No longer able to macro KC?

[Autumnshots]

I have heard from a few people that we can no longer macro Kill Command into our shots. I haven't played my hunter in 4.0.1 and haven't been in beta nor played my hunter there in a few weeks so I haven't been able to test it out myself, please tell me its not true. I can understand them wanting us to manage more cds or whatnot in our rotations, but why take macroing KC away?

[Kalliope]

You really won't want to do that with how KC works now and how limited a resource focus is. So whether it's possible or not isn't really relevant; you really REALLY won't want to do it anyway.

[Autumnshots]

For BM? From what I've heard on here, BM doesn't have to worry about focus as much as the other two specs, or did that change in the last patch?

[Kalliope]

It's not so much that BM doesn't have focus as much as it is wanting to control what abilities you're using depending on how much focus you have.

[Sarayana]

I treat KC as another shot - I send pet, serpent sting, KC, steady steady, KC, arcane, steady steady... so on. Not only do you have more control over focus management (which isn't easy even in BM!) but you also won't miss the Killing Streak proc.

Right now, the only macros I use for combat are my hunter's mark/petattack macro and my stopattack/petfollow macro. But then, I've always loved weaving shots, even back when all-in-one shot macros were king.

[Kalliope]

I treat KC as another shot - I send pet, serpent sting, KC, steady steady, KC, arcane, steady steady... so on. Not only do you have more control over focus management (which isn't easy even in BM!) but you also won't miss the Killing Streak proc.

UGH, yes. I actually had to stick a second KC on a bar so I could watch that proc better, since I have my rocket gloves macroed to KC. I think I'm going to have to move that to arcane, though; seems less efficient the way I have it now.

Oh, that's right....writing this reminded me of exactly WHY KC can't be macroed to other shots anymore: it's back on the GCD.

[Foru21dr]

Oh, that's right....writing this reminded me of exactly WHY KC can't be macroed to other shots anymore: it's back on the GCD.

Yes, unless there is a way to tell a macro to pause for a period of time before casting the next item, there is no way to combine shots.

[Mockingbird]

Right now, the only macros I use for combat are my hunter's mark/petattack macro and my stopattack/petfollow macro. But then, I've always loved weaving shots, even back when all-in-one shot macros were king.

I have the following (actually useful) macros:
G - cycles AotC and AotP
` - force-casts aspect of the hawk (i.e. cannot cancel it if dabbed twice - this used to be my hawk/viper macro and will probably become hawk/fox in the future)
Pet ability - changes depending on pet type for e.g. roar of recovery, last stand etc
Misdirect all-in-one - focus, MD focus, MD pet
Traps - I rather like these - I've made a macro for trap launching explosive shot with a right-left that theoretically could be used for others too, with slight (obvious) modification. Hopefully they will remove the can't-macro-basic-traps bug to make this even handier.
4 / ctrl-4 - Scattershot/Concussive shot (saving space!)

I'm with you on the weaving - choosing your own shots is always more fun than having a macro do it for you.

[Worba]

Not only do you have more control over focus management (which isn't easy even in BM!) but you also won't miss the Killing Streak proc.

I haven't done extensive testing on this, but at least from reading the tooltip, how could you miss the Killing Streak proc?

It looks like it simply applies to the third kill command you cast, whenever you get around to casting it and regardless of whether you're casting other spells in the interim... which is sort of inevitable with KC's 6 second CD, right? Or is there some hidden effect not covered in the description:

"When you score two Kill Command critical hits in a row, your third will deal 20% more damage and have its cost reduced by 10 focus."

E.g. assuming all crits, you do KC > arcane x2 > KC (killing streak procs but KC is on CD) > arcane x2 > KC (this one receives the above bonuses)?

Also, kill command works in macros... at least it did prior to today's patch!

[Kalliope]

Not only do you have more control over focus management (which isn't easy even in BM!) but you also won't miss the Killing Streak proc.

I haven't done extensive testing on this, but at least from reading the tooltip, how could you miss the Killing Streak proc?

If you have something else macroed to KC (such as, say, your engineering enchant on your gloves), then the Kill Command button won't show the new built-in glow when Killing Streak procs. This is currently a pain in the friggin' ass for me, since my KCs do NOT always proc, so KS is not proccing consistently.

[Mockingbird]

I think what was meant there was this:

If you use KC every time it's off cooldown when you have a live target, it doesn't matter whether you know about the proc or not, you'll still use it if you're able. (it's nice to know about so you can see how often it procs etc, naturally, but has no effect on DPS)

If you don't use KC as often as possible as BM then I think (and I could be wrong) that you're missing out on quite a bit of damage.

A side note if you're not anti-addon and don't want to use an extra bar slot to track KS, I'm using an addon called HunterFocusBar, a draggable focus bar that is just nice to have where you can see it easily - it handily includes indicators for Frenzy stacks (and focus fire duration once triggered) and Killing Streak procs.

edit:

Yes, unless there is a way to tell a macro to pause for a period of time before casting the next item, there is no way to combine shots.

