We just released the build 107 of ECMerge 2.2.

This build is a bug fix release, it fixes 12 significant bugs about command line, translations, Xtract, SCC plug-ins and more.

Regards
Armel

Eclipse:

Come Patch 3.3, you will no longer be able to chain back-to-back Eclipse procs so easily. A cooldown is being added so that one two Eclipses cannot be active within 15 seconds of each other, in addition to the 30-second cooldown each eclipse has independently. From MMO-Champion:

Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator)

Eclipse: This effect will not activate again within 15 seconds of either type of Eclipse effect firing, in addition to the existing 30-second cooldown for each type of Eclipse.

Currently, if you have the addon WiseEclipse or use a /cancelaura macro, you can have almost guaranteed back-to-back Eclipses, proccing a Solar Eclipse with a Starfire still benefiting from the Lunar Eclipse buff.

To refresh your memory, the current tooltip of Eclipse is as such:

When you critically hit with Starfire, you have a 100% chance of increasing damage done by Wrath by 30%. When you critically hit with Wrath, you have a 60% chance of increasing your critical strike chance with Starfire by 30%. Each effect lasts 15 sec and each has a separate 30 sec cooldown.  Both effects cannot occur simultaneously.

The 15-second added ‘cooldown’ runs in synch with the 15-second Eclipse buff. However, it persists even if you cancel your Eclipse buff (which is what a /cancelaura macro or WiseEclipse did). This means that this change is only a nerf if you used one of the two aforementioned methods in order to benefit from a buffed spell without actually having the buff. Yeah, for all those that were using WiseEclipse or /cancelaura, it’s a nerf. But only a very slight one.

2pc Tier 8:

Item – Druid T8 Balance 2P Bonus – Increases the bonus granted by Eclipse for Starfire and Wrath by 7%. (Down from 15%)

Yup, it’s a nerf. However, it’s a nerf that many Moonkins predicted would come. The 2pc Tier 8 bonus was really just too powerful for its own good. I personally held off getting 4pc Tier 9 because, (a) I didn’t have access to the ilevel 258 version and (b) the 2pc Tier 8 bonus was too strong to drop for anything less. However, come Patch 3.3, if you have access to the 4pc Tier 9 set, take it. It will be an upgrade over 2pc T8/2pc T9.

4pc Tier 10:

Item – Druid T10 Balance 4P Bonus – Your critical strikes from Starfire and Wrath cause the target languish for an additional 7% of your spell’s damage over 4 sec. (Up from 5%)

Yay, it’s a buff! It still remains to be seen how exactly this set bonus will work (as I commented on in this post). However this turns out to work, increasing the damage coefficient is always going to be nice.

Besides the macros supplied with OCLC Connexion Client (I specify the Client because I haven’t worked extensively with the Web interface–any who have, please add your thoughts), there are many more available for you to add.

We’re lucky in the Chicago area to have two of the most productive macro experts in the North Suburban Library System–Joel Hahn of the Niles Public Library District and Harvey Hahn, of Arlington Heights Memorial Library until his recent retirement. Walter F. Nickeson of the Rochester University Libraries and Merry Morris have also contributed numerous macros.

So, where to find them? OCLC’s Connexion Client macros page includes links to Joel Hahn’s macros, Merry Morris’ simple macros, and Walt Nickeson’s macros; the Connexion Client guide Basics: Use Macros (also listed below); macro lessons for beginners; and materials from Harvey and Joel Hahn’s June 2005 ALA session on using Connexion macros.

Want to go deeper? Basics: Use Macros is a huge resource with which you can spend many happy hours. It includes extensive instructions on the creation and use of macros with OCLC Connexion.

One caution that I’ll mention here: Create your own macro book or books for any new or modified macros you bring into Connexion, whether you create the macros yourself or find them elsewhere. The two OCLC-supplied macro book files, OCLC.mbk and Dewey.mbk, may be overwritten during Connexion software upgrades, and if that happens you’ll lose anything of yours that was stored in those books.

And one more useful resource: Joel Hahn’s Better Living through Macros includes step-by-step instructions for loading macros into Connexion from various sources and “OCLC Macro Language for the Complete Beginner” (OML is a Basic-derived programming language).

FICHA TÉCNICA

Foto: Adriana Koskosky
 Ano: 2007-08
Arquivo pessoal

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

This is a beautiful, long-lived bloom.  It opens and closes and interacts with its environment.  I think it is an intelligent flower.   This shot was taken towards the end of a cloudy, rainy day as the light faded away.

Closed Anemone

Nikon D90 with Tamron 90.  1/10s at f/4, ISO160.  In Lightroom, adjusted white balance, increased contrast and decreased clarity.  Adjusted light levels to bring out the flower and darken the background.

#showtooltip Berserk
/use [nomod:shift] Berserk
/use [nomod:shift] Sulfuron Slammer
/stopmacro [nomod:shift]
/w Kastille BERSERK A GO GO!
/ w Asreif BERSERK A GO GO!

• Safe to use regularly in pvp/bg’s/whatever, then when raiding with a Blood DK who’s going to provide you with Hysteria, hit Shift + Macro hotkey – get Hysteria – then hit button normally and go to town. If you run with several different Blood DK’s on a regular basis, just make a line for each of them but disable the line by putting a space between the “/” and the “w”.

• Why the Sulfuron Slammer? – Makes things look pretty, puts a different-looking notification into everyone’s chat frame (which can get you Hysteria if you’ve forgotten to notify the Blood DK), but could possibly self-stun you if the fight goes on for too long or you mash the button.

