Phillip Holmes, SWTOR’s head of security has publised an informative forum post about text macros, color detection, evaluation and sequencing that more creative players have been using. If you have been or plan to use any kind of macros in SWTOR I highly suggest you read his entire post to make sure that what you’re doing isn’t against their Terms of Service or you might find your account suspended in the near future. Holmes’ full forum post is below:

So a number of people have asked about text macros. A couple of others (even on reddit!) have mentioned ‘colour detection to determine which action to take’ systems. I even saw a questions about sequence clicking… I even saw claims that we can’t detect anything and won’t do a thing about this issue.

I’ll address all four…

Text Macros

Strictly speaking, text macro’s are against the ToS. If its for emotes etc and isn’t being used as a way to advise others of an impending attack in a Warzone (inc snow! for example), then we will turn a blind eye to an extent. If you fire off emotes too many times in quick succession of course then you will get evaluated for if you are spamming.

One click ‘enter chat, type ‘inc snow!’, hit enter’ text macros designed to warn others is completely against the ToS. You need to make a decision – do I take the time to type ‘inc snow’ to the ops group, or do I just keep fighting this person… Think of it as an evaluation on if you are using a tool that gives you an unfair advantage over somebody not using that same tool.

Colour detection and evaluated action macros

The very act of determining a colour of a pixel on screen and as a result then using a specific action is one of the easy to understand examples of what we call automation. As soon as you have two things happening based on one key press, then its against the ToS.

Sequence clicking

If you have a system set up so that if you hit the same key 4 times likes so: ’1, 1, 1, 1′ and instead of just firing off whatever 1 is bound to it fires off ’1, 2, 3, 4′, then as long as you keep it to ‘one key == one other key hit’ its in that grey area of not true automation. There is a caveat – you can’t have the macro determine a minimum time between clicks to work around the global cool down timing and only fire the next button in sequence if the GCD has expired.

If you instead have a system that when you hit 1, it fires of 1, 2, 3, 4 in quick succession or all at once (i.e. one click == many actions) in order to try and fire something that isn’t currently in a cool down state then yes, that is against the ToS. Again, one click must always equal one action and only one action within the game.

Detection of abuse

There are many claims based on guesswork that we can’t tell when a person is running automation for systems like field respeccing within seconds. Every time you interact with the server we log either the specific event or an aggregate of similar events firing multiple times. We can (and do!) look through those logs using analytic engines. If you want to know more about the concept, look up ‘big data’ in google – we strive to make all decisions on making changes to the game based on the data we have, and we have a lot of data.

We also use that data for game forensics – we may not react in a real-time manner for most things, but as people foolish enough to speedhack know, we can and do act based on irrefutable data.

Now, all that said, what are we going to be doing going forwards now that this issue is very much in the limelight?

Expect changes to the ability to field respec in Warzones. We were already working on this as part of some upcoming PvP updates (Bruce detailed some of that this week I believe), and we may bring the field respec changes forward – or we may just keep them where they are so to not impact the game update schedules and instead update our existing Warzone game forensic reporting to include inhumanly fast field respec events. Either way my advise if you are currently macroing within Warzones is to stop.

Phillip Holmes
SWTOR Head of Security

I’ve found the post highly helpful since we finally have official word on their stance on macroing in the game. Basically the only macros you are allowed to use are very simplistic text ones, for example for emotes, while macros that warn players of impending attacks in a Warzone are not allowed. Bottom line is, it’s best not to use any kind of automated means as you will put your account at risk.

Macros are useful while leveling, but also in PvP and raids. They are simple to set up, so take a look at a few useful examples below to see how you can make the most out of your character.

Stormcaller/Elementalist Shield

Stormcaller/Elementalist builds do not have much in the way of protection apart from their pet.  You do have 2 shields though: Ice Shield will absorb damage but the CD is long, so Icy Vortex will reduce damage taken, if Ice Shield is on CD.

cast Ice Shield
cast Icy Vortex

PvE Cloromancer/Warlock Main Spellrotation

This will have all your single target DPS spells and Natural Conversion up.

It does not include Radient Spores as that lasts 15 secs while the CD is only 8, meaning you would lose both dps and heals if you include it here.  Warlock spells are both a heal and DPS loss, but if you have a favorite then u can include it before the Vile Spores call.

#show Ruin
cast Natural Conversion
cast Nature’s Touch
cast Ruin
cast Vile Spores

Submitted by Alexandra

Assassin/Bladedancer/Nightblade DPS Macro

This macro starts off with your stealth skills, Assassinate if your behind the target, Paralyzing Strike if your not, and Ebon Terror if your a distance away. It will then go to your Puncture when its off cooldown, and follow up Poison Malice (just figuring it in a rotation). Backstab will be cast when its off cooldown and your behind the target.

Foul Play is an optional one, it is just a preference, you can manually use Foul Play if you want; it will go to Keen Strike, and Quick Strike after a Keen Strike is used, and if your not in melee range, it will use Fiery Spike. Seems to be the most part of your rotation. And while there are many different skills you can use in this macro that are not currently in it, you can use this from level 25 on, replacing things when you dont need/like them.

#show Puncture
suppressmacrofailures
cast Assassinate
cast Paralyzing Strike
cast Ebon Terror
cast Puncture
cast Poison Malice
cast Backstab
cast Foul Play
cast Quick Strike
cast Keen Strike
cast Fiery Spike

Thanks to Jared for contributing this macro!

Paladin/Reaver Melee Macro

Close in with either Shield Charge or Light’s Hammer (for stun) if both are on cool down then Shield Throw does the paladin’s ranged attack (Shield Throw). Once in combat the macro tries to first always use the reactive styles, Disarming Counterblow or Retaliation before going into Aggressive Block (to make sure it is always being used) and then finally our anytime Pacifying Strike.

