Feral Druid 5.2

I am sorry but all the other forums have been updated to include the new macro types that really do rock. I tinkered around some thanks to wow macros dissected some macros and came up for my own while leveling my alt feral. I hope you enjoy it Wow lazy macros has made leveling my alts as easy as pie and this is my way to give back.

 

Please not that some of this is based on the old macros Sometimes they do get hung up just keep mangle on your bar to hit on occasion. I am only level 35 so this works perfect for me. Maybe Luis can look it over to include more cooldowns when he has time. Or someone else who knows how to play a feral can jump in.

 

/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,0,Cenarion Ward
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,Tiger’s Fury
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,Faerie Fire
/castsequence reset=target Mangle,Rip,Rake,Thrash,Mangle,Savage Roar,Mangle,Rake,Mangle
/cast [nocombat]Prowl


For Pred Swift procs I use this macro

#showtooltip Healing Touch
/run SetCVar(“autoUnshift”, 0)
/cast [stance:3] !Healing Touch
/run SetCVar(“autoUnshift”, 1)

For powershifting to remove stuns I use this macro

 

#showtooltip
#show
/cast [stance:1] !Bear Form; [stance:4] !Travel form; [stance:3] !Cat Form; [stance:5]

Hope that helps some now on the cast macro you can add more or less cooldowns by adding more ,0’s and placing it before cenrion ward. If you can improve on this some please do so as I would get use out of it as well.

 

Thanks Wow Lazy Macros for making leveling a breeze.

 

 

 

I did hit 44 and was able to add one more cooldown which is barkskin. It does not hurt anything because as a krity kitty we are like almost never GCD capped. Least at this level not sure if we ever are. The macro is allowed me so far in dungeon finder to always come out on top even against BOA Hunter and gods of AOE locks.

/castsequence [stealth]Pounce
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,0,Cenarion Ward
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,Tiger’s Fury
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,Faerie Fire
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,Barkskin
/castsequence reset=target Mangle,Rip,Rake,Thrash,Mangle,Savage Roar,Mangle,Rake,Mangle
/cast [nocombat]Prowl

It is a super duper macro. I have even tested it in PVP and it almost makes me impossible to kill. I have faced off three versus me and with my self healing have come out on the winning side. I know this is not really the place to talk about methods or anything but leveling in a BG if you ever find yourself in a bad situation on more then one sit on the healer the healer will go down. Your bleads with your added mangle hits like a truck. After the healer is down you can easily kill off anyone else.

 

Happy Ripping and Raking :wink:

Hey all,

First off thanks Chris for the macro i’ve been messing and is still messing around with it adding and finding new stuff to do but here is what i’ve come up with for my lvl 83 Feral Druid so far using the macro originally supplied by chrisopher.

 

#showtooltip 16
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]
/castsequence [stealth]Pounce
/use [mod:shift]Ferocious Bite
/castsequence [combat]reset=0.3 0,0,0,0,Cenarion Ward
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,Tiger’s Fury
/castsequence [combat]reset=0.3 0,0,Faerie Fire
/castsequence [combat]reset=0.3 0,Barkskin
/castsequence reset=target Mangle,Rip,Rake,Thrash,Mangle,Savage Roar,Mangle,Rake,Mangle
/use [combat]Berserk
/use [nocombat]Savage Roar
/use [nocombat,nostealth]Prowl
/use Wild Charge

The [combat] has been put in to ensure that you do not break stealth while prowling until you’re either in range of target or in combat.

Updated the macro abit, if you choose to glyph savage roar it should be around near perfect uptime, while keeping rake and 3-5 cp rip up.