Below is the screenshot after the first Kara run – first raid I ever did on Ravenholdt in Uther’s Hand. Rockin’ group that knew everything all the time and held my hand through it all. But yeah. YEAH. Nothing but hate and immature b.s. on my first server (Laughing Skull) if a druid thought he could be feral endgame. 4 Ferals later – and PuG-tanking my way to level-cap on all of them – …this. Jackpot.

If you mock a weatherman for not being able to predict weather out of a wet paper bag enough times, then they predict a big storm – which of course you don’t believe them – that knocks the power out.  I knew I should have just scheduled my Stills post Saturday night! And since I to do so, today will be a late SS/Macro Monday post.

Regular old post-growing moss.

Sunday Stills Challenge:

As it turns out, I did manage to find a horse to photograph… my own!  Not that I was worried about finding any. =)

Just coming back from a ride.  Nick was so patient and hardly moved a muscle while I snapped away and asked him to pose for me.

This is one of my favorites, I took it this summer right before I went for a ride.  I just love the look on his face.

You should make a macro for wiki, $wiki=http://util.xat.com/wiki/index.php/, The idea behind this is, If you want to get to the Macros page easily, You type $wikiMacros, and you’ll see it pop up as http://util.xat.com/wiki/index.php/Macros, So it’ll be easy. THANKS, ACKIRBACHU, for telling me this. I’m just trying to help everyone out with their macros!

Let’s say you’ve been asked to kill 40 turkeys. I don’t know why, maybe a friend dared you to do it.

And let’s say this friend said, not only do I dare you to kill 40 turkeys, I dare you to kill each one within 30 seconds of each other.

You should have two responses.

First, take this person off your friends list! What kind of friend would ask such a crazy thing of you?

Second, bet them 100g on the spot, because you’re going to kill those turkeys AND get paid for it!

Here’s what you do.

1. Prepare yourself with some Tracker Snacks. If you can’t cook them yourself, find someone who can or buy them off the AH. Pay whatever outrageous prices people are asking, because time is money, friend!

2. Go to the zone of your choice – Elwynn, Trisifal, the Fjiord, wherever – eat a Tracker Snack, enjoy watching your minimap light up with all those yellow dots, and then…

3. Go scouting. Don’t skip this step! Ride around and find 2-3 groups of turkeys, all close to each other. In Elwynn I found a LOT of these areas -around Stone Carin Lake, Ridgepoint Tower, Jasperlode Mine – I settled for the far side of the Eastvale Logging Camp and Ridgepoint Tower. I hear the area south of SM in Trisifal is also good, but the specific spot matters less than that there are lots of Wild Turkeys there right now.

4. Now you’re going to make a macro. If you’ve never made a macro, now’s a good time to start. If you don’t like using macros, tough, because your reputation and money are now on the line. And it’s a simple one — Line 1: /target Wild Turkey, Line 2: /cast (instant-cast damaging spell). That’s it. Put it on your action bar.

5. Put on your speed boots – you have speed boots, right? – put your pet on passive, and go hunting! Always be moving to the next yellow dot. Ride whenever you are not in combat, and run when you are. DO NOT STOP TO LOOT. Kill turkeys until you’re tired of killing, and then kill some more. Don’t stop until you get [The Turkinator].

6. /dance, then go kill 25 more Wild Turkeys – this time, loot them. You need the meat for quests.

Once all that is complete, go find your friend, gloat, and collect your bet.

(If the friend was hypothetical, you can just gloat to yourself.)

Enjoy your shiny new achivement!

For a lot of mages, the idea of the macro is a very foreign concept. This post is intended to intruduce the idea of the macro and provide examples of macros and macro behaviour.

To start making macros, the first thing you need to do is bring up the macro interface. To do this, hit ESC and select “Macros” or you may type “/m” in the chat frame. You have two sets of macros here; some will be shared between all of your characters on that realm while others are character-specific. You may name your macros whatever you wish to help yourself remember what the macro is for. You may also assign them an icon from any of the abilities in the game. Assigning the ‘?’ icon to a macro will cause it to take the icon of whichever is that of the first item or ability used in the macro.

Many functions in World of Warcraft can be executed via slash commands in the in-game chat window. “/cast <spellname>” casts a spell. For example,

• /cast fireball(Rank 2)

casts Fireball (Rank 2). If the rank is ommitted, the game will assume that you intend for the maximum rank to be used (This is probably what you want anyway). In addition, the spell names are not case sensitiv; “fireball” is the same as “Fireball” and “fIRe BAll”. A peculiarity is that every ability is considered a “spell”, not just what you would think is a spell. The following commands,

• /cast attack
• /cast will of the forsaken

both perform the expected actions, even though they are not typically considered spells.

“/cast” is not the only slash command. There are many commands as you surely know and all of them can be used in macros. Here are a few useful ones:

• /stopmacro
  • Stops the macro from continuing
• /petpassive
  • Puts your summoned pet on passive
  • Macro it with summoning your elemental to keep him from aggroing weird things
• /use
  • Like /cast, but for items
    • ie: /use hearthstone
  • Items you have equipped my be referred to by slot number
    • 13 & 14 are your trinkets
• /stopcasting
  • Stops whatever you are currently casting
  • Nice for aborting a cast to perform some time critical action, like Counterspell or Spellsteal

Slash commands can have additional parameters too. These are indicated by placing them in square brackets after the slash command but before the ability being used. More parameter after the first are placed in the same brackets but sperated by a comma. For example,

• /cast [harm,nodead] Dispel Magic

would cast Dispel Magic on the target only is the target was hostile to you, and not dead. Other parameters include (but are not limited too),