#show Shield Charge
cast Shield Charge
cast Light’s Hammer
cast Shield Throw
cast Disarming Counterblow
cast Retaliation
cast Aggressive Block
cast Pacifying Strike

Purifier Macros (and build)

So there is my new healing build, healed a few experts with it last night and was very happy with the tools I had to work with. Stackable hots, nice filler heal bubble, big heal emergency buttons and very efficient on mana.

Heres my build link:
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=10eGj.xE0x0z.Vx0E0tbMz.v0V

Primary heal macro

#show healing flame
cast [alt] @mouseover restorative flame
cast [alt] restorative flame
cast [shift] @mouseover healing current
cast [shift] healing current
cast @mouseover flashover
cast flashover
cast @mouseover healing flame
cast healing flame

Purifier bubble plus hots

#show ward of the ancestors
suppressmacrofailures
cast [alt] @mouseover searing transfusion
cast @mouseover ward of the ancestors
cast ward of the ancestors
cast @mouseover Ripple
cast ripple
cast @mouseover Soothing Stream
cast soothing stream

Purifier decurse

show sterilize
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseover sterilize
cast sterilize
cast @mouseover cauterize
cast cauterize

I call this my someone is in trouble macro (oh shit) without cd

#show Deluge
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseover healing breath
cast healing breath
cast @mouseover deluge
cast deluge

Purifier AoE (actually sentinel aoe and modifier with warden aoe)

#show Healing communion
cast [alt] healing flood
cast @mouseover healing communion
cast healing communion

Cooldown + big heal (instant big heal requires 2 presses)

#show touch the light
suppressmacrofailures
cast touch the light
cast @mouseover restorative flame
cast restorative flame

Paladin/Champion Melee DPS

Because this spec has 3 different ‘Finishers’ those are still on the quick bar to be used as needed. This macro is used to get you close and get your points up to perform a finisher attack.

#show Mark of Inevitability
cast Path of the Raptor
cast Path of the Wind
(optional)cast Bull Rush
cast Mark of Inevitability
cast Turn the Blade
cast Rising Waterfall
cast Wrist Strike
cast Dual Strike

51 Warden / 15 Sentinel Macros

HoT macro:

#show Soothing Stream
suppressmacrofailures
cast [alt] @mouseover deluge
cast [alt] deluge
cast @mouseover Ripple
cast ripple
cast @mouseover healing breath
cast healing breath
cast @mouseover Soothing Stream
cast soothing stream

Heal macro:

#show healing current
suppressmacrofailures
cast [shift] @mouseover healing grace
cast [shift] healing grace
cast [alt] @mouseover healing spray
cast [alt] healing spray
cast @mouseover healing current
cast healing current

Orb macro:

#show orbs of the stream
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseover orbs of the stream
cast orbs of the stream
cast @mouseover orbs of the tide
cast orbs of the tide

AoE heal macro

#show healing flood
suppressmacrofailures
cast [ctrl] healing communion
cast [alt] healing showers
cast healing cataract
cast healing flood

Warden dispel macro

#show curative waters
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseover curative waters
cast curative waters
cast @mouseover cleansing waters
cast cleansing waters

Thanks to Rotomon for submitting these macros!

31 Druid / 35 Shaman Macros

Melee DPS macro:

#show crushing blow
suppressmacrofailures
cast jolt
cast glory of the chosen
cast fated blow
cast bombard
cast massive blow
cast eruption of life
cast combined effort
cast lightning hammer
cast trickster spirit
cast crushing blow

Shield macro:

#show glacial shield
cast glacial shield
cast shield of oak

AoE macro:

#show strike of the maelstrom
cast glory of the chosen
cast jolt
cast fated blow
cast ageless ice
cast strike of the maelstrom
cast avalanche strike

Reaver/Champion Ranged DoT Chain

Basically this macro kicks off the ability, Plague Bringer, that allows Reaver’s DOT to spread to 5 other enemies. Soul Sickness is next because its damage heals the Reaver. Since it is at the start of the marco whenever Plague Bringer is up it will kick it off. Followed by Soul Sickness which which will heal the reaver followed by the other DoTs to spread the DOTs around while Plague Bringer is still active. Good to use till you close with the enemy.

Optional: if you aren’t keeping up with the macro Bull Rush lets you know it’s time to melee!

#show Plague Bringer
cast Plague Bringer
cast Soul Sickness
cast Infestation
cast Necrotic Wounds
(optional)Bull Rush

Riftstalker/Bladedancer/Bard Tanking Macro

This is a general tanking / dps filler macro for a Riftstalker who is looking to maximize single target threat.

# show Precision Strike
/suppressmacrofailures
cast Reprisal
cast Precision Strike
cast Quick Strike
cast Keen Strike

Champion/Paragon PvE Macro

Standard stuff to get you to 3 blades. Important: Debilitating Strike is worth it!

#show Inescapable Fury
cast Frenzied Strike
cast Inescapable Fury
cast Turn the Blade
cast Debilitating Strike
cast Rising Waterfall
cast Power Strike

Pops Proper Timing for a MONSTER Finisher.  If they’re under 30% it uses Deathblow if not Punishing Blow … if they’re still standing.

#show Proper Timing
cast Proper Timing
cast Deathblow
cast Punishing Blow
(AE option rather than Punishing Blow) cast Bladefury

Pyromancer/Dominator Ranged DPS Macro

Casts 10 stacks of a 10 sec DoT on the Target, then immediately stuns them for 5 seconds (letting the 10 stacks tick for 330 total per second). Next push casts Inferno (if target is below 30%), otherwise it applies a DoT and follows it up with a DD. Great single target macro for mowing through mobs one at a time.