#showtooltip 16
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]
/use [mod:shift]Shred
/use [stealth]Pounce
/castsequence [combat]reset=0.3 0,0,0,0,Cenarion Ward
/castsequence [combat]reset=0.3 0,0,0,Faerie Fire
/castsequence [combat]reset=0.3 0,0,Barkskin
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,Tiger’s Fury
/castsequence [nostealth]reset=5/target Mangle,Rake,Rip,Savage Roar,Thrash,Mangle
/cast [combat]Berserk
/use [combat] 13
/use [combat] 14
/use [nocombat,nostealth]Prowl
/use Wild Charge

Hope you find this somewhat usefull :slight_smile:

 

#showtooltip 16
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]
/castsequence [stealth]Ravage
/use [mod:shift]Ferocious Bite
/castsequence [combat]reset=0.3 0,0,0,0,Cenarion Ward
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,Tiger’s Fury
/castsequence [combat]reset=0.3 0,0,Faerie Fire
/castsequence [combat]reset=0.3 0,Barkskin
/castsequence [nostealth]reset=5/target Mangle,Rake,Rip,Savage Roar,Thrash,Mangle
/use [combat]Berserk
/use [combat]Survival Instincts
/use [nocombat,nostealth]Prowl
/use Wild Charge

I just put in the Survival Instincts seems to work pretty well using the updated macro from Mikael. I have noticed no conflicts. As always keep mangle on your bar for odd moments when something freezes. Survival Instincts and barkskin does nothing for DPS but they always seem to hit when I need em most in PVP lol.

Thanks for the updated cast sequence it works flawlessly. No wasted combo points which means more rips.

Okay just noticed something wrong with the macro. While yes the uptime is perfect for savage roar you are missing out on a 5 point rip which is a huge DPS loss. So I will try and see if there is a way to have best of both worlds gonna play with it some.

Looking at these mechanics we are working with here.

Thrash 15 seconds

Savage roar 0 combo points is 12 seconds

Rip 16 seconds extended an extra increased per mangle of 2 seconds up to a max of 6 seconds so 22 seconds. We need a five point Rip to get the most damage out of it. It is also optimal to have a roar up when we Rip. Which should be no problem if we enter battle with a Roar since it cost 0 combo points.

Rake 15 seconds.

Now in theory we should be able to easily keep em all up but the problem is energy. With glyph of savage roar we can roar behind our finisher Rip or Ferocious Bite. If we where not so Energy starved it would be a breeze. I think it can be done but we would have to extend the macro to some crazy length for optimal DPS.

It should go like this enter battle before you do anything roar. Pounce or Ravage I prefer Ravage myself as I like the damage front loaded and when it crits boyyyy does it crit. Then rake to get a dot up asap. Thrash for debuff and dot. Race for a five point combo via mangle and refreshing rake dot then rip. All the while making sure your self buffs are up savage roar. We miss a dot or let savage roar fall off we are gimped in damage and feel like a hindrance to the group instead of being helpful.

I am looking for a way but with being energy starved this is not easy at all. Specially at my level. I heard it does not get any easier even in end game too.

So basically to get optimal DPS we are gonna have to have an even bigger macro. Maybe even two or three buttons as our healing proc takes one in it self. I will try to figure this out though it will not be easy and share what I find here.

I have worked on an optimal rotation before Chris and did this for days on end, no joke. Tell the truth I gave up. There are way too many variables so I still use my macro in the 5.1 thread which is very competitive.

Energy usage is far different to mana, mana toons are so easy to macro because it is a constant, energy and focus (Hunters) changes a lot with procs and spells like Heroism etc and this makes it so hard to make the perfect macro. But I am with you all the way, if you have the patience to make something that is awesome, just remember to make it good you need to combine in some Ferocious Bites here and there. I know my macro overlaps here and there so has room for that. Maybe only a 2 point one but still…

The other thing is if you cannot stay behind a boss there is something wrong somewhere. Exceptions are for example The Spirit Kings in MSV, first boss you have to soak damage but by a long shot Shred is the best combo builder and I use it as much as possible. So yes 2 macros are essential for front and behind dps.

Good luck on it if you go for it, will be very interested in any updates.

My main toon is a druid but I enjoy playing my other alts too. I’ve been lurking on the various druid threads with avid interest because I want to begin writing my own macros.

