Survival Hunter PvP Useful Macros (The War Within Pre-Patch)
Macros are crucial to be successful in PvP. They allow players to use abilities on enemies without having to target them. This helps increase overall damage/healing and general awareness in the arena. Here are a few macros that all Survival Hunters can benefit from.
This page is part of our Survival Hunter PvP Guide.
Notes:
Mouseover, exists
You will see that many of the macros below will cast at a mouseover if they
exist. This will enable you to quickly cast on targets that are not your target
without having to focus them or keybind three separate @arena1 to @arena3
macros. This is useful for utility spells such as Tranquilizing Shot,
Concussive Shot,
Scare Beast, so that you can use them without
changing target away from the player you are attacking.
Having the [@mouseover,exists] clause in your spells like Mongoose Bite and
Wildfire Bomb will also be extremely useful for
killing
Psyfiends, totems and pets.
Known
This macro clause is very useful because of how the talent system works. You can use the phrase [Known: ] with a spell ID (you can find these on Wowhead) so that a macro will cast a different spell or show a different tooltip based on your selected talents. It's a nice way to avoid having to redo your action bars when changing talents.
You can use the spell ID or type the spell name. There is a limit of 255 characters to a macro, so if it's a longer macro, you'll want to use the spell IDs rather than typing the name of the spell.
Cursor
You will see that some of the macros below for targetted reticle spells (eg
Freezing Trap,
Tar Trap,
High Explosive Trap/
Implosive Trap) are cast [@cursor]. This casts the spell immediately at the
location of your mouse. This cuts down on the delay when casting a spell because
you only press the button once (instead of pressing the button, aiming, then
left-clicking to confirm).
As hunter is one of the very few classes that require precise aiming (and timing) with launching traps, you will find that using @cursor will make it much easier to land those important crowd control abilities on time.
Cancelaura Aspect of the Turtle
Aspect of the Turtle is a great defensive, but you aren't able to attack during
it. Most of the time, you will want to cancel
Aspect of the Turtle before it
ends so you can start using your next attack or crowd control. You will see that
some of the macros below will also cancel
Aspect of the Turtle when pressed.
Cancel Spell Queue
This is a little bit more obscure, but in World of Warcraft, there is a built-in latency adjustment known as the "spell queue window". This will allow you to queue up a spell before your character can cast it (e.g., during the global cooldown).
Without going into too much detail (you can google spell queue window if you want to find out more), without the line /cancelqueuedspell in your Macro, it is possible that you will already have a spell queued up that would be used instead of the spell you decided to cast at the last moment.
Including /cqs or /cancelqueuedspell in your Macro will clear any queued spell and ensure that the spell in your Macro will be cast instantly.
Damage Rotation
Raptor Strike (or Mongoose Bite if talented)
- #showtooltip Raptor Strike
- /cancelaura aspect of the turtle
- /cast [@mouseover, exists][] Raptor strike
- /startattack [@target,exists]
This Macro will cast Raptor Strike at your target, or your mouseover if one exists. Having the mouseover element is useful to quickly kill totems and Psyfiends.
Note that Raptor Strike becomes Mongoose Bite when talented, so this Macro works for both spells.
You will want a similar macro for lots of your rotational abilities, such as Wildfire Bomb for the same reasons, and Flanking Strike so you can quickly use the mobility to jump to a target without having to target them. Just replace "Raptor Strike" with the spell you want to be able to quickly use.
Kill Command
- #showtooltip
- /cancelaura aspect of the turtle
- /cast [@mouseover,exists] Kill Command; Kill Command
- /stopattack [stealth]
- /petattack
Having this Kill Command macro allows you to use the ability during
Camouflage without breaking your stealth.
At the start of an arena match make sure you cast Camouflage after summoning your pet, which allows your pet to attack and for you to use Kill Command, while being in stealth.
Coordinated Assault
- #showtooltip Coordinated Assault
- /use Draconic Aspirant's Badge of Ferocity
- /use Draconic Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity
- /cast Blood Fury(Racial)
- /cast [@mouseover,exists] Coordinated Assault; Coordinated Assault
This is a simple macro that uses off-global cooldown temporary damage buffs (trinkets and racial ability if orc) when you begin bursting with Coordinated Assault.
Even if Coordinated Assault is not available, you can press this macro whenever you are bursting to use any of your off-global cooldown stat buffs that are available.
This macro will cast at your mouseover if they exist and otherwise will cast on your target, which can be a useful way to use the mobility from Coordinated Assault without actually targetting the player you are jumping to. A use case for this would be using mouseover Coordinated Assault on one of a Demonology Warlock's pets when the Warlock is slightly outside of your line of sight.