Ranged DPS

#show Fireball
/suppressmacrofailures
cast Haunting Pain
cast Flasfire
cast Inferno
cast Countdown
cast Flame Bolt
cast Fireball

This macro requires level 30.

Chloromancer/Warlock DPS Macro

Ranged DPS / Off healing macro. Requires level 24.

Burns Natural Conversion everytime it’s up, and keeps the Chloromancers ambient healing abilities up while it moves through the list of cooldown DPS abilities.

#show Vile Spores
/suppressmacrofailures
/cast Radiate Spores
/cast Ruin
/cast Natural Conversion
/cast Draining Bolt
/cast Nature’s Touch
/cast Vile Spores

Inquisitor/Cabalist DPS Macro

This condenses the PBAE abilities used for chain pulling groups of 4 when grinding as a cleric. Engulfing shadows and obliterate give way to a 100% crit Soul Drain, which means there might not even be a need for the Bound fate; but its there if you need it.

#show Soul Drain
/suppressmacrofailures
/cast Engulfing Shadows
/cast Obliterate
/cast Fanaticism
/cas Soul Drain
/cast Bound Fate

This macro requires at least level 35 before all these abilities are available.

Warden/Sentinel Healing Macro

The following simple  macro will cast Ripple whenever it’s up, but continues casting soothing stream if Ripple isn’t available.

#show Soothing Stream
/suppressmacrofailures
/cast Ripple
/cast Soothing Stream

Bard/Nightblade Support & Ranged DPS

This is a button consolidation for support bards, 1 press gets as many combo points on the target as possible (given nothing on cooldown), and resorts to Cadence as a fallback / filler.

#show Riff
/suppressmacrofailures
/cast Riff
/cast Power Chord
/cast Cadence

Justicar/Shaman Melee & Tank Macro

This macro keeps Fated Blow at the top of the stack for reactionaries; always has at least 1 more conviction than needed but the macro falls “back in line” when you have to use another ability (IE: Self Heal)

#show Strike of Judgment
/suppressmacrofailures
/cast Fated Blow
/cast Massive Blow
/cast Lightning Hammer
/cast Censure
/cast Precept of Refuge
/cast Strike of Judgment

Mouse over target marking

This macro will allow the current party leader or raid leader to put his mouse on a character and mark the character with the indicated mark number for the party or raid to see. The targetlasttarget will move the target back to the previous target as to not disrupt the current target.

target @mouseover

mark <number>

targetlasttarget

This can be useful if a team/raid leader aligns the marking macros to 1-8 on the keyboard and to assign each mark number accordingly. Quick and easy 1 key mouse over markings with no active target disruption.

If team members create macros that use @mark <number> modifier as the cast target, then the team leader can effectively change the target of the team members macros quickly with 1 key stroke.

Basic wait macro

As of recently you can even utilize the wait command in macros.

 say Attacking %t in 5 seconds.

 #show "Fragmentation Bomb"

 wait 5

 cast @mouseover Fragmentation Bomb

This macro will cast “Fragmentation Bomb” on your mouseover target after a delay of 5 seconds.

Mouse over healing

This macro is especially useful in all kinds of situations, be it rifts, dungeons or PvP.

#show Basic Heal

stopcasting

cast [ctrl] @mouseover Heal Over Time

cast [ctrl] Heal Over Time

cast [alt] @mouseover Big Heal

cast [alt] Big Heal

cast @mouseover Basic Heal

cast Basic Heal

Be sure to replace the ability names with names of actual abilities.

Here’s how it works: you need to place your mouse over the target you want to heal. By pressing the macro without a modifier key you’ll cast “Basic Heal” on it; if you hold CTRL key while casting you will cast “Heal Over Time”, and if you hold the ALT key you will cast your “Big Heal” spell.

Very useful as it allows you to have three different healing spells in just one macro.

Crowd control notification

The following macro will tell in party chat the name of the target (%T) you’re casting Transmorgify spell on. Since the crowd control will break upon the target receiving damage it’s a very useful macro to ensure none of your group members damage it accidentally.

party I am Squirreling the target %T, do not attack it!

cast Transmorgify

Assisting main tank macro

The following macro is useful for assisting your main tank.

target "name"

assist

cast "name of your usual starting skill"

Basic Macro Commands

• /saveequip followed by an index number (e.g. “/saveequip 1″) – This saves the currently equipped set of equipment to the specified index.
• /loadequip followed by an index number (e.g. “/loadequip 1″) – This loads the saved set of equipment from the specified index.
• /cast followed by an ability name (e.g. “/cast Motif of Tenacity”) – This casts the specified ability. You can specify a target for that ability using special targeting syntax (e.g. /cast @mouseover Commander’s Order)
• /wait followed by a number of seconds (e.g. “/wait 1″) – This is used to tell the game engine to wait the specified number of seconds before issuing the next command.
• /stopcasting – This tells the game engine to stop the current action and is a necessary intermediate step between chained macro commands.
• /use item – This uses the item named (e.g. /use Blessed Tome)
• /help – This lists the Rift recognized / commands.

Special Commands

• /%T – displays the target selected in chat.
• @Focustarget – Cast a spell at a target of a focused target, E.G. /cast @focustarget Soul lance
• @Lasttarget – Cast a spell on your last target before your current target
• #show “ability” – Causes the macro to inherhit the icon and ability icon of the skill.

Basic Macro Example

#show Commander's Order

cast @mouseover Commander's Order

List of Rift slash commands

Below you’ll find the full list of slash commands currently available in Rift. They can also be used in macros.