• target=<target>
  • Changes the target of the spell or ability to the target specified
    • ie: /cast [target=scraphammer] greater heal
  • There are some special names:
    • “target=mouseover” attempts to target whatever is under the cursor
    • “target=player” attempts to target the player’s character
    • “target=focus” attempts to target the focus, or does nothing if there is no focus
  • In patch 3.3 “@<target>” is being added as shorthand for “target=<target>”
• harm
  • Checks if the target is hostile to you (causes command to fail if false)
• help
• mod
  • Checks to see if you are holding a modifier key (like shift, alt etc.)
• nomod
• exists
  • Checks to see if the target is something that exists. This may sound very mundane but it is very important in target=mouseover macros
• noexists
• dead
• nodead
• spec:<num>
  • Checks to see if you are in that spec (people who don’t dual spec need not apply)
    • ie: /cast [spec:2] icy veins

Of course, the whole idea of the macro is to be able to issue more than one command at a time. Unfortunately, there are some restrictions on this. As soon as you macro fails or succeeds to cast an ability that is on the Global Cooldown your macro is prevented from doing any else that is meaningful. Abilities or items not on the Global Cooldown can be very easily chained together. If you must include a spell on the GCD in your macro, it is best to do it at the end. Here are some examples of macros that will execute all the way through.

1. Macro 1: PoM Pyro
   1. /cast presence of mind
   2. /cast pyroblast
   • • Note: Because of the incredible speed at which macros are processed Pyroblast may fail to cast if you are moving. An easy workaround is to stand still or push the macro twice
2. Macro 2: Mouseover Living Bomb
   1. /cast [target=mouseover,exists] living bomb
3. Macro 3:Activate Cooldowns
   1. /cast arcane power
   2. /cast combustion
   3. /cast icy veins
   4. /use 13
   5. /use 14
   • • Note: Even though some of these spells will fail, the macro will still “fall through” to the other spells since they are not on the GCD

CC macro hopefully slightly improved since last I used it to very good effect on Heroic Faction Chumps.

#showtooltip
/use [mod:alt] Entangling Roots; [mod:shift] Cyclone; [target=focus, exists] Cyclone; Cyclone

If you have a focus target, it will try to Cyclone your focus target unless you have Shift pressed, in which case it will try to Cyclone your current target. If you don’t, it will try to Cyclone your current target, unless you have Alt pressed down to Root your current target. Pick a good dangerous focus target that causes people trouble but doesn’t have a boomkin already CC’ing it. Hit once after each 5-cp finisher on your main target if you’re assigned to kill stuff – for an instant good CC. Shift back, 5 more CP, finisher, instant Cyclone again.

Cool Hunter UI idea from wow.com:

Been laughing and digging this remix for a day or two now:

MP3:

http://mrvoletron.wordpress.com/files/2009/11/you-face-jaraxxus-voletron-remix.mp3

Yes, you heard me right. I’m advocating doing things to make your healer’s life simpler. Why? Well I like to think it’s because I’m just a nice person, and I try to be helpful, but in true tankish fashion it’s also a little bit selfish and ego-feeding too. After all, we all want the healers to have an easier time healing us than the other tanks, it must mean we’re better! Right? (note sarcasm)

Seriously though, I don’t envy healers their job at all, and while I don’t know how to play one (I don’t have a toon past lvl 32 that’s healing capable), I know it’s got to be tough, and the easier I can make things on anyone in the group I’m playing with, the better it is for all of us. So in an effort to improve my tanking and learn how to do things better, I’ve taken to trying to talk with the healers I run with (particularly healers I PuG with) and ask them how healing me compares with healing other tanks. Usually I don’t get any massive input, but every little bit can help.

Recently I was told by a healer in my guild that while I don’t seem to take hits particularly hard once we’re really into the fight, I do seem to take more right at the start, particularly compared to the pally tanks (I think I’m the only active main-spec prot-warrior in the guild). Well, I thought about it, and asked a few questions here and there (TankSpot rules btw), and came up with a couple things.

1 — I almost always use my Charge ability when pulling mobs. It gives me a rage boost to start things off, and frankly I just really enjoy using it. But it also sends me scampering off at a much quicker pace toward the bad guys than a pally-tank’s shield throw, and it’s quite possible I’m out-ranging my healer for a split second, which might make a heal not land or something, letting my health dip slightly.

2 — I think I usually see pally tanks pop something right as they’re going to pull, some sort off shield effect, but I don’t know the class well enough to know exactly what. It was also mentioned that perhaps I should use a cooldown on the pull, however, I don’t think it particularly wise to blow either Shield Wall, or Last Stand right on the pull, and Enraged Regeneration would require using Berzerker Rage, which is my fear break-out ability. That only leaves me with one real option, Shield Block, more on that later.

So I was thinking about it, and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense, Shield Block is one of those things you sorta try and hit every time it’s up, both for the mitigation (block chance) and for threat/dps (block value = big shield slams, etc). It’s also on a fairly short cooldown with the way my spec is set, and it’s not something I really worry about having available at a specific moment. The thing I didn’t really want though was to have to try and remember to click another button, or push another key at the start of a fight where I’m trying to grab everything, and maneuver it into the position I want it in, and keep it from trying to eat the trigger-happy DPSers. So I made myself a little macro, very simple.

