How to Set Up a WoW Macro

If you’re not using macros then you’re missing out. Apart from simply practicing and learning your class, nothing else can improve your play and elevate your overall performance in the way that using macros can. Unfortunately, I think a lot of players don’t bother with them because they either: don’t know about them -or- are intimidated by what appears to be a bunch of techie mumbo jumbo.

I’m going to show you how easy it is to get up and running with macros…

1) First off, pick a macro that you want to use for your hunter by selecting one from my macros page. Copy it to your clipboard by selecting all of the macro text, then hitting ctrl+c (command+c on a mac). For this example, I’m going to show you how to create a macro for Silencing Shot.

2) Open up your Macros interface in WoW by going to the game menu (esc key) and clicking on Macros.

3) You can select whether you want it to be a General macro, accessible across all characters -or- you can make it character-specific by selecting one of the tabs at the top. Next, click ‘New”.

4) Enter the name of the macro – usually 3-6 characters is fine, then click ‘Okay’.

5) Click inside the blank window and paste in the copied macro text by hitting ctrl+v (command+v on a mac).

6) Click and drag the macro icon from the Macros interface down to your action bar and start owning with it!

7) In the image below, notice how I am able to simultaneously Silence one target while maintaining pressure on another – without having to re-target..? I am DPS’ing the center target dummy while at the same time silencing the one on the left. The image doesn’t show it, but I didn’t have to drop my current target in order to silence the other.

I vastly improved the usability and efficiency of my Silencing Shot ability just by taking a minute to enhance it with a macro. I made it so that my Silencing Shot will instantly hit my enemy focus target if I have one designated, or fire at a mouseover target if I have one – all while I’m still pounding away on my primary kill target.

These types of enhancements to your abilities can transform your game play, so please start using macros if you aren’t already.

Hopefully this short tutorial will help to demystify the practice of configuring and using macros. If you have additional questions about macros, please refer to my hunter macros page.

What are you waiting for… start setting up some macros!

Good luck and happy hunting!