I have actually learned quite a lot and have some tips for improving some of these but in other cases I still haven’t figured out why my macro isn’t working the way I want it to.

Let me begin by sharing some of what I’ve done. First of all I replaced all “cast” with “use”. It performs the same function but saves a character. Similarly I replaced all “stance” with “form” saving 2 characters per use. In some cases I included more thorough logic and catch if, then, else fall throughs.

Power shift (to escape roots/snares). If you are not already in a form, then this puts you in Cat Form:

<pre>

#showtooltip
/use [form:1]!Bear Form;[form:2]!Aquatic Form;[form:5]!Swift Flight Form;[form:4]!Travel Form;!Cat Form

</pre>

Travel form for druid which picks the best travel form for a situation. The script selects a ground mount for use in BGs which require speed. Use the “alt” key to use a form other than the fastest for a situation (useful in bgs to shift to druid Travel Form instead of using a mount when you want to do flag carrying). Strictly speaking the last line isn’t necessary but I left it in just in case :):

<pre>

#showtooltip Travel Form
/use [swimming,nomod]Aquatic Form;[swimming,nocombat,nomod:alt]Abyssal Seahorse;[nocombat,outdoors,flyable,nomod]Swift Flight Form;[nocombat,outdoors,nomod]Swift Green Hawkstrider;[outdoors,noswimming,nomod:alt]Travel Form;Cat Form
/dismount [mounted]

</pre>

Basic druid attack macro (built from michaeljackson’s work in the other thread):

<pre>

#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=target [stealth]Pounce;[nocombat]Prowl;[noform:3]Cat Form;Savage Roar,Rake,Rip,Thrash,Rake

</pre>

Note: order is important for my macros.

I am wrestling with this last one. I want to use shred - a lot and I have the glyph of shred. So I left out most combo point builder actions and try to add those into the sequence manually depending upon whether I can use shred or must use mangle. This is not a great solution but I just can’t figure out how to build a sequence that puts the shreds in the right place.

I have two other problems with the script: how to build in my cooldowns (in a separate macro) and the fact that I keep reading about “castsequence” costing dps due to client latency.

To help fix both problems, I’ve begun researching the use of “/click”. So far this has not worked for me. I cannot get my click command to call another macro (such as my CD macro).

My understanding of the dps penalty for using “castsequence” is that castsequence does not permit the next spell in the sequence to be cast until the following transaction takes place:

  1. client: start gcd ability 1

  2. transmission latency

  3. server: perform gcd ability 1

  4. server: suspend actions until gcd expiration

  5. transmit permission to client to start ability 2

  6. client: ready for gcd ability 2

For me, that latency can be 300-800 ms (multiplied by 2-way communication), meaning I lose ~1 second for each action in the castsequence essentially doubling my gcd for each action).

This is a HUGE dps cost! I’ve got to find a better way to do things.

So do any of you know of a better way to do things?

Thanks!

Jim

Sorry about the tags, I’m trying to get the stupid thing to display the macro code in a different font.

While driving to the library I thought of an improvement to the basic attach /castsequence:

#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=target [stealth,mod]Ravage;[stealth]Pounce;[nocombat]Prowl;[noform:3]Cat Form;Savage Roar,Rake,Rip,Thrash,Rake

I added the “[stealth,mod]Ravage;” because many bosses don’t stun. If I can’t stun them then I want to maximize my damage rather than continue to use the Pounce. To use the Ravage instead of Pounce, I just hit the alt key or similar.

I personally do not see how anyone can write a macro for using Shred. Whether you can use it depends too much upon the specifics of the situation.

Furthermore, the glyph of shred makes the use of shred independent of your position if either Tiger’s Fury or Berserk are active. This makes me think that the Buff/debuff (aka cool down) macro that goes with this attack macro needs to use a castsequence on those two abilities.