/cast Shield Block

/cast Charge

And apparently Shield Block is outside of the GCD, since it works instantly. It works flawlessly, and it helps with initial threat, as the damage of Shield Slam, Damage Shield, and Thunderclap *(after a little research Thunderclap is based of AP)* all factor in your block value, which Shield Block doubles. For me it’s great as my usual initial attack is Charge > Shield Slam > Thunderclap > (if multi-target) step back > Shockwave. So it has the added value of boosting my initial threat as well as reducing the incoming initial damage. I also found something else. It eliminated the need for me to have Shield Block independently bound to a key. If I’m already engaged, and want to pop it, charge won’t go off, as I’ll be too close. The only place I think it might bear more testing would perhaps be Kologarn, where his hitbox might be large enough to be able to charge while already in melee range, but I don’t know that.

So anyway, hopefully someone will find that usefull, and I can feel like I’m a nice guy and helped someone out! And remember, be kind to healers, they’ll remember it, one way or another.

In raids and dungeons a pet can have to avoid several things: “standing in fire”, the cower bug, generating threat, pulling adds. Why not avoid more than one of those things at the same time? I use pet attack macros for that, and cram them full of commands (well, so long as the macro remains intuitive, useful and does not conflict with itself functionally).

I thought I’d write about these macros since I find them useful and rarely see complex pet macros discussed.  A few notes before we get into the body, though:

1. If you are not familiar with what macros are or what they do check out these links before continuing further: an intro to macros and how to make one.
2. Keep in mind while reading that these macros were built around my playstyle; if they don’t fit yours, you can modify them or not use them.
3. These macros are made for the dps pet that does the most DPS regardless of spec these days; a wolf.

The first macro is a sort of “send it in and it’s good to go” set of commands.

/petattack
/petautocastoff Call of the Wild
/petautocaston [group] Cower; [nogroup] Growl
/petautocastoff [group] Growl; [nogroup] Cower
/petautocastoff [group] Dash
/petautocaston [nogroup] Dash

This macro first sends your pet in to attack (/petattack) and then modifies its autocasts (/petautocaston, /petautocastoff). The macro turns off Call of the Wild (so you can trigger it in conjunction with rapid fire and/or a trinket), and sets Cower, Growl and Dash according to whether you are in a group or solo. It is nice to have these abilities set with one macro, especially since it works around the cower bug so neatly. It also has an advantage of transitioning your pet between soloing and raiding with little attention required.   The abilities that are not modified in the macro are the ones I leave on the pet bar and generally do not change. For example, I leave Furious Howl on autocast on the pet bar (though I may have to rethink that)[ed. note: I have a bet with Frostheim about this].

The macro below is nice for fights like Obsidian Sanctum. It sends your pet in to attack if used normally and modifies several pet autocasts for raiding. However, if you hold down any modifier key (like shift or control) and hit it again, it tells the pet to stop what it’s doing and run back to you really fast. As such, it intuitively shares the functions of both sending your pet in to battle and calling it back (if you want). /petfollow will work the same as /petpassive here if you want to leave your pet in defensive mode, but keep in mind that if you keep attacking your pet will go back to it too and that isn’t good for things like lava waves. The Dash component of this macro probably won’t work if you don’t have a point in Go for the Throat (your pet won’t have enough focus to use Dash because it will be putting everything it has into its focus dump).  Even then, you may hit a crit dry spell at the time you want to recall your pet, leaving your pet with no focus for Dash (though the /petpassive [mod] will still work).

/petattack
/petpassive [mod]
/cast [mod] Dash
/petautocastoff Call of the Wild
/petautocastoff Growl
/petautocastoff Dash
/petautocaston Cower

Note that the following macro will perform the same recall-at-high-speed function:

#showtooltip Master's Call
/cast [target=player] Master's Call
/petpassive

I prefer Dash for the recall, though, because (1) Master’s Call has a longer cooldown and because (2) its root-breaking function is wasted when you might need it later (depending upon the fight). I think that having a Dash recall will be all the more important for PvP come 3.3 once pets can’t take PvP AoE anymore, yet you will still have the incentive to save your Master’s Call for movement-impairing effects.

The next macro is a variation on the theme of the first macro and adds in the recall function of the second:

/petattack
/petpassive [modifier:shift]
/cast [modifier:shift] Dash
/petautocaston [modifier:ctrl] Growl; Cower
/petautocastoff [modifier:ctrl] Cower; Growl
/petautocastoff Call of the Wild
/petautocastoff Dash
/petautocaston [modifier:ctrl] Dash

Hitting the macro with no modifier will send the pet in to attack and set it to raid autocastings (or, it sets it to my pet’s raid autocastings).  Holding ctrl while hitting it will switch the pet’s autocasting’s to more solo-friendly settings while still sending it in to attack.  Holding shift and hitting it will perform the recall function suggested above in the second macro.

Next is a macro for changing tracking including some script that I am shamelessly copying from Kanandi over at the EJ forums. I changed the macro a bit to make it run smoother than she states, but the script line for tracking is all hers.

/petattack
/run for i=1,GetNumTrackingTypes() do local n, t, a, c = GetTrackingInfo(i); if string.find(n, UnitCreatureType("target")) then if t~=GetTrackingTexture(i) then SetTracking(i); end end end

This macro sends your pet in and then changes your tracking to the type of mob you are attacking. This is useful because most builds typically include Improved Tracking and a hunter may sometimes be tracking something other than an Improved Tracking type (like mailboxes). The macro only uses 199 of the 255 allowed characters, and so you should feel free to customize it a bit. Keep in mind that you have to copy the script exactly; one character off can screw it up and give you an error message.

