I <3 Lightning Bolts!: Playing with World of Warcraft Macros

Macros, macros, macros, if you have played World of Warcraft long enough, I bet you must have at least heard about macros, and very likely you have been using macros often. In this first post, I will be covering some basics and introduction. If you already have some experiences on WOW macro, you may want to skip this post, as it is basically just a digest of macro guide from blizzard.

What the hell is Macro

Let's start with some off topic things first, so what is macro? Wikipedia says - "Macro is commonly known as the prefix in the word macroscopic" and click into Macro(computer science), it "is a rule or pattern that specifies how a certain input sequence (often a sequence of characters) should be mapped to an output sequence (also often a sequence of characters) according to defined procedure" blah blah blah, which usually means, you press a key, the computer recognizes there is a macro mapped to it, so instead of giving you a letter, it gives you a sequence of characters. In even simpler words, it just means you press a key and it does something. Macro this word is usually used with keyboard and mouse, it allow you to assign a longer or repetitive sequence of keystrokes and/or mouse movements to much shorter ones, and therefore able to create automated keystrokes and mouse actions.

Macros in World of Warcraft

In WOW, "a macro is grouping of several slash commands that execute together when you click a button" - Wowwiki. Which means you can combine several commands into one icon, which can then be used like any other icons that you put into your action bars. Here is a long list of commands that can be used from wowwiki and from blizzard online manual, take a couple of minutes to look into both links, but at the end you will find you will only be using a few of them.
Most macros consist of automated actions performed outside WOW client may be considered "cheating", but everything you can do with in-game macros is fine.

Getting started

First, we access this macro window by hitting escape or clicking the computer icon to bring up options menu, then clicking "Macro", or simply using command /macro or /m.
This windows has 2 tabs, General macros contain 36 slots which is shared across all characters, and 18 slots for Character specific macros. Since 3.0, these "native" macros written with this window may be stored at server-side. You can also create more with some third-party addons. Each single macro has a name, an icon, and can store up to 255 characters in its text field, so keep your message short or make multiple macros.

Hello World! Macro

All programming guide must have this Hello World! thing. To create a macro, just click the "New" button, a window will pop up and get you to assign a name and icon. The name should be as short and descriptive as possible as it will appear on the icon itself, and it only shows 5-6 letter before they become "..."s. Let's just call it "Hello". Below the name field is a huge scrollable grid of icons, you may pick any one you think it is appropriate. The first question mark icon is "automatic icon", means it shows up as an icon corresponds to the first ability or spell in the macro. This is pretty useful when you do some complex macros like assign multiple spells to one button.
Now just type something in "Enter Macro Commands" box. Enter these commands on two separate lines:

/greet
/s Hello World!

After you have done typing these commands, just drag the highlighted icon to an empty slot in your action bars. You should see your icon with "Hello" displayed. Now try to click on it and you should see your character waving like a greet emotion command, and saying "Hello World". Congratz! you have made a macro!

Now try to add in a spell, as this is an elemental blog, let's use Thunderstorm as an example. Replace Thunderstorm with any spell or ability of you class if you aren't a thunder lover.

/s Just Dance!!!
/cast Thunderstorm

Click the new macro, gratz! you have learned how to use macro to cast a spell!
Now try to drag it to a slot with key binding, now try to jump around and hit that key multiple times. Yay! you have learned how to use macro to cast a spell, in an annoying way!

Warning: This as considered spamming, make sure you avoid doing this with other players around. Also, avoid using insulting or swear words in this kind of macro, etiquette guys.