Something like:

/castsequence [combat]Tiger’s Fury,Berserk

Using your Thrash immediately after casting a Berserk conserves the most energy.

FWIW, I try to test these things in Molten Core. The critters there have enough hp so I can cycle through the abilities but don’t deal enough damage to seriously threaten me (unless I am in a boss fight and/or my macros aren’t working right :slight_smile: ).

Also thanks a lot for these threads. I had not used most of my druid abilities because I simply didn’t have the button bar space to put them where I could quickly get them. By enabling me to put many abilities under a single button, it has allowed me to really explore the full range of Druid capabilities!

A shred macro is easy - have a look at the Cat threads for 5.0 and 5.1 I am pretty sure there is a shred macro I put there - in any case all you do is replace every Mangle with Shred. And it is easy to stay behind even the most movement intensive fights - cat speed is a huge advantage and as energy regenerating takes time any movement as long as you stay in melee range still does auto attack damage while regenerating energy which is normally low anyway. Easiest way to maneuver really fast is to hold right mouse click on the screen while using your movement keys but 9 times out of 10 just moving is fast enough.

I use a Mangle macro button 2, button 3 is the Shred macro and button 4 is my AOE macro with button 1 Skull Bash.

I been running through a simcraft spell priority called Ovale running the rotation by hand. Needless to say I wish I had more fingers that are super duper long. Something I noticed is it times Rake,Rip and Thrash pretty good with Tigers fury.More times then not it has you hit tiger’s fury right before those attacks.

I also noticed the big part is not having enough energy like I thought as running through the priority by hand I noticed one thing. I always had enough energy to use the skill I was suppose to do within the time I am suppose to do it in. Also by doing it by hand my DPS went up about 500 DPS now this is at level 62 so having that much of a DPS boost is kind of extreme I can only think about how much it would raise end game.

I also noticed another thing. Everyone says mangle should not be on your taskbar. Yet the spell priority via simcraft uses it for a fast combo builder in emergency situations. Which tells me at this point in time even the so called experts are not really sure on how to play feral which is obvious by looking at end game raids. Hardly any ferals at all.

 

Problems with doing it by hand.

-Not enough fingers.

-Way to complicated rotation unless you have a spell priority add-on. Then you can do nothing else but focus on your rotation even if you do not have a spell priority plugin. So it severely hinders the quality of game play.

So to sum it all up. In order to play ferals effectively I do not think it will be possible to macro. I also do not think it would be possible to play them effectively without them as there is just way too much going on.

So what I am saying is Ferals are broken.

 

Christopher,

My feral is my main alt, so I’m rather attached to him. Also he is by far my highest level character. I started looking into macros about 2 weeks ago because I knew I had left out a lot of abilities simply due to a lack of tool bar space (and button pushing speed :slight_smile: ).

My research into each of my abilities and how to weave them into my play and macros has taught me a LOT about my feral.

One of the things I learned is that we may be ferals but we are also druids - meaning we have access to other forms instantly.

I’m building my library of abilities each embedded into macros to ensure that I use all of them. But this means I need macros for my other forms too!

Luckily for us, a form change also spontaneously gives us new toolbars!

I’m still building my “panic button” but imagine a scenario in which I hit my panic button and pop Survival Instincts and Might of Ursoc, then I’ll find myself in Bear form. I’ve got to work through what I should do once I get into Bear Form:

What abilities do I have now that I didn't?
While I'm in the form, what else should I be doing?
How about a cyclone or hibernate?
Can I do these from bear form?
When do I pop my frenzied regen?

When I need to heal (or pop cyclone) without a Nature’s’Predatory Swiftness, I’ll find myself in Human Form and all of the same questions apply then.

What I’m saying is that we do have a lot to consider. We will have a ton more macros than anyone else, but this also means that we can be very unpredictable.

I’ve seen no discussion of Maim and how it would fit into a PVP rotation. Imagine something like Pounce, Rake, Mangle, Mangle, Maim, Rejuvenate, <Other Stuff>, Cyclone, Stealth

Repeat as necessary.

