Lichborne: Elementary death knight macros

As you approach the end game of WoW, one thing you may find out quickly is that the proper use of macros is a great way to take your game to the next level. Sometimes they streamline moves, other times they allow you to perform actions that would be otherwise impossible. Death knights are definitely no exception, and though we'd be here all week if I went through all the ins and out of macro theory, or even death knight macro theory, I figure right now is still a good time to get you started.

Let's look at a few basic essential macros for the various roles and trees of the class.
DPS and PvP


One of the most basic DPS macros for a death knight is the burst macro, in which you get yourself as buffed as possible before unleashing your devastating last attack. Here's one for Unholy:
#showtooltip Summon Gargoyle
/use 10
/use 13
/use 14
/use Potion of Speed
/cast Summon Gargoyle
This macro starts out by using your gloves (slot 10 being your glove slot). If you're an engineer, this is useful since you'll hopefully have some Hyperspeed Accelerators attached to your gloves. 13 and 14 are the trinket slots, so if you have anything usable on those trinkets, it'll be put to use. One warning here is that the glove enchants and most trinket enchants do apparently have a shared cool down of a few seconds, so you may have to choose one or the other if you're an engineer and your trinkets have on use abilities. I've just put all three in the macro for easier reference.

With that out of the way, the macro moves on to chug a potion of speed, then summon a Gargoyle. Since Summon Gargoyle is the only action in the macro that's on the GCD, it all works out. Also, since Summon Gargoyle acts as a pet and bases its stats off yours at the time of cast, having all those extra buffs on helps it out immensely. Of course, the downside to this macro is that you'll be chugging speed potions like a maniac, so consider that if you want to tweak it for your own personal use.
#showtooltip Dancing Rune Weapon
/use 10
/use 13
/use 14
/use Potion of Speed
/cast [target=player] Hysteria
/cast [target=player] Dancing Rune Weapon
Here's a similar macro for a Blood death knight which works under essentially the same principles as the above Unholy macro, with the same cautions and drawbacks, but substituting a few Blood specific talents. The [target=player] assures the mentioned buffs are cast on yourself. And yes, there is a reason we stick it on Dancing Rune Weapon, too. Dancing Rune Weapon, as it turns out, actually shows up in front of the target it's cast on. If you cast it on yourself, it will show up with you, behind the enemy (assuming you're back there like you should be in most group DPS situations).
#showtooltip Howling Blast
/cast Deathchill
/cast Howling Blast

Since Frost doesn't have a big old pet to summon, they're a little bit out of the loop here, but if you absolutely can't wait to get a Killing Machine proc lined up, you can always use the above macro for a nice bit of critical AE damage.
#showtooltip
/cast [target=focus] Mind Freeze
This is a pretty basic macro for when you're on interrupt duty on one monster but need to DPS another. If you have a good caller or a good addon, you can keep an eye out for the cast and use this macro to quickly interrupt it without breaking your focus on your main target. Of course, the disadvantage here is that you still have to be in melee range of the other target.
#showtooltip Hysteria
/cast [target=playername] Hysteria
This is a pretty basic macro. If you're Blood and your raid has dictated Hysteria should go to another DPSer, you can set this up by replacing "playername" with the name of your Hysteria target so you can quickly cast it without using sight of the enemy.
#showtooltip Leap
/cast [target=playername] Leap
/petstay
If you're an Unholy death knight, this tooltip will send your Ghoul out of danger. Simply change the player name to a ranged DPS or healer who you know is standing back out of harm's way. This probably won't be as useful in PvE anymore since Night of the Dead has pretty uber AE protection, but it could still save it in a PvP situation for sure.


Tank

#showtooltip Ability
/cast Ability
/cast !Rune Strike
This idea is pretty straightforward. Rune Strike is good. Rune Strike is cheap. Rune Strike does lots of damage and threat. But it's also sort of a pain to watch for the extra button to light up so you can press it. Luckily, since Rune Strike isn't on the global cool down, you can easily throw it on a macro. Pick an ability (and plug it into the macro where "Ability" is currently) you'll be weaving into your rotation constantly, and you should be able to grab Rune Strike pretty consistently. Just be aware that it can theoretically leave you short of RP when you really need it for Icebound Fortitude or Anti-Magic Shell.


