Wednesday, November 28, 2007

My First Totem Macro



Twenty Totems... think of it... in 5 more levels, I'll be able to live up to the name, and drop 20 of the little buggers at a time. Besides the useful game mechanics involved with that many Totems, just think of how pretty it will be! lol

But how do I manage 20 totems at once? In a word, macros. Well, two words.. macros and Keyclone. As I've stated before, Keyclone is so far, my Boxing Killer App. I bought a copy ($10) for each of my 3 machines. This allows me to use my main keyboard, which broadcasts to Keyclone on my 2 other machines, which then broadcasts them to the two instances of WoW running on each.

So each time I hit a button on my keyboard, I can drop a totem on each toon. But I don't have enough buttons to assign one to each type of Totem, nor would I want to have to hunt through that many buttons knowing I have a set of Totems I use 99% of the time. That's where macros come in.

If you don't know how to use macros at all, spend some time here: WoWWiki Macro Guide

Assuming you do, lets talk about /Castsequence. This script allows us to "queue" up several different spells, and execute them in order, one key press at a time. Here's an example:

/castsequence Tremor Totem, Searing Totem, Mana Spring Totem

When you drag this macro to a button, it will first cast a Tremor Totem with the first button press, then Searing with the next, and finally Mana Spring with the last. Hit it again, and it would start all over in the cycle.

Knowing I can drop one Totem of each element on each toon, I can write a custom macro for each Shaman, and end up dropping a wide variety of Totems with one key. For Fire, I might want all Searing, so I add Searing to every toon's macro. But because some Totems don't stack, I might want a variety. Earth as an example. I currently drop one Stoneskin, one Earthbind, one Tremor and two Stoneclaws (for CC). So each toon's macro will have a different Earth Totem in it, but they all drop together.

The other feature of /Castsequence, is the Reset. You have many options to choose from, when it comes to resetting the sequence. The options are:
  • Number of seconds: literally choose a number of seconds after the first keypress before it resets. This works great for spells with specific cooldowns
  • Change Target: Reset the sequence each time you change targets
  • Combat: Reset the sequence each time you leave combat
  • Shift/alt/ctrl: Reset the sequence each time you press the macro button while holding shift, alt or ctrl.

The cool thing is, you can stack these veriables. Here's what I ended up with:

/castsequence Reset=combat Searing Totem, Healing Stream Totem, Tremor Totem, Grounding Totem

Of course, each toon is slightly different. They all drop the same Fire Totem right now, but they drop different Earth Totems. As I gain more spells, I'll have to constantly re-evaluate. I then place the macro on the same action bar (which is tied to a button on my Nostromo) and it becomes my "PvE Totem Button".

When I get ready to enter combat, I simply hit this button 3 times, and all my totems are down. In case I end up hitting it again during combat, the Reset=combat will always reset the button on each toon as soon as I leave combat. It's pretty sweet.

Let me know if you're using any specific macros for multiboxing!

Boom

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Ding! (25)



We're moving on up! This is starting to feel a bit more Galvanized. (see: HomeStar Runner) My boys hit 25 last night, and are currently sitting just under 26. I stopped power leveling them with Boom, and instead teamed them up with the 5th and last member of the group, my 46 Shaman, Pugh.

Last night I paid the $10 to have Pugh's name changed to Thunduh. So now he's matching his brothers.

I spent some time writing my first totem macros, so I now use one button to drop 15 totems. (3 hits) It took some time to get it just right, but I'm thrilled with the results. I can't wait to get them to 30 where they'll get their Air Totem, and I can finally live up to the name of the guild.... Twenty Totems.

I'll try to post tonight with the details of my first Totem Macro.

Boom

Stackable Totems (A Guide)



Multiboxing with all Shammies is fun. Period. Why? Because Shammies get so many cool tools and toys, meant to buff a group of other classes. So when you stack those buffs with muiltiple Shaman, it gets really fun. (not to mention cool to see!)

I've been digging for a while to figure out exactly what totems stack, and which don't. I finally found the info I was looking for, where else, but at Dual-Boxing.com.

My favorite Shammieboxer™, (that's right, I coined a phrase!) Ellay, who runs Dual-Boxing.com, clarified most of the Totem details in a post. Here's a visually pleasing summary. (as I know you kids love to be pleased visually.)

Earth Totems
Earthbind Totem
Slows enemies
Does Not Stack
Stoneskin Totem
Reduce melee damage taken
Does Not Stack
Stoneclaw Totem
Taunts mobs
STACKS!
Dropping multiples does wonders for CC. After one dies, the next will grab the mob.
Strength of Earth Totem
Increase Strength
Does Not Stack

Tremor Totem
Remove Fear, Charm and Sleep effects

STACKS!
Each totem "pings" at a given rate, so when you stagger your drops, you end up with more coverage.
Earth Elemental Totem
Summon Tank-like Earth Elemental
STACKS!
Not really a "stack", but 5 x Tanking Elemental = AwesomeSauce™
Fire Totems
Searing Totem
Shoots fireballs at enemies
STACKS!
They each do their own damage, so they stack just fine!
Fire Nova Totem
Single AoE explosion after a few seconds
STACKS!
Same as Searing above
Magma Totem
AoE / DoT
STACKS!
Same as Searing and Nova. Dropped close together, and you have some very decent AoE!
Frost Resistance Totem
+ Frost Resist
Does Not Stack
Flametongue Totem
Enchant weapons with +melee (fire) damage
Does Not Stack
Totem of Wrath
+3% to Spell Crit and Hit
STACKS!
5 totems = +15% crit AND +15% to hit. So just about no need to spend any item points on +spell hit gear.
Fire Elemental Totem
Summon DPS Elemental Pet
STACKS!
Not really a "Stack", but 5 x DPS Elemental pets. WOOT!
Water Totems
Healing Stream Totem
HoT to party
STACKS!
Drop 5 of these and you just about don't need to heal your group.
Mana Spring Totem
MoT to party
Does Not Stack
Poison Cleansing Totem
Remove 1 poison every 5 seconds
STACKS!
Can "stack" if you stagger your drops.
Disease Cleansing Totem
Remove 1 disease every 5 seconds
STACKS!
Same as Poison
Mana Tide Totem
+ 6% of total mana every 4 seconds for 12 seconds
STACKS!
Fire Resistance Totem
+Fire Resist
Does Not Stack
Air Totems
Grace of Air Totem
+Agility to party
Does Not Stack
Windfury Totem
Enchant Weapon to recieve chance of extra hits
Does Not Stack
Grounding Totem
Immune to next spell cast on player
STACKS!
This is incredibly powerful vs. caster opponents
Windwall Totem
Reduce Ranged Damage taken
Does Not Stack
Sentry Totem
Security camera you can place anywhere and view through
Utility totem. You can place them at different positions to watch over a flag in pvp.
Nature Resistance Totem
+Nature Resist
Does Not Stack
Tranquil Air Totem
Reduce threat by 20%
Does Not Stack
Wrath of Air Totem
+101 to Healing and Spell Damage
Does Not Stack