Handy macros for 5.0.4

Yeah, I folded. I'm a horrible person.

Now that 5.0.4 is live and we're all getting used to the new spells and mechanics (or, if you're like me, have spent the last two days trying to cobble together something resembling a workable UI since all of your favorite addons broke), I'm looking forward to MoP and what I'd like to accomplish with my little corner of the internet.

There are dozens (if not hundreds) of great resources out there to find "the basics" for each spec like the general "rotation" or how you should be gemming/reforging, but it's the more advanced mechanics and practices that make the difference between a bad player and a good one, and even still the difference between a good player and a great one. Most warlocks who specced Demonology in 4.3 because they were told "it's the best spec" never heard about having a Mastery set or learned how to pet-twist. Should I macro Felstorm into Shadowbolt so that it's always being used as soon as it's available or should I hold off a couple seconds to time it with Dark Soul? What stats make my Doomguard stronger and when is the best time to use it? These are the things that intrigue me and what I will probably focus on for Mists of Pandaria.

I may still do some "Warlock 101" stuff. It will just depend on how pleased I am with what a few other sites do. In the meantime, I have a couple useful macros for your 5.0.4 Warlock.



Healthstone/Dark Regen:

#showtooltip Healthstone
/cast Dark Regeneration
/use Healthstone

The point of this macro is to stack the healing from your healthstone with the increased healing buff from Dark Regen for more of a return than if you'd used them seperately. They both have a two minute cooldown so they'll always be up at the same time and the macro still works if you're A) not talented into Dark Regen or B) don't have a healthstone available. Obviously if both A and B apply, then it will do nothing.

Sacrificing Warlocks can use their Voidwalker's Shadow Bulwark beforehand to make it even more effective. Follow that up with a Mortal Coil and you can restore 141% of your standard health pool over 12 seconds (with a glyphed healthstone) with only two GCD's. Tanks would kill for that kind of regen.



Dark Soul/Meta/Service:

#showtooltip Dark Soul
/cast Dark Soul
/cast Metamorphosis
/cast Grimoire: Felguard

Current theorycrafting is indicating that optimal Demonology play in 5.0 includes pooling your Demonic Fury (without capping) until Dark Soul is available in order to dump it while you have the Mastery boost. In short, you'll always want to be in Meta while DS is up and this will make it a one button process. Since Grimoire of Service is affected by and has the same two minute cooldown as DS, you will also want to use those simultaneously if you took the talent. If you don't take Grimoire of Service, feel free to replace "Grimoire: Felguard" with "Doom".

You can also add in any two minute trinkets or other cooldowns to stack your bonuses together and get higher returns than if you'd used them seperately. To do that, you would add in any of the applicable lines below, preferably between Dark Soul and Metamorphosis in order to make sure that everything is stacking properly. Blizzard is trying to get rid of stat snapshotting, but there are still some cases where things don't update dynamically so it's better to play it safe and put all stat increases in early.

• Trinket slot 1:  "/use 13" or "/use trinket name"
• Trinket slot 2:  "/use 14" or "/use trinket name"
• Engineering Gloves:  "/use 10" or "use glove item name"
• Herbalism:  "/cast Lifeblood"
• Orc Racial:  "/cast Blood Fury"

These are just the ones I've made up since servers came back up on Tuesday as I was trying to make sense of my action bars. I'll continue to revisit this topic and post new macros or tools that I come across as I spend more time with each spec, play with the mechanics of other talents and start raiding in T14.