Misc. comments:

1. I use similar macros to the first two for pvp’ing and extreme soloing, adding or taking out abilities as necessary. I will throw a “/cast Pin” or “/cast Web” with a modifier after /petattack for pvp, for example.
2. Keep in mind that you don’t have to have /petattack as part of these macros. I offer them mainly as examples of (1) how to gain more control over what your pet is doing and (2) how to make pet macros multifunctional. If you leave it out, you can still use these to manage autocasts, tracking, and pet returns.
3. These macros will only work until 3.3, because cower will have a different function then.
4. While we’re on the subject of macros, I’d like to add that they can be used for all sorts of things. Here are a couple I use for the Argent Tournament that I thought might ease your daily grind.

For the Flaming Spears quest:
#showtooltip Flaming Spears
/cleartarget
/tar [mod] Kvaldir Deepcaller; North Sea Kraken
/use Flaming Spears

And for that sword quest in Grizzly Hills:
/tar Lake Frog
/use Warts-B-Gone Lip Balm
/kiss

There are other pet macros than those discussed here of course, but that subject is a bit bigger than the scope of this post. For a good list of hunter macros, see this site. For a good guide to macro syntax, see this Wowwiki page. And, of course, if you have other ideas for or approaches to pet attack macros, please include them in a comment below.

-Eidotrope

| Gabriel |

I gave a lecture to my grad stats class today on Stata programming. Regular readers of the blog will have heard most of this before but I thought it would help to have it consolidated and let more recent readers catch up.

Here’s my lecture notes.

The search for the perfect interface with World of Warcraft is much like the search for pink Elekks:  both are goals that really only exist in your mind.  The highly customizable WoW interface leads users towards finding a balance of changes to suit their needs.  With that customization, however, comes an onslaught of choices that players have to make about how their game looks.  And that tyranny of choice can sometimes be overwhelming.

I’ve received a lot of requests on Twitter to share my UI and keybindings for PvP.  I totally understand why people ask this; seeing how other players function inspires me in trying to optimize my interface with the game, of trying out new things, of thinking of ways to arrange functions that work better than the default, and better than what I have now.  I know I can always improve my layout.  Maybe looking at mine will help you with yours.

TL;DR version:  this is my UI.  There are many others like it, but this one is mine.

INPUTS

Any consideration of UI should really start with the very basic elements of the user’s interface, starting with the input devices.   My UI is completely based upon the limitations of my computing setup, where I play, and how I control my characters.   Your UI should take your setup into account, too.

I play on a laptop in various locations around the house — sometimes on a desk, but often in bed, at the kitchen table, or on a couch watching football.  Here is my black Macbook and Logitech trackball:

I don’t know what your setup is like, but mine is space-constrained.  I do not have a numberpad, or extended keyboard.  I have a small screen (13″) so space is at a premium.  I have a touchpad, but vastly prefer the trackball for Warcraft, mostly because the trackball allows for easy right-clicking.  The touchpad requires an Option-Click and that is cumbersome, both in terms of time and muscle strain.

I know most players don’t like trackballs, and that most players prefer to not play on laptops.  But that’s okay!  I’ve got what I’ve got.  Yes, there are a lot of sleek rigs, cool mice and great keyboards out there.  If those are your thing, try them out.  For me, with all the locations I play in, an external keyboard is not possible.  While the trackball is not something I like lugging around the house, I found the cramping in my hands and difficulty in moving without it to outweigh the extra weight.  So the trackball goes with the laptop now.

Be honest with yourself when assessing your input methods, and don’t worry so much that the devices are holding you back until proven otherwise.

KEYBINDING

Before I show a single screenshot of my UI, I need to talk about keybinding.  My UI doesn’t make any sense without knowing how my keys are mapped out.  The title of this article gives away that I am an avid keybinder.  I bind everything that could be useful in combat to a key; there is very little clicking when I fight.  Some people can click icons effectively in combat — I am not one of them.  I think the improved reaction time you get from keybinding is essential to success in battlegrounds, Arena, and most PvE encounters, too.

I play with my left little finger resting on the tab key and my right hand on the trackball. (Yes, I tab target, I used to play affliction.)  The tab key provides an anchor for me to put three fingers on the 1, 2, and 3 keys, and my thumb on the space bar. The following picture lays out degrees of movement required to hit certain keys.

Essentially, I consider my WoW keyboard as a one-handed input device, all radiating out from the Tab key.   Here’s how I think of each zone.

• Dark red (Tab, 1-3, Q-E, Space) are no motion at all (or very little motion) and are therefore my primary action keys.  On my warlock, these are things like Immolate, Incinerate, Conflagrate.  I am hammering these keys EVERY combat.
• Pink keys require minor reach, and so are filled with useful spells and abilities.  These will usually see some use in most combats.
• Orange keys I can stretch to reach but don’t have to leave the Tab key, so they are more infrequent items.
• Yellow keys require me to lift off of the Tab key and are infrequently-used abilities.
• Blue keys are system keys and not used in combat.
• White keys are movement keys, used as backup and for special modifiers (mounting, autorun).

This layout evolved from my original setup, which used the arrow keys to move and 1-10 to cast.  The left hand became my primary casting hand, while my right hand would move with the arrow keys.  (, and . were originally bound to strafing, actually.)  With the introduction of the trackball I realigned the keyboard for one-handed use, and only use two hands when typing text.

Once I had the keyboard divided into zones, I quickly noticed that I did not have enough room to bind all my abilities and the default system commands.  This was a big challenge for me to overcome; I couldn’t accept that it wasn’t necessary to have the PvP pane keybound, for instance.  The ASDW movement keys stuck around for a long time, but eventually, the need to have keys available won out.  You only really need a few system functions available.  Experimentation helps determine what ones you really need.

MAPPING

The hardest part of keybinding is not the honest assessment of your input devices and how you interact with them, honestly.  Organizing and mapping out your keys is the most daunting part of the process.  Trying to organize them logically is tough. Dual specs make it tougher, since now the same character can have two different keybinds.