One on one we should be able to use our skills to stun lock other classes like the Rogues do, yet I don’t see druids doing that stuff. Honestly when I play, I am always in cat form dealing dps unless I’m doing some panicky self-healing. I need to use my shifting and skills way more naturally and in a much wider variety of roles and situations.

I have recently tried being a back up healer but frankly I suck at it :slight_smile: My party only lives because they are far more experienced than I am and they have a good healer already :).

I saying all of this because we need a set of kitty, bear, human, and travel macros that leverage each forms strengths and then shift us back into our default form. We need escape and panic buttons, helper macros (to heal / cure /res allies), cc macros (which can be included in our panic macros).

It is going to take a while to build up these toolboxes, especially when I love to tinker so much I rarely feel ready to move onto the next one :slight_smile:

I’ve got about 1/3 of my kitty macros mostly figured out (travel, escape, primary combat, primary buff). A couple of others started (help, self-heal, and panic). Others not started at all (e.g. cc).

I’m going to be working on this for a very long time :slight_smile:

 

Christopher,

Do you have a link to your site? I’d like to play with different rotations to see how they play out. For instance, how do Ravage, Rake, Mangle, Mangle stack against Pounce, Shred, Shred, Shred (noting that while a target is stunned you are not taking damage from them).

Christopher,

I agree that we MUST have macros to play a druid. There is simply way too much that gets left behind if we don’t put into our macros.

However, do not despair.

Perfect is the enemy of good enough. We do not need to make our attack macro perfect. We do not need to get the perfect rotation, exactly 5 cps before the finisher, get a ferocious bite to kill them, etc.

We simply need good enough.

Build a toolbox of macros, figure out when to use those tools, go practice, and then have fun.

Without macros my feral was competitive. I expect to do far better once I’ve finished building my tool set (and learned how to use it!).

I’d love to play with your tool to figure out my rotations.

Jim

What rotation does it recommend?

Here is another tool for the toolbox. Note I have not tested this yet, but the concept should work.

Resurrection:

#showtooltip Rebirth
/use [combat]Barkskin

/use [@mouseover,dead,help,combat][dead,help,combat]Rebirth;[@mouseover,dead,help][dead,help]Revive;[@mouseover,nodead,help,combat][nodead,help,combat][@player,combat]Rejuvenation;Mass Resurrection
/group %t should seek immediate medical attention for resurrections lasting more than 4 hours.

If the mouse over (or target) is friendly and dead and you are in combat, use Rebirth.

If the mouse over (or target) is friendly and dead (and not in combat), use Revive.

If the mouse over (or target or player) is friendly and not dead and in combat, use Rejuvenate.

Otherwise, use Mass Resurrection (a guild perk)

Then issue a witty message letting the group know who was resurrected.

I included my first attempt at writing a CC macro (I call it Cone of Shame):

#showtooltip Cyclone
/use Skull Bash
/run SetCVar(“autoUnshift”,0)
/castsequence reset=60 [@mouseover,harm,nodead,mod][harm,nodead,mod]Hibernate,Nature’s Swiftness;[@mouseover,harm,nodead][harm,nodead]Cyclone;Nature’s Swiftness
/run SetCVar(“autoUnshift”,1)
/yell Now, %t must wear the cone of shame!

I deal with a lot of lag, so my Nature’s Swiftness never processes quickly enough to actually execute the follow-on ability in the same macro. Plus I do not want to have to maintain a separate button for processing Predatory Swiftness.

So I include the Cyclone followed by the Nature’s Swiftness. If I have a Predatory up, the script should immediately execute the Cyclone (or Hibernate). Otherwise it will fall through without doing anything.

In that case, spam the button 2 more times and you’ll get the effect you want.

To help ease the timing, I included a skull bash to stun the target while you perform this operation. I might have to rethink this after I play test it.

Sorry late reply Jim. For my data I just used these addons

http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/ovale