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I’m probably behind the times on this one, but I recently discovered a quick and easy change that I can make to the interface options that has has greatly improved my soloing ability — and one that will likely be a big help when I start PvPing again. This is the Auto Self Cast toggle on the Basic interface options tab. This causes any helpful spell you cast to be cast on you by default should no other target be selected (be it a standard target, a mouseover, a focus target, etc.).
This option, first pointed out to me by frequent reader and commentor, Someone of Some Server (Some Region), eliminates the need for me to use an additional targetting parameter in all of my healing and decursing macros. However, if for any reason that’s more your cup of tea, how to accomplish this using macro commands is demonstrated below.
/cast [target=mouseover,help][target=target,help][target=player] Lifebloom
You could also dress up a macro like this one with a Swiftmend to intuitively “pop” your Rejuvenation when you press down the CTRL key:
#showtooltip /cast [modifier:ctrl,target=mouseover,exists,help][modifier:ctrl,target=target,help][modifier:ctrl,target=player] Swiftmend; [target=mouseover,exists,help][target=target,help][target=player] Rejuvenation
In PvE, this (the interface option or the macro modification) allows me to throw a heal on myself without losing my current DPS target. By DPSing using Moonfire, Insect Swarm, and Thorns and using macros like these for Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, and Swiftmend, I never have to worry about spell pushback, which means I don’t have to worry with casting Entangling Roots unless my target is a particularly heavy hitter. In PvP, this will allow me to easily heal myself while running away from the Skillherald hurtling toward my delicate elven features.
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I *think* my macros are like that. Crythia set them up, but I know I can heal myself…somehow.
I use a different approach: I have the auto-cast on self option in the interface options active, so if my target is not a proper destination for the spell, the spell will land on me.
Also, for soloing, when I had enough TPs in resto to have Nature’s Swiftness, I’d be in cat (or bear if dealing with too many mobs at once), and I’d use this “escape” macro assigned to my PgUp key which, on my laptop’s keyboard, is the one at the top right corner and thus easy to reach for emergencies:
(Note: this is off the top of my head, so some errors may be present but it’s roughly like this, adapted to the new 2.3 behaviour…)
#showtooltip Nature’s Swiftness
/cast [stance][modifier] Nature’s Swiftness
/castsequence [nostance] Healing Touch, Dire Bear Form
This will always show the NS icon so you can see the cooldown, and on 1st press will pop you out of whatever form you’re in and cast NS + HT; on a subsequent press it will put you back in bear. It *WON’T* work if you’re in caster form already unless you press a modifier key. I you remove the “[stance]” from the first cast, you get an error on the 2nd press and won’t complete it’s job because it will try to cast NS again when it’s on CD.
My PgDn macro is a bit more complex and doesn’t involve healing but rather switching to cat form, so if I want(ed) an instant heal and back to cat, I’d PgUp then PgDn, or 2xPgUp for instant heal + bear.
HTH,
Someone
@Auryann: Haha … sounds like Crythia did a real number on your UI. I would love to see it. =)
@Someone: You know, this is one of the reasons that I enjoy having a blog. I learn a lot from writing about different things but I often learn even more from the intelligent and insightful comments people post. I had *no idea* that the option you mention exists and will have to edit my post with this information (as soon as I can get a screenshot of it). The only possible downside I could see if enabling it for all spells (rather than the ones specified in specific macros) would be for spells that you might not necessarily want to cast on yourself by accident (such as Abolish Poison), but those would be few and far between and so would the circumstances in which you wouldn’t want to cast it on yourself. Thank you!
And that is a really cool emergency macro for Bears. =)
Why not just use healbot? From the looks of it, you’re using your mouse. I play using a combo. My heals are all through healbot, but my dmg spells, etc, are through hotkeys.
When I need a heal, I just click on my name in healbot. Extremely efficient and never having to worry about having the right target. As a matter of fact, even before healbot, I always played having the NPC targeted. I use to hotkey my heals–press heal and then click the unit frame that requires it. Healbot just took away my need to hit a hotkey first.
@Akia: I’ve looked at Healbot before, but I prefer using my Nostromo gamepad which I feel gives me greater flexibility than the number of keys on my mouse. I also don’t think that using Healbot would work very well for me in PvP since you need to be able to mouse around (which I do using my mouse) while still being able to use your abilities. However, I do know several people who use and love Healbot or Clique, so I definitely recognize that they’re great UI addons!
It seems I live in the Ice Age
I just heal by targetting and pressing the keys assigned to my action bars the old-fashion way. When I have to heal myself I use alt+number instead of number and voilà.
Maybe it’s just I play on my laptop without mouse and I avoid using the trackpad as much as possible
I ususally use alt and then click on any heal I like, to heal myself. I had to get used to it at first, but nowadays I don’t even have to think about it anymore
I just keep the Auto Self-Cast option on, in the interface menu, like “Someone” above said. And if you’re trying to cast something like abolish poison *Not* on yourself, you’d have that person targeted, right? So then it won’t cast on you. It only casts the healing spell on you if you have no one, or an enemy targted. I love it! ^_^
-Luar,
Feathermoon