Is macroing totems a good idea

[Deleted]

i dnt like having to bind my totems to F keys so i made some macros for certain totems that are mainly used in PVP

/castsequence reset=target healing stream totem,healing surge

will drop a healing stream totem than you cast healing surge on yourself i find this useful as you prolly gonna drop this totem down anyway when your gonna heal yourself


#showtooltip flame shock
/castsequence reset=target searing totem,Flame Shock, Earth Shock

this will drop searing totem down then cast flame shock and 6 seconds later cast earth shock, i find this useful since searing totem should always be down as a enhance shaman, and flame shock adds to the damage and earthshock for melee

#showtooltip frost shock
/castsequence reset=target frost shock,earthgrab totem

this should slow the target and after 6 seconds drops a earth grab totem this one seems bad due to earthgrab totem being very useful in certain situations

let me know what you think also i need a macro for the spell grounding totem as i hate the f keys on my sidewinder any ideas

[Mithgroth]

Totems are too situational to be automated.
They cost a GCD, actually you are delaying Healing Surge a GCD with that which can be the difference between life and death.

It's almost never a good idea to macro them.

[Volitar]

In no situation is macroing totems to other spells a good idea.

Shaman are a class with a lot of keybinds /shrug gotta get use to it.

[Hekili]

I don't blame you for wanting to simply your keybinds. The problem is that you end up wasting *time* which ends up costing you DPS.

/castsequence reset=target healing stream totem,healing surge

This seems innocuous, but hurts you because you delay your own quick healing from Healing Surge, which could cause you to die before you actually get the heal off. It also hurts you because after you've cast one Healing Surge or changed targets, it will reset and you won't be able to cast Healing Surge with that keybind until Healing Stream Totem comes off CD and you cast it again. You're slowing yourself down.

#showtooltip flame shock
/castsequence reset=target searing totem,Flame Shock, Earth Shock

This is wasteful if your Searing Totem is already down. Searing Totem's value is that it gets you Searing Flames stacks (which is why you always want it down) but also that it provides its damage over a long duration. If you use this macro, you potentially end up casting Searing Totem every 7 or 8 seconds. You're changing Searing Totem from X damage over 60 seconds for the cost of 1.0s (totem GCD is 1 second), to X/7.5 damage over 8 seconds for the cost of 1.0s.

#showtooltip frost shock
/castsequence reset=target frost shock,earthgrab totem

This doesn't do what you describe. It casts Frost Shock, then after you've cast Frost Shock, it will drop your Earthgrab Totem (unless you've changed targets). This is the least problematic of your macros, but you can still cause yourself problems. If your target doesn't change, you won't be able to cast Frost Shock again with this keybind until you've cast Earthgrab Totem. You're likely to end up wasting Earthgrab Totems.

You should find a way to modify your key bindings so that you can use each of these abilities when the situation calls for it, without possibly forcing yourself to use the wrong ability first. You may want to cast Healing Surge without casting Healing Stream Totem first. You might want to cast Earth Shock on a low health target rather than Flame Shock (since you won't get the benefit of the doubt). You might want to get that shock off *now* rather than after a 1 second delay from the totem GCD.

[Deleted]

Totems are too situational to be automated.
They cost a GCD, actually you are delaying Healing Surge a GCD with that which can be the difference between life and death.

It's almost never a good idea to macro them.

i can understand it o nthe healing one but searing totem in PVP should always be dropped before you start a fight increasing the damage of flame shock and lava lash i tested both macro's outo n training dummys and felt no downtime in my dps and it made my life a bit easier as a shaman. i only play bg's

i just dnt see anything wrong with them as i tested them i didnt have any lockouts or GCD issues, its like people are afraid to tell you that a macro is good on wow forums

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I don't blame you for wanting to simply your keybinds. The problem is that you end up wasting *time* which ends up costing you DPS.



This seems innocuous, but hurts you because you delay your own quick healing from Healing Surge, which could cause you to die before you actually get the heal off. It also hurts you because after you've cast one Healing Surge or changed targets, it will reset and you won't be able to cast Healing Surge with that keybind until Healing Stream Totem comes off CD and you cast it again. You're slowing yourself down.