It's worth noting that the above macro can also be modified by engineer DPSers for easy casting of some rockets. Just replace the Rune Strike cast with a "/use 10" to set off your gloves.
#showtooltip Bone Shield
/cast Blood Tap
/stopcasting
/cast Bone Shield
This macro can be used for Unbreakable Armor in the Frost tree as well. The idea here is to use your defensive talented cool down without breaking your rotation. Casting Blood Tap can help you keep the rotation going while still getting your defense on.
Moving on with macros

Now, it's worth noting that we're just scratching the surface. Once you get a better understanding of macro theory, you can create focus, key modifiers, and other such macros that offer a whole new world of bar space saving. One word of caution, though: Stay away from cast sequence macros. It may be tempting to create a lazy one button rotation macro, but that lazy one button rotation macro can't account for fight movement, adapting to changing combat situations, or using other abilities in emergencies. You will see better DPS in almost any basic fight by sticking with multiple buttons. Save combination macros for spells that really do work well together.

Either way, a good macro makeover is a great way to get ready for Patch 3.3. Arthas won't know what hit him -- mostly because he'll be too busy trying to decipher macro code, but hey. Take them where you can get them.

Shifting Perspectives: A 3.3 miscellany

This week's column is going to be a little bit of a grab bag in much the same way that our patch 3.1 miscellany post was, because there have been a few changes on the PTR recently that we haven't yet discussed.

Before we get any farther, I'd also like to give a shout-out to our readers and commenters on last week's column, "The disappearance of the bear." I was a little antsy over how it was going to be received (lengthy articles on what's going wrong with a spec can get derailed into QQ-fests pretty easily, and that wasn't my intent), but was heartened to see so much quality discussion. One of the things I realized after reading through the comments was that Blizzard may actually have succeeded a little too well in their quest to make tanking more attractive and fun to the average player. WoW's four tanking classes (warrior, paladin, druid, and death knight) comprise 4 of the 5 most popular classes in the game right now. As I've written previously, the druid functions as the proverbial canary in the coal mine as a harbinger of class balance concerns, and with each of the game's plate classes numbering among the most played at 80, it's impossible for this not to have an impact on druid spec choice.

Anyway. For the moment, we are going to turn away from this rather depressing situation, and concern ourselves with what's going on in patch 3.3.



What are the current patch notes?

As always, the most recent version of the PTR patch notes can be found here on Blizzard's PTR page. The only recent change that's been omitted (I think) is that the most recent build includes the following change:

Gift of the Earthmother: Now also reduces the base cooldown on your Lifebloom spell by 2/4/6/8/10%.

More on this in just a bit (and yes, that's in addition to the existing GotE change that's a flat 2/4/6/8/10% improvement to spell +haste).

What the hell is going on with Rejuvenation?

(As an aside, I shouldn't have laughed at Nailer's take on this from the EJ forums, but I did: "Well, there is nothing left from Lifebloom to nerf, so we saw it coming.")

The max-rank Rejuvenation was first the target of a bug-fix, which was really a nerf, then it was un-nerfed, but it's kind of still nerfed because of the changes to Gift of the Earthmother...and..../scribbles and starts over again.

Right. In the first patch 3.3 PTR build, Blizzard had corrected a bug (that has apparently existed for the duration of Wrath) where rank 15 Rejuvenation was healing for a base 15 seconds instead of the normal 12. Problem is, that's partly what's powered Restoration's amazing raid-healing capacity, and players were not happy that the "bug fix" constituted a 20% nerf to the existing spell. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth and threats to defenestrate later, Blizzard changed the duration back to a base 15 seconds but is still tinkering with Gift of the Earthmother. Per Ghostcrawler, this has a lot less to do with Rejuvenation itself than it does to do with the cumulative effect of both the Rejuvenation nerf and the GotE changes being too harsh on Resto, and they didn't want that.

