The /castsequence reset=0.3 0, explanation

i made this post to make some things more clear to people that do not understand the /castsequence reset=0.3 0 mechanics.

first of all we will need an example. i will use my shadow priest raid macro.

/targetenemy [noharm] /cast [noform] !Shadowform /castsequence [combat] reset=0.5 0,0,0,0,Shadow Word: Insanity /castsequence [combat] reset=0.5 0,0,0,Shadow Word: Death /castsequence [combat] reset=0.5 0,0,Halo /castsequence reset=0.5 0,Shadowfiend /castsequence [nochanneling] reset=target/19 Shadow Word: Pain,Vampiric Touch,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay /castsequence Mind Blast,Mind Blast,Mind Blast,Devouring Plague /use 13
 

now here u see a difference. the 0.5 0.

the reason i replaced the 3 with a five is that my finger had to be a sawing machine in order to cast the spells in the castsequence when they where available. and in this case
changing the 3 with a 5 i do not have to go insane with hitting the button plus the spells cast as they should.
now 2 things may contribute to this fact.

  1. keyboard responce
  2. the world lag

for me i think is is the keyboard cause even with 35 latency i had to go nuts but this is just me.
so if u think spells do not cast on time adjust the 3 with whatever number you feel comfortable with.

now to the “what do i put first” problem
best thing for me is to put the instant cast spells on top like
as u see next i have Shadow Word: Death cause after the insanity is gone i want it to cast immediately so i have less dps loss

next is Halo and Shadowfiend but Halo has less cd than Shadowfiend, and that means it is available more times

after that there is the 2 main castsequences
The first one replenishes the dot spells and casts Mind Flay when nothing else is available.
The second one casts Mind Blast as soon as it is available and because the Devouring Plague does more damage when u have 3 shadow orbs we put it at the end to take full advantage of it.

this is the general idea for the /castsequence thing and i hope i helped some people.

Baboulas7

 

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ty for the info it really helped in allowing me to understand it much clearer

 

OK, I understand the basics of the mechanics but not the details. In your example you have the basic sequence of:

Shadow Word: Pain,Vampiric Touch,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay

But when Shadowfiend is available, that will be cast instead. The other abilities above it occur when they are available too but priority is given to the ability last in the series that includes the “reset=0.5 0,” (Shadowfiend > Halo > Shadow Word: Death > Shadow Word: Insanity > and then the basic sequence).

But my question is whether the castsequence move in lock step or not. Putting this another way, if Shadow Word: Insanity fires, do the other castsequence lines still increment? My very basic understanding of the mechanics is that as soon as a line executes an ability with a GCD, the macro skips any abilities after that - meaning the other castsequence lines do not increment.

How does this work?

Thanks!

 

castsequence move in lock step or not

no it will not lock up to the given example cause it will cycle the first castsequence no matter what. that is why we have reset=target/19 that means that the castsequence will reset on a new target or after 19 secs of inactivity.

if you have a priest test this macro to see how it works :smiley:

I was asking about the mechanics of /castsequence in the Elemental Shaman 5.4 post and figured this was a more appropriate place to carry on that conversation. Anywho…

Let me see if I can work through that macro. Here’s the original with line numbers for simplification:

1 /targetenemy [noharm] 2 /cast [noform] !Shadowform 3 /castsequence [combat] reset=0.5 0,0,0,0,Shadow Word: Insanity 4 /castsequence [combat] reset=0.5 0,0,0,Shadow Word: Death 5 /castsequence [combat] reset=0.5 0,0,Halo 6 /castsequence reset=0.5 0,Shadowfiend 7 /castsequence [nochanneling] reset=target/19 Shadow Word: Pain,Vampiric Touch,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay 8 /castsequence Mind Blast,Mind Blast,Mind Blast,Devouring Plague 9 /use 13

1: Targets your enemy.
2: If you’re not in Shadowform, toggle on Shadowform
3: If you’re in combat, cast Shadow Word: Insanity on the 5th click
4: If you’re in combat, cast Shadow Word: Death on the 4th click
5: if you’re in combat, cast Halo on the 3rd click
6: cast Shadowfiend on the 2nd click
7: If you’re not channeling a spell, cast the listed spells *
8: Cast the listed spells *
9: Use whatever trinket is in gear slot 13

  • cast sequence is being interrupted by previous, intermittent cast sequences

My understanding of multiple /castsequence commands is that each time you press the button (assuming you have the macro keybound), the next step in the EACH cast sequence is executed. It would be as follows:

/castsequence reset=target Action_1, 0 /castsequence reset=target 0, Action_2

First press => Macro advances to first /castsequence, executes Action_1, advances to second /castsequence, tries to execute 0 (invalid action), stops
Second press => Macro advances to first /castsequence, tries to execute 0 (invalid action), advances to second /castsequence, executes Action_2, stops

However, I’ve noticed after loads of testing, with more complex macros with several intermittent cast sequences followed by a base cast sequence, this behavior is not consistent.

I’ve got more questions but I’ll break here for now.

Thanks in advance for any comments or feedback.

read the original post carefully again.
i cant give u more analytic info cause i do not know the
/castsequence reset=target Action_1, 0 thing cause i smash my k/b.
other than that i think its very explainable

as for [nochanneling] it is in there to keep mind flay castng without interruptions except when an other spell is ready

What confuses me about your macro is that, for example, on your first click, you’ve got Shadow Word: Pain and Mind Blast both firing. Don’t they share GCD? If so, then your second click would fire the Mind Blast that was on GCD (assuming GCD was reset). Third click would be Shadowfiend (again assuming GCD was reset) and so on.

I imagine that if you’re just mashing keys, you’d see some stuff happening, but I don’t think it’d be predictable or consistent. I could be wrong here as I’m relatively new to the macro scene, but I come from a programming background and have an innate need to understand how these things work. :slight_smile:

Jim Batka (above poster) - are you still around? Did you ever manage to figure this stuff out?

Hi
first of all i tried this:

/targetenemy [noharm] /cast [noform] !Shadowform /castsequence [combat] reset=0.5 0,0,0,0,Shadow Word: Insanity /castsequence [combat] reset=0.5 0,0,0,Shadow Word: Death /castsequence [combat] reset=0.5 0,0,Halo /castsequence reset=0.5 0,Shadowfiend /castsequence [nochanneling] reset=target/19 Shadow Word: Pain,Vampiric Touch,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay /castsequence Mind Blast,Mind Blast,Mind Blast,Devouring Plague /use 13
How did you write such a big macro? Mine allows only 255 characters... even with Macro Toolkit? The first line is alreay 62 characters. Anyways a smaller example would have been nice for explanation.

I then tried to copy it into my macro.cfg, but it didn’t make it work (pressing the macro on an enemy doesn’t anything).

raikan that way of macro writing doesnt exist anymore. secondly mtk you have to hit the extend button to make bigger macros. gl

“extend” nice, thanks.
oh it does not? I was sitting at least 3 hours in the internet trying to figure out how this sh1t works as I couldn’t make it work. haha

So I guess I need to make a new thread for the new macro language then, for my question?