I always see dozens of forum posts or searches for spec-based shot rotations, and for good reason. Shot rotation macros are much easier to manage than manual rotations, especially when you’re doing several things at once, and often provide more consistent numbers for DPS output. As such, it’s no wonder shot rotation macros are much sought after. But what if you never had to search for the perfect shot rotation macro ever again? Today, I’ll show you how to create your own custom shot rotation macro.

Tools of the Trade

First things first, you need to know which shots will optimize your DPS output so you can determine which to put in your rotation. Second, you need to determine the best order of shots in your rotation. This process is actually very simple, and will give us the necessary information to create our macro.

Before we begin, you’ll need one thing: Shandara’s Hunter DPS Spreadsheet.

If you don’t already have it, or have an outdated version (the most recent release as of this post is version 83c, released on February 2, 2009), head over to Elitist Jerks now and download it. Once you’ve got that downloaded, we’re ready to begin!

Determining Your Optimum Rotation

Before you can create a shot rotation macro, you need to figure out which rotation is best for you based on your spec and gear. Open up the Spreadsheet and import your information. There are plenty of guides available to help you figure out how to import your character’s information into the spreadsheet, so I won’t cover that here. Most frequently asked questions are covered within the EJ thread where you downloaded the spreadsheet. Simply follow the instructions on the first tab of the spreadsheet to get you started.

Once you’ve imported your character information (talents, gear, etc), click on the “Shot Rotation” tab to get started:

On the Shot Rotation tab, you’ll see a section to adjust your “shot priority”. This section will help you determine the optimum order of shots to squeeze the most DPS out of your rotation. Each cell in the shot priority section has a drop-down menu of shots you can choose from, and you’ll place them in different orders to determine your rotation.

You’ll want to place longer-cooldown shots/abilities higher on your priority list, because shorter cooldown shots will be used in lieu of those abilities simply by virtue of their availability. Don’t forget to adjust your latency settings above the shot priority interface to help give you more accurate numbers!

If you’re not sure what your latency usually is, set the number higher just in case. Its usually better to have artificially lowered results than artificially inflated numbers that make you go “WTF?” when you test in-game and are disappointed. There are several add-ons that can track and display your latency available, so feel free to install one (I use SLDataText for this).

Keep an eye on how your numbers on this tab change as you adjust your shot priority, as they will change automatically as you swap shots around.

Once you’ve gotten the best numbers here that you can by swapping around shots in your priority, it’s time to move onto the “Rotation Test” tab.

On this tab, just click the giant “Rotation Test” button in the upper left corner, and let the spreadsheet go to work. It will take a moment or two to calculate your rotation in “real time”, but then you’ll be shown what your rotation would look like based on the shot priority settings you specified on the previous tab, based on the ability’s cooldown.

This is the information we’ll need to have to design your macro.

Preparing to Set Up Your Macro

Now that the spreadsheet has determined a rotation for you, you’re ready to start constructing your macro. First, take a close look at the rotation the spreadsheet has established for you.

You’ll need to determine which of these abilities, if any, you’d like to exclude from your macro. Shot rotation macros, in essence, automate a process that takes approximately 7-10 seconds, and simply repeats it for as long as you continue to spam your macro. However, abilities included within this rotation, such as Rapid Fire, that have cooldowns that are much longer than that typically are excluded from shot rotation macros and are instead handled manually or through other macros you may already have.

Once you’ve determined which abilities to exclude from your macro, you can take a look at the abilities you have left. I usually jot this information down on a scrap of paper to help me keep my information straight.

Now, looking at the rotation above, you’ll see we have Serpent Sting, Explosive Shot, Aimed Shot and Steady Shot in our rotation and the spreadsheet has determined for us the best sequence to fire these shots in. That information is what we’re going to base our macro on.

Our spreadsheet has determined this as our rotation based on our shot priority and cooldowns:

Serpent Sting > Explosive Shot > Aimed Shot > Steady Shot > Explosive Shot > Steady Shot > Steady Shot > Explosive Shot > Aimed Shot > Steady Shot > Explosive Shot

You want to jot down the order of your rotation, and keep going until you see it start to repeat itself. Serpent Sting is a good marker for this. Your rotation will begin when you see the first Serpent Sting go off, and end just before firing another. That’s the information we’ll be placing in our macro.

Now, you may find that you’ll need to adjust this sequence in-game based on your frame rate and latency, but this gives us a good starting point for constructing our macro. Trial and error will fine tune the rest.

Once you’ve got your rotation written down, hop in game and open up your macro interface. Its time to create your macro!

The Macro

The easiest way to do this is to simply set up a Cast Sequence macro that you can continuously spam. I’m sure there are other ways to go about this, but a cast sequence macro is by far the easiest that I’ve found, so we’ll go with that! (So there!)

Once you’ve got your macro interface open in-game, create a new macro. Choose the question mark icon for it, since we’ll be using #showtooltip in this macro to help you keep track of which shot you’re on in your rotation. Name it whatever you like. Now, lets make our macro!

The syntax of your macro will look something like this:

#showtooltip
/castsequence [reset=target] Serpent Sting, Explosive Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Explosive Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Explosive Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Explosive Shot

Now, as I mentioned, you’re almost undoubtedly going to go back and adjust this once you’ve had a chance to test it. The spreadsheet only gave us the foundation on which to base our general premise. So, once you’ve created your macro, toss it on your action bars and head to town to practice on some target dummies.

Run through the macro a few times, and pay close attention to how your macro behaves. Specifically, keep an eye on Serpent Sting. Does it run out before your macro refreshes it? If so, you’ll need to remove a couple shots from the macro to make sure you’re keeping Serpent Sting up consistently. However, you’ll need to be careful not to remove too many shots from the macro so that you’re hitting the sting too early and wasting mana.

A good rule of thumb is to remove the last shot from the macro and test again. Still not hitting the sting early enough? Remove another from the end of the macro, and so on. Most of this tweaking is based on your computer’s connection speed and technical performance. Higher latency and lower frame rate will mean you’ll need to use a shorter rotation to ensure that you’re keeping your sting up.

Your Macro

Now that you’ve seen the process, determining your own rotation macro whenever you change specs or gear will be easy. Simply follow the process above any time you swap specs or get new gear, and you’ll always have a tailor-made shot rotation macro ready to use to squeeze the most DPS out of your character.

Just remember to keep an eye out for updates to Shandara’s spreadsheet!