There isn't, and thus you can't.

Additional edit:

If you have something else macroed to KC (such as, say, your engineering enchant on your gloves), then the Kill Command button won't show the new built-in glow when Killing Streak procs. This is currently a pain in the friggin' ass for me, since my KCs do NOT always proc, so KS is not proccing consistently.

Is this rectified if you manually select the KC icon and use #showtooltip Kill Command ?

If not, I bet there's a way to use the new procwatcher system in macros. To the ui forums on the official boards!

[Worba]

Not only do you have more control over focus management (which isn't easy even in BM!) but you also won't miss the Killing Streak proc.

I haven't done extensive testing on this, but at least from reading the tooltip, how could you miss the Killing Streak proc?

If you have something else macroed to KC (such as, say, your engineering enchant on your gloves), then the Kill Command button won't show the new built-in glow when Killing Streak procs. This is currently a pain in the friggin' ass for me, since my KCs do NOT always proc, so KS is not proccing consistently.

But that's just a bug with the new spell alert feature - I already have to put up with this on my SV hunters; when LnL procs, arcane lights up but not explosive shot - explosive shot still gets the proc benefit however.

For my BM hunters, I already spam KC anytime it's off CD, so I shouldn't be missing any procs.

I have a copy of steady and arcane on their own buttons, but I also have KC macro'ed for general use:

#showtooltip
/castsequence [btn:2] Kill Command;reset=3 Kill Command,Arcane Shot,Steady Shot

Even though I'm still using the non-macro buttons like 60-70% of the time, I find having this macro makes my life a little easier; if I'm flush with focus then I stop after the arcane shot and switch to my non-macro'ed arc shot until KC comes back up (or I go straight to non-macro steady if I'm low), but all in all this seems to provide a reasonably happy medium to playing hotkey whackamole.

[Kalliope]

Fair point regarding hitting KC regardless of whether it's a reduced cost KC or not. I guess I just like knowing when I'm going to have extra focus.

My macro currently does show the tooltip/icon for KC, but not the proc if and when it does.

[Sarayana]

@Worba, I thought it was a duration proc, but it looks like I was mistaken. I don't know, I've spent more time on Aoani (37) than on Sara (80) and I noticed that the way everyone overpowers dungeons at the lower levels I often don't get more than two KCs off on a boss...

@Mockingbird, I totally forgot about my MD macro! Yeah, couldn't live without it! I focus the tank when I zone in, and it MDs him... without a focus target, it MDs my pet.
I used to have a dragonhawk/viper macro, but I like the idea of binding the new stance bar - my pet bar is bound to f1-f10, so I'm thinking ctrl-f1=> just to save space on my bars (which inexplicably fill up on my hunters much faster than any other class!!!)

And the bottom line: we can still macro KC, but if we macro it to other shots we'll have to press the macro multiple times. We can macro it to stuff that's off the GCD (like handmounted gyrowhatchamacallits) and it'll work.

But yeah, I prefer manually weaving and selecting my shots that way. Personal preference, s'all. And like Kalli said, I love seeing my procs proc. In fact, it bugs me that Evangelism doesn't show the proc border at 5 stacks, just like I'm sure it'd annoy me to not have explosive shot show the border on LnL.

[Worba]

I don't know, I've spent more time on Aoani (37) than on Sara (80) and I noticed that the way everyone overpowers dungeons at the lower levels I often don't get more than two KCs off on a boss...

This ^

This is why when I hear other people complaining that cata content is too hard, it gets me excited - bring it on I say!

Reminds me of night before last. Did heroic utgarde pinnacle on my male BM NE hunter, and afterward got myself killed trying to fight my way thru to the quest giver... (had my tenacity pet out, but my badly written macro shut off growl since I was still technically in a group - I since removed that bit from the macro, shouldn't have included it in the first place).

I was swearing and pissed off, and it didn't help that it took 10 minutes before it let me back into the instance due to TP freezes... and then when I got back in I wiped all the mobs in the entrance area... but I let my pet get too close, he passed along the abominations nasty DoT, and by the time I realized it was too late for food to save me... so back again, chewing on the edge of desk this time, slaughtered all the NPCs in the first room, kept away from my contagious pet, did a few childish /spits and /lols at dead NPCs with no other players around to see... and realized damn, but I'm actually enjoying myself...

So, more difficulty please!

[Nimizar]

In regard to old world levelling dungeons from SFK onwards Daelo posted on the Blizz forums to note that he knows they're currently undertuned for appropriate level groups and they'll be dialing the difficulty up soonish (those changes will presumably hit live with 4.0.3).

As far as the original question goes, Kalliope hit the nail on the head: now that KC is a standalone attack on the GCD, you can't macro it in with other attacks any more.

[Sarayana]

Oh that's great news Nimizar! It's really sad when two people at level can power through the dungeon.

[Slickrock]

Yes, KC can be macroed. Requires a castsequence now due to changes Blizz made.

Also yes, it's not optimal dps, but it can be done.

The timing sequences that were used in Wrath don't work anymore.