global cooldown. You can find a list of these at www.wowwiki.com/Cooldown. You can use one macro to activate several of these at once.

The example given in this segment was for rogues. Note that the ShowToolTip command is qualified – again, this might be something to look into more in future segments – so that it always shows the core ability, not the first power up you want to use to enhance it.

#ShowToolTip Eviscerate
/use 13
/use 14
/cast cold blood
/cast eviscerate

This will try to activate both trinkets – although field testing a version of this I usually only get one to fire, but that may be a quirk of the trinkets I’m using – and then provide a 100% chance for eviscerate to hit as a critical.

Versions for other classes and specs will obviously vary depending on the special abilities you want to activate, but the general format will be the same: first a command to show the tooltip of the main ability you want to use, then a list of instant-use items to activate, a list of cooldown-free ability-based power-ups and then the core ability at the end. Followed, of course, by glorious victory.*

*Note definitions of “glorious victory” may vary, and your experience may also include “ignoble defeat”.

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