This is wasteful if your Searing Totem is already down. Searing Totem's value is that it gets you Searing Flames stacks (which is why you always want it down) but also that it provides its damage over a long duration. If you use this macro, you potentially end up casting Searing Totem every 7 or 8 seconds. You're changing Searing Totem from X damage over 60 seconds for the cost of 1.0s (totem GCD is 1 second), to X/7.5 damage over 8 seconds for the cost of 1.0s.



This doesn't do what you describe. It casts Frost Shock, then after you've cast Frost Shock, it will drop your Earthgrab Totem (unless you've changed targets). This is the least problematic of your macros, but you can still cause yourself problems. If your target doesn't change, you won't be able to cast Frost Shock again with this keybind until you've cast Earthgrab Totem. You're likely to end up wasting Earthgrab Totems.

You should find a way to modify your key bindings so that you can use each of these abilities when the situation calls for it, without possibly forcing yourself to use the wrong ability first. You may want to cast Healing Surge without casting Healing Stream Totem first. You might want to cast Earth Shock on a low health target rather than Flame Shock (since you won't get the benefit of the doubt). You might want to get that shock off *now* rather than after a 1 second delay from the totem GCD.

but i like to use those macros only class i can play is warrior cos it dnt need alot of keybinds every other fucking class has a shit ton of keybinds or unique totem style things that add to keybind bloat they should just make totems a proc or something like descrated ground was for dk's before it became a talent. i have no space left for keybinds and with my autism it doesnt help cos its quite tricky to remember keybinds even o nhim i dnt want to give up on my shaman since i paid to boost it, but it just seems like theres only 1 class that doesnt require alot of binds and thats the warrior

[Hekili]

i can understand it o nthe healing one but searing totem in PVP should always be dropped before you start a fight increasing the damage of flame shock and lava lash i tested both macro's outo n training dummys and felt no downtime in my dps and it made my life a bit easier as a shaman. i only play bg's

i just dnt see anything wrong with them as i tested them i didnt have any lockouts or GCD issues, its like people are afraid to tell you that a macro is good on wow forums

The problem with your Searing Totem macro isn't downtime, it's about wasted uptime.

but i like to use those macros only class i can play is warrior cos it dnt need alot of keybinds every other fucking class has a shit ton of keybinds or unique totem style things that add to keybind bloat they should just make totems a proc or something like descrated ground was for dk's before it became a talent. i have no space left for keybinds and with my autism it doesnt help cos its quite tricky to remember keybinds even o nhim i dnt want to give up on my shaman since i paid to boost it, but it just seems like theres only 1 class that doesnt require alot of binds and thats the warrior

Well, it's your $15/month, so you should play how you see fit. That doesn't eliminate the possible pitfalls, which you don't feel you have had a problem with.

Ultimately, you're creating delays for yourself and slowing your reactions when you force yourself to summon totems when you don't need them. The only other class I've played that has had a comparable number of keybinds is Warlock, perhaps followed by Hunter.

If the real issue is keybind space, I'd recommend re-thinking how you do your keybinds. I've freed up 1-6, F, G, R, T, and the modifiers thereof (alt, shift, alt+shift). That's forty keys. I also have a mouse that has a 12 button panel on the side. I use a few of those buttons as well.

[Aleksej89]

As others have said, it is a horrible idea to macro your totems with your damage/healing abilities.

What you can macro together are things like Stormlash+Bloodlust+FETotem, and then press that macro twice to get all of it's benefits (since 2 things are on GCD).

Additionally things like shamanistic rage and the shielding totem (along with your racial if dwarf/draenei) is a good macro for defensive cds.

You can put your low cooldown trinkets and orc/troll racials in a macro with searing/magma totem, so they are casted before the totem is dropped (and you start your opener with full buffs).

[Divos]

You can put your low cooldown trinkets and orc/troll racials in a macro with searing/magma totem, so they are casted before the totem is dropped (and you start your opener with full buffs).

Why would you macro any CD into Searing/Magma totem? That would be a waste to use them outside of Ascendance and Fire Elemental Totem.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea to macro those kinds of CDs into abilities, just that I would not put them into those abilities.

[Aleksej89]

Why would you macro any CD into Searing/Magma totem? That would be a waste to use them outside of Ascendance and Fire Elemental Totem.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea to macro those kinds of CDs into abilities, just that I would not put them into those abilities.

When you are doing dailies or any solo type content, you want to make use of the short-cd trinkets every time you bunch up multiple mobs for some hot AoE action.

But in raids you definitely don't want to waste trinkets on mere totems.