And alts?  Trying to map out the keys on my alts made me cry.

The keys to managing all this is priority and consistency.  Priority is grouping your most important spells where your fingers are, and consistency is keeping similar functions in similar locations across characters.

Prioritization is very class-specific, and I’ll go into my warlock mapping in a little bit.  Consistency, however, is something that is independent of class and can be achieved by sticking similar things similar places on your keyboard.  So I use a standard way of mapping the keyboard to the screen, no matter what character it is:

There are, essentially, three full action bars worth of keys here.

• Red keys are the top action bar on screen.
• Pink keys are the middle action bar on screen.
• Orange keys are the bottom action bar on screen.
• Yellow keys are “stance keys” off to the side of the screen.
• White keys are not displayed on screen.

You can use the default UI to do this mapping, but I prefer Bartender because it allows me to essentially provide a visual representation of the full keyboard on my screen, like this:

This is actual size, which means these buttons are all but unclickable.  I display this so that I can remember my “yellow” key mappings, and to give me a visual representation of the global cooldown.

Could I get away with hiding this?  Probably, on my warlock.  I do swap out some keys (-, =, p) if I need to have a quest item, bomb, or RP-GG keybound, but in general I have this list memorized.  But then I wouldn’t be consistent between characters.  And I like seeing the GCD spin.

Here’s the breakdown for those who would like to know more.

• Red Keys (fingers at rest)
  • 1: Attack Macro — Immolate, Chaos Bolt, Conflagrate, Incinerate x5
  • 2: Incinerate
  • 3: Conflagrate
  • Q: Nuke Macro — Chaos Bolt, Immolate, Conflagrate, Incinerate x5, [alt] Soul Fire
  • W: Pet Special Ability, [nopet or alt] Drain Mana
  • E: Shadowfury
• Pink Keys (one step removed, frequent use):
  • 4: Fear
  • 5: Life Tap
  • R: Death Coil
  • T: Demonic Circle: Teleport
  • A: Medic Macro — Healthstone / Health Potion / Lifeblood / Demon Armor
  • S: OH SH_T Macro — Every Man For Himself, Lifeblood
  • D: Buff Macro — Shadow Ward, [shift] Detect Invisibility, [alt] Unending Breath
  • F: Bandage Macro — Heavy Frostweave Bandage
  • `: Smart Mount/Dismount (shared with ,)
  • Z (not shown): Fel Armor/Soul Link Buff Macro
  • X (not shown): Demon Armor/Soul Link Buff Macro
• Orange Keys (two steps removed, stretch):
  • 6: Howl of Terror
  • 7: Drain Soul
  • Y: Demonic Circle: Summon
  • U: Rain of Fire
  • G: Curse of Elements, Corruption x6, [alt] Curse of Agony
  • H: Shadowflame
• Yellow Keys (must leave Tab to reach):
  • 8: Drain Life
  • 9: Drain Mana
  • 0: Food
  • -: Wand
  • =: RP-GG/Seaforium/Net
  • Delete: Reverse camera view
  • I: Inferno
  • O: Banish
  • P: Hellfire
  • [: Firestone Macro
  • ]: Create Healthstone
  • \: Toggle Vent
  • J: Shadow Bolt
  • K: Fishing
  • ;: Fel Domination, Summon Demon
  • ‘: Heal Pet/Consume Shadows [Voidwalker]
• White Keys (non-combat:)
  • L: Quest Log
  • C: Character Pane, [shift] Currency Tab
  • V: Social Pane, Guild Tab
  • B: Open Backpack, [shift] Open all bags
  • N: Talent Pane
  • M: Map
  • ,: Smart Mount/Dismount
  • .: Autorun
  • /: Chat
  • Arrow Keys: Movement

You may find some of my Warlock Macros post helpful in understanding what I mean when I have multiple functions assigned to each key.

THE RED ZONE

One of the trickiest things about dual-specs is keeping the keybindings consistent between your different specs. I try to keep everything consistent, except for the Red keys (1-3, Q-E), which I’ll dub the Red Zone.  I’m fortunate in that I have two extremely similar specs (one is Destro PvP, the other Destro PvE), which is pretty straightforward to switch between.

There are only a few differences here:

• W: Pet Special is replaced by Curse of Doom.  This is because PvE Destro relies upon the Imp, who does not need his special abilities mapped.
• E: Shadowfury is replaced by Rain of Fire.  My PvE build doesn’t have Shadowfury, and I use Rain of Fire all the time in instances.
• J: Shadow Bolt is replaced by Soulshatter.  Soulshatter has no use in PvP, and there’s little need for a Destro lock to ever throw a Shadow Bolt in an instance.  (There is ALWAYS a better spell I could cast.)

I really try to maintain consistency between the different specs, especially in the Red Zone keys.  Even though E changes to a different spell, it’s still an AoE spell.  I don’t have to retrain my muscle memory to do something different, if I want to hit a lot of mobs I hit E.  And W is still a special attack, just a curse I don’t use very often.  (Curse of the Elements sees a lot of use in my PvE play.)

You’ll notice something else in this example: I don’t unmap U from Rain of Fire.  While it would free up a key for something else, I don’t want to have to relearn keys outside my Red Zone.  (The J Soulshatter/Shadow Bolt switch is my only exception here, and it’s not one I sit well with.  I just couldn’t rationalize putting Soulshatter in a PvP build, and occasionally I need to fling a Shadow Bolt at a fire-immune mob while questing.  But this doesn’t sit easy with me.)

Radically different dual specs present an interesting challenge.  Limiting the changes to the Red Zone helps keeps them manageable, because you can focus on grouping actions together.