So the answer to "What the hell is going on with Rejuvenation?" is -- nothing, at least for the moment. It's the exact same "bugged" spell, healing for the same amount for the same duration for the same mana cost on both the live realms and the current PTR build. But this still leaves Rejuv in a place where the developers have acknowledged it's healing for too much and too long. Don't be surprised if we see a Rejuv nerf in either patch 4.0 (the Cataclysm content patch) or shortly after Cataclysm goes live.

OK, so what's up with Gift of the Earthmother?

Nerfsville, baby. Well, sort of. As Ghostcrawler observed, upcoming changes aren't really meant to be a nerf: "(They're) aimed at not making haste such a wonky stat for Resto." The deal with Gift of the Earthmother is that, as gear has improved over the duration of Wrath, +haste has become steadily less and less useful because we were already shaving 20% off the base GCD of three frequently-cast spells (Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, and Wild Growth). Gift of the Earthmother on the live realms is worth close to 1,000 +haste rating for these abilities. Because there's no way to get below a 1-second GCD, this meant that most of the +haste and/or +haste procs on trinkets and gear were largely wasted itemization on three very commonly-used spells in both PvE and PvP.

So what does the Gift of the Earthmother change do to our existing spells?

Dreambound Druid had a great article on precisely this right here that you should read, but as a means of shorthanding everything:

If it's not currently affected by GotE (e.g. Regrowth, Nourish), it's going to get faster.

If it is currently affected by GotE (e.g. LB, Rejuv, and WG), it's going to get slower (less so for Lifebloom). +Haste effects will, however, be significantly more useful for all three.

Regrowth is likely to be the big winner of the GotE changes. Although it's still unlikely to replace either Rejuvenation as a raid heal or Nourish as a spot heal, it'll be possible at existing levels of gear, talents, and a few raid buffs to get its cast time close to (and even less than) the base cast time for Nourish (i.e. 1.5 seconds). Nourish, in a very surprising development with absolutely no precedent whatsoever, gets a nice buff as well. I was ready to say that Rejuvenation was going to be the big loser even though we'll still be using it, but then there's this new glyph...

Do tell.

Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation. 'Nuff said.

However, I can't be the only person who finds it funny that so many Restos will happily slot in a glyph that, despite its benefits, functionally accomplishes the exact same Rejuv duration penalty that people were so terrified of with the initial Rejuv "bug fix." Lissanna's done some testing if you want a look at how the glyph currently functions on the PTR.

Wait a minute. Isn't +haste an equally screwy stat for Balance?

Yes, which the developers aren't happy about. Any moonkin with halfway-decent gear is likely to be haste-capped for the Wrath portion of his/her rotation, which creates the exact same problem Restoration currently experiences with Gift of the Earthmother, except much, much worse. Being haste-capped on a spell that's essentially 40-ish% of a Balance player's normal rotation creates two issues: a). a UI issue, because you can't queue a spell while it's on the GCD, and b). a gear issue, because +haste is frickin' everywhere and most of it is completely wasted on one of Balance's two main nukes. In another touch of irony, Starfire (the other main nuke) does great with +haste, to the point where all the +haste on early Wrath gear was enormously prejudiced toward the use of a lunar rotation before the patch 3.2 Eclipse change.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/27/shifting-perspectives-a-3-3-miscellany-part-2/

PTR Patch 3.3: Patch notes updated

The PTR Patch 3.3 notes have been updated, including major changes about the new Looking For Group / Looking For Raid / "Dungeon System". The entire changes after the break.

Some major highlights (although you should really read everything after the break, all of it is very important):
Players who take part in groups who have one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the Dungeon System will receive extra rewards, up to and including the coveted Perky Pug non-combat pet. The more random players with whom one groups, the faster the pet can be obtained. Players can be placed in a group for a random dungeon no more than once every 15 minutes. The Need Before Greed loot system will be the unalterable default looting system for pick-up groups in the Dungeon System and has been updated. Need Before Greed will now recognize gear appropriate for a class in three ways: the class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spell power items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type (ex. paladins for plate). All items will still be available via Greed rolls as well as the new Disenchant option should no member be able to use the item. Players will be able to roll on items with a required minimum level higher than a player's current level. LFG channel has returned to being a realm-wide channel accessible in any city! The full update to the patch notes after the break.