Kill shot
- #showtooltip kill shot
- /cancelqueuedspell
- /stopcasting
- /cancelaura aspect of the turtle
- /Cast [@mouseover, exists, harm] kill shot; kill shot
This Macro will stop any queued spells or spells that you are casting and
immediately cast Kill Shot.
As with the macros above, it will cast at your mouseover if they exist and otherwise will cast on your target.
Defensives
Camouflage
- /run SetCVar("SoftTargetInteract", 0)
- /run SetCVar("SoftTargetEnemyRange", 0)
- /run SetCVar("SoftTargetFriendRange", 0)
- /cast !camouflage
This macro will cast Camouflage (and will not cancel
Camouflage if you
accidentally press the macro twice!)
The Macro will also change some "CVar" values. Without going into detail, this solves a bug introduced in Dragonflight that would make your Macro'd spells cast at your target instead of the target that your Macro specifies.
By having the corrections on a macro with Camouflage you know they will be fixed
at the start of every game.
Aspect of the Turtle
- #showtooltip aspect of the turtle
- /stopcasting
- /stopcasting
- /cast !aspect of the turtle
This Macro will stop casting any spell and cast Aspect of the Turtle.
This macro will not cancel Aspect of the Turtle if you press it multiple
times.
Exhilaration
- #showtooltip exhilaration
- /stopcasting
- /cast Exhilaration
This Macro will stop casting any spells and cast Exhilaration.
Feign Death (and mark pet as star)
- #showtooltip
- /stopcasting
- /cancelaura feign death
- /cast !feign death
- /stopattack
- /run local t="Pet" if 1~=GetRaidTargetIndex(t) then SetRaidTarget(t, 1) end
This macro will cast Feign Death and stop your character from attacking.
The Macro will also mark a star raid icon on your pet. It is useful to have a raid marker on your pet to make it easier to track the pet's position. Having the Macro on a spell that you use often means the raid mark will be applied even if you only summon the pet midway through a game.
Note that this Macro will only mark your pet while inside arena if you are the party leader, but you can press it outside of the arena if you aren't the party leader, and unless you swap pets, the mark will stay.
Roar of Sacrifice self
- /stopcasting
- /cast [@player] Roar of Sacrifice
This Macro will stop any spell casts, and use Roar of Sacrifice on
yourself.
Crowd control
Freezing Trap
- /cancelqueuedspell
- /cast [mod:alt,@player][@cursor] Freezing trap
This macro will cast Freezing Trap on your cursor if pressed without any
modifier.
If you press alt while pressing the Macro, the trap will be dropped immediately (and activate immediately with no travel time) at your feet.
I highly recommend that you have a Freezing Trap [@player] macro like this. It
is significantly easier and more reliable to land traps by standing on a healer
and using the [@player]
Freezing Trap, especially following a
Harpoon or
Flanking Strike.
Scatter Shot (or Bursting Shot if talented)
- #showtooltip [known:scatter shot]scatter shot;[known:bursting shot]bursting shot
- /cancelqueuedspell
- /stopcasting
- /cancelaura aspect of the turtle
- /Cast [@mouseover, exists, harm] scatter shot; scatter shot
- /cast [known:bursting shot]bursting shot
This macro will cast Scatter Shot at your mouseover if they exist
which is useful in BGs or world PvP to CC off-targets or to crowd control a pet (e.g. to
stop a Warlock's Succubus
Seduction cast without targetting it).
The macro will cast Scatter Shot at your target if you aren't mousing over an
enemy.
If you have Bursting Shot talented instead of
Scatter Shot, it will cast
Bursting Shot.
High Explosive Trap (or Implosive Trap if talented)
- #showtooltip [known:Implosive Trap] Implosive Trap; [known:High Explosive Trap] High Explosive Trap
- /cancelqueuedspell
- /stopcasting
- /cast [known:Implosive Trap] Implosive Trap
- /cast [known:High Explosive Trap] High Explosive Trap
This macro toggles between High Explosive Trap and
Implosive Trap, depending on which one you have talented.
Note that sometimes (e.g. when knocking an enemy into a Freezing Trap using a High Explosive Trap) you need to be very precise with the High Explosive Trap placement, which is why I do not recommend using @cursor for this trap.
Chimaeral Sting (alt to cast on focus)
- #showtooltip Chimaeral Sting(PvP Talent)
- /cast [mod:alt,@focus,harm,nodead] [@mouseover,harm,nodead] [] Chimaeral Sting(PvP Talent)
This Macro will cast Chimaeral Sting on your mouseover if selected, your target
if you don't have a mouseover, or your focus target if you press alt at the same
time as the Macro.
I recommend also having a macro like this for utility spells such as
Concussive Shot and
Tranquilizing Shot.