General

• abilitybar – Selects a specific ability bar page from your main bar.
• afk <message> – Sets you “Away From Keyboard” with optional message.
• alias <alias> <command> <blah> – Allows you to create alias for your commands.
• cancelbuff <spell> – Cancels a buff by name.
• cast <spell name> – Casts a specific spell.
• clearfocus – Clears a focus set by the /Focus command.
• combatlog – Brings up the combat log.
• dismount – Dismounts you from your mount.
• dnd <message> – Sets your chat to “Do not Disturb” with optional message.
• duel <player> – Starts a duel
• dungeoninfo – Displays dungeon info.
• equip <item> – Equips selected item
• equipslot – Untested
• filter – Turns adult chat filter on or off.
• focus <name> – Sets your focus to selected NPC or player.
• follow <target> – Follows the target.
• friend <player name> – Add player as a friend.
• help – Brings up available commands
• inspect <player name> – Looks at a target players gear.
• loc – Gives your location
• macro – Brings up the macro section.
• motd – Edits message of the day.
• played – Shows your time played.
• pvptoggle – Toggles your PVP flag on or off.
• random # – Rolls a number randomly up to the number specified.
• report <player name> – Reports a player.
• returntorespawn – Returns you to the graveyard if you are dead.
• role # – changes your role.
• startattack – Starts melee auto-attack.
• startrangedattack – Starts ranged Auto-Attack.
• stopattack – Stops your attack.
• stopcasting – Cancels casting.
• target <name> – Selects target player or NPC.
• targetexact <name> – Selects the exact name of a NPC or Player.
• time – Displays the server time and the local time.
• version – Gives you the current RIFT version.
• who – Opens the social window.

Party

• clearallmarks – Clears away all target marks.
• dumpraid <filename> – Creates a file that lists the members of a raid.
• invite <player name> – Invites target player to your party.
• kick <player name> – Kick player from your party.
• leader <player name> – Transfer party lead to player.
• mark # – Mark a target with designated number.
• partyleave – Leave your party.
• raid_create – Create a raid.
• raid_disband – Disband a raid.
• readycheck – Prompts a ready window for everyone to confirm readiness.
• resetinstances – Resets a instance.

Chat

• chat # <message>,# <message> – Selects a chat channel you have joined and enters a message when a message follows the space after the number. See /chatlist for chatlist numbers.
• chatlist – Gives the list of chat channels and their numbers you have joined and that can be selected by /1, /2, etc. Aliases of this command are chatinfo and chatwho.
• guild <message> – Selects the guild chat channel and enters a message when a message follows the space after the command. Aliases for this command are /gu, /gc and /g.
• join <channel> – Joins a chat channel when the channel exists or not. Aliases for this command are chatjoin, cjoin, channel and chan.
• leave # – Leaves a chat channel by giving its number. See /chatlist for chatlist numbers. Aliases for this command are /chatleave, /chatexit, /cleave and /cexit.
• lfg – Short command to join the LFG channel (/join LFG).
• party <message> – Opens a party channel and sends a message when a text follows the space after the command to all party members. Alias for this command is p.
• tell <char> <message> – Opens a tell/whisper channel to another character and sends a message in this private channel when a text follows the space after the character name.
• Aliases for this command are whisper, w and t. The hotkey ‘r’ ot the command reply can be used to repond to the last person sending you a tell (or whisper).
• wf <message> – Opens a warfront team channel and sends a message when a text follows the space after the command to all warfront team members.
• raid <message> – Opens a raid channel and sends a message when a text follows the space after the command to all raid members. Alias of this command is /rsay.
• say <message> – Opens an local channel and sends a message when a text follows the space after the command. Alias for this command is s.
• yell <message> – Opens an local channel and sends a message when a text follows the space after the command. Work like say but the text get another colour to emphasize it. Alias for this command is shout.
• announce # – Enables join/leave announcements for a given channel. Alias for this command is /ann.
• chatban # <player name> – Kick and bans a player from a chat channel. Aliases for this command are /ban, /bk and /cban.
• chatinvite # <player name> – Invites a player to a private chat channel. Alias for this command is /cinvite.
• chatunban # <player name> – Unbans a player from a chat channel. Aliases for this command are /unban and /cunban.
• moderator # <player name> – Make a player character moderator of the given channel. Alias for this command is /mod.
• owner # <player name> – Transfers channel ownership to another player character.
• password # <password> – Sets the channel’s password, or clears it if no password entered.
• private # – Make a channel private. People must be invited using /cinvite to join.
• public # – Makes a channel public. Anyone can join who is not on the ban list.
• unannounce # – Disables join/leave announcements for a given channel. Alias for this command is /unann.
• unmoderator # <player name> – Remove moderator permissions for a player character on the given channel. Alias for this command is /unmod

Pet

• petaggressive – Sets your pet to attack anything that comes into range.
• petattack – Sets your pet to attack the current target.
• petcast <spell name> – Your pet will cast the spell given.
• petdefensive – Pet will only attack when attacked.
• petfollow – Pet will follow you.
• petstay – Pet stays at current location.
• petname <pet name> – Sets your pet name.
• petpassive – Sets your pet to do nothing, even if attacked.

 Guild

• dumpguild <filename> – Generates a file with the entire guild roster on it.
• ginvite <player name> – Invite a player to the guild.
• gleave – Leave the guild.
• guild <message> – Type a message to the guild.
• gkick <player name> – Kick a player from the guild
• glog – Brings up the guild log
• gsetmotd <message> – Sets the guild Message Of The Day
• gpromote <player name> <Rank> – Promotes a guild member to a rank designated
• gsetnotes <message> – Changes the Guild Notes message.