General
Will of the Forsaken now shares a 45-second cooldown with similar effects, including the Medallion of the Horde, Titan-Forged runes, Insignia of the Horde, etc. Druid

Predatory Strikes: The Predatory Swiftness buff from this talent now has an 8-second duration. Paladin
Sacred Shield: The damage absorption effect from this ability now triggers only once every 30 seconds. Infusion of Light: This talent now also reduces the cooldown on the effect of Sacred Shield by 12/24 seconds. Divine Guardian: This talent no longer increases the amount of damage transferred to the paladin from Divine Sacrifice. Instead it causes all raid and party members to take 10/20% reduced damage while Divine Sacrifice is active. In addition, the duration has been changed to 6 seconds, however the effect does not terminate when Divine Sacrifice is removed before its full duration. User Interface - Dungeon System

This feature has replaced the Looking For Group tool and provides all-new dungeon party creation functionality. Players can join as individuals, as a full group, or a partial group to look for additional party members. Groups using this tool will be able to teleport directly to the selected instance. Upon leaving the instance, players will be returned to their original location. If any party member needs to temporarily leave the instance for reagents or repairs, they will have the option to teleport back to the instance. Players can choose the Random Dungeon option.
The Heroic Wrath of the Lich King Daily Random Dungeon option will award two Emblems of Frost no more than once a day. The normal Wrath of the Lich King Daily Random Dungeon option will award two Emblems of Triumph no more than once a day. Continuing to complete Wrath of the Lich King Heroic instances using the Daily Random Dungeon option will award players two additional Emblems of Triumph each time. Daily Heroic and normal dungeon quests have been removed. These quests have been replaced with weekly raid quests (see the "Quests" section for details). Level-appropriate rewards will be offered to players who choose the Random Dungeon option for pre-Wrath of the Lich King dungeons. Players can be placed in a group for a random dungeon no more than once every 15 minutes. Random Dungeon rewards will be placed in each player's inventory automatically upon completion of the dungeon (final boss killed). A pop-up notification will display any rewards earned through the Dungeon System. Instead of choosing a random dungeon, players can also choose specific dungeons appropriate for their level range. Multiple instances can be selected at one time. The feature no longer limits the choice to look for only 3 dungeon groups at one time. Pick-Up Groups
Cross-realm instances are now available and use an improved matchmaking system to assist players in looking for additional party members. As with Battlegrounds, the realms in each Battlegroup are connected. As part of the matchmaking system, some of the more difficult dungeons will have a minimum gear requirement. Players also need to meet the requirements for dungeons that require attunement, such as keys or quests. If a player does not meet the requirements for a particular dungeon, a lock icon will be displayed next to that dungeon. Hovering over this icon will display the requirements which have not been met. Only conjured items and loot dropped in a dungeon for which other party members are eligible can be traded between players from different realms. A Vote Kick feature will be available in the event a member of a party is not performing to the expectations of the other members. Players who leave the group prematurely are subject to a Deserter debuff preventing them from using the Dungeon System tool for 15 minutes. If an existing group loses a member, the leader will be asked if he or she wants to continue the dungeon. Choosing to continue will automatically place the group back into the Dungeon System queue. A Player will not be placed in a group with people on his or her Ignore list. Players who take part in groups who have one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the Dungeon System will receive extra rewards, up to and including the coveted Perky Pug non-combat pet. The more random players with whom one groups, the faster the pet can be obtained. The Need Before Greed loot system will be the unalterable default looting system for pick-up groups in the Dungeon System and has been updated.
Need Before Greed will now recognize gear appropriate for a class in three ways: the class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spell power items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type (ex. paladins for plate). All items will still be available via Greed rolls as well as the new Disenchant option should no member be able to use the item. Players will be able to roll on items with a required minimum level higher than a player's current level. Looking For Raid

