Is it dumb to have auto attack on your action bar

[JustRob]

Whenever I post a screenshot, there's usually people giving me crap about having auto attack on the action bar. Their argument being "you can just right click to attack enemies". Which is true, and I do that ofcourse. Targeting an enemy and then hitting auto attack would be a major pain in the ass. But my problem is, if you want to stop attacking an enemy without losing the target, you have to hit the auto attack button. Otherwise you can't stop attacking an enemy without un-targeting it.

Am I being an idiot?

[Raynos]

I usually macro /startattack on the spell. It will usually attack the closest target in the direction you're facing. /stopcast or /stopattack does the opposite without losing target. But I'm used to it, so it may be weird while you get used to it. Also, my main attack is bound to 1, ESC will stop attack too.

[Darsithis]

I haven't used it in 6 years, so no, I don't keep it on my bar. But to each his own.

[Deleted]

Yeah it is.

[Raetary]

i just use right click on my target and that's it.

[Ornerybear]

ya i dont use it. if i found i needed a key to quit attacking (which i dont htink i've really found a need for) id just bind it to like "T" or something.

i dont use keybinds on the keyboard because i have a razer naga and that more than covers me.

[Rivin]

I haven't kept auto-attack on my bars since I started macroing /startattack into my primary abilities back in...Wrath, I think? And nowadays that macro functionality is baked into all melee attacks so it's completely unneeded.

I can see the argument for if you need to stop attacking, but I've always just deselected my target in that case. *shrugs*

[the boar]

i have it but only because i have an extra button space that needs filling

[Tziva]

It's fine for new folks, but I'd never leave it on my bars.

[GrinnersGrin]

This is satire right

[Edlarel]

In the event that I need to stop attacking, I just push 'x' on my keyboard to sit down. That stops everything outright. As to the OP, I haven't had auto attack on my bars in years.

[Deleted]

I use /startattack macroed to my main abilty.

[Tesuque]

If you equivocate "unnecessary" with "dumb" - then, yes.

[Vladimeir]

Once upon a time, a character didn't start auto-attacking until you actually hit them with an ability (ie-in range). Thus /startattack was macro'd into a lot of things. This probably doesn't seem like it matters a lot, but auto-attacks not starting when an ability doesn't go off due to out of mana or energy or something is really annoying.

So having it on your bars could be handy but totally avoidable.

[Jessicka]

Nope, never have. If I want to stop attacking, I just hit escape a couple of times and it de-selects them as a target and stops attacking.

[Faenskap]

Play how you like.

I had it on my action bars back when I started because:
I didn't know to initiate an attack outside my other abilities, which would have a few seconds cooldown. So better to auto attack than wait
and
I played on a laptop without an external mouse, so it would have been clunky to rightclick anyway

If you want to have auto attack on your bars, go for it. The WoW community is way too critical and each individual considers themselves to be above anyone else, and if you don't follow their playstyle, you're a noob. For instance, I have my own UI, husband plays with the standard UI. I think standard UI is disgracefully ugly, but that's how he wants to play and it really is none of my concern, whereas he doesn't give me shit for preferring addons

[Viradiance]

It's completely wasteful and stupid, since for every class that actually uses autoattacks attempting to use an ability will cause autoattacks to begin anyway. 100% unnecessary for casters because they never use autoattacks, 100% unnecessary for physical DPS because it's redundant.

[-Gr-]

Macros are a thing so no I don't have it on my action bars.

[Flurryfang]

Whenever I post a screenshot, there's usually people giving me crap about having auto attack on the action bar. Their argument being "you can just right click to attack enemies". Which is true, and I do that ofcourse. Targeting an enemy and then hitting auto attack would be a major pain in the ass. But my problem is, if you want to stop attacking an enemy without losing the target, you have to hit the auto attack button. Otherwise you can't stop attacking an enemy without un-targeting it.

Am I being an idiot?

Why would you ever stop auto attacking? If some1 ever wants to stop raid dps, auto attack dmg is not gonna be enough to push any mob.

[Cannibalus]

If you want to stop auto-attack just click somewhere around the boss and clear your target. Sooo fucking simple.