A macro in the context of video games refers to a set of instructions that can be issued together with one input or “hotkey.” Rift supports macroing via an in-game menu. Opening that menu brings up a panel with a list of macro slots on the left, and the macro fields on the right. You can give your macro a name and select an icon for it. You can also have a macro inherit the icon and cooldown timer of some ability using the following syntax:

#show ability

e.g. #show Commander’s Order will cause the macro to inherit the icon and ability icon of the skill called “Commander’s Order”.

1. Macro Commands
2. Syntax
3. Basic Macro Commands
4. Special Commands
5. Example Macros
6. Slash Commands
   1. General
   2. Party
   3. Chat
   4. Pet
   5. Guild

Macro Commands

An important component of macros is the ability to issue game commands via text input. A macro generally saves one or more of these commands for future and repeated use. Some the game commands available are below.

• /saveequip followed by an index number (e.g. “/saveequip 1″)
  • This saves the currently equipped set of equipment to the specified index.
• /loadequip followed by an index number (e.g. “/loadequip 1″)
  • This loads the saved set of equipment from the specified index.
• /cast followed by an ability name (e.g. “/cast Motif of Tenacity”)
  • This casts the specified ability. You can specify a target for that ability using special targeting syntax (e.g. /cast @mouseover Commander’s Order)
• /wait followed by a number of seconds (e.g. “/wait 1″)
  • This is used to tell the game engine to wait the specified number of seconds before issuing the next command.
• /stopcasting
  • This tells the game engine to stop the current action and is a necessary intermediate step between chained macro commands.
• /use item
  • This uses the item named (e.g. /use Blessed Tome)
• /help
  • This lists the Rift recognized / commands.

Syntax

When listing commands in the macro interface, you do not need the leading slash, so rather than /cast, you would just use cast. The following illustrates:

#show Commander's Order
cast @mouseover Commander's Order

Basic Macro Commands

• /saveequip followed by an index number (e.g. “/saveequip 1″) – This saves the currently equipped set of equipment to the specified index.
• /loadequip followed by an index number (e.g. “/loadequip 1″) – This loads the saved set of equipment from the specified index.
• /cast followed by an ability name (e.g. “/cast Motif of Tenacity”) – This casts the specified ability. You can specify a target for that ability using special targeting syntax (e.g. /cast @mouseover Commander’s Order)
• /wait followed by a number of seconds (e.g. “/wait 1″) – This is used to tell the game engine to wait the specified number of seconds before issuing the next command.
• /stopcasting – This tells the game engine to stop the current action and is a necessary intermediate step between chained macro commands.
• /use item – This uses the item named (e.g. /use Blessed Tome)
• /help – This lists the Rift recognized / commands.

Special Commands

• /%T – displays the target selected in chat.
• @Focustarget – Cast a spell at a target of a focused target, E.G. /cast @focustarget Soul lance
• @Lasttarget – Cast a spell on your last target before your current target
• #show “ability” – Causes the macro to inherhit the icon and ability icon of the skill.

Example Macros

Assisting Main Tank

target "name"
 assist
 cast "name of your usual starting skill"

Crowd Control Notification

Will tell in party chat the name of the target (%T)you’re casting Transmorgify on.

party I am Squirreling the target %T , touch him and you will get rabies!!!
 cast Transmorgify

Mouse-Over Heal

#show Basic Heal
 stopcasting
 cast [ctrl] @mouseover Heal Over Time
 cast [ctrl] Heal Over Time
 cast [alt] @mouseover Big Heal
 cast [alt] Big Heal
 cast @mouseover Basic Heal
 cast Basic Heal

Slash Commands

This feral druid PvP guide, written by Natz from Hellfire-EU will surely help you get familiarized with the class in the 9th arena season.

Contents:

1. Acronyms and PvP Terms
2. Reasons to Play Feral
3. Professions
4. Talents and Glyphs
5. Keybinds
6. Stats and Gems
7. Viable Arena Setups
8. Feral Playstyle
9. Macros
10. Random General Stuff

1. Acronyms and PvP Terms

Before I get started on the actual guide, you should know what certain things actually are in pvp, such as “Crowd Control” next to that, you can also find acronyms that I’ll use later in the guide here. The pvp terms im quickly explaining here are very basic, so for a more experienced pvp’er it’s best to skip these.

CC – Crowd control: This is the term that players use that describes everything that makes you loose (partial) control of your character. For example: Cyclone, Sheep, Entangling roots, Fear and Kidney Shot are all forms of CC’s.

DR – Dimishing Returns: After you CC a player, he will suffer from DR so you cant control him endlessly. DR means that the second CC you land will have a shorter duration then the first one. The first CC will have 100% duration, the second wil have 50% duration, and the third 25%. After this, the player will be immune to that type of crowd control. The effect of DR ends 15 seconds after your CC ends.

For example: You sheep player A and he is sheeped for 10 seconds. 2 seconds after that you sheep him again, and it’s now a 5 second duration.
Or: You sheep player A and he is sheeped for 10 seconds. 25 seconds later (15 seconds after he leaves the sheep) you sheep him again, and he is sheeped for 10 seconds once again.

Next to this, some spells share DR with eachother, even though they’re different spells. Fear and blind have this for example. If you blind a person directly after a fear, the DR effect will cause it to be only 50% of it’s duration. A full list of CC’s that share DR with eachother can be found here: http://www.wowwiki.com/Diminishing_returns.

LoS – Line of sight: If the direct sight of you on another player is blocked by a pillar, or something similar – you are out of LoS and won’t be able to cast on that player, and his casts wont land on you either. LoS is often used to prevent from getting CC’d. If you see a player cast a CC on you, you can quickly step behind a pillar and the cast will not land on you.

Peel/peeling – Peeling using abilities, like maim or cyclone, to control or slow an opponent. This is mostly used to prevent them from doing damage – so your team can recover from damage taken.