I don’t have a screenshot of it anymore, but Affliction looked like:

• 1: Curse of Agony, Corruption
• 2: Haunt, Unstable Affliction
• 3: Drain Soul, [alt] Drain Life
• Q: Shadow Bolt
• W: Pet Special
• E: Seed of Corruption

These keys and macros, with appropriate timers and resets, allowed me to keep a boss fully dotted up with a minimum of changes.  I could spam AoE with seeds on E, and execute at 25% life with Drain Soul with 3.

The key to maintaining my sanity between the two, though, was keeping everything else exactly the same.  Yes, that meant I had Drain Soul in two places.  But it also meant that I could switch between the two without having to relearn the entire keyboard.

I love my Red Zone keys.

MOVEMENT

Now that I’ve gone on entirely too long about my keyboard bindings, let me talk about moving my character around.  I’m a trackball user.  It works like a 4 button mouse, so I can run, change camera positions, and strafe, all with different combinations of keys.  I’m right handed, so it is easier for me to strafe left (using my thumb) than strafe right (using my pinky).

I still have the arrow keys bound for movement. I used to use them all the time, but I honestly don’t think I’ve touched them in months.  Mounting and dismounting quickly is very important in battlegrounds, which is one reason I have it in the Red Zone (`) as well as near the arrow keys (,).  I do use Autorun (.) a lot while doing dailies, especially while flying… but it’s dangerously next to my dismount button.  This has led to some unfortunate hilarity.

Perhaps I should do something about this?

(Nope.)

THE SCREEN

After all this discussion about keybinding, you’re probably expecting my UI to be a carefully planned out minimalist work of art.  It’s not.  Actually, it probably looks a lot like yours. Playing on a 13″ screen has drawbacks.  You have only a little space to put a lot of information that is dynamically changing. Your needs for one kind of fight might be different than another; certainly I wish I had less information in PvE and more information in PvP.

As I’ve been writing this post, I realize how much a work-in-progress my UI is. Even now I see things I want to change, to reconfigure, to take out, to add…

Enough excuses. This is my screen UI, there are many like it — but this one is mine.

I have two modes, in and out of combat.  Out of combat, I display extra bars with Bartender for items that I may need access to:

Oh Bal, you tease.  We were just there to help!

When I enter combat, the bars to the left and right fade out completely. I do this to increase visibility and reduce distraction from the flow of numbers on the screen, like so:

(Yes, I normally play in windowed mode.)

Because they do not convey much information to me during a fight, my Bartender icons are very, very small on the screen.  The pet bar is right on top of it, but I rarely click it, instead preferring to control my pet with the keyboard.

If you are interested in which addons are used for which feature you see here, I have an annotated version of the combat UI. I’m using the following addons:

• Bartender4
• DeadlyBossMods
• DoTimer
• MikScrollingBattleText
• MobInfo2
• NeedToKnow
• Omen
• Quartz
• Recount
• SaySapped
• SexyMap
• WinterTime

In addition to the UI addons listed above, I also use:

• Altoholic
• Auctioneer
• Cartographer
• DagAssist
• Gatherer
• Outfitter
• TrainWhistle

As I look at my screen, I see several areas which need improvement.

1. Cooldown management and debuff timers are spread across three different addons, each giving me a little different view on what I need to know.  I should spend some time consolidating them and making it so that the information is consolidated so I do not waste so much space in displaying it.
2. Combat text is in two places.  I like the information associated with MikScrollingBattleText, but I also want to know the location of the damage — you can’t hide behind a wall from a Warlock who has dotted you up.  I’d like to get the best of both worlds, but don’t know how yet.
3. I am still uneasy with different Unit Frame addons.  I should try some out, since the default ones don’t convey enough information (and take up a lot of space.)

So, that’s my Warcraft interface.  While it’s not perfect — or a pink Elekk — it gets the job done.

But there’s always room for improvement.

One of my biggest problems when I’m in the heat of battle is forgetting about my “On Use” trinkets.  To correct this issue I started placing my “On Use” trinkets inside the spell macros of my most used heals.

In the example below, I’m using the Binding Stone (Yes, I know it sucks) as my trinket.  Note: You can also substitute the trinket name for it’s ID number.  13 and 14 are the two trinket slots.  Here is a simplied spell macro that will use my Binding Stone everytime it’s not on cooldown.  All of the lines that start with /script are used to hide the error message that the item is not ready whenever it is on cooldown.

#showtooltip Lifebloom

/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()

/use Binding Stone

/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();

/script UIErrorsFrame:Show()

/cast Lifebloom

These type of macros are very useful to me since I can’t remember to trigger the trinkets on my own.  You can also put other abilites in your macros such as Barkskin.  The only downside is that the abilites may be on cooldown when you really need them.

“I’m afraid currency is the currency.” – Lord Cutler Beckett, Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End

ISO: 64, f/stop: 4.8,  Shutter speed: 1/250

As soon as I got the challenge, I immediately thought of the $1 gold coins.  The one on left is the older version, and the one with Andrew Jackson on the front is the new version, from either this year, or 2008.

The all-seeing eye… ($1 bill)

I love this eagle!

How do they make the 100 in green look so bumpy??

I think this is a really cool idea!  Got every quarter except for Montana.

Home state…

You have learned how to create Macros in Microsoft Word from the previous post, now is the time to learn how to create a macro in Microsoft Excel.  If you understand the process in Word, it is almost the same process in Excel.

Most people do not understand how easy it is to create a macro and how useful it is to improve the speed of your office functions.  It is important to fix your macro button on the Quick Access toolbar for easy access.  You may create different macros for different tasks, especially the ones you perform regularly. 

