A while back a commenter suggested that /stopcasting was no longer relevant in casting macros.
I had forgotten all about it until /stopcasting was positively mentioned in a comment by Velinath to my Magetard post.
I (respectably) disagree with the original commenter, and happily agree with Velinath.
Sure you don’t need it so much to combat lag… So much, because Blizzard fixed the casting system a while back to allow “queuing” of your next spell.
However, there are times, and more specifically spells that may require you to act instantly, canceling your current spell to launch the more important spell or skill.
If you have just started a 3 second cast, only to find:
- The mob is coming right at you
- Someone is cursed
- You got ganked
- A mob just got an uber buff
- Your sheep broke
- A mob is casting a nasty spell
What are you going to do?
Sure you can jump or move to cancel your cast, but why do multiple actions when you can just do 1?
Like what Gnomer, and what would it look like?
Decurse
When someone gets cursed, you want instant response, waiting 3 seconds might be the cause of a wipe, so rather than your standard decurse icon on your toolbar replace it with this macro:
#showtooltip Remove Curse
/stand
/dismount
/stopcasting
/cast [target=mouseover, help] Remove Curse; [target=player] Remove Curse
Spellsteal
Those buffs can be fleeting, worse of course is when your opponent has a buff, they are either doing more damage, or taking less damage. Either way you want to instantly take advantage of their buff, while depriving them. Use this macro:
#showtooltip
/stand
/stopcasting
/cast Spellsteal
Iceblock
No sense in continuing to cast until the mob is on top of you, better to iceblock early. Macro to use:
#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast Ice Block
Invisibility Now!
Just noticed the boss is at 37% health, don’t wait, shed aggro!
#showtooltip Invisibility
/cancelaura Invisibility
/stopcasting
/cast Invisibility
Fireblast
This is defintely an optional one, but generlly when I was to fireblast, I want to do it now.
- Mob will be dead before you finish your cast – Fireblast now!
- Mob heading to healer and you want to distract it – Fireblast now!
Macro:
#showtooltip Fire Blast
/stand
/dismount
/stopcasting
/cast [harm]Fire Blast; [target=targettarget]Fire Blast
Arcane Explosion
Feel like there’s some sneaky rogue about, don’t miss a beat.
#showtooltip Arcane Explosion
/stand
/dismount
/cast Arcane Explosion
Escape Artist
Don’t stay snared for longer than necessary, escape now!
#showtooltip Escape Artist
/stopcasting
/cast Escape Artist
Medallion of the Horde/Alliance
Why did you want to be snared, get out now!
#showtooltip Medallion of the Alliance
/stopcasting
/cast Medallion of the Alliance
Blink
Usually if you are blinking it’s because you need some distance instantly. If you have been surprised, you need to act now!
#showtooltip
/stand
/stopcasting
/cast Blink
Frost Nova
Ganked while casting? Patrol like the taste of you, time to stop them in their tracks… Instantly.
#showtooltip
/stand
/stopcasting
/cast Frost Nova
Or to mix it up with a Blink on the end… (just press the button twice)
#showtooltip
/stand
/stopcasting
/castsequence Frost Nova, Blink
Sheep, Turtle, Pig, whatever…
When the sheep breaks, you don’t want it to return to battle, you want it out of action immediately, before it takes out your healer, or more importantly the only player with aggro on the mob – you. Sheep now!
#showtootip Polymorph(Turtle)
/stopcasting
/clearfocus [button:2]
/clearfocus [target=focus,dead]
/clearfocus [target=focus,noexists]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/cast [target=focus] Polymorph(Turtle)
/stopmacro [nogroup]
Counterspell
When you need to counterspell, you need to do it now. Chances are the mob will complete it’s cast before or at the same time as you. With lag, there is a good chance it is nearly finished. Stop that cast NOW!
#showtooltip Counterspell
/stand
/dismount
/stopcasting
/cast [modifier:Alt, target=focus, exists] Counterspell; Counterspell
Ok, so got it?
On an aside, if you suffer from lag, make sure you install (or reinstall) quartz. I use it always. Often 1/2 my cast bar is red from lag. So sure, I could trust the Blizzard queue, but knowing when my cast is really going to end is very helpful.
While I am at it, a few more that I use and recommend.
Arcane Missiles anti-spam
Don’t interrupt you current Arcane Missiles…
#showtooltip Arcane Missiles
/stand
/dismount
/cast [harm,nochanneling:Arcane Missiles]Arcane Missiles; [target=targettarget,nochanneling:Arcane Missiles]Arcane Missiles
Any targeting attack spell
Basically replace FrostFire Bolt with any (make that all) of your combat spells. it will quite simply cast at your hostile target, or if you can’t select it for some reason (mass of bodies, enemy and friendly), it will cast it at your friendly target’s target. Real handy when switching targets mid battle, just target the most sensible assisting dps you can, and pew pew away.
This is also a sneaky way of pinching those critter kills as your mates run through instances, don’t bother to target the critter, target your critter killing mate, and beat them to the kill.
#showtooltip Frostfire Bolt
/stand
/dismount
/cast [harm]Frostfire Bolt; [target=targettarget]Frostfire Bolt
Princess Hunting
Doing that Argent Tournament Kiss-A-Frog quest, then try this one.
#showtooltip Warts-B-Gone Lip Balm
/tar Lake Frog
/use Warts-B-Gone Lip Balm
/kiss
Hard love
My All the Squirrels youve loved/kill before Macro.
Also bound to annoy the hell out of your enemies in the Battle grounds while you kite them around lovingly.
#showtooltipIce Lance
/love
/hug
/cast Ice Lance(Rank 2)
SlowFall
#show Slow Fall
/dismount
/cast Slow Fall
Ohhh, and if you need a primer on Macros, head over to No Stock UI, Play Different! as they have a series going on there right now!
Gnomer and Out!
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/05/15/stopcasting-in-mage-macros-still-relevant/
I missed the comment where someone said that stopcasting had lost its relevance, but they were probably thinking of the older macros where it was required to get acknowledgment for the next action and forgot that sometimes you really do just want to STOP CASTING the current spell. =)
This could just be due to my personal settings… but I’m confused as to the inclusion of /stand and /dismount in several of your macros.
Anytime I cast a spell from a seated position, it automatically forces my character to stand and I dismount prior to casting when mounted with no macro help.
(Matter of fact this has caused some annoyance while flying around and accidentally triggering a spell that did not require a target, thankfully I have slow fall!)
The /stand and /dismount are admittedly carry overs from a previous patch.
A while back if you were sitting, or mounted your cast would fail, and you would get some error message.
So I build that into the macros.
I know I have still encountered some situations where the “new” auto-stand & auto-dismount on spell cast hasn’t occurred.. but can’t for the life of me remember where right now.
From memory the original comment about /stopcasting was in reference to lag… which is now accounted for with the queuing system… unless of course ou just need to get a spell off
Normally it’s supposed to auto-dismount you if you’re on the ground, but not dismount you if you’re on a flying mount.
If you accidentally get dismounted from a flying mount when casting, there’s an option you can check (or uncheck, I forget) in the interface options.
Actually, I quite like dismounting in the air.. it feels nice to drop to the ground while the mob is still working out what hit it…
I noticed there is actually a setting in the interface menu that is for automatic dismount… but it appears to be off by default