GCD – Global cooldown: The GCD is the time it takes for you to be able to use your next ability after using an instant cast. The GCD is 1.5 seconds for everyone exept: Rogues, Ferals in catform and Death knights in unholy presence.

Then some feral acronyms that are often used ingame and on forums:

• FB – Ferocious Bite
• SI – Surviving Instincts
• SR – Savage Roar
• BS – Barkskin
• FR – Frenzied Regeneration

2. Reasons to Play Feral

Feral has always provided a unique playstyle, combining the attacks from a rogue with the utility from a frost mage. Ferals are, and have always been, an amazing support class. Now, in Season 9, ferals have also gotten tools so they can play very aggressive, and drop healers on their own.

If this isn’t enough reason, feral druids also have one of the most awesome communities of all specs. If you plan to play a feral, don’t forget that old school ferals don’t play a feral, but ARE a feral. This is mostly because of ferals being dogshit for a very long time. Unfortunately, the spec is good now and was pretty good in Wotlk as well, so this is slowly changing.

3. Professions

There’s not a big difference between professions anymore, but these are the ones you do NOT take.

• Herbalism: Haste isn’t very good for feral, so you don’t want to take this!
• Mining: Stamina is nice, but it’s definitely not great.
• Skinning: Crit is a great secondary stat, but it’s just not good enough with other professions giving agility.

Next to this there is a debate of engineering at the moment. The main use of it seems to be rocket gloves, wich do quite low damage. I personally still really like rocket gloves though, but not for the damage component. You can use the rocket gloves to quickly kill a grounding totem, or maybe get down a spell reflect. This can save you a GCD, and getting a cyclone off 1 GCD sooner can be game breaking.

I think all other professions are a good choice as well at the moment. But Leatherworking seems to give the biggest benefit to ferals at the moment.

4. Talents and Glyphs

Ferals only have a few floater points at the moment, but we all start of with the same basic talent spec:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0ZfrMcRzrdbczMcz

There’s dozens of small variations possible though. Some people prefer not to take “Primal Madness” and get some extra survivability instead. I’m personally running with the following spec: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0ZfrMcRdrdrczMcz. If you are facing a lot of wizard cleaves on your battlegroup, and you are dying against them, I would recommend the following spec: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0ZfrMckdrzrczMcu. In the end it really comes down to what talent you prefer though!

For the glyphs, it’s quite straightforward as well, but there are always options to be made!

Prime:

• Glyph of Berserk: Increases the duration of Berserk by 5 sec.
• Glyph of Mangle: Increases the damage done by Mangle by 10%.
• Glyph of Rip: Increases the periodic damage of your Rip by 15%.
• Glyph of Savage Roar: Your Savage Roar ability grants an additional 5% bonus damage done.
• Glyph of Shred: Each time you Shred, the duration of your Rip on the target is extended by 2 sec, up to a maximum of 6 sec.
• Glyph of Tiger’s Fury: Reduces the cooldown of your Tiger’s Fury ability by 3 sec.

Again it’s a bit dependent on your personal preferences which ones you take here. Two of them are really standard though. Almost every feral you see will be using Glyph of Berserk and Glyph of Rip. Glyph of rip speaks for itself, extra damage on our top damage ability. Glyph of Berserk is something that you’ll only see in PvP though. In PvE this glyph isn’t considered great, because you run out of energy after 15 seconds uptime on a boss, even with berserk. However, in PvP it’s very unlikely you’ll be able to get the full 15 seconds uptime on your target, meaning you’ll usually have energy left after those 15 seconds, that you can use on cheaper attacks thanks to this glyph. And 5 seconds extra fear immunity isn’t bad either of course!

For the third pick, I would choose between Mangle or Tiger’s Fury. The savage roar and shred glyph are both great as well, but only if you get a lot of uptime on targets, and can do a nice rotation into them, like the PvE’ers do! If you end up mangling a lot in games, use the mangle glyph – otherwise go for Tiger’s Fury.

Major:

• Glyph of Entangling Roots: Reduces the cast time of your Entangling Roots by 100%, but increases its cooldown by 5 sec.
• Glyph of Feral Charge: Reduces the cooldown of your Feral Charge (Cat) ability by 2 sec and the cooldown of your Feral Charge (Bear) ability by 1 second.
• Glyph of Thorns: Reduces the cooldown of your Thorns spell by 20 sec.
• Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration: While Frenzied Regeneration is active, healing effects on you are 30% more powerful but causes your Frenzied Regeneration to no longer regenerate HP
• Glyph of Ferocious Bite: Your Ferocious Bite ability no longer converts extra energy into additional damage.
• Glyph of Barkskin: Reduces the chance you’ll be critically hit by melee attacks by 25% while Barkskin is active.

One easy pick here; Glyph of Entangling Roots. This glyph is so amazingly overpowered that you always want to use it! Be careful though, the roots still use your instant nature spell proc you gain from combo points.

After that most ferals go for Glyph of Charge – shorter cooldown on such an important ability is great to have. The third glyph is hardest though, Thorns does great damage – but has limited use against most teams. But if you happen to face a feral/rogue/x team it’s really insanely awesome.

Frenzied Regeneration glyph used to be horrible, but after the nerf on the healing it does, it’s something I’ll have to check. The problem with this glyph is that you usually need to use cooldowns because your healer is CC’d, and if he’s CC’d he doesn’t heal, so you don’t gain anything out of it unless you live long enough to receive heals again.

Glyph of Ferocious Bite is something that depends on the situation again. In some situations an opponent is low on HP and you want a big fat ferocious bite to finish him off. In other situations you rather save that energy to build up new combo points with. I’m planning to try it out a bit more, but at the moment it doesn’t seem to great.