Please enjoy and pass it on: to your family, friends, and your office co-workers.  Who knows, one day, someone will remember you as the shinning light on how to create a macro.

This tutorial was taken from the best-seller Using Excel with High Speed 2007 Edition, or Using Excel with High Speed 2003.

Let’s get started, please click Excel Macro, and be sure to click the Back button, top left of the pdf to return to this page.

We’re looking for members and writers, please leave us a comment with your e-mail address.

Please bookmark or add to favorites for easy access.

I’m not a keen macro user. It’s not that I find em useless, or pretty hard to make. Well, some parts *are* a bit weird. Not MediaWiki-(that’s the software that runs Wikipedia and the awesome WowWiki as well)-weird (the template language they use is so obscure that I find Assembler or C to be easy, readable and less error-prone, but I digress), but still weird. No, I just don’t need em so much. Either I’ve flat out refused to use them (like the spammy tank macro that wildly mashes buttons) or haven’t seen the need to macro any of my fixed rotations.

But I still have a few macros, read after the break.

Information only

Too bad they were taken out, but as an example of useful info.
#showtooltip Drums of Battle
/use Drums of Battle
/p >> Drums of Battle << 30sec of fun...

Amount of /pvp flagged time remaining
/script pvpdesired = GetPVPDesired()
/script pvptimer = floor(GetPVPTimer()/1000)
/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("PvP desired: "..pvpdesired.." - Time left:"..pvptimer.."s",1,0,0)

Amount of experience remaining to next level
/script XPx = UnitXP("player")
/script XPMaxx = UnitXPMax("player")
/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Your XP is currently at "..floor( (XPx / XPMaxx)*100 ).."%. Missing "..(XPMaxx - XPx)..". ["..(XPx).."/"..(XPMaxx).."]",1,0,0)

WoW quirks

Not enough energy? Then you also get no white hits…
#showtooltip Mutilate
/startattack
/cast Mutilate

Wouldn’t you hate to catch a rare fish and hastily click it off?
#showtooltip Fishing
/script ConfirmBindOnUse()
/cast Fishing

General Purpose

My Druid has Herbalism and Mining, so I can switch the
two tracking modes with a convenient ctrl+c
#showtooltip Find Herbs
/castsequence Find Herbs,  Find Minerals

Everyone loves cookies!
{square}{square}{square}{square}{square} ME
{square}{moon}{square}{moon}{square}
{square}{square}{square}{square}{square} WANT
{square}{triangle}{triangle}{triangle}{square}
{square}{square}{square}{square}{square} COOKIE

Okay, this post probably qualifies as controversial.  It’s just a little observation I’m making, and is not intended as criticism of anyone.

I think many, perhaps most, current computer users are handicapped by the mouse.

That’s it.  That’s the opinion, and it’s mine.

Therefore, I propose a new computer term: “mouse-dicapped.”  (With no apologies to the Disney people at all.)

Not “mouse-challenged” which implies inability to use the mouse, or “keyboard-challenged” since people still use keyboards for typing text.

Mouse-dicapped.  (Okay, it sounds like a mouse lost it’s head, but bear with me.)

Lemme ’splain that:

I started out way back when computing meant connecting a dumb terminal to a mainframe (hey, I even trained a little in library school using punch cards!).  No GUI (Graphic User Interface).  Just type.  You know, with a keyboard?  The same thing we still have attached to the computer (or phone, or whatever) in some form, or showing up on the screen, or appearing on buttons?  That thing.

Today, I still have the ability to swiftly do things like hold down two keys at once to copy (CTRL-C), and to paste (CTRL-V) and stuff like that.  I do that, and it’s finished before mouse users can right-click to open up the edit menu, select copy or paste, and do it.  In fact, I can copy AND paste before they get through with the copy using the mouse, a lot of the time.

This is not rocket surgery or brain science, it’s just being able to remember a few basic key combinations that let you do certain frequent actions easily and quickly, but I keep seeing people who cannot handle anything that does not offer a menu they can use with a mouse.  I step through the two-key combination, and they admire it, and seem to understand the concept behind it — but they’d rather not use it.  They want to stick with their mouse and the drop-down menus and the slower step-by-step.

This is not an “age” thing, as I see older people than myself still dependent on the mouse.  It’s more of a “who started out with a GUI and a mouse, and who started out with just a keyboard” thing.

It seems to be the fault of learning one way to do things, and sticking to that even when a more efficient method is available (and yes, I most certainly can use a mouse to copy and paste — I demonstrate it sometimes for the mouse-dicapped users here).  I just find it faster to use the two-key combos, when I have a choice.

Now, if an ergonomic keyboard throws somebody, or they have trouble with a trackball, I can empathize (I use a split-arranged ergonomic keyboard myself, but find a trackball’s learning curve steeper than I want to climb).  Sometimes it can be hard to adapt to different interfaces.

But if you know how to use a keyboard, and you know how to use a mouse, why use the less efficient one to accomplish a simple task?

Apparently, because it doesn’t involve remembering a two-key combination.

This, even from a generation that can remember to write “c u l8r” because it is a faster way to type “see you later” by 6 characters.

It seems that it’s just what we originally started with in a given bit of technology.  There seems to be no better reason that I can discern.  And it’s not a big deal — I just point it out as a limitation in human thinking that might explain why some technical developments are accepted, especially in human interfaces, and others are not.

Maybe we’re all mouse-dicapped with something or other, myself included.  And having said that, I now have to look around and see what I’m doing less efficiently than I could.

What’s your mouse-dicap?