Harpoon/Muzzle arena 1-3
- #showtooltip Harpoon
- /stopcasting
- /cqs
- /cast [@arena1] Harpoon
- /cast [@arena1] Muzzle
This Macro will Harpoon the first member of the enemy arena team
(highest unit frame on your UI) if you are at range.
If you are in melee range of the target, it will Muzzle them.
You will mostly use this Macro to Harp to healers to interrupt and/or trap them. This saves you having to keybind Muzzle or arena 123 separately to Harpoon.
You want three of these macros, one for each of the three members of the enemy team, [@arena1], [@arena2], and [@arena3], respectively.
Intimidation arena 1-3
- #showtooltip Intimidation
- /stopcasting
- /cqs
- /cast [@arena1] Intimidation
This Macro will Intimidation the first member of the enemy arena team
(highest unit frame on your UI).
You will mostly use this Macro to stun healers to land an easy Freezing Trap.
You want three of these macros, one for each of the three members of the enemy team, [@arena1], [@arena2], and [@arena3], respectively.
You will also want those three macros with Intimidation replaced with
Scatter Shot so you can instantly crowd control anybody on the enemy team
(it's nice to have with
Concussive Shot too if you have the keybind space).
Pet utility
Command Pet (Master's Call, Fortitude of the Bear, Primal Rage)
- #showtooltip command pet
- /cast [@target, help] [@player] command pet
This will cast your pet's active ability.
If you have a friendly target and a cunning pet, it will cast Master's Call on
your target (useful in BGs/world content)
Command Pet (to Master's Call partner)
- #showtooltip command pet
- /cast [@party1] command pet
This will cast Master's Call on your party member. You need this Macro for both
party1 and party2 to remove important roots and snares (for example,
Mass Entanglement and
Solar Beam from a Balance Druid).
Pet attack
- #showtooltip Freezing Trap
- /petattack [@target]
- /cast dash
- /petattack [@target]
- /startattack [@target]
- /petautocaston savage rend
This Macro will command your pet to attack your target and use their sprint ability if available.
You can change the #showtooltip to whatever spell you want to track the cooldown of (this is a way to show the cooldown of a spell on your action bar when the Macro doesn't have a specific ability to show the icon or cooldown of).
Pet Follow
- #showtooltip Freezing Trap
- /petfollow
This Macro will command your pet to follow you.
You can change the #showtooltip to whatever spell you want to track the cooldown of.
Pet Move to
- #showtooltip Freezing Trap
- /petmoveto
- /stay
This Macro will command your pet to move to a specific location.
You can change the #showtooltip to whatever spell you want to track the cooldown of.
Fancy macros
Camouflage during combat macro
- #showtooltip Camouflage
- /stopcasting
- /petpassive
- /petfollow
- /stopattack
- /use [pet]Play Dead;[pet]Wake Up
- /cast !Feign Death
- /cast !Camouflage
This Macro will make it easier to cast Camouflage during combat.
It will put your pet on passive and cast Play Dead (the pet
equivalent of
Feign Death) so your pet will not keep you in combat.
If you have put your pet on passive and it has not been attacked for two seconds
before pressing this Macro, you will go into
Camouflage when you press
it even if Play Dead is on cooldown.
If you use this Macro and you're still in combat (but you aren't getting hit),
you can run around a pillar and keep pressing it to enter Camouflage.
Target enemy pet macro
- /target arenapet1
This Macro will target the pet of the first member of the enemy team.
Use this Macro to quickly swap to enemy pets (for example a Beast Mastery Hunter or Demonology Warlock, which will have many pets at once), this Macro will target the correct pet instantly every time).
If you plan on using this Macro in a game, replace the 1 with the position of the enemy Hunter or Demonology Warlock on your unit frames so it will target their pet.
Use this when a Hunter or Warlock uses defensives or mobility to stay alive, and you want to maintain pressure by swapping to their pet.
Taunt enemy pet macro
- #showtooltip dismiss pet
- /cast dismiss pet
- /cast [@arenapet1, exists] growl; [@arenapet2, exists] growl; [@arenapet3, exists] growl
This Macro will command your pet to taunt enemy pets. You can put it on your
action bars where Dismiss Pet is, which means you can use your existing
Dismiss Pet keybind to taunt enemy pets.
Changelog
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 4.
- 23 Mar. 2024: Guide re-written.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5
- 09 May 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.
- 30 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 28 Feb. 2022: Page reviewed and approved for Patch 9.2.
- 10 Nov. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.1.5.
- 03 Jul. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.1.
- 30 Mar. 2021: No updates needed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 16 Oct. 2020: This page was checked for patch 9.0.1 and no updates were necessary.
- 28 Jan. 2020: Page added.
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This guide is written and maintained by Slo, a Multi-Gladiator and Multi-Rank 1 Solo Shuffle Hunter. You can find Slo on YouTube, Twitch, and Reddit
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