And last, Glyph of Barkskin. In my opinion the best pick at the moment, purely because of the damage warriors can put out. When warrior’s get toned down I think I’ll swap it out again, because melee is something ferals can deal with very well!

Minor:

Really easy! You’ll want to use Dash, Mark of the Wild and Aquatic form. If you’re tanking in the same spec, swap out MotW or Aquatic form for Challenging roar.

5. Keybinds

Out of all specs, ferals have the biggest need for keybinds. If you’re clicking it becomes even harder to get behind your target, and shred. If you are still clicking, swap to keybinds as soon as you can! I used to click myself as well, and swapping to keybinds really makes a huge difference.

6. Stats and Gems

As a feral druid there really are 2 main stats that you want to have: Agility and Resilience. Next to these the other stats relevant for feral pvp are (in order of importance):

• Spell Penetration
• Hit
• Mastery
• Crit
• Haste
• Expertise

Your goal with gearing up is to get pieces with agility on them, strength is good as well – but agility is better (an epic strength ring is usually better then a rare agility ring). Next to this you want to avoid haste and expertise as much as you can. If you happen to get it anyway, that’s what you want to reforge into something else.

There is caps for hit and spell penetration you want to hit, so you don’t miss, or get spells resisted. For hit this is 5% – 600 hit , and you’ll also need 97 spell penetration. Once you have hit these caps, you can completely ignore these stats, because they’re now your worst. As a feral, there is no spell penetration on gear – so to hit the spell penetration cap, you’ll need to use 2x 50 spell penetration gems. Conveniently, these go into blue sockets and can be used to activate socket bonuses.

To get to the hit cap, you’ll want to reforge stats to hit. You can also gem hit – but one point of agility is twice as good as one point of mastery – so if you gem hit you’ll be wasting damage! I generally go with the following setup:

• Red: 40agility or 20agility/20resi
• Yellow: 20agility/20resi, or 40resi
• Blue: 50spellpen, 20agi/20hit or 20resi/20hit if spellpen capped, and 20agi/30stam or 20resi/30stam if hit and spellpen capped.

The metagem is the hardest to choose. The best metagem for us is the Relentless Earthsiege Diamond, but the gem requirements are hard to hit. That’s why I swapped to the Fleet Shadowspirit Diamond, giving 54 mastery and movement speed increase. If you can get the gem requirements for the Relentless metagem – use that one instead. Other options are:

• Effulgent Shadowspirit Diamond (82stamina 2% less spell damage taken)
• Powerful Shadowspirit Diamond (82stamina and 10% les stun duration on you)
• Destructive Shadowspirit Diamond (54 crit and 1% chance to reflect spells)

7. Viable Arena Setups

I’ll be updating this with the most common feral setups, and how they work, so it’s easier for you to find a combo you like. With the season just starting it’s a bit hard for me to see what comps are good right now, so I’ll list the 3 most common feral comps of the past seasons.

1: Feral/Mage/healer

This comp used to be played with a priest, but with priests being crap right now you’ll probably want to replace the priest with a paladin or restoshaman. This is my old combo, and I personally think it’s the most fun feral setup by far! This setup gets its kills out of long CC chains on the opponents healer, meaning that you will need good coordination with your teammates, about who CCs what opponent and what time. I expect this combo to do really good this season, with both feral/mage being very strong classes at the moment.

2: Feral/Warrior/Paladin

A strong combo that simply does an awful lot of damage. It’s the least CC based combo a feral can play. With the paladin keeping your warrior mobile, and your ability to shift from snares, it can always keep up a high amount of preasure, slowly forcing cooldowns and eventually get a kill.

3: Feral/Rogue/Healer

I’ve always seen this as a “pop all cooldowns in the first minute and hope something dies” kind of combo, even though it also did a good job at outlasting teams back in WotLK. In Cataclysm however, I don’t see how a rogue/feral/healer team is going to outlast players. If you want to play a zergcomp, I would go for this.

8. Feral Playstyle

Playing Offensive

Ferals have a priority system. Our bleeds a do a lot more damage if you have Mangle up you’ll want it on a target when you’re hitting it. Shred does more damage on targets that are bleeding. Don’t Shred till Rake or Rip is on the target. Our finishing moves, Rip and Ferocious Bite, are designed to be used on 5 combo points. Using Rip on anything less is a waste. If you need fast damage, a 3 or 4 point Ferocious Bite can be used instead of waiting on Shred energy.

Those are the basics. After that the talents come into play. Tiger’s Fury also increases our damage by 15% for 6 seconds, next to restoring 60 (80) energy. Bleeds applied during this increased damage effect, will profit from it for their entire duration! Meaning, that if it’s possible – you should apply your bleeds during Tigers Fury – allowing you to create more preasure afterwarts. Don’t use Tiger’s Fury for the extra damage though! It’s an energy generator, so use it on 25 or less energy. And, do not use it at all if you think it will be good to have 10 seconds later.

Another important talent is Stampede, giving you a free Ravage after you charge an enemy. There are several uses for this. If you charge someone before you open or when they’re running away, you can use it there for extra combo points. Make sure to use something else first though. If you’re on 100 energy and you use it, you’re wasting the energy that could have been regenerated if you used another global first. I generally hit Rrake first, then Mangle and Ravage after that. You can’t use it much later, because Ravage also gets 50% increased crit chance against players above 80% hp.

Next to all this it is VERY important to not just mindlessly spam abilities. It’s a good idea to keep your energy high for when you can create preasure. And even if you are creating preasure, make sure to save energy so you’re able to kick at all times.

Next to saving energy for kick, there’s another thing you should do if you’re getting used to feral PvP. Our Kick has 13 yard range, and combined with our 145% movement speed, it’s a really good kick. Always keep an eye on the opponents healer position, so you can kick his heals – even if you’re not hitting him but his partner! You should always try to keep the enemies healer partners close to him, so you can kick the heals. If you know you won’t need your kick, you can also use it as a small gap closer.