There is a new Looking For Raid option available to players that can be accessed via the Raid Information screen in the interface or by typing "/LFR."
Players will be able to browse the system manually for any other players looking for a raid dungeon group. While browsing LFR players may sort the list ascending or descending by left-clicking the following headers: Name, Level, Class, Tank Role, Healer Role, and Damage Role. The crown is the Leader Role (representing a raid group with 2 or more people). Players can left-click on this header to sort the list with groups at the top or at the bottom. Hovering over players listed in LFR will display their name, class, level, roles and comments. Hovering over a raid/group will display the leader's name, the raid information (number of people the raid), comments, if there are any bosses dead (and which ones), and if there are any friends from your Friends list or ignored players from your Ignore list in the raid group. LFG Channel

The Looking For Group chat channel has returned and can be accessed in all major cities (similar to the Trade chat channel) without the use of the Dungeon system interface. Players may only be queued or listed in one of the following systems at a time: Dungeons, LFR, Battlegrounds, or Arenas. Ignore List: The amount of characters a person can ignore has been increased to 50. In addition, players on other realms can be placed on the Ignore list. Reputation
Commendation Badges which award reputation with various Wrath of the Lich King factions can be purchased with Emblems of Triumph in Dalaran. Items

Sceptor of Celebras: Since this item is no longer needed as a key, Celebras will no longer give one out to a player who loses it. The item can now be sold or disenchanted as normal.

Patch 3.3 PTR: Ghostcrawler explains Paladin changes

You know how it goes. Blizzard nerfs Paladins, Paladins shake their heads in disbelief, then break out the pitchforks and scream bloody murder for a bit, beg Blizzard not to push through with the changes, and eventually run home and cry into My Little Pony sheets and staining pink underwear. Sure enough, when the recent PTR patch notes hinted at nerfs to the Paladin class, the pitchfork-wielding and bloody murder-screaming ensued. We're now about to enter the stage of bargaining. It's still on the PTR, after all. For those wondering what the bed-wetting ruckus is all about, Sacred Shield was nerfed to proc only once every 30 seconds (essentially proccing only once every cast of the spell unless augmented with talents), Aura Mastery was nerfed to 6 seconds down from 10, and Lay on Hands is being primed to be uncastable on one's self.

Ghostcrawler said that he didn't "want to promise (they) won't change the spell for 3.3," but that players also shouldn't "worry too much on the Lay on Hands change at this point" since it didn't make it to the latest PTR build. He explains in the forums that Paladins are no longer just a support class (as they were for quite a long time), but that all the abilities over time have contributed to making the class feel like a "one-man army" that is able to play offensively, defensively, and essentially take on more challenges without having to change stances, forms, or even specs. In a rather snippy response to a troll crying (with My Little Pony blanket in hand) in the forums, Ghostcrawler simply said, "Dear OP, Bye. Hugs, GC."

Discussing the Sacred Shield change as soon as we got wind of it, I argued to the WoW.com team that it was a Retribution PvP nerf more than anything, and a push for Holy to use it more in its focused healing kit. Although it does hurt Paladin tanks, Ghostcrawler states that Blizzard's "overall goal is to make Ret less tanky." Guess what? Retribution only really "tanks" in PvP, where the repeated nerfs to the spec's burst has altered its playstyle to become one about survivability. With the nerf to Sacred Shield and the planned nerf to Lay on Hands, that survivability diminishes massively.

With retribution burst nerfed to the proverbial ground, and survivability seemingly about to fall on its face, there's still no sign of the much asked for PvP utility to compensate for the removal of burst (Paladins never got out of the bargaining stage, apparently). It had gotten to the point that protection had become a much more viable, fun, and admittedly OP spec to PvP with, necessitating some nerfs to the protection tree which continue with Patch 3.3. This includes the possible nerf to Lay on Hands (put down those pitchforks, people, the nerf isn't even live on the PTR yet) which would be, to put it bluntly, stinky and messy as Murloc poop.

The good news is that, again, this is still just the PTR. Things can still change, and this is why it's being tested. The hope is that Lay on Hands will come out of it unscathed, but again, Ghostcrawler didn't promise anything (no more promises from the crab!). If I were to venture a guess, the iconic spell will likely still get nerfed to a degree. Stay tuned to the PTR and WoW.com, and hold on to your pink undies.