One of the most important parts of playing aggressive, is your CC. Being a feral druid, your damage has a small ramp up time. The damage starts to come when your bleeds are up. That’s why, generally, you wait with CC’ing their healer until their partner is bleeding. If you CC him before that, you wont do as much damage and the healer will be on DR, making you cause a lot less preasure. If you throw a Cyclone after you get Rip/Rake up, those bleeds are ticking already while you’re cycloning and you regenerate energy even though you’re not in catform. Causing you to hardly loose any damage, exept 3 autoattacks.

And as last point for aggressive play, Savage Roar. Savage Roar gives quite a bit of extra damage, but not enough for you to have in a standard opener anymore. However, if you have spare combo points on a target you’re not hitting anymore – use them for savage roar. If you got combo points on a target and you’re trying to restealth, use Savage Roar just before you restealth. This way you’ll get a fair bit of extra preasure out.

Playing Defensive

There are 2 categories of defensive play. The first one involves keeping yourself alive, the second one is keeping your partners alive.

As a feral you’ve got a lot of ways to peel for your partners. Your options are:

1. Cyclone
2. Entangling Roots
3. Mangle slow
4. Feral Charge immobilize
5. Cat or bear stun
6. Taunt

You can’t use everything in the same situation though. If you’re partner is running away from a melee class, or trying to LoS a caster following him – root or charge is your best bet. But when your partner is stunned by a melee that is already hitting him, rooting won’t do a damn thing! Cyclone is by far the safest peel you can use. Always be prepared for an opponent trinketting though. It’s often a good idea to cast a second cyclone immediately after your first one if your partner is in a lot of trouble. 4/5 times they’ll trinket and get right into another cyclone. After that you got some times to run up there, and use Bash. This should give your partner plenty of time to get away, especially if you give them a quick movement speed increase with stampeding roar.

And, I wasn’t joking about taunt. You can Taunt or Challenging Roar most pets, which will then attack you for the duration. It used to be like that at least, this might have been patched. Will try to find out about that as fast as I can!

Now that your partners are still alive, it’s time to look after yourself. Most of the peels described above will also work to peel of yourself. But, because you’re a feral – it gets a bit easier. The best thing to do to keep yourself alive, is to be close to a pillar at all times. This way you’ll only need a small window to pop behind a pillar on your own, and throw some quick heals to get decent HP again. If you’re far away from a pillar, a nice trick is to charge a hostile player, totem or pet that might be near a pillar, and run around the corner there. Make sure you keep your healer up to date about what’s going on if you’re doing this though!

If you can’t get away, and your healer is CCd it’s often smart to go bear form – especially against melee. You’ll take a bit les damage from your talents and higher armor, and you can use an extra defensive cooldown: FR is best used under 30% hp, because it restores hp up to 30% hp instantly. Keep in mind that trying to save it very long can kill you as well though. If your healer is free to cast, it’s usually better to stay in catform. You’ll take 20% extra healing in catform, and you also get combopoints to use on instant casts. When im getting close to dying, I often just Savage Roar on low combopoints hoping to get a lifesaving instant proc.

9. Macros

I’m using a couple of macros which I find useful myself, mostly are focus target macros. If you use other macros just leave them in a post and I’ll add them.

Kick

Uses the right kick for the form you’re in:

#show Skull Bash(Cat Form)
/cast [stance:1] Skull Bash(Bear Form); [stance:1] Skull Bash(Bear Form);
/cast [stance:3] Skull Bash(Cat Form); [stance:3] Skull Bash(Cat Form);

One click snarebreaker

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

This will shapeshift you out and back in the form you where already in without delay, breaking snares.

#showtooltip
/cast [target=focus] [stance:1] Feral Charge - Bear;[stance:3] Feral Charge – Cat

Focus macros

#showtooltip
/cast [target=focus] [stance:1] Feral Charge - Bear;[stance:3] Feral Charge – Cat

• /cast [target=focus] Cyclone
• /cast [target=focus] Entangling Roots
• /cast [target=focus] Hibernate (really helpful against resto druids)
• /cast [target=focus] Faerie Fire (Feral) – nice against warlocks to prevent Dispels from his Felhunter on, for example, Fear or Sheep
• /cast [target=name] Remove Curse – change “name” with whoever you want to be able to dispel fast
• /cast [target=name] Innervate – Because hitting the wrong target and innervating myself is just so stupid…

#showtooltip
/cast [target=focus] [stance:1] Feral Charge - Bear;[stance:3] Feral Charge – Cat
#show Skull Bash(Cat Form)
/cast [stance:1, target=focus] Skull Bash(Bear Form); [stance:1] Skull Bash(Bear Form);
/cast [stance:3, target=focus] Skull Bash(Cat Form); [stance:3] Skull Bash(Cat Form);

10. Random General Stuff

Just writing random general stuff here that didn’t seem right or important enough to write somewhere else.

• Feral charge cat is an insanely fun spell. You can use it to jump up ledges if an enemy is there, and even better is that you can jump down, and charge back up while your enemy is following you. If you do this right, you’ll be on top again and he’ll be below you.
• Practice makes perfect. Hopefully this guide helped a bit as well, but in the end it’s just a wall of text. In game practice is what teaches you the most.
• Don’t forget about your racials. Unless you’re a Worgen that is, your racial is so useless you might as well forget about it!
• Duels – will add some dueling tactics after I’ve dueled more!
• Comp specific tactics I hope some other druids can add, because I myself can only play one comp on my feral due to being on a shitty realm.

If you spot anything that’s wrong, or you think should be added, please say so!